Zapped - Original Soundtrack

Today for your listening "pleasure" I have the now OOP (out-of-print) soundtrack to the 1982 teen-comedy Zapped starring Scott Baio and Willie Aames. They are probably better remembered acting together on the 80s TV show Charles In Charge. This soundtrack to the best of my knowledge features original pop songs conceived specifically for the film. I don't believe any of these tracks saw any kind of mainstream success on the charts.

The interesting thing to this soundtrack is that it doesn't feel classic to me. It has the 70s/80s vibe I normally like, but only a couple of the tracks really grab me. The songs are all listenable enough, but I'm betting if you are a big fan of the film you'll dig this soundtrack as it will hold some nice nostalgia for you. The fact that I don't hear it mentioned much on the blogs lends me to think there must be a handful of you hunting for this release.

Admittedly I've never seen this flick. The most I've ever seen was the trailer. Based on what I saw I think that was probably enough. Although I HIGHLY suggest if you have an interest in what this flick is all about, Scott Baio, Aames and telekinesis then head over to the Cult Film Club to listen to their latest podcast/discussion on this film!

Download the complete soundtrack here!

Ray Harryhausen - 1920-2013

I wanted to quick make a mention of the passing of special/visual effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. He passed away yesterday at the age of 92. To film buffs especially older folk, from fans, directors, writers to modern day visual effects artists his creations and work has inspired many people and really been loved by movie goers. Many of the films he worked on are still very well known and well respected for their achievements for what they were in his era of film making. As a young child I loved watching all his monsters come alive on the "silver screen". As you may or may not know, I'm not a big fan of CGI effects of today. I've always been a fan of practical effects, which is probably more because I grew up on those films.

Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that Sideshow Cinema is sad to see his passing, but respect and enjoyed all his hard work he put into film making. Below I have a few videos of some of my personal favorite creations of his. Enjoy!!!

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)

The Valley of Gwangi (1969)

Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

The League: First Impressions

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers topic is...

You never get a second chance at a first impression–what moment in pop culture had you saying “Now, that’s how you make an introduction!”

I thought about this a minute and then it hit me. One of my favorite villains from horror film history is Freddy Krueger and the original A Nightmare on Elm Street being the best of the bunch,  in fact one of the best original horror films I've ever seen.

The opening scene to that film when I first saw it and having no idea who Freddy was or what the movie was really about was startling.. spooky... shocking... thrilling! The original film starts out showing you just a guy's hands laying out an old leather glove and dumping a bag of razors and metal pieces all over a dirty old work table. You have no idea where this is, what this stuff is for or what the hell is going on. You slowly watch this person's horrific creativity come together as he begins sharpening and welding. Then his diabolical creation is revealed. With a creepy raspy "Ahhhhh" and Charles Berstein's score hitting a high note you know you are in for something that you've never said before! This is easily my all-time favorite film opening. The visuals and the music! I've found the scene on Youtube for your viewing pleasure.

Check out what my fellow bloggers found to WOW them!!

Shez Crafti: A monologue by Johnny Depp

3B's Toy Hive: Tim Burton's Batman tells the world his name.

Geek Chunks: 80s Cartoon Intros.

Cavalcade of Awesome: LL Cool J rocking the house.

Diary of a Dorkette: For the honor of Grayskull!!

This is Boxsome!!!

Hello boys and ghouls! I wanted to share something with you all. Especially, those that are into 80s pop culture TV, movies, toys, trading cards. I'm thinking chances are high that if you have come to this blog this sort of thing will be your bag, baby!

There is a fantastic new company called Boxsome that recently started making available something they call "Nostalgia Packs". What are these you ask? I'll tell you using their own words. They are more eloquent than I. "Nostalgia Packs contain unopened trading card wax packs of your choice, stickers, some random loose cards, and more goodies. I want these to be really fun and to make you excited about getting mail again." Below I have a photo I took of the Nostalgia Pack that I received.

As you can see I got a couple of Dark Crystal wax packs, which I was able to select. They have many different wax packs that you can choose from. The old wax packs are awesome enough, but the really fun part to me is that they will throw in some random items. As you can see the random items I got are some cool Sonic pogs, Gremlins and Return of the Jedi cards, and some old school Nintendo stickers. I haven't had the heart to open the packages to look at the cards and stickers, because they just seem so cool sealed. I invite you to check out their site and buy some packs of your own. They are a great addition to your existing pop culture collection items.

Also, and I should have mentioned this earlier. Boxsome was started by Tommy Day of Top Hat Sasquatch fame. So you know this is coming from someone that knows pop culture and collecting the weird and wonderful!

Wolfmen of MarsWe're Gonna Die Either Way

Hello all! I've been meaning to get the good word out that Wolfmen of Mars released a brand new album. It actually came out back in January and if you haven't heard of it or them I suggest you give it a listen. The title of their latest effort is "We're Gonna Die Either Way". I'm a big fan of their work and always welcome new music they release. The reason it appeals to me so much is that their style is heavily influenced by the synth soundtrack sounds of films from the 70s and 80s. Personally I feel they have a definite horror/sci-fi vibe. This is my favorite era of soundtrack scores, so to hear that flavor mixed with a modern kind of groove is always good fun. I suggest you take a listen below and if you dig what you hear pick up an album or two. Check out the Bandcamp embed below or peruse the music via iTunes .

The League - Guilty Pleasures

This week’s challenge for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers was suggested by Derek. A while back, the League's geek confessions topic unearthed some serious cans of worms, and I think this week’s topic might dig up a few more…

Guilty Pleasures

I must admit that I feel pretty steadfast in most of the geeky things I like. However, there are those things that sometimes slip through the cracks that I'm certainly less than vocal about. I mean I can't let my minions know I have an area in my armor that is a little suspect. What is suspect you ask? One of my guilty pleasures... watching the TV show Gossip Girl.

In all honesty I had never heard of the show until about a month ago. My wife suggested we check it out. She'd heard some things about it and thought it could be just corny enough to be enjoyable and something we could make fun of for a good laugh. Now on many levels it's just that. Something for us to watch, scream at the TV, laugh and ridicule the characters. The problem is that I'm half-way into Season 3 now and I want to keep watching it. I'm enjoying and looking forward to watching more. I think what I find so appealing is the on-and-off like-able characters, the scheming and double crossing. Friends betraying friends when they know a secret, exposing people for their own personal gain. I LOVE it. Plus, as cheesy as it seems the wrap around premise that there is some super secret blogger that people relay their secrets to and "she" posts it for everyone's enjoyment I really like. Hell even now just writing about it makes me want to watch more. I think I need serious help... or a complete jump-the-shark train wreck of an episode to even get me to stop watching.

So now that my secret is out the question is, what fellow blogger will use this information to orchestrate my destruction for their own personal gain! Who among my friends has been secretly plotting to un-throne me via some Gossip Girl scheming?!?!? I'm Queen B... just try to top me!!
XO XO You know you love me!!

Check out my fellow League members guilty pleasures. These are the things that will send them hiding out in their mom's basement!

Cool and Collected: A laundry list of guilt.

UnderScoopFire!: A least one Nickelback song..and a whole lot more!

ShezCrafti: Ace of Base fan with no apologies.

Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks: Love of movies most of us walked out on!

Branded in the 80s: He loves rifling through your mom's Woman's Day mags!

Incredible Hulk articleUS Magazine (1978) PDF Download

A friend of mine was at a local store in the city called "Estate Sales Warehouse". This store is basically a large indoor flea market/consignment shop. They have all sorts of strange items for sale there. She came across this old 1978 US magazine issue that featured Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno as their characters David Banner and the Hulk respectively. There was a nice article inside that talks about the show and how it became a really big hit for TV. They interview Bixby and have some quotes from him about the show and his background. There is some info on Ferrigno as well.

I thought this was an interesting item and I wanted to share it with all of you. I have the magazine cover and entire article in PDF format for your downloading pleasure. I also scanned in a small article on Stan Lee that was in this issue, with him talking about some Marvel Comics related things as it pertained to the late 70s.

Download the article here!