Tag Archives: movie

flashdance. one more time.

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repost below from 5 years ago, now the 40th anniversary of this film

35 years ago ‘flashdance’ was released

and it emerged again recently

in honor of international dance day

 i loved this movie

 had the shoes, the ripped up sweatshirt, the perm

though my dancing style

was a bit different  

from this welder by day/dancer by night

and i didn’t live in a cool loft

or have an eccentric dog

or ride my bike to work

or look at all alike

but other than that

we were like sisters.

Take your passion and make it happen! #InternationalDanceDay

“let us read and let us dance –

two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. “

-voltaire

 

 

image credit: paramount pictures, jennifer beals

and cut…..

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 in honor of the 10th anniversary of this film, made here in ann arbor, i’m reposting this blog from my past.

ever had one of those days? the ones that take a funny turn?

i picked up a movie from the library recently, ‘the five year engagement,’ and when i saw the cover, i remembered that i had almost been in it. by accident. really.

it was the summer and i’d walked downtown to meet my date. when i got to one of my favorite local townie spots where we’d planned to meet, i noticed there was a barricade, some roadie types, a sound system and all sorts of equipment set up outside. having lived here for more than a decade, i knew there was always a festival, parade or protest popping up, so none of this surprised me. it  could easily have been for a street dance, a car show, or god knows what else, so i simply stepped over and around everything, and walked on in.

once inside, i looked around, it was a bit dark and hazy and didn’t see him there yet, so i sat down at an open table. while waiting, i noticed that something about the place looked different than it normally did, but i couldn’t quite put my finger on it. i then got a phone call from my date, asking where i was, and when i told him i was already where we’d planned to meet, he said he’d arrived, but couldn’t get in because it was closed off to the public, as they were shooting a movie there. and he wondered how i had gotten in.

ah – that’s when it all made sense and it dawned on me. i had unwittingly walked right into the middle of a movie set. i thought it was awfully dark for being the daytime, and things were moved around, and i heard someone yelling out something, but figured it was a bartender, and thought maybe they’d redone the place, trying to go a bit more upscale. i loved it just the way it had been though, a cozy, casual, old-school, welcoming place. all this went through my mind quickly and then i remembered, they’d been shooting in various locations around town for some weeks now, but it never occurred to me that i had crashed their party. i was suddenly an accidental extra.

i’m sure the only reason they let me on set in the first place, was because i’d ambled on into it like i was supposed to be there, (and i thought i was), so no one stopped me. and i was dressed like a townie, (since i was a real one), so i fit right in.

we laughed out loud on each end of the phone as i shared my revelation, and i casually got up and walked off the set and into the daylight once more, as if i was walking to my personal production trailer, only to find my date waiting in another location. where they were NOT in the middle of shooting a scene for a movie.

when i picked up the dvd at the library, a part of me somehow hoped to see myself in that scene, but not surprisingly, i was nowhere to be found, other than somewhere on the cutting room floor, perhaps.

“acting in’Star Wars’ I felt like a raisin in a giant fruit salad,

and I didn’t even know who the cantaloupes were.”

– Mark Hamill

image credits: universal studios, old town bar

 

50 years of love and tears.

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hard to believe

it’s the 50th anniversary 

of this movie’s opening

 everyone i knew

rushed to the theater

swoon-worthy *ryan o’neal and beautiful ali macgraw

over-emoted their way through it

it was everything we expected

and more

a dramatic, tragic, ill-fated romance

a love story for the ages

 inspiring endless tears and endless post-viewing talk 

going to see it again and again

somehow hoping for a different ending. 

” love means never having to say you’re sorry”

– jennifer cavalleiri (ali macgraw in love story)

(we loved this famous confusing quote from the movie, and had deep discussions about what it meant)

*interesting tidbit –

writer erich segal, based ryan o’neal’s character on a hybrid of his college housemates at harvard:

Tommy Lee Jones and Al Gore

image credit: paramount pictures

 

enthusiasm 2.

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free movie night at campus martius park in detroit

safe, distanced, well-planned

the little one soon had her own plan

 drawn in

she moved right up front by the screen

enthralled

 laughing, dancing, twirling

throwing spells along with elsa from ‘frozen 2’

until she became a part of the movie. 

 

“true enthusiasm is a fine feeling whose flash I admire wherever I see it.”

-charlotte bronte

shared.

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on the day before thanksgiving

school was out

 kids had energy to burn

so I borrowed the big car

to round everyone up

and

enjoy an afternoon with

two grandies

 four neighborhood friends

and a lot of smuggled-in candy

while settling into

comfy seats

at the local theater.

one tried pre-filling his Santa hat

to the top with treats

before we left his house

but the group voted and decided

it was unsteady, looked suspicious,

and would quickly reveal our scheme.

it’s all about teaching life skills.

“the magic of film isn’t just because of the big screen,

or the acoustics,

but he ineffable shared experience of going to the movies.”

-fernando perez

flashdance.

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35 years ago ‘flashdance’ was released

and it emerged again recently

in honor of international dance day

 i loved this movie

 had the shoes, the ripped up sweatshirt, the perm

though my dancing style

was a bit different  

from this welder by day/dancer by night

and i didn’t live in a cool loft

or have an eccentric dog

or ride my bike to work

or look at all alike

but other than that

we were like sisters.

Take your passion and make it happen! #InternationalDanceDay

“let us read and let us dance –

two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. “

-voltaire

 

 

image credit: paramount pictures, jennifer beals