Musings, Part GG

- Monk begins the end tonight, Obsessive Influence. It’s a good show really, and I must say I never considered the impact it might have on TV. Good for it. I did like the bit in the article about Psych and The Mentalist because Psych came first and it’s more fun. And a great hour of TV once a week. Good old USA network. You used to have JAG reruns, now it’s NCIS three times a night. Which I appreciate because I can get caught up on those in between years I didn’t watch. Early bon voyage, Monk.
-Is it strange that I only really know about a cultural icon in one genre through the medium of another? This weekend is the Newport Jazz Festival, in its 55th year (one year older than my father…and four years younger than the recently late John Hughes, another cultural icon), and last was the city’s Folk Festival, celebrating its 40th year. Why is this significant? Well, because of my roundabout reference which gives a clue to how my brain seems to work. Associative. See, I know what the Newport Jazz Festival is, or that it exists at all, because it was mentioned in High Society, the musical version of The Philadelphia Story, which is one of my favorite movies. Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn were in The Philadelphia Story (incidentally, one of the days this month in TCM’s month of stars is Cary Grant day, but Katharine doesn’t seem to get one…) and Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra (he also gets a day this month with TCM, and the movie poster on the website for him is High Society) were in High Society with this guy in a supporting role named Louis Armstrong. He and Bing (ever awesome) did a song about jazz and it was mentioned Bing’s character’s home was being lent to the festival. I’m not a huge jazz fan, but I do recognize some of the names from the schedule, Dave Brubeck of course and the Marsalis last name, a brother of Wynton.
But to get back to my original question, I suppose it’s not that strange. How many kids (well, people) my age or younger are only going to know about the Woodstock concert (A Moment of Muddy Grace) because of the movie that’s coming out soon? Along those lines, Julia Child…Meryl Streep plays her in a movie coming out today and a good half of the movie is basically about how awesome she was. Her kitchen is in the Smithsonian for pity sake, there was a huge…okay, a few articles really…deal about her pots coming to the Smithsonian from an exhibit in California where they’d been sent after her death until the exhibit closed, which it just did. But Julia herself? She was mentioned as part of a rant by Toby about PBS on the West Wing…I don’t even think I’ve ever seen an episode of her show. She was mentioned, I know she was a big deal in the cooking world but still…that reference is still there. And what about something like Mr. Potato Head? Are kids going to know what the toy is because of Toy Story and not because they see it in stores or their parents manage to find one?
Life’s funny that way. Vonnegut said, “Life happens too fast for you to ever think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.” The thing is, now dead Kurt Vonnegut (who wrote rather well, really), we’ve built a whole culture online helping people amass information and giving them the chance to think about life. What do you think this blog is anyway?

Musings, Part FF

- Generation Y - They're 20-Something and Already Nostalgic True, I suppose...ah, the 90s.
- Down With Presidential Birthright Seriously people? This is how you decide to attack him? For the love of everything holy...
- Film Food, Ready for It’s ‘Bon Appetit’ Again, I picked the wrong career field. If only I was a decent cook….and baked for show rather than to eat.
- Reimagining Fahrenheit 451 As a Graphic Novel This might actually work…
- Full Stomachs, and Full Marriages Too When and if I get married, I’d like my husband to be as supportive of me as Paul Child was of Julia.
-Twittergraphy I think I’m going to have to start using some of these. Roselite.
-On Hollywood’s Strong, Self-Hating Women So, I know you can read a lot into a movie or TV show. Believe me, I blathered (well, not blathered, wrote rather well really) on for 100 pages based off of a few month’s research for my capstone that was all about what was in (I decided) some films and a couple TV shows. Yeah, I like romantic comedies and no I haven’t seen the films mentioned in this article but do I agree with it? That’d be a definite yes. Why can’t we have a movie where the woman is a strong character and the guy’s a strong character and both soften a little? Oh wait…that’s Pride and Prejudice…and You’ve Got Mail…But why does everything have to be Taming of the Shrew? What about Much Ado About Nothing? Beatrice doesn’t really give in or become less than herself, you know she was just covering the attraction to begin with, all she had to do was admit it, same with Benedict. Literature seemingly has ruined me for modern romantic comedies. Whatever shall I do? Delight in my feminist ways, I suppose.