The Sheila Variations

All astronomy pictures/renditions make me ponder my insignificance. One of the reasons I took up the hobby. Everyone needs that.

Maybe I should qualify it. Some need it more than others.

I certainly need reminders, on occasion. Astronomy used to terrify me, in high school - because I didn't like feeling so small. Now it almost seems ..

I don't know. I feel like, somehow, I am also a part of it. If that makes sense.

No, but it really makes me wish I could smoke some pot right now.

Emily:

"Smoke up, Johnny!"

Quick. Name the film.

This time the quote actually IS from The Breakfast Club.

You beat me to it, Dave.

I knew that would be a quick one!

I absolutely love that movie.

VERNON (Paul Gleason): What was that ruckus?!

ANDY (Emilio Estevez): What ruckus?

VERNON: I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus.

BRIAN (Anthony Michael Hall): Could you describe the ruckus, sir?

Love that movie, too. Classic.

I always thought it was so courageous and radical that smoking pot, in that film, signified that they all were getting close - that barriers were coming down.

It seems to me that NOW such a scene would have to be followed by the roof caving in on them, or some other punitive disaster.

LOVED Anthony Michael Hall in that movie.

"'Cuz I didn't want her to know I was a virgin, okay?"

I just love how he said that line. With this embarrassment, but also with this huge tragic dignity. Ha!!

i remember my "i am an insignificant worm" moment. the wife and i were in yosemite, oh, 1992 or so, on a little hike amongst these gorgeous pine trees. we walked around a corner and there right in front of us was a 300' tall, 1800-yr old sequoia. my god...the silent majesty of it.

Maybe it's an overwrought device, but John Hughes said he wanted them wearing layers so they could take them off over time, letting their guard down and literally shedding the images they presented to the world. Ally Sheedy felt that Claire putting makeup on Allison, as the script called for, was inconsistent with this, and so her "transformation" is again entirely about stripping away what she was using to covering herself up. But I love that the character doesn't lose any of herself in the process; in the midst of the glamour shot and the "wow, look how she changed" music, she snaps at Andy and Brian:

"What? Claire did it."

I don't think it's an overwrought device at all! It worked. How many times in life do you feel awkward in a social situation - and then, after a couple of drinks, you loosen up and start to see the humanity.

It's just that in high school movies - usually they try to put some moral on it - winking at the audience; "This is BAD". He didn't do that in 16 Candles.

I loved Allison. I related to her.

I related to Brian, even if I wasn't QUITE as much of a "neo-maxi-zoom-dweebie." ;-) But I hated high school and was so much happier once I got to college.

Brian was a great character.

Only this clan could take a magnificent view of the space/time continuum that has the power to inspire consideration of human beings and our place in the universe, and turn it into a discussion of The Breakfast Club. After all, what is the nature of existence, and the presence of The Almighty, in comparison to the nuanced performances of Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and Anthony Michael Hall.

Yeah, we're a profound lot, aren't we?

DBW, You beat me to it. I was going to say the same thing. This whole chain of comments cracks me up. regarding the picture, it's beautiful, but it unaccountably freaks me out a bit.

Although I saw other John Hughes films in their day, I somehow missed seeing _The Breakfast Club_ when it came out, and never saw it until it was around ten years old and was considered a "classic". When I saw it, my by-then-jaded eyes though it was just OK.

Strangely, I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard the song "Don't You Forget About Me" by the Psychedelic Furs.

Although it wasn't exactly my favorite style of music (British synth-pop) at the time, after just a few seconds of listening to it, the song *immediately* struck me as a quintessential example of its genre. The thought "This will be a hit, and will be remembered as a classic 1980's song" ran through me head, and I can still remember my exact mood and concerns, what I was wearing, etc., when I first heard it.

It wasn't until years later that I discovered that there was any connection between the song and that movie _The Breakfast Club_.

"Don't You Forget About Me" was Simple Minds. The Psychelic Furs did "Pretty in Pink".

Ah. Well, I said it wasn't my favorite genre. "Pretty in Pink" was also the title of another John Hughes film, right? At least, whats-her-name was in it. So maybe that's how my ganglia crossed.

It's a great, great song, Ash, and so perfectly fits the movie that it's practically unreal. Billy Idol and Huey Lewis both expressed profound remorse later at having turned down the chance to do it, rather than giving the Psychedelic Furs their (not even) 15 minutes of fame. Of course, the whole soundtrack is a simply delightful 80's feast.

Yes, Pretty in Pink, with Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy and John Cryer as "Duckie".

Ooops, missed thsoe comments. Simple Minds it was, Emily.

The song "Pretty in Pink" includes the line (from memory, not verbatim):

"She lives in a place at the side of our lives
where nothing is ever put straight"

which, sadly, always reminds me of my sister...

As for the planet image, cool. It's cool that we live in an era when new, extra-solar planets are being discovered. Too bad we can only see gas giants thus far; I hope the tech improves...

"I wanna' be an airborne ranger..."

Not sure why that line just came to mind, but Judd Nelson pulled that role off so well; he was an unknown at the time, and Hughes took a gamble casting him rather than John Cusack, who also auditioned for the part. Cusack as John Bender I really just can't imagine.

[i]warning: pointless name-dropping follows[/i]

This is probably as good a place as ever in cyberspace to mention that John Cusack was in my high school graduation class, and I used to see him in the halls.

I always thought is ironic that, in the film [i]16 Candles[/i], which was partially filmed in my home town, Cusack played the leader of the computer geeks. [b]I[/b] was the leader of the computer geeks in my high school, darn it, and he never showed up at the meetings!

Most name-dropping is gratuitous, but not pointless. Not completely pointless, anyway. And besides, in a stream-of-consciousness thread like this, who needs a point? ;-)

I loved Judd Nelson in Breakfast Club in such a way that I had to go read a VC Andrews book. If you get what I mean.

Well, look where Judd Nelson's career is now - compared to John Cusack! Perhaps it was just as well.

I loved Judd Nelson in that movie too.

Dave J,

I know that Keith Forsey wrote "Dont' You...", and shopped it around a bit - and that Simple Minds hated it, and did their dangedest to excise it from their career...

...but I'd never heard about it being shopped to Idol or HughLew.

I can not imagine either of them doing that song.

Although I can imagine Billy Idol doing "Pretty In Pink", only about 50% faster...

I don't remember where I heard/read/saw that, so it may be apocryphal.

Didn't Breakfast Club come out about the same time as "Better Off Dead?"

Which starred Cusack, and was the funniest sendup of the whole Hughes genre ever made?

"...two Chinese immigrants who learned English by listening to Howard Cosell..."

Someday, I'm going to have to do a BC/BOD doublefeature. Show the kids how rough we had it back then...

I LOVED Better Off Dead. What an insane movie.

I could listen to the two dragracing Chinese guys all afternoon. What an incredible scene.

My kids wonder what I'm talking about when I serve "Fronch toast, Fronch Fries, Fronch vanilla ice cream..."

I love that scene where Lane tries to hit on a girl in the cafeteria "You know, I skate, you skate..."

"Language lessons. Inspiring words from a man who knows how to ski."

You're all going to hate me (or not believe me), but I've never actually seen Better Off Dead. Something to remedy at some point over this long weekend, I magine.

Dave, you won't be disappointed.

That photo is absolutely beautiful. Two Christmas's ago I sent my son and his wife a very nice telescope. Oh Rosemary said that was the best give I ever gave them. They took it to her parents house because they lived out in the country. The price was so good I also sent one to my son John in Seattle. He too was thrilled. Oh how I wish I would have got one for myself especially now that I am back home in Texas where the stars at night are Big and Bright....Sigh...someday I will purchase a nice telescope for me and my Mr. Pips. My Mr. Pips is my funny funny two year old kitten that is a dog in a cats body! He rolls over when I tell him to and fetches his toys. He sits and has a conversation with me and his right ear turns. What a little Pipsqueak, now he is older so he is, Mr. Pips.

Red, this is truly an awesome picture and I know what you mean by being a part of it somehow.

Uh, folks.

That's not a photo. It's an artist's rendition.

All astronomy pictures/renditions make me ponder my insignificance.

They make me think "Oh, great - they'll find something here to blame me for...

"Go that way, very very fast. If you see a tree: turn!"

Yes, Better Off Dead is a classic. :)

OTOH, while the image is peaceful, it looks like some of the space scenes from the Babylon-5 series. So I half expect a bunch of Shadow warships to shimmer into existence and start wreaking havoc all over the place. O_O;;

I don't worry about that, Mitch. One of the perks of being insignificant.

Better Off Dead is a masterpiece!

"This is pure snow! It's everywhere! Have you any idea of what the street value of this mountain is?"

I really have nothing to add here. I just want to say that I think it is awe-inspiring that this post - an artists rendition of a planet - has engendered so many comments about Better off Dead. Truly. You all rock.