January 30, 2019

Sing Me A Story: Brenda & Eddie’s Italian Restaurant

Yes, I know that’s not the name of the song. Before you yell at me ask yourself how many people that song about high school sweethearts introduced by a song about ordering wine at a restaurant was called “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”? I needed to make sure those music lovers had some idea what I was talking about. So here we go again with a Billy Joel song.

“Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” is one that confused me because I couldn’t understand what those other two songs were doing bookending “The Ballad Of Brenda And Eddie” (the official name of the song that takes up the majority of “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant”). Why couldn’t that song stand out on its own? As in times past this led to a Sing Me A Story article so I could take time to find out. Coming off of Joel’s 1977 album The Stranger, it’s actually three songs in one. The title piece, officially just “Italian Restaurant”, is the opening and closing of the song, about ordering wine. After that comes an unnamed piece that bridges “Italian Restaurant”and “The Ballad Of Brenda And Eddie” (a reworking of a song that Joel made long before The Stranger). What is the point and does it affect the actual story here?

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Posted by on January 30, 2019 in Sing Me A Story and tagged , , , , .

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January 30, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Star Trek: Early Voyages #2

The sad thing is you can’t get a Number One action figure, can you? I’m not even sure you can get Captain Pike.

Star Trek: Early Voyages #2

Marvel/Paramount Comics (March, 1997)

“The Fires Of Pharos”

WRITERS; Ian Edginton & Dan Abnett

PENCILER: Patrick Zircher

INKER: Greg Adams

COLORIST: Marie Javins

LETTERER: Janice Chiang

EDITOR: Bobbie Chase

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Posted by on January 30, 2019 in Television Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , .

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January 30, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: Atari Sniglets

Here’s another one from the Retroist, although my focus is less on Rich Hall’s appearance in an Atari commercial but rather his famous “sniglet” routine. One of my school classes even took part in a sniglet contest. We didn’t win, and that’s all I remember about that. The commercial, in case you’re interested, tries to make the case that playing Atari games is better than going to the movies. Interestingly, Atari in its original form never realized the day when video games became movies or at least cinematic. (We’re still waiting for the days video game movies are as good as book adaptations. Look how long it took comics.) Also, discussion of the Atari 5200.

Posted by on January 30, 2019 in Television Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , , , .

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January 29, 2019

My Favorite Intros: In The Heat Of The Night

I rarely showcase live-action intros in this article series because most of them are kind of dull. Cartoon intros don’t need to show a cast and are more willing to create original footage rather than use clips to show off the show’s cast. There’s little design put into them. At best they have a nice theme song, but this isn’t “My Favorite Theme Songs”, it’s “My Favorite Intros”. Therefore an intro has to have more to them than names and a theme song.

In The Heat Of The Night doesn’t really have a lot of flash. It’s a low-key intro with a low-key theme song. That works because it was a low-key show. Based more off of the movie (and possible the two sequels, They Call Me Mister Tibbs and The Organization) than the original novel by John Ball, the series took place in the fictional town of Sparta, Mississippi. (There is an actual unincorporated community in Mississippi named Sparta but the movie was shot in Sparta, Illinois, while the TV series was filmed in Hammond, Louisiana and later Covington, Georgia. Interestingly the novel was also set in a fictional town with an unincorporated community sharing the name…unless the book is actually set in that community. I haven’t read it.) The series began on NBC but later moved to CBS. Apparently there was a lot of backstage drama as well but that doesn’t matter here. I’m interested in the intro.

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Posted by on January 29, 2019 in My Favorite/Not-So Favorite Intros and tagged , , .

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January 29, 2019

“Yesterday’s” Comic> Peter Parker: Spider-Man volume 2 #11 (The Eighth Day part 3)

“It’s the Zack Snyder fan brigade upset our cinematic universe is doing better!”

Peter Parker: Spider-Man volume 2 #11

Marvel Comics (November, 1999)

“The Eighth Day” part 3: “An Exemplary Day!”

STORY AND ART BECAUSE FOR SOME REASON MARVEL REFUSED TO GIVE THE WRITERS AND ARTISTS SEPARATE CREDITS: Howard Mackie, John Romita Jr., & Scott Hanna

COLORIST: Gregory Wright

LETTERER: Liz Agraphiotis

EDITOR: Ralph Macchio

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Posted by on January 29, 2019 in Marvel Spotlight, Yesterday's Comics and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

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January 29, 2019

BW’s Morning Article Link: The Rain Children Saga

Here’s an odd one someone at The Retroist stumbled across. Dumb And Dumber is not my kind of movie so I haven’t watched it, the sequels, nor the cartoon, nor do I plan to any time in the future. I have nothing against it, I’m just not interested. However, Allison Venezio did and actually found the “movie” they were watching in one scene. It’s actually a serialized phone company advertisement called The Rain Children, and you may recognize at least one of the kids in this tale of a retired musician who ends up having to raise his niece and nephew, plus the struggle to get the niece back from the know-it-all family services people. Here I thought this only happened to toy commercials.

Posted by on January 29, 2019 in Movie Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , .

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January 28, 2019

Chapter By Chapter: Tom Clancy’s Op-Center chapters 34-36

Chapter by Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.

Last time we got to spend time with the only cast of this book I care about, the folks in Korea. Had this book been just about them it would need a different title but it would be more interesting to me at this point. Unfortunately this session spends two of three chapters at the title location, where people vie for power and look to stab each other in the back or seduce a married man…and they’re the heroes. I don’t care about realism in my fiction, I care about believability and heroes I can root for beyond “well at least they didn’t kill a bunch of innocent people to start a war with the people they hate”. So far that’s been difficult.

While the real heroes have been working to find the bombers in Korea, when we last saw Op-Center they were trying to finish off a computer virus and stopped long enough to see North Korea moving in to either protect their borders or launch an attack, or potentially both.  That was their only heroic contribution. We’re still not quite half-way through this book, but let’s see how much closer we can get.

  • Chapter 34: Tuesday, 8:40 AM, Op-Center: 7 pages
  • Chapter 35: Tuesday, 8:55 AM, Op-Center: 3 pages that should have just been part of the previous chapter since “a different room” isn’t enough of a location change that it should need its own chapter
  • Chapter 36: Tuesday, 11:07 PM, The DMZ: 3 pages

What does it mean when I’m more interested in what’s going on at the Korean Demilitarized Zone than I am the folks trying to stop a war and protect American citizens?

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Posted by on January 28, 2019 in Tom Clancy's Op-Center and tagged , , , , .

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