Our Top Ten Favorite Best Picture Winners: Of Course, The Godfather is Numero Uno

Greetings to our faithful blog readers in Bolivia, Honduras and Malta.....as well as those of you in Warm Springs, Virginia, where there is 15 inches of snow on the ground!


Here is yet another entry to our blog. Today, we look at our ten favorite Best Picture winners as we prepare for Oscar Night in which J.K. Simmons will very likely win a Best Supporting Actor nod for his role as a militant, megalomaniac band teacher in "Whiplash."

But, there should be some surprises and some close races. It is reportedly a toss up in the Best Supporting Actress race between Emma Stone ("Birdman"....) and Patricia Arquette (Boyhood).

The American broadcast of the Oscars will occur on ABC affiliates across the country, including WCVB-5 Boston and KMGH-7 Denver as well as around the world and even on planet Neptune:)


Here is our top ten:

1. The Godfather. 1972. Francis Ford Coppola

2. Annie Hall. 1977. Woody Allen.

3. Schindler's List. 1993. Steven Spielberg

4. All Quiet on the Western Front. 1930. Lewis Milestone.

5. The Godfather, Part II. 1974. Francis Ford Coppola

6. On the Waterfront. 1954. Elia Kazan.

7. Midnight Cowboy. 1969. John Schlesinger.

8. Lawrence of Arabia. 1962. David Lean.

9. One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. 1975. Milos Forman.

10. The French Connection. 1971. William Friedkin.

Honorable Mention: "The Last Emperor," "West Side Story," The Departed," "The Apartment," "12 Years a Slave," Unforgiven," "Ordinary People"......

http://www.oscars.com

http://www.wcvb.com

http://www.thedenverchannel.com

Antiques Roadshow in Salem, Virginia

This weekend, my mom Lila Sullivan and myself will be among the antiques dealers participating in a Fall Open House at the Salem Antique Market (the old Lawrence's Market building), located at 2700 West Main Street in Salem, Va. (near Roanoke). The phone number for the store is 540-389-6559.

The festival will be this Saturday from 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Refreshments will be served, and there are door prizes.

Here are some of the items you can find in the antique store (an * denotes items not available in our booths, but can still be found in the shop):

1) Comic books (pictured top)

2. Grandfather clocks * (pictured middle)

3. Blenko glass from West Virginia (pictured bottom)

4. Hardcover books (both fiction and non-fiction)

5. Vintage postcard

6. Vintage "Life" magazines

7. Vintage "Mad" magazines

8. Quilts

9. Sheet music

10. Depression glass


https://www.facebook.com/SalemAntiqueMarket/info

http://www.visitroanokeva.com/visitors/region/cityofsalem/

Things To Do List: All That Jazz

Here is our latest installment of the semi-weekly Things To Do List, which seems popular, or at least in Latvia and Slovakia (yes, for some reason we are popular in these places), and frankly is a lot easier to do than what we are planning which hope to get to between now and doomsday whenever that may be (perhaps our 'good friend' the fringe pastor the Rev. Johnny Robertson of Martinsville, Va., can give us a clue!)

1. Eat a gyro

2. Write a letter to "The Daily Tar Heel"

3. Listen to jazz on NPR

4. Recycle

5. Laundry

6. Get the Sunday "Washington Post"

7. Take a pilates class

8. Watch English soccer game you taped today

9. Write a poem

10. Watch "The Antiques Roadshow" on PBS

http://www.visitmartinsville.com

http://www.thedailytarheel.com

http://www.bennygoodman.com

http://www.antiquegrandfatherclocks.com

Here is a Look at Times Around the World

As is custom when there is a time change in the United States, where we sprang an hour forward yesterday, here is a new look at various times around the world. The top image is the logo for Radio Sweden, the middle image is of Moscow, Russia and the third one is an antique pocket watch.

We imagine one can this and other antiques at Terrace Oaks Antiques in Charleston, South Carolina, one of the nicest (and slowest) cities in North America.


Here we go:

New York: 11:30 p.m.

St. Louis 10: 30 p.m.

Los Angeles 8:30 p.m.

London 3:30 a.m.

Istanbul 5:30 a.m.

Stockholm 4:30 a.m.

Moscow 7:30 a.m.

Tokyo 12:30 p.m.

Hong Kong 11:30 a.m.

Capetown (South Africa) 5:30 a.m.

Sydney 2:30 p.m.

Buenos Aires (Argentina) 12:30 a.m.

http://www.charlestoncvb.com

http://www.terraceoaksantiqes.com

http://www.twitter.com/radiosweden

The 20 Best Films to Win Best Picture (in our view)

Here is our list of our 20 favorite films to ever win Best Picture Oscars. The Oscars will be televised on ABC tv here in America on Sunday night. So far, we have seen five of the nine nominated films, so it may be slightly premature to predict the future, but it seems ok to reflect on the past.

We should point out that we have not seen each film that has won Best Picture since "Wings" (one of the films we haven't seen) was named the best film of 1927, but we have seen every winner since 1960:

1. "The Godfather" (1972)

2. "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1932)

3. "The French Connection" (1971; reason for the first image of the French comic book character Obelix from the "Asterix" series)

4. "Midnight Cowboy" (1969)

5. "The Apartment" (1960; reason for the second image of an apartment complex in Chicago)

6. "On the Waterfront" (1954)

7. "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975, reason for the third image of a German cuckoo clock)

8. "Annie Hall" (1977)

9. "Schindler's List" (1993)

10. "The Godfather, Part 2" (1974)

11. "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

12. "The Last Emperor" (1987)

13. "The Deer Hunter" (1978)

14. "West Side Story" (1961)

15. "Casablanca" (1943)

16, "Unforgiven" (1992)

17. "The Departed" (2006)

18. "From Here to Eternity" (1953)

19. "Silence of the Lambs" (1991)

20. "American Beauty" (1999)

http://www.oscar.go.com

Mom is Having a Major Downsizing Sale

For those of living in the Roanoke, Va-area or close enough to it, my mom is having a downsizing sale in Salem, Va., this weekend. Perhaps, one might find the very item that he or she saw on " The Antiques Roadshow" which airs on Blue Ridge Public Television in the Roanoke-area.

The dates for the sale are as follows: Fri., Nov. 2 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Sat., Nov. 3 from 8:00 until 5:00 p.m. and Sun., Nov. 4th from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. These are the correct times. There are ads for this same sale in the Friday edition of "The Roanoke Times" which are not correct. We are also promoting the sale on Craigslist with the corrections still pending.

The address of the estate sale is 2265 Mt. Regis Drive Salem, Va. 24153 http://www.mapquest.com

The sale will feature the following items:

Guns, gun cabinet, Christmas outdoor displays, two wicker chairs, sofa marble top table, Elizabeth Arden pottery (North Carolina), chicken on nest collection, Barbie dolls, crystal glassware, clock and lamps.

There will be lots of selections available at a reasonable price.

The entry numbers for the Friday indoor sale will begin at 6:30 a.m. in the back of the house.

For further details, one may call my cell phone at (540) 293-9284 or email me at tango74@aol.com

http://www.antiquesofvirginia.com

http://www.visitsalemva.com

http://www.yardsalesearch.com

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.antiquesclockpriceguide.com

http://www.antiqueguns.com

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/

http://www.blueridgepbs.org