Hump Day & Chill

Legendary
James Dean

It's a blast from the past! "Yes" Minions when I spied this image of movie legend James Dean in his tighty whities how could I resist not having a Hump Day & Chill to this Hollywood Bad Boy?! I figured you all would concur, and of course you did. Naturally.

Dean made three classic films Rebel Without A Cause, Giant and East of Eden before his untimely death in a car accident September 30, 1955 when he was 24 years old.

Rebel Without A Cause is one of my favorite films and a role I feel was close to who James really was IRL. Hey, Dean was one of the great actors of his time, as well as filling out a pair of briefs quite nicely.

Thus I leave you to your Hump Day & Chill devices with the one and only Mr. James Dean!

I'm a rebel just for kicks now...

James Dean on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dean  

Meow! It's "National Black Cat Day"

James Dean

With a scant 4 more days until Halloween, how fitting that today is National Black Cat Day...Meow! 

So I let my fingers hit the keyboard and Google the WWW and what to my wandering eyes did appear but a pictorial to honor Halloween of Black Cats and their celebrity owners. One in partik stood out, well a few actually did but this one popped a little more.

Behold the beauty of James Dean and his Black Cat, oh, and there's also a table involved too, for good measure (I guess.)

For those of you reading this who don't know who James Dean is, and I am sure there are a few. First of all take the Walk of Shame and then do a Google search. You'll thank me, trust...

Seeing James and his pussy takes me back to a simpler time, also a time in Hollywood that will never come back. "Yes" Virginia all the glamour is gone, but legends live on!

Go Black Cat or go home! Have you cleaned the litter box?! 

James on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Dean  

Sunday Funday -

Betty White

Today is Sunday, that means it's supposed to a Funday. Today I am feeling dorky, thus I am bequeathing my peeps with a gallery of celebrities making silly faces. "Yes" this is the Sunday Funday gift you never knew you needed until now. You're welcome...

Katy Perry

Daniel Radcliffe

Britney Spears

James Dean   

Just Because...A Star Is Acknowledged

Hugging It Out
l-r
Bradley Cooper, Sam Elliott & Lady Gaga

Just Because, it gave me all the feels, Just Because, hand print ceremonies are fun! & Just Because Sam Elliott is one hot Daddy - "Yep" you guessed it, it's this group hug moment from Sam's hand print ceremony at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Sam has had a long and steady career in Hollywood appearing in such films a Mask, The Big Lebowski & one of my personal favorites Lifeguard - Why you ask? Ummmmmm, Sam portrays a Lifeguard, meaning he is in swim trunks pretty much the whole movie. There that's why!

Thus being that he is great in a the supporting role of Bradley Cooper's older brother in one of the biggest films of the year A Star Is Born he was invited to make his prints immortal at the famous Chinese Theater in Hollywood along with other legends such as Marilyn Monroe, James Dean & Elizabeth Taylor and many others.

"Yes" it is an "it's about time" moment for this veteran actor and a well deserved one.

Check out all the hand prints at the Chinese on Wikipedia at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Grauman%27s_Chinese_Theatre_handprint_ceremonie

Buster Keaton In His Own Time

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

Buster Keaton "can impress a weary world with the vitally important fact that life, after all, is a foolish inconsequential affair,"wrote critic Robert Sherwood in 1918. A century later Keaton, with his darkly comic "theater of the absurd," speaks to audiences like no other silent comedian. If you thought you knew Keaton --- think again. 

By closely researching the responses of 1920s critics, Gehring has discovered countless new insights about the comedian's 12 features made from 1923-1929. 

After a split chapter on THE THREE AGES and OUR HOSPITALITY, each feature receives a full chapter ---- which will give the reader both a broader and better understanding of the film. This will also involve many bombshells.

For example, learn how SHERLOCK, JR. started out to seemingly be a different and controversial picture. Discover where Buster's idea to walk into SHERLOCK, JR.'s screen appears to have come from. 

Take in the many period reasons why THE GENERAL could not help but fail. These would include its pioneering use of dark comedy, and that period's sacred perspective on the Civil War. That era seemed to think it ended in a tie. Therefore, one did not make comedies about the conflict, let alone a DARK COMEDY. Moreover, ponder how THE GENERAL might be the comedian's greatest film, but NOT the greatest KEATON film. Based on Keaton's prior work that honor better belongs to THE NAVIGATOR.

Consequently, this book invites a revisionist look at the study of an era that has been stuck in amber too long. The aforementioned Sherwood quote helps explain how Keaton went from almost more of a 1920s cult favorite, to today's most timely comedian of the silent era. Moreover, readers will receive new takes on John Bunny, Fatty Arbuckle, Harold Lloyd, Harry Langdon, and other 1920s personalities. It is well researched, but if you are also stuck in amber, one might recycle a signature line from Bette Davis, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to a bumpy ride."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wes D. Gehring is a distinguished professor of film at Ball State University and associate media editor for USA Today magazine, for which he also writes the column "Reel World." He is the author of 37 film books, including biographies of James Dean, Carole Lombard, Steve McQueen, Robert Wise, Red Skelton and Charlie Chaplin.

Michael's Musings

California Dreamin'...
Michael Shinafelt

"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today" - James Dean

This past week has been a odd one I can't really put a handle one how to define it other than we all have to dream. 

Dreaming is what keeps us moving, and moving is how we accomplish our dreams. That's not a quote from someone else. I just said that, right here, right now.

Let's make this week a dream. Shall we play???

One of my favorite things about waking up at 3 AM from insomnia is how perfectly still and quite the world is. It is a very productive time for me.

File This Under One Can Dream: "Waiting for someone from Big Bang Theory to be outed as a rapist so that godawful show can be canceled" - Faith Choyce, Comedian 

How about that lackluster season finale of American Horror Story: Cult?

Tweet others as you would like to be tweeted

Some days I want to put on my dancing shoes and pretend I can

I saw an interracial gay couple in the grocery store the other day. Those guys looked like the black and white version of each other.

Best Headline: I Stuck 9 Creme Eggs Up My Bum

Always follow the Laws of Attraction

Meanwhile, down in the valley...

Blake Shelton is People Magazine's sexiest man alive. He's not even the sexiest Blake alive, or dead for that matter.

Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate

When in doubt, shake your booty!

Sometimes, when I am at a total loss I think "What would Satan do?"

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world" - Harriet Tubman 

For sweet dreams follow me at:
https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/MShinafelt

Margaret Cho Takes On The "American Myth"

Margaret Cho has never been one to shy away from taking on any subject matter in her stand-up shows. Her no holds barred attitude has crossed over into another aspect of her career as well, that being her music.

For those of you who may not be aware Margaret started exploring her hidden talent of expressing herself through song with her freshman CD Cho Dependent released in August of 2010.

Her sophomore effort American Myth drops this Friday, April 29th 2016. On it Margaret is as fearless as ever!

So, without further hyperbole, here to discuss Anna Nicole, Sexual Abuse, Sex Workers, Movie Titles For Your Butt Hole and last but not least, the American Myth is the one and only Margaret Cho!!!

MS: That meme you posted on Facebook the other day about movie titles for your butt hole got a lot of mileage.

MC: I laughed so hard over those! My favorite was "Three Men and a Baby!"

MS: A friends of mine saw that I participated in it and insisted that I post it to her page.

MC: Did you have a favorite?

MS: Other than mine? I thought mine was pretty good.

MC: Which one was yours?

MS: "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

MC: Oh, that's a genius one! That's really genius. I laughed so hard all day at the great responses! "The Color Purple" kept coming up a lot, that one is classic.

                                                                 Anna Nicole
                                    
MS: You have a video for the song about your late friend Anna Nicole Smith, titled "Anna Nicole" off your CD "American Myth."

MC: Yes.

MS: Expand on a statement you made about her: "some people are too good for this world."

MC: That's why my album is called "American Myth." It's the idea that certain people are too beautiful for this world. Whether that's Marilyn Monroe or James Dean. Anybody in the twenty-seven club like Kurt Cobain or Janis Joplin. But it also relates to something that's inside of yourself, sometimes innocent parts of ourselves die off because this world is too terrible and cruel to sustain it. There's different levels, thing like being too precious to survive, only the good die young kind of thing. It's not just people, it's elements of our own beings that can't live, it's too hard.

MS: There was an innocence and sweetness about Anna Nicole.

MC: Yes,and given the circumstances around her death, she had just lost her son. He died in her hospital room. She had just had a baby almost immediately after that, so she had grief and postpartum depression combined. It's a miracle she lived as long as she did through all that incredible suffering.

MS: This is your second CD. How was working on this different than the first?

MC: On this album it was the first time I had input on composing. There's a few songs that I composed entirely. There were some different artists helping me out, for the most part it is an album that I composed which is exciting.

                                                       I Want To Kill My Rapist


MS: I want to bring up the song "I Want To Kill My Rapist," which was the first video off of "American Myth." You tackling the subject of rape has brought a lot of mixed reaction to say the least. I remember you did make a joke at The Wiltern that made the audience groan. I can't remember it, do you remember what it was?

MC: The one about my uncle who raped me, is the one I think it was. When I said "but I don't want to see him again, because I don't want to fuck him again. Because that's what would happen because we never broke up." That one makes people so upset, but it's me trying to lighten the mood. (laughs) The thing is if we don't make it OK to talk about and joke about sexual abuse it's going to continue happening. Look at fucking Dennis Hastert Speaker of the House, he's allocating fund in order to buy the silence of these young men, who are now grown men, who still have to live with the suffering and the shame of it. Sexual abuse is something that has long been considered a woman's issue, but really it's a global one, for men as well it's something we need to deal with.

MS: Having been molested I tend to be sensitive to the subject. However I think it is important to have an open dialogue and be able to joke about it as well.

MC: It's hard as survivors. We're meant to stay silent about certain things. Breaking the silence and allowing survivors to speak will  help protect the innocents of this generation. Silence and shame are accomplices to a predator. It shouldn't happen like that, that's something that we can control.

Troubadour
Margaret Cho
Photo: Dusti Cunningham

MS: You also have a song titled "Come With Me" about sex workers on the album.

MC: It should be decriminalized it would make it easier for people to work in the sex worker industry to report crimes that are committed against them. People who work in the industry don't have the ability to prosecute because they are afraid of getting arrested themselves. We have to improve the way society thinks about sex work. The song came from when I was recording in El Paso and I saw a lot of young male prostitutes. I wanted to take one to an amusement park. Because they were the age of a son I would have, if I had children. That is totally a legitimate reason to hire a sex worker, you want to have that love experience of being a mother with a son. The video is set, it will be out sometime soon. It is really a way to have people acknowledge that sex workers are also somebody's children. It's not about rescuing them because they are doing something wrong, it's that they are also kids. 

MS: This country is way to uptight about sex. Yet, murderers and criminals become stars and make money. There is something off about that.

MC: I know, I know. 

MS: Isn't it the worst?

MC: It really is! 

Get Mythical With Margaret at:
http://margaretcho.com/
https://twitter.com/margaretcho
https://www.facebook.com/officialmargaretcho 

Anna Nicole Smith "American Myth"

Guitar Hero
Margaret Cho
Photo: Dusti Cunningham

Today I chatted with Margaret Cho about her CD American Myth which will drop on April 29th, yes you will have to wait another week before you get to eavesdrop on the fun we had, so there!

Margaret released the video for the song Anna Nicole from the upcoming album this week. Cho appeared on Smith's E! series, The Anna Nicole Show, and was friends with the starlet, whom she's praised in the past — as well as on this song — for changing the perception of bigger women in the beauty industry. Here is what she has to say about the late bombshell:

"American Myth is a lyric from the song, 'Anna Nicole,' about the American myth that certain people are too beautiful for this world," Cho told A Plus. "They die young because they are too good for it. That is Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, the 27 Club — this is the same with Anna Nicole. I knew her and her death struck me very hard, and still does."

Jump down to the video.

                                                                      Anna Nicole

In Margaret We Trust at: 

http://margaretcho.com/