I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. It's my epitaph, along with "Yet Another Patron Saint of Mediocrity."
Category: Entertain Me
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Bryan, Who I Totally Made Up
"I thanked him and then trailed off as I watched him reach inside his open shirt collar and took out a necklace with rainbow triangles on it."
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I Resemble That Remark
From I Wake Up Screaming (1941) on TCM tonight comes a description so fitting for me: “You’re an ink-stinking word slinger.” ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 So now that’s my Twitter handle. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
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Movie Night: Red Dust
"The attraction here isn't really the cultural relic/curiousity value, it's the variation of the old man meets woman, they hate each other, they clash with sparkling dialogue and then end up together 'til death they do part. This bit has been done to death in Hollywood's 100+ year run, but it can be freshened and redeemed if the scriptwriter is up to the job."
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Movie Night: Born Yesterday
"Born Yesterday is pretty fabulous. At least until it sinks in that it's just as applicable today (especially today!) as it was in 1950. In that year, it could have been warning against the House Un-American Activities Committee, which ultimately wrecked lives, but failed. But today, the movie is depressing when you realize that Broderick Crawford's Harry Brock is in charge of the country, the Senate and the judiciary and is sitting in the White House tweeting."
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Movie Night: The Big Clock
"Regardless of whether you saw it then as scandalous that such perversions were being exhibited in public theaters or whether you see it now as being stereotypical, offensive and overly focused on white, male, straight actors and queer panics and Italian stereotypes, to wit ... offensive!! ... there is much to actually be loved here."
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Movie Night: The Yellow Rolls Royce
"... this is probably the granddaddy of all product placement movies, far more egregious than even Joan Crawford's conspicuous scattering of Pepsi bottles in Strait Jacket ..."
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Movie Night: Sweet Charity
"The songs and dances, Shirley MacLaine and Cita Rivera, et al, were great; it's just the stuff in between that is less than satisfying."
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Movie Night: Strait Jacket
"The bonuses here are George Kennedy as a farmhand foreshadowing by 22 years Billy Bob Thornton in 1996's Swing Blade ("I like them French fried potaters."), all the Pepsi placement, and Lee Majors in pre-Six Million Dollar Man mode, along with his very hairy chest, fluffily rising and falling just before the axe falls."
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Movie Night: A Cry in the Night
"Whatever the novelty of seeing goodie two-shoes Perry Mason as a Peeping Tom/Kidnapper, it's Carol Veazie who is the standout."
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Movie Night: The Ritz
"Regardless of whether you saw it then as scandalous that such perversions were being exhibited in public theaters or whether you see it now as being stereotypical, offensive and overly focused on white, male, straight actors and queer panics and Italian stereotypes, to wit ... offensive!! ... there is much to actually be loved here."
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Movie Night: An American Tragedy
"Basically, amoral social climber from poor background seduces poor factory girl, gets her pregnant, wants to marry a rich socialite and so kills poor factory girl by smashing her in the head with his tennis racket and dumping her body in a lake, fakes a canoe accident, trips self up by being basically an idiot, dies in electric chair after mercy is refused by Governor Charles Evans Hughes."
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Movie Night: Thieves’ Highway
"Thieves' Highway is a classic Noir tale of truckers and apples and greed and sex and San Francisco and California and highways and death."
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Movie Night: Apollo 11
"It's a magnificent bit of cinema and well-worth watching, especially on this day. It freshly reminds you of just exactly how incredible the achievement of half-a-billion people, represented by three men, was, in an incredibly difficult decade."
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Movie Night: Desk Set
"Not only is it hilarious, it has fabulous midcentury (ugh, that word) interiors, jokes only librarian/book/research nerds understand, an awesome supporting cast including EMERAC and Kate gets to get blotto and talk about the "Mexican Avenue Bus" (the Lexington Avenue Bus, that is)."
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Movie Night: Hot Millions
"There's a lot more than just smiles to recommend this one–ts droll English humor, its glimpse at fashions and designs and trends of 1968, the fantastic acting of everyone, including the performance of Bob Newhart, whose movie outings are often forgotten, the sarcastic wit and the satire–it's a long list and will need a second viewing to get it all."
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Movie Night: Die Brücke
"It's hard to think of a better illustration of the end of the European theater of war free of the pernicious and ubiquitous American boo-yah of so many countless war films."
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Movie Night: Ich War Neunzehn
"Konrad Wolf's 1968 feels like a real 1945; he takes us back to his youth and we're submerged in the fog that he had to navigate through once upon a time."
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Capital Destroys All It Touches
"What's our death toll up to in this week's boutique pay lots of money and die fashionably sweepstakes? 19?"
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Movie Night: Conquest
"The film itself is fairly representative of the period and shows how far ahead of her time Garbo was ... that she could shine in spite of rather stilted dialogue, in a non-native language shows just how great an actor she was at the height of her career. It wasn't bad, and I might have another look under certain conditions, but I probably wouldn't buy it for the DVD collection, unless Criterion gets hold of it."
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Stupor Bowl Sunday As It Happens Happened
"19:56: We popped over to the Puppy Bowl in time for some nauseating exploitation. But I hope it helps some puppies.
"19:57: Fourth first down? They're showing signs of life? And Romo is a totally sarcastic smartass. And the Rams get one more first down.
"20:02: Suddenly Rams show a spark. But McCordy smacks the ball outta the hands of the Rams receiver in the end zone. Frustration on the sidelines." | Read more after the jump:
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Finally Entering the Public Domain
We're finally getting some « spectacular stuff » released into the public domain on New Year's Day (screw you Disney!).
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WWI Collides with D&D and Memes
It’s two years old, but I’m just seeing it for the first time. It’s « one of the best visual “explainers” » I’ve seen that describes the spark which ignited World War I. It tells the story of that horrible June day in 1914 via a series of memes and the lens of a Dungeons...
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A Handy Dandy Guide to the Known Universe
This interactive map of the universe is extremely helpful in understanding our (very, very small) position in space.
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End of Year Retrospectives: 75 Book Covers
"There are some gems among the 75 Best Book Covers of 2018."
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Every Building
"On this page you will find maps showing almost every building in the United States. Why did we make such a thing? We did it as an opportunity for you to connect with the country’s cities and explore them in detail."
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TCM Tonight: Summer Under the Stars – Joan Crawford
Of COURSE we had to watch some Joan tonight. Not taking time to behold the wonder that is our patron saint, Lucille LeSueur, would be anathema, blasphemy, time wasted! First up was 1952’s Sudden Fear — Joan with Jack Palance, Gloria Grahame, Bruce Bennett, Virginia Hudson and Mike “Touch” / “Mannix” Connors. David Miller directed. Playwright...
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Warm Summer Night
Is there anything better than a warm summer night playing in – er, rather sitting near the lawn sprinkler under a street light while watching the 21:00 evening arrivals at KBNA? Well, maybe if I was still 10 …
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We're Ready …
While waiting for “Sunset Boulevard” on Sunday at Opry Mills, Carol, Frank and I were … say it with me … “All right, Mr. DeMille, [we’re] ready for [our] close-up!” Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, May 15, 2018
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Sunset Boulevard!
Seeing Sunset Boulevard on the big screen Sunday was pretty fabulous. Noticed many things you can’t see on the tee-wee…. Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, May 15, 2018
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American Carnage: 3-Dec-17
Nazis are just "the normal people next door" and nothing bad should happen to either them or the New York Times for pointing this out, says The New York Times.
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Squirrel!!!
The demesne was invaded by a legion of one squirrel today, who made a mess in the driveway with, I think, a large… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, November 15, 2017
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Casablanca, Here's Looking at You!
"Casablanca" is by far best on the big screen. Would have loved a cleaner print, but Ingrid is indeed luminous and… Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, November 12, 2017
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American Carnage: 10-Nov-17
Peckerwoods! What we learned this week: • Comedian Louis CK and Crusading Crazy Ass Roy Moore were accepted into that venerable old boy’s club, that newly-open-to-didlers-from-outside-the-church institution, The Ancient and Venerable Order of Priests Expecting Complete, Knightly Exoneration; Rewarded With Oodles Of Dancing Students (a.k.a. “P.E.C.K.E.R.W.O.O.D.S.”) Golf and Country Club. Greeting them at the door...
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Fiery Marble (FB 2017)
“I always knew I loved Maureen O'hara. Now I know why, thanks to this clipping from 1945.”
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Fiery Marble
“I always knew I loved Maureen O'hara. Now I know why, thanks to this clipping from 1945.”
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Andy and His Opies
The second post from Shorpy for today is another famous Desilu Production: Here's Andy Griffith in 1962, playing… Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, April 24, 2016
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Dinah and Desi
Love Shorpy, the 100-year-old photo blog. Here's a couple of blasts from the past: April 3, 1960, Dinah Shore grooving… Posted by Steve Pollock on Sunday, April 24, 2016
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Farewell, Patty Duke
"I've come to believe that whoever I am didn't start on December 14, 1946, and isn't going to end on whatever that… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, March 29, 2016
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Me Homer
Today's Facebook Quiz:Which MRI image is Homer Simpson and which is me? Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, February 25, 2016
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Space is Tedious, But Fascinating
Love this and have needed to blog it for awhile. «If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel: A Tediously Accurate Scale Model of the Solar System» is a brilliantly creative work that represents graphically the massive amount of space in space. On the page, 1 screen pixel corresponds to 3,474.8 km, “which is the diameter...