Me senté anoche a observar qué había en televisión estaba dispuesto a que si no había nada más me dispondría a seguir mi lista y hacer la entrada sobre una de las muchas pelis que tengo pendiente.

Bueno, había un par de series, otro par de pelis y Goodfellas de Scorsese. Sabía que la peli era larga y que estaba un poco cansado pero transcurridos unos diez minutos, ya estaba cautivado por la historia.

Ya había dicho de Scorsese que no es sólo como describe las vidas y costumbres de los italianos mayormente en Nueva York, el hombre es un verdadero cuentero, cada pedacito tiene algo interesante, cada chiste tiene su magia. ¿Cuántos actores son naturales en la peli? ¿Cuántos verdaderamente sabían actuar? Todos se interpretan a si mismos y muchos hoy día se encuentran encasillados en ese primer papel que hicieron para el maestro. La lista es larga y uno se pone a revisarla y casi todos los encuentra uno de nuevo actuando igualito en The Sopranos.

La peli es fascinante, lo que más me agrada y recuerdo haberlo escrito en algún lado por ahí hace quince años es que los italianos si que saben comer y cocinar. Me pasó con The Sopranos, me pasó con Anthony Bordain cuando visitó Nueva Jersey italiana y me pasó con Goodfellas en 1990. Alguna vez con un amigo de universidad grabamos la peli y anotamos cuidadosamente las recetas de Pauly y Jimmy en la cárcel, diligentemente nos acomodamos en alguna de nuestras casas con ingredientes de excelente calidad, repetimos la receta al pie de la letra, recuerdo que la única excepción fue que en vez de latas de tomate en realidad buscamos como hacer la salsa con tomates frescos, lo que nos iba a tomar tres o cuatro horas más. No importó. Rebanamos el ajo con bisturíes X-Actos y delicadamente los sofreímos en acetite de oliva medianamente caliente. Tal cómo Liotta y su personaje lo describían el ajo simplemente se deshacía en el aceite, la carne absorbía esa emulsión y al servirse con una porción de pasta, pan y vino tinto ya no eramos estudiantes de una universidad pública, eramos sicilianos encarcelados, eramos la estrellas de rock que cocinaban y comían con todos los lujos del caso.

Pero a quién engañabamos eso nos había costado semanas y semanas de almuerzos. Pero había valido la pena. Por una vez en la vida estabamos probando los manjares que Scorsese alguna vez nos había confiado.

Hoy más que revisar las cámaras de Michael Ballhaus, la excelente actuación de Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, más alla de comentar los títulos de Saul Bass, la edición de Schoonmaker o la música organizada por Christopher Brooks. Hoy más que nada, recomiendo en las clásicas pelis de Scorsese ponerle atención a las recetas de las comidas y tratar de rehacerlas lo más parecido posible. Usar ingredientes frescos y de buena calidad. El resultado cada vez que se repitan las escenas la sensación va a ser erótica, va a ser inigualable. Las descriptivas escenas de Scorsese y una boca cebando esos misteriosos sabores del Mediterráneo.

I’m not sure exactly how many films I’ve seen in my lifetime.

It is probably over a thousand, the list below barely scratches the surface of all the films I’ve seen and it was surprisingly easy to come up with. Rather than systematically list films by era or genre I got my brother’s girlfriend Dawn to call out any films she could think of.

I thought of this idea about five minutes before I began typing and Dawn rattled off films as they came to her while I typed out brief verdicts for each one. I initially intended to create a system for rating but found it too restrictive so I just wrote a brief instinctual verdict for each one.

I have included a link to Rotten Tomatoes and the score of each film, I haven’t seen some of these movies in a very long time…

NOTE: The percentages at the end are not my scores but the percentage of positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

1. Men in Black (1997) – meh (91% – seriously?!)
2. Fight Club (1999) – brilliant (80%)
3. Unforgiven (1992) – immense (96%)
4. Shaun of the Dead (2004) – decent (gets worse every time I watch it)
5. Memento (2001) – pretty good (93%)
6. The Departed (2006) – good (92%)
7. Aliens (1986) – the best sequel ever made (100%)
8. Reservoir Dogs (1992) – great characters and dialogue (95%)
9. American Beauty (1999) – uplifting, brilliant (the stupid bag scene apart) (89%)
10. Goodfellas (1990) – excellent (96%)
11. Predator (1987) – one of Arnie’s best (76%)
12. 12 Angry Men (1957) – captivating (100%)
13. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) – meh (78%)
14. Shawshank Redemption (1994) – really, really good (88%)
15. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) – better than I expected (90%)
16. Sin City (2005) – flashy trash (78%)
17. Toy Story 2 (1999) – yep, it’s good (100%)
18. Bambi (1942) – I remember it being good (much to the amusement of Dawn and Sean, many gay jokes followed) (89%)
19. Final Destination (2000) -guff (30%)
20. Edward Scissorhands (1990) – pretentious crap (90%)
21. Stranger than Fiction (2006) – Surprisingly good (72%)
22. Shallow Grave (1995) – okay (71%)
23. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1996) – facepalm (49%)
24. Man on Fire (2004) – underwhelming (39%)
25. Ocean’s Eleven (2001) – meh (81%)
26. 28 Days Later (2003) – meh (88%)
27. Casino Royale (2006) – surprisingly really good (94%)
28. Psycho (1960) – I was expecting it to be better (98%)
29. The Flintstones (1994) – Jesus wept (18%)
30. Aladdin (1992) – good (92%)
31. Jackass: The Movie (2002) – hard to class as a film really, hit and miss(48%)
32. E.T (1982) – good (98%)
33. Independence Day (1996) – a glorified B movie (61%)
34. Titanic (1997)  – Good (81%)
35. Ring (2002) – fairly decent (71%)
36. Pulp Fiction (1994) – Tarantino’s best film by a long way (97%)
37. Hot Fuzz (2007) – fun (90%)
38. Monty Python: Holy Grail (1975) – classic (94%)
39. Good Will Hunting (1997) – good (97%)
40. Heat (1995) – pretty good, not great (89%)
41. Zodiac (2007) – boring (87%)
42. Little Mermaid (1989) – decent (90%)
43. Ghost (1987) – crap (80%)
44. Dirty Dancing (1987) – utter shit – that women like this film makes me wonder if they actually deserve equal rights (67%)
45. The Terminator (1984) – the best Terminator (100%)
46. Bean (1998) – a test of mental endurance, awful (41%)
47. The Mask (1994) – rubbish (76%)
48. Frailty (2002) – ridiculous (74%)
49. The Day After Tomorrow (2004) – shite
50. Donnie Darko (2001) – overrated pish (84%)
51. Apollo 13 (1995)– crap (96%)
52. Deep Impact (1998)– more crap (46%)
53. Volcano (1997) – even more crap (40%)
54. I know what you did last summer (1997)– yet more crap (36%)
55. The Matrix (1999) – first half decent rest shite (86%)
56. Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (2002)– boring (96%)
57. Addams Family Values (1994) – some good moments (74%)
58. Nightmare before Christmas (1993) – overrated, largely guff (97%)
59. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) – (see earlier blog) (75%)
60. Three Men and a Baby (1987) – sickening  (78%)
61. Transformers: The Movie (1986) – decent (haven’t seen it in 10 years) (50%)
62. Cruel Intentions (1999) – trash (47%)
63. Lock Stock and Two Smoking barrels (1998) – good if a little overrated (71%)
64. Clerks II (2006) – absolutely fucking diabolical (62%, seriously what the fuck?)
65. Baby’s Day Out (1994) – horrific (23%)
66. Home Alone 2 (1992) – decent (17% – that seems harsh!)
67. Liar Liar (1997) – pretty bad (84%)
68. Babe (1995) – Jesus wept (98%)
69. The Simpsons Movie (2007) – unfunny crap from a show that is a pale shadow of what it used to be (90%)
70. Mr Nanny (1993) – a holocaust of a film (7%)
71. The Thing (1980) – really tense, really good (80%)
72. Blair Witch Project (1999) – doing something different doesn’t make it good (85%)
73. Run Lola Run (1999) – see above (92%)
74. The Santa Clause (1994) – crap (Dawn: “What’s the film with Tim Allen dressed as Santa Claus?”) (79%)
75. Silence of the Lambs (1990) – they really should have just stopped at this one, a fine film (96%)
76. Matilda (1996) – another crap Dahl adaptation (89%)
77. A Bridge too Far (1977) – the quintessential war movie (67%)
78. Rocky V (1990) – laughable (21%)
79. The Sting (1973) – really good (91%)
80. The Sword in the Stone (1963) – good (73%)
81. The Witches (1990) – crap (100%, what the fuck?)
82. Starship Troopers (1997) – entertaining trash (60%)
83. Love Actually(2003)  – hated it (63%)
84. White men can’t jump (1992) – I liked it despite itself (78%)
85. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1999)– a pointless sequel (48%)
86. A Bug’s Life (1998) – meh (91%)
87. Hollow man (2000)– hollow is an appropriate adjective (but I like Bacon’s character) (27%)
88. Jaws (1975) – good but overrated (100%)
89. Jerry Maguire (1996)– oh Christ (84%)
90. Dawn of the Dead (1978)– awesome (95%)
91. Drop Dead Fred (1991)– mindless crap (still haunted by my little sister’s repeat viewing of this monstrosity) (9%)
92. Braveheart (1995) – good (it’s a movie, not a history lesson) (76%)
93. Saw II (2005) – crap (35%)
94. Mouse Hunt (1997)– hated it (really wanted the mouse to die) (44%)
95. The Mummy (1999)– didn’t like it (54%)
96. George of the Jungle (1997)– crap (53%)
97. Leon (1994) – ludicrous garbage (74%)
98. Death becomes her (1993)– had its moments (56%)
99. Meet Joe Black (1998) – meh (49%)
100. Dog Soldiers (2002) – entertaining (79%)
101. Cool Hand Luke (1967) – the best film ever (100%)

1. Taxi Driver
2. Goodfellas
3. Raging Bull
4. Casino
5. After Hours
6. The Departed
7. Gangs Of New York
8. Mean Streets
9. The King Of Comedy
10. Cape Fear

NP: Ornette Coleman – Change Of The Century

Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Directors Guild of America. Scorsese is president of the Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the prevention of the decaying of motion picture film stock.

Scorsese’s body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, and violence. Scorsese is widely considered to be one of the most significant and influential American filmmakers of his era, directing landmark films such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas; all of which he collaborated on with actor Robert De Niro. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed and earned an MFA in film directing from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts.

Trivia:

Listed as one of 50 people barred from entering Tibet. Disney clashed with Chinese officials over the film Kundun (1997), which Scorsese directed. [19 December 1996]

Awarded third annual John Huston Award for Artists Rights by the Artists Rights Foundation. [1995]

Presented with a special tribute at the 1976 Telluride Film Festival. It was presented by Michael Powell. [1976]

He is a longtime friend and was once a housemate of The Band’s Robbie Robertson. He directed The Last Waltz (1978), the documentary of their supposedly last gig which Robertson produced. Robertson later produced the soundtrack for Scorsese’s The Color of Money (1986).

Good friends with editor Thelma Schoonmaker & cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Scorsese introduced Thelma to her husband Michael Powell and he often quotes Powell as an influence.

His name is pronounced “Scor-sez-see”.

He directed Michael Jackson’s Bad (1987) (V) music video. The full length video runs 16 minutes and is in both black & white and color. It is usually shortened down to just the color segment for television.

He appears as attached to his pet white Bichon Frise Zoe as he was to his beloved parents – except Zoe is right beside Marty every day in the office.

Daughter Francesca Scorsese born. [16 November 1999]

John Woo dedicated his action film Dip huet seung hung (1989) (“The Killer”) to Scorsese on a commentary he did for the movie’s DVD.

Daughter Domenica Cameron-Scorsese with Julia Cameron.

Taught both Oliver Stone and Spike Lee at NYU.

Was at one point going to make a movie about the life of comedian Richard Pryor.

He was an altar boy at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was used in his early films I Call First (1967) and Mean Streets (1973). Old St. Patrick’s is also where the baptism scene in The Godfather (1972) took place.

Was at one point slated to direct Clockers (1995), but for reasons that are not entirely clear, handed the directing chores to his onetime NYU student Spike Lee, while staying on as producer. He was also at one point going to direct Little Shop of Horrors (1986) for David Geffen, with Steven Spielberg as the executive producer. He was ultimately uninvolved, but claims that he wanted to shoot the movie in 3-D. It no doubt would have been a loving homage to Roger Corman, for whom he directed Boxcar Bertha (1972).

He took a cameo in his film Taxi Driver (1976) (as a man about to kill his wife) only because the actor who was supposed to play the role was sick on the day the scene was to be shot. Says he is generally uncomfortable in front of the camera.

Has a dog named Silas.

Is the subject of the song “Martin Scorsese” by alternative band King Missile.

Father of actress Cathy Scorsese from his first marriage.

Is of Italian-Sicilian descent.

Has asthma.

Of the three films he’s been trying to make since the mid-1970s, he has done two: The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002). The third film, a biopic of Dean Martin called “Dino”, has been on hiatus at Warner Brothers since the late 1990s. Scorsese has a very specific all A-list cast in mind, probably why it has yet to be produced. He wants Tom Hanks to star as Martin, Jim Carrey to play Jerry Lewis, John Travolta to play Frank Sinatra, Hugh Grant to play Peter Lawford, and Adam Sandler to play Joey Bishop.

Was voted the 4th greatest director of all time by Entertainment Weekly, making him the only living person in the top 5 and the only working film director in the top 10 (Ingmar Bergman being retired as a filmmaker).

Appeared on “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (2000) as a shrill version of himself who comes to regret his decision to cast Larry David as a violent gangster in a movie after David repeatedly ruins the suit he needs to wear as the character.

Several characters in his films refer to the legendary (noir) actor John Garfield, star of the original The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), which is also mentioned.

He was one of three major directors to have been offered the opportunity to direct Schindler’s List (1993) by producer Steven Spielberg, the other two being Roman Polanski and Billy Wilder. Scorsese thought a Jewish filmmaker should direct it; Polanski wasn’t yet ready to deal with the painful subject (having lost his mother in the Holocaust); and Wilder (who was retired and who lost his mother and grandmother in the Holocaust) finally told Spielberg that he should do it himself.

Because so many of his actors win or are nominated for awards, actors are dying to work with him. The film With Friends Like These… (1998) pokes fun at this very real desire.

Both The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Gangs of New York (2002) were personal passions of his that he had wanted to make since the 1970s. When he first starting considering them, Robert De Niro was in his mind to play the lead characters in both (Jesus Christ in “Temptation” and Bill Cutting in “Gangs”). De Niro ultimately turned down the part in “Temptation” and it was decided he was too old to play Cutting by the time that “Gangs” finally went into production.

He has famously collaborated with Robert De Niro in 8 films. Scorsese has said that his creative collaboration with De Niro is very deep and that they can often understand each other without even talking. Their collaboration has had many dry spells (including recently), but Scorsese says he shows almost every script he writes or considers directing to De Niro to see what the actor’s thoughts on them are even when De Niro ultimately has no involvement the film.

Appeared in an “American Express” ad where he goes to pick up photos of his nephew’s birthday party at a drug store, and then proceeds to nervously pick through what’s wrong with each picture while trying to get the clueless photo-lab clerk’s opinion on them. He proceeds to buy more film with an American Express card and calls the people on the pictures saying they need to reshoot. Scorsese says this funny ad is probably the closest he’s come to accurately “playing” himself.

Apart from his legendary work as a filmmaker, he has been a vocal supporter of film preservation for almost three decades. His efforts to create a strong public awareness for the work of film archives include The Film Foundation, a non-profit organisation which he started together with other filmmakers. The Film Foundation regularly partners with the American film archives on the restoration of “lost” or endangered films. With this background he has agreed to serve as Honorary President of the Austrian Film Museum in Vienna.

Personally spurns the notion of the “director’s cut” feeling that once a film has been completed, it should not be further altered in any way.

He lost three best director – and best picture – Oscars to leading-man actors turned directors: Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, and Clint Eastwood (Raging Bull (1980) lost to Redford’s Ordinary People (1980); Goodfellas (1990) to Costner’s Dances with Wolves (1990); The Aviator (2004) to Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004)). On the only two occasions when he was Oscar-nominated as Best Director in years ending in zero, he was beaten by actors making their directorial debuts (Redford and Costner).

In 1975, he accepted the Oscar for “Best Actress in a Leading Role” on behalf of Ellen Burstyn, who wasn’t present at the awards ceremony. She won for her performance in Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)

President of jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1998.

Has mentioned that he thought Robert De Niro’s best performance under his direction was as Rupert Pupkin in The King of Comedy (1982).

Ranked #3 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Greatest directors ever!” [2005]

His favorite films include: Citizen Kane (1941), The Red Shoes (1948) and Il gattopardo (1963) (“The Leopard”).

Was friend, protégé, and employee of actor-director John Cassavetes.

When asked where audiences would find the next Martin Scorsese, he said to look to Wes Anderson, the young director of Rushmore (1998).

Has directed, as of 2008, 6 biopics: Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997) and The Aviator (2004).

He received a Degree ad honorem in “Cinema, TV and Multimedia Production” from the University of Bologna on 26 November 2005.

Served as mentor to Georgia Lee and invited her to apprentice for Gangs of New York (2002) in Europe.

The 1912 American Mutoscope & Biograph Company short The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) heavily influenced Scorsese in the making of his own gangster films Goodfellas (1990), and Gangs of New York (2002). The film was picked by Scorcese for his 2005 tribute at Beaubourg, centre d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou (1977) in Paris, France. Biograph is the oldest movie company in America and in existence today, headed by producer/director Thomas R. Bond II.

Scorsese and Taxi Driver (1976) are, among others, named as inspiration for the Massive Attack debut “Blue Lines”.

He signed a four-year, first-look deal to develop projects with studio executives of Paramount. [November 2006]

The Departed (2006) is the highest-grossing movie of his 40-year career ($132,373,442 (USA)).

The Aviator (2004) was his first movie to gross over $100 million in the U.S.

He has worked with big names of music business: Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, ‘Michael Jackson (I)’ and David Bowie.

Directed 17 different actors in Oscar nominated performances: Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis , Cate Blanchett, Winona Ryder, Ellen Burstyn, Sharon Stone, Diane Ladd,Cathy Moriarty, Juliette Lewis, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Newman, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Alan Alda and Mark Wahlberg. (Burstyn, De Niro, Newman, Pesci and Blanchett won Oscars for their roles in one of Scorsese’s movies).

When he won his Best Director Oscar for The Departed (2006), he received the award from legendary directors, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg. The four were part of the “New Hollywood” movement of the 1970s and combined have 9 Academy Awards and 38 Nominations.

As a teenager in the Bronx, Scorsese frequently rented Michael Powell’s The Tales of Hoffmann (1951) from a store that only had one copy of the reels. When it wasn’t available the owner told him, “that Romero kid has it,” referring to George A. Romero who was also a big fan of the film. Today, both directors cite the film as a major influence.

Says he was happy with the fact that it took so long for him to win Best Director, because if he had won it earlier, it would have affected his directing and films.

Recipient of the 2007 Kennedy Center Honors. Other recipients that year were Leon Fleisher, Steve Martin, Diana Ross, and Brian Wilson.

Says the only thing he regrets in his career is that he was only able to make The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) on a small budget although he imagined it to be a grand version.

Was originally going to direct The Honeymoon Killers (1969), but was replaced after a week of shooting.

Served as a guest critic on “Siskel & Ebert & the Movies” (1986) following the death of ‘Gene Siskel’. The episode was “The Best Films of the 90s” in which Roger Ebert cited Scorsese’s Goodfellas (1990) as one of the best films of the 90s (#3). Scorsese’s full list of his favorite films of the 1990s: 10.) Tie: Malcolm X (1992) and Heat (1995), 9.) Fargo (1996), 8.) Crash (1996), 7.) Bottle Rocket (1994), 6.) Breaking the Waves (1996), 5.) Bad Lieutenant (1992), 4.) Eyes Wide Shut (1999), 3.) Duo sang (1994) (“A Borrowed Life”), 2.) The Thin Red Line (1998), 1.) Dao ma zei (1986) (“Horse Thief”).

He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture.

Resides in New York City. His production offices are located on W. 57th Street in Manhattan.

Attended Cardinal Hayes high school in the Bronx as a young man. Fellow alumni included George Carlin, George Dzundza, Regis Philbin and Jamal Mashburn.

Is a fan of the British Hammer Films series.

A huge fan of Fawlty Towers (1975). He describes the episode “The Germans” as “so tasteless, its hilarious.”.

In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 7 of Scorsese’s films are listed: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Departed (2006).

Haig Manoogian was Scorsese’s mentor at NYU. He eventually produced Scorsese’s first film (I Call First (1967)) and when he died in 1980, Scorsese dedicated Raging Bull (1980) to Manoogian.

Roger Ebert is a great admirer of Scorsese’s work. 14 of Scorsese’s films were given four stars by Ebert (Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), After Hours (1985), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Kundun (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shine a Light (2008)), seven of his films are in Ebert’s Great Movies list (“Mean Streets”, “Taxi Driver”, “Raging Bull”, “After Hours”, “The Last Temptation Of Christ”, “Goodfellas”, and “The Age of Innocence”), and Ebert has written an entire book of his reviews, interviews and essays on Scorsese’s work simply titled “Scorsese By Ebert”.

As of November 10th 2009, five of his films are on the IMDb’s Top 250 Films list: Goodfellas (1990), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Departed (2006), and Casino (1995).

Amazon Specials!

I went back to the 90’s and made up a list of the 30 best movies from 1990-1999. Enjoy. I will not take any shit for placing The Godfather part III so high up on the list. It is an excellent motion picture and it makes me cry every time I see it.

1. Schindler’s List (1993) Director: Steven Spielberg
2. Goodfellas (1990) Director: Martin Scorsese
3. The Godfather part III (1990) Director: Francis Ford Coppola
4. In the Name of the Father (1993) Director: Jim Sheridan
5. Silence of the Lambs (1991) Director: Jonathan Demme
6. JFK (1991) Director: Oliver Stone
7. Casino (1995) Director: Martin Scorsese
8. Pulp Fiction (1994) Director: Quentin Tarantino
9. Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Director: Stanley Kubrick
10. The Big Lebowski (1998) Director: Joel Coen
11. Scent of a Woman (1992) Director: Martin Brest
12. Groundhog Day (1993) Director: Harold Ramis
13. As Good As It Gets (1997) Director: James L. Brooks
14. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) Director: James Cameron
15. Shine (1996) Director: Scott Hicks
16. Shawshank Redemption (1994) Director: Frank Darabont
17. Leaving Las Vegas (1995) Director: Mike Figgis
18. A Few Good Men (1992) Director: Rob Reiner
19. The Remains of the Day (1993) Director: James Ivory
20. Dances with Wolves (1990) Director: Kevin Costner
21. The English Patient (1996) Director: Anthony Minghella
22. Heat (1995) Director: Michael Mann
23. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Director: Henry Selick
24. American Beauty (1999) Director: Sam Mendes
25. The Fugitive (1993) Director: Andrew Davis
26. Magnolia (1999) Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
27. Donnie Brasco (1997) Director: Mike Newell
28. Misery (1990) Director: Rob Reiner
29. Se7en (1995) Director: David Fincher
30. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) Director: Anthony Minghella

THE TRAILERS FOR THE TOP 3 BEST MOVIES OF 1990-1999

New video from Raekwon for Catalina, featuring Lyfe Jennings produced by Dr. Dre off of that Only Built 4 Cuban Linx part 2.Catalina – Raekwon Feat. Lyfe Jennings

Those words, delivered “Goodfellas – Joe Pesci-like” as the body shop owner grasped himself below the belt, had everybody chuckling … pretty funny initially … this guy also does a pretty good Di Nero, but in retrospect, it was quite sad … let me explain.

Now I’m not going to reveal who said it, or even what State the body shop owner is from (It was on the East coast … ). I wouldn’t want to besmirch an entire State by contributing to an old stereotypical stigma that we in collision repair would like to overcome. But the fact is, as funny as the guy was trying to be … he really does think that tweeting, FaceBook, digg and any other social media applications are (in his words …) “a fad”.

It’s a fad alright … like television, cell phones and Al Gore’s invention … the Internet, were fads. Come on people (you know who you are … ) I can’t believe I still have to say this … but those of you out there that either want to wait and see, or don’t trust the technology, or thinks it just something kids do … Guess Again! E-Marketer.com just released a new digital intelligence study showing that more than half of social network users consider shared info when making a purchase decision. More than half! That would be over 150 million people on FaceBook alone! You can see the whole study, if you like looking at that stuff, at http://bit.ly/asI69 but trust me, I just gave you the most important factoid … 50% of social network users consider what others on their networks say before deciding to use … YOU.

And don’t just take my word for it. If like me you are a visual person … go to YouTube and watch this amazing video on where we are today with social media http://bit.ly/24qNSS.

I’ve said it before … we have almost 2,800 twitter followers at Evans Media Group and if I have a great experience at a restaurant (like yesterday at Pei Wei Asian restaurant) we can, and do tell 2,800 people instantly … by the same token when we are poorly serviced or feel taken advantage of, those same 2,800 people will know. Our followers have networks too of course, and word (good or bad), re-tweets (that’s RT’s for those in the know) and FaceBook wall posts spread at the speed of light today. And by the way, the thinking that social media is just for kids is so far off base it’s laughable. The fastest growing segment on FaceBook today is the 55-65 year old female!

My advice to body shops is simple. Get out in front of this thing … to some of you it may seem like herding cats or managing chaos … it’s not. It is the future of advertising, and it should be part of your marketing initiative now. Don’t just trust your social media effort to that guy in your shop who’s always texting his girlfriend either, there is plenty of qualified help out there and it is important enough to do it right!

To my friend on the East Coast who would rather make fun and be dismissive … Martin Scorsese called … he said “TWEET THAT!”

Of course, that’s just my opinion … I could be wrong!

Comments welcome, call if you like 203-512-0250

http://www.evansmediagroup.com

This list is shaped, of course, by my outlook and the conditions and time in which I was born and raised. The following are listed in no particular order:

Rounders

City of God

Casino

Goodfellas

Harlan County, U.S.A.

Bound For Glory

Reds

Fidel: The Untold Story

Scarface

House of Flying Daggers

Shaolin Chastity Kung Fu

Memoirs of a Geisha

Kabei: Our Mother

Blow

The trailers don’t do these films justice. If you haven’t seen them, I recommend doing so.

Priceless…

Come on Cole, tonight is your time to shine.

Thanks to Daily News columnist Dan Gross for pointing this out to us….

Kobe Bryant might be a Mets fan, but the Goodfellas‘ Henry Hill is a Phillies fan.

A rare De Niro Candid

Do you realize how difficult it is to find pictures of Robert De Niro?  Obviously I could find dozens of De Niro as Travis Bickle, or De Niro as Jake La Motta, or De Niro as Jack Byrnes in Meet the Parents. Unlike 95% of stars and famous actors, De Niro not only shelters himself (and his family) from paparazzi attention, but poses for precious few profile photos, period.  Indeed, nearly all of the images readily available were screen caps, publicity stills, or a small handful of un-posed shots from Tribeca and other mandatory public appearances.

An even rarer De Niro Paparazzi Shot

In other words, sticking with our understanding of a star as an actor whose private life has become equally, if not more, important to his/her image as his/her actual film roles, De Niro is no star.  He’s perhaps our greatest living actor, but his private life has always been — and remains — almost wholly unknown.

Of course, his biography can be recited — it’s right here on Wikipedia, filled with details of his childhood, his early theater roles (his first role was as the lion in The Wizard of Oz), his subsequent work with the Actor’s Studio, and the eventual move to film and long-term collaboration with Scorsese.  But apart from the fact of his parents’ occupations and the milieu of his childhood, the available details are all work posturing as intimate knowledge.  We know nothing of De Niro other than the facts of his marriages (he has had two), children (apparently he has fathered four and adopted one, although the details are unclear).  His first wife, Diahnne Abbott, had appeared in Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. He had a son in 1998.  But again, these are facts, not stories.  He owns a large amount of real estate in TriBeCa; he co-owns hot-spot restaurants Nobu and TriBeCa Grill; he started the up-and-coming TriBeCa film festival.  He has directed two films, both to moderate praise  (A Bronx Tale and The Good Shepherd).  He is said to spend a fair amount of time dining in his restaurants and Jay-Z even name drops him in the recent hit “Empire State of Mind.”

De Niro’s image, then, is built on a series of highly iconic roles and business decisions.  He has a distinct “picture personality,” to borrow from Richard DeCordova — as in very early cinema, before the studios realized they could up the demand for their actors by releasing tidbits of their private lives, audiences strung together their conception of De Niro through knowledge of his various roles.  In other words, our knowledge of his supposed ‘personality’ is predicated on his actual ‘pictures.’ You, dear readers, support this very conclusion: when I queried my Facebook and Twitter followers as to their immediate associations with De Niro, the answers either explicitly invoked film roles, (“You Talkin’ to Me?”/The Godfather/shooting Bridget Fonda in Jackie Brown/Ben Stiller rolling off a roof/Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas/A Bronx Tale), his financial moves (Tribeca), and his physical appearance (short guy/’yummy’/DILF/mohawk/Italian).

Interestingly, one reader responded with “smirking.  smarminess.”  I find this particularly fascinating in light of the clip below, which purports to be an outtake from a promo shoot for Tribeca.  (Thanks to Peter Alilunas over at Manvertised for directing me to it.)

As you can see, the persona reproduced here matches well with the ‘new De Niro’ — as if the psychosis and abjection of his early characters (especially in the Scorsese films) had been sublimated into the agitated portrayals of middle-class, middle-age men (in Meet the Parents in particular, but one could also argue for Analyze This and Analyze That as well).

This rare glimpse of the ‘real’ De Niro seems to authenticate the image of him gleaned from his roles — unlike a similar glimpse of the ‘real’ Christian Bale on the set of Terminator (and the alleged ‘abuse’ of his mother/sister) which usurped his image as a class-act/family man/forever-Laurie from Little Women.  The clip is two years old and has been viewed under one million times, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work — it simply means that its existence is no revelation (it confirms, as opposed to compromises, our established understanding.  Scandal — or massive YouTube hits — erupts when what we thought was true turns out to be false.)

Which brings us to the idea of De Niro as caricature.  Several respondees (granted, most of them cinephiles or media aficionados more generally) indicated that De Niro primarily signifies as a parody or caricature of his former self, as he’s poured all his energy and resources into profiting off his mere presence in films co-produced by Tribeca Productions, most notably Hide and Seek, Righteous Kill, and What Just Happened.  Righteous Kill was particularly (un)remarkable, as it paired De Niro with another acting legend of a similar age — Al Pacino — to lackluster effect and dismal reviews (21% on Rotten Tomatoes).  The pairing  could have been explosive (think of their few shared moments together in Heat) but this was the wrong movie, with the wrong script, wrong dialogue, and a premise that depended too heavily on both De Niro and Pacino’s iconic images.

Importantly, these ‘late’ De Niro roles are working with a subdued and defanged version of his early characters.  Think of his role in Goodfellas as Jimmy Conway, when he’s been unnaturally aged — silver haired, reading glasses.  That was 1990, and he was made to look the way he does now in films.  But something violent and precarious undulated beneath Jimmy Conway’s aging exterior: when he attempts to show Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco) a warehouse full of furs, you are terrified of what he might or might not do.

De Niro as an older Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas

I would argue that part of the magic of De Niro’s early performances was rooted in his cult of anti-stardom.  Because we didn’t know anything else about him, he very well could have been as fearsome as the characters he so fully inhabited. Looking at his papers in the Harry Ransom Center here at the University of Texas, I’m struck by a man so devoted to his characters that he would edit an entire version of a script (as he does in the files for Casino) as if Ace Rothstein himself were reading the script and commenting on his own portrayal.  (I’m also interested in the motivation for the donation of his papers to the HRC in the first place — apparently he was inspired by Scorsese’s donation of his personal files to Wesleyan, and he received no payment, unlike, say, Paul Schrader.  He’s even funding a number of research fellowships, and apparently loves the idea of students thinking through his performances.  It’s as if he acknowledges that those roles are out for public consumption, and people can know about his acting and ‘work’ as much as they’d like.  It’s the non-acting side of his life he keeps close.)

In some ways, the mystique of De Niro’s anti-stardom has been evacuated by these late roles.  But then again, what are his choices?  One can only imagine the tremendous toll of thirty years of playing the likes of Travis Bickle, Jake La Motta, and Max Cady (terrifying in Scorsese’s Cape Fear).  While I obviously know nothing of De Niro as a man — other than what I have been able to glean from the very work-centric papers at the HRC — I imagine that these late roles are a mellowing of sorts.  Look, for example, to the trailer for his forthcoming family drama Everybody’s Fine with Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, and Melissa Leo, in which he plays a widower attempting to reconnect with his grown children:

Who’s to say this role is any less method acting than that of, say, Jimmy Doyle in New York, New York?  He may not have learned to play the saxophone for the role, but I oftentimes think we’re too keen to award and overvalue acting that is either bombastic, ugly, manic, or different in some ways.  Playing serial killers, social misfits, and general victims = good, hard acting.  Playing normal guys with subtle problems = not work.  The files on De Niro’s latest films have been slowly trickling into the HRC, and it’ll be fascinating to see how his process manifests differently on Hide and Seek (a horror film with Dakota Fanning), his voice work on Shark Tale, or when he’s behind the camera on The Good Shepherd.

Ultimately, I do agree that De Niro’s ‘picture personality’ has changed.  But he’s supposedly working with Scorsese again, and I look forward to seeing him act off Rockwell and Leo.   I like old, sad men — and what can De Niro do with quiet grief? It could be disappointing, but it could also be beautiful.

I suppose that with so many voices saying he’s washed up, I still find him — and his choices, including his continued anti-stardom — fascinating and compelling.  When and if he comes to the HRC, his aura will overwhelm me, no matter how many Little Fockers he makes.  Some stars stop working altogether and arrest their images, whether by choice (Garbo) or by death (Dean, Monroe).  But even those who do not — who, like Brando, appear in Superman for a ludicrous sum of money and retreat to their South Pacific island — remain powerful in our minds.  De Niro and Brando are very different, especially since Brando’s personal life became such a fundamental part of his star image in later years.  I can’t imagine the same happening in any way for De Niro.  But both men offered performances that remain touchstones of American cinema and dramatically altered our understandings of what masculinity and a masculine body and mind could resemble.  So let De Niro pay for his kids’ college funds and cultivate film and filmmaking in New York.  I’ll be watching Everybody’s Fine with the subconscious fear that he’ll pull a Rupert Pupkin (from The King of Comedy) and kidnap Jerry Lewis and highjack late night television at any moment.  Such is the power of past performance — I’m not thinking of who his kids are, or what jacket he wears when he goes jogging, but of his actual body of work.  And it’s something, especially when we think about the division between ‘actors’ and ’stars,’ and whether it’s possible to maintain that division in an increasingly intolerant market for actual acting and storylines, for us to consider.

]]> http://garyacainphd.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/mob-now-top-u-s-organic-chemist-employer-after-big-pharma-whacks-jobs/ Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:31:27 +0000 garyacainphd http://garyacainphd.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/mob-now-top-u-s-organic-chemist-employer-after-big-pharma-whacks-jobs/

“Crystal meth better than ever,” reports Humor Volcano website

Here’s a condensed version of my article on satire, fake news site Humor Volcano:

No one has been happier watching the recent widespread terminations in the pharmaceutical industry than the Mob. Over the past few years, tens of thousands of highly educated and skilled drug company organic chemists, the ones in the lab who actually make the active drug ingredients, have been coldly and callously dumped in the gutter for any number of dubious reasons. Lacking other legitimate job opportunities, most have now moved underground into Mob-run, clandestine methamphetamine labs. “After a full year unemployed, it was either take a worthless minimum wage job and give my hard-earned lab skills the kiss of death, or come here to Goodfellas Industries. What a total no-brainer,” said ‘Big Bang’ Bob, formerly of Bristol-Myers.

With so many top-notch chemists currently making the nation’s crystal meth supply at GI, the quality and quantity of this wildly popular illicit drug has never been higher. Even the authorities are pleased with these developments. Saint Corleone’s emergency room physician Dr. Timothy Leary told us, “We used to get lotsa ODs and stiffs in here every week ‘cause of the low-grade, really crappy meth people were takin’. Now we don’t get nobodies. Gotta be some awesome sh#t on the streets for that to happen. Thanks, youse Pharma wiseguys, for whackin’ all them chemists. Now they’re makin’ our streets safer, and my job easier. Capiche?”

Al Capone, Goodfellas’ Chief Financial Officer, summed up the current situation. “We don’t know nuthin’, nuthin’, ‘bout why the Big Pharma Boys keep cuttin’ the lab jockeys loose, but we’ll take ‘em all. These chemists are the best thing for us since the Tommy Gun, not that I know anything about that, of course. Our business is growin’ gangbusters. We’re happier than hookers at a TV preachers’ convention.”

Read full Mob Top Chemist Employer article here.

So it’s all about this taper thing.  Lately, I’ve been really achey with my migraines way up….which is frustrating because without alcohol, we (neurologist and I) anticipated them to really take a dip.  Anyway, not much I can do except deal with them.  I started taking Alleve and it’s really made a difference (not for migraines) over the last 5 days.  If my body can remain this “pain free” and the taper has my muscles recovering/preparing me to peak, then I don’t think there is anything that can stop me, except me.  In other words, I will be ready on 11/1 ready to achieve my goal.

So I received this e-mail yesterday.  It’s equivalent to the Golden Ticket in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, except there isn’t any Willie Wonka or chocolate factory, or Oompa Loompa’s…on second thought the e-mail isn’t generated by chance, so it isn’t a lottery or luck thing…so toss out the whole Willie Wonka analogy….and which one was better, the endearing Gene Wilder version or the creepy version with the “hot” Johnny Depp?  JD is in my top 3 list of hottest guys…ya see I’m comfortable, thus recognizing JD as being as hot as Derek Jeter does not make me “this or that.”  But I digress (as usual)…  So here is my coveted letter….Oh and I just gave you 2 of my top 3 hot guys…do you know who the final spot goes to?

Dear Larry,

Congratulations!  You have been accepted into the 2009 ING New York City Marathon Local Competitive Program.  Your registration card will be emailed to you by Friday, October 16, 2009.  You must print out a copy of your registration card and bring it with you to the Expo.  No Blackberry or I Phone versions will be accepted.

Your bib number has been reassigned and should now be between 500-999.  If your bib number is not within this range, please email teammailing@nyrr.org.  You can find your bib number information on your registration card or by logging on to your profile. https://webapps.ingnycmarathon.org/marathonregistration.

Once you pick up your bib at the Expo, you should be all set!

Athletes in the Local Competitive Program will have exclusive access to the Local Competitive staging area located near the runner entrance by the Verrazano Bridge Toll Plaza.  Look for the “Local Competitive” sign attached to the fence near the entrances. CLICK HERE FOR A START MAP.  Runners will be asked to show their bib number before entering this area.

Amenities in this staging area include:

• Toilets
• Bottled Water
• Bagels
• Gatorade
• PowerBars

NOTE: Limited quantities available.  First come, first serve.

The Local Competitive Program is designed to give a preferred starting position to those who meet a time standard based on gender and age.  Your starting position will be at the front of the green start, Wave 1. This start is at 9:40am.

Your UPS Baggage truck will be the very first truck in a long line of UPS trucks. CLICK HERE FOR A START MAP.

Look for the UPS truck that has a green sign .

Keep in mind that your baggage truck is approximately ¼ mile away from the Local Competitive staging area.  Please allow yourself enough time to check your bag and get back to your staging area before your group is moved to the start line.

Timeline:

6:00 am – Baggage Opens

8:30 am – Suggested baggage check

9:05 am – Wave 1 corrals close.  Local Competitive athletes move onto the bridge, ahead of the general green start runners.  If you are not in the Local Competitive staging area at this time, you will not be allowed the preferred starting position.

9:40 am – Wave 1 starts, happy 26.2!!!

Thank you,

NYRR Team Mailing

And that’s the e-mail…so what’s so special about it….well it’s about getting out what you put in.  For months I’ve been putting in all this hard work and running these races which had me up at 4am.  This is what many athletes strive for at NYC…to make the Local Elite/Local Competitive Program.

I will be the first to say, “anyone who trains and completes this race or any race, whether it is 26.2 miles or 3.1 miles (5k), you have earned my respect…not that you need my respect to get though life (it helps), but to undertake any disciplined training and to complete it takes an enormous sacrifice and dedication.  As I’ve said before that’s why there are games like golf and beach volleyball, because that’s all fun and games.

But for me, working to achieve this “LC” start is important!  Not for the bagels.  Not for the Gatorade.  Not for the close proximity to the starting line.  Not even for the PowerBars.  For Larry, it’s all about the bathroom!!  I bet you knew that.  You see while everyone else has to wait in line for the porta-potties…I get treated like Henry Hill when he takes Karen to the Copa for the first time in Goodfellas.  I basically have my own bathroom….ahhhhhh….I remember last year when they were getting ready to trot us out to the starting line for the announcements/fanfare, I could see lines for the “other” bathrooms and yet all I had to do was walk up to what seemed like my own private latrine.  The only thing missing was the Sunday Times being delivered to the door.

You ever noticed how much of what we talk about in life goes back to sex and bodily functions.  This carries across the board, whether it is a serious conversation or pure comedy.  It’s all about “knockin’ boots” and “deuces are wild.”

One of my verrrrry close FB friends asked me why I always talk about my butt.  I mean I recently discussed it and gave you a tour when Dr. Americus Vespucci was setting out to discover things during my colonoscopy.  Here’s the deal, my butt is everything!  If that goes, it’s like Johnny Depp losing his looks.  The world works in mysterious ways…so Johnny has it up top…Well…u get it….

So, I am in the Local Competitive Program and I am gonna be in “heiney heaven” with my own porta potty.  Let me enjoy this small slice of life.

See you on the roads….

http://alphainventions.com/

We all like Cliches. In fact, they’re probably the second best category things come in. They’re safe. They’re familiar. They save us valuable time from having to analyze data and/or make our own inferences (which gives us infinite more time to watch youtube SNL skits satirizing the President’s Nobel Prize win or start a glogster account!). These broad, common themes weave across various demographics and allows us to feel some feigned sense of unity (which, intrinsically, is good, I suppose), while denying the alleged uniqueness with which we’re endowed. Plus, it usually has a sick beat.
It is why we, as a society, love Jay-Z more than Black Thought, Kings of Leon more than Band of Horses, Jessica Biel more than Mila Kunis. Though, with alarming regularity, people will insist they dislike cliches so much, almost, to the point of hate (in essence, its almost cliche to hate cliches).

This brings us to the best category, non-cliches that are cliche. Things that appear to be different than the well-worn adages, but, in actually, fit into a niche of a counter idea. This may seem confusing because it is… An example: Martin Scorsese is a celebrated director who makes, largely, cliche films. They’re startling in-depth and gripping, straight-forward, seen-before characters that occupy a well-covered world. Sam Mendes makes non-cliche cliche films. Unusual circumstances that, while implementing some twists and turns in plot, largely follow a theatrical arc that’s easy to follow and is quite logical and expressed in cliche films, with, perhaps, a wrinkle (i.e.: unfamiliar characters… the ravages of war in a war where there’s no real action in his “Jarhead”). While Radiohead is great, Modest Mouse is better (ironically, Radiohead started out in the latter of this comparison half a decade ago and Modest Mouse is slowly moving to the former). While Common is great, Wale is better. Zooey Deschanel is great, but Ellen Page is better. Dreamworks is great, but Focus Features is better. These “non-cliche cliche” things are usually what “hipsters” and “alternatives” flock to before the masses (and once the masses flock to it turning it from “non-cliche cliche” to just “cliche” they’ll reject it like Mutumbo did weak jump shots in the 90s).

To further muddle things, almost in dichotomy to this second concept of non-cliche cliche is the non-cliche non-cliche. They’re the things that not only don’t fit the typical fare, but are largely unique to anything before and very few things after. It’s what made a poor, wretched fool of Franz Kafka (go ahead and wikipedia him) during his life and a genius after he was dead (True savants will argue that this is the true reward of the artist, but I’d venture that Ol’ Kafka would rather have gotten some while he was still alive). Our modern day “Kafka’s” are, but not limited to: Wes Anderson and Lupe Fiasco. The hardest thing about this group is distinguishing from the innate genius/intelligence and utter garbage.

Oh, and I intentionally didn’t put the accent mark over the word cliché… take that conformity

“If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s a non-conformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of non-conformity”
- Bill Vaughan

Redeemed through the healing power of a balanced relationship, Jerry stares at the empty tomb of his old personality, mourning the death of his old self. He doubles the bedsheets in half, as if to bury the cozy womblike retreat of his bed in a coffin. He has conquered his old life and fulfilled his father’s dream. He then moves to the window, ready to become a member of the outside world.

Jerry stands at the window with his arms raised in a Christlike image, looking out into the world that he is now a part of. He has risen from the darkness of his old personality and conquered the paralysis of unemployment. Removal from the house has made him more able to feel and love.

C’mon!!! Seriously?!?! Does it REALLY have to be this hard to get a job?!?!

There is only so much television one person can watch; there are only so many times the PS2 can be played; there are only so many games of internet spades that can be played before they all get old. What really pisses me off is the “waiting game”
potential employers make you play. You know this game…fill out application–wait. Schedule an interview–wait. Get a second interview–wait. Then WAIT some more. Hey asshole…if you’re gonna tell the public you’re hiring; how about you do us all a favor and hire the first qualified applicant that walks in the door. Cut the shit, and get your job postings out of the public eye. I have bills; and guess what–I LIKE TO EAT!! SORRY…it’s a habit I’ve formed ever since I was violently extracted from my mother, decades ago. Is it too much to ask for (a job)?!?! Because I WANT to work; I WANT to show up. All I’m thinking at the end of the week is that line from “GOODFELLAS”: “Fuck you, pay me!

the past week has been great. days passed smoothly.

met johnson to watch the surrogates on sat. the movie was rather good! good plot, many twists and turns, unexpected outcomes..

after that i went to meet eugene at cityhall when johnson went to watch Stomp at esplanade with his friends. brought eugene to timbre! just had to introduce him to the goodfellas whom i love! my very first favourite local band! ghaz’s voice is so awesome. (: plus i had a belated birthday card to give Ghaz. hahaha.

later on johnson came to join us after  Stomp. =]

i have no idea why eugene doesnt like to smile for photos. see johnson so enthu. x)

guess who i saw at timbre unexpectedly? lol! sc! quite surprised to see him there with his younger bro (and two other les friends whom i do not know).

here’s a close up on Raf the drummer. haha. he rocks! plays the drum so damn well. took a photo with sara wee from 53A. (: sara rocks too! 53A is also a great local band. they’re recording an album now i heard! will definitely buy their album.

went home right after timbre closed. (:

went to church this morning with family. mom’s friends were telling my mom about stuffs i should buy before going over to tasmania. duck feather blankets and birds’ feather coats and all.. they’re supposed to be really good at keeping people warm and comfy. lol. haven’t bought any of those yet. mom told her friend to being me shopping perhaps like two weeks later or something.

feel quite excited thinking about uni life. (: looking forward! highly anticipating. can’t wait. but of course i’ll miss my dear friends and family.

mom’s friend who’s that brilliant investor in stocks gave me and my siblings a surprise today. he specially bought my younger bro, me and my elder sis a bilingual bible each! 30bucks per bible. lol. like whoa, would you spend 90bucks on a friend’s children? hahaa. anyway, here’s why he did it. the three of us like to tag along my mom’s chinese bible study group cuz the main worship hall is too crowded and it’s hard for me and my sis to find seats. my bro’s too lazy to go for his own class. thus we always sit in with mom without bringing any bibles though we have one each. besides, they discuss in chinese and use chinese bibles. lol. so finally mom’s friend bought the 3 of us bibles with both chinese and english translations! hahaha.

had lunch and walked around marina square with family after church. got home around 3.30 in the afternoon and napped till 7pm! hee hee hee. happy. i love sleeping.

oh ya i dreamt that a friend went to put my ugly doll (which lene made for me) in his mouth and ate it! the string attached to my handphone snapped. hahah!  random! i wonder why i dreamt that a friend would eat my ugly doll. doesn’t make any sense. hmm. anyway i was pretty mad that he ate my doll. hahaha. lame.

If the whole job thing doesn’t work out, as well as my Bonnie & Clyde-esque capers, my next career path will probably be to join the mob.  And I’ll tell you why.

Two reasons: Italian food and booze.  As evident in Goodfellas (#94), the two commodities are never scarce when you’re a gangster.  Everyone is well fed and much imbibed with drink.  So what’s not to love?

Well actually… a lot, and Ray Liotta’s character Henry Hill finds out the hard way.  As a child, Henry dreams of becoming a gangster.  So he does what ANY kid from Brooklyn does if he wants to hit the mob fast track: join the corrupt Italian front company across the street.  They’re everywhere, right?

Working for mob boss Paul Cicero, Henry meets all the top Brooklyn gangsters, baddest among those are Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci).  Jimmy is a smooth talking big spender, but plays his cards close to his chest.  Tommy on the other hand has a bit of an anger problem.  If you talk smack on the guy, chances are he’ll kill you.  Or at least stomp on you a few times and stuff you in his trunk.

Life is good for Henry.  He’s settled down with a nice girl, had a few kids, and receives a constant stream of income from his airport heist business.  But that starts to change when Jimmy shoots one too many friends of “the family.”  Oh, and Henry takes on multiple mistresses, which doesn’t make his wife very happy and she threatens to shoot him.  Then there’s the fact that he’s started dealing/taking dope and his friends are getting “whacked” left and right, which leaves Henry always watching his back because he’s a paranoid mess.

Whew.  He might get his meals and drinks for free, but at what a cost.

I’ve wanted to see this movie for a long time.  Martin Scorsese ranks up there as one of my favorite directors.  The fact I hadn’t seen this film until now should really be a crime.  Scorsese paces the narrative so that you can’t seem to pull yourself away.  Match that with visuals that shift with the story and you’ve got yourself a film worthy of a place in the top 100.

The ending of this film was ruined for me.  Not because I have some malicious friend who likes to spoil movies for me.  All thanks to Netflix, the ending was apparent before I even put the disc in the player.  It’s not like the film has a M. Night Shyamalan-esque twist or anything, but you’d like to at least be surprised when you reach the credits.  Netflix on the other hand likes to pass off in its summaries crucial pieces of the resolution as minor plot points.  Here’s the Netflix synopsis of Goodfellas:

Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro chew plenty of scenery, but the focus of this gripping Martin Scorsese opus is real-world mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a gangster who dreamed of making it big but landed in the Witness Protection Program.

This whole Witness Protection Program thing is only introduced in the last five minutes of the film.  Last five minutes.  If you were a writer of descriptions at Netflix, don’t you think it would be a good idea to not give away any information that occurs in these final frames?  Having this information made me ponder all kinds of things as I was watching.  ”When is he going to enter the Witness Protection Program?”  ”I wonder what happens that lands him in the Witness Protection Program.”  ”Two hours have passed.  Why isn’t he in the Witness Protection Program yet?”

So maybe the mob isn’t a very good choice of employment.  But I potentially see a future in writing Netflix summaries.  At least I’d do better than the broad writing them now.

5 out of 5 Brett Heads