Dear Dead Delilah

It defies odds, but this movie came up twice this week. I hadn't thought about it in years...since my freshmen year in college probably when I first saw it. I think it was on Chilly Billy or something. Agnes Morehead was in it, too. It was bad, it was campy, creepy...and fun!

The King and I....

I realize there is a long line, but put me in the British "queue" of fans waiting for Colin Firth to sweep me in his arms and take me to some far off place never to be seen again. Needless to say I hope he wins big tonight.

Don Juan DeMarco- Restaurant Scene

I suppose he would be the ideal Valentine Date.

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble

I was just watching a very young John Travolta in The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.The movie was in the bargain bin for a buck. I have this vague recollection of the real Bubble boy from my childhood, David Vetter.

I didn't finish watching the movie. It was too depressing. I know how it ends.

The Shining- Yakety Sax

See what snow can do to you?

Synchronicity

Yesterday I was listening to a CD a friend had bought me and I decided to go ahead and email that person since I hadn't spoken with him for a few weeks. I composed a short note and the strangest thing happened. I hit the send button, and my incoming email message popped up at the same time. It was him sending ME an email. I thought it was quite a coinsedence.... to send an email at that exact moment... on that day... during that week to each other.


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A small example of Synchronicity. A word coined by Carl Jung.
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I looked up some examples, and thought I'd like to share them.


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Wikipedia

The French writer Émile Deschamps claims in his memoirs that in 1805, he was treated to some plum pudding by a stranger named Monsieur de Fortgibu. Ten years later, the writer encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him that the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be de Fortgibu. Many years later, in 1832, Émile Deschamps was at a diner and was once again offered plum pudding. He recalled the earlier incident and told his friends that only de Dortgibu was missing to make the setting complete—and in the same instant, the now senile de Fontgibu entered the room.

I also liked this example:

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During the production of The Wizard of Oz, a coat bought from a second-hand store for the costume of Professor Marvel was later found to have belonged to L.
Frank Baum, author of the children's book upon which the film is based.

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Speaking of the Wizard of Oz there is also that example of playing Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album while you are watching the movie. I can remember in the early 1990's when radio stations actually held parties for people who gathered together to experience the so called "Dark Side of the Rainbow" effect.

Wikipedia

Fans have compiled more than one hundred moments of perceived interplay between the film and album, including further links that occur if the album is repeated through the entire film. This synergy effect has been described as an example of synchronicity, defined by the psychologist Carl Jung as a phenomenon in which coincidental events "seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality."

Wuthering Heights--Kate Bush

I remember reading Wuthering Heights in high school...and later watching the movie. I think it was in black an white. Either that or the movie was just so dark.... out there on the moors.The love story of Heathcliff and Cathy.
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Heathcliff: "Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest so long as I live on! I killed you. Haunt me, then! Haunt your murderer! I know that ghosts have wandered on the Earth. Be with me always. Take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul."

What, No Martians Up There?

Trivia:
Marvin the Martian's mission was to destroy Earth. Why? Because it blocked his view of Venus.
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What does the word Martian mean to you? Martians are the stuff of hundreds of science fiction stories, books, comics, movies and video games. But the excitement of Mars has warn off as of late as a muse for fiction writers. Knowing what we know now about the desolate, Martianless red planet, it sort of spoils the fun.

Here's a few of the more bizarre Martian plots from Wikipedia:

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) – Known as one of the worst movies ever made, as such it was made fun of on the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000.

"Omnilingual" (1957) by H. Beam Piper. Short story in which archaeologists excavating the remains of a humanoid Martian civilization find an entire library, but lack a Rosetta Stone.

Red Planet (1949). Robert A. Heinlein, Young adult novel. Includes some very intelligent Martians similar to those mentioned in Stranger in a Strange Land, who help human colonists free themselves of tyrannical Earth authorities.

In The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut (1969), previously uninhabited Mars is populated by brainwashed transplants from Earth, leading to the invasion of Earth by the newly-created Martian army.

The Martian Way (1952) by Isaac Asimov. Arrogant Earth people are scornful of the Martian colonists, who barely survive by salvaging "space junk", yet their way of life is what fits the Martian colonists for further space exploration, reaching Saturn first and eventually (Asimov implies) leading the way to the stars.



A Rose for Ecclesiastes" (1963) by Roger Zelazny. One of the last stories of this type, describing an Earth poet's study of Martian language and literature. The story is deliberately written as an elegiac farewell to the old conception of Mars, complete with canals and an ancient, dying Martian race.

Slingblade Karl Performs Wild Thing

The Mid-Week Video Muse is early this week. I really needed a laugh,and this did it for me. If you haven't seen the movie, it won't be as funny, but it's still worth a look.

The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming

Fury in the Slaughterhouse- Dead and Gone

I don't normally post 'cover' songs, but this German band's version of Dead and Gone by McGuinnes Flint really isn't bad. It made me smile. The funeral procession people remind me of movie extras from Night of the Living Dead.

Strains of Regret for Rose

It's been a couple of days now since I spent two hours of my life watching LaVie En Rose... the film about the life of singer Edith Piaf. I was so looking forward to it, having seen a documentary about her several years ago. Then when I saw that the best actress award went to the woman who portrayed her.... well... I had REALLY high hopes for the movie.

This review in Salon pretty much sums it up.

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But (Olivier) Dahan's filmmaking damn near sabotages the performance. Dahan understands that Piaf's life is the stuff of melodrama, but instead of just setting it all up there on the screen, plain old Hollywood-style, he has to chop it up and reconstitute it -- as if Piaf's life story, so elemental in both its triumphs and its sadness, needed to be dressed up by technique. His approach draws more attention to the filmmaking than it does to the life. Dahan seems to believe that chronology is bourgeois: Pure storytelling is all fine and dandy, but he wants us to know he's making art.

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Putting it bluntly, I got lost. One minute she's young, next minute she's old, she dies, she comes back, she's young again, she's older, she's old and having flashbacks, she's half dead, she's really dead...then she's back.... then.... and I can't keep track. Especially trying to read subtitles in French... so I have to glance up and figure out who is who... and what year it is...and I can't keep track of husbands or lovers.... and the story line got completely lost. Poof.

But what a performance by Marion Cotillard! I believed in her... I was fascinated by her. There were times I saw the inner beauty of Edith shine right through...and other times I saw Edith again in her demanding, 'I don't give a damn what you think'-mode.... just ripping through the scene with a depth of character far beyond a 30 year old actress. Bravo! Cotillard deserved the award for sure.

The movie--- is terrible though. It's a fractured mess. Maybe someone could re-edit it.

I See Dead People.... Who Knew?

I read a newspaper just about everyday. Not all of it, but I do glance at most of the headlines, read what interests me here and there, and I always look at the obituaries, especially in the local paper, to see who died. Heaven forbid, someone I know dies, and I miss it.

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A funny story: My mom quit sending Christmas cards to someone because she thought he died.

Turns out it was someone with the same name. She hadn't sent him a card in 3 years. A few weeks ago I saw the guy waiting in line in the drug store, and of all things, he was reading the obituaries in the paper which he just snagged from the newstand, and he was amusing the others in line at the store by saying.... 68? I beat him. 74? Beat him, too.... 86..... he got me beat....

Anyhow, I found this cool site. It lists everyone of note who died in the past 6 months. Just in case you missed it.

Sunday Morning Muse, February 24, 2008

I don't have the flu. That could change tomorrow, but for now, I'm healthy and my world is a mine field of people with the flu, or that horrible bronchitis that is going around. I have washed my hands every hour of the day and sometimes twice an hour at work...and when I visit others.

I'm taking vitamins, drinking more pomegranite/blueberry juice, sleeping as much as I can so I'm not run down, and so far, I seem to be doing something to deflect all these germs. But what?

The pomegranite juice? Hmmmm. Antioxidants ripping through me like a liquid shield after drinking my morning glass. Could be.... or... maybe 'cause I've been eating more spinach?

All those nutrients.......and carrots... I've been eating carrots, too. :)

Beer? Someone should do a study. Does drinking beer decrease your chances of getting the flu?

No, I didn't get the flu shot. I know people who did, and a few of those people right now, actually have the flu. In the news they said something about it being a different strain. Not the strain everyone thought would infect us the most. I say drink beer. Couldn't hurt.

The Sunday Morning Muse, February 17, 2008

This morning's muse is .... love. Appropriate for Valentine's week,
I saw the 2004 romantic movie "The Notebook", and watching Rachael Mcadams and Ryan Gosling-- who reportedly met on the set and fell in love, it was hard not to believe in real love. They certainly "acted" in love. The crazy, all consuming, fighting, loving, laughing, making-out, screaming kind of love. Where you live in the moment, and the rest of the world becomes your playground. The kind of love where you lose track of time --and talk for hours.
How did they ever separate themselves from their characters...and their blooming love? Perhaps they didn't!

It was a nice movie to watch... a gentler time... the 40s... beautiful waters, sunsets, moonlight, carnivals--- romantic settings and beautiful people. And the love story was told as memories of an old couple -- in a modern day nursing home. They made it to the end. Death in each other's arms.

So I wondered.... what happened to Rachel and Ryan? No More Rain Soaked Kisses. They broke up last year.

Valerie Plame Movie Role

There's a new movie coming out with Nicole Kidman starring as Valerie Plame. Some of the funnier comments on the 'net I have seen so far ..

Will parts of the movie be blacked out?

Will there be a CIA Director's Cut?

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No word yet who is playing Dick Cheney in the movie. I vote for Waldorf. But he'll have to shave his moustache.

'Twas the Night Before Groundhog Day. . .

'Twas the night before Groundhog Day

and we survived an ice storm,

and now we're all wondering,

When will it get WARM?

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Groundhog day links:

What the Heck is Groundhog Day?

A History of sorts.... Barbequed Groundhog? Yikes.

Groundhog Day... the Movie.

Naked Beowulf 101

When I agreed to go see Beowulf, the only thing I knew about the movie was what I remembered from the epic poem we studied in High School English Class:

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* Beowulf kills Grendel and Grendel's mother gets revenge.

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This didn't add up to much for me, but I went anyway. The digitally enhanced Beowulf.... a barely recognizable Ray Winstone with six pack abs, embodied everything a superhero should be. And he faught Grendel naked. Grendel's Mother? A very recognizable, and naked, Angelina Jolie. What brought the hideous monster Grendel-- an evil super-ugly, bloody gory pus filled wretch of a creature-- to the new Mead hall? Sounds of boisterous, lustful, drunken men partying with busty, drunken women.

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Do you see the pattern here?

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Perhaps if all the boring high school literature classes could be modified to include naked superheroes with computer generated monsters to fight, more kids would learn the classics. I say that in jest. Don't take the kids to this one.

The Sunday Morning Muse, October 21, 2007

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Dumbledore is .... . What?


J.K. Rowling broke the news Friday night at an appearance before a full house at Carnegie Hall.
One young fan asked whether Dumbledore finds "true love."



AP News

"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause. She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."

Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."

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My take? No big deal. He's still Dumbledore. Rowling says she wants her books to be a "prolonged argument for tolerance." This announcement proves it in a big way.

Now I suspect we will barraged by those who represent the prolonged argument for intolerance.

(At least they aren't burning witches at the stake in Salem anymore....)

Happy Sweetest Day

Before you click past and do what I normally would do.... mutter "Hummph! It's just another made-up holiday to keep the greeting card companies in business!".... hear me out.

I have a new respect for Sweetest Day. It began in 1922 in Cleveland,
Ohio--- the brain child of a man who worked for a candy company and wanted to give candy and gifts away to orphans and shut-ins, and people who were forgotten.

See Theda here?


She was a movie star back then. Jumped on this idea right away.... giving out 10,000 boxes of candy to people in hospitals and to those who came to watch one of her films at the Playhouse Square Theaters in Cleveland, Ohio.

My point is..... do something for someone! I know the holiday has morphed into a silly greeting card thing. Or a 'young couples" thing with the dinner for two or the "splash" package at some Holiday Inn, but it doesn't have to be that way.

And if you are alone... be nice to your cat. It'll do, until my "Cat Day" idea catches on.... but I digress.