Is it 1990?

20 year old me would have been very happy about this photo of Tom Cruise as Stacee Jaxx from the movie musical Rock of Ages coming out soon. 

Long live late 80s hair metal bands and the shirtless, long-haired singers who led them!

10 Random Thoughts - "Streets of Fire" edition

1. The first 10 minutes of Streets of Fire, the infamous "rock and roll fable" from 1984, are some of my favorite minutes on film. Diane Lane as Ellen Aim and her band The Attackers singing "Nowhere Fast" are so damn hot. 
2. I love everything about Diane Lane's Ellen Aim. I love the weird 80s/50s leather/spandex hybrid clothing she wears, I love her mullet, her lipstick. I even love that atrocious Golden Girls-style sequin box dress she wears at the end of the movie. Hard to believe she was only 19 when the film was made.
3. The music in this movie KICKS ALL KINDS OF ASS. I've owned the soundtrack in 5 different mediums: 8-track, album, cassette, cd, and mp3. That's love, people.
4. This film was my first exposure to Willem Dafoe. He is terrifyingly creepy (and secretly sexy? eww) as Raven Shaddock the evil leader of the motorcycle gang The Bombers. I didn't realize for a long time that he was the same actor in Platoon. Raven's white skin, weird possum mouth, and his hair gave me nightmares as a teen.
5. Michael Pare is really not a good actor. I take that back. He has Keanu Reeves syndrome; where his voice is so monotone that he sounds really dumb, and you don't even realize how great a job he's doing until it's too late. He was easy on the eyes back then though. Not aging well however.
6. What is Deborah Van Valkenburgh  doing these days?
7. The 4 actors that play the doo-wop group The Sorels are a who's who of 1980s "Black Acting School" alums. If you don't understand that reference, stop, and immediately go watch Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle.
8. Bill Paxton's Clyde is like if Chet was a bartender in the 1950s.
9. Not to gush more about the music, but the two main songs by Jim Steinman that bracket the movie are seriously in my top 500 songs of all time. I have a secret desire to sing them on stage somewhere with a full band and back-up singers behind me.
10. If I was unlimitedly wealthy I would finance a full-musical remake of Streets of Fire. In fact, I've always thought it would make an excellent stage musical. Don't steal my idea! Patent pending!!!

Streets of Fire is currently on Netflix instant streaming. So what are you waiting for?! The soundtrack is in my car if you want to borrow that too.

HOW CAN I CHOOSE? Battle of the early 80s Cross-dressing Divas Edition

I have a VERY serious decision to make. Tonight, two of my all-time favorite films are each playing on the big screen. I cannot attend both screenings because I have yet to figure out the meta-physics of being able to be in two places at once.
The movies in question are 1983's Yentl, starring Barbra Streisand, and Victor/Victoria from 1982 starring Julie Andrews. I can't express how difficult a choice this is for me. Please help!

Here are the details:

In the Blue corner -

Yentl at the Central Cinema

Start time = 7pm

• Pro - Central is a drink and dine venue so I can enjoy a nice glass of cab sav and a green salad while singing along with Babs and staring lustily at Mandy Patinkin and his jew-fro and awesome facial hair.
• Another thing in this venue's favor is that it's only about a mile away from my house, so it's very convenient to get home if I've had too many glasses of wine.
• Another pro - they sell these pigs in a blanket (turkey or tofu pups also available) that are awesome. They also make incredible fresh popcorn with real butter.
• A potential con - unlike a lot of the Central Cinema screenings, I don't believe this one is a "sing-a-long"; so I may be ridiculed for belting out "The Way He Makes Me Feel" along with Barbra.

The music in Yentl is some of my favorite stuff to listen to, and especially sing along with. 13 yr old me could be found with her cassette tape of the soundtrack always in her Walkman. Yes, I was that dork. And for realz y'all, I had a HUGE crush on Mandy Patinkin. I had seen him on Broadway in Evita! a few years before and this movie, plus another Broadway experience (Sunday In The Park With George) pretty much cemented my love.

In the Red corner -

Victor/Victoria at the SIFF-Uptown

Start time = 8:45 PM

• Pro - This SIFF venue is next door to my friends John and Dan's house. So while the theater doesn't serve alcohol or non-traditional movie snacks, I can always eat and drink to my heart's content at their place and then stumble to the theater.
• I don't think I'll be any more welcome to sing out loud along with the movie here than I would be at Central Cinema.

This movie is a definitive period of childhood for me because it reminds me so much of my mother and grandmother. The three of us saw it in the theater together at the Uptown in Washington, D.C. back when they would sell soundtrack LPs and cassettes right in the lobby after the movie. I remember my mother buying the record and then a few weeks later my grandmother bought the sheet music to the songs and the three of us would spend many a weekend singing and performing the music from the movie. Years later, when they turned it into a Broadway show, a few years after my grandmother had passed away, my mom and I went to NYC to see it and we cried in the audience the whole time thinking about how much my grandmother would have enjoyed seeing Julie Andrews live.

Similarities between the two films:

• They both involve women pretending to be men in order to pursue/fulfill their dreams.
• I know every song from each movie by heart and can sing them on command, any time, any place, if asked. (and I'm in the mood)
• It's a battle royale between two of my favorite divas. Barbra vs. Julie!!! Mary Poppins vs. Fanny Brice! Maria Von Trapp vs. Esther Hoffman!

So? What should I do? WHO WILL WIN?!

WHY DIDN'T SOMEBODY TELL ME?!

There's a "Newsies" musical on Broadway (ok, off-Broadway, but still) !! And it got great reviews! I want to see it so badly, even if Christian Bale isn't in it.

Underrated Movies - For the love of "Absolute Beginners"

The years were 1985 and 1986. I was a teen growing up in the burgeoning hard-core punk scene in Washington, DC and when I wasn't listening to local heroes like Fugazi and KingFace, I was OBSESSED with anything and everything British Mod Revival. The music - Style Council, The Jam, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Specials, The English Beat. The fashion - skinny pegged brushed cotton trousers, Creepers, parkas, and late 50s/early 60s inspired crap. And I wasn't the only one. This scene was seeping into American culture in a lot of big cities. There was a reason that I almost ran away from my tour group when we went to London in the spring of 1986, to steep myself fully in the culture and live a divine life in Notting Hill.

And then there was the 1986 film Absolute Beginners.
It was the visually inventive and energetic pop musical adapted from Colin MacInnes' 1959 cult novel of the same name. Absolute Beginners is like a color-soaked, crazy infectious music video come to life. It's one of the best examples of the fantasy-like movie adaption (like Velvet Goldmine) where they take a staid source material and bring it to the screen in the biggest, over-the-top way possible.
It is the tale of two swinging English teens; 19 yr old photographer Colin, played by the dreamy Eddie O'Connell,  and fashion icon wanna-be (Crepe) Suzette played by the gorgeous Patsy Kensit; set against the backdrop of emerging youth culture and racial tension in late 1950s London. Colin is hopelessly in love with Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time. Meanwhile, racial tension is brewing in Colin's neighborhood, as the rich whites come in to gentrify and redevelop the poor and largely non-white Notting Hill housing estate. As Suzette becomes a success in the fashion business and looks set to leave her street roots behind, Colin is torn between his youthful idealism and his desire to do whatever is necessary to lure her back.

I won't mislead you. Absolute Beginners is silly. The characters are flimsy and two-dimensional. And even though the film is telling a fairly compelling story in an unique way, it largely fails in many ways. BUT what it gets right! The music. The beautiful seeped-in colors saturating every frame. The movie has an "atmosphere" that is really engaging. David Bowie is still so cool both singing the title tune and playing the promoter. It also features the great James Fox and Bruce Payne. There's no shortage of enjoyable moments.
This movie hasn't been on my radar since college, and even then it's probably been a good 23 years sinc I've watched it all the way through. But that's one of the only joys of being confined in bed recovering from surgery; you get to watch wacky stuff on Instant Netflix that you wouldn't normally bother with. I'm so glad I spent my Sunday morning with this blast from the past. Makes me want to dig my blue suede Creepers out of my closet, buy a Vespa, and cruise around town singing "Have You Ever Had It Blue?" at the top of my lungs.