June 1, 2006
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Would someone explain why the guy who comes to mow the grass won't knock on the darn door to get his check unless he sees my van outside? I suppose he's unaware school is out, so I simply haven't gotten it out of the garage yet today. Still, one would think he'd want his money, especially as he came by last week when I wasn't home.
Here I am, check all written out, suddenly aware of the silence. Surely he hasn't LEFT?
Yup.
Tell you what, Zhenya is the perfect overnight house guest...He cooks.
Made Dmitry and me delicious breakfast sandwiches this morning.
Yesterday Dmitry and I collected Zhenya and Reagan from their grandparents' house (which is lovely, BTW!), and had lunch at the "Russia Store". Mercy Maud, it had been way too long since I'd had its borscht and pelmeni. Afterwards we drove to where Reagan had been invited to stay the night, asking if we might borrow him just a little longer so he could go see "Over the Hedge" with me, as the older boys were clamoring for - yuck! - "X-Men".
"Over the Hedge" was quite amusing, though I tend to wonder about the literary allusions sprinkled throughout ("Rooosebud!" "Stella!"). Do most of the viewers actually catch those allusions, d'you suppose? Are "Citizen Kane" and "A Streetcar Named Desire" still required reading?
Comments (14)
READING?!??!?! They're movies! Most of the people who get them these days get them from the movies. In fact, I'll bet most of the people who get them, get them from having seen allusions to them in other movies, and having had it explained by someone who really gets them.
You know, that occurred to me after I'd posted it. You're correct..."Rooosebud!" and "Stella!" , portrayed as they are, definitely are owed to the film versions of those works rather than the original books.
ISTM that might push the first-person familiarity back even farther; IOW, does anyone watch those movies any longer?
I enjoyed "Over the Hedge" for the same reason. And I found very little potty humor, which is unusual for such movies now-a-days.
I like kids cartoons which have such literary allusions, I used to like watching Sesame Street for the same reason. I loved it when a muppet came up that referred to adult culture such as the dramatic sheep named "Meryl Sheep" and the singing bird, "Placido Flamingo"!
Placido Flamingo! I love it. ;^)
Tell you what was wildly amusing, though rather embarrassing, and that was RJ's explanation of the various facets of Life As We Know It all revolving around F.O.O.D.
Scary, how accurate it was!
I think these things do get passed down culturally, though. I've never seen "Streetcar" at all, and I knew what "Rosebud" was long before I ever saw "Citizen Kane" -- because of earlier comedic allusions to those things. Who can ever forget Goober Pyle doing Cary Grant, "Judy, Judy, Judy!" Bugs Bunny was also rife with that kind of thing. So I think you don't need to have seen any of these "classics" to get the allusions, because the allusions themselves have been cultural icons. How many of us know Shakespearean allusions because we've read the plays, rather than because they enter the language and we may or may not have read or seen the plays?
I daresay you're right, though the whole "Stella!" thing only works if deeply embedded in one's subconscience is Marlon Brandon's tortured cry.
The "Judy, Judy, Judy" illustration is apt, to be sure.
which should give you pause to think, "If Goober has seen the movie and has lifted the 'Judy, Judy, Judy' thing as his own, then surely we ought to now about it from original source as well." I mean, the guy's name is Goober, and he lives in Mayberry, NC.
Ummm, where did Judy, Judy, Judy, come from and what does it mean? This is asked by an elderly person who remembers Mr. Peepers. nuff said.
http://www.carygrant.net/articles/judy.htm speculates on where it came from.
Speaking of Shakespeare, I don't think he was all that smart. We had to read "Hamlet" in college and it was nothing but cliches.
LOL Kelly. ROFL.
[snort!]
Kelly, you are a HOOT!
I've not read "Citizen Kane", but I have read "A Streetcar Named Desire" and I've seen the movie (long after I read the book). My old golden retriever is named Stella, she's 13 years old and everytime I have to stand out and call her I think of Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski and feel slightly ridiculous
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