John Hughes died a couple weeks ago. Here is why I’m writing about him, albeit belatedly

• He directed my all-time favorite movie, “The Breakfast Club.”
• He directed one of my other all-time favorite movies, “Ferris Buehler’s Day Off.”
• He directed “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” which a lot of people think is funny, but which Pam and I started watching at a drive-in theater, found it stupid, and finally drove away before it was done.
• He wrote and produced several other movies I loved, my love-factor being in this order: “Pretty in Pink,” “Some Kind of Wonderful,” “Sixteen Candles.”
• He wrote the “Home Alone” movies, thereby inflicting McCully Culkin on the world.

Breakfast Club also uses, as its theme song, one of my all-time favorite songs: “Don’t You Forget About Me,” by Simple Minds. I bought the album by Simple Minds just to get that song. (There were a couple other good ones on the album, too.)

The casting in “Breakfast Club” was great. There were five teenagers
spending a Saturday in detention. Each represented a certain type of
kid–the athlete (Emilio Estevez), brain (Anthony Michael Hall),
princess (Molly Ringwald), criminal (Judd Nelson), and basket case
(Ally Sheedy). Which one was most central? Probably Judd Nelson, in the
role of John Bender, the criminal.

Wikipedia has some
fascinating info about the casting of the John Bender role. Emilio
Estevez was originally cast as Bender, but Hughes couldn’t find anyone
else suitable to play the athlete, so he switched Estevez. Good choice.
I can’t see Estevez in the Bender role.

Hughes considered
Nicholas Cage as Bender, but it ended up between John Cusack and Judd
Nelson. Hughes chose Cusack, but before filming started, he changed his
mind and gave the role to Nelson. Nelson was great. But I could see
Cusak knocking that role out of the park, too.

Also, Molly
Ringwald originally wanted the basketcase role played by Ally Sheedy,
but the role had already been promised to Sheedy.

Hughes used
the same high school for “Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Buehler.” Some
posters show up in both movies, and the sign out front is the same:
Shermer High School (which was actually Maine North High School).

My brother Rick, a much better cultural critic than I, also wrote about John Hughes.

I’m a Mac guy. Have been since 1988. I’m not a fan of Microsoft…though I’m using a MS keyboard, and they do make the best mice. And I can’t do without MS Office. And I use Expression Media all the time. But I digress.

Apple’s TV ads become cultural phenomena–the Think Different campaign, the snazzy iPod dancing ads, and those wonderful Mac vs. PC ads. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s ads usually fall flat. Can you remember any Microsoft ad campaign of previous years? No, there’s nothing memorable.

But these Laptop Hunter ads–I think they’re good. And they seem to be effective. The way they mention Apple, and downplay the need to be “cool,” hits the chord just right. The original “Lauren” ad is still the best.

So while I really hate complimenting Microsoft, I must say: you’ve got it right this time. (But the Mac/PC ads still blow you away.)

Thanks to Matt McKeown for pointing out this wonderful Youtube clip.

I’m trying to think of something profound to write about Michael Jackson. I don’t care to comment on his weird side, and it appears I was somewhat indifferent to his music. I liked his music, but wasn’t crazy about it.

There were certainly songs I really liked listening to. I always liked “Ben.” And “We are the World,” which was a collaboration. But on stage and in his videos, he was mesmerizing. To hear some of those songs by themselves on the radio–nothing special for me. But watching him move in those videos–that was always special.

I heard that record exec Berry Gordy said something like this: “A Michael Jackson doesn’t come around once in a lifetime, or once in a century. He comes around once.”

Now THAT’S profound. 

You could say the same about a handful of other entertainers: Elvis, the Beatles (as a group), and I can’t think of anybody else.