Room 768: Girls Just Want To Have Fun

The movie.

It was on TV tonight. And I watched it. Out of irony, I think. I had seen it on cable when I was in junior high maybe once or twice. OK, that’s a lie. I apparently saw it many times because I knew some dialogue word for word. I was simultaneously shocked and embarrassed and a wee bit impressed. Girls Just Want To Have Fun is a simple story: new Girl tries out for dance show, pairs up with Bad Boy dance partner, Rich Bitch rival makes trouble, Girl and Bad Boy win spot on dance show and, not surprisingly, fall in love. With one or two montages thrown in. The Girl who is aching for a little joy is none other than Sarah Jessica Parker in her transition from Square Pegs brunette to blondish Carrie Bradshaw. The Bad Boy is Lee Montgomery who is somewhere trying to not be recognized from Girls Just Want To Have Fun. And the Rich Bitch rival is someone who would later be on General Hospital for a brief time. GJWTHF (it’s the new LOL or LMAO) also features a young Jonathan Silverman and a young and non-angry Shannon Doherty. Netflix-ing yet? But wait! It also stars a young Helen Hunt! She’s the kooky best friend that encourages Sarah Jessica Parker to rebel and sneak out to try out for Dance TV. (Side note: it’s apparently Helen Hunt week in my house. I watched Twister the other day while cleaning. It’s not a great movie but you can Swiffer to it. And speaking of “Young Suchandsuch”, Twisterhas a young Philip Seymour Hoffman in a role where I could have sworn he would be an actor who would annoy me in every film he’s in. Who knew he would be brilliant? And here’s a little “Six Degrees” for you: Twister features Jami Gertz with a bad Southern accent. Jami Gertz’s first big role was on Square Pegs!) So go ahead. Pop in GJWTHF. Take a trip back to a time when synthesizers ruled the soundtracks. Recall the words you didn’t realize you knew to the song “Dancin’ in Heaven” that underscores the big dance off climax. And revel in the glory of the ‘80’s. How ‘80’s? The end credits to Girls Just Want To Have Fun are on a lavender background.

Amenities of Room 768: TV with the Mad About You channel. Wake up call from Cyndi Lauper. And courtesy leg warmers.

Room 1432: The Magic Castle

In LA there is a place...a castle, if you will...where magicians gather. It goes by the very descriptive name The Magic Castle. You have to be a member to get in. Yep, a member. It's a club where people join so that they can do magic or see others do magic. (And there's a restaurant!) But if you are not a member you can go in with a guest pass. And someone usually knows someone who is a member. Seriously, you think there are Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon? I guarantee you there are Two Degrees to a Magic Castle Member. Now if you are like me, your vision of the place is probably like Medieval Times with a some dude dressed like Merlin inviting you into the World of Illuuuuuuuuuuusssions. Turns out there are no strolling characters. Although the bartender tries to keep up the act of a ghost that plays piano but it's not cringe-worthy (In fact, Irma, the ghost, is pretty good. Just give her ghost parrot a dollar and she'll even do Michael Jackson's Beat It). The decor is very Haunted Mansion meets Sardi's except sans fake cobwebs and the caricatures on the wall are of famous magicians (there's a mini-alter to Harry Blackstone who used to be big in the '70s. It was he and Doug Henning that were the biggies that would hit the Merv Griffin Show and the Mike Douglas Show. I also seem to recall some "variety" specials. Now all we have is David Blaine. Oh '70s, I miss your grade of cheese). The layout of the castle is kind of Winchester Mystery House: there's an upstairs and a downstairs and another downstairs and weird hallways and rooms and creepy dolls. Yeah, I couldn't concentrate on some guy showing me card tricks because there was an old creepy doll displayed on the wall. There are a few different show venues within the Castle. A small one had a Fabio wannabe with crazy bling do card tricks up close and I still have no idea how he did them (our theory was that the diamond-encrusted watch was supposed to distract us from his hand work. That's how crazy the bling was!). And I also visited the main theater for a Saw-a-Lady-in-Half type of show. Now I saw The Prestige so I kind of had an idea how things worked. In fact, I'm not sure I really enjoyed the show because I was concentrating so hard on how they did it. Their names were Mark Something and Jinger...that's Ginger with a J. She wore the Vegas Magician's Assistant type spandex outfits and she twirled. She also did these weird interlude pieces where she would "set up" the next illusion with a little speech. Like before the Spirit Box one, she held a candle up to her face and said something semi-spooky about communicating with the dead. It wasn't a long speech just enough to get the Spirit Box in place so that she can get tied up in it and the "spirits" (aka Jinger) can make a ruckus. You know, now that I'm writing this, it looks like Jinger does everything. Well, she was the one getting cut in half and put in a small box and tied up. Not all at once because that wouldn't be magic, that would be serial killing.

Amenities of Room 1432: Vase of dead flowers. Slight of Hand Cream. No TV but Talking Ventriloquist Dummy.