And the Thunder Rolls
Heart to heart
My favorite B-movie is called Thunder Alley. I watched it again over the weekend and enjoyed every minute. This movie is so schlocky, it isn’t even out on DVD and I have a nearly worn out VHS copy.
In a time before Behind the Music explained how every band gets started and is torn apart by drugs, we get the story of Richie and Donnie. Donnie (Scott McGinnis, who never quite made it as a Tom Cruise-lookalike) has started a band named, of all things, Magic and wants his friend Richie (Roger Wilson of Porky’s fame… I guess) to join, but the lead singer, Skip (Leif Garrett in full curly blonde hair, pre-Behind the Music special and odd white boy dance moves mode) isn’t too keen on having the hick join his rocking band.
Richie ends up having to sit in with the band while Magic’s current flashy and talent-less guitar player makes nice with the bathroom floor. Soon he’s in the band and they are on their way to local stardom playing clubs all across Nevada and Arizona. Meanwhile, their sleazy manager has been getting Donnie hooked on drugs, and when an overdose kills him, Richie is devastated. He learns who supplied Donnie the drugs, takes a sledgehammer to the sleazy manager’s expensive car and decides to pack in the rock and roll life. The manager tears up Magic’s contract and kicks the band off the bill of a huge festival where all the record company execs will be waiting to sign the next big thing.
Enter Pre-Highlander Clancy Brown.
Before old Donnie boy loses his battle with cocaine and speedballs, the band goes on a club tour with their road manager, Wessel (pronounced “Weasel”), played to perfection by Clancy Brown. He takes a shine to the boys in Magic and thinks there’s something special in their music.
For no apparent reason other than they are both blonde, the sleazy manager thinks he can drop the current lead singer of the Judas Priest rip-off band, Surgical Steel, add Leif Garrett and make a million bucks. This is akin to asking David Lee Roth to be the new frontman in Iron Maiden.
Wessel thinks this is stupid (as does most of the audience) and tries to convince Richie to join the bass player and drummer (Butch and Wolf, for those scoring at home) on stage after the Surgical Steel set at the big festival where, remember, all the record company execs will be waiting to sign the next big thing. Richie says no. The audience says noooooo!
Richie’s girlfriend, played by second rate scream queen of the 80s and general hottie Jill Schoelen, tries to convince him to play. Richie can’t do it. The audience says noooooo!
At the festival, Leif is watching Surgical Steel play. Wessel keeps the amps hot. The lights go down and Butch and Wolf take the stage. The lights come up and they start to play, but without Donnie, Richie or Skip, they got nothing.
They start to get depressed and stop playing. All of a sudden, a screaming guitar can be heard. Richie is at the show and he brought his Les Paul! The festival crowd goes nuts. The members of Magic go nuts. The audience watching the movie goes, “duh… of course he’s gonna show up. It’s a movie!”
The band plays a song for dearly departed Donnie and the festival crowd is in tears. They go into their up tempo number, “Can’t Look Back,” and Richie asks Skip to join them on stage. The band is back together! Leif dances with his hands in the pockets of his jacket. He is sooooo cool. Clancy Brown smiles and the movie ends.
I love everything about this movie from the cheesy songs, to the sleazy manager doing his best Boss Hogg imitation to the gratuitous nudity, to the ridiculous names (Skip, Butch, Wolf) and to Clancy Brown playing the good guy for once.
It is sorta like Rock Star mixed with Almost Famous and every Behind the Music episode you saw except for the Weird Al Yankovic one. I think I’d pay big money for a DVD copy with the soundtrack.
Anyway, that’s my favorite B-movie. What’s yours?
Be seeing you.
The Fill
Rush opened the Fifty Something tour Sunday night at the Kia Forum. First show in 11 years, with Anika Nilles behind the kit, and the Forum is the same building where Neil Peart played his final show with the band in 2015. So the room already carried weight before a note was played.
Then came “Tom Sawyer.” The fill after Lifeson’s solo, the one every Rush fan has played on a steering wheel at a red light. Nilles nailed it, and 18,000 people cheered a drum fill in the middle of a song. Watch the video. Watch her face at 2:53 when she comes out the other side of it on the second night. She knows. The crowd knows. Geddy and Alex know. That’s what a victory lap should be. Not two guys protecting a legacy, but two guys trusting somebody new to carry it.
I loved every second.
P!NK Takes Flight
My wife loves P!NK, so the Tonys were on in our house Sunday whether I voted or not. I mostly wanted to see what they'd do with Rocky Horror. What I got instead was P!NK opening the show dressed as Peter Pan, spinning in the air over Radio City while singing "I'm Flying," then hoisting Neil Patrick Harris off the stage with her legs mid-bit before landing the whole thing on a Broadway-sized "Lady Marmalade" with more than 170 theater people behind her. My wife didn't say "told you," but she didn't have to.
The Rocky Horror cast did get their number in, for the record. The show itself went home empty-handed. The fishnets did not deserve that.
Gambling in Sports
Brendan Sorsby admitted to wagering at least $90,000 across more than 9,000 bets, including bets on his own team while he was at Indiana. The NCAA banned him for life. Then a judge in Lubbock County, the county where Texas Tech sits, reduced that to a two-game suspension.
He should be banned. Forever.
Here’s the thing: You can’t wallpaper every sports broadcast and every podcast with betting ads and then act stunned when a college kid opens the app. You can’t get away from FanDuel, DraftKings, and BetMGM ads. Believe me, I’ve tried.
Georgia and Nebraska have already told their coaches not to schedule Texas Tech, and I’m curious what the Big Ten decides.
What a terrible look for college football.
The Future President
Michelle Goldberg wrote a piece this week titled, “Why Everyone Wants Jon Ossoff to Run for President,” and the headline mostly checks out. Ossoff himself isn’t playing along. He says he has zero interest in 2028, calls the speculation a distraction, and warns that without restoring checks and balances in the midterms, there may not be a free and fair election to run in. Obama brushed off the same talk during his 2004 Senate run, which everyone keeps pointing out.
I agree with the crowd. He’s got that Obama thing, the calm that reads as conviction instead of caution. But the midterm-first answer isn’t a dodge. It’s the discipline. That’s the part that actually reminds me of Obama.
