* Yelled by a protagonist in a dream I had last night: "I dis-a-fucking-gree!" I wonder if that will catch on. I wonder if my subconscious borrowed it? Don't you love your subconscious? The other night mine made up a documentary about Elaine Stritch to watch in part of a dream I was having. Very convincing, down to the shaky dated title sequence.
* Holly got BoingBoinged! Go Holly.
* Tap debuted on TCM this weekend. Oh how I love TCM. Spinal Tap, Best in Show, Real Life and Take the Money and Run, all in one luxe night. Plus two hitherto unseen Doris Day flicks, including one nobody ever sees (Starlift), a piece of Korean War propaganda that was sort of sweet and thought-provoking.
I never really know--I do not know now--why I like Doris Day so much, even because--in spite of her--being occasionally annoying or saccharine, at least superficially, but I think in part it's because of the really complicated persona her performances and characters describe, collectively. It's very subversive, somehow, very hiding in plain sight. I'm starting to think, seeing more of her early films, that the "virgin" thing arose because people just couldn't handle her as she was, in a weird roundabout way (since the "virgin" roles were actually in what were considered sex comedies at the time). Among other reasons, her energy is not a conventionally feminine one. She is also one of those performers who stays somewhat immune to her surroundings but is very defined by them at the same time. She was amazingly good when asked to be (Love Me or Leave Me, Man Who Knew Too Much) but tread water in so many bad movies, better than they deserved but still...not always easy to watch. She flowed from one to the other so easily, too--you get the feeling that she could have been almost anything.Here I insert raw, punk-rock writing with contemporary feel to take the edge off everlasting Doris commentary. Hmmm. My Scrabble muscles hurt? Yay for all the new cute baby animal videos?
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