Ra-ra-ah-ah-ah, Roma, ro-ma-ma, Gaga, ooh la la!

Not to turn this blog into a Lady Gaga fansite or anything, (although, WHY THE HELL NOT?), but I just wanted to post these clips from her appearance on "The Jay Leno Show" last night. (And by the way, have you watched that shite recently? OMFG, but it is some awful stuff. I mean, fine, his interviews with celebs are OK. But his attempt at comedy and sketches? PAINFUL.)

First is her performance of "Bad Romance," in which she wears a jacket that reminds me of an old SCTV sketch that parodied Joan Crawford's heavily shoulder-padded heyday.



This is her sit-down with Leno. I love her answer to the question about what rumor about herself most upsets her.



Also, a realization I came to last night: She's younger than Britney Spears. By 5 years. That really kind of floored me, especially after seeing this interview on Fuse. Now, it's a long one, and probably only of interest to big fans, but I think it's pretty great. Sure, she comes off as pretentious at times, but I just appreciate that she has the intelligence to even aspire to pretentiousness. Can you imagine someone like Britney talking about her music with such self-awareness? Or even rationally discussing gay rights?







Understand, I still love me some mindless pop trash. I just really appreciate Lady Gaga bringing a little thought to the whole process. And some damned catchy hooks.

RA RA AH AH AH, ROMA, RO-MA-MA, GA-GA, OOH LA LA!

SOOOUP!

I've been sick. It started Wednesday night, and probably reached its peak yesterday, when my cough turned into something I might hear from my neighbors, and I managed to sleep away most of the day because I didn't have the energy to do much else.

I think the worst has passed, but I want to assure you that I did NOT take this whole thing like a man....

Well, I Guess Sundays Can Go Back to Sucking Now

Season three of "Mad Men" has come to an end, leaving me no reason to look forward to Sundays anymore. At least until next year.

I won't get too spoilery, but I felt the episode managed to take the story in a direction that almost every fan probably wanted it to go, without seeming like it was pandering. And it perfectly set-up season four, for which I CAN NOT WAIT!

Here's a clip of Matt Weiner and some of the cast talking about the finale. Needless to say, don't watch this if you haven't watched the episode yet!

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 31

Well, I did it! I made it through the whole Halloween countdown! And it's been kind of a rough month, so I have to say I'm extra proud I was able to pull of this post-a-day thing. Thanks to all who stopped by. I hope my treats were tasty and fun sized!

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and tonight is the night this has been building up to. And you know what? TV is kind of letting me down. It's a Saturday, so I'd expect all the movie channels would have all horror line-ups today. But that just doesn't seem to be the case. For shame!

You can basically turn on Turner Classic Movies at 3am, and leave it there for the rest of the day because their frightful line-up is awesome. Here's a list of some of the films, with my pick being, of course, the original "Cat People," at 2pm.



"Circus of Horrors," at 9:45pm, also looks pretty awesome.



At midnight, on Creepy KOFY Movie time, is "The Last Man on Earth," starring Vincent Price. It was based on the Richard Matheson book "I Am Legend" which was also the basis for "The Omega Man" starring Charlton Heston and the Will Smith "I Am Legend."



And, as I mentioned few days back, "Night of the Living Dead" is on everywhere today. Check your listings, you're bound to find a showing. It's sort of become the Halloween equivalent of "It's a Wonderful Life," back when that movie was still in the public domain, and was shown over and over around Christmas. In fact, I think they'd make a terrific double bill.

Happy Halloween everyone!

September Round-Up - 2009

It's been a tough couple of weeks. My cat's been sick and that has been emotionally and physically draining. That coupled with work and other blogging duties means I am TIRED. So this month's round-up might seem a bit brief.

Movies Seen: Nine, with one in a theater. That one was "The Informant!" which I liked a lot, but would not rank up there with my favorite Soderbergh movies. I'll say one thing: the film's score by Marvin Hamlisch is fantastic, and it had BETTER get an Oscar nomination. You can listen to samples on this YouTube clip.



Of the DVDs watched, I loved "Valentino: The Last Emperor," and thought "Fanboys" sucked, although the last line in the movie made me like it a little bit...

Books Read: Three. I started reading the Julia Childs's autobiography "My Life in France" the same week I saw the movie "Julie & Julia," and each complimented the other. It's a fun book.

"The Strain" by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan was not a fun book. Not at all. It was AWFUL. I expect so much more from Del Toro. The most galling thing about the book is just how dumb it is. The characters are just plain dumb. The basic premise is that vampirism is kind of like a virus, and it arrives in New York when a plane lands at the airport with all the people apparently dead. Which is a cool idea. But from there it just gets stupid, with the so-called CDC people doing the stupidest things you could possibly do while dealing with some kind of new virus. Like: dumping tissue samples down lab drains, or releasing bodies after maybe a day of quarantine. Man, I could go on and on, but trust me: it is a stupid, stupid book.

Lastly was "Voices from the Storm," which is part of McSweeney's Voice of Witness series, this one about New Orleanians who experienced Katrina and the failure of the levees. Some of the stories in it are quite amazing, and infuriating.

Fancy Dinners Out: Two. One at Wexler's, and the other at Millennium. Yes. Wexler's is a fancy barbecue restaurant, and the other is a vegan restaurant. You wanna make something of it?

Live Shows Seen: Two, if you count a comedy show as a live show. And I will, since I don't see that many shows period. The comedy show was Patton Oswalt at the Masonic, and one of the main reasons I went is because the Masonic is two blocks from my apartment. Convenience is a big incentive! It was a good show, even if it was kind of sad seeing the theater only half filled. David Cross was playing the same night at the Warfield, and I bet you anything their respective audiences were basically cut in half because of it.

The other show was the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Fox in Oakland. Again, the venue played a big part in the decision to see the show, as I love the Fox. And it was a good decision because the show was terrific. Karen O. is a powerhouse, and they put on an awesome show. It kind of made me pissed off at the number of shows I've seen in my life where the bands just stand there on a boring stage and perform. Come on! Put some energy into it!

Shoes Bought: One, this lovely pair, which I found for almost 60% off on Amazon. Score!

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 30

There's a Boris Karloff marathon on Turner Classic Movies today. You can read about the entire line-up on their site, but here are some highlights.

At 5:30am, "The Ghoul," which reunites Karloff with his "The Old Dark House" and "Bride of Frankenstein" costar, Ernest Thesiger.



Many of his movies had very similar plots, with Karloff playing some kind of mad scientist who is executed and comes back to life, or is condemned to death, as in "Before I Hang," which is on at noon.



"Isle of the Dead" is one of three movies Karloff made with producer Val Lewton. In this one, Karloff fights the Balkan War and the plague. It's on at 3:45pm.

The Eyes Have It

OK. There is a resemblance between this:



and this, right?

I'll admit, I only noticed this because I had that "Cat People" poster on my wall for most of the 1980s, and it's been burned into my brain. But still...Cat eye. Half face. Girl with short brown hair...a little fishy. Or, at least, catty.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 29

The original "Night of the Living Dead" is another one of those movies I like to watch every Halloween, so today's post is my yearly excuse to embed the entire movie on this here blog. (But, if you'd like to watch it on the teevee, it will be on many times on Halloween night, like 6pm on AMC, and 11:15pm on Retroplex.)

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 28

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" airs tonight on ABC at 8pm. (It was also on last night, but I kinda forgot about that. Thank the Great Pumpkin for repeats!)

For me, the Holiday season--not just Halloween, but the whole shebang--doesn't begin until this special airs. Man. What'll I do if they ever decide to stop showing it?!

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 27

Doh! I guess I didn't set this post to publish, so it's coming quite late. Sorry!

Once again, Tuner Classic Movies is the place to be for some scares today, because it's Psychic Powers Day!

First on the agenda is "Poltergeist" at 5pm. Here's 10 minutes from near the beginning of the movie; probably some of the best moments from the whole thing, actually...



Next is George Pal's 1968 movie, "The Power," which bears many similarities to David Cronenberg's later movie "Scanners." Can't find a trailer, but the whole things up on YouTube, although not embeddable, bastards! You can see part one here.

The original version of "The Haunting" follows at 9pm. This one really scared me the first time I saw it, which was on Laserdisc on a tiny TV; I can't imagine how freaked out I'd have been had I seen it in a theater. Shudder to think. Here's the first 10 minutes as well!



At 11pm is the original version of "Village of the Damned." Any movie featuring creepy kids with English accents is bound to be scary, you know. Also, the whole "everyone passes out for a space of time" thing has recently been used in the TV show "Flash Forward," but I have a sneaking suspicion the end result of those blackouts won't be as freaky or interesting as they are here...



Finally, there's "Escape to Witch Mountain" at 12:30am. I've never seen the original, but did have the unfortunate experience of watching the remake, starring the Rock, recently. Man. THAT was a mistake...

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 26

It's tradition that I list the original "Halloween" at some point in this countdown, so tonight is that night. Alas, the only channel showing it this week is AMC, which still refuses to air any of its movies in their proper aspect ratios, and "Halloween" is a a very widescreen movie. So all I can say is, if you can watch "Halloween" any other way, do it. You might also try AMC's HD channel, although I'm pretty sure it doesn't show movies in proper ratios either. Oh well. It's on regular AMC at 7pm and AMC HD at 10pm.

Here's something slightly--and I do mean slightly--amusing. It's also slightly spoiler-ish, so if you haven't seen the movie, avoid.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 25

It's Meteor Night on Turner Classic movies, and no, the movie "Meteor" is not part of the fun. Here's what is:

At 5pm, the original "The Blob," featuring a young Steve McQueen, and a snazzy theme song.



At 7pm, "Die, Monster, Die!" which is not a German monster movie called "The, Monster, The!", but instead an American horror movie starring Boris Karloff that was loosely based on an H.P. Lovecraft story.



And finally, at 9pm, there is "Riders To the Stars," from 1954, back when space travel was merely the stuff of science fiction, and fantasies of capturing gigantic meteors seemed plausible; and were backed by serious theme songs.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 24

At midnight tonight, as part of Creepy KOFY Movie Time on channel 13 (TV-20) is "The Giant Gila Monster," a 1959 flick about...well, the title says it all, I suppose. Aside from the fact that the monster seems to have a thirst for teenagers.

It was also featured on an episode of "Mystery Science Theater 3000." Watch the beginning below, and part two here....and from there you can figure out how to watch the rest.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 23

"Pretty Poison" is a weird little movie, kind of like "Badlands" and "Bonnie and Clyde," in that it's about a teenage girl who gets sucked into a life of crime when she hooks up with a bad boy. Only in this case, the bad boy isn't so bad, and the girl, well, is POISON!

Tuesday Weld, who was just breathtakingly beautiful, is perfect in the bad seed role, and Anthony Perkins is perfectly cast as the guy who is probably not quite as into the chick as he'd like us to believe. The movie is considerably less "wacky" than this trailer makes it out to be, although I do kind of dig how misleading the trailer actually is.



And a totally random personal note: I once used a VHS copy of the movie, which for a long time wasn't available anywhere, as a bribe to get into a film class that was over-enrolled. The professor teaching the class had, during that first day's lecture, talked about the movie, and how he wished he could find a copy of it. So I told him after class that if he let me in the class, I'd give him a copy. And he did.

Watch it at 11:15pm on TCM.

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 22

The 2000 "I was a teenage werewolf" movie "Ginger Snaps" seems like it was a bit ahead of its time, what with teenage werewolves and vampires being all the rage right now. Of course "Twilight" is not nearly as subversive or clever as this tale of burgeoning female sexuality. 4:10pm and 11:30pm on IFC.