Archive for December 18th, 2007
Last night I watched Hairspray:
I was happily surprised. It was cute and funny, and the protagonist, despite being a plus-size petite, had a wonderful outlook from the opening scene. Rather than moping around and feeling not pretty enough and waiting for the world to bring her a magic miracle to improve her life, she stepped out her door with a song on her lips proclaiming: ‘Here I am world! I’m fantastic and so are you, and we are going to change each other in amazing ways!’
I shamefully admit I sighed over Zak Efron when he winked his dreamy blue eyes in that sexy and rebellious fashion. I’m such a bad person.
Amazingly, he actually sounded like a guy when he sang in this movie…maybe his voice changed between High School Musical and Hairspray.
Amanda Bynes was cute as a button.
(On a side note, I stumbled across a preview for her next movie: Sidney White–a modern, college-centric Snow White retelling. Looks cute! It’s probably awful. http://www.imdb.com/video/trailer/me60111253)
I’m still wondering why they chose John Travolta to play the mom. I wonder if it’s a theater tradition to have a man do that part, the way that both Mr. Darling and Captain Hook are played by the same actor in Peter Pan.
Oh yeah, and James Marsden was awesome and hilarious. He rocked the house.
Hairspray reminded me of Dirty Dancing in some ways…good girl from the ‘right’ group (in this case whites, in DD, the rich….okay and also white) ends up learning some funky new dance moves from the ‘other’ group (in this case blacks, in DD the poor help) and becoming…well, in Hairspray, a TV sensation, and in Dirty Dancing a bit sluttier, but hey…the parallels are still there. Eventually both girls DO stand up for the downtrodden group, even if Tracy of Hairspray is leading a civil rights march and Baby is just trying to keep her sexy and rebellious lover who’s probably going to cheat on her within a week from getting fired and gets him fired in the process…in the end everyone is brought together by awesome new dance moves!
After seeing the obvious parallels between the two movies, I decided to watch Dirty Dancing as I went to sleep:
I always forget how quickly Jennifer Grey’s character goes from wearing below-the-knee skirts or Capri pants and boat-neck blouses, to dancing around in almost nothing. As the dance-learning montage unfolds, each scene she gets progressively nakeder.
<–Baby first meets Johnny in the staff after-hours dance club wearing a ladylike and modest dress.
First time Baby comes to practice the Mambo with the bad-boy dance instructor, she’s wearing jeans and a man’s plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves. Next we see her wearing the same outfit, but the shirt is unbuttoned a button lower and tied up over her midriff. Then there’s a scene where she’s by herself practicing wearing the dowdy outfit from the first scene, but she apparently found the long pants too restrictive, because you next see her wearing her most daring outfit yet; a spaghetti-strap tanktop with a scoop back and cut-off short-shorts. Then you see her back with Swayze, in jeans again, but this time with a shirt designed for a girl, with no sleeves, and again, tied above the midriff. Shortly thereafter, he’s teaching her about ‘his dance-space and her dance-space and she’s wearing what appears to be…a swimsuit of some sort? 1960′s style bikini top and shorts, maybe? You don’t really get to see her legs, but that’s what it looks like. Next, voila! Prude, well-brought up 1963 rich girl is dancing in a boy-beater tanktop, panty-hose and underwear, shortly followed by the scene where she and Penny (that girl should NOT wear bright red) dance together wearing very little and then….HOW did she end up dancing with a shirtless Patrick Swayze while she wore nothing but a pair of cotton underpants and a white t-shirt that’s too short to even really be called a shirt?
<–a few dance practices in–how did she even end up wearing this?
And this is all before she goes to his cabin post-Silverleaf and boinks him. I’m just curious as to the reasoning by the writers or the director or whomever that ended up with a well-brought-up girl wearing so little while learning to dance within the course of just a couple days. It was summer and pants were too hot? She needed more mobility? The dance instructor needed to see as much of her body as possible in order to see if she was moving all her muscles right because he has a degree in kinesiology? (Omg…I actually spelled that right.)
Anyway, my point is that girls in 80′s movies were sluts.
…is an anomaly rolled up in a conundrum. An everlasting mystery that evades solution at every turn.
Utterly inconstant and unpredictable.
I had not realized until recently how much of a state of constant flux the weather in this city inhabits. The reason for this is that, until recently, it seemed to follow the path laid out by meteorologists, almost without a stray. If I checked the week’s meteoric horoscope on Wednesday and it told me to expect rain on Saturday, I would expect rain on Saturday and was not likely to be disappointed. If I queried again, perhaps on Thursday afternoon, or on Friday evening, in order to be sure that I really should tote my umbrella around with me that weekend, the powers that be were almost guaranteed to relate the same predictions.
In light of the darkest season, however, the Weather Watchers’ powers of foresight seem to have acquired cataracts, or else the weather multiple personality disorder. On Monday night I can inquire as to the chance and variety of precipitation for the following day and learn that rain and sleet are on the horizon followed by snow the next day and then more rain on Thursday. Then I may awaken on Tuesday to be greeted by blue skies and sunlight peeping through my shuttered blinds, check the Weathermens’ tealeaves again, and see that the bright and warmer weather is to last until at least the middle of the following day, to be chased away briefly by some clouds, but then may return full force.
I don’t know why I even HAVE a weather bot on my computer. Utterly useless about now, it would seem, unless I want to know what the sky is doing right at this very moment. And daylight doesn’t, contrary to some rumors, burn me, or give me painful, itchy hives. I COULD look out my window. Even if it appears that the sun is shining.
Later***
Case in point–
When I last checked the forecast, oh…maybe 2 hours ago?…, I was assured that, not only was the sun shining right now, but we would see no rain or snow until at least Saturday.
Out of simple curiosity, thought I’d check again, wondering if there were any changes in estimations in the time that I have been writing about inconsequential things, and much…or at least somewhat…to my surprise, snow is now predicted for tomorrow and tomorrow night.
I know. My life is exciting and you are all super jealous.
