Day: May 26, 2005

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So, Spurs wants a look at my movie collection

Coyses! Tagged again!  🙂
 
Spurs, sitting in over at Sissy’s old place (though I understand she’s making noises about guests and old fish–heh) tagged me with the movie meme tag thingy, so here goes, Spurs.  you asked for it.
 
1. The number of DVD’s I own:
 
Hard one. :-) Five. (My wife owns more–and hers are relatively recent flicks.  Mine are all old movies–EARLY Scarlet Pimpernel, some Bob Hope/Bing Crosby “Road” flicks, etc. 😉
2. The last DVD I bought:
 
A Mannheim Steamroller Christmas DVD. Can’t even say the title. I’m more impressed with the MS CDs.
3. The last DVD I watched:
 
Hard to recall. We watch mostly videotapes, cos we mostly rent for one-time viewings and out local Third World County™ video store has difficulty getting their investment out of DVDs cos of the rough treatment they recieve. So, last movie/DVD I know I viewed (as DVD) Parts of Star Wars Eisodes I & II.  Memory kicked in. Last moview viewed front to back: National Treasure.  Nicholas Cage as a cut-rate Indiana Jones character. Yawn.
4. 5 movies that  I watch a lot or mean a lot to me I like:
 
Have to go with favs here, cos few movies mean much to me and I don’t do repeats of many movies at all. So, in no particular order:
 
Matilda. 
 
Surprised?  Don’t be. I like this movie enough that my daughter gave me the Roald Dahl book for my birthday.  Love the book. Still, Mara Wilson was delightful in this movie. De-light-ful. I have watched this one several times, and, yeh, eventually I’ll end up buying it.
 
 

I’ve only linked “Fellowship” here, but they’re all good. I first read LOTR in 1967 (late bloomer), and it is an enduring fav.  Was in the top ten on a waiting list in a major metro area for The Silmarillion when it was published in 1977, and have read everything by Tolkien I can get my hands on. So, even though the movies took some (probably necessary, though disappointing) liberties with the books (Where’s Tom Bombadil???), they were still wonderful versions of the Tolkien epic.
 
Die Hard II—and for those who know me, no surprise.  Silly plot.  So-so acting. Nice filming (though continuity is… not good). but what sells it to me is Finlandia played when the planes are landing.  heh  I love that scene… cos Finlandia was perfect for it. And cos Finlandia was THE piece of music that
 
 
“hooked” me on music.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bean What can I say? Rowan Atkinson is the physical comedy champ of this millennium.  He saves an otherwise flat and nondescript movie from oblivion through his genius.
 
 
 
 
 
Name any Jackie Chan movie. If it at least has English dubbed, I’ve watched it.  And I’d be likely to watch it again.
 
5. Tag 5 others
 
Tagging… man.  This is the part I hate. I’ll update as folks agree to serve…
 
Update #1: Richard, over at Random Rambling, tagged himself off this post last night.  What a mensch.  Here’s his post.
 
Update #2: Christine, of Morning Coffe & Afternoon Tea, knocks back a twofer with A Carnival and a Meme. Commented on the Carnival of the Recipes #41 and then knocked off the movie meme-ish thingy. If she’d fit one more topic in she’d have had a hat trick.
 

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It’s no “Wind in the Willows”

Miss Mousy wasn’t home, so…
 
Last minute jitters.  For so long he’d pretended her zaftig form and coy charm (not to mention her cute drill sergeant’s parade-ground voice) held no real appeal for him. 
 
But he could no longer deny his feelings. *sigh*  He knew she cared for him, too—well, as much as she could care for anyone but herself.  Yes, he knew her faults, but he no longer cared. 
 
At last, he’d asked her out and she’d accepted (of course–she’d only been waiting and waiting… :-).  Now, if only he’d had something other than this old green suit…  Oh well.  Maybe the chocolates would distract her.
 
She’s opening the door.  Oh, no! She’s looking at the suit. No! It’s the chocolates!
 
“Kermit, you shouldn’t have!” she proclaims disingenuously.
 
Good. Chocolates were the right opener.
 
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
[Yeh, I know this is violates continuity in the Muppet World.  So?]
 
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Brain Wave

Shades of Poul Anderson…
 
Reading this article in New Scientist, I flashed on Poul Anderson’s Brain Wave. (Who can explain how memory works?) The article, “11 steps to a better brain,” traces eleven things you can do to increase your mental acuity.
 
Hmmm… doesn’t praise coffee highly enough (or really, at all).  Oh, well, it was a pleasant thought. As a country, however, we could substantially raise the IQ of our society as a whole by throwing out all professors of education and public school administrators.
 
It’d be a start…
 
h.t. to Ed, a correspondent on Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor in Perspective, Current Mail.
 
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One of the chief problems of civilization…

…is not what you may think
 
Yes, America as a bulwark of Western Civilization is in danger.  Yes, our society appears to be crumbling from within—schools become prisons for kids while politics, law, the arts and even science seem to be succombing to savagery, stupidity and banality.
 
But all of those signs and symptoms of a dying civilization pale in comparison to the horror (the horror!) I am about to bring to your attention.  This problem is ubiquitous in our society.  It is evidence of evil incarnate walking—or more rightly, driving—the planet. 
 
It is the 99 out of 100 licensed, bone-uh-fied drivers on our streets and highways who have less intelligence—collectively!—than God gave a head of cabbage.
 
(With apologies to cabbages worldwide for the association.)
 
What depraved indifference to a civil society, to the travails of Western Civilization itself, causes governmental bodies to give these cretins license to drive a motor vehicle?  How can so much evidence of a society peopled by those who switch off whatever few brain cells they have and drive in a persistent vegetative state be ignored?  How can a society survive when such idiots are allowed on the highways, instead of being planted (alive or dead, I care not) in a corn field somewhere, where at least they might do some good as fertilizer?
 
Mark it well. It is the end of civilization, my friends. Slow-moving roadblocks and speeding unguided missles on the highways are signs of the same rot at the heart of our society.  And I fear it is too late.
 
(Yes. You got it in one.  I renewed my drivers license today.  For six years.  It is too late, indeed.)
 
Joust the Facts has a post in a similar vein. His observations are a little more finely focused, however:
“…It occurred to me that the bluest of blue states seem to correlate quite well with the worst of the worst driver states.  Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington, DC, Maryland, California, Connecticut were the bottom eight, and all very blue in the last two elections.  Coincidence?  I think not.”
No argument here, though it’s been over 30 years since I wantered into those strange lands…

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Carnival of Comedy 5

‘Tis a poor thing, but my own…
 
Yeh, I tossed my poor lil entry into the pool of participants in this week’s Carnival of Comedy.  Someone, please throw it a rope, please?  Meanwhile, check all the other entries out.  Some funny stuff there. (And then there’s my post.  Oh. Well. 🙂
 
 
Go ahead, say it three times really fast. Easy, huh?  Now try this one:
 
Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread.
 
Harder, isn’t it, smartypants?
 
OK, this one:
 
Three free throws. Three free throws. Three free throws.
 
I thought so.  I’d better give you the easy one again:
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