Saturday, January 28, 2012

My Movie Challenge

It's been a crazy week at work, so we didn't make much progress on the AFI movie challenge this week. Early in the week when my eyes felt like they would burst into flames and my hands were blazing with early onset arthritis, we did take a break to knock one movie off the list.

The first week of the challenge we watched three movies the wife had never seen that I had already viewed before, so this time we reversed it and went with a classic she knew well.

All About Eve: I cannot tell you how surprised I was by how much I liked this movie. It's a great movie starring Bette Davis (the one from the song), some other people I don't know, and features a brief cameo by Marilyn Monroe in her first film (and is sadly a portend of things to come for her). Better Davis plays a popular Broadway star who meets a young woman who is fascinated with the theatre and a huge fan of Davis' character. They become good friends, but as the movie progresses you find that not is all what it seems. I'd tell more, but I was so pleasantly surprised by how the plot evolved and the excellent dialogue that I don't want to give anything away to those who haven't seen it. I'm not stupid, I know they made good movies by in 1950, but I had not heard much of this movie which is what made it such the great surprise thus far of the movie challenge.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Friday Funnies

While we're a week away from the Super Bowl, we're deep in the heart of Premier League soccer, which brings me immense joy. Tottenham is hanging in there for a solid Champions League spot, while down in Spain the heated rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona are staging some epic moments in flopping, flailing and making me hate watching soccer until the moment Messi does something cool. So to keep things fun, I'm celebrating by recalling a great moment when The Simpsons explained soccer in their own special way.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Sunday, January 22, 2012

My Movie Challenge

Last week the wife came home and made a bold declaration. "There's tons of movies ... really good ones ... that I need to see."

See, she'll watch hours of Real Housewives and tons of useless crap on Bravo and E! but when I've mentioned watching movies of actual value, I get the eye rolls and the "it's probably got subtitles in it, doesn't it?" kind of wisecrack. One of her co-workers told her about AFI's Top 100 movies of all time list, and decided she wanted to conquer the list.

CHALLENGE!

I rattled off the list, and we figured out how many movies she hadn't seen and I hadn't seen. To her shame, she's about 60 movies away from completing, which honestly isn't that bad unless you see the ones she hasn't seen (I'm missing about 20 movies). So below is the AFI 100 list. Bold titles are what we need to see. Bold with an asterisk are films I've already seen, Bold with a dash are movies she has already seen.

1. CITIZEN KANE*

2. CASABLANCA*

3. THE GODFATHER

4. GONE WITH THE WIND

5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA*

6. THE WIZARD OF OZ

7. THE GRADUATE*

8. ON THE WATERFRONT*

9. SCHINDLER'S LIST

10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN

11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE*

12. SUNSET BLVD.

13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

14. SOME LIKE IT HOT-

15. STAR WARS

16. ALL ABOUT EVE-

17. THE AFRICAN QUEEN

18. PSYCHO

19. CHINATOWN*

20. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST*

21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH

22. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY*

23. THE MALTESE FALCON*

24. RAGING BULL*

25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

26. DR. STRANGELOVE*

27. BONNIE AND CLYDE*

28. APOCALYPSE NOW

29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE

31. ANNIE HALL*

32. THE GODFATHER PART II

33. HIGH NOON

34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD*

35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY*

37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY

39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO*

40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST*

41. WEST SIDE STORY

42. REAR WINDOW

43. KING KONG (1933 version)

44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION

45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE*

46. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE*

47. TAXI DRIVER*

48. JAWS

49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS

50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID*

51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY

52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY

53. AMADEUS

54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT

55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC

56. M*A*S*H**

57. THE THIRD MAN*

58. FANTASIA

59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK

61. VERTIGO

62. TOOTSIE

63. STAGECOACH

64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND*

65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

66. NETWORK*

67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE*

68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS

69. SHANE*

70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION*

71. FORREST GUMP

72. BEN-HUR*

73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS

74. THE GOLD RUSH

75. DANCES WITH WOLVES

76. CITY LIGHTS

77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI*

78. ROCKY

79. THE DEER HUNTER*

80. THE WILD BUNCH

81. MODERN TIMES

82. GIANT

83. PLATOON*

84. FARGO

85. DUCK SOUP

86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY

87. FRANKENSTEIN*

88. EASY RIDER*

89. PATTON

90. THE JAZZ SINGER*

91. MY FAIR LADY-

92. A PLACE IN THE SUN

93. THE APARTMENT*

94. GOODFELLAS

95. PULP FICTION

96. THE SEARCHERS*

97. BRINGING UP BABY-

98. UNFORGIVEN

99. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER*

100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

This week, we knocked three off the list.

The African Queen: Neither of us had seen this is a 1951 movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn. She's a missionary in the Congo and he's a crusty boat captain during World War I. A lot funnier than I had expected, with some funny interplay and a story about the two of them forced to survive on a riverboat in Africa.

North by Northwest: The wife hadn't seen this Hitchcock classic. Starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint (as well as an uber-young Martin Landau), it's about a businessman who gets mistakenly confused as a spy. This movie has the famous crop-dusting chase scene as well as the climactic scene on Mount Rushmore. As Hitchcock movies go, I'm still always going to consider Rear Window my favorite, because it's just an awesome, tense movie and features probably the hottest woman ever with one of the best 'hot woman enters the scene' moments, Grace Kelly.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?: Another the wife had not seen, this one stars Katherine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier. Sidney meets a nice girl in Hawaii and they decide to get married, so she brings him home to meet the folks. He's black, she's white, and interracial marriage is illegal in 17 states so everyone is in a panic except the happy couple. Tracy died two weeks after filming the movie ended, so at least in his last speech in the film is a damn good one.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

My Mail Frustration


We've been in our house now for 2-and-a-half years. 32 months. I love it here, but one of the few things that drives me nuts about this place, is that the former occupants of this abode have neglected ... still ... to forward their mail to their current address. The six pieces of mail in my hand in the above photo is seriously a daily sample of the crap that arrives for them.

It's not just junk mail, either, folks. Bank and investment statements, their bills, alumni offerings, catalogs, announcements from their kids' schools. It's stunning. I'm surprised they still have functioning utilities. We used to walk the stuff down the street and hand it to them. Now the wife scrawls "PLEASE FORWARD" and "WRONG ADDRESS" in enormous lettering on the envelopes and pieces. This is our passive-aggressive way of letting them know how much mail gets delivered to their old house all the damn time. But it's having no noticeable effect.

I really want to start having a mass burning of their mail. Perhaps in their front yard. I'll invite them out front to roast a few marshmallows and examine how the flavors are richer (light almond notes with a hint of vanilla) because of their LL Bean catalog and their Pepco bill. It's killing me a little bit more, each and every day.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Friday Funnies

If you don't know the joys of Mystery Science Theater 3000, then I don't know what to do with you. It's a fabulous program that entertained me through much of high school and college. When the wife and I realized our shared love of the show, at least I knew we'd always have Joel, Tom Servo and Crow to fallback on during the blah moments in life.

Put simply, these guys are forced to watch the worst movies ever created, and they mock them throughout with snide comments and wisecracks. One of my favorites is Cave Dwellers (pronounced Cah-vey Dwellers) but another is Mitchell, starring a bulbous Joe Don Baker. Here's some highlights from the MST3K treatment ("How do you like your scotch?" "By the quart!"). Brilliant.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Saturday, January 14, 2012

My Christmas Surprise

Among the gifts I got for Christmas this season, one stands out for its surprise and its deeper connection than the gift-giver ever thought possible.

My wife's family are proud trollers of the antique/consignment/Goodwill market. Her mother even proudly boasts that I should get into it as well, since there are fewer "greener" things I could do than support the purchase of things that already exist therefore I don't have to resource-wasting "new-ness." This doesn't mean buying a bunch of obvious crap. It's more about taking the time to find the hidden gems.

The wife's aunt did exact that when she presented me with this framed LeRoy Nieman poster for the 2000 PGA Championship in Louisville. She said she got it because it was a great steal of a price (under $10), knows I love golf and figured it was a poster from Nieman, a immensely popular American artist, from an event held in Louisville, so she figured, 'Why not?'

Her aunt could never have known, but this poster is perfect. Perfect because it recalls one of the last great memories I have of my dad. He and I spent five days walking around the grounds of Valhalla Golf Club watching some golf, talking about UK basketball, talking about whatever, sometimes not talking at all and instead just enjoying the walk.

We sat at the top of a hill along the 9th green where from there you could actually watch the action on four other holes, making it a sweet view for lots of action. We watched golfers play every shot of the 9th, and we talked strategy of where guys should play certain approach shots because after 8 hours at one spot you saw just about good and bad shot imaginable, even from pros. My dad volunteered at the event, which meant he got to sidle up along a sorts of pros (there exists a picture of my dad with Jack Nicklaus – only one of the happiest days of his life - but I can't find a copy of it) and get us into all the good hospitality tents.

Each day we sat at a different spot on the course, taking in as much as we could, and when we did follow players around the course to watch them play a few holes in a row, it was always his favorite guys like Nick Faldo or Paul Azinger. My dad was not a Tiger Woods fan, but when he went 7-under on the final 11 holes during Sunday's final round, even he was impressed. When Bob May forced a playoff, we sat on the edge of the 18th green and I listened to the first two holes of the playoffs on a portable radio and relayed the happenings to the 80 people who could hear me out of the thousands huddled around the green. When Tiger hit that huge put on 17 (3:14 mark of this video - No. 2 moment, and we were there), the waves of cheers could be heard from places on the course I didn't even know there was a course.

It was a great week, not that I had ever forgotten it. But it took a surprise Christmas gift from an unlikely source to bring me back to that good time, and now I get to remember it all the time. Perfect.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Trailer Love

Time for a couple trailers for movies I am looking forward to seeing.

Moonrise Kingdom is the real gem of this bunch. It's the return of one of my favorite directors, Wes Anderson, he of Rushmore, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Royal Tenenbaums and Life Aquatic fame. My joy runneth over watching this trailer.



The Dark Knight Rises. Nothing more needs to be said. Ever.



Prometheus is the return of Ridley Scott to his Alien days. He denies it's an Alien prequel, but I've read about 26 websites that have broken this trailer down second by second and detailed how the famed director has to be either lying out his ass or this is the biggest lie to viewers since "The Killing." I'm hoping it's the former.



Chronicle is a "found footage" movie about some teens who suddenly discover they are developing superpowers. I loathe found footage movies. Blair Witch was great because it was the real groundbreaker, and Cloverfield was a solid experiment with the monster genre, but I'd say everything else is total shite. Can't stand them, which gives me pause about Chronicle. I'm not saying I'll spend movie ticket money on it, but I'll at least make sure I move it to the top of the Netflix list when it comes out.



The Apple Pushers is the first of my two documentary films. This one looks promising because it's narrated by Edward Norton, and is about getting healthy food to inner-city and impoverished people who normally have to subsist on crap. So I'm thinking good things for this one.



The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is the second doc, and this one is about St. Louis' attempt to build a housing development of the future and instead it turned into a complete urban nightmare. I read a paper about this in college, so I'm interested to see how this turns out.

Friday Funnies

Heard the news this week that Mad Men was finally returning after an almost 18 month hiatus. Got me excited about seeing the Silver Fox back in action, drinking in the office and making hilariously inappropriate remarks.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

My Prodigal Sandwich


This is one of my favorite sandwiches ever, but something I haven't had in more than six years. It's a simple tuna fish sandwich. A little celery, some arugula and a slice of cheese on toasted bread. Yum. The wife loathes the smell of tuna fish, so she banned tuna fish from the house. Harsh, I know. She rules the house with a Prussian-like intensity. It's been a long hiatus, but I finally convinced her that her fiat dictatorship cannot stand. So I brought tuna fish back, and the first bite was delicious. I'll be having many more of these, trust me. Welcome back, tuna fish.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Friday, January 6, 2012

Friday Funnies

One of the viewing pleasures of my life returns tonight. Season 2 of Portlandia premieres this evening and believe me the DVR is set for "funny." Been excited for this since they announced the new season. Here's a clip from the first season that was a solid 8.5 on the funny scale.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

My Pet Peeve

This afternoon I ducked out of the office for lunch and saw a guy (not the dude pictured, he's just a mere representative of my ire) running shirtless down the street.

It's fucking 28 degrees outside and this Ivan Drago wannabe is suddenly the strongest, bravest man on the planet? Sorry, I'm not buying. And my bigger gripe is that I really hate shirtless runners.

It makes no sense, people. Only if you are literally running on the surface of the sun am I OK with shirtless running. And it won't matter if you're wearing a shirt or not because you're on the fucking sun and probably have bigger problems to worry about. I'll allow it on beaches because it's a beach and shirtless movement is expected. But come on, shirtless in downtown DC?

It has nothing to do with going bare-chested in the winter, I'm against the practice in all seasons. We live in a world where Nike and Adidas and so on make fabrics that wick sweat and weigh less than a single Kleenex but you're worried about being too hot? We live in a world where I'm going to with full confidence that no girl, not one, is suddenly glancing at you and either stopping the car to talk to you or remembering you more than 30 seconds later. Plus, no matter how good you think you look, your behavior is only encouraging less-attractive joes from nixing the shirt and scaring us all for life.

We live in a world where not even Rocky and Apollo would run shirtless (and they're on a beach in one of the most homoerotic scenes in cinematic history), and if the man who single-handedly crushed Communism runs with a shirt on, you should as well.

So stop with the shirtless running, fellas. It's a waste of time, it's accomplishes zero for you other than looking like a prima donna jackass, and it's a pet peeve I really hate having.

Monday, January 2, 2012

What I've Read: 99 Drams of Whiskey

I picked up this book for two reasons. 1) It was part of a "buy 2, get 1 free" when the Borders down the street was having a closeout sale; 2) It is about whiskey.

I'm becoming ever-more enamored with whiskey, and more specifically, bourbon. Sure, I loved drinking the stuff when I was in college, and I have fond memories of standing next to my father every Saturday night at the drug store buying my grandmother another 750 of Heaven Hill. But I'm now trying to gain an even greater appreciation for the aqua vitae.

Written by some girl who has a blog that's apparently rather popular (I've still never read a word on it), this book is also really two tales in one: 1) A travel book about the author and her friend as they travel through Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Tennessee tasting numerous whiskies from those areas (some you know, others I had never even heard of); and 2) An uber-brief history of whiskey, a kind of Whiskey for Dummies.

It's an enjoyable read if you breeze through the travel section parts and ignore that the author is somehow a popular blogger but has no idea of how to work various other forms of technology, or seems to not possess much in what we'd call streets smarts. The beginning of the book starts off well in the travel department, but by the middle I found myself rolling my eyes every time she talked about the troubles she had driving.

The whiskey history part is decent, but after reading 700 pages about Prohibition, her 12-page chapter about Prohibition seemed a bit lacking in the detail department. Clearly she's writing for the In Style magazine crowd. But once she stepped foot onto distilleries and started breaking down the whiskey tours and the multitude of whiskies she drank, I was left with my mouth drooling in need of a glass of the amber goodness. I wished she had written up more distilleries and sampled more, but she was under a tight deadline to get as much accomplished as possible. There were just times when she sampled one whiskey but mentioned the greatness of five or six others that she gave no detail about, leaving me wanting more information.

But, really, the greatest knowledge derived from this book was the reinforcement from numerous whiskey "experts" that repeated a familiar theme: That finding the best whiskey or bourbon is not about participating in hundreds of blind tastings or controlled drinking experiments in a vacuum (all good to do these, mind you, if you have the money and time). No, the real key is finding what tastes best to you, brand or price or setting be damned. It's about creating memories through which, in my case, this beautiful glass of liquor hailing from my home state is but a player in the great game of life. A drink that is along for the ride, and through which the mere mention of Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek, Old Pappy, Rowan's Creek, Blanton's, Old Willet or a thousand other great ones on the market conjures up a wonderful memory to savor for a lifetime. And this is just one reason why I am swimming in the deep end of my obsession with bourbon, and loving every minute of it.