Alf Clausen (1941-2025)

Anyone whose watched "The Simpsons" (the first decade, anyway) will no doubt be familiar with the underscoring and the songs, both of which (for the most part) were provided by Alf Clausen, who recently passed away. On the show, he also did witty arrangements of Danny Elfman's theme for the end credits.

But he was so much more than the people of Springfield. He provided music for TV shows such as "Moonlighting" and "ALF" ("No relation", he'd respond in regards to the title.) and served as an orchestrator for Ira Newborn (The Naked Gun, Dragnet) and Lee Holdridge (The Beastmaster, Splash). 

To this day, one can only wondering what was going through the heads of the people in charge - besides air - when Clausen was let go from "The Simpsons", which he helped define musically. Who knows?

In any event, he will be missed.

Nickel City Tinseltown: the History of Buffalo, NY Filmmaking (2025)

As a lifelong resident of Buffalo, New York and a lover of movies, of course I would be intrigued by a documentary that shines a light on the community of local talents making small movies and toiling away on bigger ones.

A number of movies were shot here over the years. (One of the big revelations of the documentary was that 1981’s Fear No Evil - which I had only been vaguely aware of - was partially shot in the area.) I knew about the likes of James Caan‘s Hide in Plain Sight (mentioned here) and the Burt Reynolds/Goldie Hawn romcom Best Friends (not mentioned), and it’s pretty popular knowledge that 1984’s The Natural was shot in town, the games filmed in what used to be the War Memorial Stadium, so it’s quite fortunate that this film gets a nod because, otherwise, that would’ve been a stunning failure of research.

Sadly, this town’s brushes with the creation of cinema were not all sunshine and lollipops. Notorious figures have made movies here as well, like an early-80s horror movie made by a pair of producer brothers who can quite frankly go fuck themselves and a late-90s drama written, directed by and starring a very controversial actor/musician that I have not yet seen, but I’m sure the supporting cast will lead me to that project at some point in the future. (both mentioned, by the way)

My favorite part of the documentary had to be the segment featuring Troma president/founder Lloyd Kaufman. Kaufman talking about shooting Poultrygeist and Return to Nuke’em High in the area was immensely entertaining as he had great love for the area and the local crews. Fun fact: I actually signed up to work as a production assistant on Poultrygeist, but the lack of a car and too much concern over my then-current job at the grocery store precluded that plan.

A handful of smaller movies have been filmed here, too, such as the Keanu Reeves as a criminal-trying-to-go-straight yarn Henry’s Crime and the community-gathering-together-to-repay-a-misappropriated-loan fable Manna from Heaven. (BTW, I have a very small role in the World War II drama Proud. I’m one of the people waving the mini American flags as the ship sets sail. Can you find me? I sure couldn’t. One long day of shooting and they misspelled my name in the end credits. That’s showbiz.)

However, the bulk of movies coming out from local filmmakers are other cheesy horror movies with titles like Killer Rack and Snow Shark: Ancient Snow Beast. Ultimately, my issue with the film is that it ends up swimming in a circle talking exclusively about such movies. A Quiet Place Part Two was partially shot on Grand Island. It would’ve been nice to hear about that or about the handful of Hallmark original movies that were shot here. Now, I’m not particularly proud of the fact that I’ve watched more than a few of my share of cheesy Lifetime Movie Network original movies, but I couldn’t help but notice a number of Buffalo landmarks and streets in a few of them. It would’ve been damn nice to hear about those movies (made as they were by Fred Olen Ray and his son).

Also, nothing about Guillermo Del Toro. Who knows if it was jealousy or genuine absentmindedness that got him left out of this, but when the first third of Crimson Peak is set here, albeit at the turn of the century, and the climax of Nightmare Alley sees its beleaguered protagonist running through what can only be City Hall, you give the guy a mention.

Ending on a personal note: The summer of 2015 saw me working from 1:30 to 10:00 at a call center job, an experience I would rather sacrifice a limb than ever have to repeat. I lived in Buffalo and the job was in Getzville, so, of course, I would have to take the freeway to and from. Because they were shooting the escape scene from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows on the 33, I would have to take a detour if I was gonna get home. I witnessed the bright lights they would need to shoot the scene and while it was something of an annoyance, it still left me kind of curious. A year later, I saw the scene as it played it out in the movie. I could not help but feel a child-like thrill at seeing part of my hometown on the big screen as I quite often do. (No points for guessing if this scene is mentioned.)

Overall, not a bad documentary (and the fact that I saw it for free was a minor plus), but, at the end of the day, kind of a disappointment.

***/5

Well, my chestnut about January 6th and laxatives and Republican Congresspeople got me bumped up to a seven-day ban from Reddit, so as I see it, one of two things needs to happen:

a) I need to learn to be less sensitive about the stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid things being done by our current government.

-or-

b) Somebody needs to do a clean sweep of these corrupt assholes, cause that first one ain’t ever fucking happening.