dEFROG ON 45 #42: SEX WAS SOMETHING I JUST HAD

As long as I’m fessing up my appreciation for 80s pop singers, I guess I should also bring up Samantha Fox. 

Yes.

As you may have gathered, like a lot of guys my age I was a fan of Samantha before she got into music (if you know what I mean, and I think you do), and I admit liking her first couple of albums primarily because of the novelty value. Also I was living in West Germany at the time, so I was already listening to a lot of Europop. (Evidence: I still have Kim Wilde’s first five albums somewhere, and I even have the first two Sandra albums on cassette. I don't really listen to the latter anymore, but that’s not the point.)

So anyway, yes, I liked her at the time. And you can laugh, but by her second album, she was collaborating with heavy pop hitters like Stock Aitken & Waterman and Full Force. So, you know, it’s not like she was goofing off or anything.

Anyway, somehow I ended up with this song on 45 – I think I bought it second-hand for a radio show I was doing at the time (this was before CD players became standard-issue in radio stations – or at least college radio stations with next to no budget).

Temporary love’s so bad but it feels so good,

This is dF

YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY FROM ARMAGEDDON

I’ve been to the cinemas. Let’s talk about them, shall we?

Moonrise Kingdom

I’m off and on with Wes Anderson, but it’s definitely “on” for his latest film, a coming-of-age story about two disaffected 12-year-olds who run away together to escape from their respective family situations.

It sounds clichéd on paper, but Anderson’s gift for quirky storytelling and mid-60s pop-culture nostalgia, as well as a tendency to create characters where the kids seem more grown-up than the adults, makes all the difference, as well as a great ensemble cast.

Of course, this being a Wes Anderson, some things are going to make people uncomfortable, particularly the beach scene and the fate of the Khaki Scout camp mascot Snoopy. And of course Anderson’s hip cred will keep some people away automatically. So it’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely for me, and it’s in the running for best film I’ve seen this year.

Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World

A film about the last few weeks of life on Earth before a killer asteroid strikes, with the focus on Steve Carell as a man whose wife leaves him in a panic, and with nothing else going for him, gets roped in with a flaky neighbor (Keira Knightly) on a road trip to find his high school sweetheart. Love ensues.

It’s worse than I’m making it sound. That’s not to say it’s completely terrible – I like Carell, and he plays a good straight man to almost everyone else in the film who are either trying desperately to preserve order and continuity in their lives or going completely decadent. At least at first.

The problem is that the film starts off trying to take a comic look at how society in general would react in such a situation, but gives up halfway through and becomes a doomed, sappy love story. And many of the comedy bits are half-assed, anyway. It might work as a chick flick (though the chicks I’ve consulted say otherwise), but overall it was yet another lost opportunity to make a funny the-world-is-ending film.

Wake me when it’s over,

This is dF