A week ago was the latest episode of America’s favorite popularity contest the Academy Awards, in which a bunch of people in the motion picture industry celebrate themselves and their fellow members of the motion picture industry by dressing up in clothes that cost more than my car and giving each other awards.

This year I actually saw 2 of the movies nominated for best picture, and here’s some brief thoughts on them:

Django Unchained was basically Quentin Tarantino’s version of Blazing Saddles, and as such was quite entertaining.  I suppose it wasn’t quite as ridiculous and slapsticky as Blazing Saddles, but it was close.  Leonardo DiCaprio does a decent Vincent Price impersonation as the main bad guy, and Samuel L. Jackson is quite entertaining as his soulless weasel lackey.  James Remar gets killed twice! (how un-Warriorlike) and Tom Savini has a small cameo.  The original Django (Franco Nero) also contributes a substantial scene…

The other one I saw was Silver Linings Playbook, in which charming and attractive people with quirky mental health issues and seemingly no realistic or financial problems experience love, triumphs, and wacky hi-jinx with no real repercussions.  It was entertaining if you can sit back and not think much about it- just let it flow over you like air conditioning.

My fav movie of last year was of course Cabin In the Woods (tho anyone who likes horror movies already knows about that one, so no need to carry on about it), but there were a lot of awesome productions that came out last year- more than usually do..  The slick and soulless movies that come out in increasingly larger amounts every year haven’t completely taken over yet.  And that’s a good thing.

“Flock to me my pretties… yes… yes!”

Before the internet people in the underground wrote to each other and traded/ sold tapes, records, and ‘zines between countries and states.  You would send something off and have to wait awhile (days to sometimes weeks) for a reply, but it created an international community that shared, discussed, and bartered underground movies, music, and ‘zines beyond borders.  The taglines “no rip off” and “send my stamps back!” were repeated endlessly throughout the ’80s and ’90s (for those who were wondering, postage got expensive and most people participating in this were young and broke or poor, so to save money they would put a layer of soap over their stamps, which would keep the post office’s stamper from marking them, and then they could use them again.  Hence the request to send their stamps back).

One way that bands and ‘zines got the word out about their projects before the internet was little ads they made and sent through the mail.  Other people would also put these ads in their letters and packages, so when you would get something you would also get a bunch of little cut out ads informing you of various underground endeavors and where you could get them.  Here is a sampling of some that I still have: