Apr 30, 2014

All This Talking Is Only Bravado


A Walk Across The Rooftops
The Blue Nile (1984)
The debut album from the Scottish band The Blue Nile was released 30 years ago today.  I originally discovered them after finding a beautiful song called Tinseltown In The Rain on a new wave mixtape.  You can listen to it here.

Apr 22, 2014

Four Score And Two Cheeks Ago



Could this be the long-awaited National Treasure 3?  [source: Ellen]

Apr 21, 2014

Flying The Sky Pop



Super Mario Land and Tetris Strategy Guide
Nintendo of Japan (1989)
Mario's debut on the original Game Boy was released in Japan 25 years ago today.  Super Mario Land was a very early title for the handheld and it's probably the least polished of any Super Mario Bros platformer released on a Nintendo console, but it's still a hell of a lot of fun to play.

Apr 15, 2014

Picture It... London, 1970


Traffic in London
British Pathé (1970)
Shot from the front seat of a moving vehicle driving through the black taxi cabs, double decker buses, and other ordinary London traffic.

Apr 14, 2014

Zombies At The Wienerwald



Dawn Of The Dead
Embassy 1 on 7th Avenue - New York, NY
The George A. Romero zombie classic premiered in Italy on September 1, 1978, but it didn't make its way to the United States until the following April.  This photo was taken sometime in the second half of April, 1979 with it being screened at the Embassy 1 near Times Square.

The last time I wrote about this theater, I mentioned that the 1560 Broadway property to the right was once a Weinerwald Austrian Restaurant, but by the time that photo was taken, it had already been converted into a McDonald's.  In this photo, you can see the original Weinerwald when it was in its prime.



While researching Weinerwald, I found another photo of the restaurant that also includes the marquee from the Embassy 1 theater next door.  This one was taken by photographer Nick DeWolf at a time when the Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner disaster film Earthquake was being shown.

There's a lot more information about this Weinerwald location on the NY History Geschichte blog.

Apr 13, 2014

Freddy vs Jason Closes Out The 80's



Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter
Paramount Pictures (1984)
The fourth and not-quite final chapter in the Friday The 13th saga premiered in theaters 30 years ago today.  This WPIX advertisement is for an airing that took place on November 2nd, 1989.  The network followed this up the next night with A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors as the 8 O'Clock Movie.

Apr 1, 2014

April Fool



This person ran out of space to share their opinions and has resorted to printing paper signs that threaten gun violence to hang on their back windshield.  Yup... totally normal behavior right here.  😏