Movies for People Who Like Books

Hey everybody
This started out as a conversation between my brother Andy, Erin his wife, Lindsey and I Sunday night. Been on my mind, though it's not very important in the grand ol' scheme of things.

Can you even type movies into genres anymore? I think so.

There's the big three: Comedy, Drama, Action. Every movie made fits into these three in some sort of fashion. But it's harder and harder to come up with categories for movies.

Dramedy, SciFi, Fantasy, Action comedy, romantic comedy, horror, thriller, martial arts, fantasy action, fantasy romance, tragedy-drama, triumph-drama. And of course, High School Musical.

What's the difference between science fiction and fantasy? Andy says that true science fiction is feasable, it could happen or can be somehow explain by science. So, Star Wars is a SciFi movie and Lord of The Rings is fantasy. But come on. It can't be that simple. Jabba the Hut explained by science? The Force as a feasable medium for elite corps of soldiers?

Is Terminator 2 an action movie or a science fiction movie? Is The Princess Bride a romance, a comedy or a fantasy? What the heck is Moulan Rouge?

or Pocahantas for that matter? Stereotypically fictionalized musical comedy biopic with talking animals. Where's that section in the store Blockbuster?

Alright, enough about genres. Let's get down to business.

The top ten movies I've ever seen (trilogies counted as one movie):
1. Star Wars IV-VI
2. The Godfather Pt. 1
3. Braveheart (before The Patriot and Passion of the Christ)
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
5. LOTR
6. The Jerk
7. Goodfellas
8. Resevoir Dogs
9. Silence of the Lambs
10. Die Hard pt. 1
(11. the most badass, adreneline-fueled, testosterone-filled movie of all time: 300)

The top ten movie MOMENTS of all time:
1. "Luke, I am your father." "That's not true, that's impossible."
2. The baptism/assassination scene at the end of the Godfather.
3. Jim Stewart and friends leaving the house in The Birds.
4. The reveal of the true Kaiser Scosa in the Usual Suspects.
5. The last twenty minutes of Temple of Doom.
6. The reveal of the real dead person in Sixth Sense (be honest, you didn't see it coming!)
7. The first sight of Jaws jaws. "We're gonna need a bigger boat."
8. E. T. taking off with the bikes.
9. The first word of Dwane in Little Miss Sunshine.
10. The first utterance of the now infamous line, "Yippie-kay-yay, motherf***er." Die Hard

Some interesting points here: Stephen Spielberg is involved in three of these, Bruce Willis for two, and, who knew, Toni Collete (Sixth Sense, Little Miss) in two.

Some movie moments that should've never been made:
Ewoks!! I know my brother will probably have some theological point to say why the Ewoks were appropriate but, please!! The empire gets destroyed by a bunch of teddy bears.

Kathy Bates' nude scene in About Schmidt. Every Ashley Judd movie. Godfather Pt. 3. Ending All the Presidents Men with a bunch of headlines. The reveal of The Village (be honest, we ALL saw it coming). Any fake birth filmed and put in the movie: Knocked Up, Children of Men, Hills Have Eyes II. Pocahantas as a half-black, half-Chinese, half-Polynesian and NO-part Native American for the kids. Filming Hannibal without Jodie Foster as Clairece Starling. Starting every Rocky movie with 10 minutes of the last Rocky movie, come on Sly.

And, most of all, the BIGGEST mistake in movie history, a genius of my generation of movie stars, Leonardo DeCaprio, starring Titanic. I sympathize with my brother who is not a Leo fan but kinda stopped watching him after that dreadful, never-needed-to-be-made, three-hour-snoozefest. Let's add 'em up: Basketball Diaries, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Beach, The Aviator (show me all the blueprints), Gangs of New York, The Departed, Romeo and Juliet, Blood Diamond and Catch Me if You Can. Annnnndd....Titanic. I think we can let that one slide. If you haven't seen Gangs, Aviator, Departed, or Blood Diamond, watch them this week. You can borrow Gangs and Departed from me if you want. But, people of the world who gave up on Leo after Titanic, Andy Bryan, it's time to give him another chance.

Alright folks, sorry to ramble, but I'm sitting in class and we're off on some tangent that is in no way important to anything I will ever be tested on or need in my life. I love movies almost as much as I love music. I encourage everybody to find your local independent movie theater, the Tivoli in KC and the Ragtag in Columbia. Don't really pay attention to the Oscars, but rather watch the festivals, Toronto, Tibeca, Cannes, Sundance, for what movies are causing a stir there and find them. See EVERYTHING that Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Quinten Tarantino and Clint Eastwood (yes, Dirty Harry) direct. Watch cheesy horror movies and Mel Brooks comedies. Listen to directors commentaries. Listen to actors commentaries (the Anchorman commentary is so funny it's like a second movie). Go to movies on a couple of afternoons a month to beat the prices but see movies as they're intended to be seen. (i'm really just typing to stretch the time out longer)

So, I'm done. I'd be interested in additions, subtractions, and amendments to my lists. Take care everybody.

Peace, BB

ROFLMAO

I think that means, rolling on the floor laughing my ass off, but I'm not a 14 yr old girl so I don't know.

The Star Wars Family Guy...holy crap!

"I made a Darth Doodie."

Oh man. Anyway, thought I'd share my response.

BB

If it's too loud, you're too old!

Yesterday, my mother, a musician with very good and eclectic musical taste, wrote her children a "new music" e-mail. And, as I think was one of her secret goal, it opened the flood gates and wrote one of the longest e-mail responses I've ever written. So, I thought that today I'd bring my love and, modestly, more than a little knowledge about music to the blogosphere.

So, here we go, modern music 101 for the baby boomer generation.

First of all, if you were a teenager or young adult in the 60s and 70s, you shouldn't have ANY excuse for not having music to listen to. You lived through the greatest musical revolution the world has ever known. There's nothing wrong with what you're listening too. The Beatles, the Stones, Motown, Aretha, late 60s folk, Bob Dylan, are classics because they are the best there's ever been and noone will ever be better. That said, some of you, like my mom, think that the Beatles Number 1's album or a motown collection is sufficient. Not so, my friends. If you're running out of music or are too familiar with your collection, than go buy more of what you love. The Beatles are the best band that's ever been and the best at total album construction. Everyone in the world should own Let It Be and Abbey Road and proabably Revolver. It's listening to songs like Honey Pie or Octopus's Garden that makes Hey Jude true genius. So, the first step if you're feeling a little stale lately is go and buy something else in the catalog of your favorites. Carole King has made more albums than Tapestry, Simon and Garfunkel more than Bridge Over Trouble Waters. Greatest Hits albums are great for quick and easy access to the sing alongs. But studio albums are where we see the best artists at their artistic best.

The second step is realizing that not all your favorite artists are dead or in prison. Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, America, Carley Simon, Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Johnny Cash (somehow), have ALL put out albums in 2006-7. So, keep up with the artists you love. All of them have websites or just go to your local store and ask somebody to show you the most recent album. These artists are still around and still making music.

Alright, so now, what's happening today? Oh, honestly, not much. We are officially in the era of hip-hop. "Popular" music is rap, r & b, dance and combinations of all kinds. This is hard for some, again like my mom, who hate rapping and can't stand the sounds of computerized beats and turn-table scratches. It's also pretty hard these days if you can't listen to a distorted electric guitar. Although, there aren't really a lot of good rock bands these days, either. This should sum up the music scene right now-the greatest selling albums of this year are High School Musical, High School Musical 2, and Hannah Montana.

But there are some gems out there that I think you baby boomers out there will like. And I'll break now into list form to keep from rambling anymore.

Norah Jones-singer, piano player, very bluesy.
Corrine Bailey Rae-singer, bluesy, R&B
Joss Stone-singer, funk, Jazz, R&B (thanks, steph) Janis Joplin-esque
The Arcade Fire-9-person band, folk-rock-bluegrass-weird awesome fusion.
Bright Eyes-singer/songwriter with band, rock-folk stuff. Awesome!
The Frames-my most exciting find this year. The movie "Once" and this Scot band.
John Mayer-guitar player/singer-songwriter. One of the new Eric Clapton's
Ray LaMontagne-pure folk, just a guy and a guitar.
Jamie Cullum-great updates of Sinatra and jazz standard stuff.
Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, and Matt Costa-the most laid back, chilled out music ever.

That's all I can think of right now. There's a lot of great music out there. Listen to the radio (not just NPR), go to festivals and local concerts, go to record stores and spend an afternoon listening to music. Find what you love, find what speaks to you. And never be bored with your music, there's something out there for everybody.

For those about to rock, I salute you.
BB

For all those who are interested

Is a Christian church without a cross in the sanctuary actually a Christian church?

By the way, I would say no. The cruxifiction and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most important thing for Christian worship and in my opinion the most important event in all of history and without a symbol of that event, I don't know. It's just not for me.

Talk amongst yourselves. Well, not really, actually comment and we'll talk. No big whoop.

BB

Open Letter to DVD Distributors

You know what really grinds my gears...
Why are the main title sequences included in all DVDs of TV series? You know what I mean, I don't have cable, so when I'm home preparing sermons or doing homework and need a little noise in the background, I'll put in some Seinfeld or Family Guy or Reno 911, or when I'm on the treadmill watching the Office on the iPod, I'll just hit the "Play All" button and let it run. And lo and behold, every 21 minutes, I have to sit through 30 seconds of the theme song on every single show. Come on people. We know who the stars are, we know who created the show, we all know that Stewie says "Laugh and cry" not "Eff-ing cry" in the Family Guy theme. We want content. Take the dingding theme songs off your DVDs.
And that, is what really grinds my gears,
BB

St. Petersblog: Post-Vacation Blues

Alright, alright, alright. So, it's been a week and a half since our last night and day in Florida and I haven't posted anything, yet. But, here it is...

We woke up early on Thursday to go down to the beach one more time before the check out time. The waves were much bigger than they had been all week. It's crazy to think that all the way across the Gulf, the winds from the Dean storm effected the waves at St Pete Beach. Anyway, we said our goodbye's to the beach and ocean, had another Cuban sandwich and hit the road.

On our way out of town, we returned to the shops on Corey Ave. (The place I said wasn't any better than the Plaza, and was actually pretty gaudy) Well, at Duet, that's right, not Duet's, Lindsey bought me a Ukelele for our 2 yr anniversary. It's pretty awesome, really easy to play and sounds great. Now, that's three guitars, a mandolin, a uke, a keyboard, a wood xylo, a rain stick, two djembe's, an Indian circle drum, an Indonesian gourd shaker, a Sri Lankan rattle, some hand-painted castanets, and a set of drums. (From Lynz-mandolin, uke, xylo, rs, and castanets)

Down the street at "The Shell Store" we went back to pick up a lovely little kresch for my brother for the ride to and from the airport (you're welcome!), and saw a display case of jewelry that we hadn't seen earlier in the week. And, so, I got Lynz three awesome necklaces and earrings. So, the point of all this, we'd like to redact our previous statement that shopping on corey ave isn't all it's cracked up to be. It turned out just fine!

We left St. Pete Beach and stopped at the actual St. Petersburg on our way to Orlando. We stopped for two reasons. To get a second look at a couple of stores on Bay Walk; stopping in one to get Lindsey's birthday present (let's talk about our anniversary being 10 days before her birthday sometime...) a square black glass clock with charcoal gray Eiffel tower embossed on it, and another to see the price on AWESOME shirts with 80's NFL logos. Mustoe, Andy and Caldwell, you guys would've loved these. The best were the old school Buccaneer with the knife in his mouth in bright orange and the old Patriot in the three point stance. Alas, these short-sleeve, faded-looking t-shirts were 50 bucks a piece.

Alright, real business in St. Petersburg was the Salvador Dali Museum. Awesome! Dali was one messed up dude, and his paintings are pretty messed up too.

They had the originals of Dali's 15 foot tall, 10 foot wide masterpieces and the one with the blocks and naked lady up close and then at 20 meters becomes Abe Lincoln. Crazy stuff.

Alright, we left the coast line and went inland to Orlando (ridin' high and smooth, by the way) That night we went to the Orlando outlet mall, which was a bust neither of us really in the mood. We had a great dinner at a steak place across from out hotel. Oh yeah, our hotel was the Wyndam Resort. Pretty sweet.

Our morning before the flight, we went to Orlando's best attraction....Gatorland!!!! 17oo gators and 10 crocs. I think I prefer to let the Gatorland pictures speak for themselves.

Well, folks, there you have it. Our first big trip together and shared with all of you. Thanks for stopping by and listening to our stories. Now, it's back to real life.

Keep on keeping on, BnV