Since its almost Halloween I thought I'd pay tribute to one of my all time favorite morally wrong mamas Mrs. Pamela Vorhees. According to legend (or imdb trivia pages] Betsy Palmer said that if it were not for the fact that she was in desperate need of a new car, she would never have taken the part of Pamela Voorhees. In fact, after she read the script she called the film "a piece of shit". She worked on the film for ten days, for which she received $1000 per day.
Damn! That last one looks like Garey Busey with a bad weave. 10k! She could get a Kia Rio with that kind of money
Also to justify my kind of sincere enjoyment of the Friday the 13th series I thought I'd throw in some high falutin' art by Peter Doig who seems to be just as enamored and obsessed with the films as I am. He has several paintings that draw upon the final sequence from the first film.
According to the NYRB, "...he creates scenes where a defining act has happened or will happen, and what we take in is an indirectly tense coda or prelude."
High School Musical 3 debuted to 42 million dollars this weekend, the highest opening ever for a musical but color me unimpressed. Given that the last sequel was the highest rated basic cable program ever with 17 million viewers and the 57 million dollar opening of that OTHER TV to film adaptation Sex And The City I had slightly higher expectations. Furthermore, the audience for HSM3 are the 18 and under crowd, notorious for rushing out opening weekend as opposed to the geriatrics who hobbled to the theatre for Sex And The City, a group more prone to go second or third weekend, or even wait for it on DVD. Who knew the latter would turn out to be the Stalingrad/Gettsyburgh/D Day for middle aged women across America? That said, credit is due to the producers of HSM3 who somehow managed to have it made for 10 million dollars which is mind blowing. That is how much money should have been spent alone to guarantee the presence of Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale. Not to mention the worldwide launch that brought in an extra 43 million bringing its total to 83 in just three days. Perhaps we can take this as a good sign, the rest of the world maybe doesn't hate us so much or they're at least curious, gobbling up our All American tale of Prom, Musical Theatre and Big Game Night drama just as enthusiastically as we are.
Also opening was Saw 5 with 30 million which you might say "hacked" or "sliced" into their audience, "bloodying" the film enough to prevent it from breaking further records. [Tee hee hee!] That 30 million take by the way is REMARKABLY sanguine for the 5th entry in the series. It will become the highest grossing horror franchise of all time after this week and before everyone starts griping about INFLATION and this and that you can look at the 5th entries in any other horror series and see how much trouble they were in fiscally and to a larger extent creatively. Michael Myers was going toe to toe with an 8 year old psychic girl at the 5th entry. That series like many others of its day were not meant or planned out correctly to be so prolific. The Saw series seems to be consistently competent for fans and ever so slowly inching forward its storylines while offering the same dismemberment and torture during each installment. No underage psychics or trips to exotic locals are needed at this point. I've written about the Saw phenom before here, so I don't have much new to add. Respect and admiration is due to the industriousness of the series which seems to poop out on the dot once a year with seriously low budgets. Sadly this probably guarantees that we’ll be seeing at the very least a Saw 9 opening around 2012, lucky us!
You would think the combination of super saccharine and sadistic viewing options at the theatres would be mutually exclusive audiences but I imagine they are not. The same bored 16 year olds who frequented HSM3 I'm sure have also been raised on a steady diet of Law And Order: Special Victims Unit and have no problems sticking around for a stronger fix in Saw 5.
Aside from the content of the films, this weekend gives me hope as you have audiences showing up in huge flocks for low budget entertainment that came from unconventional methods. High School Musical was originally a made for TV movie and the original Saw was an independently produced movie that was sold to a movie studio. In a strange way ingenuity is being rewarded, just not in the case of what's being seen on the screen, and showing that films can turn a profit while still playing in a theatre.
I have a foreign friend who recently moved to Los Angeles and one of the first things he wanted to do was check out Hollywood Boulevard, the last place anyone who has lived here for more than 30 minutes wants to go. Okay that's not true there's always the valley. You can also approach the boulevard in that artsy resigned way where every hideous grotesque building/shop/tourist/street impersonator has a special kind of beauty. In regards to the street performers you can angle it as if there is a touching poignency to the gap between the reality of the situation and what they are trying to achieve. Their physical/monetary/mental limitations and constraints become endearing and winsome. Think Harmony Korine who has made an entire career out of exploiting that sensation. [For the record, I quite enjoy his work, even Julian Donkey Boy!]
N-E ways, sorry for that deep moment, hope no one drowned! After trudging past Marilyn Monroe's star in front of McDonald's [it don't get more American than that!] I stopped dead in my tracks at the sight of this That is neither my foot nor that of my friend, just a random passerby caught in the cell phone pic crossfire.
The Art Laboe Connection is definitely one of my favorite radio shows of all time, up there with The Quiet Storm After Hours with Sean Andre and the now defunct The Lockdown Hour with Michael Baisden where people would call in and talk about their own experiences of being incarcerated or of a close family member/friend and then request a song. What is pleasing and amusing about Art is not just the mild camp aspect of a 80 year old man fielding shout outs and dedications from all the working class homies out there in Norwalk, Whitter, La Mirada, etc, etc, No, it is much simpler than that. The reason I love the Art Laboe Connection which airs on Hot 92 Jamz is that they play the same exact 4 songs EVERY night without fail and luckily I'm obsessed with two of them so I can get my fix daily. Now I know what you're thinking, stupid you can just listen to them on youtube if they're so great. NO, there is something magical and ephemeral about hearing the song you like come on the radio. Stop BUMMING me out with your cynical have everything now if you want mentality! Here are the songs that make me perk up and raise the volume.
Honey Cone- Girls It Ain't Easy. I fell in love with this song back when I was in third grade and I would watch the 15 second preview of Mi Vida Loca on Pay Per View because they would loop this song throughout the promo and it was instantly catchy and when accompanied by the image of a chola crying and dramatically shaking her friend over the hood of a baby blue vintage convertible chrysler, well its not something you forget easily.
Spanglish Version of Angel Baby- Rosie and The Originals. I prefer this to the original. I can't help but thing of the doomed lesbian sexlove from Mulholland Drive.
This is a clip from Child Of Rage, a made for TV movie that aired on CBS in 1992. Interesting enough I have many friends who have the same complex as our little Catherine.
You can watch the whole thing on youtube where you will be treated to scenes of baby brother bashing and dog stabbing.
So tonight is the Project Runway finale and for me its the end of an era. The past two years I have slaved I mean diligently worked on the show and last Friday was my final day. Season five by the way is not my fault, blame casting. Currently unemployed with an ever increasing daytime TV addiction/habit I'm feeling nostalgic as I sip nescafe and iron. Kidding! Actually I'm at my friends house playing the Easy ABC music for all Electronic Keyboards: Madonna Edition. I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast but this photo is perhaps one of my most prized and cherished possessions I will keep until the day I die.I'm not at the height of my creative powers/mental acuity otherwise I would create a fantastic story to accompany this image but all I can think is I'm hungry and its lunchtime. However, tonight I will get my second stab with Tim, here's hoping this time he'll respond to my sweet whispers.
My powers of persuasion are nothing compared to wiki's description of her 1987 dance hit Swept Away...
The song talked about how the narrator thought she was in love with a special person only to find out that she had just been "swept away" after catching her lover cheating on her sending her into a rage and panic. In the music video, directed by Dominic Orlando in Manhattan and on location in Long Island, Ross is seduced by a Frenchman and falls in love with him only to find out, after arriving unannounced in a bar, that he's cheating on her with another French girl in a stylized Apache Dance. She then confronts the man hitting him repeatedly, and later fights with the French girl who ends up being knocked out unconscious by the singer. Later in the video, the Frenchman tries to fight his way back into her life only to have Ross accidentally push him from a lighthouse tower into the water. It was one of Ross' most popular videos, and her first to air on MTV.
October means Halloween which means scary movies! In terms of which country does them best, contrary to popular belief it is NOT Japan but Italy. Yes, that beautiful boot shaped country known as the birthplace of fascism and pizza.
Don't Torture a Duckling
Inferno
Bay of Blood ending, it's a little slow but stick with it!
15 years on and I'm still quite fond of pork products. I had no idea I felt so strongly about the standard Asian appetizer during my childhood. They are pretty tasty. Although my list would pretty much be completely different now there is still some truth to this. When drunk I'm pretty sure this is what my palate regresses back to.
OMG! I totally had my first apparition experience last night! Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe paid me a visit. At first I was nervous, you know? I worried the world was ending or I was dead or schizophrenic. But then we totally hit it off! Mary's the best! She was like, " I can't talk for long, I'm really busy, but I just wanted to say hi, and see how you're doing?"
And I said, "Oh I'm good, same old same old, nothing new really. Just work and things."
And she was like, "I miss you so much! Its been soooooo long"
And I said, "Yeah, its been like 12 years since I stopped believing in you"
Then it got silent and a little awkward, so I offered up a feeble sorry and she was like , "Its okay, I understand"
Of course she would be like that! Sigh, Magnanimous Mary. Then I told her about Skype and how she has to get an account, I explained how fun and easy it is. We wrapped it up pretty quick after that, she told me she was voting for Obama and to keep a light on in her honor and that Joseph says hi.
Cruising youtube I came across the music video for one of my all time favorite Bee Gees jams and its a beaut. It has an eerie suspenseful vibe given all the smoke, vaseline lighting, doppelganger imagery and Samantha Sang's resemblance to Dr. Robert Elliot
Is it me or are the close ups used in a threatening/seriously frightening manner? As it zooms in to a degree that makes the viewer [or at least me] uncomfortable and Samantha coos "where are you now? Now that I need you? " you can't discern whether she wants to give you a baby kiss on the lips or slash your throat with a razor. I think De Palma would approve.
