Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Three on a match




Three on a Match

"... that's great for you and me"
Res Ipsa Loquitor

Annette Funicello:
was the Olsen Twins or Emma Watson of my generation.  The Mousketeer that every pre (and post) pubescent boy was in love with.   CNN says she "embodied an all-American ideal of wholesome, perky, spunky mid-'60s sexuality."  Especially the spunky part.  There was no mystery about why we loved her; we kids discussed it daily.  She had the best, (and with Darlene, only) Mouske-knockers.

 Once when Annette was in Baltimore for something or other, when I was 15, I screwed up all my courage and called the hotel she was staying at according to the newspaper.  I wanted to have a date with her.  I figured that she might accept because it would be good publicity to be seen with common boy, and then would of course fall in love with me.  The hotel said there was no Annette Funicello registered there, by way of a put-out.  Too bad, I could have been her Spin Evans, the only guy good enough for her, by our vote. Frankie Avalon was a douche. .

Anyway, she hung in there one hell of a long time for someone with MS. There was never any scandal in her life, and despite having been married twice and having three children, Annette died a virgin. RIP.



"The Lady's not for turning"
Mrs Thatcher.  When the Democrat mantra was "Republicans  are afraid of strong women, we had the  Mrs. Thatcher and Jeane Kirkpatrick. rejoinder:

"You fools. We're not afraid of strong women. We're afraid of incompetent  nincompoops like Geraldine Ferraro and  Patricia Schroeder!"

And it was true.  On his Top Gear Race from London to Oslo, Jeremy Clarkson had with him, in order to keep him alert,  a CD of  her greatest speeches.  Oddly, I have heard most of them from watching C-Span's House of Commons Q&A.  That's how much I thought of her,



ROGER EBERT

Did Not Win a Golden Globe

I used to like watching "At The Movies" with Siskel and Ebert.   Every year I bought "Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook" as stocking stuffer  for friends who enjoyed the cinema.  Watching  "If We Picked The Winners" pre Oscar show was an event (here's one from 1989). 

Around 1992 (it seems) the blush went off the Ebert rose for me.  It seemed to me that he had taken to considering whether a film professed proper social (political) values  in his revues. After Gene Siskel died (the better of the two in my opinion) Ebert went off the rails completely. When in 2006 he gave his imprimatur to a film based on President Bush's  assassination,  I responded with my own film.

 I stand by it.

7 comments:

Helly said...

One night I tuned in to hear Ebert discuss Prospero's Books. It's a visually luscious but baffling movie. I didn't understand it. Neither did Ebert. So we were even. Now that I have decoded 2001, I'm one up.

Cracker Barrel Philosopher said...

I was at best an infrequent viewer of Siskel and Ebert, but was always disappointed that Siskel didn't give Ebert a forearm smash to the face.

Juice said...

Oh crap (per say).
Both women were excellent examples of what they represented in life and believed in.
May the Good Lord above Bless their ever living souls. Amen

Anonymous said...

I don't know if you have checked out "Pie in the Sky" for another Brit detective show, or if you will like it, but we do. A mix of cooking and detecting. I never thought I'd like it and got it for my wife, but it's not too shabby.

jd

Anonymous said...

I've said it here before, and was properly rewarded for it, that my wife and I had the great good fortune to be blessed by hearing Thatcher speak on two occasions. Both times, she strode to the podium and took command of the stage, armed with nothing more than a pair of reading glasses and several note cards. She would put on the glasses, reference the first card, remove the glasses and speak briefly but exhaustively on the subject on the card, before repeating the process. I could have sat there for days.

It was a magnificent performance, both times. Mrs. and I have had the opportunity to hear several of her contemporaries speak, and both agree that ab-so-lute-ly NONE of them could hold a candle to her. Would that she had been born on this side of the pond.

We are diminished.

Sir H the Comet

Juice said...

Just watched the Spin and Marty. Wow. That was refreshing, when television was clean and family oriented. Thanks for the good memory. :)

How far away our USofA has gone down the dirty drain. And at such a rapid pace, to boot.

TimO said...

Hate to speak ill of the dead, but Ebert is one who ground at me a bit.
Do you want to see why America has gone downhill in taste and attitudes?
What great movies of taste did he churn out?
Look at his imdb listing at what screenplays and movies HE wrote.

"Beyond the Valley of the Dolls", "Up!" and "Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-vixens".
Read the plots:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beneath_the_Valley_of_the_Ultra-Vixens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up!_(1976_film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_the_Valley_of_the_Dolls

Yup, soft core porn.
These were drive-in ti*ty-flicks for Russ Meyer (the King of the DD's)
America spent 30 years hanging on his every thumbs-up/thumbs-down that would
make or break entire studios. And he wrote skin flicks.

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