From the Couch Hole: I’ve Got to Know What You’re Doin’

Previously on FTCH, the chair company was in the deep red after Godzilla vs. Mothra destroyed Tokyo. The situation called for Oreo to bring her back, meaning Reese’s peanut butter. This week was our first day of the season briefly into the 50’s for temps and then back to 90’s. Between work and trying to maintain the house to sell it, I don’t get out much to enjoy the fall season here. This week, we get the shivers when we think about the substance that came with your love. Was it buffalo wings that the ghoul brought or the silent phone when we ate our mozzarella sticks? Remember, FTCH never counts their money when they’re sittin’ at the table.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• The Substance (2024) (Directed by Coralie Fargeat): “There’s been a slight misuse of the Substance.” – Elisabeth Sparkle. The tagline explains all you need to understand going into the film, “Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself?” There’s been a long history of movies addressing aging and sexism in Hollywood going back to All About Eve (1950). You’d be forgiven for assuming that David Cronenberg directed this body horror take on the theme.
  
  Demi Moore is a fading star that takes a body-duplicating substance and has to co-exist with her “other” played by Margaret Qualley. The horror film as metaphor is a popular subgenre recently. I’m still trying to work through the meanings in Sinners (2025) and Weapons (2025). I’m still thinking about this film as metaphor. I’m fully invested in my original thought that the substance was not real and that Moore essentially hallucinates the experience as a way to cope with her aging. The film is about the interior experience of aging shown as a physical manifestation. I’m confused by the “rules” of the substance, which all seem to be broken along the way. The film’s ending is where your enjoyment or frustration with this film likely hinges. I’m pleasantly entertained by this less-than-perfect film, and I hope that David Cronenberg is happy with what he has unleashed upon the world.

Buy The Substance (the movie)

• Neon Genesis Evangelion – “The Silent Phone (English Title: A Transfer)” (1995) (S.1 E.3) (TXN): “Kensuke, you’re a real piece of work.” – Hikari. I’d have a hard time denying that Ghost in the Shell isn’t my favorite anime, but this show gives it a run for its money. On the 30th anniversary of the show, I’m making another run through the episodes. This is the episode where you really start to get a feel for how different stories are going to come together. Shinji is already having a hard time piloting the Evas. Now he starts a new school and has to face bullies. It’s the teenager issues that the series needed as an alternative to the battle for the planet. Don’t mistake me, this is a mecha story at heart. What sets it apart from Mobile Suit Gundam is the heart of the characters behind the mechs. It’s still a beautiful anime, and we were spoiled to have this come out in the mid-’90s when we didn’t have any context to how good it was compared to other shows.

Buy Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Complete Series Blu-ray

• Jefferson Starship – “With Your Love” (1976) (from Spitfire): “Don’t know what’s happened to me since I met you / Feel like I’m fallin’ in love since I met you.” Few in his era could churn out love songs like Marty Balin. He should be mentioned more often in the Kings of Yacht Rock talk. No one sounds exactly like him, then or now. When the instrumental breaks hit in these songs is when I really fall in love with their ethereal sound.

• The Ghoul (aka Night of the Ghoul, aka The Thing in the Attic) (1975) (Directed by Freddie Francis): “Well, it can’t be human, can it? It feeds on human flesh!” – Tom Rawlings. These next two films are a great reminder to those of us who scoured the horror sections of many a VHS video rental store that in these days the same film might exist on video under two or three different names, so check that cast and release date. Similar thing was happening in the martial-arts-film sections.
  
  This is a fun little British horror film starring Peter Cushing. You won’t mistake the cinematography for a Hammer Horror, but it’s perfect for what it is. At a Gatsby-style party (on the actual set of the 1974 The Great Gatsby film) in 1920s England, two friends challenge each other to an auto race to Land’s End. They are separated and both end up at a mansion in the country. Peter Cushing plays Dr. Lawrence, the owner of the home who has a secret behind a locked door in the house. Cushing brings the film some of his Hammer Horror cred, the house is well chosen for creepy atmosphere, and a young John Hurt injects some youthful craziness. I was impressed with this British entry. It’s not Hammer or even Amicus, but it’s also the type of story that benefits from the lower budget.

• Shivers (aka They Came From Within) (1975) (Directed by David Cronenberg): “In other words, too much brains, not enough guts. So what he came up with to help our guts along was a parasite that’s, a combination of aphrodisiac and venereal disease that will hopefully turn the world into one beautiful, mindless orgy.” – Rollo Linsky Forty-nine years before The Substance (2024), David Cronenberg used body horror to comment on the changing culture of the ’70s.
  
  The horror in this film is not taken voluntarily. This is an invasive parasite. The residents of the Starliner Tower are being taken over by parasites that cause their hosts to lose their inhibitions. The film starts off almost like a documentary about this cold, lifeless building full of robotic residences. The man-made parasite is injected into the first woman, and it soon starts to spread. The symbol of the parasite making people uncontrollably lustful but also destroyed by that passion is a reflection on the open sexuality of the “Me Generation.” This film still holds up despite the lack of CGI. The message that humans are imperfect vessels will continue to current day in Cronenberg films. This is the way I prefer my body-horror pictures.

Buy Shivers Blu-ray

Best of the Rest

• Who would have predicted that one of my favorite films of the Halloween season would be a ten-minute film for Fruit Gushers. I’m hard pressed to say that my first thought is “I really want some Fruit Gushers now.” This has lots of potential to be a full-length body-horror film. Rotting fruit bodies have lots of ways to take the plot. Fear the Fruithead.

• By the time the next FTCH hits the shelves, it will be post-Halloween and the Holiday ad machine will be in full bloom. The first salvo has been fired and it’s a direct hit. Bryan Cranston makes his debut as Cranpus, a hilarious take on Krampus. Kudos, Ocean Spray, well played for a brand that I thought already owned their lane.

• The year end isn’t just for Holiday ads, but the extra time spent online and the penchant for big purchases this time of year, brings out extended automobile ads. This one for Jeep tickled me. An ad based upon being named the “Best Car to Have Sex In” is clever. Renaming the family SUV “the Grand Shaggineer” is a great line. This ad will deserve some year-end consideration.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 12/20/2009, I just finished a 13-hour day for Graduation at UNT. I was headed back for Caleb to play basketball at halftime of the Mean Green game. The finale of Survivor: Samoa (CBS) was on and I was cheering for Russell. I was excited for Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars (BBC), but it would mean the end of David Tennant’s run. Scrubs (ABC) was going through some changes, and I predicted correctly that this was the beginning of the end. The list of the week probably hasn’t changed significantly.
  
  My #83 Top TV Show of All-Time was Futurama (FOX) (1999-Current): This show was part of a Dream Team for a brief period of time. Sunday nights on FOX was The Simpsons, Futurama, and The X-Files. Two hours of shows all performing at top-tier levels. This show is still hilarious even though it’s uneven when you can catch new episodes. The flexibility to do science-fiction-related stories initially gave this show another lane than The Simpsons. I’m a Bender fan above all, but this show has a group of characters that rival any other animated show. It is probably better for the show that it never hit the heights of the other Sunday Animation Domination entries. That has allowed the anti-establishment humor to continue.
  
• BEST LIVE ALBUMS OF ALL-TIME (2009)
  • 10. Bruce Springsteen – Live 1976-1985 (1986)
  • 9. Allman Brothers – Live at Fillmore East (1971)
  • 8. Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison (1968)
  • 7. Kiss – Alive! (1975)
  • 6. Queen – Live Killers (1979)
  • 5. Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York City (1994)
  • 4. James Brown – Live at the Apollo (1963)
  • 3. Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense (1984)
  • 2. Peter Gabriel – Peter Gabriel Plays Live (1983)
  • 1. Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive (1976)
    
• BEST LIVE ALBUMS OF ALL-TIME (2025)
  • 10. The Who – Live at Leeds (1970): Their first live album is a reason that there should be live albums. The New York Times called it the “best live album ever” at the time of release.
  • 9. Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive (1976): Fourteen minutes of “Do You Feel Like We Do”. This was the best selling album of all-time until Saturday Night Fever (1977).
  • 8. Allman Brothers – Live at Fillmore East (1971): The group really wasn’t anything until this album. After this, they are selling out concerts and they are a force to be reckoned with on vinyl for the next few years.
  • 7. Rolling Stones – Get Your Ya-Yas Out (1970): This is the typically agreed upon height of their career and these live songs, especially “Midnight Rambler” are electric.
  • 6. Bob Marley and the Wailers – Live! (1975): The Natty Dread Tour had to be freaking amazing. The seven minutes of “No Woman, No Cry” is one of my favorites.
  • 5. Grateful Dead – Grateful Dead (aka Skull and Roses) (1971): It’s hard to pick an album of a group that is mostly known for live albums and shows. This was one of my first and remains one of my favorites since “discovering” the band during the Pandemic.
  • 4. Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense (1984): I loved this band beforehand. I also never imagined that they would be this funky.
  • 3. Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York City (1994): I love finding another side to a band that I love. This was a revelation. The emotion of their songs on their sleeves here. It’s an amazing work.
  • 2. James Brown – Live at the Apollo (1963): It’s way too short, but heck do they pack a lot of soul and funk into just under thirty minutes.
  • 1. Johnny Cash – Live at Folsom Prison (1968): Deep into his addictions and short on hits in 1968, Cash had been touring prisons, but no one could have predicted that it would hit such a nerve when released. There’s a “I’m not far from being one of you” in his performance that is too raw for words. This album gained more meaning after the Ken Burns’ documentary Country Music (2019) outlined his career arc and where this fits in.

1975 in Review

• October – Weird War Tales #42 (DC Comics): Cover by Joe Kubert. Written by Jack Oleck. Art by Ernie Chan. “The horrible part of it was that the captain could recall all of the saying, ‘old soldiers never die.’ But there’s more to the saying than that. The rest says: “They only–fade away…” – Death. It’s hard to remember that they were still publishing titles like this in 1975. It’s not too far from being a Vertigo story. You’ve got Death and Satan in the guise of Destiny. You don’t even have to love war stories to enjoy that Kubert cover for a quarter.
• October 22 – The Cincinnati Reds win Game Seven over the Boston Red Sox. After a historic Game Six, it’s often forgotten what a classic game was played in Game Seven. The Red Sox were up after five innings by a 3-0 score. The game went into the 9th inning, tied at 3-3 when Joe Morgan drove in Ken Griffey for what would be the winning run. At the time, this was the most watched televised sporting event of all-time.
• October 27 -The success of “Born to Run” put Bruce into the limelight in a way that pop culture wasn’t prepared. Time magazine tried to put him into perspective. Even Springsteen remains healthily skeptical. “I don’t understand what all the commotion is about,” he told Time correspondent James Willwerth. “I feel like I’m on the outside of all this, even though I know I’m on the inside. It’s like you want attention, but sometimes you can’t relate to it.” Fifty years later, people are still trying to figure out where to put him. He was part James Dean and part Bob Dylan, but mostly he was just the Boss. The uniqueness of this cover story in Time was that Newsweek featured Springsteen on their cover the exact same week, the first time that had ever happened for the two rivals.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“Knew from the start it had to be you
You got my heart, I don’t know what I’m gonna do
With your love

Heaven sent the sign, then sent you
I’m goin’ out of my mind since I met you” – Jefferson Starship