some Davy

Just after we put Found Sound to bed last week we found out that Davy Jones from the Monkees died. I am not the biggest Monkees fan in the world, mostly because there are some enormously enthusiastic Monkees fans out there, but I enjoyed the TV show and have a good whack of their records, even some of their post-Monkees work, and Davy was maybe the most determinedly show-bizzy of the gang, having been on the stage and already signed to Columbia as casting for the show took place. Anyway he was British and in 1966 this meant he was a done deal. But if he quit touring and performing for two minutes after the Monkees went off the air, I haven't seen evidence of it - quite the opposite, you couldn't keep him off the stage or away from an audience, whether it was a state fair or Disney World or racing horses or several Monkees reunions, and that's a kind of work ethic that we really don't see every day in show biz.



Anyway, have a listen to some tracks from his second solo album and from his cameo in the Brady Bunch movie and let's remember him as he was, with that unmistakeable voice, entertaining the heck out of an audience somewhere.

playful little forest fires

In STUPID COMICS INSTALLMENT NUMBER TWO HUNDRED NINETY-NINE, our playful little heroine Audrey finds herself with pal Lucretia deep in the woods with a sack of potatoes and a book of matches, and she just does what comes naturally!



Yup, it's flaming childhood fun this week at Mr Kitty's Stupid Comics!

In other news, what have we been up to? We drove up to an antique mall in Orillia last Saturday just to see what snow looked like since we've barely had any here in Toronto. Dunno if it was really worth the drive, but it got out outta town and into some blizzardy blowing stuff for at least a half-hour before it all goes away. Also a 1966 issue of True Detective and some goofy records. Then it was time for a DAVE AND SHAIN TRIPLE FEATURE which included a fansub of TOWARDS THE TERRA, which is, I think, the closest Japanese animation ever got to recreating the Big Idea literary science fiction mindset. Then FIEND WITHOUT A FACE, the '58 British film set in Canada starring Canadian and American expats battling mind-creatures that live to suck nuclear radiation and when ultimately revealed turn out to be brains with antennae that inch along on exposed spinal columns, and when shot ooze raspberry jam. Also on the bill was PUSS IN BOOTS: RETURN OF PERO, aka RINGO RIDES WEST, the second Toei Puss In Boots film that plants our titular cat smack into the Old West as he and the mysterious boy drifter Jimmy clean up a town that desperately needs cleaning up. Not a great film or an artistic triumph, but I enjoyed it very much.

On Sunday we went down to the TIFF Bell Lightbox and saw TIM AND ERIC'S BILLION DOLLAR MOVIE, the big-screen debut of Tim & Eric whose Awesome Show Great Job has confused, angered, and bewildered late night viewers of Adult Swim for a few seasons now. I'm happy to say that if you like their TV show then you'll like the movie, and if you hate the TV show you'll probably hate this movie even more. Plenty of awkward moments, gross-out extravaganzas, deliberately clumsy editing, and painful comedy in this picture, and while it has its moments where the nuts and bolts of sustaining a ninety minute narrative start to wobble, ultimately the Disturbing Duo succeed. The Bell Lightbox is hands down the nicest theater I've ever been in; every row is staggered for perfect viewing and the concession stand has cupcakes and lemon bars. It's where we're seeing NAUSICAA in a month!

Then of course Sunday night came as Sunday nights always do, and it became time for the regular updates to Element Of Surprise and Zero Fighter, in which I get to use as dialog something I find myself saying at just about every convention I attend.

And now it's Thursday night again! Where does the time go? HOARDERS just had its season finale and it's two weeks until MAD MEN starts again. One thing about HOARDERS is, whenever the hoarding family has a teenage girl, she always has a Sailor Moon or Inu-Yasha or Bleach poster on the wall.