I just listened to Diana Dors “Roller Coaster Blues” on the rat pack music channel on DirecTv. LOVE it! I need this album (and the brunette one of course) for sure.
It’s almost as good as one my most favorite 60s camp movies….
Genius
With that album playing I just need Dino to walk in with a martini :) But I totally need to put on my white go-go boots (of course I have some….not original but they made a tiny comeback in the late 90s. LOVE!)
Great movie. Jeff Bridges definitely deserved his Oscar. I have loved him forever. So, so good in everything I have seen him in. Weird watching him in this character though. Was so like my father. Not that my father was a washed-up country music star but definite similarities. p.s. he also reminded me of Kris Kristopherson!
My dad was a drummer. He played in jazz clubs before he married my Mom. Before he was legal to be in those clubs. When he was still a junior in high school. He played with guys who went on to play/tour with Chick Corea, Edgar Winters, Eddie Van Halen and some other famous guys. But my Dad did the “responsible” thing. He got married, got a respectable job, etc. If I had to guess, he wishes he never did that. Not that he doesn’t love me and my brother or my Mom, I never questioned that. But I know that he always wondered “what if?” He should have made different decisions at many crossroads in his life but didn’t. He should have.
Like Jeff Bridges’ character, he was/is an alcoholic (and chain smoker…they must go hand in hand?) Maybe because of seeing his life play out, I do not buy into that bullshi** psych excuse. Maybe your body chemistry allows you to be more susceptible to being weak to addiction, but that just means you need to be strong. For you. Your family. Job. Friends. Whatever. Whoever. You are not a victim. It’s not a disease. Whatever it is – drugs, alcoholism, gambling, being a weak schmuck, whatever. You are strong or you are weak. Period. “Poor me. It’s just how I am” is not an excuse. My father would kick your ass for saying it. Weakness is not a justifier for stupid decisions.
Life can be tough. Life owes you nothing. Suck it up. Expect nothing that you don’t get yourself. I think these were the best gifts/lessons my father taught me. He would have never won the “Father Knows Best” award. But I will always love him for those lessons.
Bad’s/Otis’ life ended up a bit better than my Dad’s. If you’ve seen the movie, it’s not saying much. And I sometimes cry a little wishing things were different for him. That he made different choices. But then I stop, knowing he’d shake his head at me…
p.s. less emo bullet points to remember:
1. I’d like point out that only country stars (and the rat pack) can live life, be a drunk, basically die, live dead-ish, and come back to life and still consistently make good music. Pop, R&B, dance and rap can suck it.
1.i. old school stars are exempt from statement a
1.ii. “old school” from statement b applies to people decently older than me.
2. you are allowed to get a touch emo when you have such awesome huskies in your life.
3. Colin Farrell is ridiculously hot no matter what he does.
3.i. And he can sing. Who knew?
3.ii. I hate long hair on guys but he’s still hot….
4. yes, I’ve read too many legal docs this week…
I love the movie Pretty Woman. It’s sweet, romantic, fun, true love wins in the end,etc, etc. Yes, it is also about a “working girl” but we like to gloss over that little part.
But let’s talk about the fun clothes! I got to have a shopping experience similar to that. It really is a rush. My old boss was wealthy. After working for him for a couple years he went through a rough divorce. I handled all of the correspondence between him and his wife, the lawyers, the nannies/kids situations, etc. This was in addition to all actual hedge fun daytime business and job I had. Once it was basically over, he said to me one day BEFORE the market closed (unheard of!) let’s go to the city and I’ll take you shopping. Umm..ok!
He had 2 Ferraris (yes early 90s) and we drove up in the black convertible. I thought by shopping he meant we went to a store, bought me something and leave. We started at Wilkes Bashford. he said pick out whatever I wanted. Anything. The shop girls instantly assumed I was the mistress. Great. But whatever. They were VERY helpful. Moved onto Ralph Lauren, then TSE Cashmere, then Northbeach Leather and then a pair of diamond studs. I saw the AMEX bills come in later. Just south of $50k. In one afternoon. On me! Quite an obscene…and profane amount of money :) I can’t imagine any man will ever spend anywhere near that much on me in my lifetime again. I make my own money so whatever. Not really about the money anyway. But it was fun. Very fun. :)
Word got out at work and one of the analysts who had asked me out previously made a rude comment in a staff meeting. It upset me. I told my boss why I was upset. He (the analyst) was yelled at and almost fired. He (the analyst) assumed the reason I said no to a date was because I was “doing” the boss. No pal – I said no because you were the stereotypical New York Wall Street douchebag and I had less than no interest in you. And I refused to allow it to take away from the fun of the shopping trip!
My husband still says to this day he (my old boss) ruined me for all men forever. That no man could live up to the super nice, rich guy thing my boss showed me existed…even if very rare. The guy who did something very nice for someone to show appreciation and express affinity for their help, loyalty, etc. And it’s not the dollar amount. But more the fact that someone was willing to take me for an entire afternoon, which was completely against character (to leave the office during market hours!) and do something that will make someone smile, laugh and so very crazy and unexpected. That makes them smile. That’s pretty cool. And it’s a shame that my husband is probably right that most people would not do that, even if they could, without expecting something in return.
I think I still have a pair of cool shoes from Wilkes Bashford, and a couple crocodile belts from Ralph Lauren and a leather trench from North Beach Leather. Plus separately, I bought a brown, polka dot halter dress almost identical to the one she wears at the polo match. I love that dress!
I will always remember that shopping trip as a super fun trip with a super nice guy. Proof that the nice guy DOES exist….or maybe he was the only one..
Just saw Valentine’s Day tonight. Yes…closer to St. Patrick’s Day now but still enjoyable :)
Very cute movie. Great cast in that you get little bits of people and no one has to carry the movie. I love movies like that – stories intertwined, characters mixing in the various plot lines. Pulp Fiction and Love Actually come to mind as favorites.
This is definitely a cute movie. But it’s not cutesie. Not everyone ends up together. But like Love Actually, it shows different kinds and stages of love.
I don’t think I’ve liked Julia Roberts all that much since Pretty Woman but her small role here is good.
And the end actually surprised me a bit. There are a lot of story lines to wrap up and some are predictable going in. But some aren’t. I liked that. Nothing earth-shattering. No one will win an Oscar. But who cares – it’s a nice, fun, enjoyable movie. That’s actually called “entertainment”. I can watch the news or read the paper if I want real life.
Oh…and to the critics who panned Taylor Swift’s small role. You know who you are – you said she is a horrible actress and she really needs to learn a lot before taking on any new role…umm…she was playing a 17-18 year old teenage girl in high school in love with the cute boy in her school on Valentine’s Day. Either you have never been or known a teenage girl in your life or you need to up your happy pill dose. She portrayed that exact role perfectly. She wasn’t going for Heathers here…
Anyway, I recommend it if you enjoy light-hearted, upbeat movies where you can just sit and watch and not have to think too much.
You know…if you read this speech…if you truly listen to what he is saying…he is right. Look past the trendy “hate Wall Street” rhetoric being bandied about by our current President and media. Look at what is being said here and think about what is *truly* being said….
Gekko: Well, I appreciate the opportunity you’re giving me, Mr. Cromwell, as the single largest shareholder in Teldar Paper, to speak.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its trade deficit and its fiscal deficit are at nightmare proportions. Now, in the days of the free market, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!
All together, these men sitting up here [Teldar management] own less than 3 percent of the company. And where does Mr. Cromwell put his million-dollar salary? Not in Teldar stock; he owns less than 1 percent.
You own the company. That’s right — you, the stockholder.
And you are all being royally screwed over by these, these bureaucrats, with their steak lunches, their hunting and fishing trips, their corporate jets and golden parachutes.
Cromwell: This is an outrage! You’re out of line, Gekko!
Gekko: Teldar Paper, Mr. Cromwell, Teldar Paper has 33 different vice presidents, each earning over 200 thousand dollars a year. Now, I have spent the last two months analyzing what all these guys do, and I still can’t figure it out. One thing I do know is that our paper company lost 110 million dollars last year, and I’ll bet that half of that was spent in all the paperwork going back and forth between all these vice presidents.
The new law of evolution in corporate America seems to be survival of the unfittest. Well, in my book you either do it right or you get eliminated. In the last seven deals that I’ve been involved with, there were 2.5 million stockholders who have made a pretax profit of 12 billion dollars. (applause) Thank you.
I am not a destroyer of companies. I am a liberator of them!
The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Thank you very much.”
This movie was done in 1985. Still holds true today. One could argue that you can apply this to all of the life-long politicians that have never held a real job, a job where they have been responsible for creating anything, for making sure payroll is met, making sure that shareholders receive a return on their investment. They collect their giant salaries (look it up) and benefits that our paid by us…the taxpayers. Do you really think they are any better than the purported “criminals” of Wall Street or the banks? Really? If you do, than you are truly naive…
Are there criminals on Wall Street? Of course. Are there criminals in every single line of work? Yes. Are there criminals serving as your Congressman, Senator? Yes. If you don’t think so…you are truly naive…
This country was created, built on and made into the greatest country on earth because of the entrepreneurial drive to be successful. And our current government wants to destroy that. Put everyone on a level playing field. Everyone doesn’t belong on a level playing field. Face facts – there are smarter people, harder-working people…not everyone “deserves” the same thing. Period.
One of my most favorite movies ever…
I went to the midnight showing of Twilight: New Moon on Thursday night with some girlfriends. LOVED IT! This book was my least favorite of the 4 so I am happy that I liked the movie so much. I am Team Edward all the way and this book is definitely more Jacob-centric with Bella being soooo angsty. The movie is basically the same but with a less angst. Only so much time in a single movie :) I remember the pain and pure sadness of Bella’s heartbreak in this book. Probably kind of hard to portray that in a movie.
Have to admit, Taylor Lautner looked pretty hot. That kid really bulked up for this movie. He wanted the role and fought for it – good for him! A couple of my friends were basically drooling on themselves over him :) Nice chest and abs for sure but I’m still Team Edward. Besides – he’s 17!! Cougars my friends are! ;) But I really just love Edward’s character. He is dreamy. Robert Pattinson is very, very cute for sure. But it’s Edward I love :) His pure and complete love for Bella is quite an awesome quality. I think Stephanie Meyer wrote these feelings pretty well.
I had read some bad reviews about the werewolf special effects after the first trailers came out but I thought they were totally fine. I love wolves, and so typically love werewolves too. Especially when they make them like wolves and not some half man/half wolf monster. And one of the wolves looked exactly like Storm so of course I loved them! But not more than the vamps in this story. But I did want to reach in and skoosh the wolves :) Plus the interaction between the pack was entertaining in the books and they showed us hints of that in the movie too.
We got in line around 10pm and they were showing it in 5 auditoriums so they had 5 different lines. The theater did a pretty good job of organizing it. It was definitely fun to people watch while waiting. I tweeted some of the moments but impossible to keep up with them all! But let me tell you – you want to send a strike team into a war zone? Hop up teen girls on boxes of candy, Starbucks and hormonal overload for hot vampires and werewolves and let them loose! Man alive they get crazy.
And let’s be clear – it was not all teen girls! You had to feel for the requisite boyfriends and dads who were there of out of kindness or who drew the short straw. They all looked kind of stunned :) But if you are a boy – this was the place for you to be. TONS of tween/teen/and above girls who just watched 2 hours of angsty love and were now without Edward or Jacob (or even Jasper.)
Another great thing was I was expecting to not even be able to hear half of the movie through all the screaming (like it was for Twilight.) And there was a fair amount of it in line, in the theater while waiting, when the lights dimmed and during the previews. But then literally as soon as the first line was spoken in the movie – all voices were suddenly silenced, and not after crying out in terror (Star Wars line…I thought it immediately when sitting there as the voices went silent :) .) I think we were with such hard core fans – they just wanted to hear the movie. They squealed when Jacob and Edward took their shirts off but just for a moment. It was nice actually. I think quieter than even just a regular movie – no phones ringing, no click-click-click from texting, no up and down bathroom runs. Everyone was entranced :)
I had a lot of fun. I like event-like opening nights for big movies. I’ve been to midnight showings for all of the new Star Wars movies (they didn’t do midnight showings where I lived that I recall for the first 3.) As well as the latest Indiana Jones. These are always fun as you are with serious fans :) And the next morning…well, that’s what Starbucks is for :)
I liked it. I will see it again. And I will buy it when it comes out on DVD :)
I missed Comic-Con this year :( Kevin Smith is there every year and is always a great panel to sit in for. Here he rants about Twilight (pro!) and it makes a heck of a lot of sense! So HA to all you judgey-judgersons out there :) Favorite line is re: Spock, Chewbacca, geeks :) Hehehehe
I found out about this clip because of this Vanity Fair interview:
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/09/kevin-smith.html#share-1000000000175205
He is definitely a funny guy. Crude but funny.
I *definitely* want to see the new movie “The September Issue”. It’s a full-access (supposedly/hopefully) behind the scenes look at Anna Wintour and her solidified place in the fashion industry. I don’t usually even read Vogue but I kind of want to see if I can find the September issue now (after reading about the movie and watching the full trailer!)
After reading and/or watching “The Devil Wears Prada”, I think we assume we know what she is like. But at the end of the day, most executives in large companies are that demanding. Just because she is a woman, she is a bitch? Meh – I saw a LOT worse and heard just as many crazy demands when I worked at a hedge fund. All by men.
Of course, Meryl Streep was FAN-tastic in the role of Miranda. The book made the assistant (Andy) seem like a big whiner to me. They toned that feeling down a lot in the movie. She was much more likable. The same went for the Nanny Diaries actually. Whine, whine, whine girls!! I can recall soooo many out of this world requests when I was the assistant to the Managing General Partner of the hedge fund where I worked. And so many more for other assistants after I didn’t have to do them anymore :) I could probably write a book full of crazy stuff the “average” person would be shocked at/laugh at/shake their head at/wonder why the hell people stayed there. None of the stuff in the book or the movie shocked me or made me think – what a horrible bitch she is. It’s called a job people…but it does make for good reading for those on the outside of the situation!
I might wait for this to come out on DVD though. Seems more fun to watch it while wearing some insanely fashionable outfit that wouldn’t be comfortable at ALL in a movie theater and drinking a glass or 2 of Veuve Cliquot :)
It was a cloudy and chilly day here today (very strange for Tahoe summers!) so between being sleepy from a late Saturday night and looking at a chilly outside, we weren’t jazzed about any outdoor activities. Staying inside wrapped in a blankie sounded very nice. And a movie sounded good…but what? We narrowed it down to The Breakfast Club, Wall Street or Less Than Zero. My friend Helen had not seen ANY of them?!?!?! Such classics! She said she thinks she saw pieces of Wall Street in Econ Class but feel asleep in that class. :)
We decided on The Breakfast Club. A classic. And really – you need to see this movie at least once in your life. I can recite the dialogue for most of the movie. Not quite like I can for the original Star Wars trilogy but pretty close. I cannot count the times I have seen this movie. And I remember the first time very clearly – at a theater in Burbank. I loved the movie and can remember identifying/associating the characters with my friends as I watched it
Yes, I actually did have friends that fit these characters almost perfectly. I know the point of the movie is to see a little of each of these characters in you. That everyone has all or some of these (or other) qualities inside. And can’t just be put into 1 box. But sometimes the label fits too.
My friend Siouxie (yes, spelled like the “and the Banshees) fit the Basketcase almost perfectly. Not 100% but 90% at least. She definitely had a little of the Princess in her too…like when she would beg to do my eye make-up so that I would wear more than just lip gloss! She did like to wear that black sh** though ;-) I have never worn much make-up and my girlfriends have always tried to get me to wear more. And Siouxie was always the chief instigator of that. I still don’t wear that much makeup most days but did learn and appreciate how to wear more eye make-up and I owe that pretty much to her. I think she still likes to imagine herself the Basketcase even now but she is a ridiculously well-rounded, responsible and sane grown-up :)
My crush Jason was Andrew Clark to a T. Even Emilio’s twin in looks. I remember being out at the movies with him and being asked by girls if he *was* Emilio. Imagine the head inflating that occurs in a 17-yr old boy from that…I think he even had that exact same jeans/tank/sweatshirt outfit that Andrew/Emilio wore and he did wrestle in high school. I wonder what he is doing now…
Donny was Bender. Actually, I think I knew a few Benders. And Brains too. All my girlfriends loved Bender/Judd Nelson the most. I always thought this was strange. In no way did I see that. I’m sure this made my parents quite happy though :)
Me? Well…not entirely sure it’s that easy. But I did have Claire’s exact outfit :) Diamond studs even…from my Dad as a Christmas gift. LOVED those boots. I searched high and low for those! My skirt was suede. Not sure if hers was? And I do still wear a lot of pink and brown as a favorite color combo. I have some Brain/Geek in me too. Probably much more obvious on the geek side :) But I never tried any drugs or went along with people because of peer pressure. I guess maybe that was a teeny part of the Basketcase in me :)
I don’t think your heart dies when you grow up. I do think you grow more cynical. But this isn’t always a bad thing. Not everyone is the world is deserving of your trust, or friendship. Even if you have an interesting few hours or interactions with them. I liken it to taking your dog to the dog park. They might not get along with all the dogs there. Their tales start to twitch and hackles stand up. And that’s ok. Some dogs (or people) just smell wrong :)
My favorite song from a great soundtrack and one of my favorite scenes of the movie:
While watching the movie today, my husband told me this was his least favorite of the brat pack/teen movies. WHAT?! He said he didn’t identify with the characters at all as his school didn’t really have these same “types”. I counter that he just didn’t know them. Or see them that way. He went to high school in San Diego and hung out with the surfers. So he probably saw a fair amount of Spicollis :) but every school has a Brain, Athlete, Basketcase, Princess and Criminal…
Interesting…I’ll see it for sure. But she better show Red for the lying little tramp she was – the wolf was soooo unfairly maligned in this tale! :)
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b140525_catherine_hardwicke_on_team_taylor.html
