Bildwasser

There's nothing to subtext. Anyone should be able to find or invent at least half a dozen ones in any movie. Even in a lowly Three Stooges' short a couple can be "discovered." Nothing to it. Gay subtext in The Palm Beach Story? Those phallic hunting guns and The Wienie King. Watch the entire film and anyone could find many more. It's all in the beholder's eye and brain. B-)

That little old memory holer. 1984 is just the company store writ very large, sort of.

I would guess that Sirhan's case is different because he actually killed someone, and he was originally sentenced to death, a sentence which was commuted to life. He does have a parole hearing every few years. My point was that letting both Fromme and Moore out of prison after thirty years is fairly standard procedure.

John Lennon singing Working Class Hero.

Apparently it's SOP for federal inmates who have been sentenced to life terms to be paroled after thirty years. Sara Jane Moore, the second person who tried to kill Ford, was paroled a few years before Fromme. So far, neither one seems to have gotten into any trouble.

Don't blame me, blame Orwell. Typical man.

People wonder why it took so long to finish the Mount Rushmore sculptures. It seems there was quite a bit of disagreement about how large to make Lincoln's mole. One of the strangest tales to come out of the Old West were the Johnson County Wars, which pitted those who wore plaid shirts against those who preferred plain white. Everyone else was caught in the crossfire. No one knows how it started, but before it was over five people had been killed and innumerable shirts ripped to shreds.

I don't think Townshend was a big NBA fan, but you never know.

I believe Elvis already had an interest in country music well before he recorded that album. I don't think Weller has the same interest, though you never know. Maybe he could call his Almost Blue Too.

No, it's not really all that important, but it is surprising how many well- know quotes were never actually said or written. I've always been a little mystified by that quote. Legends never really become facts, strictly speaking, though a legend can eventually turn into a false fact, so why print either. But I haven't seen the film in a long time, so I might be missing something.

Even though I posted that picture, and it's a rather well-known example of phallic symbolism, I take it with a grain of salt. I don't know if Hawks paid any attention to that possibility or, if he did, it was little more than a guys' joke with little serious purpose. Possible phallic symbols are a dime a dozen since all one needs is a long tube shaped object, which are fairly common in everyday life. Whether the guns in Red River, Maceady's sword stick friend in Gilda or Howard Roarke's very impressive drill in The Fountainhead among many others are actual intended as phallic symbols is up to the individual viewer. They're fun to consider, but sometimes it gets a little absurd. Midnight Cowboy is one of my favorite 1960s movies. I don't know about the late sixties, but it's hard to see today why it was ever rated X.

Well, Friday is country music day. Too bad it's unlikely that Weller will ever cover an Ernest Tubb song. Might be an interesting sound.

I used to like Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, but then I tired of they're music. Baba was Townshend's spiritual "guru" and Terry Riley was a composer, not sure about the O.

Ernest Tubb getting a little kinky in Hello Trouble. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYFwkpNQbxU

Yeah, the Jam were very good. I never really got into Style Council, but I'd guess Weller did a good job with that band too.

Don't forget the scene of Matthew Garth and Cherry Valance comparing one another's 'guns' to see just who has what. Is that a gun in your holster... There is some doubt that Freud ever uttered the cigar line. Oh well.

Pentangle performing House Carpenter.

The Jam in a Strange Town.

No, I was replying to TopBilled. I agree that Power was a "pretty boy," a very attractive man, probably one of the most attractive of the time. I would just add that his features were more delicate than someone like Gary Cooper or Clark Gable, and thus might seem more "feminine" than them. But I hardly see where that leads to TB's conclusion that he had some kind of sexual identity problem or had some desire to be womanly.

You did say that he was a pretty boy, which I presume to mean too pretty to play a tough character like Jesse James. I don't know about his line readings and mannerisms being "femme." (Do some people have femmedar, which enables them to know which male actors are struggling with their gender identity and identify with being a woman?) It was another poster who mentioned that Power had other male role models when he was growing up, not me. And simply because he had an absent father does not necessarily mean that caused him gender identity problems. What I find most bizarre is making a huge leap from some of his movie roles and a little bit about his personal life to the idea he had some deep-seated issues about his sexual identity and he had some longing to be more womanly. I just don't see much evidence for that and that's why it strikes me as a strange theory to promote.

The topic of sexual identity or sexual role confusion is itself not farcical of course. What I find farcical is that Tyrone Power is being used as a sterling example of it. You started out by saying that you considered Power was "femme" in Jesse James. I've never seen the movie, so I don't know how he played it. I think I can understand that, in general, Power had rather delicate features and not the rough-hewn ones that one might think of as being those of Jesse James. Fair enough. But then with a few steps in between, including a scene from another movie and some amateur psychology about Power's family background, which appears was not wholly accurate, you seem to jump to the conclusion that Power had some type of gender identity problems and had some yearning for the feminine. That's what I find rather bizarre, the leap from Power's physical appearance in Jesse James to the idea that he had serious gender issues of some kind, complete with a definition of gender identity disorder. Considering the paucity of evidence for this, it's just too weird to be taken seriously, at least by me.

Sometimes it's bad enough when professional psychologists make judgements, but when amateurs try it, if often ends up as farce. Whether Power was a bi guy, I don't know and don't really care, but attempting to paint him as some sort of candidate for transgender surgery or even leaning that way is, considering the lack of any reliable evidence, rather ridiculous.

Alpha Blondy singing Cocody Rock.

Yep, the balcony was where the action was. And since most folks were intent on their own business, they didn't notice that other patrons were doing similar things. Remember The Summer of '42 where good old Hermie tried to put the make on his blonde companion during Now, Voyager ? Some classic movie fan. I remember going to the older, somewhat rundown, stand alone small town movie theaters. They didn't pay much attention if anyone stayed to see the movie again. At the one I worked at there was a velvet rope placed just before the stairs to the balcony. When there was no movie playing it was kept in place. One day the middle-aged head usher who liked to have a few drinks now and again decided that instead of unhooking the rope to go upstairs, he'd just get a running start and hop over it. Well, he didn't make it and fell down. Oops.