"Pose" Season 2, Episode 6, "Love's in need of love today" Musical references

"Pose" Season 2 certainly maintains the standard. Ryan Murphy has proved himself the master for staging television musical numbers. Episode 5's funeral home climax ("What would Candy do?") left Baz Luhrmann in the shade.

You don't have to be in the LBGT community to enjoy this show. It helps if you were an adult in the 80's to appreciate the references.
This episode certainly ticked lots of boxes. Nods to gay icons Judy Garland and Madonna, plus another, Patti Lupone, sings the Sondheim "Follies" classic "I'm still here".
From classic torch songs "The man that got away" (Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin) to Stevie Wonder's "Love's in need of love today" to close the episode.
Not one, but two Sondheims: "Sooner or Later" (Madonna's "Dick Tracy" torch song).
All packed into under 50 minutes.


NB. Lupone's Frederica Norman is a thinly disguised NYC "Queen of Mean" Leona Helmsley.

The battle of the i-pod playlists

On a road trip at the moment, travelling from Melbourne, north to Sunshine Coast, around 4000 km round trip.  It is the battle of the i-pod playlists in the car.

My wife’s playlist is a lot broader than mine and a lot more hard core:

The Beat, House of Pain, Cypress Hill, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Joy Division, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, The Models, Hunters And Collectors, The Clash, Ian Dury, Roxy Music, UB 40, Simple Minds, Echo and the Bunnymen,  The Smiths, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Nick Cave, Butthole Surfers, Wall of Voodoo, Nina Hagen, Malcolm McLaren, The Cure,  Souxie and the Banshees , Rammstein - mainly 70’s and 80’s alternative (like being stuck in a John Hughes movie),  with a smattering of 90’s and newer stuff.  Some opera, “Ride of the Valkeries” and “Madam Butterfly” is in the mix too.

My playlist sounds very gay in comparison – some musical soundtracks (mainly Sondheim), Pet Shop Boys, The Presets, Scritti Politti, Heaven 17, New Order, Culture Club (“Time”), Mental As Anything (“Berserk Warriors”), EMF (“Unbelievable”) Hurts, Blur, Kate Bush, The Police,

We have some overlaps:

U.K. Squeeze “Kool  for Kats”, Lou Reed “Walk on the Wild Side”, New Order “Bizarre Love Triangle”, “World in Motion”, The Clash “Rock the Casbah”, The Church “Under the Milky Way”, Amy Whitehouse “Back in Black”, Violent Femmes  “Blister in the Sun”, Duran Duran “Planet Earth”, The Verve's "Bitter Sweet Symphony"

Anyway, it made the kilometres pass.

Guilty pleasures movies from United Artists (apart from James Bond)

Copyright United Artists/logos.wkia.com

I am starting at 1960 (I was 4 years old, old enough to remember a movie, I reckon).

1960  The Magnificent Seven (itself, a ripoff of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai) which sporned A Bug's Life and The Three Amigos
1961  One, Two, Three (Billy Wilder, James Cagney - enough said)
1962  The Road to Hong Kong (last road movie, dated but still fun, great final gag)
1963  Call Me Bwana (nice link with From Russia With Love - sniper in Istanbul scene) Cool score, hammy Hope
1964  Kiss Me Stupid (Billy Wilder again); Woman of Straw (classy production, Basil Dearden directed, Connery was really busy in 1964 - this plus Marnie and two Bond movies)
1965  The Satan Bug (killer virus rolling around in a helicopter over L.A.; What's New Pussycat (Woody Allen, Peter O'Toole plus 60's cool)
1966  A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Richard Lester jazzes up Sondheim musical, great cast)
1967  Billion Dollar Brain (Ken Russell doing a Harry Palmer movie! He killed the franchise, but this is my favourite. Glorious Richard Rodney Bennett score); In the Heat of the Night (stands up very well today, Poitier + Steiger, steamy small town atmosphere, sublime blues score.

1968  The Night They Raided Minsky's (Jason Robards paired with Norman Wisdom? Bert Lahr died during the filming
1969  Alice's Restaurant Late 60's time capsule, Arthur Penn had previously directed Bonnie & Clyde, cult movie with a capital C.
1970  The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Billy Wilder, Scottish scenery, Queen Victoria and Irene Handl as Mrs Hudson, Christopher Lee as Mycroft Holmes - what more do you want?)
1971  Mrs Polifax - Spy (just for the cast: Rosalind Russell, Darren McGavin); The Hospital (Paddy Chayevsky script, George C. Scott, Diana Rigg, very black comedy
1972 Hickey and Boggs (reuniting I Spy duo, Bill Cosby and Robert Culp)
1973 Theatre of Blood (enormous fun with Vincent Price topping theatre critics, gruesome Shakespeare-themed murders)
1974  Juggernaut (Richard Lester's nifty British thriller on board luxury liner riddled with bombs)
1975  Rollerball
1976  Network (knockout script, Faye Dunaway has never been better; Carrie (great Stephen King adaptation thanks to De Palma)
1977  Annie Hall ("...la de dah!")
1978  Invasion of the Body Snatchers (love the ending, it's rude to point)
1979  The (First) Great Train Robbery (Victorian era caper movie, Connery, Sutherland, rousing Jerry Goldsmith score - recommended)
1980  The Final Countdown (nothing to do with the crap Europe song)
1981  nil
1982  The Secret of Nimh (the book is MUCH better)
1983  War Games (teenage Matthew Broderick battles a super computer, "Shall we play....?)
1984  To Live and Die in L.A. (French Connection director, flashy but empty, but I like the title)