ToToToToT: Aranci, datteri! Pagliacci omicidi!

[Buzz]

Ron Howard

WW2 books:

The Longest Day - Cornelius Ryan
To Hell and Back - Audie Murphy & Tom Brokaw
With The Old Breed - Eugene Sledge
Red Road from Stalingrad - Mansur Abdulin
From Stalingrad to Pillau - Isaac kobylyanskiy

[falling_dance]

Red Road from Stalingrad - Mansur Abdulin sounds like one for the reading list.

the dancing in West Side Story: yay or nay?

Oh, of course not a criticism, just kind of a small dig, eh?

Coming from materialistic me, and considering the incredible expense of participation in the sport, it's not a dig at all. I have only Johnny Weir's appearance on Howard Stern to go by, in which (IIRC and apologies if I've misremembered) he made it clear that the boom in skating's North American popularity had a lot to do with the family's judgment call in making the switch (that and, of course, his unignorable talent). I don't doubt that his dream was based on more than --he's too much of an artist for that to be true--but such worldly considerations have probably kept some of the greatest talents ever out of competitive skating. Perhaps he would've danced professionally instead. Anyway, for all I know, 50s equestrians from non-aristocratic backgrounds lived in hovels.

The 1950s skating world was one which thought it a bad idea to let Mabel Fairbanks join a club and skate in Olympic-eligible competition. As much as I love the sport and appreciate the talents of Button, Scott, Albright et al, I can well understand why a conscientiously nonconformist artist and athlete would taking his or her capacity for dreaming elsewhere, however young one was.

[Holley Calmes]

David Winters-dancer as one of the Jets in West Side Styory. The short boy with the blonde hair. He's won a bunch of Emmies and awards throughout the years-choreographed for Elvis, Ann Margaret, etc etc....

He's trying to produce a movie with several SYTYCD dancers...Russell, Brandon, and a girl who won in Canada....He's trying to get my husband Richard to come take photos-used his photos on his facebook PR. Pretty cool.

So-West side story dancers....yes!

[Buzz]

1. West Side Story - Yay
2. Don't see another question...


Ethan Hawke movies:

Dead Poets Society
White Fang
Alive
Gattaca
Great Expectations
Snow Falling on Cedars
Training Day

[falling_dance]

He's trying to produce a movie with several SYTYCD dancers...Russell, Brandon, and a girl who won in Canada....He's trying to get my husband Richard to come take photos-used his photos on his facebook PR. Pretty cool.

Relistening to the Howard Stern interview, I see that I've made a mistake (another grain of sand for the towering oceanfront castle). I still find it easier to envision 1950s Weir onstage in New York than on the ice at Cortina d'Ampezzo. Le shrug.

Gattaca

Weir haters:

Me (Hey, I'm even more surprised than you are! Who's the next target of my bile? ? ? Michelle Kwan?)
or
Homophobic men muttering lascivious epithets in ice rink restrooms, oblivious to the irony and their own obdurate stupidity?

[Buzz]

By "me" I suppose you mean yourself my dearest f_d.

Some highly recommended books:

The Book Thief
Memoirs of a Geisha
The Help
The Red Tent
Sarah's Key
World Without End
The Kite Runner
Atonement
Cold Mountan

[falling_dance]

Why, thank you, Buzz.

Atonement, which can join Red Road from Stalingrad on the to-read list.

five of my favorite novels:

Washington Square
The Man Who Loved Children
Revolutionary Road
Mother Night
Europe Central

[aftershocks]

Washington Square


Favorite Literature to Film Adaptations:

Washington Square (1949 and 1997 films)
Pride and Prejudice (1995 miniseries; 2005 film)
Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
Strangers on a Train (1951)
The End of the Affair (1955 and 1999 films)
The English Patient (1996)


You materialistic, falling_dance? Ah well, Johnny may be materialistic too re his furs, love of clothes and glam lifestyle he seems to lead off-ice. However, he does have his grounded side having grown up in rural Pennsylvania to a normal lower-middle class family. Yes, the 1950s, fascinating era -- David Halberstam's The Fifties is a great read, btw -- also the subversiveness of Douglas Sirk's 1959 film, Imitation of Life. I can totally see what you mean re Johnny as a dancer onstage in the 1950s -- especially the fact he really would have had a much harder, nearly impossible time as a figure skater in that era with his insistence on being himself. Back then you were in the closet, or else! Come to think of it, Johnny could not have been Johnny back then. Really would love to see Johnny on the dance floor -- wonder if he will ever get the chance to be on DWTS.

Thanks for your further explanation re your "lucrative" reference. I think Johnny's conversation with Howard Stern was kinda akin to being in the men's room in any case. Lots of tongue-in-cheek, not to mention cheekiness and references to body parts. Johnny was brave to be on there. But I guess he's used to facing his fears and bearing up for a challenge.

[falling_dance]

For me, it's a tossup between The Heiress and Strangers on a Train. I'll go with the latter because I haven't seen the 1997 adaptation of Washington Square.

Best performance in the 1959 Imitation of Life:

Lana Turner's
Juanita Moore's
Susan Kohner's
or
______________?

[Buzz]

Lana Turner

Brat pack actors:

Robert Downey Jr.
Judd Nelson
Rob Lowe
Emilio Estevez
Anthony Michael Hall
Andrew McCarthy

[aftershocks]

Re Imitation of Life actors, have to say Juanita Moore re the major roles; John Gavin and Troy Donahue in the supporting roles (Donahue was a young actor in a number of memorable tv series)


Re Brat packers:

Downey Jr. and Rob Lowe have had the most significant post Brat-pack era success, but I have a soft spot for Anthony Michael Hall

Favorite Dustin Hoffman movies:

The Graduate
Midnight Cowboy
Kramer vs. Kramer
Lenny
Little Big Man
All the President's Men
Marathon Man
Rain Man
Tootsie

[falling_dance]

Midnight Cowboy

Katharine Hepburn:

- a fine actress
- a great actress
- what Dorothy Parker said
- Purple Indifferent Me

[Buzz]

Purple indifferent

Ryan Gosling
Ryan Seacrest
Ryan Murphy
Ryan Phillippe
Ryan Reynolds

[l'etoile]

Ryan Seacrest.

Modern Family of The Middle?


(Guys, I finally got the paid subscription! I can now fully enjoy FSU, YAY!!!)

[MikiAndoFan#1]

Modern Family.

Ugly Betty: yay or nay?

Yay, l'etoile!

[Buzz]

Nay

Former Olympic sports:

Croquet
Lacrosse
Rackets
Roque
Tug of war

[falling_dance]

lacrosse

cuisine:

Japanese
or
Vietnamese?

[Buzz]

Vietnamese

Books from my collection:

Beyond Courage - Elizabeth Chadwick
Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper
Graceland - Chris Abani
The Known World - Edward P. Jones
Travels With My Trombone - Henry Shukman
Winter Queen - Boris Akunin
Sobibor - Michael Lev

[falling_dance]

Sobibor

October 15 people:

Virgil
Asaph Hall
James Tissot
Friedrich Nietzsche
Jane Darwell
PG Wodehouse
Mervyn LeRoy
CP Snow
John Kenneth Galbraith
Mario Puzo
Italo Calvino
Michel Foucault
Tito Jackson
Todd Solondz

[l'etoile]

Virgil.

The best year of world title win by Michelle Kwan, if you could ever choose

1996
1998
2000
2001
2003