I think I'm the only one...

I must be the only one in the history of man to hate, and I mean HATE, the story of Romeo and Juliet. I wish there Shakespeare had a broken home so I could say to him (if he were alive) "a plague on both your houses!" Seriously. I have no comprehension of how people like that story. It's depressing and aggravating and is all a result of massive mis-communication and idiocy. I have only ever met one version of R&J that I liked and that's the Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. I believe that the only reason I like it is because it's artistically well done enough that I can get past it and ignore the story. I bring this up because I just caught an episode of Lux Radio Theater that was a rendition of Madame Butterfly. I was very excited since I have never seen the show and you hear about it all the time. People rave about it. I liked it clear up to the end.... When (BEWARE: SPOILER) she kills herself on her father's death sword. All because of a stupid, frickin' MISCOMMUNICATION! Argh! it irked me to no end. I felt like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulls the football away. Stop doing this to me, people!!!!! I haven't liked any movie versions of R&J (except the one stated before), I don't like West Side Story (go ahead and gasp in chagrin - I know you want to), and I don't like Madame Butterfly now that I've heard it. It's once again a poorly masked rehashing of the R&J story and it looses me once more. Grrr.... I feel cheated and betrayed.

Believe it or not....

Just a quickie thought... I love podcasts and I LOVE Old Time Radio... My latest podcast trend has been the Lux Radio Theater. They took current Hollywood movies, abridged them so that the story would fit within an hour and have room for commercials. I think it was a double advertising ploy - to get people interested in the movie and to get in advertising for Lux Soap. I have to admit, it seems effective. Several times I've wanted to go rent the movie and I'm totally down with seeing if Lux Flakes and Lux Toilet soap is still available. They've convinced me that it's a good product?

The most interesting thing though is that you hear voices of famous people talking to you and, I guess because you don't see the B&W or grainy picture, it doesn't register that this was a long time ago. It doesn't register that most of these people have passed away until I think about it later. I've gotten to hear Cecil B. DeMille announce the shows and talk to ME and tell me about his new productions. Just this episode I got to hear the real Mr. Ripley speaking (from Ripley's Believe It or Not)... and I never thought about the fact that there probably WAS a Mr. Ripley. I got to hear about and then discover a famous 1920s tiger tamer by the name of Mabel Stark. Really, we were all shocked by the incident a few years back with Sigfried and Roy... but I guess we're all too sheltered. Mabel was attacked, mauled & sent to the hospital 16 times by 1936. (her career lasted through the 50s). Very interesting.