Sunday, July 3, 2011

WHAT'S MORE "AMERICAN" THAN AMERICAN GRAFFITI?

.
.


Brother Nappy and I went out to lunch together and found ourselves talking about hot dogs rods, which naturally led to the subject of John Milner's boss, "piss-yellow/puke green" 1932 Ford Coupe from Nappy's all-time favorite movie, 'American Graffiti'.



So then I got to thinking that what with it being the 
FFourth of July   weekend and all that stuffs ["Firecracker! Firecracker! Sis-Boom-Bah!...], why not post a couple of American Graffiti videos to celebrate our Independence from those lime-twisted, gin-drinking blokes in Galleons Lap - or wherever those blokes lived from whom we won our Independence.

OK, this first one is a slide show of Milner's bitchin' car with that classic Booker T. tune "Green Onions" playing for good measure :



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCFwfTKPEY&NR=1

Now here's John Milner (aka "The Lone Ranger") in action on the road. Yeah, the other guy (Harrison Ford) is fast, "but he's stupid" :



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFgTMYEaWlc&NR=1



And now here is the movie's funniest (and best?) scene according to Nappy 'n' me. The underaged Terry The Toad attempts to score some "Old Harper - hard stuff" right now, in the hope that he will score later with Debbie, the blonde bimbo he miraculously finds himself spending time with :



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ks982-SrMk

Here's hoping we all score something soon.

Y'all have yerself a merry little 4th, and a safe one, too (don't let the Wolfman jack you up!)

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
.

10 comments:

  1. Gosh, I guess it's been ages since I've seen this film. I remember going to see it in the theater when it first came out and then I must have seen it a couple times since. I should watch it again. That liquor store clip is a good one.


    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did someone mention the Wolfman?

    "Full moon tonight
    Everything's alright,
    Baby come on back to Wolfman Jack
    If you want yourself a day man
    Well I don't mind
    You just ditch him
    When the sun goes down
    'Cause the moon shines bright
    And everything's all right
    When the Wolfman
    He creeps into town"

    -Todd Rundgren, "Wolfman Jack"

    I have not seen "Graffiti" in ages, but it was a good one.

    It always surprises me though that you did not really care for the first two seasons of "Happy Days."

    I always though that until they made Fonzie the star, the show actually captured some of the spirit of the movie.

    LC

    ReplyDelete
  3. Recently, I've not tried to compile my list of the top ten movies of all time, but in the past "American Graffiti" was on it. This is an EXCELLENT movie! Nappy's got good taste!

    ReplyDelete
  4. BOIDMAN ~
    Any guy who can't relate to that "Liquor Store Scene" is immediately disqualified from being a real friend of mine.

    If I could reclaim the time I spent in L.A.-area alleys asking older gents to buy me a bottle, I would actually have the time left over to develop a writing career!


    DISCMAN ~
    Dude, I never knew that Todd Rugrat recorded a song about The Wolfman. I wanna hear it! Can you leave that album for me next Friday?

    >> . . . I have not seen "Graffiti" in ages, but it was a good one.

    I always suspected that you were a Commie bastard, but I didn't want to make any premature ejacu-- ACCUSATIONS! But now I'm SURE of it! "A good one"? You phuckin' Commie phuck! It's "a GREAT one"!

    >>...It always surprises me though that you did not really care for the first two seasons of "Happy Days."

    Phuck "Happy Days"!

    Q: Well, look, man, which two characters MADE "American Graffiti" an American classic?

    A: John Milner and Terry The Toad.

    Q: And which character did they build "Happy Days" around?

    A: Ronnie "Opie" Howard!

    I'm sure I must have told you before that I actually worked on "Happy Days" in its later "Days". But I already hated it by then, and it represented nothing but a paycheck to me at that point.

    But Nappy LOVED the movie AND the TV show. And when I got him into "The Industry" [Pshaw!], I still remember the night he first worked on "Happy Days" with me - he was mentally "Ned Beattyized" to be on the set and "acting" in a scene with "The Fonz". It was a very cool thang.

    For me, just the mention of "Happy Days" makes me think of the wife-that-could-a been: Lisa Aires.

    Everyone would be on the set of 'Al's Drive-In' and Lisa and I would be sitting alone together in some dark corner of the set and responding in the same way to the same questions: "No, we are not brother and sister".

    Anyway... the ONLY THING I liked about "Happy Days" was Lisa Aires and the paycheck, in THAT order.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  5. MR. SHEBOYGANBOY SIX ~
    Funny what you say:

    In the past, there have been 3 times in which I was required to "officially" list my all-time Top 25 favorite movies.

    Although I LOVED "American Graffiti" from the very first time I saw it, it never made my Top 25 list.

    However, I am convinced that if I had to resubmit my list TODAY, the two movies that previously did not make the cut, but which would HAVE TO make the list TODAY are "American Graffiti" and "A Little Romance".

    Now... the REAL tough part of the question is: "What would I remove from my previous list?"

    That, I don't know, but "American Graffiti" and "A Little Romance" MUST make my next Top 25 list!

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'All American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey, thanks for stopping by.

    I did have a nice 4th as it was also my son's birthday. He turned 22 and I still can't convince him that all those fireworks are not in his honor! LOL

    Have a great week.

    Lady Doris

    ReplyDelete
  7. LADY DORIS ~
    Dang! You look too young to have a 22 year old son. SERIOUSLY!

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  8. Stephen, I noticed you had left a message for Anniee451 on her blog. Unfortunately she passed away on July 5th. I was friends with her on another site. Here is a memorial page that has been set up for her.

    http://www.gerityfh.com/sitemaker/sites/CHUBEN1/obit.cgi?user=412970Haley&viewGuest=1

    ReplyDelete
  9. OH, GOD!

    Thank you for contacting me. I'm trying to type this through tears. Shit. I;ll go to the page soon. I need to get myself together.

    Oh, this is PAINFUL!
    I never met her, but I liked her a lot.

    Please don't leave me hanging. Please respond to this. I want to talk to you about what happened.

    I kept Emailing her but she didn't respond. But then she'd sometimes disappear for awhile, so I didn't REALLY think anything too terrible was wrong.

    ~ D-FensDogg

    ReplyDelete
  10. ANONYMOUS ~
    I just came from the memorial page, and I will return tomorrow and post a comment.

    I can't do it right now because I'm still leaking and I'm supposed to be leaving for work in about 20 minutes. I shouldn't even be going in - I'm a mess - but I HAVE to go.

    I need to try to get myself calmed down. But I also NEED to talk to someone about her. Can we Email each other? I don't make my Email address public, but if you would be so kind as to submit yours to me in a comment, I will copy your address on a piece of paper and then delete your comment.

    I have the "Comment Moderation" on, so no one will ever see your Email address but me. I'll delete it and then contact you.

    If you can't or don't want to discuss this with me, can you put me in touch with someone who will? I really need to talk to someone.

    Thank You!

    ~ Stephen
    D-FensDogg

    [Anniee knew what the "D-Fens" part referred to.]

    ReplyDelete

---> NOTE: COMMENT MODERATION IS ACTIVATED. <---
All submitted comments that do not transgress "Ye Olde Comment Policy" will be posted and responded to as soon as possible. Thanks for taking the time to comment.