Title: Double Date

This one’s a double, double date. Sookie and Jackson + Lorelai and Rune. Lane and Todd + Rory and Dean. It’s a doozy.

Summary: The girls have a morning pop tart and coffee action sequence. Lane wants to date Todd. Lorelai hates Walmart. Sookie date preps for Jackson. Rune can’t get over Lorelai’s shoe size, and ruins the whole evening. Lorelai and Luke play poker but are interrupted by an angry Mrs. Kim. Lane and Rory get busted. Sookie and Jackson have the whole ‘first date, beginning of the relationship’ glow. Luke asks Lorelai out, kind of.

RORY: The best of Blondie…Kraftwerk…Young Marble Giants…Yoko Ono – really?
LANE: A very misunderstood artist and the Beatles would’ve broken up anyways.
RORY: Have you shared this theory with anyone? LANE: I know it, Yoko knows it, Sean knows it. Julian’s still in denial but what can you do?

• Blondie is an American new wave/punk band that helped pioneer the genres in the mid-70s, led by the idol-herself – Debbie Harry. The band temporarily broke up in 1982 and reformed in 1997. They were becoming popular again by fans of 90s bands like No Doubt and Garbage, so they released a few greatest hits collections in the last 90s which is what Lane picked up in this episode.

• Kraftwerk is a badass German band from Dusseldorf (one of the places Lorelai was jealous Richard visited for work) that is considered to be one of the earliest electronic music groups. They were originally a rock band but founding members Florian Schneider and Ralf Hütter began experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines, the “vocoder” voice synthesizer in their music. With their fourth album Autobahn in 1974, they changed their sound to focus more on experimental electronic music. This gave them international success and in 1976 they toured with David Bowie. They’ve released 10 studio albums and are still touring around the world. Their influence is widespread, with artists from many genres claiming them as inspiration – Blondie, Depeche Mode, Björk, Daft Punk, Joy Division, Franz Ferdinand, Rammstein, and the list goes on. During the EDM explosion in the US of the early 2010s, Kraftwerk gained a new following and have headlined a number of festivals including Coachella and Ultra Music Festival. That’s some serious relevancy longevity.

• Young Marble Giants were a Welsh post-punk band in the late 70s, early 80s. They only released one album, Colossal Youth in 1980, so that’s what Lane picked up here. She clearly had a theme for this CD buying-session! Young Marble Giants split up in 1980 but joined again in 2003 and performed sporadically until their official break-up in 2015.
• Does Yoko Ono really get an unfair rep? Probably. Yoko Ono is a musician and artist who met John Lennon of the Beatles in 1966 at her art exhibit in London. They shared a passion for peace activism and staged a number of “bed-ins” for peace. They married in 1969 and used their honeymoon to stage a public protest against the Vietnam War, from bed at the Hilton Amsterdam. She was a constant presence while the Beatles recorded Abbey Road, which likely put a strain on Lennon’s relationship with his bandmates. There is a funny story about George Harrison losing his shit on Yoko for eating one of his cookies. In September 1969, Lennon informed his bandmates that he was leaving the group but a break-up wasn’t announced until Paul McCartney left also in 1970. But both Harrison and Ringo Starr temporarily left the group at different times in 1968 and 1969, so the writing was really on the wall. But because there always needs to be a scapegoat and fans don’t want to believe the Beatles were already a dysfunctional group, Ono was dubbed “the woman who broke up The Beatles”. Even Harrison admitted that the band had problems long before Yoko showed up.

• The ‘Sean’ Lane refers to is Sean Taro Ono Lennon, the son of John and Yoko born in 1975. He remains close with his mother (John was murdered in 1980) and is a musician himself, partnering with her on their band The Plastic Ono. Julian mentioned above is Julian Lennon, John’s son with his first wife Cynthia born in 1963. Julian was the inspiration for “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Hey Jude”. Julian resented his father for abandoning his family for Ono and claimed his peace beliefs were hypocritical saying “how can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces?” Julian stays close with Paul McCartney and with his half-brother Sean, briefly touring together in 2007.

RORY: Ok, I must listen to anyone named Claudine Longet. LORELAI: The chick who shot the skier?

Yes, Claudine Longet did shoot her Olympic-skier boyfriend Spider Sabich. But she is so much more than that. Longet is a French-American singer and actress who was popular in the 60s and 70s. She released a few albums, with a mix of cover songs (she liked to cover the Beatles) and her own work. Her first husband, Andy Williams, was a popular TV host who had his own variety show where Longet often appeared. They were good friends of Bobby Kennedy and his wife and even planned to visit a nightclub together the night Kennedy was assassinated. Longet and Williams split in 1970 and she began dating an American skier, Vladimir “Spider” Sabich. The couple lived together in Aspen, CO for a few years before his death in 1976. Sabich was shot in the stomach by Longet as he was about to take a shower, but she claims he was showing her how to use the gun when it accidentally went off. The prosecutors stole her personal diary and used it to claim their relationship had gone sour and she intended to kill him. He was facing away from her and bent over when he was shot, was doesn’t really sound like the position you’d be in if you were showing someone how to use a gun. Longet was eventually convicted of negligent homicide although his parents sued her in civil court for an undisclosed amount. As part of that lawsuit, she is not allowed to ever tell or publish her story. So there’s probably more to this one. Maybe we’ll get a juicy tell-all when she passes away!

LANE: Hey Granddaddy new album used – I love a bargain.

Granddaddy is an American rock band from California. Lane probably picked up their 2000 album The Sophtware Slump which was a huge success, compared to Ok Computer by Radiohead. The band broke up in 2006 and briefly reunited for a few shows in 2012.

DEAN: Is there anything in there about me? RORY: I don’t know. Your name wouldn’t be Lithium would it?

Rory is reading The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, but her comment is odd because Plath never mentions Lithium in her novel. Though Plath’s main character Esther deals with mental health and clinical psychiatry throughout the novel, including multiple suicide attempts, she never mentions Lithium by name. Lithium and lithium salts are commonly prescribed to patients with bipolar disorder and major depression if other treatments haven’t made an impact. Lithium does decrease the risk of suicide so it probably would have been a good option for both Plath and Esther, who many say is a parallel to Plath’s own life.

LORELAI: Rory? RORY: What? LORELAI: Viva Glam. RORY: I’ve got it. LORELAI: Bring it up.

M.A.C.’S classic lipstick collab with none-other than RuPaul, Viva Glam debuted in 1994 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019. 100% of the profits of the Viva glam line go to HIV and AIDS charities, raising $500 million so far. That’s amazing! For the 25th anniversary, supermodel Winnie Harlow created RuPaul’s iconic Viva Glam campaign shoot.

RUNE: You know I cannot go out with anyone that tall. I mean God! I can’t believe you set me up with that. What, was the bearded lady busy tonight or something?

The bearded lady is a circus cliche, Barnum and Ringling Bros. circus’s both featured bearded ladies. There are a few conditions that would cause a woman to grow a full beard such as polycystic ovarian syndrome or hypertrichosis. There are a few examples of bearded women even in today’s culture – Jennifer Miller, an American juggler and fire eater in New York, and Harnaam Kaur, a body positivity activist and motivational speaker in the U.K.

LANE: And the amazing thing is, all these girls are screaming and none of them are getting the joke. He’s playing the character of a rock star. I mean Beck is a genius and all these stupid girls are screaming at him just because they’re buying into the rock star image. I love Beck. I understand Beck. And the Foo Fighters – God. I mean, have you heard the acoustic version of ‘Everlong’? I can’t even talk about it you know? Hey, you know who I’ve really gotten into lately? The Velvet Underground. Oh, and Nico – she’s amazing – Depressing scary German chick. I have the CD if you wanna borrow it sometime.

Every episode that heavily features Lane gives us A LOT of music references. Phew. Let’s dive in.

• Who doesn’t love Beck? “Loser” and “Where It’s At” could get stuck in your head for days. Beck is an American singer/songwriter and producer who has won 7 Grammys including Album of the Year for Morning Phase in 2015. That win was marked with controversy as Kanye West was apparently peeved that Beck was awarded over Beyoncé (fair enough) and pretended to jump on stage to interrupt Beck’s speech, mimicking his infamous Taylor Swift incident from 2009.  Beck has released 14 studio albums at a steady pace over the last 25 years and is regarded as one of the most creative musicians of the 90s and 2000s.
• Dave Grohl of Nirvana began a solo project he named Foo Fighters after Kurt Cobain committed suicide in 1994. He has since added members like bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith both from Sunny Day Real Estate. The band’s name comes from the nickname for UFOs by WWII Allied pilots. They’ve released 9 albums over the last 25 years and continue to tour. “Everlong” is off their second album, The Colour and The Shape. Grohl wrote the song after the end of his first marriage as he began to fall in love with Louise Post of the band Veruca Salt (yes, named after that Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka). According to Grohl, the lyrics are “about a girl that I’d fallen in love with and it was basically about being connected to someone so much, that not only do you love them physically and spiritually, but when you sing along with them you harmonize perfectly.” The song is usually played with heavy electric guitar but Grohl gave an impromptu acoustic performance while on Howard Stern’s radio show. The acoustic version became so popular that the group began playing it on tour and released it on two albums.
• The Velvet Underground was an American rock band formed in the 60s and briefly managed by Andy Warhol himself, making them the house band at the Factory. The band is considered one of the most influential in rock and experimental genres and was named #19 of the greatest 100 bands of all time by Billboard. Their first album was a collab with German artist Nico, titled The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album was a bomb at the time but is now regarded as one of the best albums of all time. Musician Brian Eno once said that the album may have only sold 30,000 copies but “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” The band called it quits in 1973 but did a few reunions in the 90s.
• Christa Päffgen was a German singer, model, and actress who adopted the stage name Nico at the age of 16. The name was given to her by photographer Herbert Tobias while they were working together at a fashion show in Berlin, created based on her ex-boyfriend Nikos Papatakis. She had a few minor film roles before meeting Brian Jones of The Rolling Stones. She was featured on vocals for a few Stones and Bob Dylan tracks before being introduced to Andy Warhol. He put her in his experimental film Chelsea Girls and then encouraged her to record a few tracks with The Velvet Underground. Basically, she was the center of 1960s counter culture. Her career includes solo work along with collaborations with Jackson Browne, Lou Reed, Jim Morrison and The Doors, and Iggy Pop. She performed a legendary “comeback” performance at CBGB in New York in 1979 – the club where Hep Alien almost got to play in Season 4, Episode 11. But Nico struggled with heroin addiction for 15 years. She finally kicked her addiction in the late 80s with the help of methadone and adopting a healthy lifestyle, including biking. Ironically, she died in 1988 while riding her bike in Ibiza. She had a heart attack and fell off her bike, hitting her head on the pavement. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage that evening.

LANE: Fugazi? TODD: What? LANE: The band on your shirt. TODD: Oh. Huh, pretty cool picture.

That is a pretty rad t-shirt. Fugazi is another American rock band, but from the DC area and formed in 1987. Their sound mixes reggae, punk, and hardcore. They were one of the early adopters of the DIY ethic – meaning self-promotion, self-production, self-booked tours, etc. The name Fugazi was an acronym used by American soldiers in the Vietnam war meaning  “Fucked Up, Got Ambushed, Zipped In [into a body bag]”. Frontman Ian McKaye had been reading Mark Baker’s book Nam, a compilation of stories from Vietnam veterans, when he came across the term. The band had been looking for a name and this was perfect. The band has been on indefinite hiatus since 2003.

LORELAI: You’re nervous? You don’t have some guy staring at you like he’s Cher and you’re the kid from Mask.

The 1985 film Mask is based on a true story of a boy with craniodiaphyseal dysplasia, a rare disease that causes facial abnormalities among other things. Roy L. “Rocky Dennis is played by Erik Stoltz and his mother Florence “Rusty” Dennis is played by Cher. Despite his appearance, Rocky is loved by his biker mother and her biker gang friends. Rocky even falls in love at summer camp with a blind girl, played by a young Laura Dern. So I don’t really get Lorelai’s comment here. She may seem like the kid from Mask to stupid Rune, but that doesn’t make him Cher.

LANE: Ok, what about movies, you must have a favorite movie. TODD: Yes I do! LANE: Great! What is it? TODD: Beethoven. LANE: Beethoven? The one with the dog?

Ugh, not a high-quality film but a pretty funny one when you are, like, 8 years old. The plot goes like this – a bunch of puppies are stolen by some thieves from a pet store but one St. Bernard puppy gets away and sneaks into the Newton family’s home. The mean dad doesn’t want to keep the dog but the kids convince him they should and name him Beethoven when he barks along to one of the kids playing Beethoven’s 5th symphony on the piano. Well, the dog gets really big as St. Bernards do and causes all sorts of mayhem. The family takes him to a vet that’s actually a bad guy who uses animals for deadly experiments and wants to use Beethoven for an ammunition test. He uses fake blood and provokes Beethoven to attack him by repeatedly hitting the dog, saying that he must be euthanized. The dad is about to go through with it but then remembers that his dad had their dog euthanized and he never forgave him. The family goes to save Beethoven and eventually shoots the evil vet with sedatives, allows a pack of Dobermans to attack his henchmen, and free all the captive dogs. It’s a truly bizarre plot but a happy ending, with the family adopting all the rescued dogs. There were four!! sequels and three spin-offs, but none had the pizazz of the first Beethoven.

LORELAI: Hey, four menus, a coffee, and an anvil, please. LUKE: What’s the anvil for?LORELAI: For Rune.

Anvils will always make me think of two things – the roadrunner cartoons and the weird opening in Season 4, Episode 18 when Lorelai tries to figure out where all the anvils went. Anvils aren’t super interesting as metalworking tools but became a pop culture symbol from their use in the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons. The coyote is always trying to capture and eat the roadrunner, but the roadrunner is too slick for him. Wile E. orders lots of the devices form the mysterious Acme company to trap the roadrunner but it always backfires, like an anvil that’s supposed to be dropped on the roadrunner bouncing back up and hitting him in the face.

LORELAI: That’s very Richard Simmons of you.

May we all be blessed with the boundless energy of Richard Simmons, amen. Milton Teagle “Richard” Simmons is a fitness instructor and video producer known for his flamboyant style. He’s most famous for his Sweatin’ to The Oldies aerobic videos, but he’s also released 12 books, 20+ music releases (CD or cassette), and 50+ fitness videos (DVD or VHS). He’s become quite the media fixture over the last few decades, appearing on game shows, late-night and daytime talk shows, various tv series, and movies. He’s amazingly positive and motivational, helping people lose 12 million pounds over the course of his career. You go, Richard Simmons!

LORELAI: Yeah but after three cheeseburgers you’re done, unless you’re expecting Elijah to stop by.

I think I figured this one out. There’s a story in the Bible about the prophet Elijah who was on his way to visit King Ahab with a message from God (jealous! God never calls me!). While hiding by a river, he is fed bread and meat by ravens sent from God. But the river dries out in the drought so God sends him to a widow in a nearby town, saying that she will feed him. When he arrives, Elijah discovers that the widow is almost out of flour and oil. Because she helps him anyway, God gives her endless flour and oil. In this scenario, Luke is the widow. Endless cheeseburgers sound pretty good to me!

LORELAI: Look, I know that Mrs. Kim and Robert Duvall in The Great Santini share a striking resemblance, but she is Lane’s mom.

Robert Duvall is usually a little frightening (as Mr. Pulitzer in Newsies, anyone?) but especially in The Great Santini. Duvall plays Lt. Bull Meechum, a retired Marine with a bad temper and a drinking problem in this 1979 film. Meechum berates and bullies his family, forcing his son to assault a rival basketball player which gets him ejected from the big game. Meechum is further angered when his son helps his African-American friend who is being bullied by a racist bigot in town. Eventually, the Lt. goes on one last military mission but never returns.

RORY: What’s up Rapunzel? LANE: Don’t take this the wrong way, but in all my various fantasies about who might appear at this window, you never actually made the list.

Lane isn’t really trapped in a tall tower but the reference still works. Rapunzel was a German fairy tale created by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812. But they adapted their story from various Italian and French stories that share similarities. Rapunzel is kidnapped as a child by the evil witch Dame Gothel, and locked in a tower in the middle of the woods with no stairs or door when she turns 12. Luckily her hair grows very long, strong, and golden blonde. One day a prince finds her and watches as Dame Gothel uses Rapunzel’s hair to climb up and visit her. He tries the same thing after Gothel has left and they fall in love, duh. But their plans to run away are thwarted when Gothel finds out about Rapunzel’s visitor. In one version, Rapunzel’s dress is getting tighter around her belly implying she’s pregnant. In another version, she tells Gothel that the prince is much easier to hoist up her hair than her – simultaneously insulting her weight and making the witch jealous of the other visitor. She cuts off all of Rapunzel’s hair and uses it to trick the prince. She throws him from the tower and blinds him when he lands in a bunch of thorn bushes. Rapunzel is living in the woods with her twin children when her singing attracts the blind prince who has been wandering in the wilderness for years. Her tears fix his sight and his touch magically grows her hair back. It’s a wild story. Rapunzel has appeared in many film and TV versions of the story, including the Disney movie Tangled.