This has been stuck in my head for three days now. And now it’s gonna be stuck in yours. Ha!
Here are the Rivingtons, with “Papa Oom Mow Mow”.
Enjoy your earworm, folks!
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
Which game show theme tune is better: The Price is Right, or $25000 Pyramid? Discuss!
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Twenty-five cents (part 4)
Continuing my look at each of the Statehood Quarters, we turn our attention to the South and Southwest. Yay!
I like what they do here, although I think it would work better as an action picture rather than a staid view of a horse just standing there; plus, the mansion in the background makes the image a little too busy for my tastes. I think a jockey riding a horse on a track might have been a better way to go. The motto, “My Old Kentucky Home”, is presented in quotes, which I find interesting.
Kentucky’s quarter: $0.18
Another of my favorites, honoring Memphis’s jazz scene and Nashville’s importance to country music. It’s a simple design, with three instruments and a music score, and the symmetry is helped by aiming the guitar and fiddle in opposite directions. This is a very nice quarter.
Tennessee’s quarter: $0.23
Here’s a bit of design-by-committee that works OK, but not terrifically well. As usual, too many elements make for too busy a quarter, but at least the design elements are arranged in a way that’s not too confusing. You’ve got a flowing river (the Mississippi, I assume), a waterfowl in flight, some kind of crop, and a diamond in honor of the fact that Arkansas has a diamond mine. As the design-by-committee quarters go, this isn’t too bad, but it could have been better.
Arkansas’s quarter: $0.17
I have readers from Oklahoma, so let’s end the suspense! It’s terrible.
Actually, I’m kidding. Oklahoma proves, once again, that simplicity can work wonders. They give a bird (the state bird, actually, the Scissortail Flycatcher) in flight over two flowers (one of which is the state wildflower, called “Indian Blanket”), and that’s it. It’s a beautiful coin.
Oklahoma’s quarter: $0.21
I’m conflicted about this quarter, which makes sense, since I’m often conflicted about Texas itself. The design here is so blindingly obvious that it makes me almost crazy. The whole “Lone Star” thing is almost a cliché by this point, and I’d have really hoped that Texas would do something different, and yet, that’s what they did: the Lone Star yet again. Yeah, we get it. Lone Star. Texas. Gotcha. And yet, this is a really nicely done design. The state outline is done in textured relief, and the Lone Star is also textured. But the best part of this quarter, for me, is the border, which is done with a lasso rope. So, Texas did something very nice with a really boring Texas trope.
Texas’s quarter: $0.20
This would be almost perfect if they hadn’t marred it with the off-center inscription “Land of Enchantment”. The relief map of New Mexico with the Navajo symbol above it is terrific. I like this quarter a lot. Nicely done, NM!
New Mexico’s quarter: $0.22
Another very beautiful design, my only quibble being that it renders a bit hard-to-make out on the actual coin. I really love how much detail they’re able to get onto a coin, though; this is terribly impressive, which makes some of the other quarters look dowdy by comparison. Arizona did well here.
Arizona’s quarter: $0.21
Here’s yet another example of a fine quarter whose only downside is the addition of verbiage. The coin already makes clear that we’re looking at Colorado, so why they felt the need to also have the coin say “Colorful Colorado” is beyond me. I like the mountain scene, though.
Colorado’s quarter: $0.20
This is another of my favorites, even if we now have our third state that’s identified itself as a crossroads; this time we’re at the “Crossroads of the West”. The coin pays tribute to the completion of the intercontinental railroad, with the final railroad spike ready to be driven, and the two locomotives facing opposite directions.
Utah’s quarter: $0.23
Next time: the Heartland and the northern Rockies.
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Sentential Links #169
Clicking….
:: Hello, you’re on Car Talk. (Hee hee! And be sure to read the mouseover text.)
:: DOWNER: Star Trek maybe played a bit too space-opera and not enough sci-fi (I just know that my reaction to this movie is going to be downright schizophrenic.)
:: As I think of those lists for looking at houses, it makes me ponder what sort of lists I would craft for my life. (A typically thought-provoking post from Belladonna!)
:: I got up this morning and looked out the window to see the whole gang of chickens lolly-gagging outside the kitchen door. (I love the word “lollygagging”.)
:: I have had a long talk with the Count. I asked him a few questions on Transylvania history, and he warmed up to the subject wonderfully. In his speaking of things and people, and especially of battles, he spoke as if he had been present at them all. (This person is blogging the novel Dracula in “real time”. The novel is told in letters and diary entries, so each item is posted on the actual date in the novel. What an ingenious concept!)
:: In a panic about grades and my scholarship I turned for help and ended up at P.D.’s apartment. His solution? Everything would be fine and he gave me a bowl of vanilla ice cream. (My friend Robert Guttke, an artist, has started a blog, on which he is wonderfully and movingly recounting his experiences with the college teacher who was perhaps the strongest influence in his life. Do check it out.)
More next week!
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Thirty Fantasy Movies
SamuraiFrog did this last week, and I just have to follow suit. That being the case, here are my thirty favorite fantasy movies.
One caveat: I’m taking a more inclusive stance on what constitutes “fantasy” here, to basically include any kind of non-SF story in which supernatural stuff happens. For those who think that “fantasy” means armored Princes going to war on horseback using magical swords against evil wizards, well, you need to broaden your views!
The list is in no particular order, except for the final two, which really do constitute my top two.
Ghostbusters
So, why start here? Why not? It’s funny and it’s got ghosts. It’s full of wildly funny visual jokery, and some of it can slip by without notice; for instance, the StayPuft Marshmallow Man gets a huge laugh when he shows up, but what’s great is that he actually changes facial expressions: his grin turns mean when he’s stepping on people, and when he’s clinging to the edge of the building, watching helplessly as our heroes cross the streams (even though “it would be bad”), he has this comical expression of anger and fear. On a Marshmallow Man. I love that. This movie also features one of my favorite throwaway lines of all time: “Listen! Do you smell something?”
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Now, I do like the recent Tim Burton version of this story, but it’s the old one that’s the enduring classic, and with good reason. I remember watching it when I was just a kid, and then I didn’t see it again until I was in college. Usually that is a formula for serious disappointment; nostalgia, as someone once wrote (I can’t remember who), is usually happiest when not fully investigated. But Willy Wonka sucked me right back in when I was twenty. To this day it’s the best thing Gene Wilder ever did. I love the way he takes over the film as soon as he shows up, and the casual malevolence and benevolence he is able to portray, often from one line of dialogue to the next.
The Exorcist
A lot of people I know don’t find this movie particularly scary, but I thought it enormously effective, and it accomplished its scares without resorting to things going bump in the night or evil slashers hiding behind curtains or any of the usual horror movie tropes. Instead, the movie takes place in brightly lit rooms where everyone can be seen, and it still got under my skin when I saw it. (I do consider horror to be part of fantasy.)
Back to the Future
Am I wrong to think of this as fantasy? Maybe. Maybe it’s science fiction. I’m not really sure. It depends on the definition, and as everyone knows, there’s just no good definition separating SF from fantasy. So I include BttF here because the BS behind its story is such cheerfully made-up BS. Sure, they dress it up a bit with some technobabble, but I’m calling it fantasy. So there it is.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Now this is most definitely fantasy, and one of the most engaging movies of the 1980s. The sheer amount of craft in melding the animation and the live acting is amazing, but the movie’s script is just so perfect, always taking its material seriously but managing to evoke its madcap world of cartoons and people living together with extremely subtle winks to the audience. It’s a wildly funny and inventive fantasy.
TRON
Is it actually SF? No, I don’t think so. I think it’s pure fantasy, and another grand example of a movie creating its own world. Fantasy all the way.
The Princess Bride
Is it fantasy? Or parody of fantasy? I think it straddles the line like no other movie ever has. This movie kids because it loves.
Stardust
This movie died a quick death at the box office, and I don’t know why; I found it charming and fun.
The Green Mile
I may be cheating a bit here, since I haven’t seen the whole movie in one go, but I’ve seen all of its bits and pieces enough times in various telecasts that it all adds up to the whole thing. That said, this is, well, The Shawshank Redemption with some added supernatural elements.
(Warning — that’s the last scene of the film.)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension
This is another one that straddles the SF-Fantasy line. Maybe it’s actually SF, but I’m not sure; all of its Sfnal content is completely made up out of whole cloth. It’s a wickedly funny movie, too, full of sly and twisted humor that’s my cup of tea in such things. Lots of great lines, including another of my all-time favorites, “Whoa, don’t tug on that! You never know what it might be attached to.”
Pirates of the Caribbean
I’m listing all three of them here, because I genuinely love them all, even if the last one could have used one more pass through the rewrite stage.
Ben Hur
By far my favorite Biblical epic. Am I on blasphemous ground in calling it a fantasy? I guess one day I’ll find out. But I really love this movie (and I’m due to watch it again, come to that).
Raiders of the Lost Ark
‘Nuff said.
Merlin
The only movie on this list that was made for teevee. I don’t get the sense that it’s very well liked or remembered, but I find it a lively romp, telling the story of Merlin’s life as it intersects with the Arthurian story. It tends to be a bit episodic and disjointed, but I still think it’s a fun movie.
Interview with the Vampire
I thought Tom Cruise was just fine as Lestat. This is one of those movies that gets better on repeat viewings, I’ve found.
The Wizard of Oz
This movie is almost clicheed at this point, but it’s really a finely crafted fantasy. (Although frankly, I’ve often wondered what happens after the movie’s end – isn’t Toto still doomed?)
Krull
It’s not that great a movie, but it’s an ambitious piece of 1980s adventure movie making, it has a terrific score by James Horner, and as fantasy set-pieces go, surely the fire-mares sequence is one of the best.
Excalibur
It may seem odd, at first glance, that no indisputably great film has been made out of the King Arthur legends, but when one considers the Matter of Britain as a whole, the obstacles it poses to filmmakers become obvious. The Arthur “legend” is actually a giant collection of legends, and any telling of the story in a movie form is going to leave large amounts of stuff out. And if you really do it proper, Arthur himself will disappear for large periods of time while we follow other knights around. So, for now, Excalibur is as good as it gets, as far as Arthurian films are concerned. It’s a beautifully made movie, even if the tone is generally cool.
Peter Pan
I’ve long maintained that this is my favorite Disney animated film, and I’ve not changed my mind yet.
Pinocchio
You know what? This is not only fantasy, but in a lot of ways it’s straight-up horror. The whole Pleasure Island part of the movie is downright scary, especially when Lampwick starts his own transformation. Most people think of Jiminy Cricket warbling “When You Wish Upon a Star”, but that’s only the tiniest portion of this movie.
The Emperor’s New Groove
I never tire of giving this flick some love. It’s by far the zaniest thing ever to come out of Disney; it’s so zany and madcap and hilarious, in fact, that I almost think they were channeling the spirit of Chuck Jones when they made it. General opinion seems to be that Disney’s animated offerings after, say, Pocahontas were poor, but I’ve never believed that, and this movie stands with anything they ever did.
Aladdin
Rounding out the Disney portion of this list. This movie just barely edges out Beauty and the Beast, which is probably actually a better movie, maybe. But this one’s a sentimental favorite of mine, because in college The Girlfriend (now The Wife) and I saw it in theaters together four times.
My Neighbor Totoro
Now the Hayao Miyazaki portion of the program. Miyazaki is so good at making magic a part of his worlds, as normal as wind or trains or trees or whatever. He doesn’t give long explanations of anything; he just shows us his magical stuff and we accept it. The masterstroke here is how not only are we seeing the magical world of the Totoros, but they are seeing what is to them the magical world of us. How many other movies show big magical creatures taking enormous delight in the sound a raindrop makes when it hits an umbrella?
Kiki’s Delivery Service
Such a simple, low-key movie, telling the story of a young witch who has to use her powers to…deliver packages and find her own self-confidence. That’s it. No evil wizards to defeat, no threats to the world to thwart, just a girl at an awkward age trying to figure things out. And one of the most beautiful fictional cities ever in a movie. I’d love to live in that town!
Spiderman II
Spidey’s my favorite superhero, and I like all of the movies, but the first and third ones have problems that bug me a bit about them, where the second one is just about as good as it can be.
Superman
To this day, my favorite superhero movie ever. It does, admittedly, come a bit close to derailing courtesy of some of the slapstick stuff with Otis and Miss Tessmacher, but even with the “Turning back the world” thing, it just works on all levels for me.
Spirited Away
Many think that this is Hayao Miyazaki’s best film. I think it’s his second best.
Princess Mononoke
This is Hayao Miyazaki’s best film.
The Lord of the Rings
The whole thing.
Star Wars
Either A New Hope, or all six. Take your pick.
And there they are!
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Sunday Burst of Weirdness
Oddities abound!
:: This isn’t “weirdness” per se, but I got a kick out of President Obama’s remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend:
:: I really, really, really wish that George Carlin had lived to learn about this. (via)
:: Been a while since I had anything Cthulhu-related here, so how about a Cthulhu ski mask?
More weirdness next week!
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Unidentified Earth #67
Do they carve “Yusef was here” before they catch the bus for Fort Hancock, Texas?
Steve Benen has some pretty breathtaking quotes from Senator Kit Bond, who is joining his fellow Republicans in hyperventilating over the closing of the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay. I found these two quotes the most amusing:
“Americans also have a right to know if President Obama plans to send any of these terrorists to their communities.”
“Whether these terrorists are coming to a prison in Kansas, or a halfway house in Missouri, or any other state — I can tell you this: Americans don’t want these terrorists in their neighborhoods.”
Yeah. That’s a good thing to be concerned about, because clearly President Obama’s plans for the detainees at Guantanamo will end up looking like this:
I expect that soon after Gitmo closes down, there will be a run on shipments of rock hammers to prisons throughout the US, and then in about twenty years, all of these guys will escape through the tunnels they dig in their own walls. Hopefully by then I will have moved, since I live about forty-five minutes away from Attica, NY. There are some pretty grim people housed there, as I recall.
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Whoops! Our bad!
What am embarrassing gaffe that whole “Air Force One flying over New York City” thing turned out to be, huh? And how avoidable — they could have just put out a news release on the thing, say, a week before, letting New Yorker know what was going on. If that had been the case, I’ll bet a lot of people would have been excitedly looking for the plane, instead of looking up and thinking, “OMG a plane where there shouldn’t be one! AIEEE!” Because, you know, New Yorkers have reason to be a bit skittish on looking up and seeing planes where they don’t usually see them. So, on balance, a big “Oops” on the White House on this one. At least the guy responsible resigned, and hey, the resulting photo is actually very nice:
I’ve mentioned this before, I’m sure, but back in 2004 President Bush was coming to Buffalo to give a speech or take part in a town hall or something like that. On the morning he arrived, I just happened to be in the parking lot at The Store when I heard an airplane overhead. This is not unusual, since The Store is about ten miles, as the plane flies, from Buffalo Niagara International Airport, which means that planes are usually visible and quite low at that from our parking lot. But this one was even lower than usual, and it was coming from a different path than most commercial planes take over The Store. It took me a few seconds of watching that plane before I recognized it as Air Force One. There’s something thrilling about seeing that plane in flight. I’ll bet New Yorkers wouldn’t have minded, if someone had simply said, “Hey, we’re gonna fly low over your city so we can take some new pix of the plane. Everybody OK with that?”
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Eight!
Belladonna has a quiz thing! And I haven’t done a quiz thing in a long time, so hey, here goes. Pretty straightforward.
8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Seeing Star Trek. I’m still deeply skeptical about the whole “reboot” thing — I’m not wild about a Jim Kirk who never went back in time and fell in love with Edith Keeler, who never put a guy named Khan on a deserted planet, who never had to deal with a ship full of tribbles — but I’m hearing that the movie is good, and I do like good movies.
2. Continuing my re-read of Guy Gavriel Kay’s novels; next up is A Song for Arbonne. (Note to self: blog about Tigana.)
3. Corn on the cob and BLT’s, our favorite late-summer dinner.
4. Losing more weight. I’m on a plateau of my own making right now, but soon!
5. My father-in-law’s visit in late June, which will coincide with The Daughter’s tenth birthday. Nobody tell her! (Although I think she already knows.)
6. Seeing how Terrell Owens and the new tight end impact the Bills’ offense this fall.
7. Trying Dijon mustard on my next burger, to see if my tastes match Barack Obama’s. My preferred condiments tend to be ketchup mixed with Weber’s horseradish mustard (a Buffalo thing), or the combination of mayonnaise, onions, and lots of black pepper.
8. Figuring out the future.
8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Repaired two of the electric carts we have at The Store for elderly or disabled shoppers.
2. Rode around on my scissors lift. (Well, it’s not my scissors life, but I treat it like it is.)
3. Watched last week’s episode of Hell’s Kitchen. Go Danny!
4. Enjoyed “Hong Kong Chicken” at the Chinese Buffet. I have no idea what’s “Hong Kong” about it.
5. Went to the library.
6. Had yogurt and green tea with mint for mid-morning snack.
7. Read xkcd on a rare Thursday update. It had a five-day storyline this week, and it was inspired; do go check it out. Especially if you liked Firefly.
8. Fixed a broken condensate pan on a self-contained refrigerated case. I am Maintenance Man, hear me roar! (Odd that I have a job for which overalls would be the perfect attire, but they’re not the approved uniform. Oh well.)
8 Things I wish I could do:
1. Carpentry. I’m learning.
2. Understand why everybody else, and not me.
3. Not have to wonder why everybody else, and not me.
4. Talk to my best friend again.
5. Knit (No, I did not forget to take of Mimi’s answer, I’m just stealing it. I’ve never learned how because I just don’t sit still long enough. But it seems like a cool and worthwhile practice. Maybe I’ll learn??)
6. Plumbing. But I’ll learn. (See no. 1 above.)
7. Throw things, reliably and on target. My aim has always been lousy.
8. Dance. Who knows, maybe I can. I was always too self-conscious to try.
8 Shows I Watch
1. Grey’s Anatomy
2. Scrubs
3. 24
4. Antiques Roadshow
5. The Office
6. 30 Rock
7. American Idol
8. The Amazing Race
Just a couple more entries would sum up the entirety of my teevee watching these days.
8 Life Lessons I have benefited from (or am TRYING to put into practice)
1. Listen to music every day.
2. Let it be.
3. Hope is a good thing, and no good thing ever dies.
4. Do, or do not. There is no try.
5. Never go in with a Sicilian when death is on the line.
6. Don’t pour all of your cruelty and power and malice into a single gold ring.
7. When its third-and-short late in the fourth and you have the lead, run the ball.
8. And my usual year’s end sign-off, “Smile, because you never know what life will throw in your face next.”
Quizzes! Fun!!