RIP Glen (and others)

January was a horrible month. David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Glen Frey and Terry Wogan. OK, Terry looks a bit out of sorts in this list but he was a legend and I shall miss him.

I don't think I can add much to the millions of words written about Bowie. I don't claim to be a mega fan of his but he was unique and I love many of his songs. Some people you can't imagine dying and he was one of them.

Alan Rickman is like a kick in the teeth. He was a national treasure and I've loved him since Truly, Madly, Deeply, a film for incurable romantics everywhere. Alan was cool, he looked like he'd be top company and he was wonderfully British. Much too soon for him to leave us.

But Glen. Oh Glen. I think we all know how much I love the Eagles. I've watched documentaries, listened to Glen, read Glen talk about the band and finally saw Glen a couple of years ago in New York. I am now so grateful that I did because basically that's the Eagles over forever. It's the end of an era and that's what makes me so sad about Glen.

Famous people that I like need to stop dying now please.

Legally Blonde

I love everything about Legally Blonde. The title, the premise, the clothes. I am rewatching it (it's on Netflix) and it really is utterly ridiculous. This is a film that relies entirely on the charms of Reese.

She is adorable. I honestly think the film would have been a flop without her but somehow she manages to be cute, perky and funny.

And let's not forget Bruiser.

The bend and snap, the music montage when Elle decides to take Harvard seriously, Elle's room (both in LA and at Harvard) Jennifer Coolidge. It's perfection on film and I think you all need to watch it again (I assume it's again) immediately.

Also, whatever happened to Selma Blair? And, Raquel Welch!!

Oasis

I liked Oasis on the basis of Wonderwall, a song I never tire of. I think it's beautifully romantic and lovely and ignore the fact Noel wrote it for Meg Mathews.

I like a band to argue and be explosive. That's rock and roll. They have a responsibility to behave badly and be petty because if you're in a band, you are a rock god (or goddess) and behaving like a bunch of accountants is boring. We don't want everyday life. We want drama, drugs, wrecking hotel rooms and enough anecdotes to entertain us in your autobiography.

Enter Oasis. God, they were such fun. The songs were heavily influenced by The Beatles and not musically complicated but they had passion and I don't think any band sums up the 90s quite like Oasis. Noel Gallagher is a hoot, if you don't believe me then listen to his Desert Island Discs. The fighting and rivalry with Blur (urgh as I call them) was probably the last great pop rivalry we'll witness. Liam is clearly a moron but who cares? He had swagger.

Oasis songs I love: Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, Live Forever, Don't Look Back In Anger and She's Electric (my friend walked down the aisle to this, wonderful).

Yes, I like Oasis. I am starting a revival, right now.

The Police - Every Breath You Take

How have I not written about this yet? I'm in the sixth year of this blog and no mention of this masterpiece. I am just watching something I recorded last month about the top 10 richest song and I simply can't believe I've missed talking about this.

David Hepworth (I trust my discerning readers to know who he is) says: "this song is a masterpiece!" and I agree. I love it so much and I never tire of hearing it. If it comes on the radio, I do a little yay to myself and turn up the dial.

I know Sting annoys people. He's up there with Bono in the ranks of pompous, worthy ageing rock star but I like him. His voice is one of my favourite singing voices and he's hot.

 

This is by far the best song The Police every produced. The lyrics are clever, it's catchy and it sounds timeless, it's not obviously from the 80s.

David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Glenn Frey in the same week. Trust me, I am not ignoring them but I am not ready to write about it yet. 

RIP 2015 - I forgot someone

Back in January, Anne Kirkbride died. Otherwise known as Deirdre Barlow in Coronation Street. I forgot about her when doing my round up because to try and remember who died in any given year, I use Google. And it gives me all the Hollywood deaths but tends to overlook the home grown soap stars.

Coronation Street is the program that I have watched the most consistently in my life. I grew up with it, my mum watched and therefore so did I. I stopped watching in the mid 90s for a while but I came back to it about 10 years ago and I am so glad I did. I record it and tend to start my weekend with breakfast and a Corrie catch up. It's got some of the best writing in television, I frequently guffaw with laughter at the lines. The acting is brilliant and it can be very touching. I love that it keeps the old school characters like Rita, Ken, Emily (although she's just gone to Peru for six months - come back soon Emily!) and until she died, Deirdre.

Deirdre was always a favourite. I post this picture to prove she was beautiful. Look at her! Anne was a wonderful actress and I loved all the storylines involving her. When she died, I was quite upset because she'd been in my living room for 40 years.

And then, just when we thought 2015 was all wrapped up Lemmy died. Now, I don't claim to be a Motorhead fan. I know the same song everyone does, Ace of Spades. Lemmy is a legend. He's cool and funny. I live with a massive Motorhead fan. He live streamed the funeral from LA and stayed up to watch it. He declared January to be the month when we only listen to Motorhead (pity me readers). He's in deep mourning. Bye bye Lemmy, thanks for the rock and roll.

As if this wasn't all too traumatic enough, yesterday Bowie died. That's a subject for another post but I think we can safely say we're not just listening to Motorhead in January now.

RIP 2015

Another year passes and we lose some more legends. Let's remember them.

Al from Happy Days. I actually can't believe he was still alive but bless him.

Edward Hermann. He died in December last year. Very upset about this. Everyone's favourite grandpa.

Leonard Nimoy.

Jackie Collins. Outpouring of grief at Teen Towers over Jackie. Look at her. Legend.

Ben E. King.

BB King. 

Christopher Lee.

Omar Sharif.

Life is short. Eat another mince pie.

Taylor Swift

I am amused by Taylor and her girl squad. Her perfect pop. Her perfect hair and her perfectly toned body. She's 26 so I guess she's allowed to be pretty perfect. I consider Blank Space to be her masterpiece. Every time I listen to it I think how clever it is and the video is hypnotic.

It's her birthday today so I thought I'd do a little post to say that I may be in my 40s but I truly am a perennial teenager because I love Taylor and my friend gave me a Taylor colouring in book (Colour me Swiftly) which is just the best thing ever. My creative work can be seen above.

Happy birthday Taylor!

Bull Durham

Bull Durham is on Netflix and I watched it again for the first time in years. A film about baseball that is most enjoyable. This is the ultimate sexy Kevin Costner film. At one point Susan Sarandon says to him "God, you're gorgeous" and one can only agree. He is divine in this.

Susan is, naturally, also wonderful and Tim Robbins is perfect as the oafish young player. I was interested to note it was rated an 18 when it came out in 1988. I think now it would barely rate a 12. 

Anyway, if you've never seen it or not seen it for a while then I am here to tell you it's still excellent.

Hair in movies

An important topic that we've not discussed is hair in movies. I am specifically talking about female hair because it's hard to care about men's hair unless it's truly dire. I rarely think, wow, that actor has great/terrible hair. But I often think it about women.

Jennifer Aniston is the queen of covetable hair. She has her own haircare range for heaven's sake. Yes, I have bought it and love it. Living Proof. You won't look back, I promise. I think her hair is a little overstated, it's very nice and all but it's not hair I covet.

Our envy for hair can usually be found in our formative youth and for me, that means Meg Ryan.

Let's break this down. No way in a million years would I want her Sally hair now but at the time, I thought it was the bees knees. It's a perm for goodness sake but perfect ringlets! And I liked her wardrobe in When Harry Met Sally too. And basically I wanted to be Meg Ryan, hair and all. Sleepless in Seattle is more complicated. The point here is the lustrousness of her hair. It looks all thick and heavy, like a rope. I used to want that. Now both look very dated and quite cute for that.

The worst film for hair is Working Girl. There is no debate on this matter. Look at the evidence.

I actually don't think anybody had hair like this in the 80s. Come on! It's beyond a joke. They'd go in flames near a naked flame. At least Melanie gets a makeover but Joan's character gets married with that hair. Just say no.

You know how much I dislike Andi but her hair in Four Weddings and a Funeral is really nice and crucially, that hairstyle would work now. Hair envy happening over here. I have straight hair with an annoying kink. It's never going to look like that. Oh well.

Katherine Ross is gorgeous. She is gorgeous both in The Graduate and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. My hair could feasibly do this (in my dreams) and so she is my real hair crush.

Well, after Grace of course.

Utter perfection. Even now.

80s throwback

I pretty much live my life in the 80s so to call this a throwback is a little misleading. However, I flew to New York for two days earlier this week for work. Nothing exciting about it, I was in New Jersey in all day meetings and then back to the airport. I flew Delta. My experience of American airlines is they have terrible lounges, they give you ALL the food in the world but they have great old movies on the inflight entertainment.

I found myself idly flicking through the options and decided to watch Moonstruck. I've not seen it since it was released in 1987. I had little hope of it actually being any good and I was utterly charmed. It's a very slight story but Cher and Nicolas Cage are wonderful.

I used to have a crush on Nicolas Cage and it was 99% down to his performance in this.  He's all muscly, sweaty and cute. (1% for Wild At Heart - snakeskin jacket). The shots of New York and Cher being all mousey only to become a goddess after having sex with her fiance's brother. It's truly a delight and worth rewatching if you've not seen it for a while.

Bolstered by this success I moved on to Tootsie. A confession, I've never seen Tootsie. I have no idea how I have this gap in my key 80s film oeuvre but there it is. I've literally not even seen five minutes.

I was bowled over. I knew it was a good film but nobody told me it was awesome! Plus Bill Murray is in it. Dustin Hoffman thoroughly deserved his Oscar, he is just so good. Men dressing up as women is as old as the hills in Hollywood but his performance is genuinely very touching and not just played for laughs. I enjoyed every moment.

On my flight back, I watched Say Anything. Again, I've not seen this for a very long time. This film is all about John Cusack. Without him, not much is going on but he's marvellous. The good guy Lloyd, adored by his female friends, winning over the class goddess. It's not one of my favourite 80s films but it's thoroughly enjoyable. And it has Frasier's dad in it!

I was reminded of these movies after reading Hadley Freeman's new book, Life Moves Pretty Fast. Unsurprisingly it's about 80s movies and how good they were. It's not just a blind adoration though, she calls out the sexism, racism and other isms of 80s films but she also talks about how Dirty Dancing would simply never get made today. It's well worth a read.