Author Archives: Lord Jim

The Gender Style Gap: Don’t be that guy

At a certain point in a man’s life, most likely as the big 3-0 begins to loom on the horizon, he should probably come to the realization that he can no longer get away with always dressing as if he were back in college on a couch watching football at the frat. This is especially true when escorting his lady for a night on the town or even to the movies. If you are looking like this…

Nice look, K-Fed.

And your lady is looking like this…

Ooh la la, Malin!

You are courting an irreparable style gap and you better reconsider your threads. Y’see when a woman goes to all that effort to make herself lovely, she is going to expect a little effort in return. Particularly as she gets a little older (and you do, too) she is going to start looking around and seeing all sorts of well-dressed and successful gents and wonder why it is you look like a refugee from ‘N Sync circa 2000.

You’ve come a long way, Mr. Timberlake.

It’s a matter of basic respect. When I see a couple out on a date and the woman is dressed nicely and the guy has got on sweats and a backward ball cap I think Wow, dude, make a little effort, as well as That is never going to last. Think about the conceit it takes to believe that you have to put zero effort into your appearance and your lady is still going to find you attractive over the long haul. Put simply, that sort of laziness may fly in your 20s but it rapidly loses its charms as you get older.

But fear not. It’s really not very hard to get yourself looking good without going the “full dandy”. Continue reading →

Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman with laughter

It’s easy to forget between the sadness of his untimely passing and the accolades for his “heavier” work that Philip Seymour Hoffman was damn funny in comedic roles. In particular, his scenes in 1998’s The Big Lebowski stand out as masterful comic miniatures. He doesn’t have a lot of screen time in the movie but he wrings maximum hilarity out of his uptight sycophant character, Brandt. And his interactions with Jeff Bridges are pretty much priceless.

Notice how many quirky, funny tics and mannerisms he packs into that 2-minute scene. We’ll put another scene where he introduces The Dude to Bunny Lebowski poolside below the fold because it is definitely NSFW. Continue reading →

What we’re listening to today — Jackie Wilson

Often overlooked today because of his somewhat lightweight repertoire, Jackie Wilson should still be considered one of the all-time R&B greats. With his soaring range, boundless energy and legendary live performance chops, there’s a reason they called him Mr. Excitement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1nZ-u41H9s

An important transitional figure in the evolution of R&B, Wilson can boast not only a dynamic weepy like “Lonely Teardrops” but other stone classics such as “You Got Me Walking”, “Reet Petite”, “Baby Workout”, “Whispers (Getting Louder)” and his last big smash, 1966’s “(You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”.

After some relatively lean years in the 1970s Wilson’s remarkable 20-year run as a force in pop music was ended by a massive heart attack while performing at a Dick Clark oldies show in 1975. He would never awake from the resulting coma and passed away in 1984. But while Jackie Wilson never quite had the impact of a Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, James Brown or Curtis Mayfield due to his inability to evolve into a true Soul singer and adherence to the 3-minute radio single, a good anthology of his recordings belongs in any serious R&B and Pop music collection. It can safely be said that no one has ever sung quite like him. He had such a unique sound, almost operatic, that no one even tried. There was only one Jackie Wilson and when you hear him you can’t mistake him for any other singer in the Pop canon.

MLK Day 2014

Because we’ve come so far as a nation and a people since 1963 but like all human endeavors we’ve still got work to do, it pays to listen again to one of the greatest oratories in our history and pay tribute to the man who made it.

MLK Day is always a good day to reflect on how to be a better person and how to make things better for others. Whether it’s a grand gesture or a simple one, it’s a fine day to make an effort on behalf of one’s fellow man.

Gorgeous Lady of the Week — Margot Robbie

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Yes, at 23 this stunning Australian beauty is a little younger than the ladies we normally go for here at MFL. But c’mon — who can resist that face and, well, all the rest? She strikes us as a bit like the second coming of Grace Kelly, who was also a very young breakout sensation in her day. And we wouldn’t be surprised if a wealthy prince whisks her away someday either. But we’re in good company in being enchanted by such a youthful beauty — one has only to check out her sizzling work in The Wolf of Wall Street to see that Martin Scorcese is just as smitten with this blond bombshell. And he’s a hell of a lot older than us!

Margot-Robbie Pan Am

After making it big on the Aussie mega-soap Neighbours, Robbie split for LA and landed a prime role in ABC’s 2011 retro series Pan Am as a rookie flight attendant. While it seemed that Pan Am would also capture that magical 60s zeitgeist so successfully mined by Mad Men, the show was cancelled after only one season. But it’s hard to keep a stone looker with Margot’s kind of talent down and after a supporting part in 2012’s About Time, Ms. Robbie scored the plum role that any aspiring young actress would give their eye teeth for: the ultra-sexy party girl Naomi LePaglia who tames Leonardo DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.

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Trust me: you’ll need a cold shower after watching their sex scenes.

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With a great photo shoot for Esquire under her belt and currently illuminating the various red carpets of awards season, Margot Robbie is one of the fastest rising stars in Holywood. She’s now shooting Violent Talent and will co-star in the upcoming Will Smith vehicle, Focus, so we’re definitely not the first to peg her as a sure thing for a long and successful Hollywood career.  With a face and bod like that, and talent to match, she’s a slam dunk… and definitely the stuff that lupine dreams are made of.

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RIP Phil Everly, 1939-2014

Sad news to start 2014: Phil Everly has passed away at the age of 74 from complications due to COPD. As one half of the seminal early rock duo The Everly Brothers, Phil and his brother Don, who survives him, infused country sweetness and peerless harmonies into the fabric of Rock ‘n Roll and arguably helped keep the flame burning for, as well as inspiring, the Beatles and that other great harmonizing duo, Simon and Garfunkel, in that tenuous period between the death of Buddy Holly, Elvis’s induction into the armed forces and the fall of Jerry Lee Lewis. The full NY Times obit is here.

Here are the Everly Brothers singing their first breakout hit for Cadence records, “Bye Bye Love”, at a 1983 reunion concert, showing they had lost nothing in the over 25 years since its original release. As was their custom, as we watch them Phil is on the left and Don on the right:

Here is my personal favorite from their Warner Brothers period, 1960’s “Cathy’s Clown”, from the outstanding Walk Right Back compilation:

And another great smash hit from their Warner’s period, “Crying in the Rain” , performed here when the boys were fulfilling their military service in the Marine Corps Reserve:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdaX7LG67to

Many have tried but none have succeeded in reproducing the Everlys’ supernatural harmonies. Despite their personal ups and downs through the years, the closeness that Phil and Don displayed on their many hit tracks, that unique quality of two voices remaining distinct and yet becoming one, will never fade away.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year’s Eve, folks, and if you are going to tie one on tonight (as you bloody well should) this clip from 1942’s classic musical comedy Holiday Inn shows you how to do it with style and elán as only the great Fred Astaire can.

*Unfortunately, this video has its embedding disabled but click over to YouTube for this terrific performance–you won’t regret it.

We should all be so charming when we’re blitzed.

Wishing our loyal readers all the very best in 2014 and we hope you’ll keep hanging around our ever-evolving blog!

And of course, be careful who kisses you come midnight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gBalU46KqKI

Merry Christmas, Part II

And for those who prefer their Christmas entertainment traditional, there is probably no better cinema Christmas Carol than the 1951 Alastair Sim version directed by Brian Desmond Hurst. This adaptation is every bit as faithful and moving as Dickens could have wanted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ERtv_CC_nY

Merry, Merry and how’s that goose coming? I’m starved!

Gorgeous Lady of the Week — Amy Adams

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With her girl next door good looks, peaches and cream complexion and megawatt smile, Amy Adams is a born ingenue and the stuff that Holywood dreams are made of. But she’s more than just a wholesome all-American girl with a decidedly pretty face. Ms. Adams can flat out act.

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After struggling in Holywood in the early 2000s for several years without much to show for it, Amy Adams broke through to widespread critical recognition in 2005’s indie hit, Junebug. Her irrepressible Ashley Johnsten in that film earned the then-30-year-old a Best Supporting Actress nomination. And she has’t looked back since.

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In 2007 she was Princess Giselle in Disney’s megahit Enchanted and quickly followed that up with starring roles in the underrated Sunshine Cleaning and another critical success alongside Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia, which hinted at something more in her than just sweetness and light. She explored her tougher side further in David O. Russell’s excellent The Fighter as boxer Mickey Ward’s tough-as-nails and fiercely protective working class girlfriend, Charlene Fleming. After a return to perky form with The Muppets, Ms. Adams continued to mine a darker vein as the manipulative power behind a cult leader in P.T. Anderson’s grim The Master.

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With major roles in this past year’s Man of Steel as a fair haired but pitch perfect Lois Lane and another David O. Russell success, the recently released Oscar contender American Hustle, Amy Adams is now securely on Hollywood’s A-list for leading ladies and it would seem that the hard working 39-year-old’s best work is yet to come. With a smile that can melt the most cynical heart and an inner toughness that can tame the most unruly leading men, it’s certain that Ms. Adams is determined not to let her wholesome looks typecast her as just another good girl. Which suits us just fine — there’s nothing we like more than a little spice with our sugar.

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