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Week 528: What’s in a Title; The Votes Are In and Genre Overkill

ireneallison12

Naming Stuff

I like interesting titles. Now, these are not items to be confused with lying “clickbait” nonsense, but titles of books, movies and songs that stray from the norm. Often, as is the case of the cheap 60’s Spaghetti Western God Forgives, I Don’t, the item fails to live up to the title (but, to be fair, it is an interesting little film regardless). And sometimes certain interesting titles almost guarantee a good picture. The two Sergio Leone “Once Upon a Time…” films are classics, as is Quinton Tarantino’s exceptional Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. There is also one called Once Upon a Time in Mexico that I’ve heard good things about (starring Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz, both excellent performers), yet I’ve somehow yet to see it (I hope to fix that someday soon).

I have noticed that generic titles practically guarantee productions as processed as Velveta. Action films are guilty of this. I feel bad for what happened to Bruce Willis, but he became the king of generic titles late in his career. Then again, a unique title can also foretell a terrible film. Just hearing the title to the Stallone 90’s flick Stop or My Mother Will Shoot told me all I needed to know about that one–released in the era when every other film featured a mismatched cop buddy team.

Short stories are seldom aided by peculiar titles. Usually, understated, like Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, or ironically twisting a common saying like in A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor, are the classy ways to go. You feel smart for reading them. There are also book titles that have double meanings, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and To Kill a Mockingbird by his childhood Nell Harper Lee are is a good examples.

The only time when I object to different titles is when they are attached to a song. Radio stations, starting toward the end of the 80’s, stopped having live deejays around the clock. So when you heard a song you liked but didn’t know anything about, you had to ask. Song titles are usually obvious, but not always. In the case of The Stone Temple Pilots’ Interstate Love Song (a title not even remotely hinted at in the tune, nor were more than ten percent of the lyrics distinguishable as words), I asked my friends “Hey-what’s that song that goes ‘haroomp eng guh gah ardee dum day eye eye nye-yi-yi’ called?” Finally it came on the radio when there was someone in the room who knew about it.

I used to draw amusement from the National Enquirer story titles of yore, those you’d read at supermarket checkout stands. I found I’ll Keep My Three Headed Baby especially inspired. But nowadays with the idiocy of the internet it is harder and harder to make stupid shit memorable. There might be a ceiling for stupidity after all. Who knew?

Personally speaking, I think of my titles without putting much effort into the task (the story of my life. The Leila Allison Story: As Little Effort as Necessary). They normally pop into my head after I begin something and that’s usually good enough for me. But there is one title that came to me as a title only and I cannot think of what to write for it. “The Whore Museum” has been stuck in my mind for several weeks. Lots of images come from that, but nothing substantial as yet. If it had wafted off a work in progress that would have been different. But it just smacked me in the head like a Bird stunned by a window (but otherwise unhurt–no need to injure a fictional Chickadee just for the sake of a simile; especially since I’ve just named him Frank, who surely will go on to fulfill the sentiment attached to the Vulcan salute about longevity and prosperity*). Yet I guess in this case, it is the window that has come out on the short end.

(*Word to the wise, never work a simile too long–it’s like trying to make Horseradish out of Horeshit.)

Well, now that this post is clearly headed for Gibberishville, it is probably a good time to step back and invite this week’s performers out for a bow.

But first, cue drum roll…

The votes have been tabulated, the graft has been paid and the pork skimmed. Thus “Doc” Darby is the winner (Doc composed of Darby, Ozzy and Caliban) of our Name Alfie 2.0 election. Long may he ignore whatever we call him.

Our Esteemed Performers

The week that was had a brilliantly written Sunday article by Dale Williams Barrigar (who is slated to appear every second Sunday through November and perhaps beyond *update–now make that December). The subject matter, in my opinion, is rather dubious, but I am deeply appreciative of Leila and the Mimeo Revolution.

And yes, you were supposed to get a high from sniffing fresh mimeographed paper. That of course was brought to the students of my school who extolled smoking banana peels.

Eighteen-Ninety-Seven by Pauline Shen opened the regular week on Monday. It seems criminal that I do not know the names of the people in my family prior to my grandparents. Here, Pauline beautifully displays that just because someone no longer is, that doesn’t mean that they never was (yes, omnipresent redline, I know “were” is closer to proper, but I like was–so there).

James W. Miller’s The Cave is a well done stretching of reality that makes you believe that the world of MC “Reel” could exist. The old movie theatres, with their ornate ceilings and purple velvet drapes, were places in which strange dreams coming true seemed reasonable. In this piece the fragile nature of reality is brilliantly explored.

Confessions by newcomer Kendra Yvette is a great example of authenticity in an author’s voice. The language is spot on; one feels present at the same table and there is not a single sour note in the dialogue. Extremely well measured work that improves with every reading.

Mitchell Toews, a long time site friend returned Thursday with The Margin of the River. There are some parts of it, especially one, that are hard to read. But Mitchell’s technical abilities as well as his creativity will get you through. The emotional depth in this one is quite remarkable.

We closed the week with what else? The Enormous Pacifier by another newcomer Alice Kinerk. It’s one of those ideas that I wish I had. Life is a series of unlikely events; only repetition makes things commonplace. Here a singular unlikely event casts more light on the human experience and we are glad to have published it.

As always, I suggest that we keep reading, writing and sharing our thoughts on what others have written.

And now…

Ten Random Buddy Cop Films of the 80’s and Early 90’s

Once again I conclude with a list that has nothing to do with the theme (a very stretched use of that concept here) of the post. But I mentioned it earlier, and I think I can hammer one out off the top of my head. Additions are welcomed.

  • Lethal Weapon (I liked it–Busey was a great bad guy–sequels sucked)
  • Turner and Hooch (if given a choice between drinking Cat pee and watching this one again, I’d have to think it over).
  • Dragnet (More Tom Hanks. Ackroyd did a spot on impression of Jack Webb, but it stunk beyond that.)
  • The Hard Way (unlikely pairing of James Woods and Michael J. Fox worked out very well in this entertaining little flick)
  • K-9 (proof that John was the funniest Belushi. Another Dog film, poor Fido needed a better agent)
  • 48-Hours (another decent film followed by horrid sequel)
  • Beverly Hills Cop (Eddie Murphy’s misogynistic comedy ruined the sequels)
  • Holmes and YoYo (Although an American TV show from the 70’s it must have been greenlighted by a Chimpanzee–and not a bright Chimp, either)
  • Kindergarten Cop (What’s more Arnold than The Arnold working a case with five-year-olds?)
  • Stakeout (Dreyfuss and Estevez another strange pairing, but I liked it although most of my friends didn’t)
  • All yours dear friends

(It took three minutes to think up the list and there are at least a dozen more.)

In closing, so many performers who have left their marks have passed recently.  Including Mr. Val Kilmer. Many, including myself, think this was his best role.

Leila

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Published by ireneallison12

24 thoughts on “Week 528: What’s in a Title; The Votes Are In and Genre Overkill”

  1. A fun read. Titles are odd things aren’t they. Sometimes that pop in there with no effort whatsoever. A word to the wise though, if you embark on a series think very carefully about the title of the first one because by the tenth you are going to hate them if they are naff! Same with characters if they are going to be included in several works because once you’ve set off you can’t leave!

    I enjoyed the clip thank you – They were very clean cowboys though weren’t they.

    Thanks again for a great roundup. dd

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  2. Thank you Diane

    Sue Grafton was a genius because she developed a series of titles that no Editor could rightfully change. But I imagine that the one word that must be different in each book in your Carr series is often a point of contention

    Thanks again!

    Leila

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    1. The Grafton world (including editor and I) was disappointed when she died before she got to Z and ensured no one would continue here series. We had a geographic connection with both her Kentucky and Santa Barbara (Theresa) connections. Fairly sure I’ve mentioned this – her “home” in Santa Barbara was called Santa Teresa was an homage to Ross MacDonald (John McDonald was irritated that Ross had a color title, when John’s stories were color coded). I’ve read all of both Grafton and MacDonald and much of McDonald.
      Willis made as many quicky movies as he could to add to his estate since his health was deteriorating rapidly.

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      1. Thank you Doug

        I think Willis might have just wanted to do as many as he could more than the money. He was already over the top wealthy. I can understand that. At least he wasn’t like poor old Bela Lugosi, ill and needing any job he could get at the end.
        Leila

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  3. Leila
    As in so much else, I 100% agree with you – that was Val Kilmer’s best role, and it was a great and memorable one.
    I always thought of him as an artist or a writer in that movie (the gunfighter was the metaphorical cover story) and one aspect of his character that made me think that was his fearlessness – the nature of the Happy Warrior.
    The moment in the clip you played where he says, “Poor soul…” is priceless and faultlessly done…
    RIP VK – and: Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls…
    Dale
    PS,
    Haven’t seen it since it came out in 1988 but I always think of MIDNIGHT RUN with Charles Grodin and Robert De Niro as a great buddy film!…

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      1. L

        Also want to mention VK’s role in HEAT. Haven’t seen the movie since it came out but I remember him being great in it…great and coooool….

        Thank you…

        D

        PS

        Also remember De Niro and Pacino as being great in it……

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  4. I’ve never been a fan of buddy cop movies so I can’t really add to the list even after Google-cheating. (Is that a thing?) I am a fan of dogs though so I’ll second K-9 and Turner & Hooch. Can “Moonlighting” count? It was a TV show and they weren’t cops so probably not. Good post and roundup. 

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    1. Hi David
      Dogs are good people. Higher character overall than humans. It pains me to see one cast in a turkey.
      I read a play review by Dorothy Parker from the teens or twenties in which a Dog in a scene got bored and wandered off the stage toward the audience. A “stricken” heroine got temporarily well enough to catch him before he could get away.
      Leila

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  6. Authoresssssss
    These are some of the greatest literary titles of the 21st cen. These are short story titles, but many of them sound like they could be titles of novels, which indicates the power of the stories they’re attached to:
    “The Endless Now.”
    “Time and Chance Happeneth to All Gods.”
    “All These Dreams and Tomorrow Too.”
    “A Journey Begun in Lover’s Meeting.”
    “The Wild Heart Rose of Alaska.”
    “The Dreampurple Light.”
    “God Bless You, Boots the Impaler.”
    “Meet the Billigits.”
    “Small God Syndrome.”
    “For Whom the Elm Toad.”
    “Olivia and the Oraclespector: A Feeble Fable of the Fantasmagorical.”
    “Fiona and the Footfallfollower: A Feeble Fable of the Fantasmagorical.”
    And two special mentions.
    One of my favorites:
    “Advice From the Otherside: How to Avoid Literary Success in Life and Be Considered a Genius in Death by The Late Judge Jasper P. Montague, Quillemender.” Absolutely yes: ONE OF MY FAVES.
    Finally for now, a work in progress:
    “the rubaiyat of the billigits.” One of the best poems in English being composed these days. The reinvention of Rhyme and the language usage in this long poem is astonishing. Haunting and Hilarity are terms that can also be applied, separately, and sometimes simultaneously.
    Thanks for creating all these GREAT titles and the fantabulous, stand-alone, yet interconnected STORIES attached to them, Irene Leila Allison! You LITERALLY enliven American literary, tragedy, and humor writing like NO ONE else!
    D

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    1. Hi Dale
      Thank you for that! It reminds me that I failed to mention there are writers who need to have a title before starting. Even if it temporary. I am one of those. Got to name the baby before it is born.
      Leila

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  7. Irene and Leila

    Also want to mention one of Dylan’s greatest songs that almost nobody knows about, off his album STREET LEGAL (a great album).

    “Is Your Love In Vain?”

    A great title for a true and truly great song….

    Dale

    “Are you willing to risk it all, or is your love in vain?”

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  8. Leila
    It is no fun following you &/or Dale; however, it’s that or nothing so I’ll keep it short (to 3 points) and generally unimpressive.

    All of Hemingway’s titles seem perfect, if horribly dated, from “The Sun Also Rises” to “To Have and Have Not” and everything in between.
    A nomination for a non-cop Buddy Film about love, life, and death: “Harold and Maude”
    A further word about Wednesday’s “Confessions” by Kendra Yvette. Just before I read it, I received an email confession from a dear friend written at 2:15am the night before. It was a horrific revelation meant only for me. The previous day, I confessed a similar, although not nearly as devastating, secret to her that happened to me 50 years ago. Then I read Kendra’s “Confessions” and realized, if it’s real, there is only ONE person you can tell. Otherwise, you’re just showing off. Shut up St Augustine. If your confession takes 13 volumes to tell, you miss it too much. — Gerry

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    1. Hi Gerry
      Thank you.
      It’s interesting and possibly universal that there come confessions in life. And although it can be hurtful, I believe that the good news is having a conscience. Even the most godless in our number can be holy.
      Thank you as always!
      Leila

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  10. Hi Leila,

    Excellent post as always!!

    Song titles that aren’t in the song – I think (??) these were number ones.

    ‘Space Oddity.’

    ‘Annie’s Song.’

    ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.’

    ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko.’

    I love ‘Black Dog’ but not even sure if it was a single,

    You got me thinking on my memoirs – I reckon an apt title would be – ‘Shug – This is / was / and will always be shite!

    I have an idea for your ‘Whore Museum’ It could be a history of politicians as they fucked everything!!

    All the best to the fiend that is Doc. A fitting name and it is apt that it is used due to the loss of Val Kilmer.

    Your miss-matched cop films, I’d add ‘Red Heat’. But my favourite film about miss-matched cops (Miss-matched may be off by a mile) would be ‘The Choirboys’.

    ‘Tombstone’ is a bit like ‘Boogie Nights’. Every single cast member was at the height of their game. (Russell, Bien, Boothe, Zane, Paxton, Elliot, Delaney’) But Mr Kilmer managed to rise above them all!!

    All the very best.

    Hugh

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  11. Thank you Hugh

    Last weekend I saw a The Fugitive rerun guest starring Kurt at the age of nine or ten–hard to say with him. Dana D. was great in the late 80’s Vietnam War series China Beach.

    I had somehow blacked out Red Heat. But I The Choirboys was a top film that should not be forgotten. There was something gritty about that era no one could touch. Maybe the strangest cop film was Crusing with Pacino.

    Thanks again!

    Leila

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  12. Great post and week of stories. Titles are really important and I often struggle with mine – in fact my wife has named at least half of my stories after reading them. Very sad to have Val leave us – loved him in The Doors.

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