Bastet

The TCM website can be a pain at times, but it also contains nice little tidbits on a whole lot of films and features archives of not just publicity stills, movie posters and the like, but behind-the-scenes photos taken while filming -- I love seeing those (how dressed up the crew is, how different the equipment is, etc. and how people seem to interact off camera).

I think it comes from one of the several ways in which he is willfully blind to the realities of the world. He's one of the lucky ones whose talent and drive was rewarded, and to him that translates to a ridiculous notion that some form of success is possible for everyone. Instead of recognizing the homeless man as an example of how society is not set up to work that way, he has Dan essentially pat him on the head and wax on about "look what we can do." Fool, shut up. That man can't even feed himself regularly, and he's supposed to take inspiration from people with the time and resources to climb a mountain for recreation?

This is the same company that thought a couple eating their daughter's pet fish as a cheap substitute for sushi made for a funny commercial.

Yeah, I really can't watch this one. It's not Isaac & Ishmael level of offensive, certainly, but it's pretty bad.

Let's just say I have seen enough to know that I have seen enough.

What amazes me about the spot-on insight is he was barely in the movie, and never had a scene with the two of them together that I can recall. Was Martin Landau a fanboy hanging around the set? At any rate, I'm sort of blown away by how perfect his comments on what makes the show work are (although I might have gone with Myrna Loy and Bill Powell as a more apt comparison than Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, given the off-screen dynamics, but you can't go wrong alluding to either one in praising a longstanding on-screen pairing); I'd like to shove this crappy day where it belongs, but I'm glad it led to the inadvertent discovery of such a gem.

A friend's query about the proper names for different sexes within a species made me think of this: "You got the hen, the chicken and the rooster. The rooster goes with the chicken. So who's having sex with the hen? Something's missing." "Something's missing, alright." ... "They're all chickens. The rooster has sex with all of them." "That's perverse!"

That one was on my list, and I just watched it this past weekend (because, yes, I have it on DVD); a few friends gathered for a cheesy '80s movie night, and that was my contribution. They liked it, but that was the second film, so we were a bit drunk by then.

To set my blood pressure back in order after an infuriating meeting (is there anything worse than city government?), I've been perusing a couple of blogs about my favorite classic film actors -- I find the fact that Katharine Hepburn and Myrna Loy existed on this earth supremely comforting when I'm having a bad day. In so doing, I came across this quote from Martin Landau (at the time of FTF) regarding how important GA and DD's understanding of the characters and of each other as acting partners is to the success of XF: Well, go ahead, Mr. Landau. What an excellent summation of the well-oiled machine that was the DD/GA presentation of the M&S relationship.

The Summer Under The Stars line-up has been posted. It's far too long to post here, but here's a link to the list posted on the TCM message boards. I rather like the variety of actors chosen, even though neither of my two favorites - Katharine Hepburn and Myrna Loy - got a day (I will get to rewatch some favorites of theirs via other actors' days), but I find some of the films chosen for many of the actors a bit disappointing. There seem to be a lot that have either been shown with some frequency or really don't much feature the celebrated star. But, then again, with respect to the latter situation, it can be really interesting to see them in their early, small roles.

I am standing hip deep in pie today, and having that phrase to describe my day is just about the only thing preserving my sanity ... until I head out of here to drink something giant and blue.

I have a life-long habit of watching movies over and over again - my family getting our first VCR in 1978 really kicked the habit up a notch or ten - and, while I could expound at length on the cinematic value of most of them, I'll freely admit many are not up to par. Two of the films that immediately sprang to mind upon opening this thread have already been mentioned -- count me in on repeatedly rewatching Tremors and The Cutting Edge ("toe pick"). Also Saturday the 14th, Space Camp, Rhinestone, Summer School, Vibes, Can't Buy Me Love, Weekend at Bernie's, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (one of my closest friends actually threatened to break up with me upon showing her this film, but I used to do the dressing up and throwing toast at the screen thing in college), Undercover Blues, and many an '80s horror film.

I didn't know who he was, so I did some internet sleuthing. A gentleman, in 2014? Hell yeah!

As if Ina would ever pair her dark-colored "shents" with anything other than floodwater pants.

Re-reading this thread the morning after having watched a Thin Man film for the umpteenth time last night in bed (I find all Bill Powell/Myrna Loy films supremely comforting, and have been under a lot of stress lately, so I'm falling asleep to them a lot lately), I'm struck anew by how groundbreaking it could have been for this show to put the characters together sexually after the first season and continue the banter and romance with them as an established couple. That would have been a far better legacy! When The Thin Man premiered in 1934, it did so onto a movie landscape in which marriage was something characters spent the film trying to either get into or out of -- either the picture was about them falling in love, with a proposal or altar kiss being the final shot, or about them fooling around with others and scheming to escape their wretched existence at home. Couples who began the film married and stayed that way throughout were almost exclusively tertiary characters, and older, boring ones at that. For The Thin Man to open four years into Nick and Nora's marriage and present them as completely secure in that relationship and still in love - and hot for each other - was revolutionary, and audiences went wild enough to produce five sequels over 14 years, none of which ever put the relationship in jeopardy. That they were end game certainly didn't take away from the fun of watching them banter their way through cases, even though the mystery took a backseat to the relationship as the attraction to viewers. No one will ever touch the pairing of Loy and Powell, IMO, but the basic idea shouldn't be impossible to emulate. Hart to Hart is an obvious imitation, but I think this show is much better and really could have been something different on television -- a show that opens as a "will they or won't they," lets us see the transition to an ongoing relationship, and then also shows us the happily ever after for another couple of seasons ... all while maintaining characterization.

In honor of the passing of Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. (I could not stand his politics, but I did get a kick out of him as Daniel), I'm going to rave about my favorite of his episodes, Sting of Steele. It's a nice homage to The Sting, with the sting itself being nicely done, and Abigail is far more enjoyable than annoying this time around; I love her being in on it without Laura's knowledge. Murphy has way too much fun pretending to be Steele, but, hey, at least he has something to do other than read an autopsy report. The introduction of Daniel is just perfect, with finagling private jet service around the globe and Steele claiming the background noise is him watching a war film. Incidentally, since the show borrows so much from classic films, I've often wondered if the name Chalmers came from Libeled Lady (a terrific screwball comedy and one of my favorite films, something a classic film buff is quite likely to have seen); it's the name Connie and her father initially keep mistakenly calling Bill (Chandler) when they can't be bothered to learn his name.

Sidney Poitier touched my my arm while talking to me at a charity event in the late '90s, and I did not stop smiling for days. My all-time crush is Cary Grant, followed by Pierce Brosnan in his Remington Steele days, when he was so reminiscent of Grant (not that I'd kick him out of bed now, mind you). Al Pacino, for many, many years. Denzel Washington. Kevin Bacon. Tim Robbins. For a change of pace, Matthew McConaughey. Girl crush as in I might actually bat for the other team if the opportunity somehow presented itself? The one and only Gillian Anderson. Half a point of my Kinsey score is simply because of her. The rest of my girl crushes are women I think are attractive, yes, but I'm not sexually attracted to them; I just want to experience the sheer joy of being in their presence because I also think they're smart, independent, outspoken, care about the world around them, etc. If I had a time machine, I'd be in the '30s right now having drinks with Myrna Loy. Among the living, Susan Sarandon and Allison Janney.

"Oh, I'm stressed," complete with Krameresque hand gesture. That's gold, Jerry. Gold.

Baxter used to practically do a jig of glee when he realized I was staying home sick and thus he'd have me to lie on all day long. But he was also quite an empathetic cat; when I had a migraine, he'd curl up on the pillow, forgo his usual loud purring in favor of the silence I needed and tuck a paw under the cool cloth on my forehead.

I did my own research on feline kidney disease when Maddie was diagnosed five years ago (my vet was quite frank that she felt the standard protocol was rubbish, but wasn't well-versed in what it should be) and wound up putting together a memo and spreadsheet on the dietary needs of a renal kitty that my vet now hands out to clients with newly-diagnosed cats. People should be able to rely upon the advice of the medical experts who have knowledge and training a layperson lacks, but they also must be proactive in their own health and that of their pets. It's inexcusable that a vet didn't spot a neurological problem in Foley, but I also fault them for just accepting the non-diagnosis. Knowing something was terribly wrong with their cat, they ought to have sought out a second opinion and done some independent research instead of waiting until they could get advice - and air time - from Jackson. But it was nice to see people dealing with an unusual problem, and one that wasn't created by their own ignorance. I grow so tired of episodes featuring people who are complaining about behavior they could have easily avoided had they bothered to learn the very basics of cat ownership.

If a vet was given a proper explanation of Foley's symptoms and didn't realize there was a neurological problem that required further investigation, that vet would have to be incompetent. And, like every profession, veterinary medicine does have incompetents among its members. But I wonder if Foley's owners did a poor job of explaining all Foley's problems and instead just talked about him going crazy in his sleep, without getting the point across this is not just a cat who startles himself awake from a dream and in so doing falls on the floor (which my Baxter used to do from time to time) but one who routinely moves so violently in his sleep that he falls off things -- and does not wake up even upon landing on his head.

Most cats that are located are found within something like a seven-house radius of home, but some travel astounding distances, so the recommendation is actually to contact all shelters within 100 miles! And to visit local ones daily, rather than relying on the website or information given over the phone.

That would work well in an episode about a formerly-outdoor cat who is pitching a fit at being kept inside, or any cat prone to "door dashing" -- it would be a good segue into tips for finding a cat that gets out and doesn't come back on her/his own. I'd love to see him include the trick on searching with a flashlight in the dark because the light will reflect off the cat's eyes. I found my own cat that way when he and his partner in crime pushed out a window screen and went exploring while I was out; she came back as soon as I came home, but he was hiding behind a bush in the neighbor's backyard (ignoring the crazy lady running around the block in the middle of the night calling his name and shaking a bowl of dry food). And among regulars on a pet forum I participate in, a surprising number of people have found their cats the same way.

My main exercise is walking various routes around the neighborhood, about four miles, with the first mile being all uphill. On days where the last block of that hill seems to be growing longer like something out of a horror movie, Eminem's Lose Yourself or Bruce Springsteen's The Rising will get me through. Other walking songs include: Christina Aguilera, Fighter En Vogue, Free Your Mind Animotion, Obsession Kanye West, Stronger Shania Twain, Man! I Feel Like a Woman Haddaway, What is Love The Chemical Brothers, Block Rockin' Beats Marky Mark, Good Vibrations Waylon Jennings, Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way (seemingly an odd choice, but walking to the beat makes for a good pace)

That's one of my favorite moments from the entire season. Mostly for the pure joy with which she does it; she really enjoys freaking him out, and I very much enjoy her enjoyment. It's one of the reasons I wax rhapsodic about season one Scully's humor.