Baryshnikov was right. Fred Astaire may have been the best dancer who ever lived. And Rita Hayworth wasn’t bad either!
Watch it here.
I don’t know how I feel about this little film. It’s interesting. Thought-provoking. And touching. But then I did the math: only 300 hook removals in 25 years? That’s less than one a month! Who’s paying her… and why?
When Mr. Bean is talking against cancel culture, something is wrong.
I scored 8 out of 10 on this quiz about cult movies. Can you do better? Click here.
Michael Jackson invented his own style of dancing that’s been emulated ad nauseam. SC sent me this clip of James Brown doing his unique way of dancing – some called it “happy feet.” It occurred to me that no one I know has ever even tried to learn it!
Watch it here.
Omeleto, a four-year-old YouTube channel, advertises itself as a “home for the next generation of great filmmakers.” The channel features a wide range of genres and even some notable celebrity cameos, including Maisie Williams, Amanda Seyfried, Nick Offerman, and the legendary Danny DeVito.
I’ve seen several of the short films on Omeleto already, and have become an enthusiastic viewer. Here’s a good example, a story about “how a man’s life begins to unravel when a chatting stranger disturbs his peace”…
I was talking to a book-club friend last night about how pace – the speed at which a story is told – is so important in the success of fiction and drama. By sheer coincidence, soon after that discussion, another friend sent this clip of Norm McDonald telling a very standard, very juvenile, and otherwise not particularly funny “Dirty Johnny” joke. Except it worked brilliantly because of his genius for pacing. Check it out.
The latest from The Innocence Project…
When I was 17, I spent a week in a jail cell in Victorville, CA. It wasn’t pleasant. The cell was small. The meals were bad and skimpy. The treatment was denigrating. But the worst part was knowing that I could not leave. I promised myself that I would remember how that felt. And I did. And I remembered what I told myself then: Whatever it takes, don’t go back!
It seeded in my gut a respect for the serious punishment that incarceration is. And, more importantly, the awareness that putting an innocent person in jail is a terrible injustice, one that should not be taken lightly. As a result, I’ve always been inclined to support efforts to free unfairly imprisoned people. Thus, my ongoing support for The Innocence Project and similar non-profit programs.
Click here to learn about a man that was unjustly imprisoned for 27 years and is now working to keep others from having the same experience.
A cute spoof of one of the more absurd tenets of Wokeness…
Carole King had an interesting arc of celebrity. I always assumed it was based on her various relationships with more celebrated artists, like James Taylor and Mick Jagger. But in this clip, you can see how, back then, she had a very special voice…
Watch it here.