via PCL LinkDump

Posted by MrBaliHai at 6:54 PM | Permalink

I must confess that there's a soft spot in my heart (and head) for the JD (juvenile delinquent) film genre that reached its zenith in drive-in theaters all over the US back in the 1950s, and continued on through the 1970s. The Hot Rod Movie Posters site is packed with great cars, hot girls, and suggestive taglines like, "Show him a curve and he'll take it...on two wheels or with a kiss!"

One of my personal favorites was Beat Girl, a British attempt to cash in on the JD craze, starring Christopher Lee in a non-vampiric role, and britpop-idol, Adam Faith. The theme song by composer John Barry is a masterpiece.

Thanks go out to Amazing Motor Girls for the poster link

Posted by MrBaliHai at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Among the many fine gifts I received for my birthday was this boxed DVD set of 90-minute SCTV episodes. I watched 2 last night, and the sheer comedic brilliance of these shows still burns brightly after almost 25 years.

SCTV's primary strength was always in its pantheon of memorable characters: Johnny LaRue, Lola Heatherton, Edith Prickley, the Mackenzie Brothers, Bobby Bittman, Jackie Rogers Jr., and Count Floyd, to name but a few.

The first two episodes contained so many wonderful sketches that it's hard for me to pick a favorite, but Johnny LaRue's movie of the week, Polynesiantown (a Tiki-themed parody of the film Chinatown), wins by a nose thanks to a great performance by Dr. John, and Catherine O'Hara's sublimely goofy turn as a Faye Dunaway-esque groupie. Don't eat the ribs!

In other news, I'm leaving on a brief business trip to California tomorrow. I've got an action-packed weekend planned, so stay tuned.

Posted by MrBaliHai at 12:29 PM | Permalink

The Video Game Revolution airs tonight in the US on PBS. I definitely plan on watching it, not because I'm a big fan of video games, but because I used to manage an arcade back in the early 80s. It was a pretty crummy job that involved constant face-offs with surly adolescents violent adults, and undisciplined little brats left in the arcade by their parents, hoping to use me as a surrogate babysitter. I'll never forget having to pick up the wet wads of spent chewing tobacco that would-be urban cowboys spit on the carpet. In addition, the company that ran the joint demanded regular polygraph exams from all its employees! About the only real benefit of the job was spending hours drinking beer and playing free games after closing time with my friends.

Thinking about those less-than-halcyon days of working at the mall led me to the International Arcade Museum and the Internet Pinball Machine Database. My favorites were the first laserdisc-driven game Dragon's Lair, giant pinball Hercules, and Death Race, a game that wouldn't raise an eyebrow now, but shocked and outraged John Q. Public back in the day.

PBS link via Scrubbles

Posted by MrBaliHai at 3:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)