Now Showing: The Film Forum and The Eden Drive-In

Today, we look at various movies which are being screened in both large markets and small towns, on the east coast of the United States.

We start in New York, where tonight the Film Forum screens both "The French Connection" at 7:10 p.m. and "The Honeymoon Killers" (pict. bottom) at 9:30 p.m. Both films are being screened as part of the Film Forum's True Crime series which also features Charlie Chaplin's "Monsieur Verdoux." "The Honeymoon Killers" has developed a cult reputation since being released in the early 1970s; the film revolves around a man and a woman who lured victims with lonely hearts ads in local newspapers. The film is indeed based on a true story, and it is a jarring film about a cross country killing spree. IFC once showed the film on Valentine's Day!

The Film Forum is also screening the cinematic gem "The Third Man" with Orson Welles at 4:50; 7:10 and 9:20 p.m. in addition to two earlier in the day matinees.

We move south to Washington, DC, where the E-Street Cinema is screening the new indy film "The Stanford Prison Experiment" at 2:05, 4:35, 7:05, and 9:30 p.m. The film is also showing at the a/perture Cinema in Winston-Salem, NC, at 11:45 a.m., 4:30 p.m., and 7:15 p.m.

Some three and a half hours south of Washington, DC, the Hull's Drive-In in Lexington, Va., will be screening a double-feature: "Magic Mike XXL" and "Ted 2" (pict. top) starting at 8:55 p.m. In Blacksburg, Va., the Lyric Theatre is showing the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson biopic "Love and Mercy" at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m.

In the small town of Eden, NC, which neighbors Henry County (Martinsville), Va., the Eden Drive-In is showing the new version of "Vacation" (the center image is of the original 1983 Chevy Chase version) along with "Southpaw," a boxing movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal starting at sun down which was 8:25 p.m. last night.

In Chapel Hill, NC, the Varsity Theatre will be screening "Mad Max: Fury Road," one of the best reviewed films of the year at 9:20 p.m.

Finally, Cine, a cinema in Athens, Ga., is holding a special screening of John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" starring Kurt Russell at 10:30 p.m.

http://www.varsityonfranklin.com

http://www.filmforum.org

http://www.edendrivein.com

http://www.aperturecinema.com

http://www.thelyric.com

http://www.hullsdrivein.com

http://www.athenscine.com

Presidential Quotes, (7 of 8): Gerald Ford

Greetings to our blog readers in Austria, Finland and Uruguay, where Jose Mujica is president and apparently he is also the poorest president in the world (ok, we asked Google who the president of Uruguay was).

Since these quips from the first and last eight presidents seem to be as popular as late-night vacuum infomercials, we thought we'd arbitrarily throw in a few names to boost our hits: Kate Middleton, Paris Hilton and Edward Snowden*: We don't actually give a fig about any of these people.

Here is our quote from Gerald Ford, who always enjoyed a good round of golf, and helped comic actor Chevy Chase rise to stardom; his presidential library is located in Ann Arbor, Mich.:

"I would hope that understanding and reconciliation are not limited to the 19th hole alone."


http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov

*-This is, in fact, the first time we've mentioned Snowden's name on this blog, though we gather people like Noam Chomsky and Ron Paul admire him.

And, Now a Quick Word from Our Sponsors- Cola Turka

Tonight's sponsor is Cola Turka, a product that once featured commercials with Chevy Chase, yes that Chevy Chase, you know the one who said: "I'm Chevy Chase and you're not" on "Saturday Night Live."

There is also a Washington, DC, suburb called Chevy Chase, Maryland, where conservative commentator George F. Will reportedly resides.

We will also mention that country singer/actor Kris Kristofferson will be performing at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival on Aug. 3rd in Orkney Springs (Mount Jackson), Va.

Now, it's time for us to move on to other things and finish working on up coming blog entries!

http://www.worldmarket.com

http://www,musicfest.org

http://www.kriskristofferson.com

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon: The Stars of "Three Amigos"

Wow! We were actually experiencing Blogger's Block, something we seldom get stuck in here. In fact, if anything we have too many ideas, and we've worried that blogging was keeping us from doing the important things in life like grooming our pet Yorkie Terrier Mandy (this is a joke...btw).

But, we were listening to the Queen record "The Game," and the track "Another One Bites the Dust" made us realize that our faithful readers in Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria (yes, we do get regular hits from these places!) had to have a new entry for today.

So, we came up with a look at what is now a bit of a retro web site, since it became popular way, way back in the late 1990s: It is The Oracle of Bacon; the site refers to actor Kevin Bacon and it was devised by a former University of Virginia student.

For this entry, we initially thought we'd check out some very obscure actors, by American standards, including the late Turkish comic actor Kemal Sunal, who is three degrees removed from Kevin Bacon, but we thought that might just cause too much confusion.

Hence, we came up with the three stars of the kinda cult film "Three Amigos" (1986) which was a comedic homage of sorts to "The Wild Bunch."

Those three actors are Steve Martin (pictured top), Chevy Chase (pictured bottom) and Martin Short.

Steve Martin and Martin Short have both actually been in films with Bacon. Steve Martin was in "Novocaine" (2001) with the original "Footloose" star while Martin Short teamed together with him in "The Big Picture" (1989).

But, Chase is two degrees removed from Bacon. He starred in the film "Vegas Vacation" (1997) which also featured Jeffrey Donovan who was with Bacon in "Sleepers"(1996).

Steve Martin is also a highly regarded banjo player (in addition to being a writer), and he will perform with the Steep Canyon Rangers in Waterbury, Conn., on June 21.

So, there you go Blogger's Block is over, now we have to take care of insomnia!

http://www.oracleofbacon.com

http://www.stevemartin.com

Quote of the Day/Week-Ronald Reagan

Today, we are continuing to quote the last eight presidents (the other four quotes are on our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time") not to be confused with my sister's blog, well actually she does not have one.

And, the subject of quote today is from Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Some trivia before we get to our quote. Reagan was also a Hollywood actor and his last film was "The Killers" (1964, dir. Don Siegel) in which he played a mob boss, a role that was originally considered for the late Walter Mathau.

Reagan was played by eight different actors on "Saturday Night Live" including the late Phil Hartman, Robin Williams (guest host), Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Charles Rocket, Harry Shearer, Kevin Nealon and Joe Piscopo, who was the only "SNL" star to play both Reagan and President Jimmy Carter.

In the controversial tv film "The Reagans" (2003), Reagan was played by James Brolin. Five years later, Brolin's son Josh Brolin played another president, George W. Bush in Oliver Stone's "W" (2008).

Here is Reagan's quote:

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table."

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Caddyshack

We continue our look at summer jobs in our Silly Pictures to Fill Space series (which usually runs on Tuesdays) with an homage to the 1980 film "Caddyshack," which somehow lost the Best Picture Oscar to "Raging Bull" (correction: "Ordinary People," I always forget that even though 'Bull' is the better movie that it lost to the Robert Redford-directed film. 'Course, we know 'Caddyshack' wasn't actually nominated).

If one wants to become a caddy in the Winston-Salem, NC-area and perhaps meet the real-life equivalents of Chevy Chase, Ted Knight and Rodney Dangerfield, one can apply at The Old Homeplace Golf Club on Wallbug Road, Jimmy Mac's Golf Range on Clemmonsville Road or The Meadowlands Golf Club at Meadowlands Drive.

Of course, we're not sure that any of these places (which really do exist) are hiring as we don't have time to survey job postings on Craigslist.

But, we can tell you that Krispy Kreme Town's local minor league baseball team The Winston-Salem Dash won a road game over the Lynchburg Hillcats in Lynchburg, Va., by a 7-4 score on Sunday.

The Dash now head to my hometown of Salem, Va., to face the Salem RedSox for a four-game series starting on Wednesday night. We wish both teams well.

Hmmm......I am beginning to feel like someone residing in Zurich, Switzerland!

Things We Learned from Twitter This PM- Russian Prez Joins the Cult!

I guess this image of Misha the Bear, the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics mascot, suggests that many of us Americans, including those of us with at least one foreign-born parent, don't take the Russians too seriously these days. I actually ate a place called Misha's Cafe in Baku, Azerbaijan, their brekfast is actually better than The Omelete Shop in Princeton, W.Va (don't tell them, I said that!).

But, perhaps given our past history, that should be change! And, perhaps there is no better way to achieve that than to have Russian President Dmitry Medvedev open up his own Twitter account.

Yesterday, while visiting Silicon Valley (near San Francisco), Medvedev did just that according to "The Hill Tweets," one of the Twitter pages for the Washington, Dc-based publication "The Hill" which discusses all things related to Capitol Hill.

According to "The Hill Tweets," the Russian prez released two accounts, one in English and other one in Russian.

His first tweet was: "Hello everyone! I'm on Twitter and this is my first tweet."

Boris and Natascha would be proud!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger congratulated Medvedeve via (what else) Twitter!

"The Hill Tweets" also reported that three Democratic senators, including Mark Warner of Va. (whom I met during a campaign stop in Strasburg, Va., when he was running for governor--a race that would later win), Chris Dodd of Conn. and Mark Udall of Colo. all congratulated Team USA via Twitter for their 1-0 win over Algeria.

The win puts Team USA into the second round of The World Cup.

Meanwhile, another figure on The Hill, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had his own busy day on Twitter as he posted a photo of "The Three Amigos," a group which includes him as well as Sens. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Perhaps, all six of these senators can get together over the weekend and watch another Chevy Chase 'classic' "Caddyshack" with some college students from Georgetown!

Six Degrees of Separation_ Rodney Dangerfield (Entry 5 of 11)

Since we featured Chevy Chase for our last entry, we will turn to his "Caddyshack" golf partner the late Rodney Dangerfield (1921-2004) for today's entry which shows the degrees of separation a given star has from Kevin Bacon.

We are, of course (don't tell anyone), borrowing this from the oracleofbacon.org

The man who got 'no respect' was in "Back to School" (1986) with Burt Young who was in "New York, I Love You" (2008) with Bacon.

Upcoming entries in this series will include Turhan Bey and Rin Tin Tin........!

"Caddyshack" airs at 8 p.m. on January 8 (Thursday) on AMC.

Political Confusion Quiz (Entry 4 of 21)

In today's "Political Confusion Quiz," we simply ask would you rather choose Chevy Chase or Donny Osmond as your celebrity golf partner. It should be painfully obvious which one of these two is the Republican.

My Facebook friend Timothy Hayfield of Charlotte, NC, will probably get me a Christmas gift subscription to "The National Review" for this:)