From the Couch Hole: And I Was in Crazy Motion

Previously on FTCH, the big sleep brought dreams of first steps and if you know how to love me, you’ll bring Mtn Dew with dragon fruit. The creature from the pit wanted chili cheese fries potato chips. This week starts my August ramp up for work. As the next weeks progress, there’s less time to do the other movie, reading activities, so I value my free evenings now. When does football come along to distract me? This week something so right happens on Sunset Boulevard in ‘Salem’s Lot. The incredible theft was really just a drop of Selena Gomez Oreos. Remember, at FTCH we’re the other guys, remember.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Stephen King – ‘Salem’s Lot (1975) (Published by Doubleday): “The town kept its secrets, and the Marsten House brooded over it like a ruined king.” I read this for the third time in 2019 as I was only a couple months into my Stephen King Project that would take until late 2022 to finish all the novels. My perspective at the time was all about the evolution of King’s writing. This reading I came to the book with the perspective of it being written in 1975 and the contemporary works that a reader would know going into it.
  
  I’ve always portrayed this as a wonderful love letter to Dracula (1897). What I see now is that this is a haunted house story that turns into a vampire story in Act Three. The influence is here from Shirley Jackson, but it’s also the horror film genre of the previous decade including a nod to the Hammer films. The character and town building is as strong here as it will be up to IT (1986). I was pleasantly surprised that the pacing didn’t bother me as it had on previous reads. There are some legitimate spooky scares that still haven’t been adequately captured on screen. The Marsten House stands above it all watching over the Lot and this excellent introduction to themes of Good vs. Evil that King is still exploring.

Buy ‘Salem’s Lot by Stephen King

• Agatha Christie’s Poirot– “The Incredible Theft” (1979) (S.1 E.8) (ITV): “If you ask me, it just shows the danger of meeting anonymous women at the zoo.” – Hastings. This mystery set in the late ’30s on the verge of the second World War. There are stolen airplane plans that start the espionage story. It’s common to have a few non-murder stories along the way. In these episodes with a Macguffin, it’s nice that the comedy between Poirot and Hastings. This is easily Hastings best episode yet, as he’s trying to learn architecture to impress his girlfriend. The Art Deco homes and the beautiful grounds of the home in the episode make for a good viewing experience. The switch to an airplane from the original submarine plans of the Christie story are so inconsequential that you realize this story isn’t mystery driven.

Buy Paul Simon – There Goes Rhymin’ Simon

• Paul Simon – “Something So Right” (1973) (from There Goes Rhymin’ Simon): “I’ve got a wall around me / You can’t even see / It took a little time / To get to me.” The first thing that always hits me as how raw and emotional the lyrics are compared to his other songs about love. The self doubt that arises when things are going well in a relationship is as universal a theme as any. Those first few notes and I’m hooked. The pedigree of the music is top notch. Engineered by Phil Ramone, strings arranged by Quincy Jones, and Bob James on the organ make this easily a Top Ten Paul Simon song for me.

• Drop (2025) (Directed by Christopher Landon): “You lost the moment you walked into this restaurant.” – Richard. Violet (Mehann Fahy) was previously in an abusive relationship that ended in her husband’s death. Years later, she goes on a blind date with Henry (Brandon Sklenar) where she starts to receive threatening “drops” from someone in the restaurant. That’s the plot, and that’s clearly set up in the trailer. Maybe that’s where we are in the horror/thriller genre these days. The plot and characters are established in the span of a trailer. It’s like getting a good look at the roller coaster before you get onboard. You know the general layout, and you are still excited for the ride. Don’t get too caught up on the logic of the plot. It’s neither too humorous or too dark. That’s the trouble with the film ultimately. If it had chosen one path over the other, I think I would have been more impressed with the final product. It’s a fun ride, but like the roller coaster, when it’s over you get off where you got on without feeling like you made much progress.

Buy Drop Blu-ray

• Sunset Boulevard (1950) (Directed by Billy Wilder): “I *am* big. It’s the *pictures* that got small.” – Norma Desmond. Joe Gillis (William Holden) and Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) are living at different ends of the Hollywood Dream. Norma has lived at the top of the heap as a silent-film actress. Joe is trying to make ends meet at the bottom of the industry as a struggling writer. Both of them can’t escape the gravitational pull of fame. This film still has meaning on its 75th Anniversary theatrical re-release. There is the older actress trying to hold onto fame, the younger writer who will do anything to make it big, the love story to two creative types working together, and the draw of attention from the public. The “washed up” starlet. Swanson was 53 years old when the film was made.
  
  There are so many brilliant moments in Billy Wilder’s direction. He is one of the few directors who felt the freedom to clap back at their peers and studios directly in a film. He uses real people as themselves like Buster Keaton and Cecil B. DeMille. He refers to real Hollywood people like Zanuck and Alan Ladd. His camerawork as we travel through Norma’s house is exquisite. The ability to show people behind iron bars like prisons and all of the Normas in the house both come to mind. The narration puts this squarely in the noir genre, like his Double Indemnity (1944). Holden’s floating in the pool and a majority of the film takes place in the past to get us to this starting point. His dialogue would fit comfortably coming out of Phillip Marlowe. This is why I love film. It’s a movie like this that keeps giving upon each viewing is why I keep paying to go to the theaters.

Buy Sunset Boulevard

Best of the Rest

• The Paul Simon song, “Something So Right” hit the right note, especially with women, obviously. The covers by female artists have been stellar. First, Barbara Streisand did a pretty straightforward cover on her 1975 album The Way We Were. Phoebe Snow, a longtime Paul Simon collaborator, put some more soul into the song in 1977. The ultimate cover for me is the Annie Lennox version from her 1995 Medusa album. Her voice fits these lyrics like a glove, a smooth silky glove. She would later redo the song as a duet with Paul Simon, but this solo cover hits me right in the gut.

• Entertainment Weekly (3/28/97): “Best Commercials of All-Time” #10: Kellogg’s Rice Krispies “Vesti” (1969): “We ran out of Rice Krispies.” Of all of the great cereal commercials of all-time, this one makes the Top Ten? It’s before my time by a few years, so I’m only vaguely familiar with the opera parody. It’s quite a high brow for a cereal commercial, and I can’t imagine the “Vesti la giubba” aria being used as a humorous advertisement in today’s world. This is just one of three Rice Krispies opera-themed ads. Maybe we were all more culturally aware back then.

• I missed when this came out earlier in the spring. Always best when they are being funny, Nike imagines an alternative history where they didn’t pay the $5000 fine on the first Jordan shoes. “And no kids wanted to be anything like Mike.” They end on what should be a good 2025 slogan – “You can’t ban greatness.”

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 9/20/2009, it was a good football weekend with both boys getting some time in at running back and Christian’s team winning. I was taking the kids to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and getting home for the debut of the new Cowboys’ stadium, the Death Star. My list of the week is worth a second look because I’ve spent more time with the group since this original ranking.
  
  My #94 Top TV Show of All-Time was Dragnet (NBC) (1951-1959, 1967-1970, 1989-1990). I am only familiar with the 1967-1970 run of the show through Nick-At-Nite. I was aware of it in my youth but had little interest. I discovered it at at a time when I was getting into more hard-boiled detective novels. I fell in love with it, although I acknowledged the simplicity of the plots. It would spin off Adam-12 and it is the ancestral influence to Law & Order (NBC). I can’t imagine that it would make my Top 200 shows any longer. I’d be curious to see those early episodes from the ’50s again to judge the show. I’m mostly just amused that I thought so highly of it in 2009 still.
  
• BEST ROLLING STONES SONGS OF ALL-TIME (2009),
  • 10. “Gimme Shelter”
  • 9. “Angie”
  • 8. “Fool to Cry”
  • 7. “Beast of Burden”
  • 6. “Emotional Rescue”
  • 5. “No Use Crying”
  • 4. “Sympathy for the Devil”
  • 3. “Waiting on a Friend”
  • 2. “Wild Horses”
  • 1. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
    
• BEST ROLLING STONES SONGS OF ALL-TIME (2025)
  • 10. “Angie” (from Goats Head Soup) (1973): No matter if it’s about Angela Bowie or Angie Dickinson, I’m impressed with this ballad. This list would make a great road trip playlist. Starting off with this gets everyone singing along.
  • 9. “Shattered” (from Some Girls) (1978): Their last single of the ’70s is not simply a tribute to New York City, it has the feel of their ’60s sound with the ’70s influence.
  • 8. “Monkey Man” (from Let It Bleed) (1969): The band is in transition, moving on without Brian Jones. Their sound is classic post-Woodstock. The ’60s are done, and the band is showing off a dirtier rock and roll sound. I’ve grown to love this one over the past decade.
  • 7. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (from Let It Bleed) (1969): It’s their “Hey Jude” singalong. Al Kooper’s work on the organ is the highlight along with the choir backup.
  • 6. “Waiting on a Friend” (from Tattoo You) (1981): One of the best songs about friendship ever. This video was a big player on early MTV.
  • 5. “Fool to Cry” (from Black and Blue) (1976): Mick Taylor had left the band and Ronnie Wood was on board. This is a song that I hold dear mostly because of good memories more than the quality of the song. Being eight years old and playing this on the transistor radio felt pretty dangerous.
  • 4. “Wild Horses” (from Sticky Fingers) (1971): Recorded at Muscle Shoals in Alabama, this cover of the Gram Parsons song originally done by the Flying Burrito Brothers is still an incredible song. If you hear it on the jukebox at your local Dive Bar, look around because I’m probably playing it from the shadows.
  • 3. “Miss You” (from Some Girls) (1978): Imagine the world where the Rolling Stones created one of the best disco songs of the decade. You don’t have to work too hard because it’s right here on vinyl. The song itself rocks a little harder than most disco songs, but the remixes put it squarely in the genre.
  • 2. “Gimme Shelter” (from Let It Bleed) (1969): The opening salvo on this album is still one of the best jams ever recorded. What would Martin Scorsese do without this song? “It’s just a shot away.” The ’60s died hard and the ’70s start with a song about the Apocalypse.
  • 1. “Sympathy for the Devil” (from Beggars Banquet) (1968): I’m not the brightest bulb. It took me until recently to hear the Dylan influence on this song. There are about five different styles happening all within the duration of this song. There are so many layers that you can hear a new song almost every listen. It’s a timeless song about a timeless character. “I’m a man of wealth and taste.” When this comes up in the mix, let’s roll down the windows.

1975 in Review

• August – Justice League of America #121 (DC Comics): Cover by Dick Dillin. Written by Cary Bates. Art by Dick Dillin. “Never mind all this… Just get me back to Rann… And quick! I’m holding up a wedding!” – Adam Strange. On the planet Rann, Adam Strange marries Alanna. Look at that cover and you’ll remember that these were the days of a huge membership in the Justice League.
• August 9 – Mark Donohue would set a closed course record in his Porsche 917.30 by averaging 221.12 mph at Talladega Motor Speedway in Alabama. Mark has won the 1972 Indianapolis 500 with a record speed of 162 mph. He would die ten days after setting this record at an F1 practice session in Austria.
• August 28 – Mr. Nice Guy, Bart Starr takes over as coach for the Green Bay Packers. He brings memories of the Lombardi Era. Just four years removed from playing for the team, Starr wasn’t a Lombardi disciple. He was often at odds with Lombardi as a player. He would not bring back any glory to the Packers. He would only have a winning record twice at 8-7-1 in 1978, and his only playoff appearance was in 1982 after a strike shortened 5-3-1. He was 52-76-3 over his career and considered a failure as a coach.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“When something goes right
Well it’s likely to lose me
It’s apt to confuse me
It’s such an unusual sight
I can’t get used to something so right” – Paul Simon