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I was goofing around on this dandy site called Oracleofbacon, and typed in Editor B’s name. It came up that he had three degrees of separation from Bacon. According to the site,

Editor B was in ‘Java Madness’ formerly titled ‘Coffee Madness’ (1995) with Kenneth Patrick Brady
Kenneth Patrick Brady was in Dead by Sunset (1995) (TV) with Ken Olin
Ken Olin was in Queens Logic (1991) with Kevin Bacon

If that’s true, because I was in several ROX episodes, I should have four degrees, and anyone else who knows me should have five!

I await confirmation from B to see if the first linkage is correct.

If finally watched CODE 46 tonight, which is a DVD I only picked up because the cover said a lot of it was shot in Shanghai.  It is supposed to take place after some sort of big disaster has turned most of the world to desert and also necessitated widespread use of in-vitro fertilization.  The distracting thing was that all the footage in Shanghai was shot a couple years ago, with no attempt to hide advertising.  Therefore, I saw ads for products I use every day.  While I was watching, I was like, “Oh, look!  An ad for M-Zone!”  Plus, tons of props came from Ikea.  For instance, the lamp in Tim Robbins’ son’s room was the same as the one that is sitting one foot away from me right now.  These thing kept jarring me, not letting me suspend my disbelief.

Actually, that happens a lot with Ikea products.  I was roped into watching CAPTIVITY, and partway through, one of the people I was with realized that the lamp in Eliza Cuthbert’s cell was the same one in her bedroom at home.  Heck, even John Woo’s THE KILLER uses stuff from Ikea!

Another person associated with the film NAKED CITY has died … director Jules Dassin.  In other news, Dith Pran, who inspired THE KILLING FIELDS, has died as well.

Richard Widmark, who played Skip in Samuel Fuller’s anti-Communist film noir PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET died on March 24 at the ripe old age of 93. Although he was best known for playing a psychopath in KISS OF DEATH (I’ve seen the famous scene, though not the whole movie), I first saw him in PICKUP, which I showed my students the last time I taught my American Film, American Culture class. It was a good choice because we had a short semester, and PICKUP is an example of a film noir, an anti-Communist movie, and … hmm … something else, but I forgot what … all at once. I was wondering what the students would think of the anti-Communist stuff, but by and large, they thought it was hilarious! Mo’s line, “I don’t know much about Commies … but I don’t like ‘em!” provoked a lot of laughter. I think my students had seen plenty of anti-capitalist propaganda in the past, and it was fun for them to see something from the other side.

Here’s an obituary from the New York Times: Richard Widmark, actor, dies at 93.

I’ve always thought Michael Haenke seemed so creepy and nasty that it’d be a good idea to avoid his films.  (The only good thing about him is that he makes me think about the Mr. Hankie song from SOUTH PARK, except with lyrics like, “You hate him, and he hates you.”)  Here’s a letter someone who stumbled into FUNNY GAMES without knowing what they were in for wrote to Roger Ebert’s website:

“Funny Games” spills out into the lobby
From Kate Johnson:

Too late I read your review [of “Funny Games“]. I was blindsided by this movie. Went with a friend and didn’t know a THING about it beforehand. All I kept saying was, “Let’s get out of here. It’s a MOVIE. The director/ producer/whatever is trying to forcefeed us with S–T. How can the actors even think of being in such a movie — what about that little boy?”

Finally when it was over and my “friend” looked like a deer in the headlights — I was physically sick. I demanded my money back from the box office only to have the girl laugh at me — at first. I threw up on the floor right in front of her — and it splattered. She gave me the money, helped me clean up and actually cried. My “friend” was embarrassed by my behavior — and therefore has lost my friendship. This whole last scene (starring me, my friend, the cashier at the box office), seemed a sequel to the movie.

Originally found on www.defamer.com

… is the Arabic name for my favorite cartoon, CYBORG KUROCHAN. This knowledge will probably not come in useful some day. But then again, who knows?

I’m not sure if I’m going to this or not.  What with having to pay rent next month, I don’t know if it would be wise to go.  I’m also having trouble getting an affordable, desirable hotel room.  I mean, there are cheap guesthouses, but when I stayed in them before, I felt very creeped-out and unsafe. Plus, everything has to be co-ordinated.  I’d have to get the plane tickets, plus book the hotel room, plus get the tickets online.  If one of these steps falls though, everything will be messed up.

Malvin Wald, who wrote the screenplay for the film NAKED CITY, has died, age 90.

I don’t know if I ever saw the whole film until recently, but when I was like fourteen, I saw the end, and heard its famous ending lines: “There are eight million stories in the naked city.  This has been one of them.”  I’ve remembered it ever since.

Here is a funny article from allkpop.com:

Korean Music’s Worst English Lyrics

Bad lyrics include “Come into my member, come into me,” sung by a female singer (to which the writer comments, “I dunno what’s scarier, the fact that she insinuates that she has a penis, or the fact that she beckons all comers (or cummers, har har har) to unload into her spacious vaginal canal.”) and  “Let’s have the stash, keep the heat on a dash, it’s simple math, front get one of the ass.”

Personally, I will always remember the line “time flows like a liver,” from the song at the end of the movie TOO YOUNG TO DIE, but I think that was a case of bad pronunciation rather than bad English.

My article, originally titled “Naked pictures of you with Edison Chen released to the media Saturday,” was Shangzilla’s most popular article for February.

If you’re not familiar with this scandal,  a not-so-bright Hong Kong star took over 1,000 dirty pictures of himself with various girlfriends, kept them on his hard drive, and then took his computer to some random, rinky-dink place to get it fixed.  Naturally, everyone who worked there downloaded the pictures (and videos!), and released them to the media.  There are so many different women involved, is seems like Edison photographed EVERBODY, hence my article.

You can read it here:  www.shangzilla.com

Summary of NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN which, along with a desrciption of the Oscars as “bullshit,” accidentally went over the air during the Oscar broadcast on WKBW, one of the major stations in Buffalo, my hometown.

Found through The Defamer.  Here’s a link to a Buffalo New story about the incident.

Ch. 7 error enlivens Oscars

It’s always stressful for me to finalize the viewing schedule for my film class. I’m always worried about the length of the semester, what students will accept, whether I’m showing too many depressing films, whether I’m leaving out too much important stuff, etc. Of course, I can’t do too much in one semester, because we can only watch one film a week. I THINK here is my film list, in order:

Several shorts, including Lumiere (even though they are not American), and Porter ones, and then a few Chaplin and Keaton shorts, THE KID, THE SHEIK, KING KONG, A DAY AT THE RACES, CITIZEN KANE, a film noir (I hope I can get my hands on a good copy of OUT OF THE PAST), REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, DR. STRANGELOVE, THE GRADUATE, APOCALYPSE NOW, TAXI DRIVER, MADEA’S FAMILY REUNION (jumping forward in time for a palate cleanser, and so I can do a lecture on minorities in film), WALL STREET, MOONSTRUCK, FARGO, MURDERBALL.

I’m definitely neglecting Westerns, war movies and sports films, not to mention showing very few romances. But this is all I can do in one semester. I’ve actually thought of revising the class, and just teaching it as “major American directors,” but that would take a lot of planning that I don’t have time for anymore. If I were to do that I would have had to have started getting ready a couple months ago.

Female announcer: You know, I have to admit that until today I thought Heath Ledger and Ben Affleck were the same person.  They just look the same.  Maybe I shouldn’t say this, but all foreigners look the same to me.

Male announcer:  Oh, really?  You know, some foreigners say Chinese people all look alike.

Female announcer, laughing:  That’s crazy!

I’ve been watching MY BLUEBERRY NIGHTS, and one thing that’s keeping me from really enjoying it is how AWFUL some of the actresses’ voices are. Who would have guessed that Norah Jones’s voice would be so grating and unpleasant? Natalie Portman is annoying me too, with her fake Southern accent (not to mention her hair and costume) and irritating voice. I can’t explain exactly why they sound so annoying to me — there’s just something very “bad 80’s movie” — like FLASHDANCE — about Norah Jones’s voice. It had me cringing at the beginning of the film.

when you can go to an unsterility hospital?

I just saw an ad for one (in Beijing) on CCTV-8.

TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY
BORAT
EMMANUELLE 2: JOYS OF A WOMAN
PAN’S LABYRINTH (Spanish)
SNAKE DANCER (South African)
SWEETIE (Jane Campion)
LOVE, ACTUALLY
COOL AND CRAZY (Norwegian)
ALPHAVILLE

Coincidentally, I started and ended my 2007 US viewing with Marx brothers movies. One was and early one (Harpo didn’t even play the harp in it!) and the other was late, but unfortunately, they were both pretty bad. Interestingly, I had the same sort of synchronicity with movies overall, with the first and last movies of the year both being from Korea.

Here they are:

ROOM SERVICE (Marx Brothers)
GILDA (w/ Rita Hayworth)
TARZAN ESCAPES
THE WEATHER UNDERGROUND (documentary)
IDIOCRACY
CAPOTE
MAROKKO (Josef von Sternberg)
BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE (documentary, Spike Lee)
PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET (Samuel Fuller, students thought the anti-Communist parts were hilarious)
PSYCHOPATHIA SEXUALIS
NEW ORLEANS (Arthur Lubin)
STUCK ON YOU (Farrelly Brothers)
HANNIBAL RISING
SAVING FACE
SPIDERMAN 3
X-MEN
SHORTBUS
WORDPLAY (documentary)
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (documentary)
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
THE MOTEL (Michael Kang)
BLADES OF GLORY
THE SIMPSONS MOVIE
TEKKONKINKREET (American/Japanese)
CAPTIVITY
THE WOLF MAN
PONKUTSU PARK (short)
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (I admit it — it was my first time to see it all the way through!)
A CHRISTMAS STORY
A NIGHT IN CASABLANCA (Marx Brothers)

Now that I can download stuff, I was watching an episode of the Japanese TV show Bistro SMAP. One of the celebrity guests asked them to make a dish with natto, and they ended up producing natto in a nest made out of avacado.

To me, this would be nearly as disgusting being given a dish of poop with congealed lard, but I was thinking that if I were on a show like that, or at some sort of party, I’d at least pretend to enjoy eating it. That put me in mind of the worst dinner party I’d ever given.

It was back in college. Two days earlier, my first cat had died, but I decided to go on with the party anyway. I’d prepared linguini and clam sauce, and was really excited because it had come out really well. The guests showed up, and I served them. They just sat there looking at it for a moment, and then this girl announced, “Well, I’m not going to eat this.” I asked her why, and she said it was because she didn’t recognize it. I explained that it was clam sauce, and then like three more people refused to eat it. Then somebody said, “Well, I’ll eat the pasta, but only if I can wash it off with water and then put butter on it.” In the end, I think nobody actually agreed to eat the food I had made.

That’s totally rude, right? Even if you think something tastes terrible, you should still act like you like it, right, so your host isn’t embarrassed. It’s not like I disliked the people who attended after that, but I definitely lost some respect for them.  I’ll always remember the way they behaved.

1. TAKE CARE OF MY CAT
2. THE HOST
3. THE KING’S MAN/THE KING AND THE CLOWN
4. I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY
5. AACHI AND SSIPAK (a world powered by crap)
6. YONGGARY (craptastic)

Other Asian films:

1. I  NOT STUPID 2 (Singaporean)
2. THE POSTMODERN LIFE OF MY AUNT (Chinese)
3. YANG  BAN XI (Chinese, documentary)
4. LIFELINE EXPRESS (Hong Kong)
5. THE SUN ALSO RISES (Chinese)
6. CRAZY STONE (Chinese)