IF YOU REMEMBER THE 80s, YOU WERE THERE

Whether you were there or not, you’ll always have films like Valet Girls to remind you what it was like.

Namely: big money, big hair, bright colors, complimentary Quaaludes and decadent topless pool parties with The Fibonaccis poolside doing no-wave covers of Jimi Hendrix songs and singing about Sergio Valente.

Yes. This is exactly how I remember it.

Less than zero,

This is dF

POLE DANCING TO SAVE JAPAN

I get press releases.

And as you’d expect, I’ve been seeing a lot of them in the last couple of days related to the Sendai Earthquake/Tsunami, mostly in terms of companies offering donations or free calls to Japan, etc.

Even the pole-dancing industry is doing its part.



Specifically, that’s $10 per pole.

So if you need a new pole …

Otherwise, you can donate to the Japanese Red Cross Society here.

For those of you in North America and have mobile phones, here's a list of SMS shortcodes you can use to donate if you like.

Every little bit helps,

This is dF

MY GRIT IS TRUE

And the first film of 2011 for Team Def is …

True Grit

As in the Coen Brothers remake, with Jeff Bridges bravely filling The Duke’s boots as US Marshal Rooster Cogburn, and filling them well. It may help that I never saw the John Wayne version. Then again, it was still difficult to watch this and not think of the previous film, which does hang over it in many ways – such is the testament of Wayne's iconic performance that won him his only Oscar. 

To be sure, like most Coen films, it’s well crafted, gorgeously shot, well acted and well told. And it’s true to the source material (which I’ve recently read) to the point that it felt more like the Coens were making their own version of the book rather than remaking the first film version.

But in the end, at least for me, it’s one of those movies that doesn’t really register much beyond its craftsmanship. It’s a good film, and I enjoyed sitting through it, but as the Coens have never really made a truly bad film, that’s not saying much. And with the icon of Wayne never far from my mind, I keep thinking that we didn’t really need a new telling of the story.

Fill yr hand,

This is dF