Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian • 172,582 subscribers
Old books, movies and music. Keeping Twitter busy since 2014.
Shorts
Videos
"All signs point to us being sucked into a black hole." "I don't wanna be sucked into a black hole!" Quark (1977) was a really fun show, but maybe it came out at the wrong time. Buck Henry created it as a loving sci-fi spoof, and it's gentle oddball comedy that plays with Star Trek in a fun way. It only made it to eight episodes before NBC canned it but it still has a loyal fan base. Richard Benjamin is Quark, commanding a United Galaxy Sanitation Patrol ship which of course gets into several scrapes that frequently echo Star Trek plots. Tricia and Cyb Barnstable are The Bettys (one is a clone of the other but neither will admit to being the clone), Richard Kelton is the Spock-like sentient plant Ficus, there's a male/female engineer called Gene/Jean, their boss Palindrome reports to a massive floating head, etc. Not everyone is a fan of laff tracks, and some of the gags go nowhere, but it's entertaining and silly and captures the sometimes oddball '70s look of TV science fiction (I'm looking at you here The Fantastic Journey!) The Bettys wouldn't be out of place in Buck Rogers two years later.
Pulp Librarian95,016 views • 1 day ago
Vince Taylor was one of David Bowie's inspirations for the character Ziggy Stardust. A classic rocker in the mode of Elvis and Gene Vincent, Taylor was born in West London but moved to California when he was seven. Returning to London in '58 he began hanging out at the 2i's coffee bar in Soho owned by a couple of wrestlers, where many early British rock and roll stars started their careers playing live and where he met the musicians who would form his band The Playboys. Taylor and His Playboys enjoyed most of their success in France, and here he is on a Scopitone recording from 1960 covering Eddie Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock. Scopitone was an early video jukebox, popular in France, which played 16mm movies of the artist to accompany the song. Do enjoy!
Pulp Librarian66,121 views • 4 days ago
O Fortuna, from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The music many movies love! Carmina Burana (Songs from Buria) is a medieval collection of songs, poetry and dramatic texts, discovered in 1803 in the Benedictine monastery of Benediktbeuern. Little is known about the authors but it's assumed the pieces were written by students and theologians travelling through the region. In 1935-36 Carl Orff composed a cantana for 24 of the poems, beginning and ending with O Fortuna. It's been used in many films including Excalibur (1981) and The Doors (1991) as well as for Old Spice adverts in the 1970s. However it wasn't used in The Hunt For Red October (1990): Basil Poledouris composed the music for that, and it does in parts have a similar sound.
Pulp Librarian77,395 views • 6 days ago
I have a terrible suspicion AI agents have been watching Time Bandits...
Pulp Librarian18,670 views • 3 days ago
Dschinghis Khan: Dschinghis Khan (1979). The greatest song never to win Eurovision.
Pulp Librarian425,383 views • 2 months ago
Mud: Rocket (1974). '74 really was the Year of Mud; two No.1s in the UK (Tiger Feet and Lonely This Christmas bookending the year), a No.2 with The Cat Crept In, and this slightly forgotten one. Rocket was written by the powerhouse duo of Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (sometimes referred to as Chinnichap) as a fun and cheesy rock 'n' roll / glam mashup, with Les Gray in full Elvis impersonator mode. It only made it to No. 6, but it's a solid foot stomper and a real reminder how the early '70s rock and roll revival was having an impact on a range of acts.
Pulp Librarian137,745 views • 27 days ago
The Sisters of Mercy: Dominion (1988). David Hogan has an eclectic range of pop videos under his belt: everyone from Prince to Kenny Rogers, The Hooters to Sheryl Crow. But it's this one for The Sisters of Mercy that's possibly his most visually arresting. Filmed in Petra and playing on the Indiana Jones idea (or possibly Agatha Christie given the styling) Andrew Eldritch and Patricia Morrison play moody Egyptologists who've read Dune a lot. It's very cinematic and glossy, perfect for MTV but maybe not what Sisters fans were quite expecting. Dominion was the second single from the album Floodland, but did less well in the UK charts than This Corrosion. David Hogan later directed Barb Wire in 1996, as well as being 2nd unit director on Batman Forever.
Pulp Librarian41,192 views • 9 days ago
Hobitit (1993). The live action miniseries of Lord of the Rings made by Yle TV1 in Finland, directed by Timo Torikka with music by Toni Edelmann. Praised at the time for capturing the spirit of the story, it had to trim out many of the battle scenes to keep to budget and to fit the story into nine 30 minute episodes. The focus is kept firmly on Frodo and Sam's journey.
Pulp Librarian152,333 views • 1 month ago
Hercules (1983). Lou Ferrigno throws a bear into space. Lou Ferrigno, Ingrid Anderson and Sybil Danning star in this retelling of the Hercules legend, as our hero battles King Minos and his new-fangled 'science' to save Princess Cassiopeia. Ferrigno is all action in this one: beating up bears, smashing up robots and at one point making a chariot fly into space through an Olympic style hammer throw. It's cashing in (a bit) on the hype surrounding Conan the Barbarian the year before and the earlier success of Clash of the Titans. Shot in Italy back to back with The Seven Magnificent Gladiators - a swords and sandals retelling of Seven Samurai also starring Ferrigno and Danning - it's a but rushed and sometimes silly, but it definitely has the wow factor. Director Luigi Cozzi reused a few effects from his earlier film Starcrash in this and you can see how it continues that particular vibe, blending Italian sci-fi with Greco-Roman peplum cinema. It's a Cannon Group movie, so of course it's going to have jaw droppingly improbable scenes, and there's a sequel too if you want more musclebound mythical mayhem.
Pulp Librarian29,180 views • 9 days ago
0:40
Sensitive content
This media may contain sensitive content.