Haines His Way

Allan Carr isn't the only one who enjoyed looking at Maxwell Caulfield. Nope, not much of an actor, but he was blessed with something else: extraordinary looks.

I think of GREASE 2 as one of the true guilty pleasures of my collection. I think it's a rotten film that I enjoy very much. Michelle Pfeiffer has always gotten credit for the singing in GREASE 2, so if she has a voice double, they've kept her identity very well hidden.

How can you not enjoy a movie with Lorna Luft playing a teenager? (Kind of like Stockard Channing playing a teen when she was in her 30s in the original GREASE.)

DR George your Cd is on the way!

DRMATTH - I like DAREDEVIL  as well....I think Ben does a nice job as do Colin and Jennifer.

Hiya, gang!

So, it's been a helluva lonnnggggg week - got the parents moved into the new house, and almost all unpacked. Sheeeeesh. So I'm headed over there again in a little while, but wanted to check in with y'all.

About Big Fish - I just loved it. Saw it in the theater, and was blown away. 'Course, I have been known to spin out my own life into epic proportions when describing it to civilians... so I identified with Dear Ol' Dad and his richly-embroidered accounts through the years. It's the Artist as Storyteller - sort of a genetic tic. And I love Tim B for that sorta thing.

Glad LA cooled off some... boy, the years Up North have unfitted me for such swelter.

Off I go Sunday or Monday, back north, dropping off one of the cars at Jane-and-Keith's, auditions on next Sunday, May 9, Seattle Center for my August reading of Washington's Wedding... any DR's up there who sing well, and wanna play? Especially looking for a character basso, old red-neck, Archie Bunker sorta character. And - of course - African American baritone leading man. Hey - we may even have a representative from the O'Neill Theatre Centre's Musical Theatre Development dept. coming for a look... oh, BOY!!!

Life be jes' fine!

Good morning!

-Just had my morning smoothie - cherry, mango, strawberry today. YUMMERS!  -And it's finally nice that I'm using my "new" blender that I bought a year ago!

Media Check -

Only my CD player: Michael McDonald's "Motown"; Pierre Laurent-Aimard's recording of Debussy's "Images" and "Etudes" (simply beautiful playing); and Andras Schiff playing Bach's "Well Tempered Clavier, Book 1".  -The latter two CDs have been my "evening winding down, getting ready for bed" music this week.  *Of course, I'd find myself listening to the end of the CDs since I was so enthralled by the playing - and Schiff's voicing in the fugues is, at times, mind-boggling.

Well, I'm off to do certain things... One, unfortunately, involves dealing with a "side effect" of last week's malady.  I'm hoping something over-the-counter will remedy it, but I have a call into my doc, and, hopefully, she'll have a suggestion.  It's nothing bad, just slightly uncomfortable.  'Nuff said.  But I do hope to get to spend some time with my nephew this afternoon.  I've been in town for about five weeks right now, and I've only been over once or twice.  Bad "Uncle Jojo".  I hope to remedy that situation this afternoon too.

Until later...

BK: Regarding postings at another messageboard and on the topic of "West Side Story"......


"...you silly little petunia."?

Wish I could help you, DR MBarnum. I haven't seen the entire movie. I've seen parts of it, and it's silly, of course, with a few good laughs, but I think Brenden does fine. It's the supporting folks (some big stars there) who don't measure up.

But again, I'm not being fair to the film. I have only seen about 25 minutes of it.

Thanks MattH. For some reason I have been in the mood for some Brendon Fraser.

I saw him live ( ) in London in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" with his "Bedazzled" co-star, Frances O'Connor.  At $5.99, how could anyone NOT be in the mood for Brendan Fraser??  

Re Big Fish:

This is sort of the flip side to Catch Me If You Can, where an enchanting father's dreams lead the son to pursue those dreams in an unexpected way.  As with Frank Abignale Sr., Ed Bloom is a dreamer and an enchanter.  Unlike Frank Jr., Will Bloom is a son who has heard his father's stories too many times and has rejected them.  Estranged for years, Will (and his bride) are contacted in Paris to come home, because Ed is dying.

Thus the film is about two life journeys.  On the one hand, we have Ed (played by both Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor) remembering his life, with all of his embroideries.  On the other hand, we have Will (Billy Crudup) reconciling the fictions that his father has told so often with what kind of man his father really is.

The bulk of the film is made of the stories themselves, obvious whoppers that all the same must have some basis in reality.  The payoff at the end is not the expected son-comes-to-terms stuff, but what comes next.  

Tim Burton's work is not everyone's cup of tea, more so in this film than any of his other works.  There are circuses, giants, witches, Danny DeVito (who can be off-putting all on his own at times).  There are sly references to earlier works (blessedly, none from Mars Attacks that I could tell).  For myself, I found the film both blissful and bittersweet.  I'm finding it worth revisiting.

I wondered about DAREDEVIL. Maybe I will have to pick that one up.

Has anyone seen Brendon Fraser's DUDLEY DO RIGHT? I keep it on the budger DVD racks and think about picking it up, but I am afraid! Is it worth $5.99?

Any film, that features Bendon Fraser, is worth buying -- regardless of the price!

Seriously, it is not an awful film, but hardly a great one.  I put it in about the same league as GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE.

RLP: It was the only "P" word that seemed acceptable.

Well, it certainly imparts an attitude not associated with "pisher" or "potzevateh."

I have Brendon Fraser's SCHOOL TIES on DVD at home. Perhaps I will pop that one in. I like that movie. And the shower scene with Brendon, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck is always entertaining  

She leaves Millie a couple of weeks into the LA run.

I have Brendon Fraser's SCHOOL TIES on DVD at home. Perhaps I will pop that one in. I like that movie. And the shower scene with Brendon, Matt Damon, and Ben Affleck is always entertaining  

I wonder if AFI will ever do "100 Showers:  America's Greatest Showers Scenes in the Movies"?

Now, where in tarnation IS everyone on this fine little Friday?  

I've been to tarnation and back.  Here in the Philadelphia area, the weather is mucho primo.  I took a walk to Rittenhouse Square where the guys in kahkis were gawkin' at the sunbathers who were oblivious to the wild children who were running from their halter-topped nannies (or au pairs, since they were youngish in years.)  It was glorious to be out and aobut!

Perhaps I should tell the story of The Randy Vicar and the Dental Floss.  My, that's a good tale.