5 freakin posts? What the heck was I doing the other 360 days? Well, thinking about making posts probably. Somehow I only have a handful of drafts saved, but another 100 or so in my silly little head. But what is keeping me from writing more posts? Is it time? Is it laziness? Is it apprehension about not creating a good enough post? Hell, I don’t know….

I mean, really, what the heck. Why am I writing about my absence from Von Luger’s Butter instead of making an actual post the half dozen people who read this regularly would care about? Well, because it’s writing something. “A writer writes” or so they say. (Who is they? Beats me, my Mom always answered when I asked her “They. They.”)

But I write for a living, maybe that’s why I don’t create all the genius (um….what?) blog posts I plan to create sometime this century. Writing isn’t as easy as it seems. Heck, this post is certainly easy, I’m just rambling….but to create something interesting and fun and coherent, well that ain’t easy. I’m glad to have a bunch of friends who do so regularly on their own blogs (you know who you are, my friends) and I enjoy reading them, and are thankful for their entertaining posts.

Oh hell, enough of my self-deprecation. Hopefully there will be some new posts in this space soon. By popular demand no doubt. Or not. But not tonight. Tonight you all get this nonsense. But is it really nonsense, or merely a stepping stone to a flourishing year of blogging like a sunuvabitch? Time will tell. I’m cautiously optimistic. Which to the faithful readers of this blog, who know me quite well, will sound like endless sunshine and rainbows…..

Maestro Ifukube at work

May 31st is the birth date of the legendary Japanese composer Akira Ifukube (1914-2006). Maestro Ifukube is best known — with good reason — for his Godzilla film scores. Beginning with 1954′s Gojira, Ifukube composed a slew of memorable kaiju scores among his more than 250 film credits. He also created the legendary Godzilla roar, it’s said by rubbing a leather glove along a double bass with loose strings, and the Big G’s footsteps by slamming an amplifier box. So it’s easy to see why, even though he was an award-winning composer in his 20s, created numerous orchestral, vocal and other classical works, and taught for many years at the Tokyo College of Music, Ifukube is most synonymous with Godzilla.

The Maestro and his muse (a shorter version)

And why not? Honestly, I would put his military marches for the G movies up there with anything in film, including the tandem of Kenneth Alford’s “Colonel Bogey March” & Malcolm Arnold’s “The River Kwai March” (from The Bridge on the River Kwai, natch) and even Elmer Bernstein’s iconic theme song from my beloved The Great Escape. And a big part of the reason for this is my daughter.

Best of Godzilla 1954-1975

Best of Godzilla 1984-1995

Well, OK, I’ve been listening to this music since I’m a little kid, but it wasn’t until I was older that I purchased a couple of terrific CDs, “The Best of Godzilla”, which I keep in the car for easy listening when the mood strikes, or when the child wants to listen to them on the way to school. Heck, sometimes I listen to them myself! But my daughter takes it to the next level, since she knows all the words (and arm movements) to the Mothra theme. She also sings the Japanese lyrics to some non-Ifukube songs, but that’s for another discussion.

My favorite is the score for Destroy All Monsters, and the main title theme my daughter and I call “Monster’s March”.

And you can’t beat the entrance music for the Big G, or the unforgettable fight music with bold, brassy horns, lyrical strings and booming percussion. The Maestro’s last G score was for director Ishiro Honda’s last G movie, Terror of Mechagodzilla…until…he came back for 1991′s Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. And thankfully he did, because some of his scores for the 90s G movies are among his best in my opinion. Especially the bombastic main title theme to 1993′s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.

Or even better, next to the incomparable Ennio Morricone’s theme for Once Upon A Time In The West, one of the most beautiful pieces of film music I’ve ever heard is “Requiem” for Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Ifukube’s final film score.

But he ended his Godzilla career on a solid note, with one of the best end credits themes ever, and my second favorite next to the end credits for West Side Story. It’s a freakin shame that the DVD cuts off the credits before not only the entire music could be heard, a mix of some of Ifukube’s best moments from early G scores, but also clips of the King of the Monsters from throughout his resume. A fitting end to a stellar career for both. (Until they brought Godzilla back again…)

I’m also reminded I’ve actually been catching up on a bunch of movies lately. Thanks to Netflix and cable, that is. Alas, going out to the movies is a rare occasion now. Not really sure why. My daughter doesn’t like to go for some reason, and the widescreen TV and nice (but modest) sound system make it cheaper and more relaxing to watch movies at home. But here are my short takes on a bunch of flicks I’ve seen recently. Why? Why the hell not!

Snow angel...how ironic (duh)

LET ME IN
Revenge of the Hat Room was right on the vampire tooth on this one. It was terrific. The Swedish original, LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, is great also but I preferred the kid performances here, maybe because I loved Chloe Moretz in KICK-ASS (a must-see) and Kodi Smit-McPhee in THE ROAD (a real feel-good film…um, no). And it had an awesome 70s feel to it (always a plus in my book), even though it’s set in the early 80s. Maybe Matt Reeves (CLOVERFIELD, which had its moments) is a director to watch? Well, he’s doing the new Godzilla movie so it seems. That’ll be the real litmus test.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK
I will say David Fincher is one of my favorite modern directors. I loved loved loved ZODIAC, which to me fell way under the radar. And this one the critics loved, for good reason. It was super well directed. Liked the screenplay also, and most of the performances. Very well done all around. My only quibble would be the obvious CGI-d “winter breath” in a lot of outdoor scenes. I mean, I could be wrong (without looking it up), but boy did it look fake. Distractingly so.

THE FIGHTER
This one was good. I wasn’t knocked out like ROTHR, but that could be because Mrs. Von Luger made me shut the movie off halfway through. She simply hated the Melissa Leo and Christian Bale characters so much (not the acting, the characters), she couldn’t watch it any more. I of course finished it after she went to sleep and liked it. Bale was terrific no doubt, but honestly Amy Adams was a hundred times better than Leo.

Sorry, no nekkid pics of Violante Placido, you'll have to find those yourself

THE AMERICAN
Ah, a throwback to my beloved 70s….How could it miss? Clooney is great, the supporting cast of foreign no-names is quite good, the prostitute (played by Violante Placido, the daughter of the actress who played Apollonia in THE GODFATHER) is incredibly gorgeous and nekkid throughout, there’s not a lot of dialogue, there’s not a lot of “hey look at the scenery” shots, it’s not very uplifting, it’s directed by Anton Corbjin who directed the very good CONTROL….All in all, highly recommended. Right up my alley.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Season 5
I seriously doubt most of the people reading this actually watch this show, but season 5 is the final season. For whatever reason, they released the DVDs before it started to air on NBC, but after it aired on DirectTV. Great, great show that really concentrated more on the characters than the football. It’ll be missed. And thanks to Netflix, Mrs. Von Luger and I already watched the entire season, commercial free, in three days.

JONAH HEX
“Watched” this last night. I put that in quotes because, while it wasn’t a complete and utter disaster, it was close. Just so boring and unorganized and poorly edited and poorly directed, I found myself surfing the web and reading the newspaper while the movie was on. You can easily skip this one. Or give it a shot just for the heck of it since it seemed like it was only about an hour long.

THE KARATE KID
Watched the remake with the family tonight. I was never a big fan of the original, but it had its moments. Which have become cliché by now of course. But the remake, while loaded with clichés, was not bad. Jackie Chan gives a damn good performance actually. Check out the alternate ending on YouTube if you can, where he gets to kinda sorta kick some ass in a Chan-esque fight with the bad guy master.

You bet your ass I'm bolting my doors!

P.S. As I post this, I’m watching John Carpenter’s classic THE FOG. Sure I’m one day late, since yesterday was the 21st of April, when the Elizabeth Dane was lost near Spivey Point some 130-odd years ago, but better late than never. One of the coolest horror flicks around, it still holds up nicely. Could have sworn I had this on laserdisc, but thanks to the Netflix Watch Instantly option, I’m watching it, um, instantly….

It started with Dora the Explorer, as it does with most little girls nowadays. Simultaneously dabbling in Clifford and Blue’s Clues. But Spongebob Squarepants changed all that baby stuff. Next up was the Disney Princesses. Then she hit the Godzilla phase. Had to watch every Godzilla movie, which of course Dad had on DVD or VHS (there are three G movies not available in the US on DVD ugh), in order natch. Then came The Simpsons phase, where she watched every available season on DVD, Seasons 1 through 13 and 20 (Yes, Dad has them all), watched all the episodes in order and quotes them endlessly bless her heart, focusing on my favorite episodes bless her heart again. Now she’s on the Pokemon phase, DVRing old episodes and newer episodes and buying cards with her own money and video games.

But the reason for this post is not to chronicle my daughter’s life actually, but mostly to share/show off photos of some awesome and imaginative artwork she created during Godzilla phase #3 (she cycles back and forth with these phases) during downtime at school. Funny enough, the only other character she’s drawn is Spongebob. Love this kid! Enjoy the pics!

Godzilla and son Milla

Godzilla's Revenge

Godzilla vs Gigan

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla soldiers

Godzilla vs King Ghidorah

Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1993

Godzilla vs Destroyah

BONUS ARTWORK:

Pokemon

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 13 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 25 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 3mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was February 26th with 47 views. The most popular post that day was En-taaaa!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, obama-scandal-exposed.co.cc, mail.yahoo.com, revengeofthehatroom.wordpress.com, and WordPress Dashboard.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for jaws poster, quint jaws, jaws quint, ishiro honda, and jaws.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

En-taaaa! February 2010
7 comments

Fast Fish June 2010
7 comments

The list is almost endless February 2010
7 comments

What rhymes with “poetry”? April 2010
6 comments

Doc, Doc, Goose June 2010
4 comments

This is the good stuff

Of course, I already had The Complete Dossier DVD, which remains unopened, but after doing due diligence by searching some reviews (Dad would have been proud), I thought it would be worth it to upgrade to the Apocalypse Now Blu-Ray. Is it? Well, while recovering from gallbladder surgery recently, I decided to line up a bunch of movies to watch in order to kill time in between pain meds (if needed) and found myself stuck mostly on one in particular — my new Apocalypse Now Blu-Ray. Lemme tell ya, it’s worth running out and buying a Blu-Ray player right now.

This high-def version of Apocalypse looks amazing, and sounds incredibly amazing, even on my two little Bose speakers that sound like full surround given the proper medium. One of my top ten favorite movies, I first saw Apocalypse Now as a 12-year-old back in 1979 because my Dad, bless his heart, took us to see everything. It made an instant and lasting impression. You all know the story of this Francis Ford Coppola masterpiece, based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. During the Vietnam War, Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is ordered to go up river and terminate the command of seemingly gone-loco Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando). He travels with a band of misfits and they encounter adventure, danger, and surrealism from start to finish. And it’s freakin’ awesome.

The original Hot Tub Time Machine?

Everyone knows the issues Coppola had making the movie. Typhoon, madness, budgets, replacement casting, the star having a heart attack. If not, the Blu-Ray also includes the bravura documentary Hearts of Darkness, a must-see for all film fans which can help fill in the blanks.

The cast is uniformly amazing, from Sheen to Brando to Dennis Hopper to Frederic Forrest to Sam Bottoms to a teenaged Laurence Fishburne. My fave is the underrated Albert Hall as The Chief. And of course the cliché favorite is Robert Duvall as Col. Kilgore and everyone endlessly quotes his “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” But to me it’s more the little things that make Duvall’s performance so memorable, whether it’s his drinking coffee in the helicopter during the famous Ride of the Valkyries attack which remains one of the most incredible scenes ever filmed (and I now realize James Cameron may have swiped this for Stephen Lang’s character in Avatar) or when Kilgore lets the guy holding in his guts drink from his canteen, but once someone mentions surfer Lance Johnson is with Willard, he forgets about the guy in a heartbeat. For my money the best Kilgore line is ”What do you know about surfing, you’re from goddamn New Jersey!”

Now that's how you make a movie poster

Speaking of the helicopter attack scene, famously set to some classic Wagner, it was all pre-CGI (duh). Imagine what Michael Bay would do with that today, with 258 computer generated helicopters and 10,000 explosions in 5 minutes. Well, it would be unwatchable for one.

I watched the Apocalypse Now Redux edition since the BR features both the theatrical and Redux, which I hadn’t seen yet, and has around 45 minutes of added scenes. Some work, some don’t. The extra Playboys Bunnies scene is effective, a bit heartbreaking and strange. With boobies.

The Plantation scene has been described in a couple of reviews as slowing the movie down, and it’s slightly true. It’s also borderline preachy, angry (oh, those silly French), and it seems like the crew is there for a week’s vacation. And there’s an opium smoking scene that features even more boobies, which doesn’t really seem necessary (not that there’s anything wrong with the idea though). But it does contain a nice sendoff for Mr. Clean, and if I could pick out the best thing about the Plantation scene, it makes the following scene even more jarring and more powerful than before.

The extras on the Blu-Ray are worth the price of admission. Among the new features not included on The Complete Dossier are excellent and enjoyable interviews between Coppola and screenwriter John Milius and star Martin Sheen. Milius gets a lot of credit from Coppola for creating Apocalypse Now, especially for the characters and the Wagner/helicopter scene. They kept bringing up George Lucas, which I thought was odd, but it turns out (which I did not know) Lucas was supposed to direct Apocalypse but instead went to do Star Wars (thankfully), and second choice Milius directed The Wind and the Lion instead. Coppola needed to make money for Zoetrope, so decided to direct a Guns of Navarone-type action epic. Um…not quite. But it’s ok, ’cause his movie is better.

Sheen’s interview, the first thing you notice is his big fake choppers. Well, they look fake although I don’t think they are. He and Coppola have a hoot reminiscing in the same studio where they recorded Willard’s voiceover narration, sharing lots of laughs, and some good inside info too.

The horror, the horror...of not owning this Blu-Ray

And there’s SO much more to watch: featurettes on the sound, sound design (they basically invented 5.1 for the movie), music (a bunch of percussionists scored the entire film at one point), casting (Nick Nolte? Really?), and so on, including deleted scenes, a lost scene, alternate credits with commentary. Man. I quite simply can’t recommend this Blu-Ray highly enough. I still have to watch Hearts of Darkness, which I only saw once with a band of great friends back at Film Forum long ago, and which here includes even more extras, plus listen to Coppola’s audio commentary. No reason not to take another trip or two up river.

I’m not going to bore anyone with a mundane recap of the plot here. You’ve probably all seen Avatar already anyway. And read plenty of recaps of the story too. Suffice it to say there’s a lot to like about Avatar, but it suffers from similar issues as Titanic. Mainly a little too long, and a below-average screenplay. That’s not to say James Cameron is a bad filmmaker. I love the first two Terminators, and Aliens is awesome. I like The Abyss and True Lies is OK. I even like Titanic, besides the aforementioned negatives. But I feel Avatar didn’t live up to the hype. Now, none of my friends have said it’s the greatest movie ever, but there has to be a handful of people out there who think so, probably more. I just don’t know any of them.

Meaner and more musical than the Na'vi

The effects are fantastic. Yeah, you can tell it’s CGI/motion capture in a lot of parts with the Na’vi, but in other parts it looks damn good. The battle scene at the end is borderline spectacular. The sets are ambitiously great (but maybe, as one fellow blogger friend with a hat room has brought up, Pandora and the album art of Roger Dean have a little too much in common). The cinematography is great too. And the Blu-ray disc looks and sounds absolutely incredible.

But…the acting is a bit hammy at times. Yeah, I’m talking to you Giovanni Ribisi and Stephen Lang. (OK, maybe not Stephen Lang because you expect him to be a little hammy. And I did like the stupid thing he did drinking coffee in the cockpit of the battle ship. And he’s a nasty SOB throughout.) The leads are just OK. The Pandorian beasts looked a bit fake at times, but then again they are alien. The story is mildly interesting, and maybe a little silly, but certainly good for techno-geeks. And eco-geeks. And Blue Man Group geeks. OK, maybe not the last group.

Bigger, fatter, and less honest than the Na'vi

So, do I recommend Avatar? Well, it’s certainly worth seeing. Would I see it again? Maybe. Yeah, I guess once more wouldn’t kill me. Would I want to own it though? Eh….

The Doors themselves

Every studio album is a classic from start to finish. The Doors, Strange Days, Waiting for the Sun, The Soft Parade, Morrison Hotel, L.A. Woman. Even Absolutely Live is great.

Recently, I finally watched my DVD of When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors, written and directed by Tom DiCillo (Living in Oblivion) and narrated by Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd, etc etc etc). Bought the DVD the week it came out and, like all DVDs I buy, it sat on the shelf neglected until the mood struck me at the same time I had time to watch it. Actually, I made time, opening up a fresh bottle of wine at 11 pm and firing up the DVD player. And as my interest grew with each passing moment, history was made. (OK, maybe just in my mind.) Damn, what a fantastic movie.

Cool poster, too

I’ve read so much about The Doors through the years, from No One Here Gets Out Alive by Danny Sugerman to Riders on The Storm by John Densmore, to a Doors book that’s hiding somewhere among my 30 or so waiting to be read, and have always been entertained. The saga of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger and John Densmore fascinates me. And this film was no exception.

Placing The Doors (who were only a band for 52 months) in their historical context by combining a band bio with short commentary on the turbulent 1960s, DiCillo uses only actual footage of the band to tell their story. Still photos, home movies, interview clips, live performances, concert footage. Sure, it’s been done before, but so what? It’s mesmerizing. Maybe the footage from the lost Jim Morrison movie “HWY” is a little bit of a miss, but hey, where else are you going to see that? The DVD also includes an interesting short interview with Morrison’s father and sister. I could go on (great soundtrack of course, good narration by Depp), but you should just see it for yourself if you haven’t already. Especially if you’re a Doors fan.

P.S. It’s been a great year for music documentaries. In addition to When You’re Strange, the terrific Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage was released, giving Rush a seemingly new relevancy. (Even though they’ve never gone away and are still making awesome music.) And there’s the long-awaited Lemmy, which premiered at the South by Southwest festival this year, and will hopefully be coming to DVD soon. Those three alone are a great year for any genre of film.

Everyone knows this poster

Of course when JAWS was released in the summer of 1975, my family saw it in the theaters, Dad being an avid fisherman as well as a movie buff. It seemed like the perfect movie for him. We even had the Peter Benchley novel the movie was based on, which my Mom liked but I never read until later in life after getting the laserdisc set as a gift (more on that later). Seeing the movie with another family that lived around the corner from us in scenic Maspeth, NY, I vividly remember ducking under the seat when Alex Kintner was killed on the raft, something I would never do today. I guess seeing The Omen at the ripe old age of 9 the following year cured me of that kind of reaction.

Later in the summer I saw JAWS again with my Dad, this time double billed with the Robert Redford drama The Great Waldo Pepper, a good little time-killer. But obviously we weren’t there to see Mr. Redford fly a biplane.

Mmmmm....Chum.....

So many memories and impressions of JAWS….To me, it’s still Steven Spielberg’s best film. I love the tracking shot where Quint is “introduced” during the town meeting, panning up to him at the chalkboard. Subtle, yet classic.

So many terrific lines, from the overly-quoted “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” to the TV sign off “That’s some bad hat, Harry” to the ominous “I’ll never put on a life jacket again”. But my fave (which my daughter and I like to do every once in a while) is “It’s a Tiger shark.” “A whuuuut?” “Tiger shark.”

So many great performances, most notably the incredibly underrated performance from Roy Scheider as Brody. Underrated in that it’s not as showy as Robert Shaw’s Quint or as loud as Richard Drefyuss’ Hooper, but at times, is twice as effective. (“It’s in the yahd, not too fah from the cah.”) The scene at the dinner table, right before Hooper arrives, with the younger Brody son (cue soft John Williams music…), is a particular fave, and is one of the first “cute kid” scenes in Spielberg’s directorial career.

Whatdya mean you don't like JAWS?

Speaking of John Williams, is there any doubt this is one of his best scores? I mean, the JAWS theme is easily one of the most iconic pieces of film music ever. And you could argue that Williams’ Star Wars, Superman, Indiana Jones, and possibly even Harry Potter themes deserve a spot in the Top Ten.

Williams deservedly earned an Oscar for his Score (JAWS also won well-deserved Oscars for Best Sound and Best Editing for Verna Fields). My favorite part of the score is “One Barrel Chase”, which turns a suspense movie into a rollicking sea adventure for a minute or two. I remember it was my Dad’s favorite also, and he even went so far as to record some of the music cues on cassette when JAWS was shown on TV.

All the cool kids still have Laserdiscs

I always had a fondness for JAWS, but didn’t truly appreciate its greatness until receiving the Limited Edition Universal Signature Collection Laserdisc as a gift from a dear friend who to this day knows me better than just about anyone. It’s still one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. It contains a fabulously remastered edition of the movie in THX and CAV (you laserdisc geeks know what that is), as well as a nifty, must-see two hour documentary by famed documentarian Laurent Bouzereau, plus a copy of the Benchley novel and a soundtrack CD. Yowza!

Watching this masterpiece again on laserdisc, probably in early 1996, in widescreen/letterboxed format instead of pan-and-scan (yuck) for the first time since 1975, on a 26-inch TV (hey, back then that was a decent size) vaulted it immediately to the second spot in my list of favorite movies. And it ain’t movin’ from that spot. I only wish I could have dragged my Dad over to the apartment to check it out before he passed away in November of that year.

In addition to JAWS being back in the news lately among film nuts because of the 35th anniversary, I’m also eagerly awaiting the eventual DVD/Blu-Ray release of a JAWS documentary that I’ve been hearing about for nearly two years called The Shark Is Still Working. It supposedly runs three hours….three hours on JAWS! Sign me up!

OK, I have to go, and grab my JAWS DVD from the shelf. You see, I’m in the mood for a little boat trip….

For more on this pivotal anniversary in the history of film, go here, or here, or even here, or any of the hundreds of other sites smart enough to mark the occasion.