Random Thoughts

selfmademug · Post by **selfmademug** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:49 am

Eighteen years ago today I met the future father of my son. Fourteen years ago today I married him in secret (in advance of a big ceremony a few months later). Two years ago at this time we were only on nominal speaking terms. A year ago we were nervously separated, but already relieved and happier. And now we are closer than we've been in years, a new sort of friends united by loyalty and a shared love of our son.

Life is strange, but as Steve Forbert points out, compared to what?

[PS, Ice9 I hope you have Damien Rice's O]

bambooneedle · Post by **bambooneedle** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 7:36 am

When I heard Oija Board today I wondered whether Morrisey still gets around in a white t-shirt, 501's and Docs Martens...

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 8:49 am

Britain = the following smells, which aren't replicated anywhere else on Earth.

Freshly cut grass
A Bomfire
Beer Garden on a sunny day
Fish and Chip shops at night

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:29 pm

Tori Amos sucks so bad.

ice nine · Post by **ice nine** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 2:43 pm

Dean Martin and Paul Newman are the definition of COOL.

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 2:55 pm

My brother just won 5 and 1/2 million on the lottery. Does that make my chances of winning less?

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:02 pm

Mike Boom wrote:My brother just won 5 and 1/2 million on the lottery. Does that make my chances of winning less?

Mr. Boom, I think you've already won!

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:03 pm

Yeah! Surely he'd at least buy you a car, right?

Mike Boom · Post by **Mike Boom** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:08 pm

ha - I just brought myself a new car about 3 months ago, do'h!

- a nice Martin acoustic would be nice though, and then Ive always wanted another Epiphone Casino since my old one was stolen, then of course a twelve string Rickenbacker would be nice too.....!

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 3:12 pm

On the definition of COOL, I beg to differ.

If you look up cool in any language in any dictionary, there should be a picture of Miles Davis.

At one time, Lou Reed had a pretty cool presentation.

Not cool at all (short list):
The Lead guy in ColdPlay ("who can I emulate now that they are on to me?")
Tori Amos (pretentiously pretentious)
Jesse Jackson (are you kidding me, Jesse? You MUST be kidding me!)
Shaun Hannity (old act, same old regurgitation, out of control ego)
Tom Cruise (who Randy Newman must have been thinking of when he wrote "Short People")
Ted Kennedy (but we can drive off that bridge when we come to it)

El Vez · Post by **El Vez** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 6:57 pm

I don't care how many half-assed movies the man sleepwalks through nowadays, Robert DeNiro can still say "I was in The Deer Hunter, what the hell did you ever do?"

Post by **BlueChair** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 9:23 pm

Funny you mention that, cause I just watched Raging Bull

King Hoarse · Post by **King Hoarse** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:33 am

Taxi Driver last night. That's three of my fave films right there.

ReadyToHearTheWorst · Post by **ReadyToHearTheWorst** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 6:03 am

It's warm in the office (again) and I've been staring at the Desk Fan and wondering - where does it get all the cool air from ?

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:40 am

El Vez wrote:I don't care how many half-assed movies the man sleepwalks through nowadays, Robert DeNiro can still say "I was in The Deer Hunter, what the hell did you ever do?"

I had a dream the other night about Robert DeNiro: I was in a wedding dress and he was shooting me and I was hemorrhaging everywhere, blood just gushing out of me, and begging him to shoot me in the head, but he said he couldn't. And it was sad, because we could have fallen in love.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:49 am

miss buenos aires wrote:I had a dream the other night about Robert DeNiro: I was in a wedding dress and he was shooting me and I was hemorrhaging everywhere, blood just gushing out of me, and begging him to shoot me in the head, but he said he couldn't. And it was sad, because we could have fallen in love.

Have you been watching "Kill Bill" recently?

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:32 am

Ridiculous spelling errors in major newspapers has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves.

This is a headline from the Montreal Gazette:

Man found dead in downtown appartment

Apartment goes on to be mispelled several times throughout the peice. The opening paragraph also includes the word "departmernt"

miss buenos aires · Post by **miss buenos aires** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:14 am

Who Shot Sam? wrote:
miss buenos aires wrote:I had a dream the other night about Robert DeNiro: I was in a wedding dress and he was shooting me and I was hemorrhaging everywhere, blood just gushing out of me, and begging him to shoot me in the head, but he said he couldn't. And it was sad, because we could have fallen in love.
Have you been watching "Kill Bill" recently?

I've only seen Vol. 2...

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:33 am

My mother showed me letter that she received which began "We are wrighting to you............."

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 12:07 pm

El Vez wrote:I don't care how many half-assed movies the man sleepwalks through nowadays, Robert DeNiro can still say "I was in The Deer Hunter, what the hell did you ever do?"

This is heretical, but I don't think he's ever been quite as good as he was in "Mean Streets"...sure Bobby wouldn't like to hear that!

My second favorite De Niro performance..."Jackie Brown"!

I wouldn't fault his performance one bit, but I'm not that crazy about "The Deer Hunter", strikes me as John Ford with extra epic seriousness thrown in but enough there to really justify it. And don't even get me started on how Christopher Walken manages to survive for an entire year (or however long it was) as a professional Russian Roulette player right up to the night De Niro finally catches up with him.

Of the two Vietnam movies made that year, "Apocalypse Now" is about a gazillion times better in my book.

alexv · Post by **alexv** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 12:19 pm

Back in the late 70s and early 80s, my movie-crazed friend and me (or is it I) used to argue about "who is the greatest american actor" (we had time to kill) of our generation, give or take a few years, and we would come up with three candidates: Deniro, Hoffman and Nicholson. I would argue that Hoffman was the man, because of his versatility. At the time he had done The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Papillon, Little Big Man, Tootsie, and Marathon Man and Straw Dogs (at least those are the ones I remember arguing for) and I thought that the versatility he showed made him the man. My friend argued for DeNiro, claiming that versatility be damned and that the power of Deniro's performances trumped everyting else. I would argue that Deniro could not play a normal guy, and that a requirement of a great actor was that at least once in his career he play a normal person. I remember pointing out that he did a movie with Streep in which he tried to be a normal guy and that it stunk and he stunk.

Anyway, the argument goes on, and I stand by my prior position. The man is clearly a great actor, but is a one note kind of guy. What's worse is that he has become a caricature of himself, aided to an incredible degree by the work of one of America's great comic actors: Alec Baldwin who plays Deniro better than Deniro.

Bobster, I agree with you that his role in jackie brown was terrific, but again it's a caricature of Baldwin doing him.

By the way, I am stunned that at the time we gave short shrift to Nicholson, who like Deniro has become a caricature, but whom I would now rate, overall, above the other two.

On the Deer Hunter, all I can say that it is one of the few movies that I saw with one friend on one day, and came back to the theater the very next day to see with another. I think it's a better movie, overall, than Capppola's movie, which althought brilliant at times, is a mess. A glorious mess, but a mess nevertheless.

bobster · Post by **bobster** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:32 pm

Actually, I'd say the greatest American film actor of all time is Jimmy Stewart, or possibly Spencer Tracy.

I guess I've always been a little allergic to the showy stuff.

Post by **BlueChair** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 1:59 pm

In alexv's defense, he did say "of our generation" as it pertained to him and his friends.

Mr. Average · Post by **Mr. Average** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:44 pm

I can't think of too many 'chilling' male actor performances in the last few years, but when I do, I don't think of any of the big three doing anything memorable of late...hell, Jack just mugged through "Somethings Gotta Give" and "As Good as it Gets", Travis Bickle is Mr. Funny Man wearing false breasts, etc.

I have been moved by Two performances by Each of these two actors:

Benecio Del Toro - "Traffic" and "21 Grams", [and he had a cool part in "Sin City" where he made his eyes bug out like a comic book character]

Denzel Washington - "Training Day" and "Man On Fire". I know that Denzel is not considered to be in league withMorgan Freeman, and granted, Morgan seems to make the job look so easy. While I can't think of anything too memorable in his past, I thought his portrayals of a real hard ass in these two movies was very believable, compelling, and enjoyable to watch.

The link between the two are the movies "Traffic" and "Man on Fire" - Mexico, creative use of filters, and a style of film-making that is visually compelling but I have no idea what it is referred to. Bobster? Anyone?

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Tue Jul 12, 2005 2:48 pm

They had a top ten british actors of all time show on tv last night (as voted for). Tony Hopkins was no1 Guiness 2 and Olivier 3.