From the Couch Hole: A Tender Blade of New Green Grass

Previously on FTCH, the voice was shining darker than amber against the dreadful lemon sky. There were stranger things afoot like Pabst Blue Ribbon chili. January marches along and football starts to wrap up while basketball ramps up. I’m trying to keep up with life of work and selling a house and finding time to watch movies and read. This week during adolescence seasons come, seasons go. Marty Supreme had to get Shorty and Skittles Gummies Fuego. Remember, at FTCH, employees must wash their hands before returning to work.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Elmore Leonard – Get Shorty (1990) (Published by Delacorte Press): “There were a lot of terms you had to learn, as opposed to the shylock business where all you had to know how to say was ‘Give me the fuckin money.’” – Chili. I skipped ahead in my Elmore Leonard project mostly because at the end of the year I needed to finish a few books to meet my goals. I had watched the movie when it came out and then read the book, so this reread would go pretty quickly. It was a quick reread, but I think I enjoyed it more this time around than when this was one of my first or second Elmore Leonard novels.
  
  It’s obvious from the first chapter why his books make excellent screenplays. You don’t have to get more than two chapters into this book to understand that Chili Palmer is not your typical loan shark. As the book reveals, the characters in Hollywood, even the ones that might appear to be stereotypes, like Michael Weir, end up having unique quirks that make them unforgettable. It’s not a complicated plot despite a handful of characters. It’s obvious that Leonard had some bad experiences in Hollywood and is using this story to exorcise some demons. It’s funny, has great characters with some memorable lines, and is satisfying in the end. I’ll go back to fill-in some of the Leonard holes this year, but I’m glad I ended my year with this one.

Buy Get Shorty: A Novel

• Adolescence – “Episode 1” (S.1 E.1) (2025): “My son, what have ye done?” – Eddie Miller. Describing the plot of the first hour of this story doesn’t do anything about it justice. The real-time, one-shot episode starts with police breaking down the door of the Miller house, and it follows the arrest and first interrogation of their son, Jamie, who is accused of murder. You’d be forgiven for finding all of the Hitchcock references. The film borrows the one-shot gimmick from Rope (1948), and the story of someone waking up to being thrown into jail by the police recalls so many Hitchcock plots. This isn’t Cary Grant or Jimmy Stewart, and the film is much more procedural. This covers areas of arrest that are typically left off in crime films. Instead, each step along the way tightens the screws of the tension. The episode ends with a big reveal that brings some emotional closure to the story of the episode, but there’s much to be explained. I knew I would like this show. The great acting, especially his father, helps overcome the weakness of having to stick to the gimmick.

Buy Bobbie Gentry – The Girl From Chickasaw County

• Bobbie Gentry – “Seasons Come, Seasons Go” (1969) (from Touch ‘Em with Love): “Telling secrets in my eyes / Search the countryside for your hello.” Known as a country vocalist and for her “Ode to Billy Joe,” this song with the acoustic start, feels much deeper than her other songs. There’s a longing for wanting to share the seasons with her love. I would not have guessed it to be Bobbie until I fell down the rabbit hole of this album after hearing it last month on Poker Face. If this lovely song makes you listen to some more Bobbie Gentry, then my job here is done.

• Get Shorty (1995) (Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld): “Rough business, this movie business. I’m gonna have to go back to loan-sharking just to take a rest.” – Chili Palmer. My journey with this material is movie, book, book, movie. Over the years, I imagined that the movie had elements I had read in the book that just aren’t there. I think what works best in the book is that Chili lucks his way up the chain in the movie industry because of his love of films, more than the way they are made. When you downplay the dry cleaner (Leo) story which will ultimately “sell” Michael Weir on doing a film with him, you lose the core of Chili’s character. The movie works because it becomes as much a Hollywood-insider parody film as anything. The casting of Danny DeVito as the Hollywood “heartthrob” is an improvement from the book. The film is at its most devastating humor when gangsters want to make movies and movie people act like gangsters. This is one you watch for great dialog that moves the film along. Some of it is taken directly from the book, but much of it is written in the spirit of the book, and in a rare success, it works. Travolta and Hackman deliver their lines impeccably. I wish that Rene Russo’s character had been as developed as in the book so that the romance with Chili had more depth. A worthy adaptation, but I’m still going to recommend you start with the book.

Buy Get Shorty – Collector’s Edition Blu-ray

• Marty Supreme (2025) (Directed by Josh Safdie): “I have a purpose. If you think that it’s some kind of blessing it’s not. It means I have an obligation to see a very specific thing through.” – Marty Mauser. This is a film set in the ’50s that looks like it was filmed with the same cameras as The French Connection (1971), has music from the ’80s, and has the energy of current independent films. Timothee Chalamet can be accused of playing himself in movies, but really he’s always just playing a character who thinks he is the best in the world at something. Marty Mauser is brash, takes unnecessary chances, and doesn’t accept defeat. Chalamet is the energy that drives the film, but he’s such a firecracker that much of a great supporting cast feels wasted, especially Gwyneth Paltrow and Tyler the Creator. The Ping Pong finale hints at what this movie might have been if other choices had been made in the editing. The best decisions were made in the cinematography, it’s what finds a way to keep up with Marty and makes the viewer feel included in the story. I can see why this film will be an award winner, but there are minor touches that might have made this my personal film of the year.
  

Best of the Rest

• Just two years after Bobbie Gentry releases a song called “Seasons Come, Seasons Go”, British singer, Labi Siffre has a song by the same name. I thought for sure it had to be a cover. What I discovered was an equally beautiful song with just the same title. I’ve always loved the depth of Siffre’s voice and wished there had been more appreciation for his work in the early to mid-’70s. More on Labi soon.

• Mtn Dew is never shy about revisiting popular flavors. Rarely do they do it less than a year after the initial release, but Baja Cabo Citrus is back this month. The difference this time is that it the “no dye” formulation from Pepsi. I’m curious because early reviews are that it’s more lime forward than last year’s release. It’s going to be in-store for the whole year, so don’t worry about getting it for the Super Bowl when it could be a good one for the Final Four.

• This month is the 50th Anniversary of Super Bowl X that aired on CBS. That event was remarkable for so many reasons, but the least of which is the debut of what would become their NFL Today theme song for the rest of the decade. The full version of Jack Trombey’s “Horizontal Hold” is a work of genius. I can’t imagine this being used for anything other than football highlights. My last observation is that over half of the hits on the opening credits of NFL Today would be game disqualification hits today.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 1/31/2010, my back was out. I remember that particular pain clearly. It was still basketball season, but spring in Texas isn’t far away, because Christian had baseball tryouts that day. I was the last person still watching Heroes (NBC), Lost (ABC) was back again on its random schedule, and Fringe (FOX) was on its mid-season winter finale. The list of the week was based upon my claim that 1972 was the best year for movies and music. Little did I know then that I’d be researching this claim and finding that 1973 was equally as wonderful, so far. I want to try this one again, even though I did it again in 2022. I think I’ve changed again.
  
  My #78 Top TV Show of All-Time was The Carol Burnett Show (CBS) (1967-1978): This show reminds me of family television time more than any other show from my youth. It was one of those shows that I felt like only we watched. I had no idea until later in life that this was one of the most important and most popular shows of all-time. I wasn’t going to include reality shows, game shows, or variety shows on this list if I did it again. I would probably need to rethink that because of this show. Harvey Korman and Tim Conway are part of my comedy vocabulary because of this show. I will still stop on it in repeats, which I can’t say I’d do for many other older variety shows.
  
• TOP TEN MOVIES RELEASED IN 1972 (2010)
  • 10. Sleuth (Directed by Joseph Mankiewicz)
  • 9. Frenzy (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock)
  • 8. Last House on the Left (Directed by Wes Craven)
  • 7. Jeremiah Johnson (Directed by Sydney Pollack)
  • 6. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Directed by Luis Bunuel)
  • 5. Aguirre: The Wrath of God (Directed by Werner Herzog)
  • 4. The Getaway (Directed by Sam Peckinpah)
  • 3. The Poseidon Adventure (Directed by Ronald Neame)
  • 2. Return of the Dragon (Directed by Bruce Lee)
  • 1. The Godfather (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola)
    
• TOP TEN MOVIES RELEASED IN 1972 (2025)
  • 10. Slaughterhouse-Five (Directed by George Roy Hill): This is one that I had dismissed for years. It is ridiculous in so many ways that shouldn’t work but they do. I don’t have any reason why I wouldn’t have liked this previously.
  • 9. Frenzy (Directed by Alfred Hitchcock): It’s his most cruel movie, and he seems to lean into it. What I see now is a film that acknowledges the current era of 1972 and takes advantage of the ground that Hammer films had opened up for him.
  • 8. Solaris (Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky): I have watched this film three times. I love it, but I couldn’t explain the plot in any rational way that you wouldn’t think I was bonkers. This isn’t a quick, afternoon-matinee watch. You might need to even take notes.
  • 7. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Directed by Luis Bunuel): This was a great year for foreign cinema. I love the chaos of so many of the films on this list. That has to be one of the biggest themes of the year. This film about people trying to have a meal could be the thematic cousin to early Seinfeld episodes.
  • 6. What’s Up, Doc? (Directed by Peter Bogdanovich): It doesn’t live up to his previous films, but this Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Streisand film is too often overlooked as a hilarious comedy. It has the feel of a classic comedy of the ’50s.
  • 5. Don’t Torture a Duckling (Directed by Lucio Fulci): Giallo films were not yet played out in 1972. This is one of the Italian horror stories that I suggest for people who might be interested to start. The only warning is that children don’t fair as well in Italian films as in American ones.
  • 4. Jeremiah Johnson (Directed by Sydney Pollack): The second best Western of the year is easy to look at as just a vehicle to show off Robert Redford’s acting skills. There are so many other aspects of this film that work. It’s the struggle and humanity of a man against Nature and Evil. I can watch this on repeat.
  • 3. Joe Kidd (Directed by John Sturges): The Elmore Leonard story was adapted with Clint Eastwood and Robert Duvall chewing scenery. The revisionist western was going strong in 1972, and it became one of the better westerns of the decade.
  • 2. The Getaway (Directed by Sam Peckinpah): This film is what it is because of Walter Hill’s script more than Peckinpah’s direction. Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw are true movie stars from a more classic era. This is representative of what was also happening in 1972. The stars of the ’60s were coming into an era that didn’t have the studio system or classic promotion machine. It feels made on the fly, without a script, and a little dirty. Watch for how it has influenced films for 50 years.
  • 1. The Godfather (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola): I don’t know that much more can be said about this film. There are only a few films that can say that they are the top of the game for directing, acting, story, and production. Once a decade everything comes together like it does here. I don’t ever put this in my Top Five films, but it doesn’t mean I don’t recognize that there are few peers for this film.

Buy The Godfather

1976 in Review

• January – The Avengers #143 (Marvel): Cover by Gil Kane. Written by Steve Englehart. Art by George Perez. “Thou and I hand to hand — shall settle thy fate once and for all.” – Thor. The story takes place in 1873 and in the present. Back in 1873, Kang and Thor are having a proper dust-up. In the present, the Vision saves the day with his Vision powers.
• January 8 – The comic strip, Jon, debuts in the Pendleton Times (Indiana) by a 30-year-old Jim Davis. It focuses on Jon Arbuckle and his cat, Garfield. In 1978, the strip would be picked up by United Features Syndicate and change focus to his cat, Garfield.
• January 26 – Sports Illustrated. The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl X by the score of 21-17. That made six of the games as back-to-back winners. Lynn Swann wasn’t even supposed to play after suffering a concussion in the AFC Championship Game, and he ended up with some of the best Super Bowl catches of all-time. The game was broadcast on CBS with Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshier. The halftime performance was by Up with People.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“I almost feel you next to me
And it stirs a memory
That hangs suspended with a sigh
And gently weaves its way through my bedroom window” – Bobbie Gentry