This was going to be a straightforward introduction to Detroit native Della Reese (1931-2017), who once sat next to a friend of mine on a plane, but it got sidetracked, as always, by devoted fanboys on YouTube, who insist on making every waking hour of a famous person's life into its own mini-documentary.
(BTW, I finally caught the joke about an alternative reading of "Isle of Dogs" being "I Love Dogs". Watch Hollywood quickly churn out imitators like "Isle of Ice Cream" and "Isle of Drawing Moustaches on Concert Posters".)
Hubba hubba
The gold standard for the Damn Yankees tune "Whatever Lola Wants" was the originator, Gwyneth Evelyn "Gwen" Verdon (wife of Bob Fosse, despite his philandering), who did not have, despite what Wikipedia claims, "the exquisite beauty of a pin-up girl". She was a fabulous dancer and choreographer, but there was no confusion over who was who when she taught pin-up girls like Lana Turner and Rita Hayworth how to dance. Della, too, is a bit of a reach with her longish everything, including face, but for straightforward singing of this rather lightweight number, I'd take Della or Sarah Vaughan or even Bebe Neuwirth (killing it in this Letterman clip from 1994) over Gwen as the Devil's chanteuse Lolita "Lola" Banana.
All building up sideways to the collapse of a space-age pedestrian bridge in Florida (outlaw bridges) and a 2007 movie you likely haven't seen, filmed in Egypt and Morocco with an American lead and French production company. Here's the poster, but check out the YouTube clip that highlights the song, and then rent the entire two hours from Nexflix on your next date night. Exotic sparks will fly, and as Bebe hints rather ribaldly, someone's SAG card will likely be showing before all's said and done.
Quote from a pre-1960 printed card, attributed to "Miller": In men whom men pronounce as ill, I find a lot of goodness still; In men whom men pronounce divine, I find a lot of sin and blot; I hesitate to draw the line, Between the two, where God has not! My response: If you're going to point out absolutes And how they're not such clear cut routes; Perhaps keep the same f****** metre Instead of jarring us with full stops In that way we can follow your leader And not involve the poetry cops!
According to the IMDb website, some portion of the movie Hostiles was filmed in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Does this look like Pagosa Springs? The movie is gorgeously shot, and the locations are breathtaking. Being somewhat familiar with Pagosa Springs, though, I'm having trouble matching any of the exteriors with anything within a 10-mile radius of Pagosa Springs. According to IMDb The railway station at Chama, New Mexico served as the stand-in for Butte, Montana. Chama is about 50 miles away from Pagosa Springs, and Pagosa Springs definitely sent some of its own down to Chama to serve as extras, one of whom is currently pedaling coal from the Chama location on Ebay. A big-budget movie filming in a community of 2000 is generally a newsworthy event. Filming of Hostiles took place in the summer of 2016, and Pagosa Springs' newspaper of record, the Sun , made no mention of stars Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, or director Scott Cooper hanging ou...
Would Julie Andrews eat at a restaurant with two major health violations? "Good" means one major health violation, "fair" means two. [Singing:] The chicken in Estes restaurants falls mainly on the floor.
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