The Meteor of MGM
Film blogger The Self Styled Siren has completed a wonderful two part appreciation of Luise Rainer, forever cursed for winning two consecutive Best Actress Oscars. Although I can only take her movies in small doses (a little of that “chin down, eyes up” expression goes a long way), the fact that Miss Rainer is still around and feisty as ever at the age of 96 makes me admire her even more. Her tombstone ought to be engraved with “She didn’t take any crap from Louis B. Mayer”. That feistiness led to her downfall in the late ’30s — and yet some kind of intangible quality in her onscreen persona (sadness maybe?) makes even her dodgiest films watchable. When Turner Classic Movies broadcasts The Great Waltz and The Great Ziegfeld on the 17th, check them out. She positively glowed onscreen with an earthy, dark beauty touched with innate intelligence. Rock on, Luise.
In the Bedroom
What does a person’s tchotchkes say about them? Various little things in my bedroom-office (some call it clutter, I call it an assemblage du junque) made into a a flickr set. Related: flickr photos tagged with the word “clutter”.
Soundtrack Au Go Go
Some generous soul has made available Michel Legrand’s 1970 soundtrack La Dame Dans L’ Auto Avec Des Lunettes Et Un Fusil for download (via PCL Linkdump). It’s a brief set of groovy a-go-go instrumentals with Petula Clark singing the movie’s theme song in French and English. Having once spotted this for sale at Dusty Groove I’m not sure about the legality involved here (is the reissue CD out of print already?), so make sure to frug and shimmy to it at home with the shades down, OK? Good.
Bears and Bulls
By coincidence I recently managed to catch two acclaimed documentaries of 2005 over the weekend. Grizzly Man was broadcast on the Discovery Channel, and I’m reviewing the DVD of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room for Mindjack Film. Both revolve around men who became so myopic and deluded in their lives’ missions that their worlds come crashing in on them. The Enron film is quite slickly produced and enthralling (and the story is still being played out with the head honchos currently on trial!). I was also captivated with the unique way director Werner Herzog tells the story of Timothy Treadwell in Grizzly Man. As the film unfolds, it becomes obvious that Treadwell (who died of a bear mauling in 2003) saw himself as something of a Crocodile Hunter with bears, the star of his own magnificent adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. In reality he was a class-A fruitcake. While interviewing Treadwell’s friends and acquaintances, Herzog occassionally leaves the camera on too long, which underlies that fact that people instinctively perform in that setting whether they’re conscious of it or not. In sum, you get a well rounded portrait of a supremely odd, complex guy. Both are definitely recommended!
The Meme That Will Never Die
That time again. Thanks to Julie for passing this well-worn baton to me.
Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Dish, table and floor washer at a fast food restaurant.
2. Book shelver at a library.
3. Publications designer at a newspaper.
4. Freelance designer/illustrator.
Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. The Women
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. Xanadu
4. In the Mood for Love
Four places I’ve lived:
1. Scottsdale, Arizona
2. Tempe, Arizona
3. Chandler, Arizona
4. Phoenix, Arizona
Four TV shows I love:
1. Mystery Science Theater 3000
2. The Simpsons
3. Project Runway
4. One Reel Wonders on Turner Classic Movies
Four places I’ve vacationed:
1. New York City
2. Palm Springs, California
3. Mazatlan Ensenada, Mexico
4. Lincoln, Nebraska
Four of my favorite dishes:
1. American Modern by Russel Wright.
2. Max 2 by Massimo Vignelli.
3. Stratoware by Eva Zeisel.
4. Free Form with Primitive pattern by Victor Schreckengost.
Four sites I visit daily:
1. Technorati
2. eBay
3. The Internet Movie Database
4. scrubbles.net
Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Umm …
2. Well,
3. Hmm.
4. In bed?
Four bloggers I’m tagging:
1. Vince.
2. Sarah.
3. Ward.
4. Anybody else? Christopher.
New in the Store: Perky Bird
This perky bird graces a couple of new items at the scrubbles store. I have it on a child’s baseball jersey and a jr. raglan, but it can be placed on anything by request. Want it on a thong? Sure thing.
Poppin’ and Lockin’ Is a New Way of Talkin’
WFMU’s Beware of the Blog has the full soundtrack for Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (among other odd things) available for download. p.s. A Kangol hat tip to anyone who can identify the song I quoted in this entry’s title.
Frank Rich, Are You There?
An interview with Frank Rich, The New York Times onetime theatre critic turned political columnist. More accurately, a decent, short interview lies buried in there underneath the interviewer’s ingratiating back stories and name dropping. Come to think of it, all of the Media Bistro weblogs suffer from the same overwhelming “ain’t I clever” smugness. Blecch.
On second thought, just skip it and watch these Electric Company clips instead.
