#Spin And Marty

[balladofsallyrose]

get yourself a man who looks after his injured horse

[texaschainsawmascara]

Michael J Fox on his wife, Tracy Pollan

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (2023)

[httpiastri]

that podium was the simultaneously best and worst thing to ever happen to me bcs so many pretty boys but where do i look?????

[u-friend-or-ufo]

This woman is me when I find a new obsession only to be roped back in the previous one.

[betelgeusing]

marty hart's cyclical return to praising family as THE thing that keeps a man grounded, stable, and happy (specifically in pointing out that rust DOESN'T have a family) even as flashbacks show him spiraling into jealous macho violence as he lies to, mistreats, and destroys his family over the course of multiple affairs (by which he deliberately steps outside of and away from his family despite his wife's best efforts to get him to reconnect and step up to be the family man he sees himself as)

vs

rust cohle's repeated excoriations of the idea of individuality and personhood and the stupid self-centeredness and entitlement that comes with saying "I, a human being, matter to the universe, and the things I do matter", an ideology he carries for years and waxes poetic on for his interviewers as late as 2012, even as he obsessively works himself to the bone to get justice and resolution for the victims he's assigned and ultimately to protect children from the powerful and dangerous people who want to brutalize them

[cheshairacat]

I would love a tv show based on Hetty’s origin story. It could follow Hetty’s OG team during the Cold War. It could have a young Owen Granger, young AJ Chegwidden, Sterling Bridges, Harris Keane, and Charles Langston.

My idea is that it opens with modern Hetty telling the story before she dies, maybe tired of all the secrets. The show could focus on the Clandestine Unit.

[maddgical-boy]

please tell me im not the only one who has created a paracosm from like a single meme or image

[incorrectlooneytunesquotes]

Daffy: In here. Porky: Are y-y-you nuts? You don't hide from a k-k-k-killer in a c-c-c-coffin! Daffy: How would you know? Porky: It's t-t-t-too obvious! Daffy: It's the last place he'd look! Porky: D-D-D-Daffy, he's a m-m-mortician!

[thatgeekwiththeclipons]

Happy 62nd Birthday to 5x Emmy Winning, 4x Golden Globe Winning, 2x SAG Award Winning, Grammy Winning actor Michael J. Fox! ^__^

[knickynoo]

Love that I've spent the past week making gifs and posts about a movie that like 3 people have seen. I'm doing this blog thing right.

[balladofsallyrose]

[ban-joey]

i had fun taking silly pictures with my dumb sword. happy tdov. i took way too many of these actually but whatever. my room is a fking mess i should go fix that. anyway i spent a large part of my day at work where i do largely physical labor thinking i would have made it as a pirate by slutting around

[mrmechanix]

i feel like hitting someone w my bass.

[1001albumsrated]

#22: Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959)

Genre(s): Country

I believe this is the first album in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die to be a meme (or at least I think it's the first, I'm painfully online but not exactly TikTok-pilled so someone 10-15 years younger can chime in if the kids are going wild over Ramblin' Jack Elliott or something). Regardless, it's funny to see this one come full circle. This album did serious numbers in its day (certified platinum!) and almost singlehandedly made Marty enough money to fund his NASCAR career, one he maintained for decades despite not being particularly successful as a racer. (As a complete aside, wouldn't it absolutely rule if celebrities did that today? Imagine if Drake paid his way into playing in the NBA or something and just sucked the whole time. Just a wild thing to conceive.)

Anyways, the album: this is the pop country of the time, and while a far cry sonically from Taylor Swift, et al, it remains very accessible and fairly far removed from the rougher edges of "authentic" country & Western music. Marty Robbins was no cowboy, having grown up in the suburbs of Phoenix in the 20s, but he did grow up around tales of the Wild West in a time when cowboys were superheroes. That being said, the inauthenticity doesn't offend me here. The songs are clearly fictional, pastoralized depictions of the West, but he sings them honestly. There is some great songwriting and storytelling to be had here as well; Big Iron is the obvious standout in retrospect (and, of course, the meme song), but El Paso was the lead single at the time and did serious numbers, running up both the pop and country charts.

By pure serendipity I bought a copy of this album on LP a few months before starting this project. My copy is a fairly unexceptional 70s repress, but this isn't exactly an audiophile recording so I didn't think it was worth my time and money to seek out an original. It's not an album I'm in the mood for all the time, but it's a fun listen and I'm happy to have a copy of it around.

Also, because somehow I made it this far without mentioning it, I like the graphic design of the cover a lot, despite its slight tackiness. It's simple, but the color is eye-catching, the photography has a nice motion to it, and the typesetting is simple but effective. I enjoy a complex design, but sometimes simple is iconic; it makes for something memorable here.

That brings us to the big question: MUST you hear Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs before you die? I think so. My patience for pop country (of any era) is very, very thin, and this is one of the few crossover albums I think is really worth the time. Country isn't really my "home field" so I won't soapbox too much on what did and didn't make the cut, but I know enough to know there are some odd exclusions in a similar vein to what's missing in jazz (as previously mentioned, Hank Williams is a particularly obvious missing link), so it's a little hard to stomach a crossover album being included with some core essentials missing. But in a vacuum I have no gripes about this being here, and I think from a historical perspective it's useful to see what did well in the mainstream, particularly when it has enough staying power to stand on its own two legs musically if you choose not to consider its commercial success. That's a lot of words to say check this one out; it's a lot of fun and you may find yourself liking it even if you're one of those awful "everything but rap and country" people.

Next up: another jazz classic, with Dave Brubeck's Time Out!

[waltcrewlog]

My serotonin

[acmeoop]

Rubber Golf Club “Rags Rabbit #16” (1953)