Quote of the Day: Pope Francis

Since Pope Francis of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the first Pope to ever be on the cover of "Rolling Stone" magazine, who also happens to be from the land of Barcelona soccer great Lionel Messi, whom along with Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers is a spokes person for Turkish Airlines, we thought we'd quote the pontiff today:

"I love tango, and I used to dance when I was younger."

http://www.rollingstone.com

http://www.vatican.va/

http://ncronline.org/

http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php

http://www.turkishairlines.com/

Quote of the Day: Cate Blanchett

Greetings to our blog-readers in Estonia, Thailand and Jordan.

Tonight, in honor of International Women's Day, which has been promoted on LinkedIn via Turkish Airlines as well as a Google Doodle, we are quoting the most recent Oscar winner for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett. The Australian actress, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator," won the Academy Award for her title role in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine," The film also featured an excellent performance from Sally Hawkins.

Here is Blanchett's quip:

"Don't you find that work, if you love it, is actually invigorating."

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

http://www.google.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com/

http://www.linkedin.com

The Last Ten French Films We've Seen: Hopefully, Godard is Pleased with Us

Here are the last ten French-language films we've seen, including "Aaltra," a VERY dark comedy that is a Belgian film which is partially filmed in Finland. It was distributed here in the United States through the Film Movement. And, it aired at 2:00 a.m. back in December on Turner Classics Movies as a film selected by comedian/actor Patton Oswalt who was guest programmer.

This month's Star of the Month on TCM is Mary Astor, who played the femme fatale opposite Humphrey Bogart in "The Maltese Falcon" (she is not French!)

Here is the list (we got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine):

Any film with an (*) is one we watched via Netflix

1) "Aaltra" (Belgium. 2004. dirs.- Gustave de Kervem and Benoit Delepine)

2) "Rules of the Game" (1939. dir-Jean Renoir; see image #1)

3) "Rust and Bone" (2012. dir-Jacques Audiard)

4) "A Woman is a Woman" (1961. dir-Jean-Luc Godard) *

5) "Les Cousins" (1959. dir-Claude Chabrol)

6) "A Burning Hot Summer" (2011. dir-Philippe Garrel) *

7) "Leaving" (2009. dir-Catherine Corsini w/Kristin Scott Thomas) *

8) "Farewell, My Queen" (2012. dir-Benoit Jacquot; see image #2 which of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands)

9) "Un Flic/A Cop" (1972. dir. Jean-Pierre Melville w/Catherine Deneuve; see image #3, which is of a K-9 officer)

10) "Hadewijch" (2009. dir- Bruno Durmont)

http://www.filmcomment.com/

http://www.netflix.com

http://www.tcm.com/

http://www.imdb.com/

http://www.filmmovement.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FrenchFilms

Sunday News and Record Comic Strips: Fruit Cakes and Cubicles

Here we go with our ten favorite comic strips from yesterday (Sunday) in the print edition of "The News & Record" in Greensboro, NC; we will indicate which comics are also in "The Roanoke Times" with a (^) and in "The Washington Post" with an (*). :

1. Pearls Before Swine ^*

2. WUMO *

3. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy (pictured top, the last panel featured a fruitcake gag) *

4. Foxtrot (pictured middle, the strip had a toga reference which, of course, reminded us of John Belushi in "Animal House"). *

5. Judge Parker *

6. Doonesbury ^*

7. Ziggy

8. Family Circus (Surprise! The Oscar theme worked stunningly well) ^*

9.  Dilbert ^* (The reason for image three, the cubicles)

10. Garfield

http://www.news-record.com/

http://www.stephanpastis.wordpress.com

For more Sunday comics surveys, go to our sister blog: http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com

Sunday Washington Post Comic Strips Survey: We Really, Really Like the Argyle Sweater

This Sunday's "Washington Post" comic strips offered a satire of "Sesame Street" ("The Argyle Sweater") which may NOT go over well with Big Bird fans (or Cookie Monster fans), an awkward mother and son moment ("Knight Life"by Keith Knight), "Big Nate" struggling with loads on homework and "Lio" working on some finger-painting, much to his father's shock and horror.

We are also featuring comics from "The Roanoke Times" (Roanoke, Va.) and "The News & Record" (Greensboro, NC) this week. We will denote strips in the Roanoke newspaper with a (^) and those appearing in the Greensboro newspaper with an (*).

Here are the top ten comics of the week:

1) The Argyle Sweater (Oscar the Grouch, featured in the strip, pictured top)

2) Knight Life

 3) Speed Bump ^

4) Big Nate (image two)

5) Sherman's Lagoon

6) Lio (image three)

7) Pearls Before Swine ^*

8) WUMO *

9) Dustin

10) Brewster Rockit:Space Guy ^

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/comics/

http://www.gocomics.com/

http://kingfeatures.com/comics/comics-a-z/

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (for our survey of Sunday comics from "The Roanoke Times")

We're Back: With Our List of Worst Oscar Winners

Last night, "12 Years a Slave," a remarkable, landmark film directed by Steve McQueen won the Best Picture Oscar (wouldn't it be ironic if he were the one directing the remake of "The Great Escape") and we are in 100-percent agreement with that, but that is NOT always the case; here are our least favorite Oscar-winning films of all time:

1) Titanic (1997; see image one)

2) Gigi (1958)

3) The Sound of Music (1965)

4) Forrest Gump (1994; see image number two)

5) Crash (2004)

6) Rebecca (1940)

7) Around the World in 80 Days (1956; see image number three)

8) How Green Was My Valley (1941)

9) My Fair Lady (1964)

10) The King's Speech (2010)

We're Back: With a List of Our Favorite Oscar-Winning Films

Here are our ten favorite Oscar-winning films:

1) The Godfather (1972; see image one)

2) On the Waterfront (1954)

3) Midnight Cowboy (1969; see image two)

4) Schindler's List (1993)

5) The Apartment (1960)

6) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975; see image three)

7) The French Connection (1971)

8) All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

9) Annie Hall (1977)

10) Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

http://www.oscars.go.com