I am far from the character, but if there is a man and father I'd ever want for, or as a child, or would ever want to be, it is that of Atticus Finch. Happy Father's Day.
Here lie the random thoughts... oh, forget it!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
If There's One Movie for Father's Day...
... for me it is To Kill a Mockingbird. It debuted in 1962 and was adapted from Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize winning 1960 novel of the same name. Horton Foote adapted the material for the screenplay and Robert Mulligan performed the direction.
I am far from the character, but if there is a man and father I'd ever want for, or as a child, or would ever want to be, it is that of Atticus Finch. Happy Father's Day.
I am far from the character, but if there is a man and father I'd ever want for, or as a child, or would ever want to be, it is that of Atticus Finch. Happy Father's Day.
Friday, June 18, 2010
My Favorite Lines From Favorite Movies Part 5
Image via WikipediaThis is my continuation of an arc I started a while back, containing some of my all-time favorite lines from the movies I never tire of watching. However, you may have noticed I've sprinkled a few lines from some of my favorite oaters in the preceding posts. In this case, since a friend and fellow western admirer (blogger Livius of Ride the High Country) from across the pond, will be taking a break in between posts, I decided to dedicate one solely to that genre to see him off. So, for those times when you need something to say, pardner...
(I share credit with the first one with my movie blogging buddy, J.D.)
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Technorati Tags: movie quotes
(I share credit with the first one with my movie blogging buddy, J.D.)
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
"Boy, I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals."Once Upon a Time in the West
"How can you trust a man that wears both a belt and suspenders? Man can't even trust his own pants."Rio Bravo
"When you come back, you holler 'fore you open that door. I'm libel to blast you just for the heck of it."The Magnificent Seven
"They are all farmers. Farmers talk of nothing but fertilizer and women. I've never shared their enthusiasm for fertilizer. As for women, I became indifferent when I was 83."The Wild Bunch
"What I like, and what I need, are two different things."The Horse Soldiers
"As usual, I'm just presenting the grim facts. Colonel Secord doesn't seem to understand that the coffee tastes better when the latrines are dug downstream instead of upstream. How do you like *your* coffee, Colonel?"Red River
"There's three times in a man's life when he has a right to yell at the moon: when he marries, when his children come, and... and when he finishes a job he had to be crazy to start."The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
"The last time that bear ate a lawyer, he had the runs for thirty-three days."Unforgiven
The Schofield Kid: [after killing a man for the first time] "It don't seem real... how he ain't gonna never breathe again, ever... how he's dead. And the other one too. All on account of pulling a trigger."(I share credit for that last one with a number of friends... including Herb)
William Munny: "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have."
The Schofield Kid: "Yeah, well, I guess they had it coming."
William Munny: "We all got it coming, kid."
Technorati Tags: movie quotes
Powered by ScribeFire.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Worth Reading June 2010
Some posts from those definitely worth reading (at least for me on this gloomy June day):
- Jeff over at Stuff Running 'Round My Head has a wonderful take and look back at the criminally short-lived Firefly series by Josh Whedon - Space Cowboys
- Author John Kenneth Muir has another of his fine Cult Movie Reviews, this time examining Martin Scorsese's adaptation of the Denis Lehane's mystery thriller novel, Shutter Island
- Movie blogger J.D. at RADIATOR HEAVEN (love that title) flashes back to the 60's with his marvelous review of Oliver Stone's The Doors
- I always appreciate blogger/reviewer Livius film examinations, especially when he turns his keen eye at a western. In this case, Howard Hawk's middle version of a story he told three times in his career, El Dorado
- Rachel, the Scientist Gone Wordy, has a very interesting opinion in regard to books and genres in The Business of Genres, or Thoughts on Indicating OTHER
- Expiration Date author, Duane Swierczynski, has news about his new writing gig (hint, she was played by Scarlett Johansson in Iron Man 2)
- author Steven Hart highlighted a funny skit (if it just wasn't so accurately tragic, or tragically accurate) for us in Spill, Baby, Spill
Powered by ScribeFire.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Friday Forgotten Book/Film: FAIL-SAFE
I'm of a generation that grew up during the height of the Cold War, and thankfully weathered time to witness the ushering of that era's end. From that conflict, there has been a mountain of fictional material (books and films) produced from the period. Many, drawing upon the fear and dread from that confrontation. A generation's expectation that it could only end when each of the superpowers finally launched their nuclear payloads at one another is at its full bleak glory in many of those works -- and may seem bizarre (or perhaps, even quaint) to the younger age groups. I'll submit that Eugene Harvey and Burdick Wheeler's 1962 novel, FAIL-SAFE, epitomized a good portion of this anxiety, and did it well. The old bestseller should lay on top of that particular old-world-view book stack. The synopsis of the novel, that of the accidental triggering of a strategic bomber air-wing strike against the Soviet Union caused by computer glitch (and its horrifying and terrible solution in the tale), was close enough story-wise to a another book. Peter George's (aka Peter Bryant) earlier 1958 novel, Red Alert. So much so, that it caused its author to sue the tandem of Harvey and Burdick.
The rest of this post has been updated and moved over to my current blog, found here.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sBqqPkF-wWcxPTkChxgk7uPdEb0ZZ9WgQmrlrWZtiLNNDfHe-mm75sjQGNCJF4R1cCzirLd0yQIPUgvioj6am4X_ki6Rellyd8F74ua5_c3xDPrAI0COMNJacA-C40jFCM3bzz66hSDqZiU1UcTtUV=s0-d)
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Thomas Perry's STRIP
A week ago, if you had asked me if I'd heard of author Thomas Perry, I would have told you yes. If you had asked me if I'd read anything by the man, the answer would have been a no. And if you'd have asked (my... you can be a pester, at times) if I was going to read something by him anytime soon, I'd have exasperatedly said, "I don't know." The TBR pile is pretty high right now, and is only growing like my two kids (which in their case is good, but the opposite is true for that pile). I'm not getting any younger, you know. Plus, taking on something like Perry's Jane Whitefield series at this point seemed just this side of masochistic in my whittling down the pile endeavor I've given myself. I had the Jack Till standalone, Silence, on my Audible wish list, too. But, I confess that's been there for months now (and nothing seemed to be urging me on to download the work). I'd have said things were unlikely to change anytime soon. That is until I read this online:"For a while “Strip” ambles along in this entertaining but recognizable vein. With its penny-ante schemes, crossed wires, mistaken identities and dim-witted ne’er-do-wells, it veers close to Elmore Leonard territory, always a good place to be."This is from the N.Y. Times book review by Janet Maselin, Affable Thugs, Playful Crimes, Rough Justice, of Perry's new novel, Strip. And it's the "... veers close to Elmore Leonard territory" line that got my attention. I had to see for myself (by circumventing the pile) if dropping the [doffs his cap] Elmore Leonard name in the piece was just plain hyperbole by the reviewer. I'm happy to say, it wasn't. What a fun ride this was! Indeed, I could have just said that for the unexpected plotting in the novel, alone. However, what really made the work memorable for me were the characters the author sprinkled all over the place in the crime tale. Most of them, who come from the other side of the law, I couldn't get enough of. Hell, I found myself more than sympathetic toward someone I really hadn't expected. Surprisingly so.
As well, the novelist made effective use of the L.A. terrain (especially some of the San Fernando Valley locations) in the yarn while producing some sharp insights of SoCal (and some of those who live here). Like former out-of-towners (and now great, southland authors) Robert Crais, Don Winslow, and Charlie Huston, Thomas Perry brings a similar skill with his characters and wordsmithing. Add an intense and keen eye toward his adopted hometown, and I now have a quartet to follow (and this isn't going to help that pile of mine none, huh?).
"Perry is the master, and Strip is a slice of pure crime nirvana. You will not want to put it down. You will not want it to end. You will be very, very entertained." ~ Josh Bazell, author of Beat the ReaperThat, "You will not want it to end", part is so true. Since I listening to the Tantor Media's unabridged audiobook, expertly narrated by Michael Kramer I must say, I was caught flatfooted by the novel's conclusion. Frustratingly so, too. That is until I figured this is what the
I guess I'll have to make do by downloading that audiobook left in the Audible queue after all.
Powered by ScribeFire.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sJGqznM9br3CCe_TYWjMAxQveexFceOkBC-mE6EzIwXvk8BUF2jYtu8Si07l9s8c9DsXybJaBuUL78RSHhC_unMOkaDyby-b--eKfqR0xEXvSqYonNYfv9UX6if5mt0gxDZ5OJ1oVL0C19z-P45G4=s0-d)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)