Saturday, February 21, 2009

Layered Removal


Good morning - thanks for stopping by. Don't mind the mess, I was up late watching the final episode of Conan O'Brien on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien'. This last week he's been showing highlights from his last 16 years of hosting the show from New York. Now he's jet setting to L.A. to take over the hosting duties of 'The Tonight Show'. It will be interesting how he handles the transition - which I will think he will do so effortlessly. Remember, he was a writer on "The Simpson's" which is Prime-Time.

It's a big weekend for the Arts and Sciences. Oscar weekend. I like to consider myself a film buff - but when it comes down to it; I'm probably a slight hair more than just the average movie watcher.

Growing up in Bethel, Alaska, and the 80's, really molded my movie watching habits. For a brief time we had a movie -theater where I remember watching 'Superman: The Movie' and bringing my Superman toy. Not long after that the theater shut down.

We were left with local broadcasting on television - which was not like local broadcasting down there in the States. We would watch television shows that were recorded in Seattle - or somewhere, then barged up to Bethel, brought to the radio/television station, then we would be able to watch partial shows of Charlies Angels, or month old reports from one of the broadcast channels or watching the mating habits of wildebeests from Nature. The "commercials" would be the local cameraman Mike going around town videotaping folks fishing from the riverbank - or children playing with puppies while Gershwin or some freestyle jazz was layered over.

Then cablevision came to town - oh sweet Cable. Instead of two channels - the local station and the Statewide public broadcast - we had thirteen. So now we could at least watch the "local" news - with local meaning Detroit. That was a big paradigm shift - this small, rural eskimo boy hearing stories of gang murders and all the other stuff that happens in Detroit.

Then there were the trips into Anchorage - where I could actually go to the movie. 'Clash of the Titans', 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' - then a few years later 'Ghostbusters' then that year - 1984 we got a VCR - and Chinook Video opened. A whole slew of movies - sweet, sweet movies just waiting to be seen.

'Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie'? Sure! 'Howard the Duck'? You betcha! Some comedy based on Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde - and all I can remember is some lady getting a really huge boob job and having them explode - why not!?! So - I wasn't too picky about what movie I would watch. Heck - when I was in Anchorage and had the opportunity to choose between 'Teen Wolf Too' and 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' - heck yes I chose 'Teen Wolf Too'. I think my dad still resents me for that choice. We - and my two friends that I was able to bring along -were the only four in the theater.

So - though I like to think that my standards have raised or that I am more concerned over character development over action; I still have 'Masters of the Universe' naggin at me stirring up hope that the sequel will be out shortly.

1 comment:

Steven Adami said...

Robert, I also got my "American" T.V. through Detroit. If it wasn't for Detroit, I'd have been stuck watching endless hours of local access programming (I will cut you if you show one more montage of sweeping prarie vistas over a Bach concerto...grrr!)
Weren't VHS rentals the best? It seemed like my little town was full of Mom & Pop movie rental places. If I had a sleepover, my buddies and I would get the folks to rent Robo Cop or Friday the 13th. I look back and those films couldn't hold a candle to the horror-porn like the Saw series or Hostel. Good times, good times.