Author: Mat Brewster

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The Friday Night Horror Movie: Knife of Ice (1972)

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I knew that I was going to watch a Giallo some Friday this month when I dedicated it to murder mysteries. The name Giallo comes from the yellow coloring of the cheap paperback mysteries that were for sale in Rome at the time. Filmmakers started adapting them in lurid, violent ways, which turned them into horror films, but at their heart, they are murder mysteries.

I had not meant this Giallo to have been directed by Umberto Lenzi, the Italian genre director who now leads the director field in my stats for the year with me having now seen four of his films in 2024. I never would have guessed he’d be leading the pack in the middle of May. But life, and my film watching, is just full of surprises.

This one stars Carroll Baker (who made three other films with Lenzi) as Martha a woman who witnessed her parents die in a horrible accident when she was but a child, rendering her mute.

Now in her twenties, she lives with her uncle in a beautiful estate in the Spanish countryside. One day her cousin Jenny (Evelyn Stewart), who is a famous singer shows up. Then she gets herself murdered by a knife-wielding maniac.

The police note that another woman was found dead in a ditch not far away. It must be the work of a sex maniac. Later they’ll find remnants of a black mass and decide the murders aren’t that of a sex maniac, but of a satan worshipper.

More murders pile up and it appears as if Martha may be the next victim. The police inspector put three officers around her house for protection. It is the worst protection I’ve ever seen in a film. One guy takes shelter in an underground crypt (her house is next to a cemetery). Another one tells her that his replacement is running late so he just takes off without waiting. The last guy gets a call stating there is an accident nearby so he takes off, leaving her alone.

There are lots of twists and turns and the killer’s reveal is a big (and rather dumb) twist that will likely surprise everyone. Lenzi is a good enough director to keep you from getting bored, but just. There are some cool images (one involving some fog-covered streets is particularly nice) and some well-directed kills, but the story is mostly dull. There’s nothing particularly special about it.

Sammy Hagar, Bob Weir & Friends – San Francisco, CA (05/15/19)

ACOUSTIC 4 A CURE
The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA (USA)
May 15, 2019


A JeffTak Master Recording
Transferred and Presented By Krw_co

LINEAGE AUDIENCE HARD DRIVE RECORDER MASTER>MAGIX AUDIO CLEANING LAB FOR KRW
TRACK MARKS VOLUME ADJUSTMENT AND EDITS>WAV 16/44.1>TRADERS LITTLE HELPER FLAC (LEVEL 8)
GEAR: Edirol R-09 HR w/Church Audio CA-14 cards & 9200 preamp.

Featuring
Sammy Hagar
Jason Bonham
Michael Anthony
Vic Johnson
WITH
Joe Satriani
Tom Johnston
Nancy Wilson
Chad Kroeger
Rick Springfield
Bob Weir

SETLIST
1 Dr. Mike Anderson Intro
2 Sammy Band Intro’s

SAMMY HAGAR & The Circle
3 Comfortably Numb with Nancy Wilson and Joe Satriani

TOM JOHNSTON with Sammy Hagar & The Circle
4 Nobody
5 Long Train Runnin’ with Nancy Wilson
6 Listen to the Music

RICK SPRINGFIELD with Sammy Hagar & The Circle
7 Little Demon
8 Jessie’s Girl
9 I’ve Done Everything for You

BOB WEIR
10 Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys with Sammy Hagar
11 Only a River
12 Easy to Slip

SAMMY HAGAR & The Circle
13 Tune up Jam
14 Sexy Little Thing with Joe Satriani

CHAD KROEGER
15 How You Remind Me
16 Born on the Bayou with Sammy Hagar & The Circle
17 Rockstar

NANCY WILSON
18 These Dreams with Lara Johnston
19 The Boxer with Lara Johnston

SAMMY HAGAR & The Circle
20 No Worries
21 Bottom Line
22 Can’t Hang
23 Hey Hey (Without Greed) with everybody

Many thanks to Jeff for having us assist with transferring and presenting his masters.

If you have masters and/or known generation recordings that you need assistance with
transferring/archiving, please contact us via e mail at krwcoarchiving@gmail.com.

PLEASE DON’T POST THIS ON ANY OTHER TRACKERS.
AND PLEASE DON’T ALTER OR SELL THIS RECORDING.
AS ALWAYS ENJOY CHEERS KRW_CO

Billy Strings – Denver, CO (02/25/17)

Billy Strings
02-25-2017
Bluebird Theater
Denver, CO

Source: Matrix – SBD + DPA 4021(DIN) > Sound Devices 744T(24/96)
Location: FOB, DFC, 8′ high, 3rd drink rail, 30′ from stage
Info: CF>PC>Wave Lab 6.1 (levels, fades, conversion)>CD Wave 1.98 (tracks)>Traders Little Helper (level 8)
Recorded by: Rob O’Brien (robotaper)

  1. Tuning
  2. Little Maggie
  3. Pyramid Country
  4. While I’m Waiting Here
  5. Dust In The Baggie
  6. Turmoil And Tinfoil
  7. Slow Train
  8. Band Introduction
  9. Thirst Mutilator
  10. Black Clouds
  11. Come On Down The Mountain Katie Daly
  12. I Only Exist
  13. How Mountain Girls Can Love
  14. Freeborn Man*
  15. Senor(Tales of Yankee Power)*
  16. Atlantic City*
  17. Meet Me At The Creek*>
  18. Riders On The Storm*>
  19. Meet Me At The Creek*

Encore:

  1. Shout Little Lulie / Liza Jane

Notes:

  • * w/Anders Beck on dobro and Paul Hoffman on mandolin and vocals – Greensky Bluegrass
  • Shout Little Lulie featured Billy Strings on banjo / Liza Jane featured Billy Strings solo on banjo
  • Flacs tagged w/Mp3tag

The Band:
William Apostol – Guitar, Banjo, Vocals
Brad Tucker – Bass
Billy Failing – Banjo
Drew Matulich – Mando

The Rolling Stones – Orlando, FL (06/12/15)

The Rolling Stones
2015-06-12 The Citrus Bowl
Orlando FLA, USA

source : schoeps mk-4v > actives > nbox platinum > sony pcm-m10 > 24/96 wav
adobe audition > ozone 6 > sample manager > xACT 2.34 > flac 16
taper : edtyre

Intro
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
It’s Only Rock ‘n’ Roll (But I Like It)
All Down the Line
Tumbling Dice
Doom and Gloom
Bitch
Moonlight Mile
She’s So Cold
Honky Tonk Women
Band Intros
Before They Make Me Run
Happy
Midnight Rambler
Miss You
Gimme Shelter
Start Me Up
Sympathy for the Devil
Brown Sugar
E
You Can’t Always Get What You Want
(with The University of Central Florida Chamber Singers)
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction

Murder Mysteries in May: P.J. (1968)

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The movies of the 1960s remind me a lot of the movies from the 1980s. Both decades featured a lot of neon-colored, flashy, stylish films without a lot of depth to them.

There were massive cultural changes taking place in the ’60s, the studio system was dying while the Production Code was lessening its grip. All of this changed the ways movies were made and the types of films audiences wanted to see. The 1980s brought in the blockbuster age and the advent of home video created a surge of low-budget, straight-to-video releases.

I don’t quite have an over-arching thesis about this, although I do think there are also similarities in the decades that followed – the 1970s and the 1990s, but I’ll save that ramble for another day.

What I’m really thinking about is Marlowe and P.J., two detective films that are very much 1960s movies, but that both throwback to all those film noirs from the 1940s.

With P.J., George Peppard plays the titular Phillip Marlowe-esque down-on-his-luck private eye. He’s so far gone he doesn’t even have an office, just a bar he frequents where the bartender keeps his messages.

He is tasked by millionaire William Orbison (a deliciously sleazy Raymond Burr) to play bodyguard to his mistress Maureen (Gayle Hunnicutt) who has been getting some threatening letters.

Orbison takes the mistress and his wife (and P.J. and his business partner Grenoble) to the Bahamas for a little relaxation. When Grenoble finds himself murdered P.J. realizes he’s been set up. He was hired to become the fall guy.

Through a myriad of twists and turns he eventually clears his name and proves who did the murdering.

I’ll be honest, I watched this movie about a week ago and I’ve watched another eight films since then. The details of this one have grown hazy. I had to look up the plot and scroll the images on IMDB to remember anything about it. But I do remember liking it. I guess it just wasn’t all that memorable.

George Peppard is good. I’d only seen him in Breakfast at Tiffany’s but he’s incredibly charming and he works well as a private detective who’s both charming and headstrong. I love watching Raymond Burr play a heavy, especially one as slimy as he is here. I grew up watching him on Perry Mason reruns so it’s a lot of fun seeing him play someone so completely different.

The music and the feel of the film are very swingin’ ’60s. At one point there are a couple of girls in bikinis dancing in a giant martini glass. So, yeah, it is definitely worth watching, even if I can’t remember the details.

Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood – Chicago, IL (06/17/09)

ERIC CLAPTON & STEVE WINWOOD
06/17/09
United Center, Chicago


— with special guest BUDDY GUY during the encore

Source: Core Sound Cartioid mics > Zoom H2 (48kHz/24-bit)
(8th Row, Section 220, Stage Right/House Left)

Transferred to the hard drive using my card reader.

Downsampled to 44.1kHz/16-bit using Audacity.

Misc. edits, fades and normalization to 95% using Cool Edit Pro.

Chopped up using CD Wave Editor. Mastered to fit on 2 audio CDs.

SBEs corrected using Trader’s Little Helper. (“-fixed” removed from filenames.)

Encoded to FLAC (Level 7) using Trader’s Little Helper.

Disc One

  1. Had To Cry Today
  2. Low Down
  3. After Midnight
  4. Presence Of The Lord
  5. Sleeping In The Ground
  6. Glad
  7. Well All Right
  8. Tough Luck Blues
  9. Pearly Queen
  10. Crossroads
  11. There’s A River
  12. Forever Man
  13. Georgia On My Mind (Winwood solo)
  14. Driftin’

Disc Two

  1. How Long
  2. Layla (acoustic version)
  3. Can’t Find My Way Home
  4. Split Decision
  5. Voodoo Chile
  6. Sweet Home Chicago < You Better Watch Yourself (encore)
  7. Drowning On Dry Land (encore)

Note: a few seconds of “Sweet Home Chicago” are missing because the recorder was in the process of saving the WAV file as it reached the maximum size limit.
Originally recorded in 48kHz, the maximum size of the WAV (which is 2Gb) was reached about 125 minute into the show (during the encore). The recorder saved the file, and continued recording in another WAV file. But, a little snippet was lost in the process. You’ll hear an abrupt edit in an other wise excellent, nearly error-free recording with minimal crowd distraction.

Band:

Eric Clapton – Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Vocals
Steve Winwood – Keyboards, Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Vocals
Chris Stainton – Keyboards
Willie Weeks – Electric Bass Guitar
Abe Laboriel, Jr. – Drums
Michelle John – Vocals
Sharon White – Vocals

Roy’s impression:

WOW – great show and one of the best concert tours of the year. The decision to bring on Buddy Guy seemed to have been spontaneous. After “Voodoo Chile,” Eric turned to Stevie and made a “cut it” gesture (hand across throat). Eric then declined the fresh guitar a stage hand had tried to offer (indicating to me that the stage crew was expecting the usual “Cocaine”) and promptly left the stage. The band left the stage for the usual false exit before the encore, and I noticed an additional amp being wheeled on and mic’ed.
An extra guest during an Eric Clapton show in Chicago can only mean one person – Buddy Guy, the Blues Mayor of the City. Buddy came on stage, and they tore the house down. Buddy played Stevie’s powder blue guitar, which was poorly mic’ed (and inaudible) for the first few minutes of the encore. After the fifteen-minute encore, Eric and Buddy left the stage rather abruptly. There was no final bow from the performers, as is common. Stevie Winwood merely walked off the stage without any acknowledgment from Clapton, and the house lights came on. I’m not sure how the egos of 60-something rock stars are, but I thought it was somewhat remarkable that Clapton seemed to be more interested in ending the show with his arms around Buddy Guy than waving a final farewell and bow with Steve Winwood.

Enjoy! Feedback is welcome.

——-Roy (roy_burns_cdrs@yahoo.com)

Murder Mysteries In May: Cover Up (1949)

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In my review of the 1935 adaptation of The Glass Key, I mentioned a scene in the 1942 remake that starred William Bendix. In that scene, Bendix plays a thug who gets to slap around Alan Ladd’s character. He does so with such gusto that he nearly steals the movie. It made me an instant fan.

I’ve since watched 11 films starring the actor where he’s mostly played tough guys, loveable lugs, and the like. He was a bigger man physically, and not exactly handsome so he fits the role of the heavy, but there is a goofy warmth to him, which makes him interesting.

In Cover Up he plays Larry Best the sheriff of a small, Midwestern town investigating a murder. Except he doesn’t seem all that interested in investigating it at all.

It is actually an insurance investigator, Sam Donovan (Dennis O’Keefe) who does most of the investigating. The dead man was shot and the sheriff ruled it a suicide. The trouble is the gun is nowhere to be found, and there are no powder burns on the body which would indicate being shot at close range. When Sam pushes Larry for answers he just shrugs it off. In fact, no one in the town seems all that interested.

Turns out the dead man was good and hated by pretty much everyone. Clearly, he was murdered and clearly, it is being covered up. Almost everyone in town is helping with the cover-up because whoever killed him is well-liked and the dead man deserves to be dead. To a normal investigator, this would be enough. Suicide prevents an insurance pay out and that’s that.

But Sam is no normal investigator. He pursues the matter strongly even if murder means a double indemnity payout. The film owes a clear debt to Double Indemnity but it is nowhere near as good.

Naturally, there is a girl. Anita Weatherby (Barbara Britton) becomes the love interest. She’s also the daughter of one of the prime suspects. But there is little heat between her and Sam and almost no cleverness to their dialogue. Even my beloved William Bendix doesn’t add much. He’s fine, but rather more reserved than usual.

The mystery is serviceable and it is set at Christmastime which adds a nice holiday theme to what is really a rather cozy film noir. That’s the thing, it isn’t a bad film, it is exactly the kind of movie you might throw on during the holidays while you are at your in-laws, full of ham and good cheer.

Steve Earle – Chicago, IL (02/23/01)

Steve Earle & the Dukes
Riviera Theater, Chicago, IL
2001-02-23

01 Intro / Transcendental Blues
02 Another Town
03 Hard-Core Troubadour
04 Someday
05 Telephone Road
06 More Than I Can Do
07 Wherever I Go
08 Fearless Heart
09 I Ain’t Ever Satisfied
10 The Galway Girl / Copperhead Road
11 The Unrepentant
12 This Highway’s Mine
13 Time Has Come Today
14 Poor Boy
15 Guitar Town

Lineage: fm (Onkyo TX8511)>SoundBlaster (Live! 24 bit External)>wav(CD Wave Editor @ 16bit)>flac

Dune Part Two is the New Blu-ray Pick of the Week

blue ray cover

I’m still writing these every other week for Cinema Sentries but I keep forgetting to post them here. I also keep forgetting to write them here when I’m not writing them for CS.

But this week I remembered. I quite enjoyed the first Dune and am really looking forward to seeing the sequel. You can read all about it and about the other interesting releases this week here.

Also, I’m not going to do a full post for all the ones I’ve written for Cinema Sentries in the past, but I will update the My Writings Page with links to them.