Tag Archives: 1988

Throwback Thursday: “Dark City” (1998)!

“Dark City” (1998) maybe wasn’t quite as perfect as its most ardent fans make it out to be, but it was still a damned good film — creative, original and caliginously artistic.  (It occasionally suffers somewhat in comparison with its spiritual cousin, “The Matrix,” which changed the very medium of movies only a year later.)  And what a cast — William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland and Rufus Sewell!

I saw this movie on VHS around … 2001, I think.  I remember being eager at the time to see the inimitable Hurt — I’d grown up with films like “Gorky Park” (1983) and “The Accidental Tourist” (1988).  It was only later in life that I really became a fan of Sewell — after his tour-de-force performance as the Nazi villain in “The Man in the High Castle” (2015-2019).

And how can you beat Connelly as a nightclub crooner?  My girlfriend sent me a gem that she found on Youtube — Connelly singing an alternate version of her musical number in the movie, Giovanni Polimeni’s “Sway.”  (It’s the second video below.)

By the way, I am linking tonight to Media Graveyard and Polimeni’s Youtube channel.



Cover to “Batman” #423, Todd McFarlane, 1988

DC Comics.

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Throwback Thursday: “Gymkata” (1985)!!!

“Gymkata!!!”  This 1985 movie is widely regarded as one of the worst of all time, Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas received a Razzie Award for it as “Worst New Star,” and the movie’s name was a running joke on “Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988-1999).  (I am linking here, by the way, to the Super Fan Trailers Youtube channel.)

The funny thing is, I remember being pretty impressed with this movie when I saw it on VHS back in the day at my buddy Peter Hughes’ house.  (I’m not sure what that says about me as a young high school student.)

Oh, well.  Peter and I got a fun summer afternoon out of this.

I might have to hunt down a copy.  Although MST3K never actually devoted an episode to “Gymkata,” its successor “Rifftrax” (2007) did.  Hmm.  I’m not sure if I want to see the movie without any commentary at first — so I can get an undiluted hit of 80’s nostalgia.  I’ll share here either way.



Throwback Thursday: these 1988 commercials for Carvel Ice Cream and Genovese!

I am linking here to the Youtube channel Hugo Faces, which is a treasure trove of 1980’s local television clips for Long Island and elsewhere.  That Carvel ad is as priceless as it is cheesy.

These aired on WCBS.



Throwback Thursday: Awkward, Awkward, High School Me.

This is Longwood High School in New York, circa … 1988?  1989?

No, I have no idea why my pants are pulled halfway up my chest.

Thanks to alumna Carrie Harbach Schor for passing along this news clipping.

Update: I never got high in high school, but my pants sure as *&^@ did.



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Cover to “Saga of Ra’s Al Ghul” #3, Jerry Bingham and Dick Giordano, 1988

DC Comics.

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Cover to “Justice League International” #10, Kevin Maguire, 1988

DC Comics.

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Cover to “Captain Atom” #15, Pat Broderick, 1988

DC Comics.  Canadian edition.

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Here’s an image of the new Maya Angelou quarter.

It is currently circulating on Facebook.  (No pun intended.)

I actually met Maya Angelou (or attended one of her readings, really) when I was a student at Longwood High School.  Our English class took a field trip to Suffolk Community College in New York  in … 1988 or 1989, I think.  One of my alums piped in on Facebook to say he remembers too.



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Cover to “Detective Comics” #583, Mike Mignola & Anthony Tollin, 1988

DC Comics.

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