about how this is DEFINITELY NOT GINGER! This frustrates me to no end. It comes up all the damn time, and it's so obvious that it's not her. I mean, look at those boobs. Ginger's were fairly small (but proportional to her body), and these are huuuuuge. Face is wrong,eyebrows are totally wrong, everything is wrong. Don't even get me started about how this is from Holiday Inn. Both of these are currently being sold on allposters.com, and the latter is even the cover of a Fred and Ginger cd that is available on Amazon. Can you believe they pay people to research this shit?!?!
This is the first time that my pincurls have turned out well. I was trying to recreate Ginger's pageboy style that she wears through most of Stage Door, specifically this scene:
That scene also features my favorite line: "What do we do about the sign?" "Just leave it there."
Anyway, after a basic set of pin curls that I pinned at thelowest possible point on my hairline, here is the result: I was so excited, I puton makeup and my favorite vintage dress for some pictures~
Once again, Oklahoma has been hit with an ice storm. Luckily, my neighbors agreed to let me share their internet signal if I pay half the bill, so I have internet at home again! My cabin fever has inspired me to do some pretty weird things, like clean. There were boxes in my bedroom that had never been unpacked from when I moved in September. Now things are looking much more spiffy! I am also trying a vintage hairstyle. I sloppily put up some pin curls about half an hour ago. Last time they were super frizzy. We'll see what happens. Later, I'm going to start an entry that will probably be really long called "Why Stage Door is the best movie ever". Ok, I'm not going to argue that it is actually the best movie ever made (even though it happens to be my favorite), but I am going to bring up some nuances I've seen in my 100+ viewings of the film, plus some things I've read. I discovered this week in my films of the '30s class (which has a really disappointing line up of films) that I really don't like early 30s films. I think this may come from my musical training and the way my professor has been pushing me to write about film music. Most of these films have little or no music at all, which is why I usually yawn through anything prior to King Kong, which features a fantastic and revolutionary Max Steiner score. I suppose being in these courses that disappoint me only make me want to do better when I am in their shoes in a few years. Well, I still have a few things to pick up in my room, then I need to tackle the living room and kitchen. Bye Bye for now!
The mockumentary sub-genre would probably get the biggest credit for the development of my kooky sense of humor. While most people consider 1984 and This is Spinal Tap the birth of the mockumentary, there are television shows that experimented with the style in the 50s (according to wikipedia-I've never seen any of them). Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run (1969), a fake documentary about a serial criminal on the run. playing cello in the marching band. Christopher Guest is the hero of mockumentary lore, combining his brilliant skills with Eugene Levy and a fabulous cast of improv veterans. After Spinal Tap, which was mostly written and partially improvised, the first completely improvised film Guest did was Waiting for Guffman, the story of a small Missouri town and their quest to put on a musical. As a former actor in community theater, this movie is practically 100% true. In fact, if it had not featured established stars, I would have taken it for fact. The next improv-mockumentary was Best in Show, about the frantic world of Dog Shows. Again, I have been involved with Dog Shows for a couple of years, and this movie is also 100% accurate about show people. Here are some of the best moments:
Guest has also made A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration, about Folk Music and Filmmaking respectively. A mockumentary that, although not improvised, deserves more attention is Drop Dead Gorgeous. I first saw this movie soon after it was released, when I was about 10. This film definitely formed a large part of my sense of humor, and contributed to my mastery of the Minnesota accent.
Of course, the mockumentary has now made its way in to Television, with The Office and Parks and Recreation. I hope you appreciate this sub-genre of comedy as much as I do!
about how this is not Ginger: am I right? It looks like a Ginger love child with Paulette Goddard. If it is her, I don't recognize the dress from any of the movies of her "dark hair" years. While we're at it, let's all agree to retire this photo: The colorization looks SO FREAKY.
Kate Gabrielle's post about opening her DVD collection to all of us, which is so nice of her to do, inspired me to brainstorm on the future of classic film availability. I was listening to NPR the other day, and they were talking about how DVDs may soon give way to a new format, just like VHS did a decade ago (has it really been a decade?). I think the best way for this to go would be a transition to an all-streaming database of films managed by their respective studios. For a monthly fee you have access to all of their films, much like the Instant Watch section of Netflix. Another option would be to offer them as downloads and rentals, like iTunes already does with a limited supply of new releases. Not only does this save resources like Plastics (which may soon be limited due to their carbon footprint), it gives the studios mostly profit! The only things they need to manage are their bandwidth, which would be considerably cheaper than manufacturing millions od DVDs of a bad movie that will eventually be in the $5 bin at wal-mart. This puts the classic film fan in an especially important position. Not only will we have access to thousands of "forgotten" films, the money we spend to purchase their download or subscribe to theirstreaming service could go directly to their preservation and restoration. Many people bring up piracy as an issue if the film business moves to a primarily online platform. I think that it will be a non-issue if movies are suddenly affordable. Even a monthly subscription of $39.99 is about the price of 3 regularly-priced DVDs, which many film fans say is equivalent to or fewer than their avergage monthly purchase. If movies become affordable, say $3 or $4 a pop, piracy will practically disappear. After all, most people don't steal things they can afford. That's all for now, but I hope it got your brain juices flowing!
