I came across this book in one of my trunks. I have kept it since the first time I read it and fell for Bruce and Carole Hart's writing.
New Sooner or Later DVD Movie Gift Denise Miller Rex Smith US Free Shipping BEST. Brand New DVD. 5.0 out of 5 stars. Sooner or Later. Brand New DVD. 5.0 out of 5 stars. 37 product ratings - Sooner or Later. FAST 'N FREE. Guaranteed by Thu, Mar. Free Shipping. Mar 2, 2011 - www.lookouthaskell.com A film about memory and Appalachian fatalism, featuring Harold Blankenship, who appears in Haskell Wexler's 1969.
As I turned each page, the flash of me as a teen filled with wonder, excitement, and lost within the pages hit - which had me devouring the book in under an hour. A great an easy read filled with the high emotions of a 13 year old girl trying to come into her own as she is attracted to a 17 year old boy. I might have read Judy Blume, but the Harts understood me. J I came across this book in one of my trunks. I have kept it since the first time I read it and fell for Bruce and Carole Hart's writing. As I turned each page, the flash of me as a teen filled with wonder, excitement, and lost within the pages hit - which had me devouring the book in under an hour. A great an easy read filled with the high emotions of a 13 year old girl trying to come into her own as she is attracted to a 17 year old boy.
I might have read Judy Blume, but the Harts understood me. Jessie Walters is like every girl was when I was growing up, I even think I was a form of Jessie. She quickly finds herself attracted to Michael Skye and the torment, deception, angst begins. This is the first of Jessie and Michael's trilogy. Simple writing, fast read - but 5 stars because for an hour I was a teen again.
I first saw the television adaptation of this story, then was delighted and surprised to find the novel in the YA section of my local bookstore. I actually like the book more than the movie. It treats teenage love with the reverence it deserves. I also related so strongly to Jessie's desire for romance, glamor, and excitement at the young age of thirteen. The prospect of leaving my suburban home in NJ with a rock star harkened back to my earliest David Cassidy fantasies.
(Yep, I wanted to run aw I first saw the television adaptation of this story, then was delighted and surprised to find the novel in the YA section of my local bookstore. I actually like the book more than the movie. It treats teenage love with the reverence it deserves. I also related so strongly to Jessie's desire for romance, glamor, and excitement at the young age of thirteen. The prospect of leaving my suburban home in NJ with a rock star harkened back to my earliest David Cassidy fantasies. (Yep, I wanted to run away with David Cassidy when I was 5. Call me precocious.) The two sequels to this book - Waiting Games and Now or Never are equally strong.
I was happy they didn't let me down, as this story has always been dear to my heart. 'Sex education is a joke.' Precocious 13 year old Jessie Walters surmises about three seconds before getting caught reading Babylon in Flames when she's supposed to be watching a Sex Ed filmstrip.
I guess the joke's on her because about three pages later she meets Michael Skye, the shaggy haired 17 year old suburban rockstar (and Atlanta transplant) strutting his stuff at the local mall in Hackensack. Jessie decides it's true love and so naturally cannot tell Michael(did I mention she just 'Sex education is a joke.' Precocious 13 year old Jessie Walters surmises about three seconds before getting caught reading Babylon in Flames when she's supposed to be watching a Sex Ed filmstrip. I guess the joke's on her because about three pages later she meets Michael Skye, the shaggy haired 17 year old suburban rockstar (and Atlanta transplant) strutting his stuff at the local mall in Hackensack. Jessie decides it's true love and so naturally cannot tell Michael(did I mention she just happens to stumble into a Eddie Nova's guitar studio and Michael happens to be the teacher)anything remotely resembling the truth about herself.
If I remember correctly the cheesy 1979 movie starring the baby goddess Denise Miller (most recently seen in the lesbo yukfest April's Shower) and Rex Smith came first and then the novel. Either way this is good stuff here. Jessie is adorable and smart and innocent, but at the same time very savvy. Still she's THIR-FUCKING-TEEN and as her friend Caroline astutely points out, 'Older boys are different. They're like MEN only younger.' The prose is a bit dodgy and reads something like this.
![Movie Sooner Or Later Movie Sooner Or Later](/uploads/1/2/5/3/125397689/174209509.jpeg)
Michael is sexy. Michael is sexy? Is that a chicken on the lawn?
Michael and I should be rolling on the lawn. And so forth.
Still, rereading it made me feel 13 again and I had to watch the movie and listen to the soundtrack, namely, 'You Take My Breath Away' sang in all kinds of cheesetastic, glittery earnest by Rex Smith. Talk about judging a book by its cover (and blurb). My friend and I bought this book and its sequel for a quarter each at the paperback exchange when I was 12-ish. I hid them from my mom. I can't say it was transcendent writing, but obvs it was transcendent reading for a 12-13 year old. Stayed with me all these years.
Of course I loved Judy Blume as well, but these stuck with me as scandalous AND mind-reading. I remember so much of it. Lines like 'if you buy a bra, it's like buyin Wooo doggy! Talk about judging a book by its cover (and blurb). My friend and I bought this book and its sequel for a quarter each at the paperback exchange when I was 12-ish.
I hid them from my mom. I can't say it was transcendent writing, but obvs it was transcendent reading for a 12-13 year old. Stayed with me all these years. Of course I loved Judy Blume as well, but these stuck with me as scandalous AND mind-reading. I remember so much of it.
Lines like 'if you buy a bra, it's like buying a garage for your car' and then you're sure to get breasts. Unless I'm remembering wrong. I must re-read these books, pronto. Where can I find them?!?:).
Rex Smith No one can accuse Rex Smith of not being versatile. In a colorfully diverse career, the entertainer has been a Broadway leading man, starring in 'The Scarlet Pimpernel,' 'Grand Hotel' and an acclaimed production of 'The Pirates of Penzance.' He reprised his role in the latter for the 1983 film. He was a soap star, with a successful stint on 'As the World Turns' in the '90s. There was a hip-swiveling gig hosting the '80s music show 'Solid Gold,' in which he wore leather pants and sang with everyone from Mickey Gilley to Laura Branigan. For a lot of people — specifically women who were adolescent girls in the late '70s — Smith forever will be a feathered-haired heartthrob who graced the covers of Tiger Beat and 16 magazines. He could sing, as evidenced by hits like 'Everlasting Love' and the swooning 'You Take My Breath Away,' a million seller in 1979.
But something even his music fans may not realize is that he started out fronting a hard-rock band called Rex that cut two albums and opened for the likes of Boston and Rush. It has been a wild ride with lots of highs and lows, the kind of stuff that would make a juicy book. Smith started to write one, then his plans changed. 'I've been fortunate to wear so many different hats in my career,' he says from his home in the Los Angeles area. 'I was about two-thirds of the way through the book when this idea hit, and I came up with this musical autobiography instead.
It's like 'Mark Twain Tonight' meets Tom Jones.' 'Confessions of a Teen Idol' debuted last year, playing in New York and San Diego; it will return to Manhattan next month.
It's a multimedia look at his career. A video screen displays the star in all his glory while Smith sings and shares gossipy stories about his life in the spotlight. 'It's taken me 40 years to live it, and then seven months to build the show,' says Smith, 59. 'This is from 30 years of Broadway and playing Madison Square Garden as a rock and roller.
There are stories of all the wonderful people that I've worked with and known on this journey, from Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol, Kevin Kline and Linda Ronstadt. Essentially, you travel in 80 minutes from 1976 to the proud father and grandfather that I am today.' Universal Pictures A complete entertainer The show reminds audiences that Smith was more than someone who simply looked good grinning from a poster on a bedroom wall.
'Smith is, and was, a wonderful singer with a boyishly sexy personality and a rich voice,' opined writer Joel Benjamin of TheaterPizzazz.com. Despite Smith's considerable success, there is a sense that he never quite earned the respect he deserved.
His 1983 album 'Camouflage' should have set FM radio on fire, but it was weighed down by his teen-dream image. His 'Solid Gold' performances, easily available on YouTube, confirm the energy and excitement he brought to even the most mundane material. Smith says no less than Michael Jackson complimented him in a men's room about his cover of 'Beat It.' 'He is one of the most talented people around, and it's somewhat frustrating that not everyone recognizes that,' says Brandon Smith, his oldest son. 'There are so many aspects to his career.
It's like his thirst and curiosity caused him to challenge himself and go into all these different areas. Maybe if he stayed in one, he might have had superstardom.
Knowing him, though, that would have been the kiss of death, because he loves challenges.' The teen-idol specter, of course, looms largest over his career. Smith left his gig as a rock and roll frontman after NBC approached him to star in a 1979 movie of the week called 'Sooner or Later.' He played a 17-year-old budding singer who has a romance with a 13-year-old (Denise Miller) who passes herself off as 16. The movie introduced 'You Take My Breath Away' to the world. 'I was being groomed to be a Van Halen, if you will, then 'Sooner or Later' happened,' he says in a voice that retains a hint of a Georgia twang.
'It played on a Sunday and the next day I was at Bloomingdale's to buy a shirt, and 20 minutes later I was locked in a dressing room with fans outside. In today's world of a thousand channels, that kind of overnight stardom doesn't happen anymore.' Up close and personal 'Confessions' also deals with Smith's private life. He has been married four times and has five children. Brandon was the result of an on-the-road affair.
Smith didn't know about his son's existence until the young man approached him after a 1997 production of 'Sunset Boulevard.' Since then, the two have become extremely close, speaking twice a day. Brandon helped create and produce 'Confessions.' He also gave Smith his first grandchild, Buchanan.
'The greatest gift that has ever been bestowed upon a parent and son is that we know what we didn't have,' Smith says. 'Poignant doesn't even begin to describe the journey we share.' It's the same for Brandon, who grew up with a single mom and no father figure. He knew who Smith was, having watched him star in the ABC action series 'Street Hawk.' 'It's curious sometimes not to know who you really are, but we were able to teach each other about our lives,' Brandon says. 'It's manifested itself in so many wonderful and amazing ways in our lives.' NBC For example, when Brandon got married six years ago, Smith sang the title track from his 1980 album 'Forever' as the couple walked down the aisle.
'That was just an incredible feeling,' Brandon says. The two share an uncanny physical resemblance. Smith says they will be at gatherings and he'll glance at his son and recognize gestures and vocal inflections as his own.
'It's so nature vs. Nurture,' he says. 'We're cookie-cutter alike in so many ways. What a gas it is to have a 34-year-old son.'
Smith and his son dug through his garage to prepare for the show, looking for memorabilia and souvenirs to help piece together his past. 'I did 'Sunset Boulevard,' and I know I'm not Norma Desmond,' Smith says. 'I don't live for the applause. I don't live for the past. I outlived that crazy fame and I couldn't be happier, because all flame is fleeting.
I just really think of this as the third act of my life.' He's also quick to add: This isn't a vanity trip. 'We all have a life story, and this is just mine,' he says with a laugh. 'It's not like I'm bragging about what I've done. Plus, as my father always said, 'It ain't bragging if it's true.' ' Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8849. Rex Smith: 'Confessions of a Teen Idol' When: 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Jan. Where: Towerpoint Resort, 4860 E. Main St., Mesa. Admission: $35-$55. Details: 480-854-8180, cal-am.com.