This was the week that the celestial pendulum swung to full tilt summer in New Orleans. We’re looking at nothing but ninety-degree highs for the foreseeable future. Time to crank up the air-dish and the ceiling fans. It’s fucking hot, y’all. That concludes this week’s weather report.

I wished Neil Finn happy birthday late last month. The celebration continues with a theme song from the new Crowded House album. Dreamers Are Waiting is the most cohesive and consistent album the band has released since Together Alone.

I think the band’s new lineup has a lot to do with the excellence of the new album. Neil’s sons Liam and Elroy are onboard, and their presence seems to have inspired dear old dad. The family band twist is reflected by Bee Gees and Beach Boys influences vocally, but unlike the latter, the Finns seem to get along swimmingly. They may even have fun, fun, fun til their daddy takes the T-Bird away. I doubt that Neil would do such a thing. He’s the epitome of the cool dad.

To The Island is the first single from the new album. It was written by Neil Finn. Anyone surprised?

We have two versions for your listening pleasure: the video and the Crowdies live on The Ellen Show. FYI, she’s not from New Orleans but from Kenna, Brah.

I think To The Island is destined to join Don’t Dream It’s Over as fodder for a future New Zealand tourism campaign. It’s that catchy.

We have another islandy number for you before we jump to the break. It’s an instrumental from The Band featuring the multi-instrumental wizardry of Garth Hudson:

Now that we’ve gone to the island, let’s jump to the break.

Before beginning our second act in earnest, two more songs from Dreamers Are Waiting:

We’re all still shaken, not stirred, by the Dipshit Insurrection. It’s quite rightly revived talk of a Trump cult.

Dealing With The Trump Cult: Steve Hassan was a Moonie for 2 1/2 years as a young man. Once he left the Unification Church, he became an expert on cults and how to cope with them.

Hassan published a book about the Trump cult in 2019, but it became the focus of more attention after the Twelfth Night White Riot.

Hassan has moved past notions of deprogramming and believes that the best way to defang any cult is via person-to-person contact. It may not be easy to deal with Trumper relatives, but Hassan thinks it’s best to kill a cult with dialogue and kindness.

Rachael Allen has the details at Slate.

Speaking of cults, Tommy was a cult leader and Sally Simpson one of his acolytes:

Six Feet Under Turns Twenty: The great HBO show about the life and death struggles of the Fisher family debuted on June 3, 2001. It’s been overshadowed by HBO stable mates The Sopranos and The Wire, but it’s of equal quality.

If you miss those zany funeral home folks there are some swell retrospectives online:

• New York Times
• Deadline
• Salon
• Entertainment Weekly

Six Feet Under is renowned for having one of the best series finales ever. IMO, it’s a toss-up between it and The Shield. Here’s what could be called the death medley at the end of the episode, Everyone’s Waiting:

It’s impossible to top that, but here’s a charming song about mortality to wrap up our second act:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth Twitter Edition: It’s been a while since I resorted to the Tweeter Tube in this feature. This one is a winner, but you’ll have to scroll down to the bottom tweet.

One is Tom Jones.
The other is Bert Convy.

Separated at birth? pic.twitter.com/LcDY4IRjB8

— Jesse Horne (@Jesse_Horne) June 8, 2021

Bert Convy was an actor and game show host back in the day. Tom Jones needs no introduction, but gets one anyway.

Movie List: Rumor has it that I love Film Noir. This week, we feature one of the finest actors in the genre, Richard Conte. Conte did a string of classic films from 1945-1960 then his career hit the wall before making a comeback in 1971 in a little film called The Godfather. Don Barzini was not a huge part, but Conte milked it for all it was worth.

My Top Ten Favorite Richard Conte Movies

1.   The Godfather
2.   The Big Combo
3.   Call Northside 777
4.   House Of Strangers
5.   The Blue Gardenia
6.   Thieves’ Highway
7.   Whirlpool
8.   I’ll Cry Tomorrow
9.   The Brothers Rico
10.   Ocean’s 11

I haven’t made a movie poster montage for a while. Here’s the Richard Conte montage:

Saturday GIF Horse: Continuing the island theme with a wee bit of Gilligan’s Island. It’s some sort of fakakata concoction cooked up by the professor. Eggheads do the darndest things.

TCM Clip Of The Week: The lowbrow and the highbrow collide in this clip. Beverly Hills “housewife” Lisa Rinna tells TCM’s Tom Karger why she loves the Cukor-Garland-Mason version of A Star Is Born. It’s my favorite of the four versions as well. What’s not to love about a film full of Arlen-Gershwin songs?

Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some more music.

Saturday Instant Classic: I’ve been teasing you with talk of the new Crowded House album. Here it is via Spotify:

That’s it for this week. The last word goes to the cast of Six Feet Under.