The Mirror Scene - Duck Soup (1933)

Showcasing the talents of Groucho and Harpo Marx, with a little appearance by Chico Marx at the end. Comedy gold! This is one of those times when performing with one's own family completely perfects the routine, considering chemistry, body language, and their abilities to pass for each other in costume.

The Box Tops - Soul Deep (1969)

Speaking of the 1960s, this song has a magnetic effect on my hand where the volume knob is concerned--every time I hear it, I gotta turn that baby UP!

Rambling, Jumbled Thoughts on Age Perspective

I can't speak for anyone but myself, but I've found that watching classic movies/television shows and listening to old-school music messes with my head a bit. The temptation is to associate them with those who grew up watching or listening to them as they were released, and the result is to imagine the creators and players as the age they are now, rather than the age they were when they created the work. So I end up picturing men and women in their 60s and 70s, for example, releasing the music played at Woodstock. The reality, something that rather jars my senses when I do fully realize it, is that most of the players were, in fact, my own age or younger. In fact, many of them, such as Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix, never lived as long as I have, and I certainly see myself as still a young adult*. Now that my mind is mature enough to fully grasp this, I'm no longer seeing these artists as "other," but rather as kindred spirits placed in a different decade (or not-so-kindred spirits, when the songs are sexist or racist). We're far more alike than we are different.

In the Parent Trap (1961 version), Vicky (played by Joanna Barnes) is given grief for being young--practically a child. However, until recently--and I don't know if it's because her hairstyle is akin to what I saw my grandparents wearing but not young parents wearing when I was growing up, or because she always wore suits with blazers--I didn't really see her as very young... 40, maybe. Not to say that 40 is old, but at the same time, it's not an age that invites lines like, "But she's just a child!" Now, looking back, it occurs to me that she's probably meant to be in her early-to-mid-20s. Essentially, Mitch (Brian Keith) is meant to be old enough to be her father.

Mind. Blown.

Look, too, at the golden era of Hollywood. That stereotype of actors and actresses ageing beyond their prime comes from somewhere specific, and even if you think of black and white movies as "old," especially when you watch the original actors today accepting their lifetime achievement awards, realize that they weren't old then. Mickey Rooney, who died just this week at the age of 93, was a well-known name before he was even old enough to drive (legally, today). These films were new then. These films were taking risks, breaking new ground, and, especially in the 1930s, the actors were treading new ground with talking cinema. People don't change that much, either. Back then, premarital sex and adultery was just as common. The difference is, without a ratings system, movies had to fit the Hays Code. But if you know what to look for, you'll notice a lot of symbolic winking at the audience about things like sex and drugs. This idea I hear a lot about how, supposedly, people were more moral then... nonsense. Different things were out in the open, but morality and debauchery were no different then than they are now. Just read some of the actors' and musicians' biographies...

I'm not sure where else I'm going with this right now, as I know it's a bit disjointed, so I may rewrite this and post it as a new entry later on down the line. For now, though, I just leave you to ponder the fact that our parents and grandparents were, essentially, us at our age at one time, and chances are, except for personality variation, they were just the same, even if they don't remember it that way (y'know, the art of nostalgia and all...).

*I see myself as a young adult until I work with fresh-out-of-high-school students, many of whom were born when I was in junior high; then I feel old and decrepit. That, however, is only part of my life. :)

Where Have All the Flower[-Child Song]s Gone?

Post #2, and I'm already going to take a detour away from visual media and focus on music. Silly me, right? The fact is, though, I haven't watched much on TV or video lately, but I have been listening to music while filling out job applications and grading. In particular, I've had 60s radio playing in my car and on my satellite.

It's a weird experience listening to nationally broadcasted radio as opposed to local. I live in a highly conservative area (I, on the other hand, would probably fit in better in Portland, Oregon, or the like), which undoubtedly has an influence on which 60s songs are played on the oldies' stations. As such, I'm finding that there is a whole swath of music from the counterculture movement that I had never heard before, despite growing up listening to almost nothing but oldies (my parents are older, having graduated high school in the 1950s, which influenced which music I heard). In fact, most of the music that I've since learned has influenced serious rock musicians from that period was never played around here.

Within the past two-to-three years, I've heard for the first time:

• "One Tin Soldier" by The Original Caste
• I still can't believe I'd never heard this one. I had it on repeat for about three months at one point after finding it.
• "Easy to Be Hard" by Three Dog Night
• Well, of course... I mean, it talks about social injustice, and we can't talk about that too freely, lest we be labeled communists. *eye roll*
• Jefferson Airplane's music
• "Blackbird" by the Beatles
• "A Change is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke
• "My Generation," "I Can See For Miles," and most of the songs by The Who
• "It's My Life" by the Animals
• "Go Where You Wanna Go" by The Mamas and the Papas
• Donovan--pretty much all of his music
  
  and a lot more. I'd probably have a list two pages long if I took some time to note each one as I heard it over a week or two.
  

I guess anit-war, anti-economic-disparity, and pro-feminist music doesn't appeal to the majority of Oldies fans in southwest Missouri... *cue another eye roll*

I'm seriously disappointed, though, that I'd never heard these songs before, especially since many of them have become contenders for my favorite song lists. 

The other side of this re-immersion into the music of the Sixties is finding out just how many of the songs I've been singing along to for nearly 30 years are really, really douchey songs. I mean, I listen to the lyrics now, and I can't believe how awful the songs are lyrically. Creeptastic, even. That, however, will be another post, as I'm going to work on tracking which ones I hear this weekend. It may be a long post, at that, as I'll probably slip into my feminist-rant mode. ;)

Insert Witty Remark Here

Oh, the first entry on a new blog! It's one of those things where one has a vague idea where one wants the blog to go, but wants to avoid boxing oneself in too tightly.

So, over time, expect this blog to [d]evolve--perhaps more into something more specific, perhaps staying vague. You can, however, expect the following

• Comments on movies (classic to contemporary), television, and internet media
• Reviews on all of the above
• Videos clips from all of the above
• Sometimes an overly-English-major influenced discussion (I can't help it--I have two English degrees, so it comes out... and I teach English part-time, so...)
• Occasional fangirl moments
• Periodic foci on music more than video--probably not much, though.
• Memes, but hopefully, not without commentary. I have a Tumblr for memes and images.
• Some of my artwork that relates to movies, TV, and internet media.

So, there'll be a lot of material included under this umbrella, but there is a common theme, which should be pretty apparent.

Please be patient as I work out the kinks and get a feel for my movie-commentary voice. Hopefully, I'll settle into a fairly steady rhythm before long.

And to start, a piece of my own artwork (please do not steal--you may link and share, but make sure you're giving credit. I put many hours into my art, and while it may or may not be for everyone, it's still my work and property):

(Myrna Loy, black-and-white acrylic paint on Bristol board, 6x9", 2012, from studio photograph)