Quiddity

Movies I'm watching

I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982): Jill Clayburgh plays a documentary filmmaker who is addicted to Valium.  She decides she's going to quit taking drugs cold turkey and the results are, well, not good.  Soon she's having weird convulsions on the beach and becomes obsessed with ghost triangles on her apartment wall.  I kept waiting for her to belt out "I'm so excited...I'm so scared" to her alcoholic boyfriend, as he went on another rant about God knows what.  The best part about this movie is a very young Joe Pesci who plays a mental patient who wants to take Jill's character to Uranus.  2 Stars.   

The Kids are Alright (2010): I really liked this film until the ending, which I HATED!!!  It felt so phony and rushed.  I also didn't think it was fair to Paul.  Also, who names their kid Laser?  You know the parents probably have serious issues if they give their kids over the top names like Laser.  It also bugged me how Nic's alcoholism was kind of just swept under the rug.  Nothing was resolved in this film.  It had good music though.  2 and 1/2 Stars.  Would have gotten 3, if it weren't for the ending.

Daybreakers (2009):  Zzzzzz....Zzzzzzzz.  1 Star.  Willem Dafoe needed to be in the movie more.  

Days of Wine and Roses (1962): I really liked this movie.  It's one of Blake Edwards serious films focusing on an alcoholic couple (Jack Lemmon & Lee Remick) trying unsuccessfully to get sober together.  A lot of the scenes were heartbreaking to watch (especially the greenhouse scene).  4 Stars.

Sugar Hill (1974):  It's a seventies blaxploitation zombie movie!!!  Hell yeah!  Sugar raises a zombie army (with the help of Mama Jefferson and Don Pedro Colley) to help her kill the bastards who killed her man.  This movie is so much fun if you don't take it seriously.  I loved the look of the zombies, too, with their cobwebs and metallic ping pong eyes.  I nearly died laughing at the men in loud, glittery leisure suits who felt the need to disguise themselves by  pantyhose as they went back to kill Sugar's boyfriend (as if no one would remember those hideous suits).  Definitely worth checking out.  3 Stars.

Bad Science in Space Movies

Here's a report card for bad movie science in space movies.  They didn't even bother with Star Trek.

Going old-school with Batman

I LOVE this vintage French poster for the old Batman & Robin Serials.  And be sure to check out these posters from the original Batman movie (the best one).

Vintage Phone Books

Great collection of phone books from the sixties.

Link via everlasting blort.

Paris Metro

Fascinating write-up about exploring the Paris Metro system after dark.  The pictures are amazing.

Link via bldgblog.

Global Temperature Changes by Decade

Here is a collection of maps from NASA's Earth Observatory Site that shows by decade (spanning from 1880 to 2009) how the Earth is getting warmer.

In the analysis, the years from 1880 to 1950 tend to appear cooler (more blues than reds), growing less cool as we move toward the 1950s. Decades within the base period do not appear particularly warm or cold because they are the standard against which all decades are measured. The leveling off between the 1940s and 1970s may be explained by natural variability and possibly by cooling effects of aerosols generated by the rapid economic growth after World War II.

Link via the map room.

Summit Fever

Abandoned on Everest is an interesting post about the dead bodies that have been left behind on the famous mountain.  Sometimes people will come across someone who is dying and will just keep going.

Link via linkmachinego.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in Gingerbread

This gingerbread house version of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater is impressive.  I'm a Scrooge because I refuse to make gingerbread houses in my classroom.  Too messy.

Link via neatorama.

Octowreath

Octowreath.

Movies I'm watching

Vahalla Rising (2009): "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ah.  We come from the land of the ice and snow!"  I rented this movie because I love Mads Mikkelsen and I LOVED the Pusher trilogy.  However, I must warn you, the trailer for this film is kind of misleading.  This movie ain't all about the blood and gore, so if that's the only reason you have for watching this film, skip it.  Vahalla Rising is all about religion and fate.  It's a viking movie on acid, but with actually very little fighting.  Mikkelsen plays One-Eye, an enslaved viking warrior with the power to see into the future.  He escapes his captors and joins a group of Christians who are going on a crusade to Jerusalem (but maybe not for the right reasons).  They end up in a strange world that they are convinced is Hell and that One-Eye is to blame.  I personally liked this film, but most people will probably find it slow and tedious.  3 Stars!   

Kick-Ass (2010): Instead of focusing on lame Kick-Ass, I wish the movie would have focused more on Hit Girl and Big Daddy.  This film was okay, but I have no desire to see a sequel.  2 Stars. 

The Backwoods (2006):    The Backwoods stars Gary Oldman and Paddy Considine as friends vacationing with their wives in a remote part of Spain.  They find a girl that is being imprisoned (most likely because of her claw like hands) in an abandoned house.  Unsure of what to do, they decide to take her home and try to find help.  A few hours later, locals turn up at their house asking if they had seen a young girl who is missing.  Should they turn her over to the villagers or go to the authorities?  Just like The House of the Devil, this movie started out really promising and then just fell flat.  The spaghetti western ending was just wrong.   2 Stars.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010): It was fascinating to watch Joan Rivers struggle to book acts.  You can't help but feel sorry for her because her whole world revolves around her work.  We quickly learn that If she's not working, she's not happy.  It also surprised me to learn how lonely and insecure she was.  There was a scene where she had just fired her longtime manager and she was in tears about it because he was the only person she had left to talk to about the good old days.  3 Stars.

Road Trip for Geeks

Here's a gallery featuring the film locations of famous sci-fi movies.  You know you want to check them out.

Link via io9.