Summer Starter Pack 2024

Out for Summer, out 'till Fall, we might not come back at all.

Putting ourselves in a 70s state for the season shouldn't be too difficult - just watch the right movies and listen to the right music. Right? But that is aggressively broad in every area - we wanna achieve a mood but we're too smart and too picky to just be like "oh, let's watch the shit outta Chico and The Man because 1970s." Our path is more defined regardless (or maybe because) of whatever wave we've given ourselves to ride, and we certainly can come up with enough stuff to have a solid 70s Summer that's tailored to our taste. 

And now the annual exposition: the following is a list of projects, interests, goals, and such & such that we intend to tackle to fill our favorite season with leisure and enlightenment. We create it for ourselves as a guideline we can stick to (which doesn't always work out) but also to give you ideas - even if it's the singular notion of finding your own song to dance to. So don't be no jive-ass and get on the ball, mama!

- Paul

DISGRACELAND

I've never pushed a podcast before, but that's because I don't listen to them. The opportunity rarely presents itself - I don't have a commute, I don't work in an office, I don't exercise, I don't even own headphones. But convenience and circumstance don't play into this very prominent adventure for the Summer and beyond. If you're not familiar with this - the most downloaded music podcast in the world - it's hosted by Jake Brennan (a name some of our readers may recognize from Bennett Media's Bodega Girls and WOWMANWOW days) who solely and singularly recounts tales of sordid misadventures and rock 'n' roll nightmares surrounding pop culture icons, from Chuck Berry to Andy Warhol to Debbie Harry to Anthony Bourdain. For over 10 years Disgraceland has accumulated a catalog of more than 160 episodes - enough to fill your season with debauched gossip and hair-raising yarns. 

Disgraceland will be consuming much of my summer in a different way. Jake and myself are currently attempting to bring the podcast to YouTube in a compelling way - hopefully steering the built-in audience while attracting a new one. If you do join us in anything this summer, make it this. Rocka Rolla. 

Podcasts: https://www.disgracelandpod.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/disgracelandpod/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@disgracelandpod

Coca-Cola Classic

There are a few things floating around this season: Pepsi "debuted" their Summer Lime and Peach flavors (though Lime is a rerun from 2019), Dr. Pepper has some coconut thing that I'm willing to try (more on that soon hopefully), and we're still winding down the final days of Coke's poorly advertised Spiced variant (which just tastes like their California Raspberry flavor from 2018). The hunt is fun and a new taste is a cheap thrill, but sometimes I want my Summer to be like Summer, and for that you can't beat the real thing. 

But I'm not just talkin' about regular ol' Coke, that'd be boring. I'm talking glass bottles of Coca-Cola - the kind that were abundantly available during, say, the 1970s. But even more than keeping with some silly theme, Coke in a glass bottle became a major Summer/nostalgia thing for me when I discovered them for sale at my corner store when I was maybe 9 or 10 and they turned into my whole world. I spent an entire Summer Vacation asking my mother every day if I could have money to go buy more, and on days I couldn't I'd refill the empties from a plastic 2 liter. Nowadays they're still pretty scarce, but one of my local grocery stores is selling cases of them at some mildly affordable price. Honestly I don't remember the cost, I don't care, I'm getting them and I'm drinking Coke outta glass bottles this Summer and no one's gonna stop me. 

Cinema Speculation (The List)

In 2022 Quentin Tarantino published a book of his own Film Criticism, titled Cinema Speculation. It's the kinda thing I'd been waiting for since I became aware of the man; personally I get excited when any filmmaker talks about movies they like (or dislike) but Quentin in particular has famously demonstrated his knowledge and wisdom regarding the medium. That part's inarguable, but whether or not one agrees with his takes (or, more importantly, finds them interesting) is the subjective approach. I happen to find his insights fascinating - one, because of how well informed he is with the subject matter, and two, how honest and articulate he is with his sentiments. He is, after all, a great writer. 

I read this book last summer and it checked every box and met every expectation. One of its incidental strengths is what a breath of fresh air it is in the stagnant climate of Metacritic and Audience Score and anything else that reduces art to a numeric statistic - just the simple act of reading a heartfelt review is exhilarating. But of course, the reviews are much more than that: they're deep, they're informative, and more than anything, they're opinionated. Imagine that, folks: subjective judgement of merits and faults from someone who's good at it. And it's that strength in the writing that is why this is top tier Film Criticism: even when I disagree with him, I still enjoy the fuck out of it. 

The structure of the book is set up in such a way that mostly each chapter is a different movie review, covering films between the late 1960s and early 1980s. While reading through I never peeked ahead to see what the next movie would be as it always proved to be a delightful surprise. Ultimately I'd only seen roughly half of the movies discussed, and so this summer I'm going to attempt to fill in as many gaps as possible and watch what I need to have an actual frame of reference. I'd tell you what that list consists of, but if you've not read the book then I don't wanna spoil that surprise. 

The NBC Mystery Movie

Between 1971 and 1977, NBC would pile their Mystery shows into a block of programming called The NBC Mystery Movie. This would typically air twice a week and it had an intro with graphics and a spooky theme song to cohere all these otherwise unrelated shows into one case-cracking vibe. A few shows broke beyond the boundaries of this 6 year period, but a lot of them ran for only one season. The programs included were: 

Amy Prentiss

Banacek

Columbo

Cool Million

Faraday & Company

Hec Ramsey

Lanigan's Rabbi

Madigan

McCloud

McCoy

McMillan & Wife

Quincy, M.E.

The Snoop Sisters

Tenafly

Shows like Faraday & Company and Madigan were short-lived - though keeping in mind that each episode was meant to play out like an entire TV movie, they were still all ambitious. McCloud, McMillan & Wife, and Quincy gained enough traction to move out from under the "umbrella" and of course Columbo became iconic and continued solving crimes until 2003.

Not that I've grown tired of Columbo (if that were even possible) but I'd like to branch out a bit to some of these other shows, perhaps even create my own Mystery Movie lineup, particularly with some of the ones I'm less familiar with. Of course, finding "obscure" TV can still be a challenge - even in the vast wasteland of Streaming nearly all of these shows are nowhere to be found. Alas, physical media endures and may be the only option, so there's a good chance that The Snoop Sisters will have a home on my shelf (next to Columbo).

The Best of Disco Demands

One of the biggest adjustments for me this Summer will be my music listening habits; save for a few exceptions, I reserve music from the 1970s for colder months. It's a bit of a personal preference, sure, but not without basis: a lotta that era's music sounds and feels like either frigid despair or enclosed coziness. But Disco? That hot, sweaty, dance beat? That fever to which they so often refer? That could do just fine, and I have just the prescription: roughly 10 years ago I got my hands on a 5 CD set called The Best of Disco Demands, consisting of 45 hot traxxx by various artists. The real joy of this collection is that it's not some snoozy Top 40 Now That's What I Call Disco compilation with all the stuff we're sick to fucking death of, but rather wall-to-wall obscure vibes that sound like score from a Blaxploitation flick. I don't know if this mood will hold my interest all season long, but it'll certainly serve as an exhilarating introduction to the hotness. 

Each CD comes in its own cardboard sleeve. I've scanned them for you, because you've earned it.