The Book/Movie Meme

Well, well... I guess it's meme time. (All the cool kids are doing it... Or something.) Kottke posted a link to the Guardian's list of 50 (51, actually) best film adaptations of books. Now folks are marking which they have read and/or seen.

I can dig it...

  1. 1984
  2. [M] Alice in Wonderland (Disney)
  3. [M] American Psycho
  4. [M] Breakfast at Tiffany's
  5. Brighton Rock
  6. [M] Catch 22
  7. [M] Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Both)
  8. [M] A Clockwork Orange
  9. Close Range (inc Brokeback Mountain)
  10. The Day of the Triffids
  11. Devil in a Blue Dress
  12. [M] Different Seasons (inc The Shawshank Redemption)
  13. [M] Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (aka Bladerunner)
  14. Doctor Zhivago
  15. Empire of the Sun (I think I have seen bits of the film)
  16. The English Patient (The movie put me to sleep)
  17. [BM] Fight Club
  18. The French Lieutenant's Woman (Seen parts of the movie)
  19. [M] Get Shorty
  20. [M] The Godfather
  21. [M] Goldfinger
  22. [M] Goodfellas
  23. [M] Heart of Darkness (aka Apocalypse Now) (Seems like I've read at least some of this)
  24. [M] The Hound of the Baskervilles (I also bet I've read this -- I think I tore through Doyle's collected works when I was young, but I can't say for sure.)
  25. [M]Jaws
  26. [M]The Jungle Book
  27. A Kestrel for a Knave (aka Kes)
  28. [M] LA Confidential
  29. [M] Les Liaisons Dangereuses
  30. [BM] Lolita
  31. Lord of the Flies (Only seen part of the movie)
  32. [M]The Maltese Falcon
  33. [M]Oliver Twist
  34. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Seen parts of the movie, but not all. I own it though...)
  35. [M] Orlando
  36. [M] The Outsiders
  37. [M] Pride and Prejudice
  38. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
  39. The Railway Children
  40. Rebecca
  41. The Remains of the Day (Seen parts of the movie)
  42. [M] Schindler's Ark (aka Schindler's List)
  43. [M] Sin City
  44. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
  45. [M] The Talented Mr Ripley
  46. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
  47. Through a Glass Darkly
  48. To Kill a Mockingbird
  49. [BM] Trainspotting
  50. The Vanishing
  51. [M] Watership Down

As with the others, I marked it if I'd seen any movie adaptation of the given title. I'm a little embarassed by only having three books checked off, but I will say they are three of my faves.

Lucky Thirteen?

All Aboard (Mostly) for "Ocean's Thirteen"

Warner Bros. announced Monday that Clooney, Pitt, Damon and most of the usual suspects from the first two Ocean pics will return for next year's threequel, Ocean's Thirteen. Steven Soderbergh will be on hand to direct for the third time.

...

"The odds were long on this happening, and it would not have been possible were it not for those actors and director moving other projects out of the way," Weintraub told Variety. "The five of us [Weintraub, Clooney, Pitt, Damon and Soderbergh] are all great friends, and we decided we were going to kill ourselves to get this done."

Funny. Not a week ago I heard from my Hollywood sources that they were having a hell of a time getting Pitt to sign on. It seemed like he might have to beg off due to his baby-having with Miss Angelina. I'm man enough admit I was more than a little bothered by the news -- my feeling being that the Clooney-Pitt chemistry is the main reason to watch these things, though I do wish Damon's "Linus" would get more play.

But yeah, the vibe for this instalment of Ocean's 11+n is supposed to be as "back to basics" as this kind of thing can be (at least partly, that translates to "No Girls!", I guess). Now let's see if they can actually manage to get the film in the can without a three ring circus. Odds are actually better than they had been previously, since they seem to be eliminating most of the jet-setting tomfoolery by shooting in the LA area.

While I will certainly watch it (and most likely enjoy it), I hope it turns out better than Twelve.

Ed was right...

When Miracle Ed came to visit he bought us Firefly and Serenity. To get me to watch it, he told me "You'll like it. You're in it." Meaning the Captain Malcom Reynolds character reminded him of me.

It turns out he was right:

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.

Serenity (Firefly)
 
94%
Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)
 
81%
Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)
 
75%
Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)
 
69%
SG-1 (Stargate)
 
69%
Moya (Farscape)
 
69%
Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)
 
69%
Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)
 
63%
Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)
 
63%
FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)
 
44%
Enterprise D (Star Trek)
 
38%
Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)
 
31%

Your Ultimate Sci-Fi Profile II: which sci-fi crew would you best fit in? (pics) created with QuizFarm.com

For the record, Ed's in it, too (in the form of Jayne). At one point I turned to him and asked "How did they make a show with both of us in it?" He answered, "How could they not?"

The AB in the OC

Monster's Ball: Feds, Aryan Brotherhood come to paint the OC courthouse white

Based on claims by prosecutor Emmick and Smith, the AB—though much smaller than the Dirty White Boys, Nazi Low Riders, Mexican Mafia and Black Guerrilla Family—is the elite prison-based criminal organization in America. The Brotherhood recruited people who were fiercely loyal and street-smart; more than anything they were “psychopaths,� according to Smith, not excluding himself from that category.

An interesting peak through the window at the Aryan Brotherhood (You all know how fascinated I am with hate groups and gangs...). Purely coincidentally, I watched American History X last weekend while The Wife was away at work. Effing fantastic, that movie.

Also note, this OC Weekly site always seems to have some good stuff. I think I need to add it to the regular rotation.

Whuzzup?

Just some randomness:

  • Man, it seems like Google has de-listed the BlahStuff (or at least ranked me down a ton). My traffic has dropped by more than half starting last Wednesday. If any of y'all that get regular Google hits felt like mentioning BS in a fresh post in the hopes to re-upping my Google-juice, I'd appreciate it.
  • Hey, look! It's Mars!
  • Monkey pictures are fun.
  • Started working on a new double desk set-up for our office on Saturday. Got some nice 3/4" maple veneer plywood and glued some half-inch MDF on the bottom to strengthen it up a bit. Got to use my flush-cutting router bit for the first time, but then it got all cold and snowy. Gonna treat the edges with some strips of this cool laminated oak I have, so it should give a cool effect. Photos when there's something to see.
  • My tattoo has a few spots that will require touch-up. I wonder if it's just me, in general, or the forearm location, specifically, or a combo that cause me such problems in healing my tattoos.
  • Saw Murderball on A&E. Good stuff (except for all the Dog the Bounty Hunter commercials). Zupan's the man.
  • The BU Terriers swept UMass and will meet UNH in the Hockey East semifinals.
  • My friends at the Exchange Tavern managed to shoehorn a dart board into their fine establishment. I'm excited. Now if only they'd update their web site.
  • What with Miracle Ed's visit and the fresh tattoos, we've been out of the hot box for over a month now. Time to get back on the horse real soon. Luckily I haven't slipped much (yet).
  • The biggest crawdaddy you'll ever see (thanks Brandon).

The Oscars

The Wife and I ended up attending a small Oscars get-together last night. While we had a blast (and I won the pool!), I have to say the the event itself was kind of dull. My thoughts (in no particular order):

  • Charlize looked horrible (but as I pointed out last night - she's still hot).
  • Salma Hayek hurt me, she looked so good.
  • John Stewart was mostly inoffensive. A couple good chuckles.
  • I thought the fake promo commercials were great.
  • Seems like a lot of folks were more embarassed than entertained by Ben Stiller's greenscreen suit antics. Personally, I thought it was a hoot.
  • Why were there only three nominations for best song? That seems weird. And why were all the performances except Dolly's put on like weird high school plays? [Highlight: During the performance of the song from Crash: "Is his hand in her crotch?! What the hell?! Are they reenacting the whole movie?"]
  • George Clooney basically owns Hollywood nowadays, doesn't he?
  • Reese Witherspoon is sweet, but I just can't get past her giant forehead and generally triangular face.
  • No Mr. Chicken in the "folks who died this year" montage, eh? Fine.
  • I won the pool (amongst only four people, because others showed up late) thanks to picking oddball categories like cinematography and art direction. I think I only got one or two of the major categories right.
  • The show finished early?! They could probably have afforded to not be such speech Nazis, eh?

Other than that... Meh.

Sideways

Finally got around to seeing Sideways last night. Overall, I'd give it a B+ -- It certainly wasn't the best movie EVAR the hype made it seem, but it was definitely was enjoyable. At first all the wine talk made me desperate for a bottle (and I do think the film would move up to A-/A territory if I had been drinking along), but eventually the characters go through so much wine in a single night that it actually turned me off the idea of a glass of red.

And for those of you who might think Sideways just looks like a story about two miserable schmucks, the end does have some redemption in it.

I'd recommend Sideways as kind of a double date flick -- get some friends together, crack a bottle of Pinot Noir (or two), and watch the film early so you can keep the conversation and good times rolling afterward.

Won't you lend your lungs to me?

"Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that." - Steve Earle.

I seriously hope I've mentioned Townes Van Zandt in this space previously. I also seriously hope that any of you who have even the tiniest bit of affinity for country or folk or blues music already know who Townes is and already own (at the very least) Live at the Old Quarter. If you know the song "Pancho and Lefty", you know Townes' writing -- get to know his music, too.

The reason I bring him up now is that I've just found out there is a documentary about him called Be Here to Love Me that just made its debut.

Margaret Brown's documentary, Be Here To Love Me (premiered at Angelika here in NYC December 2nd) is a long overdue look at his music and life, which was ceaslessly tempestuous. In his 20's he was administered shock treatment after being committed for falling from a four story window willingly ("to see what it felt like"), and the result erased much of his childhood memories. This inability to cement connections in his life led to a continual wandering, and the film takes a very intimate look at the people, friends, and family who all were affected by this.

That bit about "falling" out of a window is news to me, but matches my perception of the guy. The resulting damage also explains a lot about him. In many ways he was a typical "broken" genius.

---

The post title is the opening lyric to one of my all time favorite TVZ songs, "Lungs":

Well, won't you lend your lungs to me? Mine are collapsing Plant my feet and bitterly breathe Up the time that's passing. Breath I'll take and breath I'll give Pray the day ain't poison Stand among the ones that live In lonely indecision.

The Resurgence of Chuck

Chuck Norris. I'm sure many of you figured he had faded into a halcyon semi-retirement of Total Gym hucksterism, anti-drug campaigning, and... um... praying after the demise of his Walker, Texas Ranger series. I'm doubly sure you all had figured Chuck had strayed far, far away from his Lone Wolf McQuade martial arts badassedness of yore.

Well, I'm here to set you straight, boys and girls.

Chuck Norris' return to glory was first hinted at when he became the subject of one of the most entertaining internet memes of the past ten minutes:

To prove it isn't that big of a deal to beat cancer. Chuck Norris smoked 15 cartons of cigarettes a day for 2 years and aquired 7 different kinds of cancer only to rid them from his body by flexing for 30 minutes. Beat that, Lance Armstrong.

That was just the beginning, though. Now it has come to light that Chuck Norris is the driving force behind an all new form of ass kicking for entertainment known as the World Combat League:

There is currently no full-contact martial arts team sport in the United States. The WCL will be the only venue to offer the public full-contact martial arts fighting. There is literally no competition for the services and products the WCL will offer to the public. There is a huge demand for martial arts in the United states and the WCL will be the first sports league to offer the excitement and unpredictability of full-contact martial arts fighting.

Sure, Chuck is only a "suit" at the top of the WCL ladder. And yeah, it looks like the fighting is just glorified kick boxing -- hands and feet only (stick to the UFC if you enjoy elbows, Muy Thai knees, and grappling). But they have women on the teams (WCL is a "team sport"... kind of like Davis Cup tennis...?), and the whole contest is supposedly set up to encourage action. In fact, there are penalties for being too passive or stalling.

Might be worth checking out.

One is only left to wonder if all of this is happening because of the fact that Chuck Norris is Dubya's favoritest actor in, like, ever!

Freak of the Week: Vincent Gallo

I've always thought Vinnie Gallo was an odd duck. Consider this bit of drama surrounding his film The Brown Bunny:

Roger Ebert called the film "the worst in the history of Cannes" to which Vincent Gallo responded that Ebert was a "fat pig with the physique of a slave trader". Ebert paraphrased a remark of Winston Churchill and responded that "although I am fat, one day I will be thin, but Mr. Gallo will still have been the director of 'Brown Bunny'". Gallo then put a "hex" on Ebert's colon, to which Ebert responded that "even my colonoscopy was more entertaining than his film".

That's kooky.

Then I saw this: Vincent Gallo's Sperm $1 Million

If the purchaser of the sperm chooses the option of natural insemination, there is an additional charge of $500,000. However, if after being presented detailed photographs of the purchaser, Mr. Gallo may be willing to waive the natural insemination fee and charge only for the sperm itself.

Good to know Vincent has "no cripples" in his family history.

Media Consumption

Just a quick catch up on stuff I've enjoyed lately:

  • I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell. I'm late to this game, but I highly recommend the book. Even if you're not interested in marketing per se, the lessons in the book will help you look at things in a different way. That's always a good thing. I was also tickled when the tipping point notion was referenced in an episode of Numb3rs, which is not a bad show at all, btw. Malcom's Blink is in my queue, too.
  • Right now, I am reading Freakonomics, which I picked up after seeing it on Kottke. I'm already enjoying it a lot, as it has touched on a couple examples related to the ones in The Tipping Point, but from a totally different angle. There's a Freakonomics blog that may be worth watching.
  • I'm still marinating in A Whole New Mind. I can honestly say that it has impacted the way I approach certain situations at work. This is a good thing. The author, Dan Pink, also has a blog related to the subject matter of the book on his site
  • I caught Velvet Goldmine on the TiVo. Wow. I really loved it. I suppose it could put you off if you're not down with the boy-on-boy lovin', but I enjoyed the heck out of it. (As noted before, I'm a total sucker for almost anything with Ewan McGregor in it.) I might even consider picking up the soundtrack.
  • Then there's the Matisyahu. Man, that guy makes me happy.
  • I am also digging the Kaiser Chiefs album.

OK, that's it. Carry on.

GOSH!

This is amazing. The Idaho House has passed a bill commending the creators of "Napoleon Dynamite".

12 WHEREAS, the Preston High School administration and staff, particularly 13 the cafeteria staff, have enjoyed notoriety and worldwide attention; and 14 WHEREAS, tater tots figure prominently in this film thus promoting Idaho's 15 most famous export; and 16 WHEREAS, the friendship between Napoleon and Pedro has furthered 17 multiethnic relationships; and 18 WHEREAS, Uncle Rico's football skills are a testament to Idaho athletics; 19 and 20 WHEREAS, Napoleon's bicycle and Kip's skateboard promote better air qual- 21 ity and carpooling as alternatives to fuel-dependent methods of transporta- 22 tion;

And then the capper:

2 WHEREAS, any members of the House of Representatives or the Senate of the 3 Legislature of the State of Idaho who choose to vote "Nay" on this concurrent 4 resolution are "FREAKIN' IDIOTS!" and run the risk of having the "Worst Day of 5 Their Lives!"

Yessssssssss!

Oscar Summary

[Since I'm getting Google hits, here's the 37% lamer 2006 Oscar summary.] The best musical performance (by far!) was Jorge Drexler accepting his award by singing his own Best Song, completely showing up the version Antonio Banderas and Carlos Santana put forth. Seriously: The music sucked. Someone tell Adam Duritz it was time to lose the fake dreds five years ago. Please.

When Sean Penn came out I thought to myself, "Man, he's badass. He looks like he needs to beat someone." Then he got all grumpy at Chris Rock for asking who Jude Law is, so yeah, I guess he was looking for someone to beat.

I'm sorry I missed his tirade about who's a movie star and who isn't, because, other than that Chris Rock was pretty dull. They showed clips of Johnny Carson when he hosted: Too bad for Chris.

Was Dustin Hoffman completely pixelated or what?!

Jamie Foxx is a sweet guy. He should stop acting like an asshole.

Clint Eastwood is just getting started, y'all. His mom was in the audience at age 96. Someday I want Clint to yell at me and make me cry like a little girl.

Hilary Swank is "teh hotness" (as they say on the internets).

The "everyone on stage so the losers can relive their middle school talent show failures" presentations were extra lame.

Why does the foreign film award "go to" the country of origin??

Best moment I didn't catch (from a pre-show):

"Before you were a movie star, you were a serious actor," said ABC's Chris Connelly to Orlando Bloom.

I used to like Connelly when he was on MTV. Now I wish Orlando had smacked him.

The show was over EARLY. WTF?!?! That's just stupid.

See CNN, NYT, EW, and, well, everywhere else for more...

Well, damn!

Folks, we have also lost Ossie Davis:

Ossie Davis, actor, playwright, giant of civil rights, and, with Ruby Dee, partner in one of America's most celebrated marriages, died today in Miami.

Davis, still handsome and elegant, was 87.

Ossie was one of the best actors you hardly ever noticed. He was sneaky in his goodness. Understated, mostly. Magnificent, always.