Redartz: Almost done with June already; seems as if this year just started. And late June means that we are in the heady days of High Summer! This time of year is nice, as generally the scorching heat of later Summer hasn't arrived yet (although where I live, the heat and humidity is already pretty oppressive). At any rate, it seemed a good time to offer a salute to those lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer (a bonus hat tip to the first to identify that old chestnut's performer). Plus, it's been awhile since we did a quiz, so here we go with a little Summer Survey. Pour yourself an iced tea and let's get started...
1. Name your favorite "Summer Song". Yes, a challenge to start off with. There are sooooo many perfect possibilities for this, but my pick will be Bananarama and "Cruel Summer". A great song, and it always evokes that art school Summer of 1984; burgers grilling in the lot between our apartment houses while that song played on somebody's boombox. Oh yeah...
2. Share a comic that has specific Summer memories for you. For me, this one's easy. Amazing Spider-Man 161 (you remember, the issue with Nightcrawler). That Summer of 1976, I was taking Driver's Education at school. Our High School was located near downtown, a short walk from the store where I got my weekly fix of comics. The day that book came out I had class scheduled, so I stopped and picked it up on the way to DE. I subsequently sat and read it , sitting in the shade of the school building while waiting for class to begin (perhaps not the coolest image amongst the other future drivers, but hey, it was Spider-Man. Nuff Said).
3. Name your favorite Summer Blockbuster film. Here's another possibly challenging question, but I'll have to go with "Raiders of the Lost Ark". Perfect fun, perfect adventure, perfect music, perfect cast. And a perfect way for a pack of college students to spend a Summer night in air-conditioned comfort (our apartment building had no A/C, so we loved to get out on those sultry evenings).
4. What's your favorite Summertime edible and / or potable? I'll go with a tasty Hot Dog, red hot, with Cheese and Mustard, preferably with a ballpark around it. And wash it down with an icy cold lemonade, fresh squeezed...
5. Describe a feature of Summer that is uniquely appealing to you personally. This I can answer in one word: fireflies. Or, as they were called in my neck of the woods, "lightning bugs". Fascinating little insects, fun to watch and they don't bite. In fact, they often like to land on you and crawl down your arm. Seeing a bunch of these little illuminated wonders flickering on a late June night turns me into a ten-year-old all over again...
Okay, my survey is done; yours is just beginning! We all await your Summery summations...
27 comments:
Oh, man. A pop quiz? Isn't it summer vacation? :P
1. Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime." Kind of obvious, I know, but it's just a song that seems to celebrate all of the best aspects of summer.
2. Man, this one is tougher to answer than I thought; I have lots of pleasant memories tied to reading specific comics, many of them annuals (which were normally released from May through August). I think I'll go with X-men Annual #3, a.k.a. the best annual ever. I know it was early summer when I picked that one off of the spinner rack, and I read it twice over on that same day, and several more times during that summer. So much awesomeness.
3. Again, lots of options here, but I'm going to go with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." I went to see this with a friend who lived down the road. His mom drove us into Salem, OR to catch a matinee show - which made it more fun (normally, at that age I was either accompanied by one of my parents at movies, or just dropped off at the theater alone while they went shopping or ran errands). And the movie more than met all expectations for young Trekkies.
4. For food, I can't pick just one, but they all fall into the same general category: fresh, locally grown fruit. My family lived out in the country, and our property had a few cherry, sour cherry, apple and plum trees on it. It was Oregon, so there were wild blackberries growing everywhere. And there were a lot of U-pick orchards and fruit & vegetable farms in the area, where we often went to pick peaches, strawberries, blueberries and the fat, juicy blackberry cultivars (loganberries, boysenberries, marionberries) that thrived in Oregon. Even now, here in Croatia, I love the late spring through the late summer, when all of the locally grown strawberries, cherries, apricots, cantaloupes, watermelons, etc., etc. can be found at the outdoor markets.
As for a beverage - I'll be obvious again and say that nothing beats an ice-cold Coke (or Pepsi or RC, I'm not choosy about my colas like some people are). Preferably served in a big glass, with ice (cubes or crushed) and maybe even a twist of lemon. I don't drink cola anywhere near as much as I used to, but it's still my favorite (a guilty pleasure, I suppose).
5. Not sure if it's unique to me, but I always like the early evenings: after the sun sets, and the oppressive heat subsides but it's still pleasantly warm out, the stars shining in the night sky and you can hear the crickets in the background. That's the perfect time to sit outside or take a walk (obviously, this is very much a non-city way to experience summer nights).
1) You're The One That I Want/John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John - a massive UK hit (#1 for 9 weeks) in the summer of 1978 and whenever I hear it I'm taken back to being 12 years old in my last pre-teen, pre-Thatcher summer.
2) Marvel UK's Planet Of The Apes #35, dated June 21st 1975 - the start of Marvel's adaptation of 'Beneath The Planet Of The Apes' and I'd been hugely anticipating this issue for weeks! The cover is still one of my favourite comics covers ever (it was also the cover of the US POTA magazine #7).
3) Star Wars - which I finally got to see on Tuesday, May 30th 1978.
4) Fresh strawberries probably say summer to me more than anything else.
5) We don't get oppressive heat or humidity in this country so the summer weather is mostly quite pleasant. But it rains a lot less in summer which I'm very grateful for (unlike winter when it seems to never stop raining).
1. Favorite summertime song is “Electric Avenue,” by Eddy Grant. Actually, that whole album made my summer several years running.
2. My favorite summer-related comic is JLA 100. I read it (and the subsequent two chapters) over and over again. Runner-ups (Runners-up?) would be Batman 251 (The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge) and the next JLA/JSA with the Freedom Fighters. Those team ups were always a highlight of summer.
3. My summer movie was Star Wars. I didn’t go to a lot of movies. The closest theater was about 30 minutes drive from my house. I also loved the Doc Savage movie (hey, I was ten years old).
4. My favorite summertime food was a hamburger cooked on the grill….still is. I can almost smell them cooking right now.
5. Sights, sounds, and smells of summer…..fireflies for sure (saw some last night), the smell of freshly cut grass, the deer on the side of the road as you’re driving by (since they know there’s no hunting), baseball being played live or on TV, etc….
1- Favorite Song with the word “Summer” in the title : “Summer In The City” — not the original hit single by the Lovin’ Spoonful (though it’s good too, of course), but Tim Curry’s funky/sinister 1981 cover. Favorite Song that EVOKES Summer : “Good Vibrations” by the Beach Boys. One of our local FM radio stations played it over and over in the summer of ‘74, and it became inextricably linked in my mind with lots of different comics, including ….
2- Favorite Summer Comic : GIANT-SIZE AVENGERS #2, the thrilling, heart-breaking climax of Steve Englehart’s “Celestial Madonna” storyline (tho not really, as it turned out). The Swordsman’s death scene — sacrificing himself to save the woman who rejected him for another guy, he dies thinking he’s a total loser — man, it guts me every time. And the Dave Cockrum art : (chef’s kiss)
3- Favorite Summer Movie: it has to be STAR WARS. Even though it premiered in early May, it dominated the entire Summer of ‘77. My girlfriend and I must have seen it in various theatres 10 times. We’d run out of other movies to watch, and she’d say “Well, should we just go see STAR WARS again?”, and I never said “No” : ) Even when we weren’t actually watching the movie on the big screen, it was EVERYWHERE you looked — posters, TV and radio ads, the first trickle of merchandizing (T-Shirt iron-ons) and billboards (there was an ENORMOUS one on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood). We even went to see Vader, Threepio and Artoo get their footprints preserved in cement at Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood (well, among the crowd of excited 8,000 fans, we saw the top of Vader’s head for about five seconds as he approached the cement, but at least we were there).
(I’m gonna cheat and pick a Runner-Up, just because. JAWS is still, in many ways, the PERFECT summer movie. Even though it gave me a fear of swimming in the ocean that persists to this day. And Edo’s mention of WRATH OF KHAN reminds me of one of the best years ever for SF/ Fantasy / Horror movies, 1982 — besides ST- TWOK, there was also CAT PEOPLE, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, THE ROAD WARRIOR, BLADE RUNNER, THE THING, TRON, POLTERGEIST, THE SECRET OF N.I.M.H., THE DARK CRYSTAL and oh yeah, E.T.
4- Favorite Summer Food : Stone Fruit. For me, it ain’t officially Summer until the juicy nectarines and plums show up in the supermarket. Beverage: I almost never have sugary drinks anymore (Mango-infused LaCroix suits me just fine these days) but I will on occasion have an ice-cold Coke with a few slices of lemon, for Old Time’s Sake.
5- Fave sights, sounds, smells: Suntan Lotion. One whiff and it brings it all back.
b.t.
Edo:
‘You’ll can zhizz right up and gurzzhh the spahh…’
Also — yes, X-MEN ANNUAL 3 was awesome. There was a period there when Annuals (from both of the majors, but especially Marvel) were an essential Summer Treat. I have a special fondness for all the 52-page Annuals that Marvel put out in Summer of ‘76. Most of them weren’t even all that great, but I loved em. AVENGERS ANNUAL 10 is one of my all-time faves (38 pages of stunning Mike Golden art behind a notoriously lame Al Milgrom cover). BATMAN ANNUAL 8 by Mike Barr and a Trevor Von Eden is easily my fave DC Annual.
Colin:
Yep, ‘You’re The One That I Want’ takes me right back to the Summer of ‘78. The GF and I saw that goofy movie at the drive-in many times that Summer, listened to the Soundtrack on 8-track, etc. Other insanely upbeat pop hits that scream ‘SUMMER!’ for me: ‘We Got The Beat’ by The Go-Gos (though it was actually released in January, it FEELS sunny) and the super-cheesy but still delightful Beach Boys pastiche ‘Beach Baby’ by First Class (who weren’t really a band, but …. long story).
Graham:
I loved the Doc Savage movie back in the day too. I mean, I kinda KNEW it really wasn’t very good but I was such a fan of the books that I willed myself to THINK that it was :) I saw it on opening day, and I was the only person in the theatre.
Also —OMG yes, burgers grilled over a charcoal fire. YUM. Barbecued hot dogs too. Get ‘em just a tiny bit blackened by the fire and they’re PERFECT.
And fireflies — yes, by gum. I’ve only seen them once as an adult (while walking along the reflecting pool in Washington D.C. of all places) but i remember them from when I was a toddler in Ohio.
-b.t.
Summer Song - Impossible... Was it 1973 - 76 with McCartney albums Band on The Run, Venus and Mars, Wings at the Speed of Sound? Or was it 1983 with Police Synchronicity or Bowie's Let's Dance or whatever "new age / new wave" one hit wonders were slaying us from the UK?
Comic - Amazing Spidey 100, 101 or 102. Bought it on a Sunday morning walking with my dad and younger brother to the beach before Mass, for a swim. Still got em! Why my dad decided to take us to the beach and detoured by the nearby drug store I don't know. (Condoms is my best guess.)
Movie - Star Wars
Summer Food - A hot tube steak (polish sausage or serbian cevapcici or mexican chorizao) off the grill! Oh yea, baby!!!
Sights, Sounds - fireflies to see and crickets at night when it is cool enough to open the windows to listen to!!! Love the crickets!!! Reminds me of my childhood living near the dunes and beach. Also, in that climate we could actually smell the tall beach grasses growing in the dunes. Subtle... but noticeable.
Edo- you're right, Mungo Jerry covers it all. And that X-men Annual is a gem. Phenomenal artwork, a Bronze age Blockbuster...
Also, kudos for your very healthy food choices! You make me think of Summer days spent scarfing blackberries from the nearby woods...
Colin- your Summertime weather sounds quite inviting. Today along the Ohio River it was 96 degrees Fahrenheit and so humid you could practically squeeze droplets from the air like a sponge.
Good call on "Grease"; it truly WAS the Summer of 1978.
Graham- Eddy Grant! Yes!!! That tune was excellent, and so was his song for the film "Romancing the Stone" ( another Summer Blockbuster). And those JLA/ JSA meetings always marked a Summer high point...
B.t.- Terrific choice, Giant Size Avengers 2 was a classic. A near perfect book. And yes, Star Wars may be the Ultimate Summer Blockbuster, but "Jaws" is a great nominee too. Indeed, I nearly picked it as my choice. All those beach scenes...even had the 4th of July featured prominently. And then there was the shark thing too...
Oh, and your story about seeing Vader and his footprints is about as cool as it gets!
Charlie- quite so, all those Wings lps seemed an integral part of those Summers. "Venus and Mars" filled my ears all year. What an album...
1) BIG Beatles fan, me. So when the Fab Four's "Got To Get You Into My Life" was released as a single (as part of a rather mediocre "Beatles Rock and Roll" compilation double album) in the summer of '76, I was ecstatic-! It was dubbed the #1 song in the mid-west for a few weeks. "Let'Em In" and "Silly Love Songs" the following summer were fine too-- but so overplayed that it sorta wrecked 'em for me for life. . . Also, SO MANY radio stations did Beatles Countdown marathons over the Memorial Day weekend over the years, that it always got me pulling their albums out for the next several weeks.
2) It may not have been a summer "event" exactly, but I certainly read that big original Avengers/Defenders War crossover during the summer as part of a bunch of borrowed comics-- as well as DEFENDERS 11 through about 20, plus GS 1-3. (I think)-- whatever summer that was, it was ALL about the Defenders.
3) My first movie choice was also STAR WARS... so instead I'm gonna cite 78's oft-derided SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND. I saw it. . . three times?. . . that summer, and I'll submit that the evening was a romantic success every time. It's a movie that EVERYONE saw, but no one admits that they liked at the time. . .
4) Man, there were summers where we ate SO much junky candy and sweets and ice cream, purchased willy-nilly with our own hard-earned dimes. Some stand-outs? Both cherry AND grape licorice-whip; those "Milk Shake" confections from the store freezer that were hard as granite that came with an unfortunate little wooden spoon; ice cream sandwiches; fudgesicles; grape Nehi pop; Orange Crush; A&W Root Beer (from the drive-in, in a mug--- not store-bought). Also, fresh watermelon and corn on the cob-- I STILL can't get enough of either! (There's a watermelon waiting to be cut on our counter even now!)
5) We also called them Lightning Bugs, btw. . . Weather-wise, winter is far&away my preferred season-- I abhor the heat and humidity in general. But an aspect of our childhood/youthful summers that lines up well with my personality is much greater freedom to just do what you'd LIKE to be doing, rather than what you SHOUD be doing, y'know? Ya wanna go swimming in the lake? Sure! Ride bikes on an entire circuit AROUND the lake? Sure! Spend an afternoon playing obstacle-marathon croquet? You bet! Quietly read a stack of Spider-man comics in the lawn chair after mowing the yard? Sign me up!
HB
Wow... this question got me curious tonight and I did a little digging on McCartney tunes filling up my summers from 73 - 76 (as a minimum).
I had a recall of McCartney on a Time Magazine cover of summer of 1976 saying "McCartney Comes Back!" off the success of "Wings at the Speed of Sound" with it's smash tune "Silly Love Songs."
The HTML to the article is found below.
At that time in 1976 Beatles had 5 songs in the Top 20 in the UK and I think "Got to Get you Into my Life" and "Paperback Writer" were in the US's top 40, along with various McCartney tunes. What a force of music, he has been, for our summers and all year round!
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947669-8,00.html
What a great topic and really excellent replies one and all although firefly’s (glow-worms?) are not as far as I am aware native to the UK and if they are they are rare in Scotland but they sound spectacular.
SUMMER SONG: Not sure if it was a hit in the US/Canada but “Dreams are Ten a Penny” by Kincade reminds me of summers as a 12/13 year old kid every time I hear it – If too obscure then The Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat" always reminds me of summer as my brother played that a lot.
COMIC: Like many folk I have lots of comics that remind me of summer but the one that comes to mind is Charlton’s “ The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves” issue 50 – I picked this up in the summer of 1976 after I sat my English and History Higher levels (a Scottish certificate similar to the English GCEs for 16/17 year olds) . I knew I had passed them both (and I had) so I was pretty happy and decided to walk home (5 miles) .1976 in the UK was a major heatwave so I headed to a local newsagents for a bottle of coke to cool down about 3 miles into my walk home and saw this comic. When I got home my mum, dad, brother and the wee dog were at the ice cream van getting ice cream cones (and yes the dog got one as well) and we sat in the garden talking and laughing – A great memory of my family now all sadly gone. And it was a cool Charlton comic with lovely Tom Sutton art.
FILM: Probably has to be Grease as well – I’m not generally a film musical fan but I loved this one and you couldn't escape the toe tapping music as it was played everywhere.
FOOD/ DRINK: Has to be raspberry’s and Strawberries and cream very British . Drink - well as a young teenager it was Irn-Bru (pronounced Iron Brew) it’s a Scottish thing, think liquid bubble-gum and add more sugar lol
ASPECT OF SUMMER: When it’s been really warm I love it when there is a summer storm (hot rain, lightning etc) and the clammy heat is replaced by cool air (as long as the next day is back to being hot again).
McScotty:
I was totally unaware that ‘Rock the Boat’ is a popular crowd participation song for weddings and birthday parties and such in the UK (like ‘Macarena’ or ‘The Chicken Dance’ or ‘The Hokey Pokey’ here in the States), before I saw it in a particularly hilarious episode of DERRY GIRLS. It triggers ‘Summer’ for me too — I distinctly remember hanging out with my first girlfriend at the park while that song played on someone’s portable radio, Summer of ‘74.
MANY GHOSTS OF DR. GRAVES 50 — the one with the rare Charlton horror story that takes up the entire issue, right? (My memory isn’t that awesome, I had to look it up on the GCD) There were two ‘book-length’ DR. GRAVES stories by Sutton, and this was the better of the two, IIRC. Yes, that is a pretty great Sutton cover.
And Summer Storms— egad, yes. Throughout most of the ‘80s, we would always get a really raucous thunderstorm at least once every August. Then the weather patterns changed and they became much more rare (and less severe) since then. One time, I was driving home from work when the lightning started blazing away. I was enjoying the light-show for the first few minutes and then started to notice that the gaps between the lightning and the thunderclaps seemed to be getting shorter — and shorter — then just a few seconds apart — then REALLY close together — uh-oh — KA-BLAM, a lightning bolt slammed into the street maybe ten feet ahead of my car, with an instantaneous (and freaking LOUD) blast of thunder. I was suddenly not enjoying the storm so much anymore! Hands shaking, heart pounding, hoping hoping hoping that it was really true that the rubber tires would act as insulation to keep me from getting electrocuted even if the car took a direct hit — i couldn’t get home fast enough. I still love thunderstorms though, as long as I’m not out IN them. The last really big one we had was several years ago. Scared the bejeezus out of our poor cat.
b.t.
b t. Yes that's the very comic. I haven't read it in many years having lost my issue. It was more the memory of a great summer that Dr Grave issue 50 conjured up for me rather than it being a great comic. Saying that I did like it and it's on my " must purchase" list of old comics I once owned. We don't get storms like that in the UK thankfully they sound both spectacular and scary . Yes Rock the boat is still played a lot in the UK on nostalgia radio stations, pubs, clubs and at weddings as is the similarly titled Rock your baby by George McCrae
Paul, Irn-Bru isn't just a Scottish thing - it's actually the UK's third most popular soft drink after Coke and Pepsi. I bought a small bottle of Irn-Bru just a couple of weeks ago from my local Tesco.
Hi Colin, true but it is actually Scotland's best selling soft drink outselling both Coke and Pepsi (although Coke is now catching up) the only region in the world where that is the case ( where there is no trade embargo etc) and as you know Iron Bru is very much "Scotland's other national drink" lol the other being Whisky(Scotch) . I actually don't like Irn Bru now too sweet.
McScotty —
Your story of acquiring the DR. GRAVES book on a hot Summer Day and having ice cream afterwards with the family (and the wee dog!) is a perfectly lovely memory. I’m very sorry to hear they’ve all passed now. Seems like we never even think about the inevitability of that when we’re young. My own Mom and Dad have been gone for over ten years, but I’m fortunate that all three of my brothers are still with us.
b.t.
Summer song: Whenever I hear George Harrison's "Give me love (give me peace on earth)" it makes me think of summer, specifically hiking. Don't know why.
Favorite Comic: Easy, agree with Humanbelly on the Avengers/Defender's clash, that DID come out in the summer of '73, I just started collecting comics with Avengers 114 just prior to the beginning of the story. That summer hooked me.
Film: also not going Star Wars, for me it's "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes", 1st movie I saw in the theatres, during summer vacation down the shore.
Go to food: That would be a frozen custard cone from Khor Bros. Wildwood, NJ
Summer aspect: Being the NJ weather pretty much warm from mid May to September, I just like the idea of walking out the door with shorts, sitting outside and enjoying the weather listening to the birds.
Excellent comments everyone,terrific responses all round. I'm really enjoying your Summer stories...
HB and Flamekeeper- Avengers/Defenders war, that's like the archetypal Summer event! I can only imagine how fun it must have been to await each impending installment- I only read it years later, in one marathon reading session. Great, great story.
McScotty- yep, fireflies are like magic to watch! If you find the right patch of woods, it almost looks like Christmas lighting. Truly fascinating little insects...
Oh, and love your story about ice cream. There's no dog that doesn't enjoy some , in my experience.
B.t.- fully agree with your comments about thunderstorms. Great to watch, but those 'close call' lightning strikes can be heart stopping...
Paul, as a kid (on holiday in America), I met a member of 'The Hues Corporation'. At the time, I'd never even heard of them (nor had my parents), so wasn't star struck. We've got a large Hues Corp booklet, as a souvenir. Unfortunately, it's sun-damaged, being so big that part of it sticks above wherever it's stacked, hence the sun damage. Forrest reissued Rock the Boat, I seem to remember.
Phillip
I'm more an Autumn/Winter person, so found this hard. Still...
Song: Mungo Jerry is unbeatable. As an alternative, how about 'Here Comes the Sun', by GH?
Comic: Giant size Summer Specials (e.g. Dandy & Whoopee!) bought at the airport shop.
Film: Here's a joke suggestion, as I can't think of one: 'Summer Holiday' - Cliff
Food: 7Up - Reminds me of holidays in Malta.
Aspect: Ice cream vans playing 'Green Sleeves'
Phillip
Philip. How could I have forgotten those large size UK summer specials, they positively scream summer. I saw the Beano and Dandy specials earlier today but at £6.99 ( about 9 US dollars/) each it seems pretty steep for kids (tempted to get the Dandy one as it has old reprints). What a great experience meeting any Hues Corp member .
Flamekeeper. I only recently "re-found" that George Harrison song "Give me love.." it's brilliant and it's now on my morning Alexa wake up music list and it always cheers me up
FlameKeeper: Harrison’s ‘Give Me Love’ is a GREAT Summer Song pick. For me, it’s one of those ‘Instant Trigger’ songs — whenever I hear it, I’m transported right back to a Ceramics class I took in a Summer School session at our Junior High School in ‘73. The teacher was a super-cool, laid-back guy, always had the radio on in the background while we made our pinch pots and other clay items — whoa, just thinking about all this brought back a tiny whiff of that earthy clay smell — especially strong when you’d scoop out a sludgy chunk of it from that wet trough-thing…that weird, gritty/buttery texture…all those various shades, from dark brick red to almost white… have to knead it like crazy for a few minutes to get a consistent color ….
…hang on a sec….
….oh cool, there’s that cute girl again… always worked at that table near the front door… pale, long blond hair, kinda shy… Jackie Something… didn’t come back in the Fall, never saw her again after that Summer…
Okay, I’m back. :)
So yeah, seems like we heard ‘Give Me Love’ at least once every day of that class. And a big hit by ANOTHER Ex-Beatle — ‘Live and Let Die’ was also in heavy rotation throughout that two-week class. Which brings up yet another Associational memory: the paperback Movie tie-in edition of that 007 novel was one of the books I lugged around to read at the bus stop and during the short lunch break between classes.
Swear to God, if Time Travel ever DOES become possible in the real world, I’m half-convinced it’s gonna be through some enhanced Transendental Meditation method like in SOMEWHERE IN TIME. Some combo of associational sights, sounds, smells and such. Those brief flashbacks are really strong already. Maybe not ACTUAL Time Travel (so we won’t have to worry about the Nazis winning WW II) but maybe a way to enhance and control memories so that they can be experienced in more than just sheet bursts. Something like that.
b.t.
b.t. - You might want to look at the Retromash twitter feed. Last week there was a review of Live & Let Die - the novel:
https://retromash.com/2021/06/25/live-and-let-die-by-ian-fleming/
Phillip
Anyone else here a fan of the old AIP ‘Beach Party’ movies? With Frankie and Annette and the gang? My brothers and I watched them over and over again whenever they were on TV (which was often, ESPECIALLY in the Summertime). They tend to all blur together in my mind (Was this the one with the Potato Bug? Is Don Rickles in this one, or is it the one where Deadhead falls in love with a Mermaid? etc) but last time I watched ‘em, i thought the first two or three were definitely more fun, fresh and livelier. The last few installments seemed to be really running on fumes — still a few fun bits here and there, but fewer and further between.
At their best, they’re an appealing, sexy-but-innocent, goofy, idealized Fantasyland of a Youth/Surf/Rock and Roll Culture that Never Really Was.
b.t.
B.t.- yes! Beach Party Movies! My wife and I enjoy watching them from time to time. "Ski Party" (granted, not a Summer flick, technically) is great, with appearances by Leslie Gore and James Brown. "Beach Blanket Bingo " is a classic of the genre. Another one well worth watching is "Where the Boys Are " (okay, technically a Spring Break film, but it's beach fun). It actually gets rather dramatic towards the end, but still loaded with fun. Great cast, too: Paula Prentiss, Frank Gorshin and Connie Francis are terrific...
Let's see...
"Favourite summer song."
George Gershwin's Summertime, with The Fun Boy Three's version being my favourite.
"Share a comic that has specific Summer memories for you?"
Marvel UK's Avengers #98 from 1975, which I remember reading on the way to Blackpool for our summer holiday, that year. It featured the Vision betraying the Avengers to recreate Ultron from Adamantium and, for some reason, its association with that journey's always stuck in my head.
"Name your favorite Summer Blockbuster film."
I can't think of one.
"What's your favorite Summertime edible and / or potable?"
Hot dogs.
"Describe a feature of Summer that is uniquely appealing to you personally."
It still being light at 10 o'clock at night, which always seems a miraculous thing.
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