Bridge Street Phoenixville, PA This town has a pretty cool vibe that reminds me of Jim Thorpe. It's filled with record shops, book stores, tattoo parlors, bars, cafes, and restaurants, none of which were part of a chain. There were also quite a few folks from the area who were out walking their dogs. I'd like to come back here someday when I have more time to explore.
My first stop when I got to town was a little coffee shop called the Soltane Cafe. It's a very cool place that is run by a Chester County nonprofit called Camphill Soltane, which is an inclusive community space for adults with and without intellectual disabilities to join together in creative classes, social gatherings, clinical therapy, and vocational training. They also make a damn good raspberry mocha.
These two photos were taken on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday. My sleep cycle has been thrown completely out of whack, so I woke up pretty early before most of the businesses has opened for the day. We just had an ice storm the night before, so there weren't too many people on the street at the time.
There is a very large and impressive mural on the side of the Steel City Coffee House and Brewery, however the plaque with the story that it tells was frozen over.
Thankfully, the doors to the place were not frozen over, so I stopped in for a coffee and an egg sandwich before hitting the road to head back home.
The cool artwork continues on the inside of this establishment. They've also got a small stage for live music and comedy performances. Seems like the kind of place where I would be a regular if they were closer to home.
Pocket Savior Larry Underwood This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me reasonably well, but I absolutely love Stephen King'sThe Stand. I love the book, the audiobook recordings (both of them), the 1994 mini-series, the soundtrack from the mini-series, the haunting score by W. G. Snuffy Walden, and the directors commentary track from the DVD release of the mini-series. The only thing associated with The Stand that I don't like is the 2020 mini-series, and the less said about that wasted opportunity, the better.
One of my favorite parts of the story is the song Baby Can You Dig Your Man. The backstory is that after years of playing clubs and working as a session musician without a lot of success, a singer / songwriter named Larry Underwood has finally broken through with this song as a hit single. He's run up a drug debt and had to flee California and go back to stay with his mother in New York for a little while, but aside from this temporary setback, Larry is on top of the world. However, his good fortune just so happens to come right before a plague wipes out over 99% of the world's population. Larry is one of the survivors who have a natural immunity to Captain Trips, so he is left to pick up the pieces of what is left in the world. The fact that Baby Can You Dig Your Man was one of the last new pop songs to be given massive radio play before the world ended has resulted in it being kind of stuck in the minds of many of the other survivors. This point is really driven home in the 1994 mini-series which has everybody from Glen Bateman, to The Trash Can Man, to Randall Flagg finding themselves absent-mindedly singing the tune.
This scene of Larry driving up to his mother's home in Queens is just past the 21 minute mark of the 1994 mini-series. It serves as our introduction to both the character and his hit single which is playing on his car radio. The clip we hear in the mini-series has a lead singer and backup singers with clear lyrics and instrumentals, so it sounds like it was a fully fleshed out song. However, this clip is all that we ever hear from this recording, and I don't just mean in the mini-series itself. The song wasn't included in the soundtrack, or in any of the bonus features on any DVD or Bluray releases that I am aware of.
For years, I've scoured the internet trying to find out if the people behind the making of this mini-series only commissioned the recording of the 43 seconds that you hear on screen, or if the full song was recorded, but I was never able to find anything except for audio clips taken from the mini-series and independent singers and musicians who tried to recreate the song on their own. The only information about the song that I was able to find was a blurb on IMDB stating that the vocals in the song that you hear in the mini-series were performed by Al Kooper.
On Saturday February 8th, I was in attendance for the Exhumed Films presentation of the 1994 mini-series of The Stand at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville. Director Mick Garris was also in attendance to introduce the film, meet fans, sign autographs, and to have a Q&A with the fans in attendance after the credits rolled. There's probably no better person to ask than the man who directed the mini-series, so I took a shot and asked. He confirmed that the full song was recorded with the lyrics written by Stephen King and the music written by Mike Bloomfield. He also said that it didn't appear on the soundtrack and was never officially released, but he suggested that I check YouTube.
I was glad that he gave me more information about the song that I didn't know, but to be honest, I really wasn't expecting to find much on YouTube after checking off and on for years without success. However, I was shocked and thrilled to get a message from my friend Tom, who was also in attendance at the screening, with a link to the full song which was shared on YouTube by a contributor called Dirt T. Ryder just six weeks ago. The lyrics are packed with nods to the original novel with references to the premonitions that Larry has of Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg, and the dental hygienist that he hooks up with in New York. So, without further ado, here is the song that took me three decades to find.
Ristar Sega Genesis (1995)
One of the best platformers of the 16-bit era was released in North America thirty years ago today. Ristar is a very fun game, and I'm convinced that the only thing that kept it from becoming a big hit on the level of Sonic The Hedgehog is the fact that it was released at the same time that Sega was beginning to phase out the Genesis console.
The game was unique for the way in which you'd attack the enemies. In most platformers, you either jump on top of the bad guys or attack them with punches, kicks, or weapons to defeat them. In Ristar, you grab the evil aliens with both hands and smash them with your face.
¡Leche Con Carne! No Use For A Name (1995)
The third album from the Sunnyvale, California skate punk band No Use For A Name was released thirty years ago today. It was recorded with the late Tony Sly on vocals and guitar with Ed Gregor on guitar, Steve Papoutsis on bass, and Rory Koff on drums.
This album will always hold a special place in my heart because No Use For A Name was the first band that I ever got to see perform live in concert. They were the first opening act for The Offspring in their tour on February and March of 1995, and I got to see them at the West Palm Beach Auditorium on March 11th of that year. Leche Con Carne was released less than a month before the show, so the songs that they played that night were from this album. Here is my favorite song that they played that night:
Happy Valentine's Day! If you want to pick up a last minute valentine for the horror lover in your life, check out Brian Brain Studio. LGBTQ+ versions are also available to purchase.
The Blob Commemorative Plaque Colonial Theater - Phoenixville, PA My recent visit to the Colonial Theater on Saturday was my second time inside to the historic venue. The first time was three years ago when Joe Bob Briggs had his How Rednecks Saved Hollywood show at the theater. We didn't really have too much time to explore the place the first time, but this time around, I was there with folks who have been to the theater many times and know it well. Sandy and Jackson both told me that I had to check out the wall to the projection booth at the back of the balcony to see this awesome tribute to the horror movie monster that made the place famous.
The titular monster bursts through the windows of the projection booth at about an hour and ten minutes into the 1958 horror classic The Blob. This begins the scene in which all of the folks in the audience run out of the front of the theater, which is recreated every year at Blobfest. I thought it was pretty cool that the wallpaper is the same today as what you see in that scene in the movie that premiered nearly sixty years ago.
If you're ever at the Colonial Theater, be sure to head up to the balcony to see it, and don't forget to rub The Blob for luck... but be warned... the plaque doesn't say that it will be good luck. 😈
Peanuts Charles Schulz (2000) The final Peanuts comic strip was published in Sunday papers around the world 25 years ago today. It was printed just one day after Mr. Schulz passed away.
Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl LIX Champions I don't claim to know very much about football, but that has to be one of the most dominant performances in a championship game in recent memory. Photo by David J. Phillip/AP
The Stand is a book that I have been obsessed with since I was a teenager, and the six hour mini-series that aired on ABC in 1994 was my introduction to this universe.
A common topic of conversation on the lot at the Mahoning Drive-In Theater is our dream bookings. In other words, if we had the ability to book a double or triple feature on the big screen and there were no restrictions on what we could do, how would we book it? What movies would we choose? What would we call the event? What special guests would we bring out to the lot? What would the t-shirt and poster look like? What special themed food or drink items would we have available for the night? You get the idea.
One of the ideas that always came to my mind when these discussions come up is the original 1994 mini-series of The Stand. I rarely mentioned it though because it seemed so unlikely to happen that I felt like that answer didn't count. First of all, it's not technically a movie; it's a 366 minute long mini-series. Secondly, because it was made for television, there aren't any film prints available. With the exception of VHS Fest and the rare one-off screenings where a print of a movie damaged or unavailable, the Mahoning's focus is presenting films on 35mm. Finally, it's over six hours long. Granted, the Mahoning is no stranger to triple features and dusk-til-dawn screenings, but even if they did decide to show something that was made-for-tv, I couldn't imagine that they'd dedicate a full night to it. It wasn't even one of the ideas that I sent to Mark and Virgil when they asked the Patreon members what they'd like to see. It just seemed too unrealistic to suggest.
I can't think of the right words to express how happy I was when it was announced late last year that Exhumed Films was hosting an event at the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville where they would not only be showing the entire miniseries on the big screen, but its director Mick Garris would be in attendance to introduce The Stand, meet fans and sign autographs, and to have a Q&A at the end of the show.
Mick Garris has a very impressive resume in films and television. Some of his earliest work was directing and producing "The Making Of" documentary shorts for movies such as The Howling, Videodrome, and The Goonies, the latter of which he worked on with Stephen Spielberg which led to his work on Amazing Stories where he worked as a writer, director, and story editor. His work in film includes writing the story that became the 1987 classic Batteries Not Included, as well as writing the screenplay for The Fly II, directing Psycho IV: The Beginning, and writing and directing Critters 2: The Main Course. However, his most well known project is Disney's 1993 Halloween classic Hocus Pocus, which he wrote the story and the screenplay and served as co-executive producer.
Mr. Garris was a frequent collaborator with Stephen King in bringing his stories to the screen. His first work with the author came in 1992 when he directed Sleepwalkers. This was followed by The Stand mini-series, which aired in May 1994. He also directed the 1997 mini-series adaptation of The Shining, which stays much more true to the original novel than the Stanley Kubrick film, and the 2011 mini-series adaptation of Bag Of Bones.
The thing on his resume that absolutely blew me away is when I learned that he was one of the zombies in Michael Jackson's iconic music video for Thriller. He's the last zombie to come up out of the ground in the graveyard scene, and he's the tall zombie standing next to Michael on the left in the final zombie scene, right before Michael leans down to his date and asks "what's the problem" when everything goes back to normal. How freaking cool is that?!
In addition to all of this, Mr. Garris is a very kind and generous guy. He flew out from California for this event at the Colonial Theater, and at a time when people with much shorter resumes charge $20 and up for an autograph or a photo, he met fans, signed autographs, and took pictures for free. He didn't even have 8x10s to sell. Very cool!
He signed this very cool poster that I picked up from the Exhumed Films merch table. The artist, Jason Cortez of Sons Of Thunder Studios, has designed a few posters and t-shirts for the Mahoning over the years. I've always liked his work, but this poster is my favorite.
It's not often that I'll ask a guest at an event that we're visiting if they wouldn't mind signing a second thing for me, but these tapes are pretty special to me. I didn't discover The Stand until a few years after the mini-series aired on ABC when I was working for a video rental store called Blowout Video. Employees were allowed to rent two tapes per night for free as long as they weren't on the new release wall. I got to see a lot of movies for the first time while I was working here, and this was one of them. I loved the mini-series so much that I bought the novel in paperback shortly after returning the tapes. It was the first Stephen King book that I ever read, and to this day it's my favorite. I've read quite a few of his books since then and have become a huge fan of his work. It all started with these VHS tapes. They opened the door to a whole new world for me.
We all settled in to seats in the front row before the start of the show. Mick Garris came to the stage to introduce the movie. There was a ten minute intermission between each of the four episodes which gave some time to stretch our legs, get some popcorn, and hit the restrooms without missing any of the show. After the credits rolled, Mr. Garris came back to the stage for a Q&A with the fans. I asked the first question, but I'll talk more about that later because it led to a pretty awesome discovery.
This was absolutely one of my favorite experiences that I've ever had at an indoor theater, and one that I never thought would happen. Part of the reason that I write about things like this on here is so I can look back on it years from now and remember some of the fun things that I've gotten to see and do, but something tells me that I won't forget this show.
Dim Sum Court Bridge Street - Phoenixville, PA There's an excellent Chinese restaurant across the street from The Colonial Theater that came highly recommended by Tom, Jen, and Jackson, and they weren't wrong.
The menu has a lot of different things that looked good, but I was most interested in trying their soup dumplings which Tom had spoken highly of over the past few days.
I've never had a soup dumpling before yesterday afternoon, and they've quickly become one of my favorite things that I've ever eaten at a Chinese restaurant. Jen accurately described them as being similar to Gushers, but filled with piping hot soup. They're served family style in a metal cylinder. The idea is that you take one with a soup spoon, puncture it, drink the soup, and then eat the dumpling. I did that for the first one, but the way that I liked them best was to puncture the top so that they could cool off a little bit, and then pop the whole dumpling in my mouth.
Heart Eyes Spyglass Media Group (2025) Well, I can't say that it didn't make me laugh, but this was a really stupid movie. The best part of Heart Eyes is the opening credits which show a montage of news clips about the Heart Eyes Killer (or HEK) mysteriously popping up in a different city every year on Valentine's Day to kill couples and anyone else who got in their way. At that point, I was thinking that this was going to be an modern old school slasher flick along the lines of Thanksgiving, but... nope. It's a slapstick comedy that's dripping with sarcasm along the lines of the current era of Saturday Night Live.
A lot of the reviews I've read are comparing this movie to Scream for reasons that will become obvious in the final act, but this movie has about as much in common with Scream as a day old McDonald's cheeseburger has to do with a ribeye steak. Heart Eyes was an idea that had so much potential to become a horror classic, but the finished product is about as disposable as a film can get.
Thirty five years ago, British DJ Steve Briers wrote himself into the Guinness Book of World Records. In a performance that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, Mr. Briers recited the lyrics to the entire Queen album A Night At The Opera backwards in 9 minutes and 58 seconds.
Titan Tower Stamford, CT The building that has served as the corporate headquarters for World Wrestling Entertainment since 1989 has been sold to MB Financial Group for $3.75 million dollars. The real estate firm plans to convert the building into apartments.
The Brutalist A24 (2024) This isn't a movie that I had a lot of interest in seeing when I first heard about it, but it's sitting at a 93% critics and 80% fans score on Rotten Tomatoes and it was just nominated for Best Picture, so I had to check it out while it's still on the big screen.
Apparently, I was the only person in town who felt this way... at least at 11:00 am on a Sunday morning. In fairness, it's a three and a half hour long movie, so I can understand why there wasn't a line of folks beating down the door to the place. It worked out perfectly for me though. The movie ended with plenty of time to get out and enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening, and I had a whole theater all to myself.
This movie has a 15 minute intermission at around the 100 minute mark to allow moviegoers to get up, and stretch their legs before the first and second half of the film. I was in a position to be able to run laps around the chairs throughout the entire duration of the film without disturbing anybody if I really wanted to, but the break still came in handy because I really had to hit up the restroom.
If you've gotten the sense that I'm tapdancing around this screening without saying anything about the film, you would be correct. I'm not really sure how to explain what I think of The Brutalist, but I'll try my best.
I feel about this movie much the same as I felt about Oppenheimer in 2023. I'm glad that I got to experience both of them on the big screen. I recognize the quality of both works and that a theatrical setting brings out the best in movies like these, but I also know I'd never be able to pay attention to either of them if I watched them at home. It also reminds me of last year's Best Picture winner in that I have no desire to ever see it again, and I'm not sure that I'd recommend it to anyone in my friend group other than the cinephiles who I'm sure have already seen it anyway (you know who you are).
I'm not sure if this makes sense to anyone but me, but... there. That's how I feel about The Brutalist. If it were up to me, I would still give Anora the Academy Award for Best Picture, but if I had to put money on it, I'd bet that The Brutalist is going to sweep every category that it has been nominated in.
Companion New Line Cinema (2025) This is an excellent movie that could have been so much better. According to Deadline, the marketing team behind Companion spent $29 million dollars promoting a film that cost about $10 million to make in the weeks leading up to its release. This included numerous trailers, posters, and other advertisements that spoil most of the story.
First came the teaser trailer. It's not bad as far as trailers go, except for the inclusion of the scene where Iris holds her hand over a candle and lights her arm on fire. That kind of thing really sticks in your head when you see it. The problem is that this scene happens at the end of the movie, so the big scene in the middle of the film where Iris makes her escape through the woods is robbed of all of its tension because whatever she does, you know she's going to end up right back at the house to set her arm on fire at the dining room table.
For as bad as that is, the full trailer is even worse. If you were to go into this movie cold, without ever seeing a single trailer or knowing anything about the plot, you wouldn't know that Iris is a robot until about a half hour into the film after a dramatic scene. There are a few hints along the way that I'm sure some folks in the audience would pick up on, but to the average moviegoer, the reveal that Iris isn't human would be a shock that would make you sit up in your seat and wonder where this story is going. That feeling is stolen from the audience with this trailer, and with the numerous posters and marketing materials that reveal that Iris is a robot. What's the point of laying out breadcrumbs for a big plot twist if you just come right out and tell the audience what it is ahead of time?
Companion really is an excellent movie that I highly recommend, but god damn it, why did they have to spoil so much of it? There's more I want to say about the story, but all I can think about is how much better it could have been. For as much as I enjoyed this film, I hope it loses money at the box office just to stick it to the jackasses on their marketing team and stop them from patting themselves on the back for a job poorly done.
Blumhouse Productions (2025) Whereas Companion is getting a lot of positive buzz from critics and fans alike (and rightfully so despite my complaints), the reviews for Wolf Man have been pretty underwhelming. I wanted to go see it when it first opened, but everything I read about it made it sounds like it was a disappointment. I can't imagine why though. I thought it was a solid werewolf flick with good special effects and cinematography, and excellent performances from the cast.
The husband and wife in the movie aren't exactly on the brink of divorce, but it's pretty clear that their relationship is not in a great place at the start of the film. It's all too easy for a filmmaker to fall into tired old tropes with characters like these where they have the couple bicker and get snippy with each other, but this movie falls into none of those traps. Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner are believable. You don't find yourself rooting for one over the other because they're not in opposition to each other. They're just going through some stuff. Then they go through a hell of a lot more in the Oregon woods.
This movie served as a reminder that I shouldn't let the critics or the social media buzz inspire me to stay home instead of going out to see something for myself. If someone has something to say that makes me want to see something that I otherwise might not have shown interest in, that's fine. I'm all for someone opening a door for me... but I need to stop letting those same people close those doors.
