RIP Gene Wilder

2016 has really been a shit year for celebrities.  Just fucking brutal.

We are gathered here today to celebrate the moviemaking of another wonderful actor we have lost - Gene Wilder.  

Gene Wilder, born Jerome Silberman, had an extremely successful career. This was despite the fact that most of his movies were flops. He was in a handful of hit movies - each one of them was seminal works in their own way. The crazy thing, though, is that he was in a shit ton of stinker movies. Movies that folks don't even know existed (or have forgotten). I think he had more flops than hits, but his hits were ginormous (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, for instance).

I have a warm spot in my heart for some of the borderline stinkers (I always loved Silver Streak with Richard Pryor and Jill Clayburgh) but the movies I thought of immediately upon losing him were the films he made with Mel Brooks. These movies are pure genius. So it's these I wanted to see.

The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein. That's a ridiculously amazing line up.

I've seen all of these multiple times in my youth. I mean MULTIPLE times. Each of them are very different than the other, and so so funny. Like LOL-in-my-house-alone funny. The magical thing about Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks partnership is the heart they brought to these films. What I didn't realize when I was young and amused (yet slightly horrified) at the truly audacious shit in these movies was that these would have been nothing...they would have been Porky's...without that heart.

Now I'm expecting that all of you have seen at least one of these films. If you haven't seen them all, I highly recommend that you do. Completely worth your time.

As I watched this time, I was also struck by how many of these amazing actors show up in multiple Mel Brooks films (Gene, Madeline Khan, Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman). He also had a strong base of brilliant character actors that he used frequently (Kenneth Mars, Liam Dunn). You got to hand it to Mel Brooks - he obviously knew talent when he saw it, grabbed it and hung on. Christopher Guest HAD to have been influenced by this recipe for success:

Get a smart, collaborative, hilarious, amazing bunch of performers together. Check.  

Give them a sturdy foundation (a story with heart) on which to build their performances. Check.  

Let them improvise scenes and ideas. Check. 

Hilarity ensues. Check check check!

Obviously I focused on Gene Wilder when I watched this time. Some things about him:

-His eyeballs. Wow. Just beautiful. They take up half his face! They are soulful and expressive. Sometimes adorned with eyeliner. (Which just makes them more lovelier, actually.  Yes, I'm a girl of the 80s.)

-His hair. Oh Gene. I wish I knew you then. I would introduce you to the haircare regime I've adopted and your locks would be your friend, not your enemy. Sure I use 6 different products (5 for washing alone) but whatevs. Alas, that wasn't meant to be. Frizz it is.

-His mouth. Small, well formed, so delicate. Together with the eyes it created a perfect canvas to create every performance. There's also an almost lisp which adds to the overall vulnerability and is very appealing.

-His talent. We all know him from films, but he actually started in theatre. In fact, he met Brooks because he was in a play with Anne Bancroft (Mel's girlfriend at the time). His films are primarily comedies. What makes him so very special is how nuanced his performances are. He seems to approach his characterization as if the story were a drama (he tears up in Blazing Saddles!). The characters he creates 100% believe in everything they are doing which makes his performances real and makes the comedy so brilliant.  

The Producers - released in 1968

• Favorite quote:  "Don't be stupid, be a smarty. Come and join the Nazi party!"
• Brooks fact:  This is the first film he directed. He had only directed one play prior to this.
• Wilder fact:  Gene was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor! His first film!
• Mel wrote it as a play within a play originally, which I think is why there are so few locations (first 20 minutes are all in Bailystock's office).
• Brooks loved the idea of laughing at a dictator. 
• Roger Ebert wrote, "I remember finding myself in an elevator with Brooks and his wife, actress Anne Bancroft, in New York City a few months after The Producers was released. A woman got onto the elevator, recognized him and said, 'I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar.' Brooks smiled benevolently. 'Lady,' he said, 'it rose below vulgarity'." (from Wikipedia)

(My drink pairing for this would be a gin martini. Think "bar in any theatre district" for inspiration.)

Blazing Saddles - released in February 1974

• Favorite quote:  (so many!!) "Raise my rent!"  (my brother John used to say that all the time)
• Another favorite quote:  "Someone needs to go back for a shitload of dimes!"
• ANOTHER favorite quote:  Really everything that Lily von Shtupp says!
• Wilder fact:  He and Cleavon Little rode horses to the premiere. And stayed on them to watch!
• Richard Pryor was going to play Sheriff Bart but the studio backed off of him because of his history of drug arrests, etc. John Wayne was set for Wilder's part of the Waco Kid. Kind of glad neither of those stuck. Wayne wouldn't do it because it was too naughty (bad for his wholesome image) but was excited to see the finished project. He told Mel he'd be first in line to see the film.

(I'm gonna go out of a limb and give you a food pairing this time. Franks and beans. LOTS of beans. Wash it down with some sarsaparilla. Then clear everyone from the room.)

Young Frankenstein - released in December 1974 (1974 was a good year for Gene and us!)

• Favorite quote:  (again, SO many) "Roll, roll, roll in ze hay!"
• Another favorite quote:  "Could be worse." "How?" "Could be raining."  (I used that one A LOT when I was younger)
• ANOTHER favorite quote:  "He could have an enormous schwanzstucker." "That goes without saying"  "Voof"
• OMG, one more:  "Taffeta, darling."  "Taffeta sweetheart."
• Brooks fact:  Mel originally didn't want the "Puttin' on the Ritz" scene. Wait, WHAT? Wilder fought so hard for it he nearly burst into tears. Mel said "okay, if you feel that strongly about it, it's bound to be great." (I'm a million percent paraphrasing here)
• Wilder fact:  This was originally his idea although he and Brooks shared writing credits. I think you can tell, though, because while clearly Brooks sticks in the sophomoric humor (not dissing, just saying), the script is so thoughtful and heartfelt. They both felt very strongly that they would honor Mary Shelly (author of original Frankenstein novel) and James Whale (director of original Frankenstein film).
• One of my favorite things about this movie is that Brooks and Wilder approached the man who did the original Frankenstein sets in the 1930s, Kenneth Strickfaden, to see if he had any of the sets. They were all just sitting in his garage. He let them take the sets and he even set it up for them!

(My drink pairing for this movie is a shot of Jaegermeister.)

And to wrap this up, I want to do a shameless plug for my niece D'Arcy Carden. I've watched this kid in a myriad of school plays. She's always amazing - I've known this for a long time. Now the world will, because you can watch her in an NBC sitcom - The Good Place. 

http://www.nbc.com/the-good-place?nbc=1

Watch this if you know what's good for you.  :)

My takeaways - 

#1 - 2016 has been a hell of a year. I'm ready to move on, thanks.

#2 - I didn't mention Gene and Gilda being married because he was married a bunch of other times too. What I appreciate about him, however, is his private life was just that - private.

#3 - I re-watched Willy Wonka recently. Goddammit that's a good movie.

xoxo....hashtagSueslife

Celebrating Dogan H Erokan

This is off my normal posting "rhythm", but today would have been my dad's 100th birthday and I wanted to honor him. I don't write a lot about my dad here - largely because he wasn't a big movie fan. But he was a character and an influence and he is always with me, even though he's been gone for over half my life.

Some things about my father:

• He was all sorts of secretive and internal. Honestly, he could have been a film director in Hollywood for all I knew. Okay, that's an exaggeration but here's some stuff to illustrate my dad, his work and secrets
• He worked on HIGHLY sensitive projects at Lockheed back in the day. He was originally an engineer in their Oceanography division but ended up in Missiles and Space. The irony that I work on secret stuff right now is not lost on me.
• He was also the guy who got plaques for having Zero Defects in his work. Try living up to that when you can barely grasp basic Algebra. That was tough on our relationship.
• While he was at Lockheed he was flying to LA and back daily on one of his top-secret jobs...and my family didn't know about it until it was done. MY MOM had no idea. He'd leave at his normal time in the morning and be home for dinner. Crazy, right?
• He believed in reincarnation, which may have been something prevalent in his religion, but he had one story that exemplified why he believed. He was a naturally gifted mathematician, but the thing that blew even his mind is when he took his first computer class at Harvard (ahem). He just GOT it. He just knew what the professor was talking about (this was in the early 40s...big wall sized computers). He understood it to the point that they moved him to the next level class (at HARVARD) so he could actually learn something. That shit is nuts.
• He had an exceedingly crusty exterior but I know deep down he loved his family. (He went up against my mother when I was 12 and wanted a kitten. He was surprisingly on my side. We won, and that was no easy feat! That's love for you.) He just had a hard time showing it. My theories on why:
• Maybe this was because he was raised by a single mother who had lost both her husbands (my dad was only 2 when his father was killed in the Battle of Gallipoli). She probably had a lot to manage.
• Maybe it's a Turkish thing - apparently my grandmother told my mom that you only kiss your children when they are sleeping; you don't show affection.
• Or maybe it was because he was a true introvert.
• He was a different guy when he was young.
• My aunt tells me this crazy story about how she was visiting once and wanted to go gambling so he drove her to Reno for one night. They stayed up all night gambling and came home the next day.
• When he was dating my mom (he was attending either Harvard or MIT, cuz he went to both!) he was the life of her family parties, often drinking everyone under the table.  
• My mom's family adored my dad, despite the Greek/Turkish thing!
• He hated being sick - I think for him it was the ultimate insult. He was very active and took good care of himself; he ate well and exercised regularly. His body let him down. He also hated being a burden on his family. He apologized to me once, close to the end. For being sick. That's something that stays with you.

Some things about my dad and me:

• He loved having a daughter (being the old Turkish man he was, he called me "Daughter" all the time.  Or maybe he just forgot my name. Kidding.) but I think that after I grew out of being a malleable little kid, he had no idea what to do with me. I can guarantee he didn't bank on living with an opinionated, outgoing female who didn't want to do things the way he wanted (I'm not sure why, since that is what he married. Maybe he was hoping his offspring wouldn't be as contrary as his wife?). I got lectured on things ALL THE TIME. I know he had had enough rebellion from my crazy musician brothers and I also assume he had very strict ideas of how girls should behave. Sadly, that's not what he got.
• He and I had a rough go of it for the majority of my teenage years through my early 20s. I'm sure he was continually flummoxed and I was just irritated. Not a great mix, but pretty typical. The unfortunate thing was I didn't have much time with him after I grew up and pulled my head out of my ass to really understand him. 

We made our amends, my dad and I. Granted it was at the last minute, but still. And what I have come to realize and accept is I am my father's daughter in many ways, inside and out.

• I have his face. (Although I've never mastered the raised brow like he did. His was epic and terrifying to my high school friends.)
• I have his fucked up, glaucoma eyes.
• I have a bit of his OCD Virgo behavior. (Any one who doesn't believe me should ask Beth about our headdresses when we belly danced.)

And a few of the things he taught me have stayed with me.

• Don't walk over street grates wearing high heels.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation is awesome. He was watching it before me!
• Music is important.

So in his honor today, I'm going to add an email I sent to my book club when I wasn't working (these emails were the beginnings of my blog). A really odd thing about my father, who was a math genius and had multiple degrees, was that he loved some seriously bad TV. This was one of his favorites.

(Originally sent March '15)

I was overjoyed this morning to find that Fantasy Island has shown up in my daytime TV rotation! Exciting. I LOVED this show when I was younger. Naturally I am watching it and this is what I'm finding (like a mini Sue's Revues):

• Ricardo Montalban is a fine looking older man
• He is also a ridiculous over-actor.  
• 80's lipstick style is really not good...bad colors and everyone looks like they have misshaped lips (or maybe these actresses just do have misshaped lips!)
• Tattoo is fucking awesome!!
• Tattoo is also a ridiculous over-actor.
• Mr. Rourke is heavy handed when he's trying to "teach someone a lesson".  And by the way...if it's my fantasy, WHY are you teaching ME a lesson??  
• I'd want my money back if I were a patron of Fantasy Island.  Fuck you and your lessons.

As I'm learning with my foray into movies and TV of my youth:  Some things are better left in the past.

Happy birthday, Dad. We miss you. We should all raise a glass of port in his honor. And if you are so inclined, smoke a pipe.

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

The influential 80s

**This has a couple of minor spoilers, so if you haven't seen Stranger Things, read at your own risk.

I'm sort of hit and miss when it comes to jumping on a popular TV show bandwagon. Case in point:  I still haven't seen any episodes of either The Sopranos or Breaking Bad. Yup. Let that sink in. 

I do think that Netflix and Amazon have made me less reluctant to adopt new shows because I can binge watch. I guess I like immediate gratification.

When Stranger Things became all the rage, I was a tiny bit reluctant to watch. Did I want a new show to obsess over? Did it sound too scary (I've become a big wimp in my old age)? Could I manage a whole show with Winona Ryder?? But I did it. And I'm super glad I did.

I really enjoyed this show. The 1980s immersion is amazing. The writing is really good. The acting is wonderful - particularly the kids. So impressive.

The Duffer Brothers are the creative force behind this. They are just babies, though, so I imagine their love of the 80's comes from their parents (like my love of Gene Kelly). I can just hear their parents saying, "You HAVE to watch E.T.  We watched it when we were kids!" This is only their second big project - if they continue in this trajectory I think we can expect great things from these twins.

I was reading some articles about the show and I came across the movies that inspired them, which I thought was interesting. They said they asked the kids to watch Stand By Me, The Goonies and Poltergeist. They asked their writers to watch The Thing, E.T. and A Nightmare on Elm St.

I would wager there was heavy inspiration from Alien and Firestarter as well. I mean, Eleven has some total "Drew Barrymore as Charlie" moments when she's inflicting her will on people and the fact that we only get glimpses of the monster throughout the show has Ridley Scott written all over it. Good stuff.

So for my post I thought I'd watch some of the aforementioned inspirational movies. I picked one from each category. I thought about watching The Thing (80's version) because it's been YEARS since I've seen it but I didn't have it in me this weekend. Oddly, this showed up in my FB feed this week and it's really brilliant. It's a stop motion "claymation" version of The Thing and it's worth your time. Trust me.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ds4fqgwp4Ig

What I discovered in my quest to be one with the Duffer Brothers influences is that their tribute to the 80s is a bit less of an homage and cozies right up to being plagiarism. I mean - they REALLY lifted stuff from these films. If they were writing a term paper, the teacher would have totally called them out on this shit. Let's examine.

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial - released in 1982

This is like the Who's Who of 1980s movies.

Directed by Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy. Written by Melissa Mathison (Mrs. Harrison Ford for 21 years...until he met the stick figure). Music by John Williams. It's like Hollywood royalty.

I wasn't sure how I was going to react to seeing this movie again. I honestly think I've only maybe seen it once since the first time at the Century Theatre in San Jose when I was 18 years old. I remember being so affected by it then, I was practically sobbing in the theatre. And I hate crying in public. That stinkin' Spielberg really knows how to access the feels.

Well it happened again. I was a blubbery mess and not only at the "I'll be right here" forehead-tapping moment. I started tearing up at the Phone Home part. And don't even get me started about the part when everyone thinks he died. Now that I have a bit of life experience behind me, I realize that a big part of this film's emotional pull for me is that no matter how much Elliott loves him, E.T. will always be an outsider and it will never work. I know this hit me on a visceral level when I was younger, too. I don't know why this theme affects me like it does (well, maybe I have an inkling), but there you have it. I'm leaving this piece of emotional baggage in the trunk for now, thanks.

Say what you will about old Steven S, but I think he's a darn good director. I had never noticed this before (maybe it was obvious to others) but for the first 3/4 of the movie - an hour and a half - the only adult face you see is Elliott's mom. Elliott's teacher, the guy with the keys, all the government folks - anonymous. This is a movie about kids handling shit. I thought it was a great touch. Also, there is mist and fog and atmosphere all over this movie. Nice touch when conveying that nothing in life or relationships is black and white, right? It was so reminiscent of a Ridley Scott film, actually.

In this movie, the kids are great actors. Each one actually gives a nuanced performance. And that little Drew Barrymore could not be more adorable.

Elements of plagiarism:

• Like Stranger Things, the gang of boys is playing Dungeons and Dragons at the beginning and the D&D verbiage comes up a couple times in the film.
• Boys on bikes - specifically racing away from the government vans.
• Precocious younger sister - Elliott has Gert, Michael of Stranger Things has Holly.
• Eleven is sequestered in Michael's basement.  E.T. is sequestered in Elliott's room. Unbelievably, at no time do the parents clue in. (this would never have happened in my house)
• The Keys guy in E.T. (Peter Coyote) and the head scientist in Stranger Things (Matthew Modine) look a lot alike.

Central casting - get me a scary scientist type STAT!

And seriously, what could be more iconic than this?

(My drink pairing:  E.T. gets himself and Elliott drunk off of a couple of beers in cans. So you know your mission.)

The Goonies - released in 1985

Hey, youuuuuu guuuuys!!

I will admit I was a bit older when I first saw this than the demographic of Goonies lovers. So I like the movie. I think I'm about 10 years too old for "love". It's a really fun film - like a roller coaster ride. Non-stop action, lovable characters. It's not like these character have depth or anything silly like that but they are easy to relate to.

This is another film that has the Spielberg/Kennedy dream team as producers. Richard Donner directed (also of Christopher Reeves Superman fame).

I got a bit tired of the nonstop kid "yelling as acting" style. I was frankly shocked that poor little Short Round (okay, he's called Data here but I couldn't get beyond his Indiana Jones character) didn't lose his voice while they were filming this. I know this is how kids actually interact, but still. The kids are also super affectionate with each other, which is sweet, but not how I think a group of boys typically behave. Short Round and Sean Astin skip arm in arm A LOT in this movie. Skipping. Hugging. Weird.

Chris Columbus (Harry Potter, Mrs. Doubtfire) wrote this. As I've established in this blog, I'm not a big fan of his but I will say I probably enjoy his writing more than his directing. This movie is a good time, without a doubt. 

Elements of plagiarism:

• Dustin in Stranger Things is pretty much Chunk although Dustin has more street cred. Chunk is pretty one note in his quest for food (at one point he's drinking water out of a cooler in the gross, dirty, abandoned restaurant they are in and I was so worried it wasn't potable that I got distracted from the plot - I'm using the word "plot" loosely, btw) while Dustin seems to have a few other interests (not that food isn't important).
• Barb in Stranger Things is almost a direct lift of the Martha Plimpton character - not only looks-wise but the fact that she is clearly the perennial wing woman to Nancy/Andi. Martha makes it to the end, though. Sorry Barb.

Come on!  Same-same, right?

Finally, the Sloth element of this movie is pretty darn fucked up. I don't think anyone could get away with a character like that anymore in our PC world. His mother dropped him on his head several times which is a joke in the film? Yowch.  And his ears are constantly moving. Why? Why do they move??  Chunk loves him, though, and tells him multiple times, so there's that.

(My drink pairing with this is a Cape Cod. Cuz even though it's Astoria, OR - it reminds me of the East Coast. Plus vodka and cranberry juice - yum!)

My takeaways:

#1 - Time marches on.

E.T. cast - Thirty years later!

The Goonies cast - Twenty five years later!

#2 - Here's the best though:

WTF!

xoxo...hastagSueslife

Snippets

I’ve been reminded recently that taking care of a kitten is a shit ton of work.  There is an extra mouth to feed (which has to happen separately because Cosmo will eat ALL the things) and then there is the dedicated time to wearing out the kitten each night.  Layer that with giving Cosmo tons of extra attention and being ever vigilant on where the kitten is and what he’s getting into.

Seriously, it’s like a full time job.  On top of my super busy full time job.

All that to say that again my movie viewing has been sporadic at best.

Beth recently posted something on FB about what movies folks will always stop on when channel surfing.  What will you pick up at any point and watch?  This was a great post; it’s so interesting to see what people have watched enough times to make it a “keeper".

Well, that has pretty much been my life for the last couple weeks…although the films I watched needed to also have the added criteria of being dispensable at any moment.

So I thought for this post, I’d take you through some of the films that I will almost always stop on and the snippets I got to see.

National Treasure - released in 2004

This movie is on all the fucking time.  Seriously. Almost every hour of every day you can find this movie on some channel or another.  And I’m not saying this because I mind.  I enjoy this movie completely.  I just find it astonishing.

I think this film has such staying power because it’s really fun and because you can drop in, watch a bit, then blink out pretty easily.  Nicholas Cage is charming and he and Justin Bartha (Riley) have great chemistry.  Honestly, I can take or leave Diane Kruger.  She leaves me kind of cold.

This time I popped in on National Treasure when they were at the dad’s house with the Declaration of Independence.  They had just stolen it and were looking to check the back of it for secret messages using lemon juice and a blow dryer (like you do).  Jon Voight plays the dad…I’m never sure what to think about him and sadly that’s largely due to his daughter.  She acts circles around him, without a doubt, but what kind of dad are you to raise such a wing nut in the first place? (We can all pretend Angelina is this benevolent, artistic activist but we can’t forget that she practically MADE OUT with her brother at an awards show. Blick.)  I popped back out when the authorities started to chase them.  Honestly, I probably would have hung in longer, because I can get totally sucked into this movie, but I’m pretty sure Finn had knocked something over that I had to deal with (this will become a theme in today’s post).

(My drink pairing for this movie is always a Sam Adams. Because, come on!)

Enchanted - released in 2007

I love this movie.  I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve watched it.  It’s got all the elements I enjoy - Cinderella-esque, musical numbers, animation. Trifecta of good.

When I worked on Madagascar (the first) we were working with this world-renowned animator, James Baxter.  He had worked at Disney for years (on the biggies: Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Lion King) and all our animators revered him.  He’s like an animation celebrity.  I don’t think he was having the best time working on our film (he wasn’t a huge fan of working on computer animation at the time) and left DW to start his own company, doing hand animation, toward the end of production.  The first film his company worked on:  Enchanted.

Enchanted uses both 2D and 3D animation.  James’ company worked on the 2D stuff.  The film was produced by Walt Disney Pictures, so naturally the design is pure Disney and beautiful.  The 3d is also lovely and charming.  

I picked up this movie toward the end…Giselle is a 2D girl come to life in the real world.  She is engaged to a prince in the 2D world but meets someone (Patrick Dempsey) in the real world and falls in love.  My snippet comes when her 2D prince has followed her to the real world, takes her on a “date” (which never happens in the animated world - they just meet and get married the next day), then they go to a ball, where Patrick is.  There is a super romantic dance scene, then the Wicked Witch (Susan Sarandon, who is always awesome) turns into a computer animated Dragon and creates havoc.  This is where I had to leave it, because Finn knocked something over and I had to deal with it (See? A theme.).

(My drink pairing for this is a Pina Colada or something equally sweet and fruity.  The kind of drink that you suck down then realize you are hammered.)

The Mummy - released in1999

This is another movie I love.  Again, it has so many elements I require in multiple viewings - a re-vamp of a classic monster movie, funny, special effects.

This was maybe the last time I think poor Brendan Fraser looked good in a film.  He was already starting to deteriorate in The Mummy Returns, poor guy.  Plus, I think he just hasn’t chosen good roles for himself since this film.  Rachel Weisz has done much better, obviously, and I include her marriages in this.  She clearly married Darren Aronofsky to prove she is a deep thinker and possibly a bit bleak…like his films.  Then she married Daniel Craig because she had enough of deep thinking and wanted a hot body.  I can’t blame her.

I dropped in on this film right after they fight the Mummy the first time.  They are back in Cairo and Fraser is trying to get Weisz to go back to England.  She doesn’t want to be treated like a weak woman, so she’s fighting him every step of the way.  The Mummy comes to call on her, but a cat confronts him and makes him dissolve into a whirlwind of sand.  Nice effect, especially for the time.  I will admit, this film is ALL about the particle animation, though.  They use it a BUNCH.  I’m not judging…just saying.

The moment I watched had the added bonus of one of the American archeologists being sucked dry from the inside out by the Mummy.  Excellent!  Then…Finn knocked something over and I had to deal with it.

(My drink pairing for this film is a Pimm’s Cup. It’s British, which this film sometimes pretends to be.  Perfect.)

My takeaways:

#1 - I’d love to hear what movies you guys pop in and out of when they’re on TV.   Leave me comments!

#2 - This photo depicts what my life is like right now.  Surprisingly, this did not result in a “knocked over” situation!

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

Everybody loves a ginger!

I haven’t watched any movies (or really much of anything) for the last two weeks.  This is 100% due to the fact that I obtained something much more entertaining…a kitten.  

Finn is his name.  He is ridiculous and adorable and ginger.  He just turned 3 months old and is as small as can be.  I am totally in love.

I had forgotten, because it’s been awhile since Cosmo was tiny, but when there is a kitten in your house it’s pretty much all you want to watch.  So no movies.  Because this:

What I thought I’d do instead, is highlight some excellent performances by ginger cats in films.

Jonesy 

Alien - released in 1979

Jonesy is the resident cat on the Nostromo - the commercial hauler that was sent out into deep space to answer an SOS.  And I can guarantee, if Jonesy had been captain of that ship, there was no way in hell they would have responded to that call. He knew that was a suicide mission from the moment he woke up from hypersleep.

An example - Jones was having NONE OF IT when Harry Dean Stanton was trying to get him to come out of his hidey-hole.  “Um, HDS,” Jonesy mews, “there is a big mean motherfucker behind you and I’m pretty sure he’s gonna eat you.”  Harry Dean didn’t respond (he is SO not a multitasker) so Jonesy slinks back into the safe place and Harry bites the big one.  “Told you.”  Jonesy thinks. “Idiot."

Jonesy makes it off the Nostromo presumably in one piece (I think after the first film there was speculation that the alien had impregnated him...but no way - he’s a badass cat!), off to live another day and chase holographic mice.

(My drink pairing is a huge glass of milk.  If you don’t know why, go watch the movie immediately.)

Cat

Breakfast at Tiffany’s - released in 1961

Cat is the quintessential ginger tabby.  He’s big and handsome, mellow and independent.  He and Holly (Audrey Hepburn) have the perfect relationship…they lead totally independent lives together.

In reading about Cat today, this was a little gem I found and thought was spot on:  The simply named “Cat” endures all sorts of horrors as the pet of Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly, not the least of which being Mickey Rooney’s racist depiction of Yunioshi.

Heh.

I wouldn’t really call what he endured “horrors” per se (well, the Mickey Rooney performance to be sure).  He lived through some wild 1960's parties, some petting and a gooey smooch scene at the end.  He’s all mashed in between Audrey and George Peppard.  I’m sure he’s thinking, “Get. The fuck. Off me.”

Cat (real name: Orangey.  Seriously, person who named this cat?  That was the best you could do??) was quite the actor, apparently.  He was in The Incredible Shrinking Man and the Mission: Impossible television show.

He won a PATSY (animal equivalent of an Academy Award) for his work in this film.

(My drink pairing for this is a gin martini with a lemon twist.  Classy.)

Crookshanks

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - released in 2004

There are all sorts of theories about Crookshanks, apparently.  Originally owned by Lily Potter.  Is actually Regulus Black.  I love when people have a TON of time on their hands.

Crookshanks is another great ginger cat!  He takes care of business in the Harry Potter books and films.  He knows Scabbers is a big fake.  He is a friend of Padfoot (Sirius Black).  He’s kind of always a dick to Ron. 

Crookshanks is played by a cat named Crackerjack, and I read that the trainers had to collect all the hair he shed, ball it up and clip it back on to him to get his ratty, unkempt look.  Poor method-actor Crackerjack!  Plus, I have this picture in my mind of Crackerjack doing all his stunts, perfectly and in one take, but thinking “Jesus CHRIST it’s hot in here.  Can someone turn on a goddamn fan?”  In a British accent.

Okay, maybe not.

(Duh.  Drink Butterbeer.)

Puss in Boots

Shrek 2 - released in 2004

Well, come on.  You knew I was gonna add this one, right?

This was the first animated movie I worked on when I started at Dreamworks.  I remember sitting in animation dailies and our animator was creating the shot where Puss uses his sword to mark the tree with a P.  I couldn’t believe how stinkin’ adorable he was!  And then to hear Antonio Banderas’ super sexy voice coming out of him?  I thought “oh shit, this is gonna be big.”  I mean, what cat lady WOULDN’T want her adorable tomcat to sound like Antonio Banderas?  That’s like a win-win, right ladies?

Puss is the ultimate ladies cat, but loves his bros as well.  Once he meets Shrek and Donkey, they are bosom buddies and he’s loyal to the end.  Maybe not so cat-like, actually, but hey - it’s a cartoon.

Working on this film was a fantastic introduction to working at Dreamworks Animation.  I had a dream boss (lookin' at you, Dahlman!), the animators were not only top in their field but also so nice, and hilarious directors.  Then, it became the highest grossing animated film, holding that title until this year, I think.  What a way to start a new job, huh?

Puss arguably steals the movie.  He has SO many good lines, one of my favorite being when he's getting arrested and they find a little baggie in his boot.  "Catnip!" the guard cries.  "Um...that's not mine" says a sheepish Puss.  God love that little stoned cat!

(My drink pairing would be my (well deserved and certainly abused) drink of choice during those years...Margarita, on the rocks, no salt.)

My takeaways:

#1 - I helped rescue a ginger kitten when I was about 24 years old.  He grew into a fine cat and I've wanted one ever since.

#2 - I didn't mean to slight any other cat actors (cactors?).  Siamese, Persians, etc, have made their mark (figuratively) on the silver screen.  

#3 - If anyone is in a shitty mood, come visit me.  You can't stay grumpy when you watch a kitten play.  It's a law.

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

Mamma Mia!

This year marks 20 years since my mother passed away and today would be her 95th birthday, so I'd like to do a bit of reminiscing in this post. Hope you don't mind.

As anyone who has read my blog before knows, my mom was a huge influence on my movie watching (and let's be honest, my everything else) from way back and typically on or around her birthday I try to watch a movie that either she loved or that I think she would love.  The year my mother passed away, serendipity stepped in and on her actual birthday a local theatre had a Gone With the Wind revival, which was her favorite movie ever.  It was pretty epic to go see that movie on that particular day.  My emotions were very raw, as you can imagine, but it was kind of soothing to watch the gorgeous, lush Technicolor images I had seen SO many times in my youth; it made me feel almost like she was there with me.

Some Athena Anita Caragianis Erokan bullet points for your enjoyment:

• She was fiercely loyal to her family.
• She had two brothers and three sisters and, of course, her parents (my yiayia and pappou).  She would do anything for them and missed them terribly when she lived in Istanbul and California.  She even named one of her sons after her baby brother, John.  These are the people that made me understand all about Greek pride. 
• I think she still watches over me:  the most striking example being the day after she died.  It was Christmas day (of all fucked up things) and my family was trying to retain some semblance of normalcy, I think.  I was driving over to the East Bay in the early morning.  Just before I got on the Bay Bridge I got pulled over by the highway patrol. Seriously?? I immediately started thinking "okay, I'm gonna tell them my mom died yesterday and I'll start crying..."  I was actually trying to channel my mom because she was really good at getting out of tickets.  Once, when she was pulled over for speeding, she said "Officah..." in the Bostonian accent she never lost and the cop (who OF COURSE was from Boston) immediately caved and let her off the hook.  She batted her eyes and giggled.  Honest to God. Anyway, it turns out the cops noticed that my tire was dangerously low, called AAA and waited with me until the guy came to change my tire.  Weird, right?
• She knew how to negotiate a deal.
• When I went to Turkey several years ago and met my father's family, all they could talk about was her.  I'd say "What was my dad like when he was young??" and they would all say (seriously, ALL of them) "Oh, your dad was so nice and your MOTHER...!".  Then they would launch into crazy stories about how she shook everything up when she moved there.  One of my favorite stories was about three young girls (cousins?  I'm still unclear on how everyone was related in my dad's family!) who wanted my mom to teach them English.  My mom said sure, but they had to repay her by doing chores for her.  These girls had NEVER done chores before (my dad's family had money) and were horrified but my mom stood firm.  Apparently this stuck with them because they told me this story 50 years later!
• She was also amazingly good at bartering/haggling - which is infinitely embarrassing when you are a preteen.
• She was ridiculously brave.
• My dad was in the Turkish Navy and in the early 50's it was pretty uncool to have a Greek wife (like he-could-get-kicked-out uncool).  So when she moved there (which was brave enough - leaving her home, parents and siblings to go start a family in a foreign country!) she had to change her first name so no one would know she was Greek ("Athena" would have been a dead giveaway).  They picked "Anita".
• She was PC before it was hip.
• When I was 11 years old and told her I wanted to spell my name Sioux (I think we were studying Native Americans, this was way before Siouxie Sioux...I'm old, people), she was having NONE of it; reminding me how rude it would be since we weren't American Indian. I was irritated but she was right.
• She was ridiculously accident-prone.
• She had a shit ton of scars, including one at her hairline from falling through a plate glass window when she was little.
• When I was young she literally almost rolled off a cliff in Santa Cruz onto the rocks at the bottom.  I nearly had a heart attack that day.
• She was a terrible influence on my friends.
• I would come home from work when I was in high school and she'd be sitting at the dining room table with some of my friends, all smoking.  Smoking. With. Them.  Sigh.  They loved hanging out with her.
• She was a total lightweight.
• One glass of alcohol made her goofy and giggly.  Once she was walking behind me after drinking half a glass of wine at a Christmas party and stumbled, dumping it all over me.  Thanks Mom! Your 15 year old smells like a dive bar!
• She could be kind of a jerk.
• To be "funny" she would comb my leg hair.  Har har.
• She was NOT okay when I was a jerk.
• Her famous line, when I was being an asshole, was "I always love you, but right now I don't like you."  Brutal.
• My brothers had a different experience with my parents than I did.
• She frequently told people that she felt it was MUCH easier to raise boys than girls.  When I finally did the math on that one and realized she meant ME specifically (I have no sisters) I confronted her.  She just smiled at me.
• She was pretty hilarious.
• When she lived in Turkey and was learning the language, she was entertaining with her mother in law (who was a bit stuffy, as I understand it).  She wanted to ask my dad's cousin if he was too warm and if she should open a window (I think he was some big wig in the town or something so everyone was being extra polite), but mispronounced the phrase and asked him if he had to take a shit (to be fair, the phrases sounded similar according to her).  She thought it was funny. My grandmother was horrified.  The cousin LOVED my mom after that.  And I think they opened the window.

There are a million things that I miss about my mom, but maybe the biggest things are her smile and laugh.  She had a huge, often used laugh. And her smile lit up a room. I would give anything to see it again.

And in case you want to channel a bit of Anita Erokan (which I highly recommend...it's liberating) you can start by yelling "You have a prairie!  Move!!" to any cars that are in your way when you're driving and then maybe watch a movie. Here are some (beside GWTW) she enjoyed:

Singin' In The Rain (or anything with Gene Kelly, frankly)

It Happened One Night 

Gilda

Ocean's Eleven (the original of course)

Wuthering Heights  

Silverado

Funny Girl (mostly for Omar Sharif, who had "bedroom eyes" - her phrase)

Happy birthday Mom.  I'm making some baklava in your honor.

xoxo...hashtagSueslife

Raiders! (no, definitely NOT the football team)

A few years ago I went to see a film called Raiders of the Lost Ark:  The Adaptation, which is a shot for shot "remake" of Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark made in the early 80's by some kids from Mississippi.

Then a couple weeks ago, I followed that up with a viewing of Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made, which is a documentary about the film and the creation of the one scene they were unable to do when they were children:  the WWII plane blowing up. 

Watching this movie brought up ALL SORTS of childhood memories for me, most of which star my dear, dear friend Norm.  In fact, Norm is the first friend I ever had being that we met when he was born, 4 months after me.  Truth be told, we got married by maybe a clown (?) at a carnival when we were about five.  I'm not sure we ever had it officially annulled.

(this is one of my favorite pics of Norm and me. It captures us perfectly - Norm is clearly explaining physics to my family and I'm thinking "kitty!".  Also, I just noticed that my plastic (not stuffed) cat apparently was ready to attack Norm's cowboys!)

Norm and I were some original role-playing gamers.  One of the first things I remember us doing was re-enacting Daktari, a show that probably no one remembers (Daktari is Swahili for Doctor).  It ran for four seasons (who knew!?) and was the story of a (white white white!) veterinarian and his daughter who live in Africa and tend to the animals there.  They also defend the animals from poachers, etc.  They had two pets - Judy the chimp and Clarence the Lion (I think we can make a well educated guess as to why I loved this show).  

We constantly dragged ALL of Norm's stuffed animals out and "played" this show.  We were still a product of our times, however, so Norm always was the vet and I was the daughter.  Still, I remember her as being pretty cool so I was okay with this casting.

Fast forward ten years to the summer of '78.  I know I've written about this before, but Star Wars blew our minds.  I mean BLEW. OUR. MINDS.  Norm and I had a bet going as to who would see the film 10 times first (Norm won, dang it!) and it seemed like our every waking moment was discussing, analyzing, being one with this film.  Total immersion.  In between throwing Norm's dog Timmy his stick (he was OBSESSED with that stick - Timmy, not Norm) we started quoting the film.  And I don't mean random quotes.  I mean we started at the beginning and quoted to the end.  Norm was always infinitely better at remembering than me, but we had a blast doing it.

Remember, this was before videotapes (although there may have been an LP with some of the dialog?) so we were just recreating from memory what we had seen in the movie theatre.

Watching the documentary Raiders! took me right back to that time.  Basically, these two 11 year olds saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 and it BLEW. THIER. MINDS.  They loved it so much, like we felt about Star Wars; they had to somehow become one with it, they needed to ingest it.  And clearly just quoting the hell out of it wasn't enough for these guys - they decided to dedicate their summers to recreating it shot for shot.  I'm sure they didn't think it would really take the whole of their next seven summers (and I'm sure they wouldn't have thought in their wildest dreams that 30 years later they would STILL be working on it), but they were fully committed.  

They nearly set their house on fire, spent their entire allowances and in the end nearly killed someone, so to call it an amateur production is a gross understatement.

But they just fucking did it.

And I admire them for that.  If Norm and I only had a way to access a video camera back then...Timmy could have TOTALLY played Chewbacca. 

Both of them, Chris Strompolos (Greek!) and Eric Zala, had troubled childhoods and clearly needed something to distract them.  And fortunately they have very different skill sets - Chris is a natural born actor (Greek!) and Eric is a total organized, anal-retentive producer-type - so their partnership was perfect.

They discovered that nothing was easy, so they became super innovative in scheming up ways to create each scene.  Their other partner in crime was a guy named Jayson Lamb.  He was at the time (and continues to be) an incredibly eccentric kid who became their special effects wizard.  

My favorite thing is that they would view their "dailies" at the TV station Chris' mom worked at.  At some point an adult who worked there saw that they basically set Eric's basement on fire for the Mongolian bar scene and called foul.  So they got some vagrant-y type dude who lived on Chris' family's property to "supervise". I think he might have been drunk and/or stoned the whole time.

Like all creative collaborations there was plenty of internal strife.  The boys ended up hating each other for years (to be fair, Chris the Greek was pretty much a massive douche and Eric the producer was very wimpy,  And Jayson was and remains just flat out weird) after they were finally finished with the project (minus the explosion scene).

Many years later a VHS (Clearly someone was doing their own archeological dig to find a fucking VHS!) surfaced at an underground film festival in Austin.  This led to a bit of actual fame for Chris, Eric and Jayson.  Their film became a cult phenomenon that eventually led to a Kickstarter campaign to get that last coveted shot in the can.

Well, you can imagine that nothing went smoothly (including that they practically killed their explosion "expert"...I'd hazard to say he was no "expert" since he nearly blew himself up), yet in the end they get their shot and it makes for an incredibly entertaining documentary.  It's lovingly done, you get the feeling that the filmmakers wished they had done something as cool when they are 11 years old.  As do I.

(My drink pairing with this is Bartles and Jaymes Wine Coolers (do they still make them??).  Seems like that's what these guys would have stolen from their mom's fridge for their wrap party.)

My takeaways:

#1 - Honestly, this puts me in the mind of the documentary, American Movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMFZOu8rDUQ) which is fucking brilliant.  If you haven't seen it, watch it as soon as you can.

#2 - I'm pretty sure neither Norm's parents nor mine would have been okay with any of these kind of shenanigans so our project would have been shut down before it was started.

#3 - Norm, even though our marriage was a sham, you know I still love you!

xoxox....hashtagSueslife