Dreams stay with you

Craig Zadan is the producer of theatrical films including Chicago and Footloose, and the TV biopics The Reagans, Beach Boys, Martin & Lewis and The Three Stooges. He is also openly gay.

He's quoted in an article on gay films (and how the success of Brokeback Mountain hasn't led to many) in the November 2 issue of Entertainment Weekly:

"...if there were projects that were visible and good, people would make them...No one's brought them to us."

I hope to test that theory.

A little fight music, pls, boys...

If that doesn't raise the dead, I don't know what will

I eat about falling in love?

Observations: Once again we see that I just can't get away from the queerbait. "Imagine Me And You" is the name of a (poorly reviewed) lesbian flick. Then a few lines later they're telling me I shouldn't have skipped someone up for the hot guy next door. But how did they know?

Your Score: Category 5

You Are 63 SoulMate Bound!

You are a hopeless romantic. You eat, dream, and think about falling in love. You definitely believe in soulmates, and cry when watching movies about love. You are constantly falling in "love", but watch out, the one you skipped up earlier for the hot guy next door, is the one for you....

Link: The Who Is YOUR Soulmate? Test written by agbc_14 on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

I guess Planet Terror is about as well made as you could expect such an homage to be, but...

(contains a spoiler or two)


I watched Terror, the Robert Rodriguez part of Grindhouse, on DVD. I decided to give it a try because I had read that he intended it as homage to the movies of John Carpenter, which interested me.

But I was always less surprised that the Grindhouse films didn't perform well at the box office than I was that anyone ever expected them to. Whatever made anyone think that an homage to exploitation films of the '70s and '80s would play for a mainstream audience in 2007?

The whole thing, to me, always had a whiff of smug arrogance like the smell-their-own-farts guys in that episode of South Park. I wonder if anyone ever said: Hey, just because our friends like it (especially when they're drunk or stoned)...







Even with appearances by real lookers like Rose McGowan, Marley Shelton, and Stacy Ferguson's breasts (in a bra); no matter how well made the homage is...

I just keep coming back to the question of: Why? (I should say I haven't seen Death Proof)

I can't call myself an expert on Rodriguez films, so I may be completely off-base about this. But from what I've seen (some of which I've liked), a thought occurs to me. The problem is, by limiting himself to the restrictions of pretending he's a low-budget filmmaker in 1980...Rodriguez may have revealed something about his work. Something that would have been better kept hidden.

I suspect it's more about amazing visuals than it is about funny, smart scripts. Because denied one, he shows how impoverished he is when it comes to the latter.

But then, I've never really understood what is supposed to be so stimulating about movies that are about other movies. This also gets in the way of my appreciating the fantastic-ness that is Quentin Tarantino (I still can't sit through either part of Kill Bill).

I listened to Rodriguez's DVD commentary, and a signifigant portion of it is devoted to his saying he got this from that movie, this from that one, and so on.

I have a lot of fond memories of the movies and TV series I watched when I was a pre-teen, too. But I have yet to want to write a story about a Jedi Knight Ghostbusting Time Lord.

I also question just how fine is the line between making an "homage" to the values of exploitation pictures...and just making one, and thus embodying those values, yourself. When Tarantino plays a guy who is creepy to Rose McGowan in Terror, he ends up with a broken piece of wood in the eye (and worse) for his troubles. That fact doesn't erase for me the suspicion that he was getting off being creepy.

It reminds me of the kinds of guys who tell sexist, gross, and homophobic (there's a big example of The Lesbian Cliche in the film, Rodriguez's second in a row to include it) jokes. And then fall back upon a defensive "jeez, man, it was only a joke!" if anyone is offended.

Or the guy who hits just a fraction too hard when "roughhousing."

I just think this is a sexy photo

This calls for a hearty "You GO, girl!"

As you've almost certainly seen elsewhere, Harry Potter author J.K Rowling announced recently that the character of Dumbledore, in her beloved series of books, was intended to be gay. This has kicked up a fuss among conservatives and other people who are obsessed with homosexuality.

I haven't said anything about it here before, largely because I've never read the books (though I do know the character from the movies). So I didn't think I had anything to say that you couldn't probably guess if you've been reading this blog for any period of time.

And then I came across this quote from Rowling responding to critics of her announcement:

"He is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him"

As a "straight, for the rainbow" (I think I just made that up) but also as a writer and maybe especially as a writer who's written about gay people in love...I like that quote. I like that quote a whole, awful lot.

Keitha: Look who's talking about people who are obsessed with homosexuality.

Annabel: Shh!

There was nothing for the Scarlet Pumpernickel to do...but blow his brains out. Which, he did.

Rik-bloody-Ocasek.

He managed to marry an actress/model who not only got sexier as she got older, but can actually write. All that and he made hit music, too.

As you may remember, sometimes I dream about songs. Last night, for instance, I dreamed about this one. I've always really liked it, and the video is simply one of the coolest of all time.

Life is too good to lose

But the way the ratings are going, it looks like I'm going to. So I'm willing to try to appeal to your prurient interests. I mean, what I like about the show is its genuinely offbeat (as opposed to Pushing Daisies, which gives whimsy a bad name) feel and individual character. As well as a lead performance by Damien Lewis which I'm slowly starting to suspect is some kind of great.

But perhaps I've been remiss in not telling you that the casting director really has an eye for lovely women who don't seem quite as "Hollywood" as many that we see on TV (I'm thinking of two or three Desperate Housewives).

Lewis' co-star, of course, is Sarah Shahi, who as I believe I've mentioned is very good-looking. She's also doing really rich work on the show.

An episode or so back the beautiful Meredith "Natty Gann" Salenger popped out of the "where are they now" file and into a supporting role.

BTW, Salenger's IMDb page tells me that she graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1992 with a degree in Psychology, something they list as "trivia."

I'd say that sounds a little something more than trivial, wouldn't you? To quote the best joke from this week's The Big Bang Theory, come for the breasts, stay for the brains...

Getting back to the ladies of Life, last night's ep featured a guest-star turn by Jessica Paré,

who is a sexy Canadian (two words we don't often see together) actress.

As well as a small role played by an insanely sexy woman with the great name of Jennifer Lee Wiggins (who has a B.S. In Criminal Justice Administration, would you believe). Are you beginning to get an idea of what you're missing?

I'm not proud of the above, but damn it, if shows I like go off the air it's not gonna be because I didn't do everything sane in my power to hold onto them.

So you want to hear the Doctor Who theme mashed up with Eurythmics

We here at Dictionopolis In Digitopolis have anticipated your every need.

Doctor Who is a great TV series, with an all-synthetic score for most of the '80s, and Eurythmics were a great synth act. So this? This is great.

Thanks to birthday boy CK for the link. I couldn't get it to embed.

Happy birthday to Corey Klemow

Performer, Doctor Who fan, pal, fabulous fop, star of Spiders & Angel...

You'd all just roll your eyes if I went for an "eat me" joke, wouldn't you? ...That's what I thought.

Personally, I always loved Kitty Pride, but she's not in the movies much

I still haven't seen this movie.

No no, not I

The bad news is, I'm going to turn into a godlike baddie, the good news is...(or do I mean that the other way around?)

What female superhero are you??? Jean Grey You have a tendency to be the interest of many men. You're beautiful, intelligent, extremely powerful, but also extremely caring. The perfect woman!

Click Here to Take This Quiz Brought to you by YouThink.com quizzes and personality tests.

There's something in this about all women, # 10

Behold, the awesome power that I wield

Four days ago, I referred to the new CBS show Viva Laughlin as one of the biggest waste[s] of proven talent I've seen on TV. Today, the series was cancelled by the network after only one more episode had aired.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

Now, if only I can use this power to keep Life alive, and keep the Friday Night Lights on...

You spin me right round, baby right round like a record, baby

And Gina Phillips thought her characters were cursed

In 2001, Phillips and Justin Long appeared together in the film Jeepers Creepers. Half a decade later, Long is well known from those "I'm a Mac" ads; starred in Dodge Ball & Live Free Or Die Hard.

He is also said to be dating Drew Barrymore.

Half a decade later, last night I saw Phillips in a straight-to-cable "suspense" movie called Ring Around the Rosie. It's your basic young-woman-inherits-old-house-which-has-secrets movie. I admit, I fast-forwarded through much of it (I'd selected it from On Demand because I enjoyed Phillips' work in Jeepers).

But I think it would have been confusing even if I hadn't. Confusing, sloppy films are usually the work of four or five different credited writers (I couldn't believe it either).

But somewhere before it was over I really started to think: If ever there was proof that there aren't enough good roles for women (or if anyone really needed any), the post Jeepers careers of Long and Phillips is it.

A vision of love wearing boxing gloves and singing hearts & flowers

I'm certainly glad he saw through the sham that her entire career is based on

The first review of Britney's new album says

"She comes off like some machine that bleeps and bloops out an airy array of oohs, ahhs and groans," Jim Farber writes in the New York Daily News. "If a blowup sex doll could sing, this is what she'd sound like."

I don't know about you, but I'm simply shocked (even moreso than I was at the Madonna/Christina/Britney kiss) that Mr. Farber is suggesting Britney might be using her sexuality on her records.

Next thing you know, they'll be saying that she may not actually be all that smart, or that her vocal talent didn't actually have much to do with her success. Or even that some (not all) of her fans may in fact be, you know, kind of...idiots.

And them's fightin' words.

Criticizing Britney Spears for sounding like a blowup sex doll is like criticizing Leonard Cohen for writing emotionally heavy songs.

Random Flickr Blogging: 4064

Capturing the exact precise instant a woman realizes she's married to a pretentious twit.

Credit

My sexuality, like my taste in music, was defined by the Postpunk years of 1978-1984

Do you have an inclination for BDSM? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Experimental Experimentation is a great place to be. Open-mindedness when it comes to sexuality can open doors and allow you to discover things that you didn't think you would find engaging. Having such a curious attitude can help you learn more about your own sexual nature as well as the nature of others. Experimental 64% Switch 61% Vanilla Sex 39% Exhibitionism and Voyeurism 36% Domination 36% Submission 25% Sadism 14% Degradation 0% Masochism 0% Bondage 0%