SEINFELD: My 13 Favorite Episodes

SEINFELD: My 13 Favorite Episodes

This piece was originally published November 12th, 2012. 

There is nothing like viewing a great, multi season television series by having it all compiled into one big box set.  

It becomes my favorite way to view the entire series, chronologically, with an episode or three every night until I make my way through the whole thing.

For such an incredible show as Seinfeld, I passed on purchasing the single season sets, knowing that at some point all 180 episodes would be available as one huge boxed collection. 

Little did I know that a couple of years ago, not only would this box finally come out, but I could purchase an exclusive version that included a fun refrigerator sleeve wrapped around the box, goofy magnets of show related items as "The Fusilli Jerry," and a beautiful hardbound tribute book. 

It took awhile to crack the set open, at least a year, knowing the magnitude that getting through nine seasons would involve, but finally, last Fall and into Winter, I watched each and every episode. 

From the pilot of July 5, 1989 "The Seinfeld Chronicles" all the way to 179/180 May 14, 1998's "The Finale." 

For anyone who is already a Seinfeld fan, has never seen the show, or for anyone that has seen a few episodes out of order and wishes they could enjoy it more than they have, well...this is really the way Seinfeld should be appreciated.

VIDEO WATCHDOG: 150th Issue Celebration Interview with Tim & Donna Lucas!

VIDEO WATCHDOG: 150th Issue Celebration Interview with Tim and Donna Lucas!

This piece was originally published November 12th, 2012

This week celebrates the 150th issue of Video Watchdog!For anyone who is yet to be a fan, the magazine is a monthly digest sized gem that is edited/published and designed by Tim and Donna Lucas, began life in 1990, and features a host of superb regular contributors for what is simply the finest in critical and extremely detailed writing, interviews and reviews of genre films.

As well as publishing the magazine, Tim and Donna also published the stunningly beautiful (and gigantic at 12 pounds!) definitive book on the great Italian director Mario Bava, entitled Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark in 2007.

As a celebration of Video Watchdog, I had the honor of interviewing Tim and Donna Lucas and my very special thanks goes out to them for this interview. Their recollections on publishing VW, thoughts about looking forward toward VW's future, and insightful comments regarding print media, the internet and fave films, easily place this among my favorite pieces that I have done for The Mystery Box.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do...

Tim and Donna: From #1 to #150

MAD Magazine 500th Issue Celebration!!

MAD Magazine 500th Issue Celebration!!

This piece was originally published November  10th, 2012.

MAD Magazine: Fine purveyors of outstanding highbrow literature, anthropological exploration, critical analysis and scientific socio-political satire for over 55 years, now gives their fans a reason to be cheerful (and dumbfounded).

Currently on newsstands and available at overpriced booksellers everywhere is their...drumroll please... 500th issue!

That's right folks, the "What Me Worry?" kid a.k.a. Alfred E. Neuman, and "the Usual Gang of Idiots" are still going strong and surviving in 2009.

Take that, Cracked Magazine!

SKY SAXON AND THE SEEDS: A Tribute.

SKY SAXON AND THE SEEDS: 

A Tribute.

This piece was originally published June 29th, 2009.

June 25th, 2009 will doubtlessly go down in popular culture as a momentous day of loss.

For the majority of the world's citizens, it was a day that meant the end of the life for one of the world's singular, biggest record selling— and to put it mildly—more eccentric entertainers of recent times. Concurrently, it was a day of losing another talent. An actress with charisma, beauty and an affable demeanor, not forgetting an impressive body of acting work.An actress whose best known role—while only appearing for one season—boosted a show into a multi season iconic smash hit series that was never as good after she quit. Her pin up poster is still the biggest selling ever, and the profits from sales of the posters were far greater than any salary she made from acting, regardless of how huge the series. 

Coming in third on this day of loss, and understandably, relegated to a much smaller mention on that day's gargantuan news headlines, was another entertainer. Perhaps an unknown to most, or a low level blip on the radar of the stars, but for others, myself included, just as important and as colorful a character as anyone who ever chose the arts as a means of self expression.

Sky Saxon, founder and lead vocalist of legendary '60s band, The Seeds, also rocketed out of Earth's dimension on this very same day.

PROFILE: ROBERT JAZ

PROFILE: ROBERT JAZ

This piece was originally published June, 29th, 2009

Columnist, The Mystery Box

Found online at:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

RobertJaz@gmail.com

Tell me about your column and your latest projects.

Forgotten TV: JOHNNY STACCATO'S Cool Jazz Noir

Forgotten TV:  JOHNNY STACCATO: Television's Cool Jazz Noir

This piece was originally published November 10th, 2010.

For one season, from 1959 through 1960 on NBC, one of the cooler television series of the era (and there were quite a few) aired.

That show was Johnny Staccato.

Johnny Staccato starred none other than the prolific actor, screenwriter, and director John Cassavetes who could play cool because he was actually—pretty freakin' cool.

LUAU HUT PART 1: Chasing the Polynesian Dream...

LUAU HUT PART 1: 

Chasing the Polynesian Dream... 

This piece was originally published June 22nd, 2009.


Welcome to a recurring new Mystery Box series: The Luau Hut, my ongoing look at all things from the world and history of Tiki Culture and Exotica music.
Since childhood, like many other fans, I too have fallen under the spell of all things Polynesian themed a.k.a. Tiki.
Never a month goes by that I don't rekindle that fondness in some way.
So I am happy to report that Tiki style not only manages to still exist (if you seek it out) but also continues to inspire newer artists, designers, and musicians who wish to escape into its dreamy world of imaginary exploration.

First, a look at the origins of this colorful style.

In New Zealand's Maori culture, the word Tiki refers mainly to the first man and is represented with statues that guard sacred sites. While the word was never really used in the other cultures for which it is now most often associated such as in Hawaii (they have Kumuhonua) or Tahiti (where Tiʻi was their first man) Tiki has generally come to represent any of the large humanoid wood or stone carvings (and exotic cocktail mugs) that are instantly recognizable to most of us as...right, a Tiki.

JAWS WEEK: A Tribute to the Scare of '75

JAWS WEEK: A Tribute to the Scare of ’75

This piece was originally published June 15th, 2009

JAWS.

The mere mention still brings me back to the days of 1975 when it was the scariest film of the year.

The film was the first true summer blockbuster, and a cultural giant of a movie about giant of a shark that radically changed and forever crushed our innocent view of a happy day at the beach.


As a kid I grew up by a beach and spent much of my outdoor time swimming in its water and goofing around on the sand. It was the days of carefree (and legal!) bonfires, diggin' up cool "stuff" and consistently being amazed at the hundreds of primitive monster-like horseshoe crabs that would wash ashore each year.

Little did I know that the most amazing of all monsters of the sea was soon to be unleashed upon us all.

THE UPPER CRUST: My Favorite Musical Acts I Will See Again and Again. Part 2.

THE UPPER CRUST: My Favorite Musical Acts I Will See Again and Again. Part 2.

This piece was originally published June 8th, 2009

Don't Give Up On Live Music!

Caveat lector! This column has nothing to do with pizza.

It has to do with a band. An enormously talented and ingeniously witty band out of Boston called The Upper Crust.

One month ago I began this series of columns that would each cover one musical act that I would gladly go to see in concert over and over again.

As previously mentioned in an earlier episode, in deciding which acts should go into this list of live favorites, these are my prerequisites:

1) They are still currently making music I like and are touring live.
2) I've seen each more than a few times.
3) All stand out with a unique sound, presence and charisma.

THE UPPER CRUST

Sam Raimi's Stooges: Celebrating The Director's Earliest Films

Sam Raimi’s Stooges: Celebrating The Director’s Earliest Films

This piece was originally published June 1st, 2009

Everything in life always comes back to The Three Stooges...

We all know how much Sam Raimi loves a good, old fashioned, ancient and horrible curse. The type that has been unleashed by some unsuspecting chump.

Nothing like a good curse plot to wrap a film around. Curses seem to bring out some of the best in Raimi's work, from his early first feature, Within The Woods, through all of the Evil Dead masterpieces, to his newest film Drag Me To Hell.

The other major influence on Raimi's work has always been the ultra violent Columbia comedy shorts of The Three Stooges: Moe Howard, Larry Fine, Curly Howard, and who can forget that most underrated of all Stooges, Shemp Howard.

The release of a new Sam Raimi directed film is usually a cause for celebration.

A Tribute to Allan Melvin: Character Actor Extraordinaire and the Voices of Magilla Gorilla and a Banana Split!

A Tribute to Allan Melvin: 

Character Actor Extraordinaire and the Voices of Magilla Gorilla and a Banana Split!

This piece was originally published on May 25th, 2009

On January 17th of 2008, Allan Melvin passed away and television lost one of the great and perhaps more unsung character actors to ever traverse the world of sitcoms, animation and commercials; he was always working, always memorable.

Who else could have a list of credits that includes boyfriend to the Brady Bunch's housekeeper, best pal to both Sgt. Bilko and Archie Bunker, and the voices of none other than a Banana Split and that very large Gorilla for sale in the window ?

Lately, here at Mystery Box Manor, we've been watching episodes of The Brady Bunch on DVD. A big green fuzzy shag rug of a box set for the entire series run. These days this is my preferred way of viewing any television show—chronologically, in back to back chunks—which is made easier now that more and more entire shows are available in this way.

Mark E. Smith and The Fall: My Favorite Musical Acts I Will See Again and Again. Part 1.

Mark E. Smith and The Fall: 

My Favorite Musical Acts I Will See Again and Again. 

Part 1.

This piece was originally published May 18, 2009

Don't Give Up On Live Music!

I've been going to see live music for as long as I can remember loving music. Whether it was as a kid being brought somewhere to experience the new sensation of various summertime jazz performers in the park, or later on as I ventured out to nightspots and musical gatherings on my own. I have lived music, played music, gone to support fellow comrades in sound as they too formed bands, and later helped put together a massive 3-day music festival that was beyond an incredible experience.

No matter what your particular preferred genre of sound, simply put, there is little in life that can come close to the thrill of seeing and hearing a live concert. If the concert happens to be by an artist whose music you are already familiar with and own work by, that's a plus. For myself, there are then the wonderful few who make a return touring visit extra special and rewarding.

This is the first column for what will end up being 13 columns spread out over this year, for which I have cherry picked favorite musical acts that I really get excited about going to see over and over again in concert.

My prerequisites:
1) They are still currently making music I like and are touring live.
2) I've seen each more than a few times.
3) All stand out with a unique sound, presence and charisma.

Perhaps there is a chance you will have heard and love a few, or perhaps have not heard of any. Hopefully, at least one will tickle your interest enough to check out a sample or read further about them via their web site.

Fan=fanatic and I guess you could say that for each of the musical acts I will be covering, I am a fanatic and will almost always buy whatever it is that they have to sell me.

Part 1)

The Fall

TREK WEEK: 13 Things I Obsessed About On Star Trek, The Original Series a.k.a. Just Where Are the Bathrooms On the Starship Enterprise?

TREK WEEK: 13 Things I Obsessed About On Star Trek, 

The Original Series a.k.a. 

Just Where Are the Bathrooms On the Starship Enterprise?

This piece was originally published May 4th, 2009

Ah, classic 1966 Star Trek. We know it all too well: William Shatner's inimitable Captain James T. Kirk; Leonard Nimoy's half Vulcan, half human Mr. Spock; and Sulu. Not to mention, an immeasurable amount of fodder for discussion, trivia, merchandising and collectibles.

1966 Star Trek, in its endless cycle of syndicated reruns during my teenage years, was my very first foray into any type of a full blown obsessive, deep fan-trance, geeked out, collector type mentality.


Call it the beginning of my lovable/sick desire to collect memorabilia, toys, books and to actually go beyond that of merely absorbing something as just entertainment.

Sure, I had other loves before and spent any money I had on courting them as well. There was James Bond and all things spy; monster movies; music; models; MAD magazine and comic books (I was a proud member of Marvel's FOOM); Saturday morning animation, and other groovy syndicated tv shows like Batman (Adam West), The Green Hornet, The Munsters and The Addams Family. Yet, Star Trek is where my young brain skipped a therapy session and decided to dive into things. I needed the toys, the books and devoted my pondering thoughts to all things Star Trek in a way that I not yet experienced.

Where no "I" had ever gone before.

Now, a small sampling of these as I list 13 things about Star Trek: The Original Series that I heavily obsessed about. In no particular order of importance, as they were all important...

#1) My Star Fleet Technical Manual. 

MONKS: THE TRANSATLANTIC FEEDBACK—Not Your Everyday Monk Rockers

MONKS: THE TRANSATLANTIC FEEDBACK — 

Not Your Everyday Monk Rockers

This piece was originally published April 27th, 2009

How could 5 American GI's, stationed on a military base in the middle of 1961's Cold War immersed Germany, in a few years become one of the most out there, avant garde, experimental garage rock and roll art bands to ever come along in pop music's history?

Well, it doesn't hurt if you have an electric banjo, are called MONKS and dress like...Monks.

For over ten years, directors Dietmar Post and Lucia Palacios have been working to bring the little known tale of one of the wildest, most strikingly different bands of the sixties to the screen. This unlikely story is a superbly engaging film called Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback.

For those uninitiated to the Monks' story, music or visual image, this film tells a thoroughly head scratching tale: they were a group of GI's who originally set out to primarily have some fun and meet some girls through making beat music and covering Chuck Berry tunes under the name The Torquays in 1964 while performing for their fellow servicemen also stationed in Germany. They soon hooked up with "a pair of loopy existentialist visionaries," namely two German art student/producers who helped use their own experimental ideas about art, noise, society, politics and generally how to create an in your face image—best seen to be believed—to shape the band into an altogether different kind of pop act.

Hey Menko! A Look at Japan's Colorful Little Card Wonders

Hey Menko! 

A Look at Japan’s Colorful Little Card Wonders

This piece was originally published April 20th, 2009

Menko is two things: first, a card game that has been played by kids in Japan since Japan's Edo period (1603 to 1868 a.k.a. the pre modern isolationist Shogunate era of Japan, usually the period where most bad ass Samurai films take place) and is surprisingly still around today, and second, the name for the actual cards themselves.

Menko as a game is similar to marbles and with much respect to this actual game, which is ingrained in a multitude of Japanese childhood memories to this day, you probably won't be playing Menko anytime soon, nor will I, but oh boy, a piece of cardboard with a colorful printed image on one side has rarely been as visually appealing and fun as the glorious Menko.

The Menko card reflects Japan's cultural history, pop history and team sports history. Being a close relative to the trading card, or even a Pokemon card, kids have collected them, traded them and probably sneaked a few into their pockets at the corner store...uhh, forgetting to pay at the register.

Little Steven's Underground Garage: Celebrating 7 Years (So Far, and So Far Out) of Garage Rock Radio Greatness

Little Steven’s Underground Garage: 

Celebrating 7 Years (So Far, and So Far Out) of Garage Rock Radio Greatness

This piece was originally published April 6th, 2009

The Little Steven's Underground Garage syndicated weekly radio show began 7 years ago and is currently celebrating a seven year anniversary of playing selections from the ever growing umbrella of Garage Rock's creatively wild, brilliantly defiant and just plain freakin' good music from the '50s to NOW. The current program is listed at show #366 and there is definitely no sign of slowing down.

One would be hard-pressed to find a better music radio host at the moment (ok Bob Dylan might be an equal, but he's the subject of a future column) than the gravely voiced, street smart Dead End Kid who is Little Steven...

Steven Van Zandt a.k.a. Little Steven, was born at the beginning of the rock and roll decade, in 1950, to an Italian American family in Winthrop, Massachusetts. Moving to New Jersey when he was 7, his life as a musician will forever be one for modern music's history books. Even an incomplete list of accomplishments is staggering: founding member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, several early pre fame Bruce Springsteen bands, twice (and currently) a key figure in the legendary Springsteen E Street Band, activist and leader of the '80s all star "Artists United Against Apartheid" Sun City benefit ensemble, and infamy as an actor in The Sopranos as the memorable Silvio. Hell, most folks would probably lounge on an island doing nothing else between recording albums and nightly four hour plus shows of touring with The E Street Band alone.



Thankfully, for those of us who live, love and breathe cool music, Mr. Van Zandt seems to be a workaholic, and number one fan of all that he programs on his radio show.

The Great Horror Family: Yet another wacky tv horror sitcom (!?) and one you may have missed...

The Great Horror Family: 

Yet another wacky tv horror sitcom (!?) 

and one you may have missed…

This piece was originally published March 23rd, 2009

There have been plenty of horror and supernatural television series that have had a great deal of wit and/or a tongue in cheek aspect to them (think The Night Stalker and its offspring, The X-Files) but an all out goofy, slapstick filled, bloody horror / monster sitcom?

You can pretty much count the television sitcoms that could be listed under "horror" on one hand.
In the sixties, when television genres really started to loosen up and take chances begetting successful shows involving witches, genies, spies and animated cavemen or flying squirrels, you had two of the best loved—and primarily the only ones most people can think of as straight up horror comedies: The Munsters and The Addams Family. Both of these classic shows exemplified the love and obsession with monsters that had viewers flocking to cinemas and drive-ins throughout the '50s and '60s and reading magazines such as the ones that help spawn the love, Famous Monsters of Filmland or the omnipresent kid staple, MAD.

For awhile it was monsters, monsters and more monsters—at least until the mid sixties James Bond spy craze took over and everyone needed a briefcase that contained a pop out throwing dagger.

I Was a Teenage Movie Maker 2: Confessions of a Super 8 Freak

I Was a Teenage Movie Maker 2: Confessions of a Super 8 Freak

This piece was originally published March 9th, 2009

I had fun making amateur movies as a kid with my friends. Things were different then...were they ever. You see, video — that was something that was waay out of our league. Only grownups that had academic credentials used video. I saw that firsthand, observing the wacky hipsters who came into our 3rd grade music class videotaping our visit from the local Looking Glass Theater children's acting troupe. No, video cameras were out of the question. They cost unfathomable amounts of money, were huge clunky behemoths with accompanying heavyweight television monitors, and shot disturbingly poor grade black and white images. This did not meet with our colorful kid standards at all — video cameras were best left to the early German Krautrockers like Kraftwerk who also had room sized, hand built synthesizers.