The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

I've just been a Julie Andrews state of mind this past week, I started with Victor/Victoria and then came Thoroughly Modern Millie , and now I'm taking a look at one of Julie's many attempts to distance herself from musicals and her family-oriented typecasting that occured after Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music . It was a thriller by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, and was one of the many that was released after people began to murmer that the old man was beginning to slip on quality.  He had followed up the critically loved The Birds with the critical disaster (unfairly labeled I say) Marnie and then decided to go back to his international espionage roots with a picture that would star Andrews and new hearthrob Paul Newman as a couple who were thrown behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War and into a plot that could endanger their lives.  Not unlike Foreign Corrospondant , this film would deal with the hard feelings between East Germany and the United...

Well, isn't it lovely outside?  Summer is in the air and I can't help but feel infected by it.  I'm beginning to get hyper and anxious for school to be let out, and I have some super plans for passing the time.  There will be some trips, I'm starring in a local musical, and I have the annual summer Zelda Playthrough to look forward too hehe.  Gotta love it.  Anyway, in celebration of my mood and the choice of next year's spring musical at school, I decided to look at one of my favorite Julie Andrews musicals.  No, its not Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music but rather one of her lesser known films that is famous only for the Tony-award winning show that is based on it.  It is a madcap adventure about a small town girl who comes to the big city with hopes of marrying for money instead of love (preferably the boss she works as a stenographer for) and her brushes with the wealthy and the white slavers of the 1920...and its funny too.  So let's get r...

I'm alive and well, just so you all know.  I closed the spring musical last weekend and spent much of this week chilling out and calming down from that.  This coming week is our last instructional week, with the following week dedicated to finals.  The school year is coming to a close and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  I think my year has been successful overall, and I'm very ready for the long break.  That's really all I have for today.  I will have more to write about tomorrow. Take care all!

As the temperatures improve and the days creep ever closer to summer vacation for students and teachers (7 weeks for me, but who's counting?) I thought to myself, what better time to have a laugh than now?  So here it is, this year's annual Brooksfest (my personal tribute and marathon to all things Mel Brooks) and not a moment too soon.  This week marks a three day work week with an early release on the third, and then five days off for Spring Break, so it is a perfect week for watching a lot of movies in a short amount of time.  Why a short amount of time, you ask?  Well, because on Thursday I'm going to head up to Columbus to stay with a friend while I'm off (he needs some company) and I don't think he'd appreciate a Mel Brooks marathon.  Anyway, shall we get to the films?  Yes, I think we shall.  Today I want to look into one of the first films that Mel Brooks ever made...immediately after he made The Producers , which itself was an underground hit....

Ok, let's do a short recap on my life before I go any further.  I successfully opened and closed this year's senior class play, Arsenic and Old Lace , with few (if any) issues.  Everyone said it was a great show and I was very proud, and I've just finished my first week of rehearsals on Seussical our spring musical...so life is pretty busy.  I'll be out of show season in 6 more weeks and will be within spitting distance of summer vacation...yess!!!  I'm also still seeing Patrick, and not feeling the usual fatigue yet.  This one might just last, if you can believe it.  So all in all, I think life is pretty good right now (but then again, ask me again in 5 weeks and we'll see if I'm still sane).  Anyway, today I got to revisit an old favorite of mine...though not one of everyone else's.  It is a contemporary take on a concept first dreamed up by the ancient Romans (though that probably means the Greeks really came up with it) and then popularized b...

What exactly was it about the 1980s that made old people bankable on both television and in film?  I mean suddenly the elderly were in vogue in shows like The Golden Girls , Murder She Wrote , and Matlock ...I suppose because this was the first time that spunky old people were given lead roles rather than side roles (Jessie Royce Landis in To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest comes to mind...but she wasn't front and center...more of a curiosity to the side).  These were real people with real problems and personalities, not stereotypes in rocking chairs and playing shuffleboard, and I suppose that's where the appeal came from (and perhaps there was a little bit of morbid curiosity as well...wondering if old people really do talk about sex and all that).  However it was David Saperstein who combined sassy old people and science fiction for the first time in his novel, Cocoon , which proved to be a hit combination.  Ron Howard enjoyed the book so much that he decid...

Well, my senior class play is over and now I can get back to the blog.  Technically, I could have blogged these last several days...but I've just needed to be lazy, you know how that is?  I have another week (a few days actually) until I have to leap right back into production, this time for the musical, and so I'm relishing these days off.  That will be another six weeks of craziness and then done for the year...well done with shows.  Then I've got a mere two weeks left of classes until Summer.  Oh I do love summer...its nice out, I'm off work, and there are endless possibilities for things to do.  For one, I plan to save my money to be more prepared for the rest of the year but I'm gonna take some quick trips to cheap places too.  I've got to go visit my new nephew when he comes too.  I'm so pumped for the summer, its scary.  I think these last months of school will go well too, I just have to get everything squeezed in.  Anyhoo, for S...