I Confess

It should come as no surprise that I love horror movies. Not the slasher films that pass for “horror” these days, though. Nope. I love good old-fashioned horror movies. In fact, in 2017 I published a series of Posts on my favorites by decade, beginning with 2010-2017 and working backward to the 1950s. (With Diego contributing a PAWS-UP to those starring Fab Felines!)

Countdown to Halloween: My Favorite Films (2010-2017)

However, my movie preferences tend to be broader than with music. (Where I admit to being more myopic.) Looking at my DVD collection I see everything from Action (Fathom, 1967) to “period pieces” (such as Marie Antoinette, 2006).

But what may come as a shocker to you, Dear Reader, is that I LOVE LOVE LOVE a good Romantic Comedy. Yep. Whether Coming-of-Age or Adult, I love Rom-Coms!!! (If they’re from the 80s, so much the better.)

10 Things I Hate About You
13 Going on 30
*40 Days and 40 Nights
About Last Night
*As Good As It Gets
Can’t Buy Me Love
*Chasing Amy
Clueless
Confessions of a Shopaholic
*Deliver Us from Eva
*Doc Hollywood
Easy A (Smartly written.)
*Fever Pitch
Flirting with Forty
Foul Play
Green Card (What I wouldn’t give for that greenhouse.)
Head Over Heels
Hitch
*Houseboat
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Just One of the Guys
Juwanna Mann
Kate & Leopold (Romantic comedy with a touch of Period piece.)
Mannequin
Modern Girls
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Overboard
Practical Magic (WITCHES!!!)
Pretty Woman
Pretty in Pink
*Sabrina (1995)
Shallow Hal (Another smartly done film.)
*She’s All That
Some Kind of Wonderful
Someone Like You
*Something’s Gotta Give
*Sydney White
*The Bishop’s Wife (Although I wrote a Post mentioning it.)
The Perfect Man
*The Proposal
*The Truth About Cats & Dogs
The Wedding Planner
*Three Can Play That Game
*Tootsie
*Two Can Play That Game
*Two Weeks Notice
Valley Girl (Like TOTALLY 80s.)
*What Women Want
*Working Girl
Worth Winning
*You’ve Got Mail

* means I don’t own a copy (yet).

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Just In Time (for Halloween 2021)

As if I don’t have enough movies in my collection already – let alone horror films – the postman delivered these today:

The Wolfman Complete Legacy Collection contains movies made from 1935-1948: Werewolf of London (1935), The Wolf Man (1941), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944), House of Dracula (1945), She-Wolf of London (1946, starring Lassie‘s own June Lockhart), and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948); and a number of Bonus Features (Monster by Moonlight documentary, The Wolf Man: From Ancient Curse to Modern Myth, Pure in Heart: The Life and Legacy of Lon Chaney Jr., He Who Made Monsters: The Life and Art of Jack Pierce, The Wolf Man Archives, Abbott and Costello Meet the Monsters, and more).

From the back cover:

The original Wolf Man is one of the silver screen’s most unforgettable characters and, along with the other Universal Classic Monsters, defined the Hollywood horror genre. The Wolf Man: Complete Legacy Collection includes all 7 films from the original legacy including the eerie classic starring Lon Chaney Jr. and the timeless films that followed. These landmark motion pictures defined the iconic look of the tragic monster and continue to inspire countless remakes and adaptations that strengthen the legend of the Wolf Man to this day.

Last week I received an excellent werewolf movie I ordered
which I had reviewed back in 2018:

Time to settle in with a good horror flick,
some popcorn, and my sidekick.

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“You’re out of your damn mind!”

That’s what Stephen A. Smith would say to Max Kellerman – who (along with Molly Qerim Rose) is his co-host on First Take – if Kellerman had come up with this list. I adore Stephen A., but REALLY!?! I have to call him on it…

Last Friday, Stephen A. Smith unveiled his Stephen’s A-List: Top 5 Sports Movies:

1. Rocky III (WTF!?!)
2. A League of Their Own
3. Friday Night Lights
4. Jerry McGuire (again, WTF!?!)
5. Any Given Sunday

A shout-out to A League of Their Own but I’ve never liked the Rocky franchise and stopped seeing them after Rocky II. (Although I admit to loving the Rambo series.) And Jerry McGuire?? What the hell is up with that? When I hear the words “sports movie”, that is one that NEVER – EVER – comes to mind.

So, what would be on MY A-List: Top 5 Sports Movies? Glad you asked!

1. Driven
   
   

   

   C’mon the film has Burt Reynolds, Stallone (who wrote the screenplay and co-produced), Kip Pardue, AND Gina Gershon – plus some killer special effects – where tasteful amounts of CGI were used! (Yes, I have the DVD.)

2. The Replacements
   
   

   

   

   An all-too-oft-told story (My favorite!) about a group of misfits who save the day! Solid cast: Gene Hackman, Keanu Reeves (I’m a BIG fan.), Orlando Jones (Office Space, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant), Don Favreau, Rhys Ifans (Vanity Fair, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Informers), Jack Warden, and a number of NFL alumni. My favorite scene involves the Replacements’ cheerleaders:

3. Slap Shot
   
   

   

   FUCKING HANSON BROTHERS!! (Can you guess which two were played by brothers?) Stars Paul Newman (He needs NO introduction.), Michael Ontkean (Twin Peaks), Lindsay Crouse (Bye Bye Love, The Arrival), Swoosie Kurtz (Sisters) in her first movie role, and Paul Dooley (Breaking Away, Sixteen Candles, Grace Under Fire). A classic. (I have the DVD…’cause it’s a CLASSIC!!!)

4. Remember the Titans
   
   

   

   Set in 1971 and based on a true story, the movie has a stellar cast: Denzel Washington (Philadephia, Fallen, The Bone Collector), Will Patton, Wood Harris (The Wire), Donald Faison (Clueless, Scrubs), Ethan Suplee (Blow), Kip Pardue (Driven), Hayden Panettiere (Raising Helen), Ryan Gosling, Kate Bosworth (Blue Crush). I especially loved the ongoing repartee between the two little girls. Inspiring – with the underlying message still relevant today.




AND MY TOP PICK…drum roll, please…

5. Major League
   
   

   

   Again, top notch cast and a Sports Movie CLASSIC! (Do I have the DVD? Need you even ask…) We’re talking a bunch of rag-tag misfits saving the day once again, only this time it’s MLB. Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen – an underrated actor who I love, and fuck all you haters (Two and a Half Men, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – the only one worth watching in that film, Wall Street, Young Guns, The Arrival, Spin City), Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law), Margaret Whitton, James Gammon (Urban Cowboy, Silverado), Rene Russo (The Thomas Crown Affair), Wesley Snipes (New Jack City, Rising Sun, Demolition Man, Blade franchise), Neil Flynn (Scrubs), and Dennis Haysbert (Waiting to Exhale, Allstate ads) as Pedro. To this day when I hear the song “Wild Thing”, this is what plays in my head:

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What’s Rockin’ My World (5.6.2020)

What’s “trending” at Chez Rock Vixen.
Chris Jericho’s “Bubbly Bunch” episodes on AEW Dynamite.

At 2:44 – Catch Jericho’s homage to Ozzy Osbourne
(Decline of Western Civilization Part II – The Metal Years)

At :43 – Sammy Guevara and his kitty!

How many non-wrestlers can you spot in this episode?

(I recognized Gabriel Iglesias, Lou Ferrigno, Kevin Smith, and Jason Mewes.)

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Think Dirty®

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As The Fixx say “One Thing Leads to Another” – this especially true when one spends much time on the internet.

Today I began reading a Vogue article “The New Toxic Beauty Documentary Asks: Are Skin-Care Products the New Cigarettes?“.

Excerpts from The New Toxic Beauty Documentary Asks: Are Skin-Care Products the New Cigarettes?:

“…the award-winning Toxic Beauty, which condenses a three-year investigation of the virtually unregulated chemicals in personal-care products into 90 thoughtful, thought-provoking minutes.”

“…the chemicals in her hair, blood, and urine were more commonly found in beauty products than in people.”

“Reports by a consulting lab from 1957 note that asbestos, a known carcinogen, had been detected in Johnson & Johnson’s talc supply.”

“…tens of thousands of substances available for use in personal-care products in the United States, the majority of which have not been assessed for safety by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review…Regulation kicks in only if customers report problems post-purchase.”

“…cosmetic legislation in the U.S. hasn’t been updated since 1938…”

“‘…it’s the accumulation of a number of products, and the reapplication of those products.'”

“Products aimed at minority women—skin-lightening creams, hair-straightening treatments—’have higher levels of carcinogens and toxicants’…A new study links the use of permanent hair dye and chemical straighteners with a 60% increase in breast cancer risk for black women, as opposed to an 8% increase for white women.”

The article contained a link to the docmentary’s website. Needless to say, I wanted to know more about the film so I clicked on the link. (I’ll provide pertinent URL’s at the bottom of this Post.)

The Toxic Beauty site not only discusses the documentary and where to see it (YouTube, Amazon Prime, etc.), but includes extended interviews and information on what ingredients you should look out for:

What caught my attention were the FREE apps they touted:  EWG’s ‘Healthy Living’, Silent Spring’s ‘Detox Me’, and Think Dirty. All three were available in my iPod’s App Store, but I only loaded one. (I think it was the name…)

A quick download and I was ready to go. Opening the app I found its interface pretty intuitive and put it to work right away scanning the barcode on a tube of lip balm I always have on my desk:

(No surprise that WF’s Organic Lip Balm registered “clean”.)

For comparison I scanned an item that I do not use but others in the household do:

(No surprise here either.)

Scanning other personal care items, I found some were not in Think Dirty’s database but they provided an option for you to request it be added. Although I had to register with them (I did) in order to perform this task, the whole process was quick and painless. They can even notify you when a product you scanned is added to their database. (You can change your Profile settings at any time.) – and allow you to “like” products, keep a list of items in “My Bathroom Shelf”, and write product reviews.

The only drawback is the Think Dirty app requires you to be connected to the internet, which shouldn’t be a problem for most of you out there. All in all it’s a nifty little tool that I’ll be using frequently!

Websites:
Toxic Beauty (documentary)
Think Dirty.
Environmental Working Group (EWG)
Silent Spring Institute
Breast Cancer Prevention Partners

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