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I continue to be amazed at how small that studio is.

Soundtrack is out.  Nothing new or previously unreleased though...😴

[Arachnophobia]

Marshall's actual *director* resume is much less impressive. He's done a few action/drama/horror films, and a few documentaries.

Well, Arachnophobia was cool.
Congo not so much.

I've been watching a bunch of the red carpet interviews, press junket interviews, etc. with the guys and Frank Marshall.

Frank Marshall has produced ten billion tentpole blockbuster movies. He and his wife (Kathleen Kennedy) have both produced a zillion all-time box office smashes, and they're both surely rich beyond all belief.

Marshall's actual *director* resume is much less impressive. He's done a few action/drama/horror films, and a few documentaries.

But more to the point, in watching the guy and listening to him, he seems like a rich old dude you'd see in a premium box at a Mike "Beach Boys" show at a winery. He's the same age as the BBs (Carl's age to be specific), and in every interview he talks about how he grew up listening to Dick Dale, etc., had his own failed band, and so on. Whatever, but I get the vibe that Frank Marshall does not regularly spin "Carl and the Passions" or "Holland", and I wouldn't be surprised if he couldn't name a song from the era between "Sail on Sailor" and "Kokomo."

I'll cut the red carpet interviews a bit of slack because it was apparently hooked into the "Visit California" organization, so everybody just kept blathering on and on about *CALIFORNIA*. "This is really the story of California." No, stop it. You're not Timothy White. Yes, obviously California is a part of the story and sometimes it even works to kind of weave some themes through the band's story.

Everybody seems in polite zombie mode promoting this thing. I watched one of the press junket interviews with Al, and he clearly is trying to not explicitly just be extra cynical and grumpy about the doc, but he's sitting there at 81 years old and being asked "What's your favorite Beach Boys song?" And he's got nothing. Like, he can barely muster a few obvious titles. I'm not saying he can't name them all. He'll talk about "Santa Ana Winds" and "Holland" if you ask him. But this whole thing is a bit like the Twilight Zone. There's a weird absurdity to it that's fascinating for not all the right reasons.

Not trying to be overly dramatic; we'll all survive and hopefully soon enough we'll be back to the next archival music release.

And hey everybody, 8mm home movies at least, right?

I'm not surprised about Al's frustration with the documentary.
Frank Marshall also directed the Bee Gees documentary (The Bee Gees : How Can You Men a Broken Heart), released in 2020, and it was the exact same deal : way too short. It stopped after the disco era and plenty of great material was not in the film. Very frustrating for the fans.

I guess we'd have to see more of this Paradise Cove footage to know for sure, but unless the singing and everything was like the most awful trainwreck of all time, I can't imagine why they wouldn't put even a bit of it in there.

Yeah, I don't get it.  If they sang beautifully, great!  Even if they were completely off key, wouldn't that be poignant too, i.e., that they're alive and singing just for the hell of it??  

In regards to the cutting room floor footage Al mentioned, I'm hoping we will get a Blu-ray/DVD release with a bunch of bonus features.  🤞🤞🤞

Well, even if the documentary doesn't cut it for some of us, we can be entertained by a moderately surly Al Jardine during the Q&A:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7SZc7BApKI&t=2s

Honestly, by Beach Boys standards Al is pretty chill here. 

I actually like this interview. Nothing groundbreaking, sure, but it's nice to see Mike and Al together here talking about the early days.

Al makes his case again at about the 55 sec mark on what’s been left out.

https://youtu.be/dEeSkxz_7cI?si=mvd2Hxq3kf6H5-Yy

Always like it when Dave gets a spot in front of a camera. So eloquent and humble. I haven’t seen Carrie for some time and such a shame if they have parted. We never did hear the outcome of Dave’s arrest a few years back but I hope they are both doing ok.

https://youtu.be/H4dSzNrh_pA?si=Cpq76Z9HPuGavax7

Just want to take a moment to appreciate what amazing people these two are, and what an amazing moment that was captured at the premiere^. After all they have both been through, through the decades, they are still able to love and appreciate one another.

The photo(s) above make me sad in a way - just as it clearly shows all that time that has gone by. It still floors me how Brian has been able to beat all the odds and fight through the demons all these years later. I hear that Brian has a heart of gold, I think it's truly apparent in the way that most of his friends, band, and family interact with him and love him.