From the Couch Hole: Turned on Some Music to Start My Day

Previously on FTCH, life on the Mississippi was a long goodbye because you are (not) alone. The new song was about the last of us who hadn’t tried sudachi lime. This week featured another nice afternoon visit from Christian and Brianna. It’s been a good couple of weeks; I only need Dee to make it into town now. This week Clint said that invictus was more than a feeling, and in the studio, we can (not) advance without Argentinian-style chips. Remember, at FTCH, nothing comes closer to home.

Pop Culture Ephemera

• Shawn Levy – Clint: The Man and the Movies (2025) (Published by Mariner Books): “They appear to do nothing, and yet they do everything.” – Richard Burton. At over 550 pages, I don’t feel like they short changed his long career. As I’ve read more director biographies, I appreciate ones that balance being a series of connected reviews versus ones that sensationalize the private life of the director over examining the works. This book is a great balance. It’s hard not to walk away impressed with a man who from an early age in the business kept making choices to do things his own way. No one has ever directed Hollywood feature films at an age that he was at four movies ago. The book doesn’t ignore his trouble with women, multiple wives, or the RNC empty-chair disaster. Ultimately, it hits upon every film and provides excellent background details and stories. I’m glad I read this when I’m most of the way through my own Eastwood Project.

Buy Clint: The Man and the Movies

• The Studio – “The Promotion” (S.1 E.1) (Apple TV) (2025): “You think you’ve got what it takes to be the boss.” – Paul. I don’t think I’m doing myself any favors to comment on the first episodes of series. Especially in thirty minute shows, it’s hard to get past the “we have to introduce the characters and concept” elements of a first episode. This show leans into enough tropes that we quickly understand that Matt (Seth Rogen) is taking over Continental Studios after Patty (Catherine O’Hara) is fired and that Matt will always be accompanied by his buddy, Ike (Sal Saperstein). This episode has Matt being forced to make a Kool-Aid movie after the success of Barbie. The script is clever in its satire, and just enough film references to please the semi-serious fan. This episode has a hilarious story about Martin Scorsese directing the film, and there are numerous tracking shots in the scenes that mirror shots from Scorsese’s movies. I’m a huge fan of the uncomfortable humor genre, and this is right up my alley.

Buy Boston debut album

• Boston – “More Than a Feeling” (from Boston) (1976): “And dream of a girl I used to know / I closed my eyes, and she slipped away.” This song about the power of music to recall pleasant memories is held in high esteem by many my age as a song that recalls pleasant memories. It’s one of a dozen songs I would use to define that “Album Rock” genre that peaked in the mid-to-late ’70s. Founder, guitarist, lyricist, Tom Scholz crafted the perfect balance between excellent studio production with guitar solos and vocals that would translate well to live performances. It’s hard to imagine this playing in the bar without at least a half dozen air guitarists playing along.

• Invictus (2009) (Directed by Clint Eastwood): “I am the master of my fate / I am the captain of my soul.” – William Ernest Henley (poem Mandela read in prison). The cover of the Blu-ray is doing a lot of work here. It spoils the ending, which is really neither here nor there in a film based upon real events. It also tells you that even with an award-worthy performance by Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, that the studio hedged their bets that Matt Damon would be the main attraction. The film is more notable for what it never ends up being. It’s not a biopic, it’s not a political film, and it’s not a traditional sports film. Eastwood brings all three together for a very good film, that only misses greatness by not taking any of those items a little further. I find it interesting that after Million Dollar Baby (2004), a majority of his films would be based upon real events. It’s a way for an older man to make sense of his time on this planet through the stories of other men and events.

Buy Invictus

• Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance (2009) (Directed by Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki): “Freedom is an illusion. All you will lose is the emotion of pride.” – Unit 01. The first movie stuck pretty close to the start of the original series. This is the off-ramp of the series where we meet new characters and diverge from the series. Ultimately, it still felt like a set-up to eventually tell a new ending in the next film. The condensing of action and development of three-to-four hours of series into a two-hour film means that there’s less time for Shinji to be sad and mope around looking at the horizon. The children are best when we understand their motivation to be the angst of trying to please their parents and feeling the pressure to find their place in society. This version of the story leans a little too heavy on the hormonal attractions, which works well in the film, but I think it takes away from the impact of the overall story. Asuka’s reimagining will need the most redemption in the final volume. I’m excited to see where director Anno is taking us.

Buy Evangelion: 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance

Best of the Rest

• The controversy over Howard Jones copying parts of “New Song” from Peter Gabriel isn’t new to young artists who wear their influences on their sleeves. There’s a claim that Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” borrows from Elton John’s “Screw You.” It’s an interesting assertion since the song would be a rarely heard B-side to “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road.” The first 22 seconds, you might have a story. The sons go off in much different directions after that. It’s a pretty good deep cut for Elton, but I’ll believe the band when they say “More Than a Feeling” is more influenced by “Louie Louie.”

• Surely, Boston and Nirvana aren’t linked in any way. Well, there’s the Reading Festival in 1992. By accounts, the band was struggling with rumors of Kurt addicted to drugs and the band breaking up. The first 30 seconds of this performance is the band covering Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” and transitioning smoothly into “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Critics had compared the riffs in “Teen Spirit” to the Boston song and Kurt leaned into it. It might be part parody, but it makes me wish for a true punk cover of the song from this era. This performance showed a band at the top of their game. It also would be the last live performance for Nirvana in England.

• You say, “But, Shawn, there was a punk version of the song in 1997 by Sleater-Kinney.” I’ll acquiesce to this being the best punk version of the song. It’s light years ahead of the atrocity that *NSync put out when they did the a capella version of the song. This is prime Sleater-Kinney, it’s just not the full on sped-up version that I imagined Nirvana could give us. Listening to it again today, I have much respect for this version, and I’ll take back a little bit of what I said about a quality punk cover of Boston.

Sunday Morning Tuneage Flashback

• Sunday Morning Tuneage from 6/20/2010, it was hot (the theme of that summer) and Father’s Day. I had just been to see Toy Story 3 (2010) at theaters the day before and thought it was a great ending to the series. ABC was running their own vampire story, The Gates, up against the highest-rated HBO vampire series, True Blood. The rest of our time was spent watching World Cup soccer and the round of 16 was up next weekend. The list of the week might represent one of the last times I add new entries to the list. I’m taking an opportunity to add more context to the list that hasn’t changed much in my mind.
  
  My #58 Top TV Show of All-Time was Mystery Science Theater 3000 (Various) (1988-Present): There are some shows that you remember time and place that you first watched them. I was home for Christmas, living without cable, and my parents had this new channel called The Comedy Channel. I was looking for Rich Hall content and I found this show called Mystery Science Theater 3000 running a marathon. I was hooked, but little did I think I would still be getting new content over 30 years later. It’s simply my type of humor. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but few shows give me more pleasure on rewatches than this show. I love all of the offshoots, including the Film Crew and Rifftrax. I would make this a top-40 show in any reranking.
  
• BEST RECORD STORES OF ALL-TIME (2010)
  • 10. Penny Lane (Westwood, CA)
  • 9. Newbury Comics (Boston, MA)
  • 8. Tower Records (CA, MI)
  • 7. Believe In Music (Portage, MI)
  • 6. Music Market (Costa Mesa, CA)
  • 5. Wazoo Records (Ann Arbor, MI)
  • 4. Flat, Black & Circular (E. Lansing, MI)
  • 3. Boogie Records (Kalamazoo, MI)
  • 2. Schoolkid’s Records (Ann Arbor, MI)
  • 1. Amoeba Records (Berkeley, CA)
    
• BEST RECORD STORES OF ALL-TIME (2026)
  • 10. Newbury Comics (Boston, MA): Just one visit in 1985, and it was forever on my favorite list. I’m excited to get back there in 2026. At the time, it was magical to find comic books and records under the same roof. I bought an NME magazine and a few Tears for Fears imports.
  • 9. Record Town / Record Bar (Portage, MI): These weren’t great by record-store standards. They were important to me because they were the two record stores in the Crossroads Mall in Portage, MI. I would rotate between the two. I remember buying more records from Record Town and more merchandise, like badges, from Record Bar.
  • 8. Believe In Music (Portage, MI): I never bonded with the location over by the Maple Hill Mall, but this outlet on Westnedge in Portage was an often-frequented store. I remember it for the purchase of my first Steely Dan album and for the awesome horror section in their video rentals. It was also my first video-store membership.
  • 7. Music Market (Costa Mesa, CA): I moved to California at the key moment in time when Music Market was putting most of their records on clearance to make room for more CDs. I would buy armfuls at a time. You’ll notice the Music Market stickers on a good percentage of my collection. It was a good excuse to hit up the Hamburger Hamlet afterwards too.
  • 6. Tower Records (CA, MI): My first Tower Records was in Laguna Hills, CA. It was a great combination of records, CDs, video rental, and a wonderful selection of magazines. Later, I would frequent the oversized location in East Lansing. It didn’t have the same indie vibe, but the selection was eclectic.
  • 5. Flat, Black & Circular (E. Lansing, MI): Upstairs and always hot, summer and winter. I knew the owner and all the employees, so it was much more about chatting about music than it was taking my time to search the stacks.
  • 4. Wazoo Records (Ann Arbor, MI): There’s something about the used record stores of my youth that couldn’t afford air conditioning. Wazoo Records was up some rickety stairs and was packed with tons of product, including some gems. I appreciate the patience of the employees to answer the questions of a young music fan. I can still smell this store.
  • 3. Boogie Records (Kalamazoo, MI): It had that cool location that felt like you were hanging out at someone’s awesome clubhouse. They were always playing new music that I wanted to know what the band was called. I couldn’t afford most of the imports, but I loved flipping through the new music and the magazines. I probably spent the most time here in my late teens. I recall it best as my first exposure to Depeche Mode.
  • 2. Schoolkid’s Records (Ann Arbor): By the amount of hours logged in a record store, this has to be close to the record holder. If I had a few minutes between classes, I would find myself walking the aisles looking at records I couldn’t afford. Mostly, I liked listening to the music that was playing and hearing the very knowledgeable employees talk music.
  • 1. Amoeba Records (Berkeley, CA): I’ve been to the Los Angeles location, but this Berkeley store stands out from an early ’90s visit. I had a decent list of ’70s and ’80s albums that I had searched for years to find. Within minutes, I had an armful of albums that I had only read about in magazines, and about a $100 later, I walked out with more Holy Grail items than at any other store. A fiercely independent vibe also appealed to my sensibilities.

1976 in Review

• June – The Flash #242 (DC Comics): Cover by Ernie Chan. Written by Cary Bates. Art by Irv Novick. I love the title of the story “The Charge of the Electric Gang.” This is the issue that sets up the death of the Top. In the back-up story, Green Lantern was being written by Denny O’Neil with art by Mike Grell. They were building an impressive body of stories that would later be highly respected.
• June 5 – Dwight Stones of Long Beach State University broke the World Record in the High Jump of 7 ft, 7 in. He was the first Fosbury-Flop-technique jumper to hold the World Record. He would end his career competing in three Olympics, including in 1984, competing and announcing in the same Games.
• June 12-18 – TV Guide. I wonder how long these magazines were in production. Harry O had been cancelled a month previous when this cover with David Janssen (Harry O) and Anthony Zerbe (Lt. Trench) hit the shelves. I’m a huge fan of the series. It’s got writing that would make Raymond Chandler proud, including some great Janssen voiceover narration. Weeks after this issue, Zerbe would win a Supporting Actor Emmy for his role. The show was moved off the schedule to make room for Charlie’s Angels in the Fall.

What the Hell Did I Put in My Mouth?

“So many people have come and gone
Their faces fade as the years go by
Yet I still recall as I wander on
As clear as the sun in the summer sky” – Boston