A MATTER OF DEGREES - "Where Is My Mind" (1990)

 

January 26, 2022 sounds like a perfect date for a Wild and Rockin' Wednesday down in The Dungeon."

Tonight's feature is a 1990 movie called "A Matter Of Degrees," and while this isn't the greatest movie in the world, it sure has one of the best soundtracks I've heard lately!

This composite shot from the opening credits kind of explains it all!

The Minutemen are one of my favorite bands of all time, and so for their music to be featured in this film makes me really like this movie, even though I didn't really like it that much! Almost all of the music in this film is really good, and if Jim Dunbar is the guy responsible, then cheers to him, because he did a really good job.

Some of the fantastic music is supplied by fIREHOSE, John Doe, UncleTupelo, The Ophelias, Pere Ubu, Thelonius Monster, The Velvet Monkeys, Throwing Muses, Mikey Dread, The Pixies, and the list goes on and on. There are also a couple of really nice jazz cuts by Eric Dolphy, Coleman Hawkins, and John Coltrane!

The basic story is about a college radio station that is going to have to go away because of corporate greed disguised as community involvement.

 I can identify with that. I worked at a college radio station in the 70's, and it was fun and interesting, but frustrating at times. You couldn't get a show unless you knew somebody, but by volunteering to be part of a radio drama of the story "Lysistrata," I was offered a time slot. The funniest thing was, a few months later, when Summer came and half the student body left town, I was having to do five or six shows a week, and basically run the place because there were not enough people.

One of the DJ's is named The Scuzz, and is played by Tom Gilroy. Tom directed a video for R.E.M.

John Doe from the band X is also one of the DJ's.

Wendell Pierce is another DJ named Wells Dennard. Wendell was born in New Orleans, an although he was never a musician, he did take trombone lessons when the character he was playing in the TV "Treme" was a trombonist.

The real star of the movie is not even one of the DJ's, but a kid trying to get into law school named Maxwell Glass. Max was played by Arye (Santo Bugito) Gross.

Lovable whackjobs Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson of The B-52's have a brief scene as lovable whackjobs Moonboy and Bambi.

 

Another very interesting thing about this film, is that there is a really funny scene at a party, and the guy playing the guitar and singing horribly is John F. Kennedy Jr. This is the only movie John John was ever in, and lucky for you, somebody was kind enough to put all twenty-seven seconds of it on YouTube!

The band named Fetchin Bones performs a pretty cool song called "Love Crushin."

 

 

I always did like the cover of their "Bad Pumpkin" LP.

 

This movie is "Dedicated To The Memory Of D. Boon," who joined the 27 Club just before Christmas in 1985.

If I was you, I'd do what I did. Forget this movie, and just buy yourself a copy of the soundtrack instead. I found a copy on Discogs for $3.09.

I don't think the same person who picked out the music for the movie picked out the songs for the album. I would have made some different choices, and at least included one of the Minutemen tunes, but it's still good!

A BUCKET OF BLOOD In Color - 1959

Here's one of our favorite movies, one that Eegah!! and I saw way back when we were in 6th grade! This movie is great, and today we have a colorized version to show off. You can see on this British poster that it was rated X (adults only), just like all the other horror movies at that time.

The cast is awesome, which includes Dick Miller, Barboura Morris, Anthony Carbone, Julian Burton, Ed Nelson, Judy Bamber, Bert Convy, Bruno VeSota and even Sheila Noonan!

Beatnik poet Maxwell is doing his thing, accompanied by saxophone, for the audience at The Yellow Door hangout. There on the left is the owner, Leonard, enjoying the groove.

Walter Paisley is a busboy there, he has memorized Maxwell's hip poetry and is quoting him to some customers, and they're impressed by his artistic enthusiasm.

Walter decides that he wants to be a real artist and buys some modelling clay. He's attracted to a girl at the Yellow Door, Carla, and tries to do her face in clay to impress her but fails miserable, and gets violently frustrated!! He ends up killing the landlady's pet cat with a knife (not on purpose) who got stuck in the wall, and won't stop screeching. Then, Walter gets an idea...

The next day before work, Walter takes his new sculpture to The Yellow Door to show to Leonard and Carla. They're so impressed that Walter gets to display it inside the club with the other artists. The name of the piece is called.. Dead Cat! Leonard asks him why it has a knife in it, and Walter replies.. I didn't mean to!!

Then, when leaving the club, drug addict Naolia hands Walter a small packet and tells him to stick it in his pocket, which he does. An undercover cop sees the transfer and follows Walter to his home. The cop tells Walter, who's holding a griddle, that he's under arrest for possession of horse. Confused as Hell, Walter buries the pancake maker in the cop's skull after he pulls out his gun!

At this point, Leonard knows that Walter just covered the cat in clay. An art dealer wanted to buy the piece for $100, but Leonard says it's not for sale, because, he knows the dirty secret and it would be bad for business if discovered. Then the guy offers him $500 because his wife wants it so bad! And greedy Leonard sells it to him. Leonard gives Walter $50, instead of 50/50 as agreed!

Leonard wants Walter to work at home and complete a number of pieces for a show, instead of bringing them to the club one at a time. This one's called.. Murdered Man!

So, Walter invites Leonard and Carla over to check out his new sculpture. Carla is totally impressed with the piece, but Leonard is freaked by what he thinks might be under the clay! I have to admit, my favorite part of the crazy story is the fact that Leonard knows what's going on the whole time, and how he reacts to one horror after another, just to keep the secret.

Then super bitch Alice shows up at the club and makes fun of Walter's claims of being an artist, but does mention that she will model for him for $25 an hour. Later, Walter goes to her place and tells her he'll pay the price, and he's ready to work. The rest is history.

At Maxwell's place, Walter gets to show off his newest masterpiece, a Nude!! Everyone loves it, Walter is definitely a superstar.

Later at the club, Maxwell celebrates King Walter's accomplishments to the audience, all hail the King of Sculptures!!

Walter leaves the club, he's drunk as Hell and gets an idea for another piece!

He show it to Leonard the next day.

Before Walter's show starts, he says he wants to talk with Carla. Walter says that he's in love with her and wants to get married! Carla levels with him, she's not in love with him, not good.

They go back to the club for the show and Walter's in a horrible mood.

Then it happens, Carla has noticed that the nude has a body beneath the clay. She goes to Walter and tells him, and he says.. Yeah, that's Alice! Carla dashes out of the club and runs down the street in the dark, followed by Walter.

Then, the other undercover cop finds his partner under the clay, and it's a race to find the killer.

Walter is hearing voices now, he finally heads for his home for safety.

The others have followed him and when they open his door!... Hope you enjoyed  this classic movie in dying color!!

LAND OF THE GIANTS - "Mini-People Playthings" (1968)

This week's Saturday Night Special is another journey down the road of "Mini-People and Their World of Giant Tormentors!"

 

There were fifty-one episodes of "Land Of The Giants" made between 1968 and 1970.

  

The first episode aired on September 22, 1968, and was titled 

"The Crash."

On a flight to L.A., an aircraft enters a warp in space and time, and ends up in another dimension where everything is much larger than what is normal to these people. Now it's up to them to figure out how and why!

 

The star of the show is Gary (I Was A Teenage Frankenstein) Conway as Captain Steve Burton.

Gary is long since retired! One of his lifelong passions has always been painting, which he is still doing today. Here's a nice sample of his work titled "Vineyard Reverie." Since retiring from acting, Gary and his beautiful wife, former Miss America Marion McKnight, have owned and run a stunningly beautiful vineyard in Paso Robles, California called Carmody McKnight Estate Wines, that is most definitely worth checking out. Carmody was Gary's real last name.

Leave it to My Editor to come up with this wine drenched episode of "Columbo" that Gary Conway was part of in 1973. Thanks to the "Columbophile" Website.

Don (The Thing With Two Heads) Marshall was the co-star, and co-pilot Dan Erickson. Truth of the matter is, Don was one of only a handful of black actors on TV in lead roles during this era.

The rest of the people on the plane include Don (Murph The Surf) Matheson as businessman Mark Wilson. Don was a decorated Korean War veteran, and was a very talented jazz drummer!

Stefan (The X-Files) Arngrim is passenger Barry Lockridge! What is it with all the crazy talented people in this cast? 

 

 Stefan is also a musician, and in 1969 he had a single called "Where Has Christmas Gone," that was produced by Kim Fowley, and in 1976 he recorded this single called "Dying In St. Louis Gonna Make You Blue. Then, in the late 80's, early 90's, he was in a pretty cool band called The Knights of The Living Dead. Stefan has also co-written songs with Warren Zevon.

 

Deanna (Dr. Goldfoot And The Bikini Machine) Lund is the simi-bad girl Valerie Scott.

Heather (Galactica 1980) Young is flight attendant Betty Hamilton.

And the last of the main cast is Kurt (Casino Royale) Kaznar as the bumbling Alexander B. Fitzhugh. 

 

With giant cars etc, it doesn't take long for the crew to figure out they are in the wrong place.

But what is this place?

The scenery and special effects are all pretty cool.

This is about the most classic shot you're ever going to see of a guy talking on a walkie-talkie!

 

Outside the ship, the gang has encounters with a giant lizard, a giant cat, and a giant dog.

The Captain told Valerie not to go into this box, but she didn't listen, and now they're both in trouble, because it turns out it's an insect trap used by entomologists.

 

 

Here's the part I don't understand. Why would two bug collectors who caught two miniature humans treat them so weird? You don't normally associate entomologists with being mean people, but I guess they are.

So, obviously these giant people in this other dimension are not human, or they would have attempted to talk to the little critters that look just like them.

Instead, they pin them down with Scotch tape, and poke at them. Luckily they escaped or it would have been a lot worse. Why is the big lummox poking Valerie with a pencil? That's just not right!

Fifty-four years later, this show is still so popular, you can get a "Land Of The Giants" lunchbox at Walmart for $14.95. Now, that's a deal!

"From now on, that's just the way it's gonna be in this world."

 It's starting to sound like a familiar mantra!

Here's a wallpaper I made for you using titles cards from the best of the miniature people movies and TV shows.