Rushfield Babylon: Archive

“I give Carrie Underwood props for bravery. That’s a big role to fill in front of 30,000,000 viewers and I thought she did the best she could. She’s a great singer. But she can’t act. She just can’t. There were moments that were painful. But then moments that were magic when she sang. I know there are purists who disliked the fact that a young country singer was playing Maria, but if young singers don’t embrace this music and expose other young people to it, the music will fade into the mist. Sure, it would have been way better if Anne Hathaway did it, but if I were running NBC I’d take Carrie Underwood – subpar acting and all – in a heartbeat.”—Ken Levine speaks the truth. Save our musicals vapid young pop stars!

Dec 8, 201315 notes

“Speaking of legs, there’s Santa’s booted leg coming down through our den ceiling. Did I mention my wife loves tinsel? It has been said that if you stand still near her in December, she will hang tinsel on you. Our friend, the wonderful writer Stuart Ross (“Forever Plaid”), wrote and had the Plaids record a lovely tribute to her: “Have Yourself a Mary Willard Christmas.””—Fred Willard is the most important voice of our time.

Dec 6, 201313 notes

Dec 6, 201377 notes

#laura benanti #sound of music

Our Top Five Films, Our Selves

In the interest of re-checking the obvious, I was inspired by that Alan Moore quote, wherein he touched upon this blog’s great theme - the infantalization of our culture (with the superhero film era as Exhibit C of supporting evidence) to take a quick peek and see, was it really ever not so. After 15 minutes of research, you be the judge.

I’ve looked at the Top 5 films of every year ending with a 3 going back 90 years including 2013 to date. I’m sure there’s a case to be made that this year’s crop are in fact as sophisticated any decades winners and the fact that these are the top grossing films compared to years past says nothing about the general state of our culture. You go ahead and make it. I’ll let the lists speak for themselves.

1923
The Covered Wagon, The Ten Commandments, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Safety Last, Daddy

1933
Queen Christina, I’m No Angel, King Kong, 42nd Street, She Done Him Wrong

1943
For Whom the Bell Tolls, This is the Army, The Song of Bernadette, Hitler’s Children, Star Spangled Rhythm

1953
Peter Pan, The Robe, From Here to Eternity, House of Wax, Shane

1963
Cleopatra, How the West Was Won, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Tom Jones, Irma la Douce

1973
The Sting, The Exorcist, American Graffitti, Papillion, The Way We Were

1983
Return of the Jedi, Terms of Endearment, Flashdance, Trading Places, War Games

1993
Jurassic Park, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Fugitive, Schindler’s List, The Firm

2003
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Finding Nemo, Matrix Reloaded, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Bruce Almighty

2013:
Iron Man 3, Despicable Me 2, Hunger Games 2: Catching FIre,Man of Steel, Monsters University

You can go ahead and quibble with the implications of this list (even though I didn’t say a word, just laid out the facts) because the internet is a place for quibblers and nitpickers, myself included.

You can say - and I wouldn’t disagree - that Despicable Me 2 is as good a movie as The Robe, How the West Was Won. or any number of these supposed Golden Age films. You can say, we’re in the golden age of animation which is just a different genre - a case made by many I have great respect for. You can point out that amidst the heavy handed dramas and the urbane comedies, there are plenty of action movies sprinkled about. To that I’d respond: yes, there have always been some action and kids movies at the tops of the list. But that wasn’t all of the list.

Rather than laying out the differences any further, I’ll just put it to you: if you can say we, as a culture, are what we watch. And I would say all in all, if you look at the top films of a year, that’s about as good a temperature taking of the ethos of the day as you’ll find - so looking at those lists, if you had to make a choice: which audience would you want watching your house while you’re out of town, babysitting your kids, educating your kids, remembering to feed your pets,managing your assets, choosing your government, cooking the food you put in your mouth - which audience would you choose?

Addendum: One can see pretty clearly where the thing goes off the rails and its no coincidence I’m sure that the bottom starts to fall out in maturity the exact moment the baby boom grows up and takes control of our culture.

For those who would say the audience of 2013, I suppose that’s a defensible choice on some level and I say, good luck finding your place un-burned to the ground when you come back from vacation.

Dec 3, 201326 notes

#film

“I hate superheroes. I think they’re abominations. They don’t mean what they used to mean. They were originally in the hands of writers who would actively expand the imagination of their nine- to 13-year-old audience. That was completely what they were meant to do and they were doing it excellently. These days, superhero comics think the audience is certainly not nine to 13, it’s nothing to do with them. It’s an audience largely of 30-, 40-, 50-, 60-year old men, usually men. Someone came up with the term graphic novel. These readers latched on to it; they were simply interested in a way that could validate their continued love of Green Lantern or Spider-Man without appearing in some way emotionally subnormal. This is a significant rump of the superhero-addicted, mainstream-addicted audience. I don’t think the superhero stands for anything good. I think it’s a rather alarming sign if we’ve got audiences of adults going to see the Avengers movie and delighting in concepts and characters meant to entertain the 12-year-old boys of the 1950s.”—Alan Moore

Dec 2, 2013363 notes

#alan moore #fanboys kill

Rushfield Babylon

December 2013

20 posts