Friday, April 28, 2017

A to Z Challenge-The Dreaded Letter X


Close to the end.....It is the letter X. It is always fun to see how the other people deal with this letter. Head on over to the A to Z to see what everyone chose for today.

XANADU-1980


DIRECTOR: Robert Greenwald
STARS: Olivia Newton John, Michael Beck, Gene Kelly
OSCAR NOMS: Oh God..No!! But it was up for the Razzies
OSCAR WINS: I didn't check if it won any Razzie awards
PLOT: So, the muses come down to Earth to aid  young men and their dreams. Olivia plays Terpsicore, The muse of dance, who helps a young man achieve his dream of opening up a disco rolling rink.....Yup..Ya heard it here folks
LOVE: The music is good and it's just so damm tacky
TRIVIA: Gene Kelly took this role because it was close to his house...he should have just kept on dancing by. The name of his character is the same name used in a breakthrough role of his, Covergirl (1944).

NOREEN XAVIER-


OCCUPATION: Actress, dancer
OSCAR NOMS: Nil
OSCAR WINS: Nil
ANECDOTE: I hope this is a picture of her since her name ended with an X which is why I chose her. In fact, if you ever have watched movies with background dancers or even the old variety shows, these dancers had to be in top form, learn so much, be great but never outshine the star. Too bad we don't know enough about all these people because they gave their all.


38 comments:

  1. Hi, Birgit!

    Yessum, it is every young man's dream to open his own disco roller rink. :) I'm still planning Shady's Skate-O-Rama and looking for investors. Want a piece of the action? :) It is also every young man's dream to have Libby Newton-John as his very own. I'm curious. Which do you consider the better (or badder) movie, Xanadu... or Linda Blair's Roller Boogie which was released half a year earlier? Both flicks are right up there with Sharknado 4.

    Happy X-Day, dear friend BB!

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    1. Alas, I have never seen Roller Boogie but does her head spin 360 in that? Do the Bay City Rollers guest star in that?? Ahhh, love these films.

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    2. Yessum, and she spews pea soup! :)

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    3. Let us not forget the great Ray Milland in one of my favorite films, Roger Corman's X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes.

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    4. Love that movie especially when he gets down and boogies

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  2. While I've heard the music, I am pretty sure I never saw the movie and it is not on my TBW list.

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    1. What? You don't want to waste..um...I mean watch this film?? But why?? :)

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  3. Hi Birgit...not one on my list of must see.....never mind someone must have enjoyed it!.....have a lovely weekend xxxx

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    1. It has become a cult classic and many gay people seem to love it....it might be the fashions:)

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  4. Creative choices for the letter 'X.' Thanks for sharing!

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  5. Yeah, a lot of the background ones put in more work than the actual so-called stars many a time.

    Xanadu, I hated that movie, bored me silly.

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  6. Well, you could have chosen X-Men... :-P

    I'm not familiar with Xanadu at all. I keep hear Abba in my head singing it to the tune of "Waterloo."

    X - Brother XII, Canada's Own Crazy Cultist!

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    1. Now X-Men is a movie I've seen. You are right about that being a good choice.

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    2. Xanadu is a bad movie but it's so bad it's..not really that good. I could have possibly chosen X Men but I went this fun orama way instead

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  7. Never saw the movie - just isn't my type plus for some reason, I am not a Olivia Newton John fan. I'm one of the few, I know.

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  8. Hi Birgit - Xanadu was the thing at one stage ...and I enjoyed it for a while - til it was flogged to death! But I really need to read the Coleridge poem again, which inspired the name .. .cheers Hilary

    http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/x-is-for-x-war-facts.html

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  9. Great use of the letter X. It's a toughie.

    I never saw this film and probably never will. Not even to see Gene Kelly's part in it.

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  10. Second post I read starting with the word Xanadu. When Iwas teen, it was the name of a famous disco in my area.
    -----
    Eva - Mail Adventures

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  11. Never saw Xanadu, but I've heard of it.

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  12. Didn't know Gene Kelley was in this movie, but then again, I didn't see this movie :)

    betty

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    1. Xanadu...not the best of films but love the poem. Love that there was a disco named after this film. Poor Gene Kelly....

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  13. The soundtrack... Oh, that was huge when I was a kid. And I had it. And played it over and over and over again. But my parents wouldn't let me see the movie.

    A few years ago, it was on TV, so I had to see it... Yikes. Luckily, I had gotten introduced to classic movies so I knew who Gene Kelly was. It helped me appreciate the movie a bit more. Still, it was pretty awful.

    Still love the music, though.

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  14. Funny how X and Z are barely used in English

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  15. X is hard. I have never seen all of Xanadu- but have seen parts of it. A friend liked it in college. :)
    ~Jess

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    1. Xanadu...I feel like I just been to another blogger who wrote that Xanadu was the name of a local cafe..Or was it xango? Something like that.

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    2. Xango! I saw that post too.

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  16. X is always a hard letter. I've never watched Xanadu but I have heard of it before, mainly because of Olivia Newton John and Grease.
    Today on my A-Z of Favourite Things, X is for X-Men.

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  17. I'm actually a bit surprised it didn't get any Oscar noms. For the music, of course.

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  18. Great thinking of Xavier. Plenty of people with that last name. And she's a dancer? Right up my alley. I'm proposing the idea of writing a hip hop dance novel one day... Should be fun. http://theglobaldig.blogspot.com/2017/04/x-is-for-x-ordinary-words-on-books.html

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  19. You didn't seem to bat an eye with this one. It seemed to come easy for you. Never saw the movie, and I suspect I never will.

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  20. Once again, I don't know this movie.

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  21. X is a toughie, for sure. Sorry, but 'Xanadu' is on my 'yuck' list. Gene Kelly was fun, though. ☺

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  22. So glad you picked Xanadu. I love the song and can see this place in my imagination!

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  23. This was a fun one to find out if I could match an X film with someone named with the letter X and I'm glad I did even if this film is just god awful

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  24. A cult classic nonetheless. My kids loved it.

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  25. Love your commentary about Xanadu. Somehow, I managed to survive the 80s without seeing it. Whew!

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  26. Birgit,

    Xanadu wasn't really a good movie but the mewsic was Xcellent! It was just sorta fun. I think we re-watched that a few years ago when it appeared on Netflix or Amazon Prime. It was good to see it again so I could lay that movie to rest. I don't need to see it a third time. :) Thanks for visiting, Art Sketching Through the Alphabet “X”!

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  27. I have never heard of this film before. Though, true, I'm not too much into musicals... even if I'm an 1980s gal ;-)

    I agree with you, there were great dancers who never came into the spotlight. There were great professional everywhere in the film industry that never came into the spotlight. And that's a damn shame.

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