Check it out! Phil Hall is one of the few people to write anything about Phil Tucker’s Space Jockey and I quoted him thusly in my book. Recently I’ve been happy to make his acquaintance and was interviewed for his wide-ranging cinema podcast, The Online Movie Show With Phil Hall. It’s a fun little chat, and Phil asks all the right questions about Robot Monster, Phil Tucker, and related subjects. Many thanks to Phil for having me on!
Author: andersrunestad
I CANNOT, YET I MUST Now on Kindle Unlimited
If you’re a Kindle Unlimited subscriber, you can now dip into my 700-page book on the making of Robot Monster and the careers of Phil Tucker and Wyott Ordung at your leisure as part of your subscription. Enjoy!
It’s Super Bowl Sunday . . .
. . . and it’s a shame that the Packers are not playing, because I’m just going to have to post this anyway:
Two “If”s
Dennis Hopper recites “If”:
Dennis Hopper again recites “If”:
Best Ever Advice
Rudyard Kipling’s “If” has been raked over many coals for supposedly reeking of class privilege, and for its associations with having an English stiff upper lip. In truth, it is universal in its message and ignoring its advice would be a perfect way to fail in life.
My maternal grandfather was a rancher and a completely able man in all areas and, when I graduated from high school, I got a card from him with the text of “If.” With a strong Irish background in his family, I can guarantee that he did not love the poem for its Englishness. He loved the poem because Kipling distilled goodness and success down to its essence as few ever have.
If
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make a heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
Barkley v Laimbeer
Charles Barkley is getting in the news again for a mock dustup with Shaquille O’Neal, but in 1990 he sincerely rained force on Pistons’ hatchet man Bill Laimbeer. I didn’t see it at the time, but I do remember disliking Laimbeer (and the mask he started wearing later).
The Motorcycle Boy Reigns
I saw Rumble Fish back in 1994, was stunned, and was also stunned that hardly anyone had seen it or written about it in the decade after its release. It’s a real love-it-or-hate-it experience, but it definitely clicked for me. Amazing visuals and sounds, and some outright surrealism in what was ostensibly a Hollywood movie. There’s nothing quite like it, and Criterion is bringing it to Blu-Ray in April.
Miguel Ferrer, Rest in Peace
Always Entertaining
Korean Parliament Fight:
Yet More Truth
“Determine never to be idle. . . It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.”
– Thomas Jefferson
Credit where it is due, I got these quotes from a great blog post by Steve Pavlina about having a good work ethic.