Top Ten Things To Do List (Satire): Catch Up on Michael Caine Flicks

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We haven't done this for a while, and we experienced tech glitches. Where is Javier the Intern when we need him?

Here is a satirical top 10 things we need to do list:

1 ) Read "The Great Gatsby" again

2) Plan 2016 trip to Peru (pict. center)

3) Watch four Michael Caine films even if you have seen them before, perhaps you can watch them with Zappa the Family Cat

4) Watch stars at night

5) Play Angry Birds for 4.5 hours in a row

6) Mow the neighbor's lawn

7) Wash Car

8) Laundry

9) Read the latest issue of "The Economist"

10) Find a missing pug

Quotes from Famous Authors (4 of 5): F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy."

The Last 10 Films We've Seen: Reading the Movies

Here are the last ten films we've seen, many of which are based on novels. We will indicate which ones those with an asterisk (*); amazingly enough, "The Deer Hunter" which last three hours and 15 minutes was the filmation of an original screenplay! There are also two Oscar-winning films on the list, they will be marked by an at symbol (@).

We got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine; I expect there will not be an intellectual examination of the film "The Devil and Max Devilin" with Bill Cosby and Elliot Gould for quite some time (forgive the film connoisseur humor).


Here they are:

1. "Humpday." 2009. dir. Lynn Shelton

2. "Gigi." (pictured top) 1958. dir. Vincente Minelli *@

3. "Pretty Persuasion" 2005. dir. Marcos Siega

4. "The Devil and Max Devilin" (pictured center) 1981. dir. Steven Hilliard Stern.

5. "The Deer Hunter" 1978. dir. Michael Cimino @

6. "The Landlord" 1970. dir. Hal Ashby *

7. "East of Eden" (pictured bottom) 1955. dir. Elia Kazan.*

8. "The Chosen." 1981. dir. Jeremy Kagan *

9. "Far from the Maddening Crowd" 1967. dir. John Schlesinger.*

10. "The Great Gatsby." 2013. dir. Baz Luhrmann

http://www.filmcomment.com

10 People Who Will Decide the Election (7 of 10) Donna Scott of Portland, Maine

Yikes! "Politico," on the last objective sources for news in the United States, along with "The Washington Post," has stated Mitt Romney has made tremendous gains on President Barack Obama following last week's debate in Denver, Colo., in which Romney interrupted moderator Jim Lehrer at least 17 times (more or less). NPR, which the likes of Bill O'Reilly seem to proclaim as being as radical left-wing as Radio Havana, Cuba, said that the race is now a 'virtual dead heat.'

But, 'Politco' also shows Obama winning the race 303-235 though the president is only winning Colorado 47.4 to 47.2 percent. Conversely, the numbers are also close in a very politically divided Virginia, my home state, in which one congressional district represents the rural hamlet Boones Mill, where one can see signs for far-right third party candidate Virgil Goode (from nearby Rocky Mount) and the collegetown of Charlottesville, by a margin of 47.8-47.5 percent.

Today, we are turning our attention to Maine, which seemed like a possible swing state when we planned this project over the summer, where Obama is winning 53.3-38.0 percent.

And, we are choosing a fictitious person named Donna Scott, whom we will say works at an independent bookstore in Portland (Maine). We will say she is 37, white, pro-choice and would likely vote for Obama.

Lastly, welcome to our Armenian-American blog readers. This afternoon, I posted a comment on the web site for "USA Armenian Life," (I am a Turkish-American, there are some differences between the two groups- to put it mildly) where I endorsed Cong. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) over his arch rival Cong. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) or was it the other way around?

For those of who reside in Provo, Utah, or Tashkent, Uzbekistan, who might be oblivious to American national politics, Berman and Sherman, who both represent the suburban area around Los Angeles, which has a large Armenian-American population, are entangled in a congressional race with each other due to gerrymandering, even though both are Democrats.

http://www.politico.com

http://www.armenianlife.com

http://www.ataa.org (ATAA is the leading Turkish-American group in the United States and Canada)

Portland, Maine, independent bookstores, hopefully, none of their employees has the name of Donna Scott:

http://www.nonesuchbooks.com

http://www.longfellowbooks.com

Quote of the Day/Week- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Today's quote of the day is from F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1944), the famed Minnesota novelist who died age 44. Last year, a characterization of him was in the Woody Allen movie "Midnight in Paris." He was played by Tom Hiddleston.

In a tragic irony, his wife Zelda Sayre (known as Zelda Fitzgerald) also died young at age 48 in 1948. She was played in the same Allen film by Alison Pill.

Here are some other quick facts about F. Scott Fitzgerald:

_ Best-known for his novel "The Great Gatsby" (1925), which was made into a theatrical film in 1974 with Robert Redford playing the lead. I found a paperback copy of it at a nifty used bookstore in Wilmington, NC.

_Wrote the novel "Tender is the Night" (1934), which is the same title of a catchy Jackson Browne ballad, released in 1983.

_ A theatre named after him in St. Paul, Minn., was featured in Robert Altman's last film "A Prairie Home Companion"

Here is the quote:

"Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy."

Quote of the Moment- Jay McInerney

Today, we continue our series of quotes from famous people from New England with a quip by Jay McInerney (b.1955, Hartford, Conn.) who is best-known for his break-through novel "Bright Ligths, Big City," a contemporary literary classic which was published when he was only 29 years old in 1984. The film became the basis for a Michael J. Fox movie of the same name is 1988, which wasn't successful partly because Fox was miscast as Robert Redford has been for the 1974 film version of "The Great Gatsby."

Other McInerney novels include "The Story of My Life" (1988) and "The Good Life"
(2006). "The Story of Life" is noteable because it features the character of Alison Poole, who is based on Rielle Hunter, the John Edwards mistress who once dated McInerney.

McInerney is also a contemporary of fellow novelist Bret Easton Ellis ("Less Than Zero," "American Psycho") and Tama Janowitz ("Slaves of New York"), who happens to be an alumnus of Hollins University, which is one of my two collegiate alma maters.

While researching this, we learned that McInerney is now on his fourth marriage, and he is a wine columnist for "The Wall Street Journal," which is having a very bad week due to Rupert Murdoch phone-hacking scandal.

Here is the quote from McInerney; we imagine it is in reference to "The Good Life" which is about the effects of 9/11 on America, ironically the Twin Towers were on the cover of "Bright Ligths, Big City":

"I've always written about the larger social events of the moment. It just seemed like I had to confront this one."