New Years Watch

Friday Gumbo-style Triple feature

Rock And Roll Movies session 4: Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park & Slade In Flame

A mad scientist (Anthony Zerbe) makes cartoon robots of the rock group (KISS), seen in a California concert.

Phantom flies and demons and spaceman and cats and stars dissociate in a dubbed TV movie world of amusement park excess. Robes and incredible hulk 70s TV villains face off against rock and roll. On The Air With Captain Midnight or Nick Zedds Geek Maggot Bingo may make a flickering light show companion to druggie brains high on attitude and philosophy.

A band's sudden rise to fame is beset with internal bickering and the double dealings of the music industry.

Kitchen sink realistic, Slade's lead singer is a gem. Rocking tunes. Fun. Very british,  A working man's song remains the same. Check out the album too,Slade is due for a Renaissance,  lead the resistance of these dirty jokers.

Tune In Tuesday: Surf Reality Movie of the Month Club Collection (Thrill Kill Video Club)

The New York underground performance art scene in the late 80's was teeming with unique talents. Enter Robert Prichard and Jennifer Babtist (both of CLASS OF NUKE ‘EM HIGH), who decided that the madness happening nightly needed to be preserved on videotape, under the moniker of Surf Reality. At the same time, genre favorite Matt Mitler (THE MUTILATOR, DEADTIME STORIES) was challenged to improvise a feature film in a single day. Prichard and Mitler, who were friends since high school, joined forces to shoot a series of one-day features on video, and so the Movie of the Month Club was born!

Thrill Kill Video Club: Four bored serial killers turn to shooting snuff movies and the Thrill Kill Video Club is born. Enter their looney upside down world of comedy, carnage, laughter and mayhem.

80s NYC shot on video homemade art. A under represented relic of another time, important to catalogue,preserve,  research,  understand and enjoy. Art for arts sake. Art for fucks sake. ACTORS Robert Prichard and Jennifer Babtist from Troma Movies and Matt Mitler from Slashers and Scifi Making there own microbudget movies, when it had been easier than ever before but not as easy as it would become. Free of pretension, but with big ideas. Around 45minutes. I have only watched  Thrill Kill Video Club So Far. I was obsessed with finding these movies for years after reading a interview with Robert Prichard, from toxic avenger and Class of nuke em high. They were impossible to locate until now. The story is more interesting then the movies unless your brain is illuminated by moon Magic. 1980s homemade movies your long lost punk bohemian uncle made and got left in a basement for over 30 years. It doesn't matter if transcendence is achieved through accident, lack of ability or conscious decision. The result is what matters. Keep your third eye open, and let the movies world take you in. It's gruff NYC on the surface,  but just below is a "high school theater kids" sense of play. A great case for the continued existence of physical media.

I do Declare Between The Buttons (UK) is the most underrated Stones album

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I'm seeing em in may.

This Pic-Asso Painting is 100 years old.

Musical Back Pages

In 2023, I managed to make music with all three members of my rocking teenage combo from the mid aughts:

Me on guitar, Zag on Bass And Drums and Other Rhythms: 

https://thezagwanderers.bandcamp.com/track/track-3

Me on Guitar and Drum Programming,  Zirp on Bass:

https://m.soundcloud.com/larry-amazon/erroneous-thugs-the-post-modern-prometheans

Me On Guitar, Vocals, and Bass, Dave Herrera on Drums:

https://outerorderrecords.bandcamp.com/track/blinked-missed-it-rehearsal-by-pure-absurdity

Tune In Tuesday The prophecy

Evil angel Gabriel (Christopher Walken) has come to earth to strengthen his powers by claiming the wicked spirit of a psychotic veteran. The benevolent angel, Simon (Eric Stoltz), want to stop that from happening, so hides the man's spirit where Gabriel would least expect to find it: in a little girl (Moriah Shining Dove Snyder). Caught in a cosmic battle in which even Lucifer (Viggo Mortensen) plays a part, a liturgically minded cop (Elias Koteas) moves heaven and earth to protect the child.

Chris Walken as An Evil Angel Gabriel,This one Sells itself. Elias Koteas and Eric Stotlz make it a must see. As Time goes on 1990s Video Store Staples get more and more interesting. 

Dig it.

https://m.soundcloud.com/larry-amazon/the-glory-with-this-beast-instrumental

tune in tuesday: Fatal Games

The young athletes of Falcon Academy are training hard to earn their place in the nationals. But when these burgeoning sports stars start disappearing one after the other, Dr. Jordine and his team – who’ve started plying their athletes with new and untested performance-enhancing drugs – are baffled. Little do they realize that a javelin-wielding, tracksuit-wearing killer with a strong throwing arm and a deadly grudge against athletic excellence is on the prowl, picking off the Olympic hopefuls one by one. Whether they’re squeezing out a few extra reps in the gym, training on the field or clocking up some late-night strokes in the pool, nowhere is safe. As their numbers continue to dwindle, can the remaining athletes unmask the maniac before they’re disqualified… for good?!

Waited for years for this one to get a decent release, as it has up until now only been available on murky vhs. A enjoyable slasher reminiscent of graduation day. I spotted a frank zappa poster in one scene. Def worth it for the opening track "take it all the way".

Rock N Roll movies session 3: Hail Caeser & Heavy Metal

Caesar is a would-be rock star. But for now, he works at a pencil eraser factory. Soon he falls in love with the owner's daughter. In order to get her, he bets with the old man that he can make a hundred thousand dollars in six months.

Pretty Dumb and inconsequential,  but fun.

 You get a band that plays "rock" that sounds like then current smooth rnb, Judd Nelson as a inmate, robert Downey Jr as an ad axec and Sam Jackson as a mailman

Harmless fun nominally rock and roll picture. 

Based on the sexy science fiction cult comic, "Heavy Metal" combines extraordinarily stunning visuals, new wave music and a series of mindbending stories in a unique motion picture experience. The anchor of the film is an eerie green ball that magically transports us into a series of adventures in the past, future, and into the world beyond. Included are stories of the space super heroine, Taarna; the hard-boiled exploits of Harry Canyon, cab driver of the future; and the adventures of "Den:' who the green ball changes from an introverted teen into a macho hero. This groundbreaking animation extravaganza also use the voices of John Candy, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy and Joe Flaherty, as well as writers, directors, and artists from around the world.

Heavy metal is the stuff of hetero teen boys dreams, busty,  badass women almost always naked, hard rock soundtrack, rough around the edges animation,  a mix of horror, hardboiled detective story and sci-fi.  A movie that you can smell the potsmoke on

 Saw it at a revival screening years ago.

Rock and roll movies session 2 "Streets Of Fire & Rock and Roll Highschool

Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe), along with his gang of merciless biker friends, kidnaps rock singer Ellen Aim (Diane Lane). Ellen's former lover, soldier-for-hire Tom Cody (Michael Paré), happens to be passing through town on a visit. In an attempt to save his star act, Ellen's manager, Billy Fish (Rick Moranis), hires Tom to rescue Ellen. Billy and Tom, along with former soldier McCoy (Amy Madigan), battle through dangerous cityscapes, determined to get Ellen back.

A Rock n Roll Fable. Neon streets in the rain.

Questions of honor. Dazzling editing. an alternate 1950s/1980s. Eniigmatic. My favorite movie. 

A teenager (P.J. Soles) and her friends get even with their principal to music by the Ramones.

PJ soles greatest role. The Ramones at there best. Cartoon comedy. Rats with Mohawks.  Mary Woronov. Etched in Stone in the landmark mountain of teen movies.

tune in tuesday "shredder" 2001

At an exclusive, secluded North American ski resort up on Mount Rocky Summit, brutal slashing, severing and beheading on a group of teenagers are taking place ...

Snowboards will always scream 1990s to me. This post scream slasher is definitely microbudget, but the gore is plentiful and the premise right out of a,golden era slasher.nothing fantastic but you could do much, much worse for this genre and era

 Currently only available on dvd, Worth it for skiers,  the early 2000s curious and for some pretty decent self aware jokes. 

Cartoon Sunday

Tune In Tuesday: Rush Week (1989)

Tired of the bland assignments at her college paper, Toni Daniels (Pamela Ludwig) found much more newsworthy the recent disappearance of three gorgeous co-eds-and the school administration's silence about same. As she digs, however, she'll incur the wrath of the old-man-masked murderer responsible, and who's not interested in getting any press.

A light on slashing but still teeming with end of the 80s charm, some might be put off by the frat hijinks but the conclusion really packs a punch.A commentary By The hysteria continues podcast is the jewel in the crown. 

Fucked Up 90s: 1991: Ruben and Ed and My Own Private Idaho

Perhaps the ultimate in early 90s weirdness, I first saw this on VHS in  the early 10s. A lampoon on sales seminars,  frozen cat burials, and Crispin glover as Ruben. Check out the infamous letterman appearance,  years before the movie even came out.

A kind of 90s  Oliver twist with the young men being sex workers and there trash God fagin a bum named Joe. Has that overfried gen X mentality of not being able to care nor wanting too.

Saturday Matinee

Savage Satire Lampooning of Aristocracy featuring  false idols, Personality disorder,  songs, Jesus,  Jack The Ripper and Peter O'toole

Nothing else quite like this movie, at once early 70s on the street document filmmaking and odd fable, nods to rear window and stands alongside the landlord as early 70s example of middle and lower class relations in the city.

Sick sick 70s Sunday Roy Scheider/ William Friedkin Double Feature

Imagine the opening scenes of the exorcist for two hours.. A total Dad Movie.

The NYC documentary style of the early 70s flick is on full display here. Scheider and  Hackman write the book here on inner city cop performance on screen. 

Rock N Roll Movies session 1

For The month of December,I am doing sets of "rock and roll movies. 

Rock All Night (1957) directed by Roger corman

The Forgotten film in the trilogy of 1950s dick Miller roles directed by Roger corman. The others are of course  little shop of horrors and A bucket of Blood. This one is like a 1 set, 1 act play, a psychodrama disguised as a teen Rock n roll picture.  At barely over an hour, it features 50s Rock and roll, a send up of beat culture and a arresting performance by Dick Miller as the American version of England's "angry young man". Very much worth your time. On Tubi free with ads.

Rock And Roll High School Forever  (1991)

As much as I love the OG rock and roll high school,  something about this early 90s Corey Feldman starring straight to video affair hypnotizes, fascinates. A daughter of a witch whose eating habits include jello and fat from steak,  a teenage Rock and roll combo led by Corey Feldman, appliance worship,.About 10 times better than it needed to be and smarter than your average art house title. On youtube

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Action Friday Continued

Action Friday