// Category Archive for: Issues

I Am Curious (Giallo): Q & A with Giallos Flame

By Eric Weber

One of my favorite things to do is put on my iPod and listen to some menacing or ominous horror movie soundtrack while walking to my car after work. I love to play tracks from Halloween II and pretend I’m a character in a horror film. Someone like Jamie Lee Curtis or Jessica Harper in Suspiria. As I stroll through the dark and desolate parking deck, I’ll imagine that I’m being pursued by some shadowy figure in a dark trench coat. I’ll stop and look around cautiously, peering around the corner to see if someone (or something) is behind me. If I’m feeling particularly brave (and sure that no one is around), I’ll break out into a run towards my car, imagining the killer is close behind me. I’ll drop the keys (on purpose) and fumble with the lock before quickly jumping into the car. Whew. Another murder attempt diverted. You see, I’m completely obsessed with horror movie soundtracks.
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Top Five Most Useless Star Wars Characters

By Megashaun

1. Ponda Baba

Who is he?
In Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi enter the Mos Eisley Cantina in search of a pilot willing to fly them to the Alderaan System. Luke orders a drink and an alien with an ass for a mouth takes exception to the young traveller’s looks. That alien is Ponda Baba, a creature from the Aqualish race.
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Thriller: My Introduction to Pop Culture

By Laura L.

It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty-five years since the release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It’s even harder to believe it’s been almost as long since I listened to it for the very first time. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, and I don’t even remember whether it was the very first tape my dad bought me, but I know it was one of the very first. To go with this gift was my older cousin’s brown, hand-me-down cassette case, featuring some hand-me-down tapes. Thriller fit right in the collection.
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Duran Duran’s Seven and the Ragged Tiger

By Less Lee Moore

In the eighties, I became a Duranie. I grew fascinated with them after seeing the “Planet Earth” video on MTV. My friend later played Rio for me and I couldn’t get enough of it so I scrounged up allowance money and bought my own copy. Previously I’d been obsessed with Adam Ant, but since I didn’t think Strip was up to the standard he set with his previous albums, my interest began to wane. Enter the Fab Five.
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Q & A with Fatal Farm

Interviewed by Less Lee Moore

If you frequently troll YouTube for weird videos or subscribe to WFMU’s Beware of the Blog, you may have already heard of Lasagna Cat, video mashups of well-known songs with three-panel Garfield comics.

If you haven’t, then you should probably watch one immediately.
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No Sense Makes Sense: Peter Bogdanovich’s Targets

By Less Lee Moore

“My father is the jailhouse. My father is your system… I am only what you made me. I am only a reflection of you.”
—From the testimony of Charles Manson in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial, November 20, 1970

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The Expert

By Christian Lipski

A while back, my wife and I went to see Enuff Z’Nuff at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. That sounds like an strange and exotic location to see a band, but it’s actually just a 250-person-capacity bar in a small town in Orange County. Appearances can be deceiving.
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Ron Howard: Who Loves Ya Baby?

By Michelle Patterson

Ron Howard is a gem of a human being. And when I use the word “gem” I’m referring to his acting and voiceover work. The Andy Griffith Show was many things: charming, sickeningly sweet, funny, and surprisingly open-minded about parenting habits and the courtship of a widower. Most of all, though, it allowed children of the time (and even today for those kids who, like me, were prone to dabbling in Nick at Nite‘s lineup) the opportunity to project themselves into the role of Opie Taylor.
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Is It A Guilty Pleasure If You Don’t Feel Guilty?

By Christian Lipski

These two don’t look
like they feel guilty at all.

The “pleasure” part of a guilty pleasure is easy enough to pin down—you’re doing something that pleases you. That doesn’t mean that it makes you feel happy, as sad things can be pleasurable; it’s just that you enjoy the experience. The “guilty” aspect is harder to define, as the guilt involved is subjective. In general, a guilty pleasure can be thought of as habitual indulgence in something that you feel has no redeeming qualities but still pleases you. I include “habitual” because there seems to be a need for the person to return to the experience more often than would be assumed based on the “value” of the object. For example, chocolate has little nutritional value, but it tastes good. Having chocolate once in a while as dessert wouldn’t necessarily represent a guilty pleasure, but having a candy bar or two every day from a secret stash might.
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Romance Schmomance

By Queen Spajina

It’s hard to believe I have gone my entire life believing that Casablanca and Gone with the Wind are two of the most Romantic movies ever made. After seeing both of these movies last year I was sickened and enraged at the idea that either one of these films are anyone’s favorite “most romantic movie ever.”
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