The Last Ten Movies We've Seen (as of Wednesday)........Are We the Doom Generation?

Greetings to our blog readers in South Korea, Romania, and Egypt......

Happy Ramadan to our Muslims friends.....

Today, we look at the last ten films we've seen; this is an idea we originally got from "Film Comment" magazine, where Gavin Smith is the editor-in-chief.

The last ten films we've seen, include two that are in theatres ("Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl;" "The Overnight"). The earliest Hollywood film on the list is "The Brothers Karamazov" (bottom image) which is a 1958 film which marked the film debut of William Shatner (Captain Kirk on "Star Trek") and the earliest film overall is "Torment" from 1944, a Swedish film with a screeenplay from a young Ingmar Bergman.

The other two foreign-language films on the list are "Inside" (Yeralti) by Turkish director Zeki Demirkbuz and "Stray Dogs" (center image) from Taiwanese filmmaker Ming-ling Tsai.

It is not very often that we have a film from the 1990s, or the "Seinfeld" decade as we like to call it, on the list, but the very last film we saw on this survey is a strange spree killers road movie called "The Doom Generation" (top image: Courtney Love, we are using her symbolically as she is not in the film) which features a supporting character played by Parker Posey, who is one of the film's few highlights! (We agree with the late Roger Ebert who called it an awful film!).....

Here is the last ten:

1. "The Doom Generation." director: Gregg Araki. 1995.

2. Stray Dogs. Taiwan. dir: Ming-ling Tsai. 2013

3. The Dark Crystal. Jim Henson and Frank Oz. 1982.

4. Next Stop, Grenwich Village. Paul Mazursky. 1976.

5. Death Hunt. Peter R. Hunt. 1981 w/ Charles Bronson and Lee Marvin

6. The Brothers Karamazov. Richard Brooks. 1958.

7. The Overnight. Patrick Brice. 2015 w/Jason Schwatzman

8. Torment. Sweden. Alf Sjoberg. 1944

9. Me, Earl and the Dying Girl. Alfonso Gomez-Rejan. 2015

10. Inside. Turkey. Zeki Demirkubuz. 2012

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.tcm.com

Sunday Funnies- A Quote from Zippy the Pinhead

Since we 'got into trouble' for hotlinking an image of the Bill Griffith comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead," we thought we'd go with this image of The Coneheads, characters that first appeared on "Saturday Night Live" in the 1970s. Some believe The Coneheads was influenced by the cult comic strip, which was also mentioned in an episode of "Seinfeld."

We are taking this quip from the relatively-new collection "Lost and Found," which not only features Zippy the Pinhead, but many tales involving Griffith's other signature character Mister Toad. Parents should perhaps be warned that some pieces in the book from Griffith's early years of cartooning originally appeared in comic strip characters. Gosh, I just sounded like Nancy Reagan there...and, I'm not a Republican!

Here is the quote:

"Mr. Ed is the illegitimate offspring of Captain Kangaroo and Donna Reed." 

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us

Folks in Turkey, Bulgaria and Latvia may have no idea what we are talking about, but today is Festivus Day in the United States. Today also happens to be HumanLight Day, the human secularist equivalent to Christmas. Though the two occasions are similar, our researchers could not verify or deny that they are one in the same!

Festivus is described on Wikipedia as: 'a way to celebrate the holiday season without pressures or commercialism.' Festivus originates from an episode of "Seinfeld" entitled "The Strike," which aired on Dec. 18, 1997, a few months before the cast decided to call it quits so the long-running, popular sitcom could go out on a high note.

Ironically, "Seinfeld" was once pummeled by "Home Improvement" in the ratings, though now most people agree that "Seinfeld" was far and away the better show.

Festivus includes such ceremonies as gathering around an aluminum pole called 'The Festivus Pole' and airing out grievances. The catch phrase for the holiday/celebration is "Festivus for the rest of us." There are now even Festivus yarmalukes.

In 2007, a Wisconsin man actually requested permission to put up a Festivus Pole next to a nativity scene at Green Bay City Hall as a means to protest the inclusion of religion and state.

Today, there will be a Festivus celebration at The Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va., my hometown, at 8:00 p.m.


SIDEBAR ONE: While reading the latest issue of "The New Republic," we came across an ad for a book entitled "Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays" by Joel Waldfogel, an economist at the Pennsylvania University.

The 2009 which is published by Princeton Press promotes itself as 'the book that Santa doesn't want you to read.' Among the claims that Waldfogel presents (we have not read the book ourselves) is that many gifts, particularly ones like rooster sweaters or Mister Potato Heads, are gifts we really don't need or want.

Waldfogel also argues that approximately $85 billion of waste occurs due to holiday shopping. He also stated that the Christmas shopping process disrupts regular shopping patterns and we are essentially forced to shoot in the dark to make relatives happy.

In a "Wall Street Journal" interview, the author admitted that his own wife was initially put off by his findings.

SIDEBAR TWO: Whether one agrees with Joel Waldfogel or not, one can agree with the sentiment that there is a dark side to Christmas shopping when it as it most extreme level. Today, "The Charlotte Observer" reported that three shopping malls in the Charlotte, NC- metro area had to be closed because fighting had broken out between customers who wanted the new Air Jordan XI Concord basketball shoes, that retail for around $180 a pair.

Things We Learned on Twitter PM- Green Day Song Popular on TV

There were many things we learned this afternoon, including the disturbing news that a 13-year-old kid brought a gun to Blacksburg Middle School today in Blacksburg, Va, where the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy occured in 2007 (I grew up in nearby Roanoke, Va.), the UNC Tarheels' women's lacrosse team is getting ready to face Northwestern in the NCAA semi-finals on Friday and Pakistani officials are considering relaxing the nationwide ban on YouTube.

But, for our story of the day, we are going with this tid-bit we learned from a tweet from the NPR talk show "Fresh Air," which is hosted by Terry Gross:

'Green Day song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was used in "Seinfeld" and "ER." '

I knew that it was used in "Seinfeld," but it seems intriguing that it was picked up by the hospital drama which ran on tv for 36 years (that is a joke!).

The NPR radio program features an interview with actor Walter Goggins who is now appearing in the FX series "Justified" this week.

For those in my state of residence North Carolina,"Fresh Air" airs on WUNC-FM (90.7 FM/Chapel Hill) at 7 p.m. Those of you living just up the road in the hamlet of Boones Mill, Va., (near Roanoke) can listen to the broadcast at 6:30 p.m. on WVTF
(89.1 FM/Roanoke).