"Superman: The Movie" 40th Anniversary

Superman: The Movie premiered at the Uptown Theatre in Washington DC on December 10th, 1978.

I don't think I need to tell you guys I'm a bit of a fan of Superman, as both character and media staple.  And, I imagine, it started with this film.  After all, one of my earliest memories, writ-large, is my dad taking me to see Superman: The Movie in the theater and telling my mom how much I liked it when I got home.  It was all in that era before you know our hero will be fine when Lex dumps them into a pool with kryptonite chained around their neck.

In the 40 years since, the movie has aged incredibly well - a few bits now dated, others pointing the way for superhero movies and beyond, and all part of an era of filmmaking of sweeping cinematography, cutting edge practical effects, classical scoring and sincerity and humor in spades.  The performances have become classics upon which everything else is (rightly) judged, embedded in the (pop) cultural lexicon. 

PODCAST: "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) - Episode 2 of Holiday Cinema Series (w/ NathanC and Ryan)

Watched:  12/02/2018
Format:  Horrendous colorized version streaming on Amazon, I believe
Viewing:  Unknown.  Dozens.
Decade:  1940's


NathanC and Ryan take on the big Christmas classic about a guy who meets an angel who deeply improves his Christmas Eve. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) is an annual favorite, but it's also a movie that gets pretty dang dark. We take a look and ponder why the film has endured.





Music:
Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas
Main Title/ Heaven - Dimitri Tiomkin, It's a Wonderful Life OST
It's a Wonderful Life (finale) - Dimitri Tiomkin, It's a Wonderful Life OST
O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Show Notes:

~29:55 articles on gender and libraries (nowhere near complete on the topic)

• Father of Modern Libraries Was a Serial Sexual Harasser
• The Stereotype Stereotype
• Women's Values, Vision And Culture In The Transformation of American Librarianship, 1890 -- 1920

31:45 Gloria Graham at IMDB


Holiday Cinema Series Playlist

Not a drill! "DANGER: DIABOLIK" now available for streaming on Amazon

ALERT!  Danger: Diabolik is now available streaming in HD on Amazon Prime. 

Now - you can watch this movie ANY TIME, and 2018 has finally redeemed itself.

Well, that and Giant Cow.

Noir Watch: The Killing (1956)

Watched:  12/02/2018
Viewing:  Unknown.  6th?
Format:  Noir Alley on TCM on DVR
Decade:  1950's

First of all, "The Killing" that occurs in this movie is not an assassination.  It could refer to about five or ten different things, and I suppose that's intentional.  I'd start with "they're gonna make a killing on this heist", but, of course, this is a 1950's-era heist movie, so you know it's not ending in sunshine and flowers.

The Killing (1956) sits on a curious edge when it comes to crime dramas/ noir.  Marking maverick, young filmmaker Stanley Kubrick's first foray into studio-backed cinema, the movie feels part and parcel of the noir movement with a structure and an ending not atypical for a dime-store crime novel, retaining those rough edges that some noir eschewed.  As much as I like The Asphalt Jungle and Rafifi - likely The Killing had more impact and reflects more of where the heist genre would go - especially in American cinema (at least marginally).

President George Herbert Walker Bush Merges With The Infinite

Former President George Herbert Walker Bush, our 41st President, has passed at the age of 94.

From the New York Times.

I genuinely always liked Mr. Bush as Vice President and then as President.  When I think of the age in which you may not agree with policies and procedures of a politician, but respected the integrity of the person, I often think of G.H.W. Bush.

PODCAST: "A Christmas Story" (1983) HOLIDAY CINEMA SERIES w/ Maxwell and Ryan

Watched  11/25/2018
Viewing:  Oh god, who knows?
Format:  On-demand from TBS
Decade:  1980's

Oh, fudge...! Maxwell and Ryan get nostalgic for a nostalgia film, "A Christmas Story" - the tale of a boy who just wants a BB gun for Christmas. The Signal Watch crew is celebrating the Holiday season with discussions of some of our seasonal favorite films and specials, so we go deep on a movie we can all relate to (maybe a bit too much).




Music:

Christmas Time is Here - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas
O Tannenbaum - Vince Guaraldi Trio from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Shownotes:

24:40 - on Amazon Prime A Roadtrip for Ralphie
30:10 - video for Hot for Teacher by Van Halen
45:55 - article on Jane Krakowsi in A Christmas Story Live 
1:09:25 - A Christmas Story House Museum in Cleveland

SANTA BONUS:

When we hit 50 listens, Maxwell sent me some choice family photos

Signal Watch Reads: All the Answers (Kupperman, 2018)

I started reading All the Answers (2018) a couple of weeks ago, got ten pages in and realized that I wouldn't have time to read it cover to cover in one sitting, the way one generally wants to watch a film, and so I put away the book and picked it up again when I had uninterrupted time.

Written, researched, drawn and lived by Michael Kupperman, a cartoonist and artist I've followed for well over ten years at this point, the book is more than a minor pivot from a particular brand of humor comic that I would fail to capture here if I tried (and what is explaining a joke, anyway?) - this is also a biographical and autobiographical graphic novel.  I believe Snake n' Bacon strips were my entree into Kupperman's work, followed by Tales Designed to Thrizzle - something that should be a staple in any comics-studies course.  And, of course, Mark Twain's Autobiography, 1910-2010.

Christmas Watch: The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Watched:  11/24/2018
Format:  Netflix Streaming
Viewing:  First
Decade:  2010's

I mean, honestly, they had me at "and Kurt Russell as Santa".  Does Russell's participation immediately suggest "amazing film"?  No.  But he will elevate whatever he's in just by showing up, so I figured - hey, I already have Netflix, if it's painful, we turn it off.

I'm happy to say, The Christmas Chronicles (2018) is the rare Christmas movie that's actually pretty funny and accomplishes its goals in a surprisingly uncynical, actually-earns-it way.  All of which is remarkable, because describing the plot of this film will make you raise your eyebrow and say "I've seen this movie.  Several times.  And it's always terrible."

Happy Thanksgiving 2018 from The Signal Watch

Let's do this

Thanksgiving is actually supposed to be about being grateful at harvest-time for what we *do* have, and how we can share that with our fellow humans.  After all, it was President Lincoln who instated Thanksgiving during the dark days of The Civil War as a balm to the nation's ills and a reminder of what was good and how we could look to those less fortunate as we recognized our good fortune.

The holiday is expressed in many ways, from meals provided by volunteers to the needy to people trying to fly across the country in terrible weather to spend three uncomfortable days with extended family and then fly back, more exhausted than when we left.  As part of the crass commercialism that *is* American freetime, of course there's also a tradition of watching football (and therefore ads) and the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade from New York City (and therefore ads).

Mickey Mouse Turns 90

Happy birthday, Mickey Mouse!

November 18, 1928 Mickey made his first appearance on the screen at New York's Colony Theatre in the short Steamboat Willie.  The short holds up incredibly well, retains every bit of energy it had nine decades ago and remains just as clever, creative and funny as anything in animation today.

If you've never seen Steamboat Willie, here you go: