1. "The 25 best L.A. films of the last 25 years": So sayeth the staff of the Los Angeles Times. So respondeth Dennis Cozzalio. Anyone else?
["There was passionate debate and not-so-polite outrage ("Do you really believe 'Jackie Brown' is better than 'Pulp Fiction'?" "Look, I'll say this slowly: 'Fletch' is not a good film") and provocative results (the only film here that won the Oscar for best picture is at No. 25). There was also some pain; the beloved "Blade Runner" and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" were released 26 years ago, just missing our cut-off date. After all the politicking, we ended up with a list of crowd-pleasing popcorn fare, art-house standouts, modern farce and flicks with a disturbing amount of gunplay. Welcome to Los Angeles."]
2. "On 58th Street, the Keeper of the Flame": Joe Queenan on Manhattan's Paris Theater, 60 years strong. (Hattip: Jordan Hoffman)
["On Sept. 13, the Paris Theater, on 58th Street just west of Fifth Avenue, will celebrate its 60th anniversary. This is a remarkable accomplishment, as the Paris does not go in much for films in which things get blown up. In a city teeming with faux vieux Irish saloons and restaurants adorned with plaques reading “A tradition since 1988,” the single-screen Paris is the real thing, a bona fide vestige of a storied past."]
3. "Why Me?": Ian Parker profiles Alec Baldwin for The New Yorker.
["Alec Baldwin once wrote a screenplay for a Western, derived from “The Fastest Gun Alive.” He and his three younger brothers—Daniel, Billy, and Stephen, all of whom have had acting careers in film and television—were to portray a family of unnaturally skilled gunfighters. As Billy Baldwin, who appears in “Dirty Sexy Money,” the ABC drama, recently recalled, “Basically, it was: Daniel’s the outlaw; I’m the riverboat gambler who gets all the pussy, the shallow, good-looking sap; Stephen’s the village idiot; and he’s the fucking hero! He’s the one who saves the day at the end; he’s the Clint Eastwood. If you’re looking for how my brother thinks about his brothers, and how he always felt about his brothers, that’s it. That ’s the movie he wanted to make with his brothers.”"]
4. "Greek Acropolis plan draws religious backlash": From CNN.
["Defying police presence and a thunderous downpour, dozens of Greek pagans huddled near the Parthenon in Athens on Sunday, holding a protest prayer for a museum being built at the foot of the sacred site. The ceremony, attended by scores of curious onlookers, was performed amid the ruins of the 2,500-year-old Parthenon. The ancient Greek religion was outlawed by the Roman empire in the fourth century. Dressed in crisp white apparel, the pagans gathered before the east wing of the temple's imposing Corinthian columns and prayed to Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and patron of Athens, asking her to protect the Parthenon from further destruction. "Oh, goddess," roared high priestess Doretta Peppa, her hands extending over an offering of water and olive oil. "We are ready to defend your grounds. "[But] we ask of you to protect this site, this city and its civilization, and to rid it of all evils such as the deconstruction of the Acropolis.""]
5. "It's a Disaster, all right": Joe Leydon has a pissy encounter at a screening of Disaster Movie.
["In the not-so-grand tradition of Date Movie and Meet the Spartans -- we now have Disaster Movie, yet another frantically unfunny free-form farce from the unfortunately prolific writing-directing team of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. You can read my Variety review here. But that's not my last word on the subject. As I have posted elsewhere: This is something you might file under "Stuff I Wouldn’t Dare Make Up." I went to a midnight screening late Thursday/early Friday for Disaster Movie – and I actually was the only person in the theater. At least, that was the case for about 30 or so minutes into the movie. At the 30-minute mark, I noticed a young guy wandering in. (Can’t tell you his age for certain – it was, well, dark.) I thought this was kinda-sorta weird – remember, we’re talking close to 12:40 am at this point – but I figured, what the hell, maybe he just ducked in after seeing another movie in another auditorium of the megaplex. He sat down a few rows ahead of me. But after about five or so minutes, he stood up and… and… well, I am not 100 percent sure about this, but I think he took a leak. Really. Right there in the freakin’ auditorium. On the floor. And then, he left."]
Quote of the Day: Ben Okri
Image of the Day (click to enlarge): Hattip to greg.org for this one... 
Clip of the Day: A cool oldie I've just become aware of: a holographic Nessie in Tokyo Bay, as promotion for The Water Horse.
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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged. Suggestions for links are also welcome. Please send to keithuhlich@gmail.com.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Links for the Day (September 2nd, 2008)
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1 comments:
That Alec Baldwin profile dredges up pretty much any unflattering thing Baldwin has ever said, done or thought, yet somehow it makes me love the guy. Maybe it's because a surprising percentage of the stuff that pops out of his mouth is either honest, funny or both.
That day at Silvercup Studios, the cast and crew ate tacos at long communal tables. Baldwin, sitting next to [his coproducer], said, “I still want to do the episode of ‘30 Rock’ where we make fun of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’—where everyone on our show talks about something important for thirty seconds and then goes in a room and fucks each other.”
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