(no subject)
I think I read somewhere that drinking a pot of coffee every day, like a glass of wine, is good for your health. Really, I did not in fact read that? That's odd... (sips more coffee)
Yesterday I indulged my bad-movie proclivities by rewatching The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire. I have written before on my fondness for vampire movies, and my relative surprise to find that I like them as much as I do. To be sure, I have no interest in vampire-action movies, vampire romances, or anything of the John Carpenter-school of vampire movies. But there is no getting around how many great vampire movies (Nosferatu, Tod Browning's Dracula) and interesting vampire movies (Martin) and funny vampire movies (The Fearless Vampire Killers, or, "Pardon me, but your Teeth are in my Neck") there are. Having said this, the particular movie I watched yesterday does not fall into any of those camps. But it merits a viewing on the suavity of Richard Quarry as a Hugh Hefner-ish vampire in 1970s LA. Terribly acted by everyone else, and full of nonsense, but there is something irresistable about a movie where a stately European immortal monster has to bum a ride home with some hippies in a VW bus.
Then I was further rewarded (punished?) when The Chipmunk Adventure was broadcast on TV. You know, the 80s animated movie where the Chipmunks (and their female clones, the Chipettes) are duped by vaguely Germanic international jewel thieves into racing around the world in hot-air balloons, Jules-Vernes-ing their way through a series of broadly drawn ethnic vignettes? And there are a bunch of songs that make you feel like maybe you'll want to see that new Billy Joel musical after all? (Except that you don't, because as with your willingness to let songs from The Chipmunk Adventure get stuck in your head, such feelings are wrong.) Well, it was strange to see the movie as an adult and not a child, and to question what sort of planning went into a movie where cast-off cartoon characters from the 60s are imperiled by some fairly threatening cartoon villains. (Also, as a further creepy aside, the Chipette version of Simon, the bespectacled rodent, wears a "belly dancer" outfit for a large part of the movie, and looks fairly cute, which is extra creepy. But it's not the Orientalist costume nor the cartoony-ness that makes her cute, I swear. It's the glasses.) It sends a powerful message to children, which I believe is, "Exploit any opportunity for world travel you may find, even if it comes from clearly bad people. In the end, your ability to run around an airport to chase music will prevent you from any actual harm."
Shouldn't I be doing something more productive than all this? Yes, yes I should.
Yesterday I indulged my bad-movie proclivities by rewatching The Loves of Count Iorga, Vampire. I have written before on my fondness for vampire movies, and my relative surprise to find that I like them as much as I do. To be sure, I have no interest in vampire-action movies, vampire romances, or anything of the John Carpenter-school of vampire movies. But there is no getting around how many great vampire movies (Nosferatu, Tod Browning's Dracula) and interesting vampire movies (Martin) and funny vampire movies (The Fearless Vampire Killers, or, "Pardon me, but your Teeth are in my Neck") there are. Having said this, the particular movie I watched yesterday does not fall into any of those camps. But it merits a viewing on the suavity of Richard Quarry as a Hugh Hefner-ish vampire in 1970s LA. Terribly acted by everyone else, and full of nonsense, but there is something irresistable about a movie where a stately European immortal monster has to bum a ride home with some hippies in a VW bus.
Then I was further rewarded (punished?) when The Chipmunk Adventure was broadcast on TV. You know, the 80s animated movie where the Chipmunks (and their female clones, the Chipettes) are duped by vaguely Germanic international jewel thieves into racing around the world in hot-air balloons, Jules-Vernes-ing their way through a series of broadly drawn ethnic vignettes? And there are a bunch of songs that make you feel like maybe you'll want to see that new Billy Joel musical after all? (Except that you don't, because as with your willingness to let songs from The Chipmunk Adventure get stuck in your head, such feelings are wrong.) Well, it was strange to see the movie as an adult and not a child, and to question what sort of planning went into a movie where cast-off cartoon characters from the 60s are imperiled by some fairly threatening cartoon villains. (Also, as a further creepy aside, the Chipette version of Simon, the bespectacled rodent, wears a "belly dancer" outfit for a large part of the movie, and looks fairly cute, which is extra creepy. But it's not the Orientalist costume nor the cartoony-ness that makes her cute, I swear. It's the glasses.) It sends a powerful message to children, which I believe is, "Exploit any opportunity for world travel you may find, even if it comes from clearly bad people. In the end, your ability to run around an airport to chase music will prevent you from any actual harm."
Shouldn't I be doing something more productive than all this? Yes, yes I should.