Pop Culture Safari!

DVD and Blu-ray new releases July 23, 2013: Jack Benny; Super Friends; Tower of Evil

Click the links to order discounted DVDs or Blu-rays from Amazon.

The Jack Benny Program: The Lost Episodes

Super Friends: A Dangerous Fate Season 5

Tower of Evil (remastered edition)

Today's best picture ever: Bruce Lee

Pop culture roundup: Does your homeowner's insurance cover Sharknados? Doctor Who at Heathrow! Ricky Gervais is Bowie! Dylan and friends! Steranko!

News you can use: Don't worry, your homeowner's insurance will cover a sharknado.

"A tornado is a wind event," says Mike Barry, vice president of media relations. Wind events, including hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones and other such calamities, are covered under a standard policy. But a falling shark?

"It would be covered, yes, as a falling object," Barry confirms. In case you were wondering, damage from an errant asteroid would be covered by your homeowners insurance under the same principle.

------

Passengers at London's Heathrow Airport were greeted by Daleks, Cybermen and more in a celebration of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary.

-----

Via Dangerous Minds: Before they created "The Office," Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant did a pilot called "Golden Years," a comedy pilot that focused on a very David Brent-like David Bowie impersonator. Take a look:

----

See Bob Dylan, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and My Morning Jacket's Jim James sing a gospel tune from their current package tour:

-----

A new Twitter feed hosted by veteran comic book artist Jim Steranko is creating a stir among longtime fans. A magician and escape artist in his youth, Steranko has always a colorful character, Steranko is sharing, in small bits, some fantastic stories. Like this one, noted by This is Infamous, about how he inspired the great Jack Kirby's character, Miracle Man.

Kirby’s ears suddenly pricked up, and he made me tell him more about my adventures, tools, and techniques—particularly the hazardous stunts I’d attempted along the way, like from sealed boxes dropped underwater or inside containers set afire or buried alive. I may have spent the next hour hitting the highlights of my Houdini-inspired career. Jack was at rapt attention. Afterward, I mentioned a magazine that covered that aspect of my life and promised to send one the following week—if I could find a copy. I did send one to him, then promptly forgot about the conversation—until a half year later, when I was sitting in the office of Carmine Infantino, then-president of the DC cosmos. During the course of our chat, hazed by the smoke of the illegal Havana-imported cigars he kept in a highly-polished wooden humidor centered on his desktop, he began to chuckle as if he’d just remembered some important secret. “What’s funny” I asked. He reached into the top left drawer of his desk, pulled out a cover proof that he scaled across the desk into my lap. It visualized a new superhero I’d never seen before—masked, cloaked, decked out in Kirbyesque raiment—and up to his eyeballs in chains! “This is YOU!” Infantino confirmed, like he’d just filled an inside straight in a high-roller poker game. A cover proof of #MISTERMIRACLE 1. Of course, I was gratified. How many people in the comics biz had been the real-life inspiration for a superhero?

Vintage Avengers pictures: Steed and... Twiggy!

Holy Hot Toys! First full look at 1966 Batman and Robin figures look just like Adam West and Burt Ward

Forgive that "Holy" headline, but it's appropriate given the subject and the uncanny realism of these figures. Hot Toys is known for doing freakishly accurate sculpts and it looks like they're keeping up their reputation with this Dynamic Duo. Pic via Captain Action Now.

Vintage Avengers pictures: More Steed and Peel!

Asterix and the Picts: First non-Uderzo and Goscinny Asterix album due out in October

"Asterix and the Picts," the first Asterix story not illustrated by Albert Uderzo, is set for release this fall.

Uderzo, who created Asterix with writer René Goscinny in 1956, carried on creating Asterix stories on his own when Goscinny passed away in 1977, but announced his retirement in 2011 at age 84.

Publisher Hachette Livre has since hired a new creative team, Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad, to create the 35th Asterix book, due out Oct. 24.

No details as to the story, but you can peek at some images and learn about the new creative team here.

New Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. teaster video

Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Vol. 10 focuses on "Self Portrait"

Info about the latest Bob Dylan Bootleg Series collection, out Aug. 27.

Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 10 comes from the 1969-1971 recording sessions that ultimately produced the Self Portrait and New Morning albums. All 35 tracks are previously unreleased, alternate takes, demos or live versions of that material. The versions of the songs on this package are radically different from the officially released versions. The cover is new artwork by Bob Dylan. The liner notes have been written by Greil Marcus, who wrote the original Self Portrait review for Rolling Stone that infamously asked, "What is this sh**?." Also included is an extensive essay from well known journalist, Michael Simmons. The set also has extensive photographs of that era from John Cohen and Al Clayton many of them rare and unseen - as well as pictures of the original tape boxes and cue sheets.

The Standard Version contains 35 tracks on 2 CD's, and soft cover perfect bound booklet

The Deluxe Version contains 4 CD's and two hardcover books housed in a hardcover slip case
Book # 1 contains 4 CD's and liner notes
Book # 2 contains the photos from John Cohen and Al Clayton.

The 2 bonus CD's will contain the newly remastered version of Self Portrait and the complete 17 song recording of Dylan & The Band performing live at the Isle Of Wight in 1969

The vinyl version contains 35 tracks on 3 LPs (and 2 CDs) plus a 12" x 12" booklet that includes the liner notes written by Greil Marcus, the essay from Michael Simmons, and the photographs from John Cohen and Al Clayton, and pictures of the original tape boxes and cue sheets.

CD 1
1 Went To See The Gypsy (Demo)
2 In Search Of Little Sadie (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
3 Pretty Saro (unreleased, Self Portrait)
4 Alberta #3 (alternate version, Self Portrait)
5 Spanish Is The Loving Tongue (unreleased, Self Portrait)
6 Annie's Going To Sing Her Song (unreleased, Self Portrait)
7 Time Passes Slowly #1 (alternate version, New Morning)
8 Only A Hobo (unreleased, Greatest Hits II)
9 Minstrel Boy (unreleased, The Basement Tapes)
10 I Threw It All Away (alternate version, Nashville Skyline)
11 Railroad Bill (unreleased, Self Portrait)
12 Thirsty Boots (unreleased, Self Portrait)
13 This Evening So Soon (unreleased, Self Portrait)
14 These Hands (unreleased, Self Portrait)
15 Little Sadie (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
16 House Carpenter (unreleased, Self Portrait)
17 All The Tired Horses (without overdubs, Self Portrait)

CD 2
1 If Not For You (alternate version, New Morning)
2 Wallflower (alternate version, 1971)
3 Wigwam (original version without overdubs, Self Portrait)
4 Days Of '49 (original version without overdubs, Self Portrait)
5 Working On A Guru (unreleased, New Morning)
6 Country Pie (alternate version, Nashville Skyline)
7 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (Live With The Band, Isle Of Wight 1969)
8 Highway 61 Revisited (Live With The Band, Isle Of Wight 1969)
9 Copper Kettle (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
10 Bring Me A Little Water (unreleased, New Morning)
11 Sign On The Window (with orchestral overdubs, New Morning)
12 Tattle O'Day (unreleased, Self Portrait)
13 If Dogs Run Free (alternate version, New Morning)
14 New Morning (with horn section overdubs, New Morning)
15 Went To See The Gypsy (alternate version, New Morning)
16 Belle Isle (without overdubs, Self Portrait)
17 Time Passes Slowly #2 (alternate version, New Morning)
18 When I Paint My Masterpiece (demo)

CD3
Bob Dylan & The Band - Isle of Wight - August 31, 1969
1 She Belongs To Me
2 I Threw It All Away
3 Maggie's Farm
4 Wild Mountain Thyme
5 It Ain't Me, Babe
6 To Ramona/ Mr. Tambourine Man
7 I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
8 Lay Lady Lay
9 Highway 61 Revisited
10 One Too Many Mornings
11 I Pity The Poor Immigrant
12 Like A Rolling Stone
13 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
14 Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)
15 Minstrel Boy
16 Rainy Day Women #12 & 35

CD4
Self Portrait
(Remaster of original release)

BBC "proms" celebrates the music of Doctor Who

Stream this show now via the BBC:

Doctor Who returns to the Proms to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the popular BBC series
Live from the Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Louise Fryer
Programme to include:
Murray Gold Music from the Doctor Who series
and other music from the series by Bizet, Debussy and Bach
London Philharmonic Choir
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Ben Foster (conductor)

Doctor Who returns to the Proms to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the popular BBC series. As well as showcasing Murray Gold's music from the past eight years, the concert also journeys back to the early days of Doctor Who and the groundbreaking work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Featuring special guests from the series, big screens and a host of monsters ready to invade the Royal Albert Hall, this is not the year to be exterminated!