Gregg Araki's music video for The Micronauts' "The Jag"

Araki is a bit of a divisive figure in film, but there's know doubt that the DOOM GENERATION and MYSTERIOUS SKIN director, who turns 55 today, has an eye.  It's one naturally suited for music videos, so it's kind of a surprise that he hasn't directed more of them, but here's one about a fantasizing supermarket shopper that was released about the time of Araki's SPLENDOR.

Evening Entertainment: The 1999 Sci-Fi Channel pilot (?) "Warped in Space"

Here's an oddity -- a pilot (or perhaps just a special) made for the Sci-Fi Channel (back when it WAS "Sci-Fi") starring Jim Jackman as the captain of a ship that's been all-but-destroyed due to an asteroid field.  He finds himself trapped with a trio of space losers (including an alien with the body of a woman and the voice of a man) in a hyper-frenetic situation with loads of ridiculous effects and plenty of quick-fire cultural references.  "Red Dwarf" looks like an obvious inspiration, but co-director/producer Chuck Cirino was also a director of mid-'90s oddity "Weird TV" and the Shadoe Stevens special "Shadoevision," both of which share similarities to this one.  Cirino is better known as a composer for a vast amount of the films of Jim Wynorski and Fred Olen Ray, and star Jackman played "Major Asshole" in SPACEBALLS.  Writer Eric Truehart later wrote episodes of "Invader Zim," including the great "Dibship Rising."

Wink Martindale stars in a vision of the future of 1999 in 1967's "1999 A.D."

Oh, sure, we all know and love Wink Martindale, who turns 81 today, from his work as the host of more game shows than you can name, but did you know he was also a FATHER OF THE FUTURE? In this 1967 film, produced by the Philco-Ford Company for their 75th anniversary, a family lives in the far-away time of 1999, filled with future cars, Martian botony and computers.  Hey, at least it gets idea behind the computer stuff pretty correct.  (Interestingly, Martindale's character is supposed to be 45 years old, which must have rankled the man who was then in his mid-30s.) 

Evening Entertainment: Cloris Leachman and Jim Rash star in "Thanks," a pilgrim-era sitcom

Remember "Thanks," the sitcom set in the zany world of the American pilgrim era?  You may not, as you might have been busy during the six weeks that it aired, starting in August of 1999 and gone over two months before Thanksgiving.  Heck, Sarah Vowell even wrote about it and compared it to "The Crucible."  It does feature Cloris Leachman defending the plague, Oscar-winner and "Community" dean Jim Rash as a young chap who has bad hair (who gets the best moments) and Erika Christensen.  Here's episode two, with original commercials that should give you fond memories of  the Taco Bell chihuahua and Disney's INSPECTOR GADGET.  It's much better than you'd expect.