For the big Five-Oh! it would appear the ladies have made the theme "White." Is this the promise of rebirth anew? Or the Japanese color of Death?
The party begins tomorrow...and y'all are welcome! If you have a blog, post a picture of yourself in white just for the hell of it! Let's greet the ladies as they've come in...
Yes, Salma, the birthday is tomorrow...would I kid about that?
Ah, Sandy, always sublimely ready... and lookin' good!!!
Mira's waiting for...what? I'm not sure, but clearly she's ready for the whole event...
I see Jennifer Connolly has brought Charlize Theron and Naomi Watts...fine, fine, more the merrier...
Ah, Ginger...bored, but beautiful as always!
Can anyone see what Debbie is pointing at? I can't....
Daisy Fuentes clearly has our color theme down...the rest of the outfit she's workin' on...
Julianne Moore! Stunning as always! But isn't that...sea green? Or really, really off white?
Can someone please get Parker Posey a drink? Thanks....
Finally...Scarlett looks fuzzy, but mighty damn fine...a good birthday for me it will be...
The cars went back and forth at high speeds, stopping right in front of The Fence, trying to scare it into opening, the fools. The fence, hoping for a better wage, still guarded the trees from escaping with the bats Who nested there and made merry flying all about, trying to obscure The Sun from making it's downward trek. The sun, properly positioned itself along my arm, slowed down, of course, by my arm hairs from going over the horizon, and down, down from elbow's peak to the small concavity of flesh at the start of my hand, or the end of my arm, if you prefer, Straight down from there it went, into said hand, placing the day's energy here where I wanted to write with it, just so long as I made sure to leave enough Heat and Light for all of China in their morning so they could do what they needed to do,
Yeah, fess up, you know you are! I'm a' lookin' right at you, Cynnie! :) I got these devils at Trader Joe's. A minute and a half in the microwave and zap! Easy lunch, pretty good tasting too!
I see Suzanne Pleshette died today... and she was born on my upcoming birthday, the 31st! Hope that's not a bad sign...I check in on Ernie Banks, Nolan Ryan, and (sigh) Carole Channing, (all born on my birthday as well) and I see all is well...
Scarlett lets me know that things are cool... right SJ?
The wonderful Sundries has returned! Many times here at the Stuffin' we feared the worst, but maybe there are second acts in English lives at least!
Welcome back Victoria...Carnivale blogging would be worse without you doing it!
(I'm thinking a calvados vinaigrette and some ginger-glazed carrots with that calf, yes? Raspberry Creme Brulee for dessert? Let's see...I've got a '61 Mouton-Rothschild around here somewhere...)
No, not me! At least not yet! This nod of appreciation goes out to the Althouse blog, whose creator turns an unhidden 57 today. Daily, clever blogging, good photographs, vlogs...Althouse is your full-service blog with multimedia bone fides! (I'll get around to a vlog on Drunk Punk someday!)
Soon, very soon,(Jan 31 to be exact!) The Head Fluffmeister here at the Stuffin' will turn the big 5-0!
What shall I do? I wish to let the vox Stuffingi help me out! Make suggestions! You're more than welcome to visit, I won't be planning a thing! Let's make it human and make it good!
Yesterday, on the redoubtable Althouse blog, I wrote in a comment the phrase "think fog", when I meant to say "thick fog." This has made me laugh, and I now christen it as a Coinage of The House of Fun, along with "malapropaganda", and....some other ones which I can't recall at the moment! I didn't even see the error; Prof. Althouse pointed it out saying "nice typo." But, interestingly, it is to me not strictly a typo, that is to say, a misspelling, accidental or otherwise. Rather, I simply didn't "hear" the word "thick" when I was typing, I heard my mind say "think."
I find when I type quickly, it's because I'm merely transcribing words I "hear" myself "speak." This is why my most common typing error is to simply forget to type a whole word, not misspell one. I've "heard it" already, and the brain went faster than the hands. When I write, I hear my voice 90% of the time. But sometimes I hear someone else's voice, even to the point of imagining what a persons voice sounds like if I haven't heard it.
The editing process is very different for me; there I tend to see the words as 3D shapes, usually with a particular color, often with a musical tone. I see editing as almost literally, orchestrating how I want a line of text to appear.
The period of my most writing took place when Camie and I were chatting away like magpies. We still do, but not as frequently as there are Beanie and The Little Man to wrestle and this takes considerable energy.
Christmas day, only one person called to talk all day, and I went out for lunch with one other person. I am surprised by my need for constant conversation...
...and am dismayed that Scarlett is not going to be at the top of the page after this post! Maybe I should put her in the masthead...like one of the women at the front of a ship...
On this, the last day of the year, let's celebrate the 60th(!) birthday of Tim Matheson, whose greatest role was as Eric Stratton ("Eric Stratton, rush chairman, damn glad to meet ya!") in Animal House!
Enjoy!
Tip o' the cap to the loverly Lela Dowling on this, her birthday, as well. Go! Give her some business!
The other day, Camie posted the very sweet video of "Fairytale of New York", the classic Xmas song, that was briefly "edited" (ahem) by the BBC. The Pogues played the song at their annual Dublin show, with Sinead O'Connor(!!) filling in for the late, beloved Kirsty MacColl.
...is beyond me! For some reason, I'm getting a lot of hits on Google image searches for pics of Scarlett Johannson. Was this triggered by my post of the other day? But for some reason, the page that gets referred to is a much older one. Why? Oh, who knows? But since the wheel is squeaky, let's put on some more grease!
I know, it baffles me too!
Yes, it is kind of funny....
Eh? What's that? Well, sure I'll go get eggnog...
Merry Christmas to you all out there, and Scarlett as well...
There are so many reasons Hitchcock is a Saint of The House of Fun, but I have a very particular one in mind. What's interesting about it is that it's not just about film, or even just about artistic creation generally.
It's really about what you do when you get to the top. Top of what? Doesn't matter. It's about how you deal with things when everyone around you acknowledges that you are the best, the peak, the go-to guy. Most people coast; some pontificate, some simply repeat what got them there, even if that won't work to move them any further.
Alfred Hitchcock in the late '50's was in such a glorious position. His work in the '50's is a string that anyone would envy: To Catch A Thief, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest. All of these, North by Northwest in particular, are in the center of what the studios would want to make over and over; great leading man, great soundtrack, story, direction. I think they would have wanted several 'North by Northwests' if Sir Alfred were willing to grind them out. And, mind, I'm not saying these films aren't great, they are. Let's check out the super cool intro to North by Northwest, thanks to the animation of Saul Bass and the music of Bernard Hermann; watch for Hitch at the end of the clip!
But as great as all these films were, for Hitchcock it simply wasn't enough! He wasn't going to be content to just make product, even really, really good product. He had follow his fetishistic, voyeuristic impulses all the way, past what he had started to show us in Rear Window and Vertigo. He had to give us... Psycho.
Here's what Entertainment Weekly has had to say about it:
There's no way around it: Psycho cut movie history in half. When that knife came sawing past the shower curtain at poor, sheeplike Marion Crane(Janet Leigh), Alfred Hitchcock announced that from now on all bets were off. No one was safe; a heroine could be butchered 45 minutes into the movie; a nice young man(Anthony Perkins) could turn out to be a psychotic killer with his mama's embalmed body upstairs...To be truthful, there's a little bit of Psycho in everything we watch nowadays. What Hitch wrought with his little TV crew marks the line of demarcation, in our culture, between the age of sentiment and the age of sensation. It's to pop culture what Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is to fine art: the arrival of a loud and jagged modernism.
[my emphasis] Yes, yes, I know that's a bit much, but it's just to give you the idea!
My point is not about whether you like this particular genre of film or not; it's to give Alfred Hitchcock props for doing what we wish all people at the peak of their profession would do. Spending their hard won cultural capital on not merely vanity or maintaining the status quo, but raising the bar even further! Doing only what someone in that position could do! Just for this alone, Alfred Hitchcock will always be a Saint of The House of Fun.
as the condition of Cynnie's blog states, here it is!
A game: Everyone who has a blog is welcome to participate: The first three persons who leave a comment on today's post will have a gift from me within 365 days. But there is one condition they will have to do the same on their own blog and do the same promise. It's Pay It Forward.
Just like Cynnie, the gifts will be silly, and will be sent out...soon as I can!
If I could get something I want here in Blogola, I would love to find out what happened to the cool Sundries blog. Victoria had one of the most fun, readable sites out there, and she has up and disappeared since May. She did say she was taking some time off, but 8 months?!? I sometimes fear the worst, but like Lord Nelson, that's just my nature.
If you're out there sweet Ms. B, we all want you to return, even some of the Althouse commentariat as well! Otherwise, we'll be picturing you in sequels to Midnight Express....
We hope to find your prose again, under the proverbial tree this year...
Really if you think of it... more like myself and Camie, the prequel right? Half the people around here I have to treat like Elijah Cook, jr. in Maltese Falcon, and we have to somehow get a picture of Camie in the Breakfast at Tiffany's getup (maybe in front of Tiffany's!!!) Well, we can dream...
Really, what wouldn't we give this fine gentleman for the holidays? Kegs, of course, and all the Russian Lesbian Warblers he could eat, but this should be in the front of the house to ward off any and all Evil.
At those crazy people amongst the living who don't get what a comedy life really is! I should know -- I direct mighty fine comedies!"
Billy Wilder, Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn (and an unknown shutterbug!) on some set in the Afterlife shooting a mighty fine comedy, no doubt... and finding us even funnier!
Here's a note from Nappy on the 202nd Anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz:
Proclamation of Napoleon I. Bonaparte
Soldiers! I am pleased with you. Everything I expected of your dauntlessness has been fulfilled by you today, at Austerlitz. You have crowned our colors with immortal fame. The enemy army, comprised of a hundred thousand men, led by the Russian and Austrian emperors, was pulverized and crushed in less than 4 hours. Those who escaped the brunt of your weapons were drowned. Forty battalions, Russian Emperor's Guard flags, one hundred and twenty cannons, twenty generals, and more than thirty thousand captured - this is the outcome of this monumental day. Despite its superior size, the reputed Russian infantry was not able to withstand your assault, and you need not fear any opponent anymore. The third coalition was defeated and destroyed within two months. Peace is not far in the future. However, as I promised my nation before I crossed the Rhine, I will establish only such a peace that would provide me with an assurance and ensure our allied with compensation.
Soldiers, When my nation placed the Emperor's crown upon my head, I trusted that you would maintain it in the brilliant lustre of fame, which is the only value it holds for me. But at the same moment, our enemies wanted to destroy and debase it. They wanted to force me to place this iron crown, tainted by the blood of so many of our people, on the head of our most cruel enemy. You have suppressed and ruined those arrogant and senseless efforts, on the anniversary of your Emperor's crowning. You have proved that it is easier to threaten and hold us in contempt than it is to defeat us.
Soldiers, When I have completed everything that is necessary for ensuring the happiness and prosperity of our fatherland, I will lead you back home to France. There you will be treated to my most kind and generous care. My nation will welcome you with open arms. It will be enough to say: I fought at Austerlitz, in order for everyone to rejoin: this is a hero!
Napoleon
In our Emperor's tent at Austerlitz, 12 Frimaire of the year XIV.
Situation at 3-4 p.m. on the 2. december 1805
Have a nice Sunday! Invade the various Austerlitzes in your life!
Yep, it's true, the ol' zorichi (sp) bit the farm today....done overcooked the rice and made the stuff stick (and blacken like road tar) on the bottom... Throw it on the Christmas list...
Dead Puppy asked what would I like for Xmas...ok, here goes.
We need many things at The Stuffin, but let's try and sort things out.
1.) Furniture. I have nothing but uncomfortable stuff!
2.) Clothing. Most everything is shot to hell, and I'm a tuff fit!
3.) Car Repair. Nothing major, just lots of small stuff let's harass Camie about it!
4.) Vacation. It's been far too long since I've been outta town, but I think Camie may need one more than even I, so let's send her to London, shall we?
5.) Kitchen stuff. It's old, in bad shape, and not much fun to use.
Just a few thoughts here, maybe more as I think about them.
The other day ("What does 'other day' mean?", asks Little Man) on the redoubtable Althouse blog, She wondered who be her 11,111,111th visitor. I was visitor 11,111,110 so I can't answer that question, but I am the 6,666 visitor to 'Stuffin! It's only fitting really; someone has to come here and it might as well be me!
I do note that as Thanksgiving draws near, I do get more hits from people searching for 'Stuffin'! So, turkey, turkey, turkey, cranberries, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, football...anything to make my SiteMeter happy...
That Camie and I were in several bands? Oh, yes...
Here we are in our Grand Ole Opry phase...
Our Devo-soundalike band almost had a hit with "Flog it", but things went awry...
This is from our glam period...I can't tell which one of us is which, this being 1973 and all... I love our subtle uses of color, don't you?
Fluffy and Camie: Absinthe Police. Christ, don't ask, it was the '70's!
I went on to do a solo gig as a Rouge Supercop for JC Penneys, searching for value like Caine in Kung Fu, while wearing my Chia Chest Hair, lookin' all bad ass!
Camie and I went out trick or treating with her chillin's last night; none of my 'ween pics came out very well, but a good time was had by all. Here we have a pic before going out at dinner. Little Man insisted on starting outside the frame and racing into the shot!
Smart ass, depressing, talented, hypochondriac; that's Oscar Levant, the "enfant terrible" of America in the 40's and 50's. It's hard not to like a guy who "made insanity America's favorite hobby." And just at the point he starts to get good at something he quits. Pianist, Movie Star, Talk Show Host, you name it, he quit it! Christ, this is a man who is clearly 50 years ahead of his time! Really, he's effectively a bhodisatva for half the people I've ever met! A defining archetype of The House of Fun.
Quips and Quotes:
Upon meeting Greta Garbo: "Sorry, I didn't get the name."
To George Gershwin: "Tell me, George, if you had to do it all over would you fall in love with yourself again?"
Of Leonard Bernstein: "I admire Leonard Bernstein, but not as much as he does."
Of Elizabeth Taylor: "Always a bride, never a bridesmaid."
Of Perry Como:"Perry Como's voice actually comes out of his eyelids."
Of Debbie Reynolds: "She's as wistful as an iron foundry."
Of Minnie Guggenheimer:"She's a good friend. As long as you're on top she'll stick by you."
Of Grace Kelly:"She just married the first prince who asked her."
Of Doris Day:"I knew Doris Day before she became a virgin."
Of Richard Nixon: "He swings a big mouth and carries a little stick."
Of Zsa Zsa Gabor: "Zsa Zsa Gabor has learned the secret of perpetual middle age."
"Someone once asked me where I lived and I said, 'On the periphery . . . '."
"I paid thousands of dollars to psychiatrists to forget my childhood."
"My psychiatrist once said to me, 'Maybe life isn't for everyone'."
"I was thrown out of one mental hospital because I depressed the patients."
"There is a fine line between genius and insanity, and I have erased that line."
"Happiness isn't something you experience, it's something you remember."
"A pun is the lowest form of humor – when you don't think of it first."
"It's not what you are, it's what you don't become that hurts."
"I've given up reading books. I find it takes my mind off myself."
Here's the cool Wikipedia link on him. Read and be edified!
Nuthin's goin' on, got no funds, and things are kind of blah in my head. The weather is great, though, and I heard good news from my doctor about my ticker the other day... it's in fine shape! Amazing! Is the Little Man well? Probably off careening around....
I may go downtown just to check out the city... that's fun....
I hope you good activities planned for your weekend.
Go on, find someone you love, er, like, er don't hate that much and dance with them today! It'll be good for your mental health, and somewhere Fred & Ginger will see you and approve....
The guy with the hat is my dad...and that's Young Fluffy, just about the time the Beatles landed in America...we're sittin' in Harry Truman's Presidential Lincoln.
I'm in a good mood this morning, how's about yourself? I wish I had some bacon, which I don't, but, hey, I've got good coffee, and I even had a decent amount of sleep! Shocking! Ideas for the novel came to me in my sleep, so they will be written down soon....
Let us know here at the Stuffin', how life is treating you!
Sorry all, been neglecting the ol' blog a bit too much, so here's a nice Football Saturday post for you. Around my house, 6 Saturdays a year, 100,000+ drunks show up and lock me in for the day. This is the 4th straight week of this nonsense, and it's gettin' to me....
Ah....the coffee's done...hang on a second, whilst I pour a cup.
Thanks for waiting...I'm back.
There's been some company here lately, as my old friend Evan showed up with wife and baby in tow. Evan was a grad student here for 10 years, and he was one of a crew that hung out here on the weekends for many years. It's was good to see him all adult-like and everything! He brought me a coffee cup (now being used) from near his work, the Nevada Test Site. It's nice and black with a glowy nuclear fireball on it. Good work!
Health update: At present all is well, medications are being taken, and I've even lost a pound or two. Many more to go on that front!
Work update: ummm...there is none. The dude I worked for briefly didn't get the funding he said he would, so I am back to struggling.
I have gone to writing bits again, and am trying to integrate these in the ol' novel still kicking around my head.
My friend Bob is now in London for the next year. His wife may visit in Jan, perhaps to teach a course on London theatre. We'll see.
Good friend and all around swell person Lela (Art Gurl) will be getting married soon. I'd love to see if I could swing the Northern California trip needed to see that!
I'll write more frequently; I've just been a bit of a skunk! Mea culpa.
One of the best known people in your community, you have become something of a phenomenon. People have sung about you, danced in your honor, created all manner of art in your name. And yet your story is one of failure and despair, with a few brief exceptions. A hopeless romantic, you'll never stop hoping that more good will come from your failings than is ever possible. Beware detectives and prison guards bearing vendettas.
Oh, dear has my blog become like the Zappa quote above? My sitemeter thinks so! Sorry, a lot has gone on here.
1.) The foot is what it is. My doctors haven't been much help for which they will get a buttkicking soon. 2.) Exercising will also commence. I'd like to get a recumbent exercise bike, which is around $350. I have one spotted. 3.) The big news is that I have some biz that I have now started. The first two months here funds will just cover my existing, but starting in Sept., much more will be arriving! I'd say more, but I have to discuss how much I can say with the new employer. I'll still be working mainly out of the house. 4.) One of my good friends will be working for an entire year out of London, so this may be my chance to come and see English blog-friends! For various reasons, it wouldn't be until January, but he's place that he's staying is only a block and a half from Harrod's!
Camie and Cynnie and I have been playing around on Facebook a lot, another reason for much of my absence. But hopefully that will change.
Tonight I was running "Dr. Ron's Film School" again, this time with to friends neither of whom had seem an Audrey Hepburn movie! So I will be having a small Audrey festival with them, probably showing them 4 or 5 films. We started with, of course, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and I had forgotten how much sadness there is in it! The friends both enjoyed it a lot, and hopefully, Roman Holiday will go over equally as well....
Sorry for the delay in posting because of this horrible mess with my foot. I can't even really write about it at length for the moment, but I will be starting some more of an exercise program than I had done in the past. Hopefully, I can procure a recumbant exercise bike for use here in the house. I am in some grief, but I guess I will deal for the rest of the life and all that.
Yes, Salma, the birthday is tomorrow...would I kid about that?
Ah, Sandy, always sublimely ready... and lookin' good!!!
Mira's waiting for...what? I'm not sure, but clearly she's ready for the whole event...
I see Jennifer Connolly has brought Charlize Theron and Naomi Watts...fine, fine, more the merrier...
Can anyone see what Debbie is pointing at? I can't....
Daisy Fuentes clearly has our color theme down...the rest of the outfit she's workin' on...
Julianne Moore! Stunning as always! But isn't that...sea green? Or really, really off white?
Can someone please get Parker Posey a drink? Thanks....
Finally...Scarlett looks fuzzy, but mighty damn fine...a good birthday for me it will be...
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