Thursday, October 30, 2008

REMINDER: Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special

Tune in October 30th and 31st for the Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special. I've been doing special Halloween shows for many years and I can honestly say this is the best one. It is very scary and makes for a fun listen, including music from films such as Friday the 13th, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Saw, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and House of 1000 Corpses. Whatever you may be doing for Halloween, this will make a great soundtrack for it.

The show can be heard:

89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 11pm.

89.5 KQAL FM in Winona on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 11pm.

Remember that if you're not in the broadcast area you can hear the show online at either station's website.

UPDATE: The show has been rescheduled to air on 89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato at midnight Halloween night.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Dreyfuss on W.

Here is footage of Richard Dreyfuss on "The View" talking about his role as Dick Cheney in W. He says the film is 6/8 of a great film and does not give it a great review. Like many viewers he struggles with the ending, but as my review airing on Sunday states, the film portays Bush as a man who is hollow and has no consciousness, like Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Watch Freddy Sell Himself

Here is a vintage Youtube video of Media Entertainment's promo to video stores and other video vendors to promote the home video release of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.

The first two Nightmare film had little national recognition and were largely a grassroots phenomenon. Nightmare 3 was the first time it was heavily marketed to the audience and the result was both a higher grossing picture but also an overexposure of Freddy Krueger that doomed the series until Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Sounds of Cinema Halloween Special

A very special Halloween episode of Sounds of Cinema is set to air late night on October 30th and 3st. It will feature a minimum of talk and a maximum of music and sounds from Halloween related films.

89.7 KMSU FM in Mankato on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 11pm.

89.5 KQAL FM in Winona on Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 11pm.

Remember that if you're not in the broadcast area you can hear the show online at either station's website.

Be sure to tune in and let Sounds of Cinema provide the soundtrack for your Halloween.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Newsweek Article on 'W'

W, Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush, comes out this week and most reviews so far have been favorable. This article from Newsweek is also positive and makes some interesting comments about the perils of adapting history to the screen:

Through most of the undistinguished history of films about American presidents, concern for truth has been in short supply. From "Young Mr. Lincoln" (1939) to "Wilson" (1944) to "Sunrise at Campobello" (1960) to "The Missiles of October" (1974), to the many other, often cheap and cheesy films that populate cable television and direct-to-video products, the purpose of these movies has mostly been hagiography, propaganda or both. "Young Mr. Lincoln" (with Lincoln played by Henry Fonda) portrayed a saintly lawyer engaged in an idealized and implausible battle for justice. "Wilson" is a mediocre and now justly forgotten film that won five Academy Awards because of its usefulness to the debate over the aftermath of World War II. "Sunrise," drawn from a Broadway play, was a tribute to Franklin Roosevelt's courageous conquest of polio (a conquest that in reality never occurred) and a portrayal of a "great American love story" that was in fact the story of a broken marriage never repaired. "The Missiles of October" conveyed not the muddled confusion of a seemingly intractable crisis, but a stark moral conflict in which wisdom defeated rashness.

Of Stone's take on the 43rd president, Alan Brinkley has this to say:

Stone, like most others trying to chronicle their own time, has undoubtedly made educated guesses about Bush that will turn out to be wrong. But "W." is, nevertheless, different from most earlier movies about presidents (including Stone's own). Whatever its qualities as a dramatic film may be, however its portrayal of Bush may fare in the light of history, it is on the whole an honest effort to find some truth in the blizzard of partisan battles over almost everything associated with this presidency. There are no conspiracy theories, no wild speculations, no paranoia. Stone's film is not hagiography. It is not propaganda. It is, surprisingly, more or less fair.

I'll be screening and reviewing the film in due course and give my assessment then. But so far this is promisng.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

89.7 KMSU FM Pledge Drive

89.7 KMSU FM "The Maverick" is now in the midst of their Fall pledge drive. For those of you listening to this show from 89.7 in Mankato, 91.3 FM in Austin, or Albert Lea on 91.9 FM, this is your opportunity to support the station and keep original, locally produced programming coming to you. To make a pledge, call 507-389-5678 or 1-800-456-7810 or send in an email pledge here. If you email or call after business hours and get voice mail, please leave a message with your name, phone number, address, and the amount you would like to pledge. Please do not send or leave credit card information.

Because of the drive, the episode of Sounds of Cinema broadcast from 89.7 KMSU FM this Sunday will be a special pledge drive edition. The episode broadcast from 89.5 KQAL FM in Winona will continue the the Halloween-themed programing ongoing throughout the month of October.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Sounds of Cinema Gets Scary for October

Starting this weekend, Sounds of Cinema will feature weekly themes geared toward Halloween. To start, the episode airing October 5 will focus on the "Humor of Horror" - movies that make us scream and laugh at the same time - and will include music from Scream, Army of Darkness, and Beetlejuice. Tune in each week for a different theme and DVD recomendations to match.