So far I’m loving the Planet of the Apes reboot. It also makes me nostalgic however. When I was very young, in the 1970s, the original movies were wildly popular – so much so that they inspired a short lived animated series and a one season live action series. The live action series, Planet of…
Watch the original Star Wars parody “Hardware Wars”
I remember, shortly after Star Wars came out everyone would rush to see anything even vaguely Star Wars related. It wasn’t long after the release of the original film, way before Spaceballs, that filmmaker Ernie Fosselius decided to do a parody entitled Hardware Wars. Like many things from the 1970s, it’s far cheesier than I…
Download a live recording of They Might Be Giants first album for free
Have you ever gone to see a band that refused to play their “old stuff”? It can be frustrating, especially if it was the “old stuff” that you came to hear. Fortunately, They Might Be Giants have never been that kind of band. They’ve always been good at mixing the old stuff with the new…
David Bowie stars in a 1982 BBC production of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal (video)
This part might have been written for David Bowie, if Bertold Brecht was capable of time travel. Baal was written by Brecht in 1918 while he was a 20 year old student at the University of Munich. The musical tells the tales of a genius living a life of hedonism and sometimes crime on the…
Original Pitch Video for the Muppet Show (1975)
In 1975 the variety show was still alive and well. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In had only been gone for two years, The Captain and Tennille would get a show in 76-77, the Donnie and Marie Show ran from 76-78 and big stars still got TV specials, with guest stars, musical numbers and comedy sketches. Perhaps…
Video: Minutemen Acoustic Blowout from Public Access TV (1985)
The Minutemen were one of the most influential and least known punk/alternative bands of the 1980s. If you don’t know the history, watch the documentary “We Jam Econo: the Story of the Minutemen“. If you do know the history then you’re in for a treat: Via Rafael Landi – a live acoustic set recorded for public access…
Video: the Talking Heads live in Syracuse 1978 (full concert)
The wonderful folks at Open Culture have tracked down yet another vintage Talking Heads performance. It’s not clear what venue this was captured at but it really doesn’t matter. The fact that videos like this exist at all, from an era 30 years before people carried iPhones, is a minor miracle. Here’s David Byrne &…
Watch the 1971 PSA ‘Curious Alice’: The most pro-drug anti-drug film ever
I’m quite sure that the first time the media convinces people not to use drugs it will be because some pot grower in Colorado or Washington says something stupid and prompts a Chick-Fil-A style backlash. To date there has never been a successful anti-drug media campaign. Some attempts such as ‘Reefer Madness‘, which accidentally became…
1980 Documentary on the Muppet Show ‘Of Muppets & Men’
I was lucky enough to be born in 1970 – which put me at just the right age to enjoy the golden age of Sesame Street and the Muppet Show. This documentary was shot in 1980, a year before the show went off the air and offers an amazing glimpse of the masters at work.…
Short video chronicles the evolution of film from 1878 to 2014 in 3 minutes
This three minute montage from Scott Ewing is, itself, almost Oscar worthy. Scott should, at least, be considered for doing some of the montages that they like so much at the Oscar ceremonies. From the description on Vimeo: “This montage began as a labor of love and quickly became an obsession of mine. Many days…