I was in a summer program taking enrichment classes at LSU and living in a dorm when Flashdance came out. Our chaperones or whatever they were called - the college students who were supposed to keep us out of trouble - took us to see it. Good times.

I caught the last 30 minutes of Witness on tv this weekend. I had forgotten that it was Viggo's first movie!

I had the same reaction when I saw the movie again recently. I'd forgotten that he played the Hochleitner brother and cheered when he appeared. I think Witness holds up pretty well, despite it's McGuffin-y nature.

t defiantly dances all over the lawn

Kevin Bacon had some fun things to say about Footloose on Fresh Air earlier this year. [link] Scroll to 20:40 into the interview to get to the Footloose stuff. He was 23 when he made that movie, and to prep for it, he enrolled as a new outsider student (as Ren McCormick) to a high school in Utah.

Also, damn kids!

Here's a Kevin Smith observation from ComiCon that I thought was interesting (and in his usual style):

Smoking on the Green Room porch, I’m thrown by how star-studded the San Diego ComiCon has become. Back in ’95, the first time I ever attended, the biggest non-comics name in attendance was maybe Bruce Campbell. Now, it’s like ShoWest Junior there. No less than three of the most recent Academy Award winners for Best Actor and Actress (Adrien Brody, Charlize Theron, and Jamie Foxx) were whoring their latest projects (“Kong”, “Aeon Flux”, and “Stealth”) to the Con crowds. It’s nuts how much power the geek audience now wields, whereas we could never even so much as get a handjob back in the day.

To my abiding shame, I don't think I've actually seen either Footloose or Flashdance. Bits of them caught on the movie channel, maybe. But overall, no.

...meanwhile, Two Weeks' Notice is on telly. I've seen it several times, as we have it on DVD, and it's a charming wee movie - but I can't help but think that they should have had a more heavyset girl in the lead. Except of course then it wouldn't have been made. But the script really does seem to ask for a less obviously attractive girl than Sandra Bullock - and considering how very much she eats, I'd like to see a bigger girl. Not a fat lass, just, you know, someone with curves. Which, in Hollywood, means a fat lass, of course. Because in Hollywood, Bridget Jones is a fat girl. Ha. Hollywood = craxy.

They should keep off the lawn too.

makes note to stay offa Perkins' lawn

There is an exception for those who write the good porn.

See, it says so, right here in the old folk's handbook

Recently, I was watching the American Masters special on Judy Garland that's included on the Easter Parade 2-disc DVD. In talking about Summer Stock, her last MGM movie, she says that she had just gotten out of the hospital, where the doctors had her actually eating and off of the pills, so that she went from 85 pounds to 105. Since she was 5 foot tall, that's a perfectly healthy weight to have. However, looking at the movie, she definitely looks almost pudgy, although the overalls and matronly gowns they have her wear to "cover up" the extra weight don't help. Only after she took off for two months and the MGM higherups had her lose those 20 pounds again did she film the "Get Happy" number, with the tuxedo top and hat (where, sad to say for all my advocacy of real-sized actresses, she looked fabulous).

I am just happy when collarbones do not look like handlebars. People are not bicycles.

To my abiding shame, I don't think I've actually seen either Footloose or Flashdance. Bits of them caught on the movie channel, maybe. But overall, no.

This is me, except for the abiding shame. Weirdly enough, I was even 8-9 the year Footloose came out, and do not remember a thing about it as a cultural moment.

There are people posting in this very thread who were barely alive when Footloose came out.

I was 1.

I've memorized the soundtrack to the Broadway show, if that counts for anything. Still haven't seen the flick, though.

t enqueues