Harry Shearer News

In This Is Spinal Tap, drummer Eric 'Stumpy Joe' Childs died after choking on vomit which was not his own.

Last night was the latest night for a long time - got home around about midnight and was so exhausted I actually slept right through till late morning, consequently waking up with a much too full bladder and sore tummy.

You have to give Christopher Guest credit: When he finds a comedy style that works for him, he sticks with it.

Christopher Guest's most familiar movies-This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind-are about groups of people with a shared passion, or obsession.

Spinal Tap, the fabled heavy metal band celebrated for its amps that go to 11 and an 18-inch Stonehenge stage set, is proving itself at the cutting edge of rock music once again with the impending reissue of its debut album -- on black vinyl.

The foil-wrapped zuchini in bassist Derek Smalls' pants made a scene at o'hare airport during the "Tap into America" tour in This is Spinal Tap.

As years go, 1984 turned out a lot better than George Orwell's vision had it. In American film, it was a lull between the stylistic breakouts of the '60s and early '70s and the commercial mushrooming of indie films in the late '80s. It also marked the release of three comedies that would never have been made in Hollywood, except they were.

While you could argue that there are two types of people in the world, those who like Rush and those who don't, I don't think that's quite right.

Christopher Guest is one of a kind. The writer/director/producer/actor carved out a niche of his own in the filmmaking community with the brilliant 1984 comedy This Is Spinal Tap , directed by Rob Reiner , and went on to helm a string of comedy hits himself in his distinctive "mockumentary" vein.