Firstly, the Friendly's that was near me that was barely hanging on has since closed. As I noted then, there was nothing I could do.
Secondly, and more importantly, Chi-Chi's is coming back. From wikipedia:
On December 3, 2024, it was announced that the restaurant chain will re-launch in the United States in 2025. Michael McDermott, son of original owner, Marno McDermott, will lead and operate the new restaurants under Chi-Chi's Restaurants, LLC. Hormel Foods, the current owner of the Chi-Chi's trademark, has allowed the use of the Chi-Chi's name for the physical restaurant locations. A few months later, McDermott announced that he will convert his two Rojo Mexican Grill restaurants in St. Louis Park and Maple Grove to the revived Chi-Chi’s brand.
As far as I can tell, the St. Louis locations are the only announced locations. Stay tuned.
I posted the full Harvey Pekar/David Letterman collection a while back, but I know from firsthand experience that that's not for everyone. If you want just the highlights as well as humorous commentary, Blind Mike takes you through Harvey Pekar's appearances on Letterman.
And in case anyone's wondering, I'm fully on Letterman's side in this. The "you're a guest in my house" paradigm is 100% correct. But while I don't fully agree with the thrust of "American Splendor," it is quite a good film.
Aside from the fact that this is a great Summer-to-Fall transition song, I just noticed recently that one of the guys in the band is wearing a Penn State shirt. I did some research to try to figure out what the connection is between a British band member and Penn State and I found absolutely nothing.
Last known photo of this guy
Plus, at 2:44, Joe Strummer narrowly avoids getting run over.
Ranking the films of Joe Dante continued. Another great movie discussion.
I don't have the same relationship with the "Gremlins" movies that other people seem to have. It's probably that I didn't see them when I was a kid, I watched them later, so that may be it. I love "The 'Burbs" though and I'm glad to see it high on the list.
It's all pretty much for hardcore Star Wars fans only. Nothing crazy here, just small subplots and insignificant bits of dialogue. I did find one thing though that is worth noting.
When I was a kid, growing up in the days before the internet, the word went around - I don't know where it came from and how it moved - that George Lucas' student film was called "THX 1138" and he had hid references to it in "all" his movies. From that point, the hunt was on, to find the hidden references in all the Star Wars movies.
A New Hope - Luke (posing as a Storm Trooper) claims that Chewbacca is a prisoner being transferred from "Cellblock 1138." I remember being surprised that "THX" was left off but there it was, obvious enough.
The Empire Strikes Back - A little trickier this time. During the Battle of Hoth, an officer is heard to say "Send Rogues 10 and 11 to Sector 38." It required close attention and some processing to decipher but it was plain enough.
Return of the Jedi - Nothing.
There I was scrutinizing every line of dialogue, looking at every sign, trying to pause on shots of computer screens while watching on blurry VHS... and I found nothing. And not just me but all my friends.
Fast forward a few years and the internet exists. I "google" (or whatever it was) the answer. Other people are online looking for the answer and also stumped. I seem to remember some person claimed to have found the answer because of a new, higher quality home release. The number flashes on a computer screen briefly, they say. I didn't have access to that version and never confirmed it later - all I saw was gibberish on every screen.
A few years after that, someone else claims the answer, "1138" was printed on the bounty hunter's helmet. It was discovered via photographing the prop in better lighting. Well, that's disappointing because that remained strictly behind-the-scenes - they gambled on the lighting, shot angles, shot selection and so forth, and lost. But if that's what they did, it is what it is.
Why is this relevant? Because now it's like 30 years later and at 7 minutes into the above video, I hear Moff Jerjerrod say, "Open the power discharge gates. Flood sectors 304 and 1138. That should slow them up a bit." Unreal. After all that time, the mystery is finally solved. Sure, it's still not a reference in the movie, but it's clear, it's spoken - just like in the other two movies - it's on film. It's great. It was in the script, it was filmed and it just happened that that scene was cut from the final edit..
Editor's Note: This "newest" Easter Egg is not noted on Wookiepedia. Am I a bigger nerd than the entire community of editors of Wookiepedia? In fact, I don't see anyone else mentioning it anywhere, but I'm not digging too deep.
A new 9/11 documentary attempts to explain what happened using original research and gaining clues from raw footage from the day. Check it out before it's deleted, if you're interested.
Growing up, I've been aware of the various baseball stars dying of cancer, but each one is chalked up as "just one of those things." The idea that they may be connected is pretty amazing.
A possible rebuttal to this argument, or at least something that needs to be investigated further, is: they played football there too, do we see the same problems in football players? Going off my own limited memory right now, I don't think we do.
On August 29, 1997, Radiohead played "Karma Police" to promote their new album "Ok Computer" - their first appearance on Letterman.
Big deal for me since Radiohead were my favorite band and the "Late Show" was my favorite TV show. That's why it always pained me that Radiohead hated either Letterman or his show, at least that's the impression I got.
Then we move forward to the day of the appearance. At the soundcheck on the Late Show, documented in the film "Meeting People is Easy." Thom tells the sound booth, "Twenty minutes to rehearse spinning a wheel and we don't get five minutes to play the fucking guitar?" Later, offstage he complains, "There [was] a guy on stage giving us shit." What he says after that has never been clear to me and the exact nature of the conflict is not explained to any degree that I can discern.
Fast-forward to 2003 and it's time to promote "Hail to the Thief." Radiohead go on the "Late Show" again to perform "2+2=5." The song ends and no handshake or communication of any kind.
Ah, but let's rewind to just before that... we gain more context by remembering the "Late Show" era we're in. This is during the period where Paul Shaffer is doing his James Brown bit. If you don't know, there was a running bit from 2002-2004 where Paul Shaffer would sing "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know" in the style of James Brown, even to the point of falling to his knees, getting covered in a cape, ushered away from the microphone, before throwing off the cape and returning to sing. The bit was made more elaborate by having guest cape operators who were celebrities. The apex of the bit was the time when James Brown himself came out to do the cape. The full song was only for the theater audience (played during commercial) but the TV broadcast would come back in time for the cape part.
So Radiohead are on stage waiting to perform "2+2=5" and are confronted by this bizarre ritual. And it probably didn't help that the cape person that night was CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer. I doubt they know who that is. I don't believe they appreciated the joke. I seem to recall someone saying so in an interview later but I have not been able to find the source so it may be my own hallucination. Nevertheless, I challenge you to look at the expressions and body language of the band and decide for yourself . And, again, after the performance they avoid shaking hands with Dave or even acknowledging him. Significant? Coincidence? Thom's a big Michael Stipe fan, perhaps he's doing an impression.
Apparently someone agreed with my assessment that something was going on and thought to submit a question about it to BBC Radio 1 in an interview a few months later:
Mark: Right, James in South Korea, says: I saw Radiohead perform on David Letterman a few weeks ago, and they seemed a little annoyed by the whole thing, was there a reason?
Thom: (laughs) I'll tell you why, man
Mark: What was going on there?
Thom: I'll tell you
Mark: Well do, yeah
Thom: In order for Mr. Letterman not to break into a sweat, he has the studio at sub-zero temperatures
Mark: Does he?
Thom: Yeah
Ed: Yeah
Thom: So our hands went numb (laughs)
Lard: Ahhhhhh!
Thom: So there you go
So maybe it's that innocent, laughed off as a joke. Radiohead are a very tough band to figure out, it remains a possibility that I may be overthinking everything.
1997 and 2003 are the only two times Radiohead performed on the "Late Show."
But ever since 1997 (or 1998), when I discovered the Hammerstein ballroom quote, I've been wondering "why the hatred?" One might look at "Meeting People is Easy" and just assume they hated the show because they had a bad experience there. But the key here is Thom was complaining about having to go on the show before he was ever on the show. Another possibility, then, it may be just a matter of: they hated doing television appearances in general and Letterman just happened to be in the way. I'm certainly open to that possibility, they probably don't like TV. But then, they've also done Conan's show, Leno, Jool's Holland, Stephen Colbert and "Saturday Night Live" and I've never heard them complain about those, show disdain or avoiding shaking hands with the host. In fact, on Leno and SNL, they seemed delighted.
Reddit had a thought that could connect the dots. In a thread speculating on who the song "Talk Show Host" was based on, a redditor points out that Radiohead were big fans of "comedian" Bill Hicks, even dedicating their second album to him and Bill Hicks was famously censored in his last "Late Show" performance before dying of cancer in 1994. If this is the cause, it would completely explain why they hated Letterman and resented having to do the show sight unseen. I personally don't think it's likely. Remember: this is in the days where the different sides of the Atlantic had completely separate spheres of entertainment and the internet was still very nascent. I doubt they even knew who Letterman was, let alone knowing about the behind-the-scenes censorship controversy. [Footnote: years later, Letterman would air the performance in full and apologize to Hicks' mother.]
Another possibility: it may be a matter of timing; the band was in a bad place at this point and things were only getting worse. According to Yorke in a Rolling Stone interview, the band's all-time low point would come only two months after their 1997 appearance. Bad timing, bad mood... maybe.
But that's the history of my favorite band "feuding" (perhaps) with my favorite talk show host. It's always bothered me and the "feud" is made all the more irksome because it seemed to arise without a cause. My best guess is that their disdain for doing the show was a combination of being a famously temperamental band, resenting having to do TV appearances and the particular timing of August 1997. But that's only a best guess, and not very satisfying.
