Celebrity Jukebox #57: Drew Struzan

Drew Struzan might not have been a household name, certainly in comparison with Robert Redford and Diane Keaton, most recently featured here... but even if you don't recognise the name, I can guarantee you will know his work. 

Struzan was surely the leading movie poster artist of his generation, and many of his designs are arguably even more famous than the films they promoted.  In fact, Steven Spielberg once remarked (about his "favourite movie artist") that “I had to almost live up to the art that we later were going to ask Drew to create for the poster.” It could probably be argued that certain film-makers were unable to live up to that promise, and the best thing about some of those flicks was the poster promoting it.

Below is the one I had on my bedroom wall. Why the poster for the sequel, rather than the original movie? Because I wanted both Marty and the Doc done by Mr. Struzan, not just Michael J. Fox on his own.

Rest in peace, Drew. Your art will live forever.

The Kinks - Moving Pictures

Bill Pritchard - Posters

Steely Dan - Everyone's Gone To The Movies

Mitch Ryder - Poster

Wreckless Eric - Let's Got To The Pictures

The Monkees - The Poster

Guided By Voices - Short On Posters

Andy Roberts - I've Seen The Movie

Echo & The Bunnymen - The Pictures On My Wall

Snapshots #386: Family Snapshots!

So*... that's why Peter Gabriel helped launch yesterday's quiz... and why he turned up again this morning with the answers. He knows a thing or two about a Family Snapshot...

Here are 15 songs about relatives...

(*More apologies to CC.) 

15. One third of Annabella's band had a typical tempo of 115–130 bpm.

Annabella Lwin was in Bow Wow Wow. A third of that is Bow. House music has a typical tempo of 115–130 bpm. Bow + House =

Bauhaus - Watch That Grandad Go

14. No echo.

While Echo & The Bunnymen were on a break, Ian and Will had another band...

Electrafixion - Sister Pain

13. Sounds like the plasticine used by our itinerant friend.

Ernie gets around a bit, doesn't he? I wonder if he always takes his Play-Doh with him?

Ernie K-Doe - Mother-In-Law

12. Without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.

A quote taken from early on in Genesis. This is later Genesis though... I figured you'd probably prefer them without their heads. Shoot me - I always liked this song.

Genesis - No Son Of Mine

11. Ronnie Barker's wireless breakfast show.

Porridge Radio - Nephews

10. Animal makes a fortune from high-waisted suits.

He played keyboards with The Animals for a while, presumably wearing his zoot suit.

Zoot Money - The Uncle Willie

9. Confusion over dark hall ban after 11pm. 

"Dark hall ban" was an anagram. After 11pm, it's midnight.

Hank Ballard & The Midnighters - Annie's Aunt Fanny

Uncle Willie and Aunt Fanny. Fnar.

8. Bo?

Clearly, I was thinking of Ms. Derek, first initial B...

Derek B - Bad Young Brother

He gets paid in pounds, not in dollars.

7. Emily Dickinson had a discerning palate. 

E.D. was a gourmet...

Eydie Gorme - Yes My Darling Daughter

6. Twice in one weekend? FFS!

He's here, and at this week's Number One. The extra F is how bloggers of a certain vintage refer to him... you'll know why if you fell victim to his anti-blog campaign back in the day.

That said, he made some great solo records after leaving the Undertones. And I'd completely forgotten this one... mustn't have heard it in 40 years, but it still sounds good.

Feargal Sharkey - Listen To Your Father

5. Prohibition criminals... or Prince's mates.

The Purple Gang - Granny Takes A Trip

4. The name of my first cat. (I realise that's a pretty niche clue, but think of your standard cat names and you might get it.)

My first cat was called Fluffy. We had another one at the same time called Frisky. Remember that in case I ever post a picture of a band with that name.

Fluffy - Husband

3. Switch off the bassist, he clashes with the rest of the band.

Paul Simonon was the bassist in the Clash. When he's not on, he's...

Paul Simon - Mother And Child Reunion

2. Metric bedsheets come untangled.

"Metric bedsheets" was an anagram...

The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

1. Found beneath Blackburn and Orlando. 

They can be found Under the two Tones...

The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin

Indisputably the greatest song about a family member, featuring one of the greatest rhyming couplets in the history of pop music...

His mother bought him a synthesiser
Got the Human League in to advise her

Special mention to those relatives who didn't get an invitation...

Billy Bragg & Wilco - Walt Whitman's Niece

Bo Diddley - The Great Grandfather

Eels - Things The Grandchildren Should Know

Six - Ex-Wives

Hopefully, it'll be relatively easy for you to find your way back here next Saturday to be part of the Snapshots family once again.

Self-Help For Cynics #24: Paranoid

Finished with my woman 'cause

She couldn't help me with my mind

People think I'm insane because

I am frowning all the time

All day long I think of things

But nothing seems to satisfy

Think I'll lose my mind

If I don't find something to pacify

Can you help me

Occupy my brain?

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

A year or so back, I began to feel victimised by another prominent member of the blogging community. Not someone whose name you will ever see in the comments box on this site, but someone who is well-regarded by certain other bloggers, and who occasionally comments on a select number of the blogs I read. I began to notice that whenever I wrote a comment on one of those blogs, expressing approval of a certain artist or song, this particular individual would soon after leave their own comment, not so much rubbishing my opinion, but making it quite clear that they disagreed and that they saw no value at all in the music I liked. After a while, I attempted to deflect this with humour, leaving jokey follow-up comments about how much our tastes differed or faux apologies for inflicting my own noxious opinions on him, but my olive branch of banter was met with a wall of silence. 

The Cleaners From Venus - Amateur Paranoiac

This is when my paranoid brain kicked into over-drive. Did this blogger really have it in for me? Were my opinions so distasteful that the very sight of my name in a comment box drove him into a rage? If he felt this way, how many other blog readers might I be offending with my awful taste in music? The least I could do was comment less on the blogs he read, so as not to upset him any further. Beyond that, I seriously considered quitting blogging altogether, or at least making my blog private and just writing it for myself... though I knew I'd miss the community and the chance to chat away in other people's comment boxes. 

Mind tells us...

Paranoia is thinking and feeling like you are being threatened in some way, even if there is no evidence, or very little evidence, that you are. 

Even more tellingly, they add...

Paranoid thoughts could also be exaggerated suspicions. For example, someone made a nasty comment about you once, and you believe that they are directing a hate campaign against you.

Ouch. That's right on the money, isn't it? 

Paranoia, paranoia

Everybody's coming to get me

Just say you never met me

I'm running underground with the moles, digging holes

Hear the voices in my head

I swear to God it sounds like they're snoring

But if you're bored, then you're boring

The agony and the irony, they're killing me

Harvey Danger - Flagpole Sitta

Apparently up to a third of the population experience paranoid thoughts at one time or another. Paranoia isn't an actual mental health diagnosis - not unless you respond to your paranoia in an excessive way. Clearly it's linked to low self-esteem and intrusive thoughts, both of which we've looked at here before. So it should come as no surprise that "amygdala dysfunction" is one of the key suspects in causing paranoid thoughts.

The Kinks - Destroyer

(On a side note, whenever I start a sentence with "So...", I worry that I'll anger Charity Chic, since it sticks in my mind that he doesn't approve of said practice. God, writing a blog when you're a delusional fruitcake is an absolute minefield!)

Sometimes I give myself the creeps

Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me

It all keeps adding up

I think I'm cracking up

Am I just paranoid

Or am I just stoned?

Green Day - Basket Case

Mind tries to reassure me that what I have is mild or non-clinical paranoia, not one of the more serious forms: paranoid personality disorder, delusional disorder and paranoid schizophrenia. But really, what if they're wrong? Am I paranoid to think I might have a more serious version of paranoia?

I got some so-called friends

They'll smile right to my face

But, when my back is turned

They'd like to stick to me

Yes, they would

Paul Simon - Paranoia Blues

An Australian Better Health website lists the following as possible symptoms of paranoia. I'm going to try a little tick box exercise to work out just how paranoid I might be. Feel free to copy the table and play along yourself...

Generally, a person who is paranoid may:
be easily offended	✔
find it difficult to trust others	✔
not cope with any type of criticism	What are you saying?
assign harmful meanings to other people’s remarks	What are you saying?
be always on the defensive	What are you saying?
be hostile, aggressive and argumentative	WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!?!
not be able to compromise	✖ (Everything I do is a compromise.)
assume that people are talking ill of them behind their back	✔✔✔
be overly suspicious – for example, think that other people are lying or scheming to cheat them	✔
not be able to confide in anyone	Well, there’s you guys…
find relationships difficult	✔
consider the world to be a place of constant threat	Isn’t it?
feel persecuted by the world at large	I’m not that important.
believe in unfounded ‘conspiracy theories’	No, I only believe in the true ones.

Not looking good, is it?

Clearly I need to do some more work on this... next week.

Garbage - I Think I'm Paranoid

In conclusion for today though, I haven't had any recent follow-up comments from my blogging bully, even after I started commenting again on the blogs he frequents. Maybe he's got bored with persecuting me... or he's too busy at the moment... or he's had a change of heart and suddenly realised that Barry Manilow is actually great. Who knows? 

I am also prepared to entertain the notion that he never actually had it in for me in the first place, that it was all in my imagination, and that all the negative comments he left as a follow up to my positive ones were purely coincidental. It could just be all in my mind...

The Art of Noise with Max Headroom - Paranoimia

On the other hand, you know what they say: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not all out to get you.

Snapshots #246: A Top Ten Diamond Songs

A Diamond Geezer introduce a Top Ten Diamond Songs... though there were quite a few more I didn't have room for in the jewellery box.

10. Flying fast over MacArthur Park, Hadley claims to be Solo.

Jet + (Richard) Harris (who sang MacArthur Park).

Tony Hadley says "Me Han" (Solo).

Or maybe you just recognised their faces.

Jet Harris & Tony Meehan - Diamonds

9. Rhyming kickers.

Hoddle & Waddle, famous for kicking a ball... and for recording this, which is better than I remember it being.

Glenn Hoddle And Chris Waddle - Diamond Lights

(In my continual quest to find artists who have never featured in Snapshots before, there are no depths I won't plumb.)

8. Lassie, Laika, Mr. Ed.

Super Furry Animals - The Very Best Of Neil Diamond

7. Colorado Beatle.

John was a Beatle. Denver is in Colorado.

John Denver - Some Days Are Diamonds

6. Hipster friend joins the PTA. 

Ben is my hipster friend. He's not yet joined the Harper Valley PTA.

Ben Harper - Diamonds On The Inside

5. An ivy sunbath.

Anagram!

Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day

4. Rowan's bottom.

Anagram!

Boomtown Rats - Diamond Smiles

3. Coyote cries like a baby.

Wile E. Coyote goes Waaah!

Pete Wylie & The Mighty Wah! - Diamond Girl

2. Surely you can't be serious about that deep sounding fish?

A bassey would be a deep sounding fish... and don't call me Shirley!

Shirley Bassey - Diamonds Are Forever

1. Al. 

On the other hand, he's happy for you to call him Al.

Paul Simon - Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes

Shine on, you crazy diamonds... at least until next Saturday morning, when the Snapshots will flash again.

Snapshots #232: A Top Ten Fifty Songs

Now that I am 50, I no longer need to pretend to be down wiv da kidz. Still, it makes me feel slightly better to know that Curtis 'Fiddy Cent' Jackson is only three years behind me. Snoop Dogg turn 50 last year. And Eminem will be 50 in October! 

Despite being 50, I only have ten answers for you today...

10. No, your bum doesn't look big in those jeans. And I love what you've done with your hair.

They're all White Lies.

White Lies - Fifty On Our Foreheads

9. Les Enfants Terribles.

Written by Jean Cocteau.

The Cocteau Twins - Fifty-Fifty Clown

8. Holy onomatopoeia, Batman!

Biff Bang Pow! - Fifty Years Of Fun

7. Duchess meets two former presidents.

Kate is the Duchess, Bushes were the presidents.

Kate Bush - Fifty Words For Snow

6. Undergrounds.

The Tubes - Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman

5. Scouts and capitalists.

Venture Scouts or Venture Capitalists?

The Ventures - Hawaii Five-0

4. Main enema.

Unfortunate anagram.

Aimee Mann - Fifty Years After The Fair

3. Get the rope, Harry, and untangle it.

"Rope, Harry," was another angram.

Roy Harper - These Fifty Years

2. Catboy, Owlette and Gekko wear masks; Alex is Sensational without one.

Catboy, Owlette and Gekko are the PJ Masks. You've got to keep up on your kids cartoons.

The Sensational Alex... Harvey, of course.

PJ Harvey - 50 ft Queenie

1. When Owen Met Carly.

Owen Paul meet Carly Simon...

The problem is all inside your head

She said to me

Remember when we did the Hot 100 Countdown together? Seems like so long ago. Not quite fifty years, mind.

Anyway, more Snapshots next week. Unless I've taken early retirement.

Conversations With Ben #25: The Horror!

Rol sends Ben the article above.

Ben: I think that makes me hate him even more because he's just thrown the rest of his band under a bus.

Once again it's all about him.

Rol: Not to mention disrespecting their entire fanbase.

(Still, more points for Robert Palmer though.)

I was having a pleasant evening.

Now I'm really wound up.

Just watched the first two episodes of Archive 81 on Netflix.

Pretty good so far.

Is that out? I read about it a while back. Not sure I'll be able to persuade Louise to watch it. How scary is it? How "real"? She can cope with fantasy horror like Midnight Mass, but not stuff that looks too real anymore...

Not scary. More like a creepy thriller mystery. Just come out. Very real.

Hmm. I'll see if I can trick her into watching it.

I went to get my haircut today. Had to find a new hairdresser now I'm no longer in Barnsley. Drove past a shop on the way home from Leeds with an old guy cutting hair, immediately thought: he's my guy. 

He didn't let me down. It was like having my hair cut by one of the Last of the Summer Wine cast. He kept making sweeping sexist statements, of the "will your tea be on the table when you get home?" kind, and then he told me a lengthy story about a rag and bone man who kept a donkey in his kitchen, and another about a guy he knew who had no brakes in his car, so if he gave you a lift, he would slow down by sticking his feet out the door.

I'm definitely going back there.

Was your tea on the table?

Pak choi?

With miso and udon?

My tea was in the dog.

And we only have cats.

Did the barber make a joke about Chinese food there?

You'll be disappointed to hear that he made no racist remarks at all.

Not all bigots are into everything.

I bow to your superior knowledge of bigotry.

I think you need to read the anti racist baby book again.

Is the baby meant to be singing a song and doing an interpretive dance there?

Kate Bush's choreographer?

I'm going to buy you a copy for your birthday.

I already have enough books I can't get through.

Thoughts on Yard Act?

I can't decide whether I like them or not.

Their new album is out and I still can't decide.

Never heard of them. Wait a minute...

I see what you mean. Can't decide if they deserve more of my attention or if he's just a bad stand up character.

Yeah, that's exactly it. I sit down with it but go back and forth whether it's good or not.

And he reminds me of Mr. C. from The Shamen.

I got a new badge at work today.

Still using your Witness Protection name when you teach, I see.

They'll never find me.

Plus, it keeps the kids from googling my blog.

They managed to make your forehead both smaller and larger at the same time.

And look at you rocking an under t-shirt!

I wear under t-shirts all the time in the summer. Never been a vest man.

Is it like starting a new identity at a new school?

It's a chance to reinvent myself.

I persuaded Louise to watch the first Archive 81. She just about made it through.

How much did they pay you to play Samuel?

(The actor in the green top looks exactly like Ben. In case you were wondering what he looks like.)

£12.50 and a Lion Bar.

Need to fire my agent.

Can't even eat the Lion Bar since it's got dairy in it.

And lions.

They stopped that back in the 80s.

Bloody PC brigade!

Huh. Next you'll be telling me the same applies to Penguins.

World gone mad.

They've always used imitation penguins, like crab sticks.

Shut up.

Hopefully now we're out of the bloody EU we can get back to being great and using the real thing again.

And none of those shite metric measurements.

I want seven quibwongs to a yard again.

(Do you mean a yard act?)

I'm looking forward to breaking my teeth on a post-Brexit Double Decker.

As we move away from the EU food and drink directive, we can enjoy moving towards the US FDA style FREEDOM Res restrictions.

You will soon be able to enjoy 100% naturally synthetic nougat style chew.

All natural, obviously.

Which in the US is legally a marketing term and has no basis in natural ingredients.

I'm looking forward to everyone eating those little compressed astronaut meals.

They contain real food. You won't be getting them.

Just seen the new Scream film. It's very good.

Please tell me Courtney Cox dies this time.

Sorry. Ghostface appears before the film and tells us we can't tell anybody anything about it or he'll come for us.

In that case....

Please tell me Courtney Cox dies this time.

I'll be right back...