dreamscapist Reviews

The Great American Dream Machine (1971–1972)

Great American Memories

[10/10 · 27 August 2009]

I, too, was a young teen who became much more politically aware thanks to this wonderful program's focus on current events through a counter-culture perspective.

My more vivid memories, however, are of Chevy Chase and Ken Shapiro (I think) in mime's white face, with Ken playing Chevy's head like a bongo to the rhythm of classical music selections.

There was also a semi-regular cooking-show segment with disastrous instructions for such culinary misfires as the Fourth of July "Freedom Loaf."

How I would love to re-experience the series on DVD.

Crush (I) (2001)

Andie's Most Memorable Movie Moment

[24 April 2007]

First off, let me say that I love Andie MacDowell -- she's gorgeous, charming, very sweet, and she's proved her acting abilities to me in several roles. She also has the most delicious and engaging smile.

I was very much enjoying "Crush" up until that tragedy came out of left field, so angering me that I yelled at the screen. I actually felt betrayed after becoming so swept up in all the joy and romantic eroticism beforehand. There could have been all sorts of adversity for the couple to face without the great, plot-shifting finality as written. This is the only reason I can't count the film as a true favorite.

Still, there's that one pivotal, magical scene, in which Andie's character first meets her former student as a strapping adult. When he asks her, barely suggestively, if he could get her anything, Andie provides the most wonderful and telling expression: her eyes soften and her jaw slowly drops with breathy desire -- long-suppressed desire -- and without a word she speaks volumes about her deep well of longing and the smoldering lust that is overcoming her in the moment...she is a vital, beautiful woman, and her needs can no longer be ignored. Jump cut to the teacher well-mounted behind some bushes and you have the cinematic equivalent of orgasmic abandon, all done quite politely. I still become, uh...quite moved by the memory of it.