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

Ten Things to Know: Culture Club is Coming to Washington DC

1) Syracuse Stage in Syracuse, NY, will be staging the play "Steve Martin's The Underpants," which depicts a young man who literally drops his drawers and is dealt with public humiliation. The play will be the troupe's season opener and it will run from Oct. 21-Nov. 8. Bill Fennelly directs.

2) The Both: A Rock duet consisting of veteran performers Ted Leo and Aimee Mann performs at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, on May 5th.

3) "While We're Young," a comedy directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts opens at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., on May 2nd (there is a concert there on May 1st).

4) Pauline McKee, 90, was refused a $41.8 million jackpot for Miss Kitty at a casino in Iowa, according to the BBC.

5) Bayern Munich won its 25th German title; the team faces Barcelona FC with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.

6) The Regulator Bookshop in Durham, NC, named the best bookstore in Raleigh/Durham by "Indy Weekly" will be one of many bookstores celebrating Independent Bookstore on May 2nd.

7) Culture Club will be performing at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., a Washington, DC-suburb on August 10th.

8) "The Toronto Star" is reporting that the Canadian province of Ontario will give $1 million to relief efforts for the devastating earthquake which struck Nepal this weekend.

9) According to What the F*** Facts, the top export in America is cars, the top import in America is also cars. You do tend to see lots of Kia, a South Korean car, on the roads these days.

10)  Today is the 39th birthday of British actress Sally Hawkins ("Blue Jasmine," pict. bottom)

http://syracusestage.org/

http://www.catscradle.com/

http://www.thelyric.com/

http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/

http://www.wolftrap.org

http://www.culture-club.co.uk/

Sunday Comics Survey for Jan.4th Roanoke Times: Get Fuzzy Comes in Second Yet Again

Greetings to our blog readers in South Korea, Ireland and Russia........

Our favorite Sunday comic strip of the week was "Doonesbury." In today's strip, a patriotic man approaches a War in Iraq veteran and thanks for him for his service, but the former solider expresses misgivings about his years of combat, which provides for an awwwkward moment. Yes, this is also the reason why we have an image of Saddam Hussein at the top of our page.

Second place went to "Get Fuzzy" for the third or fourth week in a row; the strip is usually runner up to "Pearls Before Swine," which featured a pun about John Lennon (pictured bottom) songs, which finished fourth today in our survey.

Third place went to Dave Coverly's single panel jam, which was one of many strips today that had prison jokes......yeah, what's up with that?

Amazingly enough, "Family Circus" made our top ten for the third or fourth week in a row, and "For Better or For Worse," actually made our top ten for the first time since like 2003.......

Here is our top ten:

1. Doonesbury

2. Get Fuzzy

3. Speed Bump

4. Pearls Before Swine

5. Agnes

6. Dilbert

7. Non Sequitur

8. Jump Start

9. Family Circus

10. For Better or For Worse

http://www.politicscultureandotherwastesoft.blogspot.com (for this week's "Washington Post" comics survey)

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.roanokedoesntsuck.com

http://www.comicskingdom.com

http://www.gocomics.com

Sunday Comics Gran Slam (4 of 4): Bleeker Wins the Overall Sweepstakes

Greetings from Charlotte, NC, where we have been hanging out at Heroes Con with Mark Hamill, ok, that is not where we have been this weekend, and we have no idea if the actor who once portrayed Luke Skywalker was in the Queen City, but nonetheless, we needed to get your attention.

Similarly, Shawn Johnson, the American gold medalist gymnast from Iowa, Cuneyt Cakir, the Turkish soccer referee who worked the Brazil-Mexico match at the World Cup, and Yogi Bear, really have nothing to do with his blog entry, but we are competing with thousands of other blogs to win over teenagers in South Korea who are taking a break from playing Donkey Kong (or whatever kids play these days) for 72 straight hours (we hope with bathroom breaks).

So, here are our top 20 comic strips from last Sunday's funny papers. Alas, we are posting them as the world gets to see the latest installment of "Garfield," our apologies to Jim Davis, but his strip about a 38-year-old house cat, did not make the grade.

Here is the list:
 

1) Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog 8.6

2) The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee 8.5

3) WUMO 8.4

4) Pardon the Planet 8.3

5) Tundra 8.3

6) Retail 8.3

7) The Argyle Sweater 8.3

8) Speed Bump 8.2

9) Arctic Circle 8.2

10) Tom Tomorrow 8.1

11) Dustin 8.1

12) Zippy the Pinhead 8.0

13) Reply All 8.0

14) Tina's Groove 8.0

15) Brewster Rockit: Space Guy 8.0

16) Knight Life 8.0

17) Mother Goose and Grimm 8.0

18) Sherman's Lagoon 7.9

19) Lio 7.8

20) Doonesbury 7.8


http://bleekercomics.com/

http://edisonleecomic.com/

http://www.gocomics/wumo

http://www.twitter.com/shawnjohnson

http://www.heroesonline.com/heroescon/

Quotes from Past Winter Olympics Athletes : Katarina Witt

Good morning to those of you in Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran.

Since Bob Costas, the American host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, on NBC told us that social media was on fire with mentions of the women's figure skating results yesterday in which Adelina Sotnikova of Russia upset previous Olympic gold medalist Kim Yuna of South Korea (alas we just discovered we didn't spell her name right on the labels; we'll blame Pyongyang).

So, we thought this would be a good way to get hits on our blog! Yuna got silver; Carolina Kostner of Italy got bronze. And. Gracie Gold of the United States may want to hide in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Bhutan as she came in fourth, which is apparently very difficult for Olympic athletes to deal with.

Our quote tonight/today is from Katarina Witt, who won two gold medals in figure skating in both the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics and 1988 Calgary Olympics. Interestingly enough, with her first win, Witt won a gold medal for a country which no longer exists, East Germany, in a country, that no longer exists, Yugoslavia (Sarajevo is now the capital of Bosnia).

Witt raised eyebrows when she posed nude for "Playboy" in 1998, the issue became only the second time, the men's adult magazine completely sold out. The first time was for an issue with Marilyn Monroe.

Witt also headed an unsuccessful bid for Munich to get the 2018 Winter Olympics, which would have made the German city the first one to host both the summer and winter games (Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Olympics).

Here is Witt's quote, she is now 48 years old:

"When I get up, I have a cup of coffee, surf the Internet, and then do a half-hour run."

http://en.katarina-witt.de/

The Olympics Lists (9 of 10): Athletes from Asian-Pacific Countries, Including one 'Russian'

We are almost near the finish line! Yes, indeed.

Here is a list of 10 athletes from Asian-Pacific countries as well as some from countries that are located within the vast Pacific Ocean, which I've only seen one time in San Diego, Calif.:

1) Noriaki Kasai. (pictured) 41, Japan. Men's Ski-jumping. Won silver and bronze.

2) Zang Hong. 25. China. Women's Speed-skating. Won gold.

3) Viktor Ahn (Ahn Hyun-Soo). 28. Russia. Short-track Speed-skating. Won gold and silver. Ahn is actually a South Korean who was offered to be in the Olympics representing Russia, and he won!

4) Lee Sang-hwa. 24. South Korea. Women's Short-track Speed-Skating.

5) Michael Martinez. 17. Philippines. Men's Figure Skating. Martinez has become a social media sensation.

6) Katharine Eustace. 38. New Zealand. Women's Skeleton.

7) Pan-To Barton Lui. 20. Hong Kong. Short-track Speed-Skating. He is the only athlete representing Hong Kong.

8) Lydia Lassila. 32. Australia. Free-style skiing. Won bronze.

9) Jossi Wells. 23. New Zealand. Men's free-style skiing. Ouch! (he finished fourth, the event was won by American David Wise).

10) Mao Asada. 23. Japan. Women's Figure Skating. The event is traditionally the most watched event during the games; competitions starts today.

http://sochi2014.olympics.com.au/

http://www.olympic.org.nz/sochi-2014

http://jossiwells.com/

Olympics and Politics Clash on Twitter Today

We got in the Twitter forum ourselves today by congratulating Mitt Romney for choosing former American Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton (pictured top) as his running mate aboard the U.S.S. Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va. (for our yack-herding friends in Tibet, we should point out Paul Ryan of Wisconsin was Romney's actual choice, as it is Retton's home state of West Virginia is not considered a swing state this time around).

For those of you in Denver or Los Angeles I will issue a SPOILER ALERT as many of the Olympic events discussed here have not been televised as of this writing.

These tweets were compiled between 5:00-6:00 p.m. New York time, which would 10:00-11:00p.m. in London and 12:00-1:00 a.m. in Istanbul. We shall explain some of the tweets with info at the end of the compilation. We should point out that the center image is of Hodari, the tiger mascot of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and the bottom image is a zombie version of Michele Bachmann.

1) @VanouverSun: "Canada disqualified in Olympic men's 4 x 100-metre relay as Usain Bolt, Jamaica sprint to victory (with reaction)*

2) @AlexSemin: "There's better chance that I would be absolutely #filthy @ men's field hockey."**

3) @NPROlympics: "America's Brigetta Barrett Brings Out Her Best, and Jumps To A Silver Medal***

4) @LOLGOP: "We'll stop blaming Bush when you stop running on his ideas."

5) @tomperriello (Tom Perriello): "Romney comes to VA with a chairman behind sequestration that put millionaires ahead of the military. Classy." %

6) @BBCWorld: "(Tom) Daley secures 10m diving bronze." ^

7) @TeamBachmann: "#RomneyRyan 2012 is a winning combination! RT if America's Comeback Team has your support." ^%

*_Team Canada was disqualified because Jared Connaughton had stepped out of his lane during the relay. Trinidad and Tobago got bronze instead. Team America got silver in the event.

**_Alex Semin was a Washington Capitals star who recently joined the Carolina Hurricanes. Germany beat the Netherlands 2-1 to win gold in men's field hockey. Australia won bronze with a 3-1 over host Great Britain.

***-A pair of Russians_Anna Chicherova (gold) and Svetlana Shkolina (bronze) won the other medals in the high jump.

^- British diver Tom Daley won bronze; and American diver David Boudia (gold) pulled a huge upset over Chinese diver Qui Bo.

%-Tom Perriello is a former Democratic congressman who represented the very conservative fifth district of Virginia for one term; he pulled a major upset over arch conservative Virgil Goode, who is now running for president with the fringe right wing Constitution Party (ironically, Goode was once a Democrat). Perriello is now CEO of American Progress Action.

^%_In case it's not obvious, we do not share TeamBachmann's views.

http://www.teamusa.org

http://www.nhl.com

http://www.americanprogressaction.org

http://www.tomdaley.tv

http://www.marylouretton.com

Our Favorite Olympic Athletes_ Vollyeball Anyone?

Here is a look st six of our favorite Summer Olympics athletes and brief rundown of their accomplishements so far:

1) Sarah Attar, 19, Saudi Arabia, track and field (pictured above)_ Attar broken a gender barrier by competing as one of two female athletes for Saudi Arabia. The conservative kingdom which governs in accordance with strict Islamic law has never allowed women to compete before. Attar finished last in 800-meters with a time of over 2 hours and 44 minutes, but she is one of the most inspirational stories in London so far.

2) Nesilhan Darnel, 28, volleyball, Turkey (pictured center)_ Darnel was the flag-bearer for Turkey and she came through with an outstanding tournament. But, Turkey was a tough group and they lost to Brazil, China and The United as a result though they defeated a very talented South Korean team which advanced to the semi-finals. On a personal note, we were surprised to learn that Darnel got her start at the Yesilyurt Sports Club in Istanbul, which I frequented when I visited Turkey as a child and teenager.

3) Anna Esper, 19, water polo, Spain_ The United States won the gold medal match for water polo today over Spain, but it was outstanding tournament for many Spanish players, including Esper who score four goals in the team's semi-final win over Hungary.

4) Maartje Paumen, 26, field hockey, Netherlands (pictured bottom)_ The openly lesbian captain of the popular Dutch field hockey team will play Argentina in the gold medal game this weekend; they beat New Zealand in a shoot-out to get there.

5) Marketa Slukova, 24, beach volleyball, Czech Republic_ Along with teammate Krstyna Kolocva, Slukova helped upset the Brazilian upset the Brazilian duo of Antonelli and Artune on Saturday; the Czechs lost their next game in the quarter-finals to the American duo of April Ross and Jennifer Kessey, which won silver.

6) Kim Yeon-Koung, 24, volleyball, South Korea_ The ever gorgeous and extremely good volleyball who plays volleyball professionally in Turkey helped propel her team to the semi-finals, which surprised many volleyball insiders. South Korea now plays Japan in the bronze medal game.

Olympic Chat on Twitter- Losing in Soccer the Hard Way

We learned many things tonight on Twitter between the hours of 19:00-20:00 (New York time), some of which actually spoiled tonight's NBC coverage of the 2012 London Olympics tonight (we are the last people in the world to see the games here on the east coast, except for those who reside in Hawaii which is six hours behind the east coast).

We also encountered a fervent Greek nationalist who was boasting of how Greece has proven its vast athletic superiority over the whole world with two bronze medals, including one from Ilias Iliadis in men's judo (90-kg); this would have been fine with us except the flag-waving fanatic had to mention that it was two more than Turkey had won (no medals so far for my father's country).

Then, this person had to add that Turkey lost to the United States, my native country by a 89-58 margin in women's basketball. Turkey did prevail handily over China by an 82-55 margin in the team's next game, and Greece lost to Team America in the exact same sport by a 89-58 margin in Riga, Latvia, on July 3, 2009.

Of course, we have nothing against Greeks or Greek-Americans in general, but there are jingoists who unfortunately soil the Olympic spirit.

As for the tweets we read tonight, some interesting things were discussed; here are six of them:

1) @TheSun_Football: "BREAKING NEWS: Great Britain lose to South Korea 5-4 on penalties at Olympic football quarter-final stage (The image above is of English soccer legend Frank Lampard, but it is not from today's game)."

2) @Current:  "Sex, training and winning the gold: @jonnymoseley reflects of the life of an Olympian (this is actually in reference to Jonny Moseley, an American skier who fared well at the 1996 Nagano Winter Olympics)

3) @Olympic: "Total Gold Count: USA with 26, China with 25, GBR with 14."

4) @SpencerGeorgeM: "Just got really emotional watching the recap of how Jessica Ennis won the Gold. Huge congratulations to her. Once again proud to be British." (Ennis is pictured in the center).

5) Chet_Cannon: "You deserve a tardy slip @joejones. Wow @Aly_Raisman and the women gymnasts are incredible....GO USA!" (Aly Raisman is part of the Fab Five gold-medal winning USA women's gymnastics team; she is pictured below).

6) @HuffPostComedy: "If you're competing in the #Olympics you probably have no life."


http://www.jessicaennis.net

http://www.usagym.org/

http://www.haaretz.com

http://www.olympicair.com

http://www.turkishairlines.com

Olympics Cities Destination Quiz (5 of 6) Atlanta to Seoul

We could perhaps call this entry "Beauty and the Beast," since we are featuring images of American gymnast Dominique Dawes, 36, and Turkish weightlifter Naim Suleymanoglu, 45, as we look at the distance between Atlanta, where the 1996 Olympics were held, and Seoul, where the 1988 Olympics took place.

Dawes and six other American gymnasts nicknamed "The Magnificent Seven," perhaps in reference to the western movie with Charles Bronson of that same name (well, we don't have time to research and verify everything), won team in front of home spectators at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics .

In recent years, Dawes has become a highly touted public speaker and physical fitness advocate. Her teammate Dominique Moceau, 30, has recently published a memoir called "Off Balance" about her trials and tribulations as an elite gymnast. And, another member of that team, Shannon Miller, 35, has survived a serious battle with cancer.

In addition to the team gold, Miller won gold on balance beam, Dawes won bronze on the floor and another American team gymnast Amy Chow, 34, won silver on bars, an event which was won by Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina, 33, a feat she repeated at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

The 1988 Seoul Olympics were the first ones to have the United States and the Soviet Union since the 1976 Montreal Olympics, and coincidentally they were the last Olympics between the two countries as the U.S.S.R. abruptly dissolved in 1991.

For those games, which were boycotted by neighboring North Korea, Suleymanoglu, 45, won gold  and set new world records in weightlifter. The athlete nicknamed "the Pocket Hercules," sought political asylum from Turkey's neighbor Bulgaria via Australia due to the fact that Bulgarian citizens of Turkish heritage were being oppressed by the communist regime in Sofia. He would go on to win two more gold medals in the sport at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, then in Atlanta.

The 1988 Seoul Olympics were also noted for American diver Greg Louganis, 52, successful efforts, which garnered him another two gold medals. And, Soviet gymnast Svetlana Boginskaya, 39, who would later represent Belarus, won two gold meals in women's gymnastics in South Korea.

So, today's quiz is just far these two cities are from one another? Is the answer:

A) 7,003 miles

B) 7,123 niles

C) 7,223 miles

D) 7,563 miles

http://www.olympic.org/naim-suleymanoglu

http://www.dominique-moceanu.com

http://www.dominiquedawes.com

http://www.shannonmillerlifestyle.com

UPDATE: The answer is B) 7,123 miles, upon further research, we have come to the unofficial conclusion that Dominique Dawes, who is 5 feet, 3 inches tall, is about two inches taller than Naim Suleymanoglu!

Quote of the Day/Week-Greg Louganis

Today, we conclude our quotes from American athletes who won gold or silver at previous summer games, in honor of the upcoming 2012 London Olympics, with a quote from diver Greg Louganis, 52.

During his Olympic career, Louganis, a native of California, won a total of four gold medals (two each at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1988 Seoul Olympics) and a silver medal (1976 Montreal Olympics).

Following his success at the games in South Korea, Louganis made headlines regarding his personal life when he disclosed that he was both gay and HIV-positive. Three years later in 1991, Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson stunned the world by disclosing that he was HIV-positive, marking the first time Americans fully realized that heterosexuals could be affected by the deadly virus as well.

But, Louganis, has lived a seemingly normal life since the revelation. Today, he is active in dog agility competitions and he also coaches diving.

Here is his quote:

"Well, unless, you are Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordan, you need the support of your team."

http://www.greglouganis.com

Quote of the Week- Brian Orser

Today, we continue to quote famous Canadians we quip men's figure skater Brian Orser, who turns 50 on Dec. 18. Orser won silver medals at both the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo (which was in Yugoslavia at the time, now it's the capital of Bosnia) and the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, in front of Orser's home fans.

Orser lost his quest for gold to American ice skater Brian Boitano, in what became known as "The Battle of the Brians."

Today, Orser is known for coaching young figure skaters. Among his proteges is Yuna Kim (or Kim yu-Na), 21, a South Korean women's figure skater who won gold at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Here is Orser's quote:

"It's not who does the most tricks, but the total package."

SIDEBAR: Tonight, my alma mater Radford University faces the University of Kentucky, a team ranked second in the nation, in NCAA men's basketball. The game will be in Lexington, Ky. I wish the Highlanders well as they face the Wildcats. Assuredly, if the team wins I may have a chance of a date with Vendela.

SIDEBAR 2: As of late, I have become very interested in European soccer, especially regarding English teams. Today, in UEFA action, Arsenal beat German team Dortmund 2-0 on two goals from their star Robin Van Persie.

But, Chelsea did not fare well against another German team Bayer Leverkusen by a 2-1 margin. Chelsea star and Ivory Coast national Didier Drogba scored the first goal of the away match in the 48th minute of play. However, Eren Derdiyok, a Swiss national of Kurdish descent who also has Turkish citizenship, scored the equalizer for the home squad in the 73rd minute. And, then German national team star Manuel Friedrich scored the game winner for Bayer in extra time. Thus, Chelsea fell 2-1.

In other games, Bracelona beat AC Milan 3-2, and the Czech team Viktoria Pizen scored a 1-0 victory over BATE Borisev, a team from Belarus.

Amadeus in Bethesda- Easy Rider (2 of 3)

The next morning was a bit hectic as there were many people from Saudi Arabia staying at our hotel, and since many Saudi families can consist of one man, two or three wives, and many rugrats, there was considerable commotion. We think that there may have been 45-50 people in the group, and they were being loud well into the night. Since I am a Turkish-American myself, I am careful about stereotyping people, but there were at least a few people in this delegation that were a bit rowdy.

One of the interesting things about the Saudi group was that some women were covered in black veils in which one could only see their eyes, and some of the 'more progressive' women were simply wearing designer headscarves. It also surprised to see that many of the women were wearing European style shoes which revealed their feet and toes. I suppose there is no notion in conservative Islamic circles that a woman with a lavish pedicure can be as seductive as a woman with blonde hair.

So, we did hop on the DC Metro. Mom was a bit agitated since she decided to skip the continental breakfast. I was full, but I had just eaten one of the worst bagels in my life. We soon dined at a cafe near the Sculpture Gallery adjacent to the National Gallery.

Since we had accidentally gotten on the red line instead of the orange line on Thursday, my mom was convinced we were lost. So, I asked some tourists from Frankfort, Ky., who had traveled even farther than we had, for directions. They had a DC map; we did not. And, they made us feel secure that the National Gallery was just a few short steps away.

We got to the Gallery around 11:00 a.m. Mom demanded that we head straight to the Gaugins and 'get it over with.' There were impressive paintings that the French master painted in both his native France and Tahiti. Since Gaugin's paintings are more erotic that many artists of his generation, I have noticed that Barrucuda actually blocks some of them on Internet search engines perhaps just as the mullahs in Iran and Afghanistan would do!

Four of the Gaugins that were part of the exhibition included "The Yellow Christ," "Spirit of the Dead," "Self-Portait" (1889) and my personal favorite "Two Tahitian Women," which shows two topless women holding mango blossoms.

While researching this piece, I learned that the painting was actually 'attacked' at the National Gallery in early April by a woman who yelled: "This is evil!;" we have no idea if she was a tea partier from Fort Mill, SC. Fortunately, the painting was protected by plexiglass and no damage was done.

After seeing the Gaugins, we gazed at some paintings by the Dutch master Gabriel Metsu, including "Man Writing a Letter" and "Lady Reading a Letter," both of which were completed in 1665.

Then, we followed that up with photographs by the acclaimed, living California photographer Lewis Baltz, who is arguably best known for his hidden camera-taken photograph "South Laguna" (1972) which features a Buick as its centerpiece.

Lastly, we headed to the tower of the museum to see a small, but startling exhibit by the late South Korean performance and technology artist Nam June Paik (1932-2006) who reminded me of both Andy Warhol and David Byrne (of the band Talking Heads); the most impressive piece on display by the artist involved closed circuit tv images revolving around a statue of Buddha!

50 Beers From Around the Globe- OB Beer (South Korea)

One may not expect a brew to have a rice flavor, but OB Beer from South Korea (OB stands for Oriental Brewery) is indeed made from rice as opposed to barley!

OB Beer, which started in 1952, has a Facebook page which promotes itself as "The True Korean Beer."

A guy from New York was asking how to find the brew on the Internet. One recommendation was a Korean grocer in the city. Another person said he should try Pioneer Supermarket on 74th Street. We have no idea if he found the beer or not, but it is apparently available in some markets in America.

While koamart.com does NOT offer OB Beer (at least it was not listed on their web site), they do have an Orange Bon Bon soda for 89 cents which looks like an Orange Crush.

Interestingly enough, there is a Korean grocery store in Salem, NH, called The Uhen Heh Grocery Store. We were not able to tell from their site if they offered OB Beer, but anyone here who is from New Hampshire can let us know!

SIDEBAR: My friend Jason Garnett is continuing an impressive list of screenings at The Shadowbox Cinema in downtown Roanoke, Va., this month. On Wednesday, the venue shows the vintage 1966 French New Wave classic "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg." The 1931 Charlie Chaplin film "City Lights" will be screened on Friday. "Caddyshack," which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, will be shown on Saturday. And, lastly, on Monday, Aug. 30 the Japanese shock horror film "Audition" will fill the screen. In case you weren't aware of this, it is not 'exactly Mary Poppins.'

More info is available at the web site theshadowboxcinema.com

Quote of the Day- Mario Beneditti (Uruguayan Poet)

Ahhh! No, Take Three!

All sorts of things have gone wrong with this entry which is dedicated to The World Cup. Today we quote the late Uruguayan poet Mario Beneditti (1920-2009) who lived almost as long as the great French filmmaker Eric Rohmer (1920-2010) who is best known for his masterpiece "Claire's Knee" (1971).

Today, Uruguay defeated South Korea 2-1 in a rainy mess at The World Cup. The game was played in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Luis Sanchez kicked in two goals for the Uruguayan side, including the game-winner in the 80th minute.

If Landon Donovan and Team America beat Ghana (the game starts in about an hour), they will face Uruguay in the quarter finals.

Here is the quote from Beneditti:

"After all Death is a symbol that there was life."

SIDEBAR: Slovakian tennis goddess Daniela Hantuchova, whom we profiled earlier in the week lost to Czech tennis player Barbara Zahlavova-Strycova (editorial comment: why couldn't she have just stuck with her maiden name?!) in Wimbledon play yesterday.

SIDEBAR TWO: We don't normally apologize to Republicans on this blog, but we did not spell the name of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) correctly in a blog entry earlier this week.

Last 10 Films I've Seen- from Caine to Fuller

Here are the last ten films I've seen. I will post commentary about some of them at the end of the list:

1. "White Dog" (1982. dir-Sam Fuller)
2."The Panic in Needle Park" (1971. w/Al Pacino. dir-Jerry Schatzberg)
3. "The Last Frontier" (1955. dir-Anthony Mann)
4. "Young Torless" (Germany. 1966. dir-Volker Schlondorff)
5. "Giants and Toys" (Japan. 1958. dir-Yasuzo Masumura)
6. "The Wild One" (1953. w/ Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin. dir-Laslo Benedek)
7. "The Red Shoes" (South Korea. 2005. dir- Yong-gyum Kim)
8."The President's Last Bang" (South Korea. 2005. dir- Sang-soo Im)
9. "Bandolero!" (1968 w/ Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin and Raquel Welch. dir-Andrew V. McLaglen)
10. "Get Carter" (UK. 1971. w/ Michael Caine. dir-Mike Hodges)


Of all these titles, I had only seen "White Dog," which was highly controversial at the time. It is a poignant film about the negative effects of racism on American society as illustrated through a trained 'white dog' which is meant to attack black people.

The NAACP, however, misinterpreted the film's message and urged Paramont to block its release. Hence, it never found an office though the new Criterion release has helped further the film's well-deserved cult following. Interestingly, a very young Kristy McNichol (who was about 20 when the film was made) is the lead. I am pretty sure it is her most serious role, but films of "The Nights the Lights Went Out in Georgia" may beg to differ:)

The German film "Young Torless" is an exceptional statement on Nazi Germany even though it takes place at a boarding school in rural Germany during the turn of the 20the century. The film illustrates what can happen when one chooses to overlook an injustice they witness in front of them.

The Korean horror film "The Red Shoes" should in no way way be confused with Michael Powell's classic film of the same name, though both are based on the same Hans Christien Andersen fairy tale!

"The President's Last Bang," another Korean film made in 2005 is an excellent political thriller with lots and lots of blood. It should be subtitled: "Z Meets Reservoir Dogs." The film is about the real-life 1979 political assasination of then president Park Chung-Hee by Kim Jaegyu, his own director of intelligence! According to wikipedia, Jaegyu was hanged for the crime in 1980. He was actually a good friend of the president's!

And, the original 1971 version of "Get Carter" (pictured here) is a very unique film as it shows Michael Caine basically being a son-of-a-biscuiteater. Amazingly enough (SPOILER ALERT), his character Carter never kills anyone with his gun. But, his victim meet their fate in other ways, including being casually dumped from the upper story of a large office building.

Caine's new film "Harry Brown" seems to have a similar plot line and it is currently showing at the following places on the east coast: The Bow-Tie Cinema in Hartford, Conn., The Landmark Bethesda Row Cinema in Bethesda, Md., and The Ritz East in Philadelphia.

The South Korean horror

Olympic Athlete Profile (12 of 25) Kim Yu-Na/women's figure skating/South Korea

The 'Princess Diana' of South Korea, as her Canadian coach Brian Orser calls her, Kim Yu-Na, 19, will be performing soon in Vancouver.

She is the gold medal favorite in women's skating, which could be a jinx since no favorite has won the event since Oksana Baul in 1994.

Kim trains in Toronto with Orser and she was won the last nine of 11 world competitions she's been in.

She began skating at the age of 11 and Kim won her first South Korean title at age 13 in 2003.

Kim has become quite a sensation in South Korea where she appears in commercials for products such as Samsung Electronics.

Orser told "The New York Times" that she is aware of how Koreans are watching how she performs with high anticipation:

"I think she realizes that she has made a difference in that country," Orser said. "She's changed the morale there during this global recession."

Kim told the media that she felt nervous about the Olympics, but that she was focused on the task at hand.

Her top rival is the Japanese skater Mao Asada, who is a silver medal favorite.

Kim will skate her long program to music from George Gershwin, but her short program, which features theme music from James Bond movies seems to get her more attention.

The South Korean skater added that there is more to life than what happens in Vancouver:

"Even if I don't win the gold medal, I would (pause) I would not be disappointed too much."