Reviews by irenzero
I vividly recall being in a local record shop on June 29, 1992 poking around and spotting the Singles Soundtrack on the new releases rack. My friends and I promptly took copies to the counter where we were informed that the record wouldn’t go on sale until the next day. We grumbled about the store staff having I put them out when they were not yet for sale and left. The next day we dutifully stopping into one of the other many record shops in town to pick copies on CD.
This was the first listen any of us had of what Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam might have to offer us with their next albums, which we were all waiting for. We also got to hear other bands from that scene. The Soundtrack would go on to sell millions and not only served as a primer for the Seattle Scene, but was also a mainstream introduction of; The Screaming Trees, Mother Love Bone and Mudhoney to many listeners.
Singles might be the single greatest soundtrack to feature then contemporary music, which not only had it’s pulse on the music of the moment moving from the underground to the mainstream, but also highlights the time and place where the film took place. The music was included in the film not only as score elements, but as in film music. It also set off a crush of film soundtracks that were more like compilations.
The moment when the album arrived the music world was changing. The hair metal and boy band pop that had dominated the recent charts was washed away in a flood grunge (a mix of metal, punk and indie rock). This was music that wasn’t afraid of the dark side of life that was seeping into the reality of generation X as they started to enter the work force.
The song titles are like Film Music Cues: Breath, Would?, Overblown, State of Love and Trust, Drown. They act that way though out the film as well, but also stand on their own. The passage of time has only deepened their emotional impact. In hide sight, songs like Nearly Lost You (by the amazing Screaming Trees, even if you are not a fan of the era or Seattle music scene you owe it to yourself to check out their major label albums), Mudhoney’s Overblown and especially Would? By Alice in Chains take on new meaning and heft.
We should take a moment here to remember the passing of Layne Staley from Alice in Chains, and Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone, but gone but not forgotten. I also think taking a moment for career of Chris Cornel of Soundgarden. His solo track Seasons pointed to a major career on his own, it’s just too bad that it never materialized.
It’s also a case where more people bought the soundtrack than saw the film, it served also to highlight the change in the music scene at that moment, and holds up to this day…. Which begs the question, where is the deluxe reissue, the 180 gram vinyl with the dialog clips and full liner notes? At the very least I recommend everyone that has a copy collecting dust somewhere pull it out and give it a spin.
This was the first listen any of us had of what Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam might have to offer us with their next albums, which we were all waiting for. We also got to hear other bands from that scene. The Soundtrack would go on to sell millions and not only served as a primer for the Seattle Scene, but was also a mainstream introduction of; The Screaming Trees, Mother Love Bone and Mudhoney to many listeners.
Singles might be the single greatest soundtrack to feature then contemporary music, which not only had it’s pulse on the music of the moment moving from the underground to the mainstream, but also highlights the time and place where the film took place. The music was included in the film not only as score elements, but as in film music. It also set off a crush of film soundtracks that were more like compilations.
The moment when the album arrived the music world was changing. The hair metal and boy band pop that had dominated the recent charts was washed away in a flood grunge (a mix of metal, punk and indie rock). This was music that wasn’t afraid of the dark side of life that was seeping into the reality of generation X as they started to enter the work force.
The song titles are like Film Music Cues: Breath, Would?, Overblown, State of Love and Trust, Drown. They act that way though out the film as well, but also stand on their own. The passage of time has only deepened their emotional impact. In hide sight, songs like Nearly Lost You (by the amazing Screaming Trees, even if you are not a fan of the era or Seattle music scene you owe it to yourself to check out their major label albums), Mudhoney’s Overblown and especially Would? By Alice in Chains take on new meaning and heft.
We should take a moment here to remember the passing of Layne Staley from Alice in Chains, and Andy Wood of Mother Love Bone, but gone but not forgotten. I also think taking a moment for career of Chris Cornel of Soundgarden. His solo track Seasons pointed to a major career on his own, it’s just too bad that it never materialized.
It’s also a case where more people bought the soundtrack than saw the film, it served also to highlight the change in the music scene at that moment, and holds up to this day…. Which begs the question, where is the deluxe reissue, the 180 gram vinyl with the dialog clips and full liner notes? At the very least I recommend everyone that has a copy collecting dust somewhere pull it out and give it a spin.
I had never read a Cain before this, I was aware of course of the great film based on the book, and had just watched it again and figured that I should check out the book. It’s short it’s more of a novella than a full-blown novel. Having seen the film, I am stuck with the improvements of the film over the book, mostly the addition of the snappy Chandler dialog and the cinematic changes of things like last names, clothing choices and even the streamlining of the story. All this is not to say that the book is a shabby read, it is a great noir that can be knocked off in a couple of hours and is well worth checking out.
“That’s the problem with insurance damage in never permanent ”
Robert Altman wasn’t always at the top if his game, but I think all his films are worth checking out at least once. While M*A*S*H, The Player, and Godsford Park are well thought of, it’s safe to say that O.C. & Stiggs will never be considered a master piece. It’s a film that I discovered as a teen and think that it might just be the most punk rock film ever made. Sure it’s a mess, but it has it’s moments and it has some the best scenes of managed chaos since the Marxx Brothers… all of that is not to say that it’s anywhere near the level of those films.
The plot is pretty simple; O.C. & Stiggs are a pair of Phoenix area high school Students trying to navigate the mid-80s landscape of Regan upwardly mobile America. At the start of the film they sneak into the backyard of the Shwab family, to make long distance international calls and tell their story to President Bongo of Gabon.
Essentially they have spent their summer being a thorn in the side of the Shawbs because, the husband is an insurance magnet, had canceled O.C.’s grandfathers retirement insurance. O.C.’s Gramps with out his insurance is headed for a nursing home and O.C. is about to be shipped off to live with an uncle in Arkansas.
In what was slated to be a teen sex comedy, Altman manages to skewer the neo-affluence, the oblivious parenting of the era, the right wing survivalist, the high school hi-jinks films and the stereotypes of homeless winos and Vietnam vets. The film also contains the Altman wandering camera, the overlapping dialog and ensemble cast he was known for. Paul Dooley, Jon Cryer and Jane Curtin all have big roles, but are far too often overshadowed by the smaller roles of; Ray Walston, Dennis Hopper, Martin Mull, a pre-Sex in the City Cynthia Nixon and one amazing scene with Bob Uker.
Like all good teen films of the time there is also an extended musical performance, only instead of getting what ever puffy haired New Wave one hit wonder, Altman brings in King Sunny Ade and his African Beats, a world music artist who after becoming a huge hit in his home land was being poised to be the next Bob Marley in the states by his record company. This of course never happened and King Sunny Ade never was able to make the step from the world music genre to the mainstream, which is really strange because watching his performance in the film he showcases everything that a cross over act needs. I have owned a couple of his records and none of them ever came close the magic and connection of his O.C. & Stiggs performance.
Fashion wise O.C. & Stiggs is a time capsule of tacky and misguided clothing choices all too often made by the rich and stupid, and it even plays a role in the film. Mr. Stiggs starts off with sunglasses with those side cover things that you would think are only legal while transversing the deserts of Africa; on the other hand this film is set in a desert. Of course there is also the suits they wear when purchasing their car, and then the whole business with the Afro-Dizzy-yacks… witch I won’t go into, other than to say Martin Mull almost steals the film with his intro of ‘Girls if you need clothes, and you don’t here….” Line right before he offers O.C. and Stiggs cups of brown rum with the line ‘ Double or Triple, there’s no Singles here”.
I have to fess up and say that this film holds a very nostalgic place in my life. It was something that my friends and I all discovered because we were fans of Jon Cryer and were on a mission to track down all of his films. Of course he has a small role in this film, that’s everything that someone like Ducky from Pretty in Pink, or Grant from Dudes, or even Morgan Stewart from Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home isn’t…. but the magic of a film that was seeing though all the bullshit in the teen flicks of the era meant something to me and to my circle of friends. We were smart enough to know that there was a lot of hollow, debt ridden, compromised lives out there pretending that everything was ok, and this film affirmed that.
O.C & Stiggs was featured on the Onion A.V. Club's My Year of Flops
Robert Altman wasn’t always at the top if his game, but I think all his films are worth checking out at least once. While M*A*S*H, The Player, and Godsford Park are well thought of, it’s safe to say that O.C. & Stiggs will never be considered a master piece. It’s a film that I discovered as a teen and think that it might just be the most punk rock film ever made. Sure it’s a mess, but it has it’s moments and it has some the best scenes of managed chaos since the Marxx Brothers… all of that is not to say that it’s anywhere near the level of those films.
The plot is pretty simple; O.C. & Stiggs are a pair of Phoenix area high school Students trying to navigate the mid-80s landscape of Regan upwardly mobile America. At the start of the film they sneak into the backyard of the Shwab family, to make long distance international calls and tell their story to President Bongo of Gabon.
Essentially they have spent their summer being a thorn in the side of the Shawbs because, the husband is an insurance magnet, had canceled O.C.’s grandfathers retirement insurance. O.C.’s Gramps with out his insurance is headed for a nursing home and O.C. is about to be shipped off to live with an uncle in Arkansas.
In what was slated to be a teen sex comedy, Altman manages to skewer the neo-affluence, the oblivious parenting of the era, the right wing survivalist, the high school hi-jinks films and the stereotypes of homeless winos and Vietnam vets. The film also contains the Altman wandering camera, the overlapping dialog and ensemble cast he was known for. Paul Dooley, Jon Cryer and Jane Curtin all have big roles, but are far too often overshadowed by the smaller roles of; Ray Walston, Dennis Hopper, Martin Mull, a pre-Sex in the City Cynthia Nixon and one amazing scene with Bob Uker.
Like all good teen films of the time there is also an extended musical performance, only instead of getting what ever puffy haired New Wave one hit wonder, Altman brings in King Sunny Ade and his African Beats, a world music artist who after becoming a huge hit in his home land was being poised to be the next Bob Marley in the states by his record company. This of course never happened and King Sunny Ade never was able to make the step from the world music genre to the mainstream, which is really strange because watching his performance in the film he showcases everything that a cross over act needs. I have owned a couple of his records and none of them ever came close the magic and connection of his O.C. & Stiggs performance.
Fashion wise O.C. & Stiggs is a time capsule of tacky and misguided clothing choices all too often made by the rich and stupid, and it even plays a role in the film. Mr. Stiggs starts off with sunglasses with those side cover things that you would think are only legal while transversing the deserts of Africa; on the other hand this film is set in a desert. Of course there is also the suits they wear when purchasing their car, and then the whole business with the Afro-Dizzy-yacks… witch I won’t go into, other than to say Martin Mull almost steals the film with his intro of ‘Girls if you need clothes, and you don’t here….” Line right before he offers O.C. and Stiggs cups of brown rum with the line ‘ Double or Triple, there’s no Singles here”.
I have to fess up and say that this film holds a very nostalgic place in my life. It was something that my friends and I all discovered because we were fans of Jon Cryer and were on a mission to track down all of his films. Of course he has a small role in this film, that’s everything that someone like Ducky from Pretty in Pink, or Grant from Dudes, or even Morgan Stewart from Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home isn’t…. but the magic of a film that was seeing though all the bullshit in the teen flicks of the era meant something to me and to my circle of friends. We were smart enough to know that there was a lot of hollow, debt ridden, compromised lives out there pretending that everything was ok, and this film affirmed that.
O.C & Stiggs was featured on the Onion A.V. Club's My Year of Flops
Gores past away at the end of Jan 2011, and there were flurry Friday Forgotten Book entries in memory of him. I had only read his Spade and Archer at the time of his passing, but the first of his Dan Kearney and Associates(DKA) book Dead Skip has been hovering around the top of my To be Read Pile, and I had already planned on reading this year.
The story is the ultimate well worn first plot any one thinks of when you say mystery fiction…. in that it is set up, it’s a who-done-it. What makes it stand out is that features a real, professional detectives and focuses first on their day to day work doing repos and skip tracing.
Our lead in Dead Skip is Larry Ballard who steps up and attires to figure out who has attacked one of his co-workers. Backtracking the last couple of cases a a pool of suspects is generated, they are interviewed and eliminated as Ballard get’s closer and closer to figuring out what happened.
The writing is clean and direct and drives the plot along, keeping some suspense, but paying off questions raised in time. I really liked that Gores shows how long it takes to get answers, to follow up on leads and how no matter how good you are forgetting one little thing, or not following up on one lead can bollix the whole venture up, complicate things, and create more work for the investigator.
I need to take a moment here to talk about Richard Stark. Not only is he name dropped in the book, but his character Parker makes an appearance in the book, he helps to get some information and move the plot along. I haven’t read Plunder Squad yet, but apparently this chapter also appears in that book.
I liked the book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I also want to point out the great Art Nevo/ Art Deco covers on the Mysterious Press covers.
The story is the ultimate well worn first plot any one thinks of when you say mystery fiction…. in that it is set up, it’s a who-done-it. What makes it stand out is that features a real, professional detectives and focuses first on their day to day work doing repos and skip tracing.
Our lead in Dead Skip is Larry Ballard who steps up and attires to figure out who has attacked one of his co-workers. Backtracking the last couple of cases a a pool of suspects is generated, they are interviewed and eliminated as Ballard get’s closer and closer to figuring out what happened.
The writing is clean and direct and drives the plot along, keeping some suspense, but paying off questions raised in time. I really liked that Gores shows how long it takes to get answers, to follow up on leads and how no matter how good you are forgetting one little thing, or not following up on one lead can bollix the whole venture up, complicate things, and create more work for the investigator.
I need to take a moment here to talk about Richard Stark. Not only is he name dropped in the book, but his character Parker makes an appearance in the book, he helps to get some information and move the plot along. I haven’t read Plunder Squad yet, but apparently this chapter also appears in that book.
I liked the book and I look forward to reading the rest of the series. I also want to point out the great Art Nevo/ Art Deco covers on the Mysterious Press covers.
It’s been many a year since I have read a Cussler book, and longer since I felt one had the energy, drive and fun of this book. Part of a new series with Co-Writer Justin Scott, The Spy is part of the Van Dorn detective agency series, set in 1908 and dealing with the Dreadnaught race of the era, Isaac Bell – a top man with the agency – is on the trail of the titular Spy who has been causing chaos across the east coast (with a side trip to San Francisco). It’s a adventure that has been set in a time that often isn’t thought of as being a time of adventure. It have enjoyed the Book on CD presentation to the point that I am going to have to check out the first in the series, The Wrecker.
