Network [1976]
1. “Where does that put us, Diana?” “That puts us in the shithouse is where that puts us.”
2. Diana has a poster of Singing in the Rain in her first floor bathroom.
3. When Hackett chances to catch Beale’s broadcast, he becomes so angry that you can actually see his face get red and the veins pop out on his forehead. He runs his fingers through the two patches of hair on either side of his bald spot several times.
Diary of a Mad Housewife [1970]
1. The sound her skirt makes as it slips to the floor after he unzips it.
2. Aside from the Kline painting, there are almost no individualistic details in his apartment. The point is that anyone could live there. Is this his sole residence or is it perhaps a “spare” apartment that he uses for writing?
3. “I held it underwater till it drowned.”
Black Legion [1937]
1. In the kitchen there is a wall-mounted saltbox.
2. The story of his arrest and interrogation are presented as a dramatized radio program. Is this a commentary on the tendency of the media to sensationalize the news, or was this the norm in the 30’s? Either way it’s a fascinating scene.
3. Bogart: “I got just the thing to straighten you out. Some nice ice-cold oatmeal smothered in lard.”
I Live in Fear [1955]
1. The waiting room is very hot and everyone’s sweating. He brings them all cold bottles of soda with straws in them, passes them out. There is one bottle leftover for himself. He sits down, takes out the straw and drinks deeply. Everyone else stares down uncomfortably at their own bottles but no one else drinks.
2. He kneels down in the mud, soiling his robe. Then he apologizes and insists to all the workers that he will find a way to take them to Brazil too. It is at this point that we first know, undoubtedly, that he’s gone mad.
3. The final shot. The banister of a staircase divides the frame in half. On the left, the dentist warily descends the stairs. On the right, a young woman walks down a hallway. When the frame is empty the shot is held for a moment before fading to black.
Pineapple Express [2008]
1. Belt buckle.
2. He sticks his hand into the macaroni to feel how warm it is.
3. James Franco: “You let the monkey out of the bottle.”
MERENGUE
1 oz. dark rum
1 oz. grapefruit juice
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
3/4 oz. falernum
1/2 oz. curacao
1/4 oz. Maraschino liqueur (or cherry brandy)
Shake with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice.
(adapted from here).
I’m looking for a CD boxset that contains all the Ellington small group sessions that Jimmy Blanton played bass on. Does one exist? If it doesn’t, it should.
EDIT: This wonderful set is awfully close, but there still might be a gap of about a year (the set ends at February 1940 and Blanton didn’t go into the sanitorium until late 1941).
Ugh. Headache. Hope it goes away soon. Not looking forward to the 3-hour web meeting I have to attend this morning. Although I may skip out early. Blech.
Over lunch today I met up with my pal Dan and we played a game of Senet. It was pretty fun.
