A little bit of house maintenance, Kevin's Trailer Park, my other site devoted solely to some of the best and strangest trailers of the past, present and future, is back from its six month sabbatical, and this month, every Monday is Marty Monday, celebrating trailers from the oeuvre of this year's (probable) winner of the Academy Award for Best Director, Martin Scorsese...and they said you peaked when King Missile named a song after you. So mosey on over there, where you can (so far) see the trailers for Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Also, I have posted a very arty (and rare) Rosemary's Baby trailer in addition to the international teaser trailer for Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, his followup to 2005's The 40 Year Virgin, if you haven't seen this yet you are in for a treat, and in this author's humble opinion its vastly superior (and ballsier) then the American version, which you can see here. I promise to maintain that site more frequently, so apologies for forgetting about it for so long.
Film: 24 Hour Party People (2002)
Offender: MGM
Exhibit A:
I have been able to obtain the transcript from the art director's meeting at the MGM DVD division on the day of the decision to go with the cover:
"So what's on the schedule"
"The film is 24 Hour Party People"
"Okay, never heard of it. But the stock solution for smaller market films is a big picture of the star of the movie on the cover. Who's in it?"
"Steve Coogan"
"Steve Coogan...Coogan...Okay, I got it, a big picture of him with his "Crocodile" Dundee clothing on, and maybe the tagline could be "You call that a party? Now, this, this is a party"
"Uh, actually that's Paul Hogan you're thinking of"
"Oh? Then who is Steve Coogan?"
"A British comedian"
"Okay, ax that plan, Americans don't like movies featuring people speaking a foreign language, so let's hide the overall foreigness factor"
"British people speak...nevermind"
"So what's this movie about?"
"The late 70s-early 80s post-punk and dance music scene and the man who created Factory Records and introduced the world to bands like Joy Division, New Order and the Happy Mondays"
"I've never heard of any of those bands, but I got a vision...this movie is about outsider non conformist, in your face music, right?"
"Uh, I guess"
"What is more in your face than a giant picture of a guy's tongue sticking out right at you?"
"I..."
"The answer is nothing is more punk than a giant picture of a guy's tongue sticking out right at you...except for a guy with a pierce tongue sticking his tongue out right at you! That's it, make it happen. I want people afraid that this DVD cover is going to eat them, that's how punk this movie is. Now, I have a lunch to get to."
"You sure about this one?"
"Do I look sure...of course, I am sure...oh and another thing, let's have the title on the dude's tongue and I don't know...a random hot babe that is not in the movie on the other side"
Better Option:
This poster gives more of the sense of the film and actually looks like it could be the record cover for a band that was on Factory Records, well, actually it looks a lot like a Wire album, and they were not on Factory, but they are from the time frame and sensibility of the bands featured in 24 Hour Party People and not the dated 90s grunge signifier that is a pierced tongue.
According to this, the Smashing Pumpkins are reuniting this summer to play some festival dates in Germany and work on a new album, a probable US tour to follow. Other than Billy Corgan, of course, its still up in the air who exactly is participating in this reunion. I am assuming that James Iha, D'arcy & Jimmy Chamberlin can somehow work time out of their busy schedules of telling people how they used to be in Smashing Pumpkins to get involved, though from what I hear Mr. Corgan isn't exactly the easiest person to collaborate with, and saying no is completely understandable.
I remember when I was in love with the band, in 1993 I was seventeen and their combination of personally intimate lyrics with the bombast of arena rock really, lame cliche alert, spoke to me. But something about this reunion just strikes me as...I don't know, sad. Personally I don't think they really ever measured up to their second album, Siamese Dream, and after their self anointed "White Album" Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, I kind of lost all interest. This reunion seems like Billy Corgan's last desperate gasp for relevance. After Mellon Collie made them superstars, Billy shaved his head, decided he was goth and their next two albums, 1998's Adored and 2000's MACHINA/The Machines of God, each featuring one less member of the first three album's four core members (Chamberlin was kicked off after drug abuse derailed a tour and D'Arcy decided she was an actress, and left to do a film with Mickey Rourke which ended up never happening once he protested the producers unwillingness to cater to his prized chihuahua...this is all true) were critical and commercial disappointments. In 2001, Corgan broke up the band, saying indifference from the MTV kids more into the popular (at the time) rock n' rap genre, your Korns, Limp Bizkits, et al., was too much to contend with. A couple of years later, Corgan formed a new group Zwan which was kind of a Chicago 90's alt-rock supergroup, featuring Chamberlin, ex-Chavez member Matt Sweeney and ex-Slint member David Pajo. Again, indifference greeted the project, and they had a messy breakup, read the details here, basically boiling down to a little too much sex & drugs sprinkled with their rock n' roll. Billy Corgan decided the only person with the humility, talent and wherewithal to work with him was, him, so they two of him recorded a solo album, 2005's The Future Embrace, which like most of his post-Mellon Collie work found very little embrace at its present release.
If "alternative rock" or "new rock" radio as it was calling itself a few years ago is as stale and repetitive as it was the last time I actually listened, Smashing Pumpkins and their bevy of hits: "Cherub Rock", "Today", "1979", "Zero", "Tonight, Tonight" to name a few, still rack up some heavy airplay, and that's why I can only assume Corgan's motivation is to start a wave of 90's nostalgia and hopes the reunion gig catapults the band back to its mid-90's relevance.
Now you may say, hey Kevin, you are a hypocrite, you were all over The Pixies reunion a few years ago, going to three shows, and loving every second of it. Well, yes, that is true, but here's what I consider the difference, the Pixies never achieved an iota of the fame and sales that the Pumpkins (and Rage Against the Machine for that matter, who are reuniting for a Coachella show this summer) had, despite the fact that they pretty much invented the style of rock that bands like the Pumpkins and Nirvana drove to multimillion unit sales (Kurt Cobain was very adamant in interviews that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was his attempt to write a Pixies song) so their reunion wasn't necessarily about reclaiming their "heyday" or summit of popularity, because other than a devoted cult, they never were all that popular (in their time). But that's not the only difference, the Pixies also waited over 10 years since they broke-up, enough distance to not seem desperate. The last, but most important factor, Frank Black and Kim Deal, the two main creative forces of the Pixies (with all due respect to Joey Santiago and David Lovering) had very active careers post break-up. While they never achieve mass sales, both Frank Black solo material and Kim Deal's other band, The Breeders, sold well in comparison to the Pixies, and The Breeder's sophomore album, Last Splash was commercially more popular in its time than any Pixies album ever was. Black also toured extensively after the Pixies first break-up and created a new niche for himself as a solo artist.
While I have little respect for his solo career (and for him as a person sometimes) Morrissey's decision to not reunite The Smiths is commendable. Both him and guitarist Johnny Marr have maintained respectable careers (Marr has just joined Modest Mouse) and sizable audience. Still, should Morrissey and Marr ever decide to bury the hatchet and reunite the Smiths, I would have no problem with it, they have kept working, waited over 10 years and their audience has grown since their split, especially in America. I do have one cavaet Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce would have to be involved. Which brings up another point, I am anti-reunion if the reuniting lineup doesn't include everyone considered amongst the core members of the group (I am looking your way The New Cars or The Doors to the 21st Century).
So in conclusion, my little reunion requirements (and yes, they are entirely selfish and subjective) are as such:
* Must be at least a 10 year gap between breaking up and reuniting
* The band members (or at least the band leaders) must have played in other bands or continued to make music
* Reunion much consist of all core members of the band
Therefore, here's a list of bands and whether they should reunite, never reunite or wait to reunite:
Yay
Beat Happening
Galaxie 500
Husker Du
The Jam
Talking Heads
Public Image Limited
Orange Juice
Jesus and Mary Chain (reuniting at Coachella)
The Smiths
Replacements
My Bloody Valentine (OK, technically never broke up)
The Feelies
The Raincoats
The Police
Spaceman 3
Nay
The Beatles (dead members: John & George)
Nirvana (dead member: Kurt Cobain)
Sex Pistols (dead member: Sid Vicious, already broke this rule and reunited)
Velvet Underground (dead member: Sterling Morrison)
The Clash (dead member: Joe Strummer)
Joy Division (dead member: Ian Curtis)
NWA (dead member: Eazy-E and don't think of having Eminem or 50 Cent fill his place...)
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (dead member, uh, Jimi Hendrix...scoff...but they tried The Doors without Jim Morrison)
The Sugarcubes (Bjork has a very successful solo career, but how about anybody else?)
May Reunite, But Must Wait
Cibo Matto (until 2009)
Pavement (until 2009)
Neutral Milk Hotel (until 2008, although technically there is only one core member and also I don't think they ever actually broke up)
Sleater-Kinney (until 2016)
Pulp (until 2013)
Smashing Pumpkins (until 2011, you're tempting fate folks)
Rage Against the Machine (until 2010, again tempting fate)
Please feel free to include your own yay, nay or wait in the comment field
Sub Pop Records, the label most recognized for launching the careers of Nirvana and Soundgarden, have announced that beginning in 2007, every new vinyl LP purchased will come with a coupon good for a free download of said album. This will only be for albums released after the new year, so they won't be retroactively inserting these coupons into records from the past. The first release privy to this exciting strategy will be the third album from the Natalie Portman life changing band The Shins, "Wincing the Night Away", in stores January 23rd, by the way.
I thought this was a great idea when Merge Records experimented with it during the 2005 release of The Clientele's "Strange Geometry" album, and was a little sad it hadn't caught on. If I know for the price of one LP that I could download the album to my Ipod and burn it to a CD as well, then being the deal monger I am sign me up, three formats for the price of one. I don't expect major labels to follow suits because, well they're ran exclusively by jackasses, but hopefully some of the more popular independent labels like Merge, Matador, Touch and Go, Warp, 4AD, etc. will follow suit. In addition to the Shins, Sub Pop current line-up includes Iron and Wine, The Postal Service, Band of Horses, Wolf Parade, Low and...David Cross!?!?!
Here's the official press release:
We have recently decided to steal the very good idea of some other fine record labels and begin offering free mp3 downloads of albums purchased on vinyl. Actually, we decided to steal this idea a long time ago, but we are evidently very slow and are only now doing so. When we first heard that the clever folks at Merge Records (what? a year or so ago?) were doing this, we were immediately struck with what a great idea it is. And so, starting with The Shins' Wincing the Night Away, we will be doing the same!
Here's the deal:
Starting with our first release in 2007 (the aforementioned Shins record) and continuing on until such time as we lose interest or forget, if/when you buy a Sub Pop release in the vinyl format, you will find a coupon enclosed. And on this coupon will be instructions, a url and a unique code for you to download the mp3s for the album you've purchased.
Pretty simple. The idea here is that people who buy records on vinyl should be afforded the same access to the digital files as those who buy records on CD, without having to consult some audiophile/computer expert/person working at Radio Shack. Those people sometimes have really bad attitudes.
Please note that these coupons, and their associated access to free mp3s, will not magically (or otherwise) appear in albums released before January of 2007.
This year, after we put up the Christmas tree, Amy and I sat down to do what has become a bit of a tradition, watch the Peanuts Christmas Special, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and learn the true meaning of the holiday (apparently Jesus Christ is involved, who knew?).
Still when I watch my DVD, I can't help but feel like something's missing. Its the the drum accompanied intro that CBS used to air right before the special. It was like the perfect Pavlovian response, something holiday-ish is coming, and its going to be good, that swirling graphic wouldn't lie to us, its going to be special!
So here's what you do before you sit down next time to watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas", click on this link and watch this immediately before the start, and your viewing will be complete.
Folks, let's not get all crazy here, yesterday's 49ers 24-14 win over the defending NFC Champions was nice, as was sweeping the season series (sorry Julian Peterson), but the team is too inconsistent each week, hell within each game they have major consistency issues (see: uh, last night's victory's first half), to even begin to utter the words "playoffs". They are improving, and if the NFC and specifically the NFC West keeps at their less than stellar pace next season, and we continue getting solid help in free agency and the draft, and the major contributors stay healthy, and the Yorks don't do anything else stupid, and Mike Nolan is allowed to wear a suit, then yeah, the playoffs in 2007 is a real possibility.
Besides if by some miracle we did make the playoffs this year just think of how we've fared in games against teams with potential playoff aspirations (save Seattle), you do remember the blowout losses to the Eagles, Chiefs, Chargers, Bears, and Saints, don't you? Not pretty.
This is something that's been driving me batty since I was 8 years old.
"Don't feed them after midnight"
Now, technically isn't it always after "midnight"? 11:59pm is after midnight of the same day. What gives man?
Anyone have any theories? Or what "after midnight" technically entails. If its "don't feed them after midnight, but you can feed between the hours of 6:00 am and 11:59 pm on any given day", they should really clear that up and save possible future Mogwai/Gremlin transformations.
My first memory of a professional football game, any professional football game, was the Joe Montana to Dwight Clark touchdown, now simply labeled "The Catch", in the 1982 NFC Championship Game. I was five. I remember I was being babysat and that when my parents game to pick me up, it was quite the big "to do". I was too young to know that the 49ers had suffered years of futility over the last decade and were consistently bettered by the hated Dallas Cowboys. Two weeks later, the family gathered to watch the 49ers defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XVI at my grandparent's house (both of whom had been season ticket holders since the Kezar days). I became a fan instantly. Not counting the strike shortened 1982 campaign, my beloved 49ers would constantly be play-off contenders and to paraphrase from The Squid and the Whale, "the fillet of the NFL" over the next 18 years, including four more Super Bowl championships.
It's ironic that the receiver of this heralded pass would also help undo of one of the greatest runs in NFL history. In 1997 after Eddie DeBartolo was indicted for tax fraud, Carmen Policy and Dwight Clark took over in the front office and began making dubious decision after dubious decision under the new president, John York aka Eddie D's brother in law. While the team was able to stay in playoff contention, reality hit home when quarterback Steve Young was knocked out for the season, and his career, one Monday night in Arizona. The 49ers would end that 1999 season 2-11. The next season would be the final season with the 49ers for the last of the greats of the era, receiver Jerry Rice. Surprisingly by 2001, the 49ers would be back in the playoffs. An impressive rebuilding job under Steve Mariucci led by the emergence of journeyman quarterback Jeff Garcia and wide receiver Terrell Owens. The next year, the 49ers would win their division and make a tremendous comeback in the first round of the playoffs to overtake the New York Giants before being crushed by eventual Super Bowl Champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mariucci would find himself fired and John York seemed to have no clue about who should replace him until finally his dart landed on a picture of Dennis Erikson, who had been out of the NFL for about four years at the time of his hiring. Erickson, with the help of new general manager Terry Donahue, led Mariucci's playoff making team, with pretty much the entire line-up intact, to a 7-9 season. But they saved the best for 2004, parting ways with pretty much the entire offense, including Garcia, Owens, Tai Streets, Garrison Hearst, and fielding a 2-14 team while wasting a first round draft pick on Rashuan Woods who caught about one catch in two seasons and is currently out of football.
Thankfully the Erickson/Donahue era ended after the season. Former Baltimore Raven defensive coordinator (and son of an ex-49er coach), Mike Nolan was put in charge at the start of the 2005 season. York had so much confidence in the guy that he was also put in charge of General Manager duties, despite the fact the guy had never been a head coach at any level. The Niners drafted Utah quarterback Alex Smith with the number one pick in the draft. Smith, however, sat for the start of the season as Tim Rattay lead the 49ers to a surprising win in their first game of the season over the Rams. That would be the last win Rattay ever would get as a starter for the 49ers, as he would continue to look like the guy who was the quarterback during the 2-14 season. He would be demoted in favor of Smith and eventually traded to Tampa Bay. Smith looked miserable his first two games and an injury forced him to sit for a few weeks as the 49ers starting quarterback became a revolving door, Ken Dorsey actually led the team to a victory over eventual NFC South winners Tampa Bay before sitting out a few games himself with an injury leading to the nadir of the modern 49ers quarterbacking experience, Cody Pickett starting and garnering a historical one completion performance against the Chicago Bears. Alex Smith would eventually return, and would continue to struggle...until the last two games of the year, when the 49ers managed a win streak, beating the Rams again and finally throwing a touchdown (after compiling 11 interceptions and no TDs in his other six starts) in the season ending win over the Houston Texans in what was ironically billed "The Reggie Bush Bowl", ironic of course because the winner would be considered the loser because they wouldn't have the chance to draft USC Heismen Trophy winner Bush, the irony compounded when the Texans passed him up and took Mario Williams.
So that was then...what about now. Is the team beginning to show progress? Is there hopes for the faithful? Or are we just falling prey to our idealistic hopes? Let me break it down and we'll see if at the halfway point in the season wether the current 49ers team is better or worse than last season's.
Record
Well, this is an easy one, at this point last year the 49ers were 2-6, coming off their upset over the Vikings, they are 3-5. So BETTER.
Quarterback
The 49ers started four quarterbacks last year, three of whom are no longer on the team. Alex Smith is now the starter and after a pretty horrific rookie season that saw him throw 11 interceptions to 1 touchdown, his progress was a major factor in the team's hopes for improvement in the near future. Well, he definitely looks more sure of himself, if not yet worthy of his number one draft status. Statistically his numbers are light years ahead of last season, his QB rating is up by thirty-nine points. He has 9 touchdowns to 7 interceptions. He has fumbled the ball less, and shown a lot more presence in the pocket. However, before we get too excited here, he has played pretty poorly overall in the last two games (one of which was the Vikings win), losing two fumbles and throwing three interceptions. While he hasn't shown the strong improvements in his second year that both Manning brothers and Ben Roethlisberger did, he is showing improvement and that is what is the most important matter. BETTER
Running Game
Giving Frank Gore the position of unquestionable leading running back was a smart one. Kevan Barlow never showed any consistency or dependability when he took over the lead back spot after Hearst was cut. Gore has proven he's capable of being a 25 attempts sort of guy and has been one of the leading rushers in the conference all year. The major "but" being the fumbling. He lost four fumbles in the first four games, three of which were in the red zone and prevented the team from scoring. Back-ups Marcus Robinson and Maurice Hicks have shown spurts of promise, but also have deficiencies, Robinson twice in the Raiders game was unable to push forward for a yard on Fourth and One plays and Hicks has had some fumbling issues. Fullback Chirs Hetherington has proved little presence taking over for free agent loss Fred Beasly. He has no carries and two receptions for zero yards. BETTER.
Tight End
Coming into the season, you would have expected vast improvements here, but alas, number one draft pick Vernon Davis has been injured since Week Three and Eric Johnson has looked slightly less resilient coming off the second entire season spent on the Injured List. Still compare these stats, in the first half of this season, tight ends have combined for 28 catches, 247 yards and 2 touchdowns, whereas all of last season, the 49ers studly line-up of Terry Jones, Billy Bajema and Trent Smith racked up 17 catches, 137 yards and 0 touchdowns. BETTER
Wide Receivers
Like their brethren the Tight Ends, the Wide Receiver is better by default, besides Brandon Lloyd's occasional acrobatic circus catches, the position inspired little fanfare last seson. The position yield only 8 touchdowns all last year, and while the position has only netted 5 touchdowns thus far, free agent pickup Antonio Bryant has the look of a solid go-to guy and unfortunately the possible combustible attitude of some go-to guys like Terrell Owens, Randy Moss, et al. Arnaz Battle is a decent third of fourth option, of course the fact that he's actually the 49ers second option shows just how much a priority they need to make this position in the off-season. BETTER
Offensive Line
Its hard to judge this position by comparing stats, but they are giving Alex Smith a bit more time thus allowing him the possibility of avoiding sacks, fumbles and making costly throwing mistakes. Still, they have displayed a knack of being unable to stay healthy and the running backs have sure had a hard time getting the short yardage when needed. Not by much, but they're still BETTER
Defense
To cut to the chase here, I am not going to break this into specific position, let's just say the defense, with the exception of the Vikings game, has been simply dreadful. Losing our best defensive player, Julian Peterson, to free agency might have something to do with it. The offense might be improving, but how can it keep up when the defense is giving up scores of 34 (to Arizona!), 38, 41, 48 and 41 (and that's just the first half of the Bears game)? We've made Kurt Warner look like the guy who lead the Rams to the Super Bowl in 1999 again and made Damon Huard and Rex Grossman look like the next coming of Petyon Manning. Our opponents average 29 points a game. Defensive backs have 5 interceptions this year, four of which came in the Raiders game, so that's 1 interception in the other seven games! Anyway, I could go on, but its too much to bare, they get WORSE WORSE WORSE (one for the defensive line, one for the linebackers, one for the defensive backs)
SPECIAL TEAMS
The special teams squad has not yielded any major yardage on returns, but consequently have not done much themselves in that area. Kicker Joe Nedney has missed a few more field goals then last year, Punter Andy Lee continues his job as the hardest working man in football, while actually improving his punting average by 2 yards. The 49ers have successfully converted 2 onside kicks, and there has been no Jose Cortez sightings, by default that equals BETTER
COACHING
Mike Nolan might not be Hitler like exiting running back Kevan Barlow once claimed, but he definitely has control issues, and unless the team gets a respected General Manager in the off-season, it looks like we will live and/or die solely by his decision making. The team has come off looking a lot flatter this year, there have been five twenty point or more losses this year, compared to two at the midway point last year, we may have one more win so far this year, but our losses have been severe, and this rests on Nolan. For a team coached by an alleged defensive guru, the defense sure blows. However, Norv Turner is a big upgrade at Offensive Coordinator replacing Mike McCarthy who should get some kind of George W. Bush award for turning a really spotty resume into a plum job after taking the 32nd ranked offense last year and getting hired as head coach of the Packers. I'm calling this one a WASH
Ownership
John York is still around, and it looks like in five years I will be talking about the Santa Clara 49ers (who will probably still be in "rebuilding mode"), automatic WORSE
Looking at the scorecard, I have 7 "betters", 4 "worses" and 1 "wash", which, I guess means the team is improving, however slowly. In my season preview, I predicted the 49ers to go 5-11. Looking at their schedule for the last half of the season, they have four winnable games (at Detroit, at St. Louis, Green Bay and Arizona), two games against the Seahawks who will probably have Matt Hasslebeck and Shaun Alexander back (thus the 49ers will lose), a game at New Orleans that might have looked like a winnable game before the season started and the Saints improved, and a season ending match-up against the Denver Broncos which could be a big deal for Denver if they need to clinch a playoff spot or the division title, in that case, count it as a loss, or Denver could have wrapped up their playoff position by that point and decide to treat the game as an exhibition contest and start Jay Cutler, in that case look for the 49ers to win and use it as motivation for next year. Yeah, 5-11 is looking just about right.
