| Influences | Beatles; Surf music of all kinds including Los Straitjackets, Slacktone, Ventures; Zappa; Tom Waits; The Kinks, The Zombies and other British Invasion bands; Sergio Leone; Funk from the early 70s; 50s/60s pop and lounge, Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Esquivel; Dominic Frontiere; theremin artist Dr. Samuel Hoffman and the incomparable Clara Rockmore; Rat Pack era vocalists, especially Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Bobby Darin; The Monkees, because they proved everybody wrong in the end and could play their own instruments; The Zombies; Badfinger; Big Star; Love, and other psychedelic music of the 60s/70s; Michael Nesmith; Electronic and experimental music; The Silver Apples; Moog Cookbook; Stan Ridgway, Beck, Radiohead. DEVO, Klaus Nomi, Kraftwerk, Talking Heads, Bowie, The Residents because their material is informed by strong viewpoints and attention to presentation as content and art. The B52s because their vocals sound like a theremin. Sir Julian the harpsichord marvel. Stereolab. The one, the only, indescribable MONKS who changed my perception of musical history the second I heard them. And check out the following in the Denver area: Mourning Sickness, New Ancient Astronauts, Fyodor and Babushka, Action Friend, Shawn Mlekush. Anything new, anything experimental, anything funny I'll give it a chance. I also like opera. Which means I like Queen.
Movies including: Anything with William Shatner, especially involving spiders, but the Esperanto/art film The Incubus is high on the list--made by the principles who created The Outer Limits, it's really quite excellent. Repo Man (produced by Michael Nesmith), Forbidden Planet (with electronic tonalities by Louis and Bebe Barron), Eraserhead, Dogma, Buckaroo Banzai (with professor Peter Weller), The Loved One, High School Confidential, The Time Machine (George Pal), The original 1960 production of Ocean's 11; To Sir With Love, The Thing (Howard Hawks), Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!, The 4-D Man with Robert Lansing. Rankin Bass Xmas specials. Max Fleisher cartoons, Head with the Monkees. Richard Lester Films (try to catch "It's Trad, Dad"). Jesus Christ, Vampire Killer, stupid and funny. Terry Gilliam. Stanley Kubrick films without Tom Cruise. Human Highway by Neil Young. The original Manchurian Candidate (Frankenheimer). Val Lewton's work, Most things with Johnny Depp, Vincent Price films, anything involving Crispin Glover, superattenuated 40s and 50s musicals. Most 50s/60s science fiction films, especially Angry Red Planet (3 words: Bat Rat Spider), This Island Earth (showing that outer space looks like an atomic-era diner), Earth Versus the Flying Saucers (Independence Day was a ripoff of this film), Fiend Without a Face (stop motion brains animated by Germans!), Killers from Space (aliens in hoodies with pingpong eyeballs and fuzzy eyebrows menace Peter Graves), First Man Into Space (going into Low Earth Orbit makes you into a deranged blood drinking killing machine), The Crawling Hand (with the Rivingtons doing the theme music). The films of Maya Deren, which every experimental film student's thesis project looks like, but minus the genius and 65 years too late. I do see new movies occasionally, but usually am disappointed.
Some of my favorite great (at least interesting or funny), but neglected, films: Frankenstein vs. the Space Monsters (does the lead alien remind anyone else of Jon Lovitz?); The excellent The Day the Earth Caught Fire with Edward Judd and Leo McKern and another Edward Judd film, Island of Terror with the immortal Peter Cushing; Bartleby with Crispin Glover; Night of the Demon with Dana Andrews; The Lathe of Heaven with Bruce Davidson (80's PBS production); Truck Turner with Issac Hayes (you haven't lived until you've heard Nichelle Nichols call someone a motherfucker); Creation of the Humanoids with Don Megowan and Dudley Manlove, and Robinson Crusoe on Mars with Paul Mantee (which is FINALLY out on DVD-- go buy it.) You should also try to see ALL of the work of ROGER CORMAN, not the least of which are The Masque of the Red Death, The Trip, The Intruder with William Shatner, and in his role as producer of so many first or second films by the now prominent in the film industry including: Death Race 2000 (dir: Bartel, written by Ib Melchior who also worked on Angry Red Planet), Boxcar Bertha (dir: Scorsese) and Demetia 13 (dir: Coppola) and a lot of others with Robert Towne, Jack Nicholson, etc. etc.. He's given more directors, writers, and actors a break than any other producer.
Your assignment: see "Overlords of the UFO," if possible, as a double feature with "Mysteries of the Gods."
Hoping to see "The Transatlantic Feedback" and "LOVE Story" (about the band Love, not the crapfest with Ryan O'Neal) soon.
Actors who need better parts and more parts: Alan Rickman, Sean Astin.
TeeVee: Face it, most contemporary TV is about tits, cakes, and dogs running into walls.
What's ok: Some new BBC, and of course, Red Dwarf; Classic Star Trek; The Prisoner; Secret Agent Man; The original Outer Limits (by dream team Stefano/Stevens/Frontiere), Rod Serling's Night Gallery. In Search Of... with Leonard Nimoy. Twin Peaks. Mad Men. Breaking Bad.
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