Tim & France


I finally went to the Tim Burton Exhibit with G using our free tickets, which we have had since NOVEMBER.  Where the heck has time gone??  I can't believe we almost missed taking advantage of this Exhibit.


If you get a chance and it comes to your city, GO!  It is awesome!  I wouldn't say I'm a superfan of Tim's but I definitely appreciate his work.  I'm always amazed at these individuals who have such creativity and who can come up with such unique ideas.  I wish I was more creative.  I think I am in certain ways (like jewellery-making, knitting, my chocolates) but I've never been one who could draw or paint something beautiful.


My favourite part of the Exhibit was the showing of Tim Burton's short film, Vincent, which was a bit of an homage to his favourite actor, Vincent Price (who coincidentally narrated the film too).  It's great!  And I have always loved Vincent Price's voice.  The enunciation & expression.  He was a pretty darn good actor too.  See The Private Lives of Elizabeth & Essex (Warner Bros. 1939), Laura (20th Century Fox 1944), Champagne for Caesar (Cardinal Pictures 1950) and The Last Man on Earth (20th Century Fox 1969).


Here is the film in its entirety:



"But he wants to be just like Vincent Price."  And I love his dog, Abercrombie!


I also love Stainboy!



Yes, I am sick because I think it's funny.


This picture drawn by Tim, made me laugh the most at the Exhibit:

If you can't read it, it says, "Never shoot a constipated poodle." Funny!  I like how he has this warped off-kilter sense of humour which always includes a lot of blood.  It is the true crime lover in me.  And the horror movie lover.


There was also a rarely seen Tim Burton film, which aired on Disney, reworking Hansel and Gretel (1982).  Of course it was introduced by Vincent Price!  This was a strange film and actually quite comedic (maybe not intentionally).  All the cast was Asian, which was kind of cool to see (evidently Tim was going through a Japanese phase at the time), and I did see elements of his future films in this one.  I must say it was kind of weird how he made the Wicked Witch's house leak strange coloured sweet syrup whenever a wall was poked, which the children would eat all enthusiastically.  G & I were saying, "Hello?  Where's the chocolates, candy, cookies?"  No WAY would I have been putting that blobby gloop in MY mouth.  Tim would have been about 24 years old when he made this film so it's definitely fascinating to see what he was making before he really broke out as a Director.


I like to listen to Disco Night on a local radio station here.  I was a bit young for the disco era since I wasn't even in junior high yet or old enough to drive, let alone get into a nightclub & dance the night away (that would happen when I turned 17 and used fake ID which gave my age as 24!).  But I did subscribe to Tiger Beat (my first crushes were Shaun Cassidy and Andy Gibb, until I found out he left his wife & daughter in Australia and never looked back.  I was so devastated he could do that!) and would look at the pictures of disco moves geared towards those girls who could actually put them to use.  One of Canada's popular disco singers (well, she didn't sing just disco) was France Joli.  Seriously, before Celine Dion (who I can't stand now, but loved her earlier stuff before she hit it big) there was France!



I don't know why she didn't become more popular.  She had a great voice.  Can you believe she was only 16 years old in this video?


The song of hers below, I remember singing at my class' "big" end of school pool party in my friend's bedroom, getting ready.  You know how you sing when you think no one is listening?  Well wouldn't you know, my class crush walked in, and I was mortified.  But I must say, he was very mature at that age because 1) he didn't make fun of me and 2) he asked all the girls in my class to dance to a slow song that night, even though he had a girlfriend (a girlfriend ALL of us girls hated because she was high maintenance and treated him like crap).  Looking back, what a gentleman!  This was at an age when most of the other guys were all congregated in a group on the opposite side facing the girls (think Sixteen Candles), too scared to ask one of us to dance.  It's funny how I just remembered this now.  The same girlfriend also went out with another crush I had all through Junior High and the 1st two years of High School.  Which just goes to show you, I had a thing for unattainable boys growing up.