#billy vera

[cantsayidont]

August 1984. This won't change anyone's feelings about cult movie perennial THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI: ACROSS THE EIGHTH DIMENSION one way or the other, but if you're wondering what the hell the deal is supposed to be with Buckaroo Banzai and his team, the answer is, "It's an obvious pastiche of the pulp hero Doc Savage."

Launched in 1933, Doc Savage was one of the leading adventure heroes of the pulp magazines. Doc (whose full name was Clark Savage Jr.) was scientifically trained from childhood to the peak of human perfection, singularly adept in everything from mechanical engineering to medicine to martial arts. He had a secret headquarters called the Fortress of Solitude and a whole array of specially designed vehicles and equipment, but he was also a public figure, with offices in the Empire State Building. Doc had a team of eccentric, highly specialized aides — Monk Mayfair, Ham Brooks, Renny Renwick, Long Tom Roberts, and Johnny Littlejohn — who each had a particular skill and a couple of distinctive personality traits (for instance, Monk was a skilled industrial chemist, but also an "ape-like" brute with a ferocious temper). They were sometimes aided by Doc's cousin, Pat Savage, who was almost as capable as Doc, although he tried to keep her out of the fray because she was (gasp) a girl.

This was a fairly common pattern for pulp heroes. For instance, the pulp version of the Shadow (who was distinctly different from the radio incarnation) relied on a whole network of agents, some appearing only once or twice, some recurring across many of his published adventures. From a narrative standpoint, the agents and assistants had two principal purposes: The first was to offset the rather overpowered heroes — pulp heroes didn't necessarily have superhuman powers, but even those who didn't tended to be preternaturally skilled at nearly everything, so it was convenient to limit their direct involvement in an adventure to crucial moments, and let the assistants (who could be much more fallible) do much of the legwork. The second object was to beef up the characterization. Doc Savage was morally irreproachable as well as absurdly multi-talented, so there wasn't a lot to be done with him character-wise, while maintaining the mystique of a character like the Shadow required him to remain a fairly closed book.

Although the pulp heroes were a huge influence on early comic book superheroes like Superman and Batman, some of these conventions didn't translate well to other media: In a 13-page comic book story or half-hour radio episode, having too many characters was cumbersome (and expensive, where it meant hiring extra actors), and comic book readers normally expected to follow their four-color heroes quite closely, even before the breathless internal monologue became a genre staple. So, Superman inherited Doc Savage's Fortress of Solitude, but not his "Fabulous Five" assistants, while heroes like Batman and Captain America generally stuck with a single sidekick rather than a team of aides. Even the late Doc Savage pulp adventures (which ended in 1949) de-emphasized the assistants to keep the focus more on Doc himself. Ultimately, the pulp heroes didn't really have the right narrative center of gravity for visual media, which is why they've become relatively obscure, despite repeated revival attempts. The 1975 Doc Savage movie with Ron Ely, for instance, was a notorious commercial flop, and elements like Doc's childishly bickering assistants seemed odd and dated, even taking into account the film's nostalgia-bait '30s period setting.

What BUCKAROO BANZAI tried to do was to bring that old pulp hero formula into the modern era with a big infusion of '80s style and humor. Like Doc Savage, Buckaroo is a wildly gifted polymath (in the opening scenes, he rushes from performing brain surgery to test-driving his Jet Car through a mountain), so famous and important a personage that he puts the president of the United States on hold, and he surrounds himself with an array of brilliant, eccentric aides with silly nicknames who play in his rock band when they're not fighting crime or doing advanced scientific experiments.

Alas, judging by the poor box office returns, general audiences were no more amenable to the '80s version of this formula than they had been to DOC SAVAGE: MAN OF BRONZE nine years earlier, even with the 1984 film's extraordinary cast and memorably witty dialogue. Granted, even many of the movie's most diehard fans are baffled by the convoluted plot — a crucial expository scene where the leader of the Black Lectroids (Rosalind Cash) explains much of what's going on is nigh-incomprehensible without subtitles or closed captioning — but beyond that, THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI is essentially an extended riff on a particular slice of pop culture that had long since dropped out of the public consciousness, which is both part of its charm and also its commercial undoing, at least as mainstream entertainment.

(Also, if you're wondering, yes, the TOM STRONG series by Alan Moore and Chris Sprouse is also an obvious Doc Savage pastiche, although at least some of its plot and character concepts were probably retoolings of unused ideas from Moore's earlier Maximum Press/Awesome Comics SUPREME series, which was an extended pastiche of the pre-Crisis Superman.)

[mydailyvintagephotos]

Happy Birthday Billy Vera 🎂

[honeysucklepink]

Hey my favorite podcast did another Glee shoutout!

The latest episode of Slate's Hit Parade titled "A Deal With the TV Gods Edition" tracks the chart history of songs married to TV shows, whether it's theme songs, plot tie-ins, resurrecting old hits or discovering new artists.

I hoped they would touch on Glee. I assumed they would at least mention their cover of "Don't Stop Believing." I didn't know they would heavily feature "Teenage Dream!"

Go to Part Two, the Glee mention is at 26:23, but I recommend the whole episode (honestly I recommend the whole podcast), they also get into Stranger Things and Kate Bush at the end.

[filosofablogger]

♫ Private Number ♫

It’s been five years since I played this one back in 1919, and I had forgotten that I played it back then.  David mentioned it a couple of nights ago and I wanted to play it for him, but thought before doing research, I’d just do a quick check of the archives and I’m glad I did!  I strongly suspect that David was that unnamed friend who had mentioned it last time I played it, too  😉 From the…

[singles-bar]

[duranduratulsa]

Billy Vera - At This Moment - Family Ties

TV show song 🎵 of the day: At This Moment by Billy Vera & The Beaters (1981/1987) from Family Ties #tv #television #familyties #AtThisMoment #BillyVera #billyveraandthebeaters #michaeljfox #TracyPollan #80s #80sfest #durandurantulsas5thannual80sfest

[graedari]

what if i went to the aquarium with @radjerda a lot and then made an entire Dishonored AU around an aquarium that then became an entire modern AU? :)

[bang-bang-gang]

the way there are so many gay & bi women on roh, both in the tv title tournament and on regular programming. current challenger for the world title is a bi trans woman. not even mentioning skin colour here!! roh is really the place for north american women’s wrestling

[zachfett]

The Departed (2006) Directed by Martin Scorsese Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus

[rh35211]

NATURALISTIC! UNCANNY! MARVELOUS!: THE UNDEAD (1957)

[lolathelotus]

Britechester Round 6

Currently enrolled: Jace Laurent, Orange Bailey-Moon, Darcy Bjergsen, Vera Rosa, Billie Jang and Imran Taku Akiyama

Orange and Vera debate the current Sim economy.

Darcy listens to Orange rage.

Jace works on his presentation for class.

Billie dances at a club in Windenburg.

The Tragic Clown shows up to sob uncontrollably for 4 Sim hours.

Darcy and Billie hook up late one night after too much juice.

Here are the final grades:

Taku Billie

Vera Darcy

Jace Orange

[mydailyvintagephotos]

Happy Birthday 🎂Billy Vera May 28th 1944

[day0fnight]

• updated look at my collections!

nothing too major aside from the new figurines and collectibles i got for christmas, some little things i’ve purchased myself and a slight re-organisation but i figured, new year? new collections pictures…

• also check out these new books i got! i’ve been wanting the gun and girl illustrated: assault rifle and battle rifle of the world book for quite a while now and finally got my hands on it :,3

[rozzy02]

Stories From the Bunker

Four young girls from Norfolk, VA find themselves in a unique situation, they have woken up with odd magical powers. They are not the only ones and the high school sophomores take it upon themselves to protect their peers, friends, and family. Follow Vera, Klove, Jennie, and Billie as they navigate the troubles of growing up alongside having to protect the world as they know it.

These stories will be posted out of order and it is my hope that I can compile them into a cohesive novel, but for now It'll be a collection of short stories. all of them will be tagged with Stories from the bunker, the title might change when i finish this project but we shall see. Currently these are all stories for a fiction writing class I am in. I'll post the ones already written over the next few days to weeks. Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated and I would also love to hear what you like about these stories. They will all be written in third person limited.

[ruleof3bobby]

THE MANY SAINTS OF NEWARK (2021) Grade: C-

Could've been much improved. Great acting and DP work even. Something about the script or possibly the editing made it feel scrambled. Better ending as well would've helped. Would had been a much better series. Too many characters shoved into one movie.