p e n g u i n d e v i l

I know that I oft quote that 1983 was the big year for records. I say this due to one particular evening when I checked the release dates of the albums I had just played. Well, I don’t remember which albums those were (it was a number of years ago)… But I remember my conclusion. I am retrospecting on the moment this evening and I am not sure about my conclusion.

So… 1983.

Well, there were some classics released that year that I well-over listened to in the years that followed: Shout At The Devil, Melissa, Suicidal Tendencies, Balls to the Wall, Holy Diver, Fastway, All for One… But then I thought, well, also that year were some bad omens: Lick it Up, Pyromania, Bark at the Moon and Metal Health (though yes, I did like it at the time)…

So I was thinking, was ’83 the album year of my youth? Well, which were the albums of that era I listened to the most then and since…

Ace of Spades (1980), For Those About to Rock (1981), Point of Entry (1981), High n’ Dry (1981), Denim & Leather (1981), Don’t Say No (yeah, I know… But, hey, it was 1981!), Blackout (1982), Restless and Wild (1982), Fistful of Metal (1984), Don’t Break the Oath (1984).

This paints a different picture. Yes, it does show 1983 to be a peak year in musics greatest era (as I heard on KGON today, “We play the greatest music ever recorded” ), the albums that I listened to the most were actually released in 1980, 1981, 1981, 1981,1981 and 1982 (and then Shout at the Devil from 1983). I guess that 1981 is the Album Year for me. It makes sense, thinking about it. Aside from my interest in Devo (though I attended my first solo concert, the New Traditionalists tour in 1981) and Blondie, my interest in music didn’t really gel until I saw the video for Let’s Get it Up on Casey Kasem’s top ten.

But yeah, on to movies…

Murder Set Pieces doesn’t have the highest production values and it’s not well acted. It surely has the feel of “get all your friends to participate” to it. The regular scenes are a little boring and, to be honest, just splashing a lot of blood on people isn’t really all that. There are a few scenes that are gruesome but, like the title implies, they come across more as sets than anything else. The gore in his hidden room doesn’t look like it might be there due to his gory activities… Looks more like “Let’s put this here and that there, it’ll look gory” to me. But that what this is. A loose plot surrounding gory scenes. Similar to the oft-loathed Saw but, thankfully, not as dumbly overdone. Still though, there is blood and related activities. All that and then more of that. Blood blood blood… Lots of daylight scenes of Las Vegas, if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like there. I’ve been a couple of times and, like the movie shows, it’s not much of a sight for daylight.

And finally, after much putting off, I watched Quadrophenia. I was buoyed but some fond memory of liking it way back whenever it was that I saw it. Anyway. I wasn’t quite as hot for it this time. Don’t get me wrong, I like it, you can’t go wrong with the Who, sure none of the character are very sympathetic, but it’s still a good movie. Lots of cute vespas, boys and girls who dress nice. I guess I actually like it, no questions. It just wasn’t quite as good as I remembered it.

Part 2 of the great trilogy! I watched Aliens. The second of three films which I consider to be the only film trilogy without a weak point (well, the only trilogy with only one weak point, more on that later). This must be the one I have seen the most, maybe the movie that I have seen the most. This was my first time out with the Directors Cut and, though it was very odd to see the pre-aliens attack Hadley’s Hope, I liked it all just fine. Still though, the always lame scene with Ripley and Mama-bug and the Loader and that terrible, terrible line that Ripley utters… They forgot to get that scene out of this. But I cannot wait until it’s time to take on the Directors cut of Alien3! As I already like the film quite a bit, all the talk about how much better this cut makes it is exciting!

Anyway… baby, it’s cold outside. And I must add that, being involved in a small business, the forecast of freezing rain no longer sounds fun.