Zinone is NOT a Vegetable

Whenever I hear the name Stephanie Zinone, I think of zucchini. The more logical phonetic association would be Zamboni.

Stephanie Zinone does not, of coarse, have anything to do with zucchini save for their slender figures, ’snappy’ attitudes, boring counterparts (Sandy, cucumbers) . . . wait a minute!

For those of you unfamiliar with Stephanie Zinone, Steph, she’s the main female protagonist in one of the greatest, least heralded films ever, EVER, made. GREASE 2.

To a certain type of young girl, this movie easily surpasses it’s predecessor. You see, GREASE 2 is for the girl who will someday walk that thin line between good and bad, rules or no rules, taste and tack. Actually no, she always has taste. She just doesn’t want to look like a cupcake. She likes to wear all black like one of the boys, just as long as the look is fitted, and there are ankle booties involved. She’s “lookin for a dream on a mean machine, with hell in his eyes.” Most importantly, she does not change for a dude, a greaser, the leader of the T-Birds. Sandy changed. She started smoking, got PERMED!, basically threw away her whole credo (goodie-goodie) for a wuss of a boy, who wouldn’t even acknowledge that what they’d shared at the beach was special, just to look cool in front of his friends at the pep rally!

All Steph wants is a guy as cool as herself. Though I’m a tad conflicted about Maxwell Caulfield (he’s more believable as Rex Manning in EMPIRE RECORDS) as a legitimate Cool Rider, the character Michael Carrington is actually a great guy. He’s intelligent, tutoring Steph on the subtleties of Hamlet, and is really sweet when she says something totally dumb (but that’s only because she’s so distracted by the mystery bike rider that keeps showing up). He’s hardworking, writing all those papers for the T-Birds. He plays the piano, builds his own bike, runs track, and he can jump!

I realized while watching this movie on television up in a cabin, in a forest in Guerneville, CA, that together with Regina from NIGHT OF THE COMET, Steph provided me with my earliest female style influences. Not just style as in clothes, though I have been aiming to achieve both of their signature looks since 1984, but in attitude and confidence, and fabulous hair. Full Disclosure: from 1999-2001 my hair more accurately resembled that of Robert Plant.

This may be the first of many posts on GREASE 2. I’ve only just begun to plunge this overflowing toilet. Thanks be to The Schlindz for inspiring this venture. Thank you to the folks as well, for allowing me to spend eighty-four dollars on a Betamax copy of GREASE 2 when I was four years old. Keep up the good work.