From the Couch Hole: When Rainy Nights Are Soft with Tears

Previously on FTCH, stand by me and I’ll keep a long story short for eternity. Keep pushin’ the zodiac predictions about the cantina chicken folded quesadilla. I was on an airplane for most of the Michigan basketball championship game. They won as I was on a shuttle bus to my car. It’s not the same as the comforts of the Couch Hole where I celebrated the football championship a few years ago. I’m not picky though. It was a wonderful trip East to the area I hope to live before we turn another season. This week my lagan love from boyhood was the body in the library. It was a sleeping murder, and the trigger was brookie ice cream. Remember, at FTCH control is everything.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Agatha Christie – Sleeping Murder (1976) (Published by Collin Crime Club): “It’s very dangerous to believe people. I haven’t for years.” – Miss Marple. Last year, I read Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1975), which was the last Poirot mystery, written during WWII. The next year, just months after Chrisite’s passing, the last Miss Marple novel was published, also written years earlier, although not as “final” as the Poirot story.
  
  I’m still new to Miss Marple stories compared to Poirot. I was surprised that the first few chapters made this feel much more like a ghost story. Gwenda arrives in England from New Zealand ahead of her husband. She purchases a home in a quiet seaside town. The home seems so comfortable and familiar that she realizes it was the home she lived in before her mother and father died and she was moved to New Zealand as a young child. The book depends on you as a reader accepting many coincidences. The main story involves Gwenda and her husband, Giles, uncovering detail after detail until they realize her mother may have been murdered. Miss Marple doesn’t have a huge role in the book, except for showing up at the end to help explain all of the clues that the couple misinterpreted along the way. Not a bad story, the middle of the story seems to keep repeating itself down some dead ends, but when it all comes together, I wasn’t far off with my guesses and it does have its own logic.

Buy Agatha Christie – Sleeping Murder

• Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple – “The Body in the Library, Part 1” (S.1 E.1) (BBC) (1984): “That’s the right word for you, Jane, ‘redoubtable’.” – Dolly Bantry. (Not to be confused with the Agatha Christie’s Marple (ITV) that ran from 2004-2013.) As much as I love the banter and literary twists of the Hercule Poirot novels, I’m coming around on the calming aspects of watching a simple mystery set up and then solved. Joan Hickson plays Miss Jane Marple in this series, and as much as I got a hoot out of Margaret Rutherford in the films, this show feels much more faithful to the writing that I’ve read so far. She was 79 years old at the time the series started, and she plays it much closer and quieter than any of the other actresses who have donned the role, most being in their 60s and made to look older.
  
  This is a three-part adaptation of the novel by the same name. The plot is not overly complicated but still has some fun twists. There’s a healthy balance of funny lines, eccentric characters, and put-upon policemen. This wasn’t the first Miss Marple novel, but it’s a great introduction to the character for mystery fans who aren’t familiar with the character. The set-up of the relationship with Detective Inspector Slack (David Horovitch) is more present in the second part of this story, but I like that it’s closer to the friendly, passive-aggressive antagonism of the books than the films. I really enjoyed this first story, it unfolds at a what feels like a comfortably British pace.

Buy Kate Bush – Hounds of Love

• Kate Bush – “My Lagan Love'” (from Hounds of Love) (1985): “My loves have come, my loves have gone / And nothing’s left to warn me.” This wasn’t part of the Hounds of Love album originally. It was the B-Side of the 12″ of “Cloudbusting” (my favorite song on the album). The “Lagan” of the title is likely the river that flows through Belfast. It’s not a Kate original, and as far as I can tell, it’s a turn-of-the-century Irish folk tune with different lyrics. It has always stuck with me as an illustration of Kate’s vocal control for people who critique her based upon one or two over-the-top vocals. Thematically, the connection of love and water and longing (in tunes like “Cloudbusting”) fits the album, and it’s now usually included on digital versions of the album. I just love that her voice is isolated in a way that feels like sitting in a room with her on a rainy Irish day and Kate singing to you alone.

• Ultraman Trigger: Episode Z (2022) (Directed by Masayoshi Takesue): “This, is my body . . . (laughs) I am hope, the true ‘light’!” – Zabil as Evil Trigger. After watching the highly entertaining Shin Ultraman (2022), I thought I was fully prepared to watch another Ultraman movie. I was wrong. This is a film that brings back the cast of an Ultraman Trigger series. This wasn’t up to any of the interesting parts of the Shin film. It felt like I had dropped into the last third of a video game and was handed the controllers. I realize that I am at a disadvantage for not having watched the television series, but a movie should have enough short cuts for me to enjoy this. There were too many moments where I feel like the cast was about to look at the camera and wait for the viewers to laugh. There were not enough of the battles, of which I will credit for being decent CGI, if not the best dialog. I really wanted to like this, but it dipped into the area of this character that I haven’t enjoyed, which is the video-game elements. I’m not 100% deterred; I’ll get up the energy to try another one soon. Things have to improved since 2022.

• Boyhood (2014) (Directed by Richard Linklater): “I just feel like there are so many things that I could be doing and probably want to be doing that I’m just not.” – Mason. I generally worry about films that are described by their gimmick. I have extra patience for Richard Linklater to make the gimmick seem more organic than calling attention to itself. This is the man who debuted with the gimmick of Slacker (1991) (of which this film would seem to exist in the same world). Filmed over 12 years, Linklater goes out of his way to avoid the same tropes that happen in other coming-of-age films. There isn’t a narrator like Richard Dreyfus to interpret the events from an adult point-of-view. There aren’t even time stamps as we change from one age to another. He lets the pop -references, the fashion, and the music put us into the year. I think mostly because of the way it was filmed, the movie feels like a series of connected short films.
  
  Is it possible to make a movie where nothing really happens, but the viewer doesn’t mind? Linklater has a special talent of building characters that viewers enjoy watching lead their lives. I wasn’t curious to follow Olivia and Mason Sr. because they were close to my age or following Samantha and Mason Jr. because they were roughly the age of my children in that same time frame. I was interested because the development of the characters as they age, and more importantly, the patterns that stay the same as we age, are universal. This is the #23 New York Times Best Films of the Century, and I might venture to defend it as a Top Twenty.

Buy Boyhood (Criterion Collection)

Best of the Rest

• If you ask me who might cover a traditional Irish folk song, my first two responses would have been “Probably the Chieftains and likely Van Morrison.” That they did it together is no surprise. This 1988 version came along not long after I was infatuated with the Kate Bush version, so I didn’t appreciate it at the time. Now it’s the version I want to hear in an bar in Ireland at some time in my life.

• In 1967, the wonderful Dusty Springfield had the courage to sing “My Lagan Love” live on her BBC special. Although accompanied with an instrument, this version certainly informs the Kate Bush version. Dusty’s voice is a treasure that wasn’t appreciated nearly enough in her day.

• When I heard that Sinead O’Connor had covered “My Lagan Love” in 2002, I was excited to hear how she interpreted the lyrics. I was left a little cold by the odd instrumental choices and the mix that didn’t let her voice stand out above all else in the final production. With all of her amazing a capella moments, this could have been a standout, instead of just being a good to very good cover. The producers would get it correct a few years later with her 2010 cover of “Song to the Siren.”

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 4/25/2010, it was raining again. I forget that 2010 was a year where it rained all the time. I’m reading this entry remembering how crazy May was back then. I had graduation at work, the boys had baseball, Dee had dance recitals, and all of the end-of-school-year activities kept us busy four to five nights a week. The Life and Times of Tim (HBO) was coming to an end of Season Two, and I’m reminded how much I miss that show. My weekly favorites were still Fringe (Fox) and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Toon).
  
  My #66 Top TV Show of All-Time was Battlestar Galactica (ABC) (1978-1979): A single-season show would have to be pretty special to make this list now. I’m not including the ten episodes of Galactica 1980 (ABC), which really changed the show enough to be distinctly different for me. The pilot film (divided into three syndication episodes) was just what I needed in the post-Star Wars world as a ten-year-old. The series is still a fun watch, even if you have to overlook an ever-decreasing effects budget. The concept of travelers fleeing Earth to find a new home to settle is about as classic as you can get. I wouldn’t give it such a high ranking any longer, but in the day it was a show that you had to watch as a ten-year-old to talk about on Monday on the bus.
  
• BEST OF THE REST OF 1975 (2010)
  • 10. Bill Gates Founds Microsoft
  • 9. The Altair 8800
  • 8. Squeeky Fromme Attempts to Kill President Ford
  • 7. Stephen Kings Publishes ‘Salem’s Lot
  • 6. Pittsburgh Steelers Defeat the Minnesota Vikings in the Super Bowl
  • 5. Vietnam War Ends
  • 4. Sony Introduces the Betamax
  • 3. Thrilla in Manilla
  • 2. Atari and Tele-Games Release Pong Through Sears
  • 1. Cincinnati Reds Defeat Boston Red Sox in the World Series
    
• BEST OF THE REST OF 1975 (2026)
  • 10. Saturday Night Live (NBC): This little skit show didn’t sound like it would last a month until you saw that it was just what the counterculture needed on late night. I probably didn’t rightly see an episode until 1977 or 1978, but by then, it was legend along with the cast.
  • 9. Microsoft Is Born: Bill Gates and Paul Allen couldn’t have imagined in their wildest dreams the Empire they would build and that Bill would be taken down by Epstein who saved his files on Microsoft products.
  • 8. The Atari Version of Pong: Available at Sears under the Tele-Games label for $79.95, it was a game changer. The next year, a version on the Atari cassettes would cost $100 each and have more features than the standalone game. The hours spent on this in my household is hard to calculate.
  • 7. The Altair 8800: The first home computer. You could build your own computer for only $439. The generation that would put computers in our pockets started with this type of hobby.
  • 6. Thrilla in Manilla: Ali vs. Joe Frazier for the third and final time. It was 100 degrees at 10 a.m. when the fight started. Ali would win after 14 rounds, but both fighters would be hospitalized for days afterwards. I have rewatched this brutal fight multiple times, and both fighters put up a valiant effort.
  • 5. The Sony Betamax Debuts: For $2,495, you could get the Sony Betamax console with a 19″ television. The standalone version was a year away for $1,495. The blank tapes would cost $15 each, but the ability to record shows and time shift was the start of every next step through streaming that we have today.
  • 4. Arthur Ashe Wins Wimbledon: I didn’t realize the importance at the time of a black man winning a tennis Grand Slam. Rewatching the final match against Jimmy Connors is like watching a man playing chess against a man playing checkers. It’s a masterclass in strategy.
  • 3. Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot: I wouldn’t start reading Stephen King books for another few years, but it would start a lifelong passion. I would be aware of the miniseries long before I read the book. Now it’s a book I’ve consumed four times, and it has clues to what I would love about his books for another 50 years.
  • 2. The End of the Vietnam War: The Fall of Saigon in April of 1975 was a mixture of relief and embarrassment. The long war had cost so many lives, and in 1975, it felt like we were back where we could have been a decade before. I was only aware of this conflict right at the end.
  • 1. The Cincinnati Reds Defeat the Boston Red Sox in the World Series: The Big Red Machine and the mighty Bosox battled for seven games and in many ways saved baseball. The attendance and television ratings were flagging. This was just what the sport needed to launch it into the next generation. Most importantly, it was the year that baseball became my passion. It was the first year I really recall watching regular season and post-season games. It was also the first year that I collected baseball cards and got to know all the players because of it.

Buy Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Epic Series

1976 in Review

• April – Avengers #146 (Marvel Comics): “You lost, mister! Captain America is going to live!” – Donald Blake. Cover by Gil Kane. Written by Tony Isabella. Art by Don Heck. The Assassin tried to kill Captain America with an overdose of radiation. Thor comes to the rescue as his human alter ego, Dr. Donald Blake. I don’t remember much about this storyline. I do remember this incredible Gil Kane cover which is as iconic as the ’70s Marvel covers get for me.
• April 7 – Houston Astros’ pitcher Joe Niekro struck out five batters in an inning against the Minnesota Twins. Catcher Cliff Johnson dropped five of Niekro’s knuckleballs in the inning including two passed balls on third strikes allowing batters to advance to first base. It was an exhibition game, so this record isn’t officially in the MLB Record Books.
• April 5 – Indiana entered the 1975 Regional Semifinal undefeated and lost to Kentucky when Scott May couldn’t return quickly enough from a broken arm. Their coach, Bobby Knight, set the goal for the 1975-1976 team to win every game. The group of Quinn Buckner, Bobby Wilkerson, Kent Benson, and May were 31-0 when they took the court against Michigan in the Championship Game. They trailed at halftime 35-29 and Wilkerson was lost to injury. They rallied behind 25 pts from Benson and 26 pts from May to win 86-68. In the postgame comments, Bobby Knight said “It will probably never be done again.” And it still hasn’t. Fun fact: this was the last tournament to feature only 32 teams.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“At evening’s fall he watched me walk
His heart was mine
But my love was young, and felt
The world was not cruel, but kind” – Kate Bush