From the Couch Hole: Just Come on Home

Previously on FTCH, there was a presence from the old days of Woe’s Hollow. A different man with a sore kneecap drank a Blackberry Dr. Pepper with his Post Malone Oreos. This week was busy with work stuffs which is fine because the weather turned into the coldest three days of the year midweek. Don’t fret, we’ll be back to allergy inducing 70s by Monday. This week there was some helter skelter at the summer’s end. Charlie says to Sherlock Jr., “The butterbeer kisses are the same spirits, new forms.” Remember, FTCH is turning Japanese, I really think so.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Vincent Bugliosi – Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders (1974) (Published by W.W. Norton): “Charlie said that death was beautiful, because people feared death.” There’s always a moment when a decade ends and the template for the next one is set. The ’60s ended all of a sudden in August 1969. The Beatles, who defined the decade culturally, finished recording Abbey Road, the Manson Family murders started the same day, and a week later was Woodstock.
  
  Vincent Bugliosi was the prosecuting attorney in the Manson case. This book was written just a couple of years after the trial. I’m usually suspect of material written so close to the actual events of such a huge crime and trial. Literally, one on the longest and most expensive until O.J. Simpson took the stand over two decades later. His style is entertaining, and I found his pacing to be just what I needed for a book clocking in at almost 700 pages. The crimes and investigation aren’t laid out linearly, but they are revealed in the same way that the investigation and trial revealed the details. It’s as much a courtroom drama as it is a story of mass murder. If you follow me elsewhere, I’m intrigued enough by these events that you will be beaten down with my further interest in the subject. I had seen this book around during high school but was always fearful of the size. I’m glad I finally sat down with it the past few months.

Buy Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders

• The White Lotus – “Same Spirits, New Forms” (2025) (S.3 E.1) (HBO/MAX): “It’s a numbers game.” – Saxon. Season Three confirms that the series has a formula. There’s a hint of a murder, there’s the arrival of the guests, we meet each set (the family, the couple, and the friends) and there’s the start of things getting worse in a place that promises health. The cinematography is amazing in each season. There’s a hint of danger in the environment, poisonous fruits, snakes, monkeys, etc. The other seasons had their own dangerous surf and even a volcano erupting in Season Two. It’s a little too early to make some predictions, but you can already see things starting to unravel. There are two returning characters, but spoilers prevent me from talking too much about it. We’re in a land where karma is king, and I’m expecting payback to be the result at the end of the week that we see in the first scene that ends with a prayer to the Buddha.

Buy John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness CD

• John Prine – “Summer’s End” (2018) (from The Tree of Forgiveness): “Well you never know how far from home you’re feeling / Until you watch the shadows cross the ceiling.” At age 71, John Prine was not doing well health-wise. You can see the weight of age on his face in the video. When he sings “Summer’s end came faster than we wanted,” you can feel the melancholy of looking back upon his life. There are so many ways to interpret the lyrics. The video hints at a message of hope for people who are addicted to drugs. That fits the hope that Prine has embodied all of his career. There’s an honesty to his lyrics that are worthy of comparisons to the best writers. This is simply a song that gives me all of the feels.

• Charlie Says (2018) (Directed by Mary Harron): “It is countless how many lives were shattered by the path of destruction that I was part of. And it all came from such a simple thing as just wanting to be loved.” – Patricia Krenwinkel. The film purports to be about the Manson Girls – Patricia Krenwinkel (Sosie Bacon), Susan Atkins (Marianne Rendon), and Leslie Van Houten (Hannah Murray). The structure is that of a grad student who is trying to teach the Manson Girls in prison. We see the story of how they were seduced to commit murder by Charlie Manson (Matt Smith) through a series of flashbacks, mostly through the eyes of Leslie Van Houten.
  
  The film follows most of the actual events from Helter Skelter (1974). The idea of trying to mine the descent into murder and manipulation by Manson is worthwhile story to tell. Just as director Harron (American Psycho) is pulling together the flashbacks with the current status of the Manson Girls in prison, the film feels like it just stops. It’s hard to contain the Manson murders in a single film. The focus on the women is a good start, but it’s hard to not focus on Manson himself and Matt Smith does a laudable job despite not being 5’2″. I’d like to have seen another 30 minutes to bridge the gap from the murders to the end of the trial because that’s where the Manson manipulation was on display. An accurate film, but I expected the director to pursue it a bit deeper.

• Sherlock Jr. (Silents Synced) (1924/2025) (Directed by Buster Keaton): “Be careful or one of us will get hurt.” – Sherlock Jr. My generation didn’t invent the mashup, but we sure do love it. Josh Frank owns the Blue Starlite Drive-In and Blue Starlite theater in Austin, Texas. He has figured out that what my generation wants is silent movies paired with alternative music from over 20 years ago. Your local art theater should be finding a spot for Sherlock Jr. (1924) synced with R.E.M. songs from Monster (1994) and New Adventures In Hi-Fi (1996).
  
  The first thing I noticed was that this Kino Video version of the film is the best print I’ve ever seen. The sync to the R.E.M. music was much more clever than I expected. The music isn’t lyrically conducive to greater meaning in the film, but the choices helped propel some of the best action scenes in the film, especially the chase on the handlebars of the motorcycle. Of the trio, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, Keaton is probably the least known. It’s a shame because I find his version of the “Everyman” to be the most identifiable. There are scenes, especially the prolonged chases, that illustrate how Jackie Chan understood the art of the self awareness when up against the bad guys. There’s an opening Keaton short, The Balloonatic (1923) with music by Amon Tobin. The music might be more of a detriment for some fans in that one. As a whole, this is a fun concept, and you shouldn’t need a reason to go see one of the best to ever do movies. Next up in 2025, more Keaton in The Cameraman (1928) with music by They Might Be Giants.

Buy Seven Chances and Sherlock Jr. Blu-ray

Best of the Rest

• If you’re going to cover a John Prine song, it helps to have one of the best country voices since Emmylou Harris. The young, female voice gives the song more of a lover’s feeling than John’s older voice. I don’t know too many Phoebe Bridgers’ tunes, but now I’m going exploring.

• Entertainment Weekly (3/28/97): “Best Commercials of All-Time” #33: Nissan “Toys” (1996): Stop-motion animation of toys put to the music of Van Halen’s “You Really Got Me.” Not the most risk taking ad for a car of all-time. It’s entertaining and fun, but I’m surprised it was ranked this high considering the other quality car ads over the years. You could later buy a Hot Wheels version of this Nissan 180SX. “Enjoy the ride.”

• In 2023, Fred again and Brian Eno produced an ambient song that sampled John Prine’s “Summer’s End.” It might not capture your emotions as deeply if you weren’t familiar with the original, but it’s the perfect song for an end of summer. It has the feel of sitting on the porch with the warm wind blowing in your face, a beer in your hand, and a song you can barely make out playing on the radio inside the house. I really like this interpretation too.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

Buy Mallrats (Special Edition) Blu-ray

• On the Sunday Morning Tuneage from 6/4/2007 to 7/12/2009, I ranked my 100 Favorite Films of All-Time. I did one per week with the arbitrary rule that they had to air on television that upcoming week. It ended up being a pretty representative list in retrospect. A few were ranked out of order, but I stick with that list for that point in my life. The 2009 stats check out.
  
  6 – Alfred Hitchcock films.
  5 – Steven Spielberg films.
  4 – Stanley Kubrick films.
  4 – Billy Wilder films.
  
  I’m going to attempt the impossible over the next 20 weeks. I’m going to use that old list as a template and rank five films a week, without planning it all out ahead of time. Remember, these are “favorite” and not necessarily “best” movies. Enjoy critiquing me along the way.
  
  2025 Running Stats (#76-100)
  • 2 – Directed by John Hughes
  • 2 – Directed by David Yates
  • 1 – 1920’s
  • 1 – 1940’s
  • 1 – 1950’s
  • 4 – 1960’s
  • 5 – 1970’s
  • 4 – 1980’s
  • 6 – 1990’s
  • 2 – 2000’s
  • 1 – 2010’s
    
• FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2009)
  • 80. Modern Times (1936)
  • 79. Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  • 78. The Great Dictator (1940)
  • 77. Spartacus (1960)
  • 76. Dial M For Murder (1954)
    
• FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL-TIME (2025)
  • 80. Rocky (1976) (Directed by John Avildsen): I don’t give this film enough credit, not just for creating the franchise, but for being a true low-budget triumph.
  • 79. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010) (Directed by David Yates): The film came out when my children were 13, 12, and 7. Is there any doubt why I hold this in my heart?
  • 78. The Godfather Part II (1974) (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola): This might be the lowest I have ranked this film. It’s great, but as of my last viewing, I’m disappointed with the pacing of the last third.
  • 77. Mary Poppins (1964) (Directed by Robert Stevenson): I have to give credit to a film that made me a fan of Dick Van Dyke, Disney films, and musicals. All in one fantastic film.
  • 76. Mallrats (1995) (Directed by Kevin Smith): I appreciate what Kevin Smith did for the independent-film movement in the early- to mid-’90s. He was out there meeting fans at conventions and promoting other filmmakers. As a store owner in this era, I also champion him for championing the comic book heroes like Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, etc. This film is a pretty great snapshot of 1995.

1975 in Review

• February – Batman #260 (DC Comics): Written by Denny O’Neil. Art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano. The Joker drugs Batman with a concoction that will cause him to laugh himself to death. Isn’t this the plot of 32 other Joker stories? Includes four reprint stories ranging from 1943-1968. None that stand-out other than maybe “The Grade A Crimes!” where milkmen are robbing people on their route.
• February 16 – Benny Parsons wins the Daytona 500 after the leader, David Pearson, spins out with just a couple of laps to go.
• February 28 – The American Motors Corporation announced the AMC Pacer to be made in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The unique design allowed for maximum interior space in a compact vehicle. The Pacer would be made from 1975-1978. Known for its width of a regular-sized vehicle, that was mainly a function of making it without reconfiguring factories that already produced full-sized vehicles. At 22 mpg highway, the Pacer became less desirable as gas prices rose. It would eventually be replaced by LeCar as AMC partnered with Renault for a smaller vehicle with better fuel efficiency. This ad by pin-up artist, Aslan, honors his most common muse, Brigitte Bardot.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“The moon and stars hang out in bars just talking
I still love that picture of us walking
Just like that ol’ house we thought was haunted
Summer’s end came faster than we wanted” – John Prine