Julie Andrews is Coming to Chicago!

If you live in the Chicagoland area-or anywhere in the midwest-you won't want to miss Julie Andrews at the Tivoli theatre in Downers Grove. It's really an event to promote her book, but they will be showing The Sound of Music and she will be answering audience questions. Click here for info.

The Tivoli is my favorite movie theatre and seeing the Sound of Music there is going to be amazing! Seeing Julie Andrews in person will also be amazing, of course. The theatre was built in 1928 and restored by Classic Cinemas awhile back. It has one screen in a large auditorium with a fabulous old theatre atmosphere complete with a Wurlitzer theatre organ. Yes, part of the fun of the Tivoli is the organ interludes on the weekends. They usually show second run films for $3, but every so often they have a special event. This is definitely the most exciting event they've had. I can't wait!

Elvis on American Idol: How They Did It

I swear, this is the last thing I'm going to say about this Elvis business. But if you care at all, you won't want to miss this video from 2 Live Fools on how it was done.

Elvis + Celine = Creepy

There's only one video on YouTube of Elvis and Celine's performance on American Idol last night and the quality isn't great, but here it is:



I can't stop watching!

Elvis on American Idol

That's right, Elvis was on American Idol tonight. Singing with Celine Dion. There's only one word to describe such a scene: disturbing. Disturbing partly because they took Elvis out of a video from the 60's and managed to make it look like he was standing on stage next to Celine...it actually looked kind of real. Kind of.

Disturbing mostly because Celine Dion was involved.

There were a lot of strange camera angles and such, because apparently, in the 60's, they thought crazy angles and close ups were the way to go. So they'd show all these close ups and then stick Celine in the background. Yeah, it was weird. Here's the video.

I can't say that it's not worth a viewing. It was pretty interesting and very original I guess, but I'm pretty sure Elvis is rolling over in his grave right now. If he's dead...

Birthday Round-up

This is a big week for birthdays. Birthdays of people I like. Today is Barbra Streisand and Shirley MacLaine's birthday. I don't know that I'd say I like Barbra, but she's alright.

I went through a Shirley Maclaine stage not long ago. She's pretty great. I had avoided watching Terms of Endearment for a long time mostly because I heard how incredibly depressing it was. But when you're in a Shirley MacLaine stage, you can't just ignore it. So I rented it and yes, it is depressing, but its amazingness more than makes up for the pain it causes. My other favorite Shirley MacLaine movie is a rather obscure one called Used People. It's actually the movie that started my whole Shirley MacLaine stage. Much to my dismay, it does not yet exist on DVD. To celebrate Shirley's birthday, TCM is showing a couple of her movies this afternoon, followed by her Private Screenings interview. Should be good!

The other birthday this week is Carol Burnett, on the 26th. I love Carol Burnett. She's absolutely one of my favorites since I was a kid. I watched the Carol Burnett Show all the time, and I wanted to be a comedian because of her. I also enjoyed her in Annie as Miss Hannigan. Nobody's ever said, "she hadda go bathroom" quite like her. I've spent many years trying to copy it, to no avail. I was delighted to see her the other night on the TVLand awards, honoring Lucille Ball, my other favorite! Lucy's kids were there to accept the award, it was all very cute.

So there you have it, the birthday round-up for the week of April 23, 2007.

The Next Voice You Hear...

Last week I was incessantly flipping through my many cable channels, finding nothing interesting, as usual. I finally landed on my very favorite channel, TCM...they never let me down. They happened to be showing this crazy movie called The Next Voice You Hear...

I came in about a half hour into it, so I wasn't quite sure what was going on, but I couldn't stop watching! I was first intrigued by the woman in it who was acting as if she was going into labor but was strangely thin for a pregnant woman. I can only deduce that it was apparently indecent for a women to look pregnant on screen. Oh, the fifties. She also looked rather familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. I looked it up and found it was Nancy Reagan (Nancy Davis at that time). It was definitely my first Nancy Reagan movie...kinda strange.

Anyway, from what I could tell when I started watching, the story was revolving around a very stereotypical 50's type family consisting of pregnant mom, kind of boring dad and adolescent son. One evening while everyone was huddled around their radio, God broke in precisely at 8pm with a special message for mankind. He began to broadcast every night at 8, and the townspeople (along with the entire world, apparently) listened each night in anticipation. Most of them were just confused, but some thought it was the end of the world and proceeded to freak everyone else out with their crazy antics. It was basically a mix between Leave it to Beaver and The Twilight Zone.

I won't spoil the end for you in case there's any chance that you might watch it some day, which is unlikely. But just in case, I'll keep it to myself. It's definitely worth a watch, if only for it's painfully stereotypical 50's feel with a sort of failed attempt at being creepy. And also Nancy Reagan.

Wait Until Dark

We had our second Old Movie Night this weekend featuring Wait Until Dark. It was quite a success I think.

Wait Until Dark is scary. It stars Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. She's blind, some guys are after her because she has this doll stuffed with heroin, and just about the whole movie takes place in her apartment. Not your typical Audrey Hepburn movie. I had seen it quite awhile ago, but I've mostly just caught random parts when it's been on tv over the years. So it had been awhile since I'd seen the whole thing. It's really an excellent movie, and there was a great moment where just about everyone in the room screamed and jumped. Luckily, I knew what was coming, so I just got to observe everyone else's shock, and then laugh at them.

If you're looking for a good suspenseful movie with some Audrey Hepburn action, this one's for you. It's very well made, and manages to stay away from most of the 60's movie corniness. But really, how can an Audrey Hepburn movie possibly be corny? The DVD has a few special features, and I'm tempted to add it to my collection.

It seemed to please the younger audience...everyone was pretty into it. They always seem surprised that these movies are in color. I guess when people think "old movie" they think black and white. So next month we're definitely showing a black and white film. I can't wait!