From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V2 #13 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Tuesday, January 18 2000 Volume 02 : Number 013 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: stillpt-digest V2 #12 ["Jennifer Stevenson" ] Re: stillpt-digest V2 #12 ["David S. Bratman" ] Re: stillpt-digest V2 #12 [GHighPine@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 08:22:06 -0600 From: "Jennifer Stevenson" Subject: Re: stillpt-digest V2 #12 Been lurking as life is too busy here to do any fanac, but had to mention: Bob Zmuda was on NPR the other day, talking about Kaufman. His description of the things Kaufman did and (in Zmuda's opinion) why he did them convinced me that I'd gotten him loud and clear just from the buzz around the wrestling match: he was f'ed up beyond all recognition, and was parlaying that into a career as a public person. His "Where are they now?" bit which was about his fascination with failures and people whose careers stall out and disappear, his working hard at pissing people off, hurting their feelings, making them feel bad about themselves, etc., all carried me waaay back to the sixties, when people used to talk this way about rock stars--the kind who OD mercifully young. Zmuda was fascinated and charmed by these behaviors, which tells you a lot about =him=. From what I've heard about Jim Carrey, the role is a perfect fit. Who was it upstream who liked the Addams Family series better than the movie? Did you see the second movie? It was a sequel to a spinoff film from a series that eclipsed them all. Most unusual. Little Wednesday Addams stole the show. - -Jennifer ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 11:20:48 -0500 (EST) From: "David S. Bratman" Subject: Re: stillpt-digest V2 #12 On Mon, 17 Jan 2000, Jennifer Stevenson wrote: > Who was it upstream who liked the Addams Family series better than the > movie? Did you see the second movie? It was a sequel to a spinoff film > from a series that eclipsed them all. Most unusual. Little Wednesday > Addams stole the show. That was me. I didn't see the second movie, because I only heard it praised by people who thought the first movie was also terrific. That told me nothing about whether I'd like it, and I had other things to do than see it on spec. (This is in contrast with, for instance, the second Trek movie, which I saw (and enjoyed) because it was praised by people who, like me, accepted the premise that the first one sucked, as well as by those people who swooned over the first one.) This reminds me, however, of my favorite parlor game, which is the listing of sequels that are superior to their predecessors. Sequels are usually so much poorer if not on the same level that finding better ones makes a good challenge. Mind, the predecessor need not be bad: just that the sequel is distinctly better. In my experience with this, the two most often-named films are: 1. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan 2. The Road Warrior And the two most often-named books are: 1. The Lord of the Rings 2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 13:17:44 EST From: GHighPine@aol.com Subject: Re: stillpt-digest V2 #12 I'd like to know what Zmuda's theories were about why Kaufman acted the way he did. He didn't piss people off merely by being obnoxious -- nothing special about that, lots of comedians are obnoxious -- but in much more daring ways, like being purposely boring and unfunny on stage. For example, once as his act he simply took out a copy of THE GREAT GATSBY and read it out loud from cover to cover (very few audience members remained for the whole thing, of course). I got the impression from the movie that even his friends didn't know what made him tick, and he intended it that way. My friend and i went to the theater intending to see BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, but it had left and so we saw MAN ON THE MOON instead. I hadn't even planned to see MOTM, but I was glad that I did -- it stuck with me and gave my mind a lot to chew on afterward, and I like movies that do that. I still want to see BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, though it's not playing anywhere convenient for me. You want to see a weird, bizarre, hysterically funny and utterly original movie, see FIGHT CLUB. It's disgusting but I laughed so hard and continuously during it that I could hardly catch my breath and my sides literally ached afterward. Warning: do not eat while watching it. It is dangerous to be vomiting and laughing uncontrollably at the same time. Gayle ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V2 #13 ****************************