WEIRDLAND

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Kristen and Joan love rock and roll

"Joan Jett gave me this t-shirt. It's her favorite album cover". - Kristen Stewart talking on the "Minor Threat" t-shirt she wore at Comic-Con

"When rocker Joan Jett started all-girl proto-punk group The Runaways in 1975, and even after she and her later band, The Blackhearts, hit it big with the song ''I Love Rock 'N Roll'' in 1982, she never thought she ever would be regarded as one of the greats.

''Not in that context'', Jett says in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. ''But I always thought maybe we'd be role models for girls or that I myself could be just a role model to show that you don't have to fit into a predesigned box; that when you were born as a girl, that doesn't -- shouldn't -- limit you.''

It certainly didn't limited Jett. And 35 years later, she is certifiably one of the greats.

Not only is ''I Love Rock 'N Roll'' among Billboard magazine's Top 30 songs ever, but Rolling Stone magazine in 2003 also put her among the Top 100 guitarists of all time -- one of only two women on the list (Joni Mitchell is the other).

And now, The Runaways' story is the subject of a major motion picture, filming now and set for 2010 release, starring Dakota Fanning, Tatum O'Neill and 2008 Oscar nominee Michael Shannon. Hot ' 'Twilight'' star Kristen Stewart plays Jett.

Asked why she thinks her music is still popular after all these years -- Jett for the past few years has even played a main stage at the decidedly younger-focused alt-music Vans Warped Tour -- she says, ''I guess I can never really be sure.''

''But I would hope that it reminds people, whenever they come across these songs, of a time in their life when they were either enjoying life or they were in a struggle in life that the music sort of helped them through,'' she says. ''It's connected to them in some form to some experience.''

But she says she's baffled when ''an 8-year-old hears 'I Love Rock 'N Roll' now and is attached to it. What does it mean? And where is that coming from?'' she says, laughing. ''Sometimes, they can't even explain it to you. Sometimes, a lot of times, there are no words.''

But Jett says inspiration came from the hypocrisy she saw.

''People talk such a good game here in America: 'Land of the free and home of the brave.' And you're going to tell me how I can dress? I don't think so. You tell me what uniform I have to wear and if I deviate from that at all I'm going to get my ass kicked, people are going to make fun of me and talk about how weird I look and how dirty I am?

''I mean, that's what happens when a girl steps outside the lines. And it's quick, fierce, and it's intense and you don't know where it's coming from because people have a sheep-herd mentality. So when you step and you do something different, you get crushed for it.''

Jett says she's working on new music, but is in no rush to get it out. ''To tell you the truth, I just don't see the point in working so hard to create 14 new sides to put out there to not be played on the radio and not be played anyplace else,'' she says. ''So the rush to create an album a year is not the same as it was in 1976 or 1985 or 1989.''As for Stewart's portrayal of her, Jett says, ''I could not be happier. I'm absolutely thrilled with her as a person, as an actor. I've gotten to know her a bit over this time, and I can't speak highly enough of her.''

Jett says the film has brought back ''probably a lot of good memories and probably a few bad ones, as well. But in the context of life, bad things happen a lot, and you can't really have good without the bad. So it's kind of a moot point to think about it that way.'' Source: www.mcall.com

Friday, August 07, 2009

R.I.P. John Hughes

"John Hughes, whose coming-of-age movies captured an American teenage generation between Elvis Presley and Britney Spears, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack while walking on a Manhattan street. He was 59. Hughes, a Michigan native who lived in Illinois, was visiting his family in New York, according to a spokeswoman.

Matthew Broderick, who starred in Hughes' 1986 hit "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," said he was "truly shocked and saddened by the news about my old friend. ... He was a wonderful, very talented guy and my heart goes out to his family." Hughes' 1985 film "The Breakfast Club" established him as the signature teen filmmaker of that decade, and made "John Hughes movie" into shorthand for a sometimes agonizing but ultimately upbeat look at teenage years.

"The Breakfast Club" made a star of Molly Ringwald, and he directed her again in two subsequent films, "Sixteen Candles" and "Pretty in Pink."

Ringwald said she was "stunned and incredibly sad" to hear about Hughes' death. "He will be missed - by me and by everyone that he has touched", she said in a statement on People.com.

Some of the actors in his films, including Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Anthony Michael Hall, Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson, became known as the Brat Pack. In contrast to raucous 1980s teen comedies like the "Porky's" series, Hughes films were sweet, often sentimental. Their heroes and heroines, who started out feeling like misfits, were rewarded for the basic virtues of good hearts and decency. He kept them from being simply throwbacks to some romanticized earlier age by effective use of realistic teen dialogue". Source: www.nydailynews.com

THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985) We see it as we want to see it — in the simplest terms, the most convenient definition: The Breakfast Club is the best high school movie of all time. It may lack the scope of its peers — the drinking, the driving, the listless loitering in parking lots — as well as any scenes that actually take place during school. But if hell is other people — and high school is hell — then John Hughes is the genre's Sartre, and this is his No Exit. The Breakfast Club rules because watching the group dismantle/ignore the authority of Principal ''Dick'' Vernon is a vicarious thrill at any age. It rules because Simple Minds' ''Don't You Forget About Me'' is a kick-ass theme. Mostly it rules because, as Anthony Michael Hall told EW in 2006: ''In the end, you learn maybe we're more alike than we realize, and that's kind of cool.'' Leave it to the neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie to get all cheesy. —Whitney Pastorek

PRETTY IN PINK (1986) Perhaps the most controversial ending to a teen romance ever. (Just after Romeo and Juliet, anyway.) Should Andie (Molly Ringwald) have chased after rich, repentant Blane (Andrew McCarthy), or stayed at the prom with poor, devoted Duckie (Jon Cryer)? That we, women now in our 30s, still care is a testament to John Hughes' script about love across class lines (point for Blane); the meaning of friendship and individuality (point for Duckie); and the evil nature of wealthy high schoolers in crisp, white clothing (point for James Spader). —Mandi Bierly Source: www.ew.com

"John Hughes wrote some of the great outsider characters of all time", says Apatow, the writer-director-producer whose new film, "Drillbit Taylor", is loosely based on an old Hughes story idea. "It's pretty ridiculous to hear people talk about the movies we've been doing, with outrageous humor and sweetness all combined, as if they were an original idea. I mean, it was all there first in John Hughes' films.

Whether it's 'Freaks and Geeks' or 'Superbad' the whole idea of having outsiders as the lead characters, that all started with Hughes."

"He's our generation's J.D. Salinger", says Smith, whose film "Dogma" shows its heroes, Jay and Silent Bob, on a pilgrimage to Shermer, Ill., a mythical town that only exists in Hughes' films. "He touched a generation and then the dude checked out. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't be doing what I do. Basically my stuff is just John Hughes films with four-letter words." Source: articles.latimes.com

"Is Holden Caulfield Salinger's property and, therefore, is he able to exclude others from imagining a future for Holden? How much copyright resides in a character as opposed to an entire work? And is the reclusive and difficult Salinger trying to stuff a 58-year-old genie back in the bottle? The genie is Holden Caulfield, a New York teen escaped from prep school and one of literature's most electric creations.

With 65 million copies sold, there have been many others who have been "spoken to" by Caulfield.

It has inspired the films Igby Goes Down, Donnie Darko, The Graduate and Dead Poet's Society. Its literary lineage includes Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Bret Easton Ellis' Less than Zero". Source: www.theage.com.au

Read Alison's post about her pen pal John Hughes.