Hype, thunder and dolls on the 4th

Today I was originally going to celebrate the Fourth of July by driving up to New Hope to spend a few hours by the pool at the Raven (New Hope could sure use the money since they've been recovering from that big flood last week), but the weather reports were saying that there was going to a big thunderstorm watch this afternoon with a good amount of rain and even some hail being predicted. Having driven through a huge rain storm last week, I wasn't really looking forward to a repeat performance, so I didn't go. Probably would have been a waste of money and gas. Instead I went to do some shopping at the King of Prussia Mall for a couple of hours instead and got home around 2:30 pm, where the sky was getting really dark. By around 3 there was some big thunder rumbling and some rain. But within the hour they both had stopped. The sun came out around 4. Other than some brief rain around 7:00pm, the weather held out okay. So all the reports saying that there were going to be some big thunderstroms and rain this evening were for the most part hype. Oh well, I can always go up to New Hope later this month.

I went to a pool party in Radnor Sunday evening and thunderstorms played a part in that as well. Weather was good when I came at 5pm but by 7 thunder and lightning started to happen and then it started pouring. So we had dinner inside the host's house while it rained outside. Fortuneately by the time dinner was done, it had stopped and the sky was clearing up and we wound up going back into the pool. I wound up not leaving until around 11pm. Overall I had a good time.
A few months ago I ranted in this blog wondering when the movie The Valley Of The Dolls was going to get a proper DVD release. Well a two-disc version of the camp classic was released this past month. I bought a copy at Target Saturday afternoon after work and I spent the rest of the weekend going through all the goodies on it. New commentary that emphazie the camp elements of the picture, lots of docu featurettes on the movie and on the author Jacqueline Susann, who wrote the trailblazing bestseller novel that the Hollywood film would base itself upon. They even throw in the soundtrack album in. There is lots of stuff about VOTD I didn't know before; Did you know that Barbara Parkins, who played Anne Welles in the movie, originally tried out for the role of Neely O'Hara? There is a screen test of that particular tryout, and let's just say that Barbara got a little too cute when she said "Sparkle, Neely, Sparkle!" It makes you appreciate Patty Duke spitting out that same line like it was sandpaper even more. Needless to say, Patty is the tour de force here, bulldozing her way all though her scenes. So over the top and so glorious. It's too bad that Patty wasn't involved with the DVD reissue project, not doing the audio comentary on the DVD like her co-star Barbara had done (who does it with E! gossip columist Ted Casablanca). Anyway this film still is, conservatively speaking, a hoot!