More from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

The Rock and Roll stylings of The Carrie Nations from Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.  

Thirsty for Love-Sex and Murder Online!

I wrote about Thirsty for Love-Sex and Murder ( in its native tongue, Aska Susayanlar) before (read about it here). It is available at Google Video. Loads of fun and only an hour long, I highly recommend it. Subtitled.

The Commune (Elisabeth Fies, 2009)

Despite a shocking opening that turns Sophocles on his head, 2009's The Commune quickly turns itself into a family melodrama that seems too familiar, but is also too alluring to dismiss.   Spotlighting pretty, blonde Jenny (Chauntal Lewis), an adolescent in full "You just don't understand" mode who doesn't want to spend her 16th birthday away from her best buds.  Mom (played by writer-director Elisabeth Fies) has had enough of her daughter's hormonally charged, emotional hemorrhaging and needs some time to herself.  So off Jenny goes, to visit her visit her estranged father at his commune in the mountains.  

Sometimes my mind wanders

Since Gilligan's graphic is more interesting,
I used it as the banner for this post.  

 Retrospace, is one of my favorite places on the Internet.   If you have any curiosity about what life looked like in the good old days, an hour or two at Gilligan's site is time well spent.  I saw this worthy posting the other day and it got me thinking about Josie and the Pussycats, my first taste of sex and rock and roll.  Of course the drugs leg of the triangle would come from Scoobie Doo's Shaggy, but that wouldn't be until I was in college.

Ken Russell dead at 84

One of my favorite film makers, director Ken Russell died this week.  John T. at Shocks to the System  shared from his personal experience as a film student under Russell's tutelage and Aylmer at Unflinching Eye  wrote a short but very insightful analysis of Russell's films and relationship to British cinema.