Ribbons + Ruffles + Rollerskates = Olivia Newton-John (update: Sep 28, 2007)
ONJ in wistful ribbons and ruffles in Xanadu.
Someone once told me that when she took a ride on a hipster friend’s car, she snuck a peak into his glove compartment. Underneath the piles of awesome rap cd’s and cool remakes, was a lone ELO cassette.That story got me thinking about one of the major figures of my childhood: Olivia Newton-John. I’m probably one of the four people left online who unashamedly admit my love of Olivia Newton-John films and Electric Light Orchestra. Like the films of my beloved actress, Audrey Hepburn, ONJ films have a transformation motif in them.
Sandy Olsson was a prim-and-proper high school girl (ONJ was thirty when she pulled this off – fantastic!) in Grease. By the end of the movie, she’s a hot rod greaser chick (which I have only heard about as I usually take to my heels before the amusement park finale begins). The teased hair, spandex panted sl**ty girl scares me to this day, frankly. I still think Grease would have been so much more interesting if Sandy remained her squeaky clean self instead of caving into Travolta’s needs.
When it comes to ONJ films, my heart belongs to Xanadu. Under the expert guidance of ELO’s Jeff Lynne, who forecasted mash-ups and 90s NYC avant-garde Zorn eccleticism in the soundtrack of Xanadu, the movie also contains the most wistful ELO song: I’m Alive. What can you say about a band composed of “intimidating pale white British men with gigantic afros playing electric violins and cellos while laser beams shoot all over the stage?” (The best description of ELO, furnished by a previous friend of mine).
I remembered watching Xanadu dreamy-eyed- cuddled up with all my stuff animals- in one of those gigantic Laserdisc players my mom bought me, while my classmates were out about terrorizing the town listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd. (Did I even spell that right?)
Olivia Newton-John in Xanadu and my childhood Presbyterian pastor’s daughter (the little sister of my piano teacher) were the two biggest influence on my seminal conception of what it meant to be a girl: Sweet, adorable, kind-hearted, and full of ribbons and ruffles. That is one thing I’ll always remember when I think about Kira in Xanadu. ONJ looked so adorable in her pretty ribbons and rollerskates (she pulled this off at 32!) singing “Suddenly” together with Cliff Richard.
It gives me hope to think that I too, won’t feel out of place, being in my thirties, wearing ribbons, being prim, sweet, kind-hearted, and adorable (well… trying anyway).
