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THE SCENE: A passenger compartment on the Orient Express. Five men enter the compartment, one at a time. Three are elderly but still with a certain twinkle in their eyes, while two are younger, in their fifties. All are impeccably dressed, in dark suits with perfect silk ties; their wristwatches are very expensive indeed. They take their seats in the compartment and wait for someone to speak. Finally one does. JAMES BOND ONE: Well, as the first, I suppose I should call this meeting of Former James Bonds to order? JAMES BOND THREE: That sounds fine, but shouldn’t we allDown the rabbit hole….

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So I watched some movies, as you might expect, while I was not blogging. I’ll discuss them in no particular order over a series of posts. First up, Harold and Maude. I knew absolutely nothing about Harold and Maude until I picked up the DVD from the library. All I knew was that it had been cited on the recent AFI list of great romantic comedies; on that basis I checked it out, since I do love a good romantic comedy. Imagine my surprise, then, when I looked at the DVD cover and discovered that the couple in the filmDown the rabbit hole….

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Back a few months ago Entertainment Weekly had themselves a big old list-fest, in which they compiled a bunch of lists of pop-culture stuff. At the time I commented on their teevee shows, and the movies and books lists. They did a whole bunch of these, but there are two lists I wanted to comment on at the time, and hey, I can still comment on them. First up, they did a list of Romantic Gestures of the Last 25 Years. Here’s that list, with some comment: The spectral Patrick Swayze lifts a coin across the room for Demi MooreDown the rabbit hole….

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No James Bong Blog-a-Thon would be complete without a post somewhere about the music of Bond, would it? Why, no! That’s why I’m here, folks. I fill a need. Any discussion of the music of James Bond must begin, and probably end, with John Barry. Barry is an English composer who has had a very long and storied career. Apart from his work on the Bond films, Barry has also written notable scores to films like The Lion in Winter, Born Free, Out of Africa, Body Heat, and Dances With Wolves, for which he won an Oscar. Barry is stillDown the rabbit hole….

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Ooooh! I’m always finding out about cool Blog-a-thons after they’ve happened, so I’m never able to participate, but this time I can. This will be the first post of two in honor of Lazy Eye Theatre’s James Bond Blog-a-thon! This first one will be a quickie, but here’s a neat video: every opening “gunbarrel” sequence from every Bond film. How fun to watch this iconic visual make its evolution through the series! Some observations: :: The early ones are all really slow, aren’t they? I mean, Bond just walks along as slowly as possible. (Of course, it’s not even SeanDown the rabbit hole….

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While I was on blogcation, a number of times I found things online or off that tempted me greatly to return to active posting before my arbitrarily-chosen return point of Election Night. Many of these things were political in nature, so I’m glad I didn’t post about them, but more than a few weren’t, and one blog in particular that I happened upon shortly after I went on hiatus (and before I’d decided that I’d likely return on Election Night) was one that just killed me to not be able to link. Well, now I’m back, so here it is:Down the rabbit hole….

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I’m a bit late for the Halloween season with this, so you can bookmark this for next year (or maybe I’ll just repost it then). Here are some good examples of film and teevee music for your listening pleasure during the Scary Season! Here I eschewing some of the more obvious choices, like Bernard Herrmann’s score to Psycho; in fact, I’m generally limiting myself to the last thirty years or so of music for film. :: Dracula, by John Williams. He wrote this for the 1979 film starring Frank Langella as the famed count. The movie isn’t highly regarded atDown the rabbit hole….

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So there’s this meme-thing percolating about in which you go through and pick your favorite album from each year you’ve been alive up to the present; I’ve been kicking that around for a while, long enough that now you’re supposed to do the same thing with movies. So, I guess I’ll combine them into one single post, although I won’t be picking exactly favorites, but things I’m very fond of from each year. (A few may be favorites, though.) A key resource here is Wikipedia’s Years in music and Years in Film articles. In each case I’ll list an albumDown the rabbit hole….

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I’m not sure how I missed this, but Jason has a list of movies that make men cry. I’ve bolded the ones that do, in fact, make me cry like a little girl who’s just had her lollipop stolen by the creepy old guy who owns the local nuclear power plant. It’s a Wonderful Life No, not really. I’ve never liked this movie all that much. Schindler’s List Last time I watched it, I didn’t cry at the right scene, but the film still moved me terribly. I know that the “I could have done more” scene didn’t happen inDown the rabbit hole….

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So Entertainment Weekly has made two lists: one is a list of its Top 100 movies of the last twenty-five years, and the other does the same thing with books. You know the drill: the ones I’ve seen or read are in bold, with occasional comment. (However, a couple of provisos: yes, I’d include the Star Wars prequels, so sod off, haters. And as T & C point out, the list excludes The Shawshank Redemption, which is well-nigh inexplicable.) 1.Pulp Fiction (1994) (Wouldn’t be my best, but I’m not going to quibble.) 2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)Down the rabbit hole….