June Allyson Sounds Like Rocky the Flying Squirrel

That's my initial impression of The Glenn Miller Story, anyway. That, and the music is great.

Looking at the date of my last post, I have been terribly lax. Let's get down to business:

I was in Louisiana, then drove to the beach in Alabama. My parents ordered a 50-piece box of Popeyes to bring on the trip. A friend had heard that there was a place called the Flora-Bama, and asked for a t-shirt. But please, please don't go out of my way. So where do we end up staying? In a condo right next door to the Flora-Bama. I got a few good pictures, went into the water a few times, picked up some shells. The water in the hot tub was REALLY hot.

We drove back to Natchitoches and went to my cousin's wedding on the 28th. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. May as well give it a shot: I enjoyed it very, very much. The reception was at the plantation my aunt used to have. The band's lead singer was a girl I went to high school with (good to see she's still singing). I danced. A cousin asked why I didn't dance like that in DC. I said, "I needed the heat and humidity to get me going." It was a hot, sticky, nasty Louisiana Saturday night. It was great. I was encouraged to go to a bar afterwards, but I had a relatively early flight the next day, so I had to decline. Broke my heart, I tell ya.

Browsing my recent Netflix activity, here's a quick rundown:

Man of the Year. Couldn't even finish it. Just didn't care.

Howl's Moving Castle. Good movie. Well put together. Fun. Wonderfully animated.

Extras: I watched about three and a half episodes. It's really good, really funny, but I just can't watch it for any long period of time. It's uncomfortable, cringe comedy. I can understand why people love it, but I just can't handle it.

Ordinary People. Darn good movie. Solid story, maybe a template for similar movies that followed. Superb acting. I can see why it was nominated for so many things.

12 Angry Men. I love this movie. It's got Henry Fonda, the Man Himself. Wonderful cast up and down the line. Jack Klugman, Lee J. Cobb, Martin Balsam, Ed Begley, John Fiedler to name a few. The story is comelling, and the acting is intense. Something I really liked about it that may go unnoticed: it's 96 minutes long, so there's really no wasted scenes. the whole thing comes off tight as a drum.

Bourne Identity/Bourne Supremacy. Big blockbusters. They're good. Very well made. Acting's good, cast is good, most everything is believable to a certain degree. I just can't get excited about it. The story doesn't mean anything to me. Other people love it, and that's okay.

A Patch of Blue. Sidney Poitier is good. Elizabeth Hartman is quite good. Shelley Winters won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. It must've been very controversial when it came out.

Witness for the Prosecution. Ah, what a good movie. One of my favorites, and probably my favorite courtroom movie ever. Charles Laughton, Tyrone Power (they said my grandfather looked like Tyrone Power back in the day), and Marlene Dietrich. Suspense. Tension. Drama. Twists and turns. Humor. Loved every minute of it.

Digression: Many moons ago, back when the world was young, I came up to DC on a school trip. We went to the Lazy Susan Dinner Theater one night and watched a live performance of the play. Fantastic. I sat with a good friend of mine during the evening, so WFTP has a special place in my heart.

Lifeboat. I'd never heard of it until I saw it on Netflix. It has two people I'd heard of: Tallulah Bankhead and Hume Cronyn. It has one person who I'm glad I learned about: Canada Lee. What a great name, but not as good as what his real name was: Lionel Cornelius Canegata. Holy cow, that's a good one.

Auntie Mame. Rosalind Russell. Worth watching a movie just to say "Rosalind Russell". Fun and funny at times. I can't honestly say the movie added anything meaningful to my life, but that's not the worst thing in the world. However, Pippa Scott was a good-looking woman.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In the annals of film, it's got to be tough to find a leading duo that can compare with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Throw in Lee Marvin playing a dastardly villain, and you've got yourself a winner. A good movie, and probably a good study for learning about what movies used to be like and how they spoke to us in days gone by. There's a strong patriotic tint to it that reminds the viewer what America is supposed to stand for.

I'll end this post here and talk about some other stuff a little later.