Another Brave Yar Flies Off To Fight The Qotile

Yars' Revenge
Atari 2600 (1982)

The iconic space battle, created by Howard Scott Warshaw, between a vulnerable Yar and the evil Qotile has turned 40 years old this month.  Yars' Revenge has been re-released in numerous forms over the past four decades and is still enjoyed to this day, both by retro gamers who grew up with the Atari 2600 and later generations of gamers who are discovering the classics for themselves.

Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, FL) - May 7, 1982

The Morning Call (Allentown, PA) - May 14, 1982

It's difficult to pin down the exact release date of a game from the 70's or 80's because, in most cases, it didn't have one.  There was some promotion of future releases, but the first time I ever remember it being a specific date was when Midway announced that the home port of Mortal Kombat would be released simultaneously on the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Game Boy and Game Gear on September 13th, 1993 (also known as "Mortal Monday").  In contrast, the upcoming games for consoles of the 8-Bit Era were usually announced in a "coming soon" list.  If they really wanted to give us more information, we'd get a preview of the game with some screenshots and a vague release date such as "coming in may".

Exact sales figures are another thing that are difficult to pinpoint for games of that era, but there's no question that Yars' Revenge was a massive success.  It's considered to be the highest selling original game for the Atari 2600.  In the years that followed, it was ported to Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, and it was included on just about every compilation of Atari games, including Atari Greatest Hits: Volume 2 (Nintendo DS), Atari Anthology (Xbox, Playstation 2), Atari Vault (Steam), Atari Flashback Classics (Nintendo Switch, Playstation Vita), and on all of the Atari Flashback plug-and-play consoles.

Although there are exceptions like Adventure and Pitfall, most of the top selling games for the Atari 2600 were home ports of games that gamers enjoyed playing at the arcade.  Many others had licensed characters from existing properties that potential game buyers were familiar with, like Star Wars and Spider Man.

Imagine trying to tell a story with your game that connects to its audience without the internet, and without the kind of technology that will allow you to tell that story in the game itself.  How do you inspire gamers to connect with the characters and the world you created when those characters are just a couple of pixels, and without the ability to include words other than maybe "score" or "player 1"?  One way is to include a small comic book with the game, and it's one of the things that I believe truly helped Yars' Revenge to have the impact that it had.

The Yars' Revenge comic was written by Hope Shafer and drawn by Frank Cirocco, Ray Garst and Hiro Kimura.  It helped to explain the battle you were having on the screen with your joystick, and it spawned a number of additional ways in which the story was told.

Not long after the game was released, Kids Stuff Records released a record that told the story of Yars' Revenge, and even included some disco-sounding space tunes that fit the mood of the game.  Five years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Howard Scott Warshaw at the Timeline Arcade in Hanover, PA.  He signed my album cover with "Yars' Truly".  You can listen to the album above, which has been digitized and uploaded by boyjohn who has a channel where he archives children's albums on YouTube.

Boards Don't Hit Back

Enter The Dragon
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
I'm not the world's biggest fan of the Mad Max movies.  It's not that I dislike them or anything, but I never seemed to get out of them the same level of enjoyment that most people do.  I thought about going to see them anyway, but we already have tickets to so many other shows this season that I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a Friday and Saturday off - especially since I knew that I'd be back at the drive-in on Sunday for a movie that launched the kung fu genre in the United States: Enter The Dragon.

I don't have any kung fu shirts to wear for this event, but I did break out the E-180 VHS Sneakers for the first time.  These were designed by NewRetro.net, and I bought them with the idea to wear them at VHS Fest.  I'm sad to say that I won't be able to make it out to the drive-in for VHS Fest in 2022, so I figured what the hell.  They're yellow, and most of the kung fu flicks that I grew up watching were on VHS, so they're sort of appropriate.

The poster for this show was designed by Tom Bifulco, and it's badass!  It promotes both the screening of the film and the special guests at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater for this show: the authors of These Fists Break Bricks, Grady Hendrix and Chris Poggiali.

I got to meet Grady and Chris, both of whom are very good dudes.  We talked for a little bit about the movie that made me fall in love with kung fu - a little known flick that I found at a rental store back in the day called Little Mad Guy.  They signed a copy of their book for me which I started reading back at the car, but I didn't get too much further than the forward by RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan.  I'm looking forward to diving into this book this week.

Grady and Chris also did a long introduction on the big screen for Enter The Dragon before the trailer reel and the film.  It wasn't just a short couple of words about the film either - this was a full slideshow presentation that told the history behind the movie, and the after effects that it had on American cinema.  It was incredibly well done and reminded me a lot of Joe Bob's How Rednecks Saved Hollywood.

 

You can see a couple of vintage kung fu movie posters behind Grady Chris, and I in the photo.  Those are for 60 Second Assassin and Fists Of Vengeance.  There were two other posters on the other side of the building: Blast Of The Iron Palm, and one of my favorite kung fu flicks of all time: Master Of The Flying Guillotine.

Between the many different versions of Kung Fu Fighting that were played on Mahoning Radio during the pre-show, Mark mentioned that part of the goal for the single features on Sunday is to gauge ticket sales and determine if it would make sense to do a bigger event centered around a specific type of film.  I'm not sure what the sales were to Enter The Dragon, but I hope it was good because I would definitely be in the front row for a Mahoning kung fu festival!

 

There was a series of trailers shown on the big screen (in glorious 35 mm as always) after the presentation from Grady and Chris.  The first of these is my favorite movie of all time: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  This came out in theaters when I was 20 years old and I saw it three times: once in Battery Park, once at a random theater somewhere in New Jersey on our drive home from New York, and once at the theater in my hometown after we got home.  It is, in my opinion, the most beautiful movie ever made and I cannot possibly explain how excited I would be to have the opportunity to see it at the Mahoning.

And finally, there was the main event: a screening of the most iconic kung fu flick of all time, and the final film from the master Bruce Lee - Enter The Dragon!  The weather was warm so we got to sit outside all night, and the print was absolutely crisp and beautiful.

Once again, the Mahoning Drive-In Theater has made another dream of mine come true.  Before I learned about this place, I never imagined that I'd ever have the opportunity to see Enter The Dragon at a drive-in, let alone from a 35 mm print that is being projected by a group of people who love these movies even more than I do.  This place is truly freakin magical!

No Weezing The Juice

Encino Man
Hollywood Pictures (1992)
This teen comedy about two high school friends who accidentally bring a preserved caveman from a block of ice into the modern world premiered in theaters thirty years ago today.  Encino Man stars Sean Astin (from The Goonies) alongside Pauly Shore and Brendan Fraser in both of their first leading roles in a feature film.

This movie will always be a pleasant childhood memory for me.  I moved to South Florida to live with my dad, my stepmom and my stepsister a few months before Encino Man was released.  Stephanie (my stepsister) was a big fan of Pauly Shore from MTV, so the four of us went out to see this movie on the big screen shortly after it debuted in theaters.  Steph and I both loved it and spent the rest of the summer annoying our parents with quotes from the movie.  Liz (my stepmom) did her best to play along by calling us "buuu-ddy" whenever we did this.  My dad tolerated all of this as best he could until we moved on to annoying him with the next pop culture reference that came along.

One of the more embarrassing stories of me as a pre-teen came as a result of this movie.  I was 11 years old at the time, so I was pretty quick to adopt the "weasel" manner of speaking.  If you aren't familiar with Pauly Shore's work in the early to mid 90's, he had a persona that he called "the weasel" who spoke in stoner surfer dialect that was kind of like Bill & Ted or Spicoli from Fast Times At Ridgemont High.  This caused a few kids to call me "Stoney", which was Pauly Shore's nickname in Encino Man.  That in itself wouldn't have been too terrible if not for the time and place that this nickname was applied to me.

Here's the situation: before the end of the school year, I had written an essay for D.A.R.E. which was picked as the winning essay in my class.  This meant that I was invited by the Palm Beach County Police Department to join the kids who wrote the other winning essays from the other classes for D.A.R.E. Camp.  It wasn't really camping, and it probably had some other name that I've long forgotten.  For a couple of weeks in June and July, a few of the officers would take me and the other kids to all kinds of different places.  I remember that went bowling and to a movie on my 12th birthday (we got to see A League Of Their Own the first day it was in theaters), and we went a bunch of other places, like Sea World and Busch Gardens.  It was a hell of a lot of fun, and it was all completely free of charge.  So anyway, I had no idea that "Stoney" was a drug reference.  There's no weed or any other drug in Encino Man, and the plot is about a caveman, so I just thought it was a reference to the stone age.  So, when my dad asked my why the hell a bunch of kids are calling me "Stoney" in front of a bunch of police officers who were taking us out on outings as a part of a program to teach us to say no to drugs, I had no idea why he sounded so upset.  He then clued me in about what the name "Stoney" meant.  Whoops!

Naturally, this movie was much too silly and fun for any of the critics to admit that they enjoyed it.  This review from The Palm Beach Post is pretty representative of what most adults were saying about the film at the time.  I was 11 years old and I thought it was great.  Now I'm 41 and I still think it's pretty great.  Obviously, it's not a work of cinematic genius, but I hope that I never become so bitter and joyless that I can't watch a movie like Encino Man without smiling and having a good time.

In retrospect, Encino Man reminds me a bit of Teen Wolf.  The stories aren't direct parallels, but they follow a lot of the same beats:  A mild-mannered high school kid has a wild best friend and a crush on an unobtainable girl.  Then, something happens that propels him to be seen as cool.  In Teen Wolf, the kid discovers that he's a werewolf and he "wolfs out" to become a party animal.  In Encino Man, the kid discovers the preserved body of a caveman who is encased in ice.  He thaws out and becomes the coolest guy in high school, which makes the kid popular.  By the end of both Teen Wolf and Encino Man, the mild-mannered kid learns to relax and stop trying to be cool, which is when things start to fall into place.  The two films would probably make a great double feature for folks who know how to turn off their critical brain and enjoy a couple of silly and fun comedies.

A Handshake Of Carbon Monoxide

OK Computer
Radiohead (1997)

Arguably the greatest album that was released in my lifetime, and my favorite album of all time to listen to in its entirety, turns 25 years old today.

It wasn't until the year after it's release that I heard it for the first time, but I fell in love with it instantly when I finally did have an opportunity to listen to it.  I remember that I was working overnight at a gas station in Sugarloaf, PA when I bought OK Computer and I listened to the CD in my car almost every night on my way to work.  Even today when I listen to this album, it reminds me of driving in my car alone on a cold winter night.

Radiohead's third studio album was first released in Japan on May 21st, 1997 before coming to the UK on June 16th, Canada on June 17th, and the United States on July 1st.  It would go on to be nominated for Album Of The Year, but they lost to Bob Dylan, who coincidentally was referenced in the title of the third track of OK Computer: Subterranean Homesick Alien.  However, it was awarded the Grammy for Alternative Album Of The Year.

OK Computer was universally praised as a work of genius upon its release and has been frequently compared to Dark Side Of The Moon and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  The latter comparison was cited by Tim Footman, who said that both records had the rare distinction of being able to encapsulate a particular point in history.  Little did we know that the feelings of nihilism, isolation, and technological oppression in the world back in 1997 would only be a drop in the bucket compared to a quarter century later.  Many of us look back at the late 90's now as the good old days that we're nostalgic for.  Imagine what 2047 is going to feel like which might make people want to return to the "simple" days of 2022.

The album was promoted in a variety of unusual ways in the weeks leading up to the album's release, including the distribution of  a 3.5" floppy disk that you could use to install a Radiohead screen saver.  I found a website called greenplastic.com which claims to have the files from this floppy disk available to download from their multimedia page, but I have no way of knowing if it's legitimate or if the file is safe to install, so you are free to investigate this at your own risk.

Usually, I'll include one of my favorite songs and its lyrics when I write about the anniversary of an album's release, but I feel like that would do an injustice to OK Computer.  Although it's not a concept album, the songs share common themes and flow together in a way that's almost magical.  There were singles released off of this album, most notably Paranoid Android and Karma Police, but you really aren't getting the full experience to listen to them out of context with the rest of the album.  The band has made the full album available to listen to for free on their YouTube channel, so if you haven't heard it before, go ahead and give it a listen on its 25th birthday.

Breathe Out So I Can Breathe You In

The Colour And The Shape
Foo Fighters (1997)

It doesn't feel like this album came out a quarter of a century ago, but it's true.  I was 16 years old when The Colour And The Shape was released 25 years ago today.  Man, that really makes me feel my age!

Guitar World (1997)

Although it's the second Foo Fighters studio album, in many ways, The Colour And The Shape really is their first as an actual band.  The self-titled 1995 Foo Fighters album was more of a Dave Grohl solo project.  He wrote the lyrics and music of every song and he sang the lead and accompanying vocals.  Also, with the exception of one part of the guitar on X-Static that was played by The Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli, Grohl played every instrument on every song on the first Foo Fighters album.

In contrast, The Colour And The Shape was a collaborative effort by Grohl, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel, and drummer Taylor Hawkins.  The result was an incredible album of 13 songs, three of which became massive hits in the late 90's: Monkey Wrench, My Hero and Everlong.

My favorite song on the album, and my favorite Foo Fighters song ever recorded, is its second single - Everlong.  Here, Dave Grohl talks about the process of writing the song before playing it acoustically:

Everlong

Foo Fighters (1997)

March 20, 2021 acoustic recording from Studio 606 in Northridge, CA 

Hello, I've waited here for you

Everlong

Tonight, I throw myself into

And out of the red

Out of her head, she sang

Come down, and waste away with me

Down with me

Slow, how you wanted it to be

I'm over my head

Out of her head, she sang

And I wonder

When I sing along with you

If everything could ever feel this real forever

If anything could ever be this good again

The only thing I'll ever ask of you

You've got to promise not to stop when I say when

She sang

Breathe out, so I can breathe you in

Hold you in

And now I know you've always been

Out of your head, out of my head I sang

And I wonder

When I sing along with you

If everything could ever feel this real forever

If anything could ever be this good again

The only thing I'll ever ask of you

You've got to promise not to stop when I say when

She sang

And I wonder 

If everything could ever feel this real forever 

If anything could ever be this good again 

The only thing I'll ever ask of you 

You've got to promise not to stop when I say when

 

East Bound And Down

Smokey And The Bandit
Universal Pictures (1977)

One of the most iconic films in American history premiered at Radio City Music Hall 45 years ago today.  Smokey And The Bandit, starring Burt Reynolds and Sally Field, went on to earn over $126 million dollars in North America which made it the second highest grossing film of 1977.  The only movie that year to be more successful at the box office was the first Star Wars film.

Despite the fact that this movie was played repeatedly on television throughout the 80's and 90's, I didn't see this movie for the first time until I was in my 40's.  It was literally introduced to me, as so many other films have, by Joe Bob Briggs who hosted his How Rednecks Saved Hollywood show at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater last July.  This show was immediately followed by a 35mm screening of Smokey And The Bandit while Joe Bob and Darcy met with fans near the concession building throughout the runtime of the film, which ended after 2:00 am.

This night may have been the most fun I've ever had watching a movie.  Everything just came together perfectly: we got to meet and talk with both Joe Bob and Darcy, we had some good food, the weather was beautiful, Joe Bob's show was hysterically funny, and finally, we got to see a true classic of American cinema for the very first time the way it was meant to be seen - on the big screen, projected from 35mm under the stars on a beautiful summer night at the drive in.  It was an incredible night, and it's a memory I will always cherish.

At The Drive-In, No One Can Hear Your Tacos Crunch

Alien (1979)
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
There are a hell of a lot of excellent Tunnel Vision Tuesday shows on the lineup this year, but it's going to be hard to top this one.  The movie that was screened last night was the 1979 Ridley Scott sci-fi horror classic Alien.

Harvey gets very excited every time we tell him that he's coming out to the drive-in.  He loves to walk around the lot, and he especially enjoys the attention he gets from folks who stop by to pet him.  He usually ends up falling asleep in my lap or in the back seat of the car about halfway through the first movie, so single features are the best time to bring the little guy out. 

It was also Taco Tuesday at the Mahoning with the concession stand selling hard shell tacos with Rico's nacho cheese and your choice of toppings.  I don't remember these being offered at any of the previous shows that I've been to, but they definitely hit the spot.

 

Prior to the start of the show, there was a trailer reel from Exhumed Films.  This included some shows that were already screened at the Mahoning this season, such as Predator and The Fly, as well as shows that are scheduled for upcoming events, like Night Of The Living Dead, House and Re-Animator.

Last night's screening of Alien was about as perfect of a night at the drive-in as anyone could hope for.  I'm not sure what the attendance was, but the place was packed.  The last time I remember seeing this many cars at the drive-in on a Tuesday was for Terminator 2: Judgment Day last June.  It's easy to understand why.  It was a beautiful warm Spring night without a cloud in the sky or a drop of rain.

Virgil said something during the pre-show that I hadn't considered before I started to come to the Mahoning - there's something special about seeing a space movie on a clear night at the drive-in.  When you see the Nostromo surrounded by the stars in space, and then you look up, above and around the screen to see the stars in the night sky, it's an almost magical experience.  It is immersive in a way that no 3-D movie can touch, and it just makes you thankful to be at this place, and at this time, and in these circumstances.  What better way to spend a warm spring evening than at the drive-in with a plate of tacos watching one of the greatest sci-fi horror flicks of all time?

Live From The Upside Down

Doritos 3D Crunch: Three Cheese
Frito Lay (2022)

Another cross-promotion with Stranger Things can be found in the chip aisle with a release of special packaging for Doritos and 3D Crunch Doritos in a variety of flavors.

This packaging is part of a concert promotion called Live From The Upside Down, which is scheduled to take place on June 23rd. The show will be available to stream online for those who pre-register for tickets, and it will feature Corey Hart, The Go-Go’s, Soft Cell, and Charli XCX.

Hang Loose, Home Slice

Surfer Boy Pizza
Palermo Villa Inc (2022)

The fourth season of Stranger Things is still 11 days away, but the cross-promotional items are out in full force.  My favorite so far has been the line of Surfer Boy Pizza that I found in the freezer section of my local Wal-Mart.

Before I even get into the pizza itself, take a look at that logo of a long haired surf dude standing barefoot on a pepperoni.  He's got a pizza box in one hand, he's throwing up a shaka with the other, and he's surfing on what looks like a marinara wave.  Brilliant!

The pizza itself wasn't amazing, but it's definitely not bad either.  It sort of reminds me of the Tombstone Pizza that my dad used to pick up when I was a teenager so that we could get the free baseball card inside.  On the other hand, this combination of toppings is pretty amazing.  It may look strange, but the pineapple and jalapeno flavors work together tremendously well.  I'm going to have to remember to recreate this combination after these Surfer Boy pizzas are no longer available.

Double Dick Saturday

Sing-Along Weekend

Mary Poppins / Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Mahoning Drive-In Theater - Lehighton, PA
So, the official name of this double feature at the Mahoning is the Sing-Along Weekend, but I kind of like the unofficial title.  Both movies feature one of my favorite comedy actors of all time, the legendary Dick Van Dyke, so when Virgil promoted the upcoming shows on the radio during the pre-show for Predator, it was referred to as the Double Dick Weekend.  The fact that it refers to such wholesome family movies as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang make it all the better.

This is one of the weekends at the drive-in that my wife was especially looking forward to because Mary Poppins was one of her favorite films when she was growing up.  I'm honestly not sure if I ever saw the entire movie from beginning to end before last night.  I know I had seen clips of it, and I've listened to the music from the movie a lot of times when I was a kid because my grandparents would play the record for me when I came over to visit on the weekend, usually with my grandmother singing along to Chim Chim Cher-ee.

Before Mary Poppins, they screened a 35mm print of one of the greatest Daffy Duck cartoons of all time - The Scarlet Pumpernickel.  This 1950 Loony Tunes short is a true masterpiece of animation history with nearly every character in the cartoon being performed by the legendary Mel Blanc.  Following this they showed the theatrical trailer for Snow White, Bambi and Peter Pan.

 

Mary Poppins was the highest grossing film of 1964, and at the time of its release, it was the highest grossing Disney movie of all time.  It was critically acclaimed with thirteen Academy Awards nominations (including Best Picture), five of which it won, including Best Original Musical Score, Best Original Song (Chim Chim Cher-ee), and Best Actress (Julie Andrews).  It brilliantly blends live action and animation in a way that few other films could match to this day.

There was a short intermission between the two films with two 1942 Goofy shorts: How To Swim and How To Play Baseball.  Disney's series of instructional videos are among the greatest animated shorts ever made, and I'm always very happy to see them.  They're one of the few things that could make a 5 year old and a 95 year old laugh, and in most cases, they'd be laughing for the same reason.  When a future civilization digs up the entertainment produced in our time, I hope that they uncover these because they are truly one of the high points of our culture.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a film with a lot of talent behind it.  It's based on a novel by James Bond creator Ian Fleming and was filmed from a screenplay co-written by Willy Wonka author Roald Dahl.  I had never seen Chitty Chitty Bang Bang before last night, and unlike Mary Poppins, I don't remember ever hearing any songs or seeing clips from the film.  The only thing I ever remember seeing from the movie is a Clockwork Lullaby Machine that was on display at the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum in Atlantic City.

The movie is a little on the long side, but it's a very nice musical about an inventor named Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke) who tinkers with an old race car which he, his love interest and his children have named Chitty Chitty Bang Bang after the sound that the engine makes.  Potts modifies the car to the point where it can fly and operate as a motorboat.  This attracts the attention of the villainous Baron Bomburst of the nearby land of Vulgaria, and chaos ensues.

 

I wasn't prepared for the length of this double feature.  Most of the family films that I grew up with are pretty snappy, clocking in at around an hour and a half.  That is not the case with either of these two movies, with Mary Poppins clocking in at 139 minutes and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at 145 minutes.  I generally don't mind a long runtime for most films where the plot keeps moving, but it can really feel like a drag when the story is constantly grinding to a halt for a song and dance routine.  Don't get me wrong, they're very charming, but at one point I looked down at the clock and was shocked to see that it was nearly two in the morning.  Then I looked up at the screen to see Dick Van Dyke dancing around and the story not seeming to be too close to wrapping up.  This left me with the feeling that they could have cut a good half hour out of each of these films without negatively impacting the movie one bit.

I'm glad that we got to see both of these movies at the drive-in, but I'm also pretty happy that they're the only family musicals on the lineup this summer.  It won't stop me from going to any of them that they announce in the future, but I sure hope that they're Sunday night single features.

Kinky Noodles

Tai Me Up
Bridge Street - Phoenixville, PA

Passed by this place on the way back to the car after seeing Joe Bob last weekend.  We had already eaten, but I think I'm gonna have to check this place out soon.

State Your Peace Tonight

Shuttered Room
The Fixx (1982)
The debut album by The Fixx was released in the UK 40 years old today.  It includes the first single by the band, Stand Or Fall, which hit #7 on the Billboard Top Rock Tracks.

The album didn't come over to the United States for another five months, but I don't ever remember hearing any of the songs from it when I was growing up in the 80's.  In fact, I didn't really know too much about The Fixx until I was in my 30's and found a recording of the KROQ Top 106 Songs of 1983.  Someone taped the whole show on four cassette tapes from the radio back on New Years Eve and shared on archive.org.  Three songs from the album were included on the countdown: Shuttered Room, Stand Or Fall, and a song that quickly became one of my favorite new wave songs of the 80's, Red Skies.

Is It Tomorrow Or Just The End Of Time?

Are You Experienced?
The Jimi Hendrix Experience (1967)
The first studio album from the legendary Jimi Hendrix was released 55 years ago today.  Literally every song on the North American release of Are You Experienced is an absolute masterpiece, including Fire, Hey Joe, Foxy Lady and a song that would be in the George Washington position on the classic rock Mt. Rushmore, Purple Haze.

Purple Haze

Jimi Hendrix (1967)

Purple Haze all in my brain

Lately things just don't seem the same

Actin' funny but I don't know why

Excuse me while I kiss the sky

Purple Haze all around

Don't know if I'm coming up or down

Am I happy or in misery?

Whatever it is, that girl put a spell on me

Purple Haze all in my eyes

Don't know if it's day or night

You've got me blowing, blowing my mind

Is it tomorrow or just the end of time?