Edshugeo The GodMoor

Labels: funny-ass shit, nostalgia, politics, tv, youtube and other video

Classic Funkadelic cover artist Pedro Bell is in ailing physical and financial health. We can help.

From the Undercover Black Man;

Album-cover artist Pedro Bell, the prophetic penman of P-Funk liner notes, satirical satyr of South Side Chicago, and one of my personal heroes, has been enduring health and money problems for years. We need to show him some love.

The Black Rock Coalition is sponsoring a benefit show for Pedro Bell this Saturday night (January 2) at Santos Party House in downtown Manhattan. Doors open at 7 p.m. The price is $15.

Pedro’s friends and fans were stirred to action by a November article in the Chicago Sun-Times.

If you can’t attend the fundraiser but would like to help Pedro in his time of need, follow this link to PayPal and donate to the Pedro Bell Benefit Fund.

Labels: Art, For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite, nostalgia, That's kinda messed up

So says Anime News Network;

Acclaimed director Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, The Sky Crawlers, Patlabor) revealed in Tokyo on Friday that his new work will be a film adaptation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Tetsujin 28-gō giant robot manga. The pioneering 1956-1966 manga is best known in English for inspring a 1963-1966 anime that was adapted as Gigantor. Oshii made his announcement during a live discussion to mark the opening of his latest film, the live-action Assault Girls project.

Earlier this year, Oshii had already directed a stage play version of Tetsujin 28-gō, which featured a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound), six-meter-tall (20-feet-tall) replica of the title robot. A "life-size," 18-meter-tall (59-feet-tall) statue of Tetsujin 28-gō was unveiled in Yokoyama's hometown of Kobe in October, and new NTT Docomo commercials featuring the robot began airing that same month.

Not a huge fan of Oshii. I remember liking Angel's Egg, Darossu (Moon Station Dallos - didn't know that was his til I checked IMDB, just now) and Ghost In The Shell 2, and maybe thought one or two of the Patlabor movies were okay. The other stuff of his I've seen? Ghost In The Shell (the comicbook it's based on is great as is the TV series Oshii may have produced), Sky Crawlers, and the live action film Avalon? Crap, except for Ghost In The Shell, which was merely sleepy.

I am, of course, a fan of Gigantor, so I need to see how this turns out.

Here's one of the commercials mentioned above...



As seen on Ain't It Cool News.

Labels: Anime, movies, nostalgia, youtube and other video

Oddly enough, I have no Van Halen (maybe a song or two in my asst. folder?) in my MP3 collection, which means I probably don't have any of their CDs since I've long converted all my discs to MP3s and some to that iTunes format (I'm gonna have to redo those).

That means I haven't listened to a (whole) Van Halen album since the early nineties. About the last time I had a turntable. By then Sammy Hagar had been their lead singer for a while, and I was repulsed by him ever since "I Can't Drive 55". He did manage one or two decent singles with the band (can't think of which ones right now - Oh! Right Now was one, the other was kinda country sounding), but on the whole I hated post 1984 Van Halen.

1984 had been my favorite album of theirs, out of that, Diver Down and Women And Children First (my least favorite of the three). Didn't have the others.

How was I able to live without songs like Panama, I'll Wait, Hot For Teacher, Top Jimmy and Jump for about a decade anna half? Okay, I heard a few of those on the radio, Muzak and TV occasionally, but still...

Labels: downloads, good deal, music, nostalgia, The Sell Out?

Hollywood is considering (once again) a movie based on Sgt. Rock, a DC comics hero who fights during World War II. Only this time, they want to set it the future. Great!

I was more of a Sgt. Fury guy (via back issues and reprints), but there's a bigger issue than just fucking with an icon.

Until now, “Rock” has retained its World War II setting, with Silver and the studio trying to make a big-budget action adventure movie that was a throwback to flicks like “The Dirty Dozen,” which feature acts of American derring-do.

But a big budget always was an obstacle and, “Inglourious Basterds” notwithstanding, period war movies have not been in vogue in Hollywood for years, unless it was a more serious contemplation of the subject like “Saving Private Ryan.” Also, American jingoism went out of style after 9/11; even this summer’s G.I. Joe movie dropped the toy’s “A Real American Hero” tagline and made the action team internationally focused.

The studio hopes moving the time period to the future solves the dilemma.

Really, why not just make your probably crappy sci-fi film anyway and call it something else? And if you must have a Rock in it, you can cast THE Rock. And then wait for some Europeans to make the the type of movies Americans want to see, like this one.

Labels: bullshit, movies, nostalgia

Today. Hey Ho! Let's Go!

Labels: good deal, music, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Been going on for about three weeks and about to expire, I think. Saw on Lightning Deals that Elvis Is Everywhere was offered as a free download. Cool! I remember that song. Not what it sounded like, just that I liked it. Downloaded it, and then searched Wikipedia for Skid Roper cuz I'm just starting to realize that I can answer the questions I like to ask myself or others like "Whatever happened to...?" (though I still ask questions like that cuz they're good conversation fillers). I move on to Mojo Nixon, cuz I don't really know what he's been up to either. A few song titles sound familiar, but I don't remember what any of them sounded like. Then there's a passage about a bunch of albums given away free on Amazon in October 2009 and I'm like, "Wait, it's still October 2009." So I look, and yeah, there's a crapload of Mojo Nixon albums at Amazon for free and of course I download all that shit, even though I don't remember what any of this stuff sounded like. Just that I liked some of it and thought it was amusing at the time...

Gotta love those song titles. Wonder if he inspired Primus?



Mojo Nixon's home page.

Labels: fun, good deal, moments of incoherency, music, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Here.

No surprise that he wants his name taken off any reprints which may be respected according to his talks with Neil Gaiman's lawyer. That Gaiman is still in the picture probably confirms the long stated intention for him to continue his run on the character with Marvel Comics. That's good news as well as the prospect for reprints. Hopefully in hardcover, and I would hope for that short Science Gestapo story that acted as a prologue in the first Eclipse issue. It was left out of the first volume paperback collection I have. I feel it does a good job of setting up the premise, though it wasn't a part of Warrior #1.

My wish for the Chuck Austin chapters to be re-drawn will probably never happen. I haven't read those in so many years, they may not be as bad as I remember. It would probably be too much to ask that the Warrior run be reprinted in it's original black and white, also. Ditto for Moore's V For Vendetta.

There are mixed reactions to the prospect of Marvelman being introduced into the Marvel universe. I personally don't care as it would be separate from the Moore and Gaiman stories. Those stories make it impossible to factor in a team-up with Spiderman or the X-Men, unless Gaiman himself (and I just thought of this) were to include some sort of wormhole/travel to an alternate universe/past type deal at the conclusion to his run. That would be kinda fucked up. If some other hack did it later on, I could just ignore it as I do 99% of comics.

On the question of whether or not these reprints and subsequent use of the Marvelman character will be worth what Marvel paid to creator Mick Anglo (at the ripe old age of 93), the answer to that is movies. And maybe some sort of theme ride, now that Marvel got sold to Disney.

Warner or some studio is going ahead with a Captain Marvel movie, based on the character that Marvelman blatently ripped off, because the UK publisher ran out of reprints of the popular comics after DC sued Fawcett out of existence, cuz they believed "The Big Red Cheese" was a rip-off of Superman. DC bought the rights to Captain Marvel in the sixties, so Marvel comics rushed there own Captain Marvel to the stands, establishing their trademark and forcing DC to call their Captain Marvel comicbook Shazam. When Eclipse presumed to have the rights to Marvelman in the eighties, Marvel's lawyers pressured the company to rename the character Miracleman. All this to say that I can't imagine that Marvel will want to stand idly by while DC/Warners (or whatever studio) puts out a movie featuring someone called Captain Marvel (even if the movie itself has to be titled Shazam) without responding with their own. There's Marvel's own Captain Marvel, but I'm not sure his story is as ready for Hollywood as Marvelman's. Plus coming out with a Captain Marvel movie after a Shazam film has come out... I dunno. Marvelman kinda builds on Captain Marvel while deconstructing that concept. It would'a been better for DC to acquire the rights and incorporate Alan Moore's revisions to their Captain Marvel (for the movies), but I doubt CC Beck would appreciate that (if he still lives). Ditto Alan Moore.

On the Shazam film, it seems Dwayne Johnson (formerly The Rock) is playing Black Adam, the villain rather than the lead role. Though he's never made a movie I've liked (at least what I've seen - aside from Saturday Night Live, which he was great on), I can't think of a more perfect actor to play Captain Marvel as he was depicted in the 1950s (Fawcett) and early 1070s (DC).

Labels: comics, moments of incoherency, movies, nostalgia

The band Rerun was tryin' to bootleg on What's Happening, for that guy from Goodtimes. Some nice stuff on here. I know three tunes off of this; the title track, What A Fool Believes, and Depending On You.

Labels: good deal, music, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

Here.

Labels: death, movies, nostalgia

G.I. Joe had velcro like hair, so I just assumed he was Black. Even the skin-tone was more light skinned Blackman than White. Though seeing it now, he looks more like an Israeli commando.

The movie coming out is based on the 80's cartoon version, which I didn't like (Okay, I was in high school). I feel having a cartoon where people shoot each other constantly, but no body ever gets hurt is way more detrimental to kids, than some of the R rated films I got to see as a kid. I have the same problem with marketing Wolverine to children (via the X-Men cartoons). The idea that some guy can run around with what amounts to six switchblades and nobody ever gets so much as a paper cut is a worse example to set than the bloodbath served up in the recent video game.

I might've bought the comics for a short while, but I don't remember what they were like, except they were written and drawn by Larry Hama and Herb Trimpe. Trimpe got thrown at a lot of licenced characters back then. He also did Marvel's take on Japanese giant robots (Mazinger Z and a couple of others) called Shogun Warriors and Marvel's version of Godzilla.

All this just to say that I might actually want to see the new G.I. Joe movie out today.

More vintage G.I. Joe here

Also not Black? Count Dante, The Most Dangerous Man Alive.

Labels: moments of incoherency, movies, nostalgia, Toys

A while back, I blamed/credited David Bowie for the mullet. Whether or not there's even a grain of truth there (the eighties seemed like it mostly came from his imagination), I did forget The Shag, a relic of that decade that had to figure into the evolution of eighties hair across the board.

Here's a number of folks who remember the shag.

Labels: Hair, nostalgia

There are a number of blu-ray discs in the sub twelve dollar range on Amazon these days. 2001 is a must own in my opinion. I bought it early last month for about eighteen bucks and don't regret the recent price drop. I first saw it in the 1970s when it returned to theatres for a while (wasn't unusual for movies to stick around for more than a year, and then return periodically back then). Marvel Comics also had put out a comicbook version by Jack Kirby. I recall there was a tabloid sized "treasury edition", which I'd never gotten. I did get the first issue of the regular series, which I think I brought with me when I saw the movie.

I was having a discussion with a friend at work about the role of aggression not only as an integral part of history but in nature itself. That nature does not exclude humanity seems obvious, but always requires mentioning for some reason. Anyway, that talk colored my perception of the film (I watched the disc the next day) and I feel that I understand HAL in a way I hadn't before.

Also, has special effects ever been better than this? I'm not sure that it has and that movie's forty years old.




Price subject to change without notice, of course.

Labels: comics, DVD, good deal, movies, nostalgia, online retailers, The Sell Out?

More relics of my childhood gone. Farrah Fawcett, ex-wife of the Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors and one third of the original Charlie's Angels. Though a seventies icon, I feel like her hair ruled the 1980s along with David Bowie's, whose hairstyle evolved into moderate (early Howard Jones) to ridiculous (later Howard Jones and Billy Ray Cyrus) mullets. Fawcett's hair found it's place primarily in the realm of metal bands and the women who populated their videos.

Her death, like Shek Kin's a little while back, will be overshadowed by a larger celebrity death (which could work to the favor of her family/loved ones - Less papparzi scum).

Michael Jackson's passing is gonna be felt around the world. Allah is smilling on the hardliners in Iran, cuz the news media is distracted big time. I consider myself a fan of his (and his brothers) work up to about 1980 (or whenever Off The Wall came out). Most of the world prefers the Michael Jackson of Thriller and Bad, obviously, and that's fine. Any other time, and I might have something to say about that.

I worry about the circus that's to come, though. A fight for custody of the kids? Creditors laying siege on his estate? The final fate of the Beatles publishing catalog, or is that already taken from him? I see myself not watching CNN for a while.

Labels: death, media, music, nostalgia, tv

Last Year At Marienbad - This one I can have in a couple of weeks. After reading this glowing review of the disc's picture and audio quality, I went ahead and pre-ordered it. I'll be watching this one over and over. I'm glad that Criterion got to handle this. The region 1 DVD by Fox Lorber was horrendous. Somehow I was still able to get more than a hundred bucks for it on eBay (even mentioning how bad I thought it was).



Pootie Tang - Louis C.K.'s masterpiece starring Lance Crouther (strange, I thought it was Carruthers or something). Not many people appreciate the brilliance of this film, yet, but they will. Or maybe their kids will. Crouther used to be in a comedy troupe called Mary Wong. I remember a great kung fu movie skit they did back on Comedy Tonight, a late night show hosted by Bill Boggs back in the day. Always loved him for that. Oddly enough, I did not like the Pootie Tang skits on the Chris Rock Show.



Nowhere - This movie is currently nowhere to be found. Not on Netflix. Not on DVD in the U.S., which is why I had to get a French DVD off of eBay a few years ago. I had a couple of region free DVD players, but neither of them is hooked up anymore. I can rip the disc and stream it to my 360 or PS3 if I feel like it, though. Nowhere is sorta a gayish sci-fi film which stars the guy who wore the rabbit suit in Donnie Darko as a Keanu Reeves looking kid named Dark. One day I'll figure out what the intended connection between the two films is supposed to be. Someone I used to work with saw both films together (in a film class) and said Darko alludes to Nowhere, but I'm not sure I know what the fuck that means. I believe this movie was introduced to me by another co-worker on VHS years and years ago.



Daughters Of The Dust - So beautifully shot, it doesn't really matter what this movie is about. Something about a family reunion of Gullah people who are about to move from their island home (off the Carolinas, if I recall correctly) a hundred years ago. I've only seen it on PBS, I think. I had a tape but I don't recall if I copied a rental or taped it off TV. Gave it away in anticipation of getting the DVD, but now DVD won't be good enough. I dunno if anyone but Criterion can do the film justice on disc.



The Manchurian Candidate - Not the Denzel one. The Sinatra one.



The Yellow Submarine



Quilombo - Brazilian movie I used to watch on Bravo about a community in that country formed by escaped slaves who fend off the Portuguese, mostly through the efforts of their leader, who can channel the spirit of their god for protection. Only at this writing did it occur to me to look it up on Netflix. I can watch it on my 360 anytime I want. Woot!



Macross: Do You Remember Love? - retells the story of the Macross (Robotech in the U.S.) TV series, but cuts out all the bullshit and animates it better. You will believe that a pop song can save the universe.



Vanilla Sky and Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) - Somehow, I feel my collection of Matrix films is incomplete without these two. Vanilla Sky is a U.S. remake of Abre Los Ojos, but both movies are wonderful, due in no small part to Penelope Cruz who plays the same part in both realities/movies. I also consider I, Robot, Dark City (both by the same director) and Groundhog Day to be Matrix movies as well, but these are all on Blu and of course I have them.



Bullet In The Head - John Woo's Vietnam epic about wannabe drug dealers. Preferably including both endings (via seamless branching).

Labels: Anime, Anticipay-yay-shun..., DVD, HDTV, movies, nostalgia, youtube and other video

Kidney Failure at the age of 96.

Shek Kin is most known to westerners as the villian Mr. Han from Enter The Dragon. Older Chinese probably remember him as the antagonist (did he always play the same guy?) opposite Kwan Tak Hing in many Wong Fei Hong movies. I never saw any of those (from 1950s- early 70s). The Ain't It Cool article states that he appeared in later Wong Fei Hong movies like Drunken Master and Once Upon A Time In China. If so, I don't recall.

I used to think that Mr. Han was played by a white dude. He looked more like a made up (Dr. No) Chinese to me than actual Chinese. It was many years later when I found out who he was.
He was great in a couple of 80s TV dramas like Legend Of The Condor Heroes and Demi Gods And Semi Devils with Leung Kar Yan.

A Couple of demonstrations from 1984:

Labels: death, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, tv, youtube and other video

Why is Billy Crystal turning into Jackie Mason? It felt weird enough seeing Tom Hanks on Letterman last week. It almost feels like a whole world that I know is dying before my eyes. Of course, part of it is that I haven't seen Crystal in anything since... I don't know, Saturday Night Live? And Hanks in Saving Private Ryan Charlie Wilson's War, which wasn't too long ago, though I still can't help but think of him as the guy from Bachelor Party, or Splash. Letterman has done a crap load of aging, but since he's been on nearly every night since the eighties, it's a gradual change that occurs like that of some one you've known and grown up with. Not the type of thing that puts you face to face with your own mortality. Then again, contrasted with Leno, he really has gotten really fucking old. He had some heart problems a while back that may've been a contributing factor.



Couldn't find the clip of Billy Crystal playing Prince on SNL singing "I Am Also The World", so the above will have to do.



And then there's Prince from the same tonight show appearance as Crystal. He's not aging the way anyone would expect. "He's had work done" doesn't cut it, either. We've seen muthafukkas who've had work done and that is not a "work done" look. Prince is fifty, which is only about six years older than I am. He'll probably outlast me, and I can live with that.

Labels: I know I shouldn't even care about this shit, media, movies, music, nostalgia, Prince, tv, youtube and other video

Cool interview about the remastered version of the first Star Trek pilot (pre-Kirk), The Cage, which is airing this weekend. It's probably my favorite episode out of the original series, so it bothered me that it didn't appear on the first season Blu-Ray set just released. Nice to know that it hasn't been left out of the remastering of the original series. I might even be able to download it.



Also of interest in the comments following the article, is the interest showed by some fans who are down for a re-animation of the original Star Trek cartoon from the seventies, which utilized the voices of much of the original cast, and if I remember correctly, had some pretty decent stories. The animation, however, was a bit shitty. Filmation was good for stuff like The Archies, The Groovy Ghoulies, Josie and the Pussycats and all that, but not for Star Trek. I've always thought that new animation (particularly the CGI sort) would be a great idea for the show. I won't watch the old cartoon the way it was.

Labels: Awesome, Capt Pike was a bad MuthaFucka, HDTV, nostalgia, tv

Non-cipher!

Used to hear 5-percenters say that at the mention of any pork product.

Here's a bunch of things I did not know about the 5 Percent Nation (which is to say, just about everything). Knew some in Middle and High school. Didn't seem all that deep. Then again, we were all kids, and none of us were all that deep.

Labels: Anime, Awesome, History, independent film-making, japanese, nostalgia, religion, youtube and other video

As reported on Ain't It Cool News.

Here's the first episode:



Now to find a way to download these....

Labels: Awesome, fun, japanese, Japanese Spiderman, kung fu, nostalgia, That's what I'm talkin' about, tv, youtube and other video

Interesting story about the violent demise of a famous Little Rascal, Alfalfa. I was inspired to look him up after listening to Bobby Jindal's response to the State Of The Union address and thinking how much he reminded me of Alfalfa. I'm pretty sure he won't be the Republican nominee in 2012.

Carl Switzer (Alfalfa) was born in Iowa, and Jindal in Louisiana, so not much in common, I guess. Also, I'm sure natives of both states would probably say that the accents are nothing alike, but whatever.

Didn't know Dorothy Dandridge appeared in an Our Gang short.

Labels: death, History, movies, nostalgia, politics

Imagi Studios, an HK based CGI company that has made a recent version of Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles (didn't see it), and the upcoming Astroboy and Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, has produced a proof of concept teaser for a movie they aren't officially set to produce, yet.



Tetsujin 28go is a classic comicbook created by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, later animated and shown on U.S. television as Gigantor. Gigantor was one of the first cartoons (and Anime, though I didn't know Anime at the time) I really got into as a kid, along with Speed Racer.



I hope they get to make this one. Though excited at first, I never got around to watching the last attempt at a Tetsujin 28go (Iron Man #28) movie, and will probably continue to avoid it.



One of my favorite cartoons of all time was a 1990s version of Giant Robo, a concept created by Yokoyama that was very similar to Tetsujin. The series had a very old school feel that was reminiscent of 60s and 70s anime even down to the English dubbing, except maybe towards the end. I tend to watch the last episode with English subs, normally my preference except for old Kung Fu movies and most of this series.
Highly recommended, particularly to fans of Gigantor and Anime fans 35 years and older, though I imagine younger fans will like it too just on the basis of it's quality.

Giant Robo on YouTube (Japanese w/English subs)


AICN and Twitch on the T28 trailer.
Official T28 site

Shameless Amazon affiliate link;



Should be noted that the desired "Manga" English dub from it's initial VHS release (In the US) is on a hidden track not on the menu, but accessed via remote.


A Gigantor related prototype (?) - His nemesis, Black Ox.



I almost missed this one!

Labels: Anime, Anticipay-yay-shun..., Awesome, movies, nostalgia, The Sell Out?, Toys, tv, youtube and other video

I should'a known better, but I didn't.

The guy who wore the robot suit, and it never, ever occured to me, there'd be a guy in there, died today of heart failure. Bob May was his name. The voice of the Robot, B-9 was somebody else; Dick Tufeld.

I also tended to think that B-9 and Robbie The Robot were pretty much the same, just with different heads and whatnot. Wikipedia says there's more.

"Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!!!"

Labels: DANGER WILL ROBINSON DANGER, death, nostalgia, technology, tv

Swiped from Popwatch:

Bettie Page, the 1950s pinup credited with helping to spark the next decade's sexual revolution, died in Los Angeles yesterday from pneumonia. She was 85. In honor of the passing of this treasure from a bygone era, an excerpt from EW critic Owen Gleiberman's review of the 2006 documentary, The Notorious Bettie Page:

"It has often been said that Bettie Page, the legendary '50s pinup with the pert features framed by those famously severe black bangs, was the rare American sex goddess who was equally at home projecting the image of a good girl or a bad girl. Frolicking, naked, in the ocean foam, her leg extended with playful pleasure, she was all dazzle and sunshine: the girl next door who said yes yes yes. In her scandalous underground bondage photos, where she posed as a dominatrix with a whip held high, or as a masochist with a ball in her mouth, she vamped like a pussycat from hell, her eyes narrowing with mean delight — or widening in mock terror. Yet the mysterious alchemy of Bettie Page isn't just that she could turn on a dime from light to dark, saint to sinner, virgin to vixen. It's that she was somehow able to project both qualities at once. In the bondage photos, so shocking for their time, her warm, spirited, peekaboo vibrance doesn't disappear; it's there just beneath the surface aggression of her poses. As for her all-American cheesecake shots, they have a quality of delirious, laughing abandon, as though she were winking at the she-devil inside. What Bettie Page conjured — always — was the promise of pleasure without limits. She was a one-woman orgy in centerfold form."

Good night, Bettie. Although it's a cliche, there really is no truer summation than to say, they just don't make 'em like they used to.

Labels: death, Heroes, nostalgia, porn, Women

When I saw that name I didn't know who he was. The article on Ain't It Cool clarified things by mentioning his role as Mr. Bentley, the odd English neighbor on The Jeffersons. I prefer to remember him for his role as a crazed street artist obsessed with numbers on Sesame Street.

Labels: death, nostalgia, tv, youtube and other video

A new trailer for a film I've been waiting half a year for. This one appears to be a different film than the one for which a trailer appeared back in June. Similar dialog and ideas, but different footage. I'm guessing that the original trailer was shot specifically as a proof of concept, to get the financial ball rolling on the actual production. Or maybe we're gonna see a bunch of these, different trailers for different versions of the same concept. Either way, I can't wait for this and I hope this actually surfaces as an actual movie.




As seen on Ain't It Cool News

The official Black Dynamite Site

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., Awesome, funny-ass shit, independent film-making, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, youtube and other video

Spoiler alert! This scene is from the end of the movie.




The two Princes are Ti Lung and Derek Yee. Yee's a fairly well known director nowadays and has an upcoming drama with Jackie Chan coming up, The Shinjuku Incident. I don't know his stuff, though I have a copy of Protege around here somewhere.

This movie, Shaolin Prince is awesome, though I haven't seen it in almost (more than?) a decade, on a VHS tape called Death Mask Of The Ninja. There are no Ninja in this film, though there is a scene of a guy sneaking around dressed in black. Aside from the sedan fight, the highlights are the antics of the Three Holy Fools. Kinda like the Three Stooges but Buddhist, and Chinese. Also a great fight with a bunch of monks with large brass rings.

Labels: Awesome, fun, HDTV, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., wu-xia, youtube and other video

From Variety:

HONG KONG – Centenarian film mogul Sir Run Run Shaw has abandoned his plans to sell his Shaw Brothers (HK) company due to current world financial turmoil.
Shaw made an announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Tuesday, and blamed "the present tumultuous situation in the financial markets" for the cancellation.
Company has few film interests left, but owns a key stake in Television Broadcasts (TVB), Hong Kong's leading TV firm and one of the world's biggest owners of Chinese content.
Shaw has been in protracted talks to sell his 75% interest in Shaw Bros (HK) and has been actively negotiating with Chinese businessman Yeung Kwok-keung since May.
It appears now that Yeung has been unable to secure the HK$5 – 7 billion ($644 – $902 million) bank financing necessary as shares in his property development company Country Gardens Holdings, have tumbled.
Sale collapse is the second high-profile deal in four days to have been called off in the territory. Sunday saw local telco giant PCCW announce a "discontinuation of the auction process" for its media assets, HKT Group Holdings.

Sir Run Run Shaw is 101 years old.

Labels: China, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., youtube and other video

An old favorite, though I don't think I'd seen that video till I saw it on Youtube a couple of days ago. This song got airplay on local station WLIR, but probably wasn't a hit for the band in the U.S. (which is why it's not on their greatest hits record). I bought the album, What A Life, on vinyl, back then. It's probably in a closet. Can't play it, so I might get the CD, which can be found cheap.

Labels: fun, music, music video, nostalgia, youtube and other video

The story of Hung Sei Quan (Hung Hei Goon)! The fate of Abbot Chi San! Pai Mei (The White Brow Priest) and his receding balls! The marriage and offspring of Tiger and Crane!





I neglected to mention that 8 diagram Pole Fighter was on last night. There's always re-runs.



This bit wasn't part of the broadcast;

Labels: Awesome, feats of strength, HDTV, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., youtube and other video

The schedule

Labels: Awesome, HDTV, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., youtube and other video

The Kid With The Golden Arm, in hi-Def, on Cablevision. 8pm EST

Labels: Awesome, HDTV, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., tv, youtube and other video

I've been waiting for some of these classics to hit the Kung Fu HD channel, since getting this service on Cablevision. This made sense as James Dolan, who was (is?) owner of Cablevision at the time was apparently involved in the Miramax aquisition of a fraction of the Shaw library a few years ago. Miramax eventually gave way to The Wienstein Company and a number of Shaw Bros. classics have been released on their Dragon Dynasty label. A number of movies on Kung Fu HD (and a few other Voom HD channels) still sport the Miramax logo, which again made me wonder when they'd get to some Chang Cheh goodness.

Now.

Tired of whatever was on CNN (last night), I flipped channels to Kung Fu HD. The info bar said I was watching Seven Samurai, but I clearly wasn't.* I was watching The Water Margin, an early seventies epic directed by Chang Cheh. Odd thing about this was that, it isn't among the Dragon Dynasty releases. Image Entertainment put it out. Hmm. Wonder what's going on here?
The picture quality was quite good, but HD cable isn't as good as Blu-Ray for the most part. I compared the picture to the Image DVD and found the cable version to be a significant enough improvement.

According to the TV listings (which may or may not be accurate),* We'll see more Shaw pics on Thursday, Sept. 4th;

Shaolin Handlock



Shaolin Abbot (dunno if I've seen this one, but Lo Lieh is Pai Mei again and something unfortunate is gonna happen to Fung Sai Yuk/Fong Si Yu).



Kung Fu Vengence



The aforementioned Water Margin (aka Seven Blows Of The Dragon) and hopefully more to come.



I don't know if my DVR can take this (assuming there is more to come). I might have some difficulty in erasing some of this content, especially as none of it has been even announced for Blu-Ray, yet (that I know of)
(I can't seem to link to a specific day, so after a while it'll be just the current 4 day cycle after a few days)

*there's some incompetence at Cablevision that causes either the wrong programing, the wrong info, or both. It doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen often.

Sept. 6th, 2008 - KungFuCinema.com posted the press release yesterday. Sixty movies. Holy shit! Way to go Cablevision.

Films include;

THE WATER MARGIN (1972) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/1 @ 8PM ET

This sprawling affair based on the true legend of how 108 rebel heroes successfully defeated invading Sung armies on their mountain headquarters stars David Chiang, Lily Ho and Ti Lung.

VENGEANCE (1970) - NR
U.S. HD Premiere 9/2 @ 8PM ET

In the first of Cheh’s Blood Brothers movies pairing the deadly duo of David Chiang and Ti Lung, a brother seeks justice against a crime boss who killed his brother. Vengeance was a watershed movie of Hong Kong martial arts cinema that defined Cheh’s cinematic approach for years.

THE BRAVE ARCHER (1977) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere 9/5 @ 8PM ET

Following his father’s death, Kuo Ching (Fu Sheng) is raised and trained during the Sung dynasty by a group of kung fu experts. This film, the first in the Brave Archer series, was one of the first to usher in Cheh’s “Venom Mob,” a group of actors/choreographers/weapons experts who would go on to star in many of his films.

GOLDEN SWALLOW (1968) - NR
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/13 @ 8PM ET

Golden Swallow (Pei-pei Cheng) finds her peaceful life shattered when an unrequited suitor starts a killing spree in her name. As she tries to clear her good name, the two men in her life also race towards a final showdown. Hsin-yen Chao and Lo Lieh also star in this swordplay epic, a follow-up to King Hu’s wuxia classic Come Drink with Me, which was originally known as The Girl with the Thunderbolt Kick in the U.S.

THE BOXER FROM SHANTUNG (1972) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/15 @ 8PM ET

After heading to Shanghai for a better life, a boxer quickly gains fame and fortune and falls into a ring of corruption and gang warfare. Ching Lee and David Chiang star in this film, one of the first on which John Woo served as assistant director.

BLOOD BROTHERS (1973) - NR
U.S. HD Premiere 9/17 @ 8PM ET

Blood Brothers tells of one of the most sensational scandals in Chinese history, the assassination of a provincial governor (Ti Lung) by his lieutenant and sworn brother (David Chiang).

THE NEW ONE ARMED SWORDSMAN (1973) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/23 @ 8PM ET

David Chiang and Ti Lung star in this sequel to Cheh’s classic The One Armed Swordsman. Here, the revenge plot which forms the basis of nearly every Cheh film receives particularly vivid treatment, with the crippled Chiang out to avenge the murder of Ti, who has been viciously murdered.

THE ASSASSIN (1967) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/26 @ 8PM ET

Yu is a two-armed swordsman who is betrayed by a jealous rival, but initially seeks a life of simple pleasures until an accidental meeting with another patriot sets him back on the road to bloody, brutal vengeance.

FIVE SHAOLIN MASTERS (1974) - Rated R
U.S. HD Premiere on 9/28 @ 8PM ET

Shaolin renegades fight against their Manchu oppressors and traitorous collaborators. David Chiang, Ti Lung, Meng Fei star.

Other Shaw Brothers films premiering in high-definition during the month of September include SHAOLIN HAND LOCK (9/3), SHAOLIN ABBOT (9/4), THE BRAVE ARCHER 2 (9/6), BRAVE ARCHER 3 (9/7), SHAOLIN MARTIAL ARTS (9/8), THE DUEL (9/9), SHAOLIN MANTIS (9/10), FIVE ELEMENTS NINJAS (9/11), ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS (9/12), CHINATOWN KID (9/14), SHAOLIN TEMPLE (9/16), INVINCIBLE SHAOLIN (9/18), THE KID WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (9/19), THE HEROIC ONES (9/20), HEROES TWO (9/21), MEN FROM THE MONASTERY (9/22), THE NEW ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN (9/23), THE DEADLY DUO (9/24), LIFE GAMBLE (9/25), FOUR RIDERS (9/27), DISCIPLES OF SHAOLIN (9/29) and THE DELIGHTFUL FOREST (9/30).

As with all films airing on KUNG FU HD, these premieres will all be presented uncut, in high-definition, and commercial-free in their original aspect ratios. KUNG FU HD is available in the U.S. Cablevision’s iO digital cable service (channel 776).

Labels: Awesome, HDTV, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., tv, youtube and other video

Didn't notice the similarities til reading the comments on YouTube.

Labels: Awesome, funny-ass shit, nostalgia, odd, tv, youtube and other video

Also features Arsenio Hall and Tommy Davidson as Tasty Freeze and Cream Corn.
I'm assuming this is an indie production.
Can't wait for this.

Busy time for MJW. A role in The Dark Knight, a new Spawn animation, it seems, and also playing a guy named Ali (surely not Mohammad?) in the new Bruce Lee TV series coming out of China. All of which I am looking forward to.

Labels: Anticipay-yay-shun..., Awesome, fun, independent film-making, kung fu, movies, nostalgia, youtube and other video

From The NY Times;

Time Warner is no longer the sole proprietor of Superman.

A federal judge here on Wednesday ruled that the heirs of Jerome Siegel — who 70 years ago sold the rights to the action hero he created with Joseph Shuster to Detective Comics for $130 — were entitled to claim a share of the United States copyright to the character. The ruling left intact Time Warner’s international rights to the character, which it has long owned through its DC Comics unit.

And it reserved for trial questions over how much the company may owe the Siegel heirs for use of the character since 1999, when their ownership is deemed to have been restored. Also to be resolved is whether the heirs are entitled to payments directly from Time Warner’s film unit, Warner Brothers, which took in $200 million at the domestic box office with “Superman Returns” in 2006, or only from the DC unit’s Superman profits.

Still, the ruling threatened to complicate Warner’s plans to make more films featuring Superman, including another sequel and a planned movie based on the DC Comics’ “Justice League of America,” in which he joins Batman, Wonder Woman and other superheroes to battle evildoers.

If the ruling survives a Time Warner legal challenge, it may also open the door to a similar reversion of rights to the estate of Mr. Shuster in 2013. That would give heirs of the two creators control over use of their lucrative character until at least 2033 — and perhaps longer, if Congress once again extends copyright terms — according to Marc Toberoff, a lawyer who represents the Siegels and the Shuster estate.

Wow! That is awesome. Assuming it's not reversed on appeal.

The whole article at the NYT, plus another at Newsarama where I first read this news.

Labels: Awesome, comics, feats of strength, Heroes, nostalgia

Labels: funny-ass shit, music, nostalgia, Songza

Old news, but new news to me. And great fucking news at that.
In addition to the releases by Dragon Dynasty and Image Entertainment (not to mention PC only rentals* from Jaman), Classic remastered Shaw Brothers movies will be made available on DVD in the U.S. by Media Blasters.

The titles;

Five Elements Ninjas AKA Super Ninjas!
Heroes Two
The Master
Challenge of the Masters
Martial Club (Oh, Hellz yeah!)
The Deadly Duo
The Brave Archer
The Ten Tigers of Kwangtung
Black Magic 2
Flag of Iron

Great selection of titles. As mentioned in this interview with Linn Haynes, it's a wonder they hadn't been hoarded by DD or Image. Martial Club (sequel to Challenge Of The Masters) is one of my all time favorite kung fu movies. Certainly the best movie starring Gordon Liu Chia Hui and Wang Lung Wei. "Fei Hong! Use your family's kung fu!"

Apparently they start coming out in the spring and will be released one per month, beginning with Heroes Two. No plans for Blu-Ray yet, despite the using Hi-Def masters.

Labels: Awesome, DVD, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, nostalgia

Spoilers below.





This is one of my favorite television moments. Mandela is questioned (in 1990) about his controversial alliances with the likes of Castro, Arafat, and Qadafi and the possible negative consequences of proclaiming these men to be his comrades. Mandela's answer literally silences Kopell to the point that he has to break the ice to move things forward. Kopell's Adam West like response is a noble, yet ineffective effort to save face, but kinda adds to the hilarity.

Labels: Awesome, funny-ass shit, Heroes, nostalgia, politics, South Africa, Truth, tv, World Affairs

As reported on Kung Fu Cinema;

Online digital download site Jaman.com is currently offering up to three free downloadable rentals on select Shaw Brothers classics such as TWIN BLADES OF DOOM and THE 14 AMAZONS when you create an account.

All you need to do to take advantage of this feature is have a broadband connection, visit Jaman.com, register for free, download the Jaman player, and start downloading up to three digital titles specially-marked “Free Rental” from among 50 Shaw Brothers classics in Jaman’s online library.

Once you’ve finished watching your free rentals, you can continue to rent movies for $1.99 or purchase them for $4.99.

I'm not a fan of watching movies on my computer, but I'm gonna have to try this.

Out in video stores this week are the first of the Dragon Dynasty releases of the Shaw Bros. line; 36th Chamber Of Shaolin (Master Killer), My Young Auntie, King Boxer (5 Fingers Of Death), and The One Armed Swordsman. If these movies contain the original English dub tracks (where applicable), then the time has come to throw away my old supermarket bought bootlegs.

Labels: downloads, good deal, kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, nostalgia, Shaw Bros., wu-xia

Speed Racer movie coming in 2008. Some idiots are upset that this movie, based on a cartoon from the 1960s, is going to be kid friendly.

Labels: Anime, movies, nostalgia, tv

Then Shazam! I'm there. I mean, really. What could be more perfect than that?

Labels: comics, movies, nostalgia

After seeing Kung Fu Friday's post of a YouTube clip from Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, I submit...


this bit from Martial Club AKA Instructors Of Death. A few of my favorite films are sequels featuring portrayals of Wong Fei Hong; Drunken Master 2, Once Upon A Time In China II, and Martial Club which followed another Shaw film starring Gordon Liu Chia Hui, but whose name escapes me right now.

Labels: kung fu, Liu Chia Hui, movies, nostalgia

I kinda don't care one way or another. Not a fan. I defend his right to free speech, of course, and see no difference in how he's been exercising it between now and the last three decades. So, why now?

For me, the issue's the FCC and it's need to regulate speech on the public airwaves. I would prefer to do away with it, but that probably isn't happening anytime soon. Haven't listened to the radio in ages anyway.

I was looking for an old TV ad I remembered from the early eighties that featured Imus and station-mate Howard Stern apologizing to all of the various groups they've insulted, a long list that of course included blacks, gays, catholics, jews, etc., etc.

Couldn't find it, but I did find this one which delivered a similar sentiment.

For the hell of it, an eighties profile of Howard Stern, with a guest appearance from Don Imus on local TV station WOR (channel 9) and another channel 9 broadcast made in the aftermath of Stern being fired from WNBC.

For a recap on the recent controversy (including video), I direct you to Bol.

April 14th, 07 - Oops. FCC's got nothin' to do with this. I've mixed feelings about his being fired;
On the one hand, fuck him. On the other, where does this culture of outrage over bullshit end?

Labels: bullshit, civil rights, hypocrisy, media, nostalgia, politics, tv, youtube

While "Lion" Voltron (GoLion) was the coolest looking of the two robots who sorta shared this series, my preference was for "vehicle" Voltron (Dairugger 15), which had a more mature storyline, even in it's English version, even though it kinda, sorta, ripped off elements of Space Cruiser Yamato (Starblazers).
Media Blasters is bringing the more popular "Lion" Voltron to DVD in it's English form, remastered, of course, sometime in the fall. Sometime in the next year, we'll apparently also see releases of the uncut Japanese versions (with subtitles) of both GoLion and Hundred Beast King Armored Squadron Dairugger XV. I'll skip the English Voltron as I was never much of a fan, but maybe I'll get a volume of GoLion to check it out. Dairugger XV (I always thought it was DaiRaigar XV?) is on my must get list. On the other hand I almost always find anime to be over priced, so who knows? I've yet to pick up any of those Gatchaman box sets. I better work on that.

Labels: Anime, DVD, nostalgia, tv

Cobb echoes the sentiments (and then goes further) of this article on the "romanticization of old school" hip-hop, with an observation which, oddly enough had only recently occured to me. This despite my being old enough to know better;

"The Old School of hiphop was not politically expressive, it was dance music, and those of us who got sick of those annoying talk boxes used by Midnight Starr and Newcleus couldn't be happier. There was no real message in hiphop until De La Soul and Public Enemy around 88. Before that, the'deepest' message from hiphop were the exceptions of 'The Message' and then 'Friends' by Whodini. (Produced by the late lamented Arif Mardin, who also worked with Herbie Hancock at the time). If there was a renaissance in hiphop towards the 'intellectual' it was the now long dead era of 'gods and earths' exemplified by groups such as Brand Nubian, Rakim, Wu-Tang, X-Clan et-al. On the more popular side were Arrested Development and PM Dawn (yes PM Dawn). All of this was done in closer communication with the Spoken Word movement, and if there ever was a golden age of conscious rap, it was right there between 90 and 92. Including Gangstarr and ATCQ, Latifah and the Native Tongues, who through Jimmy Jay started to take rap international and bring non-English speaking rappers into the American fold."

Read the rest, here...

Labels: blogs, music, nostalgia

Labels: Awesome, funny-ass shit, nostalgia, tv, youtube and other video

It's a bird, it's a plane... No! It's ...

Labels: comics, movies, nostalgia

The above image is from The Marvel Try-Out Book from back in the eighties. A comic book presented on 11"x17" 2 ply bristol board. A few pages complete but without color. Next a few complete sans color and inks. The pencils were printed in non-repro blue. These were followed by pages without word balloons (but with a script on an opposite page) and with rougher pencil, and then without words or pencils, but with plot, and finally I think, without even plot.
Since I don't have my penciled pages around, I assume they must've been really awful. I rarely throw my work away.
At the time I thought my inking was okay, though I never sent those pages in either. As with the above image (inked over John Romita Jr.'s blue lined pencils), it's pretty clear (now, at least) that some of my embellishments were a bit heavy handed at times, and at others, maybe a bit too sketchy.
It'd be cool if they kept putting out more of these, but I believe one more was created maybe in the nineties, featuring the X-Men. I understand the penciled pages were printed in black which meant the extra hassle of tracing and transferring.

Speaking of J. Jonah Jameson, on one of my recent, barely coherent rants, I discussed some long held ideas I had about Spiderman, but forgot about the publisher of the Daily Bugle. I'd recently read an article at Newsarama.com about some upcoming crap at Marvel. I don't remember the specifics, but some writer or editor stated an intention to cast J. Jonah Jameson in the mold of Rupert Murdoch. Or vice-versa. I don't like what Murdock has done to newspapers and I don't care for the Fox News network. It's also obvious that Jameson's a dick and that little Hitler mustache isn't really doing him any favors. But Jameson is not a Conservative. His concern that law enforcement should be held accountable (not possible with masked vigilantes) is a classic riff of the political left. Especially considering the actual history of the masked vigilante in the U.S. of A.

Speaking of upcoming crap at Marvel, here's a link to a Newsarama article (speaking of newsarama articles) that contains some really cool Dr. Strange artwork. I like the Vincent Price look. In the beginning, Steve Ditko kinda made him look Chinese or something. I'd like to see them do something with that eventually. There's also a new Eternals series by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr. (speaking of JR Jr.). Mentioned a while back on a Jack Kirby newsgroup, this could lead to a compilation of the original series, which would make me real happy.

There's a reprint collection of 1970's Nova comics in Marvel's Essentials line. Those thick black and white phone book collections. That was one of my favorite books, back in the day, though he and I came from different versions of Hempstead, Long Island. His version of Hempstead High School was all white except for his one Black friend, while my version (Nova might've been cancelled by the time I was high school aged - I forget) was mostly Black and I had a few White friends.

Jenny, Jenny, Everywhere....
Jenny Everywhere is a copyright free e-comic character who exists everywhere at once, so any creator can do whatever they will and not worry about pesky things like continuity and whatnot. Some stories are better than others. Here's one I like: Damn Fine Hostile Takeover - part one and part two.

Labels: comics, dead links, Hempstead, non music projects, nostalgia, These pictures will come back to haunt me one day