DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 19, 2024

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987) The tragic tale of one of pop music's greatest voices as told through the use of Barbie dolls and avant-garde film school techniques. It's akin to giving a David Lynch a bunch of children's toys and telling him to make an afterschool special with them. Understandably hated by the Carpenter family for its perspective on their culpability and sued into oblivion for not even bothering to ask for permission to use the music, it's still worth tracking down whatever blurry, nearly too dark to watch bootleg you can find as the end result is oddly one of filmdom's most devastating critiques on a culture that drives young girls to develop eating disorders and body dysmorphia.

TIL: Fasting as a form of discipline and penance is an important part of  Christianity, however, it shouldn't be carried to extremes. That lesson was learned the hard way during the Middle Ages when a number of nuns and religious women, most often against the orders of their superiors, took up the practice of anorexia mirabilis, a type of fasting wherein they refused to eat anything but the Eucharist. Unfortunately, this led to many of them dying of starvation. Rather than encourage such behavior, the Church recommends that fasting include at least one full meal or two smaller meals during the day.

Dad Rock Diary: The Incredible String Band - The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion (1967) Every big city has that block or two where the last of the dying hippies congregate to paint their houses hazy shades of green, maroon and orange and run bohemian-themed businesses while still decrying capitalism. Listening to this album is like walking through that section of town as the psychedelic folk drifts like incense through the open doorways of the the crystal and cannabis shops. Laudable Lyrics: Please let's be easy, please let's be friends, watching and learning like small children.