Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

So You Like those Re-Cut Movie Trailers?

Rolling Stone has the best of 2006, and they're all here.

Where Are They Now?

YesButNoButYes has the scoop on Poster Girls of the '70s.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Yes, the new year begins in typical fashion. While you were watching Volver (or maybe Pan's Labyrinth) without subtitles and taking notes in Spanish, I was watching Talladega Nights. And, yes, I laughed. Quite a bit, in fact. When it comes to movies, I have no taste and no shame.

I'm not a big Will Farrell fan, and in fact I thought his cameo really brought down The Wedding Crashers. I've never seen Elf. I did like his George Bush impression, though, and I liked parts of Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy. And I liked Talladega Nights, too, in spite of the fact that none of the movie takes place at night. Maybe somebody just liked the title.

I figure about half this movie must have been improvised, but that's fine. Farrell, John C. Riley, and Sacha Baron Cohen are good at that sort of thing. There are no real characters, just caricatures, with Cohen's flamboyantly gay NASCAR driver leading the way. The story is the typical bio-pic arc, with the rise, the fall, and the return to glory, but it's just there to hang some outrageous gags on. I didn't care. I still thought it was funny. Sometime when you're in a goofy mood, check it out.

January Magazine's Best Books of 2006

Feature | Best Books of 2006

Once again, the editors of January Magazine are pleased to bring you our favorite books of the year we're just about to move out of. We've left things quite late again this time. We keep noticing that Best of compilations are getting earlier and earlier each year. After a while, this ceases to make sense. For once thing, if you publish your best of first, it's not possible to have read all the books that you feel should be in contention. So January's Best of list isn't the earliest. At all. In fact, coming as it does very nearly on the final day of the year, it should be the latest. The last word. I like that.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Bond, James Bond

Agité mais pas secoué, la France découvre James Bond - World - Times Online Dozens of distinguished academics are to meet in Paris on a mission to plug a yawning gap in French culture — the study of James Bond.

They will debate such topics as Bond’s influence on the British identity, on capitalism, geopolitics, gastronomy and sexuality. The intellectuals are to attend the three-day conference — organised by the French National Library, the universities of Nanterre and Versailles, and the European Centre for Audiovisual Writing — this month.

The organisers say that they hope to demonstrate that the spy is a legitimate subject for research and that Ian Fleming, his creator, is a notable literary figure. “Despite a few studies, largely Anglo-Saxon, James Bond literature does not seem to have received the scientific attention that it merits,” according to the Centre for Cultural History of Contemporary Societies at Versailles University.

Will the Persecution Never End (1st Paris Hilton Post of 2007!)

PARIS STIFFS 'EM - New York Post Online Edition: Seven
January 1, 2007 -- When you live in the world of Paris Hilton, maybe there really are free lunches. The hotel heiress pulled a brazen dine-and-dash yesterday after nibbling on a hamburger in Australia, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. Hilton also had a mineral water and frappe at Sloanes Café before she took off without paying $8. "She's got bucket loads of money and she didn't pay for her drinks," disgusted waitress Jo Pfahl said. While she couldn't be bothered to pay for lunch, Paris that same afternoon spent $2,200 at nearby Arianne Lingerie for stockings, jewelry, a camisole and bra. Paris has assets of about $30 million, while the Hilton-family empire has been valued at $1 billion, according to some estimates.

Texas Monthly Gets It. I Think.

Texas Monthly January 2007: Book Reviews

MURDER AMONG THE OWLS, the fourteenth offering in BILL CRIDER’s Sheriff Dan Rhodes Mystery series, has no literary conceits; it is nothing more—nor less—than a pleasant police procedural set in the sleepy burg of Clearview. This time out, Rhodes is faced with the apparent slip-and-fall death of seventyish neighbor Helen Harris. Not fooled by the upended stool and burned-out lightbulb, he “somehow [doesn’t] believe” it was an accident at all. The laconic lawman brings his dry wit and down-home sensibilities to bear on his investigation, pondering how Mrs. Harris’s cat, Sam, escaped the deceased woman’s house, interrogating the starchy members of her reading group (Older Women’s Literary Society, the “OWLS” of the title), and thwarting her unruly nephew Leo’s chain saw attack on her grieving beau, Alton Brant. One could fault Crider for the happy sheen he applies to the mystery genre, but that would be to miss the point entirely.

DJ Blast on the Oldies Superhighway

Those of you who remember Lloyd Thaxton (and maybe read his blog) might be interested in the two-part interview with him on DJ Blast's page on the oldies Superhighway. The interview won't be up forever, so check it out soon.

UFO in Chicago?

I suggest that they read my story in the book on the left if they want to know the true story of UFOs.

Chicago Tribune: It sounds like a tired joke--but a group of airline employees insist they are in earnest, and they are upset that neither their bosses nor the government will take them seriously.

A flying saucerlike object hovered low over O'Hare International Airport for several minutes before bolting through thick clouds with such intense energy that it left an eerie hole in overcast skies, said some United Airlines employees who observed the phenomenon.

Was it an alien spaceship? A weather balloon lost in the airspace over the world's second-busiest airport? A top-secret military craft? Or simply a reflection from lights that played a trick on the eyes?

Officials at United professed no knowledge of the Nov. 7 event--which was reported to the airline by as many as a dozen of its own workers--when the Tribune started asking questions recently. But the Federal Aviation Administration said its air traffic control tower at O'Hare did receive a call from a United supervisor asking if controllers had spotted a mysterious elliptical-shaped craft sitting motionless over Concourse C of the United terminal.

Steve Fisher

Woody Haut has an interesting post on Fisher's writing career on his blog today. Check it out.

I Always Suspected This

FBI Considered "It's A Wonderful Life" Communist Propaganda | Wise Bread

In 1947, . . the FBI considered this anti-cosumerist message as subversive Communist propaganda (read original FBI memo).

According to Professor John Noakes of Franklin and Marshall College, the FBI thought Life smeared American values such as wealth and free enterprise while glorifying anti-American values such as the triumph of the common man.

Thanks to Al (Hard Man) Guthrie for the link.

A Little Rockford Files Trivia for the New Year

"MR. MUSIC"

If the name Stuart Margolin, “Day After Day (It's Slippin' Away)” co-writer, rings a bell, it is likely from the years (1974-1979) he endeared himself to viewers of “The Rockford Files.”

For his portrayal of Angel Martin, Jim Rockford's (James Garner) exasperating crony, Margolin won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series — not once but twice, in 1979 and 1980.

He also wrote, directed, or acted in another 150 films, and either won or received a nomination for 11 top industry awards in various categories.

Composing music is another love of Stuart's, and over 100 of his songs have been recorded.

In 1980, as the last episodes of “The Rockford Files” aired, Margolin's first album came out (Warner Bros. K-3439), appropriately titled “And the Angel Sings.”

The 100 Most Annoying Things of 2006

retroCRUSH: The World's Greatest Pop Culture Site

Another year and another list of things that bugged the crap out of us. We've been doing this for six years, and our crack team of annoying specialists have uncovered a virtual bushel and peck of mind bendingly awful items for your annoying pleasure.

He's Ba-a-a-a-a-a-ck

TIME.com: O.J.'s Book: Back by Next Christmas? -- Page 1

O.J. Simpson's ill-fated homicidal fantasy If I Did It may yet see the light of day. One of the major publishing fiascos of 2006, the volume was abruptly pulled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. right before it was due to land on store shelves in late November, the victim of widespread public outrage. But the title itself, like a bad penny, may resurface, perhaps before the end of 2007.

With the exception of some copies pilfered from warehouses, the entire 400,000 print run of If I Did It — in which Simpson "hypothesized" how he would have killed his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman — was slated to be destroyed. As with most celebrity tell-all tales, however, Simpson's rights to the material will eventually revert back to him. Though the exact contractual language has not been made public, a source close to Simpson tells TIME that O.J. gets certain rights returned 12 months after the original publication date — which means he should be in a position to resell his book before next Christmas.

Several European publishers are said to be clamoring to print the story in their respective territories. Murdoch's high-profile rejection has only made the book more attractive.

Once Again, Texas Leads the Way

CHUD.com - Cinematic Happenings Under Development

Somewhere out there – possibly reading this very article – are the members of a most exclusive fraternity. These people (I think there may be three of them) may not know each other. They may not know they belong to such a tiny club. But they played a pivotal role in movie history: these people helped the Tom Sizemore and Katherine Heigl-starring movie Zyzzyx Road reach an astonishing 30 dollars at the domestic box office. That’s not a typo. I didn’t mean 30 million dollars. Or 300,000 dollars. Zyzzyx Road, released on February 25th of 2006, was released in one theater, where it played for six days and earned 30 dollars total.

The "one theater" was the Highland Park Village Theater in Dallas, Texas.

It's 2007 . . .

. . . and I find that pretty hard to believe. As my brother once said to me, "What happened to the 'eighties?" You young whippersnappers might still be lucky enough to find that time passes slowly, but you'll find out soon enough that it travels at nearly the speed of light. At any rate, Happy New Year to all. Before you know it, it will be 2008.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Little Miss Sunshine

This is a funny movie about a dysfunctional family that makes mine seem almost normal. It's essentially a road-trip movie that reminded me a lot of National Lampoon's Vacation in certain ways that it's probably best not to discuss; otherwise, I'd spoil some of the fun.

The trip ends not at Wally World but at the Little Miss Sunshine competition, an event as horrifying as anything I've seen in a movie in a long time. How Olive, the young girl in the family, ever got into such a competition in the first place is never explained. Oh, we know she won second prize in a previous competition, and that's not explained, either. I'd kind of like to know, given the way her Little Miss Sunshine bit goes.

A lot's not explained about the family, for that matter. It's more like they were assembled out of central casting and put together for the picture. Not that I cared. Every one of them is great. I especially liked Alan Arkin who talks a lot, and Paul Dano, who talks very little; but Toni Collette as the mother who tries to hold the crazy bunch together is fine, as is Greg Kinnear, the loser father who wants so much to be a winner. Steve Carell as the uncle is super. The real star of the picture, however, is Abigail Breslin, who deserves an Oscar nomination. She's just great.

Some of the scenes go on too long, especially the climactic one, but what the heck. I got a lot of laughs. Check it out.

The Year in Review

Everybody seems to like doing "year in review" posts. So I thought I'd give it a try. Here's a top ten list of random stuff:

1. Book that didn't do anything for me but everybody else loved: The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont.

2. Movie I most wanted to see but didn't: The Departed.

3. Topic I avoided entirely this year (well, except for once): Lindsay Lohan's nipples.

4. Favorite new TV series slogan: "Save the cheerleader, save the world."

5. Favorite publishers: Stark House and Hard Case Crime.

6. Best paperback writer news: Stark House will be publishing a brand-new Gil Brewer novel.

7. Year's major disaster here in the office: bookshelf collapse. (Any year when this is the worst that happens is a good year.)

8. Person I did the most posts about: Either Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole Smith. I'm too lazy to count, but it's bound to be one or the other. Or maybe it was a tie.

9. Best acquisition: Nightmare Alibi.

10. My favorite innovation: video blogging. An example can be seen here.

News from The Thrilling Detective

The Thrilling Detective Blog

Right now, the new cover's up, and most of the new stories. Already, I think that, possibly, this is the best and strongest bunch of stories we've ever done. Major kudos to Gerald for that.

We've also got excerpts from two new releases for you to sample. Michael Siverling's THE SORCEROR'S CIRCLE is a good old-fashioned P.I. romp with a few decidedly modern touches, a little bit Rex Stout and a little bit rock'n'roll. And Fred Zackel's COCAINE AND BLUE EYES is simply a classic; a stone-cold slice of seventies private eye fiction that has been criminally out of print for far too long. A tip of the fedora for the boys at Point Blank for bringing this baby in from the cold.

The year-end Thrillies are also up, and the results should be start to be posted in the next few days. As always this is really just a quickie opinion poll on the best and worst of P.I. fiction over the last year, but it's always fun. The wide variety of suggestions we receive from our readers are always intriguing and enlightening. So vote early and vote often.

Et Tu, Dave?

MiamiHerald.com | 12/31/2006 | The year in review: From Pelosi to Pitt, perverts to Paris, Dave Barry offers a last laugh

Also there were many pesky problems left over from 2005 that refused to go away in 2006, including Iraq, immigration, high gas prices, terrorism, global warming, avian flu, Iran, North Korea and Paris Hilton. Future generations are going to look back at this era and ask us how we could have allowed Paris Hilton to happen, and we are not going to have a good answer.