Looks like everyone abandoned you…again. It’s pouring rain here and of course Bixby needs to go outside. Get me my galoshes.
I like Corrine Bailey Rae and Singing in the Rain, I’m eclectic like that.
Open thread.
ETA: Well, it disappeared. Here it is again:
Mnemosyne (tablet)
We’re supposed to get a little long-overdue rain starting at midnight, and it’s probably true, because I have a weather migraine trying to break through. I hope caffeine, Excedrin, and low light will fend it off.
I’m sitting in my craft room listening to Christmas music, but I can justify it because I’m working on Christmas presents (and a long-overdue baby sweater for a friend that needs to be done long before Christmas since the baby’s already here).
TaMara (BHF)
The Buffs? Yup, lots of lightening here tonight.
benw
TaMara, you’re quickly becoming my fav FPer! Random music thought: of all the Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty was the coolest.
ThresherK
One amazing thing, among many, of “Singin in the Rain” is how we don’t hear Lina Lamont’s voice until the movie is about 10-12 minutes in!
Jean Hagen’s great take on Lina is the one audience-gotta-believe-it thing needed to drive the bubbly plot. She absolutely crushes it. And Kelly and Donen and crew are confident enough to keep this until the big reveal.
Is this a lost art in Hollywood? I know that there’s this “disease” going around where someone gets $10+ million to star in a movie, and the compulsion is to put that guy (and I pretty much mean male) in every scene.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@efgoldman:
I have ADHD, so I’m pretty much impervious to the stay-awake effects of caffeine. The most annoying side effect will be having to get up in the middle of the night to pee.
Does it help that some of them are Advent carols? Bette Midler has one of my favorites on her holiday album — “O Come Emmanuel.” And, of course, stuff like “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm” are winter songs, not really Christmas songs.
Mike J
I drove today and had somebody else trimming. I am 10x better as a trimmer than as a driver. I do well to windward, but downwind with a spinnaker set and 15 gusting 20 driving is hard. Wallowing like a motherfucker. The really frustrating thing was that the person trimming sucked at it as badly as I did driving. But I needed stick time. He’ll be trimming the A boat and I’ll drive the B boat. Reign in hell, etc, etc.
@benw: Jeff Lynn refused to believe the Beatles broke up and in his own fantasy land he went on to lead them and put out their next 5 albums. Which isn’t a *bad* thing, but it ain’t good on its own.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@ThresherK:
I can’t remember which critic it was, but someone talked about Gene Kelly’s generosity as a star/director, because he always let his costars have at least one blockbuster solo number (like “Make ‘Em Laugh”). Not everyone was secure enough in their skills to do that, and it made Kelly’s films better.
TaMara (BHF)
@Mnemosyne (tablet): My go-to is regular Mountain Dew…and dark chocolate. My Gram used to swear by dark chocolate for her migraines. I found the Mt. Dew on my own. I think it’s the sugar/caffeine hit that does it. Weird.
p.s. you of all people know I’m using obscure movie quotes, right?
Amir Khalid
@efgoldman:
In Malaysia we have Diwali (or Deepavali, as it’s commonly known here) to discourage retailers from putting up the Christmas decorations too early. (Christians are apparently the spendiest religious demographic among Malaysians.) But until they started getting scolded by the public, the biggest retailers used to put up the Christmas stuff early anyway, then have a little sign by the entrance: “We wish all our patrons a happy Deepavali.”
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@TaMara (BHF):
I do have some dark chocolate squares, so I’ll go ahead and have one of those, too. Strictly for the medicinal properties, of course.
I think ThresherK recognized the quote as well since s/he immediately referenced the appropriate character.
In other old film related news, I finally finished “Five Came Back” today. It fully deserved all of its plaudits, and the Kindle version does that cool newfangled thing where you can click on a footnote and have it pop up on the screen (do you hear that, Rick Perlstein?!)
TaMara (BHF)
@ThresherK: I love her…she’s magnificently evil. What a great role to have, it’s always so much fun to play.
benw
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Good luck and I hope the migrate doesn’t hit.
@TaMara (BHF): I love regular Mountain Dew. It’s my second fav soda after regular Coca-cola classic. I’m pretty sure that makes me a weirdo.
ThresherK
@Mnemosyne (tablet): “If we bring a little joy into your humdrum lives, it makes us feel as though our hard work ain’t been in vain fer nothin’.”
Nobody goes to a musical for the screenplay, but Comden and Green really shine here.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@ThresherK:
“Dignity. Always dignity.”
One of the all-time great montage sequences in Hollywood films.
ThresherK
@TaMara (BHF): Wait, you’ve played this role in the stage adaptation?
TaMara (BHF)
@ThresherK: No, no…I did word that funny – I meant my favorite roles to play were always the evil ones, so much to play off of…but with my “look” it was not something I had the chance to do very often.
PurpleGirl
@Amir Khalid: I love Diwali — it’s another of the holy days featuring light and celebrating the coming year. Candles and food and gifts, asking Lakshmi or Ganesha for prosperity in the new year. The shop where I buy coffee and a bagel in the morning is owned by an Indian and one year I wished him a happy Diwali and he was surprised I knew the holiday. I like eating by candlelight in the evenings. This year it starts on October 22nd.
ThresherK
@efgoldman: Hmm. I should have said “studio era musical comedies”, as was my intent.
Now if we want to talk about how Rodgers and Hammerstein basically ruined the shelf life of every musical stage drama made before Oklahoma, creating a world where Shakespeare could be musicalized well, and a comedy-drama with at least twelve deaths (unless I’ve lost count), and cannibalism is played successfully for laughs, that’s another story.
Glidwrith
@Mnemosyne (tablet): I will second the double hit of sugar and caffeine to help with migraine management. Thai iced tea works well or Starbuck’s mint hot chocolate.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@ThresherK:
Did you see the HBO documentary “Six by Sondheim” a couple of years ago? Hammerstein was Sondheim’s mentor and basically a second father to him (he was the father of one of Sondheim’s childhood friends and encouraged him to pursue music). Sondheim still tears up a little when talking about him.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@Glidwrith:
I had a Coke with real sugar, which usually helps. Maybe I should have one more square of dark chocolate, just in case.
;-)
Glidwrith
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Of course, you can’t be too careful!
On a slightly more serious note, I will hold the chocolate under my tongue as a way to more rapidly absorb whatever elements aid in managing the headache; sort of like what is done for heart meds.
raven
So the wedding is over. Very nice affair, lots of laughs and a wonderful setting. I got to see the dogs get destroyed on tv instead of sitting in that downpour. I also made 4 bills for my tickets so,all in all,it turned out ok. Now we kill a day before our 3:50 am trip to LAAX!
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@raven:
If it rains tomorrow, be prepared for all of the locals to drive like they’ve never seen water fall from the sky before. We’re kind of notorious for that.
RedDirtGirl
Fun trivia fact about Singin’ In The Rain. They mixed milk in with the water to make the raindrops more visible!
Pie Happens (opiejeanne)
@Mnemosyne (tablet): They drive that way in Seattle, and it rains a lot here. Well, other than this past year.
Another Holocene Human
@TaMara (BHF): I tried dark chocolate for a while (high in Mg) but I got sick of the taste entirely.
You can swallow Epsom salts or soak in them. I usually go to that for cramps, though.