Something 4 The Weekend # 55

Sparks had two of their songs featured prominently in the 1983 teen Rom-Com Valley Girl, a re-telling of Romeo & Juliet featuring, ayup, a girl from "the Valley", and a punk rock dude from Hollywood, as portrayed by a 19-year-old Nicolas Cage in only his second feature film role (the first being 1982's Fast Times At Ridgemont High)...Ah, the young Nic Cage - before the hair plugs, botox and bacon double cheeseburgers...Ahhh, the undeniably cute Deborah Foreman, as Julie the titular Valley Girl...The ridiculously cute Deborah Foreman, who went on to have a rather meager career in cheap B-movies and TV, although her filmography does include an episode of MacGyver and a movie called Lobster Man From Mars.

As is often the case with soundtracks, only one of those two Sparks songs from the film actually made it onto the official Valley Girl soundtrack, a practice that I believe first became prevalent around that time, as more and more films favored song-heavy soundtracks to bonafide scores...

For example, I would guess that there are at least 35-40 songs used in Fast Times At Ridgemont High (speaking of), but even as a double-vinyl LP, the soundtrack probably only included half of those songs...

Anyways, in regards to Sparks and Valley Girl, the song "Angst In My Pants" made it onto the soundtrack, but their song "Eaten By The Monster Of Love" did not, even thought it was used in at least two, and possibly three, distinct scenes in the actual film.

Sparks: Angst In My Pants: "Eaten By The Monster Of Love": 128k mp3

Rhino remedied this situation in 1995, when they released a second Valley Girl soundtrack collection, featuring another 16 songs used in the film (bringing the total to 31 songs), but this CD had a limited pressing and went out of print almost immediately. Copies nowadays sell in the $25-40 range, which is so totally not worth it. Bag that pricetag. I'm sure.

Supposedly the film was inspired by the song "Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa, featuring his daughter Moon Unit doing her best valley girl impersonation over a noodly rock song, which I think is worth mentioning because as a musical entity, Sparks are musical and philosophical brethren to Zappa. Musically, they were constantly exploring different styles and genres, and have enjoyed a solid 40 year career (so far) by skirting the edge of mainstream popularity with deceptively sophisticated music of every stripe. Philosophically, their lyrics analyzed and satirized pop culture, teen angst, and dealt heavily with sex. In a winking, funny way, of course. Like Zappa, they were/are cultural and musical anthropologists.

Sparks: Indiscreet: "Tits": 128k mp3

I can't say that I absolutely adore Sparks, but I do like them an awful lot, usually in album-sized chunks, and I certainly respect their style, wit, and longevity.

Hotcha! Hank

SPACEY! UPDATE!

Well, it's been 4 months since my last update on Kevin Spacey's plastic surgery disaster, and more than a year since the heralded American actor originally had the work done, so I thought now would be a good time to check in on Mr. Spacey, and see how things are going...

In a word, not very fucking well at all.

Spacey and his doctors held a small, impromptu press conference from his hospital room in Costa Rica, where they revealed that the actor's skull is now rejecting the various nips and tucks and whatnot. More specifically, his zygomatic bones are rejecting a pair of silicone implants, which I probably should have just written as "cheek bones" to begin with, but you know, sometimes I can be a precious fuck who likes to validate himself by using big words grabbed from the fluttering remnants of my state school education...

But don't we all?

Anyways, his cheek bones are rejecting the cheek implants. And his jawbone is rejecting the pig bone chin graft. As you can see in the photograph, all these rejections have created a very noticeable mask-like effect, and supposedly these recent developments are causing major concerns at Warner Brothers regarding the upcoming sequel to Superman Returns, wherein Spacey plays Lex Luthor. According to a source at Warner, if Spacey's condition doesn't radically improve by spring, Nicolas Cage is primed to step into the role.

I've always liked Kevin Spacey, and I really do hope things turn around for him soon.

I mean, Nic Cage as Luthor? What kind of world are we living in?

Hotcha! Hank