Double Take
It snowed this morning. Just after I'd told Dad, "Yeah, well, snow was predicted this weekend but England never really gets it." Right. Of course, it wasn't much more than some flighty flurries, but to see the grass speckled and the seagulls wafting about in it with a rather bemused sort of wing clip was quite interesting. Made for a cold walk up to Queens, though.
Mack's class-highly entertaining though rather mellow, for him. Most of it was spent discussing the reasons for laughter and the necessity/value of dissecting humor mechanisms, the rest watching old Looney Toons. Probably the best part was "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," a take off on the ever beloved Scarlet Pimpernel movies and books (though mention of the Leslie Howard got a blank stare. Still need to watch that, I think), starring Daffy Duck as Sir Percy, Sylvester the cat as Chauvelin (?), and Porky the Pig as the Lord Chamberlain (Prince of Wales? Not sure. Sort of had the warped fairy tale thing going on as well). Naturally a bit of a poke at the weaknesses of the versions, particularly Marguerite, "Melissa," who was enacted by what Mack informed us was a cross dressed version of Daffy Duck tending to weeping and getting locked in towers. Still, very amusing in an "I know you're not really taking apart the story except in a lovable, absurd manner." I wonder if they have one for Phantom. Mack actually brought that particular story up as well in a non-aggressive manner, probably because he was referring to the book version rather than Lloyd Webber-something about how mediocre literature was turned into something great by Hollywood. Also ran a curious comment by us about how our generation (he speaks a lot in the you v me context, particularly generationally) was growing up in an environment where most of the originals were being forgotten and all we had were references and parodies of references. Avenue Q and Wicked immediately came to mind, though they are somewhat closer to home and make of themselves something original, so can't be called full parodies-Shrek 2 maybe more so. I rather tend to agree with the statement in general, and while a lot of the original stuff seems slightly ridiculous in the current context, I do take issue with people who immediately condemn attempted originality or non-parodic stuff as sentimental/melodramatic etc etc etc. Hey, you've gotta start somewhere.
Which is actually why the Hollywood Heroines class is turning out to be interesting; I'm not particularly fond of the professor, who tends to assume that all of us have taken film classes before (even though she knows at least five of us who haven't) and know exactly what she's talking about, but the films themselves give a lot of insight into the early workings of Hollywood cinema. Even if they do tend to be a bit typecast in themselves. Today's screening is Blonde Venus, which I've never heard of, something about the fallen woman cycle. Should be interesting. Probably means I should go read some more film commentary and finish up Jean Brodie. Meh.
Current Music: Had the "Dig, dig, dig" song from Snow White stuck in my head this morning. Then "Poor Parson." Again. "Mahna Mahna" came up on the top 25 playlist when I was walking down to town yesterday and has also stuck. Doo doooo doo doo doo. Muah.
Current Book: Trying to finish up Macbeth, but it's just difficult to read tragedy over meals.
Current Nonsense: 4 screenings this week. How did I end up with four screenings? I only ever watch this much silver screen when I'm at home over break, catching up on all the movies I missed. Speaking of which...Phantom out on May 3rd! Bwahahaha! Extras!! Okay, no, nobody has to watch it with me. But yay!
Mack's class-highly entertaining though rather mellow, for him. Most of it was spent discussing the reasons for laughter and the necessity/value of dissecting humor mechanisms, the rest watching old Looney Toons. Probably the best part was "The Scarlet Pumpernickel," a take off on the ever beloved Scarlet Pimpernel movies and books (though mention of the Leslie Howard got a blank stare. Still need to watch that, I think), starring Daffy Duck as Sir Percy, Sylvester the cat as Chauvelin (?), and Porky the Pig as the Lord Chamberlain (Prince of Wales? Not sure. Sort of had the warped fairy tale thing going on as well). Naturally a bit of a poke at the weaknesses of the versions, particularly Marguerite, "Melissa," who was enacted by what Mack informed us was a cross dressed version of Daffy Duck tending to weeping and getting locked in towers. Still, very amusing in an "I know you're not really taking apart the story except in a lovable, absurd manner." I wonder if they have one for Phantom. Mack actually brought that particular story up as well in a non-aggressive manner, probably because he was referring to the book version rather than Lloyd Webber-something about how mediocre literature was turned into something great by Hollywood. Also ran a curious comment by us about how our generation (he speaks a lot in the you v me context, particularly generationally) was growing up in an environment where most of the originals were being forgotten and all we had were references and parodies of references. Avenue Q and Wicked immediately came to mind, though they are somewhat closer to home and make of themselves something original, so can't be called full parodies-Shrek 2 maybe more so. I rather tend to agree with the statement in general, and while a lot of the original stuff seems slightly ridiculous in the current context, I do take issue with people who immediately condemn attempted originality or non-parodic stuff as sentimental/melodramatic etc etc etc. Hey, you've gotta start somewhere.
Which is actually why the Hollywood Heroines class is turning out to be interesting; I'm not particularly fond of the professor, who tends to assume that all of us have taken film classes before (even though she knows at least five of us who haven't) and know exactly what she's talking about, but the films themselves give a lot of insight into the early workings of Hollywood cinema. Even if they do tend to be a bit typecast in themselves. Today's screening is Blonde Venus, which I've never heard of, something about the fallen woman cycle. Should be interesting. Probably means I should go read some more film commentary and finish up Jean Brodie. Meh.
Current Music: Had the "Dig, dig, dig" song from Snow White stuck in my head this morning. Then "Poor Parson." Again. "Mahna Mahna" came up on the top 25 playlist when I was walking down to town yesterday and has also stuck. Doo doooo doo doo doo. Muah.
Current Book: Trying to finish up Macbeth, but it's just difficult to read tragedy over meals.
Current Nonsense: 4 screenings this week. How did I end up with four screenings? I only ever watch this much silver screen when I'm at home over break, catching up on all the movies I missed. Speaking of which...Phantom out on May 3rd! Bwahahaha! Extras!! Okay, no, nobody has to watch it with me. But yay!