Month: September 2007

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Save the Books!

Yesterday was my favorite quarterly event: the Book Sale at my local public library. I adore this sale! And as usual, my haul amounted to under ten bucks. Here is just the stuff I got for myself:

I’m not sure how much, if anything, of today’s haul represents a find that I can hawk on eBay. I was able to sell two of the volumes I picked up at the last book sale for more than twice what I paid for that entire haul, which was nice. We’ll see. Those O. Henry collections may go nicely, as may that TPB edition of Antartica (which turns out to be a British printing). I don’t know if I’ll sell that Tolkien volume; I already have both of those tales in another volume, but that paperback is in outstanding condition, save for the original owner’s signature inside the front cover. We’ll see.

What’s always kind of bittersweet at these kinds of sales is reading the cover copy on the books themselves, with blurbs along the lines of “Another breathtaking classic from one of our very finest authors!” or “Certain to be read for many years to come!” These kinds of notices adorn books that no one much remembers at all today. How many stories have come and gone, almost completely vanishing, their only hopes at revival being on the shelves of a library sale where the paperbacks go at the rate of five for a buck? When I see so many volumes whose contents will almost certainly be gone forever in just a few more decades, I wonder how true it is that the cream rises to the top. Far more likely, it seems to me, that authors who rival the finest still read — the Jane Austens, the Henry Jameses, the Eudora Weltys — have come and gone without ever being realized. No, the cream doesn’t always rise to the top. Sometimes it just gets washed away, right down the sluice drain.

OK, that got a little depressing, didn’t it? Anyway, if you like to read, there’s really no reason to not frequent your local library’s book sale. They need the money, and the books need to be read.

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Unidentified Earth (unnumbered edition)

I know that the newest installment of Unidentified Earth was supposed to run this past Thursday, but some logistical stuff prevented me from having the post ready. What logistical stuff, you say? Er…I forgot to do it. Sorry, folks.

So, Unidentified Earth will indeed return to its normal schedule this coming Thursday. For now, though, here are a couple of freebies that should be very easy:

And:

Where are we?

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Christmas in Blogistan? (part troix)

Threads here or here, for residents of the Buffalo Prefecture or anyone from other Prefectures of Blogistan who may wish to travel to Buffalo for a hootenanny on Saturday, December 8. And if anyone has a suggestion for a venue, that would be helpful too — maybe Duff’s in Orchard Park? Someplace in Cheektowaga? Pearl Street? And would a Secret Santa-style gift exchange be fun, or really lame? What say you, folks?

(I’m closing comments for this post because I’d like to keep only two comments threads open on this subject for now. But feel free to comment in either of the two posts linked above.)

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Luciano

Alex Ross today:

The finest singers not only hit the notes but erase the difference between notes and words. Singing is most thrilling when it becomes a kind of heightened talking. That’s what happens in Pavarotti’s “Che gelida manina” or “E lucevan le stelle” or “Una furtiva lagrima”: the beauty of the sound envelops you, but you’re not conscious of the artifice of art. It’s as if someone were making conversation in a dialect of dreams.

Bravo, Luciano.

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Are You Ready!

We’re coming up on the start of the NFL season, folks, so here we go: it’s Prediction Time here at Byzantium’s Shores. Or, in other words, “Let’s all watch as our Humble Narrator goes on record to demonstrate how little he knows about football.” First of all, the usual warning to people who might be newly encountering my football-related drivel: don’t take all this too seriously. I don’t write about football with the intent of seeming like this guy:

but rather like this guy:

OK? Then let’s have at it, in our usual Q&A format!

The Buffalo Bills lost just about every talented player they had in the offseason, and replaced them with nobodies, nothings, has-beens, not-yets, never-wills, and never-wases. Just how bad will they be?

Next question.

OK. How bad will the Bills be?

They’ll be bad. They may avoid the cellar in the AFC East, by mere virtue of the Dolphins being in possibly worse shape as a franchise, but there’s no way they’re better than the Jets, and I’m sure they’ll have their usual result against the Stupid Patriots (hang with them one game until they blow it late with stupid mistakes, and get blown out in the other).

The Bills are young again. They’re new. The roster has lots of holes that are hoping to be filled with guys with three years or less of playing experience. The Bills do have some promising talent on the roster, and if this draft proves to have been roughly about as good as last year’s was, then maybe next year they’ll be in position to start plugging in guys from free agency and start to sniff around the playoff hunt.

Next year.

Yes, I said it — I’m looking to next year already.

I think JP Losman will continue to improve. (Can we stop now with the comparisons of Losman to Rob Johnson? Losman’s already demonstrated ten times the heart, drive, and toughness that Johnson ever did. So they’re both scruffy-looking quarterbacks from Southern California. That’s where the comparison ends. Johnson never gave any kind of impression other than that the only reason he was in the NFL was because, well, that’s what you do after you have a good college career, he never liked Buffalo, and he got hurt so much that it was like he was made of glass. Not like Losman at all.) Maybe the offensive line, with three new guys on board, will settle in and be better than it’s been in years. Maybe Peerless Price finds his form, and maybe the Bills find a tight end who can catch reliably well. It’s on defense that they’re going to have big problems. They will probably be very soft at the line of scrimmage, as they have been ever since Pat Williams left. Their corners are young and mostly untested. So are their linebackers. This defense is a possible disaster-in-waiting.

And yet, I’m not bothered by the departures of London Fletcher, Takeo Spikes, or Nate Clements. All of those guys are getting older, and the fact is that with the problems this team has in terms of talent on the roster, by the time they got good at the other areas, those players would have been beyond the age of use anyway. Spikes is the one that hurts, in my mind: he was a stunning talent and a thrill to watch, but then he suffered an injury from which players do return, but almost never to the level of play that they’d exhibited before. Clements had a good year last year, but I’ve watched him his whole career and he often seems to have motivation issues and makes dumb mistakes of selfish nature. I don’t think he’ll tank in San Francisco, but I don’t think he’s going to be the savior out there, either. And Fletcher? A tackling machine, sure, but he too is getting older. So basically, whether these guys were here this year or not makes no big difference, since they wouldn’t be around when the Bills finally get good again. That being the case, I think it’s best to go with youth.

I know that a lot of Bills fans are impatient to make the playoffs again; I know I sure am. Seven years going on eight as one of the eighteen “also-rans” in the NFL is getting a bit old, but I think a lot of Bills fans never actually realized just how fundamentally poor the roster was in the wake of the Tom Donahoe years as GM: this shows as we see just how few of his chosen players are still around (Losman, Lee Evans, Terrence McGee, and a few others). Once the nucleus is in place, then we’ll see the kind of thing where the Bills can do the plug-in-guys-via-free-agency thing like all the really good teams do. But Marv Levy is still building his nucleus. I like what I’ve seen of this so far (with a few oddball exceptions, like throwing money at Peerless Price).

[I don’t mean to totally rag on Donahoe, who I think genuinely tried to make good football decisions, aside from his bizarre refusal to address the line of scrimmage as opposed to making big deals to land what he thought were star players like Drew Bledsoe and Willis McGahee. It’s just that few of his decisions panned out in terms of good, long-term guys on the roster; several were outright disasters (Williams); and it shouldn’t be forgotten that Donahoe himself inherited a team whose roster was bleeding talent, fast. (Read up sometime on the Bills’ 2000 draft, if you don’t believe me. Not one of the players picked in that draft ever amounted to a thing, and as Gregg Easterbrook once wrote, you can’t whiff an entire draft without entering a period of sustained decline as a franchise.)]

So…how will the Bills do? I personally will be elated if they go 7-9. That would equal last year’s record, but with a much younger roster. If they pulled off 7-9, I’d be fairly optimistic about their future as a team. However, 7-9 is probably the outlier of possible realistic goals for this team, this year. I think 5-11 is more likely.

You know, you’re awfully sanguine about the Bills being in an apparently-unending rebuilding process, in this NFL era when teams can go 3-13 one year and make the conference championship game the next. Doesn’t it annoy you that they’re one of three teams to not make the playoffs in this century?

Sure, that’s irritating, but it doesn’t do any good to get mad at the situation as it exists, right? The way I see it, Marv Levy is now doing what Tom Donahoe should have been doing when he got here. Except for Donahoe’s first year here (2001, when the Bills were coming off their worst draft in franchise history and were in serious salary cap trouble), he managed each offseason as though the team were just a player or two away from being a contender. We now know that wasn’t the case, but that’s how Donahoe managed things, for good or ill. By the time his tenure ended, the team’s talent stock was terribly depleted. No matter who took over, it was going to mean several seasons of rebuilding.

So how much more rebuilding are you willing to put up with, anyway?

Well, I think that this year needs to be the last of the rebuilding years. Going into the 2008 season, Levy will have had three drafts and three free agent signing periods with which to put together a decent team. I think he’s on his way, but if 2008 comes and goes without a playoff berth (or at least a winning record with a serious push for a playoff berth, since it’s always possible in the AFC these days to go 10-6 and still miss the postseason), I’ll start grumbling.

Should Ralph Wilson sell the team?

Of course. Next question.

OK, the Bills are going to stink then. Bummer, dude! So will the Colts repeat?

They could, and I certainly think they’ll be right there, in the mix. I’m not picking them to repeat, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.

Will you vomit all over your keyboard if the team from New England wins it all?

Yes. As my long-time readers know, I can’t stand the smugness of Tom Brady’s default facial expressions, Bill Belichick makes me want to throw up, and I detested the way both of those guys acted when they lost last year’s AFC Championship Game. (Belichick was rude and dismissive, while Brady apparently didn’t even bother to shake the hand of the guy who’d beaten him, Payton Manning. Chalking it up to their shock of actually having lost doesn’t wash; when you’re a pro at that level and you’ve been around as long as those guys have, it should be muscle memory that you shake the hand of the guy who beat you.) Watching those guys lose makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. It makes me feel like a little kitten. Conversely, when those guys win, I think God kills a puppy.

So…will the team from New England win it all?

Probably. I shall now gnash my teeth into oblivion.

They’re a well-managed franchise. They’re loaded with draft picks for next year. They beefed up their receiving corps. Sure, stuff could happen: Randy Moss isn’t a given to do much of anything, their linebackers are old, and Smuggy McBrady (I’ve just now decided that’s what I’m calling him this year) is probably due for a bite from the Injury Gods. Their defense could falter. Lots of things could happen that could keep them from Their Holy Anointed Goal of winning Super Bowl XLII. But if none of those things do happen, then I think they’re favorites to take it all.

Which means that I’ll be buying a new keyboard the morning after the Super Bowl.

Can’t someone else beat them? Won’t someone stand up to the Stupid Patriots? PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Well, sure! San Diego’s got an absolutely loaded roster, and Philip Rivers is a year older. And if their new head coach was someone other than Norv Turner — talk about recycling a lackluster coach, that’s like if Q from the James Bond movies gave the keys to the Aston Martin not to 007 but to the rookie spy Agent Fred — I might even pick them. And New Orleans is also a complete team that could end the NFC’s losing streak in Super Bowls (currently four games, and 2-8 overall since Denver finally reversed the AFC’s awful Super Bowl trend after the 1997 season). Indianapolis isn’t going to fade, and Baltimore should be there as well.

So who are you officially picking to win it all, then?

Well, let’s pick the division winners first, I suppose:

AFC East: New York Jets
AFC North: Baltimore
AFC South: Indianapolis
AFC West: San Diego
AFC Wildcards: New England, Cincinnati

NFC East: Dallas
NFC North: Chicago
NFC South: New Orleans
NFC West: Seattle
NFC Wildcards: St. Louis, Philadelphia

AFC Champion: Baltimore
NFC Champion: New Orleans

Super Bowl Champion: New Orleans.

That’s who I’m picking, folks. Lock it in now, and tune in each week to see how wrong I am! (In the time I’ve been doing this, I’ve picked one Super Bowl exactly right before the season, when I chose the StuPats to defeat the Eagles three years ago. Last year, I was staggeringly wrong, as neither of the teams I picked to go to the Super Bowl even made the playoffs.)

Wait a minute! You said up there that the StuPats would “probably” win it all, and then you don’t even pick them to win their divisiion? What’s up with that?

Well, I picked that way for several reasons. First, the best way to guarantee that your picks will be at least partially wrong is to pick every defending division champion to repeat. Somebody always falters. Second, in the AFC, it doesn’t really matter, does it? The last two AFC Champions have been third and sixth seeds respectively (and both then went on to trounce the NFC top seed in the Super Bowl), and over the last thirteen seasons, AFC top seeds are 3-10 in converting a top seed status into a Super Bowl appearance anyway. And finally, I’ve been picking the Jerks from New England first every year, and I’m sick of it, because I hate them. So there. It’s a totally emotional pick, but then, this is a totally emotional blog, right?

So there you are. Write it down: Saints win it all. In February, when somebody else is holding up the Vince Lombardi Trophy, you’ll all be able to laugh at me in my egg-faced state!

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Useless Factoidia

A bunch o’ stuff!

:: Several people have indicated that they were highly amused by the bunny with the pancake on its head. That’s great! But there turns out to be a backstory here: the bunny (now sadly deceased) was named Oolong, and had the ability to balance stuff on its head, an ability which was “exploited” by Oolong’s owner for Internet photos. The stuff you learn!

:: Reader Charlie (who hails from Iowa City!) directs my attention to this set of 2007 NFL predictions, which equates each team with a Star Wars character. This is pretty funny stuff…although Norwood’s miss was almost 17 years ago! Can’t we move past that as the defining moment for this franchise?

:: I don’t know about this possible approach to Star Trek that may be in the offing in the movie JJ Abrams is making. Basically the idea is that old Trek standby, the “bad guys go back in time to alter history so our heroes never existed” plot or something like that — but the plot succeeds in some fashion, meaning that instead of telling a story set within established Trek canon but in the days of James T. Kirk’s years at Starfleet Academy, Abrams is literally re-setting the timeline to zero. It’s an interesting approach, but I like established Trek canon, and I’ve never much enjoyed JJ Abrams’s work, so we’ll see.

:: I’ve had some search hits the last day or two for JP Losman on the Jim Rome Show; I assume they’re looking for this interview Rome did. We’ll see how he does on the field, but as far as talking to media goes, Losman’s come a long way. I really hope he succeeds as the quarterback here, because Losman’s just one of the most likable guys to come to Buffalo in a long time. He just seems like a good guy, and I hope his career reflects that.

:: For some reason I’m also getting lots of search engine hits for “What was the Millennium Falcon in when it lost its topside radar dish”, or some variant wording thereof. The answer is, of course, the superstructure of the Death Star II.

:: I sympathize with a guy who got sick, certainly, but I’m flummoxed as to how anyone could consume multiple bags of microwave popcorn on a daily basis for over a decade. I adore popcorn, and I don’t even eat it every week, much less every day. Wow.

:: Matthew Yglesias has a good, and brief, post about Sen. Larry Craig. I agree with pretty much every word.

:: A couple of weeks ago, Jayme e-mailed me about For Better or For Worse, when the strip was in the middle of a week-long thing where all that happened was Liz going on in very long-winded fashion to her friend Candice about how Anthony’s life has been a disaster and how he ended up in a terribly unhappy marriage and how now he’s free and he’s the love of her life and all that jazz. As Jayme wrote:

Seems to me that Lynn Johnson is going out of her way to justify the storyline’s direction, and writing almost a point-by-point rebuttal of bloggers’ gripes in the process.

Well, Comics Curmudgeon is on the case, finding an interesting parallel between recent “present day” events in FOOB and the past events that the strip is now depicting in some kind of weird flashback mode.

Personally, I find that reading Michael’s narration makes me hear the voice of Bob Saget in my head, and that’s never a good thing.

:: Here’s a fine essay on how we’ve lost “silence”:

Just give me five minutes without it; that’s all I ask, perhaps all I’ll need to bring it back into being for myself. Imprisoned by it as I am now, assaulted in every store, elevator, voice-mail system, passing car, neighbor’s home, by it and its consequent immolation in the noise of the quotidian, it is lost to me as anything other than a kind of psychic rape, a forced intimacy with sonic partners not of my choosing. When music is everywhere, it is nowhere; when everything is music, nothing is. Silence is as crucial to the musical experience as any of its sounding parameters, and not merely as a kind of acoustical “negative space.” Silence births, nurtures, and eventually takes back the musical utterance; it shapes both the formation of its textures and the arc of its progress through time.

(via)

:: I think that now I know where Linus will be hanging out this Halloween. He’s looking, after all, for the most sincere of all pumpkin patches!

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My kingdom for a quiz

Yup, what would a return to blogging be without a quiz. I grabbed this one from Steph Waller after I saw it on her MySpace page (although she did it as a bulletin, so I’m not sure how to link her answers). Anyway:

1. You have $5 and need to buy snacks at a gas station. What do you buy?

Hmmmm. A Big-Gulp drink (probably Pepsi or Diet Pepsi, although once or twice a year I get a hankering for Mt. Dew or Dr. Pepper), and then maybe a Slim Jim and a bag of Combos (the pepperoni pizza flavor). Combos are, to me, like crack. Many snacks are like crack, actually.

2. If you were reincarnated as a sea creature, what would you want to be?

I’m stealing Steph’s answer here: one of the creatures from The Abyss.

3. Who’s your favorite redhead?

When she colors her hair, The Wife! (When not, Leah Thompson.)

4. What do you order when you’re at IHOP?

I haven’t been to an IHOP since I was seven or eight years old. But they are building one quite near Casa Jaquandor (it used to be a bar/restaurant called Kelsey’s), so I’ll be able to answer this sometime soon.

5. Last book you read?

I’ll abstain from this one, in favor of a longer post on recent reading for a later time.

6. Describe your favorite pair of underwear.

I don’t have favorite underwear. I’m a guy. Underwear is purely utilitarian in nature, and I give it no thought whatsoever except for when I suddenly realize that it’s time to buy some more.

7. Describe the last time you were injured.

Physically? I cut myself at work a lot. I’ve never yet knicked myself on a power saw or shot my own fingers through with the nail gun, luckily.

8. ????? No question????

Huh? OK, folks, use comments to suggest a Question Number Eight.

9. Rock concert or symphony?

I suppose it would depend…but in truth, I have never been to a rock concert before. Not one. I’m not sure how this has come to pass, but there it is.

10. What is the wallpaper of your mobile phone?

I don’t have a mobile yet. Or a cell.

11. Favorite drink?

Spiced rum and cola. Or seven-and-seven. Or Southern Comfort in cola. Or vanilla rum and root beer. Spiced rum also blends very nicely with Vernor’s Ginger Ale. And, if you can get the mix exactly right, a blend of peppermint schnapps and root beer will taste just like birch beer. (Get the mix wrong, however, and the result is not unlike some of the nastier brands of mouthwash.)

12. What type of top/teeshirt are you wearing?

As of this writing, a light shade of green.

13. If you could only use one form of transportation for the rest of your life what would it be?

I can’t decide between a Danube-class starship, a YT-1300 light freighter, or an Aston-Martin DB5 with all the optional extras installed.

14. Most recent movie you’ve watched at the movies?

The Simpsons Movie.

16. What’s your favorite kind of cake?

Carrot cake, with enough frosting to stop a clock. (A cake’s primary function is as a frosting-delivery device.)

17. What did you have for dinner last night?

As of this writing: A pulled-pork sandwich, fries, and an appetizer platter from Zebb’s. As you’re reading this: who knows?

18. Look to your right what do you see?

A floor fan, my CD collection, the teevee, and The Daughter.

19. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?

For laced shoes, yes.

20. Favorite toy as a child?

Hmmmm. Not sure, really. I had lots of toys, and the various obsessions thereof came and went.

21. Do you buy your own food?

How else would I eat?

22. Do you think people talk about you behind your back?

Of course they do. Everybody talks about everybody, and really, except for cases of nasty rumor-mongering, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

23. When’s the last time you had a sour gummy worm?

Never. I don’t like “gummies” all that much, no matter what critter they’re shaped as.

24. What’s your favorite fruit?

Blueberries, strawberries, white peaches. And apples — we’re heading into prime apple-eating season. I love eating an apple on a crisp fall morning!

25. Do you have a picture of yourself doing a cartwheel?

Absolutely not! Do I look that acrobatic in nature?

26. Have you ever eaten snow?

Sure. I find that November snow is the best for pure eating, but January snow is the best for use in omelettes.

27. What color are your bedsheets?

Right now, a lavender-type color.

28. What’s your mom’s favorite flower?

Hmmmm. I haven’t the faintest idea, really. We had peonies and rhododendrons in the yard, and when she was a gardener she’d plant a lot of marigolds, but I’m told that was more an anti-rabbit thing than a fondness for marigolds (apparently rabbits don’t like the scent of marigolds or something like that, so if you surround your veggies with them, the bunnies won’t eat them, or so goes the theory). She has live plants in her home, but a lot of them are potted evergreens.

29. Do you listen to classical music?

Of course! (And for people who are afraid of classical music or think it’s “too hard”, come on! It’s just music. You listen to it just like any other music.)

30. Do you have a “wacky noodle”?

On the advice of counsel, I’m not only not answering this, but I’m not even going to look up what “wacky noodle” means.

31. Do you watch Spongebob?

Not often, because we don’t have cable, but I find that show fairly amusing when I do. It’s pretty zany, which appeals to me.

32. Last food you ate?

A couple of cookies with my morning coffee. (As I’m writing this. When you’re reading this, I may have just had lunch!)

33. Do people consider you intelligent?

I hope so! But then, I can also be a complete clod.

35. Is your away message on?

Not at present. I only IM on AOL, and I’m not signed on right now. (I used to use Microsoft’s IM program, but I haven’t in a long time. I should also look into Google’s version.)

36. Have you ever tried gluing your fingers together?

Why would anyone do this?!

37. What curse word do you use the most?

I get a lot of mileage out of “shit”, I’m sorry to say. And thanks to Gordon Ramsay, I now find myself muttering to myself, “Oh, f*** me senseless!” when I encounter random daily dumbness. I do swear too much.

38. What time is your alarm clock set for?

Too frakkin’ early, that’s what time! On normal work days I get up at 6:00 am. Sometimes I’ll get up earlier if there’s a special job to do for which I need to be at The Store early (particular maintenance jobs that have to get done before the respective departments open up, for instance). I’ve also sporadically risen that early so I could get in my daily walk. I’ve actually come to really like the way the world feels at 5:00 in the morning; I just hate that one has to get up at 5:00 in the morning to see that world.

42. What CD is currently in your CD player?

Nothing for now; I’m pretty religious about removing CDs from the player when not in use. Earlier, however, I was listening to a CD of Kullervo by Sibelius (London SO, Sir Colin Davis conducting). I know terribly little about Sibelius; the only work of his with which I’m more than passingly familiar is his Violin Concerto.

43. What movie do you know every line to?

Star Wars Episode ___: _________.

44. What is your favorite salad dressing?

I don’t have a favorite, really; I rotate through a bunch of ’em. When I’m at a restaurant I tend to get ranch a lot, which is really kind of boring, when you get down to it. I love poppyseed dressing, so maybe today I’ll get a bottle of it. I don’t eat enough salad. I love salad — but only if the greens are dark and leafy: romaine, arugula, baby spinach, all those. I detest iceberg lettuce. Iceberg lettuce is the only food on the planet that is more useless than the plain ricecake.

45. Would you ever date someone covered in tattoos?

If The Wife wants to get tattoos, sure. Otherwise, no, because The Wife would kick my ass.

46. Do you sleep in the same bed with your pets?

Yes. And the one that usually sleeps with us snores and takes up a mammoth amount of space.

47. Do you enjoy giving hugs?

Yes.

48. What part of your name do people mis-pronounce?

There’s a very common way people pronounce my last name which according to my relatives is wrong, but I never correct people anymore. It just doesn’t seem useful to do so.

50. If you were to become famous, would you drop your last name?

Yes, and I’d take the new last name “Arbuckle”. Why? Why not?

OK, that’s it. I’m not tagging anyone, so grab and go if you like.

UPDATE: Huh. On further reflection, it seems that a bunch of questions are missing from this quiz: Numbers 8, 15, 34, 39, 40, 41, and 49 are all MIA! So, readers, go ahead and fill in the blanks with those questions, if you please!

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One Hundred Movies!!!

Tosy and Cosh did this a while back (most recently here, so he has three posts still to go in his series), and ever one to follow the lemmings off the cliff*, I figure I’ll do it as well. This series of posts will enumerate one hundred movies that I really really really like a whole whole lot, in no real order at first (although as this series grinds on toward my personal Top Ten, I’ll start thinking more about rank), plus a signature moment, line, or bit of dialogue from each that stands out in my head.

So anyhow, without further ado, here are numbers 100 through 91 on my list of Movies You’d Better Love Or You’re A Giant Pinhead:

100. A Room with a View

It’s been years since I watched this, but it always stands out strong in my memory. It was actually recommended to me during the summer of 1987, when I was attending a music camp; this hippie-type guy (I wasn’t a hippie-type myself at the time, just a misfit dork) was talking about movies, and he described A Room with a View as “a movie that made him want to fall in love”. Even then I was a Romantic-in-waiting (remember, even then I’d discovered my deep affinity with Hector Berlioz), so I rented this as soon as I got back from the camp. And yes, it made me want to fall in love. Did I? Eventually.

Signature line: “He’s sounding the eternal yes.” It’s such a weird line — never once have I understood even a little just what the heck the “eternal yes” may be — but Denholm Elliot says this like it’s the most natural thing in the world. I love it when a movie can say something like this and not have me think, “What?!”

99. When Harry Met Sally…

There’s just something so right about this movie’s belief in friendship as a precursor to love. There’s also something so right about this movie’s belief in two completely neurotic people, who are neurotic in completely different ways, being so perfect for one another. I can’t think of a single mis-step this movie takes, really. (And it could have — if you get the DVD, check out the deleted scenes, at least a couple of which are awful.)

Signature line: “You made a woman meow?” For some reason, I actually find that line (by Bruno Kirby) funnier than Estelle Reiner’s famous punchline for the orgasm-in-the-deli scene.

98. The Guns of Navarone

Another terrific movie I haven’t seen in far too long. I rented it in high school, the first time I saw it, mainly out of curiosity. I’d heard of this WWII action movie, but I knew nothing at all about it. I sat down to watch it and was hooked in the first ten minutes. I loved how it took its time with its story, introducing its characters and letting their various personalities interact and clash, all the while honing in on their ultimate mission. It’s just a classy, classy film of the type you don’t much see anymore.

Signature sequence: I can’t remember any specific dialogue from the movie, but the entire last half hour of the movie is riveting.

97. The Love Bug

Cheesy Disney goodness! Many a fine afternoon as a kid was spent seeing the live-action Disney flicks of the late 60s or early 70s (when they were re-released or showed up on teevee, mostly). There’s just something nifty about this tale of the sentient VW Beetle that always makes me smile. If there’s a more pathetic scene in movie history than Herbie’s attempt at suicide by jumping off a bridge, I haven’t seen it!

Signature line: “Think about what you’re saying,” the Buddy Hackett character says to Dean Jones the first time Jones is directly addressing Herbie as if he’s alive.

96. The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers

Every fantasy or adventure movie with a comedic touch to it nowadays is always said to be channeling the spirit of The Princess Bride, but really, The Princess Bride looks back to these two movies (shot as one, which is why I count them together). Just grand, great fun.

Signature moment: When D’Artagnan leaps out the window of the upper-floor room to chase after the man who’d previously assaulted him…only to land on the repair scaffolding directly outside said window.

95. The Sound of Music

So, so cheesy…and how I love it so! From that first opening sweep over the Alps, finally settling in on that one hilltop meadow where Julie Andrews regales us with the film’s title number (before the opening credits even roll). About the only thing I don’t like about the film is Liesl’s singing voice — and Captain Von Trapp’s attempt to appeal to Rolf’s better nature always rings false when I watch it, seeing as how the only times they interact before that, the Captain doesn’t seem to give two shits about Rolf. But I digress….

Signature exchange: “It’s so easy to like Maria…except for when it’s difficult!”

94. Mary Poppins

I really think that two things keep this movie from being considered one of the great musicals of all time: the Disney logo, which pretty much automatically files it under the “Family/Children’s Movie” label for all time, and Dick Van Dyke. I’ve never been a big fan of Van Dyke’s (although later on in this list there will be a movie of his that I really do like him in), and his Cockney antics here get a bit distracting at various points in the proceedings. But other than that, the movie’s loaded with terrific numbers, and the fantasy content is just superb with the fully-realized worlds within London existing, unsuspected, just a short distance from the childrens’ bedrooms.

Signature sequence: Any time Julie Andrews opens her mouth.

93. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

And here’s the movie where I actually like Dick Van Dyke. This movie’s overlong, with an introduction that goes on for something like an hour, but once the car shows up, it gets a lot more fun, even if it is basically a tale being told by Van Dyke as opposed to actually happening. The film is beautiful to behold, and frankly, I could look at Sally Ann Howes as Truly Scrumptious (Ian Fleming and his suggestive names for female characters, yeesh….) all day long!

Signature sequence: The unveiling of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

92. Whale Rider

I can barely describe this movie. I found its tale of a young Maori girl’s attempt to overcome the rigid traditions of her people captivating and magical.

Signature moment: I don’t want to describe it…but if you watch the movie, you’ll know it when it happens.

91. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I haven’t yet seen Order of the Phoenix, so I may be wrong, but so far this is the best of the Potter films. It helps that it was the best of the books, too — but the film is just rock solid from start to finish. After the first two were helmed by Chris Columbus, new director Alfonso Cuaron toned down the schmaltz and highlighted the tale’s darker elements. The first two films, while quite well done, often seemed to be trying so hard to please all the Potter fans in the world; Prisoner of Azkaban, on the other hand, has confidence in its own story and tells it with flair and drama. It’s also no accident that Prisoner boasts John Williams’s finest score of his three Potter efforts, since Williams always responds best to darker story material and since Chris Columbus always brings out the saccharine in Williams. (Really: my least favorite Williams scores are all for Columbus’s movies.)

Signature scene: When Prof. Lupin teaches the kids to defend against the Boggart. Watch this movie and try to figure out when you’re looking at a reflection in the mirror!

And there’s our first installment. Next time, movies 81-90.

* I know, the lemmings don’t really commit intentional mass suicide. No corrections, please!

UPDATE: Well, I wrote this a couple of days ago, so wouldn’t you know that just when I finally publish it, the Cosh Bros. go and update their list. Tsk, tsk.

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Christmas in Blogistan?

A special note for the citizens of the Buffalo Prefecture of Blogistan: Jen and I have been in contact, and we’re wondering if Saturday, December 8, would be a good day for a BloggerCon Christmas Party. We figure that blocking out a date really early in advance would make it easiest for people to attend, no? As of yet this is literally all we’ve planned, so a venue would have to be chosen — maybe one of those big restaurants by the Ralph, or the Buffalo Sports Garden in Orchard Park? (The BSG is on Southwestern Blvd, really easy to get to, and that night the Sabres have a night game on the west coast, so we wouldn’t be conflicting with Sabres traffic until late.)

Or maybe someplace in Cheektowaga, more central in the area? Thoughts, folks?

Hey, how about Alan‘s front lawn? By then he’ll have all of his “Bedenko for America” signs taken down, I’d assume. Sure, it’ll be cold, but we can get a bunch of 55-gallon steel drums and burn copies of the News and Artvoice in them keep warm, right? (I kid, folks!)

Seriously, though, how’s that date work, and where should we do this?

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