Potluck Quote of the Day (7 of 10): Bill Murray

Happy National Radio! We are recognizing the occasion by listening to "Snap Judgment" with Glynn Washington on our local NPR radio station.

Alas, we have to keep this short as we desperately need to get back to arguing about religion and politics on Twitter! While we are it, we can also see if Paula Poundstone or Sarah Silverman have something witty to say there.

But, we do want to congratulate Ekaterini Stefanidi for winning gold in the pole vault for Greece, one of three gold medals for the nation. Similarly, we salute Nur Tartar, another female athlete, for winning bronze for Turkey in taekwondo.

Here is our quote from Bill Murray; today we are quipping alums of "Saturday Night Live" (yes, we know when Murray was on the show John Travlota was in "Saturday Night Fever"):

"There aren't many down sides to being rich, other than paying taxes and having relatives ask for money. But being famous, that's a 24-hour job right there."

http://snapjudgment.org/

http://sarahsilvermanonline.com/

http://www.paulapoundstone.com/

Last Ten Films We've Seen: Trying to Catch up on Netflix....

What do Captain America, indie film queen Parker Posey (pict. center) and a silly Dudley Moore/Kirk Cameron movie from 1987 have in common? They all relate in one form or another to the last ten films we've seen.

"Like Father, Like Son," is also the English-language title of a Japanese art film which is more like Dustin Hoffman's "Kramer vs. Kramer" in nature as it deals with a family who learns that their son was switched at birth with another boy. Adding to the tensions is the fact that the families are in two vastly different economic classes.

We got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine.

Here are the last ten:

1. Like Father, Like Son. 2014. Japan. director: Hirokazu Koreeda

2. Goodbye to Language. 2014. France. dir: Jean-Luc Godard

3. The Babdook. 2014. Australia (in English). dir: Jennifer Kent

4. Wild Tales. 2014. Argentina. dir: Damian Szifron

5. Lovers and Other Strangers. 1970. dir: Cy Howard w/Diane Keaton

6. Price Check. 2012. dir: Michael Walker w/Parker Posey

7. Inside Out. 2011. dir: Artie Mandelberg w/Posey

8. Nothing Lasts Forever. 1984. dir: Tom Schiller w/Bill Murray

9. Avengers: Age of Ultron. 2015. dir: Joss Whedon

10. Far from the Madding Crowd. 2015. dir: Thomas Vinterberg w/Carey Mulligan

The Top SNL Cast Members (according to The Nerve): Sorry, Tom Petty

Greetings to our blog readers in Bulgaria, Estonia and Scotland.....

Today, in honor of the 40th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live," the live American sketch comedy show which first aired in October of 1975, we provide you with a list of the top best not ready for prime time players as written by our good friend pop culture journalist/blogger Phil Nugent of "The Nerve" who will hopefully not sue us for the amount of money former cast member Joe Piscopo (Nugent ranked him 60th, we would place him higher) annually.

Here is the list:

1. Eddie Murphy (1980-84, pict. top)

2. Will Ferrell (1995-2002, pict. center)

3. Bill Murray (1977-80, pict. bottom)

4. Phil Hartman (1986-1994; he was murdered in 1998)

5. John Belushi (1975-79, he died in 1982 at age 33)

6. Dan Aykroyd (1975-79)

7. Amy Poehler (2001-08)

8. Mike Myers (1989-95)

9. Dana Carvey (1986-93)

10. Tina Fey (2000-06)

Here are other cast members as they were ranked:


Dennis Miller ( #67)

Fred Armisen (#37)

Maya Rudolph (#34)

Jane Curtin (#21)

Norm Macdonald (#26)

Tim Meadows (#12)

http://www.thenerve.com

PS: We subtitled this entry "Sorry, Tom Petty," because the singer once made fun of Murphy and Piscopo in a song he wrote.....

Our Sunday Comics Survey from "The Washington Post:" Two Perfekt Strips

Greetings to our blog readers in Bulgaria, Chile and El Salvador..........

Today, we survey our top ten favorite comic strips from the Sunday, Feb. 8th edition of "The Washington Post," for our top ten favorites from the Feb.1st edition of 'The Post,' go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Among the comic strips in our top ten are two strips that we gave perfect 10s too (ice skater Ashley Wagner would be sooo proud), they are "Lio" and "Brewster Rockit," but on a coin flip, we went with "Lio," which features a Felix the Cat (pictured top) nod, in addition to six other comic strips felines, including (of course) Garfield (Bill Murray would be proud) and Krazy Kat from way, way back in the day......

The Danish import "WuMo" came in a close third with a brilliant strip about the food chain of the piranha (cent. image is of the cult classic 1978 film "Piranha"), and in ninth place, "Rhymes with Orange," which is also carried by "The Martinsville Bullletin" in Martinsville, Va., featured a rat who finally figured out a way to get out of a maze.

Lastly, we salute our day sponsors, including the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, Ga., and Arena Stage in Washington, DC, now staging the late August Wilson's theatrical gem "King Hedley II." Well, ok, so we don't anyone associated with either entity (we just like making fun of local NPR stations, they won't get this in El Salvador, will they?!)....

Here is our top ten:

1) Lio

2) Brewster Rockit

3) WuMo

4) The Argyle Sweater

5) Prickly City (highest rating for strip)

6) Sherman's Lagoon

7) Foxtrot

8) Baldo

9) Rhymes with Orange

10) Pearls Before Swine

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com

http://www.visitmartinsville.com

http://www.georgiaaquarium.com

http://www.arenastage.org

Sofia Coppola Likes John Hughes Movies

According to the current issue of "Film Comment," our favorite film magazine/journal (but, like "Cineaste" too), film director Sofia Coppola, best known for her film "Lost Translation" with Bill Murray (see image above), recently watched the 'classic' John Hughes' film "Sixteen Candles" (1984).

The comedy film starring Molly Ringwald was number nine on her "The Last 10 Films I've Seen" list, which we are not printing in its entirety to avoid a potential federal cease and desist lawsuit from Gavin Smith (the editor of "Film Comment). But, we will mention that other films on the list included "The Social Network," Never Let Me Go," "Greenberg," and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids," which surprised us too!

SIDEBAR: There are a whole host of special screenings going on in Virginia and North Carolina. My good friend Jason Garnett will be screening the vintage 2003 good/bad movie "The Room" on Nov. 22 and 24 at 7:00 at the Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va.

Closer to home, my friend Joe Scott will be screening the vintage 1984 Prince film "Purple Rain" this Thursday at the Carousel Luxury Cinemas in Greensboro, NC, at 7:30 and 10:00 p.m.

Lastly, the classic 1969 Oscar-winning film "Midnight Cowboy" with Dustin Hoffman and hippie turned tea bagger Jon Voight will be shown at the Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC, for a week-long run starting on Friday.

SIDEBAR TWO: George W. Bush's new memoir, a book I will not be reading (I'm a hippie turned coffee partier), is apparently a tough book to sell in San Francisco, so Green Apple Books, a San Fran book shop, will be giving all funds from the sale of the book to veterans, according to "San Francisco Weekly."

High School of the Week- Springfield Southeast (Illinois)

Though he is actually an alumnus of The Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii, we are featuring a photograph of President Barack Obama with our High School of the Week entry for Springfield Southest High School in Springfield, Ill., because the state capital of Illinois is effectively where Obama's political career began to flourish when he was a member of the state senate there some ten years ago.

We must profess that Illinois offered many potential choices for High School of the Week selection process: Actor Bruce Dern, who recently turned 76, is an alumnus of New Trier High School in Winnetka, Bill Murray graduated from the private Loyola Academy in Wilmette, the classic 1985 teen angst film "The Breakfast Club" was filmed at Maine North High School in Des Plaines and my cousin Brent Gokbudak went to Niles West High School in Skokie where his teammate on the gymnastics team was none other than future Olympian Bart Conner! (All of these schools are in suburbs of Chicago).

But we chose Springfield Southeast HS, a school with an enrollment of some 1,350 students according to Wikipedia, over all of them. The school nickname is The Spartans, and there are both boys and girls hockey teams at the school as well. Elbert Kern is the football coach for The Spartans. And Jason Wind is the school's principal.

Of course, even folks in Karachi, Pakistan, know that Seymour Skinner (his 'real name' is Armin Tamzarian according to Wikipedia) is the principal of the elementary school in the fictional Springfield on "The Simpsons." There is speculation that the Springfield in the cartoon series was based on Springfield, Mass., but that has never been verified.

Bill Murray Birthday Bash in Roanoke, Va., on Sept 21

We don't know if the Bill Murray movie that will be screened will in fact be Wes Anderson's "Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" or not, but on Sept. 21, The Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va., will screen a Murray film in honor of his 60th birthday.

Murray has been in all kinds of films, ranging from art house dramas like "Broken Flowers" (2005) and "Lost in Translation" (2003) to cult comedies like "Groundhog Day" (1993) and "Kingpin" (1996).

Murray made a name for himself on "Saturday Night Life" before starring or co-starring in big screen blockbusters like "Caddyshack" (1980), "Stripes" (1981) and "Ghost Busters" (1984).

He is currently in the film "Get Low" with Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, all three of whom were part-time or full-time residents of Virginia (Spacek still lives on a farm near Charlottesville). "Get Low" is playing at cinemas around the country, including the Carolina Theatre in Durham, NC.

Silly Picture to Fill Space-Groundhog Day

Bill Murray has said that "Groundhog Day" is one of his favorite movies.

I guess irregardless of what the groundhog in Pennsylvania indicated North Carolina and Virginia are about to get slammed with another major winter storm on Friday, according to both Eric Chilton (weather person for WFMY 2, CBS affiliate in Greensboro, NC) and Robin Reed (weather person for WDBJ 7, CBS affiliate in Roanoke, Va.).

I need to actually spend time doing things on my to-do list today, such as paying the electric bill, calling "The New Republic" about a 'missing issue' and doing the laundry (well, I never do the laundry!) so this will be a shorter entry than normal.

In the meantime, enjoy your Groundhog Day, which also happens to be the birthday of my friend Uzay Tumer, a Shakespearean actor who made it big as a celebrity waiter on the NBC reality tv show "The Restaurant."