Tintinnabulation —

the ringing or sound of bells.



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This is what happens without a second bathroom

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (491)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes short, the 1939 Pied Piper Porky starring Porky Pig directed by Bob Clampett.



The humor in this short is more adult in nature, as cartoons were shown in a cinema to a variety of audiences. There are inside jokes that the grown ups would have appreciated, plus plenty of slapstick to amuse the kids.


The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour are getting ready for the start of summer Fridays. As you well know we love mash-up videos. so here's an unlikely pair for the wonderful Bill McClintock - Donna Summer and The Police



Bill has one of the most limber minds on the Intraweb.


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1990 drama Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer directed by John McNaughton and starring Michael Rooker, Tom Towles, and Tracy Arnold.

The film was shot in 1985 but had difficulty finding a film distributor. It premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1986 and played at other festivals throughout the late 1980s. Following successful showings during which it attracted both controversy and positive critical attention, the film was rated X by the MPAA, further increasing its reputation for controversy. It was subsequently picked up for a limited release in 1990 in an unrated version.

Although the MPAA initially gave the film an X rating, this movie, along with Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, and Pedro Almodóvar's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, were the main reasons for the creation of the NC-17 rating (an adults-only film, which is non-pornographic).

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at the ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this horror movie: Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer.



Michael Rooker remained in character for the duration of the shoot, even off-set. He didn't associate or socialize with any of the cast or crew during the month-long shoot, and John McNaughton made sure Rooker was the only person on set to have a private dressing room. According to Costume Designer Patricia Hart, she and Rooker would travel to the set together each day, and she never knew from one minute to the next if she was talking to Michael or to Henry, as sometimes he would speak about his childhood and background, not as Michael Rooker, but as Henry. Indeed, so in-character did Rooker remain, that during the shoot, his wife discovered she was pregnant, but she waited until filming had stopped before she told him


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Do not believe your eyes

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Hey, why don't you call your grandma today?

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And you are afraid of the oncoming AI revolution

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An odd thought on a Tuesday afternoon

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Telekinesis —

the supposed ability to move objects at a distance by mental power or other nonphysical means



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I was hoping they'd cover "Let's Work Together"

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (490)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes short, the 1939 Naughty Neighbors starring Porky Pig (and co-starring Petunia Pig,) directed by Bob Clampett.



This is the final appearance of Petunia Pig in the Golden Age of American Animation.


The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour are all away, celebrating the Memorial Day weekend. Before they left, they all decided the best thing would could watch, is a guy, eating a bunch of chicken wings.



Colin Jost was a good guest


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1987 drama Babette's Feast directed by Gabriel Axel and starring Stéphane Audran, Birgitte Federspiel, and Bodil Kjer.

The role of Babette was originally offered to Catherine Deneuve. She was interested in the part but dithered about accepting it. When Gabriel Axel offered the part to Stéphane Audran, he used Deneuve's interest to coax her into making a quick decision. Audran responded within two hours of reading the screenplay. (And Deneuve ultimately turned down the offer.)

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at the ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this oddly moving food movie: Babett's Feast.



The seven-course menu in the film consisted of:

"Potage à la Tortue" (turtle soup) served with Amontillado sherry.
"Blinis Demidoff" (buckwheat pancakes with caviar and sour cream) served with Veuve Cliquot Champagne.
"Cailles en Sarcophage" (quail in puff pastry shell with foie gras and truffle sauce) served with Clos de Vougeot Pinot Noir.
An endive salad.
"Savarin au Rhum avec des Figues et Fruit Glacée" (rum sponge cake with figs and candied cherries) served with Champagne.
Assorted cheeses and fruits served with Sauternes.
Coffee with vieux marc Grande Champagne cognac.


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I'd hope I'd have another choice

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Who hasn't drunk shopped

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Should you see this -

Just flee



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From the desk of C. Brown

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Taradiddle —

a small lie



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Watch where you put that hand Bub!

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (489)

Thank you for joining us today 

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes short, the 1939 Jeepers Creepers starring Porky Pig , directed by Bob Clampett.



This animated short was digitally colored by Warner Bros. in 1990.


The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour, would likes to give a special birthday shout out to an old codger, who's been around this planet of our and celebrated the planet's bio-diversity more than many of us have had a hot meal-



Happy 100th birthday David Attenborough


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1989 comedy-drama Trust directed by Hal Hartley (in the second film of his Long Island trilogy,) and starring Adrienne Shelly, Martin Donovan, Merritt Nelson, Edie Falco, and John MacKay.

Trust has the stark, no-frills look of a small-budget, grimly serious independent production, which only serves to make its deadpan hilarity all the more jarring and amusing. Everyone speaks with a rapid-fire intensity, as though each character is determined to cram the most information, or the greatest threat, into a listener’s limited attention span.

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at the ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this black comedy: Trust.



In an interview, Hal Hartley once explained that he made the movie on the spur of the moment because he wanted to work with Adrienne Shelly again immediately after making The Unbelievable Truth, so he had very little money and very little time. The movie was shot in 11 days. The reason he could do that, he said, was because so much of the direction was implied in the dialogue. The dialogue pretty much told the actors what to do.


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Perhaps they did not understand the concept of the product

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It's how business is done in some parts

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Very sad but true

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Another stray thought on a Tuesday afternoon

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Tappen —

the plug by which the rectum of a bear is closed during hibernation (and that's all I'm going to say on the subject.)



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Not a chance in hell

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (488)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes short, the 1939 Porky's Hotelstarring Porky Pig , directed by Bob Clampett.



Porky is escorting a pelican to a room. Porky is carrying his bags, one of which has stickers bearing the names of previous destinations. The stickers read: MILTON PA and KATZ HOTEL. The assistant producer on this cartoon was Ray Katz, producer Leon Schlesinger's brother-in-law.


As we said last week, the staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour, likes to have a cocktail now and then, which helps get through the days. We love a good brandy now and then, but even we didn't know the difference between cognac and brandy (although we could have guessed.) -



So once again, the French split hairs in naming alcoholic beverages


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1989 teen comedy-drama Say Anything directed by Cameron Crowe (in his feature directorial debut,) and starring John Cusack Ione Skye, Lili Taylor, Jeremy Piven, and John Mahoney.

A personal aside - I saw the movie when it first came out and I like it but was surprised when I saw it on the list. But thinking about if further, the film does feature one of the most enduring scenes in romance films, in which John Cusack holds a boombox above his head outside Ione Skye's bedroom window to let her know that he has not given up on her. Ah yes - young love

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at the ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this charming film: Say Anything.



An unusual number of the actors in this movie are themselves the children of well-known entertainment industry professionals. Ione Skye (Diane Court) is the daughter of the Scottish pop singer Donovan; Pamela Adlon (Rebecca) is the daughter of TV writer Don Segall; Jason Gould (Mike Cameron) is the son of singer Barbra Streisand and actor Elliott Gould; Chynna Phillips (Mimi) is the daughter of John Phillips and Michelle Phillips of the 1960s group The Mamas and the Papas; Amy Brooks (D.C. ) is a daughter of director, writer, and Say Anything producer James L. Brooks.


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So that will keep them quiet

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Everyone's a sucker for a love story

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Shhh, he doesn't realize that he's not a zebra

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Overheard during a phone conversation

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Switcheroo —

an unexpected or sudden change or reversal in attitude, character, position, action, etc.



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No thank you

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (487)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes short, the 1939 Wise Quacks, starring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck and directed by Bob Clampett.



An alternate design for Daffy, designed by Charles Thorson, is introduced here, where he is drawn with more slanted eyes and a big grey face surrounding his eyes. It was scrapped a year later.


You would be forgiven if you wanted to take a break from the news. The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour, not surprisingly, likes to have a cocktail now and then, which helps get through the days (we are not recommending day drinking, although it's always 5 pm somewhere.) We thought you'd like to watch, with us, Alton Brown get quite drunk, tasting 20 different drinks -



Two things: first, given my love of martinis, I’ve been an adult for a very long time; second, there should be a law against getting a tattoo while drinking. Plenty of tattoos are acquired after a few drinks - but getting one during? That should never happen.


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1989 Taiwanese drama A City of Sadness (AKA Beiqing Chengshi) directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. and starring Tony Leung, Sung Young Chen, and Wou Yi Fang. A City of Sadness focuses on the complex history of 20th-century Taiwan during the turbulent period in Taiwanese history between the fall of the Japanese Empire in 1945 and the establishment of martial law in 1949.

It is the first Taiwanese film to broach the subject of the most traumatic experience in the nation’s history, the February 28 Incident. This was a 1947 massacre by the Nationalist Party that resulted in 18,000 to 28,000 deaths. Using a family as a matrix through which to filter the historical events at the moment of the founding of the nation, Hou re-presents Taiwanese history in both micro and macro perspectives.

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at the ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this tragic drama: A City of Sadness.



The original premise of this film is the reunion of an ex-gangster (which Hou Hsiao-Hsien intended to cast Chow Yun-fat for the role) and his former lover (supposedly played by Yang Li-Hua, the top Taiwanese Opera actress in real-life) in 1970s. Hou and Chu then extended the story to involve substantial flashbacks of the calamity of the woman's family in late 1940s (where the woman was the teenage daughter of Chen Song-Yong's character). They then abandoned the former premise and instead focused on the 1940s' story.


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Ah, they have the good stuff

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This is how we'll close NYC's budget gap

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Another evolutionary trait explained -

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Another stray thought on a Tuesday afternoon -

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Superfluous —

- being more than is sufficient or required



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Have this handy!

It may save your life during the upcoming cyborg-wars

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (486)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes short, the 1939 Porky's Picnic starring Porky Pig and Petunia Pig directed by Bob Clampett.



This short is the first appearance of Petunia Pig not directed by Frank Tashlin; however, she had been originally scheduled to appear in Porky's Party and had a visual cameo debuting her new design prior in Scalp Trouble.


We hope you've had a good week during the current dumpster fires going on. The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour, not surprisingly, likes to eat, (trust me, I've had to feed them.) We thought you'd like to watch Anthony Bourdain, (another kitchen god of mine,) eat a tasting meal at The French Laundry, (if you know, you know.) -



While I'd love to eat there, it isn't my life's desire, (seeing the original cut of The Magnificent Ambersons is my life's motivating source. I may have my wish when the AI very of the film is released.)


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1989 drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring James Spader, Andie MacDowell, Peter Gallagher, and Laura San Giacomo. The film was written by Steven Soderbergh in eight days on a yellow legal pad during a cross country trip (although, as Soderbergh points out in his DVD commentary track, he had been thinking about the film for a year).

The film was inspired by Steven Soderbergh's own failed relationship. "I drove the most important woman in my life to leave because I didn't want to be in the relationship but couldn't just say, 'I don't want to be in this,'" Soderbergh told Film Comment. "So I was very deceptive about how I got out of it. And then once I was out of it, I couldn't even allow it the dignity to die properly. I kept stringing it out and not letting it go and then I got involved with some other people." After, Soderbergh was able to reconnect with that person; "We were able to be friends," he noted.

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at the ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this drama: Sex, Lies, and Videotape.



Each of the four main characters reflects a part of Steven Soderbergh's personality. "At times, I've acted very much like the husband (who is having a torrid affair with his wife's sister)," he told the Chicago Tribune. "Other times, I've been in the Graham mode (the husband's impotent friend, who relates to women sexually only by videotaping them talking about their sex lives). I've also been like Cynthia (sleeping with her sister's husband) when there was a political content to my relationships with women. And there are times when I've been like Ann (the frigid wife), feeling very prudish and put off from sexual things."


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And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

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Snitches get stitches -

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And they work for just a few clams -

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Another missive from the desk of C Brown

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Supercilious —

- haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.



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Buried with a donkey

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (485)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Merrie Melodies short, the 1939 Old Glorystarring Porky Pig directed by Chuch Jones.



The flag of the United States has only 48 stars, as this short was made before Hawaii and Alaska were admitted to the Union (both in 1959). Also, this Pledge of Allegiance as recited by Porky does not yet include the phrase "under God" as that phrase was not added until 1954.


The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour staff thought we'd give a leg up to this old time troubadour. We found a clip of him playing recently and we thought we'd like to watch it with you -



We hope he makes it soon


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1989 documentary Roger & Me, directed by and starring Michael Moore (in his directorial debut).

Shot in 16mm with a minuscule crew, the film was partially funded by proceeds from church bingo games and by Moore selling his own home. Edward Asner was sent a letter requesting support and responded by sending a check; his name appears in the credits. The unnamed left-wing magazine in San Francisco that Moore goes to work for at the beginning of the film is Mother Jones. Moore worked for the magazine for three months in 1985 before being fired for putting his friend on the cover. He later sued the magazine for breach of contract and used part of the settlement money to help fund the film.

Roger & Me is classic degree-zero filmmaking. As Moore has stated elsewhere, “I didn’t want to make another ‘dying steeltown’ documentary with all the clichés about how horrible it is to be unemployed. I wanted images you don’t see on the six o’clock news.” When Moore decided to start a documentary about Flint, Michigan, and General Motors in the mid-1980s, he knew very little about the technical side of filmmaking (camera work, lighting, etc.). He met a fellow low-budget documentary filmmaker, Kevin Rafferty, who helped him learn this side of the director’s job on the project and served as one of the cinematographers.

This documentary exposes the reality of corporate downsizing and outsourcing. General Motors’ opening of facilities in Mexico and shuttering of its plants in Flint, Michigan, became emblematic of a trend during the mid-1980s, as employment across the Rust Belt declined. The increased use of automation - particularly Detroit’s Big Three implementing industrial robots - also contributed to the decline of the blue-collar factory worker. When GM initiated these changes, it was also consolidating its vehicle lines by sharing bodyshells, a practice that became known in the automobile industry as platform sharing.

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this still-pertinent documentary: Roger & Me.



According to the documentary Manufacturing Dissent, Michael Moore falsely implied that he could not get General Motors CEO Roger B. Smith to respond in front of a camera. The filmmakers claim that Moore actually had two interviews with Smith but chose to leave them out of the documentary to create the illusion that Smith refused to answer for his actions. Moore has denied these claims, saying that if he had consciously withheld such footage, General Motors would undoubtedly have used that fact to discredit him.


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Not sure where this fits in RFK Jr food pyramid?

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What did you steal - costume jewelry?

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Much like someone in Washington DC

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Another utterance from a feckless six year old -

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Stylite —

- one of a class of solitary ascetics who lived on the top of high pillars or columns



Not to be confused with The Stylistics - a 70s R&B group that sang mainly in Philadelphia and not on the top of high pillars or columns.



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Then for Pete's sake - stop listen to the album

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ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour (484)

Thank you for joining us today

Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1939 Scalp Troublestarring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck directed by Bob Clampett . This short seldom airs any more on television due to heavy Native American stereotyping.



Friz Freleng remade this short five years later as the color Merrie Melodie Slightly Daffy and reused some of the animation and gags.
 

This past week was a very tense week for everyone in the world. The staff of The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour staff desperately needed a laugh. We found a clip from Nick Offerman's 2014 comedy special, American Ham. And we thought we'd like to watch it with you -



It's amazing how pertinent his comedy still is


We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1989 comedy-drama The Unbelievable Truth, directed by Hal Hartley (in his directorial debut) and starring Adrienne Shelly, Robert Burke, Christopher Cooke, Julia McNeal, Gary Sauer, Mark Bailey, David Healy, Katherine Mayfield, Edie Falco, and Matt Malloy.

The Unbelievable Truth is a comedy of errors surrounding a beautiful, college-bound girl disturbingly preoccupied with the threat of nuclear destruction. Nevertheless, she falls in love with a handsome ex-con who is rumored to have murdered, many years before, the father of his high school sweetheart. The film was made on a shoestring budget and shot in just 11 days. It was a modest financial success and was critically well received. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and also screened at Cannes.

Hal Hartley’s early films were important in creating a cinematic identity for Long Island during a time when indie film on the East Coast was largely centered around New York City, thanks to figures like Spike Lee and Jim Jarmusch (to whom Hartley was frequently compared early in his career). Long Island has long been considered the unofficial sixth borough of New York City, and Hartley plays on that connection. The number of independent films produced and given theatrical distribution from 1990 to the end of the century was extraordinary; Hartley stands as one of the few meaningfully independent filmmakers of his era.

Please find a comfortable chair, dim the lights, and join us here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch this thought-provoking comedy: The Unbelievable Truth.



This film marked the feature debut of Adrienne Shelly, who played the teenager Audry, though she was 22 at the time.


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The front door of the school for gifted children

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Very important if you have the racecar token

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The More You Know: Animal Kingdom Edition

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Another phone conversation overheard

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