1100 Diablo Red
After Angela decides to repaint her Jaguar Sandalwood, Tony oversteps his bounds and informs the garage she selected Diablo Red when the shop arrives to pick up the car. When a furious Angela reminds Tony he is nothing more than the maid in her house, he behaves like a butler to spite her condescending remark.
“Paint Your Wagon”. By Lissa Levin. Who’s The Boss. ABC, Los Angeles. 15 Jan. 1985.
Donna Summer
“I don’t like to be categorized because I think that I am an instrument, and if you play me, I’ll make whatever particular sound is supposed to come out for that color. And so, in the overall spectrum of things, I’m just trying to be true to my — what I feel my mission is.”
-Donna Summer, singer, emphasizing her range of sound for the project at hand
Related:
Thunderbolt 1000T
“Alert” mode at 0:03. “Attack” mode at 1:54.
The Federal Thunderbolt was the siren of choice by many Civil Defense authorities and emergency management agencies from the early 1950s through the late 1970s.
The main marketing point of the Thunderbolt by Federal Signal was the fact that the siren, since it uses a blower to move air through the siren rotor, maintains a high sound output at all siren pitches when the siren is in operation. Normally aspirated sirens lose sound output because of the reduced air flow through their rotors as the siren runs down during the coast down during the wail or attack signal.
-Wikipedia
the new routine
Kramer vs. Kramer. Dir. Robert Benton. Perf. Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Justin Henry, Jane Alexander. Columbia Pictures, 1979.
easier on the tongue
“I’m very well. Have you been well?”
“Oh, I am always well. But I am getting old. I detect signs of age now.”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Yes. Do you want to know one? It is easier for me to talk Italian. I discipline myself but I find when I am tired that it is so much easier to talk Italian. So I know I must be getting old.”
“We could talk Italian. I am a little tired, too.”
“Oh, but when you are tired it will be easier for you to talk English.”
“American.”
“Yes. American. You will please talk American. It is a delightful language.”
Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. New York: Scribner’s, 1929.
“Me & My Chair”
“Me & My Chair”
Music by David Archibald. Lyrics by Luis Santeiro.
“Episode 1706″. Sesame Street. CTW, New York City. 22 Nov. 1982.
“That’s where God lives.”
Tree of Life. Dir. Terrence Malick. Perf. Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2011.
synchronize
syn·chro·nize \ˈsiŋ-krə-ˌnīz, ˈsin-\
Function: verb
Date: c.1624
intransitive verb
: to happen at the same time
transitive verb
1 : to represent or arrange (events) to indicate coincidence or coexistence
2 : to make synchronous in operation
3 : to make (motion-picture sound) exactly simultaneous with the action
- Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
The Barkleys of Broadway. Dir. Charles Walters. Pro. Arthur Freed. Perf. Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Oscar Levant. MGM, 1949.
Harold Lloyd and Kirstie Alley
Top: Harold Lloyd scales the facade of the “12-story Bolton building” in Safety Last! (1923).
Bottom: Kirstie Alley is pitted against her biological clock in Look Who’s Talking (1989).
“…and we’re getting married.”
Father of the Bride. Dir. Charles Shyer. Perf. Steve Martin, Diane Keaton, Kimberly Williams-Paisley. Touchstone Pictures, 1991.
In the Family (2011)
In the town of Martin, Tennessee, Chip Hines, a precocious six year old, has only known life with his two dads, Cody and Joey. And a good life it is. When Cody dies suddenly in a car accident, Joey and Chip struggle to find their footing again. Just as they begin to, Cody’s will reveals that he named his sister as Chip’s guardian. The years of Joey’s acceptance into the family unravel as Chip is taken away from him. In his now solitary home life, Joey searches for a solution. The law is not on his side, but friends are. Armed with their comfort and inspired by memories of Cody, Joey finds a path to peace with the family and closer to his son.
Maxell and Justified
Top: Maxell’s popular “Blown Away” campaign from the 1980s.
Bottom: Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in a publicity still for the FX drama Justified.
“Skwerl”
A short film with gibberish dialogue shows what the English language sounds like to non-speakers.
Featured music:
Dietrich, Marlene. “Cherche la Rose”. Columbia, 1962.
Super Normal: Sensations of the Ordinary
“Why do so many designs fail to pass the everyday test? Why is Normal disappearing, and when it’s gone how do we replace it? Is beauty just a question of looks, or could there be more to it than meets the eye? What makes a good object, and how come some objects get better with time?”
The designers Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa have compiled 204 everyday objects in search of ‘super normal design’: alongside examples of anonymous design like the Swiss Rex vegetable peeler or a simple plastic bag, there are design classics like Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel side table, Dieter Ram’s 606 shelving system, or Joe Colombo’s Optic alarm clock of 1970.
With products by Newson, Grcic, the Azumis, and the Bouroullec brothers, it also represents the generation to which Morrison and Fukasawa belong. The phenomenon of the Super Normal is located, as it were, beyond space and time; the past and present of product design both point to a future that has long since begun.
The Super Normal is already lying exposed before us; it exists in the here and now; it is real and available: we need only open our eyes; Fukasawa and Morrison make it visible for us.
Related:
Fukasawa, Naoto and Morrison, Japser. Super Normal: Sensations of the Ordinary. Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers, 2007.
Pieters, Veerle. “Super Normal — Sensations of the Ordinary at Design Museum Ghent”. Veerle’s Blog. 8 Jul. 2010.
“Book review: Super Normal and Designing Design”. Vitsœ. 20 May 2009.
Dick Clark
“Well, I’m using a cane, so what? So what if they shot me sitting in a wheelchair? That’s life.”
- Dick Clark, radio and television personality, on returning to work after his 2004 stroke
recovery
Death Becomes Her. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Perf. Pro. Robert Zemeckis, Steve Starkey. Perf. Goldie Hawn, Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis. Universal Pictures, 1992.
Tippi Hedren visits Chicago’s Music Box Theatre
On March 27, I had the honor of attending a screening of The Birds (1963) at Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, part of Turner Classic Movies’ annual “Road to Hollywood” film festival. Original Hitchcock blonde Tippi Hedren was present to introduce the film with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.
Hedren sat down for a very candid interview beforehand, openly discussing how Hitchcock made her a household name shortly before taking it all away after she refused to oblige the director’s requests for personal affection. Appreciative of what little time they shared professionally before things turned, she reflected, “He may have ended my career, but he didn’t end my life.”
Related:
Tippi Hedren On Alfred Hitchcock Biopic ‘The Girl’: ‘I Worry They Will Not Portray Me As Strong As I Was’. Moviefone. 13 Mar. 2012.
“Trapped in a Phone Booth” at MovieClips.com
Split-screen dissection of the infamous school scene in The Birds
The Birds of Anger: Rovio’s best-selling mobile game, told in the style of Hitchcock’s 1963 classic
Peter Frampton’s 1954 Gibson Les Paul
Top: Peter Frampton in 1976 during a Frampton Comes Alive! concert.
Bottom: Frampton is reunited with his guitar just in time for a 35th anniversary tour.
Interval: 31 years
Related:
“It’s in remarkable condition considering that it’s been in a plane crash,” he told Mason. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle being on stage with it again.”
“Peter Frampton and guitar, together again”. CBS News. 19 Feb. 2012.
“It’s sort of a matte black now — it’s not shiny so much anymore. The binding needs a little bit of work on the neck; the electronics need replacing,” Frampton says. He adds, though, that he’ll limit repairs on the instrument to “whatever needs to be replaced on it to make it just playable. But it must retain its battle scars.”
“Frampton’s Dream Guitar, Recovered Decades Later”. NPR. 7 Jan. 2012.
“For 30 years, it didn’t exist – it went up in a puff of smoke as far as I was concerned.”
McKinley Jr., James C. “Peter Frampton Reunited With ‘Best Guitar’ After 31 Years”. The New York Times. 3 Jan. 2012.
Darrell Hammond
“So, I go to this doctor in Sebastian, Florida. The guy interviews me, and he doesn’t know what the hell he’s dealing with. He doesn’t know. How can he, in one hour? So, he says to my mother, ‘He’s a schizophrenic, and he’s a manic depressive,’ and — I can remember, I saw her face — she said, ‘Ohh…’ like she thought she was about ready to get busted.
And instead, she’s like, ‘Really? Is that right? Yeah… Well, what can we do about that?’ And the doctor says, ‘Well, I’ll just give him these pills. That’s right. And then we’ll lock him up here for a while and that’ll be just fine.’
So, they were happy to accept that as what happened. And my father didn’t know what happened at all. I mean, really, he’s in his own world.
And so, years later, when I began trauma therapy, I called her on the phone and said, ‘I’m being treated for the symptoms that prisoners of war happened, Mom. But, all I did was grow up in your house. Can you talk to me about that?’ There was a pause, and then a sort of that husky, throaty thing she got in when she was about to menace, and she said, ‘Don’t ever call us again.’ Click.
Like that. And I didn’t ever talk to them again until their deathbed.”
-Darrell Hammond, actor and child abuse survivor
“Red Chair Interview: Darrell Hammond”. CNN. 24 Oct. 2011.
Related:
Fresh Air from WHYY. “‘SNL’s’ Darrell Hammond Reveals Cutting, Abuse”. NPR. 7 Nov. 2011.
Hammond, Darrell. God, If You’re Not Up There, I’m F*cked: Tales of Stand-Up, Saturday Night Live, and Other Mind-Altering Mayhem. New York City: Harper, 2011.
“Nice Work If You Can Get It”
“Nice Work If You Can Get It”. Music by George Gershwin. Lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
The Whole Universe in One Photo
“NASA recently unveiled a new atlas and catalogue of the entire infrared sky, which includes more than a half billion stars, galaxies and other objects captured by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission. It is comprised of more than 2.7 million images taken at four infrared wavelengths of light, capturing everything from nearby asteroids to distant galaxies.”
Hick, Melanie. “The Whole Universe In One Photo”. The Huffington Post. 4 Mar. 2012.
Auntie Barbara
“That’s it. I’m not making any more calls. You do the rest of the family list.”
“I can’t call people, Roseanne…”
“Jackie! Dial.”
“I’m supposed to be in mourning, you know.”
“Well then wear a veil over your face while you do it!”
“Wait Till Your Father Gets Home”. By Amy Sherman-Palladino. Roseanne. ABC, Los Angeles. 9 Feb. 1993.
As A Life’s End Draws Near, A Father And Son Talk
“I’m not anxious about whether there’s a heaven, or there’s music or clouds or whatever. I’m more anxious about the end-of-life journey. I want it to be quiet, contemplative and calm. For me, dying… it’s very enlightening, and certainly rewarding.”
- David Plant, 81
“As A Life’s End Draws Near, A Father And Son Talk”. NPR. 30 Mar. 2012.
Alfred Hitchcock on happiness
“I can’t bear quarreling. I can’t bear feelings between people. I think hatred is wasted energy. And it’s all non-productive. So, I’m very sensitive. A sharp word said by, say, a person who has a temper — if they’re close to me — hurts me for days.”
- Alfred Hitchcock, director
“A Talk with Hitchcock”. Hosted by Fletcher Markle. Telescope. CBC. 1964.
