I grew up listening to Oldies, and to this day I still enjoy a sugary doo-wop song or something that emerged from Motown at the height of its glory.   I love The Platters, The Fleetwoods, Martha & the Vandellas…pretty much anything from the American Graffiti Soundtrack.   There’s another song I’ve been thinking about today though.  Do any of you remember the song Raindrops by Dee Clark?  Dee tells us that since “a man ain’t supposed to cry, it must be raindrops…falling from my eyes.”

That about sums up my day.  I am, apparently, either a hormonal mess or suffering from early seasonal depression.  The littlest things have made me all choked up–barely able to complete sentences without betraying myself.  I may need help. Today I got teary-eyed from:

1.  Seeing a Lowe’s commercial in which mom and dad were working hard to prepare their home for the holidays.  Since their daughter couldn’t return home to be with them, the parents used a laptop web-cam to show her around the house, proudly displaying their remodeling efforts via Skype.  When mom says, “And just wait to see what we did outside!” she opens the door to find daughter secretly waiting to surprise them.  Aww! Sniff, sniff.

2.  Today we had to borrow my parents’ 1985 Chevy Suburban to haul some wood [that's a blog entry for another time].  This is the vehicle of my youth–of all the trips to Minnesota to see Grandma and Grandpa–my 5th grade venture to Washington DC before Grandpa died:  it all happened in that car. Now, with over 250,000 miles on it [!!] and still running strong, I hopped in and felt like I was in a time warp.  To top it off, my dad still had all his mixed tapes from those trips in the blue auto-organizer–the one that sits on the hump on the floor in between the driver and the passenger.  My oldest son was along and I thought I should do my family duty by indoctrinating him into the world of “Real Country.”  That’s right–”Real Country” capitalized and used as a proper noun.  Songs by the old masters.  People who have names like Hank and Lefty.  Tammy and Loretta. You know the type.  Tennessee twang from the 1950’s and 60’s. This was the soundtrack of every 12 hour trip I ever took, and it didn’t take me long to learn all about drinkin’ and cheatin’ and “layin’ you down.” Subtle education, really.

Anyway, I put the tape in so I could point out the fiddles and steel guitars to my son, and I started crying! Not sobbing, runny nose cry, but please-don’t-ask-me-to-talk-because-I’ll-blubber-and squeak-cry.   I’ll admit that I have so attached those songs to the person of my father that part of me was wondering how I’ll ever listen to them after he’s gone.  And that’s what I was thinking about.  Going to get a pile of wood for Bob Vila my husband, and thinking about how I’ll ever live without my dad.

3.  I had to stop at the grocery store for a bag of roma tomatoes this morning.  I’ve had a hankering for guacamole.   [I mean, how can you get through vacation without plopping on the couch next to your husband and plowing through a bowl of homemade guacamole with copious amounts of tortilla chips?]   As we were leaving the store we were met with the ubiquitous Salvation Army bell ringers.  I grabbed the loose change from my sweatshirt pocket and dumped it into the red can, feeling a bit sheepish that I wasn’t able to produce more.

On the way to the car, A asked me who the people were and why they were standing there ringing a bell.  True to form, I could barely formulate my answer about all the needy people that ache for help, especially at Christmas, without swallowing my tears.  By this time of the day I was fairly certain I may be going into menopause.

4.  In the same vein, Angel Tree commercials are now airing, reminding able givers to consider pulling an ornament off an Angel Tree and providing an unwrapped gift for a child this Christmas.  The announcer said that West Michigan alone has 30,000 wishes to fill this holiday season.  30,000 kids with nothing under the tree?  I’m crying again.

5.  Don’t call your shrink–this is the last one.  Tonight on NBC World News with Brian Williams, his “Making a Difference” segment highlighted the work of a non-profit organization called RAMP:  Rockin’ Appalachian Moms Project.  Seeing how one person can so powerfully change the trajectory of so many people’s lives amazes me.  It truly makes my heart beat a little faster.   So I sat and watched Amy, a mother of four from Connecticut, run a ministry that has delivered over a quarter of a million dollars of aid to one of the poorest places in our nation.  Heaters, clothes, food.  I sat and thought about how I never have to worry about those things.  How my needs are met and met and…exceeded.  And how the people of Appalachia don’t have heat.  And it moved me.

As we enjoy the quiet warmth of our own homes this Thanksgiving Eve, I invite you to send up your prayers of gratitude to the One who loved us so much that He Gave. And if you need a place to start, take 2.5 minutes and see what’s happening in Appalachia.

Good thing they’re predicting more rain tomorrow.  I might still be singing that song.

O Senhor Oscar conta a história de um dos diretores mais inovadores do cinema e a construção de Star Wars

Década de 70. A guerra do Vietnã ainda acontecia, os jovens do mundo se manifestavam contra os seus governos, John Lennon cantava pela paz e, sobretudo, a tecnologia ainda era um rascunho do que é hoje. Nesse contexto, o cinema de Hollywood necessitava de uma mudança em suas produções. Os executivos entendiam que a época era dos jovens e que eles haviam se tornado o público alvo. Para que filmes fossem direcionados aos mesmos, era necessária uma nova leva de diretores, que também fossem jovens. Das Universidades saíram nomes como Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Brian De Palma e Steven Spielberg. Um jovem estudante de cinema da Universidade do Sul da Califórnia chamava atenção pela sua imaginação, visão e gosto por histórias consideradas, na época, mirabolantes. Seu nome era George Lucas.

Já na Universidade, Lucas se destacou com um filme de 20 minutos, chamado de THX 1138. Uma ficção científica que teve uma duração maior do que havia sido pedido pelos professores, que ficaram impressionados pelo fato de um aluno ultrapassar a barreira das restrições. Um homem chamado Irvin Kerschner, que na época lecionava na USC, observou o jovem Lucas em uma palestra e, após uma conversa, ficou impressionado pela visão única que o estudante possuía. O que ele não imaginava, é que os dois fariam um trabalho de muito sucesso alguns anos depois.

Após se formar em cinema, George Lucas se juntou a American Zoetrope, um estúdio independente de São Francisco, criado recentemente pelo seu amigo Coppola. Com recursos, decide realizar a versão cinematográfica de seu pequeno filme THX 1138. Entretanto, o projeto não agradou os executivos da Warner e comprometeu a Zoetrope, que teve que devolver o investimento de 300 milhões de dólares e declarou falência.

Sem emprego e com muitas idéias, Lucas decide abrir a própria empresa, a Lucasfilms Limited. Como primeiro projeto, foi escolhido American Graffiti, que remonta o comportamento jovem dos anos 60, baseado em algumas experiências próprias do cineasta. Produzido pela Universal, o filme foi realizado em 28 dias, com um baixo custo de 1 milhão de dólares. Mas a cabeça do jovem diretor estava em outro lugar, numa galáxia distante. Sua vontade era fazer um filme espacial, que tivesse envolvimento com as mais variadas mitologias, onde o herói, a donzela em perigo, o sábio e as criaturas formariam uma fantasia diferente do que se conhecia até então. O problema era conquistar os estúdios com essa idéia, já que as ficções científicas não lucravam muito e não era bem vistas.

Mesmo assim, com um roteiro de 14 páginas, Lucas foi de estúdio em estúdio, buscando alguém que investisse no seu projeto. Com as recusas de Universal e United Artists, o cineasta encontrou o sim definitivo de Allan Ladd Jr, executivo da 20th Century Fox, que apostou no talento de Lucas, já que não entendeu o que seria o filme.

A aposta foi certeira, já que American Graffiti foi lançado no ano de 1973 como sucesso de crítica e bilheteria. Com a confiança do estúdio, liberdade para criar e um bom filme no currículo, Lucas começou a criar o roteiro completo do seu projeto espacial. Na primeira página, escreveu o título em letras maiúsculas. STAR WARS havia começado.

Não perca o próximo capítulo: A construção de uma saga

American Graffiti | George Lucas, 1973

Many uneducated film-lovers may believe that the bearded writer/director came to fame with the groundbreaking release of Star Wars in 1977 but he had become a big name years before this, mainly due to the release of American Graffiti, which pulled in five Oscar nominations and placed his name firmly on the map. With much the same theatrical entry into fame as Richard Linklater had in 1993 with Dazed and Confused – at least similar when considering the nostalgic values behind their respective efforts – Lucas littered his film with young and unheard-of actors/actresses, many of who would go on to greatness, including a cameo from a bright-faced Harrison Ford (an actor who would go on to star under Lucas so memorably, four years later). Just as with Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti takes place during one long and exciting summer night, and really helps invoke a spirit of a young and carefree time for America. Curt Henderson (played by Richard Dreyfuss) is an intellectually-charged individual who is, like most of his peers, worrying about the future. We open on a conversation between him and fellow graduate Steve Bolander (Ronny Howard), who seems, unlike Curt, to be looking for some kind of preamble to college life. He has a steady relationship with his girlfriend Laurie and can’t quite justify throwing this away, whereas Curt in comparison wants nothing more than to escape the home life he has since grown tired of.

This initial introductory exchange sets the tone for American Graffiti and helps construct an arc upon which the story can then weave. We are very much observing a coming-of-age tale here; as the night melts away our two characters swap their respective viewpoints, showing exactly how confusing and daunting such a time can be. Much of the film is split between the varying fares of the young gang: from meeting at the roadside diner, they go off into the night seeking differing fortunes. Curt looks to relive the life he has witnessed thus far by visiting his favourite haunts, whereas Steve attempts to go out with one last bang – and not lose his girlfriend in the process. John Miller, the jock of the piece, cruises the “strip” looking for a means to vent his anger, while his good friend Toad attempts to wow passing fillies with a stunning new set of wheels. American Graffiti presents all these characters as specific personalities with which we can relate to a certain degree. Lucas is clearly intent on simply emulating this feeling of dawning independence, impending adulthood and the loss of youth: his film paints a nostalgically fun and insightful portrait upon such a life, one that is less concerned with messages and more with creating this feeling of adolescent wilderness. All of this is complemented by the pleasing sixties’ aesthetic, making American Graffiti a rewarding seventies homage to sixties America.

Our Rating:

About six months ago I received a phone call from a woman who said she had been in the Class of ‘59 at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane.  And “We’re going to have a 50th reunion!!!!”   And “Do you plan to attend??!!” 

I laughed. 

Then told her:  ”No, I do not plan to attend.  I spent 3 years living there a long, long time ago.  My life has been in another world.”

Undeterred, she chatted away about this person and that person who were coming to the reunion.  None of the names did more than faintly resonate in my memory.  It was as if I were listening to a total stranger rambling on about her high school years in a place I had never been.  I ended the conversation–and she was very persistent in trying to get me to say “Yes”–with the suggestion that she send me whatever information she had.

When the package showed up in my mailbox it was even funnier.  One of the events scheduled was a luncheon based on what Spokane Grade School a person had attended.  Grade school?!?   That left no doubt that the people organizing the reunion were born and raised in Spokane and never left.  Spokane Lifers. 

My family moved to the South Side of Spokane–which in those days was the best part of the city–the summer before I entered 10th grade.   Like most teenagers I hated the place–primarily because it was new to me.  Suddenly, I went from being a very popular girl in a tiny high school (fewer than 300 students) in Dayton, Oregon to being a new girl in a large (over 2,000 students) urban high school where I knew absolutely no one. 

The teenagers at Lewis and Clark high school were like those in the movie, American Graffiti.  There were the cool kids.  There were the outsiders.  There were social clubs–I was invited to join one my senior year, but by then I knew I was on my way out of Spokane, so I turned them down. 

 There were dances in ballrooms and country barns. 

There were summer days spent hanging out at the city pool and taking tennis lessons and getting a sun tan.

There were sewed-down pleated skirts, white suede shoes, and a red-and-white striped blouson style blouse I really loved.

 There was Sputnik and the Cold War.   The launch of the Russian Sputnik was announced in the middle of a high school basketball game.  Lewis and Clark was playing North Central.

There was rock ‘n roll–although Eelvis Presly had come along while I was still living in Dayton.  When Elvis played Sp0kane, I sat in the second row and screamed my lungs out. 

There were hamburgers, fries and milkshakes at the Triple X drive-in followed by the thrill of cruising around the dark streets of Spokane late at night in a friend’s car.  

Then there were the classes at Lewis and Clark High School.  At the high school in Dayton I had been voted “Most Likely to Succeed.”   At Spokane I rose to be in the top 10% of the class, academically.  Lewis and Clark High School was among the top schools in the U.S. at that point.   Most graduates went on to college, at least for a year or two.    In contrast, my two best friends from Dayton moved to Salem, Oregon after high school where they got secretarial jobs.

As much as I disliked Spokane, had it not been for my parents’ move there my life would have been drastically different.  My parents’ best friends in Spokane had attended Smith College and Amherst and the next thing I knew I was being recruited by Smith and a couple of other women’s colleges on the East Coast.  I applied to Smith, Wellesley, and Mt. Holyoke.  Smith and Holyoke accepted me;  I was wait-listed at Wellesley. 

I was not going to be a Spokane Lifer.

When the story first broke, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to CNN News. CNN is the news outlet after all that continually flashes “Breaking News” or something similar across the ticker at the bottom of the screen. Every thing is “breaking” or “developing.” My mind numbs itself in self defense.

But then something caught my attention. I heard the words “Richmond High School.” There are other Richmonds in the U.S., including Richmond, Virginia. I went back to my latest issue of Country Weekly magazine.

As I read, I heard the announcer, I think it was Kyra Phillips, mention California. My ears perked up. The gang rape occurred on the grounds of Richmond High School, Richmond, California. Once upon a time, I attended that very high school. My tenure there was brief, but still, things stick in the mind.

Richmond when I lived there was a classic All-American town, or perhaps I should say a classic California town. However, I’ve lived in many towns and the habits of teens weren’t substantially different from the habits of Richmond’s teens.

In Richmond, as in Cotton Plant, Arkansas, cars were a big deal, and every Saturday night, McDonald Avenue, Richmond’s main drag, would be lined with cars full of kids dragging the street from 23^rd Street in the east to the train depot at the west end of town.

If the kids weren’t tooling up and down shouting at one another or at a gaggle of girls walking along the street toward the movie, they were parked in or just idling in any available spot near a drive-in with real live and often good-looking girls taking and delivering orders.

If you want to get a good idea of Richmond then, watch the movie American Graffiti. The movie wasn’t filmed in Richmond but in several nearby towns like Petaluma (the primary filming location), Pinole, Concord, Larkspur, Mill Valley, and San Francisco.

Mel’s Diner in the movie was filmed at a diner (since torn down) on South Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. And 4^th Street in San Rafael was used for many of the street scenes. Another coincidence: my wife and I lived on 4^th Street shortly after we were first married and then later in Petaluma.

Times have changed since American Graffiti was released in 1973. Most of the towns where the movie was filmed have undergone dramatic growth spurts accompanied by an influx of people from other areas of the United States and from foreign countries.

Richmond has also experienced its share of changes. But unlike the positive changes in many other Bay Area communities, the changes in Richmond have been mostly negative.

The reputation of Richmond today is a place to avoid. The town is widely known as the murder capital of the state. In 2007 (last year I have a figure for), there were 37 murders in this town of roughly 100,000 people. And, the part of I-80 passing through Richmond has achieved dubious standing as a war zone based on the number of shootings that happen along that short stretch of the highway.

To compound these negatives, the Richmond-San Pablo area has become rife with gang activity that often erupts in violence. And lesser crimes such as robbery and burglary are beginning to spill over into once small and peaceful enclaves like El Sobrante.

The causes of Richmond’s decline have often been attributed to its ethnic shift. While the town was once overwhelmingly white, today whites make up about 25 percent of the population. The balance consists mainly of Blacks and Hispanics.

However, the attribution of Richmond’s ills to its ethnic balance is a specious argument. So many variables come into play that it’s difficult if not impossible to narrow the root cause or causes to one factor. More likely, the cause lies in both economics and a failure of civic leadership to address Richmond’s burgeoning crime rate and rapidly declining infrastructure. McDonald Avenue, for example, that one-time image of Americana embodied in American Graffiti, became an absolute, decaying roadway to nowhere before the civic leadership seemed to wake up.

Regardless of the reasons for Richmond’s decline, there can be little doubt that many of the students at Richmond High School are products of the current culture of violence, poverty, drugs, decay, and a nation-wide attitude that drives individuals to seek the immediate gratification of their own desires.

Given such an environment, it was probably inevitable that violence would eventually reach the ground of the high school. In fact, at least one of the active participants in the gang rape apparently wasn’t a student and shouldn’t have been at the homecoming dance to begin with.

Don’t get me wrong. Most of the school’s students are undoubtedly decent individuals doing their best to make it in a cruel environment. Moreover, the high school wasn’t exactly pristine when I attended it. There were fights, usually between individual boys over a girl, and other students would gather and watch, cheering on one or the other of the gangly teens.

But there were no rapes on campus, gang or otherwise. Those were different times. In retrospect, so innocent. Sadly, once upon a time will never come again.

A ROCK ‘N ROLL SHOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mr. Pettit  and myself attended this 50’s party a few nights ago.  Walking into it was like walking into the Twilight Zone: greasers, fancy suits with two toned shoes, poodle dresses, bowling shirts, big hair, …

It was awesome.

People “strolling“, “jiving“,  “twisting” and ” shake, rattle, and rolling” everywhere.

200 odd people … but not odd really … just a subculture of 50’s Rock ‘N Roll  officianados alive and well in the back of beyond Japan having a good time.

When I start to think about, it’s not really so strange: good music, good dancing, and fun.

As we were the only foreigners in attendance, I thought it was bizarre.
After thinking about it, it seemed pretty normal.
I wasn’t dancing  in the 50’s … and neither were most of these people. They just like the music and so do I.

Four bands played the classics and some songs that were great but just hadn’t made it through the filtered version of the 50’s that I grew up with.

I’ll be going to the next one … and I’m sure I won’t have to twist Mr. Pettit’s arm too hard to come with me.

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note: my version of the 50’s comes mostly from “American Graffiti” and “Happy Days” sadly. I was born too late … but I’d probably be really old if I was.

double note: I ended up dancing with an 81 year old woman for most of the night. She is a former #1 dancer in Japan … so I was honored.

triple note: sorry all the photos are crap: I left my camera at home and took these images with the phone camera.

quadruple note: I thought there were going to be 5 bands … until I realized that “gest” meant “guests“.

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notes to myself #41

You know those dance moves you do at 13 years old?
They will last you a lifetime.

Mackenzie Phillips

It’s the dark secret she’s kept for decades, a secret shame finally revealed.
Former child star Mackenzie Phillips claims in a new explosive tell-all book that she had an incestuous affair with her father,
John Phillips, leader of the famed ’60s pop group the Mamas and the Papas -
a long-term relationship that grew to be consensual.

In “High on Arrival,” out Wednesday, Phillips describes emerging from a blackout to find herself engaging
in intercourse with her dad – on the night before her wedding, People.com reports.

“On the eve of my wedding, my father showed up, determined to stop it,”
she writes.
“I had tons of pills, and Dad had tons of everything, too. Eventually I passed out on Dad’s bed.”
“My father was not a man with boundaries. He was full of love, and he was sick with drugs.
I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father.

“Had this happened before? I didn’t know. All I can say is it was the first time I was aware of it.
For a moment I was in my body, in that horrible truth, and then I slid back into a blackout.”

John Phillips

Both father and daughter waged public battles with drug addiction. John Phillips died in 2001.
The younger Phillips’ substance abuse problems ultimately led to her firing from “One Day at a Time,”
the sitcom on which she starred in the early ’80s.

Afterward, she entered rehab – with her dad, People reports.
As Mackenzie struggled with her addiction, the affair with her father ultimately became consensual.

“I was a fragment of a person, and my secret isolated me,” she writes in the new book.

“One night, Dad said, ‘We could just run away to a country where no one would look down on us.
There are countries where this is an accepted practice. Maybe Fiji.’ “He was completely delusional.
‘No,’ I thought, ‘we’re going to hell for this.’ “

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey Phillips also lays the bombshell claim that it was her father who introduced her
to the drug abuse she’s battled for more than half her life.

“My father shot me up for the first time”.
“I remember going into my room, I was crouched on the floor. … He put the needle in my arm and put the plunger in and he missed,”
she says.
“He missed the vein and my whole arm went numb.”

Her latest scrape with the law came in October 2008, when the actress pleaded guilty to drug possession
after being arrested at Los Angeles International Airport with needles, cocaine and heroin.
A judge ordered her into a drug rehabilitation program.

Mackenzie also starred in “American Graffiti” and, more recently, on the Disney Channel show “So Weird.”
She also made guest appearances on the TV series “7th Heaven,” “Cold Case” and “NYPD Blue.”

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New in at Cinema Books: High on Arrival A Memoir by Mackenzie Phillips, $25.95 cloth.  John Phillips of the “Mamas and the Papas” had it all sex, drugs and rock and roll and maybe two of the three with his daughter Mackenzie Phillips.  The former star of  the tv One Day at a Time started as child star in American Graffiti and about the same time joined her dad’s  druggy scene. Hey, it’s the seventies.

Fonte: “ilgazzettino.it“

Citroen la presenterà al salone di Francoforte con un nuovo look

Roma. Con una foto ufficiale, Citroen ha anticipato la prima immagine di quella che la Casa francese definisce «la sorpresa per il Salone dell’Auto di Francoforte», che verrà presentata il 15 settembre, nel corso di una conferenza stampa, dal direttore generale della Citroen Frederic Banzet. L’erede della intramontabile DueCavalli quindi, opportunamente rivisitata nel look e adeguata alla nuova tecnologia, potrebbe tornare sulle strade dopo vent’anni dalla sua uscita di scena. Di certo sarebbe un ritorno gradito per i nostalgici dell’utilitaria simpatica e ‘passe partout’ che la Casa francese iniziò a progettare a metà degli anni ‘30 per sbarcare nel mercato delle utilitarie a basso costo. Il nome di partenza era ‘Toute petite Citroen’, tramutato in DueCavalli già al suo debutto ufficiale, il 7 ottobre del 1948, al Salone di Parigi. Da allora, e fino al ‘90 – quando uscì di scena soffrendo le norme antinquinamento, i crash test e altre disposizioni in materia di sicurezza – la DueCavalli ha attraversato la storia dell’automobile e la storia del costume divenendo, di volta in volta, segno dei tempi e delle situazioni.

Grazie alla sua concezione semplice, un pò spartana e poco dispendiosa ma in grado di riunire le ultime evoluzioni tecnologiche dell’epoca, la 2CV ha rivoluzionato l’industria automobilistica, inaugurando l’era delle vetture poco costose, popolari e polivalenti.

Nessuno immaginava che l’utilitaria essenziale voluta dal direttore generale di Citroen, Pierre Boulanger, per «portare due contadini in zoccoli e cinquanta chili di patate a una velocità massima di 60 km/h e con un consumo di tre litri per 100 chilometri» potesse incontrare un successo tanto travolgente presso il pubblico di tutto il mondo, in particolare la ‘beat generation’ e il mondo femminile.

Dal 1948 al 1990 ne vennero prodotti oltre cinque milioni di esemplari tra berline e camionette, lasciando nel frattempo spazio, negli anni Settanta, alla Dyane, diretta discendente della 2CV che ebbe poco successo all’estero ma molto in Italia, con 450.000 modelli venduti.

Oltre che per le sue particolari caratteristiche, la 2CV divenne famosa presso il pubblico grazie alla sua comparsa in innumerevoli film di successo, tra cui un episodio di James Bond o ancora «American Graffiti», «La vendetta della Pantera Rosa» e «Alla rivoluzione sulla Due Cavalli». Anche Claudio Baglioni contribuì ad alimentare il mito della Citroen 2CV, da lui ribattezzata Camilla, compagna di viaggi e di canzoni. E quando la sua casa discografica, la Rca, nel 1973 gli affidò l’arduo compito di un album di successo che replicasse quello di «Questo piccolo grande amore», il cantautore romano si affidò alla sua utilitaria gialla, che campeggiava anche sulla copertina del 33 «Gira che ti rigira amore bello», con i suoi brani di viaggi e di amori, all’interno dei quali si potevano ascoltare anche i suoni di Camilla: del motore, della messa in moto, dell’autoradio e della portiera.

“The Italian Job” (2003)

A gang of robbers, lead by Charlie Croker, create the largest traffic jam in Los Angeles history, giving them time to pull off a theft of gold bullion. They get away in their Mini Coopers, which are small enough to drive on sidewalks so they can make a clean get away before the traffic jam clears.

Mini Cooper S.
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“Ghostbusters” (1984)

Three odd-ball scientists get kicked out of their cushy positions at a university in New York City where they studied the occult. They decide to set up shop in an old firehouse and become Ghostbusters, trapping pesky ghosts, spirits, haunts, and poltergeists for money. The Ghostbusters are called on to save the Big Apple.

1959 Cadillac.

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“American Graffiti” (1973)

When four teenagers on their last summer night before college. Rediscover drag racing, Insipiration Point and drive-ins all over again in this nostalgic looks at the 60’s. The incredible soundtrack brings you the most memorable rock ‘n’ roll hits of the era.

1932 Ford coupe.

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“Wayne’s World” (1992)

Wayne is still living at home. He has a world class collection of name tags from jobs he’s tried, but he does have his own public access TV show. A local station decides to hire him and his sidekick, Garth, to do their show professionally and Wayne & Garth find that it is no longer the same. Wayne falls for a bass guitarist and uses his and Garth’s Video contacts to help her career along, knowing that Ben Oliver, the sleazy advertising guy who is ruining their show will probably take her away from him if they fail.

1976 AMC Pacer.

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“Bullitt” (1968)

A no glitter, all guts cop named Frank Bullitt – with two other cops – is assigned to what seems like a normal case: to watch a witness for 48 hours before he goes to trial on Monday. When the officers and the witness are killed, Chalmers gets angry at Bullitt. After he chases the hitman that killed them, he vows to catch him, and the mafia boss that hired him.

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1968 Ford Mustang GT 390.
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“Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986)

Ferris is a street-wise kid who knows all the tricks. Today he decides to take the day off school. When Ferris takes the day off, so must his best friends, Cameron and Sloane. Cameron is reluctantly persuaded to borrow his father’s Ferrari, and together they hatch a plan to get Sloane out of class. Suspicious dean of students Ed Rooney knows all about Ferris, but can never catch him. Ferris’ sister Jeanie is also frustrated that Ferris always gets away with his tricks and she doesn’t. Furthermore, Ferris is an ‘angel’ in his parents eyes. It’s Ferris’ day off, he’s out to enjoy himself, and he does!

1961 Ferrari 250 GT.

“Back to the Future” (1985)

Marty McFly, a typical American teenager of the Eighties, is accidentally sent back to 1955 in a plutonium-powered DeLorean “time machine” invented by slightly mad scientist. During his often hysterical, always amazing trip back in time, Marty must make certain his teenage parents-to-be meet and fall in love – so he can get back to the future.

1981 DeLorean DMC-12.

.

Or, as I think of it, American Graffiti: the Sequel.

Rich Linklater really shows an influence from the young, experimental George Lucas, with a casual approach to storytelling and a heavy reliance on an understanding of the setting.

Find it difficult to put together better words to say these things.

It’s better than American Graffiti, in ways that the 70s were better than the 50s, and it worse in ways that the 70s were worse than the 50s, which says two things:
I allowed myself to embraces my own age, which movies don’t often accomplish.
The omniscient viewer unanimously associates the time period with the story. That takes a LOT of work to accomplish.

I expected to hate the movie, but I didn’t.
I expected it to be boring, but it wasn’t always.
I expected more stoner scenes, and I’m glad as fuck that I didn’t have to endure many.

I won’t dignify the minor details of the film, which so many mindless people think deserve a “cult following” rivaling the over-popular Boondock Saints and the overpaid Kevin Smith, by mentioning them. I don’t earn anything of value to know that other people can recite that moronic pothead’s George Washington theory.
If anybody should circulate the movie, it should be film students, not potheads. Those fucks think cheap laughs are an art form. No offense to my good friends, but really. Get some perspective in film, and I might consider taking people seriously.

The yellow thirty-two duece hot rod in American Graffiti is the icon of hot rodders across the states. It is mine too. I love hotrods, especially street rods.  The car that drives me wild is a thirty-four Ford three window coupe that has been channeled, chopped and modernized with a hot fuel injected engine, power disk brakes, and air.  I prefer my hot rods with fenders. 

Every summer the Frankfort Car Club sponsors “Cruise Night,” in the historic area. Cars come from all around the south suburubs and fill the streets. Owners sit by their vehicle and answer questions. The evening brings out the locals to gawk. Most of the hotrods elicit  memories of our father’s car, or the first car we owned.

 I grew up watching a kid who was just a few years older than me build a hot rod. It was my habit, to ride my bike to the alley where he rented a garage. Dick lived in the house next to the alley. He could see the garage from the kitchen window of the second floor apartment where he and his mother rented. I watched the garage door, if  it was open,  Dick was working.  The thirty-four coupe he built was his second hot rod, and it is the one I fell in love with. Someday, if I win the lotto, I’ll buy a thirty-four Ford.

Each time I visit cruise night, I find another car to love. I can’t make up my mind as to what I really want anymore. Is it the thirty-four, or should it be a thirty-nine roadster, or a fifty Mercury? Confusion, confusion, confusion. I”ll have to win a big lotto, so I can buy one of each, and afford a place to keep them.

The beauty of a street rod lies in the builder’s vision to take an antique car, and re-style it into a sleek modern vehicle. They have all the features of a two thousand nine Chevy.  Each is a unique work of art designed by the builder who  is  usually the owner too. They are craftsmen with a pocket book, often spending over fifty thousand dollars to complete a project. Many owners limit the use of the car by driving them only to cruise nights or to other shows.

There is nothing quiet about a street rod. Not the rumble coming from the powerful engine, or it’s squeeling tires, or from it’s paint. Some of the most eye appealing colors are applied on hot rods. Some have very ornate flames and pinstripping. Other’s have multi-colors with silver and gold sprinkled in.

Rumble Fish | Francis Ford Coppola, 1983

To consider Francis Ford Coppola nowadays: with his noble beard, successful wine business and Hollywood family friends, it’s quite easy to forget that he was one of America’s most influential and daring directors. Although he made a relatively early graduation to mainstream motion pictures, Coppola has always exhibited attributes of an independent filmmaker. Indeed, the tales one can unearth of his 1971 feud with Paramount while making The Godfather go a long way in illustrating his particular distaste for studio involvement. In a recent interview with National Public Radio, Coppola can be quoted as saying “I think in my heart I’ve always been an independent filmmaker … oddly, and very strangely, I became wealthy in other businesses.” This was of course in reference to his recent critical and commercial failure Youth Without Youth, which with its unconventional narrative and over-ambitious themes drew more than a few uses of the word “indie” from critics upon release. This side of Coppola is one that few comment on, yet one that can be seen in much of his later work including the 1983 effort Rumble Fish; an adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel of the same name. This tale of youthful folly in urban Oklahoma follows a young and hostile protagonist named Rusty James (Matt Dillon) as he searches to truly understand what his fabled older brother (Mickey Rourke) expects of him. The film employed a largely young but promising cast, most of which were also used in Coppola’s other Hinton adaptation – The Outsiders – released a few months earlier.

Teen flicks in the late seventies and early eighties opened many an executive eye to this fifteen-and-up demographic that had remained mostly untapped until the turn of the decade. Shiny action ballads such as The Warriors joined coming-of-age films like American Graffiti to compete for this pocket money. And while it traverses much more experimental waters, I believe Rumble Fish draws something from each of these two seventies cult hits. The film owns an unashamed level of theatricality, promoted in its characters and the landscapes upon which they frolic. With smoke billowing in even the most mundane of scenes, Coppola appears to be hinting strongly at the gang movies that came before his, yet also alludes to some much more weathered cinematic trends. The stark black-and-white photography and undeniable Avant-garde style has caused many to mention French New Wave and German Expressionist cinema when discussing Rumble Fish, though I believe Coppola draws more from Italian Neorealism in this way; such is the over-exaggerated harshness of our city backdrop and awkward nature of the film’s dubbed voices – not to mention its notable anti-establishment swagger. Despite its overt style and suitably shaky young performances, Rumble Fish is an extremely effective take on the angry disillusioned youth of a city. One that resides below the surface of Coppola’s studded filmography yet proves the great man still had something to say in his post-apocalypse period.

Our Rating:

Fast Times At Ridgemont High is apparently the proverbial teen pic, the go-to example of that lewd and crude genre of films especially popularized in the late 70s and early 80s. Perhaps the most popular icon of the film is Sean Penn’s Spicoli, the surfer dude who exaggerates everything dense and lazy about the stereotypical Californian beach bum. Expectations will be dashed on the rocks, however, if one goes into Fast Times expecting Spicoli to be the central character of the film. Watching this movie consecutively with American Graffiti is a helpful exercise, since it does well to hold Fast Times in perspective. It may have been an important film for what it was, but its originality fades a bit when viewed next to that earlier teen movie that also aimed to depict the raucous frivolities of youth next to its harsh, all-too non-nostalgic realities. Both films, of course, end with on-screen postscripts of “where are they now?” updates. These bytes are curious, since neither film was a “true story” in any meaning of the term.

Righteous.

The supposed “innocence” of early 1960s youth that George Lucas was shooting for actually works when one sees Fast Times just prior to American Graffiti. Still, nostalgia never exists without naivete, or worse, a fundamentally voluntary ignorance (memory-murder, really) of the past. Lucas effectively balances his nostalgia with the pathetic realities of youth. Amy Heckerling also attempts this, but her attempts feel confused and regressive. She was attacked, it turns out, for her depictions of female nudity in the film; being a woman, how could she? Her lame defense is that her attempt to include a man in all his glory was rejected by the studio. (This is bizarre logic on Heckerling’s part, though obviously the studio as well.) Certainly as a woman, Heckerling had an opportunity her to do something more innovative with a traditionally mindless genre. Most critics believe she did move things forward with an abnormally intelligent film. Fast Times is cohesive, consistent, and funny; it has the right ingredients to be a good movie. Her appeal, however, to the male fantasy blisters the film just as consistently as its humor sustains it. When she positions the spectator to a female character, the camera moves all too quickly back to a distinctly male position, a la Mulvey. At the encounter that leads later to an abortion, Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character is the focus, but she is framed from a male point-of-view. Judge Reinhold’s fantasy of Phoebe Cates is even more shameless, and even following his humiliation, she is ignored and he is vindicated. Fast Times: one step forward, three back.

A fascinating congruity between Fast Times and its predecessor American Graffiti is the cetripetal space of youth culture. In Graffiti, the kids cruise, picking up and being picked up. Mel’s Drive-In is the meeting point and the strip is where the kids race, trash-talk, and ritualistically seek their mates for the evening. In Fast Times, the mall is the strip and the diner inside is the meeting point. An evolution takes place in the twenty years separating the eras of the two films, which gives birth to the mall, that extraordinary social space and the commercialism that keeps people together. It was inevitable that something more efficient than “the strip” come to be, and it is (and still is) the mall. Though these spaces are centripetal, there is a slingshot effect to centripetal youth spaces to which both films must concede: graduation and college. Eventually, high school ends and the next step must be taken, a step which, thanks to the educational system, means centrifugal movement. Naturally, in Graffiti this means moving to school on the east coast. Ron Howard’s and Richard Dreyfuss’ characters wrestle with this fate and come out on different ends. The slingshot effect can be resisted, and at times beaten. In these films and the world that they depict, “home” is a centrality that the youth both love and hate, embrace and reject. There is the unspoken understanding inherent in nostalgia that once the center is left, return is impossible; the centripetal gives birth to a permanent cetrifugal.

Food-courting or food-dating?

Male positioning

Whose fantasy?

Not hers.

Double-cheese and sausage

Where are they now?

One of the first records that I ever remember is the American Graffiti Soundtrack. That album lived in my house growing up and I can remember it from the earliest age. I pulled it out of my collection this morning just to confirm that I still have it. I was immediately transported back to my 70’s childhood. As far as I’m concerned, there is no better collection of 50’s-era rock-n-roll. Del Shannon, The Big Bopper, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and on and on. As a kid I would open up that double gatefold album with the roller skating waitress on the cover and play those 2 records over and over and over again; sometimes listening on the record player in the living room at home, other times on the one at the camp in New Hampshire. It seems as though American Graffiti was always there as I was growing up. Now American Graffiti was released in 1973. I was 2 years old. It’s not likely that I was dropping records on the turntable at 2, but this is certainly a record that goes back to my earliest ability to consciously listen to music.

Booker T. and the M.G.’s Green Onions has always been my favorite song on the entire soundtrack. That groove is just amazing. The choogling beat just rolls perfectly. I’ve always loved the way the organ sounds on that song. As I’ve grown up, I still love that song every time I hear it. When I saw recently that Booker T released a new album I was intrigued. Then I heard a review of Potato Hole and learned that the Drive-by Truckers were Booker T’s backing band and I had to hear it. When I started listening something occurred to me. I’ve been hearing Green Onions for basically my entire life. It’s one of the first songs I ever loved. And I don’t think I’ve ever heard another Booker T song. Weird, huh? How could that be? I pride myself on having every album known to man and I’ve only ever heard one song by Booker T. and the M.G.’s.

Therefore I really had no idea what to expect on first listen. I mean, I love the Drive-by Truckers but when I think of them it’s not so much as musicians but as storytellers. That’s their place in my consciousness; a bunch of guys that can tell an amazing story in a song. So what are they doing backing Booker T on an album of instrumentals? Well, however these guys came up with this combination, I’m glad they did. That organ is still font and center of every song but the Truckers weave their signature guitar sound throughout. As much as this is a Booker T album, it’s also a Drive-by Truckers album, but with the lyrics torn out. What I enjoy most is that neither Booker T nor the Truckers dominate. It’s a perfect interplay between the two. For me, with any instrumental album, it’s hard to pick out a favorite song; they all kind of wind together as one long piece of work. I will say that I lost my groove during a couple of the slower songs, but on the whole I’m pretty excited by this album. I think with the Truckers as the backing band Booker T manages a really contemporary sound. This doesn’t sound like a 50’s throwback at all. It sounds very much like a group of guys with huge respect for each other’s work doing their best to stay true to the other’s sound.

It was a pleasure to be able to relive those childhood memories of Booker T and American Graffiti. After being terribly disappointed in the last Drive-by Truckers album, it was a pleasure to hear some great new music from them. Check out Potato Hole yourself. You’re going to like it too.

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1890 Monkeyshines 1891 Dickson Greeting 1891 Edison – Newark Athlete, Part I 1893 Men in Blacksmith Shop 1894 Annie Oakley shooting at targets 1894 Edison – Chinese Laundry – November 26, 1894 1894 Edison – Kinetoscope Films from 1894-1896 1895 Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat (The Lumière Brothers) 1895 Edison – The execution of Mary, Queen of Scots – August 28, 1895 1895 L’Arroseur arrosé 1895 The Dickson Experimental Sound Film 1896 Bataille de Boules de Neige (Louis Lumière, 1896) 1896 Edison – The Kiss 1896 Fred Ott’s Sneeze 1896 Louis Lumiere – New York,Broadway At Union Square 1896 Rip Van Winkle 1897 Edison – Admiral Cigarette advertisement 1898 Turkish Dance, Ella Lola 1899 Cripple Creek Bar-room Scene (Edison) 1899 Edison – Bicyclist tricks 1900 Edison – Grandma’s Bad Boys 1901 Edison – Boxing Woman 1901 Edison – Circular panorama of electric tower – Pan-American Exposition, 14 August 1901 1901 Edison – The Martyred Presidents 1901 What Happened on Twenty-Third Street, New York City 1902 Le voyage dans la lune 1903 Life of an American Fireman – Edwin S. 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the Opera 1925 Theodore Case Sound Test – Gus Visser and his Singing Duck 1926 Flesh and the Devil 1926 Son of the Sheik 1927 Buster Keaton – The General 2 1927 It – Clara Bow 1927 Metropolis – Montage 1927 Oktober – 1 1927 Sunrise 1927 The Jazz Singer 1927 Wings 1928 Charlie Chaplin – The Circus 1928 Steamboat Willie 1928 The Cameraman – Breaking the Bank 1928 The Wedding March 1929 Luis Bunuel – Un chien andalou Part 1 1929 Man with a Movie Camera 1929 St. Louis Blues 1929 The Broadway Melody 1930 All Quiet Along the Western Front – Trailer 1930 Morocco 1931 Charlie Chaplin – City Lights 1931 Dracula 1931 Frankenstein 1931 Fritz Lang’s M, ending, 1st part 1931 Le million 1931 Little Caesar 1931 The Champ 1931 The Public Enemy 1932 Freaks 1932 Grand Hotel 1932 Love Me Tonight 1932 Shanghai Express 1932 The Music Box 1932 Trouble In Paradise 1933 42nd Street 1933 Duck Soup 1933 King Kong – ending 1933 She Done Him Wrong – Mae West 1933 Snow White 1933 The Emperor Jones 1934 It Happened 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Detour 1945 Les Enfants du Paradis 1945 Mildred Pierce – Trailer 1945 Roma Citta Libera 1945 Spellbound 1945 The Body Snatcher 1945 The Lost Weekend 1946 It’s A Wonderful Life – ending 1946 La Belle et la bête 1946 My Darling Clementine 1946 Notorious 1946 The Best Years of Our Lives 1946 The Big Sleep 1947 Black Narcissus 1947 Brighton Rock 1947 Crossfire 1947 Miracle on 34th Street 1947 Out of the Past 1948 Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein 1948 Bicycle Thieves 1948 Hamlet 1948 Letter From An Unknown Woman 1948 Mr.Blandings Builds His Dream House 1948 Red River 1948 The Red Shoes 1948 The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre 1949 All the King’s Men 1949 Kind Hearts and Coronets 1949 The Heiress 1949 The Third Man – ending 1949 Twelve O’Clock High 1949 White Heat – Top of the World 1950 All About Eve 1950 Gerald McBoing-Boing 1950 Harvey 1950 In A Lonely Place 1950 Rashomon 1950 Sunset Boulevard 1951 A Place in the Sun 1951 A Streetcar Named Desire 1951 An American in Paris 1951 Duck and 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Ben Hur – Trailer 1959 Les quatre cents coups 1959 North By Northwest – The Airplane 1959 Shadows 1959 Some Like It Hot 1960 A bout de souffle 1960 House of Usher 1960 La Dolce Vita 1960 Psycho 1960 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Trailer 1960 Spartacus 1960 The Alamo 1960 The Apartment 1961 Breakfast at Tiffany’s 1961 Dog Star Man – Prelude 1961 Judgment At Nuremberg 1961 Jules et Jim 1961 West Side Story 1961 Yojimbo 1961The Hustler 1962 Dr No 1962 How the West Was Won 1962 Lawrence of Arabia 1962 Lolita 1962 O Pagador de Promessas 1962 Ride the High Country 1962 The Manchurian Candidate 1962 The Music Man 1962 To Kill a Mockingbird 1963 8 1-2 – dream 1963 Charade 1963 Dog Star Man – Part II 1963 Shock Corridor 1963 The Birds 1963 The Great Escape 1963 The Nutty Professor 1963 The Servant 1964 A Hard Day’s Night 1964 Bande à part 1964 Deus e o diabo na terra do Sol 1964 Dog Star Man – Part III 1964 Dr. Strangelove 1 1964 Empire – Andy Warhol 1964 Goldfinger 1964 Mary Poppins – 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1968 Why Man Creates 1969 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969 Easy Rider – ending 1969 Goodbye, Mr. Chips 1969 Kes – cane 1969 Midnight Cowboy – I’m walking here 1969 The Italian Job – doors 1969 The Sorrow and the Pity – bourgeois 1969 The Wild Bunch 1969 Women in Love 1970 Five Easy Pieces 1970 Love Story 1970 MASH 1970 Multiple Sidosis 1970 Patton 1971 A Clockwork Orange – droog fight 1971 A Touch Of Zen 1971 Fiddler On The Roof – To Life 1971 Get Carter 1971 Harold And Maude 1971 Shaft 1971 Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song 1971 The French Connection 1971 The Hospital 1971 The Last Picture Show 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Pure Imagination 1972 Aguirre the Wrath of God 1972 Cabaret 1972 Deliverance – ‘Dueling banjos’ 1972 DT 1972 Frenzy 1972 Last Tango in Paris 1 1972 OffOn 1972 Sleuth 1972 Solaris 1972 The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 The Godfather – offer 1972 The Poseidon Adventure 1973 American Graffiti 1973 Badlands 1973 Coffy 1973 Don’t Look Now 1973 Enter the Dragon 1973 Frank Film 1973 La Nuit americaine 1973 Mean Streets 1973 Sleeper 1973 The Day of the Jackal 1973 The Exorcist – Pt.1 1973 The Sting 1973 The Wicker Man 1974 A Woman Under the Influence 1974 Blazing Saddles 1974 Chinatown 1974 Foxy Brown 1974 The Conversation 1974 The Godfather, Part II 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre – ending 1974 The Towering Inferno – Trailer 1974 Young Frankenstein – Puttin’ on the Ritz 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – ending 1975 Barry Lyndon 1975 Dog Day Afternoon 1975 Flåklypa Grand Prix – 1 1975 Jaws 1975 Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975 Nashville 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest 1975 Picnic At Hanging Rock – Trailer 1975 The Return Of The Pink Panther – Karate Kick 1975 The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Damn it Janet 1976 All the President’s Men – Trailer 1976 Car Wash 1976 Marathon Man 1976 Network 1976 Nuts in May 1976 Rocky – Adrian 1976 Taxi Driver – Talking To Me 1976 The Omen 1976 The Outlaw Josey Wales 1976 The Pink Panther Strikes Again 1977 Abigail’s Party 1977 Annie Hall 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 Eraserhead 1977 Killer of Sheep 1977 Looking for Mr. Goodbar 1977 Powers of Ten 1977 Saturday Night Fever 1977 Soldaat van Oranje 1977 Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope – Deathstar1 1978 Dawn Of The Dead – mall 1978 DDD 1978 Every Which Way But Loose 1978 Grease – Summer Nights 1978 Halloween 1978 Midnight Express 1978 National Lampoon’s Animal House 1978 Pennies From Heaven 1978 Superman The Movie 1978 The Deer Hunter 1978 The Last Waltz – The Weight 1979 Alien 1979 All That Jazz – Bye Bye Life 1979 Apocalypse Now – Napalm in the morning 1979 Mad Max and Feral Boy 1979 Manhattan – start 1979 Monty Python’s Life of Brian 1979 Stalker – Tarkovsky 1979 Star Trek The Motion Picture 1979 The Black Stallion 1979 Woyzeck – Herzog 1980 Airplane! 1980 Atlantic City 1980 Flash Gordon 1980 Gregory’s Girl 1980 Heaven’s Gate 1980 Mon oncle d’Amerique 1980 Raging Bull 1980 Superman II 1980 The Elephant Man 1980 The Empire Strikes Back 1980 The Long Good Friday – ending 1980 The Shining – Here’s Johnny 1981 Chariots of Fire 1981 Das Boot 1981 Gallipoli 1981 Mommie Dearest 1981 Raiders Of The Lost Ark 1981 The Cannonball Run – 1 1981 The Evil Dead 1981 The Postman Always Rings Twice 1982 Blade Runner 1982 Boys from the Blackstuff 1982 Conan The Barbarian 1982 ET 1982 Fast Times At Ridgemont High 1982 First Blood 1982 Fitzcarraldo 1982 Gandhi 1982 Koyaanisqatsi 1982 Made in Britain 1982 Poltergeist 1982 Porky’s 1982 Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman 1982 Sophie’s Choice 1982 Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan 1982 The Draughtsman’s Contract 1982 The Thing 1982 The Thing 1983 A Christmas Story – Oh, Fuuudge 1983 Return of The Jedi 1983 Scarface 1983 Terms of Endearment 1983 The King of Comedy 1983 Trading Places 1983 WarGames 1984 1984 1984 A Passage To India 1984 Amadeus 1984 Dune 1984 Ghostbusters 1984 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 1984 Once Upon A Time In America 1984 Paris, Texas 1984 Police Academy 1984 Repo Man 1984 Stop Making Sense 1984 Stranger Than Paradise 1984 Supergirl 1984 The Karate Kid 1984 The Killing Fields 1984 The Never Ending Story – Trailer 1984 The Terminator 1984 This is Spinal Tap 1985 After Hours 1985 Back to the Future 1985 Brazil 1985 Clue 1985 My Beautiful Laundrette 1985 Out of Africa 1985 Ran 1985 Teen Wolf 1985 The Black Cauldron 1985 The Breakfast Club – dancing 1985 The Color Purple 1985 The Goonies 1985 The Official Story 1985 Weird Science 1985 Witness 1985 Young Sherlock Holmes 1986 9 1-2 Weeks 1986 A Better Tomorrow 1986 A Room with a View 1986 Betty Blue 1986 Big Trouble In Little China 1986 Blue Velvet – start 1986 Caravaggio – Derek Jarman 1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off 1986 Flight of the Navigator 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters 1986 Hoosiers 1986 Jean de Florette 1986 Labyrinth 1986 Little Shop of Horrors 1986 Manon des Sources 1986 Mona Lisa 1986 Platoon 1986 Rita, Sue and Bob Too – Bananarama 1986 Short Circuit – Trailer 1986 Stand By Me – 1 1986 The Fly 1986 The Money Pit 1986 The Name of The Rose 1986 The Singing Detective 1986 Top Gun 1986 When the Wind Blows 1987 Der Himmel über Berlin Wings of Desire 1987 Dirty Dancing 1987 Fatal Attraction 1987 Full Metal Jacket – drill sergeant 1987 Harry and the Hendersons 1987 Naayagan 1987 Planes, Trains and Automobiles – waking up 1987 Robocop 1987 The Last Emperor 1987 The Princess Bride 1987 The Untouchables 1987 The Witches of Eastwick 1987 Throw Momma from the Train 1987 Withnail and I – Camberwell carrot 1988 A Fish Called Wanda 1988 Akira 1988 Big 1988 Child’s Play 1988 Coming to America – bride 1988 Dangerous Liaisons 1988 Die Hard 1988 Distant Voices, Still Lives – Trailer 1988 Mississippi Burning 1988 Rain Man 1988 The Accused – lawyer 1988 The Last Temptation Of Christ 1988 The Naked Gun 1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit 1989 Back to the Future II 1989 Batman 1989 Born on the Fourth of July 1989 Cinema Paradiso clip 1989 Dead Poets Society – ending 1989 Do The Right Thing – 1 1989 Glory 1989 Henry V 1989 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989 My Left Foot 1989 Sex, Lies and Videotape 1989 Uncle Buck 1989 Weekend at Bernie’s 1990 Back To The Future III 1990 Dances With Wolves 1990 Edward Scissorhands 1990 Ghost 1990 Goodfellas 1990 Home Alone 1990 Miller’s Crossing 1990 Nuns on the Run 1990 Pretty Woman 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 The Hunt for Red October 1991 Beauty and the Beast 1991 Boyz n the Hood 1991 Cape Fear 1991 Daughters of The Dust 1991 Delicatessen clip 1991 Fried Green Tomatoes 1991 Robin Hood Prince of Thieves 1991 Terminator 2 1991 The Commitments 1991 The Silence of the Lambs – fava beans 1991 Thelma and Louise 1992 A Few Good Men 1992 El Mariachi 1992 Home Alone 2 1992 Howards End 1992 Leolo 1992 Malcolm X 1992 Peter’s Friends – song 1992 Reservoir Dogs 1992 The Bodyguard 1992 The Crying Game 1992 The Last of the Mohicans 1992 The Player – Trailer 1992 Unforgiven 1993 Carlito’s Way 1993 Falling Down 1993 Farewell My Concubinet 1993 Groundhog Day 1993 In the Name of the Father 1993 Jurassic Park 1993 Naked 1993 Philadelphia 1993 Schindler’s List 1993 The Fugitive 1993 The Piano 1993 The Remains of the Day 1993 The Wrong Trousers 1993 Three Colours Blue 1993 What’s Eating Gilbert Grape 1994 Chungking Express 1994 Clerks – corpse 1994 Drunken Master II – Final Fight Scene (Part 1 of 2) 1994 Ed Wood 1994 Forrest Gump 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral 1994 Il postino 1994 Leon The Professional 1994 Muriel’s Wedding 1994 Pulp Fiction – dancing 1994 The Madness Of King George 1994 The Shawshank Redemption 1995 Braveheart 1995 Heat 1995 La Haine 1995 Nine Months 1995 Richard III 1995 Se7en 1995 Sense and Sensibility 1995 The Usual Suspects 1995 The White Balloon 1995 Toy Story 1995 Twelve Monkeys 1996 Brassed Off 1996 Fargo 1996 Jerry Maguire 1996 Romeo and Juliet 1996 Secrets and Lies 1996 Shine 1996 The English Patient 1996 Trainspotting 1997 As Good as It Gets 1997 Boogie Nights 1997 Good Will Hunting 1997 L.A. Confidential 1997 La Vita è blla 1997 Nil By Mouth 1997 The Full Monty – ending 1997 Titanic 1997 Waiting for Guffman 1998 American History X 1998 Elizabeth 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 1998 Festen 1998 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels 1998 Lola Rennt 1998 Rushmore 1998 Saving Private Ryan – D-day Scene (1-4) 1998 Taxi 1998 The Big Lebowski 1998 The Truman Show 1999 American Beauty 1999 Being John Malkovich 1999 Fight Club 1999 Magnolia 1999 Office Space – 1 1999 The Green Mile 1999 The Matrix 1999 The Sixth Sense 2000 Amores Perros 2000 Billy Elliot 2000 Chocolat 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000 Dancer in the Dark 2000 Erin Brockovich 2000 Gladiator 2000 Meet the Parents 2000 Memento 2000 Quills 2001 Amelie 2001 Donnie Darko 2001 Kandahar 2001 Legally Blonde 2001 Lord Of The Rings 2001 No Man’s Land 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums 2001 Wit 2002 Bowling for Columbine 2002 Chicago 2002 City of God 2002 Dirty Pretty Things 2002 Spider-Man 2002 Spirited Away 2002 Talk to Her 2002 The Magdalene Sisters 2002 The Pianist 2003 Finding Nemo 2003 Lost in Translation 2003 Monster 2003 Oldboy 2004 Crash 2004 Der Untergang 2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 2004 Gegen die Wand 2004 Hotel Rwanda 2004 Million Dollar Baby 2004 Napoleon Dynamite 2004 Shaun Of The Dead 2004 Sideways – Trailer 2004 Tropical Malady 2005 Brokeback Mountain 2005 Good Night, And Good Luck 2005 March of the Penguinsm – Trailer 2005 The Tulse Luper Suitcases 2005 V for Vendetta 2006 Borat – Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan 2006 Lage Raho Munna Bhai 2006 Little Miss Sunshine 2006 The Lives Of Others

An Englishman Solves American Crosswords: NYT Saturday 6/20/09 …

Shades of American Graffiti. When I was in high school my Dad decided to buy me a car. I guess he got tired of me always asking to borrow his, or worried that I&d smash it up or some such thing, although I never put a scratch in any car …

Kersplat! Ever wondered what the difference is between a blank canvas and post-modern art? Pop in for some Pop Art, go gaga over Dada and mix with some.

5d prow {Ship part}; 6d Le Mat {Paul who won a Golden Globe for American Graffiti}; 7d abased {Brought down}; 8d Teniers {Surname of three generations of Flemish old masters}; 9d Eris {Solar system discovery of 2003}; 10d Atari {Maker …

5d prow {Ship part}; 6d Le Mat {Paul who won a Golden Globe for American Graffiti}; 7d abased {Brought down}; 8d Teniers {Surname of three generations of Flemish old masters}; 9d Eris {Solar system discovery of 2003}; 10d Atari {Maker …

5d prow {Ship part}; 6d Le Mat {Paul who won a Golden Globe for American Graffiti}; 7d abased {Brought down}; 8d Teniers {Surname of three generations of Flemish old masters}; 9d Eris {Solar system discovery of 2003}; 10d Atari {Maker …

The Chicago Park District is holding FREE Movie in the Park nights at Erie Park located at 630 N. Kingsbury St.  Each film will begin at dusk along the river.

Here’s the Summer 2009 line-up:

     Before Dan Jurgens takes us on Booster Gold’s next crazy adventure, Keith Giffen, the writer who quite possibly made him famous, gets to do his own little story featuring a version of the original Suicide Squad, which included a man who might have been the famous Sergeant Frank Rock.  When Rip Hunter’s time sphere breaks down, Booster asks to go visit the 1950s.  Expecting to find, as he said, American Graffiti, he is instead taken in by the Suicide Squad due to the fact that, due to the Justice Society of America hearings, there were no publicly active superheroes at the time.  The Squad enlists him to help reveal one particular Russian scientist as a Soviet spy.  Booster and the Squad end up stopping him from launching a manned rocket into space, and he goes on to invent the Rocket Red suits.  And Booster gets to be a jerk and pretend to be the Fonz for about five seconds.

     Silly me.  I never realized that Dan Jurgens was the one who actually created Booster Gold!  *slaps himself in the forehead*  So of course he knows how to write his own creation.  There are three people who really get Booster: Dan Jurgens, Keith Giffen, and Geoff Johns.  So the middle of those three gets his turn at Booster’s modern title.  And you can tell that he gets the character.  Booster gets some really silly dialogue, especially with the Suicide Squad.  And he is sufficiently whiny/silly with Rip Hunter.  So this issue doesn’t really mean anything in the long run.  But it’s a good little story to read by itself, and it’s a chance for a classic writer to go back to a character he worked on almost twenty years ago.  It’s also proof that Giffen hasn’t completely lost his touch.  He’s just rusty.  Pat Olliffe, as we already know, fits the style of Booster Gold just as well as Dan Jurgens does.  So if you want a really light comic book to read, and you like Booster Gold, you’ll like this issue.

Plot: 8.6      Art: 8.8      Dialogue: 8.7      Overall: 8.7