100 Awesome Things - Part 24 - From The Vault 2013

More from 100 Awesome Things...

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This is different to anything I've posted before...

It's Rita Hayworth dancing to the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive".

You read that right. Lovely Rita dancing to "Stayin' Alive".

The Valentino Test - From the Vault 2007

This is from mid-2007. I had discovered the deathless wonder that was Rudolph Valentino earlier that year when Blockbuster Online (cue 'remember them' gag) sent The Sheik on DVD.

I had know of Valentino forever of course, but had not understood the fuss until seeing him on film. I was entranced, enchanted and bowled over. He was a beautiful distraction during unquestionably horrendo times.

This is all still true, nearly 10 years later. I'm nothing if not consistent.

On Phantoms, Morrison & The Would've Been Question - From the Vault 2005

Another archive bit, this time from Jan 2005. I went to see The Phantom of the Opera in a rare family trip to the cinema. It was an excruciating outing in some respects: I don't love seeing movies with other people in general, and the rest of the party seemed determined to irritate the frak out of me throughout...

Of course, The Phantom of the Opera is not a great movie. It's not as bad as some folks would make out, and I don't think it's aged well but it's not awful.

This is another post that feels like it's from 'before'. Before the real darkness set in; before I pulled myself out of the hole; before, before... I've edited somewhat, partly to make my meaning absolutely clear, but the content remains essentially the same... and in places I've noted where my younger self was basically starry-eyed, naive and wrong. We live, we learn. What a naïf I was...

This stayed with me for a long time after I posted it, opening with a single, simple question:


Would I love Jim Morrison if he were ugly?

From the Vaults - Ava, Miss Gardner

This was originally posted on the Obsolete Blog That Is Obsolete on 12 July 2004...

I'd put money on nobody else giving a flying fuck about this, but it needs to be said

OK, so I'm off to see Grandad tomorrow to fit a new belt on his record player - it's so old the rubber perished and got loose so I bought him another one. I thought to myself that I should go to sleep nice and early. However, there was a Paul Newman film on TV: The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean which I decided to tape. Set up the video and all... waited until it started just to be sure... and then found out that Ava Gardner was in it as Lily Langtry.

So I kept watching to see what it was about - I knew it was a sort of comedy western, and you know, John Huston is one of the best directors to ever pick up a viewfinder....