Tag Archives: 1989
Prisoners of Gravity
Taking a break from our spooky October posts here at the end of the month — we’ll let today’s merrymaking bring its own hard-earned scares — here’s a great little show from Canadian television that I stumbled upon the other day. Prisoners of Gravity was an interview show disguised as a pirate broadcast, covering all [...]
Kiss This
This scary October post recalls a subject many of you likely find terrifying: the career of Nicolas Cage. Cage has done a lot of cash cow trash since he won the Oscar for Leaving Lost Vegas. That said, he’s also brought the wild edge to films like Bad Lieutenant, reminding me of the strange brilliance [...]
Remembering Gilda
Insomnia loves Gilda Radner not only for being a proud daughter of Detroit, Michigan, but also for being a counterculture hero as one of the best original members of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players when Saturday Night Live debuted in 1975. Radner played outrageous characters like Roseanne Roseannadanna and even did spot-on impressions [...]
Borders: Starring Robert Anton Wilson
25 years ago, Robert Anton Wilson starred in this experimental, made for television film, Borders. The movie combines interviews and commentary by luminaries like Wilson and physicist Michio Kaku with early computer animation and a dramatized storyline about an idealistic scientist trying to do honest research in the belly of the defense industry beast. This [...]
Lou Reed’s New York at 25
“Romeo Rodriguez squares his shoulders, curses Jesus runs a comb through his black ponytail.” That’s one of my favorite lines in a Lou Reed song. It’s from “Romeo had Juliette,” the opening track on Reed’s fifteenth solo album, New York. While Reed was always preoccupied with and identified with the city, the New York album [...]
1989: The Year Grunge Gelled
As we continue to remember Kurt Cobain 20 years after his suicide, let’s take this opportunity to look back even further to the beginnings of what was to become “grunge.” While bands like Green River, Melvins and Mudhoney all had music released by 1988, their mixing of punk and metal mostly set the scene for [...]
25 Years After Cassavetes
25 years ago, in February of 1989, filmmaker John Cassavetes died. One of the greatest actors of his generation, Cassavetes mostly turned his back on appearing in front of the camera in favor of self-financing a series of highly personal, deeply polarizing films that continue to vex critics, actors, directors and audiences alike. I discovered [...]
The Holy Mountain at 40
Getting some links together for the latest Coincidence Control Network podcast, I was shocked that we hadn’t talked about the 40th anniversary of my favorite Alejandro Jodorowsky film The Holy Mountain. I’ve mentioned the film in previous posts, but this important birthday is one that must be observed with reverence and open eyes. Check out [...]