Movies I Love, Part IX: Some Like It Hot

I guess if I was going to herald “Some Like It Hot,” I should rightfully have done so last week before it’s showings at the Village 8 this past weekend. Well, sorry. My bad. But there’s always Wild & Wooly or one of those chain rental places.

Anyway, the Film Babe and I did head over to see the movie voted the funniest of all time by the American Film Institute. Read the rest of this entry »

Louisville’s Fabric Permanently Altered Again

Baer’s Button store on the 600 block of West Market was run by Mr. Baer. Just as my parent’s store (Handbag Mart, an apt, utilitarian moniker) was owned and operated by my family down the street. In the 50′s and 60′s, some even surviving into the 70′s, they and thousands across the land like them thrived, many mom & pop operations. It had been the norm since the beginning of the republic.

The first time dad sent me down to Baer’s to get a swatch of cloth to fix a purse, I asked Mr. Baer, a paunchy man with a twinkle in his eye, to help me. “Ask Clarence,” he said. “Clarence knows where everything is.”

So he did. We took the old freight elevator to the third floor. Through narrow aisles between floor to ceiling shelves laden with thousands of bolts of fabric, Clarence circuitously led me straight to what my father needed.

Clarence — never knew his last name — was a swell guy. He became a confidant and the fellow I’d always go to when dad needed some piece of cloth or another, or my mom needed a button and sent me to fetch it instead of going herself. That Clarence was black was an afterthought. Even in the 50’s. Read the rest of this entry »

A Renegade Theory – Is It In Peril?

U of L football has careened off its collision course.

It doesn’t make sense. If the Pakistani Graduate Student Theory (details below.) is correct, the Cards should be BCS perennials, not rebuilding.

That players are getting shot and arrested is not really the problem. If the hypothesis is legit, Cardinal prospects for the upcoming season should be a lot higher because of not despite turmoil and team turnover.

Some perspective is in order.

Bill Olsen hired Howard Schnellenberger in ’85 to upgrade a program on life support. The Football Messiah soon pontificated — all together now — “We’re on a collision course with the national championship, the only variable is time.”

The Savior privately lamented that the squad he inherited had too many players who were “too nice.” Read the rest of this entry »

Whither Political Irony?

My reaction to the immediately infamous New Yorker magazine cover — hubby and wife Obama caricatured as their most ardent enemies would portray them — was immediate and visceral. I stopped what I was doing, scurried to my computer and shot off an email to the editors of the weekly ‘zine I adore and receive by subscription.

“Be ashamed,” I wrote. “Be very, very ashamed.” Read the rest of this entry »

Movies I Love, Part VIII: The Hot Spot

Sultry Dolly Harshaw (Virginia Madsen) shows up at her hubby’s used car lot while he’s off on a hunting trip. Always bored and looking for some action, she’s driven her vintage pink 60’s Caddy convertible with those enormous tail fins through the streets of the small dusty Texas town to check out the new salesman, new guy in town Harry Maddox (Don Johnson).

He’s down to his Marlon Brando undershirt while helping cohort Lon Gulik (Charles Martin Smith) wash one of the cars.

“You must be the new salesman,” she flirts. Gazes lock in. Sparks fly.

On a ruse, she implores him to help her move some boxes to a building downtown. Sitting in the car after they’re done, she explains the lay of the land.

Dolly: “There’s only two things to do in this town . . . you gotta TV?”

Harry: “Nope.”

Dolly: “Well then, you’re down to one . . . Lotsa luck.” Read the rest of this entry »

Film Review: “The Foot Fist Way”

As a film reviewer for public radio, I keep aware of what’s upcoming in the world of films. To a fault. I check out advanced previews on the www. I read reviews and updates on films in progress. I listen to the buzz about projects.

All said and done, it’s not a good thing.

Like any human, my perspective, my predisposition about a movie, is swayed. I am inclined to look forward to a film, and thus my review will be skewed by those expectations. If it doesn’t hold up as I had hoped, I’m likely to dismiss it more than if I hadn’t any advanced feelings. And vice versa.

Like I said, it’s not a good thing. But it’s human nature.

Which is why I crave those situations when I can see a flick about which I know nothing at all. Every once in awhile one will open that I haven’t even heard of. I cherish the moments. They’re like cinematic blind dates.

Such was the case with “The Foot Fist Way.” Read the rest of this entry »

Apple Bites Man

The Film Babe and I were married a few weeks back. During the tumult and tension a few days before the ceremony, she asked — the polite verb to use — that I burn a CD of favorite love songs to give to the guests.

As if there wasn’t enough other preparation going on.

(I won’t even mention the fans with our photo on it standing with the Sydney Opera House in the background she conscripted me to make the day before the nuptials. So our guests wouldn’t swelter in the humidity of our backyard.)

So I proceeded to gather love ballads to transfer to my PC, then burn onto a master CD, from which we’d burn enough copies on a stand alone CD copier for each and every attendee.

Which process has led me to a major change. I now reside in the world of Apple. After years of fighting the urge, after months of laughing at the hugely effective advertisements in which Microsoft Vista is dutifully and deservedly skewed, it was only after I couldn’t get my boutique PC to recognize the E Drive to burn the wedding CD that I made the switch. Read the rest of this entry »