Romanticizing the Past: Midnight in Paris

I just loved this movie! Woody Allen both embraces and criticizes the nostalgia that preys on creative people. 

My favorite part of the film was when Gil was transported to the 1920s and then he and Adriana get in a horse-drawn carriage which takes them to her ideal era, the 1890s. They then encounter Belle Epoque artists complaining about their own time and wishing it were the Renaissance. So spot on! We have done this and will continue to do it no matter what year we live.

There are so many of us that think we belong in a different time, but what we're really doing is hiding in impossible fantasy. The past is always easier and more glamorous because we don't have to live in it. We're often disenchanted with the present because we encounter it every day and it is therefore inextricable from the difficulties of our lives. The past is both exotic and comfortingly familiar, and so we think it must have been better. But people have always wanted what they can't have, even those lucky ones who lived in eras we long to visit.

Another great Midnight in Paris moment is when Gil recounts his nightmare of going to a dentist who doesn't have Novocaine. I think by glamorizing the past we often forget how horrible certain periods were. Like Gil points out, these people didn't have antibiotics! Sure the 1920s had beautiful flapper dresses, but there were some serious downsides too.

Salvador Dali and the Surrealists were also fantastic. They were totally on board with the time-travel thing.

Spike

Been watching a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm liking Spike's sexy Britishness and punk rock posturing.

 
Hehe, there's a running joke on the show that Billy Idol stole his look.

Stones 1973

Some newly released Stones photos from 1973:

To me this is when Mick was at his prettiest. Nice eye make-up too.

Keith's teeth are starting to rot, but in a glorious sort of rock 'n roll way.

Love this one: Mick and some Duke

The Steve(n) McQueens

I should of course be sleeping, but instead I'm watching the Vampire Diaries. Besides the atrociously sexy Ian Somerhalder, the show also stars the grandson of Steve McQueen! And his name is Steven R. McQueen (the Second, mind you). It's not surprising that he is also rather handsome, but I think he might be even better looking than his grandfather. Although he doesn't quite have Steve McQueen I's roguish manliness. (He's only 23, he'll grow into it).

There are so many lovely men in the Vampire Diaries, but I think Steven R. McQueen still stands out:

 

Quite pretty, no?

And then there is of course the original:

 

That's a lot to live up to.

But what a great bloodline!

Marlon Brando

Because he featured prominently in my first legitimate sex dreams...

Although the height of my Marlon Brando obsession has subsided, I still can't help but be fascinated by the man. What a beautiful, maniacal, and brutal individual. I feel like you don't understand sexy until you've seen him in action. I mean, my God, those shoulders!

Some of my favorite Brando movies: 
A Streetcar Named Desire
On the Waterfront
The Fugitive Kind
Guys and Dolls (my first ever Marlon exposure)
Last Tango in Paris (he's uglier and chubbier in this film, but no one can play an endearing rapist like Mr. Brando).

I've never actually seen The Godfather (I'm not much interested in that mob business) but maybe I should try it just to see one of his most iconic performances.

Marlon Brando was really my first introduction to old-time sexy men, so I'm forever indebted to him.

Andy Warhol's Mick Jagger

 

I love Andy Warhol's interpretation of 1975 Mick Jagger. But then again I love Andy Warhol and I love Mick Jagger, so there you go.

 

Here are the two of them with the crazy/genius Beat writer William Burroughs. I can't even imagine what that dinner was like.

Also, a quotation from an interview with Mick in 1987:

"What do I want to read a book about myself for? I am myself. I don’t want to read someone else's version of it, I might get confused."

Oh Robert Plant

I'm on a serious Led Zeppelin kick lately. I could die listening to this song:

Robert Plant

Everyone knows Robert Plant is pretty, but lately I've developed a deeper appreciation of his beauty.

I mean, why can't I have hair like this?

 

I'm not one for a lot of Led Zeppelin's heavy, hard rock material, but I think they can do a beautiful slow song. My favorites are Tangerine, All of My Love, Going to California, and (obviously) Stairway to Heaven.

As a Rolling Stones devotee, I'll take Mick Jagger over Robert Plant and Keith Richards over Jimmy Page any day, but I can still appreciate some good Led Zeppelin music. Also, most serious rock fans tend to think they are FANTASTIC, so I thought I'd give this post a whirl.

Pamela Des Barres

I'm not sure how I feel about Miss Pamela after reading I'm With the Band. On one hand, I respect her because she did exactly what she wanted to do. Her life was enviably wild and free. Who am I to judge her, especially when reading her stories is so endlessly fascinating? However, it rubs me the wrong way how she organized her whole world around men. Not only did she love to service them sexually, but she ironed their shirts and darned their socks. And she believed she was getting the best deal because they had deigned to grace her with their presence. I imagine most of the musicians she courted genuinely liked her, but I doubt any of them looked at her in the awe-struck way she looked at them. Most of these men were all too ready to jet off somewhere new, forget about her, and fuck dozens of other women.

Pamela Des Barres has lived an amazing life and has very astute insights about rock and roll. She's adorable and sweet, and it shows in her writing. But it took her decades to even become a real writer, because she was so busy catering to her rock star lovers. Her stories are fun and juicy, but I just don't know if her experiences were as empowering as she would like to think. I've decided that I prefer the memoirs of other women from the rock and roll world, like Marianne Faithfull. Miss Pamela was just a bit too fawning and accommodating for my tastes.

Pushing Daisies

This show is adorable. Also, I wish I were Anna Friel. As Chuck she wears these lovely vintage-inspired outfits that play up her character's hopeful, dreamy expressions. Anna has some seriously fantastic (fake?) eyelashes as well.

up and down with the rolling stones

I have just whipped through Up and Down with the Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez (and most likely his heavy-handed ghost-writer). This book by Keith Richards' former friend/ personal assistant/ drug dealer is very interesting. The dates are iffy and a bit confused and some of the details are blatantly wrong. It's melodramatic, sensationalized, and riveting like a soap opera. Yet I get the feeling that in general, most of what Tony Sanchez says is true. So here are some of the more striking quotations from the wild but undeniably fun read:

Brian Jones: "Our friends are questioning the wisdom of an almost blind acceptance of religion compared with total disregard  for reports related to things like unidentified flying objects which seem more real to me." Whoa.

"Keith Richard had discovered very quickly that money really could buy just about anything. After he had been fined for driving without a license, he had had a long, huddled conversation with one of his drivers. I never found out exactly what happened, but Keith bounced up to me one day, showed me his pristine driving license and announced 'Look Tony, I've passed my test.'" Bahaha.

Keith decides he wants a Hovercraft. Tony remarks, "I had learned long before that in the millionaire world of rock superstars every whim rapidly becomes reality, so I agreed that a personal Hovercraft sounded like an excellent idea." And so Keith of course got one and used it until it bored him.

Mick Jagger: "There should be no such thing as private property." Hah! Oh, Mick. Please. 

"Many of Mick's closest friends are men who, he knows, want to go to bed with him."

Anita Pallenberg on her baby son: "It's beautiful that Keith is so crazy about Marlon. But sometimes, just sometimes, it seems as though he loves him more than me."

Bianca Jagger v. reporters: "I have no name. I do not speak English." So much for that.

A priest, Father Baud, on Mick Jagger: "He has a great sense of religion, that boy. He really has a feeling for it." Tony remarks, "The priest liked Jagger." And why not?

"Anita's latest game was slipping sleeping pills into the Pimms cocktails Keith drank after dinner every night." Yikes. That's not good.

Mick Jagger's birthday: "Keith was taking the event extremely seriously; not only had he bought Mick an expensive piece of jewelry, but he was even wearing a suit..." That's sweet... but I don't know what to make of it.

Hot Stuff

I don't know if I could love this more. Mick Jagger is fantastic as a man and a woman.

You Got the Silver

Anita Pallenberg frightens me a little bit, but she is utterly fascinating. I get the feeling that she could eat people like me for breakfast. Anyway, I find her aesthetically and personally very intriguing. She's not exactly beautiful, but she is very attractive and striking. And she definitely knows how to wear clothes. Add in her riveting German accent and alluring, biting smile, and you have a lasting icon.

Marianne Faithfull says Keith Richards wrote You Got the Silver for her, which is one of my absolute favorite songs.

 

I just love this picture of her in St. Tropez for Mick and Bianca Jagger's wedding. What a fantastic outfit! Best of all-- that's not even her kid! I'm not sure who his parents are (drug dealers maybe?) but I don't know that I would trust Anita Pallenberg with my child...

Anita is a powerful and almost mythological figure. At one point she had three Rolling Stones wrapped around her fingers. She was an inspiration and agony to Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards during the height of their popularity. She was Marianne Faithfull's partner in crime in the 1960s, and self-destructed almost as spectacularly afterward. According to Keith Richards' Life, she went dramatically insane and drug crazy for a period of time, but is all better now.

Stones-y Things

the morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of Lucy Jordan

Sometimes I just really want to be Marianne Faithfull

Mick Jagger is Awesome

One day I will get over my Mick Jagger obsession, but until then:

Such epic photographs :)

Jagger/Richards

I don't know where I found this, but it's just wonderful.

I'm guessing this is Mick and Keith circa 1969.

Before Sunrise, Before Sunset

I can't even express what these beautiful films made me feel. I think I fell in love, was ripped apart, and then put back together over and over again. Ethan Hawke is the sexiest thing ever in Before Sunrise, and absolutely endearing (and still handsome) in Before Sunset. Julie Delpy is also amazing; she says so many things about women and relationships that could have come from my head.

Sometimes I busy myself with other things while watching TV, but with both these movies, I was RIVETED to the screen. They are almost like plays rather than films, with the focus on amazing and heartbreaking dialogue. I'm not really into Romance movies, but Before Sunrise and Before Sunset manage to be both sentimental and real. There is no perfect happy ending here, but you still feel that you have witnessed an epic romance.

These films just may have changed my life.