Wow, that brings back a lot of memories!
It has been fun, hasn't it? And the nice thing is, the fun continues, thanks to A2K.
Yes, thanks for reminding us Raggedy. I went back and read a little too. (And I wondered if that's where you were last nite!
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You are welcome. Yes. I fell asleep at the computer.
I'd revive some of those scenes here, but you all have such excellent memory retention, it would probably be a waste of time.
Raggedy, are you there? I just tried to PM you, but I keep getting weird error messages, so I'm posting here instead in the hope you see this.
If your cable line-up includes the Oxygen Channel, you might want to watch (or tape) Charlotte Gray at 8 o'clock tonight. It's a movie starring Cate Blanchett as a young Englishwoman who, during WWII, parachutes into France to help the Resistance after her RAF pilot boyfriend is shot down. I thought the movie didn't quite live up to the novel it's based on, but it's still pretty good, with a very nice soundtrack, in addition to the usual good performance by Cate Blanchett.
I hope you see this in time -- I meant to post it earlier, but I have a great excuse for not doing so (which is too long to go into now).
Thanks for the tip, Bree. We had sporadic power outages yesterday afternoon and evening so even if I had seen your message in time, I still would have not been able to watch the movie. I'll keep a lookout for it, though. And my VCR that is connected to my digital cable TV(Oxygen Channel) is out of commission.
From 9:30 PM on, I was able to watch some Thin Man movies on basic cable upstairs. TCM showed six Thin Man movies. I didn't see one of them all the way through, (had to sleep some time) but I really didn't care about the plots. I just got a kick out of seeing Myrna Loy, William Powell and, of course, Asta.
Have you seen the Cate Blanchett interview yet? I saw the last half only, but enjoyed what I saw.
I watched the whole Cate Blanchett interview, and enjoyed it. She was charming when she got embarrassed about slipping into an American accent whenever she tells a joke. It struck me, though, that she has done almost as many accents in her career as Meryl Streep, yet no one ever makes fun of her (as they do of Meryl) for all the different accents she's done. Or maybe I'm just sensitive on that subject!
Give them time. They're not jealous of Cate yet. (lol)
Oh, I just looked her up and realized that I saw her in Oscar and Lucina , The Talented Mr. Ripley; and The Shipping News. One of the reasons I'm not fully appreciating the newer stars is because I'm seeing their movies on TV. And, the credits are so blurry, half the time I can't read the names in the cast. (That's as good an excuse as I can think of at present.)
It's a pretty good excuse! (But then, there's always imdb, for looking up that person whose name escaped you when the credits flashed by...)
Thank goodness for IMDB (when I can remember the names of the characters).I think that all movies should list the characters and the actors portraying them at the beginning of the movie in large lettering, and not start the movie until they do. And then, at the end of the movie, show them with their names underneath. They did follow that format once upon a long time ago. Perhaps, I should start a movement to revive that format.
In an earlier post, Bree mentioned The World of Henry Orient. I watched it last night and loved it. The young girls were delightful and the adult cast was superb. I was surprised to see Tom Bosley and Phyllis Thaxter and enjoyed them as much as Sellers and Lansbury. Central Park was absolutely beautiful and soooo secluded and safe. <sigh> And now I ask, Bree: Which youngster did you most identify with? I identifed with the young girl who did the scheming as I don't think at that age (as best I can remember) I would have had the nerve to do the actual stalking. (I loved those Chinese hats.)
I'm so glad you liked it, Raggedy! And I agree with you about how good Tom Bosley and Phyllis Thaxter were. (I had to look her up on imdb after I saw the movie, because I don't think I had ever seen her in anything before).
I'm not sure I thought of the two girls as being divided into a schemer and a stalker (I thought they both did plenty of each), but I would have to say I identified more with Gil (the daughter of the Phyllis Thaxter character) than with Val (the daughter of the Tom Bosley and Angela Lansbury characters), because Val seemed terribly sophisticated, and I knew I wasn't!
Last month's showing at the Film Society of Lincoln Center was prompted by the recent publication of a memoir by Nora Johnson, who wrote both the screenplay and the novel it was based on. The memoir (titled Coast to Coast) sounds pretty interesting, based on this review that appeared in the New York Times last week:
Review of Coast to Coast, by Nora Johnson
Aaah, Bree, so we both identify with Gil, although back in those days I'm sure I thought of myself as being quite sophisticated. (I always ironed my T-shirts and jeans)
Phyllis Thaxter was a very popular leading lady (sincere wife, faithful girlfriend) in the 40s and 50s. I read that her career was set back in the 50s due to an attack of infantile paralysis. The World of Henry Orient was in a way a comeback for her. And, it was a pleasant surprise to see her in 1978 as Superman's "adopted" mom.
Thanks for the "Coast to Coast" review . Now I want to read the book. (Johnny Mercer's taunting her anorexic teenage friend with Bogart coming to the rescue; Elizabeth Taylor and Guinness entertaining her with similar animal impersonations, her mother and stepmother who "both knew how to crawl up a guy's necktie" (reminds me of one of my aunts), and Ms. Johnson's own feelings of inadequacy) - yes, I'm going to buy the book.
Nunnally Johnson certainly ran the gamut, didn't he? The Grapes of Wrath , Tobacco Road, My Cousin Rachel, to How to Marry a Millionaire, Dear Brigitte and The Dirty Dozen. I'm interested in learing more about him, too.
Bree: As you can see, our posts re your trip and Susan Graham went "poof". I had mentioned that I taped the Met broadcast of Merry Widow in which Susan Graham had the leading role, and after reading your post, ordered the La Belle Epoque CD. It hasn't arrived yet. I also mentioned that I'm anxious to hear all about your trip.
Raggedy: Thanks for explaining about the missing posts -- if you hadn't, I might have thought jet lag was making me hallucinate that I had seen them! I hope you like the Susan Graham CD. I listened to it again today, and enjoyed it as much as ever.
I had a great time in London, seeing four shows in five days. The new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Woman in White, is very well done -- they do some interesting things with video projections in place of actual scenery -- but I have to say I've never been a big fan of his music, and this show did nothing to change my mind. Michael Crawford is completely unrecognizable from his days in Phantom, wearing a fat suit and an elaborate wig and moustache, and speaking in a "stage Italian" accent (his character says things like, "The plot, she thickens"). However, he has what I thought was the best song in the show, a comic number involving a live white rat that scampers back and forth across his shoulders as he sings.
I loved the revival of The Solid Gold Cadillac, which stars Patricia Routledge (best known as Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances) in the role Judy Holliday played in the movie. The play is very funny, and very timely in what it says about corporate greed. They didn't update the dollar amounts that were used when the play was originally written, 50 years ago, so it was pretty funny to hear characters expressing outrage at the idea of a CEO being paid $150,000 a year!
I also liked The History Boys, a new play by Alan Bennett (who wrote The Madness of King George). It's set in a boys' school in the 1980's, and addresses questions like whether the purpose of education is to teach students to love learning for its own sake, or to train them to do well on their college entrance exams so they'll get into a good college (which makes it sound like a very grim play, but it's actually extremely funny).
I was somewhat less favorably impressed by The Old Masters, a new play by Simon Gray starring Edward Fox as Bernard Berenson and Peter Bowles as Joseph Duveen, an art dealer who (in the play) pressures Berenson to attribute a painting in a way that will help Duveen sell it. I didn't think the play was as profound as it seemed to think it was, but Fox and Bowles were great, so it was worth seeing for them (especially since I bought my ticket at the half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square).
When I wasn't at the theatre, I was mostly at museums (six in all, including the National Portrait Gallery, where I saw a stunning oil painting of Wendy Hiller, done in 1935 when she was 23 years old, that was given to the NPG after her death last year). And I went on a fascinating guided tour of the Houses of Parliament (which are open to non-UK residents only during the "Summer Opening", which ended last week, so I just made it in the nick of time).
Thank you for sharing your trip with us, bree.
Bree: It sounds like you had a grand time. Six museums! You'll have to tell us more about what you enjoyed there. I'm sorry you were disappointed in Woman in White. I like Michael Crawford, but don't think I'd appreciate him in the role you've described. (lol) I also like Edward Fox. I just him in the movie, Day of the Jackal, last week. I love Judy Holliday, but have never seen Solid Gold Cadillac. I'll keep a look out for it on TCM.
The Susan Graham CD hasn't arrived yet. There was only one in stock when I ordered it, but I've been informed that it is on its way.
Welcome back Raggedy. It hasn't been the same without you.
Letty was looking for you on a crossword thread she started...
Thanks Mac. It's good to be back.
My computer is like new now. But, the print (font) is so small. Does anyone know how to make the font larger? (So I can see what I'm writing.)
Yes indeed, welcome back, Raggedy! I'm afraid I have no advice to offer on your computer question, but I'm sure someone on A2K will know.
One of the museums I most enjoyed visiting on my trip (since you asked) was the Dulwich Picture Gallery. I had never been there before because it's a bit off the usual tourist track, in a village just outside London. But on each of my recent visits to London, I've tried to go to at least one museum I've never been to before (in addition to re-visiting the old favorites), and this time I decided to go out to Dulwich, which turned out to be quite easy to get to. I loved the gallery -- it's small, with a great collection of old masters (a bit like the Frick, in New York). I especially liked the Gainsboroughs, particularly this portrait of the Linley sisters:
One of the "old favorites" I revisited was the Tate Britain (as we now must call it, to distinguish it from the Tate Modern). The special exhibition there at the moment is an interesting show of the works of Gwen John and Augustus John (brother and sister). And of course, while I was there, I went upstairs to pay my respects to my two favorite Sargents, "Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose" and "Betty and Ena, Daughters of Asher and Mrs. Wertheimer". Curiously (or not), the latter is -- like Gainsborough's "Linley Sisters" -- also a portrait of two sisters. So, just to be symmetrical, I'll post an image of it here. Wouldn't it be nice to have one's own private art gallery with both the Linley and the Wertheimer girls on its walls?
Lovely pictures, bree. I especially like the Gainsborough - the one sister looking right at you, and the other lost in her own thoughts.
Raggedy, have you posted your font issue on the computer forum? I think it has to do with the screen resolution:
Before you change anything, check what the resolution is now. Click on Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, then Display. Click on the tab that says Settings, and tell me what your Screen Resolution is. My work computer is 1280 by 1024 pixels. I think I have it set differently at home.
Anyway, as I recall, when you change that setting (by sliding the pointer towards Less) it will affect the size of what you see on the screen. You can always put it back to where it is now, just note that setting so you can get back to it if necessary.
