Girls, In Order To Be Pure, Your Taste Buds Have To Tingle When You Eat Kretschmer Wheat Germ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   Forget losing your virginity, darlings!  Who counts that anymore?

                                                    Even without it, you can still stay pure.  If your taste buds tingle when you eat Kretchmer Wheat Germ, you are still pure.  I have been pure for a long time!

                                                     Admittedly, the honey flavored Kretschmer Wheat Germ has more flavor, and I used to love it, but as a diabetic, I cannot eat it anymore.  So, I take the plain kind and mix it with fruit and yogurt, and cereal, and it really has some flavor.

                                                        Darlings, I am so everlasting pure it can be nauseating.  On some days I feel like Shirley Temple in "Little Miss Marker!"

                                                          It really is a health help, girls!   And it gives the non crunchy food you put it on a bit of crunch and that is so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                              So don't worry so much about virtue, dears.  Just make sure your taste buds tingle when you eat Kretschmer Wheat Germ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                  Mmmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O.K., Girls, Here's The Story! If You Have Never Seen It, The Movie Is A Hoot! If You Have Seen It, A Second Viewing Gets Stale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                          Do not be fooled by this poster, darlings.  If only the movie were this good!

                                           "Svengoolie", or I should say, "The House Of Svengoolie," meaning his staff--Gwengoolie, Nostalgiateratu, and Imp--are showing "The Land Unknown" tonight.  It is a film from 1957 that should have been left on the shelf.  I have seen better dinosaur effects in children's theater productions!

                                                 It's the same old crap.  A group of guys and a woman--because there always has to be a woman--land by accident in this mysterious land, only God knows where it is, only it is not Secaucus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                   Perhaps if the film had had the talents of Willis O'Brien or Ray Harryhausen it might have been something, but the bunch of know nothings who made this only succeeded in turning out a clunker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                       Those who have seen it before are advised not to watch.  David, Baby Gojira, Kerwyn, Little Pippin and I are going to watch something else.  Baby and I have talked about it, and we have selected not only a surprise but a real gem.  If you can guess what it is, I advise you to watch the same film we are at the same time.

                                                           Sometimes, it is good to have options, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Darlings, This Is The Feast Of The Assumption!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         What this means is this is the day Mary left this life, but unlike the rest of us was taken into Heaven, body and soul.  For the rest of us, the soul goes first.

                                            If Jesus lived the most exemplary life on Earth, Mary came in second.  But she is the one so many of us reach out to in moments of need.  She is our mother.  Even Paul McCartney was on to something when he wrote, "When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me."  The Beatles knew what was going on.

                                              So, today remember Mary and think of all she has done for us, and that she is there for us.  We wish her a Happy Assumption and a happy celebration!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                We love you, Mary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Visit To The Cemetery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                                                    

                                    I did it, darlings. From August 11 to 13 David and I were in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where we stayed at The Heldrich Hotel, our room overlooking the State Theater on Livingston Avenue, the site of many moviegoing memories of my youth.

                                    The old town sure has changed.  At times I felt like I was in the world of David Lynch, because when darkness falls, the town still gets a bit sinister.  I would not go walking around here at night, even though things have vastly improved from the 1950's and 1960's.  And yes, both Rutgers University, and Johnson And Johnson Headquarters, still hold the town together.

                                     The purpose of this trip was not so much nostalgia, though it did figure in, but to read over my parents' grave the following passage from Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights--"

                                     "I lingered round them, under that benign sky, watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."

                                        That is how the novel ends, and it being so beautiful--hey, this is Emily Bronte, and in my opinion the greatest novel in the English language! --I felt, once my parents were both interred it would be the most appropriate passage to read over their graves.  But I had to wait a long time, because my father outlived my mother by 39 years, and, for reasons too complicated to go into, I was not permitted to do this at the original interment.  It took eight years, but there I am reading Bronte over my parents' graves.

                                          I was glad I did it, as there was a feeling of peace and completion.  And dinner with my former classmate, Neil, helped immensely.  To think we first knew each other when we were fifteen and fourteen, respectively, and look where we are now.  Back then I was unable to imagine being this age, and its actuality at times seems startling.

                                           The hotel bar had strange hours, so I was not able to have a Sea Breeze.  But, hey the summer is not yet over, so there is still time.

                                             Meanwhile, out in Piscataway, under a tree and near a gate beyond which trucks and cars pass by constantly as reminders of life, my parents now sleep soundly, being quiet sleepers now sleeping at last in the quiet of the earth.  Thank you, Emily!  I did it!

                                                 So now I feel my parents can rest in peace, and I feel clear, having done what I intended in the first place.

                                                 Yes, darlings, sometimes the wait is worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      

Theater Is Not So Ephemeral Anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  It used to be, darlings.  When I was a child, I enviously grilled my parents' friends, who were lucky enough to see the original productions of "Annie Get Your Gun," "My Fair Lady," even Stephen Sonndheim's "Follies."

                                     Now most on here know that is Donna McKechnie in one of her classic poses from the 1975 musical "A Chorus Line," in which she originated the role of Cassie.

                                       Youngsters may well envy me for seeing that and other original productions.  But, girls, did you know some of this can be seen on YouTube?  Not only Donna dancing solo, but the entire show, both on Broadway and at The Hollywood Bowl.  Thirty-nine years apart, but still "A Chorus Line."  And that goes for other musicals as well.

                                           Like I said, theater is not just ephemera anymore.  So, if there is a performance you may have missed, look it up.  It just might be there, and while it is not like seeing it live, one can get an idea of what the original experience must have been like.

                                              Take it from me, darlings, it is pretty thrilling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                             I will be offline for a while this week, because this is the time when we are going out to my respective hometowns of New Brunswick and Highland Park, New Jersey.  We are staying at The Heldridge Hotel in New Brunswick, where most of my classmates stayed for our reunion three years ago, and is across from the State Theater, which filled my early movie life, and is now a live cultural center.  Who could have known?

                                We will see familiar surroundings, hopefully meet up with a former HP friend of mine, but, most importantly, we are going to Resurrection Cemetery in Piscataway, NJ, where my parents are both buried, so I can read over their graves the last passage in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights."

                                  I knew I wanted to do this, eight years before, when we buried my father, but I did not think to bring a copy of the book, and I would not have been permitted to do so, then.

                                   So, this trip will be fraught with emotionality.

                                    We will be back on Thursday.  I will give you a full report then, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!

Three Is The Charm, With "Three Women!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                  Darlings, you simply have to see this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  When "Three Women" came out, in 1977, it was called Robert Altman's "Persona."  The latter is a 1966 Ingmar Bergman film in which two women through the course of the film switch personalities.  But on my third viewing of "Three Women"--and I hope to have many more-- I find that while there are similarities to Bergman it is not simply a redo.

                                        Sissy Spacek delivers the best performance as Pinky Rose, who goes from being a childlike woman to a gun toting' mama, sexy as all get out, who emerges as the kind of woman Shelley Duvall's Millie Lammoreaux desperately wants to be, but fails on all counts.  The kind of woman who thinks serving pigs in a blanket is sophisticated, and that the best dinner recipes come from the back of Campbell's soup cans.  Are you kidding me?

                                              Janice Rule as a pregnant Willie Hart, paints murals on drained swimming pools in the area, and it this artwork that gives the film its most fascinating imagery and uses the paintings and water to transition into other areas of the plot.  Pinky's transition is triggered by a horrible event, which Millie is the cause of, but has no clue to that at all.

                                                     Girls, you have got to see Sissy at the pistol range, with her pink halter top outfit; this is the best moment in the film.  Willie has a baby and the women ban together to deliver the child and some frontier justice.  Sissy Spacek seems to transition back to a child but watch out for those eyes.  She is fierce.   Shelley Duvall seems to morph into a shell of her former self, while Willie ends up owning the place.

                                                        The plot is fascinating, but so are the endless displays of imagery and color passing before the viewer's eye.  And wait till you see the Dodge City theme park (the film takes place in Palm Springs, CA) with its miniature golf course.

                                                              Altman based this film on a dream he had, but the images of double personae, such as the twins, or Spacek and Duvall pressed against a window looking out, suggest a splitting and transition of personalities that morph throughout the film.  Will these stay permanent at the end?  That is up to the viewer to decide.

                                                                I can tell you that this is Altman's best--and most minimalist film--since "Nashville.:

                                                                 It makes me want to wear Spacek's pink halter outfit and paint the walls of drained swimming pools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!