Summer Starter Pack 2025

This may be the easiest (and sleaziest) Starter Pack we've ever assembled - this summer's theme practically writes itself. But alas, it can't all be Miami Vice and Giorgio Moroder for the entirety of this ride - that would be too easy, and also embarrassingly predictable. Under the shade of this specific palm tree there is so much media to explore and absorb that it was almost a challenge in choosing which activities to champion. Almost. 

If this is your first time joining us: the Starter Pack is an annual serial of sorts that details a very small handful of potential plans for the season ahead: stuff we hope to watch, listen to, eat, drink, read, etc. to further tailor the Summer experience to fit in with the predetermined mood. Usually the details of these adventures are documented on Facebook and Instagram as a way for you to join in - either contemporaneously or on your own journey. Mostly, though, this is just a promise to ourselves to try & stick to a plan - we always fully intend for everything to pan out but we continue to reserve the right to walk away in 30 seconds flat if we feel the heat around the corner. 

- Paul

Shadows, Atanas

More than anything else, the real driving force of our Violent Fantasies is going to be music; can't really have a Synthwave Summer without a lotta synth, and that opens the doors to a vast library of artists and albums. One such album that fits into the groove is Shadows by Atanas Ilitch. Some of you may already be familiar with this album or are at least aware of it, but in any case: Atanas Ilitch will forever be best known for his role as The Driller Killer in the 1987 Musical Horror Comedy Slumber Party Massacre II, but the year before that masterpiece came out, Atanis gave us this: 10 Electro Pop Rock tracks with titles like "Talk to Me Like the Rain" and "Shoot the Gun" that will seamlessly integrate themselves into the mood of the moment. I've been sitting on this sealed original pressing from '86 and I'm struggling to find the courage to open it (I really wanna get a look at that "full color poster"). Luckily for me (and you) I can ride that fence forever if I need to because, in the meantime, the entire Shadows album can be found on YouTube. (That link's not mine, but when it finally dies you can come over and we can tear that cellophane and spin the vinyl.)

UNCLE TNUC

If our Summer theme of a neon-hued Crime aesthetic and Glam Metal groupies is your kinda vibe, you may wanna pay a visit to Uncle TNUC ("tee-nuk"), a Wordpress blog that surfs this wave all night and parties every day. Over the years, those nights & days have been spent reviewing Erotic Thrillers, tracking down relics of Hard Rock, eating pizza, drinking beer, and paying tribute to the likes of Garth Algar's bedroom, Nintendo's Power Glove, and Uncle Buck's car. His social media reach lands in all the usual places though he's probably best known for meticulously curated music playlists dedicated to topics like Horror Movie Metal, Vampire Rock, Prostitutes, and Enya. This is all just the tab of the Coors can - the Uncle's been around for over 15 years so there's a lotta bikini bods and guitar gods to sift through all summer long. 

Russ Meyer on Blu-ray!

This may not fit in with the overall atmosphere we're aiming for, but at its core this is entirely a Summertime activity; as many (or all) of you are aware, Severin made my dreams come true by partnering with The Russ Meyer Trust and the Museum of Modern Art to restore and release the late auteur's filmography. Since Fall of 2024 they've put out discs of Vixen, Supervixens, Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens, Motorpsycho, and Up!, and while I couldn't pre-order them fast enough, they've sat wiggle-jiggle-free on my shelves since they've arrived, because nobody but nobody wants to watch skin flick sexcapade hijinks in February. So, the pressure's been cumulating and the excitement's been building and my sights are set on Summer as fertile ground for a massive Bosomania marathon that promises to Erupt With Excitement! 

TV After Dark

Securing movies and music that compliment the desired ambience of this summer's subject matter will be fun, though not very challenging; we're very much in touch with our Violent Fantasies. With TV we have to get a little creative as to what qualifies, then locate it, then lock in. In the past the goal has often been to embrace a series we're not already exhaustedly familiar with, so there's always a bit of a gamble in regards to a.) will it fit in with the theme, and b.) will we even like it. So again, the obvious Miami Vice aside, off the top of my head I'm thinking Silk Stalkings, Magnum P.I., La Femme Nikita, China Beach, Knight Rider, Red Shoe Diaries, and with any luck, the notoriously illusive Baywatch Nights. I think by this point you get the overall aura we're going for here so if you have any recommendations, lick your lips and whisper tawdry suggestions in my ear. 

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.

Are You Afraid of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones?

What's more horrific: receiving your wife's severed head in the mail, or listening to The Offspring? The 90s asked the tough questions and gave us the awful truth - and the awful music. Typically around this time of year, my home, my head, and my car is filled with the ominous and gorgeous sounds of Nico Fidenco, Fabio Frizzi, and John Carpenter. Intellectually these are the sounds of the 70s and 80s, but spiritually they're the sounds of Halloween - my Halloween. But I've embarked on great change to make this Halloween different: consciously memorable but still fun. And so more than the movies, I'm aiming to shift the music playlist, because that's where the mood comes from, and that mood - that 90s mood - is gonna best be experienced not through movie score but through pop songs. And with that, I'm able to assemble some consistent favorites but mostly explore the stuff I otherwise wouldn't have sought out. I can't promise I'll stick to this list exclusively, but they'll definitely be integrated into my usual lineup. Here's a short starter pack. 

- Paul

"Hey Bulldog" by Toad the Wet Sprocket

(featured in I Know What You Did Last Summer)

"Youth of America" by Birdbrain 

(featured in Scream)

"Love Song For a Vampire" by Annie Lennox

(featured in Bram Stoker's Dracula)

"Go to Hell" by KMFDM

(featured in Hideaway)

"Treat 'em Right" by Chubb Rock

(featured in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare)

"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Marilyn Manson

(featured in House on Haunted Hill)

"Rigors" by Digginlilies

(featured in The Blair Witch Project)

"Under the Water" by Jewel

(featured in The Craft)

"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by The Mutton Birds

(featured in The Frighteners)

"Welcome to This World" by Primus

(featured in Brainscan)

Summer Starter Pack 2023

How does one recreate the Summer of 1993? Menacing Mr. Wilson and bombing the hell outta Baghdad. (Too soon?) Honestly that's not exactly how this theme is supposed to work - and yet, this list is loaded with some powerful punches that could put us in the right frame of mind to narfle a Garthok. Summer still gots to be Summer and it can't all be Ace of Base, but there'll be enough adventures to capture that early 90s mood (I'm watching Clarissa while I write this so clearly I know what the fuck I'm doing). I was 10 years old in '93 and I don't anticipate any obstacles on my journey in continuing that sensibility -- in other words, I'm still capable of eating junk and watching garbage. 

You know the routine (unless you're new, then you don't): the following is a short list of seasonally appropriate activities in which we intend to engage. Some will last all season, some will last all weekend. Some will pass the time, some will be an event. Maybe an hour or more, but maybe only ten minutes. We post these in the hopes that perhaps you'll join us in some capacity - that is if they're accessible and/or agreeable to you. Or, build your own burger and then let us know what you're scheming. It's dangerous to plan but it's necessary to have something to look forward to, so do yourself a favor and seek out some stuff that will make you nostalgic 30 summers from now. 

- Paul

Better Living Through Television 

I already know how to accurately relive my own 1993: with Patty Duke and Rhoda. Thanks to our friend and your Bob Sacamento, Max, we've been made aware of Zachary Jackson's Youtube channel, which is comprised mostly of 3-to-6-hour-long videos (that is to say each video is between 3 and 6 hours long) of early 90s Nick at Nite programming blocks titled Nick at Nite: Reimagined: nearly a dozen random episodes of the station's retro lineup - complete with 90s commercials that would've aired at the breaks - strung together to recreate any given evening of my 10-year-old lifestyle. Sometimes there's an unevenness in the audio and aspect ratios and the commercials appear to be pulled from a wide span of time, but as far as these types of YT videos go, they're pretty much exactly what I've always been searching for. Nothing says '93 like some Taxi and Jeannie right before bed. 

Squeeze, Fiona

I'm not a fan of 90s music. Actually, save for a few tunes here and there, I really fucking hate it. But I'd definitely like a solid Summer album to accompany me through the season that somehow maintains the mood I'm going for here. Thankfully, there's Fiona - the enigmatic singer/songwriter who released a handful of albums in the late 80s/early 90s, including 1992's Squeeze - a hard/soft/rock album somewhere in the balance of Heart and Lita Ford that has the right amount of sunshine and sentimentality to cover every single imaginable base. This is the best I could do and it's pretty damn good. 

Renegade

Now that my Nites are better, what to do to fill the gaps of my sweaty days? How about some sunny Southwestern crimestopping action - on a motorcycle. Renegade began in September of 1992 and lasted five seasons. It starred Lorenzo Lamas as a cop framed for murder who goes on the run to enforce his own brand of justice and hopefully clear his name. This setup is already a warm blanket for me, but when you add the TV melodrama and Action aesthetic of the early 90s to the menu, it only gets hotter. I've always been peripherally aware of this show, and while it's currently available on disc and streaming, our options are ripe and robust - I anticipate binging this bad boy. 

VIOLENT STREETS

Another Summer, another Box of brutality. This season's set is from Severin who've compiled five Umberto Lenzi Poliziotteschi - (presumably over the top) violent Italian Crime sagas from the Cannibal Ferox maestro himself.

I reserve the Action genre for Summer as is, and three of the included films are accompanied by soundtrack CDs(!) so this will be a very easy (and bloody) departure from our steady diet of Sleepless in Seattle and Salt N Pepa; who says you can't put marinara on mac & cheese? 

Take your father's place at my side

The #1 reason I wanted a child of my own was to have the opportunity to introduce STAR WARS to someone for the first time. My plan was to go chronologically by Episode, and so I attempted to show my son Phantom Menace last year, to which after 20 minutes he asked, "Can we turn this movie off?" Fair enough, that's a jagged pill to swallow for a 3-year-old (or for anyone of any age). Cut to March of this year and we say fuck it and draw the curtains and crank the volume on A New Hope and the effects have only gained momentum with each passing day.

It worked in a more intense and profound way than I could've ever hoped for. I've eaten, shat, and slept nothing but the wars amongst the stars for the past 10 weeks, bound and connected to my kid through the pop culture phenomenon of my own youth with the potential of new and continuously changing developments from here on in (Episode X has been teased). His full-blown STAR WARS birthday party is on the horizon which will only send this obsession into hyperdrive, promising a Summer of incessant Revenging and Returning and Awakening that's sure to leave me in a very comfortable and familiar place. 

Summer Starter Pack 2022

I don't make plans. I don't have anticipation. I don't have expectations. I don't look forward to things, because more often than not, it leads to heartache. So I try to keep these little projects and schemes on the simpler side of the spectrum - lest they perish.

We're currently on the cusp of One Bad Summer, so we need these distractions to keep track of the time; there'll be some old stuff, some new stuff, some old new stuff, some new old stuff. It'll be our usual tabernacle of nostalgia bric-a-brac, but with our usual cabalistic flair to make it sound important. Still though, there's nothing arbitrary here: Bad or not, these are the Summer vibes we've elected, and they're all accurate and worthy of the season (because we said so and we know best). Feel free to join us if it's convenient within your plans, and check back often - as some of these are potential springboards for further evaluation. 

If you want it bad, that's how you're gonna get it.

- Paul

Mixtape Movie Marathon

Usually I'm not a fan of Double Features or Triple Features or any instance wherein more than one seemingly unrelated feature film is played in succession without adequate breathing room in between. Movies sometimes need like a day or a few to sorta sink in for me. But I've constructed one that works I think - at least for me (and for the season).

Due to some recent and upcoming video releases, fate has dealt us a winning hand of soundtrack-driven Cinema that's sure to raise one helluva music-movie marathon that's sure to occupy one junk food-saturated day (or at most a weekend). 

For the sake of consistency (and as a serving suggestion) the order should go:

The Girl Can't Help It

Licorice Pizza

Rock 'n' Roll High School

Times Square

American Graffiti 

A Little Deep Dish Action

Ok, so no amount of time ever really goes by when I'm not at least peripherally functioning on some amount of Turtle Power. But this Summer's already shaping up to be more mondo tubuloso than it's been since I was a kid - and it's mutating beyond my control. 

In a short span of time I picked up the 1990 comic book adaptation of the original movie, as well as a very prominent body art tribute. Additionally, I've finally filled in the gaps of my physical media collection with Lionsgate's Complete Series Set (in which 24 DVDs are clumsily stuffed into a 95¢ plastic box). But above and beyond all that, my son is starting to absorb this pop culture empire in a more mature and perceptive way than before, due largely to the gripping gameplay given by 1990's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. 

Through this, he's not only learning the correlation of names/bandana colors, but also the excitement of the franchise. I'm just along for the ride. 

STARLOG - The Final Frontier

I mentioned a while back that Starlog Magazine was never really my thing - mostly because Science Fiction was never really my thing. The truth is I rarely come across an issue that doesn't look appealing to me, but I pass it up due to some convoluted "principle," or I'm holding out for something better.

No more.

Flea market season is upon us, and plenty of previously owned periodicals are out there waiting for me. Those of you who follow our Instagram may've noticed that we've already begun beefing up our stockpile with great reward and no fucks given. As the hallway of Fango back issues narrows and they become harder to find, Starlog will lift the flag and carry on. 

Stranger Things 4

There will be shows, old & new. But this show earned its Summer stars with its super-seasonal third season in 2019. The series had danced around 80s nostalgia as part of its initial hook (and to explicitly establish from where it drew inspiration), but Season 3 was shamelessly uninhibited in its gimmickry, and it was that very brashness that more or less turned me into a bit of a "fan" - as it was the last time I used my Netflix subscription (though I'm sensing that may be the case for some other people).

Last season was huge on product placement - to the point that spotting old labels became the main narrative thread for me. But the way bigger deal was the actual product tie-ins: Burger King, Baskin Robbins, and most importantly, Coca-Cola, which resulted in a soda-by-mail benediction that nearly defined my 2019 Summer. 

So I guess what I'm reeeaallly looking forward to is the junk food. Doritos is a logical and welcome partnership, but this is no good. I know they can do way better than this - because they have. At this point, they should've leveled-up to collector glasses at McDs or some sorta sweepstakes for you and a guest to go on an all-expense-paid vacation to The Upside Down - because these ugly ass bags of chips ain't cuttin' it.

Camille Keaton in Italy

There's clearly plenty to watch and I won't mention it all - but this is worth mentioning.

Vinegar Syndrome released this 3-movie set in 2021 as a limited edition of "8,000 units." I don't know what the demand is but I feel fortunate for finding it at The Archive last March. 

You know I love me a boxset - especially one full of new stuff (to me), and this promises (or insinuates) some sparkling Italian scenery to match the mood. But the real draw is Camille Keaton; I'd like to be a more consistent fan, and so I look forward to enjoying material in which she's not being gang raped or receiving a forced abortion. 

This Summer is only as bad as we'll allow it to be.