Songs of Our Youth (10 of 11)

"The Mayor of Simpleton" by XTC


This band is also the subject of The They Might Be Giants song "XTC vs. Adam Ant"


NOTE: We've featured this series both here on this blog and on 'Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time.'

Celebrity Birthday- Tea Leoni is 43

Tea Leoni turns 43 today. The actress who is married to David Duchovny (though they are supposedly separated at the moment) starred in "Ghost Town" with Ricky Gervais last year.

Leoni made it as a sitcom star with "Flying Blind" and "The Naked Truth." Like Robin Wright Penn, she started out on the soap opera "Santa Barbara."

She is also an alumnus of Sarah Lawrence College.

During a celebrity edition of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," she responded: "You're screwed, honey" to Duchovny after he called her during the phone-a-friend phase of the game.

Cereals of Our Youth (Entry 9 of 11)

Kellogg's Corn Pops

This is apparently how the product is packaged in South America!

Quote of the Week- Sinead O'Connor

Since St. Patty's Day is just around the corner, we thought we'd have quotes from two Irish singers on our respective blogs ("Politics, Culture, and Other Wastes of Time" is the other).

Here is one from Sinead O'Connor.....we changed a word to make it suitable for broadcast:

"I didn't want to be an effing pop star. I wanted to be a protest singer."

Congratulations to Slumdog Millionaire

"Frost/Nixon" was actually my favorite film of the year, but "Slumdog Millionaire" was certainly in the top five, and it's great to see a film with a Bollywood flavor get the kind of recognition that 'Slumdog' has recieved.

Oscar has chosen films like "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Titanic" for Best Picture, so it is always refreshing when they choose a very good film.

Go Highlanders Go!

My beloved alma mater of Radford University, located in Radford, Va., is sitting on top of the Big South Conference in men's basketball. On Monday, they beat Charleston Southern University 80-71.

On Saturday, they go to Lexington, Va., to face the VMI Keydets in a key game. VMI has been battling with Radford for first place in the conference much of the season. The game will tip off at 4 p.m. at it will be televised on MASN, which is available from Maryland to North Carolina.

The school has a Homecoming Weekend starting on Feb. 26. That weekend, they host arch rivals Liberty University from Lynchburg, Va. (yeah it's Jerry Falwell's school, but his son now runs the school since he has died) for another important game on Saturday.

Among the stand-out for the Highlanders is center Art Parakhouski from Minsk, Belarus. He is the reason why I considered naming this entry "From Belarus with Love," but I came to the realization that it indeed sound pretty awful!

UPDATE: RU won their big game over VMI by a 97-90 count.

Quote of the Week- Langston Hughes

In honor of Black History Month, we have two quotes from two black poets on our respective blogs. A quote from Nikki Giovanni will be featured on Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Times.

Here is one from Langston Hughes:

"Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it."

We may have used this quote previously, but we like it!

Facebook Friend of the Week_ Dario Pticek

Dario Pticek of Croatia has the honor of being my 1,000th friend on Facebook.

Of course, I don't actually know him.

This sneaker was apparently influenced by the Croatian flag. I believe the last time I was in Dario's country was when we passed through the Zagreb airport when I was a kid.

Pticek's birthday is July 1, 1976. He has (yikes!) 2,809 Facebook friends and we have 34 'friends' in common.

He is a vampire (!) and a member of Mob Wars and Mafia Wars.

Pticek also enjoys rafting and he is a fan of Chuck Norris and Bob Marley.

Hmmm..........now there's an interesting combination.

Valentine's Day Dance in Floyd, Va.

Perhaps, the two unluckiest days of the year for me are Valentine's Day and my birthday (which is March 4).

I can never seem to get a date on Valentine's Day, and people have been known to die on my birthday (including my father!).

But, for those of you who are lucky to have a date on V-Day, there is a Valentine's Day contra dance at the Sun Music Hall in Floyd, Va.

And, in case you were wondering that is the Little Red Hair Girl in this picture!

College Gymnast of the Moment-Courtney Kupets

This is the first entry is a long-delayed series on NCAA college gymnasts. On our sister blog Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time, we will have a profile of North Carolina State gymnast Ashley Shepard.

We start with Courtney Kupets, a highly accomplished gymnast who boasts her own Wikipedia page.

Born on July 27, 1986, Kupets was an Olympic gymnast before coming to the University of Georgia. Ironically, she competed in Athens, Greece (UGA is of course in Athens, Ga.) where she won an individual bronze medal on uneven bars in addition to the silver she won in team competition.

Kupets also won an all-around national championship (before coming to Georgia) in 2003 and she was co-champ with Olympic teammate Carly Patterson in 2004.

This year in a meet against the University of Alabama, Kupets scored two perfect tens, which is remarkable given that she missed much of last year due to an Achilles tendon injury.

I had a chance to see Kupets, who also won the NCAA all-around title in 2007, in Raleigh earlier this year. She was indeed very impressive.

The Gym Dawgs are going for their fifth consecutive national championship last year.

Their long-time coach Suzzane Yoculan will be retiring after the end of the season.

Cereals of Our Youth (Entry 8 of 11)

Trix Cereal.........we all know the punch line: "Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids."

Frost/Nixon My Best Film of the Year

Here are my 20 favorite films of 2008. This is different than the original list which I posted in December, and it is very similar to the list I sent for the Film Comment Reader's Survey. As always, I post without commentary:


1. Frost/Nixon

2. Taxi to the Dark Side (doc)

3. The Edge of Heaven (Germany/Turkey)

4. The Flight of the Red Balloon (France/Taiwan)

5. Slumdog Millionaire (UK)

6. The Wrestler

7. Doubt

8. In Bruges

9. Elegy

10. The Visitor

11. Milk

12. Gran Torino

13. The Dark Knight

14. The Last Mistress (France)

15. Paranoid Park

16. Let the Right One In (Sweden)

17. Tell No One (France)

18. Man on Wire (doc)

19. Vicky Christina Barcelona

20. Takva: Fear of God (Turkey)*

*-Released in Turkey in 2006. Not released theatrically in US, but is available on dvd

Facebook Friend of the Week- Neil Harvey

This is not actually his picture but Neil Harvey is indeed a newspaper reporter (as I was until 2006) with "The Roanoke Times."

He is the same age as me and a fellow movie fanatic with a pet cat. If he becomes a community college teacher one day (my present job), I might have to believe in parallel universes. Let's just hope his mom is slightly less domineering!

Harvey is currently reading "The Night in Question" by Tobias Wolff.

He is a fan of Stevie Wonder and Dinosaur Jr.

Harvey is alumnus of Radford High School who admits to having no sense of smell. He also remembers that the Ryan O'Neal road movie "Paper Moon" (1973) was the first film he ever saw, and it was part of a double-bill at a drive-in.

And, Harvey has a Facebook page for his 17-year-old cat Beowulf. We sincerely hope budget cuts in his industry* don't affect the amount of Fancy Feast he buys at Winn-Dixie.

*- Alas, education is getting whacked too! Though, at the moment, I somehow have four classes.

Quote of the Day- Heidi Montag

At one point in one of my blogs, I actually compared "The Hills" to a Jean Luc-Godard movie.

I'm not sure why I did that or what I was thinking, but you'll love this quote from Heidi Montag:

"Jesus was persecuted and I'm going to get persecuted, ya know?"

Political Confusion Test (entry 11 of 21)

Today, in our 11th installment of The Political Confusion Test, we ask our blog readers (all 12 of you) which event would rather attend.........a good ole fashion pig roast with a banjo picker complete with lots of trailer park Republicans, or a Rush Roast where the blabbermouth radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is skewed over an open pit and roasted........(yes, we would make sure he was in his boxer shorts, and no one would actually have to eat him!). I would love to stick a tomato in the mouth of a man who had the nerve to say that actor Michael J. Fox was exaggerating his complications from Parkinson's Disease. I guess I know where I stand on this one!

Coming this Weekend- Blogathon II

Yes, we will once try to post 14 entries in a matter of days in order to play 'catch up.'

We'll see how this goes!

In the mean time, you can read another blog entry about me at guyslitwire.blogspot.com

It's a cool site.

We promise..........!

Cereals of Our Youth (7 of 11)

Lucky Charms!

Cereals of Our Youth (6 of 11)

Kellogg's Frosted Flakes with Tony the Tiger.

They're GRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT

unless you have diabetes...........thankfully, I don't but it's still been 20 years since I last ate this stuff.

Facebook Friend of the Week- Erroll Gokbudak

This week's Facebook friend of the week is my cousin and fellow Chicago Cubs fan Erroll Gokbudak. But, perhaps more interestingly than that is the fact that Erroll is a huge NASCAR fan even though he lives in Chicago. I, on the other hand, live 28 miles from a major race track and I don't give a flying eff about the sport. I suppose I won't be going to be going to the Richard Petty Museum in Randleman, NC, any time soon, but then again....Erroll just might!