Sepiatone

Filmgoddess, as I get older I suffer fools more easily. So "polite" dinner parties sometimes get a pass. SOMEtimes. It's easier with pure idiots. I simply press them to explain their idiocy, and they do my job FOR me! (Notice how I tried to deflect the eco-political debate that was trying to start up) But I find it hard to idly sit by and listen to anyone who's never been in a particular situation, especially due to circumstances beyond their control, blather on about the choices, or lack thereof, that people who HAVE had to deal with them made. Me and my brother were raised by a single mother in the 1950's, due to my bio-dad being out of the scene since a few months before I was born. In that period, it wasn't easy for a woman in that circumstance. She, and subsequently, me and my brother had to listen to some pretty stupid CRAP from those who were never IN that situation, and likely wouldn't know HOW to deal with it. My Mother's handling of it set the bar pretty high in terms of the type of women I would choose to spend my life with. Sepiatone

First of all, finance, there's NO "East river" in Chicago. Lake Michigan would be the choice, if there was enough of you LEFT to float! And after all this, as I didn't SEE the SHOW OF SHOWS, did Barrymore pronounce it CAH-PONE-EE, or CAP-PONE-EH? I myself have a name that's been pronounced three different ways by various family members. I chose the way that's easiest for others not of the Polish extraction. Sepiatonitcz

So, you all noticed that too? It looked to me like one of those God-awful copies local stations would broadcast on the "Late Late Show" back in the '70's. Scratchy sound, extra lo-def resolution. Surprised me TCM would PRESENT it like that. I hope they rectify that before they show it again. Not the GREATEST movie ever made, but I always kind of liked it. And as the father of two daughters, I appreciate it more NOW than when I first saw it Sepiatone

There was some mention of kids being "dumbed down". I agree with that. At an age when my two daughters, growing up in the '70's, were rabidly watching "SESAME STREET",and "THE ELECTRIC COMPANY", the kids in my family that were growing up in the '90's and early '00's were engrossing themselves with "BARNEY" and "TELETUBBIES". When my daughter's entered Kindergarten, they ALREADY knew their alphabet and could do some light reading. And eventually became avid readers. The newer kids(most, not all) have trouble managing the funny papers. Although the two programs mentioned in the former are still produced and broadcast, they've seemed to have fallen out of favor to the "dumbed down" programming for some reason. I've seen much of what's being displayed on kid's networks like "SPROUT" and others. I walk away shaking my head in sadness. Sepiatone

Come to think of it, that *Long Island Medium* woman doesn't pronounce HER final "r's" either! Only I don't think SHE'S British! Sepiatone

I thought of this while watching *Fistful Of Dollars* last night: In the end, where the evil Mexican shoots Clint Eastwood in the heart and Eastwood falls over. He slowly gets back up, and keeps goading the evil Mexican to "Aim for the heart". After three tries, the evil Mexican says, "The HEART thing isn't working. Let me try the HEAD!" POW!! Sepiatone

Re: "Bobby Hatfield did the singing on 'Unchained Melody', not Bill Medley" Thanks for the clarity, Helen. Never COULD keep those two straight. But getting back to movie songs... No "dreadful songs" from "classic" movies? What about the syrupy, schmaltzy, yawn inducing title song from *Going My Way* ? LOVED the movie. HATED that tune! Sepiatone

Yep, them southern white folks do some mighty odd speechifyin'. But not on the level you'd hear in some Hollywood movies. I do know many from the south, and the way they talk CAN be difficult to decipher. But with a bit of effort, you can get by. What I find actually endearing are the turns of phrase some of them use; ie; "I CARRIED him to the store", not "I gave him a ride". or "I TOOK my dog a bath", NOT "gave". Stuff like that. "BAWL" for boil. It's mostly regional. the New Englanders have THEIR own speech and phrase quirks, too. But actor Tommy Lee Jones, from Alabama, and clearly speaking in a southern accent, doesn't sound as "uneddykated" as many others do. Go figure. Sepiatone

Really? I thought I mentioned at least SIX. I'll have to paraphrase Mr. Pitts Jr. again. It's NOT that they do so DELIBERATELY. It's that they PREFER not to put in the effort NOT TO. Mr. Pitts once related the claim one young black kid put to him; an honest belief that talking "white" somehow makes one "less black". As the kid said, "It's what's called 'KEEPING IT REAL'". Pitts responded with, "Yeah. Real STUPID". Pitts regularly railed against the belief among too many young African Americans that appearing to be "too smart" is somehow detrimental to one's being "black". He doesn't know who to blame, IF anyone, for this belief, and claimed to honestly not know how to change that tide. Sepiatone

I'll put it this way AGAIN... Is the "general public" we're discussing the SAME general **** that re-elected George W Bush, made DISCO music popular and spent millions of dollars on PET ROCKS? Sounds like a dubious distinction at best. Sepiatone

Still, in today's "enlightened" society, you'll find people who still cling to prejudiced notions. Recently, my sister-in-law made referrence to one our nephew's girlfriends, saying, "Well, she's a BARMAID, after all. YOU know what kind of women THEY are!" I responded with an unusual weapon...the TRUTH! "My Mother", I said, "was once a barmaid. What kind of woman are you claiming my MOTHER was?" That shut her up. As the father of two girls, I always bristled at those who would make silly comments like, "Well, if that girl didn't DRESS the way she did, she wouldn't have been raped. If you're gonna put it out there for all to see, you're INVITING it." Really? THAT makes it OK? Try using that excuse when you reach over and pull the money out of a CASH REGISTER.... "Well, your honor, the clerk ASKED for it when she opened the register and displayed all that money in plain sight. The store HAD IT COMING!" I don't think you'll get off. Sepiatone Edited by: Sepiatone on Jan 5, 2013 8:28 PM

Danny Kaye is not forgotten. In essence, anyway. His style of comedy WAS on the silly, campy, over-the-top side of the venue. And when HIS movie appeal waned, Jerry Lewis stepped in to carry it on, in a way. After Lewis, along came Jim Carrey. And on and on it will go... I remember in the late '70's, PBS presented one of those concerts where Kaye delivered a comic send-up of symphony conducting, something he became famous for, and at the end of the presentation, there was a scroll of all the different charities and humanitarian organizations that gave him awards and recognition for his involvement. When it started, I watched it scroll up for a minute, went to the bathroom for a leak, and upon my return, they were STILL scrolling those acknowledgements. Didn't look like to me he was such a bad person. Sepiatone

I'm still angered at the story about Dorothy Dandridge, booked into a las Vegas hotel/casino as the headlining STAR. yet the casino management refused to allow her to use the pool, and required her to enter the building through the KITCHEN! Filmgoddess, it seems more apparent to me, in face of the fact provided by Sidney Poitier, Rosco Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Oprah Winfrey, Morgan Freeman and a whole host of others, poor grammar practiced by many African Americans is more of a CHOICE than anything to do with socio-economic environment. A black co-worker of mine whom I've known for over 30 years bears this out. With very little effort, according to him, he's read the dictionary on a daily basis, practiced grammar excersizes, and purposely took speech classes in his high school. Talking to him, it would be easy to mistake him for a scholar. Yet he was raised in the same level of economic disadvantage many of his ethicity use as an excuse for their level of speech. I refuse to buy into any of it. I've witnessed too much proof otherwise. Sepiatone Edited by: Sepiatone on Jan 5, 2013 7:56 PM

Filmgoddess, the mispronouncing of "Ask" is NOT exclusive to African American culture. While living in a largely Latino neighborhood for a time, I noticed MANY young Hispanics using "axe". Also, for some reason, they also picked up on "Im-a", as in, "Im-a go to the store", or "I'm-a do that". Instead of "I'm going to". I've also heard many young WHITE kids taking to the usage. I think it's all part of the phenomenon of trying to sound "urban", and thereby somehow "cooler". The black Miami Herald columninst Leonard Pitts Jr. also has a disdain for "lazy black speech", as he calls it. In one column, he mentioned the time one day he was supposed to address a classroom of black high school students about the profession of journalism. As the kids were filing into the classroom, one girl looked at him and asked him, "Who you is?" He turned an incredulous face towards the teacher, but she didn't seem to think anything was amiss. HOW, he asked, can African Americans put an end to the denigration of blacks by whites with the use of stereotypes when blacks seemed to be determined to PERPETUATE those stereotypes? Martin Lawrence also didn't help the cause. I never purposely watched his "MARTIN" TV show, but had it on one night while busy doing something else. In it, the various characters in the show routinely used expressions like "axe", "We be", "He be", "Birfday", and his girlfriend in the show kept running around yelling, "Dey buggin'!" Indeed, If anyone wishes NOT to be THOUGHT of as of being lower in intelligence, SOUNDING so is NOT a step in the right direction. Back in either the late '70's or early '80's, George Kirby did a profile of "AMOS 'N' ANDY" for PBS. HE TOO felt that activist removal of the show was uneeded. While he agreed the old movies where two white actors did the characters in blackface WAS insulting, the '50's TV show with an all black cast was no more insulting to African Americans than LAUREL AND HARDY was to whites. He had a point. DID any blacks who watched LAUREL AND HARDY come away thinking, "THAT must be what WHITE folks are like"? But I do feel that any movie with a story that takes place in the Antebellum south with blacks being portrayed as slaves, servants or mammies is historically correct, but the portryals they were paid to do in contemporary '30's and '40's movies WAS a slap in the face. As young Miss Temple was merely on the payroll, I don't think any of the blame was HERS, and if some of us see TCM as an outlet for viewing not only classic movies, but also a venue for seeing movie making history, such movies with this content should NOT be excluded. Sepiatone Edited by: Sepiatone on Jan 5, 2013 5:28 PM

Perhaps John was making a SLUR of some kind? As it was, slurring was pretty commonplace with him. I think if Barrymore were alive today, he might not remember WHY he pronounced it that way. Probably might not remember ever being on the show! Hell, he might not even remember ever being in SHOW BUSINESS! All kidding aside, I've never heard Capone's name pronounced that way, either. Sepiatone

dpompper, THAT epiphany happened for my daughter when I insisted she sit down and watch *Dead End* . She thought it was cool! But what REALLY helped was her watching the more recent *Paper Moon .* For years now, her favorite Christmas movie is the 1951 *Christmas Carol* (although I believe it's original title is "Scrooge"), and she absolutely REFUSES to watch the "colorized" versions of *Miracle on 34th Street* and *It's A Wondeful Life* . Sepiatone

I'm glad you liked *The Hobbit* MissW. It's just that after spending too much money in the '70's, when there was a blitz of hype over the Tokein books, and finding them boring(to ME, mind you)as hell, the movies made from them offered me no promise. I'll admit to their excellent special effects, and using a top-notch cast, but sorry, I STILL couldn't fight off their narcoleptic effect. And the pain to my head while trying to READ *The Hobbit* , due to my falling out of my chair after nodding off in chapter TWO, gives me a sort of phobia about seeing the movie made from it. Plus, from the TV ads, it seems they BROUGHT BACK that annoying little "precious" azzwipe. NO THANKS! Sepiatone

Thanks, Dargo, for the DAMIAN LEWIS clear-up. Did MY hints give it away? Or, did YOU notice it, too? Anyway, I'm not claiming any of these people ARE the actor or actress's "love child", just that they look like they COULD be. Or at least somehow related. Like for instance, there are times when young comic actor JONAS HILL reminds me, in facial expressions, of long ago character actor BILLY GILBERT. I believe he could actually do a BIOPIC. And notice how much CHRISTINE APPLEGATE resembles FAY WRAY. At least I SEE it. Now, I know Gilbert was long dead years before Jonas Hill was probably born. And Fay Wray didn't abandon any illegitimate child in the early '70's. But some people HAVE been known to take on resembelances to long dead relatives. In MY case, not long ago my wife was browsing through an old box of my old family photos. She came across a picture of my Great Grandfather( on my Mother's side) taken back in the 19-teens. She looked at the photo for a spell, then looked at ME, then back at the photo. After half a minute, she looked up, held up the photo and said, "HERE you are!" I've also been told I resemble his youngest son, my Uncle Tomascz. Sepiatone

Finance, you HAD to be joking about "Unchained Melody" ( "There's even a version by the Righteous Brothers"). That's mostly the version everybody's familiar with. I HAVE heard versions by Bobby Vinton and Andy Williams, but you can't top Bill Medley's excellent vocal work on the Brother's version. Paul McCartney DID compose an oratorio( I don't know the title) that was orchestrated by Michael Gibbs, who also orchestrated John McLaughlin's "Apocalypse" and "Mediterranian Concerto". Paul's oratorio IS a "meatier" piece of music. I'm pretty sure James is familiar with the aforementioned McLaughlin works. At least, IMO, he SHOULD be. I eventually get around to listening to EVERYTHING going on in any particular track of music, Andy. In some cases, BEFORE I ever listen to what the singer's doing. And I'm in full agreement with whoever it was(sorry for forgetting who) that stated that today's popular music is basically "same-old, same-old". Me and a few friends refer to it as either "music out of a can", "cookie cutter pop", or "canned beats with autotune sauce". I got TIRED of "Autotune" years before it's use became so widespread. I DO like music with surprises in them; ie, unexpected chord changes, unusual time signatures, or shifts in tempo etc. The old ANIMALS tune "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" is in this category. While the main chord progression is an oft used, familiar one( Am-G-F-E), the tempo and key change in the chorus made it unique among it's contemporaries at the time. Sepiatone

I have no qualms if anybody wishes to celebrate Kwanzaa. Apparently, it has some significance to African-Americans. "Made up"? Well, yes. But if it's main point is to unite, or celebrate a particular culture, and if anyone wishes to acknowledge it, then have at it. Oddly, none of the African-Americans I know personally and have met recently bother with Kwanzaa. A few think it's ridiculous, and one stated, "There's ALREADY too much sh** going on that week." As for Cinco De Mayo being "real"...What can one say about a "holiday" that celebrates the victory in ONE BATTLE in a war that was eventually LOST? Most of the Mexican-Americans that make up my wife's side of my family don't have ANY idea what it's all about anyway. Either do any of the "whettoes" who only see it as an excuse to get away with drinking too much tequila. Cheech Marin's answer when asked what Cinco De Mayo is in *Born in East L.A.* sums it up precisely..."I don't know, but every year they have a big parade!" But it seems to be a trend in recent decades that not only do some people wish to wear their "heritage" on their sleeves, they also insist on cramming that heritage down everybody else's THROATS. Sepiatone Edited by: Sepiatone on Jan 2, 2013 4:38 PM

I remember that Jackman movie, dpompper. Never saw it, but I DO remember thinking of that "Twighlight Zone" episode when they showed the trailers on TV. Sepiatone

THERE'S your solution, Joe. If you want movies to have an intermission, then the next time you want to go to the movies, go to INDIA! My KINGDOM for a "rolleyes" emoticon! Trouble for me is, if they DID put an intermission in the middle of one of those Peter Jackson/Tolkein adaptations, I'd probably SLEEP through it like I would through the REST of one of those snoozers. Sepiatone

Well, Swithin...I tried my best to keep this thread on track. It's like one of those "Twighlight Zone" episodes mentioned in another thread. You know, a guy's dead, doesn't realize it at first and tries to talk to people that are still alive, only they can't SEE him, and don't HEAR him! So they go on blabbering as if whatever was said didn't occur. It oddly seems as if THEY'RE rebuffing you in response for your having the GALL to inturrupt their highjacking! Sepiatone

Did you notice our hero from the "Willoughby" episode, JAMES DALY, is the one who was the clown in the episode about the dolls in the donation barrel? What marvelous versitility he had! Sepiatone

First, casablanca, you impress me with the use of the word "founder" instead of the MISused "flounder". THEN you go and spoil it all by coming up with "UBER". Oh, well. But I understand where you're coming from. It's pretty much the same with me. Too many people I know, even a few OLDER than me, HATE watching any movie older than five years. So the age group explanation doesn't always apply. The same goes with music as well. Luckily, my tastes in music are eclectic enough to be able to discuss much of it with a wider variety of people. Thankfully, we have THIS FORUM for an outlet. But still, it WOULD be nice to have these kind of discussions "face-to-face" over a cup of coffee or something, wouldn't it? Sepiatone