fair play to those that love it

 

Emma Corrin as Princess Diana, in "The Crown"

I love to look at The Guardian, find an article about The Crown, and then see what British people say about it.

comments:

^^  and class, of course, the great divide in England in the way race is in the US.

Thatcher was very definitely not the right sort.

^^  The lack of a head of state is one of the problems the U.S. system has.  It's bad for civic cohesion when the person tasked with all of the acts of public symbolism and unity is also a faction leader in a nakedly partisan and adversarial legislative system.

^^  Serious question:  has there ever been a person who has led as dull a life as the queen, in which she has actually done so little, but has been the subject of so many films and TV series?

DesOlationROw

     ^^  You can put all the inbreds jangling their jewellery on all you want.  It's still shit on a stick.

^^  This being the Graun...it is perhaps unsurprising there are so many whinging republicans who would rather we had Vladimir Putin, George Bush or Donald Trump than a constitutional monarch who has to spout the bollocks written by her ministers, and meet the morons that Theresa May fancies

rory murray

     ^^  Oh please, she does not HAVE to do any of these things.  She can become one of the world's richest private individuals tomorrow, should she choose to.  And republicans don't want to replace her with an executive president (as your comparisons erroneously imply), just a head of state chosen by the people.  

     We've had lovely ones in Ireland in recent years.  UK should try it.

^^  Facts don't have sell-by dates.  Britain is a constitutional monarchy, and this mode of government, although eccentric, has proved to be extremely stable--not just here but in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and post-Franco Spain.

Setting up a successful republic is quite difficult and requires a level of constitutional genius not normally found outside late 18th-century America.  And certainly not in 20-21st century Russia.

It's a testimony to the Founding Fathers that they at least saw Trump coming but it's proving a very stern test of the Constitution.  And the American system is, I think we would all agree, far from perfect with eccentricities of its own.

^^  are these dramas made by all the same people?  victoria etc etc, netflix can whistle dixie, as i won't be paying to see this pig's-trough of a series, rank rotten acting, bog rotten story, coming to channel 5 ....very soon!

-------------------------- ^ Blimey.  You got out of bed the wrong side

^^  Impressive that you can judge the acting without watching.

It's almost like you have pre-conceived opinions.

^^  The Guardian's rush to the cultural wasteland continues unabated.

Mick James

     ^^  They've started to review the programmes on the new fangled "television sets" that are becoming such an unwelcome feature of the British living room, particularly among the lower classes.

----------------------- Mikey 247    ^ Do you  mean the drawing or sitting room?

^^  Articles about this programme do seem to attract people who are keen to tell us that they hate it, but haven't actually watched it.

^^  I watched it, got bored with it but fair play to those that love it.  Just wasn't my thing

Geoff1940

     ^^  I've lived through it all (I remember singing 'God save the king' at school).  Why would I want to watch it all over again?

It's a series directed at the USA where there seems to be a significant minority (I hope it's not a majority) who seem to be obsessed by the Windsors.

---------------------------- ^ The Yanks, poor things, are trapped in a federal republic in which the head of state and the head of government are one and the same.

_____________________________________

-30-

in here, life is beautiful

 

The 1972 film Cabaret is set in 1930s Berlin, with the Nazi menace sort of there, in the background, and growing.  

     The English writer Stephen Spender said, "There was a sensation of doom to be felt in the Berlin streets."

     (In today's culture, we can relate to that in the sense of, When politics gets crazy should we be afraid, or just ignore it?)

     In the movie Liza Minnelli's character Sally Bowles is a nightclub entertainer.  She sings and dances.  Outside of the club, she has a breezy, upbeat personality, and we see her relationships and social life...

     The cinematography is wonderful:  visually, the film is lovely -- the colors, and the European sense of personality, and place.

 

     Joel Grey plays the nightclub's emcee, in extreme makeup and with indomitable attitude; he tells the audience, "Leave your troubles outside.  So life is disappointing, forget it!  In here life is beautiful.  The girls are beautiful.  Even the orchestra is beautiful.... Outside it is winter, but in here it is so hot!  Every night we have the struggle, to keep the girls from taking off all their clothing."

     Then:  "Don't go away -- who knows, tonight we may lose the battle!"

_____________________________

Director:  Bob Fosse

Screenplay by Jay Allen

Music by John Kander and Fred Ebb

__________________________________

choreographer Bob Fosse

     Like the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, Fosse won the Oscar, the Tony, and the Emmy...

     [Free Encyclopedia-excerpt] --------------- At the 1973 Academy awards, Bob Fosse won the Academy Award for Best Director for Cabaret.  That same year he won Tony Awards for directing and choreographing Pippin and primetime Emmy Awards for producing, choreographing and directing Liza Minnelli's television special "Liza with a Z."  Fosse was the only person to win all three major industry awards in the same year. --------------------------------- [end, excerpt]

-30-

Europe between the world wars

 

headlines

Where Poets Are Being Killed and Jailed After a Military Coup

The New York Times

     More than 30 poets have been imprisoned since the military seized power in Myanmar, a country where politics and poetry are intimately connected.

Bipartisan group of senators prepares new infrastructure plan as talks stall

The Washington Post

Floyd family meets Biden as Congress weighs police bill

Miami Herald

Starmer promises race equality act, a year on from George Floyd's murder

The Guardian

     Leader commits a future Labour government to eradicating structural racism in the UK

At long last, Lightfoot offers civilian police oversight plan

Chicago Tribune

__________________________________________

_________________________________________

     The character Liza Minnelli played in the 1972 film, Cabaret, is Sally Bowles.  This literary personality came from The Berlin Stories, written by Christopher Isherwood and published in 1945.

---------------------- [excerpt from The Berlin Stories] --------------------

     "Deeply attached as I am to Amsterdam, I shall always maintain that it has three fatal drawbacks.  In the first place, the stairs are so steep in many of the houses that it requires a professional mountaineer to ascend them without risking heart failure or a broken neck.  Secondly, there are the cyclists.  They positively overrun the town, and appear to make it a point of honour to ride without the faintest consideration for human life.  I had an exceedingly narrow escape only this morning...."

     By the time we had reached Bentheim, Mr. Norris had delivered a lecture on the disadvantages of most of the chief European cities.  I was astonished to find how much he had travelled.  He had suffered from rheumatics in Stockholm and draughts in Kaunas; in Riga he had been bored, in Warsaw treated with extreme discourtesy, in Belgrade he had been unable to obtain his favourite brand of tooth-paste.  

In Rome he had been annoyed by insects, in Madrid by beggars, in Marseilles by taxi-horns.  In Bucharest he had had an exceedingly unpleasant experience with a water-closet.  Constantinople he had found expensive and lacking in taste.  The only two cities of which he greatly approved were Paris and Athens.  Athens particularly.  Athens was his spiritual home.

     By now, the train had stopped.  Pale stout men in blue uniforms strolled up and down the platform with that faintly sinister air of leisure which invests the movements of officials at frontier stations.  They were not unlike prison warders.  It was as if we might none of us be allowed to travel any farther. -------------------------------------------------- [end, Excerpt]

____________________________________

-30-

learning from history

 

timeline of evil

1921

Hitler challenges Anton Drexler to become leader of the Nazi party.  After initial resistance, Drexler agrees and Hitler becomes the new leader of the party.

1923

Along with other right wing factions and General Ludendorff he attempts to overthrow the Bavarian government with an armed uprising.  The event became known as The Beer Hall Putsch.  Hitler and 2000 Nazis march through Munich to the Beer Hall, to take over a meeting chaired by three of the most important individuals in Bavarian politics.

The following day, the Nazis march in the streets, the police open fire.  Hitler escapes but is captured, tried for treason and serves 9 months in Landsberg prison.  It was during his imprisonment that he began dictating his thoughts to Rudolf Hess, which emerged in the book Mein Kampf (my struggle).  It is a mixture of autobiography, political ideology and an examination of the techniques of propaganda.

1925

Hitler re-founds the Nazi party.

September 1930

In the General Election, the Nazi Party increases its representatives in parliament from 14 to 107.  Hitler is now the leader of the second largest party in Germany.

1931

Hitler challenges Paul von Hindenburg for the presidency, but fails to win.

1932

Hitler becomes a German citizen--enabling him to stand in the Presidential election against Hindenburg.

Became the first person to electioneer by aircraft, the campaign (masterminded by Josef Goebbels) was entitled 'Hitler over Germany'.

January 1933

Hitler becomes chancellor of a coalition government, where the Nazis have a third of the seats in the Reichstag.

February 1933

The German Reichstag is destroyed by fire.  The plot and execution is almost certainly due to the Nazis but they point the finger at the communists and trigger a General Election.

March 1933

The Enabling Act passed--powers of legislation pass to Hitler's cabinet for four years, making him virtual dictator.

He proclaims the Nazi Party as the only political party permitted in Germany.  All other parties and trade unions are disbanded.  Individual German states lose any autonomous powers, while Nazi officials become state governors.

April 1933

Communist party banned.

May 1933

Socialists, trade unions, and strikes banned.

October 1933

Hitler withdraws from the League of Nations.  In the following months, he triples the size of the German Army and ignores the arms restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.

June 1934

Night of the Long Knives.  Hitler crushes all opposition within his own party.

July 1934

After the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler becomes "Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor" and abolishes the title of President.

1935

Hitler re-arms Germany with the aim of undoing the Treaty of Versailles and uniting all the German peoples.  Military conscription is introduced.

March 1938

The Austrian Chancellor, leader of the Austrian Nazi Party, invites the German army to occupy Austria and proclaim a union with Germany.

September 1938

British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meets Hitler in Germany.  Britain, France and Italy sign the Munich Agreement which gives the Sudetenland (the German-populated borderlands of Czechoslovakia), to Germany.

October 1938

German army occupies the Sudetenland.

November 1938

In what is historically referred to as Crystal Night (kristallnacht), 7,500 Jewish shops are destroyed and 400 synagogues are burnt.  The attack is portrayed as a spontaneous reaction to the death of a German diplomat by a Jewish refugee in Paris.  It is actually orchestrated by the Nazi party who also kill many Jews and send 20,000 to concentration camps.

Crystal Night is considered to be the beginning of the Final Solution and the Holocaust.  The mass killing represented by the Holocaust raises many questions concerning the development of European civilisation during the twentieth century.

1939

Peace treaty with Russia secured with the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.  Hitler invades Poland on September 1st and after 3 weeks of lightning war or 'Blitzkrieg' the country is divided between Russia and Germany.  On September 3rd France, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany.

1940

The Nazis occupy Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France.  Romania and Yugoslavia are invaded.

June 1941

Germany attacks Russia, ignoring the peace pact.  Operation Barbarossa, The German invasion of Russia, begins.

December 1941

Japanese Air Force attacks Pearl Harbour and war is declared on the U.S.

February 1943

Although commanded by Hitler to stand and fight, the Germans surrender in the battle of Stalingrad.  From this point in the war, Germany is continually retreating.

July 1944

Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Colonel Stauffenberg, who places a bomb in a briefcase under a table close to Hitler.  As a result, Hitler purges the army of all possible suspects.

January 1945

Soviet troops enter Nazi Germany.

22 April 1945

Hitler decides to stay in Berlin to the last.

26 April 1945

Berlin completely besieged by the Soviet Army Fronts of Marshals Koniev and Zhukov.

30 April 1945

Hitler commits suicide with his wife of two days, Eva Braun; their bodies are believed to have been cremated.

---------------------------------------

[from open learn / history-the-arts website]

-30-

come hear the music play

 

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy wearing the pillbox hat designed by Halston

Friday, January 20, 1961

     I wanted to describe the "Liza with a Z" concert, and then I started getting all overwhelmed because it connects to Cabaret and had Bob Fosse as well as Kander and Ebb working on it.  And they also did Cabaret. ...

     And then there's the Broadway tradition and all those songwriting teams:

Rodgers & Hammerstein

Rodgers & Hart

Kander and Ebb

Lerner and Loewe...

     One day I found myself thinking, "OK, all I have to do is write a complete history of Broadway and then it will be easy to show why 'Liza with a Z' was a uniquely thrilling concert."

     Then -- (sanity kicking in) -- Wait a minute...

____________________________________________

songwriting teams and their musicals:

Lerner and Loewe

    My Fair Lady

Kander and Ebb

    Chicago

    Cabaret

Rodgers & Hammerstein

    The Sound of Music

    Oklahoma!

    South Pacific

    The King and I

Rodgers & Hart

    (I don't know -- they came before Rodgers & Hammerstein...same Rodgers...)

_______________________________

Liza-Z concert included a medley of songs from Cabaret, at the end.

Torch songs "God Bless the Child" and "My Mammy" book-end the concert.

"Yes" and "It was a good time--it was the best time--it was a party--just to be near you..." are jazz nightclub numbers, and Liza and her band rock out on "I Gotcha" by Joe Tex, and a fast-paced, funky cover of the Dusty Springfield hit, "Son of a Preacher Man."

     It's a different thing from a rock and roll concert--it has that Broadway ambience, the specificity of the dancers' routines keeping the attitude of each song on point.  Kind of like -- a song, and a play, tied in with the traditions of ballet and opera.

Pack up all my care and woe, here I go, singing low,

Bye-bye Blackbird.

Where somebody waits for me, sugar's sweet, so is he,

Bye-bye Blackbird.

No one here can love and understand me.

Oh, what hard-luck stories they all hand me.

Make my bed and light the light

I'll arrive -- late tonight,

Blackbird, bye-bye.

        [Mort Dixon / Ray Henderson]

_______________________________________________

-30-

well you can tell by the way I use my walk

 

Halston

I got the idea to type in "Liza with a Z" and see if I could see clips from this 1972 concert, when watching "Halston" -- a new show on Netflix.  It's the story of Roy Halston Frowick, who grew up in Indiana and came to New York in the 1950s and became a successful and well-known designer.

He created the pillbox hat for Jackie Kennedy to wear to the 1961 Inauguration.

Later, in the 1970s, he was friends with Liza Minnelli.  I was surprised, in Halston, when somebody gets up there playing Liza Minnelli, and starts singing.  Singing the song, "Liza with a Z" -- I thought, uh-oh, no one can do that except actual Liza:  but the actress Krysta Rodriguez pulled it off with a natural panache.

I think everyone watching was wowed.

(Whenever I consider these 1970s icons, words like "wowed" start coming out...)

-30-

he liked to throw the bull, and he was no matador

 

The 1972 television concert, "Liza with a Z," is on You Tube.  Watch it before they take it down.

I had never seen it, but yet I knew it by heart, almost, because I had the record album when I was a freshman in high school and I played it many times.

Liza's energy, expressiveness, and audience rapport made me think of Tina Turner.

...And so she borrowed a thou' and called TWA

And told her mother and dad that she was up and away

I'm gonna travel the continent, a month, maybe two

And haul me home a hus' if it's the last thing I do

You gotta ring them bells, you got to ring them bells

You gotta make 'em sing and really ring them bells

It's such a happy thing, to hear 'em ting-a-ling

You gotta ring them bells

She met a Londoner first, but they did not hit it off

'Cause every time she approached he got a bronchial cough

And so she went to Madrid and met a handsome señor,

But he liked to throw the bull and he was no matador

She also bombed out in Brussels, in Mallorca and Rome

'Til someone said, "Try Dubrovnik, dear, before you go home"

'Cause it's the kind of a town -- where you'll be likely to fall

And all the tony cognoscenti find the Balkans a ball...

-30-

how hard it was to exist

 

"I think people should mate for life -- like pigeons, or Catholics."

~ Isaac Davis, in Manhattan

________________________________

    

     The beginning of Woody Allen's 1979 film, Manhattan, is imprinted on my unconscious spirit, blended into my DNA.

  

     "Chapter One.  He adored New York City.  He idolized it all out of proportion."

     That sentence, "he idolized it all out of proportion" -- is kind of grand, and pedestrian, at the same time.

     No, wait -- make that "he romanticized it all out of proportion."

all out of proportion...

     "To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin."

     A certain wildness, power, flair, and awe lives in that sentence.

     But then he still re-writes it -- "Uh--no.  Let me start this over.  Chapter one.  He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else...."

he idolized it

he romanticized it

he was too romantic about it...

     The thoughts and ideas keep walking, taking different paths....

     Then--it starts to become a little "dark"--He adored New York City.  To him, it was a metaphor for the decay of contemporary culture!

     What?!  Where did all the happiness and wonder go?  But yet he's still tempestuously enthusiastic in the way he writes / speaks....

Three components give the story and feeling of this scene, two audio, one visual:

Woody Allen's voice, speaking

"Rhapsody In Blue" - instrumental

and a montage of New York City images, some close up, some distant.

     Movement, spectacle, detail.

To see and hear the start of this film is a thrilling experience.

There are videos of it on You Tube.

I avoid the one from "Movieclips" where it has in the lower-left corner an icon with "HD" -- this one cuts off before the end of the song and scene, and instantly hits you with that ring-tone-sounding "dingdingdingding-a-ling"....

The video I suggest is uploaded by

Victoriancu2011

video title:

Manhattan - Opening scene (Woody Allen, 1979)

New

York

was

his

town,

and

it

always

would

be.

-30-

Long Island is not a borough

 

Manhattan

Brooklyn

Queens

Staten Island

The Bronx

...are the five boroughs of New York City.

(Had to Wikipedia that.)

Long Island:  not a borough.

Harlem:  not a borough; it's a neighborhood.

_________________________________________

"Rhapsody in Blue" playing.

Iconic New York City scenes passing before our eyes.

Voice Over:

Chapter one.

He adored New York City.

He idolized it all out of proportion.

Uh, no.  Make that

he romanticized it all out of proportion.

To him, no matter what the season was,

this was still a town

that existed in black and white

and pulsated to the great tunes

of George Gershwin.

Uh--no.  Let me start this over.

Chapter one.

He was too romantic about Manhattan,

as he was about everything else.

He thrived on the hustle, bustle

of the crowds and the traffic.

To him, New York

meant beautiful women

and street-smart guys

who seemed to know all the angles.

Ah, corny.  Too corny

for a -- man of my taste.

Let me... try and make it more profound.

Chapter one.  He adored New York City.

To him, it was a metaphor

for the decay of contemporary culture.

The same lack of integrity to cause so 

many people to take the easy way out...

. . . was rapidly turning the town

of his dreams . . .

No, it's gonna be too preachy.  I mean,

face it, I wanna sell some books here.

Chapter one.  He adored New York City,

although to him it was a metaphor

for the decay of contemporary culture.

How hard it was to exist in a society

desensitized by drugs, loud music,

television, crime, garbage...

Too angry.  I don't wanna be angry.

Chapter one.

He was as tough and romantic

as the city he loved.

Behind his black-rimmed glasses was

the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat.

I love this.

New York was his town

and it always would be.

[Music swells.]

_________________________________

{opening / movie script for Woody Allen's Manhattan, 1979}

-30-

the sitcoms I knew all happened in New York...

 

...at least during the '90s, they did.

Mad About You

Seinfeld

Friends

The Nanny

Sex And The City

     From that list, only "Sex and the City" was actually filmed in New York City--even the interiors.  The other shows all filmed in California.

     Does every situation comedy have to be set in New York City?

     Could funny and absorbing stories happen in other locations?

     "All In The Family" was set in a section of New York City--Queens.  That's different, though.  "Sex and the City," "Mad About You," "Friends," "Seinfeld," and "The Nanny" tend to be more Manhattan-oriented.

     Manhattan is the most glamorous borough.

     "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was set in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

     "The Bob Newhart Show" (the one where he's a psychologist and is married to Suzanne Pleshette) was set in Chicago, Illinois.

     Can funny stories be set in small towns?  Could there be a situation comedy set in Rootstown, Ohio?  In Northville, South Dakota?  In Franklin, West Virginia?

     In the 1980s the "Designing Women" series, starring Dixie Carter and Delta Burke, was set in Atlanta, Georgia, and everyone spoke with a Southern accent.

     That was unusual, though.

Well--except for Andy Griffith and Mayberry, etc. in the 1960s.  

     I read somewhere that a CBS executive got fed up with the image those shows reflected on his network, and he proclaimed, "No  more rural stuff."   

The 'harvard emm-bee-ay' is helpful in making those decisions.

-30-

right side or left side?!

 

Posting here about the "Mad About You" episode where then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared at the end, pretending to take seriously the fictional situation in that week's story--"New York is a great city and we're constantly striving to make it even better," he says--it's typical politician-speak, he plays it serious, even though we know he's in on the joke.  

He adds, "I just thought you should know that."  Layered meaning resides in that brief sentence, too.  Sort of--not as public-speaking-style as the rest of the address... "I just thought you should know that"...a little casual -- the personal touch that a politician might try for, and it's a real politician doing it for a fictional TV-show...  ("Meta"-?)

     He refers to one of the episode's comic bits with faux seriousness:  "Like any cab driver in any city, they merely wish to be told on which side of the street--the right or the left--their passengers want to get out.  I'm sure that you'll agree [politician thing, trying to find and point out 'common ground'], that's a very reasonable request."  [Everything's fine.  Allow me to lay it out for you, plainly and calmly.]

----------------------------------------

"Right side or left side?"

"Well, see--it's right there..."

"TELL me!!!!"

-----------------------------------------

     I adored many things about that show, but then after Season 3 it changed, and wasn't as good.  

     Not nearly as good.

It ran for seven seasons in the 1990s.

Seasons 1 - 3:  excellent.

Season 4 - Still kind of good sometimes, but more hit-or-miss.

Then Seasons 5, 6, and 7 - each one got worse.  The rhythm, the tone, the musicality of dialogue, nuance, events and gestures--the aspects that made the show good were somehow no longer there.  I don't know how you mess that up.  

     I watched part of an episode from one of the last three seasons--one of the main actors said their line kind of flat and wrong, and disconnected or something...I thought, "How can you not know how to do this anymore?  You knew how to do it from 1992 to 1994...!  What the heck??!"

     At any rate, Seasons 1, 2, and 3 remain good, and they're on Amazon Prime right now -- those I can recommend.

     The one with Mayor Giuliani at the end is titled "The City."  It's Episode 10 of Season 3.

-30-

this dog can talk

 

Babe Ruth

An agent brought his dog in to audition for an impresario.  He can really talk, the agent said.  

Fido, what's on top of a house?  Roof!  Roof! said the dog.  

Out! said the impresario!  

No, wait! said the agent.  Fido, what does sandpaper feel like?  Rough! Rough!  

Get out now, said the impresario.  

NO!  One more try, said the agent... 

Who's the greatest baseball player of all time?  Ruth! Ruth! said Fido.  And they were thrown out of the office.  

     As they were dusting themselves off, Fido turned to the agent and asked, DiMaggio?

-30-

tell me all your secrets

 

"Mad About You" was such a good show, at first.  But then it kind of switched, wandered, and then started going in circles....

Why does that happen to some shows?  My thought is, probably they get different directors, writers, producers...something is different, they bring in new people, and those people do not have the same sensibility as the original people in those jobs.  And then the show is different--it isn't as good, doesn't have the comedy-drama tone that viewers connected with--and after a while, they're just throwing stuff in....

     Something happened to the very popular "Game Of Thrones" show (which I have not seen).

[some online GOT comments]

-------------------- The showrunners Weiss and Benioff had both hinted that GOT was an all consuming task and they had spent 6-7 years of their lives fully immersed in the show and had wanted to wrap up the show quickly so they could get their lives back--hence the truncated last 2 seasons.  

The lack of the regular 10 hr seasons really impacted the ability to flesh out the nuances of the character motivations and just came across as extremely rushed.  

However watching the last season again, I am struck by the fact that we are unlikely to see another TV show with the scope, sets and acting that GOT provided.  

Amazon and other streaming services are throwing $$$$ at trying to replicate the next GOT.  I am rather dubious that they will be successful.

--------------- The problem most studios face is that once they have a hit they want to prolong that hit despite the fact that it's a hit because -- it has a clear beginning middle and end.  They always extend the middle until they realise people are getting bored and then end it by which time everyone hates it.

------------------ Strange women flying on dragons distributing death is no basis for a system of government.

____________________________

"Mad About You"

I don't discuss the recent reboot; it doesn't exist, for me.

The actual network-TV series went for seven seasons:

1992 - 1999.

The first three seasons were good.

     I loved that show right away when I found it.  Their dog, Murray!...I adored the way their NYC apartment was arranged and decorated; I thought the clothes were fantastic--I bought a vest to wear with skirt-and-blouse ensemble, because I liked a vest I saw on "Mad About You."

___________________________________________

Jamie's sister Lisa:  "That's how I live!  I leap!"

Jamie:  "Yeah, while I'm running all over town with a net!"

Lisa:  "Who's Annette?"

-30-