Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is the best.  STILL the best.  Saw it the other night and it is STILL a fcuking amazing adventure.  ‘Big’ as an adjective doesn’t even begin to cover its giantness of how truly massive it truly is.  Truly.  Seriously.  TRULY SERIOUSLY!!!

Anywho, I dug up some odds and ends, after digging thru the Big Adventure IMDb page…

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this is what Large Marge (aka Alice Nunn) looked like as a younger lady.  she actually died 3 years after Big Adventure‘s release

when I saw the movie in theaters as a 7 year old, the part where she went all bugged-eyed caused my penis to invert, right into my body – and I coined the term ‘reverse boner‘.  I swear, this happened!  And I swear I invited this term!  although probably not at age 7

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remember Pee-wee’s gadgety house with Rube Goldbergian machinery?

it was apparently heavily influenced by the ‘Snub’ Pollard short film from 1923 called It’s a Gift

woah!!!!

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Amazing Larry (Lou Cutell) and Mario (Monte Landis) are both still alive!

Larry is 86 and Mario is 83!  Madam Ruby is still alive too and played David Silver’s granny on 90210!

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the giant Dinosaurs still stand

but the Wheel Inn Restaurant next to them has closed

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Elvira is in the movie!

credited with her lesser-known real name - Cassandra Peterson, although a picture of her as Elvira is also in the movie

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Dottie aka E.G. (Elizabeth) Daily

was so super sexy cute adorable in the 80s. she went topless two years earlier in Valley Girl [NSFW]

and also was the sultry singer at the big dance in Better Off Dead

later in life, she kept her inner-child going by providing the voice of the pig Babe, Tommy Pickles on ‘Rugrats‘ and Buttercup on ‘The Powerpuff Girls‘, and piped her pipes on ‘The Voice’!

she and Morgan Fairchild (who played the big screen version of Dottie) finally met on the set of the 2011 film Boy Toy

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the Santa Monica Mall/Third Street Promenade was not only home to Chuck’s Bike-O-Rama and Mario’s Magic shop, but also to Pretty In Pink‘s record store Trax, and numerous other filmed entertainments 

sadly, it doesn’t look like the 80s or Tim Burtony or Pee-wee-y anymore

btw – these ‘then & now’ Big Adventure filming location photos are beyond BLAMMMAZIN!!!  YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.  I COMMAND YOU!!!

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Francis Buxton‘s father - Ed Herlihy was famous for his voice - the voice of newsreels, and Kraft!

he played an announcer/newscaster in Zelig, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, The King of Comedy, and Malcolm X

and he was also in Police Academy 2!

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the director of the orphan-nun movie - Zack Hoffman

was also the voice of GI Joe‘s Zartan!

FCUKING ZARTAN!!! Zartan was so rock n roll!!!

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ten 1953 Schwinn DX bikes were built for the film – and this one was sold (in pieces) for $36,600 back in March of 2014

no word on its current owner or status, but lets hope it has a good home

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the guy who played Warner Bros studio chief Terry Hawthorne - Tony Bill

is an actor (Shampoo), director (Untamed Heart) and producer, who won an Oscar for producing 1973’s The Sting!!!!!

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one the BMX biker kids - David Glasser 

is an up and coming movie producer

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two wrestlers wrestled with Pee-wee…

Big John Harris/Silo Sam

and Professor Tanaka (a tag team partner of Mr Fuji)

no word on if the two ever wrestled each other!

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Playhouse pals, and players in the original Pee-wee Herman Show stage production - Jambi (John Paragon), Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart) and Mailman Mike (John Moody) all had bit parts in the movie

along with OG member and the film’s co-writer Phil Hartman + the film’s other co-writer Michael Varhol.  Edie McClurg was in the original stage show, and her brother Bob played a security guard in the movie

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two dudes must have made some impression on Tim Burton that they appeared in his next film – Beetlejuice

Carmen Filpi

and Simmy Bow

both are in the afterlife now, along with these cast members

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Simone (Diane Salinger) and Pee-wee didn’t say ‘au revoir‘ for long, as they reunited to play the Penguin’s parents – the Cobblepots in Burton’s Batman Returns!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkoi4z_dQso

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Francis (Mark Holton) hasn’t had a credited role since 2008, which is a shame cause the guy is simply incredible

but he’s still around… and as of 2015, he’s never visited the Alamo (which apparently now has 2 basements!!!)

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Pee-wee’s Big Adventure is one of my dad’s all time favorite movies.  same here.  we have good taste.  if you made it this far, you probably do too!

actor Paul Reubens poses for a portrait dressed as his character Pee-wee Herman – Los Angeles, California, May 1980

photos by Michael Ochs 

and then it juss clicked in my head…

Tony Revolori as lobby boy Zero Moustafa in The Grand Budapest Hotel & Pee-Wee Herman as a bellhop paging himself in his own Adventure are…

Bitched @ Swirth!!!!

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The Pee-Wee Herman Show
The Stephen Sondheim Theatre
now thru January 2nd
websight

Do call it a comeback, a long overdue one, interrupted by some personal downfalls, but that’s all now juss a bunch of jizz on a porno theater floor water under the bridge!!!!  If you believe in magic, well magic is very much alive at The Stephen Sondheim Theatre this fall thanks to the manchild in the gray suit, red bowtie and white shoes.  Pee-Wee (bless you Paul Reubens) may have left us for awhile, but he never really left us.  And how could he?  Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and Pee-Wee’s Playhouse are timeless classics worth revisiting for generations to come, and so was his original stage production from 1981, which has now been updated with much modern flair (& rightfully includes the Playhouse TV gang) almost 30 years after the fact!!!  Even the original Miss Yvonne (Lynne Marie Stewart), Jambi (John Paragon) and Mailman Mike (John Moody) are along for the ride and they shine on like the crazy diamonds they once were.  Larry Fishburne wasn’t able to re-saddle-up as Cowboy Curtis, but don’t worry, he rides on, and so do Chairry, Pterri, Globey, Conky, The King of Cartoons, Penny and everything else you know and love from the wonderland of Puppetland (we forgot about those Coronet Educational Films)!!!

Our father is one of the biggest Pee-Wee fans we know, and after he saw the show in LA, he said it might not have been the most funny thing he’s ever seen, but it was a dream come true to see him do his thing under the proscenium.  Well, he was wrong about one thing, the show is uproarious (in terms of awful puns, sexual innuendo, and childlike glee)!!!  If Pee-Wee ever brought joy into your life at some point in time, do yerself a flavor and let him do it for you again.  We love him so much, we may juss have to marry him!!!

And if not him, how bout Naomi from Lost?!?!

+ if you see the show, he unintentionally gives a Thigh Master shout out!!!

Life During Wartime
Heart & Solondz
Official Website | Trailers & Mo

Did you survive Todd Solondz‘ 1998 cringe-fest Happiness?  For a whole decade, we didn’t.  In fact, it had left us so bothersome and icky that we despised it, left it for dead, and got really angry anytime someone brought it up … until our more cynical selves took a recent second look at it.  And the new verdict?  A complete 180 degree turn.  Yes, Happiness is still a boat-load of flinch and wince inducing uncomfortably numbness, but it may juss be the mos beautiful and heartfelt unkind film of our modern cinema age.  How did we get it so wrong?  Had our tastes and refinement not yet reach its fruition during the end of the 20th century?  Did we need to move to NY and became post-9/11 jaded for us to view awfulness in a new light?  These questions are too heavy for a website like this.  Anywho…

With Life During Wartime, Solondz goes back to the same bleak well, one that we never thought in 1000229 zillion billion years was worth revisiting… until we experienced his latest monster creation.   And oh baby, it’s alive!!!!!!!!!!!  Although somehow not as gut-wrenching and damaging to the psyche!!!  It’s probably a good idea that you see Happiness first (but if have and loathe it beyond all belief, maybe you should stop there), as the characters all carry over into Wartime, despite an entirely new set of actors playing em.  Yep, Solondzzzies does it again, playing with our minds and his creations, although not as crazily as he did with Palindromes, where 10 actors of various ages, creeds and sexes all played the same role.  We hated that flick too, but maybe we need to give in a second chance as well.  Sarah Palindrome will never get a second chance with us, ever.  May have sumting to do with her ruining our real last names!!!!  Plus she blows, COCK!!

(qwik note about the paragraph below: we’ll mention the new actor playing each role, as well as the actor who played it originally)

So what is life like during wartime for the Jordan and Maplewood clans?  Joy (Shirley Henderson, a more moaning myrtle version of Jane Adams) is still a wreck and wrecking everyone’s life who she comes into contact with.  Even the ghost of Andy (a literally and figuratively haunting Paul Reubens, standing in admirably for Jon Lovitz‘ sad sack) won’t let her forget about his suicide.  She’s having problems with the problematic Allen (Michael K. Williams, a tad less creepy than Philip Seymour Hoffman), so she heads to California to visit with her blah-blahed actress sis Helen (Ally Sheedy, gettin shallow juss like Lara Flynn Boyle) and to Florida to visit with her ‘cheerier’ sister Trish (Allison Janney, in perhaps her juicest role to date, although we do miss the homely cutie-pie-ness of Cynthia Stevenson), who’s trying to start life anew after hubby Bill (our mos flavorite actor goings Ciarán Hinds, who strips away all the humor Dylan Baker dished out) got sent away for being a pedophile.  Well, his time’s been served and he’s out in the world looking for a bit o forgive and forget-ness (+ a one night stand, with a deliriously delicious Charlotte Rampling), as is the case with all parties involved (eggcept no one else is trying to bag Charlotte Rampling’s character).  Trish has found a nice Jewish man (Michael Lerner, who’s about as Jewish as it gets + the papa of the thighlariously red-scared son played by Rich Pecci) that she hopes will instill some manlihood into her soon to be a man (in the Bar Mitzvah sense) son Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder, the new Justin Elvin).  Timmy’s the heart & Solodnz of the picture (with the Billy character alls growns up and off to college, Chris Marquette, subbing for Rufus Read).  His pain is real, and his endless questions are realerer.  You juss wanna hug the kid, but that’s probably not the best idea for a confused child of a pederast father.  Will they ever find happiness?  Is it even possible?  Regardless, here’s hoping we get to see what happens to these folks in peacetime!

The Song Doesn’t Remain The Same: there’s the Talking Heads’ ‘Life During Wartime’ and then there’s the song of the same name for this movie, but with different lyrics (actually written by Solondz) and perofrmed by Devendra Banhart & Beck.  either way, we’re happy-ness!

Verdictgo: Jeepers MOS DEF Worth A Peepers, but ONLY if you’ve survived Happiness 1st

Life gets one today in NY today, and elsewhere elsewhen

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…