Fin

I'm gonna stop keeping track of all my movies and books. I don't think I'll post on this blog again. Time to cancel Instagram, too. Too much time staring at screens. I'd cancel FB if it wasn't so useful for TOV... hmmm...

The Glory Stompers

I don't think I'd seen this since 2011. Been far too long. This was one of the very first biker movies I'd ever watched. Was about time we cycled it back into rotation.

The Glory Stompers is one of the most quintessential biker movies of all time. It really has it ALL. Absolutely definitive. The best love-in scene, weird headgear, bikes in every frame of the movie, sick choppers, mommas, old ladies, drugs, karate chops, fuzzed-out guitars, swastikas, violence, chains, kidnapping, death...I could go on and on. This movie has ever trope in the biker book. So it's amazing.

Oh yeah, did I mention Dennis Hopper is the lead and Casey Kasem is in it? He's got a cool role, too. Casey was in more than one biker flick from the 60's, in fact. Hopper is great in this, of course.

An absolute classic of the genre. Highly enjoyable.

808

808 is streaming on Amazon Prime. It's a documentary on the Roland 808. I realize it's a pretty niche interest, but I was stoked to see it. The movie didn't disappoint. It's a very well done dive into the origins and the worldwide influence of the 808. There are a lot of A-listers interviewed and the enthusiasm for the 808 is infectious.

Probably the only drum machine documentary you'll ever see. ;)

The Losers

The Losers aka Nam's Angels.

Retreading old territory for motorcycle movie night. We checked out the Losers again. I think we'd only seen it one time before. It's got good ol' William Smith and his massive arms. It's got the infamous 'karate chop' move that was oh-so-prevelent in the 70's. It's got racism, blackface, and crappy motorcycles.

Not so good. But some pretty funny moments. Less of a biker flick and more of a crappy army flick that stars bikers.

Here's my original post from 2013.

Dig.

Wild Riders

I managed to dredge up an old biker flick that we hadn't seen before. I got copy of Wild Riders from 1971 and we fired it up on Wednesday night.

It opened with bikes and boobs. Some pretty awesome freakin bikes, to be honest. And a nice set of cans. But after the first minute or so it went downhill for the majority of the flick. And then BOOM it redeemed itself in the last minute of the movie in glorious style. Many of these biker flicks have a common component; a totally random / wacky / unexpected / shocking / nonsensical ending. And this movie really came through with a classic. The audience (all six of us) were pretty much on our feet. It required some rewinding for additional views.

The movie starts off as a biker flick in all the right ways but then after a couple of the dudes bugger off they leave the biker movie behind and it's pretty much a rape-y b-movie for an hour.

It was worth it for the ending.

Innovation by Design

I'm really interested in furthering the concept of Design Thinking at work. I'm working on a strategy for adoption. This is the first book that I've read specifically on the topic and I was hoping it would give me some insight on how to frame it and have it successfully implemented at work.

It was so-so. There were some good nuggets. But I felt it fell short of legitimate actionable steps to walk away with. I need to read some more books on the topic and formulate my own plans...

Naked Angels

We watched Naked Angels at Motorcycle Movie Night this evening. We washed it down with some great Buddy's pizza and cider. Good times.

Naked Angels is the epitome of classic era biker flicks. It's by the king of biker b-movies, Roger Corman. And it was shot in 1969 with members of the Hells Angels. What more do you need? Here's my full description of the flick from the first time we watched it.

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio that Changed Lives

I'd never heard of Stretch Armstrong or Bobbito before I came across this doc. But any time a music doc pops up on Netflix I'll look into it. I'm glad I clicked on this one. It was killer.

Stretch and Bobbito hosted a hugely influential independent hip-hop radio show in the 90's in NY. The list of talent that they had come on and freestyle is nothing short of royalty. And the super cool thing is that almost all of these future legends appeared on their show before they were signed. We're talking Jay-Z, Nas, Wu-Tang, Biggie, Eminem, etc. The biggest of the big.

Anyhow, this show was on from 1am til 5am on Thursdays. People in the know at the time would record the show on their boomboxes. It was gospel. It was dope.

Bobbito actually put this doc together. It's a great nostalgic trip even though I wasn't even aware of the show before I hit play on the doc. But it makes you feel like you were there. Like you had these memories, too. It's really cool like that.

The music is amazing. It's all classic 90's shit. But freestyles you haven't heard before. Very cool.

31

I finally watched 31.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was good. It was gnarly. It was filled with tension. So mission probably accomplished. But the reason I'm not totally sure how I feel about it is that I didn't think it really had the Rob Zombie ambience, scope, or X-factor that he normally brings.

It felt low budget compared to all his other stuff. And it didn't have the same feeling you got from House of 1000 Corpses or the Devil's Rejects. 31 seemed to go for the jugular right off the bat and missed the big build up. It felt less psychological and more like a 2nd rate Running Man.

I think people who like shit like Saw would like this. It has a sick premise. But I guess it just didn't feel as sophisticated as his other works. Maybe the cinematography wasn't even up to snuff now that I think about it.

None of 31 was bad...except maybe some of the acting. Y'know, that might have been a strike against it. It didn't have a real strong cast.

I come to expect a LOT from Zombie, and while this would have been a great film for most other horror directors out there, I thought it was just a "good" movie from Zombie.

My ranking of his flicks:

Devil's Rejects (my favorite modern era horror flick)
House of 1000 Corpses
Halloween
The Lords of Salem
Halloween II
31

Eddie Strongman

I just watched another strongman documentary on Netflix. This one was called EDDIE STRONGMAN and follows the life of Eddie Hall in 2015. Wow, this was good. There's a certain moment at the end that even brought a tear to my eye. The power of the deadlift compels thee.

Eddie is a really likable character and makes for an entertaining watch. Nice family, too. This is a good doc regardless of whether you've ever squatted or deadlifted in your life.