Posts Tagged ‘Tim Curry’

Soundtrack Saturday: “Times Square”

There are many weeks when I sit at my computer and lament the fact that I have no fucking clue what I’m going to write about for this column. The list of movies and soundtracks I want to write about is a mile long, but finding complete soundtracks, whether they were once in print or never at all, is a daunting task sometimes.

The frustrating thing is that I have some soundtracks on vinyl that I’d love to share, but I haven’t been able to invest in a quality USB turntable that would allow me to rip them into MP3 format myself. Some are soundtracks to movies I’ve never seen that are out of print on DVD, VHS, or both, but the albums looked so great I had to buy them. This week’s movie was just such a case until a few days ago.

On one of my many visits to Chicago last year, my home away from home, I found a used copy of the double-LP soundtrack album for Times Square (1980) that was in really great condition. I’d never heard of the movie, but the record’s front cover immediately grabbed my attention, because listed among the names of the featured artists was the Ruts — and I love the Ruts. A lot.

I flipped the soundtrack over and read the entire track listing. Despite the fact that I already had many of the songs, I bought the album anyway, because I had a feeling it might be kind of rare (the $3.99 price tag didn’t hurt, either). It turns out I was right — it’s way out of print, and new or used, good- to mint-condition copies go anywhere from $15 to $100 on sites like eBay and Amazon Marketplace.

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Soundtrack Saturday: “The Craft”

So, in case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been trying to stick to a Halloween-ish theme with this month’s movies: we’ve had teenage serial killers, an evil automobile, vampires, and now witches. I hope you’ve enjoyed the themed posts, because they’re going to continue through the holidays. I promise, though, not to be too obvious in my choices. In fact I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the Thanksgiving-themed films I’ve chosen for November. But enough about the future — let’s talk about this post.

Now, I didn’t originally set out to bookend October’s posts with mid-’90s Neve Campbell/Skeet Ulrich movies, but that’s how it turned out — I watched The Craft (1996) on cable a few weeks ago and just thought it’d be fun to write about.

The first time I saw this movie was with my dad. Yeah, you read that correctly. He really likes The Craft, which kind of surprised me at first, but this is the man who told me, after reading my post on Adventures in Babysitting, that Elisabeth Shue is one of his “ultimate hotties.” So nothing he tells me should surprise me. (Love you, Dad.)

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