How about a fun mash-up. Originally performed by Little Roger and the Goosebumps, our version is by Puddles aka The Sad Clown with the Golden Voice. If you ever get a chance to see Puddles perform live, you should take it. I did and would do it again! Yep, I’m a fan.
Get this single here: https://smarturl.it/s7pnpj
This mash up was created by Little Roger and the Goosebumps. I asked Roger Clark if he would be cool with me covering this and he said that was ok with him. He’s a swell fella. This video is from my Sequestered Summertime Streaming Show on VEEPS streaming platform. I’ll be continuing my streaming shows until I can get back on the road.
Get the original and more from Little Roger and the Goosebumps here: https://littleroger.bandcamp.com/albu…
Derek Ennis played guitars.
Tim DeLaney played bass, drums, keys, mixed and engineered.
Puddles sang it.
Today we have Eduardo Risso’s take on a Sin City / 100 Bullets mash-up. What an amazing piece! In order to get the full effect of this beauty be sure to click on the image for a larger view!
Giovanni Valletta’s John Wick homage to the cover of The Walking Dead #1 is genius. I love how the zombie reflections in the windows have been replaced by police officers.
VFX Mash-up of Fast & Furious 7 with Star Wars. In this scene Dom faces off against Shaw in an epic street level duel. And the weapons of choice are Lightsabers.
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Ryan Bader and Bas Rutten.
Tagline: The unforgettable true story of a UFC legend.
The Plot…
Mark Kerr was a high school state wrestling champion. He was a NCAA Division I collegiate wrestling champion, a World Cup freestyle wrestling gold and silver medalist, and silver medalist in the Pan American Games. Kerr was one of the first UFC fighters and a two-time UFC Heavyweight tournament champion.
This is his story. Warts and all.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Bas Rutten, Kerr’s former coach and friend plays himself.
Dwayne Johnson is transformed into Mark Kerr. The make-up is amazing. Also Johnson gets to show real acting chops in his most “real” performance.
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Kurt Russell, Zoe Bell, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry and Al Pacino.
The Pitch: “Quentin Tarantino’s 9th Film!”
Tagline: The 9th Film from Quentin Tarantino.
The Overview: Beware of Spoilers…
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is an interesting film that isn’t easily summarized because it doesn’t follow the traditional three act format of most films. Instead Tarantino focuses on three main characters, fading movie/tv star Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), his best friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth (Pitt) and Dalton’s next door neighbor and rising star, Sharon Tate (Robbie). Dalton and Booth are fictional characters interacting with fictionalized versions of real Hollywood celebrities of the era. And since this is a fairy tale (Once Upon a Time), liberties are taken.
Dalton is a mash-up of Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood with a bit of Steve McQueen thrown in. A former tv star of a popular western bounty hunter series from a decade earlier, Dalton now makes his living guest starring as the bad guy on other folks’ tv shows. He knows his star is fading and worries that his career is over.
Booth is Dalton’s best friend and stunt double. He’s a mash-up of stuntman Hal Needham and Robert Wagner (due to the rumors that he killed his wife on a boat).
Robbie is Sharon Tate, the beautiful young starlet who was just gaining fame when she (along with several of her friends) were brutally murdered by members of the Manson family.
As we follow Dalton & Booth and Robbie, we know that they’re on a trajectory that in the real world leads to brutal murders. The journey Tarantino takes us on is a fun one. The world looks, feels and sounds like 1969. The real joy of the movie is the journey but be advised there are moments of suspense and shocking brutality. As expected, the movie doesn’t have the expected real-world outcome. (How’s that for an oxymoron?)
DiCaprio is excellent in his role as Rick Dalton displaying perhaps his best acting ever which is ironic considering he’s an actor worrying about his career. Pitt is perfect in his role as the best bud, cool sidekick. Margaret Qualley and Julia Butters were especially good in the roles. And it’s always cool to see Kurt Russell and Timothy Olyphant.
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is a movie that I think I’m going to grow to like more and more as time goes on. I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I left the theater yesterday. I really liked it. Below the trailer and my rating I’m going to speak about a couple of scenes that give away major plot points. Don’t read on if you don’t like major spoilers.
Rating:
The first scene that I want to discuss is the fight between Bruce Lee and Cliff Booth. In the scene Lee comes off as arrogant and Booth appears to be beating or at the very least holding his own against Lee. Bruce Lee’s daughter has taken offense at the scene saying it puts her dad in a bad light. Initially I one hundred percent agreed with her. Thinking more about the scene I realize that Tarantino set the scene up so we’re seeing it by how Booth remembers it. From Booth’s viewpoint Lee was arrogant and even in this remembered version Booth isn’t beating Lee. From this perspective I don’t have a problem with the scene.
The scenes where Dalton screws up his lines in a scene, goes to his trailer and has a meltdown and then goes up for the next scene and nails it, is some of DiCaprio’s best acting. The payoff is set up in an earlier scene with Julia Butters and it’s a great one.
The most suspenseful scenes occur when Booth goes to the Spahn ranch, then decides to check on old man Spahn and later when Dalton unknowingly confronts members of the Manson family who are ready to kill. Both of these scenes had me fearing that Booth and Dalton were about to die.
I thought that when the Manson followers go in to kill Booth and Dalton’s wife it was excessively brutal and over the top. Looking back, that’s exactly what the Manson murders were — excessively brutal and over the top.
I liked the final scene where Dalton is invited in to meet Sharon Tate. Following the trajectory of the real-life characters I believe that Dalton will go on to become a major movie star and Booth will get a shot directing action movies.
I felt certain going in to the movie that Dalton and Booth would somehow save Sharon Tate and her friends from being murdered. I was surprised when the Manson family members ended up going into Dalton’s house. As the movie progressed I thought maybe Bruce Lee would be at Sharon’s house and he and Booth would have additional words. Dalton would attempt to calm them down when the killers show up. Lee and Booth would save the day and of course Dalton would also get credit and that would get him back into the star light. Kudos to Tarantino for surprising me (and the audience).
I look forward to future viewings of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
THE CRYPT-KEEPERS FEATURED SOME KEY FIGURES.
“The Crypt-Kickers” band behind the original “Monster Mash” recording featured Gary S. Saxton, who wrote the 1960 smash hit “Alley Oop” that Pickett said inspired his song. The flip side of the record featured Leon Russell (whose “A Song for You” has been covered by more than 200 artists) on “Monster Mash Party.” Russell played piano, which he also did on songs for bands like the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean. Elton John calls Russell a mentor. Considering this track record, it makes even more sense why the “Monster Mash” single took off.
THE BEACH BOYS LOVED TO PLAY IT LIVE. Several successful cover versions of “Monster Mash” exist, including a memorable version by the Beach Boys. They made it a feature of their live show, where Mike Love came out of “his cage” to step up on vocals and the audience would flip out. Later the punk band the Misfits would revive the song again for audiences in 1997, as it was a favorite childhood song of the band’s bassist, Jerry Only, who said the decision to cover it was a “no-brainer” for the heavily Halloween-themed band who performed on the holiday every year. We wonder whose fans loved it more. Hear Beach Boys fans lose their minds screaming in response to the song below. (Click over to see the video of the Beach Boys playing the Monster Mash.)
PICKETT APPEARED IN FILMS OF VARIED CLASSIC GENRES. When Pickett wrote “Monster Mash,” he was also an aspiring actor. He went on to appear in a handful of films that matched his heavy sense of genre, including the beach party movie It’s a Bikini World (1967), a foray into biker culture in Chrome and Hot Leather (1971) a horror movie (of course) Deathmaster (1972), and a novelty sci-fi film, Lobster Man From Mars (1989). Additionally, he wrote a bunch of musicals like Frankenstein Unbound.
Any time Joe R. Lansdale has a new book out, it is cause to celebrate. Get the streamers ready! On October 7, 2025, THE ESSENTIAL HORROR drops. Here’s the lowdown…
Joe R. Lansdale is known for his gritty mysteries (the Hap and Leonard series) and his eccentric horror (Bubba Ho-tep), for which he has won ten Bram Stoker Awards. He is also cited by many of horror’s most acclaimed writers as a huge influence upon them: Stephen Graham Jones, Josh Malerman, Gabino Iglesias, Brian Keene, and Joe Hill, who contributes an original introduction to this collection.
Lansdale’s horror stories mash up crime, Southern Gothic, fantasy, and science fiction, filtered through a raw, violent world of dark humor and unique characters. He was one of the first horror writers to portray American racism not as abstract or impersonal, but as realistic, intimate, in-your-face, and impossible to ignore.
In Lansdale’s nightmarish visions, discover psychotic demon nuns, a god fueled by hatred, a psychopathic preacher, a weed-eater wielding blind man, cannibals, 80-year-old Elvis, undead strippers, flying ghost fish, elder gods, possessed cars, and the worst evil of all: man.
