Noiseless Chatter Archive

Grown Backwards is an incredible album. I’m a huge fan of David Byrne’s work as both the frontman for Talking Heads and as a solo artist. He’s an acquired taste, but one I’d say is worth acquiring. And as much as I love his music in general, Grown Backwards , I think, is his strongest album front to back. (It’s predecessor Look Into the Eyeball puts up a damned good fight, though.) Seriously. It’s great. Go buy it. Listen to it for a few years. THEN FINISH READING THIS POST OK Okay. So, there is one song on the album that leaves me wondering about something. It’s embedded below, and you should listen even if you don’t give a crap about helping me with my question, because it’s an excellent song with a pretty adorable guitar line. It’s called “She Only Sleeps.” And that might be the clue to my answer right there, but I’m honestly not sure. See, the entire line in the chorus is “She only sleeps with me.” And that can be interpreted two ways. So, here’s my que...

Tossing things over to reader / friend / all-around-great-guy Stephen Fletcher this week. He watched me talk out of my ass about three Muppet movies and could stay silent no longer. Of course, he doesn’t seem very angry in his writing, but I assure you he flew to America and spat on my car. And if he says he didn’t, then WHO DID STEPHEN? Anyway, he wanted to share his own thoughts, and I wanted to let him. I’m just that kind of guy, and I had nothing else planned for this week. I’ve gained something of a reputation as a Muppet fanatic. Almost annoyingly so to others, I sometimes feel. I’m pretty sure my friends’ Facebook feeds are littered with Muppet related posts from me, for one thing. My room has several Muppet posters and pictures adorning the walls and a good collection of Muppet DVDs and Blu-rays proudly sit on my shelf. I tend to get a bit of gentle ribbing or even eye-rolling from friends and family as Jim Henson and the Muppets have become such a strong ...

I know I said I wasn’t going to write about ALF anymore, but I wrote this one with my mouth so I think that’s okay! There’s a group of folks reviewing ALF , as far as I can tell coincidentally, in an episode-by-episode podcast. It’s called ALF is Back…in Pod Form , which is such a good title I plagiarized it three years ago !!!! No, it’s a coincidence, obviously, and it points to just how infrequent references to ALF are in popular culture. When you need one…man, it’s slim pickings. Anyway, they’re dissecting the show on their own, and I was asked to participate. I said no, of course. But I accidentally typed “yes,” and here we are. They’re about halfway through season one, which means they have no idea what they’re in for, the poor, innocent children. I was invited to join their discussion about “I’ve Got a New Attitude,” which, if I remember correctly, was fucking garbage . You can check out this episode of the podcast here , and if you’re (for some odd reason) look...

So, this site. And what’s to come. And all the other questions I wish I didn’t have to answer. In short, I’m not going anywhere. Or, actually, I’m going very far away. But the site isn’t going anywhere. Or, actually, it’s going to keep going where it’s always gone, but maybe more slowly. Should I start again? OKAY I’m at something of a crossroads with Noiseless Chatter. The ALF series is done. Forever. Period. And I can basically write whatever I want from here on out. I still plan on being amusing (NOT LIKE I CAN HELP IT) and saying curse words, but I’ll also say other things, too! And I’ll get to write about the things I want to write about! Like Fiction Into Film! And Trilogy of Terror, since October is coming back around! I’m excited about those things! However, I’m…also really low on time. I started a new job recently. It’s a great job with a great company. It’s good money. It’s fantastic experience. It’s awesome. It also takes a lot out of me. When...

Let’s not mince words. Of the classic Muppet films, The Muppets Take Manhattan is my least favorite. I know, I know. I’m an awful human being who hates fun. But I think part of the reason this one leaves me cold is that it sits between two of the best things Jim Henson and his collaborators ever did: The Great Muppet Caper , which is the Maltese Falcon of movies staring piles of colored felt, and Follow That Bird , which I won’t be covering here, but which I assure you is brilliant and which you need to watch even if you think you’re way too old for it. The Muppets Take Manhattan is just…strange. It doesn’t feel like the Muppets to me. Or…well, scratch that. It absolutely does feel like the Muppets, but only intermittently. When it does, it’s great. But when it doesn’t, which is most of the time, I find myself tuning out. My eyes wander. I look for interesting background details or try to figure out how much of a given street or park was blocked off for filmi...

My trademark griping about things I love aside, The Muppet Movie is wonderful. Maybe not the film I’d like it to be, but if you do the math Jim Henson was slightly more of a successful artist than I am, so it might be worth deferring to his judgment now and again. It was sweet. It was funny. It had incredible music. What more could you want? I’m glad you asked! Because The Great Muppet Caper provides my answer: The Great Muppet Caper . Everything good about The Muppet Movie is, simply, better here. And any niggles I have with The Muppet Movie are entirely erased. The Great Muppet Caper is sweeter, funnier, and features even better music. The one area in which the first film might edge this one out is its sheer volume of great cameos. The Great Muppet Caper has admittedly fewer, but it does have the single best Muppets cameo ever…and we’ll get to that in due time. My love for The Great Muppet Caper probably doesn’t come as a surprise. It’s a common referenc...