SHADOWPLAY (Free subscription) | 04/07/2009
There’s a meme circulating, and rather a good one, in which bloggers name the ten film books that exerted the greatest influence on them. It’s a voluntary meme, but it’s so seductive — one wants to pay tribute to those things that transformed one, like a sort of cinematic Charles Atlas pamphlet, into a bulging [...]
Double O Section (Free subscription) | 03/07/2009
More Spy Music From Network: The Protectors Network has announced the next title in their amazing line of soundtracks to Sixties and Seventies ITC shows: The Protectors . The Protectors saw man from U.N.C.L.E. Robert Vaughn return to the world of international intrigue (circa 1972) as globetrotting private detective Harry Rule. Rule was assisted by the Contessa Caroline di Contini ( The House That...
TV Scoop (Free subscription) | 29/06/2009
As a rational person, it's easy to think "I'd never be that stupid" when it comes to falling for scams promising an easy buck, but the sad fact is the world is full of people desperate to believe. Later today, former Wall Street trader Bernie Madoff - the man behind the world's biggest investment scam - will be sentenced for stealing up to $50 billion dollars over more than 20 years. Heavily...
Metroblogging Los Angeles (Free subscription) | 25/06/2009
My 8th grade Le Conte Junior High class picture is all feathered hair, a smile full of braces, and my favorite shirt, a pale blue tee with an iron-on of Farrah Fawcett’s iconic poster. Farrah and I wouldn’t meet in person, until four years later in 1981. I was working at Hunter’s Books on Rodeo Drive [...]
Mr. Peel's Sardine Liqueur (Free subscription) | 21/06/2009
I doubt that Blake Edwards’ S.O.B. was ever a particularly believable look at the goings-on of Hollywood. Of course, that’s not at all the point of the film. Instead, it’s clearly meant to be an exaggeration, but more importantly it’s supposed to be as bitter and angry as cinematically possible. Released on July 1, 1981 we don’t need to know much of the history of the...
Line and Length (Free subscription) | 05/06/2009
Ooh the excitement. The ceremony, which was due to start at 4.40, is now almost upon us. Possibly. Alesha Dixon, some singer, is due to chuck out a tune or two on a stage in front of the Pavilion. In...
Pop Art Generation (Free subscription) | 20/05/2009
San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but [...]
Popdose (Free subscription) | 15/05/2009
I said I wouldn’t do it. I was called out, however, and if there’s one thing I’m not, that’s a punk. All my neon green hair fell out a long time ago. —Dw. Ben Lee - Catch My Disease from Awake Is the New Sleep (2005) Bleu - Could Be Worse from Redhead (2003) Calexico - Ballad of [...]
SOX (Free subscription) | 11/05/2009
UConn Football links The Big East’s best: Robert Vaughn, No. 16 [Big East Blog - ESPN.com] UConn Men’s Basketball links 2009 NBA Draft: Connecticut Huskies [isportsweb] Other UConn related links Baseball: Springer Hits Two Homers to Lead UConn Over Pittsburgh 8-5 [UConnHuskies.com]
TVShowsOnDVD.com News (Free subscription) | 20/04/2009
By David Lambert - An elegant hotel in San Francisco is the setting for each multi-plot episode involving employees of the hotel and an entertaining variety of new guests each week. Connie Sellecca,... (more)
Blogcritics: Video (Free subscription) | 08/04/2009
Wherein childhood memories meet eighties television. When I was a wee tyke, there was nothing in the world cooler to me than The Man from U.N.C.L.E. And why wouldn’t it be? Week after week, intrepid U.N.C.L.E. operatives Napoleon Solo (Robert Vaughn) and Illya Kuryakin (David McCallum) saved the world from the nefarious clutches of THRUSH, and they did it with aplomb and style.Jack Bauer was...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 04/04/2009
I love showbiz memoirs, and Robert Vaughn's new autobiography is a good one. My pleasure was doubled when I met him this week; he was utterly charming, and for people of my age memories of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. are as nostalgic and as evocative as Sex and the City or 24 might be for young persons today. He is better known now as Albert Stroller, the affable and experienced conman in Hustle: "I...
DVD Talk (Free subscription) | 03/04/2009
Skip It Close Channel D, I think. CBS DVD has released Return of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. - The Fifteen Years Later Affair (somewhere they lost the first "The" in the title), the 1983 made-for-TV reunion movie of the beloved 60s cult spy series starring Robert Vaughn and David McCallum. Both iconic stars returned for this limp, unfocused comeback, but neither should have bothered, considering...
Birmingham: It's Not Shit Blog (Free subscription) | 30/03/2009
Something to do with Hustle supposedly coming to Brum to film, he said: "my wife said 'you've got to find out where I'm going to live!' So tonight after the signings I'm going down to the Rotunda in the Bullring, which is apparently the best place for apartment-type living." [link]
Euro Crime (Free subscription) | 30/03/2009
So far I've not watched Hustle but the news reported by Digital Spy that the next series is to be filmed in Birmingham (ie 12 miles up the road) might make me change my mind: ...Robert Vaughn at the Memorabilia convention in Brum, where he spilled the beans on the relocation. "I found out last night that all six shows are going to be done in Birmingham," he told me. "I think this is...
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