November 15, 1998
Last night we went out to the movies, to see the new remastered version of The Wizard of Oz. I have not read any reviews or comments on the whole issue, but it was pretty enjoyable to finally see it in the theatre. Remember when they used to play it once a year on network television? We'd set our clunky VCR to take a copy, and it was always fuzzy and distorted, even when we used a new tape. Ah, such was technology. At least we didn't have a beta.
Last night was cold, and beautiful in the city. Navy Pier and the lake shore were very very dark where it was dark, and absolutely luminescent where the streetlights and buildings were lit up. I love this city so much, and I felt it deep down in the pit of my stomach. Or maybe it was just the cold. We had something funny/annoying happen to us while Scott and I were trying to find parking last night. Pulled into this little lot, and were trying to read the box that had directions for parking in this particular lot, which involved putting coins into it or something, when a guy started directing us where to park, and we asked the rate, and he said "Ten bucks, it's after six, so it's a flat rate, ten bucks." He points us to the spot, and assures us that he won't set anyone to park and block us in. Right then, this guy from the pizza place [Due's] comes up and tells us not to listen to anything this man says, no matter what, and the guy, fortunately sans our ten dollars, begins walking away, down the sidewalk. Heh, so close to being shafted, but not quite. We found parking, and got to the cinema just in time to catch Dorothy singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
We noticed some things were missing. Well, maybe two. It seemed that there used to be a bit in the movie, when Dorothy is caught in the witch's castle, up in the chamber, and she tries to turn the hourglass over to give herself more time, and she can't, as if it is stuck by magic. We didn't see this in the new version. And we also seem to remember one of the witch's guards saying more to Dorothy and her pals after they liquidate the witch, but we're not sure on this one.
I let myself swim into the gloriousness of the movie, and laughed out loud at the goofiness and campiness of it all. I realized that I might have always hated Glinda, and with an amusing "What if?" thought of presenting Oz as a Rocky Horror style movie, with call and response, culminated in a cathartic "You BITCHWHORE!" directed at Glinda when she tells Dorothy she's had the ability to go home all along. Life lessons be damned, woman! She nearly got killed by a woman with a glued on chin-'n'-wart and an uneven green makeup line! And Glinda, although "beautiful" and magical -- I have always loved the wand -- she has the worst hair in the movie. It's almost as if they set her hair in rollers, took them out when her hair was cooled, and then brushed out the boottom half to begin styling it, but then got distracted when Judy Garland needed a touch-up on her own lovely locks.
I love the luster of the 30's and 40's movie hair. The little crimps and waves, and the lighting that makes it so luminous. I know they must have the equivalent of a can of crisco smoothed into that marcel, but boy, it sure looks nice.
On a less than lighter note, I went to a wake today, for my uncle's uncle. He has been in pain for some time, and recently went through a leg amputation. He looked peaceful, but it was still very sad. At the wake the priest went and did a full rosary, which I had never seen done at a wake. And I never knew: the purple heart medal pinned to Thaddeus Ludwig's suit was from being at Normandy. Normandy. A piece of history left us this past Friday. Rest in peace.
