BLOCKHEADToday's NYTimes Best 1176 Films was Disney'sPInocchio (1940)This movie scared the shit out of me when I was a little kid.I was only four.It includes getting abducted, slave labor, enclosure in a small cell, child molestation, exposure to bad companions, bestiality (well, growing animal part...

HALF A LOAFIf you read the tea leaves:California Court Weighing Gay Marriage Banit is hard to escape the conclusion that the court will uphold Prop 8 and also uphold the marriages that have already taken place.The State did a lousy job with the idea of referendums changing rights. They didn't defend...

CZECH IT OUTToday's film was Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále / I Served the King of England (2006)As I watched this wonderfully rueful dark comedy I thought about other Eastern European films like Loves of a Blonde and Fireman's Ball and especially Closely Watched Trains and damn, if this isn't b...

GREEN STIMULUSIt has started already:Wind-power industry seeks trained workforceI know a couple of young men who have done this locally. It is hard work but very good compensation and the beginning of a whole new field....

GREAT PHOTOWhile I was looking for Obama basketball photos, I found this wonderful shot of him taking a shot!Obama Plays Basketball At The Interior Department SaturdayI'm glad that he is doing this. I was afraid he would have to give up the basketball. But Interior is close and so he won't have to p...

SECOND ACT CRISESI watched the 3d and 4th chapters of Traffik (1989)today and it is quite a ride. All hell break loose today.While the Soderberg film, made from this series, was pretty good it had none of the gut-punch excitement or emotional depth of this original work.Of course they cut it in half...

OHHHH NOOOOOThey are going to fuck up one of my favorite musicals and probably the only musical movie that really made the transition well. It is a NYTimes Best 1176 Film.Carrey And Gyllenhaal Tapped For Damn Yankees MovieThe film used most of the original cast and only Tab Hunter was thrown in for ...

TRAIN WRECKI just watched Bobby Jindal do the oppo speech.He starts off while he is being introduced and it goes downhill from there. We had talked about how hard this is. And how foolish to put yourself in this position if you have any plans for higher office.I couldn't watch after a while.I think ...

WAY OF LIFEI watched the first half of the NYTimes Best 1176 FilmL' Albero degli zoccoli / The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1974)This is a pastoral symphony of sights and sounds from a 19th Century Italian peasant village.There is a plot that meanders through the film but, for the most part, we see the dai...

GOLD DUSTToday's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was John Huston'sTreasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)with Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston and Tim Holt.Bogart is a villain here. You can find the seeds of Captain Queeg in this role. Bogart could play the range from romantic leads to total crazy shits and still ...