Elstree 1976
Wars‘ Little Known Stars
Kickstarter | Trailers & Mo
Unrated | 101 min

Ever wonder what is was like to be in Star Wars, even if the role was smaller than your butthole, and what life after being in Star Wars was like??? Director/writer/editor Jon Spira wisely answered this question and interviewed 10 of these lucky souls (and we’re lucky he documented these peoples stories before these peoples and their experiences passed on in life)

So the question is, do you want to know what it was like to be…

David Prowse – the body, but not the voice of Darth Vader???

or course you do!

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how bout Paul Blake – HE SHOT SECOND!!!! – as Greedo???

(although they never touch that HOT topic)

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Jeremy Bulloch is the body of Boba, but can you believe this is the guy under that helmet???

he’s slick & cool in a different way!

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or that creepy pilot (Angus MacInnes) who crept behind Leia?

duh!  and you’d learn why he kept looking down while piloting an X-wing

and you will NEVER be able to unlearn it and you will never look at his scenes the same!

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or how about poor Garrick Hagon who had a big role as Biggs Darklighter??

dude got the shaft, but dude is STILL all class

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or what about the guy (Anthony Forrest) who said ‘these aren’t the droids we’re looking for‘??

did you know he also had another role in the film that was also cut too??  YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T!!!

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or how about Laurie Goode – who MAY be the stormtrooper who hit his head on the blast door!!!???

these are the stories Harrison, Carrie or Mark CANNOT tell us!

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what about a rare woman in the cast - Pam Rose???

(although to be honest, I’ve never seen her blink and you missed it part in the Cantina)

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or what about the dude in the hat who handed out medals!!!???

I mean, doesn’t that dude (Derek Lyons) deserve to tell his story??? (although he kinda comes off sounding a lot like David Brent, which is amazing in its own way)

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or what about some random extra (John Chapman)??

who has even upset the c-list Star Wars actors as trying to pass himself off as being a Star Wars actor… but he IS a Star Wars actor, even if he was juss an extra!

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you LOVE Star Wars and these people were IN Star Wars and they have stories about life before, during and after Star Wars, and you need to hear them.  And if you don’t think so, I may have to FORCE this on to be with you

Verdictgo: Jeepers Mos Def Worth A Peepers

Eslstree wars its lesser peeps currently in limited release OR you can rent it on Amazon

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Fast Times At Ridgemont High schoolers Jennifer Jason Leigh and Phoebe Cates

photos by Douglas Kirkland, August 1983

Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream
Streit From The Heart
Official Website, Trailers & Mo
Unrated | 100 min

Tradition is tradition – even if tradition has to modernize to adapt to a modern world.  Passover is one of the oldest holidays, and matzah (or matzo for those who spell it that way) has been the food of Passover forever, and for the past century, Streit’s Matzos has been one of the major companies supplying the tasteless holy crackers to practitioners.  While their competitors have been bought up big larger corporations, and they’ve seen increased newer competition from cheaper brands abroad, the STILL family-owned AND run Streit team have been keeping it real, baking in the very same New York City – Lower East Side factory since day one!

But times have changed.  Their customers left the neighborhood years and years ago, and so with it, most of the heavily Jewish businesses that were there to support the community.  And while gentrification has greatly changed the heart and soul of the nabe, nothing could alter the Streit’s way.  Sure, they had outgrown the archaic factory in which they occupied, and the cost of doing actual business meant that they had to charge their customers more than they’d like to, but tradition is tradition – right?

Michael Levine‘s lovely new documentary Streit’s: Matzo and the American Dream over-examines the company’s struggle of staying true to the past, while trying to be realsitic about the present and future.  And while the same argument is made over and over, it didn’t matter much to me having the same paradoxical point hammered home again and again – cause you enjoy meeting and spending time with the family and their factory workers (who are like their extended family) over and over, and going up and down and back and forth thru their the labyrinthine factory, cause this is matzah history – living and breathing!

Take a bite of this doc, even if matzah has no taste, and even if you’re aren’t Jewish – cause you don’t have to be Jewish to love a good American story, about family, and crackers!

Verdictgo: Breast In Show

Matzo matzgoes here and there in very limited release

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

why go normal Dickmann’s when you can go

SUPER DICKMANN’S!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EByOeDnClQA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NsksikD8VI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLb9iDkYcEU

hat tip

Pearl Jam
Madison Square Garden
May 2nd

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE7i-7_G315/

It’s never too late to right wrongs.  Never have regrets in life, and if you do, fix them, if they are fixable.

Pearl Jam’s Ten owned the ears of high schoolers everywhere from 1991 onwards.  When grunge was grunge, these guys were like the fringe of grunge – rocking rock that had an edge (but not droning like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains’ music did), and this rock was rock built for the ages.  I LIVED for Ten.  We all did.  It’s not only the perfect debut album, but a perfect album – up their in my mind with the likes of Paul Simon’s Graceland, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Beasties Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, most albums by The Beatles, and so on and so forth and so onforth

At the height of their and my hysteria, I somehow neglected to see them in concert, which is odd, considering how I saw a LOT of shows as a teen, including the original Smashing Pumpkins line-up, Nine Inch Nails, Fugazi, Alice In Chains, the Beasties Boys 128238823 times, Ice-T, Public Enemy, Urge Overkill, The Soup Dragons, etc.  (My lucky brother saw Pearl Jam open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers AND Smashing Pumpkins in New Orleans, in 1991.  Red Hots are another band I meant to see, and still never have)

Time passed, and then Pearl Jam released their 2nd album – Vs – and while a lovely effort, it was no perfect Ten.  More like a 6?  Probably a 7.  But time has been good to it.  It’s probably an 8 now.  But back then?  A 6.  I was so pissed it wasn’t Ten-2 that by the time their 3rd album dropped – Vitalogy (still a terrible name) – I was done – and for me – Pearl Jam was over.  And while I was done with Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam wasn’t done at all – they were just getting going – releasing 7 albums in my absence, and keeping on keeping on rocking in the free world

Eons passed, beards grew, and then I saw that they were coming to MSG this year, and was like, you know what – I’ve never heard ‘Even Flow’, ‘Jeremy’ or ‘Alive’ (my holy Pearl Jam trinity) played live – not a once, and how could I let this wrong continue to be wrong?  Boom – done – wrong to be righted.  And spank the lord I did, for in 3 hours time, my face melted (like the Nazi in Raiders) with endless and effortless and awesomebest rock n roll, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first Pearl Jam show (OK, I was a little/lot pissed when they played Ten in its entirety two shows before the one I would attend)  

Look at that setlist below!!!  They played THREE songs with ‘man’ in the title, IN A ROW!!  They played BOTH songs from the Singles soundtrack, BACK 2 BACK!!!  They did a cover of Cheap Trick’s ‘Surrender’, WITH 2 DUDES FROM CHEAP TRICK!!  They did a Police cover WITH STING – AND IT DIDN’T PUT ME TO SLEEP (cause Sting is boring).  And after studying setlist after setlist from their 2016 tour, I nailed it when I said they’d do a cover of the Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ (which I’ve always wanted to hear them play ever since they played it on MTV in 1992).  The two dudes who came with me to the show (one being Shreddy FCUKING Mercury!!!) each had one request each, and Pearl Jam played both (‘State of Love and Trust’ AND ‘Yellow Ledbetter’).  And they played my holy trinity of ‘Even Flow’, ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Alive’.  Think I enjoyed that?????  See video above!!!!!!!!!

Moral of the story – Pearl Jam never stopped rocking / I was an idiot for years / you CAN go back again / the mid 90s will never die / I will see Pearl Jam ANYTIME they come back to NY / Sting is still boring, but less so when Pearl Jam is his backing band

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Setlist – Corduroy / Mind Your Manners / Once / Animal / Given to Fly / Surrender (Cheap Trick coverwith Rick Nielsen & Tom Petersson) [watch] / Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town / Nothingman / Leatherman / Better Man / Garden / Even Flow / Sirens / Deep / Jeremy / Leash / Do the Evolution

Encore - You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover) / All or None / Pendulum / Present Tense / Breath / State of Love and Trust / Porch

Encore 2 - Last Kiss (Wayne Cochran cover) / Driven to Tears (Police cover with Sting) [watch] / Lightning Bolt / Sonic Reducer (Dead Boys cover) / Alive / Baba O’Riley (Who cover) / Yellow Ledbetter / The Star-Spangled Banner (John Stafford Smith cover)