OK Go!

Happy V.D.

Every Day's The 14th, as Outkast would sing... But the initials V.D. once had other connotations, less innocent that Hallmark and red boxes of chocolate. Way back in primitive times, in the 1970s, before ATMs, ADD, and AIDS, we had a different term for what are now called 'sexually transmitted diseases,' or STDs We invoked the god Venus herself to avoid such and explicit phrase - these were 'venereal diseases,' VD for short. Taught in high school health or sex education classes, VD was the subject of endless giggles and jokes, since at the time, nothing was permanent or lethal. Having VD back then was cause shot of penicillin, not estate planning.

Way way back, in the first half of the 20th century, soldiers were warned of that 'terrible diseases' were among dangers of cavorting with prostitutes (see poster left). I doubt this detrerred many soldiers, but it certainly encouraged condom use.
Rebel Without A Plot: My classic movie festival continued Sunday with the James Dean classic 1955 'Rebel Without A Cause.' Though it's a short, plotless film where the troubled teens act too much as textbook diagnoses of various adjustment problems, it's made memorable mostly by Dean's tortured 'method acting,' creating tormented characters from the inside out. The style, pioneered in the early 1950s by Marlon Brando and others, still has repercussions today, right up to Heath Ledger's trasnformation into Ennis del Mar on our favorite Rocky Mountain. Speaking of things gay, pretty boy Sal Mineo (pictured left) plays 'Plato', a misunderstood kid who idolizes Dean's character (pictured right) in what feels like homoerotic infatuation, and meets a tragic end, though he's never rejected by Dean. Dean's enduring reputation rests solely on three films, since he died at 22 in a car crash: the other two are Steinbeck adaptation 'East of Eden' and family dynasty saga 'Giant,' the latter of which is high in my Netflix queue.