"HELLO, RED..."

"I thought all writers drank to excess and beat their wives. You know one time I secretly wanted to be a writer." - C.K. Dexter Jamie

It was Kelly Sue's birthday. And one of my favorite pics from Nerd Prom. Like if a blonde Elivs Costello* traveled back in time to visit the young Michelle Phillips and give her a bottle of Manic Panic.

Speaking of Katharine Hepburn, I was watching All About Me - A Self-Portrait on the double Philadelphia Story DVD (which KS gave me for Xmas), and something she said struck a chord with me. I have had a long gestating theory--and I don't think I've written about it here, just assaulted friends with it--that innovators become bored with innovation, it stops being a challenge. As a result, they end up going back to the fundamentals to challenge themselves with structure, which is actually far more difficult than it is given credit for. Consider the Coen Bros. channelling Preston Sturges for the vastly underappreciated Intolerable Cruelty or remaking Ealing comedies. Or how Scorsese says that now that the camera can do whatever you want it to, the real test is to see how much you can restrain yourself from moving it. In this documenteary, Hepburn notes that in the 1950s she returned to the stage and started doing classics by Shakespeare and Shaw because she felt it was the true yardstick of an actor. The material is set and proven, and the actor has to see if she is up to the challenge of it rather than working it out on her own. I do so love being right!

* I only invoke the name of Elvis, who is far cooler than I, because two other people have said it. I also got multiple comparisons to David Lynch, and twice I heard, "Hey, I didn't know Interpol were in town." All of which I am A-ok with. Could be worse. There was, in fact, one girl who came up to me in San Diego and said, "You don't look as much like Morrissey as I expected"--and she was genuinely disappointed.

Current Soundtrack: Lesley Gore, The Golden Hits of...

Current Mood: chipper

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich