Potluck Quote of the Day (10 of 10): Natalie Portman

Tonight's Quote of the Day is from Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman ("V for Vendetta;" "Black Swan;" "Garden State") who was on the cover of the New York Times' T-Magazine (which covers fashion); one of our favorite films with the Israeli-born Portman is "Closer" with Julia Roberts and Jude Law:

"If you're an actress or a musician, everyone thinks you're hot."

http://www.natalieportman.com

http://www.nytimes.com

Road Trip- Cambridge, Mass, to Eugene, Ore.

We have been meaning to post this entry for quite a long time as we ask you the blog-reader to guess how long it would take a bus driver to get from Cambridge, Mass., to Eugene, Oregon.

Both of these college towns boast hip, popular independent record stores. In Cambridge, where Harvard University is located, there is Cheapo Records, that was profiled on the NPR show "The World." And, in Eugene, Ore., which is known for both the University of Oregon and for being the residence of the late author Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), there is Skip's Record and CD World.

Of course, the whole world knows that Harvard is the alma mater of President Barack Obama and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (ooops!, we forgot that Zuckerberg is actually a college drop-out).

We are also featuring the cover of the 1978 debut album of The Pretenders (which is called "The Pretenders") because we are huge fans of the band and their lead singer Chrissie Hynde.

So, here are the choices:

A)43 hours, 20 minutes

B) 44 hours, 50 minutes

C) 47 hours, 10 minutes

D) 48 hours, 40 minutes

SIDEBAR: There are lots of celebrity birhtdays today as one of our favorite actresses Natalie Portman turns 30, Johnny Depp turns 48, Michael J. Fox turns 50 and Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor turns 25.

SIDEBAR TWO: I had the chance to see Miss Lana Rebel, an experimental/folk singer perform recently at the Green Bean in Greensboro, NC. Now the band that was originally based in Portland, Ore., then Tucson, Ariz., then Athens, Ga., is now play in and around Austin, Tex. Amazingly enough, Miss Rebel and her bandmates live out of a school bus in Vancouver, Wash., they bought via Craig's List.

Happy Oscar Hangover Day

For starters, let me go ahead and congratulate Natalie Portman, Colin Firth, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale and David Fincher (just kidding, we know Tom Hooper won for directing "The King's Speech," but we couldn't resist, especially since most of us Gen-Xers were rooting for Fincher's film "The Social Network") for their Oscar wins last night.

Even if we disagree with the Academy's decisions (Fincher was robbed!), we respect the great work that went into what they did to win each of their respective Oscars.

Of course, for film fanatics, such as myself, there is nothing worse than the day after the Oscars.

I was up until 1:05 eastern time, USA, (also known as New York time), watching the Jimmy Kimmel special with Tom Hanks last night. Kimmel's show featured a hilarious spoof of "The King's Speech" with Mike Tyson (yes, it was really the former boxer himself) was coaching a George W. Bush impersonator who just couldn't help mess up verbally each and every time he came to the podium.

So, I felt like I did as a 19-year-old kid (my age in 1989) who had just drunk way too much raki in Istanbul, Turkey.

For those who don't know much about the alcoholic spirit, we will give a brief cultural and historical synopsis (with help from Wikipedia), especially for those of you in Eugene, Ore.

Since, those of you in that time zone might well still behind a computer as we are typing this (it's now about 6:30 p.m., New York time) and can't wait to go home to your wife, kid and orange goldfish:


"Raki pronounced rakuu is a non-sweet arise-flavored alcoholic drink popularly consumed in Turkey, Greece, Albania, Bosnia and Bulgaria alongside seafood and mezze. Raki is also known as 'the Lion's milk.' It became popular from 1839-1876 during the 'liberal' period of the Ottoman Empire."

So, if you were wondering how a strong alcoholic drink that can knock you out like a punch from Mike Tyson became hip in a Muslim country, there you have it (we changed some of the wording from raki's Wikipedia entry to make it easier to read and more humorous).

Status Update_ I've Seen All But One of the Films...

Status Update for 1/25/11: "I've seen all the films nominated for Best Picture Oscar except '127 Hours,' but no one around here is showing it!"

Towards the end of the family trip to Washington, DC, (see the DC Diary blog entries), I had a chance to see "127 Hours," the new Danny Boyle film with James Franco. I chose to see "I Love You, Philip Morris" at the Landmark E-Street Cinema instead on the false assumption that it would be the film less likely to be playing in Greensboro or Winston-Salem, NC. But, amazingly enough, the reverse happened!

In spite of much critical acclaim, "127 Hours" is not playing in a single movie theatre between the Washington, DC, and Charlotte, NC, metro areas. This includes cities like Charlottesville, Roanoke, Richmond and Norfolk in Virginia, as well as zip codes like Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham and Wilmington in North Carolina (in addition to the Greensboro area).

I know it briefly played in Asheville, NC, but for some odd reason, it has yet to come to a cinema here. This simply astonishes me.

My friend Chris Knight expressed similar exasperation when "The Road" wasn't showing anywhere between Atlanta and Washington, DC, in late 2009.

I guess everyone assumes we want to see "Green Hornet" in 3-D. Nothing against that film or its director Michel Gondry, who I have a lot of respect for, but I am puzzled how the movie distribution system works. If anyone knows someone at Fox Searchlight, who is distributing "127 Hours," I would love to find out the reasons for this. The company is also distributing the acclaimed film "The Black Swan" with Natalie Portman.

Assuredly, I am not the only one dismayed by the way they determine which markets get to see which films.

However, I did notice on the film's IMDB page, that is in fact now playing in Kuwait!

Thursday Top 10 Lists_ Reasons to Get Up Early

The name of this blog "The Daily Vampire" does not stem from the fact that I turn into a bat and suck blood from people's necks, but rather because I simply do not keep normal hours. I teach in the afternoon, so I have developed a habit of going to bed late and then in turn getting up some time after 9 a.m.

So, today, I am starting my Thursday Top 10 list with 10 Reasons to Go to Bed (In reverse order):

10. Charlie Rose stimulates the mind too much, and his show can cause one to feel obliged to read books or magazines they don't have time for anyway.

9. They will play the same crappy songs you listen to on the radio during the day- there will just be more annoying ads.

8. You can get in those laps at the local YMCA pool that you continously neglect.

7. They will still not know if Tom Perriello won his seat over that fill-in-the-blank Cong. Virgil Goode (R-Va) when you wake up (Tom is up by 31 votes. It is one of the very few undecided races from yesterday in the whole country).

6. You can spend less time staring at the ceiling and asking yourself ridicilious questions, like "What if I had gone out with Amanda or Dawn in college? Or Laura in high school? Or that girl in third grade whose name you have forgotten."


5. You can eat Special K and Grape Nuts at a normal hour.

4. You can see movies which will actually cultivate you as opposed to something like "Werewolves on Wheels."

3. You can waste valuable hours of daylight blogging just as well.

2. There is no need to read "Naked Lunch" for a seventh time, is there?

1. There is a chance you might actually remember the dream you had about making love to Natalie Portman.