Monday, July 23, 2012

Brave (2012), not the usual princess fantasy

(Bloggers often assume their readers are interested in why they posted in a while.  I have no such illusions.And even if I did feel the need, there really isn't any good explanation.  So, onto Brave.)

My granddaughter and I have been watching tons of kids movies (I think I will wait another year before introducing her to Let the Right One In).  Often, they are painful to watch:  So full of confusing plots, dialogue mostly consisting of sounds of surprise, and saccharine musical numbers that I find myself praying for the commercial breaks.

The musical numbers are the worst part.

Despite my lifelong hatred of Disney, (as a child, my parents dragged me to every Disney film that played in our local theater.  When I say every, I mean not just the ones in the recognized canon, I am also talking about the nature flicks.  Disney nature films never vary-cute, playful animals struggling in a literal fight for their lives against human oppressors, who relentlessly hunt, poison, tortured, etc. them. Fuck you, Walt Disney, for ruining my childhood).

Monday, July 2, 2012

Portos dos Morto arrived!



I just got my copy, now i need to find a place and time to watch it (away from my 4 year old grand daughter.)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Portos dos Mortos II

Earlier today I posted this.

A few hours ago, I received this via Facebook:

Hi!
My name is Isidoro B. Guggiana, producer of "Beyond the Grave". I saw the post on your blog. Are you interested in an English subtitled screener?

Holy Shnikes!

Portos dos Mortos (Beyond the Grave)-please help me find this movie!

I read about this here and have not been able to find anything about getting a copy of this DVD for  myself.


Monday, May 7, 2012

Death and Dying


My wife asked me to help edit her video for the "Death and Dying" class she is going to teach this summer.  She filmed a ten minute introduction in a local cemetery, sitting among the markers while going over the course objectives.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

A Confession-You don't have to say you love me

I am going to share something that is really personal with my (subscribed) readers, I don't want this to appear on my facebook page because I have to associate with those people in real life and I don't want them to know.

All my life, at least since I discovered EA Poe (in second grade!), I have wanted to be a writer;  the kind of writer whose words on paper will make the reader's blood run cold in terror.  I started a new blog for that kind of content.  There will be no witty, carefully structured commentary on popular culture or delightful anecdotes about my personal growth as I strive towards acceptance of my new life as a professional invalid.

I am calling that blog Samples, although I don't know why.  I hope that some of you will take a peek at it, although there isn't much there right now.  Here and here are a couple of things I would love to share, they have plenty of warts and I am betting your thoughts would be very constructive.

Until then, this has been stuck in my head since last Thursday's 30 Rock.





Saturday, March 17, 2012

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Thought you might like to know...

I never blogged about the final Harry Potter movies because, well, I couldn't find anything new to say about them.

On the March 3 episode of the National Public Radio show Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, host Peter Sagal and the panelists discuss the latest news from the wizarding world

Listen to the complete show here

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Tuesday Afternoon

 At Miami I had to read selections from Robert  Ardrey's African Genesis (1961, I think) which put out the ideas that mankind was born on the African Savannah and  aggression (and the invention of weapons) fueled the survival of the species.  This was leading up a discussions about how visionary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick and futurist Arthur C. Clarke then extrapolated those ideas to create the world's most expensive pornographic film, 2001, a Space Odyssey (money shot here)

I never know what my friend Todd will send me, but it is always worthwhile.  Today was a video clip that, even though it pre-dates Ardrey's book by a few years, takes that same evolutionary trip backwards, from space to the African plain and a pre-technological society (not killer apes!) to welcome the Star Child, all in under 8 minutes.