grudlian.

There is an ex from about five years ago that I'm pretty sure doesn't know I moved to a new house and got a totally different job. And we worked together a year after we broke up (life pro tip: don't date your coworkers). Some of that is I rejected her friend requests on Facebook making it harder to see what each other is doing. Granted, neither of us are living our dreams (or, I'm definitely not anyway). If my ex became a world famous Parisian film star, I probably would have heard of it I suppose.

Yeah. I didn't think you meant it the way I originally read it but not a bad idea to get that totally clear for anyone who isn't a regular here who might read this someday.

Unfortunately, I don't have a concrete answer for you. I worked at a jazz radio station in college. So, I know what I like but I only know enough to probably sound like an ass. Intellectually, I know ragtime is the most traditional jazz because it's first. Everything else builds off of it or builds off something that build off of it. I suppose if someone says "traditional jazz" I'd probably think New Orleans, Dixieland, Creole. Basically Jazz Age era jazz. But if someone says "jazz" without a qualifier like dixieland or afro-cuban or whatever, my mind immediately thinks of something in the bebop through modal jazz eras. Maybe a bit of free jazz. So, the dominant styles of the mid-40s to early 60s. I realize this is a super limited amount of jazz. I also realize bebop doesn't sound like cool west coast jazz which doesn't sound like modal. It's not the only subgenres of jazz I like, but that's what I think of if someone said "Do you want to listen to jazz?" So, this is getting kind of like "is Josie and the Pussycats punk music?" Where my gut says, "lol no" but my brain goes "well, technically, pop punk is under that umbrella..." I know what you're getting at here. Jazz is a genre developed by and filled largely with black musicians. And Damien Chazelle has made two consecutive movies where the biggest jazz fans are white. So, it's not an unfounded criticism. I like John Legend's statement to Ryan Gosling that he should work to popularize jazz not just be stuck in Hoagy Carmichel's chair. Remember that episode of Fresh Prince where Will just assumed he would pass an African history class because he was black? This feels like the area we're getting into here if we just assume black people, even just black musicians, are educated in jazz.

You're right. I won't deny any of this including my somewhat Seb-like preference for traditionalism. After the late 60s to early 70s, I definitely lose interest. I think the movie kind of implies the rest of the concert is more John Legend, less Seb. I'm inferring stuff that technically isn't there.

I understand that and I get that this bit was probably improv. So, technically, I dont really have a defense. But I also don't think anyone really looks at the rest of what we see at the concert and call that jazz music. That's why I brought up a guitar solo. If Jimmy Page wings a guitar solo, Led Zeppelin is stilll a blues rock band (primarily). They aren't now playing jazz. John Legend's group sounds like pop/rock/funk. Seb playing a couple bars of improv doesn't change the entire genre.

That was 15 seconds then the band joined him and went into a clearly not improvised song. I'm not asking for free jazz but I also don't consider every single guitar solo jazz either.

You're right. John Legend never said they were jazz but I got the feeling he wanted be jazzier pop/rock or something. We're also looking at the first 30 seconds of the show. So, we can't really say what genre it is. But maybe I just have a bunch of traditionalist views holding back jazz like Seb. So, whatever.

As someone who likes jazz as well, I'd maybe argue John Legend's group isn't playing jazz. We don't hear vey much of it. So, I can't properly judge it but it doesn't look like much improvisation is going on which is a fundamental of jazz. Its kind of hard to have choreographed dancing over improvisation.

I was just making a joke. 52k is below the median household income in the US and it's pretty strictly middle class. Although that's household not individual income, they still live in LA. That might be pushing close to functionally working class there.

So it seems like a pretty even split between keep the opening number and lose it. I guess we'll never reach a consensus. I...uhhh...yeah, $52k a year is...uhhh...real chump change. *cries looking at paycheck*

I'm not sure a threesome is the answer...

Ryan Gosling was in Mickey Mouse Club. Wasnt he at least doing some singing and dancing back then? He should at least be competent even if he's out of practice. Didn't Miles Teller already play drums before Whiplash? Not jazz great level but okay at drumming level?

I assume we have all been in at least one not great relationship in our lives. And every once in a while, I still think back on the worst one I've been in and think "If I had done this or she had said that, then..." Then nothing. We weren't right for each other. I don't blame either of us (maybe me a bit more) We'd be miserable. That doesn't stop the what if from popping up occasionally. It makes sense that it would pop up for Emma Stone and certainly of she ran into Ryan Gosling out of the blue.

I don't know anything about theatre but maybe she couldn't find anything smaller? Looked like a 100 seats. How much smaller do legit theatres get? I got the feeling she spent everything to get the venue and posters. Maybe a 3-4 run is too much money? Is it plausible that a theatre would have just a one day opening and the venue decides they might as well get a little money for one day than nothing?

She's right though. He wants to open a club but being a part time keyboardist for an 80s party band probably doesn't bring in "buy a club right off the highway" type money. He was living in a crazy fantasy world if he thought it would happen for him doing what he was doing. At least Mia was working toward her goal. Going to bit part auditions isn't the Hollywood dream, but you have to put in the work unless there really is a "someone in the crowd" moment. And how much money was Ryan Gosling making to buy that club. It's in a nice enough area that glamorous movie star can walk down the street without security. They are in LA. So, just buying the club if it were in terrible condition would be what? A few million dollars at least right? Is John Legend's band that huge? That in five years, Ryan Gosling could get that kind of capital?

I don't remember but does Ryan Gosling even call her to say he won't be there? I don't think he does and I'm thinking "What is your god damn problem? Scheduling mishaps happen and John Legend band is your job. You can't exactly bail on it but maybe you should. But maybe you can't. But at least tell her you aren't going to show up. It also seems like the movie portrays that Mia is mildly surprised the auditorium is mostly empty. Wouldn't you, as the event planner, be able to ask the venue about ticket sales? Maybe you don't call them every day asking but even on the day of the show? Backstage? You can't ask "Ummm...I'm not hearing a lot of crowd noise. How many tickets are there? When you say 10, do you mean 10 left or 10 sold?"

Her husband was Musical Mondays all-star Tom Everett Scott from That Thing You Do!

I'm sure you're right because I don't remember the specifics of the scene. I thought the manager was just giving her the schedule for next week not telling her to fill in for someone else. I think I just have flashbacks of doing the schedule for years and saying "Please do not tell me in person about your request because you are 1 of 75 people. I will not remember your request. Please use the payroll website. You can ask if I got your request. You can ask me for help in submitting it. Just please use the website because I will not remember it two weeks from now when I'm doing the schedule." And I prided myself on getting every request off for everyone except for twice over the years. So, I wasn't a real hardass about the schedule; I just empathize If the movie really is just one of the countless stories of people in the city of dreams, I guess I'm choosing to hear the story of a beleaguered coffee shop manager on the WB backlot.

While I get that the manager should understand how this works, I managed a movie theatre for 15+ years. It's not a coffee shop, but I dealt with a ton of teens and twentysomethings who needed time off. I get you have a personal life, but my literal job is to run this place and I can't do this and give everyone every request off. Mia is asking for time off which could lead to more time off (if successful). As a former retail manager, I wouldn't say I side with her over Mia but my reaction is definitely think "Oh, so now she's stuck being short staffed the rest of her shift? Fuck that noise."

Oh man, so much this. I do not like the opening song. It's super well made on a technical level. The song itself is fine I guess. It ruined the entire movie for me though. I went into this movie so hyped. I worked at a movie theatre that didn't get this opening day. So, I drove to the opposite side of town and paid money to see the first show. In less than 3 minutes, I was over the whole thing. I knew they would all get back into their cars, right back to the traffic jam. So, I felt like I just knew how the whole movie would be. Here's the fantasy now back to reality for the whole movie. Someone In The Crowd does this to a lesser extent but I just knew her car would be towed 2-3 minutes before it shows that sign. And as someone who haaaaaaaates looking for parking big cities, I should have been super on board for this joke. I wanted this movie to pierce through my jaded, I've seen every movie exterior. I needed it from this particular movie and it didn't. I knew it 2 minutes in and the movie reaffirmed it for me, I don't know, 10 minutes later with another joke about cars in LA. I was very let down. The rest of my entire first viewing was me sitting glumly, disappointed except for when I realized Emma Stone's coffee shop was the set for Luke's from Gilmore Girls and I'm pretty sure they walk by Miss Patty's! Then combine all this with how much everyone who eventually saw it asked me about it, wouldn't shut up about it and how I predicted it would win Best Picture back in, I don't know, September because god the Academy loves movies about movies. I was not happy about La La Land. So, I wasn't super excited about rewatching this but I really hoped maybe it was just a weird case of not getting it on the first watch. Maybe I just expected too much. Maybe it was the lousy seat I got in the theatre. Maybe a million things. And the rewatch started with me feeling the exact same way but the movie changes after those two scenes a lot. It grew on me because everything after the first 20 minutes feels like a very different movie. I think having two big production numbers up top sets the wrong tone for this movie. La La Land is a musical, but it's not that kind of musical until the end where, I feel, it earned its big production number by then. I get why people love the opening song. It's a fantastically made dance number and a pretty good song. I absolutely want it cut from the movie.

Speaking of 1930s movies with very liquid physicality dancing, I watched King Of Jazz recently. I dont recommend it unless you really really like the music in this clip, but check out the dancing here around the 2:20 mark.

I don't know about everyone else but I had a great time at last night's shows. I don't want to spoil any actual content; we can discuss that when the episodes come out. It was very interesting seeing how it's done live as opposed to just hearing the final product. Not that it's a hard sell here but I highly recommend going if they come near you.

I wonder how much of the AFI list was "We need a movie genre listed. Pick between Swing Time andTop Hat Or did the voters pick their top XX from a list and most votes is #1, second most votes is #2. If it's the former, I see Swing Time replaced with another Rogers/Astaire picture of they ever update the AFI list. If it's the latter, I assume it just goes away. I haven't watched Swing Time yet. So, maybe it's really great (except for the minstrel show black face) but it seems like audience scores on imdb and letterboxd give a .1 edge to Top Hat. I know the AFI isn't made up of audiences but even they have to realize, whoops. I mean, I assume that's why Intolerance is in and Birth Of A Nation is out. But Birth Of A Nation is maybe the most racist movie I've ever seen and, I assume Swing Time is "just" black face.

If you mean the 7 o'clock show, I might have seen you. PS: I'm the guy wearing a button up shirt.

Oof. This is really bumming me out