Dolly Parton

Unless you're living under a rock without internet, I'm sure you've heard Dolly Parton passed away at the age of 80. The odd thing about it for me is this isn't the first post I'm making about her this year. On May 12, I posted an entry which began with the remark, "Dolly Parton has been cropping up in my life lately." And now she's come up again.

A lot of the commentary about her life and career has come back to the fact that she was not partisan. She refused throughout her long career to endorse certain political candidates and believed not judging the lifestyles of others was simply part of being a Christian. I don't know how clear it's been if you've been reading my blog entries for a few years, but in all the political rancor that has calcified in the past ten years or so, I've come to particularly dislike partisans and zealots of both the right and left, anyone who would seek to dehumanise an opponent, who would at every opportunity push a biased interpretation of some action done or belief held by those of the opposite persuasion. The heartening thing about the reaction to Parton's death is the evidence that a lot of other people are sick of this, too.

I was in Tennessee for a few weeks in April and May this year, assisting the executor of my recently deceased father's estate. His name's Ricky and he used to work for Dolly Parton and her brother, Randy, as a sound engineer and musician. He told me a lot of stories about her and her tendency to take a personal interest in the lives of her employees and their families. Ricky said he hadn't been able to get in touch with her for a while and he was worried about it. Now we know why.

We spent time in Sevierville, where Parton was born. I donated some saddlebags that had been in my family since the 1800s to a museum there. A bookstore across the street had a poster for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, Parton's organisation devoted to fostering literacy in young people and encouraging them to read books. Hopefully people will now feel even further inspired to teach children the value of reading for pleasure and instruction.

I thought Parton was a decent actress and I like a few of her songs. I was never really a fan but I have to say she's earned a lot of respect from me.

Galactic Parton

There was a terrific new episode of The Orville last night with a surprise appearance from Dolly Parton. Though I might have predicted she's appear after she was mentioned so reverently in an episode last season. And it's with reverence she's brought up again, now an idol to a renegade colony of Moclans.

Once again, Joel McNeely delivered a score that elevated the material considerably. I'd say his work is at least 60% of why this episode is so effective. Not just for his Celtic-folkish, instrumental rendition of "Jolene". The shuttlecraft escape at the end of the second act felt more like Star Wars than any recent Star Wars show, partly because of McNeely's score and partly because of Andre Bormanis' writing.

The episode was written also by Brannon Braga but I tend to suspect any space tactics on display come from former Star Trek technical advisor Andre Bormanis.

Braga brought his A game, too. The episode is filled with genuinely provoking philosophical conundrums. The Moclans hate females so much they surgically alter female babies at birth. But the Moclans are an important Union ally in the war against the Kaylons and breaking with them now could mean death for everyone. So there's that tension. The renegade colony, which is populated by Moclan women, exists only due to a delicate treaty. Contravening the treaty, Haveena has been smuggling female babies out of Moclas and she tries to enlist Topa to help her, to get Topa to use the Orville's transmitters. Now she's endangering Topa but it's all in the name of saving potentially millions of babies.

I love the details on her costume.

So when Topa is kidnapped, there's a real tough question about whether Haveena should confess what she did or if she should let Topa be tortured to death. It takes a holographic recreation of Dolly Parton to sort her out.

Parton was good, though her plastic surgery is making her look weirder and weirder. She's starting to look a little like Warwick Davis crossed with Tim Curry. But her voice and attitude are both still intact.

Watching her, I found myself thinking of my grandmother who died last year, who also, like Parton, was from Tennessee. She was a big fan of Dolly Parton. I thought about how Parton keeps existing even though my grandmother is gone. It seems strange somehow.

Anyway, it was a good episode. It's on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ elsewhere.

Half a Story, but with Singing

Let's assume the argument about prostitution was settled hundreds of years ago, then let's make a musical comedy with an extremely superficial version of the argument. I can imagine this was the pitch for 1982's The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and possibly for the stage musical it's based on, though apparently the film departs from its source in many ways to tailor it for its stars, Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. They do have nice chemistry, though it's largely Parton who carries it. As a whole, the movie has little islands of genuinely entertaining comedy in the midst of a hazy, unfocused story.

In the middle of the film, various average people on the street are interviewed to give an opinion on whether prostitution should be legal. Each gives a simplistic version of typical arguments--an old woman says it gave her essentially a night off when her husband went down to the Chicken Ranch (the place referred to by the title); a young man argues that it prevents rape. This all presumes that men need to have sex periodically. But okay, I do agree people should have the option to pay for or sell sex if they want to, I don't really agree with the implicit "necessary evil" aspect of these arguments.

But it's the fact that the movie broaches the arguments at all that sabotages it. As a simple hearted musical that just assumed everyone in it accepted prostitution, that would have been fine. But if you're going to portray the debate, you need to portray the debate, the topic is too sensitive. I don't know if I expect something like Mizoguchi's carefully thought out examination of the business in Street of Shame but there's far too much left unsaid in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. In narration at the beginning of the film, we're told that for generations, the people of the town have seen their sons go to the Chicken Ranch. I heard Chris Isaak in Fire Walk with Me in my head asking, "What's missing from that statement?" No, not the uncle, but the daughters. Where are these prostitutes coming from? Everyone in the movie talks about how it's okay to go to a prostitute, no-one mentions how they'd feel about their daughter becoming a prostitute. And aside from Parton's character, Mona, who is the madam and having sex exclusively with Reynolds' character for three years, we don't get to know any of the prostitutes working at the brothel. None of them become characters.

Reynolds plays the town sheriff, Ed Earl, who mishandles things when an over the top television crusader played by Dom DeLuise makes it his mission to shut the Chicken Ranch down. DeLuise doesn't make any arguments against prostitution, content just to announce over and over that the place exists.

Ed Earl and Mona have a nice rapport and there's even a nice duet between the two about how much they like sneaking around together. The movie makes some nice references to female libido as Mona convinces Ed Earl to wear some tiny leather briefs.

But as nice as their rapport is, there are many points where their relationship doesn't make sense, as when the two are just about to have sex and Ed Earl is distracted by police business. He comes back to find she's sneaked out of the house. Why? It's never explained but the scene is punctuated with Ed Earl's disappointment as though the audience would be too busy laughing at his frustration to think about the fact that Mona did something with no apparent motivation.

The songs aren't bad--I enjoyed a song from the governor (Charles Durning) that's about politicians giving a song and dance instead of directly answering questions. And of course, Dolly Parton outshines everyone whenever she starts singing--including poor Burt Reynolds having to duet with her. There are also several nice jokes, particularly from Parton, like, "It's always a business doing pleasure with you," or "You know what burns my ass? A flame about three feet high."

Pardon My Parton

Dolly Parton has been cropping up in my life lately. The executor of my father's estate worked for her and her brother, Randy, and on Mother's Day my mother wanted to watch Steel Magnolias. That movie has an impressive ensemble. In addition to Parton, there's Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, and Olympia Dukakis, though I would say having Olympia Dukakis in your movie is nothing to brag about. Apparently she died in 2021 but her career seemed to really peter out after the '80s ended. There's something very '80s about her, some register of stately smarm that resonated with critics in the '80s but then dissipated around 1990 or so.

It'd been a long time since I'd seen Steel Magnolias so I don't remember much about my original opinion of it. I thought Parton and Daryl Hannah were the strongest parts of the cast this time. I don't think Parton has a lot of range as an actress but she's especially good in supporting roles. I really liked The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, though. I was listening to "Hard Candy Christmas" this past Christmas.

Nowadays, I guess she's known to the younger generation as the old lady in the second version of Sabrina Carpenter's "Please Please Please" music video (not to be confused with The Smiths song of the same name. Yeah, I know, no-one does).

More recently, Sabrina Carpenter was seen performing with Madonna. Nice to see there's a young artist that the pillars of an elder generation are enthusiastic about supporting. One might debate over whether this is good for either the younger or elder artists or if this is a Dial of Destiny thing. Maybe the lesson here is "Seize the moment."

And Now Some Music

Cutie Street, a Japanese idol group that formed last year, asks, "かわいいだけじゃだめですか? " Is just being cute inadequate? Not if cuteness is what you seek and it seems to have satisfied the 31 million people who have viewed the video in the past four months.

This was one of five or six groups that students recommended to me recently. On the flipside are groups like Creepy Nuts and Mrs. Green Apple, the latter now having enjoyed ten years of stressing out Japanese English teachers who are trying to get students to refer to married and unmarried women alike as "Ms."

As someone who's never been convinced that words attaching significance to gender or marital status are inherently bad, I say, long live Mrs. Green Apple.

But is cuteness enough? I suppose it ought to be. But I also like violent video games and savoury foods so maybe I'm a lost cause.

I remain grateful to the student who recommended Sabrina Carpenter to me last year. Her career really seems to be taking off, or at least the old guard celebrity elite in America seem to think so. She had a duet with Paul Simon at the recent Saturday Night Live anniversary show and she recorded a new music video for her song "Please Please Please" with none other than Dolly Parton sharing vocals.

The kidnapped guy reminds me of Meg Myers' "Lemon Eyes". Or maybe Tori Amos' "Cornflake Girl".

I like Dolly Parton but I think I still prefer the version of "Please Please Please" with Barry Keoghan.

I was talking to someone yesterday about how much I used to dislike pop princesses like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilara. With Sabrina Carpenter, Taylor Swift, Carly Rae Jepson, and others, we seem to be in a much better era of pop princesses, which is I guess is one way the 21st century has improved on the '90s. There had to be at least one improvement, you know.

X Sonnet 1920

No dancing dollar woke the jolly bird.
Corruption spurned a sweetened halter top.
Resentment builds another loaded word.
And gangsters hoard a vital staple crop.
A desert day obscured the winter morn.
The takers trudge ahead to find a test.
Another group of figures sure were born.
A school will bulge with Mother Gaia's best.
Excessive plants have broken glass and clay.
The pots were made by stingy folks and worms.
A ruthless snow obscures the brilliant day.
But savage fighters take the angry terms.
A paper fight will cut the tiny thumbs.
A vacuum god will snort the trail of crumbs.

Tim Curry

Tim Curry has died, also, like Dolly Parton, on August 25 at the age of 80. It's hard to overstate the cultural importance of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, of which Curry was the most vital component. The horror parody film elevated camp to something sharper and more elegant than it had ever been. Curry's transvestite character represented a marked shift in how queer characters could be portrayed onscreen. In this movie, the man dressed as a woman was the cool mastermind while the square heterosexuals were the butt of the joke. Curry's catlike face and infectious smirk succeeded in reorienting audience identification.

His cunning, mischievous presence made him a perennial top choice for villain roles. He was the Pennywise I remember from my childhood. He was one the most noticeable recurring performers in project after project so that, when I was just starting to think about actors and the craft of filmmaking, Curry was one of the first names among supporting players I began to recognise.

In recent years, his performance in 1985's Clue has attracted attention, though I don't have particularly strong memories of that film.

However, Tim Curry in the makeup and prosthetics for Ridley Scott's Legend has long been one of the most indelible images in fantasy. Even people who don't know the movie have probably been at some point struck by the image of Curry in devilish red makeup and enormous black horns. For many it's the most perfect depiction of a devil and has influenced depictions of Satan ever since. No one's ever made it look so good.