I just recently jumped on the whole portable mp3 bandwagon when I picked up a cheap little player on Ebay and I gotta say, it's pretty cool. You can put it in your pocket, buy one of those things that you can use to attach your player to your wrist or arm, or just toss it on the table while you're rockin' out. It may be portable but as far as any type of "coolness" is concerned...it falls way short.
Back in the days of my youth we also had portable ways to play our favorite music. Unlike the mp3 player where you store all your fave tunes in this little player though, back in the day you had to carry your music around with you separately. But it was worth it and added a little groove to the average swagger. Of course the portable player I'm talking about is a boombox and the music? Piles and piles of cassette tapes. While I had cassette players and even a small cassette player with AM/FM radio before, it wasn't until 1979 that I got a boombox - a big (but not the biggest) Sanyo box with cassette, AM/FM radio, external mics and a handle that went from one end all the way to the other. What I liked best about mine was that it was mainly black with hints of silver where all of my friends boxes were pretty much all silver. Now all I needed to do was dub some records onto tape and maybe even hit up the Post Exchange for some new tapes. But before I hit the streets crankin' my tunes, there was one accessory I so desperately wanted to add to my new boombox. A little decor, if you will.
A foxtail to hang from the handle!
So with foxtail hooked in place, I grabbed my boombox on one end of the handle, so it would tilt slightly towards the ground giving me that "I could care less" air of coolness, and sauntered down the stairs of our apartment stairwell and onto the sidewalk of the American housing area I lived in. I was blasting Ted Nugent's "Weekend Warriors" when I heard an unfamiliar voice calmly say "Cool, the Nuge." It was this new long-haired kid, Pat Barron, who had moved to the neighborhood while I was gone on holiday with my folks. Pat was a tall long-haired skinny guy who wore blue denim from head to foot. Years later when I first saw pictures of Metallica's Cliff Burton I often thought how much Burton reminded me of Pat. But anyway...
Here was this new kid hanging out on the front stoop with MY friends when my new rockin' boombox and I should have easily been the hit of the day. Pat wasn't carrying a cool set of tunes. But he was definitely cool. In the end we all headed to the park and talked about whatever cool stuff 13-15 year olds talk about with the soundtrack for our youth provided, although briefly, by me and my rockin' jukebox!
Years later Pat and a couple of other friends including my buddy Wayne Smith who lived right across the hall from me in Germany, also ended up in the area. Pat in Evans and Wayne in Hephzibah. Both of those guys joined the military. Wayne is still in the service I believe while the last I heard Pat traded in his Marine stripes for coast guard ones.
I may not have that boombox anymore...but I got the last laugh...
I tend to have a soft spot for many things from the 70's. The music, the television, and of course, the movies. For every world famous movie like Star Wars or Saturday Night Fever, there are a ton more "cut-out bin" level movies that went on to be forgotten. (cut out bin-a display in a store filled with "clearance" items, most commonly used in reference to music records that have a corner of the cover cut off or punched by a hole punch to mark them as clearance items.) Luckily for me, and others who love these old B and C rated movies, most have been released on low cost DVDs in recent years making it possible for a new generation of film fans to "suffer" through them. Many have achieved some level of cult status, others just exist to fill a nostalgic void.
One such "lost" film from my early childhood was an eerie horror film called Sssssss.
Originally released in 1973, I actually had the pleasure of catching this movie for the first time on the Armed Forces Network in the mid 70's in Zweibrucken, Germany in 1976. With only one English language channel you were kind of stuck with whatever was on TV which was usually made up of second rate movies and episodes of TV programs well past their original debuts in the U.S. For the remainder of my childhood and teen years Sssssss would remain a must watch every time it came on late late movie television programming. Sadly sometime in the late 80's TV thought itself too sophisticated for overly crappy movies and the showing of rare movies that failed miserably at the box office (or even failed to make it to the theater going straight to TV before even "straight to video" was thought of) slowly faded away leaving those box office bombs lost in film limbo. But let me offer a quick description of Sssssss.
Dr. Carl Stoner (cool name, played by Stother Martin ala Slapshot, Up in Smoke)is a seemingly nice old guy who experiments on animals for the betterment of science in particular snakes and to move things along Dr. Stoner hires an assistant, college student David Blake played by up and coming actor Dirk Benedict (Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team).
To protect David from the venomous snakes, Dr. Stoner injects the eager assistant with "antibiotics" which immediately brings a change, which Dr. Stoner insists is normal, in David's appearance and health. The first to notice is Stoner's daughter Kristina (played by Heather Menzies of Sound of Music and Piranha fame) who has grown fond of David which apparently she tends to do with many of her father's assis...um "experiments."
Now you may already see where this is going. The kind Dr. Stoner is actually a mad scientist who is wildly occupied with perfecting a method of turning humans into King Cobras. David is not his first attempt and so far, Dr. Stoner has failed miserably creating several "half human half snake" people which he disposes of by selling to a carnival to be used as part of their sideshow. Somehow Kristina ends up roaming around the carnival at night and comes across "Snake Boy" who she immediately recognizes despite the reptilian dude being completely hairless, blueish green and missing half an arm and both legs. This is easily the most chilling part of the movie.
In the end Stoner finally manages to get it right and turns David into a King Cobra. In turn "King David" turns on the good doctor and swallows him whole. Unfortunately for "King David" (and Kristina who somehow knows that this big ass snake is her boyfriend David) a mongoose from the lab escapes and puts its own "bite" on big Dave essentially bringing a chiling end to the movie.
Does this sound unbelievably too out there to actually exist? All it takes is a quick search on Ebay and you can pick up a copy of the film for probably less than 10 bucks and see for yourself. But I gotta warn you, Sssssss may slither its way into being one of your guilty viewing pleasures!
The year was 1976 and I had just landed in the center of the U.S. from a four-year stint in Zweibrucken, Germany. Well, at least close to the center as we were always told that the exact middle of America was somewhere in Kansas and Dad got stationed in Fort Riley. So for all intents and purposes, we were in the general vicinity.
First of let me just say, Fort Riley, Kansas in 1976 was pretty dang cool, especially for a 10-year-old kid with a new bike, a wild streak, a bit of hyperness, and a desire to explore. Within biking distance was two lakes, a pair of pools (one in-door, one out-door), a couple of movie theaters (I guess they grew things in double there) not to mention a ton of cool hills and valleys to speed down on a banana seat bike or California Freeformer skateboard. In the summer there was always a breeze and in the winter you could play in the snow without an insane amount of layers of clothing.
There's was always plenty to do and better yet, it could be done without the assistance of parents.
What made that year even funner, besides having a great two-wheel mode of transportation, was a couple of cool presents I received during the year. First was a little black and white TV (which would eventually end up attached to a Sears pong game console) for that early Saturday morning cartoon fix, and a neat transistor radio. While not my first experience with music, this allowed to me to live that now classic existence of listening to music at night with the sheets pulled up over my head in an attempt to muffle the sound so Mom and Dad couldn't hear.
It wasn't long before I took over Mom's slightly larger radio / cassette player and started taping my fave songs so I could hear them whenever I wanted. I particularly enjoyed listening to Paper Lace's "Billy Don't Be a Hero" and "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks. Other songs that were a part of the neighborhood sing-a-long fare were Shaun Cassidy's "Da Doo Run Run", and some silly tune by a band called Flash Cadillac featuring Wolfman Jack called "Did You Boogie (with Your Baby)." To say that our tastes were simple and unrefined would be putting it mildly. The easier you could sing-a-long to it, the better.
One day as I got ready for school I heard this catchy tune just out of the corner of my ear. I turned to listen but at that exact same moment Mom called me for breakfast so I popped in a tape and hit record hoping that afterward the deejay would say who the singer was. Listening to the tape later I did end up with one side full of music but no mention of the artist.
So it was then my mission to find out who sang this song I so quickly became hooked on.
In my youthful wisdom I decided I would tape the song every time I heard it. Eventually I would hear the name and maybe even talk Mom into buying the 45" single.
This went on for weeks! Eventually I had a cassette with this tune taped over and over and was no better off than I was before! So I gave up.
Another part of my 10-year-old activities was scouts. Scouts was something I started taking part in when I first arrived in Germany. It was fun to do odd things and get rewarded with a badge for your efforts. Well at least it was fun to me at the time.
On one particular scout outing I was riding in the back of a car with a couple of my fellow scouts. The talk was the usual, "have you seen this movie?" or "did you hear what happened to so and so at the pool?", etc. Somewhere along the way I just started singing this tune that I had forgotten about. I didn't even realize I was singing. That is until one of the other scouts asked me "do you like Kiss?"
to which I replied "who?"
"You know, Kiss, the band that does that song."
"um...yeah, of course I like Kiss." I said slowly.
Back in 1976 who DIDN'T know who Kiss was? Their faces were plastered all over notebooks, pencils, puzzles, and anything else you could sell. I knew who Kiss was.
I just didn't know what they sounded like. At least until I found out that the song I so feverishly tried to connect to a band was in fact, Kiss.
The song? "Beth."
To be fair, based on just having heard "Beth" I still really didn't know what Kiss sounded like. But that would soon change as I spent the end of 1976 hanging out with Jerry (my scout co-passenger) and getting schooled in all things Kiss. We even went dressed as Kiss for Halloween! I was, of course, Peter. No makeup, just Kiss costumes our parents picked up at the Post Exchange. (sorta like Wal Mart for military folks)
A couple days before Halloween I got to go over to Jerry's to watch the Paul Lynde Halloween special which featured Kiss performing three songs, "Detroit Rock City", "King of the Night Time World" and "Beth." It is still one of my most fondest memories from my childhood.
I eventually admitted to Jerry, who by that time had become my best friend in a way that he was Fonzie to my Ritchie, that I really didn't know much about Kiss when we first met. He was cool about it and seemed sort of pleased that he had done such a cool deed as introducing me to such a cool band as Kiss.
A few months later, Jerry's Dad got reassigned and I would never see Jerry again. It was a sad moment but as an already experienced military brat I was used to seeing friends come and go. But while Jerry had to go, he left with me a very valuable gift.
Over the years I have become friends with people from all over the world because of my continuing love of Kiss and their music. I've experienced writing to Kiss fans in East Germany while the Berlin Wall was still up, I've talked Kiss with fans from Italy, and I've traded tapes with fans from coast to coast.
So I got my first Kiss from a guy named Jerry.
At least it wasn't Vinnie Vincent!
(My first KISS kiss actually came from a sweet Italian lass a couple years earlier.)
When people who grew up in the 70's are asked what their favorite movie from that time period was and/or is, most quickly shout out common choices like "Star Wars" or "Grease." Some may even mention "Jaws", "Saturday Night Fever", "Rocky", or "The Rocky (no relation) Horror Picture Show." On many levels I would agree as I enjoy most of those flicks as well as other huge 70's cinema faves like "Young Frankenstein", "A Clockwork Orange" and even "Taxi Driver."
But for me there's only one movie that deserves the top 70's movie spot in my heart - 1979 New York gang cult classic "The Warriors."
Originally released in 1979, this Walter Hill directed film didn't make its way to the Army movie theater where we were stationed in Hoechst, Germany (right outside of Frankfurt) until 1980. Myself and the rest of the couple handful of teenagers residing in the housing area could barely contain ourselves waiting for the day of the first showing. To this day I don't remember how we even knew about the movie or even if we had a clue what to expect. I would imagine that we either a) saw a "coming attractions" poster at the theater, b) saw it during previews before another movie, or c) both, and just thought it looked cool.
Needless to say, the day it was due to premiere on our little base theater, every one of us kids made sure not to make other plans or get roped into something else by our parents. To have to hear secondhand about the movie would be a travesty. The plan was to remain extremely quiet during the week leading up to the event so as to not do anything to get detained by the parental units. To be the kid that missed the first showing because of restriction or even because a parent deemed it inappropriate for youthful consumption would surely bring massive amounts of ridicule in the weeks to come.
Wouldn't it be just my luck that I'd be THAT kid.
As the story goes, one of our friends, Shawn, got into it with his younger sister who in turn explained to their parents what the movie was about. Well it just so happened that said parents not only locked Shawn and sister down for the day, but for some unknown reason decided that I was the evil influence prompting Shawn to want to see the movie and called MY parents and did a massive pitch job of their own on why I should not be allowed to go see the movie. Mind you I had been the perfect trooper for weeks on end staying of trouble in school, not playing my music loud, even cleaning and helping around the apartment.
No dice - the hammer had been dropped and I was forbidden to go see the movie. Not just when all my friends were going, but EVER! The difference between Shawn and myself though was, while he was on lock down, I was free to go do anything BUT see "The Warriors."
Now in 1980 Germany that left a lot of options for things to do. Go to the German mall, hit the off-base walk up store for some beer and head over to the park (there was no drinking age at the time), hang out at the DYA (kind of like a rec center for military brats), and of course a ton of other normally fun stuff. Normally fun if you've got someone to do it with! But with Shawn under lock and key and everyone else going to the movie, I found myself alone with nothing to do. Normally that meant one thing-TROUBLE! Sure I got into mischief with the gang but left to their own devices most hyper kids will do any pointless thing to feed the need for some sort of rush. Heck this one time I even set a park on f... well that's another story for another time. So bored out of my mind and stressed about the crap I would be getting from the other neighborhood kids for missing the movie I did exactly what any other good hyper kid would do.
I went to go see the movie.
You see, kids can be cruel and besides, there was no way I was going to put in all the effort to be good and miss this event! How could I live with myself (not to mention the bus ride to and from school every day) if I missed this movie? Besides, I'd done sneaky things before and none of my friends ever ratted on me. I could just go to the movie and no one would ever have to know.
The strange thing about great events is, sometimes they get you so worked up that you forget where you are and what you're supposed to be doing. The movie was so cool that it was all we could talk about on the walk back to the housing area. We gushed about all the action even mimicking fight scenes like the subway bathroom fight and the park battle between The Warriors and The Baseball Furies. We talked about the Lizzies and the Riffs. We started shouting dialogue (the best our fresh minds could remember) until finally I closed my eyes and raised my arms to the sky and shouted Cyrus' now classic line "can you dig it?"
The next thing I heard was a familiar voice reply back "no I CANNOT dig it!"
In the sudden silence I worked hard to open my eyes fearful of the sight that would await. Sure enough, there stood my Dad waiting at the entrance to the apartments. In our excitement we hadn't even noticed he was there. He had watched and listened as we walked across the field leading to the entrance and the look on his face and crossed arms spoke volumes.
I was screwed.
Then yet another strange thing happened. One of my older friends looked at me and said "I can't believe your Dad wouldn't let you go see the movie, does he still have to change your diaper?" All of a sudden a barrage of bad 70's adolescent jeers came flying my way.
"Maybe you'll get to go to one of the G-rated matinees!"
"I think they're gonna be playing "Bambi" next weekend!"
"You can always go the kiddie theater with the other first graders!"
Before the next insult could be sent my way Dad cut my friends off at the verbal pass.
"We told John that we didn't want him going and just by your actions towards him I can see we made the right choice, and obviously so did John."
I wasn't immediately sure what he meant about me making the right choice and before I could even make sense of dad's comment I was ushered so as Dad put it "we could wash up before dinner."
Now silence leading up to dinner normally meant that bombs would be dropping sometime DURING dinner and never had I heard such a silence waiting to eat, not to mention while eating. I casually chewed Mom's homemade grub wondering if I was going to be able to keep any of it down with all the butterflies bouncing around in my stomach. In my mind I continually went through every "should have done" scenario even at one point contemplating several tales which might help me escape from this sticky mess. Finally, polishing off his last morsel, Dad put down his fork, took a deep breath and I knew it was coming. What fate awaited me? Restriction? No music? No comics? ALL OF THE ABOVE?!?!?!
Without looking up Dad calmly said...
"I know it was tough for you to miss out on going to the movies with your friends, and from what I heard come out of their mouths, it's not going to get any easier but as tough as it was to do the right thing you hung in there and did as you were told. For that your mother and I feel that you deserve to go see the movie tomorrow."
WHAT?!?!?! Was this for real? WAIT! This had to be some kind of trap. Was all this to see if I'd get caught in a lie? A chance for me to make up for my wrong doing by coming clean? If I didn't 'fess up life might end up being much worse. While I had thought earlier that things couldn't get any worse I could only imagine having the offense of "lying" thrown on top of being disobedient. I knew what I had to do. Getting up from the table I walked over to Dad, threw my arms around him and said-
"THANK YOU DAD! I CAN'T WAIT TO GO TOMORROW! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!"
I held my breath as Dad embraced me and said-
"You're a good kid John."
If only he knew, if only he knew.
Years later my wife Jeannie got me the director's cut DVD of "The Warriors" for Christmas and during a phone conversation I told Dad about my present.
What he said next almost made me soil myself.
"What do you need that for? You've already seen it twice."
Hmmm...Wonder what he meant by that?
For the record, I have actually seen "The Warriors" several hundred times. It never gets old.
Neither does the story of the very first time I saw it! Watching it AGAIN the very next day was just as awesome. Not only did I get to see the first showing, I was the ONLY one of my friends to already get to see it twice! I was now THE authority on "The Warriors!"
BTW - A week after watching "The Warriors" for the first time some of my friends and I camped out one night. During the night we put on our DYA baseball team uniforms, slapped on some face paint, and roamed around the neighborhood and German streets trying our best to look like The Baseball Furies.
Until Shawn's dad caught us around 2 a.m. and made us all go home.
Check out deleted scenes from the cinematic version below.
As far back as I can remember, I have been obsessed with what is now commonly known as "Pop Culture." Movies, music, television, gadgets, fashion, toys, etc. It all makes me dizzy with excitement from time to time. While I must admit that I am mostly a "rock & Roll" junkie, I also have a massive love for American history and culture from the 1950's until the early '90's. (Sorry-I slept through most of boring '90's and well, pop culturally speaking, pretty much have been ever since.)
To say I'm nostalgic would only be partly true. I wasn't around in the fifties and don't even remember the sixties which may be why I love the seventies and eighties the most but still, I have a sweet spot for a lot of things pre-1970 as well.
So what will you find here? Well for one, a lot of reminiscing, some historical facts, fun videos, commentary on events, etc. You will also find me going on about a ton of pop cultural topics as I remember them from my childhood.
Like just about every other kid born in the mid to late sixties, I have fond memories of 1970's Saturday morning television, going to the weekend movie matinee, and listening to hits on my transistor radio while cruising around on my banana seat bicycle. But that was just the kid years. I'll definitely ramble on about my teen times in the early nineties particularly about MTV, hair metal, video games, and cruising.
So I hope you'll join me from time to time as I "re-live" my "pop" past!
I just recently jumped on the whole portable mp3 bandwagon when I picked up a cheap little player on Ebay and I gotta say, it's pretty cool. You can put it in your pocket, buy one of those things that you can use to attach your player to your wrist or arm, or just toss it on the table while you're rockin' out. It may be portable but as far as any type of "coolness" is concerned...it falls way short.
