Recent anachronisms

Every now and then you realize that a phrase or an action that you remember as common or prevalent or even well-loved has become, due to time and changing social customs and blah blah blah, an anachronism. One of the more observed recent anachronisms is the phrase "You sound like a broken record" which, to anybody under 18, must sound more like the whine of an Olympic has-been rather than an annoying repetition.

This morning I woke up with another one, though it's kinda convoluted. There's an exchange in The Rocky Horror Picture Show where Frank-N-Furter, the sweet transvestite, asks Brad, the "hero", if he has any tattoos. When Brad bristles and says "Certainly not!" Frank asks the same of Janet, the "heroine", who then giggles a bit. Then those of us watching holler "SHOW HIM THE BATTLESHIP, JANET!" and it's all fun, we share a laugh and celebrate the moments of our lives.

Anyway.

The line was written thirty years ago, when tattoos pretty much were reserved for the realm of the freaks (and servicemen, oddly enough.) Nowadays (ack, did I actually just say "nowadays"? next I'll be talking about "kids these days") tattoos are much more, well, mainstream. I think my mom was even thinking of getting one recently. The shock value of the transvestite asking the straight-laced American "hero" (and his fiancee) about tattoos is lost now, as well as the cultural connotations inherent at the time.

So. Anyone else notice any other "modern" anachronisms recently? Go ahead and share; you've got time. I'm makin' English muffins so I got a few minutes here.

(ObitJournal)

Peter Ustinov, dead at 82.

I fear that Sir Peter Ustinov falls under the category of "Whoa, he was still alive?" to most people who might even remember him and his roles -- as the "civilian more civilian than others" in Spartacus (for which he won an Oscar) or perhaps for the role as the old man quoting T.S. Eliot in Logan's Run. Oddly enough, I'll remember him most for his two Disney roles, as the voice of Prince John in Robin Hood and as the live-action ghost of Blackbeard in, well, Blackbeard's Ghost (a portrait of him in this role, by the way, can be seen stashed away in one of the tableaux near the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in Disneyland.)

But now he's gone and some of us say "Well, Ustinov and Richard Harris are both gone; at least we still have Peter O'Toole to represent the hard-drinking, hard-carousing British thespians of the 60s" and the rest of us go "Whoa, Peter O'Toole, he's still alive?!"

(no subject)

Okay.

I'm only saying this one time.

One time.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a painfully honest, sweet and terrible, rueful, uplifting, adult, contemplative, enigmatic, surreal little film that adroitly addresses so many things about breakups and memory and incompatibility in the face of impulsive fun-having. It's not a perfect film, no, but it's at least one that stays with you afterwards and makes you think, for good or bad.

So why the hell has it only made 16 goddamn million dollars in two weeks of release? Scooby-Doo 2 (admittedly not rated R, and admittedly a kid's film, but still) made nearly double that in its first weekend alone. There's no reason Eternal Sunshine couldn't have done the same.

Come on, people. Go see the movie. Help make it at least break even ($35M budget, according to IMDB.) I know studios often feel safe taking risks with good films by churning out the crappy moneymakers, but this is ridiculous. It deserves a lot more than that. I mean, hell, I know who's reading this. I know y'all are smart people who have the capacity to think, really think, and enjoy a unique film.

NO I DON'T MEAN GO SEE SCOOBY-DOO 2. Oy, I give up.

i lieks teh ice cream