Five Guilty Pleasures... Edo Is Correct!

Martinex1: Last month, in the responses for my post of Five Guilty Pleasures, longtime and frequent BAB commenter Edo Bosnar mentioned that there was really nothing to be guilty about in my offerings and that in fact most were quite enjoyable and honorable forms of entertainment.   Well chum, I am here to say, "You are correct!"   I was previously looking at the topic as an exploration of hidden gems and smaller works.    But in this post for August,  I am digging a little deeper and sharing some of the sheer nonsense for which I cannot deny having a fondness.   I hope you all find this a bit more cringe inducing but entertaining nonetheless.


As always, we will take a look at five out of the six categories:  Comics, Movies, Television, Literature, Music and/or Food, and identify the associated guilty pleasures.   So without further ado...

COMICS:  Cap Wolf!   Mark Gruenwald had a great run as the writer on Captain America that spanned about a decade.  His best known contributions to the series may have been stories like "The Bloodstone Hunt" and the addition of Diamondback as a supporting character and love interest for Cap.   However, I have to say I prefer the outlandish Cap Wolf arc (issues #402 - #408) in which Captain America transformed into a werewolf.   It had all of the markings of a B-Movie,  an anything goes approach, or a last ditch effort to break a writer's block.   It was just silly... but I liked every minute of it.   Only here could we see a crazed creature with the nobility of Steve Rogers, still wielding a shield, learning to speak, fighting other lupine Marvel creations, and finally battling the villainous cosmic Star-Wolf.   It has all the shortcomings of early 90's art, but it is a classic in my eyes.   I am willing to bet you won't see this story on the silver screen, but even I was shocked when I saw the action figure. 

TELEVISION:  Battle of the Network Stars!  In November of 1976, American television reached a new apex with the premiere of the pseudo-sports competition between various series' stars representing the ABC, CBS, and NBC networks.    I recently stumbled upon some reruns and was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of this 20th century strange extravaganza.    The show hosted stars like Scott Baio, Richard Hatch, Toni Tennille, Catherine Bach, Lou Ferrigno, Leif Garrett, Greg Evigan, Willie Aames, Erin Gray, David Letterman, William Shatner, Sarah Purcell, Howard Hesseman, Larry Wilcox and countless other actors fighting it out in rubber raft races, games of "Simon Says", tug-of-war, and obstacle courses... what could be better?   Some would say...the dunk tank!   I honestly cannot believe this show ever aired and I doubt it would be possible today.    Between corporate liability and less campy sensibilities, I don't think we will ever see anything like it again.   This belongs in a time capsule and on every DVR!

MOVIES:  Airport '77!  In past posts, I highlighted works from Martin Scorsese and Alfred Hitchcock. One of these things is not like the others!   As the series of four Airport movies stretched across the decade of the 1970s, they continued to get more and more outrageous as disaster movies peaked.    But this one captivated ten-year-old me, and I still cannot turn away whenever it airs.   A luxury airliner full of priceless art and aging Hollywood celebrities finds itself crashed and submerged in the Bermuda Triangle.   There is so much wrong with this film - from Jack Lemmon cast as the heroic pilot to the horrible song the pianist sings to his lone adoring fan.   But it is also so perfect, with Lee Grant chewing the scenery as a scornful and neglected wife and the blundered escape with a bursting pressurized hatch.   It also inexplicably has a scene where one of the hijackers dons a complex costume with a wig, fake mustache, and cheek implants only to have him meet one of his fellow hijackers which runs no risk at all.   Plan a double-feature of Airport '77 and Airport '79: The Concorde if you enjoy disaster movies and movies that are disasters.  

LITERATURE: The Weekly World News!  Okay, "literature" may be a stretch, but it does have words in it.    This supermarket tabloid mainstay offers some of the most creative headlines and stories you will ever see.    A college roommate introduced me to this paper decades ago and it always entertained during late night breaks.  Just thinking about it makes me chuckle.    The samples here speak for themselves.

FOOD:  Bomb Pops!  As a young kid, I would see these advertised on the side of ice cream trucks, but I never had enough to buy one as they were high-end treats that exceeded my pittance of an allowance.   When I finally got my hands on one years later from the penny-store freezer, I was treated to the sugary sensation of Cherry, Lemon, and Blue Raspberry!    Each flavor mingles slightly with the next creating a wonderful taste sensation.   I don't buy them anymore because I am pretty sure I would eat the whole box before my children could get to them.   Who thought of blue raspberry anyway?  He or she should be on the Mount Rushmore of flavorists!


So that is it for this month; we will cover "Music" next time around.    Enjoy the last days of Summer break, and stay guilty my friends!

Five Guilty Pleasures... Take a Big Big Bite!

Martinex1: It's time for another round of Five Guilty Pleasures, where I explore some of my pop culture favorites from decades past that may or may not be mainstream.  I suspect that these selections fall somewhere in the shadows...they would probably not be in many Top 10 lists, but I cannot deny enjoying them.  Some choices may fit more comfortably in the nostalgic heartland of our beloved site, but I probably wouldn't be sharing these likings at a cocktail party with Senators.   As before, we will take a look at the categories of:  Comics, Movies or Television, Literature, Music, and Food.   So without further ado...

COMICS: This time around I am not choosing a specific issue or title but rather a character... Wonder Man.  Simon Williams has been a favorite of mine since he stumbled back to life in the Avengers.  And he has been a lovable hot mess ever since.   His backstory is a convoluted and meandering web of costumes, characteristics, and motivations.  I am not sure any writer really got a handle on who Simon is but somehow along the way I kept rooting for him and looking forward to his appearances (up to a point).  He is a failed industrialist, an actor with limited ability, a one-time villain, a zuvembie, a best friend to the Beast, and a resurrected ionic super-hero with panic attacks.  The last part is what really intrigued me.   He was one of the most powerful Marvel characters in the late 70's (as he himself constantly reminded us), but he was fearful of dying because he died before.  That made him interesting; despite his strength he was incredibly vulnerable.  Yet he did what he had to do.  He repeatedly overcame his fear and fought enemies greater than himself even if it meant getting brutally pummeled.  In later years, he was reduced (in my mind) to a totally ionic entity, but along the way he had fun adventures, an unrenowned but enjoyable solo title, and a series of bad outfits. 

MOVIE: After Hours is a bit of a cult classic.  When Martin Scorsese movies are discussed this one typically does not make it into the rarefied air of Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or Taxi Driver.  But for me this 1985 film is not only my favorite Scorsese flick but one of my all-time favorite movies.  Griffin Dunne stars as Paul Hackett a mid-level office worker who sets out to meet a girl named Marcy (Rosanna Arquette) for a date in Soho.   A simple night out turns into a paranoid comic adventure as Paul does everything he can to just return home while everybody in the city seems to be conspiring against him.   A paper mache statue, an ice cream truck, a seedy bar, a set of keys, a beehive hairdo, an angry mob, and the words "Surrender Dorothy," all play a part in this dark and twisted comedy about a night in New York City.   The film will make you laugh with its blend of strange wit and suspense.

BOOK: My sons are at an age that I can start sharing some of my favorite childhood reads with them and recently we delved into the Hardy Boys.   The first book in the series that I read was The Hardy Boys: The Shattered Helmet which was number 52 in the pseudonymous Franklin W. Dixon series.  In this one, Joe and Frank along with Chet and their new friend Evan Pandropolos search for a missing but valuable Greek helmet that was used in a silent film decades ago.   The boys travel to Hollywood and the island of Corfu all the while in danger from career criminals and mysterious happenings.   The plot is predictable to an aged reader but I couldn't help but enjoy the cliffhanger chapters, the sunny 60's disposition of the characters, the comfortable structure, and the nostalgia of more innocent times. 

MUSIC:  In 1996, (yeesh... it was 20 years ago), there was a single eponymous album from a band called Mind Science of the Mind.  It was a supergroup of sorts with Nathan Larson from Shudder to Think, Mary Timony from Helium, drummer Kevin March from the Dambuilders, along with their violinist Joan Wasser.  The first time I heard the music I wasn't sure what to think, but repeated listening opened the door to wonderful spiraling musicianship loaded with weird but memorable lyrics, a haunting voice, and forays into musical bombast tempered with calm reticence.  I've said it before that if I imagined the soundtrack to the Dr. Strange movie... this would be it.  It is not for everybody I am sure, but I thoroughly enjoy this album and wish that they had produced more.

FOOD: "Honeycomb's big! Yeah, Yeah, Yeah.  It's not small! No, No, No.  Honeycomb's got a big, big, bite! Big, big taste in a big, big bite! "  I don't know about you but I still enjoy a sugary bowl of cereal now and then.   And having grown up watching Saturday morning cartoons, I was exposed to a heavy dose of marketing from Post and other cereal companies.  It will forever be etched in my mind that the denizens of the Honeycomb Hideout pulled out their ruler to measure the one inch cereal to prove to the giant visitors that Honeycomb is "big."  I will probably be humming that jingle or something like it on my deathbed as my life passes before me. But I have to say I love the sweet crunch of honey sweetened corn.  So yes - my final guilty pleasure this month is Honeycomb cereal.  And let's not forget the cool metal bike license plates they offered as a prize in the box every year.   Hey, the Hulk's got my back on this one!

Five Guilty Pleasures...

Martinex1: I was recently pondering works of entertainment that I really enjoy despite feeling that these are probably not held in high regard.  At least I don't think they are...

And I realized that maybe we all have "guilty pleasures" that others may relish if we pointed folks in the right direction.   Or we may find that some of us already enjoy the exact same thing.  On the other hand, we may get feedback that our elevator doesn't quite reach the second floor. 

Here at Bronze Age Babies we share a lot about our favorite things from movies to candy bars, but I am curious if we talk much about the ripples just below the surface, the things that wouldn't be our first recommendations but are still impactful to us in some way, our guilty pleasures. 

So I've devised a way of quickly conversing on 5 things we have a hidden passion for in the categories of:  COMICS, FILM & TV, BOOKS, MUSIC, and FOOD.  It is similar to the games of "what I would take to a desert island" or "what I would do on my last day," but with a guilty pleasure twist.  Today I will share my five selections and  see if we have any commonality out there.  And I hope in the future others will compose similar posts.  I am sure we can all create multiple lists that at the very least may be fun to investigate.

So without further ado... Martinex1's 5 Guilty Pleasures for June 2016:

COMIC:   I recently mentioned a comic that actually started me down this post's thought process.  A lot of our regulars name the Avengers as one of their favorite teams and comics,  but I bet few think that Avengers Volume 1, #86 "Brain-Child to the Dark Tower Came" is a masterpiece.  I consistently name this comic in my top five favorites (and often I think of it fondly enough to be #1).  Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema craft a very succinct conclusion to a two-parter in which the Kooky Quartet Part Deux (Vision, Scarlet Witch, Goliath, and Quicksilver) travel to the Squadron Supreme world and face an innocent child turned madman intent on burning up the world.  The little tyrant's motivation is simply to stop the taunts and teases he gets from the public for his radiation enlarged cranium.   This issue reads like a B-Movie. It has everything from Robert Browning poetry references and JSA style team-ups to parallel world sci-fi innuendo and Sal Buscema blasts.   A classic scene involves Goliath using his archery skills with an unconscious Hyperion as his arrow!  I believe this Avengers foursome is an underrated roster as they have a lot of familial interaction and banter.  And what can be better than the infant terrible calling out the "costumed cretins" on the very wordy John Buscema cover?   Brilliant!

FILM & TV: I am a big Alfred Hitchcock fan.  Having attended school with a focus on Cinema, I have seen a lot of movies and I still enjoy the classics, the black and white films, and the old Hollywood stars.   Although I would put a number of Hitchcock films in my top 100 list (as did the American Film Institute with Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window, and North by Northwest), I would say that I most look forward to viewing Shadow of a Doubt.   It is a lesser known film starring Joseph Cotton and Theresa Wright.  Cotton plays worldly Uncle Charlie to Wright's impressionable but wise teenager.  Uncle Charlie, however, may not be what he seems as the Merry Widow Murderer is making his rounds.  Or is the mystery just a result of the youngster's vivid imagination?  Full of humor and suspense, this movie is worth finding. 

BOOK:  The Secret History by Donna Tarrt was indeed a best seller  and critically acclaimed in 1992 but may be less recognized today.   The story follows six intelligent but dysfunctional classics students at fictional Hampden College who spiral into disarray following a bacchanal and a sequence of murder.  From the beginning it is revealed who is dead and who did it, yet the unfolding of the story is surprisingly suspenseful as the motivations and madness play out.   Interesting characters position themselves in a novel full of references to Greek mythology as it sets it's own stage for a modern tragedy.  Not quite to the level of Flannery O'Connor or Harper Lee to which early assessments compared, and some may say it is just a beach book, but there is some real merit here.

 MUSIC:  Following the departure of leader and vocalist Stan Ridgway from the original lineup of Wall of Voodoo, Andy Prieboy joined the band and took them on a slightly different wild ride of storytelling and musical experimentation on their 1985 album Seven Days in Sammystown.  More popular in Australia than in the States, this offering was full of humor, odd beats, and lyrical craziness.   The Marc Moreland penned "Museums" is one of my favorite songs, and there is nothing like the rhythm and guitar as the band crossed from classic quirk to more radio friendly fare.  Is Wall of Voodoo in your top ten list?

FOOD: Chicago has the best pizza!  Is that hyperbole from a local boy?  Perhaps. But I can name a dozen pizza joints that will knock your socks off.   Thick crust, thin crust, corn meal crust, stuffed, sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, onions - we've got it all.   And we won't skimp on the real Italian sausage here in the Windy City!  But if you don't live nearby or have unlimited travel miles for a quick bite, try Home Run Inn's frozen pizza.   That's right, I am recommending a frozen pizza!  It is surprisingly close to the real thing.  Home Run Inn is a tradition for some Chicago South Siders with their original tiny restaurant just a couple of miles from the White Sox' stomping grounds.  Their recipe has been a family secret for decades, and the crust and sausage seasoning are like no other.

So those are my five oddball recommendations.   If I was stuck on a remote island and all I had were these five items of comfort I would be completely content.   Cheers!