Did You Ever See a Dream Walking?

Lucas Haas in Lady in White

Like many good ghost stories, 1988's under-appreciated Lady in White is actually a mystery (which I am about to spoil). 

On Halloween, 1962, nine year old Frankie (Lukas Haas) is trapped in his school cloakroom by some bullies. While there, he sees a young girl being murdered and is attacked, himself. The girl's ghost asks Frankie to help her find her mother and he faints. He awakes in the hospital to learn that the school janitor has been arrested for the attack on him and the murders of 11 other children.

The ghost. Melissa, befriends Frankie and eventually, he returns to the cloakroom where he finds a hairclip and a class ring. The janitor is released due to insufficient evidence, but is later murdered by the mother of one of the real killer's victims. The bullies later lure Frankie to the nearby cliffs, but are scared off by a ghostly lady in white. Frankie runs home and confides to his brother Geno, who doesn't believe him, until Melissa appears to him as well. Frankie also tells family friend 'Uncle Phil' (Len Cariou) about the ring and how he thinks the real killer was looking for it on the night he was attacked. Geno and Frankie follow Melissa to the cloakroom where they see her murder re-enacted, though the killer remains invisible. After being strangled, Melissa's lifeless body is carried to the cliffs, where she revives and is then thrown over. Her mother, dressed in a white dressing gown, runs out of their nearby cottage and, seeing her daughter's lifeless body, throws herself off the cliff in despair.

Eventually, Geno and Frankie link the ring to Phil who drags Frankie off to the cliffs to kill him, but as Frankie's life is being choked from him, Phil is hit from behind. Frankie awakes in the cottage, tended by Amanda (Katherine Helmond), Melissa's aunt and the lady in white who scared the bullies away. Before she can get help, Phil enters the cottage and kills Amanda, setting the house on fire. Phil drags Frankie back to the cliff but before he throw him over, he is assaulted by the ghost of Melissa's mother and falls over, himself. Melissa and her mother then ascend together toward Heaven as Geno and their father Angelo (Alex Rocco) arrive to pull Frankie up from the side of the cliff. Just as they do so, Phil reappears, grabbing Frankie's ankle. Faced with the truth and the police, Phil lets go and plunges to his death.

Creepy and loaded with atmosphere, Lady in White was a critical, if not a commercial, success. It was eventually embraced by fans with its release on video and repeated offerings on cable, where it eventually earned a sort of cult status. Writer/director Frank LaLoggia does a fine job of creating atmosphere and tension, though the plot was probably a little old-fashioned for contemporary horror fans, who were still looking for gore and mayhem in the wake of the 80's Slasher craze. The performances are mostly terrific. Haas was still best known for his debut in Witness but does a lovely job and Cariou, known mostly as a Broadway performer is superb as the guilt-plagued killer. And while hardly a scare-the-pants-off-you thriller like The Haunting or Insidious, Lady in White is certainly worth watching on a gloomy Saturday afternoon, especially when paired up with another similarly atmospheric film.

More, anon.
Prospero

Awesome 80's Flashback

Do You Know This Man?

I spent my childhood in the 60's, my youth in the 70's and came of age in the 80's. The child of an Elvis fan mother and a Beethoven fan father, my musical taste as a kid tended toward pop-music, movie scores and musical theatre. Of course, I went to Saturday Night Fever High, where disco reigned but I not-so-secretly got sidetracked by Yes and early Genesis and experimental music. I remember bringing "Rock Lobster" to my friends, who all thought I was insane. 

In the 80's it was about electronica and dance and New Wave/Neo-Punk beats; outrageous hair and clothes; often pointed political lyrics and electronic interpretations of classics. Anything went. There were New Romantics, like Adam and the Ants; electric R&B from Herbie Hancock and Eurythmics;  electric Jazz from Thomas Dolby; feel-good synth pop from Howard Jones and sexy gay songs about orgasm from Frankie Goes to Hollywood and masturbation from Cyndi Lauper. It was mad and we thought it couldn't get better than it was right there, right then. It was the last great period of musical innovation. Almost everything today sounds the same.  And very little of it is any good.

Tonight, Tracy posted this on Facebook: "S-A-F-E-T-Y-D-A-N-C-E!" to which I immediately replied: "You can dance if you want to..." I hope you know that it goes without saying that we had to take turns finishing the damned thing. Which got me all nostalgic again. So I thought I'd just have fun and share some beloved "oldies." (Ugh! I so HATE that word). So, you can blame Tracy for the whole thing.

FYI - Thompson Twins was one of most fun concerts I've ever attended. It was their very first U.S. show in Philadelphia and they were genuinely surprised and pleased by the crowd reaction. They did two encores and my friend Deb caught some of the flowers they threw into the audience at the end.

That was good. I needed that.

By the way, do you recognize the Emo-before-it-was-called-"Emo" guy in the picture? I've already talked about him and posted one of his videos. First correct answer gets an extra wish next time they blow out their birthday candles (and no, it's not my father). Good heavens, Miss Yakimoto!

We'll talk about my re-discovery of the Beatles (which was around the same time as all of this), some other time.

More, anon.
Prospero

The Gayest Thing You'll See This Week (NSFW Version)

John Stewart served me many drinks in the early 80's. He was a bartender at a local progressive dance club in Trenton, NJ. City Gardens was a dump - a converted warehouse, it had a stage and a dance floor with tables, bleachers and a large bar in the front room and more tables, booths and smaller bar in the back.  There were holes in the floors and heaven help you if you had to use the toilet for anything couldn't be done while standing.

I heard every great alternative dance song of the era at City Gardens on 90 Cents Thursdays - 90 cents to get in and 90 cent well drinks. The place was usually packed with an assortment of punks and new wavers and downright weirdos. People watching was half the fun. My friends and I would drink all night (the drinks were watered, of course), but dance so much we never felt it. I also saw some of the 80's biggest names in alternative music there: Sinead O'Connor (in an amazing performance on her first trip to America to promote her first album); Devo (ask me about Q and the vampires some day); The Ramones and The Dead Kennedys, among others. Man, I wish had half the energy now that I had back then...

"And just how is any of that gay?" you may well  ask yourself. Well, it was the 80's... there was a lot of that going around.  But everyone was terrified to have sex (don't worry, we got over it). And now that Stewart is a star and host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, he knows how important it is for middle America to show some love our way. Stewart is and always has been pro equality. But the smirking little scamp can't help himself sometimes, and its his job to point out the silly and absurd, sniggering all the way to the bank (and deservedly so). Thankfully, Stewart and his writers are never really mean to the folks they're poking fun at. And that's why I love this possibly NSFW clip from the other night (via):

The Daily Show is clearly comedy with a liberal slant, but they're equal opportunity offenders and no group goes unjabbed. Of course, they jab some more than others,  also deservedly so. I wish I got to see it more often but I would need a 28 hour day, and 24 is enough...

More, anon.
Prospero

Songs in the Key of Me

Cyndi at Her 80's Best

So, I've started to put together a list of music I want to use for pre-show, intermission and scene changes for Top Girls. The play is set in 1982, so of course I went and pulled all my '80's CDs, looking for pieces that might be appropriate. Thinking I have to sneak "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" in there somewhere, I started listening to Cyndi Lauper's debut debut album "She's So Unusual" and came across a song I'd almost forgotten about: "She Bop." Which of course led Uncle P to think about other songs that deal with... um... well, pleasuring one's self.

While hardly the first song ever written about onanistic behavior, "She Bop" features some of the most overt lyrics ever written on the subject, including my favorite: "They say I better stop or I'll go blind."

Love her or hate her (and I so very much love her), Cyndi is probably an even more iconic '80's star than Madonna, Billy Idol (remind me someday to tell you about that concert) or Adam Ant.

 R.I.P. Captain Lou Albano (though I never really got the whole rubberband thing).

Of course, Cyndi wasn't the only one singing about the joys of being alone in the 80's. Billy Idol's biggest hit was about that very subject, no matter how many zombies he put in the video for "Dancing with Myself" And it wasn't just new-age punks singing about one-handing it. Classic rocker Billy Joel had his own take on the subject with "Sometimes a Fantasy:"

And quintessential '80's band Devo had this to say on the subject:



And then there's the Violent Femmes "Blister in the Sun:"



Mot to mention the Divinyls' "I Touch Myself,"  The Vapors' "Turning Japanese" and the Buzzcocks' "Orgasm Addict:"



Even Prince got into the act with "Darling Nikki:"

But by no means was masturbation (there I've said it) an exclusively 80's musical phenomenon. Chuck Berry explored the subject in the Mid '70's with "My Ding-a- Ling:"

Of course, "Darling Nikki" is about so much more than just self-love...

And in the 90's, the subject was still being explored (all puns intended) by artists such as Tori Amos:



Even Country Western stars sing about it (albeit disguised as patriotism):

Hell, if you don't love yourself, who will? So be proud of your toys, soiled hand-towels and waste cans filled with stiffened Kleenex... I'm not here to judge, but rather to comment, even if that comment is "Oh, yes!"

More, anon.

Prospro