Came across an interesting curiosity tonight- Bernice Bobs Her Hair, a short film (48 minutes) from 1976 starring Shelley Duvall. From a 1920 F. Scott Fitzgerald short story (one of his favorites) that PBS produced and aired as part of a Short Stories series, which is cool. (I read that Fitzgerald wrote a ten page…

Fond of this movie, Glenn Close was great as Nurse Jenny. So eccentric and driven, and her humorlessness was v. funny to me. "He looks like a nice man. I think I'll let him publish my book." Jenny's fearless, and wishywash Garp is so wracked with doubt. I never read the novel, but I appreciated the absurdist…

Trump denying Spicer the once in a lifetime chance to meet the Pope was sheer mobster sadism.

"What is dismal shit news about a shit show that deservedly died years ago, with a smarmy shit closet case host no one wants to see again anywhere?"

Oh cool, 90s retro nostalgia is in and fashionable. so LET'S RELIVE THE WHOLE OJ NIGHTMARE ALL OVER AGAIN. "Wah! I was just a baby then, I want to enjoy the whole degrading spectacle, wah!" is a sentiment I have appallingly already seen. I heartily invite these young people to go fuck themselves. I'd be cool with…

"Has anybody read that Nazis are going to march in New Jersey, you know? I read this in the newspaper, we should go down there, get some guys together, you know, get some bricks and baseball bats and really explain things to them."

I think it's meant to be up a lot of people's alleys. "A wondrous bright special child out in the city by him or herself, plus magical time travel adventures into old-timey land that fascinates middle-aged novelists and filmmakers". It's kind of a trope that's been seen/read before. Many times.

"Fine, as you wish. Now I'll send you back to your dirt-poor, tee-totalling relatives." "I wanna be a witch!'.

Really love to know who that video above was meant to appeal to. Stan Lee's cranky old-man voice, a bunch of murky and drearily ordinary action scenes slapped together with no coherence- why did anyone think this was an appealing presentation? As an ad, it's sort of awful. It does not entice.

I am totally with you. That Tupac letter to her -very personal and real and honest, and with such beautiful penmanship- I notice that because my own penmanship has gone to hell in the digital age, and isn't "penmanship" a funny word to consider as a word? Anyway, at this point it's like a historical document. …

I was sad to hear this news, and I'm glad to see many fellow liberals feel the same. We didn't want him as president, he's infuriating as a Senator, but we wish him well. He's a character, and on a human level, best wishes to him and his family. Liberals have kept it classy tonight from what I've seen.

CRAZY FUCKING THING: "Are John Tyler's Grandchildren Still Alive?
Two grandchildren of John Tyler, who became U.S. President in 1841, are still with us."

I don't care for him now, but after SNF and Grease, in 1978 John Travolta was a sensation. And in Saturday Night Fever, a terrific dancer. Smooth as hell.

True, marketing. Because it came out in 1978, when disco was raging and inescapable, and Travolta was molten-hot coming off of Saturday Night Fever.
But aside from the theme song, Grease doesn't have a "disco theme" at all.

Grease 2 was constantly on pay cable (not necessarily HBO though) as early as 1983, as in, not long after it left theaters.

Now we all wear clown shoes and spangled leotards. Unacceptable at the country club, as I personally found out and to my great chagrin.

As kids, my brother and I, whenever one of us was grousing about something, one of us would sarcastically sing-murmur, "Cheer Up Charlie" to drive each other crazy. We each had our turns being jerks to each other with that song. Perfect tune to annoy the fuck out of your sibling who's already in a bad mood.

Saw it in the theater when I was 13, and Maxwell Caulfield gave me yearnings. So impossibly handsome, in a clean-cut old-fashioned way; retro handsome. I am only realizing that was Tab Hunter in the film, adding to the 50s/early 60s vibe. I wasn't the only on who found Caulfield dreamy- in Andy Warhol's diaries…

I believe I've read that the off-Broadway play that Grease is based on was way more knowingly satirical and even sarcastic about the mores of the 50s. So in the play, Sandy changing herself utterly for Danny was a campy joke, the audience was supposed to laugh at the absurdity, laugh at the old-fashioned hypocrisy…

"Hand Jive", not as a song but as the scene in the film, is really pretty great. The anarchy builds as the characters act up and misbehave on the dance floor, and at the crescendo John and Olivia swoop in and fill the screen with their perfectly synced dance moves, and it's a glorious moment. Like, a cinematic…