attention Marc Anthony.......

WOR-TV Channel 9 movie intro clip

Back in the days when cable tv had 4 channels, this was one of them. WOR from New York was an independent station, a superstation, that basically showed really old movies and series no other channel wanted. But it was a really cool channel and maybe my love for old movies began because of WOR. During the afternoon they used to show a 4 o'clock movie and they also had a horror movie midnight show where I finally saw the old Bela Lugosi-Boris Karloff movies in their original language.

I also remember seeing "Citizen Kane" for the first time as part of the "Million Dollar Movie" at midnight.
So as you can figure I must have seen this intro clip a thousand times. It was really nostalgic and sweet to see it again after so many years.

plans for the weekend

Tapas

One of the most difficult things that a writer can create is a good movie in which many lives intertwine. Most movies of this kind end up being a letdown. So it was a nice surprise to see this Spanish movie on Cinemax(!). It is the story of a few people in a middle class section of Barcelona. It explores their lives, their fears. But what is wonderful about it is how it explores subjects such as sex, death, drugs, prostitution in such a nonchalante way. In such a normal manner without all the moralizing that you would find in a Hollywood movie. And also you end up liking these charaters, you wish you could meet them and have a beer with them. I'm not saying this movie is some kind of masterpiece, but it is worth seeing.

20% chance of rain for the weekend!!!!!!!!!

Ghosts of the Abyss

One good thing about the movie "Titanic", besides the special effects, was the fact that the ship became an obsession for director James Cameron. So in 2001, Cameron and a crew went on a mini submarine and with remote robot IMAX 3-D cameras went to the bottom of the ocean abd actually went in the Titanic. This movie is truly wonderful. You travel through the hallways, you go into a first class cabin(there's a water vase intact there and a hat just as the person left it 90 years ago). You go to the engine room to the firemen's quarters. These scenes are intertwined with shots from the movie so you can see how it looked then and how it looks now underwater. This is one amazing movie. I saw it on my 34" inch tv, but watching this on 3-D Imax had to be one of the great trips ever. It's playing on Starz this month.

The Puerto Rican Disney obsession

This is going to sound like a post from Annette's "Siminoco"...but...what the hell is the insanity that Puerto Ricans have about going to Disney World? Recently I've talked to people who are taking vacations and most of them are going there. With so many amazing places in the world, why choose a fucking amusement park? Yeah, the hell with the Grand Canyon, Venice, the Eiffel tower, let's go to Tiki Birds show or EPCOT. I don't get it.

And if you don't believe me that everyone here loves Disney, here's proof. Years ago I was working for an advertising agency who created a promotion that would take you to the Greek Islands. An amazing once in a lifetime trip. Nobody entered the contest. Next year we made it Disney World...a huge succeess.WTF??????

Disney World is simply a corporate ripoff designed to make kids ask parents to buy them things. And I can understand wanting to take your kids there once in their lives. But taking them every year is mind boggling, not to mention culturally crippling. Why not take them, for example, to NYC? Seeing the Empire State will probably be as thrilling to them as Adventureland.

Anyway...I guess the boricuas Disney World thing falls into the same category as the Miss Universe obsession. Wait a minute...imagine a theme park dealing with Miss Universe...instead of taking your picture with Pluto you'll take it with a robotic Dayanara. Hmmmm....

so shoot me

Ok. I'll say it. I liked "The Pink Panther" movie with Steve Martin. I found it to be an enjoyable, time killer with a good couple of laughs. Martin's Closeau is different from Peter Sellers Inspector, but he is funny.

In a way, the movie is much funnier than the last couple of Sellers movies in which you could see how bored the actor was with the whole thing and how unoriginal and lame Blake Edwards' script and direction were.

Here script is kind of silly, and some gags are obvious, but some of them are fun and silly. Kevin Kline and Jean Reno are good in supporting roles. And Beyonce Knowles provides the eye candy.

All in all, a cool movie.

politics

I hate writing about politics. But watching the news last night I saw the news about President Bush's veto of stem cell research. I don't think there is a bigger example of this man's ignorance and danger than this item. He has vetoed a project, supported by a huge number of Republicans, that would have added more federal money for research that could be vital in treating and curing disease. Al because it would involve leftover embryos that would have been thrown away anyway. So where's the moral dilemma in that? Only in the mind of stupid W.

Vamos a la cama

If you are of "a certain age" and you spent your childhood in Puerto Rico you will remember this. It was on at 8pm every night and it called for children to stop watching tv and go to sleep. My parents were a bit more lenient and would let me stay an extra half hour. But watching this cartoon always meant that the fun of the night was pretty close to being over.
I had no idea this was a Television Espanola cartoon.

Searching for Valerie

I must have been on my senior year at high school when I happened to catch a movie on HBO one day called "French Postcards". It was about a group of American college students who spend their junior year at Paris and the adventures they faced there.As someone who was in pre-college mode, this movie was fascinating to me. It provided a glimpse into the mysterious world of college life. Of things that could possibly happen to me once I took that airplane and left home.

But something else struck me about the movie. It was a French actress who played the girlfriend of one the American students. She had the most amazing, intelligent eyes and she projected a strange combination of warmth, quirkiness and sexiness. I stayed all the way through the titles and saw that her name was Valerie Quennessen. I made a mental note to catch any other movies she was in. This was way before the Internet and at a time when cable had 6 channels. I only caught her in one more movie, a clunker called "Summer Lovers" but then nothing.

Years passed and I never saw her in another movie. Ocassionally while reading the Sunday New York Times I would look at ads for French movies hoping to see her name, but no luck. Eventually I forgot all about her. My era of "movie actresses crushes" was over.

In 1996 I installed this new thing called the Internet in my house. That first night online I couldn't believe all the information that was there. I spent all night just surfing the net. Suddenly I found a movie message board. I had no idea how this worked. But I submitted a question:
"What ever happened to Valerie Quennessen?"

For days I had no answer. Then I got it. The reason she had not appeared in any movies was that she had died in a car crash in 1988. The post also directed me to a website in her memory. It seemed that someone out there had watched "French Postcards" on HBO one night too and had also being struck by her. I wrote him an e-mail and we exchanged some memories of having seen "French Postcards". I was struck by how similar our feelings were while watching the movie years ago.

It was an interesting exchange but most importantly, it marked the first time I realized how much my world would change with the Internet.

beyond regueton

The other afternoon I was watching a pop music show on Television Espanola. Sometimes I watch them to see what Europe is listening to since it seems that over here there's regueton and not much else. Anyway, after watching an hour of the show I found out:

1.people over there listen to regueton. There was a Spanish group which was kind of silly. A bunch of galleguitos pretending to be mean guys. But that was only 5 minutes of the whole hour.

2.rock is still a force there. There were many rock groups in the show, some Spanish, some English and American. It was refreshing to see young people in a rock band and listening to rock n' roll.

3.there is some true talent out in Spain. There was this group called Marlango, a Spanish group leaded by a singer-actress Leonor Watling ,who combines jazz, folk and rock in their music. And they sing in English!!! Talk about eclectic. And the teenage kids were loving it. Which made me realize that maybe over there young people are more open to different sounds. Or maybe they are more culturally aware and enjoy diversity.

So there's hope still, guys. Only you have to go to Europe. Or tune in to Ipop on TVE, channel 51 on Saturday afternoons.

Kliban

The late B.Kliban is best known for his series of cat cartoons. But he made some of the strangest, most amazing cartoons ever. The man was a true genius.
Here are three I like.

Dealing with technology

Got my DVR/HD from One Link. HD looks great, DVR doesn't work. VOD doesn't work.
Damn.

Good trash, bad trash

Ok. Enough for the French intellectual movies. I wanted to see trash. Sexy trash. And here are the two movies I saw: Basic Instinct 2 and "Poison Ivy 3:the New Seduction".
The first one I saw on DVD, embarrasing to rent, but what the hell. In this one, Catherine(Sharon Stone) decides to destroy the life of a psychaitrist in order to write a novel, which is downright strange, why not simply write the novel? Anyway, she kills a bunch of people and you can see the "twist" ending a mile away. Sharon Stone looks good and she has fun with the character. But the movie is not really too interesting or too sexy. In terms of trash, its bad trash, because it fails to do one thing trashy movies should do: entertain the hell out of you.

Great trash? "Poison Ivy 3". I love this movie. It's on cable every month so someone else out there is loving it too. Too sexy for words Jaime Pressly plays the daughter of a housekeeper. Years ago(there are layers to this!) the housekeeper had an affair with the owner of the house and was fired when the owner's wife found out. So here comes Jaime to invade the house of the people who wronged her mother! Will she seduce the owner of the house? Yes. Will she destroy the life of everyone in the family? Seduce the daughter's boyfriend? turn him into a drug addict? are there lesbian undertones? yes, yes, yes and yes!!!This is great trash that makes you talk back to the screen. This is true entertainment.

Anyway..I will watch a couple of Truffaut films to get rid of the guilt. Unless...there's Poison Ivy 4 on cable.

The Beatles - Two Of Us (Twickenham Rehearsal)

This is one of my favorite Beatle moments ever. Here they were about to break up, the mood at the recording studio was depressing, but suddenly out of the blue they start rehearsing and all the magic is back.
Suddenly, the greatest songwriting partnership of the 2oth century is in full force.
I love this clip from "Let it Be" but in a way it makes me sad that, because of some jerk with gun, we were never able able to see them perform together again.

Legend of hell house

I saw this movie in tv when I was a kid and have always had a soft spot for it. It's not as good as the original version of "The Haunting", but it's a nice liitle horror movie. Not really scary but enjoyable, nevertheless. It's based on a book by Richard Matheson, a writer of some memorable Twilight Zone episodes (the one about the gremlin on the airplane's wing!).

The plot is pretty standard. Four people go into a famous haunted mansion and one of them wants to exorcise the place. All kind of mayhem happens. The movie has great acting by Pamela Franklin and Roddy McDowall. It also features two pretty intense sexual scenes for a PG movie, which may have been part of the reason I remember it as a kid.
Not the kind of movie I would recommend, but if you have 90 minutes to kill and the movie is on Fox Movie Channel, check it out. It DOES have a cool poster!

somerset maugham

To compensate for the limitless stupidity of Zuleyka's quote,
here are some gems from author Somerset Maugham.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When things are at their worst I find something always happens.

A woman can forgive a man for the harm he does her...but she can never forgive him for the sacrifices he makes on her account.

It was such a lovely day I thought it a pity to get up.

It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

Art is merely the refuge which the ingenious have invented, when they were supplied with food and women, to escape the tediousness of life.

He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.

It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched for they are full of the truthless ideal which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real, they are bruised and wounded.

It is cruel to discover one's mediocrity only when it is too late.

There's always one who loves and one who lets himself be loved.

Holy fucking shit!!!!!!!!

Black Moon

A young woman is driving her car. Suddenly she becomes aware there is some kind of war going on. She escapes to a house and finds a strange old lady that talks to rats and the rats talk back. She finds a man and a woman who are mute and are both called Lilly. She meets a bitter, cynical talking black unicorn. And those are just the things that can be explained.

"Black Moon" is a movie directed by French auteur Louis Malle (Au Revoir Les Enfants). It is his take on "Alice in Wonderland". This is a strange, surreal film that is truly impossible to describe. It's the kind of movie for people who like "Eraserhead". I watched it sober and liked it. I cannot imagine how it must be like to enjoy this movie in an altered state of mind.

It never got a major US release or a DVD release and you can see why. It is showing on Showtime, the best channel on cable when it comes to bizarre, offbeat movies. Check it out.

The Decalogue

Before Krzysztof Kieslowski made his classic films "The Double Life of Veronique" and his "Red", "White" and "Blue" trilogy he made this unique series of made for tv 60 minutes movies called "The Decalogue." Ten tales set in a Warsaw apartment complex.Each telling the story of a tenant living there. Each one touching in a unique side of the human condition. Each story is also based on one of the Ten Commandments, but there's nothing preachy here. Just pure human emotion. Real emotion, not Hollywood "pretend" emotion.

It's hard to describe how good this movie really is and how moving an experience it is to watch it. I tend to agree with LA Times critic Kenenth Turan when he said that to see "The Decalogue" was "nothing less than a privilege."

You will never find this at Blockbuster. I found a behind the counter copy at Borders. It is expensive, but worth it.

And now Glerys will present the marketing plan

True story. I swear. Before she became a No Te Duermas model, Glerys wanted to be an advertising account executive. This was five years ago, and she did an internship at the ad agency where I was working at the time. She needed to work a number of hours for some university credit and we were the lucky agency to have her.

They tell me that she wasn't a half bad intern. She seemed to grasp the whole advertising game, except for the dress code part. She used to go to work wearing the shortest dresses in the world, and with slits on the side. Let's say there are waitreses at Diva's who dressed more demurely. Every day she would surprise us with a different stripper type outfit. Whenever she arrived, all the guys in the agency would soon alert each other..."tienes que ver como vino Glerys hoy." And every day she would surprise us with a shorter skirt.

It was a truly weird time. Because we would see her at work during the day and then see her at night showing her ass on tv. There are very few instances when one can say that about a co-worker.

Unfortunately, she ended her internship in a couple of months.

But....months later she called the head of the account dept. to ask for advice. She didn't know whether she wanted to be an account executive or a sexy tv model. She was torn between the two worlds. So the head of the dept asked her " Well, where do you see yourself in 5 years?" And Glerys answered "I see myself as a merenguera.". "Well", he said, "maybe advertising is not the way to go for you."
And the rest is history,of sorts.

Cat Stevens - Moonshadow

This video brings back so many memories.Of watching this at my school's auditorium one Sunday afternoon and loving the innocence of it so much.

a great quote

"The greatest enemy of an artist is the absence of limitations"
Orson Welles, in amazing documentary shown last night on the greatest channel on cable, Turner Classic Movies.

three stories that had to be told

After a reading a book of lighthearted PG Wodehouse tales, I wanted something different. And I found it in this amazing book I found at Borders. It's called "Unknown Soldiers". It's a nonfiction book about the life of three soldiers that died during World War One, but were never found. Three of hundreds of thousands who died from explosions so terrible that, as the author writes, they simply vanished, who disappeared in the middle of a terrible war. But the three of them had left something behind: letters containing their thoughts, hopes and accounts of being in the midddle of battle.

In the book we get to know an American soldier, a German soldier and a British soldier.Three young men who vanished, but that through this book, live again.
The unknown soldiers are unknown no more. This is one great book.

Field of dreams

I can't believe it's been two years since we last had the Expos games here. It was such a fun time to finally see Major League baseball in Puerto Rico. But as everything, the first year everyone went to the games because it was "the cool thing to do" and "the place to be seen" more or less like Galaxy Lanes today. It became a competition among the elite as to who had the best seats. You could see them at the park calling each other on the cell phone, comparing where they were sitting. But still, the park was full and baseball fans like me could enjoy the games.

But during the second year, only true baseball fans attented the game, the poseurs moved on, and assistance fell down. The result being that we can no longer enjoy a nice hot dog, a beer and a wonderful baseball game. Too bad. It was really nice time.
Well, maybe when Galaxy Lanes goes out of vogue, baseball will be back. One can always dream

Life lessons from The Simpsons

Homer: How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?

Homer: Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel.

Homer: Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

Marge: Homer, is this how you pictured married life?
Homer: Yeah, pretty much, except we drove around in a van solving mysteries.

Homer: Lisa, Vampires are make-believe, like elves, gremlins, and eskimos.

Chief Wiggum: I hope this has taught you kids a lesson: kids never learn.

Homer: If The Flintstones has taught us anything, it's that pelicans can be used to mix cement.

la playa the other day

Even though it wasn't a weekend for heading to the beach, I did. I needed the calmness and the peace of my mind that only la playa even on a not so sunny day can give you.

Took some photos too. Especially of the rainy moments.

The silliness begins

They are here. Read the newspapers and the news stories are slowly creeping through.
The stories about "nuestra soberana", "la representante de la mujer puertorriquena".
Yes, it's time for the silliness called the Miss Universe contest. The pageant consisting of heavily surgically altered women answering questions about world peace and saying they want to meet Nelson Mandela. Which would be alright if people saw it as simply a time killer, as an "American Idol" type thing. Well, if they saw it basically as the crap that it is.

But newspapers here make it seem like every Puerto Rican's self worth, our sense of pride, our "patriotismo" depends on some Donald Trump owned show that is so lowly rated that it takes place after the US tv rating sweeps season. That's what makes it everything so amazingly apalling. The fact that El Nuevo Dia and others want to sell this as some kind of test of our patriotic self worth. And that people are buying this nonsense.

But anyway, I'm just a lonely voice. I'll just have to keep quiet and listen to everyone at work talking about it. I'll have to go through all the silliness one more year.

Cache

This movie has a good premise. A married couple start receiving VHS tapes with footage obviously taken from across the street from their house. It seems someone placed a camera there and recorded hours of surveillance footage. Why are they recording it? Who is doing that?

This is a really interesting movie about privacy both in terms of video and in terms of things we don't even tell people we love. This being a French movie, well, the answers to every question are not so clear cut. And people used to easy answers and inmediately knowing who the "good guy" and the "bad guy"is, will find it frustrating, but those who can appreciate a movie that challenges and doesn't give you a clue as to where the story is going will love it.

there is a God

Well, I bet those "Brazil fans" at Bossa Nova and Pizzaialo restaurants will be very sad. he,he,he.
Good to see the most arrogant team in the tournament gone!!!!
Anyway, congrats to blog reader Rita because her country, Portugal, beat England. Congratulations!!!!

A Good Woman

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." Lady Windemere's Fan, Oscar Wilde

I had no idea this movie existed. It was never released to theaters, but I found it at Borders. It's an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde play (Lady Windemere's Fan) starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson. The setting has been updated to 1930's Italy but all the famous Wilde dialogue is still there. It concerns a woman (Hunt) with a reputation as a maneater who sets out to destroy the perfect marriage of Mrs Wildemere. Movie was obviously shot with a low budget, but the acting is good and well, you can't really completely mess up an Oscar Wilde play, can you? This movie was a pleasant surprise. Nothing spectacular, but an OK little movie.

noticed something

Has anyone noticed that all the great movies on cable's premium channels are on weekdays at 8am????All the classics, the cool movies.
Then at prime time, it's the 198th showing of "The Day after Tomorrow".

7:43am

I was sitting here trying to write something and suddenly I look out my window.

to a.

I was going to post something bitter about unfairness,
or something sad about not being able to work with you again,
but I decided to write something happy,
because it's a day that will bring happiness to you.
so....here's an old, and wonderful Roy Rogers tune.
--------------------------------------------

Some trails are happy ones,
Others are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.

Happy trails to you until we meet again.
Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you 'till we meet again

MST3K

Years ago I used to tell people that my favorite show on tv was Mystery Science Theater 3000. And 9 out 10 people looked at me as if saying "what on earth are you talking about?" Then I used to tell them "It's the show with the silhouettes watching really bad movies and commenting on it." Then some of them wold say "Oh, yes. I've seen that, flipping channels." Then they would look at me as if amazed I would like something like that.

And it's that MST3K was the ultimate cult show. And it was fun. The jokes would run from double entendres to comments about obscure rock bands. Some references you would get, some you wouldn't. It was a show that made you laugh and made you feel culturally hip at the same time.

And it gave you a chance to see really bad movies from "The Brain that wouldn't die" to oddities like a really awful sci-fi movie with Raul Julia that must have been the nadir of his career.

Unfortunately, the show ended a few years ago, but luckily they are now available on DVD. The other night I was watching an episode and remembering why I liked the show so much. Some of the pop references are kind of dated, but the magic of the show is still there. I love MST3K.

My only reason to watch the World Cup is gone

The US is gone. Spain is gone. I don't like Argentina. I don't like Brazil and I don't care about the rest.
Back to watching baseball I guess.

Two long weekends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We will have July 3rd and July 24th free!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy 4th of July!!!!!
Happy 25th of July!!!!!!!
I am happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Petulia

When I look at what's playing today at the multiplex I thank whoever invented the DVD for giving us the chance to see movies made during a time when movies mattered. Movies like "Petulia" a brilliant movie made in 1966 by director Richard Lester. Set against the backdropof San Francisco during the Summer of Love, this is a movie about love, relationships and how they bind us to a life we don't really like.It's about the failure to communicate. In it a doctor (George C. Scott) meets a young woman (Julie Christie) who is physically abused by her impotent husband (Richard Chamberlain). But this is no ordinary love triangle and things are not of the "boy meets girl. boy loses girl. boy gets girl back" variety. This is an adult world. This is a real world.

The movie has a dazzling visual style too. Nicholas Roeg who later directed "Don't Look Now" and "Man who Fell to Earth" was the director of photography.

But what this movie really has is passion and love of cinema. In an interview, the producer of the movie said that after watching the completed film for the first time at a private screening, the director Richard Lester told him: "I don't know if anyone is ever going to watch this film. But even if nobody does you can feel good that our blood is in every frame of it." Will the director of "Click" ever be able to say that?

By the way, "Petulia" was chosen by critics as the third best movie of 1967-1977, conceivably a Golden Age of American Cinema.

great

I was talking to a couple of people and they all have next Monday (July 3) off. So they can enjoy a four day weekend. But it seems there are no plans for that where I work. Nice morale booster.

a quote about mediocrity

“"Mediocrity" doesn't mean average intelligence, it means an average intelligence that resents and envies its betters”

Ayn Rand (Russian born American Writer and Novelist, 1905-1982)

The wonderful world of Jeeves and Bertie

One of life's great pleasures is discovering something you truly come to love. Like the day I was a kid and went to the New York Departement store in Santurce and bought my first Beatle album. And suddenly I wanted every Beatle album. Their music offered me a new world. A new way of seeing things.

Well, a few months ago I discovered a writer that creates a wonderful world. And now I want everything he ever wrote, luckily he wrote a lot. His name was P.G. Wodehouse. He was an English writer who writes humorous books. But not "here's another fart" type of humor. He wrote the most, elegant, witty, fun books you can find. And they are not witty in an Oscar Wilde sense, but in a lighter sense,
in a less pretentious sense.

His main creation: Jeeves, the butler who changes the life of well meaning but kind of dim witted English gentleman called Bertie. The interplay between the two of them is magical.(The relationship between butler and millionaire in the movie "Arthur" is obvioulsy based on Jeeves and Bertie). The world that surrounds them of English people with money and some pretending to have money is really cool. He satirizes that world without being mean, something that is so hard to do. There are no cheap shots in his way of portraying that world of appearances. He does it in an elegant and fun way.

But more than that, Wodehouse created "a wonderful world for us to live in and delight in". Somebody once wrote: "Reading Wodehouse always makes me feel good." And that is the key. I can be in the foulest mood, and Wodehouse changes me. He takes a sad song and makes it better.

Wodehouse books are in the Borders "Humor" section in the Plaza store.

fairly decent sunrise

Cool movie

Yesterday I came back from work "con el mono trepao". So I wanted to see a real "light" movie. And I mean really mindless, "I just want to relax " entertainment. So I searched through some really old DVD's I had and found "Hollywood Boulevard".

This movie has a nice story to it.Back in 1974 when Joe Dante (Gremlins) was a fledging director, he told cheapo producer Roger Corman he could make the cheapest movie ever at Corman's New World Pictures. And for $10,000 he created this movie. And it's a truly cool movie. In it a starlet called Candy(Candice Rialson) begins a career doing B movies. She goes from women in prison films to a 1950's nostalgia movie set in 2055. There's also a mad kiler on the loose, you also get Paul Bartel as a director telling Godzilla his motivation ("get the girl and trample as many people as you can"), gratuitous nudity and violence, Mary Woronov as a possibly murderous actress and an appearance by Robbie the Robot.

This film is also a reminder of B movies from the 1970's. These films were shown in drive-ins in the States and were shown here in regular movie theaters in weeks when they had no mainstream movies to show. Most of them were crap, but once in a while a gem like this one would appear.
I bought it at Borders a long time ago.

True

"Be disloyal. It's your duty to the human race.
The human race needs to survive and it's the
loyal man who dies first from anxiety or a
bullet or overwork. If you have to earn a
living...and the price they make you pay is
loyalty, be a double agent--and never let
either of the two sides know your real
name..."
Under the Garden, Graham Greene

Darling

This movie is a real work of the 1960's. It stars Julie Christie, the biggest beauty symbol of the era (and the reason why you know so many thirtysomething women named Lara, she played that character in Dr. Zhivago and the whole world fell in love with her) and it is set in London, fast becomig the hippest city in the world.
This movie was made one year after "A Hard Day's Night" which showed the free, anything can happen spirit of the time. In a way, that was the first 1960's "youth culture" movie and it emphasized all that was positive and hopeful about it.

This movie, though, stresses the fact that the youth culture was as shallow, empty and greedy as the culture it was supposed to replace. Christie plays a working class woman who rises to the top of the modeling industry and finds only emptiness in it. She was able to use all the freedom that the era offered to get what she wanted and got nothing.

The movie also predicts quite accurately how corporations would use the youth culture to sell products. So that all the rebellion and freedom would end up simply as another advertising slogan.

This is quite an interesting movie. And by the way, Julie Christie won the Academy Award for Best Actress for it.

quote

"Don't tell my mother I work in an advertising agency - she thinks I play piano in a whorehouse."
~ Jacques Seguela.

cynical Graham Greene thought

Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either egotism, selfishness, evil --or else an absolute ignorance.

Graham Greene

A Nos Amours

One of the best movie columns in any newspaper is the one Mike Clark writes in the USA Today every Friday. In it he reviews the latest DDV releases. Not just the blockbusters, but small movies that are worth seeing. And thanks to that column I discovered this truly amazing film. It's one of the most realistic portrayals of adolescence you can see. All the aimlessness, boredom, danger, experimentation is here. But the movie does not judge. It does not take a point of view. And,most interestingly, the movie has almost no continuity. We get to know the main character Suzanne by seeing her in different situations, with her lovers, her family, her freinds, her father. But one scene does not lead to another. We have to fill in the spaces between the scenes. Just like meeting someone in real life. We can't know everything about that person. We just know them by the moments we spend with them.
So the movie can be strange for someone used to the Hollywood way of telling a story. But once you get used to it, it's a refreshing experience. 16 year old Sandrine Bonnaire plays Suzzane in her firt film role and she is amazing. One could inmediately tell she would become one of France's leading actresses. And the whole cast is amazing. Every person here feel real.It almost like watching a documentary about family, adolescence, sex, pain, sadness, longing.
This is a really special movie. It's from the Criterion Collection. And it's available at Borders.

quote

Whatever is in any way beautiful hath its source of beauty in itself, and is complete in itself; praise forms no part of it. So it is none the worse nor the better for being praised.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations

the other day at the beach

Stupid porn titles

These are actual porn movie titles. Most are based on tv shows and movies and others are just terrible(but funny) puns. Any favorites? Maybe you can come up with new titles.

2. Dykes Of Hazzard
3. Weapons of Ass Destruction
13. Sperminator
14. Thighs Wide Open
15. I Cream On Genie
16. Cocoa Muffs: 4 Pack
17. I Dream Of Queenie
18. Cream Rinse
19. Backside Story
20. Tits A Wonderful Life
21. All Hands On Dick
22. Whore Of The Roses
23. Cum To Drink Of It
24. Scrambled Legs And Sausage
25. Assfixiation
26. Got Milf # 2
27. Plumb And Dumber
28. Between A Cock And A Hard Place
29. Pulp Friction
30. Vaggie Burger 4 Hours
31. XXX Trek The Man Eater
32. Pussy On A Stick
33. Bad Czechs
34. Whore With No Name
35. Oozefest
36. Johnny Cockman
37. Glazed And Confused
38. Gonad The Barbarian
39. Girth Wind & Fire
40. Great Asspectations
41. Goody Goody Cum Drops
42. Grateful Head
43. Genitals Daughter
44. Genital Hospital
45. Austin Prowler
46. All That Jizz
47. Dicksy Chicks
48. Dude Wheres My Dildo
49. Everybody Loves Rimmin

1999 technology finally reaches my building!!!!!

After 4 years of telling me it will be available "next month", One Link (formerly Adelphia) has finally made Internet available in my building. Now I can also see HDTV and DVR and enjoy Video On Demand. Last Friday I called to order my DVR, they said they had ran out of boxes, that they would be available "next week".

Boxing stage

They fight. It's a controversial "draw" even though the AP had it 116-112. So there's a rematch on PPV. And thousands fall for it. Can't anyone see boxing has become as staged as the WWF??? But then again, people pay $50 to watch that staged show. Never mind.

Paul is 64

I read in the newspaper today that Paul is 64 tomorrow. Years ago he wrote "When I'm 64" for the Sgt. Pepper album. "When I get older/losing my hair/Many years from now" is tomorrow. Time sure rushes by. And I'm glad he's still around. The last surviving songwriter from the greatest rock group ever. His songlist is so incredibly amazing "Yesterday:, "Hey Jude", "Penny Lane" and you could go on and on. And for those who say he was the guy who only wrote love songs, I tell them two words "Helter Skelter", a song so raw it inspired Charles Manson to commit mass murder. No hard rock group can't put THAT in their resume.

Anyway, here's to Paul. The underrated Beatle. The one who was not cool and tortured like John.The one who was not mysterious as George. The one who has always been happy go lucky. The one that wrote most Beatle songs we remember(if you don't believe that, try the "Back in the USA" CD.) The one who has always been my favorite Beatle.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!

Cool movie

"This is my happening and it freaks me out!!!!"
Zman

This is a really interesting flick. A cult movie per excellence. The year was 1970. 20th Century Fox, desperate for a low budget hit, decided to hire Russ Meyer, an acclaimed director known for skin flicks featuring women with huge breasts to make a sequel to "Valley of the Dolls". He, in turn, hired as the screenwriter an unknown film critic from Chicago named Roger Ebert. Together they created one of the craziest, funniest, most insane movies ever. A movie about a girl group who makes it big in Hollywood, but pays the price.

The movie features drugs, alcohol, sex, Nazis, nymphomaniacs, mass murderers, cheesy "hippy" dialogue, women with big breasts, groovy 1960's rock music. Everything that can make a movie fun. And this movie is fun. It was hailed as one of the 100 best movies ever by Village Voice and as one of the best film of the 1960's by Newsweek.

The DVD is full of extras and features an audio commentary by Roger Ebert who does not consider this a skeleton in his classic but sees it as a fun time.

Check it out. I found it at Borders.

to a friend who's going away soon

Hay gente que con sólo decir
una palabra enciende la ilusión
y los rosales; que con sólo
sonreir entre los ojos nos invita
a viajar por otras zonas,
nos hace recorrer toda la magia.
Hay gente que con sólo dar la mano
rompe la soledad, pone la mesa,
sirve el puchero, coloca las guirnaldas;
que con sólo empuñar una guitarra
hace una sinfonía de entrecasa.
Hay gente que con sólo abrir la boca
llega hasta todos los límites del alma,
alimenta una flor, inventa sueños,
hace cantar el vino en tinajas
y se queda después como si nada.
Y uno se va de novio con la vida
desterrando una muerte solitaria pues
sabe que a la vuelta de la esquina
hay gente que es así, tan necesaria.

Hamlet Lima Quintana

blue

An old movie I saw again

One of the great things about the DVD age is being able to watch again movies I loved as a child. Last night I finally saw a movie I had seen many, many years ago at the old Ambassador theater in Santurce. It's called "Murders in the Rue Morgue", a horror movie "inspired" by the Edgar Allan Poe story. It involves some murders that take place in late 19th century Grand Guinol theater in Paris. It is all perfectly preposterous, it even involves revenge, people dressed up as gorillas and people being buried alive. It is really not a very good movie. But I enjoyed it and at the same time I was trying to figure out why I had liked it so much as a kid. And well, I don't have an answer to that. But I enjoyed it. I wouldn't recommend you buy it, but if you were a little kid and you remember the double features at the Ambassador, well..you may just have a great time.