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#1
01-22-2003, 06:53 PM
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Who's jitterbugging?
It seems there are some grey areas regarding the origin (and even the specific style) of the 'jitterbug.' I'm unclear if the origin is clearly post-WWII, or whether there are indications of the name or dance appearing in the 1920's or even earlier. (It is possible that those fabulous Flappers were aquatinted with something called the 'jitterbug.')
Here's an example of an attempt at a description at http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/z3jtrbg.htm "There were distinct forms of Lindy and Shag already being done at such places as the Savoy Ballroom. Jitterbug as a dance, is also known as: Hollywood Style, Lindy Hop, East Coast, West Coast, Push, Whip, Jive, Shag, New Yorker, Bop, Ceroc, Leroc, Rock and Roll etc. Jitterbug was a slang or umbrella term for what we call "Swing dancing" today. The term Jitterbug initially enveloped all styles of swing. Depending on what City or State you came from and what year you danced in. Each variant of swing that was danced was called the Jitterbug. Today some people are trying to maintain it is only "Single or double rhythm East Coast swing" (as well as all others ... yes it was!). The W.W.II and the U.S.O. spread the Jitterbug all over the World. " But are we seeing jitterbugging in 'Mulholland Dr.?' Although the frenetic dancing during the opening of 'Mulholland Dr.' clearly resembles the swing dance video footage issued by Apple Computer with a software product which apparently pre-dates the film, is it the real thing? Do we have any dancers who would like to comment? A second question, mentioned by unc84steve on the infamous light-switch thread, is whether Aunt Ruth might not actually be the person who won a jitterbug contest and came to Hollywood, perhaps many years before. (This idea may have been raised before, I believe.) Could Diane and Aunt Ruth be interrelated, not only by blood, but via a network of the living, dead, and newly dead? |
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#4
01-22-2003, 08:34 PM
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Ahem...
Stooka, please forgive me, but I can't figure out what your avatar is. Are you a 'lady frontbottom'?
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"Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song... and there's always music in the air."
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#5
01-22-2003, 08:49 PM
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Re: Who's jitterbugging?
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#6
01-23-2003, 05:31 AM
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"I won a jitterbugcontest and that sort of lead to acting, you know, wanting to act"
What kind of statement is that? There is no link at all between the contest and acting. I think she is leaving the middle part out. Last edited by ID-ea; 01-23-2003 at 05:34 AM. |
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#7
01-23-2003, 07:10 AM
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What kind of statement? I'll tell ya! LOL
Quote:
 The thing that caught my eye on the link Rochas gave of Jitterbug songs was this one: "Pennsylvania 6-5000" That song was given prominent placement in "Twin Peaks" (I just saw). The Sylvia North Story refers to "North Woods" (sylvan forest) meaning David Lynch's biography, Blue Velvet & "Twin Peaks". (woods, trees, Elms, logs, etc.) The pre-credits breathing recalls BV's Frank and the pillow POV is not only a "dreamer going to sleep", but a victim "going to die". Leland Palmer--the "PA-6-500" dance--pillow suffocated someone in "TP".
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Steve |
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#9
01-23-2003, 06:02 PM
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Quote:
__________________
"Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song... and there's always music in the air."
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#11
01-24-2003, 08:53 AM
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References to female anatomical curiosa (and the relative merits of chosing them as avatar images) notwithstanding, I should probably like at this point to steer the general direction of this thread back toward the notion that there are some deficiencies in Diane's statements re her dance contest win, either indicating a gap in Lynch's writing, or perhaps indicating a kind of intentional flagging by Lynch to encourage further thought.
Now, MikeC has lit (sorry) upon the light-switch wild goose chase, rather than the idea that an older woman really should be telling Diane's 'how-I-got-into-acting' story. Firstly, do we have any indications that Diane is a dancer? Does she move well? Does her posture indicate dance training? Secondly, if Diane is not a dancer, do we see anyone else who might fit the bill? I agree with ID-ea that the link between dance and acting is a tenuous one at the moment, here at the start of a new century. However, this was much more commonplace in Hollywood in the early 20th Century. Although we now often see the transformation of models into actresses, in the inter-war and post-war years there were a great many dancers who became actors, especially when musicals were at their height. Again, this suggests that Diane's story might best be linked to an older woman, like Aunt Ruth or (better still) Coco. After all, Ann Miller who plays Coco was an identifiable dancer in many musicals from the post-war period. And she had a nice set of gams, to boot. What is the link between Coco and Diane? Are we sure that Diane is the one and only person dreaming, or reconfiguring her life memories via a mental process that we witness visually? Could Diane herself be a dream-protagonist created by another person? Now, unc84steve has raised some interesting points re crossovers to Lynch's previous work, which I'm not able to immediately investigate. What I am wondering, however, is if anyone else has noted that there are clear differences in the original scripted dance scene of Sherilyn Fenn's Audrey Horne in the early episode of 'Twin Peaks?' (From memory, her father may have interrupted the scene by making one of his own.) Although the solo dance scene that was broadcast was slow and sensual, I understand that the original script asked for frenetic, fast dancing. Was Lynch itching to break out the original dance idea intended for Audrey? Would an Audrey-type character, attractive and in touch with her sexuality (and not afraid to wield it like a drunk and blindfolded Babe Ruth with a bouquet of baseball bats) from a northern, wooded backwater, who moves south to try her luck in the West Coast fit the general mould of the Diane character? Could she be an archetype, rather than a specific person? |
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#12
01-24-2003, 11:25 AM
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Quote:
Also, we should remember Diane's clarification: winning the jitterbug contest led to wanting to act. This seems reasonable to me. Being "star-for-a-day" as the result of winning such a contest could easily inspire dreams of major stardom. The particular choice of a "jitterbug contest" may be somewhat meaningful, i.e. an indirect reference to a particular era in Hollywood. Similar suggestions have been made about the Cowboy character. However, I don't think it's deeper than that... Last edited by MikeC; 01-24-2003 at 11:27 AM. |
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#13
01-24-2003, 06:02 PM
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Everyone is entitled to their opinion.  And it depends on point of view too. I could post this anywhere. In the spirit of David Lynch I'll put it here. One could say it's "no coincidence" or a "complete coincidence" that a great dancer like Ann Miller (as an actress) is discussing this supposed jitterbug contest with Diane (as a character) during the dinner scene. A University of Texas film professor on the "Twin Peaks" first season DVD feature "explaining" David Lynch's style (among others including cast who make Lynch's methods sound a lot like the director in the auditition scene ) said something helpful to me. He said Lynch starts with the images & builds the narrative story around those; most other film-makers do the opposite.I think Lynch is very/totally instinctual. That's why I am grasping for all sorts of analogies and metaphors to understand myself and connect with others on this board what might be going on in Mulholland Dr. and with David Lynch. So I don't know if he intentionally gets "dancer", Ann Miller questioning a "jitterbug" winner; "Aussie soap opera" types to play in a possible network soap; former pretty boy Chad Everett to say "doctor" lines; Achy-Brachey heart "singer" to break the boy-like kid's heart and have the scene recited by a "Cowboy" later that night. I dang sure thing they cosmically fit though. And maybe it's my curse that "face value" for me when I see Ann Miller's face I see that turbo-charged sexy number in On The Town (1949) "Modern Man is not for Me" ("Give me a primitive Joe from ages ago...I really love bear/bare skin"  ) evolving into frenetic tap with those legs and then I realize there was sex before the 1960's "sexual revolution" (those baby boom kids came from somewhere.Ann Miller "Face value" also means Stage Door (~1937) where cynical actresses knew they had to make compromises in the male world and suspected each other of relying on sugar daddies of various kinds. Katherine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, Ginger Rogers were among those who make you realize that "sex as a weapon" as my favorite "stupid comedy" House Party 3 calls TLC wasn't invented in the 1960's. So "face value" to me means that I don't buy that "horse pucky" story. I hear a jangling sound in the background at the party, when Diane says Aunt Ruth is dead. The opening sequence shows people and fashions that seem rather 1940ish to me. Granted that could be Deep River, Ontario
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Steve |
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#14
01-24-2003, 08:34 PM
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Heck, I don't know what to think anymore.
I might just have to go join the 'Breakfast Club' thread (which is knocking every other film out of the RT top five it seems). Hm. Actually, I think both unc & MikeC have a point. Again, Lynch's ambiguity stalls any resolution. So, with that in mind, I'm off to the nearest swing dance hall to learn the Lindy Hop and try out some post-war pickup lines. Now, where'd I leave that jar of pomade... |
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#15
01-25-2003, 03:38 PM
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Quote:
Thanks for the acknowledgement. I think MikeC has a good point too. (mutual admiration societies make the world go round!) If you (you "classic romantic" you ) want help with good 1940's pickup lines/techniques & to get perspectives on the Quote:
On the Town peaks with Ann Miller's number. Baseline says: Quote:
Be cool, Daddy-O!
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Steve |
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#16
01-26-2003, 08:31 PM
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...
One man's opinion:
There never was any jiterbug contest. Diane may not even be from Ontario, but a native of Hollywood fr all we really know -- there is more reason to disbelieve whatever she tells us than to believe it. Diane is a desperate person, trying very hard to escape her own reality, and in so doing, gets in over her head, and places herself in the awkward position of having to tell an obvious lie about who she is at a dinner Party. I think the real chronology of events in this fim begins with that dinner party, and that lie. People seem to believe that Coco's pity-laden response to the explanation is based on her perception of the explanation as pathetic. It is, of course, unrealistic to believe that because you won a jitterbug contest in diddlyville USA you can make it as an actess in Hollywood. I beleive Coco's response goes deeper. Coco knows that Diane is simply another desperate soul looking to escape her circumstances in life, ad that the whole Ontario/Jitterbug contest is a cover -- one that won't fly with the likes of an experienced old actress like Coco. The humiliating pat on the hand, and the pitiful, "I see, dear," from Coco is what finally sends this desperate soul over the edge. Diane knows her story doesn't fly anymore. She's simply made it to a place in the Hollywood scene where people aren't going to buy in to her desperate lies. She's gone as far as she's going to go, and it wasn't very far. It's hopeless, she knows it, and all her hopes of escaping her reality were hinged on lying to these people, who, as it turns out, will not be fooled. What follows (though what follows actually takes place in the opening scene), is a downward spiral into desperate fantasy where her lies cannot be denied, because, in this world, they are the truth. Everything here works as she had hoped, because here it is all true. In this way, she can live the life she wished were her own before the walls outside of her fantasy come crashing down on her. The film is the last desperate attempt of a human being trying to find some fulfillment in her life before her life is over. When I watch Mullholland Drive, I rarely SEE the real Diane (I think the closest I come to her is in the masturbation sequence), but I have come to a basic understanding of the film,I begin to see it as nothing more than an intense character study of a terribly pathetic human being. The real details of that human being's persona and history have little bearing on the film's theme. The subject of the film is Diane's soul, and this is why Mulholland Dr. For me is so intensely powerful. SD
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SlyyDaugg "At least I tried, damnit." --Randall Patrick McMurphy, One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest |
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#17
01-26-2003, 09:04 PM
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Ok.
I've found my pomade, my aubergine rayon crepe short sleeve Hawaiian shirt, my dove-grey dacron polyester gaberdine pants, my ox-blood & beige two-tone dance shoes, my snap-brim Fedora with the green rooster feather in the hat band, and my lucky rabbit's foot key-ring. I also scored one of those dance training books, with the numbered footprints. I have a vague suspicion that it is actually a Japanese how-to dance guide that has been translated into English: the 'Rindy Hop' kinda gives it away. Still, it was real cheap. (Actually, I found it in a dumpster behind a diner off Sunset.) Next, here's my short-list of pick-up lines, culled from internet research on the topic: "The voices in my head told me to come over and talk to you." "I suffer from amnesia. Do I come here often?" "So you're a girl, huh?" "Would you agree that inheriting eighty million dollars doesn't mean much if you have a weak heart?" Wish me luck, y'all... |
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#18
01-27-2003, 01:09 AM
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#19
01-27-2003, 10:55 PM
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...
I believe the so-called "flashback" scene at the beginning of the film is actually the beginning of Diane's fantasy. What you mean by "semi-conscious" I don't know. But this scene is probably presented in a more surreal fasion than any other. I would argue that it is more "dream-like" than another scene in the film.
SD
__________________
SlyyDaugg "At least I tried, damnit." --Randall Patrick McMurphy, One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest |
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#20
01-29-2003, 04:04 AM
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Our Man in Swingsville
Well, then.
My first night out swing dancing has proved inconclusive. I appear to have overestimated the dance component of the activity. It appears that the true area of concern is more ... sociological. I shall once more apply myself to this important and potentially limitless area of research, and report back post-haste. For those interested, the last pick-up line was the most effective. (And I have the laundry bill to prove it.) |
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#21
02-03-2003, 06:49 AM
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Update from the chiropractor's office.
Apologies on the tardiness of this update, but I needed to wait until feeling returned to my fingertips, elbows and lower jaw.
Armed with an additional three killer aerial dance steps from my How To manual, and an even louder Hawaiian shirt, I took the antique Alfa Romeo down to The Derby on Los Feliz Boulevard and prepared to indulge my jaded senses in a phantasmagorical and decadent potpourri of whirling skirts, false eyelashes and drought-dry martini's. One of the first rules of swing dancing (at least according to my tea-stained Far East guidebook) is that the male leader's main job is to make his partner look (and presumably feel) fabulously good. From leading her onto the dance floor, to guiding her through the spectacular aerial movements characteristic of this sub-genre of expressive movement, to helping her back to her seat, the male dance leader has to balance on a knife edge of total concentration, whilst never losing sight of the grander, more creative aspects of this very singular dance, and the concurrent interpersonal, generational, musicological, socio-historical, psychodynamic, libidinal, micro-economic, geo-political, Copernican, Galileian, Darwinian, Freudian, Newtonian, Einsteinian and quantum physical concerns that invariably make their presence felt in situations of this kind. In this instance, these greater concerns came into play during a mid-air half-rotation flip at exactly 1.12am, resulting in a spectacular, progressive impact involving a frictionless 29oz toupee, an slightly liquored 110lb girl, a heavily lubricated 280lb double bassist, and a 1000lb grand piano. The toupee (which is still unclaimed, and shall serve as a replacement for the fox tail that was stolen from my Alfa's radio aerial during my night out) was apparently lying in wait for my unsuspecting foot, almost exactly the same colour as the dance floor. The slightly drunk girl, improbably named Drixie, suffered a slight contusion to her right arm when she came to rest inside the grand piano. The very drunk bassist, named Pablo, shook off the impact of the flying Drixie, without missing a beat. I, in the meanwhile, dutifully obeyed the laws of physics, and came to rest in a huge vase of white strelitzia situated across from the bandstand. The pianist, whose name I did not catch, fainted. The strangest thing of all was that, once I had removed myself from the floral display, and checked the injuries of my dance partner, I found that there were no men present who did not possess a full head of hair. Very curious. |
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#22
02-03-2003, 12:02 PM
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Harry Dean Stanton does a mean hand jive!
<img src="http://www.bigdogdesign.com/harry-dean-stanton.jpg">
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:} |
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#23
02-03-2003, 12:19 PM
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<img src="http://plaza27.mbn.or.jp/~satomii/essay/music/img/mamouna_ep.jpg">
But Bryan is the king, daddy-o!
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:} |
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#24
02-03-2003, 02:10 PM
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Oops. Found out.
Tut tut, out to lynch. Don't you know that glam-rock crime fighting superheroes need their (vaguely) secret identities just like anyone else? How can I fight the forces of evil now, with people stopping me for autographs, criticising my taste in ties, and reminding me how much they preferred the early songs? Now Bowie will have to pick up the slack on the West Coast, and I know he's overextended trying to take care of Eno's old territory in Europe, following his move to the East. Thankfully we still have Iggy Pop, Nina Hagan, Gary Numan and those chaps from Bauhaus on the case. If only we still had Marc Bolan around... |
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#25
02-03-2003, 05:12 PM
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Telegram Sam strikes again
Quote:
Unfortunately, Marc Bolan died in a car accident.... On Mulholland Drive. I just found out that a certain Diane Selwyn was resposible for his sad and untimely demise. And Gary Numan is inadvertently busy selling Pringles. (Where's his head at?) So, it doesn't leave many options. Me and my big mouth!
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:} |
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#26
02-16-2003, 01:40 AM
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RE: Alphaville video
Isn't that from Cocoon?
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:} |
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#27
02-18-2003, 05:13 AM
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I have no idea what any of the recent posts have been about.
Not a clue. And not that I've cared, given that my life as an extreme swing-dancer has been keeping me awfully busy of late. (Visualise the idiots from 'Jackass' with some style and grace, and you've just about got it.) I can also proudly lay claim to the fact that I have suffered nearly three bouts of dehydration and heat exhaustion during recent dance nights. Odd thing is, no matter how many of these little white 'water-replacing pep pills' I take, the problem just doesn't go away. |
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#29
02-19-2003, 09:26 AM
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Gee, I always preferred the maleish song BIG IN JAPAN
Winter's cityside Crystal bits of snowflakes All around my head and in the wind I had no illusions That I'd ever find a glimpse Of summer's heatwaves in your eyes You did what you did to me (you ditched me, Camilla) Now it's history, I see Here's my comeback on the road again (Up Mulholland Drive, again, we don't stop here etc.) Things will happen while they can I will wait here for my man tonight It's easy when you're big in Japan (A fake star) Aah when you're big in Japan-tonight... Big in Japan-be-tight... Big in Japan...ooh the eastern sea's so blue (box) Big in Japan-alright Pay! - Then I'll sleep by your side (The money and the sex in the dream) Things are easy when you're big in Japan Oh when you're big in Japan Neon on my naked skin (Diane on couch, blue lights flashing in her head), passing silhouettes Of strange illuminated mannequins (elderly couple attacking her) Shall I stay here at the zoo (Hollywood) Or should I go and change my point of view For other ugly scenes (commit suicide) You did what you did to me Now it's history I see Here's my comeback on the road again Things will happen while they can I will wait here for my man tonight It's easy when you're big in Japan Aah when you're big in Japan-tonight... Big in Japan-be-tight... Big in Japan...ooh the eastern sea's so blue Big in Japan-alright, pay! Then I'll sleep by your side Things are easy when you're big in Japan
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Phyllis: I was just fixing some ice tea, would you like a glass? Walter Neff: Yea, unless you got a bottle of beer that’s not working. Last edited by ID-ea; 02-19-2003 at 09:31 AM. |
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