Lazy Movie Weekend: Sons of Rydell High

There hasn't been a Lazy Movie Weekend in forever! I guess there were just too many things happening this summer to spend time hanging around my apartment watching movies. Granted, that didn't stop me from going to a theatre to watch movies. Today's LMW takes us out of my apartment and to the comfortable reclining chairs at the Alamo Drafthouse Woodbridge. But first, a musical interlude:

Yes, boys and girls, it's time to go back to school with the lovely Pink Ladies and the lovable T-Birds from Rydell High. I've never seen this movie in a theatre (it came out in 1982, I was three), and have always wanted to. The Alamo made that dream come true. If you've never been to an Alamo Drafthouse, I highly recommend that you take a trip to one as soon as humanly possible. There are three in Virginia - Winchester, Ashburn, and the newest location, Woodbridge, so there are plenty of options for you to explore. Alamo is an independent movie theatre chain from Austin, TX. I appreciate many things about the Alamo experience: it's a full service theatre, so servers bring food and drinks to your seat, you can drink beer while watching movies, and their popcorn is amazing.

Even better, is that the Alamo has special events. Events range from special showings of current movies, like that time I went to a ladies only screening of Wonder Woman, to anniversary screenings of movies to sing-alongs and quote-alongs. They even have afternoon tea with themed movies. My mom had a blast at our first tea with a screening of Marie Antoinette. Alamo has this great series called "Champagne Cinema" and Grease 2 was the featured movie on Labor Day. Finally, someone understands the value of this movie as the back to school gem that it is. Did I mention the props and themed drinks? We got a pink bandana, candy cigarettes, a handy guide to using our props, and drank a "Cool Rider."

(Yes, we all waved our flags during "Do It For Our Country." If nothing else, we are patriots.)

I love Grease 2. We can argue all day about Grease 2's superiority to its more famous movie sibling, Grease, but I will always win because Grease 2 is better. It just is. The music is better. The choreography is better. The dream sequence is amazing. I'm not claiming Grease 2 is a feminist movie, but it's not as horrifyingly misogynistic as Grease. The women of Grease 2 are way more interesting than any of the original Pink Ladies and they don't take the T-Birds nonsense. And Rex freaking Manning is in this movie.

And did I mention there are motorcycles? In this installment, the T-Birds have become a motorcycle gang. This is funny for two reasons:

1. There are only four of them. I feel like a gang requires more than four people.
2. I'm currently watching Sons of Anarchy on Netflix. This will be very important as I watch Grease 2 at the Alamo.

Sons of Anarchy ran on FX from 2008-2014. I didn't watch it when it originally aired, but decided to start watching the series the day before going to see Grease 2. The show focuses on a fictitious motorcycle club called the Sons of Anarchy. They live in a little town called Charming (which makes me giggle) and are generally badass and awesome, but you know, also participating in criminal deeds like gun running and killing people. Like the T-Birds, the Charming chapter of the SOA seems small; I feel like they could also use some new members especially given the rate at which members are incarcerated, excommunicated/set on fire, and killed. 

I watched the entire first season of SOA in a day and half, so I had approximately 13 hours of motorcycle club drama swirling around in my head as I sat in the theatre to watch Grease 2. A lot happens in season one, including a stalker, club rivalries, the appearance of a horrible ATF agent, a hit gone horribly wrong, and Katey Sagal (she's awesome). I even took an online quiz to determine who my SOA husband would be (I'll let you guess). I'm also planning on starting the FX spinoff show Mayans MC this weekend; it premiered this week and I've been told by my SOA-watching friends that I can watch Mayans even though I've only just started the other show. Thank goodness.

So back to Grease 2. I haven't closely watched this movie in years. It's been on one of the movie channels recently, so I've caught bits and pieces, but like every movie I've seen a hundred times, it's usually just on as background noise. Being surrounded by other people who could quote and sing along with the movie made me feel like I'd found my people, my own gang, although I'll never see most of these people ever again. I always feel on the edges of fandoms, but with this little movie I feel right in center with all the other people singing their hearts out to "Cool Rider."

Since I was watching the movie closely, I have five lingering questions about Grease 2. This is a musical so reality stepped out the door the second the entire student body did a choreographed entrance to the first day of school. Still, I wonder about things. It's how my brain works and I can't help but have these five questions:

1. Why are there only four T-Birds? I get it, we can't have a cast of thousands and we needed an uneven number of guys and girls for the whole love triangle thing, but isn't it better for a gang to have more members? The bowling alley sequence proves this point; the T-Birds would have been pulverized if the Mystery Rider (psst...it's Michael) hadn't shown up. 
2. Where did Michael learn all those jumps? He gets his bike about a month to two into the school year and is somehow an ace rider by spring? This seems completely unrealistic especially given the jumping part. Where was he practicing? How did he never look banged up, given that he probably would have had a few spills as he was learning to ride a motorcycle?
3. Where does the rival gang go to school? Every single member of the Cycle Lords (yep, that's their name) looks to be about 30 years old, but we're supposed to believe that they are the rival gang of the T-Birds, who sort of look like older high school students. Did they go to whatever school the band is shouting about during practice? Are they really adults who can't shake their gang ways, but aren't ready for the big time so they just have a weird rivalry with a high school gang? Balmudo, the leader of the Cycle Lords, was in the first movie too (he brought Cha-Cha to the dance), but again, he looked like he was in his 30s, with three kids at home, and a pack a day smoking habit. This does not compute.
4. Who owns the Pink Lady car? At various points in the movie, a different Pink Lady is driving the car. Do they share it? Does it rotate between the members? Is the car passed down from Pink Lady group to Pink Lady group at graduation? Does Dolores inherit the car at the end of this movie? Did they pay dues and that's how they paid for the car? Do the T-Birds have a role in this since Pink Ladies are tied to being T-Bird chicks. How does this work?
5. How is it that the adults' reaction to the motorcycle gang showdown at the luau is to say "Michael?!" in the same breathy, surprised way Stephanie does rather than calling the cops? Eve Arden as Miss McGee is about as no nonsense as you can get in a principal in a musical (she had to put up with John Travolta in the first movie; she deserves a medal), so I can't imagine her first reaction is to be all jazzed up about the school nerd being a badass motorcycle guy. Yes, she has a place in her heart for the T-Birds, but come on! Someone has to be the adult in the room.

In addition to these five questions, I kept thinking about the Sons of Anarchy and how ridiculous/awesome it would be for them to just randomly break out into song during the show. I get it, SOA is not a comedy. I'm on the second episode of season two; there's literally nothing funny about what's happening right now. I love Henry Rollins, but I'm a hard time with him on this show. But as I was watching Grease 2, I couldn't stop placing the SOA in the songs, particularly the song "Prowling." This is the song the T-Birds sing at the talent show towards the end of the movie (it's Grease equivalent would be "Greased Lightning" which is a horrible song). "Prowling" is about picking up women in a grocery store, which if you've ever been to a Trader Joe's in NOVA on a weekend, is a real thing dudes do.

I could see Bobby, with his propensity for Elvis impersonations, stepping into the Johnny role because he has the star power to do it. I'm torn as to who would be his back up singers, but I think it would be Opie, Juice, and Chibs. They seem like they would take a musical number in stride, have some laughs, maybe do it for charity as Gemma is always trying to keep the club involved in community activities. Maybe Jax could sing Michael's ballad "Charades." It could work, given Jax's knowledge of what really happened to Donna and his disillusionment with the club. If someone who has the talent wants to create a SOA/Grease 2 mashup for me, I will be most pleased.

Until then, I'll keep watching SOA and envisioning musical numbers and trying to figure out if the T-Birds or the Cycle Lords would have been a good chapter addition for SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original, for those of you who have never watched the show).

Or maybe I'll just head back to the Alamo. There's a screening of Carrie coming up soon or maybe I'll go see Clueless, so I can quote my way to 1990s glory.


Coming soon: I watch all three versions of A Star is Born to prepare for the new version starring Lady Gaga, I'll unveil two major embroidery projects, and I get crafty at a baseball game. 

SOA picture
Back to School
T-Birds
Prowling

Your Resident Single Friend: Grease is a terrible musical

In a few weeks, I'll enter the last year of my thirties. I've loved this particular decade of my life the most. I didn't love high school or my twenties, but my thirties have been pretty awesome. I've done a lot of cool things, spent time with the people in my life who are most important, and gotten comfortable with being my weird, quirky self. I've also embraced the fine art of not caring what other people think. It's a refreshing way to live one's life. I mean, I care about people's opinions of things that matter, like politics or whether they eat Twizzlers or Red Vines at the movies (Twizzlers is the correct answer), but I'm less inclined to care about what others think of me. This works fine in most situations, but isn't always helpful in one particular area: dating.

I haven't quite figured out is this dating thing. Regular Island readers may recall those times I signed up for online dating and that one time I went to a speed dating event, neither of which were particularly successful in the "going out on dates" side of things. However, they were very successful in providing me with amusing anecdotes to share here on the Island and strengthening my belief that more people have secret families than not. I've recently gone the online dating route again, this time on a site I like to describe as "online dating for do-gooders" and an app only site that sends me clever emails everyday with my matches, but doesn't seem to help any of these dudes with writing their profiles. During this time, I've gone on one horrible coffee date, chatted online with a very nice dude who was clearly lonely and then vanished, and filtered through lots of guys who seem like nice guys, just not my nice guy. I'm starting to think I'm missing the dating gene OR I missed the day in school where instead of being separated to watch videos about periods and how our bodies are changing, my classmates went to a class and learned how to date. I did miss the class where they taught us how to dress like a woman, so anything is possible.

A couple of trends have emerged during this go-around online:

• I seem to attract, at least online, much younger guys (like 22) or much older guys (like mid-50s into their 60s). I'm sure there are merits to either group, but I'm really not interested in exploring either.
• Dudes seem to believe saying "you're beautiful" is a good opening line. Am I supposed to reply with a comment about his handsomeness? What if he's not handsome? "Thank you" seems like the best route, but then I'm stuck for where to go next. Maybe start with something a little less grand and build up to that one.
• The fine art of understanding proper grammar has died. It's "you're" not "your" (see above comment) and there is not character limit so please leave text speak to actual texting. I'm such an old lady.
• Why include photos of you with other women? Maybe she's your sister or best friend, but with no context, I see one of two things: secret family or you just got divorced and you're not over her yet.
• Married guys - what are you doing on these sites? You have your own sites so go over there and stay there. 
• Kids! Are the children in the photos yours? Be up front about whether or not you're a parent. It's cool if you are, but I have to make a choice if I want to be involved in that life or not so I'd like to know.
• The amount of specificity in descriptions of physical traits is unnerving and a bit much.

I don't look my age, which is something I thank my parents and my skincare regime for every day. (And by skincare regime, I mean I wash my face, moisturize, and wear sunscreen. Occasionally, I use an exfoliating mask. That's it.) Some of the profiles talk about what a person is looking for in a match and often, they describe a woman's physical appearance and that appearance relative to age. I've seen comments about wearing lots of makeup (seen as both a positive and negative), hair length and color (no gray! long hair only!), "takes care of herself", which is open for lots of interpretation, and my favorite, being "fashion forward." Yes, some dude wrote that he wanted a woman who is fashion forward. This would be fine if he was wearing something other than gym clothes in every one of his profile pictures. I've also seen a few profiles that included comments about women not looking their age (a plus) and interest in women who alter their looks (this one mentioned plastic surgery specifically; he was cool with it).

I've brought this up with a few of my friends recently, and it's been fascinating to hear their responses to the idea of aging and how they discuss physical appearance in their profiles. Literally, everything from dressing differently on a first data to Botox in your 30s has come up. My head is still hurting from some of these discussions. Like me, most of my friends don't describe physical appearance when we fill out the exact same questions these guys are filling out. Each of us seems to have a type, but we don't spell it out in the profile questions. My friends also noticed that we're not allowed to age and it would be cool if we changed ourselves physically. Some of them are okay with this; others are not. The message is pretty clear: once we start to "show" our age, we have to stop dating, get a bunch of cats, and wear caftans OR change our physical self somehow. I'm down for the cats and maybe the caftans, but I refuse to believe anything else.

This is why I hate the musical/movie Grease. If you recall the plot, girl next door Sandy meets greaser Danny while on summer vacation. None of their friends are around when this happens, so Sandy doesn't know Danny is the leader of a gang called the T-Birds. She also doesn't know he gets around and is sort of a jerk. Sandy shows up at Rydell High in the fall and it changes everything. During the course of the musical, Sandy tries to fit her girl next door personality/look into Danny's T-Birds/Pink Ladies world and it doesn't work. It works for a little while, but then the dance happens and Sandy is literally pushed out of Danny's life. Danny, meanwhile, doesn't do much to try to fit into Sandy's life except going out for the track team. It isn't until Sandy becomes a Pink Lady (sort of), with skintight pants and big hair, that all is righted in the world of Grease. Sandy had to change physically, while Danny had to change personally (sort of). I would argue his change isn't really that big either; he doesn't leave his friends behind or get rid of his cool car; he letters in track. I was always disappointed in this ending, even when I was younger. The whole thing is so unbalanced.

I'm not interested in altering my looks for anyone but me. Look, I color my hair, mostly because I like experimenting with different degrees of red over my normally strawberry blonde red, and a little bit because I have some grays that I'm not quite ready to deal with. I will be, at some point, and then I will stop coloring my hair. But you'll notice this statement is all about me. Cosmetic surgery (on any level) is not for me either. I'm not judging anyone who does it as long as you do it for you. I don't wear a lot of makeup so I'm not going to start now. I love fashion, but always dress like me. Maybe Sandy did want to look that way at the end of Grease, but I think that's bullshit. Does anyone really want to wear pants like that? How did she sit down in those pants without them splitting? I refuse to believe that outfit was comfortable and made her feel like she was herself.

It took me a long time to be comfortable and confident in who I am. I know this is true for many of my friends too. Society as a whole is getting better at realizing there isn't one life timeline that works for everyone, but that doesn't stop the questions and the judgement about being single or dressing a certain way or having really short hair. I can embrace not caring about what others think, but that doesn't mean it doesn't sometimes place a little doubt in my head, making me think about all of this and wonder if I'm wrong in my choices or beliefs. In these moments, I turn on Grease 2, which is the better movie, and all is right in the world.


Coming soon to the Island: a Lazy Movie Weekend post about pie, some baking/cooking stuff, and I volunteer for the MLB All-Star game. It's going to be a super fun summer!

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Lazy Movie Weekend: I know I'm awesome but I also want to be cool

This past week on Buzzfeed (slowly taking over my life since 2012), I stumbled on a post entitled 26 Reasons "Grease 2" Is Better Than "Grease". My brain immediately went into overload because someone else understands! This movie is magical and wonderful and 100% better than it's predecessor. This movie basically has everything:

• An amazing cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Lorna Luft, Adrian Zmed, Maureen Teefy, Christopher McDonald, Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Didi Cohn, Tab Hunter, and Connie Stevens
• The Four Tops sing the opening song. And everyone knows the choreography.
• Pencil skirts - lets' do this fashion.
• There are motorcycles. And multiple epic motorcycle chases and a dream sequence that features an all white motorcycle. It also features a semi-creepy love song but it's still a decent dream sequence.
• The song about bowling (that's really not about bowling) which features nuns and bowling teams who wear matching clothes. You know, wholesome fun.
• The luau is so fantastic and colorful. Calling the crappy school pool "the Pool of Enchantment" makes it so much more like Hawaii.
• Rex Manning is in this movie. Yes, Maxwell Caulfield before he was Rex Manning stars as Michael Carrington, the English exchange student (cousin of Sandy) who falls for Michelle's Stephanie Zinone. 
• The song "Girl for All Seasons". I have never been in a talent show but I would like to be and I would like to sing this song. I would also like to be either March or December.
• Awkward biology class lesson on sex that gets edited out when this movie plays on ABC Family.
• One of the songs is about picking up women at a grocery store. Seems legit.

Grease 2 was not a particularly successful movie (shocking I know) but I've always thought it was better than Grease. It's not that the original isn't entertaining but I've always had a problem with the ending. The message is that you have to change yourself in order for a person to fall in love with you. Specifically, Sandy has to become the bad girl in order for Danny to truly love her. One could argue that Danny also tries to change (joining the track team for example) but he never really stops being himself. In the movie version, the outfit is what kills me the most. There was nothing confident or strong about it. I thought she looked cheap and sad. I never wanted to be Sandy and there was nothing about Danny Zuko that seemed remotely interesting. I was a really critical 12 year old.

However, in Grease 2 there are lots of awesome women who didn't change for anyone and I like that about them. As I consider my leading lady quest, I have decided to look to the ladies of Grease 2 for inspiration:

•  Stephanie Zinone: Leader of the Pink Ladies and our heroine. Michelle Pfeiffer is flawless (always) in this movie. This was her first big screen role and she makes this movie. I wanted to be her so badly when I was 12. She's confident, sassy, bad-ass, but still comes off as nice. And then there is the moment that she flips her Pink Lady jacket inside out and tells Michael Carrington exactly what it is she wants in life. That whole scene just screams cool. I know in my heart of hearts I will never be that cool but it doesn't mean I can't try. She's nobody's trophy and yearns to break out of the Pink Ladies. The best part: Michael has to figure out how to fit into her world not the other way around. Just watch "Cool Rider" and tell me you're not blown away (and I will know if you are lying). I also dare you not to sing along. It's impossible. What I love about Stephanie is that she's trying to figure out how to be her own woman in a world that would prefer her to be either a Jackie or a Marilyn. She really does want both the boy next door and hell on wheels - she just doesn't realize it. Stephanie is probably the mother of us all (and those bangs).  Leading lady lessons: Don't be afraid to be different and make your own path. Also, a motorcycle riding mystery man is a must.

•  Paulette Rebchuck: Y'all this is Judy Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft. She was never as famous as her mother or half-sister, but Lorna kills it as Paulette. Paulette could have just been a dumb blonde, throwaway character but she's not. She's comfortable in her own skin and isn't afraid to flaunt it (which makes Johnny so jealous in a funny, sweet way). She and Johnny have a complicated relationship (since he's still not over Stephanie) and he takes Paulette for granted. She doesn't take it for too long and has one of the best lines in the film. Also, she wears gold pants like a boss. Bold move, Paulette, bold move. Leading lady lessons: Bold fashion choices are a must and don't let anyone walk all over you.
• Dolores Rebchuck: Dolores is Paulette's kid sister, a Pink Lady wannabe who explains the way the world works to Michael. It's from Dolores that we learn that you gotta be a biker or biker's old lady to make it the world (and by world I mean Rydell High and the bowling alley). What's great about Dolores is that she doesn't believe that for a second. She knows she's cooler than them all and in the end she ends up with a T-Bird (little Davey) and you know she would have been the next leader of the Pink Ladies if there had been another sequel. However, in Dolores's world, the Ladies would have had the motorcycles. Leading lady lessons: Wisdom knows no age.
• Sharon Cooper: Maureen Teefy was in the original film version of Fame, probably one of my favorite movie musicals of all time. I realized upon re-watching Grease 2 that I am probably Sharon. She's bossy, a little OCD, and prone to dramatics over silly things. She and Louis are my favorite couple of the group and their song is a great mix of awkwardness, creativity (on Louis's part), and patriotism. I also envy her ability to wear hats. Leading lady lessons: Being bossy totally works especially if you can wear a beret. Also, never go into a nuclear fallout shelter with your boyfriend.
• Frenchy and Principal McGee: These ladies are from the original Grease. Frenchy was always my favorite in that movie. She's back at Rydell to get her chemistry courses so she can make her own skincare line. This seems totally legit as a reason to be in the movie. According to IMDB, she wasn't supposed to make it into the final cut of the movie but did. Frenchy wanted to go her own way in the first movie and keeps at it here. She also sort of encourages Michael while also trying to provide a reality check so she's the perfect female friend for a guy. Principal McGee, the wonderful Eve Arden, is the perfect balance of authority figure and in on the shenanigans. She has a soft spot for the T-Birds that I find endearing (the talent show auditions and her comment "These are my boys" is just so funny). But she doesn't take any crap from the T-Birds (who are really one of the lamest motorcycle gangs to ever exist). Fantastic. Leading lady lessons: Education is important. Always be a supportive friend (or principal).

If we take the ladies of Grease 2 as a collective it's really confidence that unites them all in awesomeness. Sure they have their moments of crazy and uncertainty but ultimately just being themselves makes them both awesome and cool. And that's another lesson to learn on the pathway to being a leading lady - confidence is everything.

For all of you who are going back to school this week (or maybe you started already), The Four Tops wish you well.