Living in the Moment

I really don't have anything remotely resembling carpe diem on my mind.  When I say "living in the moment," I really mean my version of living.  Which is watching movies and tv.  Or Sims 2, but that's another story.  Lately I have been watching a lot of period pieces, depicting the different decades in the twentieth century.  I love putting myself in those times, seeing what those eras were really like.  But I guess that watching stuff made in 2009 (and probably before) about the 60s or 70s doesn't really show me what those times were like.  

And in comes Natalie Wood.  Others are soon to come, but right now its about Natalie Wood, the beautiful movie star who died a tragic death long before her time.  Ah the melodrama.  She helped revolutionize the 1950s by costarring in the classic Rebel Without a Cause.  The three stars of the movie all died before the age of 45.  Just mentioning that, because I think that it brings the movie that extra level of awe.  

I don't know why I have never thought to watch old movies to help fulfill my desire to time travel.  I have watched a lot of old movies in my film classes, but it never occurred to me to link them with my history fetish.  I have gotten so hooked on movies about the past, that I have forgot that primary sources are the best resource.  Even though all of my professors stress that fact.  

Oh yes.  Natalie Wood.  In the 40s, she was the adorable child actress from the original Miracle on 34th Street.  I have never seen it.  I am sort of just copying that from all of the stuff I read on IMDb, Wikipedia, and EW.com.  In the 50s, she was the beautiful, rebellious teenager, who slept with the director to get the part.  According to legend, but I think it's true.  In the 60s, she became this cool, groovy, sex icon who starred in the swinger flick Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.  She was Carol.  Ross and Monica's dad was Ted.  His back was incredibly hairy.  I gagged a little.  But these movies take me back to all of the times that I love hearing about and show me the way people dressed, the way they interacted, the way they spoke, and everything that I want to know more about.

I have been watching the show Swingtown lately, which came out last summer, about the sexual revolution during the 70s.  I also watched a little bit of Mad Men, because Entertainment Weekly does not stop raving about it and its sweet take on the ad execs in the 60s.  Both of them are really fun to watch.  Great depictions of those times, but they are so clearly from today.  The way that the shows discuss politicians show that they have seen how those politicians have turned out.  The cool, emaciated teenage chick who dates Kostos/Max loves Carter, because libs are the way to go, especially after Nixon.  The lame ones are the only ones who like the Repubs, because we all know that Hollywood is uber-lib, which I totally don't mind, but it does impact tv. Carrie's politician bf from SATC who wanted her to pee on him, who also dated Grace on Will and Grace and married Gabby before getting killed in a tornado on Desperate Housewives, mentions that Dick Nixon is the way to go, in an obviously ironic way. 

See, the real stuff is better.  No inclination of how things will turn out.  Rebel Without a Cause shows that time for what it was, unaware of the impact that it would have on the following years.  It's so cool to me.  Go watch old movies.  It's the thing to do.  And still, watch Lucy's video.  On youtube or facebook.