#classic ED robert’s story

[bobbie-robron]

Robert & Andy: The Chicken Run 1.0…

02-Oct-2005

[hotvintagepoll]

this is a poll for a movie that doesn't exist.

It is vintage times. The powers that be have decided to again remake the classic vampire novel Dracula for the screen. in an amazing show of inter-studio solidarity, Hollywood’s most elite hotties are up for the starring roles. the producers know whoever they cast will greatly impact the genre, quality, and tone of the finished film, so they are turning to their wisest voices for guidance.

you are the new casting director for this star-studded epic. choose your players wisely.

Previously cast:

Jonathan Harker—Jimmy Stewart

The Old Woman—Martita Hunt

Count Dracula—Gloria Holden

Mina Murray—Setsuko Hara

Lucy Westenra—Judy Garland (rip)

The Three Voluptuous Women—Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, and Lauren Bacall

The Agonized Mother—Mary Philbin (rip)

Dr. Jack Seward—Vincent Price

Quincey P. Morris—Toshiro Mifune

Arthur Holmwood—Sidney Poitier

R.M. Renfield—Conrad Veidt

The Captain of the Demeter—Omar Sharif (rip)

The First Mate of the Demeter—Leonard Nimoy (rip)

Mr. Swales—Ed Wynn (rip)

The Correspondent for The Daily Graph—Ethel Waters

Dracula in dog form—Frank Oz with a puppet

Sister Agatha—Angela Lansbury

Mrs. Westenra—Gladys Cooper (rip)

Dracula's solicitors—Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee

Dr. Van Helsing—Orson Welles

Mr. Hawkins—Donald Meek

Thomas Bilder, the zookeeper—Lon Chaney Jr.

Mrs. Bilder, the zookeeper's wife—Elsa Lanchester

The Reporter from the Pall Mall Gazette—Hattie McDaniel

There is little to say to describe Mr. Marquand, who is only here briefly to describe how the Westenra will leaves everything to Arthur Holmwood. He is described by Dr. Seward as "very genial and very appreciative," and goes a little too much into legal detail considering the reason he turns up in the story. (Lucy and Mrs. Westenra are now dead.)

[docrotten]

THEM! (1954) – Episode 194 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

“Pfah! What kind of sense does that make? Is sugar a rare cargo? Is there a black market for it? Did you ever hear of a fence for hot sugar? If I was gonna make a deal with crooks to steal somethin’, it wouldn’t be for forty tons of sugar.” If you were a giant ant you would. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Chad Hunt, Doc Rotten, and Jeff Mohr, along with guest Gregory Crosby – as they take a deep crawl into THEM! (1954), one of the all-time great big-bug movies!

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 194 – THEM! (1954)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

Synopsis: The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.

Director: Gordon Douglas

Writing Credits: Ted Sherdeman (screenplay); Russell S. Hughes (adaptation) (as Russell Hughes); George Worthing Yates (story)

Special Effects by: Ralph Ayres (special effects); Ardell Lytle (pyroeffects supervisor) (uncredited)

Selected Cast:

James Whitmore as Sgt. Ben Peterson

Edmund Gwenn as Dr. Harold Medford

Joan Weldon as Dr. Patricia Medford

James Arness as Robert Graham

Onslow Stevens as Brig. Gen. Robert O’Brien

Sean McClory as Maj. Kibbee

Christian Drake as Trooper Ed Blackburn (as Chris Drake)

Sandy Descher as The Ellinson Girl

Mary Alan Hokanson as Mrs. Lodge (as Mary Ann Hokanson)

Don Shelton as Trooper Capt. Fred Edwards

Fess Parker as Alan Crotty

Olin Howland as Jensen (as Olin Howlin)

Richard Bellis as Mike Lodge (uncredited)

John Beradino as Patrolman Ryan (uncredited)

Robert Berger as Patrolman Sutton (uncredited)

Oscar Blank as Alcoholic Ward Patient (uncredited)

Willis Bouchey as Official at D.C. Meeting (uncredited)

Richard Deacon as Bald Reporter (uncredited)

Ann Doran as Child Psychiatrist (uncredited)

Leonard Nimoy as Army Sergeant in Information Center (uncredited)

William Schallert as Ambulance Attendant (uncredited)

Douglas Spencer as Bit Part (uncredited)

Dub Taylor as Railroad Yard Watchman (uncredited)

Dick York as Teenager in Police Station (uncredited)

THEM! is generally considered the first giant bug movie, and according to the Grue Crew, who are joined by Gregory Crosby, it’s the best of the lot! A top-notch script delivered by a great cast and helmed by an experienced, successful director makes for an excellent film. Combine some pretty-damn-fine giant ants with expert cinematography, just the right editing, and some very disturbing ant-chirping, and the ants are truly terrifying. Edmund Gwenn (who is not in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms), Joan Weldon, James Whitmore, and James Arness lead the way with an incredibly long list of familiar character actors. Even Dick York (Samantha’s first husband on Bewitched, not her second) makes an uncredited appearance.

The Grue Crew again go for a record-length talkabout but there really is so much to discuss with THEM! and we had so much fun doing it! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did recording it.

At the time of this writing, THEM! (1954) is available to stream by subscription from IndieFlix and PPV from multiple sources. The film is available on physical media as a Blu-ray disc from Warner Home Video. 

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Next in their very flexible schedule – this one chosen by Chad – is Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959). Was it directed by Riccardo Freda, Robert Hamton, Mario Bava, or all of the above? Bill Mulligan (known as “Bava Bill”) will be joining us to help us untangle the entanglement, and to help us find the source of that awful smell. 

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[becausegoodbye]

(Mostly putting this here to keep track of it for myself) – the books I read in 2024:

FICTION:

Jen Beagin - Big Swiss

Alice Robinson - The Glad Shout

Miranda July - All Fours

James Frankie Thomas – Idlewild

Monique Wittig - The Lesbian Body

Caoilinn Hughes - The Alternatives

Sally Rooney - Intermezzo

Mary Shelley - Frankenstein

Lydia Davis - Our Strangers

Julian K. Jarboe - Everyone On the Moon Is Essential Personnel

James Baldwin - Giovanni's Room

Samantha Shannon - The Priory of the Orange Tree

Melissa Broder - Milk Fed

NONFICTION:

Jane Ward - The Tragedy of Heterosexuality

Jules Gill-Peterson - A Short History of Transmisogyny

Lee Seong-Bok - Indeterminate Inflorescence: Lectures on Poetry

Rashid Khalidi - The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

Adrienne Rich - Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. - In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America

Virginia Woolf - A Room of One's Own

Monique Wittig - The Straight Mind and Other Essays

MANGA:

Sakaomi Yuzaki - She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat (vols. 1-4)

Ryoko Kui - Delicious in Dungeon (volumes 1-14)

Tamifull - How Do We Relationship? (volumes 1-10)

Neji - Beauty and the Beast Girl

Batten - Run Away With Me, Girl (volumes 1-3)

Pageratta - She Becomes A Tree

Takashi Ikeda - The Two of Them Are Pretty Much Like This (Vols. 1-4)

Murata - Catch These Hands! (Vols. 1-4)

Tasuku Kaname - Our Dreams At Dusk (Vols. 1-4)

Akashi - Still Sick (Vols.1-2)

Kuzushiro - The Moon On a Rainy Night (vols. 1-5)

Keigo Shinzo - Hirayasumi (vols. 1-6)

Inui Ayu - Under One Roof Today (vols. 1-2)

Yodokawa - Monthly in the Garden With My Landlord (vols. 1-2)

Inori / Aonoshimo - I'm in Love with the Villainess (vols. 1-5)

Kaoru Mori - A Bride's Story (vols. 1-4)

Arai Sumiko - The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't A Guy At All (Vols. 1-2)

Takako Shimura - Even Though We're Adults (Vols. 1-8)

Ami Uozumi - Pink Candy Kiss (Vol. 1-2)

COMICS:

Jillian & Mariko Tomaki - Roaming

Max Graves - What Happens Next (start to present)

Brian Chippendale - Ninja

Michelle Perez & Remy Boydell - The Pervert

Khale McHurst - No She's Not My Sister vols 1-5 (& Manic Pixie Dream Girl, & Stone Butch)

Natalia Zajaz - Marion (Vol.1)

Safdar Ahmed - Space Jihad (Vol. 1)

Steven Christie - Good Praxis (Vol. 1)

Aaron Billings - Beatitudes of the Beat: A Mystical Boy Scout Story (Vol. 1)

Joe Sparrow - Homunculus

Margot Ferrick - Yours

Blood & Thunder #2 (ed. Leigh Rigozzi)

Emma Grove - The Third Person

POETRY:

Wisława Szymborska - People on a Bridge

Christina Rossetti - Selected Poems

Lilian Mohin (ed.) - Beautiful Barbarians

Elana Dykwomon - Nothing Will Be As Sweet As The Taste

Izzy Roberts-Orr - Raw Salt

Pooja Mittal Biswas - The Maker of Garlands

e.e. cummings - A Selection of Poems

Grace Paley - Begin Again

*

I'm overall pleased with the amount of reading I did this year. I was working full-time, so I didn't have as much time as I wish I did, but I got into a decent rhythm with it in the last few months especially. In terms of personal trends, I guess I can identify that this was The Year I Went Nuts For Yuri (amassing a huge treasure-trove of beautiful lesbian manga to read on my tablet), The Year I Got Back Into Fun Novels (books like Big Swiss and Milk Fed and Idlewild were such pure sources of pleasure), and The Year I Started Collecting Bloomsbury Classics (of which I've presently read very few, but they look ridiculously lovely on the shelf, and I plan on reading them all eventually).

[collinthenychudson]

"One thing about trains: It doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get on." - Conductor

Twenty years ago, The Polar Express made it's theatrical debut in cinemas across the United States. Loosely based on the 1985 children's book of the same name written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, the film was directed by Robert Zemeckis (who also directed the Back To The Future trilogy, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Forrest Gump, etc.) With Alan Silvestri producing the film's music. Although the film's premiere was held at the Chicago International Film Fesitval on October 13th 2004, the theatrical debut took place on November 10th of that year.

Among the cast members was Tom Hanks (the voice of Woody in the Disney-Pixar Toy Story franchise) who took on the roles of Chris the Hero Boy, the Conductor, the Hobo, the Ebenezer Scrooge Puppet, Santa Claus, Chris' Father, and the narrator, although Chris' child voice was done by Daryl Sabara with additional motion capture done by Josh Hutcherson.

Other cast members include:

Nona Gaye (voice), Darrian O Driscoll (additional motion capture), Meagan Moore (singing voice), and Tinashe (motion-capture model) as Holly the Hero Girl.

Peter Scolari (motion capture), Hayden McFarland (additional motion-capture), Jimmy Bennett (voice), and Matthew Hall (singing voice) as Billy the Lonely Boy.

Eddie Deezen and Jimmy Pinchak (additional motion capture) as Know-It-All.

Michael Jeter (voice) and André Sogliuzzo (additional voice) as Steamer the Engineer and Smokey the Fireman.

Leslie Zemeckis (motion capture), Isabella Peregrina (voice) and Ashly Holloway (additional motion capture) as Sister Sarah and Chris' Mother.

Dylan Cash as a Boy on the Train.

Brendan King and Andy Pellick as the Pastry Chefs.

Josh Eli, Rolandes Hendricks, Jon Scott, Sean Scott, Mark Mendonca, Mark Goodman, Gregory Gast, and Gordon Hart as the Waiters.

Julene Renee as Red Head Girl and an Elf.

Chris Coppola and Connor Matheus (additional motion capture) as Gus the Toothless Boy and an Elf.

Phil Fondacaro, Debbie Lee Carrington, Mark Povinelli, and Ed Gale as the Elves.

Charles Fleischer as the Elf General.

Steven Tyler as the Elf Lieutenant and Elf Singer.

The locomotive that pulls the train is based on No. 1225, an N-1 class 2-8-4 "Berkshire" type locomotive that was built by the Lima Locomotive Works in October 1941 to pull freight trains for the Pere Marquette Railway. The locomotive's design and sounds were used for the Polar Express while the whistle came from Sierra Railway No. 3, a 4-6-0 "Ten Wheeler" locomotive built by the Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works March 26, 1891.

Upon it's release, the film was met with mixed reviews with many people labeling the film as a "Christmas Classic" and others criticizing the film's characters as "lifeless zombies". The movie recieved a Rotten Tomatoes score of 56% but had otherwise performed successfully in the box office at $318.2 million reaching over the film's budget of $165-170 million. Over the years follwing it's theatrical debut, the film would be released to home media both on DVD and VHS with occasional DVD releases from time to time.

Like all films, The Polar Express also has marketing and other promotional materials. One example comes in the form of games based on the film such as a PS2 game of the same name, a Ticket Chase game, a Train Adventure game, and so forth. Another example is with model railroad and toy train companies such as Lionel and Brio have made various train sets based on the Polar Express train.

A third example includes various Polar Express-themed train ride events loosely based on the train's journey taking place at various heritage railroads during the Christmas season such as on the Durango & Silverton, Grand Canyon Railway, the B&O Railroad Museum, and even from Pere Marquette 1225, although under the name of "North Pole Express". In addition, SeaWorld Orlando did a temporary Christmas Layover of the Wild Arctic motion simulator ride called the "Polar Express Experience" from 2007 to 2015. Other forms of marketing, promotional materials, and merch has come or have came in the form of various board games such as a matching game and Train-opoly, a book showcasing the film's concept art, and even a limited edition cereal.

Despite what some people think of the movie, The Polar Express continues to remain one of the most iconic Christmas movies to this day making occasional returns to cinemas during the Christmas season alongside various other Christmas movies. In fact, this is my number one favorite Christmas movie of all time not just because I'm obviously a railfan, but it's also because that this was the first ever movie I have seen in the theaters. It was this film, alongside Thomas The Tank Engine and I Love Toy Trains, that have gotten me into steam locomotives and trains in general.

To Robert Zemeckis, Alan Silvestri, Tom Hanks, and everyone else who took part in the making of this film, thank you. Happy 20th anniversary to The Polar Express!

Models and Route by: K&L Trainz, Auran and Download Station

The Polar Express C) Warner Bros.

[mariacallous]

Did you know that some of America’s most popular candies (Tootsie Rolls! Peeps! Peanut Chews!) were invented by Jews?

How and why this came to pass is a remarkable tale that needs no sugarcoating.  

In the 18th and 19th centuries, Jewish beet farmers throughout the Russian empire produced the bulk of the sugar necessary to satisfy the high demand of the European market. When many of these impoverished farmers fled their shetls at the turn of the 20th century and immigrated to the United States, they leveraged their sugar-processing skills to find employment in candy factories.

Many went on to open their shops; such is the case with Morris “Moishe” Cohen, founder of New York’s famous Economy Candy. Cohen, whose primary trade was shoe and hat repair, ran a sweets cart originally as a side hustle, but found that during the Depression, candy rather than cobbling was bringing in more cash. In 1937, Cohen converted his shop into a full-time confectionary selling sweetmeats, dried fruit, nuts, and gift baskets. More than 80 years later, Economy Candy is still run by Cohen’s descendants and has become a landmark for its incredibly vast (2,000 items and counting) selection of current, vintage and hard-to-find candies. 

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Having come from an esteemed line of candymakers in his native Austria, Leo Hirshfield simply thought he was carrying on his familial legacy when he opened his corner candy store in New York in 1896. But in 1908, he unknowingly permanently made the world a little sweeter upon rolling out his own personal invention: a chocolate-flavored chewy cylindrical roll he dubbed “Tootsie,” after his pet name for his daughter Clara. 

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A similar sweet success story is that of Romanian immigrant David Seltzer. After setting foot in his new home of Philadelphia, Seltzer made two fortuitous decisions. First, he changed his name to Goldenberg (a variation of Goldberg, which he heard was a “good” name to have in the United States), thereby relieving himself of a moniker that might have condemned him to a career involving bubbly water. Second (and to seal the deal), he went to work making carnival treats, then eventually transitioned into running his own candy business. One of Goldenberg’s most popular creations was a chewy walnut and molasses candy. Later, he swapped walnuts for more cost-effective peanuts, and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews were born. During the First and Second World Wars, Goldenberg won numerous government contracts to produce Peanut Chews as a “nutritious” non-ration bar for American soldiers.

The flourishing family business was passed on to Goldenberg’s children, Sylvia and Harry, the latter of which passed it onto his sons, Ed and Carl, the latter of which passed it on to his son (also named) David. This great grandson of the original founder eventually sold the Peanut Chew empire in 2003 to Just Born candy company, which still produces the candy to this day under the Goldenberg name. 

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A post shared by Goldenberg's Peanut Chews (@goldenbergspeanutchews)

Jewish owned and operated Just Born company was also the catalyst for pioneering another classic confection. In 1953, the candy conglomerate acquired the Rodda company, which at the time devoted the majority of its production capacity to churning out jelly beans, only occasionally dabbling at the (significantly more labor-intensive) marshmallow treats known as Peeps. After owner Sam Born’s son Robert invented a machine that reduced production time from 27 hours to six minutes, the company rapidly became the world’s leading manufacturer (irony noted) of arguably America’s most iconic Easter candy.

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A post shared by PEEPS® (@peepsbrand)

What is perhaps most compelling about these bonbon backstories is that Hirshfield, Goldenberg, and others took what many might relegate as culinary juvenilia, candymaking, and demonstrated its potential as a form of high art by designing confections that made a lasting impact on the gastronomic landscape. In summarizing the American candy tradition, one might riff on the famous Marvin Gaye lyric, How sweet it is — and it’s made by Jews. 

[whileiamdying]

Tony Bennett, Jazzy Crooner of the American Songbook, Is Dead at 96

From his initial success at the Paramount in Times Square through his generation-spanning duets, his career was remarkable for both its longevity and its consistency.

By Bruce Weber

July 21, 2023

Tony Bennett, a singer whose melodic clarity, jazz-influenced phrasing, audience-embracing persona and warm, deceptively simple interpretations of musical standards helped spread the American songbook around the world and won him generations of fans, died on Friday at his home of many decades in Manhattan. He was 96.

His publicist, Sylvia Weiner, announced his death.

Mr. Bennett learned he had Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, his wife, Susan Benedetto, told AARP The Magazine in February 2021. But he continued to perform and record despite his illness; his last public performance was in August 2021, when he appeared with Lady Gaga at Radio City Music Hall in a show titled “One Last Time.”

Mr. Bennett’s career of more than 70 years was remarkable not only for its longevity, but also for its consistency. In hundreds of concerts and club dates and more than 150 recordings, he devoted himself to preserving the classic American popular song, as written by Cole Porter, the Gershwins, Duke Ellington, Rodgers and Hammerstein and others.

From his initial success as a jazzy crooner who wowed audiences at the Paramount in Times Square in the early 1950s, through his late-in-life duets with younger singers gleaned from a range of genres and generations — most notably Lady Gaga, with whom he recorded albums in 2014 and 2021 and toured in 2015 — he was an active promoter of both songwriting and entertaining as timeless, noble pursuits.

Mr. Bennett stubbornly resisted record producers who urged gimmick songs on him, or, in the 1960s and early ’70s, who were sure that rock ’n’ roll had relegated the music he preferred to a dusty bin perused only by a dwindling population of the elderly and nostalgic.

Instead, he followed in the musical path of the greatest American pop singers of the 20th century — Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra — and carried the torch for them into the 21st. He reached the height of stardom in 1962 with a celebrated concert at Carnegie Hall and the release of his signature song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” And though he saw his popularity wane with the onset of rock and his career went through a trough in the 1970s, when professional difficulties were exacerbated by a failing marriage and drug problems, he was, in the end, more than vindicated in his musical judgment.

“I wanted to sing the great songs, songs that I felt really mattered to people,” he said in “The Good Life” (1998), an autobiography written with Will Friedwald.

It’s hard to overstate Mr. Bennett’s lasting appeal. He was still singing “San Francisco” — which led many people to think he was a native of that city, though he was actually a through-and-through New Yorker — more than half a century later. He sang on Ed Sullivan’s show and David Letterman’s. He sang with Rosemary Clooney when she was in her 20s, and Celine Dion when she was in her 20s.

He made his film debut in 1966, in a critically reviled Hollywood story, “The Oscar,” playing a man betrayed by an old friend. And though he did not pursue an acting career, decades later he was playing himself in movies like the Robert De Niro-Billy Crystal gangster comedy “Analyze This” and the Jim Carrey vehicle “Bruce Almighty.” He was 64 when he appeared as a cartoon version of himself on “The Simpsons.” He was 82 when he appeared on the HBO series “Entourage,” performing one of his trademark songs, “The Good Life.”

A lifelong liberal Democrat, Mr. Bennett participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in 1965, and, along with Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr. and others, performed at the Stars for Freedom rally on the City of St. Jude campus on the outskirts of Montgomery on March 24, the night before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the address that came to be known as the “How Long? Not Long” speech. At the conclusion of the march, Viola Liuzzo, a volunteer from Michigan, drove Mr. Bennett to the airport; she was murdered later that day by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. Bennett also performed for Nelson Mandela, then the president of South Africa, during his state visit to England in 1996. He sang at the White House for John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, and at Buckingham Palace at Queen Elizabeth II’s 50th anniversary jubilee.

An ‘Elusive’ Voice

He won his first two Grammy Awards, for “San Francisco,” in 1963, and his last, for the album “Love for Sale,” with Lady Gaga, last year. Altogether there were 20 of them, including, in 2001, a lifetime achievement award. By some estimates, he sold more than 60 million records.

The talent that spawned this success and popularity was not so easy to define. Neither a fluid singer nor an especially powerful one, he did not have the mellifluous timbre of Crosby or the rakish swing of Sinatra. If Armstrong’s tone was distinctively gravelly, Mr. Bennett’s wasn’t quite; “sandy” was more like it. Almost no one denied that his voice was appealing, but critics strove mightily to describe it, and then to justify its appeal.

“The voice that is the basic tool of Mr. Bennett’s trade is small, thin and somewhat hoarse,” John S. Wilson wrote in The New York Times in 1962. “But he uses it shrewdly and with a skillful lack of pretension.”

In a 1974 profile, Whitney Balliett, the longtime jazz critic for The New Yorker, called Mr. Bennett “an elusive singer.”

“He can be a belter who reaches rocking fortissimos,” Mr. Balliett wrote. “He drives a ballad as intensely and intimately as Sinatra. He can be a lilting, glancing jazz singer. He can be a low-key, searching supper-club performer.” But, he added, “Bennett’s voice binds all his vocal selves together.”

Most simply, perhaps, the composer and critic Alec Wilder said about Mr. Bennett’s voice, “There is a quality about it that lets you in.”

Indeed, what many listeners (including the critics) discovered about Mr. Bennett, and what they responded to, was something intangible: the care with which he treated both the song and the audience.

He had a storyteller’s grace with a lyric, a jazzman’s sureness with a melody, and in his finest performances he delivered them with a party giver’s welcome, a palpable and infectious affability. In his presentation, the songs he loved and sang — “Just in Time,” “The Best Is Yet to Come,” “Rags to Riches” and “I Wanna Be Around,” to name a handful of his emblematic hits — became engaging, life-embracing parables.

Frank Sinatra, whom Mr. Bennett counted as a mentor and friend, once put it another way.

“For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer in the business,” he told Life magazine in 1965. “He excites me when I watch him. He moves me. He’s the singer who gets across what the composer has in mind, and probably a little more.”

Mr. Bennett passed through life with as unscathed a public image as it is possible for a celebrity to have. Finding even mild criticism of him in reviews and interviews is no mean feat, and even his outspoken liberalism generally failed to attract vitriol from the right. (An exception was his call, after the drug-related deaths of Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse and Whitney Houston, for the legalization of drugs, a view loudly denounced by William J. Bennett, the former drug czar, among others.)

With the possible exception of his former wives, everyone, it seemed, loved Tony Bennett. Skeptical journalists would occasionally try to pierce what they perceived as his perfect veneer, but they generally discovered that there wasn’t much to pierce.

“Bennett is outrageous,” Simon Hattenstone, a reporter for The Guardian, wrote in 2002. “He mythologizes himself, name-drops every time he opens his mouth, directs you to his altruism, is self-congratulatory to the point of indecency. He should be intolerable, but he’s one of the sweetest, most humble men I’ve ever met.”

Son of Queens

Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on Aug. 3, 1926, in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, and grew up in that borough in working-class Astoria. His father, Giovanni, had emigrated from Calabria, in southern Italy, at age 11. His mother, Anna (Suraci) Benedetto, was born in New York in 1899, having made the sea journey from Italy in the womb. Their marriage was arranged. Giovanni and Anna were cousins; their mothers were sisters.

In New York, where Giovanni Benedetto became John, he was a grocer, but beleaguered by poor health and often unable to work. Anna was a factory seamstress and took in additional sewing to support the family. Anthony was their third child, their second son, and the first of any Benedetto to be born in a hospital. Giovanni, who sang Italian folk songs to his children — “My father inspired my love for music,” Mr. Bennett wrote in his autobiography — died when Anthony was 10.

Anthony sang from an early age, and drew and painted, too. He would become a creditable painter as an adult, mostly landscapes and still lifes in watercolors and oils and portraits of musicians he admired, signing his paintings “Benedetto.” His first music teacher arranged for him to sing alongside Mayor Fiorello La Guardia at the opening of the Triborough Bridge (now the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge) in 1936.

For a time he attended the High School for Industrial Arts (now called the High School of Art and Design) in Manhattan, but he never graduated. He dropped out and found work as a copy boy for The Associated Press, in a laundry and as an elevator operator.

“I couldn’t figure out how to get the elevator to stop at the right place,” he recalled. “People ended up having to crawl out between floors.”

At night he performed at amateur shows and worked as a singing waiter. He had just begun to get paying work as a singer, using the stage name Joe Bari, when he was drafted.

He arrived in Europe toward the end of World War II, serving in Germany in the infantry. He spent time on the front lines, an experience he described as “a front-row seat in hell,” and was among the troops who arrived to liberate the prisoners at the Landsberg concentration camp, a subcamp of Dachau.

After Germany surrendered, Mr. Bennett was part of the occupying forces, assigned to special services, where he ended up as a singer with Army bands and for a time was featured in a ragtag version of the musical “On the Town” — directed by Arthur Penn, who would go on to direct “Bonnie and Clyde” and other notable movies — in the opera house in Wiesbaden.

He returned to New York in August 1946 and set about beginning a career as a musician. On the G.I. Bill, he took classes at the American Theater Wing, which he later said helped teach him how to tell a story in song. He sang in nightclubs in Manhattan and Queens.

A series of breaks followed. He appeared on the radio show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts,” the “American Idol” of its day. (The competition was won by Rosemary Clooney.) There are different versions of the biggest break in Mr. Bennett’s early career, but as he told it in “The Good Life,” he had been singing occasionally at a club in Greenwich Village where the owner had offered Pearl Bailey a gig as the headliner; she agreed, but only on the condition that Joe Bari stayed on the bill.

When Bob Hope came down to take in Ms. Bailey’s act, he liked Joe Bari so much that he asked him to open for him at the Paramount Theater. Hope had a condition, however: He didn’t like the name Joe Bari, and insisted it be changed. Dismissing the name Anthony Benedetto as too long to fit on a marquee, Hope christened the young singer Tony Bennett.

The Hits Roll In

The producer Mitch Miller signed Mr. Bennett to Columbia Records in 1950; “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” was his first single. Miller was known for his hit-making prowess, a gift that often involved matching talented singers with novelty songs or having them cover hits by others, for which he was criticized by more serious music fans and sometimes by the singers themselves.

He and Mr. Bennett had a contentious relationship. Mr. Bennett resisted his attempts at gimmickry; Miller, who believed that the producer and not the singer was in charge of a recording, applied his authority. Still, together they achieved grand success.

By mid-1951, Mr. Bennett had his first No. 1 hit, “Because of You.” That same year, his version of the Hank Williams ballad “Cold, Cold Heart” also hit No. 1; three years after Williams died in 1953, Mr. Bennett performed it in his honor at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

Other trademark songs followed: “Rags to Riches” in 1953; “Stranger in Paradise,” from the Broadway show “Kismet,” also in 1953; Jule Styne, Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s “Just in Time,” from the show “Bells Are Ringing,” in 1956. That same year, Mr. Bennett was host of his own television variety show, a summer replacement for a similar show that starred another popular Italian American crooner, Perry Como. In 1958, he recorded two albums with the Count Basie band, introducing him to the jazz audience.

In the 1950s, Mr. Bennett toured for the first time, played Las Vegas for the first time and got married for the first time, to Patricia Beech, a fan who had seen him perform in Cleveland. The marriage would flounder in the 1960s, overwhelmed by Mr. Bennett’s perpetual touring, but their two sons would end up playing roles in Mr. Bennett’s career: the older one, D’Andrea, known as Danny, became his father’s manager, and Daegal, known as Dae, became a music producer and recording engineer.

In July 1961, Mr. Bennett was performing in Hot Springs, Ark., and about to head to the West Coast when Ralph Sharon, his longtime pianist, played him a song written by George Cory and Douglass Cross that had been moldering in a drawer for two years. Mr. Sharon and Mr. Bennett decided that it would be perfect for their next date, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, and it was.

They recorded the song — of course it was “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” — six months later, in January 1962. It won Mr. Bennett his first two Grammys, for best male solo performance and record of the year, and worldwide fame. In “The Good Life,” he wrote that he was often asked if he ever tired of singing it.

“I answer, ‘Do you ever get tired of making love?’” he wrote.

Just five months later, Mr. Bennett performed at Carnegie Hall with Mr. Sharon and a small orchestra. He got sensational reviews — though The Times’s was measured — and the recording of the concert is now considered a classic.

But as the 1960s proceeded and rock ’n’ roll became dominant, Mr. Bennett’s popularity began to slip. In 1969, he succumbed to the pressure of the new president of Columbia Records, Clive Davis, to record his versions of contemporary songs, and the result, “Tony Sings the Great Hits of Today!” — including the Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and “Something” — was a musical calamity, a record that Mr. Bennett would later tell an interviewer made him vomit.

His relationship with Columbia soured further and finally ended, and by the middle of the 1970s Mr. Bennett had formed his own company, Improv Records, on which he recorded the first of two of his most critically admired albums, duets with the jazz pianist Bill Evans. (The second one was released on Evans’s label, Fantasy.) Together the two opened the Newport Jazz Festival, which had moved to New York, at Carnegie Hall in 1976.

Improv went out of business in 1977, and without a recording contract Mr. Bennett relied more and more on Las Vegas, then in decline, for regular work. His mother died that year, and the profligate life he had been living in Beverly Hills caught up with him; the Internal Revenue Service was threatening to take his house. His second marriage, a tumultuous one to the actress Sandra Grant, collapsed — she would later say that she would have been better off if she had married her previous boyfriend, Joe DiMaggio — and he had begun using marijuana and cocaine heavily.

One day in 1979, high and in a panic, he took a bath to calm down and nearly died in the tub. In later years he would play down the seriousness of the event, but he wrote about it in “The Good Life,” describing what he called a near-death experience: “A golden light enveloped me in a warm glow. It was quite peaceful; in fact, I had the sense that I was about to embark on a very compelling journey. But suddenly I was jolted out of the vision. The tub was overflowing and Sandra was standing above me. She’d heard the water running for too long, and when she came in I wasn’t breathing. She pounded on my chest and literally brought me back to life.”

Mr. Bennett turned to his older son for help. Danny Bennett took over the management of his career, aiming to have the American musical standards that were his strength, and his handling of them, perceived as hip by a new generation.

Somewhat surprisingly, the strategy took hold. An article in Spin magazine, which was founded in 1985, declared Mr. Bennett and James Brown as the two foremost influences on rock ’n’ roll, and the magazine followed up with a long, admiring profile.

A Career Revival

Encouraged by executive changes at Columbia Records, Mr. Bennett returned to the Columbia fold in 1985. The next year he released the album “The Art of Excellence.” WBCN in Boston became the first rock station to give it regular airplay. Released in the emerging CD format, it spurred the sales of Mr. Bennett’s back catalog as music fans began replacing their vinyl records with CDs.

In 1993, Mr. Bennett was a presenter, along with two members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, at MTV’s Video Music Awards. The next year he gave an hourlong performance for MTV’s “Unplugged” series, which included duets with K.D. Lang (with whom he would later tour) and Elvis Costello. The recording of the show won the Grammy for album of the year.

The revival of Mr. Bennett’s career was complete. Not only had he returned to the kind of popularity he had enjoyed 40 years earlier, but he had also been accepted by an entirely new audience.

He recorded albums that honored musicians he admired — Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday — and he collaborated on standards with singers half, or less than half, his age. On the 2006 album “Duets: An American Classic,” he sang “If I Ruled the World” with Ms. Dion, “Smile” with Barbra Streisand and “For Once in My Life” with Stevie Wonder, and revisited his first Columbia single, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” with Sting. Five years later, on “Duets II,” his collaborators included Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, Willie Nelson and Ms. Winehouse.

As the century changed, he was once again touring, giving up to 200 performances a year, and recording prolifically.

In 2007 Mr. Bennett married a third time, to his longtime companion, Susan Crow, a teacher four decades his junior whom he had met in the late 1980s. Together they started a foundation, Exploring the Arts, that supports arts education in schools, and financed the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, a public high school in Queens.

Mr. Bennett had lived in the same Manhattan apartment, where he died, for most of his adult life, except for a few years in Los Angeles and London, Ms. Weiner, his publicist, said. He is survived by his wife; his sons, Danny and Dae; his daughters, Johanna and Antonia Bennett; and 9 grandchildren.

If there was a magical quality to Mr. Bennett’s life, as suggested by David Evanier in a glowing 2011 biography, “All the Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett,” it is encapsulated by a story Mr. Bennett told to Whitney Balliett in 1974.

“I like the funny things in life that could only happen to me now,” he said. “Once, when I was singing Kurt Weill’s ‘Lost in the Stars’ in the Hollywood Bowl with Basie’s band and Buddy Rich on drums, a shooting star went falling through the sky right over my head and everyone was talking about it, and the next morning the phone rang and it was Ray Charles, who I’d never met, calling from New York. He said, ‘Hey, Tony, how’d you do that, man?’ and hung up.”

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Fortunato Durutti Marinetti

Beginning with 2020’s Desire, a self-released cassette, Toronto-based, Turin-born Daniel Colussi, has explored his “poetic jazz rock” (Colussi’s own apt coinage) across three releases under the moniker Fortunato Durutti Marinetti. The instrumentals flow and waver: now flashes of synthesizer keys or strings; now an inquisitive, lightly warped guitar line — the music floats then jumps but never rushes. His vocals — and lyrics — recall stated 1970s influences like Lou Reed or a spoken-word Robert Wyatt, but also Leonard Cohen or, more contemporarily, Destroyer’s Dan Bejar. Alex Johnson found Colussi’s latest release, Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean, “engrossing — although not always comfortably…a record that rewards the delayering effect of multiple listens.”

Gary Zhexi Zhang — “The Tourist”

Zhang’s documentary ostensibly tells the story of Ali Sultan Issa, who led Zanzibar’s independence from Britain in 1963. Issa is a totally fascinating and complicated Zelig-like figure who seemed to be present for every revolutionary moment in the middle of the century. He hung out with Castro, Mao and also the CIA. I can’t believe how effectively and delicately Zhang is able to tell what a massive story about empire is — de-colonization, the optimism of mid-twentieth century socialist movements and the brutal 80s neoliberal response. This film also introduced me to the song “Super Snooper”by 1970s Italo disco crew La Bionda.

Annette Peacock — Unsung Heroine

A 12-minute doc on Annette Peacock circa 2000, as she recorded with a string quartet in Oslo for ECM. It’s not the most celebrated era of her career, but An Acrobat’s Heart is an interesting album of smoldering baroque torch songs. There’s great-to-see footage of her walking around Oslo in leather pants and also, it’s great to hear her speaking voice, which has that classic US drawl of an artist who’s lived through decades of chaos.

DJ Voices — Hemlock Nights @ Honcho Campout 2023

When NYC’s DJ Voices came to Toronto last summer my crew and I danced our asses off all night long. It was a good night and I’m glad it happened.

Lou Sheppard with Pamela Hart — Rights Of Passage

A beautiful, smart record that uses the metaphor of a river’s legal right to flow (riparian rights) to talk about property vs. public space, control of and access to resources and forms of enclosure. The record is also about queerness, and how queerness is or is not permitted to exist within particular defined spaces. This record is technically a sister artifact to Lou’s video/sound installation at the Art Gallery of York University, but it works totally well on its own as a gorgeous LP.

Ed Gray — Different Drummer : Elvin Jones

1979 documentary on Elvin Jones — a weird period for him. I think like most people, I know him primarily through his 1960s albums with John Coltrane. This doc has beautiful footage of Elvin hanging out with his family in the backyard as well as him in the studio describing his relationship to the cymbals in terms of different colors — chromesthesia. I also like his sleazy late 70s style — white leather loafers, a mesh shirt and a cigarette dangling as he absolutely shreds on his kit.

Elvis Presley — Unchained Melody (Rapid City June 21, 1977)

An insane document of Elvis in the very final throes of his imperial era. His banter is barely intelligible. Coca Cola cups scattered everywhere. Everyone in the band is sweaty and hairy. Wide bellbottoms all around. A middle-aged stagehand (who Elvis refers to as “son”) awkwardly holds the mic up to Elvis. Rising out of all this confusion, Elvis begins an extremely personal rendition of this Righteous Brothers song. There are pregnant pauses, as if he loses his place in the song, and there is no consistent tempo until the band kicks in, at which point all of Rapid City levitates into outer space. And two months later, Elvis was dead.

The Invisible Committee — The Coming Insurrection

In his Dusted review of my album, Alex Johnson singled out the words and language in my song “Smash Your Head Against The Wall.” When I think back to writing that song, I think of reading The Invisible Committee’s The Coming Insurrection. Their language is totally polemic and fiery and outrageous, but purposely and with intent. Oftentimes they’re playing with that caricatured idea of “the radical left.” Not everyone appreciates this approach: apparently it freaked out US neocon broadcaster Glenn Beck enough that he warned his followers about this book’s evil. My copy has many underlined passages that I return to again and again for guidance and inspiration.

Bruford — Back To The Beginning (Rock Goes To College, March 17th, 1979)

Annette Peacock’s second appearance on this list — too much? In this performance she casually strolls into the Bruford zone to provide some female levity to this otherwise brutally nervous and sweaty prog rock crew. There’s a strong argument that this song sucks because it suffers from that thing of prog/jazz virtuosos trying to play basic heavy rock and failing because they’re too good. But I think it’s awesome, especially when Annette lets her raincoat theatrically drop to the floor to indicate that she has officially assumed control of the proceedings.

Joni Mitchell — In France They Kiss On Main Street (Santa Barbara Bowl, 1979)

I like this era because it captures Joni just as she’s really alienating the majority of her audience by desecrating her folk-rock legacy via fully embracing smoothed out jazz fusion tones. She’s playing with a squad of absolute rippers: Metheny, Pastorius, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker and Don Alias. Everyone is at the top of their game; everyone is in the zone. I like this ferocious live version of this song better than the studio version.

Tindersticks — The Ballad of Tindersticks (2 Meter Sessions, June 7, 1997)

For me Tindersticks are a deep well of inspiration, to which I can continually return for sustenance, guidance and nourishing refreshment. I love it all: the early baroque albums, the mid period soul albums, the soundtracks, the solo records. I think their last record was phenomenal. They are masters of subtly adjusting their songwriting as a way of unlocking vast new territories to explore. They make it all their own. I pick this particular clip because I like how the entire band is sweating profusely.

[gyunikum]

Hei, I´m looking for book recommendations for my book haul.

So far I got a classic, a non-fiction book, a modern classic and a finnish book translated into English.

You got anything funny or horror-related in mind you can recommend? Or a book you think everyone should read?

Would appreciate some input <3

Ohhh. For horror, I should recommend any of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. The prose is quite challenging to read, but the atmosphere is exceptional. And they should be taken at face value, no reason to go into the author's ideals and such.

Other than that, the books I would recommend with clear conscience are fantasy books, solely for the fact that these books I can still remember lol

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames (it's quite funny compared to the below two)

Ravencry by Ed Macdonald (the world building is insanely genius, this is my favourite, I wish someone would make a video game out of it)

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Sacred And Terrible Air by Robert Kurvitz (originally in Estonian, but enthusiastic fans translated it into English. There actually is a video game set in the same world, which I also recommend playing even if you're not into video games. It's a point and click detective role playing game with unique style and lots of witty dialogues)

Thanks for the ask! May I ask what books you have on your list already?

[c-40]

A-T-5 010 DJ Cheese

Word Of Mouth featuring DJ Cheese - King Kut

Dj Cheese (Robert Cheese) won the inaugural DMC World DJ Championship in London in 1986. 'An unhappy runner-up, Holland's Orlando Voorn grabbed the mic from the events MC and founder Tony Prince and bellowed the immortal word's "What is this, a Mixing Competition or a Scratching Competition?"' It was DMC's 2nd DJ convention. Dj Cheese introducing scratching put DMC on the trajectory of becoming the oscars of turntablism

DMC's Tony Price first met DJ Cheese at the 1984 New Music Seminar in New York. At the seminal DJ Cheese had won the DJ Battle for World Supremacy. He grew up in New Jersey so this made him the first non-NYC DJ to win the title

DJ Cheese also caught the attention of Ed Fletcher aka Duke Bootee. Duke Bootee, who at the time was a session musician for Sugarhill Records, made a demo in his basement which would be released as "The Message" in 1982. Duke Bootee wanted to release the track himself but Sylvia Robinson had other ideas. Anyway that's another story. Duke Bootee set up his own label Beauty And The Beat. DJ Cheese is the DJ on the first and third releases on this label (I have no idea what the second release BAB 102 is. Word Of Mouth's "Coast To Coast" single?)

BAB 101 is "King Tut" by Word Of Mouth featuring DJ Cheese. This was picked up by Profile Records

BAB 103 is "Triple Threat" by Z-3 MC's which doesn't credit DJ Cheese but that's him on there

Both are classics produced by Duke Bootee and edited by the Latin Rascals

Z-3 MC's - Triple Threat

Following the success of Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Steve Van Zandt and Arthur Baker put together a similar styled group to protest South-African apartheid. Duke Bootee and DJ Cheese were both involved. DJ Cheese's turntable skills are prominent on all versions of the track "Let Me See Your I.D." Also involved in the project were Duke Bootee's fellow Sugarhill Band musicians Doug Wimbish, Bernard Alexander, and Keith LeBlanc. These three had already begun working with Adrian Sherwood on their Fat's Comet/Tackhead/Maffia projects. Fat's Comet/Tackhead sessions with DJ Cheese would be released in 1986

According to a post on Discogs ""Let me see your ID" features: Afrika Bambaataa, Melle Mel, Gil Scott-Heron, DJ Cheese, Duke Bootee,  Kurtis Blow, Scorpio (Furious 5), Fat Boys (Rap & Beatbox), Tina B, Jimmy Cliff, Malopoets, Sonny Okosuns, Ray Barretto, Peter Garrett, Miles Davis, Ben Newberry, Annie Brody Dutka, Richard Scher, Doug Wimbish, Keith Leblanc and of course Steve van Zandt aka Little Steven. Mixing engineers: Arthur Baker, Chris Lord-Alge, Aldo Marin & Jay Burnett. Editing by Aldo Marin, Keith Leblanc & Albert Cabrera (Latin Rascals)"

Artists United Against Apartheid - Let Me See Your I.D. (Beat And Scratch)

Word Of Mouth featuring DJ Cheese - King Kut (Latin Rascals Instrumental) which appears on the Belgian 12"

[bobbie-robron]

Please, Rob. You’re the only one around here that don’t treat me like a kid.

Two filler scenes for the episode as Debbie persuades Robert to buy her (and Jasmine) liquor using money she provides. The next is Scott and Robert chatting about the garage when Zoe’s court case is in progress.

06-Sep-2005

[luckyspike]

Spike's 2025 Reading List!

Well well well, January 3 and here we are, starting a new list! I thought the first book of this year would actually make it onto the 2024 list, but things got busy as they do and I didn't quite have time to finish it before the year rolled over.

But no matter! We're here now, and kicking off my list of 2025 books, both printed and audio. On this list I try to keep a record of what I've read, a few of my thoughts about it, and I assign each book an arbitrary rating based on, idk, my vibes I guess. In the case of audiobooks, I try not to remark on the performance or let that skew my perspective of the book, but it's kind of unavoidable with that particular medium. As a rule of thumb, I like to read printed fiction and listen to non-fiction, but this year I am going to make a note of the books which I listened to versus read.

If you want to look back at 2024's list, please click here.

And now, without further ado ...

The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson - Well we're starting off with a doozy! This was a really, really fascinating book. I love spooky stories, and this one definitely fits that bill, but furthermore it's a very cool study of the main character's psychology. I tried to watch the Netflix show before I read the book and didn't much like it, and that almost turned me off from the book, but it came very highly recommended and I'm glad I gave it a chance. Super book, would definitely recommend if you like spooky stories that are more introspective than action/adventure-based. 8/10

Into The Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, Wade Davis - The first non-fiction book of the year is back on the shelves, although not without reluctance to let it go! As prior reading lists would indicate I am a big fan of mountaineering books, and although this was long and dense, it was an excellent history of the earliest of the British Everest expeditions, including the people involved, the politics of Tibet and India, and how the backdrop of the end of WWI played into the push for extreme mountaineering and "conquering" the summit. I did this one on audiobook and the narrator was excellent, which is crucial for a long, dense book like this one. If you're interested in Everest, history, or early 20th-century exploration please check this book out! 7.5/10

First Lie Wins, Ashley Elston - My mom recommended this book to me in light of how much I enjoy mysteries, and although this was more of a thriller it was enjoyable regardless. It's not going to be the next American classic or anything, but it's well written, has interesting characters, and enough twists and turns to keep you turning the pages. 6/10

K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain, Ed Viesturs and David Roberts - Last year I read the most popular of Viesturs’ work, No Shortcuts to the Top, and enjoyed it thoroughly. This book wasn’t quite the same, being more of a history than a memoir, but it was still very interesting and I do really enjoy Viesturs style. It’s a history of various famous and infamous K2 expeditions, and goes into the triumphs and tragedies of the Holy Grail of high-altitude mountaineering; Viesturs draws on his own vast experience to comment on some of the pitfalls and mishaps throughout, which adds an element of personal interest. 6/10

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Dava Sobel - This was not a long(itude hahahahha) book, but boy did I enjoy it! It was recommended to me by a friend (hi Andy) and I’m so glad for it. I love books about old sailing adventures and voyages, and this particular book, while not about sailing specifically per se, was an intensely interesting tale of how perhaps one of the biggest sailing breakthroughs in centuries came to be. HIGHLY recommended for anyone who’s interested in early ocean voyages, geography, or the history of clockmaking. 8/10

The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher - This book was SPOOKY. And a page-turner! A really fun tale of the thin places in reality, monsters, and taxidermy. I very much enjoyed it from beginning to end, and am planning on investigating this authors other work as soon as I whittle down my to-read pile. A shout-out to Pratchett in the first chapter didn’t hurt either ;) Very much recommended for anyone who likes creepy supernatural books! 8/10

The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman - Immaculate. Wonderful characters, incredible mystery, and a light, funny tone threaded through the whole book that makes the pages fly by. I legitimately had a hard time putting it down, and can’t wait to read the next books in the series! 10/10

The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain - Mark Twain? You read it right. I dunno, just thought as much as I enjoy humor I should check out some of the classics. Now, are some of Twain’s observations pretty racist, especially by 2025 standards? Absolutely. But also, are some of his experiences and observations about traveling abroad hilarious and timeless? Also absolutely. (The shaving mishaps killed me every time). This was an audiobook for me, and as much as I enjoyed the humor and the story, the performance was also absolutely perfect for the book. 9/10

[docrotten]

EARTH VS. THE SPIDER (1958) – Episode 193 – Decades of Horror: The Classic Era

“Bring your bug juice and let’s go!” Wait. Are spiders bugs? Shouldn’t they be using spider juice? Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, Chad Hunt, Doc Rotten, and Jeff Mohr – as they figure out which juice should be used against the giant creature in Earth vs. the Spider (1958)!

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 193 – Earth vs. the Spider (1958)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

Teenagers from a rural community and their high school science teacher join forces to battle a giant mutant spider.

Directed by: Bert I. Gordon

Writing Credits: (screenplay by) László Görög (as Laszlo Gorog) and George Worthing Yates; (story by) Bert I. Gordon

Produced by: Samuel Z. Arkoff (executive producer), James H. Nicholson (executive producer), Bert I. Gordon (producer), Henry Schrage (assistant producer)

Music by: Albert Glasser

Cinematography by: Jack A. Marta (director of photography) (as Jack Marta)

Selected Cast:

Ed Kemmer as Professor Art Kingman

June Kenney as Carol Flynn

Eugene Persson as Mike Simpson (as Gene Persson)

Gene Roth as Sheriff Cagle

Hal Torey as Mr. Simpson

June Jocelyn as Mrs. Jack Flynn

Mickey Finn as Sam Haskel

Sally Fraser as Mrs. Helen Kingman

Troy Patterson as Joe

Skip Young as Sam the Bass Player

Howard Wright as Jake

Bill Giorgio as Deputy Sheriff Pete Sanders

Hank Patterson as Hugo the Janitor

Jack Kosslyn as Mr. Fraser

Bob Garnet as Pest Control Man

Shirley Falls as Switchboard Operator

Robert Tetrick as Deputy Sheriff Dave (as Bob Tetrick)

Nancy Kilgas as Dancer

George Stanley as Man in Cavern

David Tomack as Power Line Foreman

Merritt Stone as Jack Flynn

James Burton as Teenager in Band (uncredited)

Dick D’Agostin as Pianist (uncredited)

The Classic Era Grue Crew go B-I-G for this episode! Yes, it’s time for some Bert I. Gordon! For the Decades of Horror’s fourth excursion into BIG territory, the crew crawls all over Earth vs. the Spider (1958), also known as The Spider. Gordon uses his usual visual effects techniques to achieve the “50 tons of creeping black horror” as advertised, and, as usual, scales may vary. Gordon gets an assist from Paul Blaisdell with a hairy spider leg and a desiccated body. Throw in a fearless high school girl and her dumb boyfriend, their 35-year-old classmate, their science teacher, a goofy sheriff, and a brawny construction foreman, and viewers get exactly what they expect in a B.I.G. extravaganza. What a fun talkabout!

At the time of this writing, Earth vs. the Spider (1958) is available to stream from the Classic Sci-Fi Movie Channel, the Classic Horror Movie Channel, Wicked Horror TV, Shudder, AMC+, Prime, Tubi, and Crackle. The film is available on physical media as a Blu-ray disc from Shout Factory. 

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Next in their very flexible schedule – this one chosen by Chad – is Them! (1954). The Classic Era Grue Crew is on a big-bug-roll and this might be the granddaddy of them all!

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com

To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[e-dress]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Video SCHOLASTIC Storybook Treasures DVD collection Set of 7.

[danzameccanica]

Finalmente dopo sei o sette anni di attesa esce per XL recordings il debut di Peggy Gou. Tutti attendevano alla prova discografica la DJ più quotata, chiacchierata e criticata del pianeta... Da quando uscì quella bomba di "It Makes You Forget" (brano che per un paio di anni è stato passato in ogni discoteca) tutti hanno puntato gli occhi e i riflettori sulla nostra anglo-coreana in questione Ha fatto il botto, ha iniziato a fare il giro del mondo più volte con artisti sempre più eterogenei (forse troppo) tanto che difficilmente si poteva delineare una linea conduttrice di stile o vicinanza stilistica. Diventata modella, influencer, volto sexy e malinconico che meglio si adatta alla musica elettronica di oggi: fluida, senza confini, sperimentatrice… insomma, Nina Kravitz è stata scalzata. Fin da subito i dubbi sulla sua persona(lità) e professionalità sono stati tanti: chi parlava di personaggio costruito a tavolino, chi parlava di produttori che componessero per lei. C’è da dire che all’inizio si avvertiva davvero il baratro qualitativo che stava fra le uscite discografiche e le sue performance live, con dj set davvero troppo techno, rave e tirati… Poi ancora il botto, "It goes like (nanana)" è stato il tormentone indiscusso dell’estate 2023, mandato davvero dappertutto, da Domenica In al Bologna Pride passando per le palestre Performance fino agli eventi dell’Audi in piazza. Il famoso troppo che stroppia. Però devo ammettere che la prima settimana nella quale uscì il singolone, tutti siamo stati travolti della sua carica e orecchiabilità… e soprattutto dalle puntuali e quasi spudorate citazioni dalla house music di fine anni ’90 primi 2000.

ATB ha sdoganato al grande pubblico il synth principale e Peggy Gou l’ha ripreso dicendo chiaramente che il suo album si rifà a quegli anni e a quelle sonorità. Il cantato si alterna fra inglese e coreano: "Back to One" è una classic house track in stile "It Makes You Forget" tanto che ricalca la stessa metrica e lo stesso climax. "Lobster Telephone" è un altro potenziale singolo riempipista che cita gli ATC di "Around the World" un pelo più nella rave music. "I Go" (altro singolo dell’album) è vagamente più balearico ed è stato l’ennesimo brano che ha confermato la qualità di queste composizioni (il synth è spettacolare e il remix dei Soulwax ancora di più). Poi anche quello che sta in mezzo fra i maggiori brani dance e conosciuti vale la pena di essere citato. "1+1=11" ha qualche sentore di Robert Miles; "I Believe in Love Again" (con Lenny Kravitz) vede uno stravagante mix fra i synth dei Soulsearcher e il trip-hop alla Bedtime Stories o alla Seal. Davvero gradevole anche "All That" (con il cantato in spagnolo di Villano Antillano), ancora di fattura R’n’B primi anni 2000 (qualcuno ha detto Kevin Lyttle ?). "Seoulsi Peggygou" è un brano folk suonato col gayageum su base jungle; "Purple Horizon" richiama i mostri sacri Tricky e Massive Attack. Quindi anche se l’avvocato del diabolo volesse ancora insinuare l’autenticità dell’artista Peggy Gou dovrebbe ad ogni modo accettare l’ottima fattura di questo prodotto che cita, prende e riadatta (ma d’altronde la radice etimologica di “recitare” non è “citare da…” ?!?) tanti elementi della house music di trent’anni fa e la ripropone ottimamente in questo modalità revival-nostalgia.

[chorusfm]

Taylor Swift Dominates the Charts

Taylor Swift’s latest is the second biggest opening week in recorded history. The Tortured Poets Department racked up 2.61 million units in its first week, including 1.914 million physical sales. Taylor Swift’s 11th full-length studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, shattered countless records upon release. Notably, “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone has landed on top of the Billboard Hot 100 this week. “Fortnight” becomes Taylor’s 7th Billboard Hot 100 #1 debut, and her 12th overall #1 on the chart.    See below for other key highlights and listen to The Tortured Poets Department — HERE.    The Tortured Poets Department Highlights: Only artist to ever hold the entire top 14 on the Hot 100 Breaks record for most consecutive new albums with a Hot 100 #1 hit (8) Breaks record for most simultaneous Hot 100 debuts (31) All songs from The Tortured Poets Department debut top 55 Only artist to ever hold the entire top 10 on the Hot 100 twice Ties for most #1 hits on the Hot 100 this decade First female artist to earn at least 50 top 10 hits on Hot 100 First female artist with twelve #1 hits on the Hot 100 and twelve #1 albums on the Billboard 200.    WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT The Tortured Poets Department   “5 Stars” - Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield   “Instant Classic” - Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield   “The Tortured Poets Department combines the intimacy of Folklore and Evermore with the synth-pop gloss of Midnights to create music that's wildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic” - Rolling Stone, Rob Sheffield   “5 Stars” - Helen Brown, The Independent   “With its playful narratives and hooks like anchors, Swift’s 11th studio album is a terrific reminder of her storytelling powers” - The Independent, Helen Brown   “The whole album is a terrific reminder of the intense, personal connection Swift can conjure in song. She fills arenas and dominates the news agenda because listeners can relate to her starry dramas – her tales endow their own experiences with new electricity…Her ability to put her lines over is as compelling as ever. I defy anyone not to lean into Swift’s concisely charged storytelling.” - The Independent, Helen Brown   “5 Stars” - The Times, Will Hodgkinson    “The Tortured Poets Department is an ultra-confident, ballad-heavy, poetic yet grounded reflection on love in all its forms: destructive, blissful, fantastical, embittered and idealised. And although plenty of the scenarios are imagined, these poetic visions of love’s tangled strands come alive because they are grounded in real feelings.” - The Times, Will Hodgkinson   “5 Stars” - The Sunday Times, Dan Cairns   “Again and again the songs hit the mark, as rich and concise as a great short story collection and, as ever with Swift, conjuring a scene in an instant.” - The Sunday Times, Dan Cairns   “5 Stars” - iNews, Ed Power   “The Tortured Poets Department is an aesthetic triumph – who knew books and sad bangers could go together so well? But more than that it is a new chapter in Swift’s ongoing quest for pop perfection and a record brimming with moments to beguile fans new and old.” - iNews, Ed Power   “5 Stars” - The Arts Desk, Ellie Roberts   “Taylor Swift has once again alchemised pain and criticism into art, surpassing her own already astronomical influence on the music industry with an artefact that deserves to be celebrated forever.” - The Arts Desk, Ellie Roberts   “Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets' is hauntingly brilliant” - USA Today, Melissa Ruggieri   “Taylor Swift’s vulnerability is her superpower.” - USA Today, Melissa Ruggieri     “‘I Can Do it With a Broken Heart’ is one of Swift’s best Trojan horses” - USA Today, Melissa Ruggieri    “...her 11th album feels like a bloodletting: A cathartic purge after a major heartbreak delivered through an ascendant vocal run, an elegiac verse, or mobile, synthesized productions that underscore the powers of Swift’s storytelling.” - AP News, Maria Sherman    ““Clara Bow” enters the pantheon of great final tracks on a Swift album.” - AP… https://chorus.fm/news/taylor-swift-dominates-the-charts-2/