Last Ten Film I've Seen Before the Last Ten Films I've Seen: Movies at the Beach

Greetings to our blog readers in Brazil, Slovakia and the Netherlands.

This entry is essentially the B-side of our entry in "The Daily Vampire" http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

In that entry, I mentioned the last ten films I saw. Well, before we got to those there were these ten which we viewed earlier in August, including three that I saw at a multiplex in Myrtle Beach, SC; two of which ("A Most Wanted Man" and "Macig in the Moonlight") were art films!

We also watched two films ("On the Waterfront" and "Oklahoma Crude") on TCM.

The images of the late Canadian magician Doug Henning (top), the map of Oklahoma and Lucy van Pelt letting Linus have it in a "Peanuts" panel are all related to the first three films on this list.

Here are the films:

1) Magic in the Moonlight. dir: Woody Allen. 2014. w/ Emma Stone

2) Oklahoma Crude. dir: Stanley Kramer. 1973. w/ Faye Dunaway

3) Lucy. dir: Luc Besson. 2014. w/ Scarlett Johansson

4. On the Waterfront. dir: Elia Kazan. 1954 w/Marlon Brando

5. A Most Wanted Man. dir: Anton Corbijn. 2014. w/ Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rachel McAdams.

6. Lincoln. dir: Steven Spielberg. 2012.

7. A Beginner's Guide to Endings. dir. Jonathan Sobol. 2010. w/ Harvey Keitel

8. Like Someone in Love. France/Japan. 2012. dir: Abbas Kiarostami (a famed Iranian directed)

9. The Iceman. dir: Ariel Vromen. 2012. w/Michael Shannon and Winona Ryder

10. The Grandmaster. Hong Kong. 2013. dir: Wong Kar Wai.

http://www.tcm.com

This Weekend at the Cinema: From New York to Athens (Ga)

Greeting to our blog readers in Colombia, New Zealand and planet Saturn!

"Battle for the Planet of the Apes" (1973) promised to be the 'final chapter' of "The Planet of the Apes," but 41 years later there is "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," which is screening at the Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC, along with "How to Train Your Dragon 2."

Elsewhere in the Tar Heel State, the Eden Drive-In in Eden, NC, a small town between Martinsville, Va., and Greensboro, NC, is showing two summer blockbusters "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" and "Guardians of the Galaxy."

At the Hull's Drive-In in Lexington, Va., "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is also showing, but it is sharing its bill with "Into the Storm."

For a completely different crowd, The Film Forum in New York is showing a newly restored edition of "The Conformist," Bernardo Bertolucci's '70s Italian crime masterpiece; the same cinema is also screening the classic French film "That Man from Rio."

At the Cine in Athens, Ga., the cinema is screening "Boyhood," "A Most Wanted Man" and "Ida."

Finally, the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, Va., is screening the wonderful documentary "Life Itself," pictured center about the life and death of film critic Roger Ebert (pictured center); the film is directed by renown Chicago filmmaker Steve James ("Hoop Dreams").


http://www.varsitytheatre.org

http://www.edendrivein.com

http://www.hullsdrivein.com

http://www.filmforum.org

http://www.athenscine.com

http://www.thelyric.com

Virtual Postcard from North Carolina: Tim E. Gator Sez Hello

The Kannapolis Intimidators are actually named after the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was from Kannapolis, NC, an old textile mill town about 35 miles north of Charlotte. But, Tim E. Gator, the team mascot, they chose to go with with an alligator. Hopefully, he doesn't eat the children or dogs (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

The Intimidators are one of four North Carolina teams in the Single-A South Atlantic League of minor league baseball, which is also known as the Sally League. The other three teams are the Greensboro Grasshoppers, the Asheville Tourists and the Hickory Crawdads.

Here is a look at scores from last night (Wednesday evening); the home team is marked with an (*):

1) Rome 5 *Kannapolis 2

2) *Greensboro 11 Delmarva 2

3) Hickory 3 *Lakewood 2

4) Hagerstown 3 *Asheville 2

5) Augusta 5 *Savannah 4

6) *Charleston 8 Greenville 0

7) *Lexington 4 West Virginia 3

http://www.cityofkannapolis.com

http://www.ourstate.com

Virtual Postcard from Maryland: The Mascot of the Bowie Baysox

Louie is the mascot of the Bowie Baysox, an Eastern League minor league baseball team in Bowie, Md.

Here is a rundown of the six games played in the league on Wednesday night; Home teams are marked with an (*). It was not a good night for home teams!:

1. Bowie 10 *Erie 8

2. Harrisburg 9 *New Hampshire 6

3. Trenton 8 *Akron 2

4. *Altoona 8 Richmond 7

5. Reading 5 *Portland 2

6. New Britain 11 *Binghmaton 7

http://www.visitmaryland.org

Dutch Soccer Scoreboard: PSV Beats Rival Ajax Amsterdam 3-1

Greetings to those of you checking out our blog in Denmark and Italy.

Even though it is very early in the season the two most storied franchises in Dutch soccer history played over the weekend (we were hoping the most would be on ESPN3, oh well!) as PSV Eindhoven beat out defending champs Ajax Amsterdam 3-1 thanks to the go ahead goal from Dutch national Luciano Narsingh (pictured top).

Den Haag, a team in Holland's other capital The Hague which is captained by Roland Alberg (pictured center) had a rousing 3-0 victory over Groningen with two goals from Micheil Kramer in the waning minutes of regulation time.

Finally, Rodney Antwi (pictured bottom) scored in the winning goal of the 72nd minute to lead road side Utrecht to a 2-1 win over Feyenoord, and, it was a disastrous weekend for American star Jozy Altidore's former team AZ Alkmaar as they fell to Willem II 3-0. Altidore now plays soccer in England.

Here are the scores from weekend play in the Eredivise:

1) Ajax 1 PSV 3

2) Den Haag 3 Groningen 0

3) Feyenoord 1 Utrecht 2

4) Zwolle 2 Vitesse 1

5) Breda 1 Twente 1, tie

6) Go Ahead Eagles 0 Dordecht 0, tie

7) Heracles 0 Cambuur 1

8) Heerenveen 2 Excelsior (Rotterdam) 0

9) Willem II 3 AZ Alkmaar 0

Comic Strips Survey from the Roanoke Times: Will Anyone in Portugal Read This

Yes, we are wondering if anyone in Portugal or Romania for that matter reads our Sunday comics strips, but if you are checking us out from Lisbon or Bucharest, we hope the weather is nice in your respective nations today.

We are featuring photos of a random exotic fish, a Siamese cat, and Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va), because each of them pertains to the top three comic strips in "The Roanoke Times." (I suppose the next time we choose a photo of a House of Representatives members we will go with Cong. David Price, D-NC, to show we are nonpartisan, even though we make no secret of our center-left politics here).

"Speed Bump" by Dave Coverly was this week's winner as his strip showed a fish who had combed his hair just for his date, who was also a fish. Second place went to "Get Fuzzy" which depicts a mad Siamese cat named Satchel. Finally, the bronze medal goes to "Pearls Before Swine" which ventured into new territory by making fun of how corporate donations to members of Congress taint the political system. "Pearls" is usually an apolitical strip!

"Blondie" edged out "Dilbert" for tenth place. The two comic strips seem radically different, but unusually enough they are the two comic strips which seem to focus most on the workplace, except we never actually see Mrs. Dilbert (if there is one) in Scott Adams' strip.

Here is our top ten:

1) Speed Bump

2) Get Fuzzy

3) Pearls Before Swine

4) Doonesbury

5) Non-Sequitir

6)Funky Winkerbean

7) Garfield

8) Zits

9)  Agnes

10) Blondie

To see our Washington Post comics survey, go to our sister blog: http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

http://www.roanoke.com

http://www.gocomics.com/speedbump

Quotes from Off the Beat and Path (6 of 6): Courtney Love

Greetings to our blog readers in Dubai, Egypt, France, Malaysia, Mexico and Greece .


Today, we quote Courtney, a pioneering female punk and heavy singer, who is now 50 years old! She was the wife of the late Kurt Cobain of Nirvana at the time of his suicide some 20 years ago.

Here is Love's quote:

"Being a rock star is like being a cult leader_you have to be in your own religion."

Off the Beat and Path Quotes (5 of 6): Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho is one of the very few comedians who has performed at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro (Chapel Hill), NC, a mostly music venue that brings acts, such as Cold War Kids and Of Montreal.

Cho, 45, who is known to shock people with her candid subjects on stage, is also an actress; she is a Canadian who is of Korean heritage.

This is one of her quotes:

"I love drugs, but I hate hangovers, and the hatred of the hangover wins by a landslide every time."

Off the Beat and Path Quotes (4 of 6): Chris Marker

Today, we quote the late French experimental art film director Chris Marker, who was recently featured on TCM; his most famous film, the short "La Jetee" was remade as the feature "12 Monkeys" by Terry Gilliam, which starred Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis. Marker was often known for making films with left-wing themes.

Here is Marker's quote:

"Nothing sorts out memories from ordinary moments. It is only later that they claim remembrance, when they show their scars."

Off the Beat and Path Quotes (3 of 6): William S. Burroughs

Today, for our second quote of the day, we go to the late, great author William S. Buuroughs who penned "Naked Lunch" and once resided in Lawrence, Kansas:

"Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer."

Off the Beat and Path Quotes (2 of 4): Red Emma Goldman

The United States of America is not known much for communists but a full century ago we did have 'Red' Emma Goldman; here is one of her quips:

"People have only as much liberty as they have intelligence to want and the courage to take it."

Off the Beat and Path Quotes (1 of 6): Bill Griffith

Today, we feature a quote from Bill Griffith, the man behind the zany cult comic strip "Zippy the Pinhead," here is his quip:

"The down side of America being obsessed with pop culture is that they kind of like it light."

http://www.zippythepinhead.com

Top Ten Comic Strips from the Sunday Washington Post (May 25th edition)

Greetings to our blog readers in South Africa, Iceland and Portugal; domestically, we want to give a shout-out to our blog readers in Raleigh, NC, Atlanta and Seattle...........if we can ever get to the Northwest and see the Space Needle.........

Since Discovery Channel's Shark Week is nearing, it is only appropriate that "Sherman's Lagoon," a comic strip about a shark finishes in our top ten.

The above images are all in conjunction with three strips from the May 25th Sunday edition of "The Washington Post" (the Aug. 3rd comics pages disappeared like Harry Houdini). The living opossums eludes to "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! which feauted possum obits! The laundry of clothes is a nod to "Rhymes with Orange," which featured a circus cyclist who had to strut around in the buff since he couldn't get his clothes washed, and, of course, the "Jaws the Revenge" (or Jaws 4) poster is a reference to "Sherman's Lagoon."

1. Brewster Rockit: Space Guy!

2. WUMO 

3. Lio

4. Rhymes with Orange

5. Judge Parker

6. Speed Bump

7. Doonesbury

8. Frazz

9. Sherman's Lagoon

10. Foxtrot

The Last Ten Records I've Listened To: Squeeze the Tubes

Until I read Bill Griffith's "Zippy the Pinhead" comic strip I did not realize that the toothpaste Ipana, which is very popular in Turkey, was actually an American toothpaste which is no longer made here, nor anywhere else except for Turkey! Bucky Beaver was the mascot for the product.

Since We listened to vinyl records from both Squeeze and The Tubes, we thought it would be fun to post an image of Ipana toothpaste (Image #1).

Here are the last ten records I've listened to:

1. Squeeze. Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti. 1985.

2. The Tubes. Now. 1977.

3. Joe Jackson. Night and Day. 1982.

4. Supertramp. Crime of the Century (Image #2). 1974.

5. Nick Lowe. The Rose of England. 1985.

6. The Waitresses. Bruiseology. 1983.

7. Queen. Hot Space (featuring "Pressure with David Bowie). 1982.

8. Todd Rundgren. Hermit of Mink Hollow. 1978.

9. The Steve Miller Band. The Joker (Image #3). 1973.

10. Steely Dan. Gaucho (featuring "Hey Nineteen"). 1980.