Fefe Dobson and Times Square
So a series of links led to me remembering that Fefe Dobson exists and listening to her entire unreleased second album on youtube. Fuck, do I wish that chick had made it instead of Avril.

Her whole vibe also really reminded me of Nikki from Times Square (her voice a little bit, the way she looks a little bit, her vibe completely) which led me to see what they had about the movie on youtube. And it turns out that someone put up the entire film! So for those of you who've been saying that you wanted to see it, you just never got around to it, didn't want to spend the money, etc., here is your chance! Tiny baby dyke punks running around 1980 New York City! Tim Curry being young and hot and vaguely sleazy yet earnest!

For those of you who've never read my blather about it before, it's one of my favorite movies. It was written and half-directed by Alan Moyle of Empire Records and Pump Up The Volume fame (he was kicked off halfway through because the studio wanted to add more songs so they could put out a double-album soundtrack, and they also disagreed about how much homoerotic content the movie should have), based on a diary written by a mentally ill girl he found wedged in a couch. He turned it into a short story called "She Got The Shakes", and eventually turned that into Times Square. The mental illness bit becomes something of a subplot, but the movie deals admirably with teenage malaise of both the privileged-little-rich-girl type and the homeless abandoned teen type. It's also one of the few movies I can think of that has girl protagonists and isn't about them trying to find boyfriends. It's about music and best friends and falling in love and giving a shit. It's definitely not perfect, most obviously because it's half a work of love and half a failed attempt at commercial success, but you can see the movie it wants to be, and almost is, between the cracks, and even the hilariously unrealistic stuff (Pamie dancing at a strip club fully-dressed in what looks like a cast-off costume from a way-off-Broadway Midsummer Night's Dream, Pamie and Nikki escaping from cops by running through a crowded porno theater) seems charming and believable in the gritty fairy tale world of the movie (the set of their house, oh my god, it's like Peter Pan's treehouse in present-day New York, minus the lost boys).

Also I wish to god that Robin Johnson had either gotten acting work after this movie or become a real rock star (as David Johansen of the New York Dolls advised her to do--he helped her with her rock and roll persona and vocals, as well as recorded a song with her for the soundtrack). She was, I think, 15 when she played Nikki, and it was her only big role, but she fucking nails it--she's at turns tough, vulnerable, cocky, and unhinged, and her voice sounds like she's been drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes from the womb. Also, she's gorgeous--I think she resembles Angelina Jolie somewhat, but Courtney Love called her "Mick Jagger plus Marilyn Monroe" (Look, Courtney Love likes it! Have I convinced you to watch this movie yet?), which is also pretty apt.

Basically this is one of my favorite, favorite movies, and the only people I know of who've seen it are people I showed it to. Even if you don't watch it now, you definitely should at some point. Also I realize that was a lot of run-on sentences and a lot of parentheses, but honestly, I have never been good at writing about why I love things, so that's kind of the best that I could do. Basically this movie makes little hearts appear in my eyes, and I think I need to go watch it again right now.

Edit: the girl in my icon is Nikki, btw. I've been meaning to do an icon overhaul, so here's the start of it. :)