It's a glow-in-the-dark compass ring. So you don't get lost. -Big (1988)

1. What did Colonel Jack D. Ripper mix with his pure grain alcohol?

2. Who Oscared as Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire?

3. Who won an Oscar nomination for best actress for her role as Margo Channing in All About Eve?

4. What Tracy-Hepburn film was billed as the hilarious answer to "who wears the pants"?

5. What was Woody Allen's reply in Sleeper to the question: "You mean you haven't had sex in 200 years?"?

ETA: Answers in comments.

Everybody's born knowing all the Beatles lyrics instinctively.

They're passed into the fetus subconsciously along with all the amniotic stuff. Fact, they should be called "The Fetals". -Sliding Doors (1998)

Apparently the last great frontier of digital music is The Beatles.

"The Beatles are really the holy grail for digital music, said Aram Sinnreich, a professor at New York University's department of media culture and communications and managing partner of Radar Research LLC, a media consulting firm. "They have not been available legally from any digital music service to date. Once they are, I think it confers the sense that digital music has finally arrived in the mainstream."

Sure, I'll agree with that. This pronouncement, not so much:

"There's no question that there is a massive demand for the Beatles through a digital channel," Sinnreich said, "not only from baby boomers, who would replace the CDs they used to replace their LPs, but also from today's college students, who demonstrate continued interest in the band despite the fact that it's their grandparents' music."

The first thing is how absurd it would be to replace your CDs with digital downloads: 1. It's expensive, 2. CDs are higher quality/bitrate, 3. Apple makes it insanely easy to copy the CDs you have if you only stick them in the CD drive and hit a button.

The second thing, I wonder if they'll restrict certain groupings of songs to album only purchases. Like the first two songs of Sgt. Pepper, or the last half of Abbey Road. Time will tell, but as you might guess, I won't be buying my Beatles digitally.

Paul McCartney seems resigned to the idea of digital music though. When interviewed on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic:

To me, it doesn't really matter, it's however people want to take the music--to me it's the music that matters. You know, it's probably better if they listen to the vinyl, but how many people are going to do that these days? It's kind of inconvenient. It probably is the best sound, if you're going to be a hi-fi nut. That's actually probably the best way to do it. I don't care though, however people want to do it.

You can listen to the whole live show and interview here, it's well worth it.

There is no spoon. -The Matrix (1999)

1. Who portrayed The Ugly in The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly?

2. What was Gene Kelly's occupation in the 1951 classic An American In Paris?

3. What 1957 film had the line: "Easy enough to talk of soul and spirit and essential worth, but not when you're three feet tall"?

4. What co-star of Shane died at 30 when he slammed his van into the side of a truck in Lakewood, Colorado, in 1972?

5. What was Brian's last name in Monty Python's Life Of Brian?

ETA: answers in the comments.

Don't Panic.

#20: The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, by Douglas Adams.

I've known that 42 is the ultimate answer since I was seven, along with the every line from Monty Python And The Holy Grail, because I lived in the same house with my middle brother. So it was about time I actually got around to reading the book--my middle childhood makes so much more sense now. The 2005 movie was pretty good, but the book is comic genius. What P.G. Wodehouse novels are to the English novel, Douglas Adams is to the science fiction novel. Science fiction is normally not a genre I gravitate to, but I would recommend this, only because if you like sci-fi then this is up your alley and if you don't you can view the whole book as a satire of the classic sci-fi novel, so you can't lose. On that note, so long and thanks for all the fish.

You have another question? Sure, I got one question for you. It's CAN YOU DEAL WITH THAT? -Meet The Parents (2000)

Now that the internet problems at chez 57 have been resolved 1001 Movies trivia can post on schedule:

1. What did the blind flower girl throw in The Little Tramp's face in City Lights?

2. Who played gay desparado Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon?

3. What did Harold Chasen convert his Jaguar into in Harold And Maude?

4. What 1974 Jack Nicholson film was set in 1937?

5. What famed Paris restaurant was Vincente Minnelli's 1958 musical Gigi partly set in?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Sprechen Sie Daytshish?

When I took German in college, little did I know it would come in handy for reading a murder-mystery set in a fictional Jewish refugee colony in Alaska. That's right, it's book update time once again. I'm pretty far behind on posting about my reading progress, but I'll try to get it under control over the next few weeks.

#19: The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon.
This is the first book I've read by Michael Chabon (I know, I'm apparently the only one who hasn't read The Amazing Adventure's of Kavelier And Clay). Coming off a Dashiell Hammett's complete novels this book was a little bit flat for me as a genre book. It came really close to working for me, but was a little bit short in a few areas. I really liked the Yiddish for the first third of the book, after that it started to seem a little gimmicky. I also really liked the plot for the first third and the last third of the book, the middle was slow and not helped by my sudden irritation with the unblent Yiddish. That being said, knowing German added another layer to the characterizations for me. Since a good bit of Yiddish is the phonetic spelling of the German word (how you can be more phonetic than German I don't know), or just the German word, I was amused to find that the main character's ex-wife has the last name Gelbfish, or yellow fish. My favorite Yiddish transformation is familiar to most bagel-eaters of the northeast: lox = lachs = salmon. You can translate from Yiddish to English as much as you want here.

Ray. If someone asks if you are a god, you say, "yes!" -Ghostbusters (1984)

Movie trivia time...

1. What film had Sugar claiming she always got "the fuzzy end of the lollipop"?

2. What was the theme song for The Grapes Of Wrath?

3. What 1936 Charlie Chaplin film ended with the title card: "Buck up. Never say die. WE'LL GET ALONG"?

4. Who played teenage hooker Iris in Taxi Driver?

5. Where did Cary Grant meet Deborah Kerr in An Affair To Remember?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Baby needs a blog name

I was doing so well with my plan to post on a regular basis, and then life intervened. My excuse for last week: Had to study for a professional test at work (pretty good, huh?). My excuse for every day after last Friday? Life really did intervene, new life that is. My first niece was born on Friday, and well, she's cuter than you are. We can already tell she's gonna be a heart-breaker. She will be affectionately known as niece57 in these parts, and she started owning that name when she was born at 8:57 a.m. I am looking forward to my new role as 'the cool aunt' and the ability/excuse to buy children's toys , clothing, and books. (Look, a whole outfit for just 9.95!) I can now buy this for my own fridge...I'll just tell everyone my niece was over.

Hey, wasn't I just there...?

I saw The Bourne Ultimatum tonight, which was a great, great end(?) to the trilogy. I saw the second installment in the trilogy (The Bourne Supremacy) in the week between my summer living in Germany and returning to graduate school. As you may recall, much of the film took place in Berlin. I had spent several days in Berlin while in Germany and it was pretty awesome to recognize so many of the locations on the big screen. A true 'Hey, wasn't I just there' moment. The same held true for parts of the third film tonight. Without giving away any major plot points, parts of the film take place in Tangier, Morocco and on a ferry going over from Spain. Once again I thought, 'Hey, wasn't I just there'?

This is one of the few action series where I hope they make another one, but only if they can get Matt Damon to play the lead. People probably felt the same way when Bond switched from Connery to Lazenby (I blame the ruffled shirts for the how bad the film is) and then from Connery to Moore, but Bond seems to me to be more about the position than the person (007 number, high-tech gadgets, and hot women). Bourne rarely uses technology outside of what he comes across, gets by on hand to hand contact and evasive speed, and doesn't have a woman in every...location. So I'm not sure that the series can work if the actor is changed. We'll see what I happens I guess.

Your first concert in years and you wear odd shoes. -Shine(1996)

1. Who did a 14-year-old Andy Williams dub [parts of] the singing for in To Have And To Have Not?

2. What 1934 Dashiell Hammett inspired film was shot in 16 days by director W.S. Van Dyke, known as One-Take Woody?

3. Who played Rufus T. Firefly in Duck Soup?

4. What was the baby in Bringing up Baby?

5. What was the last line of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Turn! Turn! Turn!

Fall has arrived, inside my mailbox at least. Catalogues filled with fall clothing have started to pour in, just in time for August's humid ninety degree days. I understand of course, it's back-to-school shopping season. After 20 years of conditioning, I'm hard-wired to expect summer to end the third week in August, or Labor day at the very latest. Two years off isn't enough time to be reconditioned. I figure I'll be over it by the time my hypothetical future children are ready for school, thus ensuring that I won't fully recover until I'm well into my AARP years. I am ready for fall though- I want to wear sweaters again dammit! Also, I miss college football and scripted prime time television. But that is still weeks away, which means that the 'Fall Story' JCrew catalogue that came last week only made my summer ennui worse last weekend. This of course is a mood that makes me want to watch Pride and Prejudice (the 5 hour BBC miniseries no less!) and knit. Both of which I did; it helped enormously. Topping things off, the JCrew catalogue was insidiously full of sweaters that had been photographed in an historic Boston library. Nothing sells sweaters like books. Seriously. That's just mean. I love sweaters almost as much as I like books and libraries. So, inevitably, I had to order a sweater because by the time it is sweater weather they will be selling swimming suits and shorts again. To everything there is a season.


If you like looking at other people's libraries as much as I do:
The Your Home Library Project
Celebrities' bookshelves
Flickr Bookshelf Pool pictures

I just want to move ahead, I just want to free myself - but it's a struggle

Recently, like others around this part of the internet (Built On A Dare & Mommy Tracks) I started running again on a semi-frequent basis. I was a long-distance runner in highschool and continued to run on and off throughout college. The last two years...nada. This, however, is the first time I've consistently run since I've owned an ipod. I have 3 requirements for a song to make the running playlist:

1: tempo, the most important thing, nothing slow or erratic.
2: no long intros.
3: it's gotta have lyrics.

Here's the playlist I've been using thus far:

Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield
Tears Of Pearls, Savage Garden
Suzie, Boy Kill Boy
One girl revolution, Superchic[k]
Sunshine Superman, Donovan
Sunshine Lollipops & Rainbows, Lesley Gore
Summer Of '69, Bryan Adams
Struggle, Ringside
Sinner Man, Nina Simone
Seventh Son, Johnny Rivers
Secret Agent Man, Johnny Rivers
Runnin' Down a Dream, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Red Staggerwing, Mark Knopfler/Emmylou Harris
Rebel Rebel, David Bowie
Out of Control, She Wants Revenge
Need You Tonight, INXS
Naturally, Middle Distance Runner
Mrs. Potter's Lullaby, Counting Crows
Midnight Special, Johnny Rivers
Memphis, Johnny Rivers
Mellow Yellow, Donovan
Le Disko, Shiny Toy Guns
Just Like Heaven, The Cure
Jet Airliner, Steve Miller Band
Jerk It Out, Caesars
I Want You, Savage Garden
I Can't Get Next to You, The Temptations
Holiday, Green Day
Perfect Day, Hoku
Here It Goes Again, OK Go
Happy Jack, The Who
Hammer To Fall, Queen
Go Tell The World, Joy Zipper
Friday I'm in Love, The Cure
Fortunate Son, Creedence Clearwater Revival
Cobrastyle (featuring Mad Cobra), Teddybears
Clocks, Coldplay
Charlotte, Air Traffic
The Boy from New York City, The Ad Libs
Born to Be Wild, Steppenwolf
Blankest Year, Nada Surf
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, KT Tunstall
Beautiful Life, Ace of Base
Bang a Gong (Get It On), T. Rex
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You, The Monkees

I don't, apparently, require motivational lyrics as some of these choices make evident.

Well, everyone knows Custer died at Little Bighorn. What this book presupposes is... maybe he didn't. -The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Trivia questions are back...in case you were waiting.

1. What 1974 film was set in part before the Kefauver Committee in the Senate caucus room?

2. Whose poem inspired production of 1939's Gunga Din?

3. What Walt Disney film was originally titled The Sorceror's Apprentice, then renamed Concert Feature?

4. Who directed Red River?

5. Who played the nasty Noah Cross in Chinatown?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?

To explain my blog silence, I suppose I should tell you what I've been doing. It's summertime and my brain just doesn't seem to want to be serious or focus, a symptom of having spent more years in school than out I suppose. But, I did go on vacation for a week, co-host a baby shower for my brother and his wife, and read the latest and last installment of the Harry Potter series. I finished Sunday evening. I kept meaning to post something, but things kept coming up and the summertime lazies infected me. I'm back though, and better than ever. I'll try to get the movie trivia started again tomorrow, and update my book progress, and format those pesky travel photos...sometime this week*. I promise.

*this week may be interpreted as any time in the next seven days...

Day #185

The year is slightly more than halfway over now, so it seems like a good time to do a progress report. In the 50 books project I am currently reading number 23, Jeeves In The Offing. My 1001 movies number stands at 226, which means I've seen 59 since I started blogging about it back in March. I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to finish my 50 books for the year, and I'm sure I'll pass 250 movies, if not closer to 300. Happy 4th of July!

Once I get inside and hit these air conditioners I get a little dizzy. -Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

The quote I really wanted to use, but is too long for a blogger title:
-First of all, don't make fun of the weather here, and don't say the weather is the same all the time here. Because it's not. In fact, it's two degrees colder today than yesterday.
-Two degrees colder, me without my muff.


1. What film did Alfred Hitchcock make twice?

2. What actor's arms did Frank Sinatra die in, in From Here To Eternity?

3. What 1970 war epic ended with the line: "All glory is fleeting"?

4. Who sang Put the Blame on Mame in Gilda?

5. What film concerned the first murder in the annals of Sparta, Mississippi?

ETA: Answers, finally, in the comments.

# 18: Out of Africa

Out Of Africa by Isak Dineson (Karen Blixen) is a memoir of a time and a place that don't exist anymore: European colonial Africa. This is one instance though where I was glad that I saw the movie movie before reading the book, in order to have a visual sense of the scenery. The movie is vastly different than the book because it is based on the life of Karen Blixen as opposed to what is in the memoir, which has sketches of life in Africa, no mention of her husband, and stories about her 'friend' Denys Finch-Hatton. What makes this book worth reading is Karen Blixen's ability to describe what it is to be a stranger in a strange land who suddenly feels at home there. When forced to leave Kenya at the end of the book she writes about how it feels to leave a place you have been of, rather than just in:

I was the last person to realize that I was going. When I look back upon my last months in Africa, it seems to me that the lifeless things were aware of my departure a long time before I was so myself. The hills, the forests, plains and rivers, the wind, all knew that we were to part. When I first began to make terms with fate, and the negotiations about the farm were taken up, the attitude of the landscape towards me changed. Till then I had been part of it, and the drought had been to me like a fever, and the flowering of the plain like a new frock. Now the country disengaged itself from me, and stood back a little, in order that I should see clearly and as a whole.

I've experienced a similar feeling when leaving a place that had become home without realizing it, and never would have expressed the feeling this elegantly or perfectly. These places, my college town and the cities of my internships, I don't think I truly saw until I was leaving them.

The other nice thing about seeing the movie first: its nice to have Robert Redford as the idea of what Denys looks like when reading about a character for whom little physical description is given. Substitute a young Meryl Streep for the narrator if that is your persuasion.

To make yard-long green bean soup, first you must have some yard-long green beans.

It's been a busy week at work and elsewhere, but thankfully it is now over. This weekend I planted seeds in the garden for basil, chives, and yard-long green beans. The Basil, because I have a problem paying the high prices in the grocery store for the fresh stuff and so many summer recipes require it. The chives just because. The yard-long green beans because a long time ago (maybe 15 years) I saw and episode of Yan Can Cook with my brother in which he made yard-long green bean soup. It was the funniest cooking show we had ever seen, if only because Yan cannot say "r"'s very well and it sounded sort of like 'yawd-long gween-bean' soup. Only he said it really fast..over and over again. Here's what youtube digs up for Yan:



Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to make some yard-long green bean soup for myself.

Change the title. It sounds too much like a beer.

The above, written by a Warner Brothers publicist in a studio memo just before the 1942 world premiere of Casablanca.

CBS is airing the new American Film Institute 100 years...100 films results tomorrow from 8 to 11. Of the old list I've seen 71. Of the 400 films on the ballot, I've seen 178. The criteria, in addition to the requirements of being a narrative over 60 minutes in length and having significant creative or production elements from the United States, that the jurors are asked to judge the films on are: Critical Recognition, Major Award Winner (Awards), Popularity Over Time, Historical Significance, and Cultural Impact.

Comparing the old list to this criteria, it's easy to see why some of the more controversial choices end up in the 100 films list. The Birth Of A Nation isn't going to do well under in the popularity over time category--but, it is a significant film in the other categories, it introduced new techniques for camera shots, action sequences, and film editing. Are its technical merits enough to overcome the actual content of the story being told? I'm not sure, I haven't seen this film yet, though I will since it's part of the 1001 MYMSBYD. It should probably stay on the list only because it was the first feature length American film, and only for that reason. We'll find out tomorrow.

Tuesday night's plastic corrosion awareness meeting, was I think, a big success. -Toy Story (1995)

It's trivia time once again, on schedule for once! (Question, is it still a schedule if it rarely follows it? This of course akin to the age old, if a tree falls in the forest...)

1. What was blown up in Blow-Up?

2. What Fellini film opened with a helicopter lifting a statue of Christ out of Rome?

3. What medal was Raymond Shaw awarded in The Manchurian Candidate?

4. What Bogart film was so complicated that the director said: "Neither the author, the writer nor myself knew who had killed whom"?

5. What did Clark Gable call the sheet he strung up between him and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night?

ETA: Answers in the comments

generation whY?

It has come to my attention recently that I may be classified as a member of Gen Y. I might also be a member of Gen X. Apparently being born in 1980 puts me with one foot in X and one foot in Y. While I remember the Challenger explosion (I was 5, and shuttle launches were sufficiently exciting to be watched on television at school), a defining moment according to wikipedia (if it's on wikipedia it must be right!), I probably don't have much in common with those born in the 1960's. Luckily I miss being a Millenial by 2 years by graduating from highschool in 1998. Luckily, because the word Millenial is annoying and kind of sticky. Luckily, because even though I went to school with people that graduated from highschool after 1999 there's a sense of difference that a change in the century made. Maybe it was their denial about when the new century actually started...who knows, hey they got the nice round number and the lack of leap year. Whatever it is, I'm glad I'm not one. But, I also don't feel like a founding member of Gen Y. I suppose my identity issues stem from my two brothers, who are rightful members of Gen X. This is who I am, the younger sister of Gen X. And I'm okay with that.

Yeah but when Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't start to eat the people. -Jurassic Park (1993)

To make up for missing last weeks installment:
9 questions with numbers for answers, 1 with a number in the question...

1. How many lines did Dumbo have in the Disney animated film Dumbo?

2. How many horse drew the buck in Stagecoach?

3.What percent of the action in Springtime for Hitler was sold in The Producers?

4. How many Von Trapp children were there in The Sound Of Music?

5. How many months did Henry Higgins give himself to make a lady of Eliza in My Fair Lady?

6. How many biplanes shot down King Kong in 1933?

7. What stretch of time was Cool Hand Luke sentenced to?

8. How many members of the commando force survived the assault on the bridge on the River Kwai?

9. How many broke out, however briefly, in The Great Escape?

10. What film saw Bud Baxter stuck in Section W, Desk 861, of the Ordinary Policy Department?

ETA: Answers in comments

He's not like anyone, they're all like him.

I recently finished reading Dashiell Hammett, The Complete Novels.
(#'s 13-17)
Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, The Thin Man

I ended up reading this book because I saw the Humphrey Bogart version of The Maltese Falcon because it was on the list 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. First, I've realized since starting the 1001 Movies project that Humphrey Bogart is amazing in everything (I've seen anyway). Now about the books...Hammett is credited with being the first hardboiled detective writer and had real world experience working for the Pinkerton detective agency before he started writing. I liked The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, and The Thin Man the best of the five.

If you've seen The Maltese Falcon, the book reads almost exactly like the movie-I'd be surprised if they made too many dialogue adjustments for the screenplay. The famous line at the end "The stuff that dreams are made of" was added though. The film version of The Thin Man was also made more humorous than the book as well-and lots more Asta was added (who can blame them?).

Now really about the books...In the notes of the version I have the editor points out that several of Hammett's novels started as a series of stories in magazines that were then modified to fit together as a novel. This is most obvious in The Dain Curse, but I didn't find it troublesome. Hammett was once quoted as saying that the Continental Op detective in the first two books was based on his partner at Pinkerton who taught him to be a detective and that Sam Spade was the kind of detective that all the detectives he worked with would've like to think they were. In contrast to the prevalent English literary detectives of his time, Hammett's detectives are all flawed and involved in the crimes they are trying to solve to the point of being suspected by the police at least once per novel, if not once per chapter. They aren't unreliable narrators though. The real reason to read Hammett however, other than being the first of his genre, are for his descriptions and the style of prose. For example, his description of Sam Spade:

Samuel Spade's jaw was long and bony, his chin a jutting v under the more flexible v of his mouth. His nostrils curved back to make another, smaller, v. His yellow-grey eyes were horizontal. The v motif was picked up again by thickish brows rising outward from twin creases above a hooked nose, in a point on his forehead. He looked rather pleasantly like a blond satan.

Or this description of Sam Spade's apartment:

Cold steamy air blew in through two open windows, bringing with it half a dozen times a minute the Alcatraz foghorn's dull moaning. A tinny alarm-clock, inseburely mounted on a corner of Duke's Celebrated Criminal Cases of America--face down on the table--held its hands at five minutes past two.

These aren't challenging reads, each novel runs about 180 pages in my edition, which I think is the only in print edition of his novels right now--and would make good "beach reading" though I'm not sure I would take this out by the water since it's a nice hardback novel with very thin 'dictionary' paper for the pages.

Life is like a movie. Only you can't pick your genre. -Scream (1996)

It's movie trivia time once again. As some of you may have noticed, or not noticed, I've been posting one question or post title quote for every movie in 1001 MYMSBYD that I've seen--no repeats so far. To keep track of this I added a column to my spreadsheet, which also allows me to count how many have been covered (after this post it's 57). I'm not sure what I'll do when I, inevitably, catch up to my watched movie total. I'm guessing repeats, maybe an all Casablanca week, although the accuracy of those answers doesn't have the best track record so far. Anyhow, that's a long way in the future because my watched movie number recently surpassed the 200 mark and now stands at 205. This gives me 24 and 2/3 weeks before I run out, assuming I stop watching movies now. It's nice to have some breathing room. So here's this weeks crop:

1. What was the name of Citizen Kane's castle?

2. What two words appeared on Regan MacNeil's body in The Exorcist?

3. What Casablanca cast member played Prince John in The Adventures of Robin Hood?

4. What film featured the line: "Fat man, you shoot a great game of pool"?

5. What 1930 movie ended with a soldier being shot dead as he reached out for a butterfly?

ETA: Answers in the coments

My vacation in photos

A couple of weeks have passed since I got back from vacation, and I'm finally getting around to organizing my photos. The photo slide-show is completed and comes in at 33 minutes. I used songs by Pink Martini, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Led Zeppelin, and Henry Mancini for the soundtrack. Here's a sampling, there's lots more here.

La Mezquita, Cordoba, Spain


Alhambra, Granada, Spain


Ronda, Spain


Tangier, Morocco

Movies I'll probably see in the theater this summer.

I couldn't think of a witty title, and I figured it was better to be direct than not funny. The summer movie season is just around the corner (Memorial Day to Labor Day), and I usually see more movies in the theater in the summer since TV is on a break. Here's what I'll probably see in the theater this summer:

1.Ocean's 13
-It opens just in time for Father's Day, and while the second was a far cry from the first, it was as good as alot of the other dreck that comes out.
Opening: June 1

2.Nancy Drew
-I loved the books when I was young, so I'll stop in and see how the modern Hollywood version turns out. I'm not sure the modernization will go well though, part of the charm was in the time period of the 1960's versions I read (although these were modernized from the original 1930's setting).
Opening: June 15

3.Ratatouille
-Pixar film about a gourmet rat living in a French restaurant- 'nuff said.
Opening: June 29

4.Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
-This will be hard to avoid, and good to see on a big screen.
Opening: July 13

5.No Reservations
-Rom-drom (com?) about a chef who becomes the guardian of her niece, and falls for another chef. Adapted from a German film, so its probably better than the cliche it sounds like; plus it stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Abigail Breslin.
Opening: July 27

6.The Bourne Ultimatum
-This is the film I'm most looking forward to seeing this summer.
Opening: August 3

7.Becoming Jane
-Supposed true story about Jane Austen's great love affair that inspired her novels. Stars Anne Hathaway.
Opening: August 3

Of course I'll still be working on my 1001 movies quest and see some others by chance. Is there anything I missed that I should see?

Do you think there's someplace where we can meet that's not in silence and not in sound? -Children Of A Lesser God (1986)

I think I'm back on my self-imposed schedule...for now.

1. Q: What film had William Holden saying of Faye Dunaway's character: "She learned life from Bugs Bunny"?

2. What Hitchcock film had Sean Connery trying to break the kleptomaniacal habits of his wife?

3. What Paul Newman-Robert Reford film offered the last line: "I'd only blow it"?

4. Which West Side Story gang boasted the members Baby John, A-Rab, Joy Boy, and Big Deal?

5. What playwright did Jack Nicholson portray in Reds?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Better late than not at all

Here's the movie trivia for this week:

1. Q: What Hitchcock film had the key to a wine cellar playing an important role in the plot?

2. Q: What was Mr. Deed's first name? (from Mr. Deed's Goes To Town)

3. Q: How many chariots start the race in 1959's Ben-Hur?

4. Q: What film had Bette Davis causing a ruckus at the Olympic Ball in New Orleans?

5. What 1940 film concerned the hectic 24-hour period before Tracy Lord's wedding?

I'll post the answers on Tuesday, and try to get back on track for posting new answers on wednesday. (fingers crossed)

ETA: Answers in the comments.

It was the Matryoshka doll of stories*

I'll update my 50 books progress today, before I get too far behind...

#9. The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood
Apr. 7-Apr. 15, 2007
This is the book the title of this post refers to. There are 4 nested stories in this book: 1) Newspaper reports about an important Canadian family. 2) A first person narrative by one of the members of the family, Iris, about her family and the circumstances surrounding the writing of a famous novel (called The Blind Assassin) by her sister. 3) The text of the novel. 4) And a story told by one the characters in the novel, about a blind assassin. The nested stories work together to reveal a mystery such that I was trying to piece together what really happened, and how it related to the novel, based on the different points of view. If I were giving gold stars, this would get 5 out of 5.

#10. Thank You, Jeeves
by P.G. Wodehouse
Apr. 15-Apr. 19, 2007
Bertie takes up the banjolele, which Jeeves hates, so Jeeves leaves his employment to work for one of his friends. Said friend is in love with Bertie's ex-fiancee, an American girl, whose father is considering buying the friends unwieldy estate and hates Bertie. They all end up on the estate together for a weekend. Hilarity ensues.

#11. Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
Apr. 20-May 5, 2007
This is one of the books that has sat on my shelves unread for over a decade--according to the front I paid $3.99 for it, probably in the mid-nineties. It was probably unread because I've seen a number of made-for-t.v. movies of it, so I knew the story, and didn't find it particularly motivating. But in an effort to keep my book-buying addiction in check, I'm trying to read the books I already have, so here I am. Well, this was a pretty sharp political satire dressed in an adventure story when it was published. I prefer my political satire to be funny too, though. I'd probably give this 3 stars, though they'd be the red ones, since this is a historically important book but not my particular cup of tea.

#12. The Polysyllabic Spree
by Nick Hornby
Apr. 26-Apr. 27, 2007
Speaking of buying too many books, this is a collection of columns from a magazine about Nick Hornby's book-buying addiction replete with books purchased and books actually read lists at the beginning of each column. He does better with reading the books he buys each month than I think I do, but I suspect he has more reading time too. As usual, he's funny and self-deprecating.

*yes I looked this up in wikipedia to see what the official name for Russian nested dolls was...fact-checking is the most frequent reason for the yawning space between posts here. I'll think, hey I should put something up about X, but then think of the research I would have to do to have an informed opinion about the topic, and by the time I get done the impulse has passed. C'est la vie.

The places I've been, the maps I've filled out

I've just returned from a week in Spain and a day in Morocco, and once I sort through the hundreds of pictures, I'll post a few here, because that is the point of blogging isn't it? To foist your vacation pictures on the unsuspecting few who stumble into it. Also, making the family members who didn't go on the trip sit through a 40 minute slideshow as pay back for the 40 minute slideshow of pictures from their vacation, hehehe. Until then, I came across this nifty mapping tool to color in the countries, states, etc. that I've been too.



Create your own visited country map here.

This trip brings my foreign country count to 8 (Mexico, Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Morocco). Nope, I haven't been to Canada yet, but I've seen it on several occasions. Also, I don't count landing in an airport as having been to a country/state, I'm a stickler on these things.

I came into this game for the action, the excitement. Go anywhere, travel light, get in, get out, wherever there's trouble, a man alone.-Brazil (1985)

I'm going on vacation today. I'll be gone for a week, so this is an expanded edition of movie trivia.

1. Whose giant door bore a sign reading: "Bell Out of Order, Please Knock"?
2. What Cary Grant film was about U.S. flyers in the Sout American port of Barranca?
3. What film offered the dying words: "Can you see the gray over there where our castle is? I'll wait for you until you come"?
4. Who played Paul Newman's younger brother in Hud?
5. What was the name of the inflatable automatic pilot in Airplane!? (spelling counts)
6. What film contained the line: "I'll live to seee you-all of you-hanging from the highest yardarm in the British fllet"?
7. What film had Dustin Hoffman say: "I'm sorry that I was late, but I was trying to make a living, okay?"?
8. What city was the setting for Garbo's Ninotchka?
9. What 1945 movie saw Ray Milland thrown out of a nightclub for stealing a woman's purse?
10. What allegedly drove Ben Gazzara to murder in Anatomy Of A Murder?

I'll post the answers when I get back.

ETA: Answers in the comments.

Spring!

Spring has finally arrived in Virginia, which means I take an obscene amount of flower pictures...

Tower, this is Ghost rider requesting a flyby. -Top Gun (1986)

I'm on airport shuttle duty for my parents tonight, so without further ado, the questions:

Q: What did Alvy Singer feel was the only cultural advantage California had over New York in Annie Hall?

Q: What was the pre-release title of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid?

Q: What Robert Altman film included 27 songs?

Q: What Hitchcock film opened at 3:15 p.m. in Davidson's Pet Shop?

Q: How many times did Indiana Jones lose his hat in Raiders Of The Lost Ark?

ETA: Answers now posted in the comments.

A sad, sad day

Today I experienced a profound loss due to the horrific deaths at Virginia Tech. I spent 7 years at Virginia Tech, some of the best and most life changing of my life. I lived on the 4th floor of West Ambler-Johnston my sophomore year, I had class in all of the classrooms on the second floor of Norris Hall. I could picture all of the locations, as events unfolded and were described in the news media- both television and print. The University is a part of my identity, and today it was attacked. My heart goes out to the students and families that are and will be more directly affected by this event than I. It will take a lot of courage to go back to class, I can't imagine what it will be like for the students and professors, I wish them all the courage they will need. From now on, this will be part of the collective identity of those associated with Virginia Tech-as Marshall in neighboring West Virginia, as Kent State in Ohio, and as Columbine in Colorado all know- and that is a sad realization for me. In the coming days and weeks and months anything good that happens at Virginia Tech will be overshadowed by this senseless tragedy, the successes of many will be colored by the act of one. If we've learned anything from September 11, 2001 though it is that we are resilient, that once we begin to heal time will fade the scars. Until then, courage. A Hokie forever, Anne

This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather. -Groundhog Day (1993)

I've found the self referential-possibly made up-question in the Silver Screen edition of Trivial Pursuit. Q: What game was invented 40 years to the day after the world priemere of Gone With The Wind? Now onto the more serious fare.

1. What 1972 movie ended with the line: "Andrew, don't forget-be sure to tell them it was just a bloody game"?

2. What two cities provided the settings for Meet Me In St. Louis?

3. What 1949 film's climax took place in the Vienna sewer system?

4. What film opened with William Holden floating face-down in a swimming pool?

5. How many screws unscrewed themselves from the floor grate in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind?

ETA: Answers in the comments.

The Big Book Post

The 50 books challenge/resolution has been around for a while...the basic idea being to read 50 books in one year...but it's new to me this year. I'm only sort of halfway going to do it though--we'll see how many I get to. Now that I've set the bar sufficiently low I'll get around to the books, it's week 15 and I'm woefully behind having made it through only 8 books so far. Number 5 is at fault for the behindedness.

#1. Death's Acre: Inside the Body Farm, the legendary forensic lab
by Bill Blass and Jon Jefferson
Jan.1-Jan.5, 2007
I read this book after being fascinated by Stiff: the Curious Lives of the Human Cadaver by Mary Roach over the summer. I don't have a weak stomach--at least when I'm reading--so I find this topic endlessly fascinating. This book had a nice blend of forensic problem solving, anthropology, biography, and scientific method.

#2. His Excellency: George Washington
by Joseph J. Ellis
Jan.5-Jan.18, 2007
The theme of this book was: George Washington had demons, flaws, and was generally human...these turned out to be a) He wanted power, but didn't want to appear to want power; b) He worried about what people thought of him; c) He married up (see social climber); d) He edited his diaries so as to look better in the eyes of history. Despite all the flaws, Ellis manages to make him sympathetic, if a little stiff. Ellis makes Washington look best when describing his presidency- that he knew he was setting precedents, and that the most important thing for the country was to manage to stay together. A good book even though the subject matter wasn't all that new.

#3. Life Of Pi
by Yann Martel
Jan.10-Jan.25, 2007
The first two-thirds were really good, then the ending fell apart. The writing was good enough to make an unbelievable plot seem possible, until (and this doesn't seem like a fair criticism for a fiction novel) he started making things up. The beauty of the first two thirds was that everything that happened seemed possible, albeit unlikely, then Martel broke a sort of pact I believe all author's have with the reader-he broke his own set of rules, or maybe just changed them to get out of the plot alive. Fantasy is great, but if you are going to start telling a story with a real life setting, and suddenly decide you need an algae island populated by meerkats that becomes poisonous after dark.

#4. George Washington
by James MacGregor Burnsand Susan Dunn
Jan.19-Feb.1, 2007
Nothing new, nothing surprising, but a good overview-you know if you have to write a 9th grade history paper.

#5. John Adams
by John Patrick Diggins
Feb.1-Feb.13, 2007
After reading the George Washington volume in this series I am glad I read the 'overview' book before I get to David McCullough's John Adams which I have on my pile to read. John Adams may have been the most underappreciated of the founding fathers-so I'm really interested in reading a more in depth book about him.

#6. The Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens
Jan.26-Mar.29, 2007
This book is the reason I'm so behind-because I felt like killing the main character through much of the book for being so naive. I liked Bleak House a great deal, so I had high hopes for this book. Also, it is given high praise in one of my favorite books Anne of the Island for all of the great food descriptions. I really liked Sam, which I suspect is the point- he was making fun of the upper and middle classes while the real intelligence is in the lower class hero. It was Dicken's first novel and alot of later themes are evident- the backwards legal system for example. I enjoyed reading the book when I was reading it, but wasn't motivated to pick it up most of the time because it lacked an overarching storyline that I was interested in finding out the resolution too.

#7. Pigs Have Wings
by P.G. Wodehouse
Mar.30-Apr.3, 2007
I realize by now I sound like I've hated every book I've read this year-although not true-the sound is about to change. P.G. Wodehouse is the master of the comic novel, sure you can see all or most the plot devices and twists coming, but the execution and language are so good it doesn't matter. If reading Dickens was like eating cold oatmeal then reading Wodehouse is like eating Pop Rocks. If you haven't read Wodehouse, then do it now, it doesn't matter which one.

#8. Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe
Apr.3-Apr.6, 2007
This book deserves its reputation for the last paragraph alone. The title of the book tells you what will happen, the anticipation is part of the beauty, the ending is the kick in the stomach. It is a surprisingly short book-an economic use of words as one review put it-just don't read the ending first.

I'm trying to understand our world. I don't deal with petty materialists like you. -Pi (1998)

It's movie trivia time again. Here's this weeks batch:

Titles
Q: What film had Peter Lorre saying to Bogie: "You will please clasp you hands together at the back of your neck"?

Q: What film did Alfred Hitchcock appear in, standing outside an office wearing a cowboy hat?

On Screen
Q: What television network did the astronauts watch their interview on in 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Q: How many jurors voted for a conviction on the first ballot in Twelve Angry Men?

Production
Q: Who was originally cast to play Ben's father in The Graduate?

When books and travel collide

Recently The Washington Post travel section had two articles on book related travel. The first is about the Library Hotel in Manhattan, a hotel with books in every room and room numbers based on the Dewey Decimal System. The second, is about bed and breakfast's with books in the rooms spread across the states. I like to travel, and I like to read, but I'm not sure I've reached the point where I want to go somewhere just to read. The Library Hotel seems like it would be fun to stay in, just to see what books were put in the particular subject of your room, but I doubt that I would actually read a book from the room while I was there. I'm a somewhat compulsive reader, and once I start a book I want to finish it. Plus, if I go somewhere, I usually want to see the place- not that I don't read on vacation- but I'm probably going to bring my own reading material. I like that there is this option though. Finally, the spring book preview. I don't read too many books as soon as they come out, but of this list I'll probably eventually read (like in 3 years...) Generation Loss, by Elizabeth Hand and Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, by Robert Dallek. Note, a login id is required for washingtonpost.com, but it's free and no one is stopping you from making up an identity just for them.

I like to look for things no one else catches. I hate the way drivers never look at the road in old movies. -Amelie (2001)

There are two kinds of trivia questions- those I know the answer to and those I don't. Questions in the first group seem obvious, questions in the second group-interesting and tricky. That said, I'm trying to avoid the questions that only require basic plot knowledge to answer (e.g. What Hitchcock film featured Jimmy Stewart as a new photographer with a broken leg?) and stick with the latter-you had to be paying attention, or be a good guesser type. Here's this weeks movie trivia:

Settings:
Q: What film featured an aerial attack at Prairie Stop, a deserted bus stop on Highway 41? (A trickier question for this film would be: When Eve Kendall says "I never discuss love on an empty stomach," what do her lips actually say that had to be overdubbed to meet decency standards?)

Titles:
Q: What film had Delta 9 nerve gas not sprayed over Fort Knox?

On Screen:
Q: How many characters took part in the final airport scene in Casablanca?

Production:
Q: What U.S. First Lady did John Huston tell Katharine Hepburn to play Rosie like for The African Queen?

Q: What was the first scene filmed in the making of Gone With The Wind?

Answers in a day or so.

Baby, did you forget to take your meds?

I listen to music on my iPod on the Metro to work, at work, and on the Metro home again. Usually this amounts to 125 songs a day. Here are the top ten song lyrics that arrested my attention from whatever I happened to being doing at that moment today (in the order I heard them) with artist, song title, and lyric sample:
-Placebo, Meds, 'Baby, did you forget to take you meds?'
-Doors, Break On Through, 'You know the day destroys the night; Night divides the day; Tried to run; Tried to hide; Break on through to the other side'
-Simon And Garfunkel, Baby Driver, 'My daddy was the family bassman; My mamma was an engineer'
-The Shins, Turn On Me, 'So affections fade away, and do adults just learn to play, the most ridiculous, repulsive games? On the faith of ruddy sons, and the double-barreled guns,you better hurry, rabbit, run, run, run.'
-Moondance, Michael Buble, 'And all the nights magic seems to whisper and hush; And all the soft moonlight seems to shine in your blush'
-Brandi Carlile, Closer To You, 'Someday we might learn to tell the truth; We might even find the fountains of our youth'
-They Might Be Giants, Whistling In The Dark, 'Theres only one thing that I know how to do well; And Ive often been told that you only can do; What you know how to do well; And thats be you, Be what youre like, Be like yourself'
-Snow Patrol, Open Your Eyes, 'Get up, get out, get away from these liars; Cause they don't get your soul or your fire'
-Foreigner, Blue Morning Blue Day, 'Blue morning, blue day, won't you see things my way?'
-Bare Naked Ladies, If I Had $1,000,000, 'If I had $1000000 we wouldnt have to eat kraft dinner, but we would!'

Exposing redundant exposition

I'm a big fan of the forensic procedural drama- I watch CSI (original recipe), Without A Trace, Numb3rs, and Bones. Normally the writers on these shows have enough technical jargon added to make the characters seem knowledgable to the home audience and normally-since I'm not trained in forensic science-I don't realize to what degree the filler jargon is just that-filler. However, the episode before last on Bones one of the characters was examining a body using UV light and a camera with a UV filter. The expositionary line went something like this: 'I'm looking at the body with a camera filtered to see only UV light below 400 nm.' But since I know that all UV light is below 400 nm, this just made me laugh and say to the TV- "that's dumb all UV is below 400 nm" Sometimes a little education is a curse. Note to forensic show writers: Dialogue where one character says 'the victims hyoid bone has been broken' followed by the other saying 'they were strangled?' is also getting old...

We all know most marriages depend on a firm grasp of football trivia. -Diner (1982)

I mentioned previously that my 1001 Movie watching project was partly motivated by my desire to win Trivial Pursuit: Silver Screen Edition; I was only partly joking. The categories and corresponding colors for the wedges in this edition are as follows: Blue=Settings, Yellow=Off Screen, Green=Production, Pink=Titles, Brown=Off Screen, and Orange=Portrayals. Instead of just listing the movies that I've seen from the list, I think it will be more fun to post some of the trivia questions relating to the movies. I'll probably do five movies at a time until I catch up with myself. Here are the first five:

Settings:
Q: Where was Sonny Corleone ambushed in 1972's The Godfather?

Titles:
Q: What film offered the gruesome line: "The torso has been severed in mid thorax. There are no major organs remaining."?

On Screen:
Q: What was Popeye Doyle disguised as in the opening scene of The French Connection?

Production:
Q: Who produced All The President's Men?

Portrayals:
Q: Who played Hawkeye Pierce in M*A*S*H?

I read that this is considered the most difficult edition of Trivial Pursuit ever made. Anyhow, I'll post answers in a day or so.


ETA: Answers now posted in the comments

Would you believe in a love at first sight?

Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time.
For Christmas this year I received Rolling Stone: The 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. As Steven Van Zandt says in the introduction, "[lists] are absolutely subjective, utterly frustrating, always incomplete - and they cause more arguments than religion and politics." I won't argue with number one though, which is Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I love the Beatles, always have, always will. I've never been able to decide whether I like Sgt. Pepper's or Revolver better though, but since Revolver is number 3, I'll get to that later. And since the list is greatest albums, Sgt. Pepper's should beat Revolver in my mind. The songs on Sgt. Pepper's are all great stand alone songs (you know, except for those first two tracks that run together), but as an album the individual songs become better. Anyhow, so much has been said and written about the Beatles and this album that I can't possibly hope to add anything new to the discourse, except maybe this: If the album cover were being made today it probably would have been photoshopped together, instead of setting up a 3-D collage with The Beatles standing in the middle and then photographing it. It would have been less interesting as a result.

One Thousand And One Nights

Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies, when everything fits too well - the beginning, the middle, the end - from fade-in to fade-out. In a quest to be able to hustle a game of Trivial Pursuit, Silver Screen Edition, I am trying to watch all of the movies in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Before I took stock of the number I had already seen on the list, I figured- hey I like movies, I've seen alot, so I've probably already seen a fair number of these. Not so. I'd seen just over a hundred. To be fair, I couldn't have seen most of these in the theater since 658 were released before I was born. But with the help of a DVR and cable television I've now seen 167. To some this may seem like an exercise in pro forma movie watching. So far though I've enjoyed watching these, including the excellent jazz soundtrack to Anatomy Of A Murder, the completely sung dialogue (in french) of The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, and the unexpected ending of Network. I created a spreadsheet to track my progress, it's posted here if you feel inclined to see how many you've seen:1001 Movies Spreadsheet.

What's your google number?

Every once in a while I google search my name to see what's out there about me or other people with the same name. If I put my first and last name in quotes I get 824 hits. A link about the me that is me doesn't appear until the third page. Some of the other Anne's, of which two appear most frequently, are a physician, a canadian author, a writer for a parenting magazine, a reverend, and a spiritual weight-loss coach. I've never met anyone with the same name as me, and very infrequently have met people named Anne, so it is somewhat startling to see all the information out there about people with what feels like my name attached. Especially since I don't appear until the third page (One might call this a google-plex). However, if I add my middle initial to the search my google number drops to 54, and I'm the very first link--hey I can use the 'I'm feeling lucky' button. Google-plex solved.

So what's your google number?

See You Later Alligator

I recently went to Everglades National Park with friends of mine while visiting them in Florida. (Trivia: The Everglades is the only place in the world where both alligators and crocodiles live.) The US National Parks I've been too have all been really great, so I might become one of those people that tries to go to all of them- although so far I've only been to 4 of the 58. Here's an alligator at the Everglades. See more pictures here

This is a work in progress

I don't have a defining concept for what I will post about here, suffice to say that it will cover things that I like and enjoy. These generally include food and the preparation thereof, photography, music, movies, and travel. I won't be talking about my job or where I work since it is of a somewhat proprietary nature and also boring and difficult to explain unless you do it too (in case you thought proprietary implied exciting). Anyhow, that's it for now.