04 March 2010

Random Thoughts On Pop Culture


To Have And Have Not is playing on Turner Classic Movies. It's an old Bogart movie but I guess all Bogart's movies are old now. He plays his usual self, a cynical guy who says he's only looking out for himself but ends up helping people on the run from Nazis/social oppressors/the bad guys, et al. He met Lauren Bacall on the set of this movie and they got married and yada. This is the first time Ive watched this movie in HiDef with the new tvs. It looks awesome. Its almost like watching it for the first time. I certainly don't know this movie by heart. I love the shadows, the setting, and the crisp look in HD. Bogart made alot of good movies. I've never seen Casablanca in HD - I suppose I should get on that.

One of my favorite movies to watch in the summertime is Key Largo. Bogie and Edward G. Robinson face off in the middle of a hurricane. Bogie stands for the American way and Robinson is a Capone-like criminal who Bogie has to outwit. Alot of the movie is the good guys and the bad guys stuck together at a hotel in the Keys during the hurricane. The Seven Year Itch is a fun movie to watch in the summer. It's the middle of summer and Marilyn Monroe has moved in upstairs from a mild-mannered ad man whose wife and kids have gone away for a few weeks. He has fantasies about her that play out in a fantastical way, especially when she tells him she keeps cool by putting her panties in the icebox. And they say things like "icebox" which is a cool sounding word. The two of them go out on a friendly date and Marilyn famously walks over the subway grate and her dress blows up over her head. In the end he runs off to spend the rest of his summer with his family but not until him and Marilyn have a real kiss. It's a sweet movie. Another good summertime flick is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This one starts out with Richard Dreyfuss chasing a spaceship on a summer night. I like this movie because it inspires a sense of wonder like the one you get from staring at the stars on a summer night. Something about this movie makes me feel like a kid again. A few other movies that are good in the summertime are The Big Lebowski (make sure all the windows are open and you have a white russian in your hand), All The Presidents Men (something about Watergate and August still resonates), and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (did you know there is a band called Vic Damone).

If you haven't done it yet you should read PopCandy. It's a blog about pop culture by Whitney Matheson at the USAToday Life section. She posts about everything from tv to music to comic books. Ok, that's it for now. Ps - Best book to read in the summertime: To Kill A Mockingbird. "And Boo Radley had come out..." Pss - Good summertime tv: The Twilight Zone. The series, not the movie. This show came on at ten o'clock at night in the days before we had cable in the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I'll never forget the creepy dummy who takes control of Cliff Robertson. I gotta say it again - creepy.

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