I link through all this... before you wake up... so I can be happier

to be linked again with you... ♫

Kenneth in the (212) Fun couples at the Emmys. I hadn't seen some of these photos. Cute!
Just Jared The new cast of Dancing with the Stars. I don't watch it but I do find it amusing in a meta way that Jennifer Grey of Dirty Dancing fame will compete.
/Film Dozens of new photos from The Social Network


popbytes I so wish I was in Venice right now for Black Swan.* (yes more on this later today) In a perverse way I hope that Darren Aronofsky does take that X-Men Origins: Wolverine sequel.
The Playlist I forgot to mention that someone finally gave primo scene-stealer Ari Graynor a lead role. That someone was David Gordon Green. I guess he's just smarter than other directors.
USA Today Lindsay Lohan talking to Vanity Fair. She claims she's still a "damn good actress." You always were Linds so prove it again. You can't keep resting on 1998-2004.
Pop Eater Sofía Vergara's boyfriend is in politics? Huh, who knew.
Movie|Line ewwww. the bedbug epidemic has reached Toronto. Will it hurt the Film Festival?

Late tonight... the next episode of Hit Me With Your Best Shot features A Face in the Crowd. Are you joining in?

Robyn doing Björk whilst Björk watches. No pressure or anything.



"Hyperballad" is such a goodie.

Patrick Swayze (1952-2009)

When I heard tonight that Patrick Swayze had died, losing his battle with cancer at 57, my mind leapt immediately to Ghost (1990). Before Demi Moore's famous tear even finished falling in that movie theater of the mind the image was cross dissolving with scenes from other movies. I kept returning to Point Break (1991) in which Swayze played an improbable combo of surfing guru and bank robber and from which I nabbed this blurred screen shot.


I found it difficult to find a frame where Swayze wasn't in motion. Which, if you stop to think of it, is more than fitting. Dancing was his lifelong passion and rather serendipitously he became a household name by teaching it to the world (Dirty Dancing, 1987). His most famous roles smartly capitalized on his physicality whether he was throwing punches (bad movie classic Road House) fighting wars (the miniseries North and South) girlishly rethinking that lithe masculinity (drag comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything Julie Newmar) or chasing big waves (Point Break). Even his name, Swayze, suggested movement.

Ghost, his biggest hit, was less physical but it resonates in other ways now. In that improbable Best Picture nominee he played a man who died too soon. He played that sad story in real life, too -- minus Whoopi Goldberg as medium. The movies will be his medium now, his way of staying with the world.
*

Summer's Winding Down

Jonathan here and a little nervous. Nathaniel decreed all posts must get comments in the double digits and my posts run hot and cold. Sometimes double digits, sometimes a lone pity comment from Nathaniel (thank you for your pity, kind sir). So I uncovered this old poster from a movie Nathaniel did years ago with Maureen O'Hara in the hopes I'm not the only one who's seen it (and thought Nathaniel was wonderful in it --- Today is "Suck-Up to the Host Day," right?). Fabian wasn't bad either but Nat totally stole the show.

So is Nat's adventure the best summer movie ever? Nah. Summertime? Maybe. Endless Summer? If you're into surfing. A Summer Place? If you like the music. Summer of 42? It's a contender. Dirty Dancing? Wait a minute, I think we've got it. There's no "summer" in the title but I'm told that nobody puts baby in a corner so I think we have a winner. Surely you don't disagree.