Zombieland

My daughters and I have gotten into the habit of watching horror movies for our Saturday night family-movie night. Some selections were horror lite like Ghost Cat (starring pre-Juno Ellen Page) which was not scary at all. But the horror genre is wide-ranging in flavors. Last night we watched Zombieland -- which we all enjoyed very much. It stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg (who I loved in Adventureland ... wait a minute, Adventureland ... Zombieland ... a trend?), Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin. Zombieland is really a horror-comedy. We laughed like crazy! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Woody Harrelson -- I love that guy! I remember when he joined the cast of Cheers. He joined right after Nicholas Colasanto ("Coach") died. A lot of fans -- me included -- loved Coach and many folks wondered if Harrelson could really pull it off. Of course, no one could replace Colasanto. But Harrelson brought his own sumpin sumpin to the show. Little did we know then what an interesting actor Harrelson would become. He really takes a range of roles. If you don't believe me, see a few episodes of Cheers followed by Natural Born Killers and the recent release The Walker (not a very successful movie but Harrelson was good).

Zombieland: RECOMMENDED

Lucille Clifton: May She Rest in a Mighty Peace

photographer unknown

I just heard ... just now ... of Lucille Clifton's passing. She passes on to the ancients. Bless her. We earthlings will miss her most intelligent and musical voice.

One of her poems ...

Homage to My Hips

these hips are big hips.
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top


If you'd like to hear her read it herself, go here.

You can read her obituary in the NYTimes here. It's free, but you have to register.

Film: Best of

Everybody's doin' it, doin' it, doin' it ... I must have read fifty goddamn best of lists so far. Best movies of the decade. Best movies of Hollywood. Best movies of the 21st century. Best movies from countries where they don't speak English. Best movies you can enjoy while masturbating.

Well, whatFUCKINGEVER, y'all. I don't give a shit. I'm gonna put up my OWN list of best movies. These are the best movies I have ever seen in all my life. If you haven't seen them yet, it just proves that you're a miserable poseur (poseuse?) with no life, no balls (or other gonadal substitutes), no time ... ah, fuhgeddaboudit.

Actually it doesn't prove squat. Except, maybe, I watched way too many movies in my wild and wicked yoof. Most of these are available on Netflix, in case you wanna watch'em.

Best Movies I Ever Saw:

• Raise the Red Lantern
  
  
• Red Sorghum
  
  
• Ju Dou
  
  
• The Road Home
  
  
• The Story of Qiu Ju
  
  
• Hero
  
  
• Farewell, My Concubine
  
  
• The Blue Kite (Lan Feng Zheng)
  
  
• The Wedding Banquet (Hsi Yen)
  
  
• Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin Shi Nan Nu)
  
  
• Drunken Master
  
  
• The Eye (Jian Gui)
  
  
• Happy Times (Xingfu Shiguang)
  
  
• The Young Master
  
  
• Chunhyang
  
  
• Time (Shi gan)
  
  
• Yojimbo
  
  
• Sanjuro (Tsubaki Sanjuro)
  
  
• Rashomon
  
  
• No Regrets For Our Youth (Waga Seishun Ni Kuinashi)
  
  
• Drunken Angel (Yoidore tenshi)
  
  
• Stray Dog (Nora Inu)
  
  
• Ikiru (To Live)
  
  
• Seven Samurai (Shichinin no Samurai)
  
  
• I Live in Fear (Ikimono no Kiroku)
  
  
• The Lower Depths (Donzoko)
  
  
• Throne of Blood (Kumonosu Jo)
  
  
• Ran
  
  
• The Hidden Fortress (Kakushi-toride no San Akunin)
  
  
• Akahige (Red Beard)
  
  
• High and Low (Tengoku no Jingoku)
  
  
• Dersu Uzala
  
  
• Kagemusha (The Shadow Warrior)
  
  
• Madadayo
  
  
• The Twilight Samurai (Tasogare Seibei)
  
  
• Harakiri (Seppuku)
  
  
• Samurai Rebellion (Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu)
  
  
• The Human Condition (Ningen no Joken)
  
  
• Tokyo Godfathers
  
  
• The Happiness Of The Katakuris
  
  
• Chushingura
  
  
• Tokyo Story
  
  
• In the Realm Of The Senses
  
  
• Chaos
  
  
• The Burmese Harp (Biruma no Tategoto)
  
  
• Sleepyheads
  
  
• Ringu
  
  
• My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro)
  
  
• Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)
  
  
• Princess Mononoke
  
  
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika)
  
  
• The Cat Returns (Neko no ongaeshi)
  
  
• Howl's Moving Castle (Hauru no ugoku shiro)
  
  
• Kiki's Delivery Service(Majo No Takkyubin)
  
  
• Castle In The Sky (Tenku no Shiro Rapyuta)
  
  
• Porco Rosso (Kurenai no buta / Crimson Pig)
  
  
• Grave of the Fireflies
  
  
• Ghost In The Shell (Kokaku Kidotai)
  
  
• Mirch Masala
  
  
• Pather Panchali (Song of the Road)
  
  
• Aparajito (The Unvanquished)
  
  
• Apur Shongshar (The World of Apu)
  
  
• Home and The World (Ghare Baire)
  
  
• Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest)
  
  
• Distant Thunder (Asani Sanket)
  
  
• Devi (The Goddess)
  
  
• Charulata
  
  
• Teen Kanya (Three Daughters)
  
  
• Agantuk (The Stranger)
  
  
• Jalsaghar (The Music Room)
  
  
• Jana Aranya (The Middleman)
  
  
• Mahanagar (The Big City)
  
  
• Baran (Hamsay e-Khoda)
  
  
• Bad Education (La Mala Educacion)
  
  
• Talk to Her (Hable Con Ella)
  
  
• Dark Habits (Entre Tinienblas)
  
  
• What Have I Done To Deserve This (Que he Hecho Yo, Para Merecer Esto)?
  
  
• All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre)
  
  
• The Law of Desire (La Ley del Deseo)
  
  
• Live Flesh (Carne Tremula)
  
  
• Belle de Jour (Bella di giorno)
  
  
• Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto de Fauna)
  
  
• The Devil's Backbone (El Espinoza del Diablo)
  
  
• The Orphanage (El Orfanata)
  
  
• Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso)
  
  
• The Garden of the Fitzi-Continis (Il Gairdano dei Fitzi-Contini)
  
  
• I'm Not Scared (Io Non ho Paura)
  
  
• The Battle of Algiers (La Battaglia di Algeri)
  
  
• Das Boot (The Boat)
  
  
• Aimee and Jaguar
  
  
• Antibodies (Antikörper)
  
  
• M (Murderers Among Us)
  
  
• Metropolis
  
  
• Nosferatu (Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens)
  
  
• The Triplets of Belleville (Les Triplettes de Belleville)
  
  
• Elevator to the Gallows
  
  
• Les Comperes (Co-Fathers)
  
  
• Le Samourai
  
  
  
• The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste)
  
  
• Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer (Le Parfum - Histoire d'un Meurtrier)
  
  
• I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime)
  
  
• Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis)
  
  
• Diabolique (Les diaboliques)
  
  
• Ma Vie en Rose (My Life In Pink)
  
  
• Winged Migration (Le Peuple Migrateur)
  
  
• Amelie (Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain)
  
  
• The City of Lost Children (La cité des enfants perdus)
  
  
• Grand Illusion (La Grande Illusion)
  
  
• The 400 Blows (Le Quatre Cents Coups)
  
  
• Cyrano de Bergerac
  
  
• Queen Margot (La Reine Margot)
  
  
• Rififi
  
  
• Purple Noon (Plein Soleil)
  
  
• Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro)
  
  
• The Closet (Le Placard)
  
  
• Babette's Feast (Babettes gæstebud)
  
  
• Rabbit-Proof Fence
  
  
• The Magdalene Sisters
  
  
• Heavenly Creatures
  
  
• Saving Grace
  
  
• The Third Man
  
  
• Imagine Me & You
  
  
• Psycho
  
  
• Notorious
  
  
• Dial M For Murder
  
  
• Strangers on a Train
  
  
• North by Northwest
  
  
• Vertigo
  
  
• The Thirty-Nine Steps
  
  
• Kind Hearts and Coronets
  
  
• Bend It Like Beckham
  
  
• Run, Fat Boy, Run
  
  
• Keeping Mum
  
  
• Dirty Pretty Things
  
  
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
  
  
• The Night of The Hunter
  
  
• Harold and Maude
  
  
• Being There
  
  
• No Country For Old Men
  
  
• The Maltese Falcon
  
  
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf
  
  
• Born Yesterday
  
  
• From Here to Eternity
  
  
• The Manchurian Candidate
  
  
• In The Heat Of The Night
  
  
• A Scanner Darkly
  
  
• UHF (The Vidiot from UHF)
  
  
• Paths of Glory
  
  
• The Brother From Another Planet
  
  
• Fargo
  
  
• Dr. Strangelove (or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
  
  
• The Great Dictator
  
  
• Modern Times
  
  
• The Gold Rush
  
  
• To Kill A Mockingbird
  
  
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts
  
  
• Jungle Fever
  
  
• Basquiat
  
  
• Transamerica
  
  
• Brazil
  
  
• Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua para Chocolate)
  
  
• Europa, Europa (Hitlerjunge Salomon)
  
  
• The Constant Gardener
  
  
• Amadeus
  
  
• Great Expectations
  
  
• Monster
  
  
• Death At A Funeral
  
  
• The Lady Vanishes
  
  
• Out of The Past
  
  
• Peeping Tom
  
  
• Conspiracy
  
  
• Elizabeth R.
  
  
• Trick
  
  
• Witness For The Prosecution
  
  
• Night And The City
  
  
• Lord of the Rings I, II, III
  
  
• The Matrix
  
  
• The Man In The Glass Booth
  
  
• Twelve Monkeys
  
  
• Midnight Cowboy
  
  
• Jacob's Ladder
  
  
• Bad Santa
  
  
• Bubba Ho-tep
  
  
• O, Brother, Where Art Thou?
  
  
• Seabiscuit
  
  
• The Frighteners
  
  
• Withnail and I
  
  
• Sense and Sensibility
  
  
• Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
  
  
• Shaun of the Dead
  
  
• Awakenings
  
  
• The Importance of Being Earnest
  
  
• The Fugitive
  
  
• Breakfast on Pluto
  
  
• The Front Line
  
  
• Downfall (Der Untergang / The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich)
  
  
• Monsieur Klein
  
  
• The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (eder für sich und Gott gegen alle)
  
  
• Woyczek
  
  
• The Last Wave
  
  
• The Tracker
  
  
• Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte
  
  
• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
  
  
• Cape Fear
  
  
• 11:14

Happy Valentine's Day!

"heart 2010" (c) 2010 k smokey cormier

Snowfall in Washington, D.C.

Check this out .. time lapse of snowfall in Washington, D.C.

www.youtube.com

Time lapse video of the Feruary 5-6 snowfall in DC. Nikon D200 set to make an exposure every 5 minutes. 328 frames at 12 fps.

Patti Smith "Because the Night" acoustic

This is so good. Patti's voice is sooooo good in this video. I hate to be superficial (oh, yeah?) but she's lookin' good too. Sit back, relax ...



I saw her at Herbst Theater in San Francisco last week. Go here.