Another gem from Green Day’s magnificent “American Idiot” album. If you take away the heavy guitars, this could easiliy pass for a Dion and the Belmonts song. I love the new millenial doo-wop groove they’re going for here.
Speaking of bands from another planet, here’s Von Lmo. Who’s Von Lmo, you may ask? Why, they’re the band from the future … here now! As geeky and insane as this premise is, Von Lmo backs up their monkey shines with some of the sickest and heaviest sounding lead guitar I’ve ever heard. C’mon Earthlings, get off your ass and ADVANCE YOURSELF!!
One of the weirdest, wildest, and coolest songs off the 4-CD Rhino Records “Nuggets” box set is the Elastik Band’s “Spazz,” from 1967. I don’t know anything else about this band, but I would love to hear more. This is truly from another planet.
To celebrate the fact that this blog is now accessible at http://davesstrangeworld.com, here’s a sweet, soulful favorite from the mid-1990s.
A clip for those who feel I may have gotten a little heavy in the prior post re: technology.
This selection on my all-time favorite film list shouldn’t come as any surprise if you’ve been following the blog recently. I recently posted two clips from this film due to director Tony Scott’s recent demise. While the clip on the rooftop between Christian Slater’s and Patricia Arquette’s characters is my favorite scene from the film, this one also ranks high on the list.
Since my entry about this film on my previous blog is gone, I’ll briefly summarize why this film has so much meaning for me (and you can skip this part, if you’ve read this already on my earlier blog). I saw this movie during the fall of 1993, which at that point in my life, I was very similar to Christian Slater’s character Clarence: no girlfriend, dead end jobs, and the only beacon of light was maybe the chance I’d get accepted into a grad school program somewhere. Anyway, not only was this movie enormously entertaining, it gave me a beacon of hope, in an odd way. Granted, my personal beacon didn’t involve a suitcase full of illegal drugs, a prostitute girlfriend, and 10 million bullets, but it did put a big smile on my face back in the day … and still does.
This is my favorite Quentin Tarantino film, even though he was only the screenwriter. Tarantino has admitted that Clarence is autobiographical to a certain degree, because he was a lot like him when he was in his 20s. It’s a very special script and Tony Scott so respected it that he allowed Tarantino to be an integral part of the process of making the film (something unheard of in Hollywood). Their most passionate argument during the making of “True Romance” involved the ending. In Tarantino’s original, Clarence dies. However, Scott made an impassioned case to Tarantino to let Clarence live, not for commercial reasons, but because he said he loved Clarence and Alabama (Arguette’s character) so much, he wanted them to have a happy ending. Scott’s respect for Tarantino was such that he shot two endings, one where Clarence dies and the one where he lives. And Tarantino admitted that Scott’s ending was the better ending for the film that Scott made. A true gentleman’s agreement if there ever was one.
Yes, this is Tarantino so the attached scene is not safe for work or little ones.
Number 5 on Dave’s Strange World’s all-time favorite films is the hysterically funny and beyond politically incorrect hockey film “Slap Shot.” This was considered a ballsy movie in its day, but nowadays, forget about it. No studio executive would dare greenlight a project this nasty, violent, and crude. It’s too bad, because Oscar-winning director George Roy Hill and Hollywood legend Paul Newman saw a lot of merit in Nancy Dowd’s foul-mouthed script about the down-and-dirty world of minor-league hockey. And yes, “Slap Shot” (like “Scarface” and “Pulp Fiction”) is considered a classic PRECISELY because it’s so over-the-top and rude.
The attached scene is Newman’s hilarious introduction to the infamous “Hanson Brothers.” I used to think the Hansons were based on the Ramones (especially based on Dowd’s interest in punk rock), until I read that the Hansons are totally REAL! Key line: “They’re too dumb to play with themselves!” Yes, my friends, NOT safe for work or little ones.
The Ramones cover the bubblegum rock classic by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. I dare you not to sing along by the end of this.
Zappa’s mildly snarky, but ultimately affectionate tale of the rise and fall and rise of a 60s garage punk band.
One of my favorite bits from “Da Ali G Show.” As with most Sacha Baron Cohen material, not safe for work. Laugh all you want to at this, but this reminds me of a lot of conversations with my 7-year old.
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