Alien Quadrilogy
Drool, drool, drool. The Alien Quadrilogy tops my Christmas wish list this year. The boxed set includes 9 discs, including the original Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien: Resurrection (1997), along with loads of extra features.

Barry Manilow’s The Greatest Songs of the Eighties
Since I have a blog on seventies and eighties pop culture, I have determined that it is my duty to own this album. I am especially keen to hear Barry’s version of Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up.

Darth Vader Bobblehead
I think I could use one of these bad boys on my desk at work.  You know, to remind myself of the badass that I really am.  There are a lot of other fun Star Wars-themed chotchkies out there, including a Darth Vader Toaster, a Yoda Luggage Tag, and for you real Star Wars geeks there is the all-new three-volume Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia.

A-Team Lunchbox
I don’t know what I would ever do with this vintage 1983 A-Team lunch box since I don’t pack a lunch any more. Maybe I could start carrying it around at work like a pseudo-brief case. Except I’m pretty sure my laptop won’t fit in there. Hmm… I’m sure I’ll think of some use for this lunch box to justify my unholy desire to own one.

A Christmas Story Ultimate Collector’s Edition
A Christmas Story (1983) has been a holiday favorite at our house for as long as I can remember. Who can’t love a movie that includes a kid shooting his eye out with a BB gun, a kid who is triple-dog-dared to stick his tongue to a light pole, a pink bunny suit, and a leg lamp? The Ultimate Collector’s Edition comes with a 2-disc DVD set of the movie (including one disc of extra features), a collectible cookie tin with cookie cutters, a red apron, and a cookbook with recipes inspired from the movie.

The Year Without A Santa Claus Deluxe Edition
And speaking of holiday specials, my DVD collection wouldn’t be complete without The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), my favorite Rankin-Bass movie.   Who doesn’t love the Heat Miser and the Snow Miser?  We have this on VHS but I seriously don’t remember how to hook up the VCR any more so it is high time we owned this on DVD.

Today is not only Father’s Day, but it the day that we are celebrating RollerReggie’s birthday. The Double Whammy. That means that the day has to be TWICE as special.

So this year, RollerReggie not only got a brand new record player (so that we can listen to our seventies records), but he also received a copy of the newly released book Wacky Packages. Wacky Packages (or Wacky Packs) were a series of collectible trading cards (a la Garbage Pail Kids) from the 1970s. The cards parodied consumer products and brands such as Tide detergent, Downy fabric softener, Skippy peanut butter, Land O Lakes butter, Wheaties cereal, numerous cigarette brands, and more. Each Wacky Pack card doubled as a sticker, so that you could either collect the cards or peel off the stickers.

RollerReggie recalls that Wacky Packs were all the rage when he was between the ages of seven and nine. He collected all of the cards, as did his friends. Sadly, RollerReg does not own them any longer. As a kid he peeled off all the stickers and stuck them to his bedpost.

Here are a few of his favorites:

Crust Tooth Paste

Hawaiian Punks Juice

Head & Boulders Shampoo

Peter Pain Peanut Butter

This weekend, I travelled to the other side of Washington state to visit my Aunt and Uncle. They live on a farm out in the country, and have three chickens, two dachshunds, and a lovely view of the rolling countryside. For a city girl like me accustomed to cars and noise, I always find a visit to their farm to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience.  Plus they are wonderful people

As I drove across the state, I noticed the addition of wind farms in especially windy areas along the I-90 corridor. With the price of gas at $4 per gallon, renewable energy has particularly been on my mind lately.   

When I found a copy of Producing Your Own Power: How to Make Nature’s Energy Sources Work for You (1974) in the guest bedroom, I couldn’t help but pick it up and thumb through it.  Edited by Carol Hupping Stoner, the book has chapters on wind power, water power, wood power, methane power, and solar power.

With the renewed focus on natural energy sources, scientists and businesses are scrambling to find new renewable sources of energy for our ever-increasing energy needs.  But these ideas are not new ones.  The technology has been around for years, as it is easy to see by perusing a book such as this one published in the mid-seventies.

I suppose it takes $4 per gallon gas prices to get folks to finally sit up get serious about finding alternative forms of energy.

What could be worse than an airplane crash at 10,000 feet? Or a plague that transforms adults into undead albinos? How about an environmental catastrophe that causes food shortages and global warming?

Charlton Heston has encountered all of these difficult situations during his movie career. But these so-called disasters are really just petty annoyances compared to the most disastrous disaster of them all - the truly villainous and utterly evil Earthquake (1974).

Earthquake features another all-star cast, including our man of the week Charlton Heston as an unhappily married engineer, Ava Garder as his shrew of a wife, and Lorne Greene as his father-in-law (and boss). Also appearing in the movie include George Kennedy as a disillusioned cop, Geneviève Bujold as Heston’s love interest, Richard Roundtree as a motorcycle daredevil, Marjoe Gortner (of Starcrash fame) as a psychotic Vietnam vet, and Victoria Principal as a sexy young lady with big hair.

The movie’s plot, in a nutshell: An earthquake strikes L.A. Buildings fall down. Lots of people are killed. There are aftershocks. More people die. Then the dam breaks. And… cut.

Earthquake is not one of my favorite Charlton Heston films that I’ve had the pleasure of watching so far during Heston week. The movie takes a good 45 minutes or so to warm up, but when the big one hits utter mayhem ensues for the rest of the movie (with breaks for manly heroics, Heston-style, of course). So many people are killed that the movie just comes off as over-the-top. There are countless scenes of rather fake-looking buildings falling down on top of people. Mirrors and windows shatter and turn into deadly missiles. Victims of the quake are drowned, impaled, squashed, struck with debris, buried alive, suffocated, and trapped in a falling elevator.

But, despite the movie’s flaws, I was strangely compelled to watch the movie to its conclusion. Will Heston save the the people trapped in that building? Will another aftershock hit? Will the dam break? And, above all, will Charlton Heston take his shirt off again? Inquiring minds want to know!

A note on Charlton Heston’s predilection for appearing in movies sans shirt: is there a Charlton Heston movie where he does not take off his shirt at least during some point in the film? Granted, I’ve only seen a handful of his movies so far, but in each one he appears shirtless (and usually sweating) during at least one scene. Earthquake is no exception; the movie starts with Charlton Heston working up a sweat on his exercise machine and then promptly taking off his shirt.

Should you wish to experience the big one for yourself, Earthquake is available for instant download from Netflix for those of you that are fellow Netflix subscribers.

In memory of Charlton Heston, I proclaim this to be Heston week here on The Rollerblog.

So hold on to your hats, ladies and gents - this week is going to be chalk full of Charlton Heston goodness. And by “goodness” I’m not talking about his work in epics like Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments. I’m talking about his lesser known seventies films (yes, the very ones that USA Today referred to as a bunch of stinkers). But what can I say - I like those “stinky” movies.

To kick off Heston Week, we begin with the disaster classic Airport 1975. (Don’t let the title of the movie fool you. The movie is actually from 1974.)

The movie stars Charlton Heston as Alan Murdock, a cocky businessman and ace pilot who is gun shy at committing to a serious relationship with his girlfriend, Nancy (played by Karen Black). Karen is the lead stewardess on the ill-fated Columbia Airlines Flight 409. The star-studded cast also includes Gloria Swanson as herself, Helen Reddy as the guitar-playing nun Sister Ruth, Erik Estrada as a flight engineer, Jerry Stiller as a drunk passenger, and Linda Blair as a young girl in need of a kidney transplant.

The plot isn’t terribly complicated. En route from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles, the airplane is diverted to Salt Lake City due to bad weather. Then, disaster strikes. The 747 is struck by a private single-passenger plane, which rips a hole in the front of the aircraft. The three pilots on board are either killed or maimed, leaving no one to fly the plane. Enter our heroine, Nancy. She radios in to the control tower, and bravely keeps the plane on course with the help of a pep talk by Charlton Heston over the radio.

But Nancy’s limited experience is not enough to actually land the plane. She needs help from an experienced pilot. A true-blooded hero. A man’s man. That’s right, I’m talking about our man of the week, Charlton Heston. Heston’s character, Murdock, attempts a daring mid-air rescue by flying to the doomed aircraft in an Army helicopter and boarding the plane through the gaping hole in the cockpit.

I don’t want to ruin the movie for you, so suffice it to say that there is plenty of excitement, derring-do, screaming, and the occasional plaid leisure suit. Not to mention smoking on the airplane.

So, what’s the verdict? Airplane 1975 has been widely panned, but I like it. It has that cheesy seventies goodness quality that I particularly look for when viewing films from the decade. It also spawned a number of successors, including Airport ‘77, The Concorde … Airport ‘79, and the disaster movie spoof Airplane!.

Columbia four-oh-niner, over and out.

Nothing says Happy Easter like the 1974 television special “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.”

It’s The Easter Beagle Charlie Brown

Happy Easter, all!

Happy birthday to a seventies superstar. Born on February 18, 1954, this person made an amazing contribution to the decade, and holds a special place in my heart.

No, I’m not talking about John Travolta (although February 18, 1954 does happen to be his birthday).

I’m talking, of course, about my mother.

Happy birthday Mom! Without your contributions to the decade I would not be here!

Mom in 1974, pictured with my Dad and brother

And now it’s time for your weekly dose of sci-fi goodness, straight from the seventies to you.

Dark Star, directed by John Carpenter in 1974, takes place in the 22nd century. The movie tells the story of four men who are traveling through outer space on a brave and fearless mission to make the galaxy safe for colonization. Their objective? To identify unstable planets and blow them to bits with bombs.

After three years of spaceflight (the equivalent of 20 years back on planet earth), the crew members on board Dark Star are cranky, stir-crazy, and getting on each other’s nerves. The ship’s commander was recently killed in an accident and has been placed in a cryogenic deep freeze. In the wake of his departure, the remaining members of the ship’s crew squabble and make poor decisions which eventually lead to … <warning spoiler alert!>

…Ha! joking. We’ll you’ll have to see the movie to discover what eventually happens. But suffice it to say it is a very slow-paced film with seemingly random plot twists thrown in that just seem a little… weird. This is probably due to the fact that Dark Star originated as a 45-minute film school project by John Carpenter, and was later turned into a feature-length film by adding additional footage.

It is precisely the low-budget, bizarre aspects to Dark Star, however, that make it a fun movie. In one excruciatingly long scene, an unruly pet alien escapes from his cage and wreaks havoc on the ship. The alien is obviously nothing more than a large beach ball with feet stuck on the bottom. In another scene, one of the ship’s crew members dons a spacesuit in preparation for a spacewalk on the ship’s exterior. Upon close inspection, the suit’s breastplate looks suspiciously like… a muffin pan spray-painted with silver paint.

So sit back, grab a muffin, and enjoy a low-budget seventies sci-fi flick that definitely qualifies for the “So Bad It’s Good” award.

I have a case of the Mondays.

And I can’t think of a better way to kick those Monday blues then to turn my attention to something happy. Something upbeat. Something super duper positive. Something like teenage heartthrobs from the seventies!

Unfortunately I don’t own a copy of this Tiger Beat magazine (this picture of the April 1977 issue is courtesy of Stuckinthe70s.com). No matter. I happen to have a copy of the Bay City Rollers’ 1974 breakout album Rollin’ on loan from my local library.

The music is forgettable, but look at those seventies teenage heartthrobs. Talk about Rollermania! (dreamy sigh)

Tags seventies . 1970s . 70s . 1974 . 1977 . Bay City Rollers . Rollermania . Teen Idol

Today is the 67th birthday of one of my favorite seventies pop stars - Neil Diamond. In fact, Neil Diamond’s illustrious career spans over four decades, but he really had it going on in the seventies. Good times.

So, to celebrate the occasion, I christened today Diamond Day - a holiday that I’m certain will soon become a beloved tradition known the world over.

Celebrating Diamond Day is easy. All you need to do is listen to Neil Diamond music all day long. See? Simple.

As luck would have it, I only own one Neil Diamond album, His 12 Greatest Hits (1974). So I put the album on repeat and listened to it for 9 solid hours - (that’s 12 times in a row, in case you were wondering). And the day’s not over yet. (Right now I’m singing along with “Shilo”).

I really do like Neil Diamond. But I think I overdid it today. When I open my mouth lyrics from Neil Diamond songs come out. I can’t help it.

Nowadays, I’m lost between two shores. I’m not a man who likes to swear, but I got an emptiness deep inside and I’ve tried, but it won’t let me go. Sadly, me and you are subject to the blues now and then. So I sing it out, and sing it strong. A song sung blue.

And, what do you know? Good times never seemed so good. Today I built me a castle with dragons and kings. Then I packed up the babies and grabbed the old ladies and had me a time with a poor man’s lady. Call the sun in the dead of the night, I say. Because you are the sun, I am the moon, you are the words, I am the tune. Lordy, child. Play me, sweet Caroline.

Perhaps I’d better refrain from making Diamond Day a yearly tradition.

Tags seventies . 1970s . 70s . Neil Diamond . Diamond Day . Shilo . Sweet Caroline . Song Sung Blue