March 29, 2012

 

“WE’RE THE SAME TEMPERATURE NOW.”

  1. . . . That’s what Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) says to his new wife, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) in the very short (15 seconds worth) movie trailer for the next installment of “The Twilight” Saga: “Breaking Wind Part 2.” (Opens Friday, Nov. 16)
  2. . . . Uh . . . I meant “Breaking Dawn,” sorry.
  3. . . . She’s a full-on vampire now and when she looks up to him in the preview you know it because she’s got those evil red eyes, like the baby did in a quick shot of him in the baby carriage in “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968).
  4. . . . Cut to a nice little deer in the forest and then a shot of Bella lurking behind a tree, contemplating her next meal.
  5. . . . She’s got a different kind of appetite now. She’s no vegan.
  6. . . . I saw the preview at “The Hunger Games” over the weekend. What a movie, so well directed (Gary Ross) and in the same class (demographics) of movies as “Twilight” and “Harry Potter” which have been attracting the younger crowd.
  7. . . . But, to me, there’s more life and action in this movie than in the “Twilights” and not as much “CGI”stuff as in the “Harry” films.
  8. . . . “Games” depicts a futuristic world in which live-coverage reality TV showcases teens fighting to the death, hosted deliciously by Stanley Tucci in blue hair (a la Katy Perry), wild suits and glistening white teeth and who’s hungry for the latest competition to begin.
  9. . . . Kids between 12 and 18 from districts around Panem (the countries of North America, which no longer exist) are chosen in a lottery.
  10. . . . Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers to step in for her younger sister (who had been officially chosen) and is the focus of the games and the movie, along with Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), both from District 12 and known as “tributes” in the competition.
  11. . . . Peeta has a crush on Katniss but she has feelings for Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) who she’s grown up with, hunted with and has feelings for. He’s left behind in the contest.
  12. . . . Katniss and Peeta are sort of “star-crossed lovers” in the games, even though technically it’s every man/woman for himself. But then the rules change.
  13. . . . Katniss is good with a bow and arrow (she practiced intensely in real life for the role, say several reports) and shoots squirrels and other animals to feed her family which lives in what looks like Appalachia.
  14. . . . Archery is her thing and, according to some reports, is catching on around the country.
  15. . . . (Washington Sports Club’s got a competitive workout named after “The Hunger Games” and one of the “exercises” is flexing a bow, for God’s sake.)
  16. . . . She’s a tough chick and a force to be reckoned with.
  17. . . . A modern-day woman that the youth of today can emulate.
  18. . . . Not a weak heroine.
  19. . . . They’re screaming for her at the movie houses.
  20. . . . Some say she’s the next Kristen Stewart (“Twilight”).
  21. REQUEST. Can we ease up on the “Mad Men” fashion look? It’s done to the extreme by all those designers and is now even being featured by Banana Republic in its “Mad Men Collection.”
  22. . . . How long’s that gonna last?
  23. . . . The men’s clothes are so skinny and streamlined that nobody, except rail-thin models, could fit in ‘em and would certainly outgrow them by next year.
  24. . . . This current obsession with skin-tight pants has gone overboard. It’s like everyone’s walking around in green tights like Robin Hood.
  25. . . . “Pegged” pants back in the 50’s and 60’s were never that extreme.
  26. . . . Ridiculous.
  27. WOULD YOU BELIEVE? That Newsweek devoted its entire issue last week to Mad Men and totally restyled the magazine, making it look like 1965.
  28. . . . What happened to the “news” in Newsweek? Was nothing else going on in the world?
  29. . . . They’re always doing goofy things.
  30. . . . And Time magazine’s Techland section recently picked and listed the “140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2012.”
  31. . . . Jesus, how hard up for copy are they?
  32. THE DEEP BLUE SEA. The director James Cameron tweeted while he was seven miles below the sea at Marina Trench in the Pacific Ocean in his lime green sub, the Deepsea Challenger.
  33. . . . I guess he had good Internet capability to be able to get a signal from that far down.
  34. . . . Maybe he paid Verizon to get star treatment.
  35. . . . People will tweet nowadays come hell or high water.
  36. . . . (Tim Tebow texts Mark Sanchez. Guess they like to stay in touch.)
  37. . . . It took two hours and 36 minutes to get there and only 70 minutes to come back.
  38. . . . The trip made me think of these song hits, all from 1959: Beyond the Sea - by Bobby Darin, on ATCO Records.
  39. . . . Sea Cruise by Frankie Ford, on Ace Records.
  40. . . . I began singing “‘See’ You in September by The Tempos on Climax Records.
  41. . . . And “What’s the best Tuna? Chicken of the Sea.” Ha Ha Ha.
  42. COMING BACK. 78 rpm (revolutions per minute) records. That’s a fact. They came before the 45 (rpm).
  43. . . . News of the return of the 10-inch “shellacs,” as they were called and which pre-dated vinyl records, was recently reported by The New York Times in an article about Record Store Day (April 21)
  44. . . . A San Francisco record label, Tompkins Square, is releasing a series of 78s , featuring Luther Dickinson of the rock band North Mississippi Allstars and bluegrass hero Ralph Stanley.
  45. . . . The 78s have been coming back for several years now and Elvis Costello, Tom Waits and Nick Lowe have recently released records on the retro format.
  46. . . . Vinyl itself (as opposed to CDs) has been popular with collectors and even young people who think it’s cool.
  47. . . . Some people still say vinyl sounds better than digital (CDs and downloads).
  48. . . . And some DJs still play records because they can manipulate their mixes manually. It gives them more flexibility and makes it easier to match the beats from one cut to the next.
  49. Fiona Apple alternative singer has a long-titled (23 words) new album: The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do.” Whatever all that means.
  50. . . . The alternative rock/jazz/blues singer/songwriter has a rabid cult following and many are ecstatic that she’s back to performing.
  51. Aretha Franklin announced at her birthday party in New York the other day that she’s getting back with Clive Davis, the record company mogul who helped rebound the Queen of Soul’s career in the 80s and who also “discovered” and became mentor and producer for Whitney Houston.
  52. . . . Good. She’s in good hands. Let’s hope ‘Re Re’ (nickname) still has it in her.
  53. IF I EVER HEAR THESE SONGS AGAIN I’LL . . . Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” and Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory.” Somebody tell the radio stations to stop.
  54. . . . Do playlists have still have to be that tight, to repeat and repeat playing “the hits”?
  55. ASKING. That picture taken back when Amelia Earhart’s plane disappeared . . .
  56. . . . It purportedly shows something sticking up out of the water and aviation experts say it could possibly be part of the plane she was in that went down in the Pacific back in 1937. They’re (the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery) going to send a team to investigate.
  57. . . . Looked like the Loch Ness Monster to me.
  58. “I JUST WANT PEACE.” So said supermodel Christie Brinkley to the Today show’s Matt Lauer yesterday in talking about the breakup of her marriage with Peter Cook.
  59. . . . She accused him of “characterization assassination” and said that he’s been all over the place on TV talking about their marriage and its demise and she hasn’t. This was her first television interview about it, she told Lauer.
  60. . . . “Every time I have any joy or any kind of success in anything , he has to try to destroy it,” she confessed.
  61. . . . She got choked up, was overcome, apologized.
  62. . . . HUBBY’S TURN: “It didn’t take long for my cell phone to ring after that,” related Matt Lauer a day later, in his intro to an on-set interview with Cook, who requested an appearance.
  63. . . . I was surprised to hear that Lauer actually gives out his cell phone number willy-nilly - maybe he was just being facetious - but I guess he does it to get those exclusives so the stars know they can hop on TV to spill their guts whenever they want.
  64. . . . So Cook basically said that Brinkley’s tears were nothing but “cunning and shameless” in an attempt to “gain public attention by ‘dishonest’ means.’”
  65. . . . He thinks she’s a publicity hound.
  66. . . . “It’s there for ‘Google infinity,’” said Cook, “ . . . not at the bottom of a birdcage,” referring to disparaging comments Christie made in the courtroom during the trial and since then regarding the messy divorce that will live forever in the Internet ether.
  67. . . . “Google infinity.” That’s a good one.
  68. . . . Cook finished by saying that he wanted peace too and to be able to live without the “Christie shadow over me.”
  69. I THOUGHT I’D HEARD IT ALL. Actress Alicia Silverstone (Silverspoon?)(“Clueless”) pre-chews her 10-month-old son Bear Blu’s food and feeds it to him mouth-to-mouth, believe it or not.
  70. . . . Sounds like regurgitation.
  71. . . . She posted video of it on her website (thekindlife.com), which “celebrates” a green lifestyle.
  72. . . . A local TV station in Washington, D.C. called it “Mama Birding.”
  73. . . . Silverstone called it “bonding.”
  74. . . . Mom has been doing it for a couple of months now and it seems Blu is getting used to it.
  75. . . . “Now he’s grabbing my mouth to get the food out,” Silverstone writes on her website.
  76. . . . Like a penguin.
  77. . . . Good God, where do these people come from?
  78. Mike Barnicle (68), newspaper columnist and broadcast journalist, subbed for Willie Geist (36)on his MSNBC program “Way Too Early” (airs at 5:30 a.m.) last Friday but had his own name for the show: “Way Too Elderly.”
  79. . . . I was glad to hear it. It made me feel better.
  80. Sofia Vergara, star of ABC’s “Modern Family,” is on the cover of April’s Esquire in sexy black lingerie. The New York Post featured it last week.
  81. . . . The modern-day Charo, the famous Spanish-American “cuchi cuchi” girl, tells the mag: “We all want to have sex in a romantic way. But with a Latina, you’re going to have more fun.”
  82. . . . Okay. Be specific. What can I look forward to?
  83. . . . UH . . . “What Can I Do for You?” - LaBelle, on Epic Records, 1974 - from their “creole” Lady Marmalade days.


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