Maintenance Post: Work, Sports, Comics and TV

Let Emmylou be my co-pilot

Hey all.  

The pic above is just the new pooch, Emmylou.  No news there.  I just like my dog, and y'all won't click if there's no picture.

It's not a secret that this here blog is used for many things, but that I've moved more personal stuff back to League of Melbotis.  Should you wonder - nothing in particular personal is keeping me from blogging - it's just that this site is mostly movies, and I haven't watched many movies of late.  

Why?

Well - I have a fairly recent new job and this last week was a crunch week.  It wasn't miserable - I kind of liked it, honestly.  But I also was tired and not in the mood for movies, exactly, at the end of each day.  And my days were starting at 7:30 this week and ending around 9:30 PM.  With large breaks for dinner, but nonetheless, stopping for a 2-hour movie wasn't really in the cards.

Comics

I've been reading comics again at a greater pace.  This summer was DC's Summer of Superman which saw a lot of Superman material put out in celebration of the movie and to monetize casual fan interest.  But we're also completionists, so this summer has not been awesome on my wallet.  

Action Comics and Superman were already pretty good titles of late, but I feel like the titles are in a wave where now is a very good time to be reading Superman comics.  We also have a new Supergirl title that is *very* promising, the confusing Power Girl title is disappearing (I have a few issues, and... no thanks), and we're getting everything from original graphic novels to Treasury Editions (love those) to mini series and one-shots out right now.  Include a Krypto The Superdog mini.  

Sports

This summer I've also been watching a lot of Cubs baseball and WNBA, as mentioned over at the other blog.  Cubs are gonna Cub, and after a remarkable first half of the season, we're now struggling, and will never catch the Brewers for the NLC title at this point (f'ing Brewers, man).  

And the WNBA has been a trip to watch.  There aren't that many teams, so I've been keeping up with a few, which means I've watched all the teams at least twice.  Dallas has a player as good as Caitlin Clark. Paige Buckner, but it will take a while to build a team around her.  Caitlin Clark has been injured all season - and I doubt she'll play again in 2025 - but the Indiana Fever have brought in reinforcements who have made them play-off eligible.  But those players, too, have been victims of injury.  Similarly, the Golden State Valkyries have been plagued with injury, taking out stars Kayla Thornton and Monique Billings.  It's a rough season.  

Oddly, I've kind of fallen into the New York Liberty camp.  Did not see that coming, but here we are.  I kind think they're the most fun to watch, as Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones rule, Natasha Cloud makes it seem effortless while absolutely delivering, and when she's healthy, Breanna Stewart is dynamite.  But YMMV. 

I have a few beefs with the WNBA as a league, from player exhaustion, to how flopping has made playing inside almost impossible, to horrendous reffing across the board (which has led to the flopping to no small degree), but overall - it's good basketball.  And rather than pick a team, I've more or less just found favorites on several teams, and watch *a lot*.  Up to 5 or 6 games per week.

We'll see what happens in the playoffs, but it's hard not to the Lynx are just going to crush everyone.

Television

We've watched all of Derry Girls, and the latest season of The Bear.  We started King of the Hill and Poker Face,  and I'm watching The Yogurt Shop Murders doc series on HBO, and Alien: Earth on Hulu.  I'll do posts on those last two.  

This week, I think Jamie has agreed to some JLC watching and I may go see Freakier Friday.  

Happy Birthday, Lois Lane

According to Superman lore, today is the birthday of Lois Lane, star reporter of The Daily Planet, former girlfriend, and now wife of Superman/ Clark Kent/ Kal-El.  And all-around troublemaker/ kick-ass character.  

It's no secret we're big fans of Lois here at The Signal Watch.  She burst into comics on the sixth page of Action Comics #1, then going on a date with Clark where she was immediately kidnapped by a mobster - leading to her first meeting with The Man of Steel.

She's been a part of Superman's adventures since that moment, and continues to appear alongside him in his adventures in comics, radio, books, television, movies, video games and more. 

This year has been dense with great takes on Lois, in the movies, TV and comics.

Terence Stamp Merges With The Infinite

Actor Terence Stamp has passed at the age of 87.

This site obviously was aware of Stamp first and foremost from the first two 1970's Superman films wherein he played General Zod, Superman's foe and the would-be conqueror of first Krypton and then Earth.

He was, of course, accomplished and popular In England well before those films.  With smoldering good looks and a natural talent, he was in with a wave of British talent that crossed over the pond and back again over the decades.  

If you want to see a phenomenal movie, check out The Limey.  But he was in everything, from comedies like Bowfinger and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert to to actioners like Young Guns.  

Raise a glass, and, for today, it's okay to kneel for Zod.

I'm very sorry to see him go, but he left a rich legacy.  

G Watch: Shin Godzilla (2016)

Watched:  08/16/2025

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Third, I think

Director:  Shinji Higuchi, Hideaki Anno

Shin Godzilla (2016) is currently enjoying a theatrical re-release because, I guess, why not?  Godzilla Minus One was supposed to be in theaters for a week, and wound up playing for months and making crazy bank compared to original estimates, and then landed a much deserved Academy Award.  

Yes, Shin Godzilla is also in the process of being released on 4K disc, and, look, kids....  there's something your favorite blogger would sure like to open on Christmas morning.  

I will never not tell this story, so here goes:  PaulT, Jamie and myself went to a mid-day screening of Shin Godzilla at the old Alamo Ritz, I think in January of 2017.  We were excited, the place was almost sold out in the middle of the day...  it was a whole scene.  Then the movie started and a piercing tone hit the theater.

This tone.   1kHz test tone.  

They paused the movie and the manager came out and said "has anyone seen this before?"  A few hands went up.  "Is this supposed to be happening?"  No.  "Ok!"  So she disappeared.  We hung out for a while.

Apparently the distributor had sent out their digital copies with 1k tone and there was nothing the Drafthouse could do. So I think we got out money back and went to Shakespeare's nextdoor for a beer.

Anyway - I've seen the movie since.  But not since seeing Godzilla Minus One.  Or spending COVID lockdown watching every single live-action Godzilla movie.  

First - this one isn't for the kids.  It's a movie that happens to have a Godzilla in it as a stand-in for any disaster, but in this case, it was pretty specifically the Fukushima nuclear accident that hit Japan in 2011.  I think Shin Godzilla is a genuinely really, really good movie when it comes to the challenge of bureaucracy and systems built to ensure safety by way of democratic processes, something I'm pretty familiar with after spending a lifetime in state-funded higher education,  State government and, recently, local government.  That a single decision must pass through up to five levels and reach a "final decider" to do the obvious, and that person is hopelessly compromised by politics, optics and party machinery has real world consequences.  

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (2025)

Watched:  08/13/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Akiva Schaffer

If you're wondering if The Naked Gun (2025) lives up to the original film, it's really, really close.  It's, of course, trying to recapture that same vibe, and mostly hits the mark while also absolutely having moments that will have you saying "well, that's clearly Akiva Schaffer".  And I mean that in the best way.

I won't actually do a dive on this because it's a joke every 30 second comedy, exists to be that, and does so.  There are great gags that I'll be laughing about tomorrow, and sequences that made me fold over in my chair laughing.  You'll know what they are.

And everyone is funny.  Neeson I've seen be hysterical before, so this was not a shock, but he nails the Police Squad brand of humor..  Pam Anderson has great comedy chops and I hope this pair gets a sequel to do more.  Paul Walter Houser shows up as Ed, and I'm becoming a fan.  CCH Pounder even gets to send-up very specific police chief tropes and it's just hysterical having it come from her.

If I have a recommendation, find the person in the theater who is going to laugh like a maniac and sit near them.  I was fortunate to have "deep belly laugh" guy behind me, and it helped to be in a theater and join that guy in knowing it's okay to laugh like that in a theater.

The Space Jam Fallacy: Is The Movie You Like From Your Childhood Actually... Bad?

For a few years, we ran a podcast based on this here internet web log.  During that time, I made an observation and had to find a phrase to describe it.  We called it:  The Space Jam Fallacy.

The Space Jam Fallacy is the misguided belief that an artifact, such as a movie, is of quality because it was a favored piece of media first consumed during one's formative years.  However, the movie is technically, narratively, and critically, actually, bad.    

As a person who is now fifty, I've now seen the power of The Space Jam Fallacy in full bloom with Gen-X, then Millennials, and, these days, with Gen-Z.  

Why am I picking on Space Jam, the mid-90's mix of animation and live-action movie about Bugs Bunny and actual basketball superstar Michael Jordan taking on a crew of space aliens seen over by an alien voiced by Dan DeVito in a for-all-the-marbles game of basketball?  Because it is the first movie I was well aware of/ saw at the time of release only to see a younger generation declare it must-see-viewing, when I knew the thing to be, in fact, terrible.

For context:

Cindyana Santangelo Merges With the Infinite

Actor, model and 90's cult icon Cindyana Santangelo passed earlier this year, but I just found out about it via user Flabbergast.

She never reached Hollywood levels of fame in a direct way, but made appearances on television shows and in small parts in movies.  Her relevance here at The Signal Watch is that Santangelo is the subject of what is perennially and by far my most popular post on this site, "Whatever Happened to the Girl in the Stop Sign Shorts?"

We sought her out as the dancer and lip-syncher in the video for Young MC's "Bust a Move" and learned she was also the voice and face at the start of Jane's Addiction's single "Stop".  

Santangelo passed at her Malibu home in March at the age of 58.

In whatever odd parasocial way I was aware of Santangelo, I am very sorry to hear she's passed.  If my site's numbers are any indication, she certainly had her fans, and I hope she knew that.

  

Coppola Watch: The Godfather, Coda - The Death of Michael Corleone/ AKA: The Godfather Part III (1990)

Watched:  08/10/2025

Format:  4K

Viewing:  third or fourth

Director:  Francis Ford Coppola

Released on Christmas Day in 1990, I saw The Godfather Part III (1990) with the men of the Steans Family.  I was 15 and had already seen the other Godfather movies a few times by this point.  Going in, I was aware the new film was not supposed to be up to the levels of the two prior movies, but was still interested. 

It was... fine?  Good, even.  But I didn't love it.  I do recall thinking "this Mary Corleone is super cute" and being aware she was Coppola's own daughter.  

Before the movie was released, the two things discussed most were that Robert Duvall would not be in the movies, and that Sofia Coppola as Mary.  All this, despite a cast starring Pacino, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach and Talia Shire, a winding script that seemed to be trying to say things about power and those who wield it and where, and some of the best photography of the decade.

The day after seeing the movie, I drove to Austin to visit some friends, who - knowing I was a fan of the first films - proudly held up the tickets they'd bought for a matinee of The Godfather Part III, and so it was, I saw the movie twice in about 24 hours.  

I don't know that I've seen the movie again since.  

Signal Watch Reads: The Godfather

Memory is a tricky thing.  I was positive I'd read Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather back in high school, but since it's been way too many decades since I would have read the book, I decided to pick it up again.  This time I picked it up as an audiobook read by Joe Montegna.  Not a bad choice of readers, right?

Well...  at some point I realized:  I don't think I ever finished the book back in the early 90's.  I'm glad I finally got to it, I've finished it.  All is well.  

I'm assuming that the book was so much like the movie, I kind of didn't see the point and moved on.  And yet, I figured out why I thought I'd made up a scene from the movie in my head because there it was in the book.  So... not exactly a 1:1, but pretty close.  Until...

Once you get to a certain point in the novel, it diverges mostly in how much additional content is there.  Like, Johnny Fontane is a major character, as is Lucy Mancini, and there's a whole storyline in Hollywood and Las Vegas that is interesting but was easily cut out to keep the movie focused on Don Vito and Michael's more compelling stories.  The reason the Fontane stuff is there seems to be two-fold.  (1) It's a reminder of the Don's far-seeing view and his ability to manage and manipulate things with a single move, and (2) pretty clearly Puzo was no fan of Hollywood and he wanted to do it dirt.  

Weird Al Watch: UHF (1989)

Watched:  08/08/2025

Format:  DVD

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Jay Levey

I was walking through Walmart and passed the $5 DVD bin and saw UHF (1989) sitting in the pile, and realized I didn't have a copy of the movie.  

I've already written this movie up twice before, so no need to do it again.  But it is a delight.  I may be suffering from some Space Jam Fallacy here, and I am pretty sure most of the jokes would make no sense to anyone under 40, but what the hell... there are things in this movie that I genuinely love, and I wish Al and Co. had made ten more movies.  

Also, how funny is it that Fran Drescher is in this in a supporting bit like 4 years before she launched one of the biggest shows of the 90's? 

Disney Watch: The Shaggy Dog (1959)

Watched:  08/09/2025

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Charles Barton

First, this movie's opening sequence slaps.  

The rest of The Shaggy Dog (1959) was never going to live up to whatever that was, but I basically enjoyed it.

I tell you what - for what this movie is, which is a near 70-year-old movie for kids probably up to age 12 or so, and adults looking for utter nonsense, this fit the bill for some silly viewing.

The basic plot is not basic - it is, in fact, a "shaggy dog story".  I don't know why we call intentionally long stories with side-plots and a sad trombone of an ending a "shaggy dog story", but we do, and Wikipedia has a theory as to why.  But, yeah, it's an entire movie leading up to a punchline about Annette Funicello finding a better guy than the two guys initially interested in her.

Jim Lovell Merges With The Infinite

Astronaut and honest-to-God-American Hero Jim Lovell has passed.  He was 97.

Lovell was a Naval Aviator who joined NASA after the Mercury missions.  He was part of Gemini 7 and 12, but most famously was key on Apollo 8, which first circumnavigated the moon - and Apollo 13, which was the famous disaster in space which became this solar system's most amazing story of survival.

Back in 2009, I saw Mr. Lovell on a panel with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders  at the LBJ Library discussing the Apollo 8 Mission.  It was awe inspiring.

Marvel Second Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  08/06/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Matt Shakman

Note:  Blogger added a 'add hyperlinks automatically to your post' feature, and I've tried that out with this post.  I don't think it's too annoying.

Jamie was out of town, and nonetheless saw Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) with Dug, K and Rob.  This is how I saw the movie by myself at 9:00 AM a couple of weeks back.  But we two decided to catch it again together before it disappears into an eternal twilight of streaming on Disney+.

I was pleased to find that, even knowing what was coming - from story points, to the design, to gags and the incredible score, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit again on a second viewing.  I still want to spend more time with these characters and their problems and their world.  It is, of course, impossible to know how much of my pre-disposition to like the FF in general and want a not-terrible FF movie plays into all of this, versus how someone coming to the FF fresh might feel.  

But, my chief complaint about the movie the first time was that I wanted more of it.

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (1988)

Watched:  08/03/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Zucker/Abrahams/ Zucker

With the Liam Neeson-starring reboot out, I wanted to limber up those particular muscles again before seeing the new era of Naked Gun films.  

It's hard to know anymore if I'm laughing with The Naked Gun (1988) or with 13-year-old me who saw this in the theater and laughed so hard during just the opening bit with the police car driving through a variety of scenes that I literally slipped out of my seat at the Arbor IV theater.  

That kid, in 1988, was not prepared for what was coming for the next 80 minutes or so.  Or that he'd be quoting this movie in 2025.  Or still find it funny to just say "It's Enrico Palazzo!" for absolutely no reason, but find it makes him feel better.

I'm fairly certain if I had bracketed out all the comedies I like, this one *might* make it to the end as my favorite.  At least today that's true.  Leslie Nielsen is at his absolute apex of Nielsen-ness, the jokes land with a wry smile to a full laugh even now - and I've seen this movie maybe 25 times.  

I have no doubt this movie both plays to my sense of funny and helped shape it, just as Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker did for my entire generation with these movies, Top Secret! and the Airplane! flicks.  I mean, how many times as things are going south, do you hear someone say "looks like I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue..."?

I miss Hollywood trying to be funny.  Look, my favorite show as the moment is probably The Bear, but it is insane that anyone is letting it get nominated for Emmy's as a comedy.  I can't remember the last time I paid to see a comedy in a movie theater that wasn't actually a genre film with a comedic bent - Google is claiming Knives Out is a comedy, and... maybe?  It literally may have been Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 - which was good.  Is there a sequel coming?  I feel like there is.

Anyway - Naked Gun would play well now, I think, even if I'm not sure what The Kids would make of timely and topical jokes (is Queen Elizabeth automatically funny in 2025?).  I'm far less worried about the un-PC jokes as they zip by - and we mostly knew they were in bad taste then, by the way, and that was the point.  And of course OJ's legacy did not turn out to be that of a wacky physical comedian.   But there's something timeless about accidentally setting off a player piano while the curtains are on fire or *gestures broadly at every baseball joke in the movie*.

I still love this movie, and I very much look forward to the new one, which I've heard from some corners is very, very good.

Loni Anderson Merges With The Infinite

Loni Anderson, star of TV and movies, has passed at 79.  

Anderson will be best remembered as Jennifer Marlowe, the beautiful, secret brains behind the radio station in the classic sit-com, WKRP in Cincinnati.  The character essentially blew up the idea of the ditzy blonde, which was insanely prevalent in the 1970's and 80's.

I really don't know much about her other than that she was a major part of a favorite show of my youth, was on a private-eye show with Lynda Carter, and was one of the loves of Burt Reynolds.  

Christmas at Sea: I Watched a Hallmark Christmas Cruise Reality Show

The word that comes to mind, over and over, when watching Christmas at Sea (2025) over on the Hallmark Channel is "awkward".  

The concept of a cruise where people get on a boat to share oxygen with working actors while also desperately celebrating secular adult Christmas a month early with hundreds of tipsy strangers is just kinda... awkward. 

The folks who they recruit for the show?  We'll get into that. 

Trying to make something of a 3-day cruise?  And try to film it and make it look natural when it so clearly is all staged and stage-managed?  Awkward.

I've long withstood the slings and arrows of others' discomfort by throwing on Hallmark movies at Christmas - which led to me spending the first half of 2025 watching 70-odd Lacey Chabert movies.  But for a few years I've been aware that the Hallmark company now has basically Christmas Cons in Kansas City each December over two separate weekends, and now there's a Christmas Cruise, where one can set sail with Hallmark devotees and a handful of stars from Hallmark movies.

Yes, Hallmark has it's own galaxy of stars.  

Super Third Watch: Superman (2025) - the Score, Design, Plot Holes and Discourse

Watched:  07/30/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  Third!

Director:  James Gunn

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!
• Super Third Watch:  Superman (2025)

This will be the last time I watch this in the theater unless it's out for a long, long time.  Or if it gets re-released, I suppose.  But I'm glad I saw it a third time.  Seeing the same movie three times between the 8th and the 30th is a lot, friends, especially when you've spent considerable time writing too many posts on the film.

Good Golly

I didn't previously mention it, but I really liked how the movie handled Superman's language.  Taking a page from Superman: The Movie having Clark say "swell", Superman is mid-kaiju-fight and still saying "golly" and "good gosh" and delivering it absolutely earnest?*  

All this as our guy is getting walloped by a 10 story monster.  Major points for Corenswet there.

It's a movie and a world in which people do swear (Mr. Terrific has a bit of a potty mouth - a sign of higher intelligence if the memes are to be believed) - so it's a delight to see the same Superman who just saved all those people muttering polite swears under his breath.

Ryne Sandberg Merges With The Infinite

Hall of Famer baseball player and beloved Cub favorite Ryne "Ryno" Sandberg has passed.

Sandberg played for the Cubs through the 1980's and 1990's, and during those days when I'd watch on WGN, he was one of the names I recall, even as a kid who knew nothing at all about baseball.

Sandberg was a Golden Glove second baseman, and was one of the best players the Cubs has seen since the heyday of Ernie Banks in the 1950's.  He played until 1997, racking up all sorts of very baseball-ish records and stats, and was only the fourth Cub in the team's storied history to have his number retired.  

For years, Sandberg sort of drifted around as all star players do in retirement, coaching, managing, trying his hand at baseball columns and whatnot.  And, befitting his beloved position in Chicago, has been a goodwill ambassador for about a decade.

Sadly, he passed on July 28th at the age of 65.

Sandberg is just a beloved figure around The Friendly Confines, and he'll never be forgotten.  

Apparently *today* is Hannah Waddingham's Birthday

I made a mistake a few days ago and believed that day was Hannah Waddingham's birthday.  It was not.  It is today.

So, happy correct birthday, Ms. Waddingham.  We are happy to have an excuse to once again post a photo.

Ms. Waddingham is, apparently, in the new Smurfs movie.  And makes a full denim outfit work.  Who knew?

French Noir Watch: Le Cercle Rouge (1970)

Watched:  07/27/2025

Format:  4K disc

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jean-Pierre Melville

So, there's a whole bunch of Criterion movies on sale on Amazon, and I wasn't doing much this weekend, so I got silly and justified the expense on this movie.  Because.  

Leave me alone.  Sometimes I do things.

If you've never dipped your toe in French noir, or only watched Breathless, the French noir movement is fascinating as it's so clearly done with love for and homage to American noir (which the French coined - we just called them crime movies).  I assume American culture was imported via Hollywood in the post-war years as American GI's rambled around Europe and France took a minute to get its film industry fired up again.  But the American movies are refracted through the lens of a nation crawling out from occupation, and maybe contain the spirit which gave us Camus.  

I mean, one of the French noir films I'd rec is called Elevator to the Gallows.  Fate vs. freewill and existential dread hangs heavy on the minds of these movies - more so than American films mostly being about "don't pursue the wrong dame".

Le Cercle Rouge (1970) is a crime/ heist movie in which we're told at the outset, before we meet any characters "these people will come together, and it will go very badly, indeed".  And, that is what happens.

Marvel Watch: Fantastic Four - First Steps (2025)

Watched:  07/27/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Matt Shakman

Well, nothing says "I am a cool dude" like showing up for a 9:00 AM screening for Fantastic Four by yourself.  I don't know if 12-year-old me is dying inside or deeply impressed I'm still committed to the cause.

Fantastic Four is not a comic I read a lot.  I very much enjoy the first issues by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, but kind of lose interest after that - though Mark Waid's run is mind-boggling.  I do love the idea of the team as a bunch of science-adventurers more than just caped vigilantes,* and their individual personalities and the family dynamic.  Also, my earliest memories include watching that jenky Fantastic Four cartoon of the 1960's the movie references.  

I've never seen the Corman movie, but have seen the two 00's-era movies, and the 10's body-horror movie that was Fox's "edgy" take on the FF.  The movies were uniformly not-good, no matter what your Millennial nostalgia brain is trying to Space Jam Fallacy you into believing.

Happy Birthday, Darlene Love

Happy 84th birthday to Ms. Darlene Love - one of the greatest vocalists of the past 84 years.

Ms. Love was maybe *the* voice that came out of Phil Spector's studio/ Philles Records - and a colossal force in American music, often when people had no idea whose voice that was on a record.  She performed her own solo work, that of The Crystals, the Blossoms, The Ronettes, and performed with everyone from Elvis to Boris Pickett on The Monster Mash.  

She's been in movies - she's Glover's wife in Lethal Weapon - and been on Broadway.  Every year since the mid 1980's on Letterman she's been on TV singing Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and it's a highlight of the holidays.

Personally, I saw her Christmas show at Austin's Paramount Theater - and it was the greatest concert I've ever been to, and I'll stand by that one.

Happy birthday, Ms. Love.  

So, here she is singing a favorite version of a favorite song

Coen Watch: Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Watched:  07/25/2025

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  First

Director:  Ethan Coen

Is anything more telling about what the Coen Bros. each brought to their team than that when the brothers decided to do independent projects, Joel Coen made a mannered and styled Macbeth and Ethan Coen made Drive-Away Dolls (2024)?  

The mix of high-brow and low-brow - even Raising Arizona has thematic and nigh-poetic aspirations - was their hallmark, with ultra-specific characters, absurdist humor, and deeply human stories - culminating in the excellence of their track record over years and movies that had a stamp audiences recognized and sought out.  

I was vaguely aware Drive-Away Dolls received very mixed reviews, and audiences were kind of irritated with it.  

Which, no kidding.  The movie isn't overly concerned with good taste or your politics or the horseshoe turn lefties online took into agreeing with the Catholic League about how movies are for perverts if they acknowledge sex and show blood with violence.  Instead, this flick is an old-fashioned pulp crime comedy with a heavy layering of what turns out to be the sense of oddball humor that the Coens always brought, that apparently was Ethan Coen's contribution.

Happy Birthday to Hannah Waddingham

Happy birthday to Hannah Waddingham, who has had a busy year - and looks to return next year to TV screens as Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso Season 4.  

Vroooom Watch: F1 - The Movie (2025)

Watched:  07/24/2025

Format:  Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

Growing up in the US, racing has been mostly NASCAR, and I just never got into stock car racing.  But Austin is, for vaguely shady reasons, home to an F1 track, and we all went from finding it weird to being kind of proud of it.  It's not Monaco or anything, but it's a feature few other cities have.  And, anyway, I started watching some videos about F1, and it is really neat.  But I'm only aware enough of autosports to know that they are infinitely complex and I don't know how any of it works. But rocket cars go super fast and that is cool.

Something about the trailer for F1: The Movie (2025) had me sold.  But I thought I'd probably see it at home on HBO eventually.  However, SimonUK had seen it, liked it, and recommended I check it out, so we went together.

And, yeah, I dug it.  Quite a bit, if I'm being honest.  If I came to watch F1 cars zip around, it does that a lot.

After the movie was over, SimonUK stated "it's basically Top Gun: Maverick in cars, but...  it works" and that is very correct.  This movie is directed and written by the director of Top Gun: Maverick, Joseph Kosinski, so do your own math.  

Fantastic Four - Prior Takes in PodCast and Blog!

We're as excited about Fantastic Four: First Steps as can be.  But we don't see it until Saturday.

In the meantime, why not enjoy our prior discussion of Fantastic Four?

We talk Fantastic Four in 2005 in the pioneer days of blogging.

We talk Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007.

A few years ago, I joined forces with Danny Horn to discuss Fantastic Four!

and then we talked about the other Fantastic Four

Hulk Hogan Merges With the Infinite

Terry Bollea, better known by his wrestling nom de guerre "Hulk Hogan", has passed at 71.

Hogan, a consummate performer, helped the World Wrestling Federation go mainstream as the the WWF's programming found it's way across basic cable packages and onto late-night broadcast on NBC in the 1980's.  

In a kayfabe world of heroes and heels, Hogan went from heel to hero, defeating multiple ethnically coded villains, like The Iron Sheik.  He reigned supreme over the WWF, WWE and helped draw interest in wrestling to help it become the mega-industry it is today.

Through the 1980's, Hogan's persona was turned into a cartoon, Hulk Hogan's Rock'n'Wrestling - starring animated versions of Hogan and a clutch of other popular WWF wrestlers.  Fun fact:  Hogan's cartoon persona was voiced by TV star Brad Garrett.  

There were dolls, figures, t-shirts and vitamins (the vitamins tasted awful).  

As a kid, I wasn't really into wrestling but in 1989 a 14 year old me had $15 and accepted a last second invite to see WWF's second-tier when they came to town, and we had a snarky-teen ironic blast.  So when Hogan came through in Spring 1990, I went with a bunch of buddies who were unironically enjoying wrestling.  The episode we saw aired as April 28, 1990's Saturday Night's Main Event.

This is the Hogan match-up we saw.  You may catch 1/2 second glimpses of me and my brother in the audience.

Hilariously, my brother was not planning to go and had no ticket, and we'd purchased floor tickets months before.  Shortly after we arrived, I looked across the ring and there was my brother, standing with the homecoming queen.  I was so confused - but I guess her dad had bought tickets and she knew Jason is up for whatever, and so there he was, Forrest Gumping his way through life.

My memory is that Hogan was obviously the best athlete and showman of the people we saw that night, and we saw errrbuddy.  It was a long, long night as they recorded two or three shows worth of wrestling.

Prior to blowing up on TV, Hogan had done well in the ring and wound up as a minor villain in Rocky III.  He would go onto have a TV show, Thunder in Paradise, and star in a series of very bad movies. And at the same time Ozzy was in The Osbournes, Hogan brought cameras into his house and started Hogan Knows Best.   Which was canceled as the Hogan family kind of imploded.

In the years after, Hogan's life and career sort of spiraled.  His wife left him for a guy who looked just like Hogan in his early prime.  He was caught in a sex tape scandal.  He became involved in ugly politics.  I dunno.  

It's unfortunate.  For a while he was a curious everyman of an entertainer who appealed to kids and adults alike.  The last decade and change, he's mostly been famous for being unpleasant.  But at one point in my life, I owned an official Hulk Hogan bandana.

Happy Birthday, Lynda Carter

Happy birthday to patron saint of The Signal Watch, Ms. Lynda Carter.  May her next trip around the sun be as glorious as every year prior.

I've never looked that glamorous in an office chair...

With her daughter, another talented vocalist, Jessica Carter Altman

Ozzy Merges With The Infinite

Ozzy Osbourne, musician, occasional provocateur and Gen-X's metal-dad, has passed at 76.

Osbourne has been ailing for years, and only a few weeks ago played his final show, which was widely watched and discussed.  The line-up was full of star power, and the concert was scheduled to be Osbourne's final show before retreating from the public.

Osbourne's work with Black Sabbath and as a solo artist was enough to make him a major figure in rock, but he also was prone to outlandish antics, all of which will be rehashed over the next few days.  And, then, he and his family were early Reality TV pioneers with The Osbournes on MTV. which recast the prince of darkness as a fun, befuddled dad.

But, man, Ozzy could sing.  Everyone else is still playing catch up.  

You'll be missed, Ozzy.

Superman 2025: High End Items

I own a lot of Superman stuff.  And a new Superman movie is not helping.

But occasionally there's a licensing deal I don't quite get.  And we get some curious high end items that I can't sort out "who is this for?"  While others make a lot of sense for nerds.

 
Sillage Fragrance:  $300

This is the item I would be least likely to buy.  I also don't understand fragrances as evidenced by my lifelong use of Golden Dial and Right Guard.  And I assume I smell like coffee and old books if you get up close.

The irony of this is that Old Spice is putting out Superman body spray for next to nothing.  I bought it.  It is.. .potent. 

Super Watch: Supergirl (1984)

Watched:  07/19/2025

Format:  HBO Max

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Jeannot Szwarc

With Superman 2025 out, it occurs to me it's been a while since I revisited some Super-Media - and I cannot tell you the last time I actually watched Supergirl (1984) from start to finish - ie: I always give up somewhere in the middle.  

I always feel bad saying this, but the movie is a mess.  And there's no one place to point the blame, but the culprit is neither Helen Slater nor Faye Dunaway.  I don't know that you can even blame director Jeannot Szwarc, as this was the fourth Superman movie by the Salkinds, and he knew he was a hired gun.  So, yeah, as with all things going wrong with the Super-movies from this era, I blame the Salkinds.  But, without them, there would be no Superman: The Movie and Superman II.  And likely without those movies, no Batman '89.  And if none of that, then what...?

Life is complicated.  

Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 - If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!

You can follow our posts on Superman at this link, and our posts on the new movie, Superman (2025) at this link.

For More on the Movie:

• Super Watch:  Superman (2025) - a pre review post
• Super First Watch:  Superman (2025)
• Superman Second Watch:  Superman (2025) - Part 1 - Likes/Dislikes/Punk Rock Superman
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 2 - Characters
• Superman Second Watch: Superman (2025) - Part 3 -  If You Now Like Superman, Hooray!
• Super Third Watch:  Superman (2025)

This will be far from my final word on Superman (2025), but I think I should probably not go nuts on you people for too much longer by just circling the Super-drain.  One last thought:

You just never know when your niche interest will go mainstream

In high school, the music I listened to was not exactly underground, but I learned to stay up late on the weekend and catch 120 Minutes on MTV.  That was where I found my bands rather than watching music video blocks during afternoons after school.  Imagine my surprise when the type of music I liked over in my corner suddenly became labeled "alternative" music and was playing on the radio and MTV next to, say, En Vogue.*  By Lollapalooza '93 - frat dudes and sorority girls were standing next to me in sun-pounded fields instead of just moody kids and guys with scalp tattoos.  It was... weird.  But here we all were, enjoying Front 242 together.

Noir Watch: The Gangster ( 1947)

Watched:  07/15/2025

Format:  TCM

Viewing:  Second

You know what, I think I would just repeat myself - so here's my post on the movie from the first time I saw it back in 2018.  

I guess I'll mention - this movie stuck with me in a way that really surprised me.  I've almost purchased it on disc for a rewatch a number of times-  even as recently as a couple of weeks ago - and then it was listed as part of Noir Alley's offerings on TCM.  

I'm not sure it's the best movie in the world, but after seven years, it's one I thought about quite a bit, and that's not nothing.