THE BLOGGER WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD

I know, I know...where the hell have I been, right? Living my life, probably. I told you guys I wasn't going to be consistent with this. As a matter of fact, I realize that the "you guys" I'm talking to right now are only the legion of voices trapped inside my own head. That's one reason I don't feel badly for going almost a year without a post. It's not like anyone was really clamoring to hear what I had to say in the first place, now was it? Anyway, I do have a lot of things to comment on and who knows? I may actually get to some of them. Here's a start:

RADIO IN THE MOVIES ( or why radio is NOT a visual medium in more ways than one!)

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I was in radio for over thirty years. I'm currently involved in the start-up of a new online radio station. I haven't thought much about radio or whether or not I missed it in a while and so it's been weird to dredge all this stuff up again...and amazingly, to find I actually still care about it. There's also a new movie out right now called Pirate Radio. Based on actual events if not an actual radio station, Pirate Radio (titled The Boat That Rocked in the UK) is about a group of illegal broadcasters back in the sixties and seventies and their run-ins with the music industry and the law. It's a great flick and that plus the online station got me to thinking about other movies about radio and when I realized that I couldn't think of that many, it got me researching movies about radio and I STILL didn't find as many as I thought there would be. As far as I can tell, there are less than twenty movies that feature radio as a primary part of the story. So, because I'm on vacation this week and because radio is so very much on my mind all of a sudden, I decided to make a list:

1. PIRATE RADIO (2009)
An ensemble comedy (titled The Boat That Rocked in the UK) in which the romance takes place between the young people of the '60s and pop music. It's about a band of rogue DJs that captivated Britain, playing the music that defined a generation and standing up to a government that, incomprehensibly, preferred jazz. Stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost (Simon Pegg’s sidekick in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) and Kenneth Branaugh.

2. FM (1978)
Believe it or not, this is the movie that made me want to be in radio. Q-SKY is the #1 radio station in Los Angeles mainly because of the music they play, and running the station the way they want to. It has led them to a ratings success. The movie focuses on the battle between Jeff and his corporate bosses, who want more advertising and less music. Stars Michael Brandon, Eileen Brennan, Martin Mull, Alex Karras and the late great Cleavon Little.

3. PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971)
In the city of Carmel, the popular disc-jockey David Garver has one night stand with Evelyn Draper, a strange he met in a bar after his show. The woman, indeed a deranged obsessed fan, stalks David and threatens his life, his girl-friend Tobie Williams, his friends and even his job. Starring Clint Eastwood, Jessica Walters and Donna Mills.

4. AMERICAN HOT WAX (1978)
This is the story loosely based on Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who introduced rock'n'roll to teenage American radio audiences in the 1950's. Freed was a source of great controversy: criticized by conservatives for corrupting youth with the "devil's music"; hated by racists for promoting African American music for white consumption; persecuted by law enforcement officials and finally brought down by the "payola" scandals. Stars Tim McIntire, Larraine Newman and Jay Leno as “Mookie”.

5. AIR HEADS (1994)
Chazz, Rex, and Pip are a band known as The Lone Rangers, and all they're looking for is some attention. But when they take over a radio station with fake guns in order to get their song played over the airwaves, they get a little more than they bargained for. Starring Adam Sandler, Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Chris Farley, Michael McKean, Judd Nelson and Ernie Hudson.

6. TALK RADIO (1988)
An acerbic radio talk show host based in Dallas starts what could be an important few days when he discovers that his controversial late night show is about to be "picked up" by a nationwide network of radio stations. However, all is not perfect for him, because on top of troubles with his love life and fears that the management of the network will try to alter the content of his show he has to cope with a neo-nazi group who have been angered by his forthright opinions. Starring Eric Bogosian, Ellen Greene and Alec Baldwin. Directed by Oliver Stone.

7. PUMP UP THE VOLUME (1990)
Mark is an intelligent but shy teenager who has just moved to Arizona from the East Coast. His parents give him a short-wave radio so he can talk to his pals, but instead he sets up shop as pirate deejay Hard Harry, who becomes a hero to his peers while inspiring the wrath of the local high school principal. When one of Harry's listeners commits suicide and Harry-inspired chaos breaks out at the school, the authorities are called in to put a stop to Harry's broadcasts. Stars Christian Slater.

TALK TO ME (2007)
The true life story of Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene Jr. In the mid-to-late 1960s, in Washington, D.C., vibrant soul music and exploding social consciousness were combining to unique and powerful effect. It was the place and time for Petey to fully express himself - sometimes to outrageous effect - and "tell it like it is." With the support of his irrepressible and tempestuous girlfriend Vernell, the newly minted ex-con talks his way into an on-air radio gig. He forges a friendship and a partnership with fellow prison inmate Milo's brother Dewey Hughes. Through the years, Petey's "The truth just is" style --- on - and off-air - would redefine both Petey and Dewey, and empower each to become the man he would most like to be. Starring Don Cheadle.

8. PRIVATE PARTS (1997)
I am not now nor have I ever been a huge Howard Stern fan. That said, this is a surprisingly tender film that, at its heart is a valentine to Stern’s then-wife Alison. Having always wanted to be a disc-jockey, Howard Stern works his way painfully from radio at his 1970's college station to a big Detroit station. It is with a move to Washington that he hits on an outrageous off-the-wall style that catches audience attention. Despite his on-air blue talk, at home he is a loving husband. He needs all the support he can get when he joins NBC in New York and comes up against a very different vision of radio. Starring Howard Stern, Mary McCormack, Paul Giamatti and Stern’s real-life radio team.

9. J-MEN FOREVER (1979)
I LOVE this movie. Phil Procter and Peter Bergman of the comedy troupe Firesign Theatre piece together scraps of old Saturday morning serials to create a new story, nothing like the one their creator’s originally intended! The Lightning Bug has a multi-prong scheme to enslave the earth. First, he creates a crack airstaff of mind-controlled disc jockeys (really, is there any other kind?) to blast the world with rock and roll, then once everyone is distracted by the music, he introduces marijuana. New dialogue and creative editing make this film a late night classic. Starring Proctor and Bergman and the original series stars from the forties.

10. THE NIGHT LISTENER (2006)
Radio host Gabriel Noone, begins by telling his intriguing life stories to his night listeners. A book agent gives Gabriel an unpublished book, written by a 14-year old boy, Pete Boland. Pete's book is about the abused childhood and suffering he went through at the hands of his parents and their friends. Gabriel talks to Pete on the phone and begins to bond with Pete, but things are very strange when Gabriel tries to meet Pete and discovers that there is a possibility that Pete may not exist. Starring Robin Williams, Toni Collette, Rory Culkin and Joe Morton.

11. RADIO DAYS (1987)
One of the few Woody Allen films not to feature himself, Radio Days is the story of several generations of a family packed into a pre-War Rockaway house that always have the radio on. The fearless Masked Avenger, breakfast-show socialites (and philanderers) Roger and Irene, and Sally the Cigarette Girl are almost important as, say, whether the Pacific is a better ocean than the Atlantic, or even what your dad actually does for a living. Starring a huge cast that includes Julie Kavner, Wallace Shawn and Seth Green.

12. BAD CHANNELS (1992)
Like J-Men Forever, I’ve used a lot of drops from this one at various radio stations over the years. An alien lands in a small town and promptly takes over the local radio station. The disk jockey, Dan O' Dare, well known for his publicity stunts, becomes a hostage. The alien uses the radio station and Dan's amused audience to target and subsequently shrink women for his collection. Stars MTV’s Martha Quinn.

13. AMERICAN GRAFITTI (1973)
It's the last night of the summer in 1962 before Curt Henderson and his good friend Steve Bolander have to leave their small town and start college. Throughout a night of cruising, drag racing, fights, and picking up girls, punctuated by popular music of the time, they both struggle with whether or not they have made the right decision and confront the reality of approaching adulthood. What’s the radio connection? How about when Curt sneaks into the local station to get romantic advice from Wolfman Jack? Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Charles Martin Smith, Harrison Ford, MacKenzie Phillips, Paul LeMat, Wolfman Jack, Kathleen Quinlan and Suzanne Somers as the Woman in White. Written and directed by George Lucas.

14. POWER 98 (1996)
Has anyone EVER heard of this movie before? Karlin Pickett is a Los Angeles disc jockey who shocks his audience with outrageous stunts and crude jokes. Jon Price is a young DJ who joins the show. When women start turning up dead and the alleged killer keeps calling the station, the ratings go sky high and the cops begin looking for clues on Power 98. Stars Eric Roberts, Jason Gedrick and 90210’s Jennie Garth.

15. WUSA (1970)
How about that? A film so obscure IMDB doesn’t even have a poster for it! They barely even have a listing! But look at that cast! This movie must really have sucked to be so under the radar with this bunch attached to it. Rheinhardt, a cynical drifter, gets a job as an announcer for right-wing radio station WUSA in New Orleans. Rheinhardt is content to parrot WUSA's reactionary editorial stance on the air, even if he doesn't agree with it. And when events start spinning out of control, even Rheinhardt finds he must take a stand. Stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Anthony Perkins, Pat Hingle and Cloris Leachman.

16. PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION (2006)
"A Prairie Home Companion", is a down home radio variety show recorded and performed live in front of an audience in a theater in St. Paul, Minnesota. A show from another era, "A Prairie Home Companion" has been canceled. The regulars are performing on the last show, including Dusty & Lefty, singing/guitar playing cowboys with a risqué sense of humor, and the Johnson Girls, a sister singing duo of Rhonda and Yolanda who have a penchant for talking over each other. As the show goes on, the regulars, backstage, talk about their lives in relation to the show. Starring Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, Virginia Madsen, John C. Reilly, Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin. Directed by Robert Altman.

So, what do you think? Most of these synopsis came from our friends at the Internet Movie DataBase, so don't blame me if you don't like them. The real question is, did I leave any out? Don't hit me with stuff like A Star is Born or O Brother Where Art Thou or Coal Miner's Daughter that just had DJ's in them. We're looking for movies about radio...And yes, I realize that that definition could arguably disqualify American Graffiti, but those kids had the radio on for that entire flick and Wolfman had more lines that half the cast, so as far as I'm concerned, it stays. Do your homework and who knows? Maybe by the time I come back to this blog (hopefully not in another year!), we'll have some additions to the list.

THE ONLY THING THAT TRULY CHANGES...IS CHANGE

As I’ve mentioned before, I teach high school drama. And as part of my Drama classes, I cover classic films. I figure if someone is going to claim to be a “student of the theatre”, then they should at the very least be familiar with the actors and directors and movies that came before. If for no other reason than so they recognize a re-make when they see one and have a frame of reference for it.

Last week we watched the John Huston/Humphrey Bogart classic “The Maltese Falcon”, the film that almost single-handedly invented the private eye movie, based on the book that almost single-handedly invented the mystery novel. The kids enjoyed it (interesting to note that high school students like Bogart-go figure) and we had a good time breaking it down and discussing it. But that’s not what I’m really here to talk about…not really.

You see coincidentally, just as we were beginning our discussion of the film, my next door neighbor gave me a box of old books, one of which was an omnibus edition of old Dashiell Hammett novels, including “The Maltese Falcon”. Since I’d never read the book, I thought it would be fun to read it while we were watching the movie. The amazing thing I discovered as I read and watched almost simultaneously, is that the dialogue in the book and the dialogue in the film are almost exactly the same. They didn’t change anything! These days almost the minute a book gets optioned they start trying to figure out how to expand the story beyond the book, to make it more visual, more of an eye-candy feast for the generation that grew up on MTV and video games. They say the book is always better than the movie…I say this is mainly because the book is a different story than the movie, one with words and depth and complexity, not comic book visuals and change for the sake of change.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, there are a few changes in “The Maltese Falcon”. A few scenes get flipped around or tacked onto one another to cut down on sets or additional shooting, but the scenes are still there, and that’s truly refreshing, especially for someone who almost never sees the movie without having read the book first.

Now that’s not to say that back in the forties they never changed anything. Another of my favorite Bogey movies is “Key Largo”, which is based on an award-winning play. I ordered a copy of the play once with the intention of producing it on-stage, only to discover once it arrived that the only similarities between the movie and the play were the title, the location, the main character’s first name and not much else. And it’s one of those rare cases where I like the movie better! It’s not only that it’s a different story, it’s a better story. But unfortunately, that’s what seldom happens.

Sometimes changes are a good thing when switching mediums. One of the reasons I believe most films based on Stephen King books don’t turn out very well is that most of what makes them great is the descriptive power of King’s prose; he brings you into his character’s thoughts and motivations in a way that doesn’t translate to the screen. Film-makers like Rob Reiner (Misery, Stand By Me) and Frank Darabont (The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption) understand this about King’s work and have a talent for working around these issues. Others, like the poor fools who made “Lawnmower Man” just rip off King’s title and go off on their own. The one time someone tried to be faithful to a King book, 1984’s “Firestarter” directed by Mark Lester, it turned out poorly; an absolute yawn fest, despite an outstanding cast that included George C. Scott and Martin Sheen and a bravura performance by a young Drew Barrymore. Ironically, the one place they did change from the book, when they changed the newspaper Charlie goes to from Rolling Stone to the New York Times, doesn’t work for precisely the reasons King gave in the book for picking Rolling Stone in the first place.

So what’s the answer? Well, there’s not a blanket answer that will work in every situation, that’s part of the problem. King’s books need to be adjusted for the reasons mentioned above, Neil Gaiman is currently defending the changes in the movie “Coraline” from his original story because so much of the early parts of the book are spent in Coraline’s head and won’t translate visually unless she has the new character of Wybie to talk to. Zack Snyder, on the other hand is working very hard to make his version of “Watchmen” into a visual comic book because the original material is just so perfect the way Alan Moore wrote it and Dave Gibbons drew it.

The truth of it is, movie people change books. It’s a fact of the industry. It’s one of the ways a screenwriter proves that he’s an actual storyteller and not just someone who turns prose into dialogue. And sometimes, like with “The Fellowship of the Ring”, the book is just too damn long! The secret is to change only what is necessary and not just for the sake of change, like they do in many TV adaptations, from “The Dresden Files” to the newly-minted “Legend of the Seeker”, currently running syndication, where I sometimes swear they make changes from the books just to piss fans off. Make sure that you adapt, not re-write and keep in the spirit of what made the book worth making a film of in the first place.

Change is good and should be embraced. Change simply for the sake of change is creative masturbation and will make you go blind (trust me, there have been studies!). I guess the message to Hollywood is to make sure that “your” change doesn’t make “me” change…the channel.

NOT QUITE 25 OTHER THINGS ABOUT ME...

Are you on Facebook? I am. And one of the things that’s been going around over there for the last couple of weeks now is a chain letter called “25 Things About Me” in which you jot down 25 little known facts about yourself for people to read to get to know you better.

Now when my buddy Earl Newton tagged me with his note, I spent several days agonizing what I’d write and what I’d reveal. I put it down carefully, re-writing some things and rearranging the order until it satisfied my sense of honesty as well as my sense of the dramatic. I posted the thing the other day (feel free to check it out on my Facebook page if you’re able) and immediately began to get notes and comments from friends and acquaintances. Most of them were quite nice and well-intentioned, but I was alarmed at how many folks thought my list was a thinly veiled cry for help. Like I’d ever “thinly veil” anything! What really knocked me off my pins, however, was when my friend Dave Chancellor banged his own list out two hours later (two hours!)…and I liked his list better than mine! Not that I like Dave’s life better than mine, but mainly because Dave’s list was funny and touching whereas I did what I usually do when presented with a opportunity for self-examination, I jumped into the deep end of the navel-gazing pool and got as introspective as was humanly possible.

I guess that’s just me (number 26!). I find it extremely easy to cannibalize my own soul and present it for entertainment purposes, usually with fries and a drink. We’re not going to examine the rationale for that behavior (I’ve gazed at my navel long enough, thanks). Instead, using the Dave Chancellor model, I’ve rewritten my list and since I can’t replace the list I’ve already put out into the world, let’s call this one: Not Quite 25 Other Things About Me. Read on, if you dare:

1. I collected comic books from the time I was 5 until I was thirty and still own over 600 of them.

2. I took piano lessons for two years and the only thing I can play is “Lean On Me”.

3. My first role on-stage was The King of the Calendar in second grade.

4. My imaginary friend is Benjamin Franklin. For years when I had a particularly difficult problem, I would work it out by talking to “Ben”.

5. The original version of the movie “The Omen” scared the living beejeezus out of me.

6. I enjoy reading about American Revolution and Civil War history.

7. My favorite literary character is Robin Hood.

8. I would rather be Batman than Superman.

9. In thirty-five years of being on-stage and almost 100 plays, I have only had two on-stage kisses.

10. I cry at Hallmark commercials.

11. My personal heroes are my dad, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Pretty much in that order.

12. I would vote for Bill Clinton again (watch-THIS is the one I’ll get comments on!)

13. I would rather be Han Solo than James T. Kirk.

14. The only regret I have in life is marrying my third wife.

15. I was once the Vice President of my high school’s Young Republican chapter.

16. I have never smoked a cigarette of ANY KIND in my life.

17. My dad gave me my first beer.

18. Reading “The Lord of the Rings” for the first time when I was fourteen changed my life.

19. I was a Grand National Champion Public Speaker for DECA when I was 17.

20. I saw Elvis in concert the year before he died.

21. I would rather be with Maryann than Ginger, Betty than Veronica and Janet rather than Chrissy (and if you don’t know who those people are, you aren’t old enough to be reading my blog anyway!)

Well, if nothing else I think this list is more fun than the first one. Both lists are true and are 100% affected by the mood I was in when I wrote them. Which I guess illustrates not only how little we know one another and how much less we know ourselves. That’s good to know, but if Dave writes another list and it’s better than mine, I’m liable to get all maudlin and introspective again and you know how painful that can be.

NO GOING BACK...

So, I went to see that new Clint Eastwood movie, "Gran Torino" on Friday. A really good movie; Eastwood was his usual brilliant self, chewing up the scenery with septugenarian abandon, the story was good and the whole thing was so hysterically un-PC that you couldn't help laugh, from embarrassment if nothing else. And while I appreciate Mr. Eastwood casting actual Hmong people living in the U.S. as his supporting cast, I wish one or two of them had been better actors. Still, a fun time at the multiplex and I recommend the movie wholeheartedly.

Unfortunately "Gran Torino" is not what this column is about. At least, not specifically. What I'm getting at, in my usual meandering fashion is that while I was sitting there enjoying the movie, I couldn't help but notice that I was the youngest person in the place. "Look at this," I thought. "It must be the Early Bird Special showing or something. I'll bet if everyone pulled out their AARP cards all at once, the wind would knock the screen down!" Then, I realized something else. No one was looking at me funny. No one was wondering why this "kid" was sitting in a movie so obviously geared to the senior crowd. As far as they were concerned, I Was One Of Them.

Now, I'm fifty-one. I acknowledge that. I own it. I am well aware that there is probably more road behind me in this life than in front of me. Not much more I hope, but more. Still, when you get down to how old I actually feel...how old I think of myself down deep in my heart of hearts, I probably think of myself as around thirty-five or forty. Not young I realize, but certainly, comfortably "middle-aged". A thirty-five year old can still date women in their twenties, a forty year old can still play a pick-up game of basketball and not embarrass himself. A fifty-one year old, especially a fifty-0ne year old couch potato who's idea of an athletic event is a brisk walk to the mailbox can do neither of those things...at least not well.

In my play "Last Charge of the Light Brigade", the lead character Sam Kincaid (who looks and acts an awful lot like the author) makes the statement, "I believe you're as young as you feel. And I try to feel a young person at least once a day!". A comment said with tongue in cheek to be sure, but not without some truth. I spend a lot of time with young people. My kids, my students (I teach high school, remember?) and many of the people I do theatre with are younger if not much younger than I am and I relate to a lot of what they have going on. Oh, I'm surely past most of the sturm and drang of their love lives and the teen angst of trying to fit in and find a place in the world, but I still understand it, a lot better than I do 401K's and high blood pressure and prostate exams and AARP cards. My dad, who is eighty-one (and probably thinks of himself as a spry sixty-one) likes to say, "Just because there's snow on the roof, don't mean there's not a fire in the hearth!". That's good for him, but I say "Hey, where in the hell did all that damn snow come from anyway?"

I do have gray hair. Well, what hair I still have is turning gray, anyway. I have gray at the temples like Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four (what I like to call my whitewalls) and I have a gray beard. An almost totally gray beard. I dyed it brown back in my forties, mainly because I was dating a much younger woman and didn't want to remind her of her father, but these days I wear it proudly because I think of it as "premature" gray. It's not...I can admit that in an intellectual sense if not an emotional one...but since the hair on top of my head is still brown, I can allow myself the half truth. Of course, the quickly receding hairline doesn't help, and neither does that fact that as the hair stops growning on my head it starts growing in my ears and out of my nose and my eyebrows... well, you get the point, everywhere else.

Youth is wasted on the young. It's true. If I had half the energy to pursue the things I now understand I want, I'd be king of the world. If I only understood back then that I was not immortal and that time does goes by frighteningly fast, then maybe I would have gotten my ass up and gotten something done with my life sooner. That's the other thing about getting older. Your eyesight gets dim, but your hindsight gets razor sharp.

I guess the important thing is to take advantage of what time you have when you have it. If I want to accomplish something with my life, then I should do it and not sit around whining about how life has passed me by. I'm still young enough to get up every morning and push through to the truth of my life and the honesty of who I am. I may not be Merlin or Benjamin Button and be able to live my life backwards, but I can live my life forwards with purpose and dignity and not waste any more time bitching about the time I've already wasted.

I'm fifty-one years old. When my dad turned fifty, I gave him a birthday card that read, "So now that you're fifty, you have to give up half your sex life. Which half are you gonna give up? Talking about it or thinking about it?" Of course the point is, you don't have to give up any of it. You just have to reach out and take it and ride the pony for all that it's worth.

Which I'm gonna do. Right after I fill out this AARP card application. And have some warm milk. And maybe a nap...

(ALMOST) TWENTY GREAT MOVIES YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF (part two)

Ok, I’m all rested and relaxed and ready to finish my list of movies you’ve never really heard of, but really ought to see. Ready? Here we go…

11. J-MEN FOREVER (1979) Back in the late seventies, Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman of the highly subversive, extremely funny comedy troupe Firesign Theatre took a stack of old movie serials from the thirties and forties…you know, those old chapter plays that ran all day every Saturday at the local movie house in the days before television…chopped them up and put them back together into one feature length film with entirely new dialogue and story and put it out as a bizarre tale of sex, drugs, rock and roll, alien invasion and superhero lunacy. For years the only version of this movie was a highly edited one that used to run on the old USA NightFlight show on the USA network. Then somebody found an uncorrupted copy in a vault somewhere and now it’s available for everyone on DVD. Definitely an acquired taste, but worth the trouble.

12. LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN (2006) A highly commercial film that no one saw, mainly because the plot is not easy to explain, this crime caper stars Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor, Wicker Park) as a young man not named Slevin who gets mistakenly caught up in a power struggle between two ruthless ganglords, played by Ben Kingsley (Ghandi) and Morgan Freeman (The Bucket List, Wanted). Also starring Lucy Liu (Kill Bill, Charlie’s Angels) and Bruce Willis (Die Hard, Pulp Fiction), the is-he or isn’t-he twist and turn and back again nature of this film will keep you guessing all the way til the end.

13. THE MATADOR (2005) Pierce Brosnan (Nomads, Tailor of Panama) is Julien Nobles, a hit man going through a mid-life crisis. In Mexico City, he befriends stricken businessman Danny Wright, played by Greg Kinnear (As Good As It Gets) and the two forge an unlikely friendship that includes Danny’s wife Bean played by Hope Davis (Mumford). Largely a character study of two totally disparate personality types, Brosnan goes totally against his James Bond stereotype in an entertaining tale of friendship and trust.

14. MUMFORD (1999) I love this movie. Written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, Silverado), this is the story of a disgraced IRS investigator played by Loren Dean (Enemy of the State, Gattaca) who shows up in the small town of Mumford pretending to be a psychiatrist named…Mumford. An all-star cast featuring Hope Davis (The Matador) Jason Lee (Dogma, tv’s My Name is Earl), Alfre Woodard (Take the Lead, tv’s Desperate Housewives), Ted Danson (tv’s Cheers), Mary McDonnell (Dances With Wolves, tv’s Battlestar Galactica), Zooey Deschanel (Elf), David Paymer (Ocean’s 13) and others in a mistaken identity mix-up of a romantic comedy that satisfies from beginning to end.

15. NEAR DARK (1987) A cult classic of no small measure, this vampire flick co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Lance Henrickson (Aliens), Adrian Pasdar (tv’s Heroes), Bill Paxton (Apollo 13, Twister, tv’s Big Love) and B-movie staple TimThomerson (Trancers) is an old west take on a gothic theme and while it doesn’t always make sense and the ending is weak, it’s largely a lot of fun.

16. NOMADS (1986) This stylish horror flick is notable not only because it's a well-crafted yarn that scared the beejesus out of me when I saw it in theatres, but because it was written and directed by a pre-Die Hard John McTiernan (Die Hard, Thomas Crown Affair) and stars a pre-007 Pierce Brosnan (Matador, Thomas Crown Affair) who starred in the film during hiatus from his work on tv's Remington Steele. Lesley-Anne Down (tv's the Bold and the Beautiful) got top billing for this film as the ER doc who gets downloaded with the dying memories of Brosnan's French anthropologist Jean Charles Pommier. Witty and slick with a neat little twist at the end, Nomads also features British rocker Adam Ant in non-speaking role as the leader of the bad guys.

17. REAL GENIUS (1985) Val Kilmer (The Saint, Batman Forever) followed his debut in the absurd Top Secret with this totally superior comedy directed by Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl) and co-starring 80's character mainstay William Atherton (Die Hard I&II, Ghostbusters) in a story that promises... "When he gets mad, he doesn't get even-he gets creative". One of my favorite comedies ever and some of Kilmer's best work, including the line, "I was just thinking of the last words of Socrates which were 'I drank what?".

18. SUNSHINE (2007) A tight and stylish sci-fi flick that totally slipped under almost everybody's radar, Sunshine proved that director Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) had a career that went far beyond zombies. Cillian Murphy (Red Eye, Batman Begins) and Chris Evans (both Fantastic Four movies) star in this story of man's first trip to the sun.

19. SUNSHINE STATE (2002) I could easily have listed Silver City, Passion Fish, Brother From Another Planet, Return of the Secaucus Seven...basically any movie by writer/director John Sayles is worth watching over and over. This one stars Edie Falco (The Sopranos), Angela Bassett (What's Love Got to Do With It, Strange Days) and Oscar-winners Mary Steenburgen (Melvin and Howard, Time After Time) and Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People, Falcon and the Snowman) in a quirky little character study about real estate in Florida.

Well, that should do it. I know there are many more. List your favorites and I'll make another list one day after I've watched them. In the meantime, watch these and let me know what you think.

(ALMOST) TWENTY GREAT MOVIES YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF (part one).

NOTE: I sat down yesterday and wrote this anger-laden tirade about some of the things that were pissing me off in the entertainment industry, but I got called away from the computer before I finished it and by the time I came back, I was over it. This is called Switching Horses in Mid-stream.

Since I did promise, however, to make this blog mostly about entertainment and popular culture, I will share with you a list that I have of really great movies that you probably have not only never seen, you've probably never heard of. There are all sorts of little films that fly under the radar and don't get noticed by any large group of folks. Some of them do get some small mention at awards time, but most of them just sail on through high in the hopes that someone finds them through Netflix or Blockbuster. These are great movies, but either because of poor marketing of a lack of commerciality, no one noticed them. Well, I noticed them, my friend...and I'm gonna tell you all about them. Here, in roughly alphabetical order, are almost twenty of them:

1. BOBBY (2006) Written and directed by Emilio Estevez. son of Martin Sheen, brother of Charlie Sheen and ex-husband of Paula Abdul, this is a wonderful film about the twenty-four hours leading up to the assassination of Bobby Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan, not through the eyes of Mr. Kennedy, but through the eyes of a group of ordinary people connected only by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Featuring a large ensemble cast that includes William H. Macy, Lawrence Fishburne, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, Shia Lebouef and believe it or not, Lindsay Lohan, this film uses actual news footage as well as it's fictional characters to illustrate one of the saddest moments in our nation's history.

2. BRAZIL (1985) Directed by Monty Python vet Terry Gilliam, this bizarre dystopian urban fantasy features Jonathan Pryce (Something Wicked This Way Comes, Pirates of the Caribbean), Robert DeNiro (Raging Bull), Katherine Helmond (tv's Who's the Boss), Ian Holm (Brazil, The Fifth Element), Bob Hoskins (Who Framed Roger Rabbitt), Jim Broadbent (Hot Fuzz, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) and the cream of the English acting community in a story about one man fighting for the personal freedom we all deserve. Funny, strange and not for everybody, you'll be talking about this one for weeks after you've seen it (even if only to ask others what it was about).

3. BRICK (2005) Call it "high school noir". In this modern day mystery, writer/director Rian Johnson creates a word where teenagers all talk like Sam Spade and the name of the game is drugs, sex and death. Joseph Gordon-Levitt shines on-screen alongside Emilie DeRavin (Lost), Lukas Haas and Richard Roundtree (Shaft).

4. BUBBA HO-TEP (2002) King of the B's Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness) plays Elvis Presley thought long-dead by the world at large but living as an Elvis impersonator in a Texas nursing home and brilliant character actor Ossie Davis is Jack, a black man whose elderly body houses the brain of John F. Kennedy who team up to fight off (what else?) a mummy in this off-beat comedy written and directed by Don Coscarelli. Low budget and low brow, this is just wicked, wicked fun. Rumor has it, Coscarelli is planning a sequel called Bubba Nosferatu, but Campbell has been replaced as the King by Hellboy actor Ron Perlman.

5. BUCKAROO BANZAI IN THE 8TH DIMENSION (1984) Another weird one, Buckaroo stars Peter Weller (Robocop) as the title character a scientist/neurosurgeon/rock star who fends off the world conquering ways of the 8th Dimension Lectroids, led by John Bigbootie played with amazing energy by John Lithgow (The World According to Garp, tv's Third Rock From the Sun). Also starring Ellen Barkin (Oceans 13) and Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic Park, Independence Day) from the days when you weren't allowed to make a sci-fi film that Jeff Goldblum wasn't in.

6. CASANOVA (2005) Ok, this one you might have heard of. Since Heath Ledger's death last year, this little indie by Lasse Hallstrom has gotten much more attention though at the time of it's release it was totally over-shadowed by another Ledger vehicle, a little film you may have heard of called Brokeback Mountain. I much prefer this gem, however, the story of the mad Italian lover who only wants to settle down with Sienna Miller (Factory Girl) and leave the Lothario lifestyle behind. Also stars Mrs. Lasse Hallstrom AKA Lena Olin (Chocolat, tv's Alias) Oliver Platt (A Time to Kill) and Charlie Cox (Stardust).

7. CASHBACK (2006) What a wonderful film! Based on an Academy Award-winning short film by Sean Ellis (who also wrote and directed here), Cashback is the story of an insomniac artist played by Sean Biggerstaff (no jokes!) who discovers he can freeze time and move between the seconds to find love and happiness once again. This film probably features the most tasteful nudity I have ever seen depicted on-screen. Ever.

8. EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS (1983) Martin Davidson co-wrote and directed this rock and roll mystery of the life and times of Eddie Wilson (Michael Pare'-The Philadelphia Experiment) who disappeared and was presumed dead in an automobile crash at the height of his fame and fortune. Is he really dead or just in hiding? And whatever happened to that last legendary album that disappeared with him? Bandmates Tom Berenger (Platoon, The Big Chill) and the outstanding Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos) and reporter Ellen Barkin (Buckaroo Banzai) are on the trail of all the answers in one of the first films to earn it's sequel almost solely based on video sales alone (The sequel by the way, is awful!)

9. FREQUENCY (2000) Dennis Quaid (Vantage Point, Any Given Sunday) and Jim Caveziel (The Passion of the Christ) star in this immensely satisfying story that combines time travel and the aurora borealis for a part-action/part-mystery sci-fi tale of father and son bonding across the years. Good stuff. Also stars Noah Emmerich (The Truman Show) and Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Streets).

10. HAPPY, TEXAS (1999) An undiscovered cult classic, this one stars Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn, That Thing You Do) and Jeremy Northram (Gosford Park) as escaped cons who hide out in Happy as the extemely gay pagent coordinators of a children's beauty pageant. Confusion begats comedy in great performances by William H. Macy (Bobby) and Ally Walker (Universal Soldier, tv's Profiler). Co-written and directed by Mark Illsley who mortgaged his own house to pay for the film.

I'm tired so I'm stopping here. I'll deliver the other half of the list later. In the meantime, feel free to disagree with me or suggest movies that I've left out. Thanks.

WHAT I DID ON MY CHRISTMAS VACATION

Hey look, I'm back! Yeah, I figure I'll be pretty good about this for at least the first month or so, then we'll see. Despite my insistence yesterday that I was writing this for myself, the best way to get me to keep at this is if you comment at the bottom or sign up as a "follower" of these poorly thought-out meanderings. I know me...if I think I have an audience, I'll be here everyday and twice on Sunday (always a matinee on Sunday) to bask in that spotlight.

BACK TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND.

As a school teacher, I really look forward to the Christmas break. The first semester is almost over (should be over, if you want my opinion but that's a discussion for another day), I'm usually coming off at least two shows (three this year) and am largely exhausted. So for those two and a half weeks of holiday-inspired bliss, I don't want to do anything. At least, not anything that I don't want to do.

And largely, I got my wish. Oh, I worked a little on the online class I'm taking for work (sixty hours on how to teach Drama to students who don't speak English. What a thrill fest!) and I finished a script for Earl Newton at Stranger Things (www.strangerthings.tv), but beyond that, I have accomplished very little. My family all came down the weekend of December 13 to see me play Scrooge in the annual production of A Christmas Carol at the University of West Florida, so I wasn't obligated to visit anyone on Christmas, nor were they obligated to visit me. Christmas for me, was finished by the time the break ever began. And I thought that's exactly what I wanted.

But somewhere along the way...the unthinkable happened. I got bored! After looking forward for so long to collapsing into my recliner and shuffling off into a coma with drool on my chin and a movie on the flat screen, I was bored! I couldn't believe it! I had used my latent super powers to slow time and make the break last forever and I wasn't enjoying it! See, I really like my own company. I have no problem with it if I don't see another person I know for an entire weekend or even an entire week. I live alone, I don't date and I don't feel the need to make the pizza delivery guy my new best friend. I do have a cat, a brindle and white egomaniacal monster named Loki, who like all cats thinks I live for the purpose of providing his every need, but unless he's hungry or up for a game of Let's Throw the Dried Poop at the Guy Who Has to Clean It Up, we leave each other pretty much alone.

By this point, however a certain lethargy had set in. I was bored, but I was also totally unmotivated. I did a few things...cleaned up around the house a bit, did some laundry. Had my Annual Christmas Brew with the boys and watched some DVDs but I was still bored. My friends Mark and Sherry found out that I was spending the holidays alone and invited me over for both Christmas and New Years, which I was hesitant about since I was brought up believing that Christmas is for family and you don't intrude on other people's family, but both evenings turned out to be a lot of fun. I also wound up driving to New Orleans the day after Christmas and spending the day with my youngest, Sara and her boyfriend Trevor, which was also fun and on the way back from New Orleans, I stopped off for a while at an Open House being given by my friend Carol. More fun.

You can see the pattern, right? All these little islands of fun and frolic surrounded by what? Boredom and Lethargy. What the hell was up with that? Part of it, I suppose is the season. Despite the fact that I had seen my folks and all my kids and grandkids just two weeks earlier, Christmas was still a time for family and I was alone. I have been single for a long time now and don't even date anymore (another extremely long story-I'll tell you about it sometime) and if I ever despair the lack of feminine companionship, it is almost always at the holidays when people who love each other are supposed to be reminded of why they love each other and what that means. I can usually handle the holiday depression but this year it was unexpectedly combined with the death of my elderly neighbor, Dennis and that has affected me far more than I thought it would. Dennis is/was a full-blooded Sioux indian, a direct descendant of Crazy Horse himself and even though he's been brutally ill these last several years, he was always full of life. And what an amazing life it was. I'm not going to audition to be his biographer or anything, but sometimes it seemed like Dennis had been everywhere and done everything and to lose him like that, just before Christmas at the young age of 79, was and is a blow. His memorial service is this afternoon; a big Native American tribute at the Temple Mound museum and I'll be there, saying good-bye to this special individual who was my friend and doing what I can for his wife. Rest in Peace, my friend. Go with God.

So, what did I do on my Christmas vacation? Well, aside from what I have already mentioned, I saw a lot of movies. In the theatres I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (loved it!) and The Spirit (what a disappointment!) and may see Valkyrie this afternoon after the memorial. I also saw Burn After Reading (loved it), Elf (typical Will Farrell, which for me, is starting to get old), The Holiday (the kind of movie Jack Black should make more often), Tropic Thunder (the kind of movie Jack Black should take a break from, though Robert Downey Jr. was amazing!), The Dark Knight (again), Rescue Dawn (is it just me, or does Christian Bale talk funny in all of his movies?), both the Harold and Kumar movies (first one was funny, second one just gross), Made of Honor (a male remake of My Best Friend's Wedding), Serenity, Predator 2 and an old Pierce Brosnan horror movie from his days as Remington Steele called Nomads, that is worth watching because, aside from being a great flick, it was the movie John McTiernan made right before a little film called Die Hard and action movies changed forever.

And that, for the most part is my Christmas vacation. My present I suppose, was wrapped in that old Chinese proverb, Be Careful What You Wish For. A little solitude goes a long way and we are primarily social beings. I'll try to remember that in future. In the meantime, school starts back up tomorrow and I have only one question. How many days til Spring Break?