Awesome Events: Goonies 25th Anniversary in Astoria!

Goonies fans will unite this summer in Astoria, OR to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the film's release. Astoria, for those not indoctrinated into all-things-Goonies, is where the movie is set, much of it was filmed there, and the town might as well be considered the Motherland for Goonies fans worldwide.

The celebration will run from Friday, June 4 - Monday, June 7. Jeff Cohen (Chunk), Corey Feldman (Mouth), and Joey Pants (Francis Fratelli) are schedule to attend, as well as others.Check out the official website for a list of events that span the whole long weekend. It's kind of a bummer that most of the events cost upwards of $20 each, but let's face it, this once-in-a-lifetime event is for hardcore fans only. In addition to "Meet and Greets" with the cast throughout the weekend and the film showing on Friday night, there's also bus tours aroudn Astoria highlighting the filming locations, an 80's Night Out on Saturday, and a Goonies Fan Film Festival.

In the meantime, get your Goon on over at theGoonies.org.

Hey You Guys!!

Goonies 'R GREAT Enough

Damn straight. . .

"Hey You Guys!"

All you Goonies fans out there, "we have the money to save the Goondocks!"

Well, to buy it, anyway. 2010 has started off as quite a famine for new posts. Sorry. But, I'm proud to say that my first post of 2010 is the about a long-sought after movie score: The Goonies.

Yes, Varese Sarabande has done it again, folks. On the 25th anniversary of this 80's cult classic exec produced by Steven Spielberg and directed by Dick Donner, the music label has released a nearly full score for the Goonies. Be warned, though. It is limited to a 5,000 copy run. Once this is sold out, it's gone for good (Ebay and Amazon marketplace aside.)

I wish I had the time to do a full review like I have in the past with Temple of Doom and Gremlins. The Varese website has all the details and a track listing. You can even listen to snippets of a few cues. This long-awaited score will wisk you back to Astoria with the Goonie gang- Mickey, brand, Data, Mouth, Chunk, Andie, Steph, AND Sloth. Not to mention those no-goodnicks, the Fratellis.

Get your truffle shuffle on and pick up your own copy of the Goonies score here!

Just Because: "Goonies 'R' Good Enough"

If you grew up in the 80's you're certainly aware of a little film called The Goonies . In general most 80'snicks have a pretty fond nostalgia for the film, myself entirely included. I recognize it's got its problems and at times some of the acting isn't Oscar quality, but since when did either of these things disqualify a film from being enjoyable?

Which brings me to Cyndi Lauper's Goonies theme song, "Goonies 'R' Good Enough", which I present to you via YouTube without further ado:



I had forgotten how silly and fun "professional" wrestling was by the mid-80's. Roddy Piper, Iron Shiek, Ivan Dragoff(?) - these guys are a riot. Why'd wrestling need to go and get all "Undertaker/Goldberg" serious in the 90's?

Goonies takes the daring adventure of a lifetime that every kid (every boy at least) wanted to have, combines it with a mildly retarded strongman with an animatronic ear and sets it all against some fun pop music; Produced by Steven Spielberg, directed by Dick "Superman" & "Lethal Weapon" Donner and written by Chris Columbus. It has all the hallmarks of a great 80's film.

This video was apparently shown in two parts on MTV around the time The Goonies was released, but for some reason I just don't remember ever seeing it. The Goonies DVD that came out a few years back has this full-length video on it, as well as some behind the scenes footage.

To be sure, Cyndi's video has a lot more of the "quirkiness" that probably went along more with Ms. Lauper's 1980's image more so than the movie this video was shot for. The pro wrestlers want to open up a sushi bar? (Is this a backlash against 80's yuppie culture?); Cyndi's 'terrified" reactions to pirate skeletons; Andre the Giant showing up out of thin air at the end (why didn't Cyndi just do this at the beginning?) I also love when the video suddenly cuts to Steven Spielberg sounding more lost that he ever has on-camera.

But the real reason to love this is for the song and the nostalgic feelings it so imminently brings back. In fact, I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me want to leave work right now and go hunt for treasure out in the parking lot.

As a fan of 80's comedies, if you've never seen the "Goonies Vacation" fanfilm, click that link and watch it now. It's the best (and only?) mash up of Goonies and Vacation you've ever seen watching two Goonies die hards make a roadtrip pilgrimage from California to the Goonies filming locations in Oregon.

I don't know about you readers or Rowdy Roddy Piper, but Cyndi, Mom & Pop, Dave, Wendy, and Andre the Giant lived happily ever after!

Marchin' into March

Wow, where do the hours, days, and weeks go?

How did we get to March already? Whatever the cause of this rapidly increasing passage of time, I will be out on business travel almost all of this coming week inspecting properties in Phoenix and Las Vegas.

In lieu of reading any new posts from me, I offer up a fantastic YouTube page by "Aldabarran", a mysterious Brit with impeccable film score taste: Aldabarran's videos

Here you will find 30+ popular film score he has generously uploaded to the Interweb, many of which are hard sought by collectors and score enthusiasts. I've been listening to this guy's selections almost all week and loving all the new playlists I've made for a bunch of them.

Highlights include The Goonies, Temple of Doom, The 'Burbs (the recently released Varese Sarabande version), Big trouble In Little China, Gremlins, The Fog, Ghostbusters (Varese Sarabande version), Alien/Aliens, and all three Back to The Future films.

Go ahead and indulge already!

I'll see you the week of 3/10.