I Won't Apologize

I spent a few hours last evening trying to shoot a bit for this weekends Coffee With Jeff. Did not go well. I'm afraid the animals at our house, 2 cats and a dog, heard a bit of language that is unsuitable for drunken sailors. (and I use the term drunken sailors with respect)!

I was going to apologize for not posting my usual Jeff Update on Thursday but that thought, no. I'm not going to apologize to you or anyone else. Don't look at me that way! Who are you to judge!

Been watching a lot of old Mystery Science Theater 3000 lately. Started to transfer my old VHS tapes to DVD but soon realized that most of them are in very poor shape. As I type this, I'm watching Forest Tucker in The Crawling Eye. Hey Forest, you were funny in the politically incorrect F-Troop, but you were a horrible actor.


My Blog recommendation for this week is LIFE. WORDS, & ROCK 'N' ROLL by Stephanie Kuehnert. I discovered this blog through my friends Terrence's blog, Broken Hearted Toy. I knew from the moment I read her profile, "I'm a punk rock girl from the Midwest." this would be an interesting blog. Stephanie is a poet and writer who has written two novels, I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE and BALLADS OF SUBURBIA. She describes her blog as "the place where I babble about writing, music, and life in general!" Her latest post in titled, Women Who Rock Wednesday: Cheryl Rainfield. Good read!

Brad X is the host of the Podcast Get Drunk and Play Records. The iTunes description is "Get Drunk and Play Records with Brad X! Trashy, sleazy, filthy rock'n'roll... the perfect show to kickstart your weekend debauchery." Brad usually plays old scratchy 45's while he drinks cheep beer, swears and belches. He is loud and sometimes annoying but I enjoy each one of his shows. Although iTunes only has his recent 5 shows, he use to be part of the Garage Punk network and many older shows can be found there.

Hard at work trying to get the show ready for this weekend, and here is a little last of what might be included.




And finally I would like to recommend a film, David Lynch's Island Empire. I don't know when it will be on again, but it has been in all the time on The Sundance Channel. I would like to tell you what it is about but I've watched in a few times and really don't know. Lynch said of the film that it is about a women in trouble. The women in trouble is Laura Dern. Like all of his films, it is more of a bad dream that a story. Dern seems to just around into different realities and in the following seen, she is with a bunch of prostitutes who begin to dance.

All the Kind Strangers - 1974

It's getting late and you are driving down a rural road with nothing but flat land on all sides when you see a small child, maybe around seven or eight years of age walking along side of the road with a bag of groceries. You can see there is nothing ahead for miles. Do you stop and offer the child a lift? That is how this film begins.

OK, so you might actually offer the child a ride but lets look at this a little different. You are not you but you are Stacy Keach. You are dressed in a loud, red Hawaiian shirt and are driving a convertible. Here is the Catch-22 situation. You want to help, to give the child a ride, but what kind of a child would except a ride from Stacy Keach in that shirt? Only a child who is up to no good.


So that explains the plot of this film. Stacy was too stupid to figure this out and take the child home, into the middle of no where, to the boys creepy family. All Kind of Strangers is not a good movie and I should have known before I even put in the DVD. How? The Jeff Kelley red flag system. Red flags are those warning signs that don't necessarily mean a movie is bad, but seen to give you a moment to thing about the possibilities. When enough of those red flags are blowing in the wind, it is a good chances you'll be a sleep before the 1 hour mark.

The first red flag of All Kind of Strangers is that is was a made for TV film in the mid 1970's. That's a huge red flag! Next, well, Stacy Keach. Now I really don't have a problem with Mr. Keach, he was great in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke. He just doesn't have a great track record of making quality films.. Also John Savage and Robby Benson, need I say more? And the last flag was the fact that this film was in one of the Mill Creek 50 packs, which usually means it is in the Public Domain, which means the network who produced this film didn't think enough to keep its copyright.

The film starts out with an fairly intriguing premise. Stacy Keach finds himself in a old farm house with a bunch a scary kids, a couple of angry, protective dogs and a "mother" who seems to be trapped just as he is. They want parents and now must decide if Stacy is good enough to be"dad". and then this interesting, although typical, plot just falls flat. I won't spoil it for you but, well, nothing really happens. Oh wait, a snake gets killed.

If you are really interested in seeing this "film". you can find the complete film on YouTube. This begs another question? What kind of a person takes the time and energy to put this film on YouTube?

Hockey is Over

All right, so I have not posted very much to The Coffee With Jeff website. Sorry. It is just that I've been doing these hockey videos for my boss that has taken up most of my time. The last of the three videos were completed Friday, so now Coffee With Jeff will get my complete attention!

I plan on having my Monday Movie review a little later today.

Right now I would like to share a story of a man with a magic leg who had the leg stolen

Bandits cut off holy man's 'magic' leg

Dave's Outtakes

We bring you some humorous outtakes from last weeks Coffee with Jeff.

College Confidential - 1960

No Film Ever Dared Touch This Theme Before!

Steve 'Mac' Macinter (Steve Allen) is a college professor at Collins College. He is conducting a survey of the young students at the school. He wants to know more about their lifestyle, which includes questions of their attitude of sex and relationships. Remember, this is 1960 so you can imagine what kind of problems this might cause. Funny that there are still parents today that believe there kids are better off not knowing the facts of life and that the parents are better off not knowing what the kids know, but that is a discussion for a latter time.

Anyway, Steve is shooting some 16mm movies of the kids at the beach when he meets a beautiful reporter and they hook up. A party is planned for all the students in which they could see themselves in the film and have some punch. When the punch turns out to be spiked and some unexpected footage is mixed in the Steve's black and white moves, all hell breaks out. What ends up is Steve on trial in front of the whole town, What does the drug store owner with the beautiful young daughter have to do with it all? You'll have to watch and find out.

The film also stars Jayne Meadows, Mamie Van Doren, Rocky Marciano, Mickey Shaughnessy, Cathy Crosby, Herbert Marshall and Conway Twitty. Walter Winchell has a cameo as himself along with several other reporters of the day.

It really isn't a good film but a little better than most give it credit, when put into an historical context. After all, it was 1960! There is actually no sex or exploitation in this film, which is surprising when you look at some of the other films of director Albert Zugsmith. In 1960, he also directed Sex Kittens Go to College and The Private Lives of Adam and Eve. By the mid 60's he would create the classics, The Incredible Sex Revolution, Psychedelic Sexualis and Movie Star, American Style or; LSD, I Hate You.


I thinks that in 1960, this film probably seemed real progressive but if it was made ten, or even five years later, I'm sure it would have seemed outdated and silly. That was because the world really changed in the 1960s.

Coffee With Jeff

Are there really people out there who can really look into the spirit wold and talk to the dead? Find out what Jeff thinks. Also the saga of Dave and hi button continues, Willy goes back home to Deerfield, The Manchester Gallery puts on a puppet show and Mark does the news.

PART ONE


PART TWO


PART THREE

STOP SYLVIA BROWN! Chick here to find out more!

To Purchase COFFEE WITH JEFF merchandise, click here

Broken Hearted Toy - Terry's Rock and Roll blog

The Free Sound Project - A lot of sounds we use come from here!

Okemos Brewing Internet Radio - Rock and Roll Deep Cuts!

Zecom Radio Internet Rock and Roll Radio with Marty!
.
Enforcer Music - Chicago's Premiere Heavy Metal Band

Slim Rughead and the Texas Hangover - Great Music

Goin' South - Southern Rock and Roll

Willinois Nation

Wicked Whimsy Studios - The Art of Dave Mezger!

This Week in the World of CWJ

So, I decided last week that from now on I would recommend a blog on my weekly ramblings. This is turned into a harder task that I first thought. Since I use a blogspot blog, I thought I’d use the next blog feature at the top of my blog to find other interesting blogs. The thing is, if I find a blog I like, I can follow it and hopefully the person on the other end will check out my blog. This is not a scam. I am not one of those that will follow every blog in hopes they will follow me. Only blogs that I really feel are interesting, ones that I may want to actually read once in a while would I follow.

What I find however is most blogs have the recent post with something like this ”I know it has been a while since I’ve posted but life has got very busy lately but I’m hoping to blog more often . . . “ And that would have been posted 2 or 3 months ago without any new updates.

Next is the family blog. I know these are great for the people involved in those families, but nothing on them is worth me recommending.

This is followed by the personal blog. The creator of this blog has decided to post an entry about everything that happens in his life. “Today I ate a Quart Pounder with Cheese and it didn’t sit well, spent a lot of time in the bathroom. . .” This is more of an internet diary that no one but the author would ever have much interest in, unless, of course, he gets famous. Hey Dell Griffith!

So today's blog is one called badmovies.org. It is a site dedicated to the off-beat films I really enjoy. They have nice forum with a bunch of like-mined movie watchers that certainly know a lot more about b-Movies than me. The site is filled with all kinds of great movie information, review, pictures and more.

I think the name, "Bad Movies" give the wrong idea, however. It is not all about bad films, but more about films that are just not the main stream, low-budget, cult films.

THIS WEEK ON COFFEE WITH JEFF

So, I am hard at work on this weeks show, harder than usual. This show is one that is near and dear to my heart. I won't tell you too much about it, you'll just have to check it out for yourself. Here is one of the clips I'll probably be using. It might give you an idea!

PODCAST OF THE WEEK!

This week I'd like to introduce you to Brian Dunning. Brian is the host of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena is a weekly pro-science, anti-pseudoscience podcast. In a nut shell (What the hell does that mean, in a nut shell?), Brian takes on all those weird, explained stories we hear about all the time, like strange lights in the sky or mysterious figures lurking in the shadows that many consider proof of a paranormal, alien visited, monster hiding world and give real, down to Earth, scientific explanations.

If you don't understand podcasts yet, click here to read my article on the subject!

MOVIES TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND!

Friday night on Turner Classic Movies, the will be showing the best of the Zucker/Zucker/Abrahams films such as Airplane, Top Secret!, and Naked Gun. Of course we've all seen these films a million times but they still hold up for a bunch of good laughs. Also, late night on Friday, early Saturday, 1960's Steve Allen film, College Confidential. I might DVR this one just out of curiosity.

That's it for this week.

Five MInutes to Live - 1961

This was listen on TMC as Door-to-Door Maniac but as soon as I began watching it, I realized it was actually called Five Minutes to Live. Either way, how could I pass up the chance to see Johnny Cash as a ruthless killer. Johnny plays Johnny Cabot, a killer who teams up with Fred Dorella, who is played by Vic Tayback. Vic would become famous years later for playing Mel in both the 1974 film Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and the TV show Alice, based on the film.

The idea is simple, Johnny kidnaps a bankers wife, while Vic goes to the bank with a ransom note. Meanwhile, the banker is fooling around with secretary and his planning to leave the wife. The banker and the wife also have a son played by a 7 year old Ronny Howard. If you don't know who Ron Howard is, that please get off my site now. I have no use for you.

For a cheap b-movie that acting isn't bad. Cash's acting isn't great but he does have in moments. If he had kept up the acting, he may have become a good actor. or he may have become like Elvis and made a bunch of half-ass films. The film itself was poorly written and poorly directed. There are moments when this film just drags with pointless dialog and lifeless camera work. It was directed by a guy named Bill Karn. He was the director of a few early TV shows and a couple of low budget films, this film being the last thing he directed.

One of the more surprising scenes in this film is a almost rape scene. Johnny decides to have his way with the house wife. Fortunately for her, a kitchen alarm saves the day. For 1961, this was done in a pretty frank way.




Turner Classic Films usually does a wonderful job of getting the best prints to show, but the one they showed of this film was in poor shape, way to much contrast, some scenes looking very washed out. I sort of think that this is the only available print, or might be the only version left.

From what I've read, the titles was changed from Five Minutes to Live to Door to Door Maniac once Johnny Cash became a big star.

I enjoyed watching this film, if for anything else to see Johnny Cash and an early acting performance. Johnny also sings the theme song.

What is this thing called a Podcast?

So I keep talking about podcasts and you are a little confused about how to listen to them. Here is Jeff to the rescue!

First let me explain what exactly a podcast is. A podcast, either audio or video is just a digital recording with an RSS feed. In you subscribe to the RSS feed; the podcast will automatically be downloaded to your computer every time the podcaster uploads a new show. If this sounds a but confusing, let me explain the easy way to get a podcast.

First, download iTunes. This is a free program from Apple that is available for both PC’s and Mac’s. And even if you are a PC user who has a childlike dislike of Apple computers, make an exception and download this program. One you have this on your computer; go to the Apple iTunes store (Look at the left side) and so a search for any subject that you want to hear a show about. The search box is on the top/right. Now you’ll see choices on the left that say, “Filter by Media Type” and click podcasts. Now you’ll see a list of the podcasts the relate to your search. Pick one. If it says it is free (and I’ve never found one that is not free), subscribe. iTunes should download the most recent episode with the options to download the rest.

At this point, listen. If you don’t like it, you can delete it. If you like it, download more episodes.

What I do it put them all on my iPod and listen in the car.

That’s it, podcasting made easy!

I Need a Pretty, Young Girl

So I've been posting Coffee With Jeff on Youtube for over a year now and the latest episode received 36 hits. Actually part 1 got 36 hits, part 2 - 12 hits and part 3- 8. Now I spend a long time coming up with thoughts and idea's, editing together clips and adding amazing footage from Terry, Willy and Mark and that in itself is fulfilling. Today, however, I come across this video:



This is a very pretty, young English girl but she is say, well, nothing. NOTHING AT ALL! Do you want to see how many hits this video has?


That's right, 327,721! So I'm thinking I need a sexy young lady, preferably with a accent to host Coffee With Jeff. So, here is my plea, if you are a young girl, pretty and don't mind growing facial hair and being called Jeff, and getting up at 5 A.M. twice a month, call me.

The Manchester Gallery 7

The doors open to the Manchester Gallery once again. Come in and see some of Terrence's most prized possessions, including some of the Beatles rarest artifacts!

A Slow Intelligence Drain

The first thing on my minds is a baseball player called David Ortiz who went into a tirade after being ask by reporters who asked him about his slow start. At what point does the fame and money and the fact you get to play a game for a living not become enough? I'm sure he loved it when the Boston press was treating him like a god. I watched the interview and his was asked in a polite way. Here is the thing I think all celebrities should know; if you are going to enjoy all the media attention when things are going good, you should be willing to except things when things are going bad. You can read the rest here.

Ortiz Tells Media to [Bleep] Off

I truly believe that wealth and especially celebrity slowly drains the intelligence out of people. That is why I say poor and unknown!


Everyone's favorite Southern Rock cover band, Goin' South will be All Sports Bar & Grill in McCullom Lake, IL. this Saturday night. Show starts at 9:00pm. If you have not seen Goin' South, I'd check them out. Trust me on this one, Goin' South doesn't play you average "Classic" tunes, but play some great tunes you wouldn't expect, although some of the standards "Freebird" do sneak in.

I watched a film the other day called Gumby Dharma. It is the story of Art Clokey, who created and animated Gumby and well as Davey and Goliath. It is a very good documentary, one worth a view. What I thought was the more interesting part of the story was about his daughter, Ann, who was talked about only briefly. She committed suicide at age 19. She had been mountain climbing with a friend, and near or at the top, the friend was struck and killed by lightening. What gets my about this is the sudden turn that can change or destroy a life. Although I can't not find too much information about her death, I get the idea that she was a happy teenager until this tragedy on the mountain, and then could never get over it. These types of things happen all the time, a vacation at the beach or a car trip, or whatever, and something horrible and unexpected happens and life is never the same. It become empty, or a least part of the ones left alive becomes empty, and for some, like Ann, the emptiness grows until the can not take it anymore.

A blog that I think is worth checking out is one called Largehearted Boy. I've been going to this blog for years. Not only is it a great place to hear and download free music, but as news from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture. Regular features include: mp3 downloads. book notes, note books, contests / giveaways, 52 books, 52 weeks, music & DVD release lists, try it before you buy it, musician/author interviews, antiheroines, soundtracked, lists, book reviews and music festival downloads. This site is hosted by someone (unnamed) from Birmingham, Alabama with his lovely wife. He a music-loving guy living deep in the American South. His day job title is web developer, but he true loves are music and literature.

This week I am going to write about one of my favorite film podcasts. Hosted in Chicago by Eric Ingrum and Michael Koester it is riddled with blasphemy and a humble (but vicious) sense of humor, Double Feature is an experiment in film watching. Usually each weekly episode features two films in which are some way connected, although usually very loosely. At various times, they will do what they refer to as a Killapaloozas in which they talks about a whole series of films such as Friday the 13th, or the Alien films. As they say on the Double Feature website, "using the best tools at their disposal: blasphemy, skepticism, dirty words and bloodlust."

BTW, it has come to my attention that some people still don't understand podcasting, what it is or how to use it, so this weekend I'll write up a post on the subject. Look forward to that!

On The Road With Willy - April 4th

Willy goes back out on the road to hear some excellent Goin' South music.

Monday Morning Movie - Startman

Atomic Rulers of the World

It is 1964 Japan and the country has a few problems. The first being that everyone talks English and their mouth movements are not in sync with the words they speak and the second is they need to be protected by a guy called Starman who flies around in his underwear.

Yea, I know, we Americans have Superman, but we are talking about Japan.

Apparently. the testing of nuclear weapons on Earth has upset the Emerald Planet. These things, which you have to see to believe, are worried that radiation from Earth might leak across the universe and poison their world. There is also another planet that has sent a nuclear device to Earth in the hope of conquering the planet. I'll be honest, I didn't really understand the logic of all this, nor did I care. It seems that the Emerald people invented a wrist watch that can give then superpowers, and they are letting Starman use it to go to Earth and take care of business.

This is a really bad, bad movie and Starman is a boring superhero. To be far, however, we must look at History of this film.

In 1957, the Shintoho Company, Ltd of Japen produced a series of short films called Sūpā Jaiantsu (translates as "Super Giants"). These, I'm assuming was intended for children. These were purchase by an American company in 1964 who combined, edited and overdubbed them into the Starman films for American TV.

The result is a horrible film, which is now in the public domain called Atomic Rulers of the World and it is just an terrible film. I didn't even find this film enjoyable due to its badness. It is just boring. The villains are all gangsters from the 1940s and the kids in the film due more to solve the problem than Starman.

If for some reason you'd like to see this film, you can for free at the Internet Archive and on YouTube.

Atomic Rulers of the World at Internet Archive

Atomic Rulers of the World at Wikipedia

Super Giant at Wikipedia

Atomic Rulers of the World at IMDB

The New Hip Coffee Show

We premiere a new feature in this Sunday's show. Mark reads the news! Willy goes on the Road to see some more Goin' South, Manchester Gallery shows off there vary rare Beatles Collectibles and we put together a little tribute to David Lynch

PART ONE


PART TWO


PART THREE


To Purchase COFFEE WITH JEFF merchandise, click here

Broken Hearted Toy - Terry's Rock and Roll blog

The Free Sound Project - A lot of sounds we use come from here!

Okemos Brewing Internet Radio - Rock and Roll Deep Cuts!

Zecom Radio Internet Rock and Roll Radio with Marty!
.
Enforcer Music - Chicago's Premiere Heavy Metal Band

Slim Rughead and the Texas Hangover - Great Music

Goin' South - Southern Rock and Roll

Willinois Nation

Wicked Whimsy Studios - The Art of Dave Mezger!

On The Raod with Willy Outtakes!

Jeff's World - Spring Don't Leave

That's right, it is too nice out today to go back to the cold and snow. Baseball starts next week. This is the Cubs years! Yep, I said it! And I said it last year, and I'll probably say it next year.

It's been a busy week. That's why I'm a day late with my weekly post. Every year I do these hockey videos for my boss. He has three boys and each one is in a different age group for junior hockey, so each gets his own end of the year hockey video. We need to get them done by a date of the party and this year each party was at the last minute so that means a lot of running around trying to get them done in time. I've got two done, each one just in time (like hours before the party) and have the big one, for the older boys, next. Nothing like watching kids you don't know about play a game you don't care about for parents you've never met!


My favorite music blog, Broken Hearted Toy reviews two CD's (in my day we called the albums), Don McFunnamy's Looking For A Clue and Apocalypse Meow's Uncovered And Unashamed. Terry also write for the Illinois Entertainer. In the latest issue he reviews You Say Party! We Say Die!, Librarians, and The Morning Benders. Plus, my profile of the new M.A.S.S. concert series at the Mary-Arrchie Theatre.

A little more from me on CD's and albums. The general thought, I believe, it that the vinyl disks of my day were albums and the little plastic things of the late 1990's were CD's. My thoughts are they are both Albums, and the difference is, one is a record and one is a compact disk. The term "Album" just refers to a collection of songs.

The podcast I would like to recommend is one called Lin's Bin. Lin Brehmer is a local radio personality on WXRT in Chicago and a few times a week he answers a listeners question in a short, funny and thoughtful way. Audio clips from every source are added creating a really entertaining 5 or so minutes. Subject matter can vary as much as The Ice Cream Man to the Seven Deadly Sins. Even if you are not from Chicago, Lin's Bin is worth a listen!

That's all I've got this week. I have to get ready for my fantasy baseball draft and a new Coffee With Jeff this weekend.