Watching Arty French Flicks With My Shades On

Added on by C. Maoxian.

The great Blossom Dearie singing "I'm Hip," lyrics by Dave Frishberg (born March 23, 1933 ... Susannah McCorkle does a good version of his "My Attorney Bernie"). Dearie's not appreciated enough for her piano playing, what a touch. Some updated lyrics rhyming macrobiotics with narcotics. :)

This is a remembrance of Blossom Dearie who died recently, and I find the song 'I'm Hip' most appropriate as a description of her.

I'm hip, I'm no square
I'm alert, I'm awake, I'm aware
I am always on the scene
Makin' the rounds, diggin' the sounds
I read Playboy magazine 'cause I'm hip
I dig, I'm in step
When it was hip to be hep, I was hep
I don't blow but I'm a fan
Look at me swing, ring a ding ding
I even call my girlfriend 'Man,' I'm so hip
Every Saturday night
With my suit buttoned tight and my suedes on
I'm gettin' my kicks
Watchin' arty French flicks with my shades on
I'm too much, I'm a gas
I am anything but middle class
When I hang around the band
Poppin' my thumbs, diggin' the drums
Squares don't seem to understand
Why I flip, they're not hip like I'm hip
I'm hip, I'm alive
I enjoy any joint where there's jive
I'm on top of every trend
Look at me go vo dee o do
Bobby Darin knows my friend
I'm so hip
I'm hip but not weird
Like you notice, I don't wear a beard
Beards were in but now they're out
They had their day now they're passe
Just ask me if you're in doubt, 'cause I'm hip
Now whatever the fads
And whatever the ads say
It's needs fill
I'll be keeping abreast
Out in front of the rest with elites ville
'Cause I'm cool as a cuke
I'm a cat, I'm a card, I'm a kook, 
I get so much out of life
Really, I do skoo ba doo boo
One more time play 'Mack the knife'
Let 'er rip, I may flip, but I'm hip
Ooh, I'm hip, ooh, I'm hip
Skoo ba doo boo, doo boo, doo boo
Boo doo boo doo doo doo

Movies Watched -- Still Alice

Added on by C. Maoxian.

99 minutes long, so not a bad length, but I still fast forwarded from 20 minutes in, not because it was terrible, but because movies about progressive illnesses are hard to take. Julianne Moore is 50 years old, and a full professor at Columbia, when she gets diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. She played a similar sick lady role in Todd Haynes' disturbing movie, Safe, which I saw 20 years ago.

Alec Baldwin plays her husband, and he's pretty "supportive," at least at first, before a job at the Mayo Clinic calls. One of her children is Kristen Stewart, who continues to chew her lip in every scene of every movie I've ever seen her in. No idea why she gets as much work as she does. Must appeal to messy-haired Millennials?

Moore is probably good, I like her, she's beautiful and I think she's talented. The emotions were strictly white middle class here (Ben Sachs says "middlebrow"), she balled a little bit, but husband and kids seemed pretty calm about the collapse of their wife / mother, kind of cold. I'd give it a yellow (consider) rating if you're not disturbed by movies in which the main character is descending into dementia. 

(Andrew O'Hehir makes the good point that "this person would be supremely annoying were she a real person and not Julianne Moore," and "You have to have a beach house in the first place, let us note, before you can get lost in it." And I agree completely with Wesley Morris who writes, "these disease movies [make you worry] that medical misfortune befalls only bourgeoisie. It’s far too fond of Moore to be less than flattering to her. So, instead, it cheats life, death, and us.")

Clearly demented

Clearly demented

Tweets for September 20, 2016

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