Paranormal
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Paranormal Film Austin Pendleton goes time-tripping back to Skidoo
Posted by J.R. Jones on 05.02.13 at 12:48 PM
The result was Skidoo (1968), a leaden comedy about a mafia hit man (Jackie Gleason) who goes into prison to ice someone but accidentally ingests some LSD courtesy of his hip, young cell mate (Austin Pendleton). Pendleton, who went on to become an ensemble member at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, spoke recently with Gloria Bowman of Home Projectionist about the experience of costarring in an LSD comedy with Gleason, Carol Channing, Frankie Avalon, Mickey Rooney, George Raft, and Groucho Marx. Harry Nilsson wrote the score, and the cast also included Batman villains Cesar Romero (the Joker), Frank Gorshin (the Riddler), and Burgess Meredith (the Penguin). Of course, Preminger had clocked hours on that show too as the icy Mr. Freeze. But that's a subject for another trip.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Paranormal Film Music An interview with composer John Corigliano (part one)
Posted by Ben Sachs on 04.18.13 at 04:31 PM
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Paranormal Band Life Music Dream Machine: Devin Davis on harnessing the power of your sleeping musical mind
Posted on 03.23.13 at 12:00 PM
The greatest gift you can ever receive as a musician/songwriter is to hear a song of your own creation in a dream and then remember it after you wake up. It's like a winning lottery ticket that, having circled forever on an endless breeze, suddenly flutters down and sticks directly to your face. The phenomenon is, for lack of a better word, miraculous.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Paranormal Grammar Gross Film This weekend at the Logan, the alphabet . . . in horror films
Posted by J.R. Jones on 03.06.13 at 06:52 AM
- Drafthouse Films
- "F Is for Fart"
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Paranormal Science News What is a fish? Field Museum curator Leo Smith talks about his research
Posted by Julia Thiel on 03.05.13 at 06:48 AM
- Brocken Inaglory
- A fish
What people think of as fish fall into three main categories. The natural groups are the cartilaginous fishes, the sharks and rays; the lobe-fin fishes are the lungfish and the coelacanth. And then the ray-fin fishes, which is what everyone thinks about other than sharks. In order to say what is a fish you have to basically either include things like mammals, birds, amphibians, or you have to make some sort of distinction somewhere. You can do like, vertebrate that lives in water, but then you got whales and other things.
From an evolutionary standpoint, the fish is probably best thought of as including us and anything that crawled up on land. But it's complicated. I'm more closely related to a lionfish or a cichlid or rainbow fish or a trout than a trout is to a shark. We shared a more recent common ancestor with a trout than a trout did with a shark. A shark is like a second cousin once removed from a trout, and we're like brothers or something.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Paranormal Science News A conversation at the Field: Curator Leo Smith on the glowing creatures of the museum's newest exhibit
Posted by Julia Thiel on 03.04.13 at 06:44 AM
- John Sparks
- Leo Smith, doing fieldwork in Madagascar
It's not obvious what [bioluminescence] is for. In some groups it is, like the anglerfish: they're obviously primarily using it to attract prey. All the animals are attracted to the light. They're also probably using it for attracting mates. The male's a little tiny parasite, and will hunt out the female and actually attach—some species permanently, some semipermanently—and her blood will start passing through the male. On the ones that permanently attach, the [males] lose their brains; they lose most of their nerves. And the females can have eight or nine of these attached.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Paranormal Grammar Food & Drink Veggie Bite vs. Al's Beef: Maybe meat hasn't quite met its match
Posted by Julia Thiel on 01.24.13 at 06:46 AM
- Julia Thiel
- Oh, really?
Now the restaurant is closed (as is the Mount Greenwood location; I can't find any information on the one in California) and a new outpost of Al's Italian Beef is moving into the space. I'll admit to not knowing the exact definition of irony (though at least I'm in good company), but I think this may be it.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Paranormal Women's Issues Film A Haunted House, Sexy Baby, and our nation's porno culture
Posted by Ben Sachs on 01.23.13 at 04:49 PM
Bauer and Gradus are sober in their approach, but their movie isn't a work of puritanical outrage. (At no point do they imply a call for tougher censorship of mainstream media.) Rather, they present this glut of unhealthy images as an upsetting given and suggest that women should be more vigilant about recognizing them as bullshit.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Paranormal Band Life Music Cold studios, writer’s block, sound science, and SATAN!
Posted on 01.05.13 at 10:00 AM
Dudepants: I think I may need to cut the fingers off some new gloves. It's too fucking cold in the studio . . . It's crazy cold.
me: You can buy fingerless gloves, you know.
Dudepants: Maybe I need to erect some sort of tent where the mixing board, computer and keyboards are. Like, I'll have to leave the tent to play the drums . . . but just the drums.
me: You could build a pyramid. Hey, can you help me?
Dudepants: What do you need help with?
me: I need help figuring out what. The fuck. I'm going to write my blog post about.
Dudepants: hmm
Well . . .
Dudepants: god, I don't know . . .
me: Maybe I should write about how you made a recording of your dishwasher. That's what my brain sounds like right now.
Dudepants: You could write about drones. Or about what it is that makes former rock-types start recording drones instead of rock-type songs, but that's a real can of worms.
me: Maybe I should write about how diminished chords used to be illegal.
Dudepants: Write about the Devil's CHORD!!
me: SATAN!
Dudepants: No, seriously . . . that interval.
me: What is it exactly? A flatted fifth?
Dudepants: The beginning of Purple Haze. It’s a half step between a fourth and a fifth. It was apparently banned for a while from compositions by the Roman Catholic church.
me: Because of SATAN!
Dudepants: Or something like that.
god my fingers are so cold I can barely type
me: Do you know about the brown note?
Dudepants: ha . . .
Next question.
Why don't you do it on iDRUGS!!
me: Do what? Play the brown note? On drugs?
Dudepants: No, the mp3s that make you HIIIIGH
me: Ohhh!! Hmm . . .
Dudepants: It's old news by now: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/digital-drugs/ but still interesting.
me: That's a good idea. Maybe I should experiment on myself and write about that?
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Paranormal The Internet Band Life Music Postapocalyptic notes from the future
Posted on 12.22.12 at 10:00 AM
Dear Uncle B,
When the Great Library at Old Chicago was found I guess it was like about 1,000 years after the End of the World? I dunno. It was way before my time. But it was quite the sensation, so I hear. Well, I mean, among The Reading anyways. Not that you can like really blame folks who have decided to condemn it. Technically, reading did once get us all into a metric shit-ton of trouble.
