Last Ten Movies We'Ve Seen: Catching Up with 2014

Greetings to our faithful blog readers in Afghanistan (well, maybe), The Bahamas and Poland.

Here are the last ten films we've seen (well, actually as of last week). We are still trying to catch up on the best films of 2014, some of which are listed in the IMDB as 2013 films.....yes, we are confused as well!

1) Night Moves (top image, film is about eco-terrorism.) 2013. Dir: Kelly Reichhardt

2) Palo Alto (center image, Palo Alto is where Stanford U is located). 2013. Gia Coppola.

3) Inherent Vice. 2014. Paul Thomas Anderson.

4) Post Mortem. Chile. 2010. Pablo Lorrain

5) Tabu. Portugal. 2012. Miguel Gomes

6) Drug War. Hong Kong. Johnnie To.

7) And, Now a Word from Our Sponsor. (bottom image, Ipana, originally an American toothpaste now only found in Turkey!)* 2013. Zack Bernbaum. (w/Parker Posey)

8) Museum Hours. 2012. Austria. Jem Cohen.

9) Lfe of Pi. 2012. Ang Lee.

10) Under the Skin. 2013. Jonathan Glazer (w/ Scarlett Johansson)

#- We learned that from Bill Griffith's comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead"


http://www.imdb.com

http://www.netflix.com

Little Thinkers (7 of 16) Ludwig van Beethoven

Greetings to our blog readers in the Czech Republic, The Bahamas and Laos (?!, well, we have gotten at least one hit from there before).

Tonight, we quote the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, whom us Generation X'ers became familiar with in some part because his music is featured prominently in Stanley Kubrick's film version of "A Clockwork Orange" (1971), which was originally a novel by Anthony Burgess.

Those who like to listen to classic music on the radio may want to tune to the American daily public radio series "Performance Today," which airs on WFDD (88.5-FM; Winston-Salem, NC), and other public radio stations.

For those who want to see classical music up close and personal and happy to reside in the Denver-area, The Colorado Symphony is offering a companion concert series this weekend to the Denver Art Museum's "Passport to Paris." Among the pieces that the symphony will perform will be several from Frederick Chopin.

Here is our quote from Ludwig van:

"Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit your own errors."

SIDEBAR: Those of us on the east coast probably didn't get a chance to watch the University of California-Santa Barbara Gauchos (10-5; 1-1 in the Big West) win their home game versus the Long Beach State '49ers (5-12; 1-2 in the Big West)  by a score of  64-51. The Gauchos were lead by Michael Brayson (soph. Sacramento, Calif.) who scored 13 points. His teammate Alan Williams (jr. Phoenix, Ariz.) had a double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds. For the visitors, Mike Caffey (jr., Corona, Calif.) scored 21 points. The game aired nationally on ESPN-U.

http://www.wfdd.org

http://www.coloradosymphony.org

http://www.ucsbgauchos.com

http://www.longbeachstate.com

Presidential Quotes (6 of 16): Franklin Pierce, the Only President from New Hampshire

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, The Bahamas and Peru.

When one plays the "Name All the Presidents" trivia game on the web site for "Mental Floss" magazine, President Franklin Pierce, the 14th president and the only to hail from the Granite State, New Hampshire, may be one of the names one is most likely to forget.

But, Pierce, who served in office from 1853-57, was able to overcome the tea party radicals of his day, and defeat the conservative Whig Party candidate Winfield Scott by a 50-44 margin. Pierce's veep was William King, from Alabama, who alas died of tuberculosis a mere 45 days after becoming vice president.

Here is his quote: "Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion."

http://www.millercenter.org/presidents/pierce

http://www.mentalfloss.com

http://www.visitnh.org

Image to Fill Space: A Pug

Greetings to our blog-readers in Canada, El Salvador, Venezuela, Sweden, Slovakia, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus, Ghana, Malaysia, Tajikistan and The Bahamas.

We'll have something more substantial in tomorrow's blog entry.

Rainy Days and Sundays and Weather Around the World

 

We got pretty much rained out of our beach vacation and Tropical Storm Isaac is heading for Cuba and the Florida coast with the possibility of threatening the Republican convention in Tampa. Out of respect to our 'Republican friends' we will hold off on the Paul Ryan jokes until...well, tomorrow.

 

Here is a look at weather conditions around the world (we are using Fahreinheit, apologies for those of you who use Celsius):

 

Ankara 61 cloudy

 

Amsterdam 61 rain

 

Baku, Azerbaijan 73 cloudy

 

Buenos Aires 48 clear

 

Dubai 90 sunny

 

Frankfurt 61 partly cloudy

 

London 61 cloudy

 

Moscow 55 rain

 

Nairobi, Kenya 59 cloudy

 

Nassau, The Bahamas 84 cloudy

 

Singapore 84 sunny

 

Sydney 64 sunny

 

Tokyo 88 partly cloudy

 

Toronto 75 clear

 

http://www.weather.com

 

10 People Who Will Decide Who Becomes Prez (1 of 10): Rock and Roller in Seatlle Suburb

Name: Steve Nichols

Age: 48

Reisdency: Bellevue, Washington.

Job: Rock and Roll Guitar Player

Will Likely Vote: Obama

***_Notice: please see disclaimers at the end of this entry


The suburban vote will be crucial for both President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney. Center-right political pundit David Brooks said (if our recollection is accurate) that the shift in the politics of suburbs in places like Philadelphia, Seattle and Raleigh were ones which enable Obama to win over John McCain in 2008.

Washington state has voted for Democrats in every election since 1992 and even though there are Republican strong-holds in places like Spokane, Yakima and Everett, we expect that Obama will carry the state again this year.

Bellevue, Washington, right across the lake from Seattle, is actually considered one of the best places to live in America, according to Wikipedia. The 2010 Census indicated that the 98006 zip code had a population of 122, 363, and the town was on the boom until the economic recession of 2008.

Among its famous citizens are Ann and Nancy Wilson who formed the band Heart; they objected to the use of their song "Baricuda" at the 2008 Republican Convention.

Bellevue is sister cities with Yao, Japan, and three other cities around the globe.

DISCLAIMER: Steve Nichols is a fictional character, though there are at least two relatively famous people with that name including an American soap opera actor and an American car design engineer.

The image is actually of guitar player/producer Mark Hermann who has played for the likes of Foreigner and Joe Walsh. We have no idea what his age, residential area and politics are.

SIDEBAR: Pigs swimming in the Bahamas?! Yes, there is a hysterical short piece in the current issue of "Mental Floss" about these creatures. They were apparently left by a fleet for a barbecue, which never occured.  Of course, this might hurt the magazine's circulation in Karachi, Pakistan!

There is also a wonderful photo on the search engine bing.com of multi-colored buckets in the African nation of Burkina Faso.

And, lastly, we noticed that we had a hit from Algeria today....we are quite impressed that you were able to discover us!


http://www.bellevuereporter.com/

http://www.mentalfloss.com/

http://www.bing.com/

Silly Picture to Fill Space- A Costa Rican Frog

Yes, since Costa Rica is one of my top countries to seek political asylum in should Mitt Romney become president of the United States, and today is Leap Day, I thought a photo of a Costa Rican frog was in order.

When I went on a cruise to The Bahamas last month, our version of "The Love Boat" captain told us when the sun would set each day.

So, with that it mind and given that the sun has already set in places like Eskisehir, Turkey, as of this posting (it is 1:00 p.m. on the U.S East coast, so I presume it is either 19:00 or 20:00 in Turkey), I will include sunset times for various American cities, some are suburbs while others are college towns, and we have included both Fairfax, Va., and Fairbanks, Alaska, to be cheeky.

Sorry to our Canadian followers, we are snubbing you today, but we hope to post the sunset for Calgary, Alberta, one day real soon.

Here are the sunset times for the following eight American towns, cities and 'burbs (all times are local times); the earliest sunset is for the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Ill., and the latest, as one might expect, is for Honolulu, Hawaii:

Fairfax, Va. 6:01 p.m.

Akron, Ohio 6:16 p.m.

Skokie, Ill. 5:40 p.m.

Boulder, Colo. 5:52 p.m.

Tempe, Ariz. 6:24 p.m.

Palo Alto, Calif. 6:02 p.m.

Fairbanks, Alaska 6:06 p.m.

Honolulu, Hawaii 6:35 p.m.

Quote of the Day/Week- Elia Kazan

Since the Oscars will be televised at the month, we have decided to quote Academy-Award film directors throughout February. Keep in mind that the number of acclaimed film directors who never won an Oscar is a bit shocking, as it includes the likes of Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles.

But, one film director who is a worth Oscar-winner is Elia "Gadge" Kazan (1909-2003) who won Best Director Oscars for "Gentleman's Agreement" (1948) and "On the Waterfront" (1955). His direction of the screen version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), written by Tennessee Williams, is frequently cited as one of best screen adaptations of a stage play.

Kazan also won three Tony Awards for Best Director, including two Arthur Miller plays "All My Sons" (1947) and "Death of a Salesman" (1949) as well as "J.B.," a 1958 play by Archibald Macleish based on the Biblical story of Job. Cult actor John Cazale, who died at age 42 in 1978, starred in a 1962 off-Broadway production of "J.B.," which was not directed by Kazan.

The son of Anatolian Greek immigrants also directed "Viva Zapata!" (1952) with his frequent collaborator Marlon Brando; a film which us Netflix users are eagerly awaiting for. Interestingly enough, in a editorial by William Kristol in the conservative magazine "The Weekly Standard," this film was cited by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) as his personal favorite. The editorial was written when McCain was running as the Republic nominee for president in 2008.

Kazan also helmed a screen version of "America! America!" (1963) based on his own novel. The movie was partially filmed in Istanbul, Turkey, the city of Kazan's birth. Kazan recieved an Oscar nomination for directing that film as well.

Here is our quote from Gadge:

"A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do."

SIDEBAR: Having just returned from The Bahamas, we wanted to recommend other potential tourists to be sure to visit the Ardasta Zoo in the capital of Nassau where one can watch a dancing pink flamingo show at 10:30, 2:10 and 4:10. It would be quite ironic if film director John Waters was at one of these shows (forgive the movie people humor).

In Baltimore, which is the hometown of the eccentric filmmaker, the Maryland Zoo is hosting an adults only Sex in the Zoo talk about the mating habits of animals. Our collective jaws recently dropped when we read about how porcupines mated in the last issue of "Mental Floss."

SIDEBAR 2: For some reason, Godzilla and Quick Draw McDraw are two of the hot links on our blog this week!

Quote of the Day/Week- Stephen Hawking

Yes, we were gone for a while, but we assure it was not to a former republic of the Soviet Union, though we did travel to Azerbaijan in 2008.

Today, we turn our attention to American astronomer Stephen Hawking to conclude our month of quotes from famous scientists. Hawking, who turned 70 on Jan. 8, was the subject of the acclaimed Errol Morris documentary "A Brief History of Time" (1991).

Here is the quote from Hawking:

"It is not clear that intelligence has any long-term survival."

And, for those of you in Nassau, The Bahamas, hope you are enjoying your Cuban cigars which are illegal here in America.