27 November 2008

Shocking, I know!


But you know what movie isn't on the 1001 you're supposed to see before you die? That's right! Alice's Restaurant! So, you'll never know the joy of the Thanksgiving Day Massacre, of which a small part simply is this...

We walked in, sat down, Obie came in with the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, sat down. Man came in said, "All rise." We all stood up, and Obie stood up with the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures, and the judge walked in sat down with a seeing eye dog, and he sat down, we sat down. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog, and then at the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, and looked at the seeing eye dog. And then at twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one and began to cry, 'cause Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice, and there wasn't nothing he could do about it, and the judge wasn't going to look at the twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. And we was fined $50 and had to pick up the garbage in the snow, but that's not what I came to tell you about.

Thank you, Arlo Guthrie...and to anyone else's family who made this their official Thanksgiving Song, you have my sympathies. :) Happy Thanksgiving to everyone else who isn't getting just how funny this actually is.

02 November 2008

Where I stand (Nov 1st-ish Edition)

See what a little cool weather will do? October comes and we watch 24 movies! Sure, one was only sixteen minutes long, but 24 movies in October! 387 movies watched by the end of Halloween and a few more we're getting through this weekend since the library expects me to return DVDs on time.

Husband's top Picks:

Russian Ark - He became obsessed with the making of documentary. Pretty much anything that keeps a library DVD in our player one second longer than in needs to be is a bechmark of sorts for him.

Double Indemnity
- "I enjoyed it." Mostly I think he knew this was how Fred MacMurray really managed his three sons - because deep down it wasn't that he was father of the year. It was that his kids knew he was capable of cold-blooded murder.

Princess Mononoke - His current story is that he likes this one - then again, I seem to remember this rant the night we watched this about who the good guy and bad guys were supposed to be and why we were spending so much time watching a movie just to find out that it was ambiguous. Now it's apparently the best thing ever about the movie.

My Top 3:

La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc - Simply amazing. I'm not even Catholic and I believed in everything she believed in by the end of the film. This film was decades ahead of its time in its message about the dangers of mixing politics and religion. At the same time, it was still the simple story of a teenage girl who believed passionately in her destiny.

The Night of the Hunter - How we didn't start getting all paranoid about the evils of mass murderers disguised as traveling evangelical preachers in the 50s is beyond me.

The Kid Brother - Harolyd Lloyd rounds out the Holy Trinity of silent film comedians by being the guy that puts together actual story lines instead of a series of stunts that will eventually be put together into something resembling a story. Not that there aren't plenty of great stunts in his story. He also knew that monkey wearing a man's shoes = comedy gold.