ronnie drew

The great Dubliner died this afternoon after a long illness.  He certainly had a good run and the streets of Dublin and every pub in this lovely country tonight move to the currents of his spirit and music.

The first video is an all-star tribute to the man, broadcast in February 2008 to coincide with the release of the single.  My partner in crime and I were laying low in Doolin and just happened to catch it.  Pretty great stuff.  And the second clip is of the Dubliners performing Eric Bogle’s classic anti-war song, “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.”  Incredible stuff.

interview with me over at moon in the gutter

Jeremy Richey, proprietor of the groovy Moon in the Gutter blog, was gracious enough to invite me to participate in a Q & A session and help spread the word about my new book which is now out in the US.  Well, Amazon is selling it.  Other bookstores–brick and mortar as well as virtual–should have it available on September 1.

isaac hayes r.i.p.

He was Black Moses.  Truck Turner.  The Duke of New York.  Chef.

I’m still in shock.  He was such an iconic force in soul music in the 1970s.  Hot Buttered Soul, Hayes’ brilliant 1969 release is a life-changer…

I don’t know what to say.  It’s just sad, sad, sad news.

Isaac Hayes is dead at the age of 65.

Anyway, here are three clips honoring the great man.  The first one is one of my favorite scenes from Jonathan Kaplan’s 1974 “blaxploitation” film Truck Turner.  The second one is from John Carpenter’s 1981 film Escape from New York, showing Isaac as the Duke of NY entering the film in supreme style.  And the third is the song “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” from the album Hot Buttered Soul.

Rest, man.

guest blogging at the rushmore academy part 3

My new post is now up over at the Rushmore Academy, this time dealing with a few of my favorite uses of music in the films of Wes Anderson.  And there are accompanying videos.  So go on, get over there!

two weeks dazed: all right, all right, all right

Starting Monday, blogger/writer/filmmaker/film historian Jeremy Richey will be paying tribute to director Richard Linklater’s brilliant 1993 film Dazed and Confused over at Harry Moseby Confidential.  Linklater is one of the major subjects of my book, but unfortunately Dazed and Confused is not one of the films I deal with at length due to space and thematic issues.  With any luck, I will be writing about the film in depth in a future book solely focused on Linklater.  But in the meantime, I’ll be heading over to Richey’s site for two weeks of dazed and confused goodness.

Hope to see you there….