{"id":5925,"date":"2007-01-22T17:25:33","date_gmt":"2007-01-22T22:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5925"},"modified":"2021-07-27T22:06:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T02:06:17","slug":"weekend-snapshots-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5925","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Snapshots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obviously I had an insane solitary photo shoot <\/a>in my apartment this weekend and had so much fun that I think I need to do more. I have more hats and props and ridiculousness. It was so fun. But that was just an hour out of my life.<\/p>\n

Other things accomplished:<\/p>\n

— Took a run in the freezing dawn on Saturday<\/p>\n

— Took a run in the freezing dawn on Sunday<\/p>\n

The city at dawn – gleaming across the Hudson – with the sun rising behind the buildings … It uplifts me so much. Takes my breath away.<\/p>\n

— I also watched Rocky<\/i> 4 times. And I watched Rocky II<\/i> twice.<\/p>\n

— I never said I wasn’t an obsessive. I’m like RTG. Obsession blooms – and I then get into the mode of treating it like a JOB.<\/p>\n

— To some degree, I’ve taken the Rocky movies for granted. Especially that first one. How amazing it was to watch it again. I was amazed all over again by the first scene – the boxing scene – and the darkness of that room, the darkness and grittiness of the filming – it’s the opposite of slick. You can’t tell who is the star. It’s violent, and it looks real. So anyway – I haven’t seen them in years – or many of them, anyway, so now that rocky Balboa<\/i> has catapulted Rocky back into the forefront … I’m on my way. Into my obsession.<\/p>\n

— I watched Rocky<\/i> once all the way through (it’s been years. But some of those scenes are so familiar it’s like an old comfy well-known and well-loved sweater. When Paulie gets out the baseball bat. The drinking of the eggs. Adrian’s little outfits, and her watch pinned to her sweater. The detail! The contrast between Apollo’s nice slick house and Rocky’s poverty-struck cold-water flat. Stallone’s body. I mean, come on, let us be honest. He’s not too bulky – the way he got later – he looks appropriate for the level that Rocky is at. The body is yummy. Oh – and Burgess Meredith’s face and wonderfully campy performance. “YOU’RE GONNA CRRRRRAP THUNDER!” Stop screaming, Mickey. The shot of Adrian through the bird cage when Rocky is trying to make her laugh. The way Rocky picks up the turtles when he wants to show them to Adrian in his apartment. I remember that moment so so clearly … his arms are so big, and he just seems so … impressive (not to mention sexy) – but the way he picks up the turtles – there’s this delicacy and caution there – fascinatingly incongrous. Anyway. I had a BLAST sinking into this movie again.)<\/p>\n

— Then I watched all the special features.<\/p>\n

— Then I watched the whole movie again with the commentary track on.<\/p>\n

— Then I spent a glorious amount of time cherry-picking scenes I wanted to see again and again and again. Moments. Flashes of a look across Stallone’s face. Tiny moments. The reality of the behavior. How real the fight looks. And it’s all choreographed. Incredible. (Choreographed by Stallone, of course). Amazing. But the whole movie has that feel of reality. Things seem to be really happening<\/i> as opposed to being staged … or planned out. The movie is a little bit messy<\/i>. In a good way. Like life is sometimes messy. Like the first kiss. It’s … Who can describe the SYMPHONY of experience that is a first kiss? Watch her. Watch her side of things. Then watch his side. He will not let her get away because he knows she wants it. But he can’t move too quickly or too insistently because it will freak her out. Stallone, in the current-day interview in the special features, says, “You know, I watch that scene today and I disappear in that scene. And she is off the charts.” He’s right. Stallone is necessary for the scene to work – but it’s really all about Adrian’s eyes, looking up at him as he keeps coming at her … She is phenomenal. She has no lines except, “I don’t belong here.” “I don’t feel comfortable”, etc. But she doesn’t need lines. So I watched that scene many times – focusing on her, then focusing on him … I watched the training montage a couple of times – just to revel how perfect it is that the music kicks in there … it’s so BIG, so unexpected – because there’s been almost no soundtrack up to that point.<\/p>\n

— Anyway, I STUDIED Rocky<\/i>. Scene by scene.<\/p>\n

— Then I watched Rocky II<\/i> – which is surprisingly effective, even though it has a thankless job of coming after that first one. But Stallone! My GOD, he’s just so good as this character!<\/p>\n

— In the interview with Stallone he said a great great thing. (And this was before Rocky Balboa<\/i> – this was from 2001) – he said, “I will never … ever<\/i> … have a voice like that again.” (Meaning: not the actual physical voice … but the expression of life<\/i> that is Rocky. Perfect fit of actor and character.) He said (and this was the comment I really loved): “You know, if I say stuff, people don’t believe me. But if I make Rocky say that stuff – I’ll be believed. He’s the best voice I’ve ever had.”<\/p>\n

More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Obviously I had an insane solitary photo shoot in my apartment this weekend and had so much fun that I think I need to do more. I have more hats and props and ridiculousness. It was so fun. But that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[64,1367],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5925"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169771,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions\/169771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}