Category: art

Best of the Worst Movies

Here’s a wonderful concept for a book- great movies you’ve never heard of.

It’s a shame that movies are judged good or bad based on their commercial success. Film critic, Leonard Maltin, has assembled 151 of his favorite “flops” in a new book titled 151 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen. Some of my favorite films were commercial flops, and pretty obscure. So I couldn’t wait to see how many of my favorites made the cut!


Scanning the table of contents I was pleasantly surprised- I really haven’t seen most of these! There were a few familiar titles that also top my list: The Devil’s Backbone, Owning Mahowny, Thumbsucker and The Tao of Steve. But I was surprised to see The Maltese Falcon and The World’s Fastest Indian on this list. Nobody saw these films?

The list is assembled in alphabetical order, so there’s no Top 10 List or Best of the Worst award. For each title Maltin provides the basic specs- cast, director, year of production- then offers a few paragraphs about the movie and why he likes it. It’s a quick and handy reference to assist with your Netflix queue or you those late-night trips to the video store.

Oversights? Sure. Here’s a couple of films worth watching that didn’t make the list: Madison, Living in Oblivion and the Hudsucker Proxy.

Best and Worst of Superbowl 44

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints. Now to the important stuff…

I thought the Superbowl ads this year were pretty mediocre overall. I missed the “controversial” pro-whatever ad, but there were a few spots that did catch my eye. For better or for worse. We’ll start with better…

Google
I don’t typically think of “cute” when I think of Google. But their Google Goes to Paris spot was clever and effective. Okay, it was cute. The entire spot was a series of searches on the oh-so-familiar Google search box with various manipulations of the suggested results. It goes through a series of searches about traveling to Paris, falling in love, moving to Paris, then ending with a search for baby crib assembly instructions. What they must have saved on production costs!

Carmax
Appealing to the fairer sex, or more accurately- fans of Cute Overload, this Carmax spot played up on the pets-with-a-dramatic-look phenom. Kudos also go to Carmax for daring to show a woman posing as a car saleperson. Who knew?

And then there’s the worst spots.

Daring Dodge
You’re whipped so you rebel and buy the car you want. Yawn. Reminds me of the Simpson’s where Homer buys the snowplow. But a Dodge Charger is faster than a snowplow. Yeah maybe, but they’re still fugly.

Audi’s Green Police
I thought this ad was somewhat funny. But I wasn’t sure who Audi was attempting to alienate. Their iClone design-conscious customer base or greenies that might be interested in a low-smoke diesel. Has anyone in Germany heard about this red state/blue state thing?

And finally, while not a commercial, the halftime show is such a short concert it’s kinda’ like a spot.

Townshend’s Shirt Tail
Somebody do something about these wardrobe malfunctions. Please. Half the guitar solo was spent untangling his coat from the guitar. C’mon Pete- you can afford to buy a new shirt.

Until next year.

Telephony Nirvana

I stumbled across this wonderful site by total accident (as usual) while researching my Trimline telephone. Frills Free Phones, just as the name implies, sells telephones that are just… well, telephones.

Their specialty is retro and new-old stock phones and supplies. I also found the History section pretty cool. For instance, did you know the Trimline was known in Europe as the “Manhattan”? Me neither.

My only complaint: why they didn’t play the alliteration card and use Fones with an F? Oh well, pretty fun site anyway.

Frill Free Phones

Enjoy.

Set the Wayback for KTOW

Last week I was contacted by Mark Brown from the Tulsa World (no relation) who is working on a story about the golden age of radio in Tulsa. Namely, the zebra-striped era of KTOW.

In the Nineties this minor AM country station was commandeered in the name of alternative music by Tim Barazza and company. Later an FM transmitter came online and the upstart station started showing up on the ratings. Something the established players never imagined would happen. It was this unique time and place that is the subject of the forthcoming newspaper article.

It had been years since I’d thought much about KTOW and the phenomenon it wrought. I was never a DJ, but did have fun with a short-lived show on Sunday nights called Night Light. Bowe and I would read weird crap from the newspaper, run spoof commercials for a variety of fictitious local businesses and take live phone calls from listerners. My favorite memory of that was the night we played Battleship over the air. It was amazing how many people called that had never played Battleship! Not surprisingly we won.

I was able to provide Mark contact info for a few of the personalities associated with KTOW. Some were personal friends- like Robert Bowe (Robb on the Radio), Chris Hale (Caesar Vitalis), Tony Dapolito (Sabu), Carole Thompson (Carol Dane) and Tony Mills (Tony Too). Others were acquaintances that I didn’t really know all that well- Sanchez, Linda Berg (Taylor Chance), Joe Stone, etc. There were others I may not remember… sorry!

In case you have a KTOW story to share, or know how to contact some of the other DJs, you can reach roving reporter, Mark Brown at the Tulsa World or [email protected]

****UPDATE****
Hah!

Like magic is this Internet thing- no sooner do I mention a long-ago radio station then suddenly it appears on My Space! Join me in befriending this blast from the alternative music past… KTOW 102.3