25 New Films for the National Registry

On December 30, 2008, the Librarian of Congress (James H. Billington) named 25 entries into our National Film Registry--bringing it now to 500 total films. And, it's a very interesting list this year, to be sure. Luckily, I've seen the majority, 14 out of the 25--and many of 11 that I haven't seen, I'd like to view. Of note for those seen:

• The Asphalt Jungle - one of John Huston's classics and one of my favorite caper films (precisely for a brilliance plan not going as expected)
• Deliverance - John Boorman's great adaptation of a great novel by James Dickey. IMDb lists the genre as Adventure/Drama/Thriller, but it could be easily listed with Horror (at least most guys look at it that way given Ned Beatty's character's ordeal). I've never had any yearning to do white water rafting after it...
• In Cold Blood - another exceptional adaptation (this time by Richard Brooks) of the real murder detailed in Copote's book of the same name. One of my all-time favorite cinematographers, Conrad Hall, is notable here for his great black & white work. This film has some of the best flashback scenes, and one of the most chilling endings, ever put on celluloid.
• The Killers - another of my favorites purely because it's such a great example of the film noir genre. And, it was Burt Lancaster's film debut (and a darn good one!).
• Sergeant York - one of Gary Cooper's favorite films, and one of Howard Hawks' best (among his many others). I'm a big HH fan...
• The Terminator - James Cameron's low budget action/sci-fi flick that spawned his recognition as a great director (though his ego and personality definitely rub a great many the wrong way) and film franchise. Many don't remember it as the film that lifted our Governator's movie career from a death spiral (see Steven Seagal as the example of this).

Eartha Kitt: 1927 - 2008

It is with deep sadness that Christmas Day of this year we lost a true and legendary entertainer, Eartha Kitt. I don't say that lightly. She performed on television, film, recording studios, nightclubs (all across the world), and on Broadway--who in this age has done that (or is even capable of doing this)?

Not only that, she was a survivor. The illegitimate daughter of young African-American mother and white father (who she never knew) in times so intolerant of such lineages. She was "given away for slavery" (as she recalled) to abusive and neglectful family members early in life. And, after building a spectacular career, she spoke out against the Vietnam War and suffered through professional exile in the U.S.

Just days ago on our brief vacation, my wife noted after listening in the car radio to her classic Christmas song, Santa Baby, she didn't know why many of those who recorded their versions of that song tried to imitate Kitt's persona while they sang it. They're never were going to out-Eartha Eartha, so why bother? I couldn't agree more. She had such a distinctive voice, personality and talent.

Growing up, I'd see this wonderful woman performer throughout my television viewing. In fact, one of the startling performances I watched in 1965 was Kitt as a drug addicted jazz singer in "The Loser" episode of I Spy. Couple of years later, she took over the part as Catwoman from Julie Newmar in the Batman series, and she became my favorite in that role, ever (...and I've never been the same since). Decades later, in 2000, she was easily the best thing in Disney's The Emperor's New Grove as the villainess Yzme:

Rest in peace, Eartha. You will be sorely missed...

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all (as I groggily write this while the kids open their presents this morning).

My Next "Can't Wait For"

This...looks...awesome:

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD

Play Me

After checking out Corey's post on this, and only encouraged by Jen at her book blog, I decided to give this a go.

What does your music say about you? 

Put your iPod, Windows Media Player, or whatever music player on shuffle.
For each question, press the ‘next’ button to get your answer.

You must write that song name down no matter how silly it sounds.
Title this post the same as the answer to the final question.

This post has been updated and moved to my current blog, which can be found here.

Two Greats from the Dark Side

Perhaps, it's because I'm listening to Jane Mayer's excellent non-fiction book, The Dark Side, but I feel the need to post on two of my favorite films by Frank Capra. Both were released within two years of each other. At first glance, they are very different from each other, but each have some very similar traits (like great direction, cast, screenplay, etc.)--including a central dark element. The first is the 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace (though it was filmed in 1941 before Capra went to work making movies for the WWII War Dept). For family movie night on the last weekend in November, my wife suggested this movie because she didn't want to get into any Christmas movie (the kids were clamoring for) before December arrived. The family's reaction to it, and critic's pick, caused the itch that this post intends to scratch it with.

This post has been moved and updated to my current blog, which can be found here.

It's the Cars, Stupid

I've been reading Robert X. Cringely's tech column for a number of years. Last week's column looked at Detroit and their woes, and possible cures. You can read it here, or listen to it via MP3. One commenter has the problem down pat with this one quote that includes a joke from the 70's:

I'm 52. I've felt this way since the 70s (except for the time I succumbed to the "buy American" drivel). Back then, the joke was that when fuel economy laws were being proposed, Japanese companies hired more engineers and American companies hired more lawyers.

Let the Argument Begin

Who Was Overlooked in the '100 Greatest Movie Character' List?

Any on Your List?

100 Notable Books of 2008

The N.Y. Times came out with their list of the most notable (for holiday gift giving) books for this year. For me, there was only one from the list in my queue for my reading/listening: The Dark Side: The Inside Story How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer. I'm interested to know how many on this list were read (or in queue) for you?

Whitewash!!!

Big News Orgs Help Bush Whitewash History of Iraq War

I hate to make this my first post of December, but what's happening in the major news outlets is beyond wrong. I'd say this is one of the most important posts from TPM and Greg Sargent. The, I was fooled by bad intel excuse is pathetic, stupid, and plain wrong (but, what else should I expect from the Worst...President...Ever). But, unfortunately, the likes of Washington Post, NY Times, CNN, Reuters, and others are blatantly attempting to sell this crap to their readers. I hope the bloggers, commenters, and alternate news sites pick this up and run with it because this is just propaganda (and evidence of one of the most corrupt U.S. administrations in history). And, it is helped by the years of conglomeration of the news media by corporations buying up most of those outlets.

The One Day Read

The late Michael Crichton, besides being a very successful author and one of the first progenitors of the hybrid genre known as the techno-thriller, holds one other unique distinction for me. He wrote the first book I read, no--consumed, in a one day period. I believe every avid reader, early in their genesis, collided/merged/plunged into that one book (like no other before it) and could not break away till it was read to the last page.

That one novel/hardcover/paperback became for the individual their first black hole experience in readership. For me, the event horizon came with Mr. Crichton's first published book (at least under his real name), The Andromeda Strain. There have been others, but this one was my first (did that make me a virgin to that point? No, don't answer that.)

I remember it fondly, still. It was early 1970, and I was home sick from high school (10th grade). I lived at that time with my maternal grandmother, along with her youngest, my uncle. He was a reader, like his sister, my mother. I was bored being home and went looking for something to peruse and found this 1969 hardcover. I started it around 10:30 in the morning, and finished it just after 11 PM (I did take fitful breaks, but it kept pulling me back in). If my wife reads this, she's gonna complain that I'm being nostalgic once more (but, so what?).

So, my questions to you:

1. what book was it for you?
2. when was it?
3. fiction or non-fiction?
4. hardcover or paperback?

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you and yours have a wonderful and festive holiday. And, drive carefully.

Way Too Early for This

Every year in SoCal, KOST 103.5 FM broadcasts Christmas music. At first, some years ago, they'd start this on the eve. Then, years later, the week of... followed by the month of the yuletide season--or right after the Thanksgiving weekend. And, I think last year, they began it during the T-day* weekend.

Last night, on the way home from picking up my teen from his after-school program, I discovered, to my horror, that the radio station had started it that day (Nov 21st)!?! So, they jumped over that Fall holiday altogether to get the Xmas season underway. Un-believable...

* to borrow Corey Wilde's family term for Thanksgiving ;-)

I Haven't Been Called a Bookworm Since Junior High

..., and it wasn't a compliment back then. But, I certainly take it as one now. Jen, the wonderful book blogger of Jen's Book Thoughts, has so graced me. And, I thank her for it. Now, for my part in this, I'm supposed to do the following:

"Open the closest book to you--not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment--to page 56. Write out the fifth sentence as well as the next two or three sentences. Pass this on to five blogging friends."

The closest book is the one on my computer table, right next to my iMac, it is The Great Raid on Cabanatuan, by William B. Breuer. It is one of the small handful of historical books chronicling the Raid at Cabanatuan. Between the fictional books/audiobooks I read, I always throw in some of history into that mix--it comes by way of having a father who fought in WWII. I had read one of the other books on this event, Ghost Soldiers, by Hampton Sides, some years ago and wanted another author's take on it. Eerily, when I opened the book for this post, it opened right on page 56. Some things are meant to be, I guess...

For seven days, the prisoners were kept there, unprotected from the pot-boiler sun. No food was provided. They had to line up for the twelve hours to get a canteen of water from the lone spigot. They fainted by the score. Each morning, a hundred or more unconscious POWs were hauled away to unknown fates.

The ordeal in the Pacific for the survivors wasting away at this Japanese POW camp was just another level of misery piled on them. These were the same men who to this point in the event had already survived what many would think have been two lifetimes worth of torment:

1. the Battle of Corregidor
2. the Bataan Death March

If this were someone's fictional story, the publisher would have rejected it for its cruelty and unbelievability. But, its a true, life-affirming and absolutely heroic written account of what happened there.

I will pass this bookworm award to the following and invite them to play (but only if it is their wish to):

• Gay Degani of Words in Place (a wonderful writer--but I know of no writer is not a book worm)
• Bryan of Agressive Fiction (another writer I wish would write and post more)
• the Greenleaf Book Group of big bad book blog
• the voracious reader of bookbitch
• Patricia of Booklust

No worries...

The Required Amount of Consolation

Besides the summer movies that I looked so forward to, and now have come and gone, my other highly anticipated film is set to arrive tomorrow. The Quantum of Solace:

Maybe it's because of my age and that my formative years

included watching this movie series from a young age. Or,

maybe that's it just plain escapist fun to go into a large

movie theater and get blasted by story and special effects

and forget about the world for two hours.

Either way, I'm so there this weekend--but being the

responsible parent that I am, I'm taking the kids to

Madagascar 2, as well (out of sheer guilt). So, if you've

enjoyed 007, try answering these questions:

1. which was the first Bond film you ever saw?
2. was it in a movie theater or in the comfort of your own home?
3. who were you with?
4. have you seen them all?
5. which of these is your all-time favorite?
6. your least favorite?
7. which of the actors portraying Bond is your favorite?
8. which of them is your least favorite?
9. which is your favorite Bond girl?
10. and your least favorite?

Here are my answers:

1. Goldfinger
2. theater, in 1964
3. my mother's younger brother took this 10-year-old with him on its first run
4. yes!
5. Goldfinger, but From Russia with Love is a close second ;-)
6. View to a Kill (Roger Moore too old at that point, story that dated too quickly, bad Bond girl (see below), bad henchwoman)
7. Sean Connery, no surprise, right? (but I do find Daniel Craig's portrayal intriguing)
8. George Lazenby (and it frustrates me no end that he was in the best story of the series, and with the best Bond girl)
9. Diana Rigg (pure class--though I have a special place in my heart for Honor Blackman [who has the best name in the entire series ;-)]
10. tie between Tanya Roberts and Lois Chiles

Cheers!

YES!!!

Obama Wins!

Vote

November 4, 2008. For the two years I've been watching this, its...finally...here... Probably the most important election that I've voted in quite a while, and I've been doing this for 36 years. The morning show on our local oldies station, K-EARTH 101, asked the listeners to call in and mention which presidential election they first voted in, and for who. The results were interesting to listen to. Here's mine:


1972--the first time 18 year olds were allowed to vote (previously, the age limit was that you had to be 21)--and this 18-year-old voted for McGovern (who really hurt his chances by picking Eagleton*). There was no way I was going to vote for Nixon since I'd watched some politics to that point, and everyone in California was well aware of his politic career since this was his home state. Many didn't trust him, and for good reason (as the rest of the country would soon find out). Do you recall yours? I'd be interested to find out.

I originally registered as a Democrat. But, changed to Independent in the late eighties. I found it more comforting--especially, if I voted for a Republican. Plus, it made me more free to express my criticism of either party, when warranted (which I have done, too). This year, so I could vote for a Democrat in the state primary, I had to select a party ballot to cast my vote their way. So, I selected Democrat, again. Anyway, I'm excited, and nervous as all get out, for election  results. I (and my wife) have already voted, by absentee ballot over a week ago (to make sure it was in to be counted early by the October 31st deadline here in California). And, if you've been reading this blog, my pick (in State and National election) won't surprise you. It's Obama.

* I'm hoping history repeats itself and penalizes McCain for his pick of Palin