Marilyn

“Marilyn was not a lady who would have taken aging well. Her forties would have been a horror for her. She didn’t have the integrity of a true actress - she would not have welcomed the riches of character interpretations, as a true actress would have. She was a star trading on certain gimmicks, and in her heart she knew that.”

-- George Cukor, movie director, per Darwin Porter’s “Marilyn at Rainbow’s End”

Bah, the forties are a horror for everyone!

In any case, we are finished with Porter’s work for now, and I’ll be taking a little break from Marilyn.

( Pics )

Sex in the Movies

A little discussion on shooting sex scenes in the movies. I particularly like Martin Scorsese's take. I have often thought of the 1970s as a golden age for sex in the movies, especially in pornography, but also in the mainstream movies of the era. Then came The Reagan administration and a return of a certain degree of prudery, from which we still haven't rebounded.

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“In the ‘70s, sex was tougher, stronger, I think. Certain things were very powerful, and I mean movies like Five Easy Pieces or Drive… They were so strange. Now, to a certain extent, with the exception of Crash, which I think is an extraordinary movie, and the very powerful way that Breaking the Waves goes about sexuality — there is a kind of scrubbed-clean quality that is not even sensual anymore. They are fake images and fake bodies. How do you shoot a sex scene? What would you do? I personally don’t know how anymore… It really is tougher.”

-- Martin Scorsese

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Sunday, March 24, 2013

Another windstorm. Instead of rain, this spring, we seem to be only getting windstorms. Waking up a little after three, thinking it might be raining, I check on the cats, and as it turns out, Coco and Ash are indeed ready to come inside. No sign of Sammy, though, and now I cannot go back to sleep, bah.

* * * *

Pi shakes her head, “Tsk, tsk, ice cream for breakfast. Really, Monk?”

It’s Red Velvet Cake ice cream.

“Oh, that explains everything.”

I thought, for a sweet breakfast, it is probably better than pop-tarts and a coke. My main concern is whether it will hold my appetite well enough until lunch. Besides, now that I am not cutting down on my cokes, I need to find a slot for the ice cream, when to eat it, instead of just letting it sit in the freezer forever, until it become inedible.

Pi nods, “And we wouldn’t want to let ice cream go to waste.”

It is Red Velvet Cake ice cream.

“I remember.”

* * * *

Pop is back. In our little chat, he asks, rhetorically, if Jack called, saying that Ronny has a birthday coming this week. He is turning fifteen. Wow, all that life that is slipping past me as I do nothing. As I do nothing except grow old. Ten years here, fifteen years there. I can feel a little like a potted plant in a corner of the room, lucky to get enough of the passing sun from the window.

* * * *

35 degrees! Are you kidding!? Such is the forecast on Pop’s weather widget. It’s not the most reliable indicator, but when I checked the news website, they confirmed that the temperatures are dipping into the thirties, with the possibility of a freeze for some areas around here.

So, it’s time to cover up the pipes again, and it is a good thing that I did not pack away Big Blue, my winter blanket. Getting the cats in tonight will be a trickier matter. Getting a good night’s sleep with Sammy’s sure yowling will be even trickier, probably impossible. What we suffer for love! Even one-sided love.

* * * *

I finally advanced my three Journal another couple of steps. It had been four weeks since I had added to it. I have been more interested in working on my book quotes (as distinguished from my full-out book-blogging). My “Pre-empting Jihad” debate is also a bit of a drag. I am almost done with it, though, and then I think I will skip ahead to those dandelion dreams of 2005, and then go back and forth between these two eras of my blogging life.

Daily Fun

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