I am in the middle of reading the book Johnny Cash: The Autobiography and I’ve been inspired to look up some of his old television show recordings. Johnny Cash has always been one of my favorite artists, but I’ve never really explored the music from the Johnny Cash Show which ran from 1969 to 1971. Capitalizing on Cash’s success after his 1968 Live at Folsom Prison album, the weekly program was essentially a variety show including members of his own band, as well as guests such as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Merle Haggard and Joni Mitchell.

The following segment features Louis Armstrong in one of his last performances:

It’s Music Monday here at the RollerBlog and today’s featured artist is Led Zeppelin.  I discovered Led Zeppelin in high school and I’ve been a fan ever since.  These days I like to exercise to Led Zeppelin, or as I like to call it, Zeppercise.

The following is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, Black Dog, performed live in 1973:

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I have a cold.  Bleh.

I feel like the guy in this commercial.

I just found a new record to add to our collection.  Spaced Out Disco, released in 1978 by The Galactic Force Band, includes danceable versions of movie themes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek, 2001, and Star Wars.

I seriously need to own this.  Too bad my birthday is 11 months away….

Here is the Theme From Star Trek from the B side of the record:

This Valentine’s Day, I am celebrating with my two favorite guys RollerReggie and RollerBoy.

On the agenda for the evening?  Heart-shaped cookies, pizza (one half eggplant & goat cheese and one half sausage & mushrooms), champagne (or razzleberry juice in RollerBoy’s case), and a viewing of the 1981 John Carpenter film Escape from New York.

Because nothing says “I love you” like a Kurt Russell sci-fi flick.

Earlier today we saw the movie Coraline in 3-D (highly recommended, by the way) and then went out for Vietnamese Pho soup so it has been quite an exciting day for our little family.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope you are enjoying the day.

They were warned…
They are doomed…

And on Friday the 13th, nothing will save them.

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

RollerKaty

On a recent blustery night, we gathered in the family room for an evening of horror and mayhem.  On the agenda were two creature features: Snowbeast (1977) and The Thing (1982).

Snowbeast is an obscure made-for-TV-movie that takes place in a Colorado ski resort.  I put the movie on our Netflix queue after stumbling across reviews that rate it as one of the cheesiest horror movies from the seventies.  And the movie didn’t disappoint.  In a plot that was clearly inspired by Jaws, skiers begin disappearing from the resort shortly before the annual winter festival.  Naturally the resort decides to go on ahead and hold the festival, and mayhem ensues.

One memorable scene takes place after a member of the ski patrol meets a gruesome fate at the hands of our adorable abominable snowman.  The ski resort holds a small funeral for him up on the ski slopes, complete with a six-gun salute (a six-gun salute for the ski patrol?).

One of the Snowbeast’s trademarks is that the viewer never gets to see a clear view of the monster.  The movie makes extensive use of the “Beast Cam,” in which the viewer supposedly watches scenes unfold from the beast’s perspective, but shots of the actual beast are few and far between.   At the end of the movie after the beast is taken down by a ski pole, the camera pans towards the beast and then abruptly ends before the viewer gets a chance to finally see a clear view of the beast.  Denied!

Unlike Snowbeast, The Thing does not skimp on beast footage.  Also set in a snowy climate, The Thing takes place at a research facility in Antarctica.  The researchers have the misfortune to encounter an insidious alien force that has the power to transform into human form.  Paranoia sets in as the researchers must determine who is still human and who is not.

The Thing includes a number of scenes portraying the alien as it transforms from animal to alien to human form.  Renowned for its special effects, the movie still holds up today in its unnerving depiction of creepy half-human monsters.  The special effects were so good, in fact, that I actually had a hard time watching the movie - I found the movie to be just too gorey for my tastes (and this coming from a woman who is obsessed with Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead.  I know, go figure).

Although it’s difficult to choose between the two movies, I think if I had to pick one I would go with Snowbeast just because I happen to really like badly acted B grade horror movies.

Which movie would you choose?

We’re not big sports fans here at The RollerBlog household.  We do enjoy baseball (well, specifically, we’re loyal Mariners fans) and RollerReggie likes to watch the occasional soccer game, but that’s about it.  We really don’t follow football, and the only Super Bowl game that I can recall watching took place three years ago when our own Seattle Seahawks were actually in the Super Bowl.

However, like most other households across the country, we’ll be tuning in to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Arizona Cardinals today in Super Bowl XLIII.  Why?  Because it’s a darn good excuse to eat nachos and chicken wings.  Because we’d like to see the Steelers go down after beating the Seawhawks three years ago.  And, perhaps most importantly, because we’ll get a chance to watch all of the Super Bowl ads.

Advertisements have been providing an entertaining diversion during the Super Bowl for years.  For a taste of the kinds of ads presented during the Super Bowl thirty years ago, check out the following advertisements from Super Bowl XIII in 1979:

Enjoy the game!

For your edification, I present an advertisement for Blue Jeans brand cologne, from the 1979 issue of Tiger Beat magazine:

What’s not to love about this advertisement? Seriously…

Image from here.

I was sad to learn that Ricardo Montalbán, who starred in films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as well as the television show Fantasy Island, passed away yesterday.  He was also well known for a series of commercials from the 1970s for the Chrysler Cordoba, such as this one.

Farewell, Ricardo, you will be missed.