Our 'Adventures on the Plex Server' column returns with a look at the way our hobbies consume our time and an accidental double-feature of generational Hollywood
I would have never put Steve Bannon and Taylor Swift docs in the same mind space but it makes sense. Fascinating! I dipped my toe in Plex but found it overwhelming. I enjoyed reading your adventures.
I'm surprised you didn't mention it (maybe you didn't like it?), but Nick Castle also directed one of my all-time favorite childhood movies ever: The Last Starfighter.
Man, what a movie! It was great, escapist fun for this little kid who loved Star Trek and Star Wars; who wanted to fly into space and meet cool aliens and save the world. And that it ends with him not going back home, like how many of these movies tended to end (think Flight of the Navigator), but him coming back to get his girlfriend and blast off back into space to have more adventures and train a whole new group of Starfighters? Talk about an ending that launched hundreds of hours of play and imagination!
Who didn't go into arcades in the 80's looking for the actual video game (that came out after the movie), hoping Centauri would come find them to take into space in that amazing starcar? And speaking of Robert Preston, what a wonderful performance! There's a twinkle in his eye the entire movie where you can tell he's having fun. What a fun movie with a rousing adventure score, a scene-chewing villain, and also, who didn't have their mind blown when they found out Grig was played by the same guy who was the CEO of OCP in RoboCop?
Thanks for the walk down memory lane re: Nick Castle, Drew. I need to get my The Last Starfighter blu ray off the shelf this weekend and watch. It's been a couple of years!
Glad to see I'm not the only one who remembers Steve Friedman. Discovered him in college around 1988 and was an avid listener and fan right up until his final signoff. The Philadelphia Film Critics Circke keeps his name alive though a special award they include with their years best at the end of the year.
I'm putting on Tap tonight (it's been sitting in an unwatched pile for years)!!! I had no clue Castle directed it, or more succulent that I never bother to confirm who directed it. There was a summer where it was in constant rotation on HBO in the middle of the day... I couldn't help but watch it every single time. Glover was the coolest kid on earth, in that film, partly because Hines made him so. Hines was one of those performers that both my mother and father loved so White Nights, Running Scared, History of the World Part 1, The Cotton Club, and No Limits were all huge deals in my house. 'Adventures on the Plex Server' is quickly becoming my favorite thing you're writing... thank you for the rush of memories.
Also, thank you for beginning an obsession in finding all the Siskel & Ebert episodes and culling them onto my own server.
Hey, Drew, just a question, no rush, no gig deal at all, I was just curious as to when we'll see (or maybe I missed it, that's very possible) your big Terminator piece and your Rise of Skywalker review? I'm genuinely interested in reading them. Thanks!
"The Matrix", but with Gregory Hines as Neo, and he calls Trinity for an upload of the "Tap dance" program for help during a chase scene with Agent Smith. 😉
I'm glad to hear you are saving those S&E episodes. I know I felt the same way as a kid. They were the only place to go for some kind of movie talk, it was so limited around me too. There was one other place, in Philadelphia, Mr Movie Steve Friedman was on in the early 80's on a local AM talk station here. He was originally on Saturday midnight to 6 am with a reach of 50k watts well into the 2000's until he passed in 2009. I listened intently every week for a good decade or so. So people would call in from all over to talk about movies. I learned so much from those conversations hearing about movies I never saw or knew about then. He was a kind soul who treated everyone fairly. It's a shame he left before podcasting took off as I think he could have excelled there.
Anyhow, when you log all those S&E episodes, is there any way thats something you can share out into a public space? I think the Ebert site should be a place where these shows are kept, but between rights and just finding the video from all the eras of the shows must be difficult for them too. Man I miss watching them and I go down rabbit holes on youtube looking fro them from time to time.
I would have never put Steve Bannon and Taylor Swift docs in the same mind space but it makes sense. Fascinating! I dipped my toe in Plex but found it overwhelming. I enjoyed reading your adventures.
I'm surprised you didn't mention it (maybe you didn't like it?), but Nick Castle also directed one of my all-time favorite childhood movies ever: The Last Starfighter.
Man, what a movie! It was great, escapist fun for this little kid who loved Star Trek and Star Wars; who wanted to fly into space and meet cool aliens and save the world. And that it ends with him not going back home, like how many of these movies tended to end (think Flight of the Navigator), but him coming back to get his girlfriend and blast off back into space to have more adventures and train a whole new group of Starfighters? Talk about an ending that launched hundreds of hours of play and imagination!
Who didn't go into arcades in the 80's looking for the actual video game (that came out after the movie), hoping Centauri would come find them to take into space in that amazing starcar? And speaking of Robert Preston, what a wonderful performance! There's a twinkle in his eye the entire movie where you can tell he's having fun. What a fun movie with a rousing adventure score, a scene-chewing villain, and also, who didn't have their mind blown when they found out Grig was played by the same guy who was the CEO of OCP in RoboCop?
Thanks for the walk down memory lane re: Nick Castle, Drew. I need to get my The Last Starfighter blu ray off the shelf this weekend and watch. It's been a couple of years!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdk2hOnuFhk
Glad to see I'm not the only one who remembers Steve Friedman. Discovered him in college around 1988 and was an avid listener and fan right up until his final signoff. The Philadelphia Film Critics Circke keeps his name alive though a special award they include with their years best at the end of the year.
I'm putting on Tap tonight (it's been sitting in an unwatched pile for years)!!! I had no clue Castle directed it, or more succulent that I never bother to confirm who directed it. There was a summer where it was in constant rotation on HBO in the middle of the day... I couldn't help but watch it every single time. Glover was the coolest kid on earth, in that film, partly because Hines made him so. Hines was one of those performers that both my mother and father loved so White Nights, Running Scared, History of the World Part 1, The Cotton Club, and No Limits were all huge deals in my house. 'Adventures on the Plex Server' is quickly becoming my favorite thing you're writing... thank you for the rush of memories.
Also, thank you for beginning an obsession in finding all the Siskel & Ebert episodes and culling them onto my own server.
Hey, Drew, just a question, no rush, no gig deal at all, I was just curious as to when we'll see (or maybe I missed it, that's very possible) your big Terminator piece and your Rise of Skywalker review? I'm genuinely interested in reading them. Thanks!
"The Matrix", but with Gregory Hines as Neo, and he calls Trinity for an upload of the "Tap dance" program for help during a chase scene with Agent Smith. 😉
I'm glad to hear you are saving those S&E episodes. I know I felt the same way as a kid. They were the only place to go for some kind of movie talk, it was so limited around me too. There was one other place, in Philadelphia, Mr Movie Steve Friedman was on in the early 80's on a local AM talk station here. He was originally on Saturday midnight to 6 am with a reach of 50k watts well into the 2000's until he passed in 2009. I listened intently every week for a good decade or so. So people would call in from all over to talk about movies. I learned so much from those conversations hearing about movies I never saw or knew about then. He was a kind soul who treated everyone fairly. It's a shame he left before podcasting took off as I think he could have excelled there.
Anyhow, when you log all those S&E episodes, is there any way thats something you can share out into a public space? I think the Ebert site should be a place where these shows are kept, but between rights and just finding the video from all the eras of the shows must be difficult for them too. Man I miss watching them and I go down rabbit holes on youtube looking fro them from time to time.