Sunday Music Dump

RIP Heath

The details of Heath Ledger's death are all over the place, so I'll forgo copying/pasting the obit. I wasn't a huge fan, but I'm saddened by the loss of someone so young and with such a promising career. Plus, I'll always have a soft spot for him because of 10 Things I Hate About You:




That's one of my top 5 favorite guilty pleasure movies of all time. Such a shame.


PS-It seems a little inappropriate to tack this onto an RIP post, but: Some of the comments on the last few posts are being temperamental. They don't show up when you click on the comments then they reappear when you refresh. It's either my computer or it's Haloscan acting up again. If it ISN'T my computer, I just want to make it known that I'm not deleting comments-I don't roll that way

So What's The Opposite of Schadenfreude?

I don't like the idea of having my last 2 posts being about death, so I thought I'd put something positive up here. Ain't ya glad?

Last week, while reading about the death of Brad Renfro (came close to posting about him dying too, but opted instead to pay tribute in the form of a new blog header. Sort of.), I came across a comment on one of the sites that mentioned actress Natasha Lyonne, someone who seemed destined for the same fate as Brad. I always liked Natasha ever since I saw her in The Slums of Beverly Hills, and I hated that she'd had so many problems in recent years-drugs, career in the crapper, that thing with the dog.

Anyway, according to this random comment, Natasha has finally gotten her act together and is working again. I did some investigating, and lo and behold, it's true. According to IMDB she's got 4 films in post-production and will soon be appearing in the Mike Leigh play "Two Thousand Years" in New York.

I just think that's great.

The only thing that bugs me, is that there's hardly been anything said about it. I came across maybe 3 articles about it, 2 of which were kind of snide. People go out of their way to spread the news when someone fucks up, but when they manage to get their shit straight, no one cares. Don't get me wrong: I enjoy a good train wreck. Britney Spears wasn't even a blip on my radar screen until the cheese slid off of her cracker. And I was one of the ones cheering the loudest when Paris Hilton was stuck in the revolving door of the LA County jail system last summer. But you know what? As dark as my heart is, when Paris walked out of the jail for the last time, a part of me was happy for her (I got over it, though.) And you know what else? If Britney does-by some miracle-manage to regain control of her senses, that'll make me happy too.

See, I was once a royal screw-up, and I came through it. No power on this earth could make me go into the details here, let's just say that it was a bad scene all around. I think that experience has something to do with my being so happy about Natasha's turnaround and the possibility of others doing the same, but I think it's more than that. I think that deep down, I just might be a nice person after all and quite frankly, that frightens the dickens out of me. It's just easier to be a bitter old bitch, you know?

At any rate, as I mentioned before, I found a few articles about Natasha and one of them was pretty sweet, so I'm going to share it with anyone else who might also be hiding a nice person, deep, deep inside of them. You know who you are.

NY Times-'When Living at All Is the Best Revenge'

Goodnight Emily

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Suzanne Pleshette, best known for her role as Bob Newhart's wife on television's long-running "The Bob Newhart Show," has died, just days before a ceremony honoring her with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure Saturday evening at her Los Angeles home, said attorney and family friend Robert Finkelstein. The beautiful, husky-voiced TV, film and theater star was set to attend the Jan. 31 ceremony, her 71st birthday.

"She was a pro's pro," Bob Newhart said. "Although we knew she was quite sick, she was one of those people that you thought would go on forever."

"The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette — as his sardonic wife — provided the voice of reason.

Four years after the show ended in 1978, Newhart went on to the equally successful "Newhart" series in which he was the proprietor of a New England inn populated by more eccentrics. When that show ended in 1990, Pleshette reprised her role — from the first show — in one of the most clever final episodes in TV history...


Indeed.


AP

Hey, You Got Your RIP in My Saturday Movie

I was all set to go to bed earlier when I read that 50s horror host and all-around cool chica, Vampira, Had Passed Away. In addition to her hosting gig, she was also a sometime actress, and her most notable role was in a little movie called Plan 9 From Outer Space-perhaps you've heard of it?

I have and I consider it one of my most favorite movies of all time and I say that without (hardly) any irony. It's not a good movie in the classic sense of the word, but it is entertaining. I think Ed Wood's goal was to tell a frightening tale of the ignorance of humanity and where it's going to lead us (kinda like The Day The Earth Stood Still, I guess), but instead he ended up making one of the best unintentional comedies of all time. Basically, poor Ed's heart was in the right place, he just didn't have the means, the encouragement or the talent that was required to pull it off.

Regardless of what he meant to do, Plan 9 ended up being the greatest bad movie of all time (Hal P. Warren can kiss my little white butt-HIS movie was just bad-bad) and the death of Vampira reminded me of that. So I watched it. Again. And it was good. Or bad. Whichever.

So. Even though I've posted it once before, I'm going to post it again in honor of Vampira. The way I look at it, there's only 2 kinds of people in the world-those who've seen Plan 9 and those who haven't. The people who haven't seen it need to see it and the ones who have, the ones who've actually managed to sit through the whole thing, are the types who'd sit through it again-and like it. I'm performing a public service, really, in addition to showing my respect for an awesome lady.

2 birds, one stone. Yay me.

But I Don't LIKE Thousand Island...

I haven't posted anything really weird in quite some time (or anything at all, come to think of it. What can I say? I've got the post-holiday lazies) and I miss it. I like posting songs and movie stuff, but more than anything, I'm fascinated by oddball people and the monkeyshit crazy things that they do. Or want to do, in this case.

I don't know what to say about this thing I'm going to post. Aside from not wanting to spoil it before anyone's read it, it's just one of those "WTFF" things, and while I have many questions milling about in my head over it, I'm too nonplussed to put all of them into word form. I mean, without giving all of it away, is there actually a woman out there who would want to spend time with some nut she's never met when the only thing she'll come away with is an empty colon and a striking similarity to Bob Geldof in The Wall? Well, actually, after all that rich holiday food, an empty colon is looking pretty good right about now...

But I digress.

I'm going to post a link to the thing instead of posting the text here, because quite frankly I don't want anyone finding their way here while looking for something like that. I get enough drop-ins via kooky search terms to suit me, thankyouverymuch (on a related note: I'd like to help the woman who wants to be a 'little slut for her man' and I could probably come up with some advice had I more information about your situation. However, I don't think you're going to find what you need in a post about one of my dogs. My apologies and I wish you and your fella much luck in contacting your inner whore. Just stay away from my pets.)

And now, for my inaugural post of 2008, I not-so-proudly present:

A Very Complicated Request, Please Kindly Read