A Tag From Bubs: The Alphabet Movie Meme

Bubs tagged me with the "Alphabet Movie Meme." I love movies and I love a meme, so here goes:

Aliens- I liked Alien, but loved Aliens. It was one of the best movie-going experiences I've ever had. The movie worked on every level-- great story, great characters, great special effects, great script, etc., etc.

Bullitt- Combine a great cast-- Steve McQueen, Richard Vaughn, Simon Oakland, Norman Fell, George Stanford Brown, Don Gordon, Jaqueline Bissett-- with a great story, a great script, a great locale (the Bay area), one of the all-time great chase scenes, and you get an unforgettable movie that bears repeated viewing.

Casino- I know, everybody thought this was "Son of Goodfellas," but I liked Casino way better. Part of it is that I find Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, the mob gambling ace who the main character Ace Rothstein, portrayed by Robert Deniro, fascinating.

A couple of weeks ago, TBS showed "Casino" after a baseball playoff game ended; we had it on at work. It generated a discussion about the merits of "Casino." I came home and checked the New York Times and discovered that Lefty Rosenthal had died that day.

The Dead Zone- Who's creepier-- Stephen King, David Cronenberg or Christopher Walken? Get them all together and you get a movie that is visually arresting and well done.

Excalibur- John Boorman's movies are visually fascinating. This movie is his take on the Arthur legend. Helen Mirren has rarely looked better. Honorable Mention: El Diablo. Okay, technically it's a "D" movie; "el" is Spanish for "the." Robert Beltran, Lou Gossett, Anthony Edwards and a whole bunch of other great actors deconstruct the Western, and are pretty damned funny to boot.

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas- A book I was certain would not translate well to the screen. Leave it to former Monty Python guy (the lone American in the bunch, BTW) to pull it off. Great performances all around.

Galaxy Quest- This movie is probably only funny if you are a Star Trek fan (guilty as charged!) or know one. Lots of in jokes for Trekkies and Trekkers.

Happy, Texas- Part "opposite buddy" movie, part romantic comedy, all fun. Two escaped convicts masquerade as a gay couple in order to hide out. Hilarity and love-- both gay and straight-- ensue. William Macy is great as a "big-dick" Texas sheriff.

I’m Not There- Kim got this movie for my birthday. As a lifelong Dylan fan, I have to say that this movie captured him in a way I didn't think anyone could explain him.

Juggernaut- People forget what a damned fine actor Richard Harris could be. This movie is a case in point. In this largely-forgotten 1974 movie, which was directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night, Superman II), Harris plays a bomb defusing expert, a World War II vet with a ghost in his past, who is sent to defuse a bunch of bombs set on an aging ocean liner. Great script, great performances-- Anthony Hopkins, Omar Sharif, Ian Holm-- and a great story.

King of the Corner- An alternately funny and heartbreaking movie that didn't get a lot of exposure. I love Peter Riegert (Boon from "Animal House.") One of my all-time favorite scenes in a movie is the scene at his father's funeral with a rabbi played by Eric Bogosian.

Local Hero- Another great Peter Riegert movie-- one of my top ten. Visually stunning, charming and a nice little message.

Midnight Run-- Deniro is undeniably a great actor, but he has definitely taken some roles for the money. This one was for love. He plays almost a parody of himself. He's a former Chicago cop who was set up for fall years ago by a mobster played by the incomparable Dennis Farina. He's reduced to working as a bounty hunter. He gets the assignment from the great character actor Joe Pantalioni to get "The Duke." The Duke is a mob accountant, played by Charles Grodin, who stole a bunch of Farina's money-- and then gave it away to charity. The prissy Grodin and gruff Deniro make an improbable pair, but have great chemistry. It's one of my son's favorites too.

I've posted about this one, too-- about accidentally walking onto the set in one of the scenes that were set in Chciago, in a scene with hundreds of guns. I thought I'd accidentally walked into a shootout.

North By Northwest- Hitchcock made a lot of great movies. This one is easily my favorite-- Cary Grant, James Mason, Martin Landau and Eva St. Marie are all great. My favorite scene is the crop-duster scene.

Honorable mention, the movie Novocaine, which my friend Karol Kent is in.

Office Space- This movie has generated as many catch-phrases as Animal House:

"That'd be greaatttt...."
"I believe you have my stapler."
"I'm a free man and it's been six months since I've had a 'conjugnal visit.'"

The scene where they destroy the printer that had made their lives hell to some rap song is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen in a movie.

The President’s Analyst- James Coburn is splendid in this one. I've written a post on this one.

Quadrephenia- I saw this one when it came out at the now-demolished Grenada Theater in Chicago. This was the one good acting role Sting ever had-- as a self-absorbed phony. It was the perfect role for him.

Raising Arizona- This is another one I've written a post on. Great acting, great script.

"Son-- you got a panty on your head..."

Sammy and Rosie Get Laid- From the guys who did "My Beautiful Launderette." I'm still waiting for this one to come out on DVD. It's about a hip London couple in the middle of the Thatcher years. It takes on race, gender, sexuality and class, and pulls no punches. Great performance by Fine Young Cannibals singer Roland Gift

True Believer- James Wood chews up the scenery in this one. He's a former sixites activist/lawyer who is reduced to taking drug cases for rich coke dealers. He rationalizes what he does until Robert Downey Jr. shows up as his young assistant. He takes on the case of a Korean immigrant who's been imprisoned for seven years for the murder of a gang leader.

The Untouchables- When I first got out of college, I was working as a law clerk in downtown Chicago, and I'd see the trailers for the stars, though I never saw any of the stars. The history is totally wrong, but the story is great.

Village of the Damned- This one creeped me out when I was a kid. "I must think of a brick wall..."

Withnail and I- I've posted about this one before as well. It's a sort of buddy movie about two struggling actors in London in late 1969. Great use of music in this one, including Hendrix' "All Along the Watchtower" and "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)", and the Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

X: The Unheard Music- Great documentary about X, one of my favorite groups.

Honorable evil mention, Xanadu, a horrendous piece of shit.

Yankee Doodle Dandy- I loved James Cagney's gangster movies, but I also enjoyed this musical about the life of George M. Cohan. WGN would show this one late at night a lot when I was a kid.

Zodiac- About the Zodiac killings in San Francisco in the late sixties and early seventies. Great performances and riveting story.

I tag anyone who wants to do this one.

Big Day Friday Random Ten

Tonight the Yen household will be the Planet of the 12-year-old girls; it's my stepdaughter's 12th birthday today and we're having a party for her. Since Adam is being a good sport about it, I'm treating his to something he's wanted to see since he was little, Blue Man Group. It'll be a big day for everybody.


1. Drops of Jupiter- Train
2. Mrs. Rita- The Gin Blossoms
3. Just Like Me- Paul Revere and the Raiders
4. Roseana's Going Wild- Johnny Cash
5. Too Much Information- The Police
6. Black Diamond- YOSHIKI
7. Centerfield- John Fogarty
8. Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear- Randy Newman
9. The Harder They Come- Jimmy Cliff
10. I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better- The Byrds


Notes:
1. Love this song. The singer for Train is actor Robert Patrick's (Terminator, X-Files) brother.
2. New Miserable Experience is one of my favorite albums of the nineties. The singer, who wrote most of their good songs, including this one, was kicked out of the group due to his alcoholism, and eventually took his own life.
3. These guys were pure pop and I just love them.
4. Do yourself and get "Cash," the Johnny Cash box set.
5. This album was the "Frampton Comes Alive" of the eighties; everybody at my college had it. I think I still have my vinyl copy of it.
6. From another album everybody needs to have, "Kiss My Ass," the great Kiss tribute album. This is a classical cover of the Kiss classic. The Replacements did a fine version of it too on one of their albums.
7. The title track from John Fogarty's great post-Creedence comeback album that came out in 1985.
8. From the fabulous "Sail Away" album.
9. From "The Harder They Come" soundtrack. Joe Jackson did a great cover of this.
10. This song ranks up there with Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" with the great "kiss-off" songs.

Wait 'Til Next Century

I was cutting through the alley on the way to the grocery store today, and remembered this picture of a burned Cubs car flag, taken last month with my cell phone camera in that very same alley the day after the Cubs were eliminated from the playoffs.

Someone obviously didn't take the loss well.

Four Years

I worked my Evanston job last night-- I only work there on Monday nights. I'd love to give up having to drive up there and pay for parking, but the extra money justifies continuing to do it, at least for a while.

I was glad I did work there last night. I was waiting on a table with a three gentlemen, and couldn't figure out why one of them looked so familiar. Suddenly I realized that it was a guy I'd met at a blogger gathering last year: the father of bloggers Kristi and Vikki.

When I got home, Kim was already asleep, so I changed clothes, poured a glass of wine and checked my email and my regular blogs. One of the posts I read was this very sweet one about the anniversary, November 8, of our first date four years ago.

Four years ago, I was still a sixth grade teacher and she was still working her first post-divorce job at one of Chicago's major newspapers. The job was a sweatshop in an office; she'd have to make a hundred or more phone calls a day. She didn't own a car, so she had to walk her daughter to school, get on the el and go to work. After school, Mel would go to a daycare center that, while conveniently located at the end of the block Kim lived on, was filled with kids way younger than Mel. She was bored there.

For my part, life was a blur. When my landlord and I kicked out the evil roommate, I was faced with footing all the costs for the three-bedroom apartment I lived in. I checked into other apartments in the area and discovered that now that my neighborhood had become a "hot" neighborhood in Chicago, I'd pay nearly as much for a one-bedroom, let alone a two-bedroom apartment. Since I had a backyard for my son and a washer and dryer in the basement, I decided to stay. That meant never saying no to an extra shift at my second job at a nearby restaurant. I was exhausted all the time. My home was always a mess because I was too damned tired to clean it.

In four years, things have changed. Kim got another job that was better and recently got yet another that has been a big improvement; the stress level at her job has been greatly reduced. And after a two-year battle with an the principal from hell, I left my sixth grade teaching job. Around the same time, my father survived a major cancer surgery and I buried one of my closest, oldest friends after he was murdered in a robbery. I took a teaching position for a year, and then went back to school. I've been working on a degree in Pharmacy, but have made a decision to switch to nursing; it would take less than half the time, and the job opportunities and money are both great. Either way, there's no way I would have been able to do it if Kim weren't around. I need to finish school soon; I want to make good on my promise to both my kids to pay for most of their college.

Oh, and Kim and I got married on December 30, 2005.

Four years ago, everybody I knew was dazed that Americans had re-elected an idiot. Kim was still a struggling single mother, and I was still a teacher and struggling single father. How things change in four years.

One of the costs of my new work and school schedule has been time together with Kim. I decided I need a couple of adjustments. This morning, I got up when Kim did. I made her coffee and cooked her breakfast and sat and talked with her before she ran off to work.

After she left, I grabbed my ipod shuffle, put on my running shoes and my old "Eastern Illinois University" running jacket and went for a run in nearby Horner Park. After having two old friends in their forties die of heart disease in the last month, I've made a commitment to work up to running three times a week. I've got to make sure to stick around. I have people who depend on me.

Joe Lieberman

My, how Joe Lieberman's star has fallen. He was considered such an asset to the Democratic Party at one time that he was Al Gore's running mate in 2000. Since then, he has sided with the Republicans-- to the point that he lost the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary in 2004. No problem, says Joe-- I'll run as an "Independent." And that he did, and he won, keeping his Senate seat.

But that wasn't enough for old Joe to do that. He had to endorse and campaign for the other party's candidate in the Presidential election. In fact, he very nearly was McCain's running mate.

I'd say more, but my best friend Rocket Science has said it so much better already. In fact, he's given our buddy Joe an award he so richly deserves.

In the meantime, the picture at the top of the post is of Fredo Corleone Joe Lieberman, on the left, in his recent meeting with Senate Majority Leader Michael Corleone Reid. Joe is groveling asking to keep his important Senate committee assignments despite stabbing the Democratic Party in the back. Reid is saying "I love you Joe, but never take sides against the family."

A Short Biography of Barack Obama

The New York Times has a number of blogs by musicians, including Suzanne Vega, Chicagoan Andrew Bird and founding member of my beloved dB's, Peter Holsapple.

One of the other contributors is a guy I'd never heard of, Jeffrey Lewis. He's got a post about his art-- he does music and comic books-- and an introduction to the video below, which is a short comic book/song biography of Barack Obama.

http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/verse-verse-chorus-vote/?scp=1&sq=ochs%20guthrie%20vote%20&st=cse

You've got to love an artist whose media are crayon and folk music.

Occasional Forgotten Video: Duran Duran, "New Moon On Monday"

I was a moderate Duran Duran fan. I never understood the fanatical fans, but I also couldn't understand the haters. Yes, they were pretty boy popsters, but plenty of great bands have been.

I love this song-- it's my favorite Duran Duran song. And I love the video, with its theme of resistance, rebellion and liberation. Seems appropriate this week.

Transitions

The other night, in his post-victory speech, President-Elect Barack Obama noted that this was only the beginning. There's a lot of work-- and sacrifice-- ahead of us.

That sacrifice began at home for us. First off, with Senator Obama soon to become President Obama, we're losing one of our Senators. Speculation has begun over who Governor Blagojevich will appoint to fill the empty spot. One of the jokes going around Chicago is that he'll nominate himself; it's widely believed that it's only a matter of time before he's indicted for corruption.

In reality, there are a few names going around. Emil Jones, the African-American speaker of the State Senate is one of them. Another is Illinois Director of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth. A couple of years ago, she was narrowly defeated in the fight for the the House seat that was opened when arch-conservative Henry "Youthful Indiscretions" Hyde retired. Another person on the short list is Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose father Mike Madigan is speaker of the Illinois House.

Another sacrifice has been my Congressman; I live in Rahm Emanuel's congressional district. It was great having a guy who was a powerhouse in the Democratic Party as my congressman. But it'll be even greater having a guy who is good at getting things done as the White House Chief of Staff.

Overall, its nice to know that I'll soon have a President who is not only very, very intelligent and open to new ideas, but will surround himself with people who are intelligent and full of ideas-- not hacks, ideologues and idiots.

As a nation, we should all step back and think about this moment, before we roll up our sleeves and set about fixing the damage of the last eight years and then moving into the future, what we've done in 232 years. Some time in the next couple of months, take an hour or so of your time and read the US Constitution. It's a remarkable-- and partly flawed-- document. It is at times brilliant, guaranteeing rights-- free speech, freedom of religion, right of peaceable assembly and other rights-- that were radical at the time, and in most of the world still not guaranteed. Some of the founders wanted slavery banned. Unfortunately, many of the founders were slaveholders. In order to get them to sign on, and to get the Southern states to join the union, slavery was allowed.

The Southern states wanted their cake and to eat it too; they wanted to count slaves when apportioning the number of House members, but not to give the enslaved people a vote. Slaves counted as 3/5's of a person when determining the state's population for the purpose of determining how many House members represented a state. At the time, this might not have seemed so peculiar; most white "free" people did not have the right to vote. The Constitution allowed the individual states to determine who voted. Most states allowed white male property owners to vote. This represented a tiny minority of the population.

Over time, suffrage has steadily increased. Non-property owners, women, African-Americans-- over time, with great struggle, the right of political participation has opened up.

Tuesday night, as i sat at my best friend Jim's house listening to Senator Obama's speech in Grant Park, I thought of a lot of things. I thought of the people who had paved the way to that moment. I thought of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, three civil rights workers who were brutally slain in the 1964 "Freedom Summer" in Mississippi. The ringleader of the mob that killed them, Edgar Ray Killen, was finally convicted in 2005. I thought of Martin Luther King, Violet Liuzza and many others who paid the price to bring this country to living up to it's promise that "all men (and women) are created equal."

One person I also thought of was Karole, a woman I dated in the late eighties. She was one of the smartest, funniest and prettiest women I dated. She was also African-American. I'd met her one night in the Gingerman tavern. I was drinking a Foster's beer-- you know, the one that comes in a can that's about the size of the old oil cans. She turned to me and asked "What, were you a quart low?" It was probably the best opening line I ever got.

One night, I was out with her at Danny's tavern, a bar in the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago. We were hanging out, talking, enjoying a beer, when a woman stopped to talk to us. She started telling us what a nice statement we were making. Finally, I stopped her. I wasn't dating Karole because she was black; I'd dated other African-American women-- and latina, jewish, catholic, white, etc. The circle I ran in was very mixed. I wasn't out with her, I pointed out to the well-meaning lady, to make a statement. I was out with my girlfriend.

When things ended with us, it was not because of the difference in our races; it was a difference in our maturity levels. I was an idiot in his twenties who was suffering from the "grass is greener" syndrome. As I finally got a little older and wiser, I regretted not having hung on to her. I was lucky that when I was ready to appreciate someone who was intelligent, funny and pretty, Kim came along.

So when I listened to Senator Obama's speech, I was moved by the history. I was moved by Jesse Jackson's tears, and came close to shedding a couple myself. Yes, it's great that we're going to have an African-American president. But most important, I'm going to have a president who is intelligent, intellectually curious, compassionate and looking out for my interests. I listened to Obama speak and thought "Hot damn-- this guy is going to be my President! Good for me!"