Dandesun

I'm glad I'm not the only one perplexed by the Waylon and Willie choice. Also, the Billy Currington shade is magnificent. I, too, worry that Conway's highest ranking will be 'Happy Birthday, Darlin' This list is an atrocity. I'm still fucking mad about 'Lovesick Blues' being in the 770s. And then there's Currington - who every time I see his picture in these write ups makes me think of Chris O'Dowd but he's not so that just makes me madder - showing up for no reason I can even believe.

I'm not going to disagree. However, Temple of Doom Harrison Ford is just so fucking hot I can barely deal with it. Best way to watch the movie is to just turn the sound down because there's a LOT of annoying noise in that one.

A stone cold classic. It's infinitely quotable. It's always funny. It's downright ludicrous in so many ways but played straight and it somehow works. "Who wants an orange whip? Orange whip? Orange whip? Three orange whips!" (and don't forget the hand motion) "Oh we've got both kinds! Country AND Western!" "Baby clothes!" "Man, this place has got everything." "I hate Illinois Nazis." "Boys, you gotta learn not to talk to nuns like that." "We're getting the band back together..." And of course... "We're on a mission from God." This is a movie that has great comedic dialog, timing and sight gags throughout. I love it. It was also my first streaming quarantine purchase (despite owning it in other media.) I was never quarantined because my business is essential but I still needed something to make me laugh in the midst of it all.

Song of the South contains the trickster tales from various African folklores. Rabbits are common trickster characters and Brer Rabbit is a trickster character that was brought over from parts of Africa because of the slave trade and incorporated into American folklore. A white man created the character of Uncle Remus and published a series of books that were tales that he heard from persons of color after the Civil War and through the Reconstruction Era. So, already, you're dealing with a white man profiting off of culture that is not his. That he also wrote the dialect as his interpretation of --gods, I hate even writing it-- Deep South Negro furthers the problems. Obviously these stories are shaped by the time and place that Harris lived but the whole point of progress is to acknowledge that even if he was writing these stories to showcase the struggle of the Deep South he was very specifically highlighting the 'struggle' of the plantations. You know... where slaves worked and had no rights! And even when they were working on this film there were problems. The man who wrote the screenplay was told by the Hays Office that some of his terminology had to be removed. That was in 1944! Disney hired another guy to work with the screenwriter to help combat the 'Uncle Tomism' that the first guy was bent towards being from the South. The entire history of this film is fucked up. It really is. The stories themselves are wrapped up in some seriously messed up cultural morass. Folklore is a hobby of mine, I am by no means an expert, but I know what the characters are in that tradition... the trickster and the antagonists trying to trap him. The Laughing Place is a quintessential trickster story and that's fine but it's still wrapped up in a fucking NIGHTMARE of cultural grievances and, ultimately, these are stories that slaves brought over that wound up benefiting white men. Then you have the situation where James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus in the movie, was voted an honorary Oscar which made him the first African American man to be awarded the Oscar and it's just like... the whole thing is a mess. It's just a mess. Are there good things about it? Sure. But there are so many problems that outweigh them it's just... ugh. Ugh. I'm so glad they're changing Splash Mountain. I really am. The retheming will work perfectly in Disneyland as it's right next to the Haunted Mansion which is part of New Orleans Square. Magic Kingdom isn't as obvious as far as land theming goes but they'll figure it out. I'm glad Tiana gets more room to shine. But Disney really should come up with a way to deal with the repercussions of Song of the South. Just burying it isn't enough at this point.

Bruce Springsteen's 'Thunder Road' references Roy Orbison and 'Only the Lonely' in the first stanza: The screen door slams Mary's dress waves Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays Roy Orbison's singing for the lonely Hey that's me and I want you only... And then several years later, he wrote 'The Promise' which references a few of his own songs but 'Thunder Road' is featured throughout. (He also references 'Darlington County' in the song.) And then Eric Church has a whole song called 'Springsteen' which references 'I'm on Fire' and 'Born to Run' specifically. U2's 'Angel of Harlem' references Charlie 'Bird' Parker, John Coltrane and his 'A Love Supreme' album, Miles Davis, and Billie Holliday.

Does it get better than Helen Hunt crashing out of the second story windows of her high school after sniffing angel dust?

I drunk bought The Blues Brothers the other day because it's one of my favorite musicals. (Even if it's only for the scene at Ray's Music Exchange... that's what tips it over to musical for me.) Obviously I have no regrets.

I loved Huey geeking out over the chance to analyze their experiences if they explored the city rather than returning to the lab. Glomgold's billboard reminded me of Joey's Japanese commercial. "Ichiban! Lipstick for men!" There was a lot of hugging in this episode! I loved Gyro being all 'okay but when we go back to Duckburg that stops!'

They were very easily accessible. The late 70s was also when disco was on the rise and prog rock was huge. Disco ruled the airwaves for a decent amount of time and while it's well known now that it came up through the underground gay clubs a lot of the kids back in the day probably didn't know that. But typically, young boys would scoff at anything the girls liked... and girls liked to dance and disco was all about that. Plus, it involved a lot of women performers. Prog rock was good stuff but it also got up its own ass, too. You hear stories about bands on tour just turning their back on the audience so they could just jam with each other and... why go see a show if that's what's happening? KISS was all about getting that audience. Their songs weren't overly complicated (easy air guitar!) Their look was unique. Their show was over the top. Explosions! Fire! Blood! Loud! And they had no qualms about appealing to the masses... they wanted people to buy their merch, and so they did.

This list... is an atrocity. They've got Lovesick Blues in the 700s and It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels in the 600s and, somehow, Kid Rock is on this list? For a Lynyrd Skynyrd rip off?! Not to mention the sheer volume of cap wearing assembly line dudes who all look and sound the same. It feels like every now and then they throw in a legit choice that comes off as shocking based on how they've put this monstrosity together... but I swear to God it feels more and more like they just threw darts at a lot of these and went 'yeah, that makes sense...' The conversation about the rankings, however, remains stellar. They are SAVAGE. And rightly so.

I love Singin' in the Rain. I introduced it to a friend of mine and my set up for it was like I was Stefon from SNL. 'This movie has everything. Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Conner. Gene Kelly's ass. Gomez and Morticia Addams. A fashion show. The most iconic dance number in the history of film. Dream sequnces. Cyd Charisse and her amazing legs. And it ends with a lip synch for your life!' Then we spent the whole movie ooohing over the clothes, commenting about how Don and Cosmo were in love and that Kathy's addition created an OT3. Is this the first believable throuple on film? Maybe.

That Demon Bear is nothing to fuck with.

If you've ever seen Martin Short's impression of Katherine Hepburn then Sherry Pie's really falls... well... short. The gag of the handwriting giving her the opportunity to always give the correct answer was funny, I guess, but Hepburn was whip smart and had absolutely no fucks to give. You know when Chad Michaels' Cher lost it and wondered why she was on 'these chicken shit gigs?' Hepburn would have gone there earlier.

I, too, will be watching Onward tomorrow. The first weekend we had Shelter-in-Home orders (I actually have an essential job... fuel... it's a thing a lot of people still need so I am still working regular hours and have only the weekend to look forward to) I opened Netflix and there was a documentary called Pandemic and immediately below that Outbreak. I turned Netflix off that evening. We're also watching the Great Pottery Throw Down on YouTube. Just finished the first season. I know it's not movies but it's creative and interesting and soothing so... you know... just what we need.

I watched Airplane! the other day. And even though a significant part of the plot is a number of passengers and the entire flight crew getting sick, it's because of food poisoning rather than what we're dealing with in the real world. Also, it's still fucking hilarious.

My only interest in Ricki and the Flash is Rick Springfield. Honestly. And that's probably ridiculous but... that's it. Despite that, I still haven't mustered up the time to actually watch it. Maybe I just like the idea of Rick Springfield playing Meryl Streep's rock n' roll boyfriend even with her ridiculous hair and I don't actually have to see it play out.

THAT WAS MAYHEM?!?!?! *dies*

So did anyone else get HIM from the Powerpuff GIrls in Crystal's runway? Just my house?

Hell, the whole reason the MCU exists is because no one was particularly interested in what was left after Sony and Fox and whomever else raided the coffers in the 90s. Iron Man and Cap were not top sellers. The Avengers weren't either. The big deals in Marvel were Spider-Man, X-Men and, I guess, the Fantastic Four. And that's not to say that various other titles didn't get a bump here and there through storylines or whatever but those were the staples and that's why they were valuable when Marvel went bankrupt back in the day. Obviously, being left with the second and third tier heroes didn't do a damn thing to curb the powerhouse that the MCU has become. So big mega-selling titles aren't the obvious place to make a boatload of money at the theater. I still hope to see the X-Men done right, though. There are so many awesome characters that got kicked to the side for the on-going saga of Charles/Erik and Logan. And, no, I don't want to see another attempt at Phoenix/Dark Phoenix for a LONG time.

I don't know exactly how they're going to do it. Thor becoming unworthy was a whole storyline as well. Then you have Jane as a doctor battling cancer and one of the points of her run as Thor was that using the hammer was killing her. When she transformed into Thor, the chemo was eradicated from her body as a poison and she couldn't remain in Thor form indefinitely. Plus she was battling against Cul, Odin's brother, who was acting as regent-king of Asgard because Odin had sequestered himself or whatever and Freya was the one encouraging Jane (both as Thor AND as a representative of the Nine Realms on Asgard) to fight the good fight and all that. Asgard was a fucking MESS. And, again, this all led up to the War of the Realms which was a long plotted storyline involving Malekith (remember that guy? From Dark World?) teaming up with Roxxon to take over the Nine Realms... Oh, did you know that Malekith had ripped off one of Thor's arms and was wearing it as a stole during this whole time too? And Unworthy Thor had an arm made of... fuck, I don't know... vibranium? Uru? The point is, Bucky and Thor never hung out together as far as I know (to be fair, Bucky was working on getting Steve, the original piece that hadn't been rewritten by the cosmic cube and Red Skull to become Hydra!Steve, out into the real world to fix that gigantic dumpster fire so he was kind of busy.) BASICALLY, what I'm saying is while I'm very interested in the concept of bringing Jane as Thor to the next film I honestly have no idea HOW they're going to do it. Which I guess interests me as well.

Jane-Thor lasted four years. That's not a failed gimmick, that's actually a fully realized story. Failed books are canned by issue 6. It happens a lot. Jane-Thor had a complete and finite story arc, was granted passage to Valhalla but earned another chance at life because of her warrior's spirit. She then fought in War of the Realms in a continuation of her Thor storyline and is now headlining her own book again as the last Valkyrie. If you didn't like the storyline or the concept or anything like that, fine, but calling it a failure is just incorrect.

I liked him well enough as the Mad Hatter but he wasn't a major player so he was also kind of forgettable. And I can actually say the same for his role in The Martian which wasn't very big... I mean, I guess he had more lines than he did in Winter Soldier? Maybe? Meanwhile, The Covenant is a TERRIBLE movie and no one is what I would call 'good' in it but it's so bad it's hilarious and I'll watch it every single time I come across it (also I think Taylor Kitsch is hot as fuck in it.) 'The Bronze' for example is a movie I really didn't like AT ALL but I think he did a damn good job with his character who was pretty awful but so was the main character. I tried to give that movie another go 'round after the first time and just couldn't. I mean, I barely got through it the first time. I just flat out didn't like it even though the performances were well done. Basically, what I'm saying is that I've never been repelled by a performance even if I don't like the actual movie or whatever. He's never been what's wrong with something I haven't liked.

I've enjoyed Sebastian Stan in things I've seen him in. At this point, however, I know the fandom too well so if I see him in something not Bucky related I can anticipate exactly what the fans are going to say about this, that or the other and it takes me right out of the movie. Plus, some of the things I've seen him in I just flat out don't like. And some of the things he's done coming up don't interest me at all and I'm not the woman who goes 'oh, he has a lot of sex in this movie... I'm in!!' That's just not how I roll. Also, I find myself liking the absolute dork he is in real life a lot more than some of the roles he gets. It's a very weird area.

It IS Michael Shannon and I'm embarrassed for the mistake. *cringe*

Honestly, WandaVision looks so whackadoo that I think I'm looking forward to that one most of all.