Thoughts on Living the Life Creative
This is the American Film Institute’s 2007 list of the top 100 American movies; I’ve put the ones I’ve seen in bold. I've included only those movies that I've seen the whole way through. I had checked it a couple years ago and had scored about 60% of them. Just updated it and now I'm... Continue Reading →
The Marx Brothers - It was sometime in either very late high school or early college that I got into the Marx Brothers. You'll find no less than 12 titles on my shelves (listed at the end). If memory serves a friend in high school (who bore a more than passing resemblance to Groucho when... Continue Reading →
The Hunt for Gollum - (2009) - This is a low budget, independent and unofficial prequel to the Lord of the Rings movies. It tells the story of Aragorn's pursuit and capture of Gollum. This story is told primarily in the appendices of the Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books. Made by a group of... Continue Reading →
Detour - (1945) - Piano play Al Roberts decides to follow his singer girlfriend to Hollywood. With virtually empty pockets he hitchhikes across the country from New York City. Along the way he meets a bookie and a dangerous young woman named Vera (Ann Savage). Between the two of them they will destroy Al Roberts... Continue Reading →
Singin' in the Rain - (1952) - Silent movie stars Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) are faced with the end of their careers as the age of the talkie dawns. Lockwood's acting style doesn't work in the new age and Lamont's voice was made for silents (and silence). With the help... Continue Reading →
A Streetcar Named Desire - (1951) - Movie adaptation of the classic Tennessee Williams play of the same name. Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) arrives at the home of her sister Stella (Kim Hunter) and her husband Stanley (Marlon Brando). Blanche's disintegrating mental state and Stanley's personality clash leading both into dark places. This is another... Continue Reading →
So this is 2014? Nice. So far, at least. Let's get started this year with some thought about why we do what we do and what we are going to do this. This blog will continue to be "home base" for my radio show "The View From the Phlipside" (now airing M-F at 8 AM... Continue Reading →
Argo - (2012) - Based (somewhat loosely) on the rescue of six Americans that escaped from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran at the beginning of the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1980. A plan to get them out under cover of a fake movie company working on a movie called "Argo". The question is always will... Continue Reading →
"42" (2013) - The story of the player that broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Jackie Robinson was chosen by Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Bra.nch Rickey as the player with both the skill and the strength of character to make history. Jackie Robinson's story is one of the amazing tales in the world... Continue Reading →
Life of Pi (2012) - A young man is shipwrecked in the Pacific and has to find a way to survive on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger. The story is told in flashback by the adult Pi to an interested writer. This is one of those movies that I really wish I could have... Continue Reading →
Stories Are My Life 