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In the 1990s from under the great UK chart war between Blur and Oasis stepped Saint Etienne a highly influential and often overlooked pop trio that is almost completely unknown here in America. Bio: In the early 90s, two twentysomethings from the suburbs of London (Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs) and one from the fringes of Windsor (Sarah Cracknell) set their sights on fulfilling pop music’s potential. They were fired up by the inclusive rush of rave culture, and the way that genres could now bubble together, thanks to cheap music technology. From day one, this involved blending club bass lines and indiepop with samples from 60s records, old reggae tunes, mid-century British films, decimalisation training records and French football commentary. (This essentially describes their debut album, Fox Base Alpha.) Discover more hot tracks by Saint Etienne at Saint Etienne Mixtape on Spotify! Let's let the music speak for itself: Like A Motorway is one of my favorite electronic d...

Written By: Ken Hulsey The film “Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet” may be the most interesting science fiction film to be produced in the 1960s’. Although the film in itself is very well done and features some excellent special effects shots, it’s the films origin and two different Americanized versions that may be of most interest to fans of this genre. You see the film was not an American product, but a film made in the former Soviet Union. Although scenes that starred Basil Rathbone and Faith Domergue filmed by Roger Corman were inserted into the film for American viewers the film is still basically “Planeta Bur” (Planet of Storms – 1962) in most respects. In this version almost all Soviet references were removed from both the film and its credits, although it was hard not to notice the Russian insignias on all the spacecraft. American International must have been very nervous about releasing a Soviet sci-fi film during the middle of the “Cold War.” The weirdest version of ...

NASA Press Release NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission is on its way to the Red Planet to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples to send back to Earth. Humanity's most sophisticated rover launched with the  Ingenuity Mars Helicopter  at 7:50 a.m. EDT (4:50 a.m. PDT) Thursday on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. "With the launch of Perseverance, we begin another historic mission of exploration," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "This amazing explorer's journey has already required the very best from all of us to get it to launch through these challenging times. Now we can look forward to its incredible science and to bringing samples of Mars home even as we advance human missions to the Red Planet. As a mission, as an agency, and as a country, we will persevere." The ULA Atlas V's Centaur upper stage initially placed the Mars 2020 spa...

The series, called "Giant Robo" in Japan was produced by Toei Company Ltd., and aired on NET (now TV Asahi) from October 11, 1967 to April 1, 1968, with a total of 26 episodes. The English dubbed version of the series was produced by American International Television as "Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot". The entire series was first broadcast in the United States in 1969 by American International Television, and became quite popular in syndication over the next several years, particularly from 1971-74 when it reached its peak in distribution. The series was still in active syndication through the early 1980s. In 1970, several episodes were edited together to create the movie Voyage Into Space, which has now reached cult film status. The series was astonishingly violent by American standards of children's programming in the 1960s (in its home country of Japan, though, it was no more violent than any other tokusatsu airing at the time). Gunplay are staples of eve...

From The Monster Island News Archives I thought that it would be a good idea to explain just how I became a fan of Godzilla fan and how much the Japanese giant monster genre has influenced my life. If you grew up in the 1970s you know that pop culture during that decade was dominated by dinosaurs. You really couldn't escape them. There were Saturday morning kids shows like Land of the Lost and Valley of the Dinosaurs, movies like The Land That Time Forgot and The Crater Lake Monster, and movies on TV like Last Dinosaur, they were even in comic books like Turok Son of Stone and Devil Dinosaur. That's not to mention all the toys, lunch boxes and T-shirts. It would have been a miracle if I had not loved dinosaurs. The pivotal moment when I went from just being a dinosaur fanatic to a Godzilla fanatic came in 1977 when the NBC aired Godzilla vs Megalon on prime-time television. I remember thinking to myself as I watched the commercial for the show, "That is the biggest...

Micronauts was a North American science fiction toyline manufactured and marketed by Mego from 1976 to 1980. The Micronauts toyline was based on and licensed from the Microman toyline created by Japanese-based toy company Takara in 1974.   Mego discontinued the Micronauts line in 1980 prior to the company’s bankruptcy and dissolution in 1982. Years after Mego’s demise other toy companies, such as Palisades Toys and SOTA (State of the Art) Toys, have attempted to revive the toyline over the years.   Takara first released Microman toys in Japan in 1974 as a smaller version their popular 8-inch-tall (20 cm) and 12-inch-tall (30 cm) 1972 Henshin Cyborg (Transforming Cyborg) line. Henshin Cyborg figures were based on Combat Joe figures — which themselves were based on Hasbro’s G.I. Joe figures — with their bodies molded in clear plastic, exposing their inner workings and supposed cybernetic parts.   By downscaling their size, Takara sought to create a toyline ...

From History.com   Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly enslaved people—is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution. Secretary of State William Seward issues a proclamation certifying the amendment.   Two years after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts, where new state governments, based on universal manhood suffrage, were to be established. Thus began the period known as Radical Reconstruction, which saw the 14th Amendment, which had been passed by Congress in 1866, ratified in July 1868. The amendment resolved pre-Civil War questions of African American citizenship by stating that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States…are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.” The amendment then reaffirmed the privileges...

"The Ministry of Silly Walks" is a sketch from the Monty Python comedy troupe's television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, season 2, episode 1, which is entitled "Face the Press". The episode first aired at some point in 1970. A shortened version of the sketch was performed for Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. This sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler hatted civil servant in a fictitious British government ministry responsible for developing silly walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways. It is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that has earned the sketch its popularity. Cleese has cited the physical comedy of Max Wall, probably in character as Professor Wallofski, as important to its conception.   The sketch as originally depicted in the series begins with John Cleese playing a nameless civil servant who, after purchasing The Times from the newsagent in the previous sketch, walks ...

Written By: Ken Hulsey   I am so happy that everyone has been enjoying my movie photo and poster series. Since I first started doing these regular occurring features I have gotten nothing but positive feedback ... and I thank you. Today I decided to tweak things just a little bit by combining the photo and poster series. For the foreseeable future I won't be scouring the internet like I have been for images to share but pulling items from my own personal collection. Some of these images will be studio originals, others will be rare items, and yet others will be copies, that is to say images that aren't original studio photos but copies of said photos.   For my fist image I have chosen a promo advert for the 1957 Universal International release "The Land Unknown". Now what sets this particular image apart from any other movie poster, magazine add, or lobby card is the simple fact that it wasn't produced for the general public to see. It was instead produced for t...

I Okay folks here is my first post honoring the late night video program from the 1980s called Friday Night Videos. I had planned to feature the first music video I ever saw on the program in this initial outing, but thanks to my life-long friend Steven Colby, I was forced to change my plans.  Okay ... forced is a strong way of saying it.  Let me explain. My original plan was to showcase the music video for Berlin's "No More Words", which is great classic video. However, last night my buddy Steve chose to post a video of the Human League's "Don't You Want Me". This isn't the music video for the song that most of us here in the United States remember ... oh no ... Steve found a rare Dutch clip from a show called Top Pop (not to be confused with the popular UK music program Top of the Pops).  I loved the clip so much that I've watched it four times.  Well so much for my plans. Unknowingly Steven just hijacked my post and I'm switching from Berl...

As many of you may or may not know I have been running a very popular pop culture blog for the past ten years called The Monster Island News. That creation of mine has been a haven for old monster movies, television and comic featuring articles written by myself, fellow fans and real journalists who knew the genre inside and out. It was a strange, interesting and very fun ride.   Like all good things the time has come for MIN to end and a new course charted. The blog as a whole had run its natural course and to be honest, I found myself just going through the motions with it. If you are a regular reader you would have probably noticed that the bulk of my posts lately consisted of reposts of past articles. I had lost my passion … and it showed.   During last week’s church service, a divinely inspired message entered my foggy little mind. The Lord told me to start a new blog, one that would inspire people and reflect the true me. After a night of prayer, I decided to f...