Cheesy Easy Lover

It's how Jeffrey heard a lyric of Philip Bailey and Phil Collins' song "Easy Lover" from the mid-80s last night. And it was catchy; it sounds like an advertisement for macaroni and cheese -- in context, after Martha got home from Burger King and she ate something for we had already, we headed out to Wal-Mart to pick up some fans. Our central air is not functioning the best right now, and we were late getting out there -- I went to the bathroom with Jeffrey and we went in back (we had to go in back because some yo-yo stuffed the toilet up front with toilet paper)  just as a staff meeting was going on! Bought two fans, got gift ideas for Sarah who's big on emoji, got home and got them running (the fans, not my family and I) so in spite of practically no breeze last night with a high of 101 degrees, we got to sleep and kept moving without too much trouble.

Easy lover
She'll get a hold on you believe it
Like no other
Before you know it you'll be on your knees
She's an easy lover
(this line's the misheard one)
She'll take your heart but you won't feel it
She's like no other
And I'm just trying to make you see



And in the interests of accuracy, I present the actual opening lyrics above. And at least they imply she'll just take my heart, she won't kill me in the process! Assuming Josie Schuller, the main character in Image Comics' graphic novel Lady Killer (ISBN 978616557577) by Joëlle Jones & Jamie S. Rich is dead by now, and nobody's got a contract out on me that I know of, I'd say my chances at long life are pretty high. But Josie, a devoted wife and mother in the 1950s with all the social conventions and un-conventions that entails, is a professional assassin. We're never told who she works for works for -- that I remember, I'll have to re-read it -- but with its The Rescuers-like art and puns on 1950s advertising (one ad: "Stylish enough for her ... roomy enough for everyone else!" has Josie stuffing a dead body into the trunk) it was hard to not have fun with it. James Bond in a dress with eyeliner that is on point, according to one review.


Life Moves Pretty Fast: The Lessons We Learned From Eighties Movies (And Why We Don't Learn Them From Movies Anymore)


I must read Guardian newspaper writer Hadley Freeman's 2015 book again. ISBN 9781501130458 Truth be known, I should ask Martha if she wants to read it as well before it goes back to the library, for we and most everyone in our age bracket can relate to life lessons from Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Princess Bride, and Eddie Murphy's Eighties Movies among others. Perhaps they're not the ones we expect -- I mean, interpret Ghostbusters (the original from the 80s) as teaching how to be a man however you want. Why we don't learn said lessons anymore the author traces to studio versus producer control of what gets made and released now, the much-vaster-now foreign market (80% roughly versus 20% in the 80s precluding any deep movies that aren't car chases and shoot-em-ups or ... I love this term, McFranchises. You need what translates well), and I'm not sure if Ms. Freeman originated this, but as I write this I'm thinking that studios are presenting an idealized version of us.



Sometimes an idealized version of us we want to live up to, sometimes not.


David

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