Friday Night Videos

My exploration of contemporary videos steeped in unabashed nostalgia continues this week with "A.M. Radio" from Everclear. This is, without a doubt, one of the scruffiest bands I've ever seen, but the the lead singer/songwriter Art Alexakis nails the whole 70s aesthetic. The lyrics are catchy, but the video itself is pop culture crack for a child of the 70s like me. I remember watching all those goofy Sid & Marty Kroft shows on Saturday mornings--Land of the Lost, H.R. Pufnstuf with Witchiepoo, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters... Wow. It's a wonder they didn't include the classic Bigfoot & Wildboy in that mix. But even though I was very young, I clearly remember watching Hawaii Five-O with my parents in the evenings, and I guess it's a testament to my age that I also remember watching the original Sonny & Cher Show and The Dean Martin Show (and later, his Celebrity Roasts) back then as well. So, yeah. This song and video works for me.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Bowling for Soup.

Now Playing: Johnny Cash The Essential Johnny Cash

Local Hero

As if Eva Longoria and Ricardo Chavira aren't enough, it looks like San Antonio has another actor on a big hit show that it can lay claim to. And this show happens to be Heroes, that addictive super hero drama I post about here on occasion:

Did you know that Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays Mohinder — the genetics professor in India who inherited a list of people who have extraordinary powers — grew up in San Antonio?

According to his mom, Rajam, a neonatologist at UT Health Science Center, her son was born in Chicago, but the family moved to the Alamo City when he was very young.

Ramamurthy graduated from Keystone School here, but left the city to attend Tufts University. He didn't major in drama, but acted in several plays and fell in love with acting.

His mom was initially surprised by her son's choice of careers as he comes from a family of doctors. However, she and her husband — an anesthesiologist at the health science center — now are bursting with pride over their son's talent and success.

The only real disappointment here is that Ramamurthy's character, Mohinder, hasn't really been given anything significant to do on the show, other than wander into the narrative and impart bits of information that dispells the ignorance of other characters to a small degree. I'd thought early on that Mohinder would be the focal character of the show, since he's apparently "normal" but that was before Hiro and Peter Petrelli started stealing the limelight. Maybe Mohinder will step up in the second half of the season...

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Heroes: Godsend

"Godsend" proved to be an interesting episode is several respects. The show's producers have obviously started writing scenes with Hiro's popularity in mind--the entire sword-thieving sequence was great fun. The fact that the mysterious puppet-master Lindermann already has the sword in his possession, and what Hiro stole was a mere replica ups the ante significantly. As does the recurring symbol that this time appears on the sword's hilt.

We finally get a little hint that Niki's "powers" consist of something more than a run-of-the-mill split personality. Apparently, super strength is part of her bad-girl persona. Nifty. And Cheerleader Claire, who tends to be a little more passive than I'd like, does a reenactment of her freefall splat from the pilot episode in order to convince her mindwiped former best friend of their, uh, former friendship.

Probably the most interesting part of the episode was the clarification in Peter Petrelli's coma dream that he does indeed absorb Fallout Boy's powers and can't control them, thus leading to the nuclear obliteration of New York. That's partly what I expected the situation to be, but I also suspect that there's more to it than that, since Peter's dream plays out more as prophetic metaphor than literal truth. And I have to say that his fight with the antisocial Invisible Man was great fun as well.

Again, we didn't see much advancement in the narrative this episode, but we did see a number of the characters' attitudes and understanding mature, so it'll be fun to see how those play out over the next few weeks. All in all, I'm quite glad Heroes is back.

Now Playing: Various Best of Mozart vol. 1

Friday Night Videos

My brother, Chris, is a huge Bowling for Soup fan, and I have to say that their video for 1985 has done a lot to convert the unrepentant Gen-Xer in me. I remember seeing Robert Palmer in concert at A&M (Heavy Touring Nova) and laughed out loud at their riff on George Michael. But the band's spot-on impersonation of Motley Crüe--particularly Brett Michaels--had me shaking my head in wonder. Yeah, this counts as another "modern" video that I approve of. Good stuff.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Fatboy Slim.

Now Playing: Berlin Philharmonic "The Ring" Without Words

Aeon Flux

I was a fan of this strange animated show when it first came on MTV back in the mid-90s. I've only seen a fraction of the episodes, but appreciated its take-no-prisoners, Heavy Metal approach to animation and the future. So when the live-action movie was announced, I had misgivings. I'm a Charlize Theron fan, true. Rare is the movie that is so bad her presence doesn't improve things a notch. Even so, the mixed reviews that I read on this one gave me pause. But with everything being iced in around here, Lisa and I decided to give it a chance as a DVD rental.

Very, very disappointing is the verdict. It's not awful, just relentlessly mediocre with tiny flashes of throwaway brilliance to remind you how good it could have been. Standard-issue, Hollywood cliche-ridden plot. For once I'd like a movie centered around cloning not to stoop to giving the characters memories of their former selves. Gag. It's a very, very stylish movie, with great location shots. But the direction is muddled more often than not and there are more "as you know, Bob" infodumps than you can shake a stick at. Ultimately, this movie is nothing more than a mirror-universe remake of Logan's Run. Think about it--in Logan, the carousel is the center of society, but rebirth is a fraud. In Aeon, a secret, Carousel-esqe cabal eliminates certain members of society to ensure that rebirth may continue in perpetuity. Which might have made an interesting movie, only Aeon wasn't it.

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Mr. Canoehead: Giant beaver!

Mr. Canoehead's greatest disguise yet. Eat gunwales!



Now Playing: Emerson, Lake & Palmer The Return of the Manticore

Brrrrrr....

Okay, I know for you folks living up in the Great White North this is no great shakes, but it's 33 degrees right now and falling. The temps haven't climbed above 40 for three days, and it's been raining steadily since Friday. It's expected to drop to freezing by lunch, and continue a downward trek for the next 36 hours or so. Sleet, freezing rain and snow are expected.

I tell you, friends, this is a veritable apocalypse in these here parts. Schools, businesses and universities are expected to be shut down tomorrow, and maybe into Wednesday as well. Were I of a mind to, around about 6 a.m. tomorrow I could trek the mile or so over to I-35 and count all the vehicles that've slid off the road. Even money says I'd spot at least a dozen on the stretch of road visible to me.

And thus winter comes to Texas. Oh well. At least my fruit trees are getting the chill hours they need in order to fruit. I didn't even get plums last year...

Now Playing: Emerson, Lake & Palmer The Return of the Manticore