Pop Culture Safari!

CD new releases July 21, 2009: Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hofs; Ian Hunter; Bill Frisell; Fiery Furnaces; Lorne Greene more!

New CD releases of note this week. If any of these items are of interest to you, please consider clicking the titles and ordering them from Amazon, as part of the proceeds help support this site!

Under The Covers: Vol. 2 by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs

Man Overboard by Ian Hunter

Disfarmer by Bill Frisell

I'm Going Away by The Fiery Furnaces

Story of a Heart by Benny Andersson

Chartbusters USA: Sunshine Pop by Various Artists

Wild Thing: The Songs of Chip Taylor by Various Artists

Complete United Artist Singles by Jay & The Americans

Land of 1000 Dances: All Twistin' Edition by Various Artists

L.A. Turnaround by Bert Jansch

A Rare Conundrum by Bert Jansch

The Man by Lorne Greene

DVD new releases July 21, 2009: Watchmen; Coraline; Prison Break; Wolvering and X-Men; Charlie's Angels; Lucy Show, more!

New releases of note this week. If any of these items are of interest to you, please consider clicking the titles and ordering them from Amazon, as part of the proceeds help support this site!

Watchmen (Director's Cut) (Amazon Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray]

Watchmen (Director's Cut) (Amazon Exclusive Nite Owl Ship and Digital Bundle + Digital Copy and BD-Live) [Blu-ray]

Coraline (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy w/ 3D) [Blu-ray]

Coraline (Two-Disc Collector's Edition w/ 3D)

Prison Break: The Final Break

Monk: Season Seven

Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season

Wolverine and the X-Men: Deadly Enemies

Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods

Charlie's Angels - The Complete Fourth Season

The Lucy Show: The Official First Season

Robot Chicken: Star Wars - Episode II

Pink Floyd's moon-landing jam

From The New York Times:

David Gilmour of Pink Floyd was recently asked by The Guardian what he was doing 40 years ago during Apollo 11’s flight to the Moon. Mr. Gilmour explained that the band was part of the BBC’s live coverage of the event:

We were in a BBC TV studio jamming to the landing. It was a live broadcast, and there was a panel of scientists on one side of the studio, with us on the other. I was 23.

The programming was a little looser in those days, and if a producer of a late-night programme felt like it, they would do something a bit off the wall. Funnily enough I’ve never really heard it since, but it is on YouTube. They were broadcasting the moon landing and they thought that to provide a bit of a break they would show us jamming. It was only about five minutes long. The song was called Moonhead — it’s a nice, atmospheric, spacey 12-bar blues.

A post on Mr. Gilmour’s blog identifies the YouTube video above — apparently made by a fan using a bootleg recording of the original song and television images of astronauts from a later lunar mission — as the song.

Pop links: Green Lantern First Flight preview; 40 years ago today...

See the first four minutes of the direct-to-DVD Green Lantern: First Flight film.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

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Here's what I was watching on TV 40 years ago:

Upcoming from DC Comics: Dial H for Heroes Showcase, Perez JLA Vol. 2, Robin Archives 2, more!

Here are a few found-on-Amazon listings of upcoming DC Comics hardcovers and paperbacks. Amazon's release date for all these is April 13, 2010, although I imagine that's subject to change.

Stay tuned later today for a look at DC's October 2009 offerings.

Showcase Presents: Dial H For Hero
288 pages

Robin Archives Vol. 2
256 pages

DC Comics Classic Library: Justice League of America By George Perez Vol. 2
192 pages

The Superman Chronicles Vol. 8
168 pages

Crisis on Multiple Earths Vol. 5
176 pages

Rough Justice: The DC Comics Sketches of Alex Ross
256 pages

Upcoming DC Direct action figures

Pics of some upcoming releases:

Blackest Night Series 3
--Aquaman
--Arisia
--Larfleeze
--Star Sapphire

Batman Vs. Killer Croc Statue

Gotham City Stories Statue Part 1 - Batman

Catwoman Classic 13" Deluxe Collector Figure

Filming begins on new Doctor Who

Filming is underway for the first "Doctor Who" episodes starring Matt Smith in the title role.

The BBC provides this pic of Smith and companion Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan:

Actress Alex Kingston, last seen in the season four two-parter "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead" also appears in early episodes from the upcoming season.

Filming on the 13-episode fifth series runs until March 2010 for broadcast next Spring.