Medialoper

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Archives for December 2007

CBS Reverts To Form, Begins Destruction Of Startrek.com

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It’s entirely possible that I’m not the best ‘loper to speak on this topic, but, well, that’s never stopped me. It’s not like my thoughts will stop the best ‘loper from speaking. We’re opinionated that way. And when a major corporation like CBS does something stupid, it requires team coverage.

For a few months there, we here at Medialoper HQ were thinking that maybe — just maybe — CBS might actually get how this whole Internet thing works. That maybe — just maybe — they might understand the importance of brand and discovery.

Luckily, we are not as gullible as the mainstream media, though, frankly, we gnashed our teeth at the latest lame CBS news: in the waning days of 2007, right before, oh, Christmas, CBS has let the entire StarTrek.com editorial team go. Effective immediately. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
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The Daily Loper – December 17, 2007

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Don’t Move, You’re Surrounded By Armed Bastards! Edition

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The (Bi-)Weekly ‘Loper – December 16, 2007

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While you were sighing in relief because you weren’t mentioned in the Mitchell Report, here’s what we’ve been looking at:

The Daily Loper – December 15, 2007

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Live Long And Prosper Edition

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The Daily Loper – December 14, 2007

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It’s To The Tune of “American Pie,” But So Much Longer Edition

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Screamin’ Jay Hawkins Is a Wild Man, So Bug Off!

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At Home with Screamin This edition of Medialoper’s occasional podcast features an interview with the legendary blues singer Screamin’ Jay Hawkins. Jay passed away in February of 2000, but I was fortunate enough to spend an afternoon with him back in October of 1987.

When I think back to that day, over twenty years ago, a few moments are indelibly etched in my memory. I remember standing in Jay’s kitchen, staring at the coffin propped up beside his refrigerator, and thinking “that’s Screamin’ Jay’s coffin!”.

Jay made quite a name for himself jumping out of that coffin and scaring the hell out of young, middle-class, white kids back in the mid-50’s when the whole Rock-and-Roll thing was just getting started.

As I was to find out, the coffin in Jay’s kitchen wasn’t THE coffin. Instead, it was one of many. For a guy like Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, one coffin just won’t do. Jay had nearly a half dozen coffins squirreled away around the country, waiting to be deployed on a moments notice. Which is strange, considering that Jay claimed to have given up using the coffin as part of his act nearly 30 years prior to our meeting.

As it turns out, Screamin’ Jay was always willing to jump out of a coffin provided the price was right.

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What a Swell Party This Is: Three Moustache Rides at the Castro Theater

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Castro Marquee.The Midnites for Maniacs series at the Castro Theater in San Francisco aims to “emphasize dismissed, underrated and forgotten films,” usually in the form of double or triple features. Not all the movies are dismissed, underrated and/or forgotten, but I’m the first to admit that not all the movies we do at Bad Movie Night are necessarily bad, either. (Though some, like Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights, are so horrifyingly bad as to defy any sort of rational description.) Though they frequently unearth genuine obscurities like Skatetown, U.S.A or Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, for what’s probably is a combination of practical and nostalgic reasons the movies tend to be teen or horror movies from the early eighties. Which is cool, and I got to see a 70mm print of Tron because of Midnites for Maniacs, so it gets nothing but the love from me.

This sort of show is always more fun when grouped into themes, and tonight’s was Burt Reynolds: At Long Last Love, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Smokey and the Bandit. I was mostly there to see At Long Last Love, legendary among film buffs as one of the most critically reviled films ever made, mortally wounding director Peter Bogdanovich’s career. Whether or not it was one of the worst movies ever in addition to being the most hated made was difficult to say, since few people saw it during its brief theatrical run, it’s never been released on video, and it only played on teevee a few times.

For better or worse, its reputation was kept alive by the Brothers Medved kicking it when it was already down in their insufferable books The Golden Turkey Awards and The Fifty Worst Movies Ever Made (the latter of which was directly though unintentionally responsible for the (re)discovery of Ed Wood in the early eighties). As lost films go, it’s only slightly less mysterious than The Day the Clown Cried. More people have seen At Long Last Love than The Day the Clown Cried, but that isn’t saying much.

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The Daily Loper – December 12, 2007

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A Good Church Man Is Always Up in Everyone’s Shit Edition

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Writers Strike Deathwatch: Pushing Daisies

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As the Writer’s Strike stumbles towards Christmas, the latest casualty of the AMPTP’s ongoing assholishness is Pushing Daisies, Bryan Fuller’s (all together now) quirky hour-long dramedy.

Tonight marks the last episode that was written and produced before the strike, and there are no more eps in the can. It’s a shame: Pushing Daisies was pretty much the only wholly original show that any of the broadcast networks put out there this season, and while the critical buzz was pretty strong, the ratings were mostly middling.

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