Still more lazy thoughts from this one…

Archive for ‘August, 2013’

Reprise – Tales from the (Movie) Theater: Outro

As well, access to other portions of the theater’s roof framework were available via adjoined ladders at various points along the top of the building — including the central section over the audience hall and all the way back to high point of the rear structure. You can see the lone, naked ladder in the photo that climbs up to that highpoint location, here. It provided one of the highest viewing whereabouts in the city of Huntington Park.

Reprise – Friday Forgotten Book/Film: FAIL-SAFE

… though Red Alert came out first (and was later the source material for Stanley Kubrick’s brilliant black comedy, Dr. Strangelove), I daresay FAIL-SAFE’s story has held up better in the decades since either book’s initial release. In spite of the fact both were locked into the specific post-WWII military tension, the later novel was more relatable to latter times because of its version in the nightmare scenario. Its basis of a technical glitch I believe rang more true then, and certainly more understandable with folks today, regardless of the passage of time.

Tales from the (Movie) Theater: Journey’s End (Part 11)

Being a senior projectionist, at age 22 for the first half of 1977, no less, at the independent Huntington Park Warner Theatre (a place I had come to regularly since I was a kid), was a one-of-a-kind experience. I went from someone who knew next to nothing about the trade to someone who could at the very least get a movie projected — by hook or by crook.

Best Album Covers: Aja

This is the next entry in Best Album Covers, a series begun right here. The first successful long-playing microgroove record for the phonograph was introduced by Columbia Records back in June of…

Reprise – Friday Forgotten Film: Sharky’s Machine

To put it mildly, Burt Reynolds has had an interesting career — feel free to read in the old Chinese blessing slash curse at this point. His charismatic presence with early recurring roles on the Gunsmoke and Riverboat television series got many people’s attention (mine included, as a kid transfixed with TV). He parlayed that into larger and larger film roles.

Friday Forgotten Song: Summer Madness by Kool & the Gang

Sampled years later by Will Smith for the background in his ‘Summertime’ ditty, among others, Summer Madness had to be one of the unforeseen strains to come out of the Light of World LP on its release in ’74. I think I flattened every groove on my copy of the album back then before the year was out, the deepest for this track. Likely one of the most successful B-side numbers from the days where the 45 was still king, it did make quite a mark on radio air. An instrumental that played across R&B, jazz, and pop stations, at least around SoCal for sure.