Thrice Told Tales #3: Emma

 

Clueless (1995)
Emma (1996)
Aisha (2010)

About a third of the way through our first viewing of Clueless (which was in a theater), my wife whispered to me (and yes, I know we shouldn’t be talking in the theater, we’ve been working on this), “They’re doing Emma, they’re doing Jane Austen’s Emma.”

We had gone to see a silly teen comedy. Of course, this was 1996, which was still the Golden Era of Teen Comedy. Though we didn’t know it, the era was coming to an end (just as the Super Hero Era is fizzling out.) The teen comedies of John Hughes (beginning with 16 Candles in 1984 and ending with Some Kind of Wonderful in 1987) were over. One could argue the first Teen Comedy of the era was Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982. That film was written and directed by Amy Heckerling, who didn’t make another teen comedy until… 1996’s Clueless.

Tears for Souvenirs

 

Ressna stepped out onto the stage in the underground theatre, stretched her hand out towards the darkness, and began murmuring to herself under her breath. Bright light started to glow from between her fingers as she willed it into being. The stage started to grow brighter. Her face and breathing started to grow strained, and she went pale, as if the concerted effort of casting the spell was drawing heavily on inner resources that would normally be required for other purposes – like keeping her alive.

He tried not to look, tried to keep focusing on keeping the sword at the ready, for anything that came through the, so far, tiny rift hanging in the air in front of them, edges tinged with purple and green. Let her focus on keeping the rift small enough that nothing big could break through – and fight off anything that did make it. That was the plan.

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Slade, a band that enjoyed a lot of success in the UK back in the 1970s, never quite hit it big in the US until 1984 with this song, plus the power ballad My Oh My.  Indirectly, they had success via the heavy metal band Quiet Riot who coved two of their 1970s UK hits; […]

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I think Neil Young used Buffalo Springfield from the get-go, to establish some street cred for a solo career. By their third album, Buffalo Springfield was fractured, and even when the songs were good, it kind of sounded like three different bands. ”Expecting to Fly” comes from their second album Again, released in 1967. And […]

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…Comes to you live from the 1986 Bern Jazz Festival in Bern, Switzerland (not Indiana). That festival featured some impressive talents, including the Oscar Peterson Trio, the Joe Haider Jazz Orchestra, and Stéphan Grappelli, but the group we focus on tonight is The Chick Corea Elektric Band :   Preview Open

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I’m Canceling Myself

 

It’s customary for comics to be canceled by others for their transgressive comedy. On the advice of my agent, however, I have decided to get ahead of things and cancel myself.

First, my sin: ever since I was a schoolboy, throughout my career in comedy, both onstage and in private conversations, I have told countless “your mother” jokes. Except I didn’t use the term “your mother.” Instead, I used another term that rhymes with “Obama.”

I realize now that these jokes were not mine to tell: I had appropriated them from the rich vein of African-American humor, causing cringe-inducing pain to the white women exposed to them.

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Our Saturday Night Classics posts are continuing in memory of their originator, the late Randy Webster.  As is similarly done with QotD and Group Writing, simply indicate the Saturday of your preference in the comments.  Saturday Night Classics are weekly posts of a “classic”song, often of the pop music era, posted on a Saturday.  Randy […]

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