Latest news with #SmokeyandtheBandit
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
What 'Retro Movies' are playing at Bloomington's Starlite Drive-In in 2025?
Gearheads take notice: The Starlite Drive-in Theater's Retro Movies this year will feature plenty of grease, grilles and growling engines, ranging from the 1968 Ford Mustang GT fastback from the Steve McQueen classic 'Bullitt' to the 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in 'Smokey and the Bandit' and the 1994 Toyota Supra MK IV used in the original 'The Fast and the Furious' movie. But don't fret if gasoline, gaskets and gauges aren't your thing: The Starlite, 7640 S. Old Ind. 37, will be offering plenty of entertainment for families with little ones, with such fantasy classics as 'The Dark Crystal,' from the mind of Muppets creator Jim Henson, or the animated adventures of Fievel Mousekewitz in 'American Tail' or the live action adventures of Atreyu and the dragon Falkor in 'The Neverending Story.' Here's the lineup for this year's Retro Classics. Movies will start a few minutes after dusk, which means showtimes will vary. Admission to these movies is free. You may be cool, but you'll never be as cool as Steve McQueen when he speeds after bad guys in San Francisco in his black 1968 Ford Mustang GT fastback. Famous movie critic Leonard Maltin said the movie features one of the best car chases ever captured on film. Here's your chance to see it on a big screen. This romantic musical comedy from 1978 features chart-toppers such as 'You're the One that I Want,' and solidified the star power of Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta. Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and Jackie Gleason star in this 1977 action comedy road movie about truck driving bootleggers. From the mind of Muppets creator Jim Henson, this dark fantasy revolves around a quest and a powerful crystal on a damaged planet. Brothers Jake (John Belushi) and Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) are 'on a mission from God' in this 1980 action musical comedy. And while they're asked to play 'both kinds of music: country and western,' you can hear plenty of tunes from other genres, from artists including James Brown, Cab Calloway and Aretha Franklin. The 1986 disaster film was co-written by 'Jurassic Park' author Michael Crichton, stars Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz and has lots of special effects. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker and Michelle Rodriguez are in this movie, but the real stars are the cars, smoking tires and roaring engines. Catch the original movie in this series — before it turned ludicrous. Another Jim Henson movie, this one from 1986, and co-directed by George Lucas, of 'Star Wars' fame. This musical fantasy stars David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly. The original 1979 Australian dystopian road warrior film starring Mel Gibson. Weird outfits, weird hairdos, lots of grime, dust, diesel and action. This 1986 sports drama starring Gene Hackman is quintessential viewing for any basketball fan in Indiana or just those who love to root for the underdog. Inspired in part by the Milan High School team that won the 1954 state championship. Executive produced by Steven Spielberg this animated tale tells the story of a family of mice that leaves Russia to find freedom in the U.S. A Howard Hughes-penned comedy starring Dan Aykroyd and John Candy. Think bears and boats and lightning strikes. Another animated movie executive produced by Spielberg, this 1988 adventure film depicts the adventures of a young apatosaurus named Littlefoot and his companions, which include a triceratops, a stegosaurus and a saurolophus. In this 1988 adventure film, a group of kids (played by actors including Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, Martha Plimpton and Ke Huy Quan) try to save their homes from foreclosure by following a treasure map that leads to the long-lost fortune of legendary pirate One-Eyed Willy. Goonies never say die, even if they hear, 'Hey, you guys.' A teen (Kevin Bacon) moves from Chicago to a small town, where a strict dancing ban is administered by the local minister (John Lithgow.) You already know what's going to happen, but you won't be able to keep your feet still because of the chart-topping and Oscar-winning title track. A Christmas comedy starring Will Ferrell as Buddy, the elf. A 1990 sports drama starring fast cars and Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid and Cary Elwes. This 1978 coming-of-age movie was written and directed by George Lucas and stars Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard and an at-the-time unknown carpenter named Harrison Ford. The 2001 animated comedy features the voices of Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow and Mike Myers as the eponymous ogre who tries to rescue a princess. This 1984 fantasy based on a German novel by Michael Ende tells the tale of young heroes fighting 'The Nothing' with the help of a night hob, a rock biter and a luck dragon named Falkor. Spoiler alert: Don't get attached to Artax. Boris Ladwig can be reached at bladwig@ This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: 'Retro Movies' showing in 2025 at Bloomington's Starlite Drive-In
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Adam Duritz: ‘It's My World and I Love It'
'Connection is a hell of a thing…it's the life jacket we all need,' says Adam Duritz, frontman of Counting Crows, a band that's built their 30-year career through heartfelt live performances, emotional lyrics, and recurring, world-building themes in their songs. Ironic, then, that growing up, Duritz says he didn't know how to make connections with other people. 'When I was younger, I was so stuck inside myself,' he tells me from his New York City home. A bunch of movie posters plaster the wall behind him—Seven Samurai and Smokey and the Bandit among them. He's wearing a black Raspberries T-shirt, and sports a full black beard and a head full of dark brown hair, albeit thinner and shorter than the dreadlocks he was known for back in the '90s. More from Spin: 5 Albums I Can't Live Without: Paul Leary of Butthole Surfers Pearl Jam Welcome Peter Frampton For 'Black' In Nashville Lorde Lays Out Extensive 'Virgin' Tour Plans 'I had all this stuff I felt, and no way to express it or no way to connect with people because I didn't talk to people very well, and I didn't have any way to make connections. I felt so bound up inside myself.' It wasn't until later in life that he discovered he was suffering from depersonalization disorder, a condition that makes him feel emotionally detached from his surroundings, and even himself, which can last from minutes to sometimes months. Imagine feeling like you are seeing yourself from outside of your own body, or that everything around you is not real, and you don't know how to stop it; that's how Duritz feels a lot of the time. It can be a lonely existence Duritz's father served in the military during the Vietnam War and later became a doctor, which meant the family moved around a lot, only adding to his sense of isolation. 'It really separates you from the world in a lot of bad ways,' Duritz says. 'I was always a new kid. I didn't know people. I really had a lot of questions when I was younger, and I knew something was wrong with me. How am I going to take care of myself? How am I going to live a life? I didn't really know how any of this was going to work.' While he was in college, Duritz discovered, rather spontaneously, that he could write songs and play them. 'Good Morning, Little Sister' was the first song he ever wrote, about his younger sister who was going through a difficult time as a teenager. For the first time in his life, he says he had a sense of self, of who he was: He was a songwriter. 'I had a feeling there was all this stuff inside me that mattered, that was important, but it just was there, like a big ball of feeling,' he says. 'And then I write songs, and suddenly it's this way that connects me to the whole world, and all the things inside me that were stuck because the mental illness had a purpose.' Then, in 1993, two years after forming the Counting Crows with producer-guitarist David Bryson, the band—which by then consisted of Matt Malley on bass, drummer Steve Bowman, and on keyboards, Charlie Gillingham—exploded onto the music scene with its multi-platinum breakout album, August and Everything After. Then, in 1996, the group's sophomore album, Recovering the Satellites, debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart, going double platinum. The Counting Crows has released a number of live albums and compilations over the years, as well as five studio records, including its latest, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, the band's first in seven years. As Duritz describes it, the new record is 'so rock and roll.' Not to be confused with the band's 2021 EP, Butter Miracle: Suite One, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets! is a sequel of sorts to its predecessor. Duritz tells me he wrote Suite One as a challenge to himself, to see if he could write one long-playing, continuous piece of music. The result was, well, a suite of four songs: 'The Tall Grass,' 'Elevator Boots,' 'Angel of 14th Street,' and 'Bobby and the Rat-Kings.' But it was also his answer to how people listen to music now. 'I don't know if anyone's listening to whole records,' says Duritz. 'People are digesting music in different ways anyway, so to me, it felt like since I was moved to challenge myself to make this 20-minute piece of music where the songs all flow together, it was just that, you know? But I really loved how it turned out. I thought well, it does make sense to make another half to this, though.' The Complete Sweets includes remixed versions of the songs on Suite One, along with five new songs, including the band's latest singles, 'Spaceman in Tulsa' and 'Under the Aurora.' But the road to get there wasn't so easy. Going back to his friend's farm in West England, where he wrote Suite One, Duritz composed the other half of the album and on his way home, he stopped in London to sing backing vocals on the Gang of Youths' album, Angel in Realtime. When the band sent him the finished product, he thought it was one of the best records he had heard in a long time. 'I was so blown away listening to it, and I had this realization that these songs on their record were significantly better than the stuff I'd written,' he says. 'The stuff lacked a sort of passion that these songs had and they were missing something, and I needed to go back to the drawing board.' So, that's what he did. And through the process of reworking his new songs, Duritz pushed himself like he'd never done before. 'I'd never really had this experience before of thinking I'd finished something and then realizing it wasn't good enough,' he tells me. 'They were a little more ambitious musically, to the point where I couldn't play them myself. Usually, I can tell a song is good because I can just play it for myself. But these were really difficult for me to play. I had them in my head, but I couldn't recreate them.' As much as he loved his new material, he lacked the confidence to share it with the rest of the band. So he sat on it for two years. Then a breakthrough happened. He wrote 'With Love, from A-Z.' 'I knew that was great. I loved that song,' he says. 'And it felt like, in a way, an updating of 'Round Here.' Whereas that's a real statement of a person and where they are in life, just as a kid getting ready to go out into the world and make something. And to me, 'With Love, from A-Z' was a statement of where I am today. And I really felt it worked and it was very powerful.' With a renewed sense of confidence, Duritz invited band members David Immerglück (guitar), Jim Bogios (drums), and Millard Powers (bass) to his house to play his new songs. Two weeks later, along with the rest of the group, Duritz ripped through the tracks in the studio in 11 days. Then, together with Chad Blake, the Counting Crows mixed the new songs, combining them with the remixed Suite One tracks, making a complete, nine-track LP. 'So the Suite [One] sounds different now than it did originally because we remade it to match the first half,' he says. 'The two pieces fit together really well. It was a different experience…' While the title of the album, Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!, has a bit of a nonsensical tone to it, the themes that run through it are quite serious and incredibly relevant to what's going on in America now. 'Boxcars,' for instance, is about the deportation of immigrants. 'Under the Aurora' was inspired by the murder of George Floyd during the pandemic. Other songs cover the objectification of women and trans kids in sports. 'A lot of the stuff on this record is about people in isolation and people on the outside looking in, finding ways to get through life. Sometimes it works out because we can pick up a guitar,' says Duritz, referring to himself. Duritz says that after more than 30 years together, he and the band are still fascinated with the process of making music, exploring new ways to perform older songs live, never replicating the same old playlists during their shows, and, as with the group's new album, finding new ways to write songs. 'We enjoy playing music,' he says. 'I love being in a band. I don't want to be a solo artist. I like the jazz of being in a band. I think we matter to each other. I've watched my friends fuck up great bands. I don't want to do that. There are a million ways to justify why things should fall apart. You just have to decide whether that's okay to let it happen.' The musical landscape is a lot different than when August and Everything After debuted, when the only option to hear it was to buy the album at the record store or borrow (or copy) it from a friend. Exposure meant getting a single played on the radio or creating a music video for MTV. The rise of streaming music, of course, has changed all of that; it's all the music you want, anytime you want, making it more difficult for artists to stay relevant, to build a fanbase, to connect with an audience. The Counting Crows are still passionate about being in a rock 'n roll band. 'I'm 30-some-odd years into a career here; a career that lasts five minutes for most people, if it even happens,' Duritz says. 'And we're still a band and we're still going on tour. And it's still cool. There are bands that are bigger and, it's not effortless, but it's still happening. That thing that saved me when I was a kid is still saving me now. It's my world, and I love it.' To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reporter's Notebook: Where we stand with Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Do not underestimate the importance of Thursday's meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. Those committee chairmen are looking for guidance from the president about what they need to put in the "big, beautiful bill." Republicans agree on broad principles. But specifics are the key to either passing or failing this bill. Democrats' Boiling Pot: A Look At Their 2026 Game Plan Most Republicans are willing to get behind the president. He has more power in this dynamic than the committee chairmen. But they have not yet scheduled their meetings to write details of the bill, because they aren't sure exactly what the White House wants. Congressional Republicans are just 26 days away from the Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass the bill. Multiple House committees hammered through their plans for the bill. But the two most important committees – Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce – still have not met. Read On The Fox News App Senate Puts Trump Team In Place, Sets Up Agenda Fight After 100-Day Sprint The Ways and Means Committee is in charge of writing the specifics of the tax policy. Energy and Commerce is asked to cut $880 billion. Some of that will touch on entitlement programs if the GOP truly goes that deep with cuts. But already, Republicans are running out of track with such tight deadlines. In the movie "Smokey and the Bandit," country star Jerry Reed sings the title track, "Eastbound and Down." The lyrics go: "We've got a long way to go. And a short time to get there." That epitomizes the problem facing congressional Republicans as they race to finish this bill soon – with the hardest decisions yet to be article source: Reporter's Notebook: Where we stand with Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Fox News
01-05-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Reporter's Notebook: Where we stand with Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
Do not underestimate the importance of Thursday's meeting at the White House with President Donald Trump, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky. Those committee chairmen are looking for guidance from the president about what they need to put in the "big, beautiful bill." Republicans agree on broad principles. But specifics are the key to either passing or failing this bill. Most Republicans are willing to get behind the president. He has more power in this dynamic than the committee chairmen. But they have not yet scheduled their meetings to write details of the bill, because they aren't sure exactly what the White House wants. Congressional Republicans are just 26 days away from the Memorial Day deadline set by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass the bill. Multiple House committees hammered through their plans for the bill. But the two most important committees – Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce – still have not met. The Ways and Means Committee is in charge of writing the specifics of the tax policy. Energy and Commerce is asked to cut $880 billion. Some of that will touch on entitlement programs if the GOP truly goes that deep with cuts. But already, Republicans are running out of track with such tight deadlines. In the movie "Smokey and the Bandit," country star Jerry Reed sings the title track, "Eastbound and Down." The lyrics go: "We've got a long way to go. And a short time to get there." That epitomizes the problem facing congressional Republicans as they race to finish this bill soon – with the hardest decisions yet to be made.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How a wandering pup in Arizona led to the rescue of a wandering boy
In 2015, a brown and white puppy with floppy ears wandered onto Scotty and Dawn Dunton's ranch. The couple already had dogs, so Dawn gave the pup to her friends. Her friends had a female Great Pyrenees, and the new guy, Bosco, was a boxer-Anatolian-Pyrenees mix. So they let the pair breed because they figured they'd make great dogs. They certainly did. One of Bosco's sons would grow up to rescue his own little wanderer: a 2-year-old boy named Bodin Allen lost under a full moon in the high desert. That dog, Buford, got famous this week after shepherding Bodin to Dawn and Scotty's ranch about 40 miles east of Kingman, Arizona. Rescuer in the wings: A sleepless, terrifying night ends with good news for Arizona family Bodin made it about seven miles on foot, but Scotty found tracks indicating that Buford had reached him from at least a mile away. It's hard to tell what happened that night, but based on the boy's limited recounting of events, Buford slept with him under a tree, keeping him warm in the cold night. Buford is at least 150 pounds and a whole lot of fluff. The story has captured national attention, with news outlets eagerly sharing it. AI-generated children's books about Buford and Bodin have begun to surface, along with YouTube videos featuring songs about their adventure. Meanwhile, Scotty's been fielding calls from across the country, with people asking about Buford's favorite treats and promising to send gift baskets. Back in 2018, when Buford was just a puppy, Dawn pitched in to help her friends raise him and his eight sibling, taking over feeding and cleaning duties whenever they were out of town. "I kind of tricked Scotty the one time," she said, laughing. Scotty tells it that way too. Dawn asked him once to help her feed the puppies. He obliged. While they were there, in the chaos of feeding time, she asked him which one he'd pick if he had to pick one. "Eight of them are like, jumping on me, and running around yapping and stuff," Scotty said. But there was one, chilling in the corner, who casually came over when the couple put the food out, ate, walked back to his corner and lay down. That would be the one, Scotty said. And so it was. Buford became his Christmas present. The couple named him Buford after Buford T. Justice, the sheriff in the film "Smokey and the Bandit." "He's by far the coolest dog we've had," Scotty said. Buford was a good puppy. He only occasionally chewed on things, and any time Dawn told him no, he acted mortified that he'd broken the rules and then didn't repeat the infraction. He adopted his calling young. When he was just about 1 year old, Dawn spotted Buford outside instinctually watching over a calf. From then on, he has guarded them and cuddled with them. He has since taken on an important job for the ranch. He patrols to keep out coyotes and mountain lions. He must be the stuff of legend among the animals around there because most of the time, the predators don't dare walk near the animals. "He's a tough dog," Scotty said. "His bark wakes the dead." He's only engaged in physical battle a couple times, that Scotty knows of. He's never returned home injured. When Buford isn't guarding his calves and patrolling the ranch, he hangs out with family and even lets Scotty's niece paint his nails. He's gentle and patient with children. Buford is so gentle and patient that even when other dogs — like this Arizona Republic reporter's pup, Luci — rudely made a beeline for his food upon meeting him, he didn't seem to mind at all. "He's just always been a real mellow dog," Scotty said. For now, Buford doesn't know he's a star. But by next week, Scotty suspects half the UPS truck will be gifts from Buford's fans around the nation. "He'll probably figure it out," Scotty said. Thank you, Buford! Hero dog finds missing toddler who was 7 miles from Arizona home Reach Caitlin McGlade at Follow her on BlueSky, @ This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How a wandering pup in Arizona led to the rescue of a wandering boy
