The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

 

Reaching the unofficial conclusion of my unofficial run of viewing the films of Robert Duvall, we come to "The Pale Blue Eye." This is the last film Duvall made and his part is a very small one, lasting only a few minutes in screen time.

This is a general trend I've found in the last movies that Duvall made: he truly reached the point where he became "old" - he looks worn down, speaks more softly and is no longer playing major parts.

With that aside, "The Pale Blue Eye" is a murder mystery centered around a military academy in the early 1800s. In fact, there are a series of murders - a possible serial killer - and Augustus Landor (Christian Bale) is brought in to solve the case.

This is not just a well-written mystery movie with twists and turns, the star of the movie is the cinematography. This movie looks great. It isn't quite true to say "every frame could be a painting" but it nears that level. Excellent film, I don't know how popular it is but worth checking out if you haven't seen it.

Willy Wonka Drums

Michael McDonald on Soul Train

For no particular reason, other than that this popped up on my feed and it's smooth, here's Michael McDonald playing "I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)" on Soul Train.

My impression of Soul Train is that the "performances" were lip-syncs, which would make this post mostly pointless. I think this is the record track, but I'm not totally sure. I got nothin'.

Born Under Punches in the Grocery Store

I'm at the grocery store and they have the store music playing on the loudspeaker - it's not a local radio station, it's clearly just in the store -  and "Born Under Punches" by Talking Heads comes on. I recognize it immediately and I'm somewhat befuddled - is "Born Under Punches" grocery store music?

I'm not complaining - I love the song, I love the album, it was a big influence for Radiohead making "Kid A" - but it just seems like the opposite of the kind of music you'd play at a grocery store.

Decide for yourself above.

Don't you miss it, don't you miss it! Some of you people just about missed it.

Scorch Update for April 2026

Scorch is back... again!

And he's got a new idea... again!

He's going to do a new iteration of PFG-TV... again!

He is both doing great, rockin' and rollin', and also is destitute, down and out. It is a roller-coaster and we truly live in exciting times.

Norm Tribute

The story goes that someone had recorded Norm in 2016 and has now rediscovered the tape. The recording is now set to animation.