Last Ten Films We've Seen: A Little Icelandic Film (plus nine others....)

Greetings to our blog readers around the world, especially those of you in France.

Today, we once again list the last ten films we've seen (actually, that should be 'I've' seen, but 'we' though grammatically incorrect sounds less pompous).....

A little Icelandic film with American funding which was distributed by Sony Pictures (yes, the ones who were the victims of an alleged North Korea cyber attack) was the very last film we watched this week (see middle image, an Icelandic geyser), but we also squeezed in time for "A Man Called Adam," which stars the late Sammy Davis Jr. (pict. top) and "Pretty Maids All in a Row," a favorite film of Quentin Tarantino which stars the late Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson (pict. bottom):

Here is the list:

1) Land Ho! Iceland (in English). 2014. Directors: Aaron Katz and Martha Stevens.

2) The Innkeepers. 2011. Director: Ti West.

3)  A Man Called Adam. 1966. Dir: Leo Penn

4) The Double. 2013. Dir: Richard Ayode.

5) Pretty Maids All in a Row. 1977. Dir: Roger Vadim

6) In a World..... 2013. Dir: Lake Bell

7) How I Ended This Summer. Russia. 2012. Dir: Aleksey Popogrebskiy

8) Albert Nobbs. 2011. Dir: Rodrigo Garcia.

9) The Housemaid. South Korea. 1960 Dir: Ki-young Kim (film was remade in 2010)

10) The Unholy Three. 1925. Dir: Tod Browning (w/ Lon Chaney)

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

Top 10 Olympic Lists (4 of 10): Remember The Vikings...........

First of all, we are sending a 'gecmis olsun'/"may it pass closely" (Turkish expression) to Bob Costas, the NBC commentator for the 2014 Sochi Olympics; he is suffering from pink-eye.

Here is a list of ten Scandinavian athletes who are competing at the games; some of them have in fact finished competition. We hope we spelled everyone's name correctly as we don't want any angry emails from The Danish embassy in Washington, DC, which is enduring a major winter storm as is everyone residing from Atlanta to Portland, Maine!:

1) Ragmus Stjerne. 25. Denmark. Men's Curling.

2) Margaretha Sigfridsson. 38. Sweden. Women's Curling.

3) Einar Kristgeirsson. 20. Iceland. Alpine Skiing.

4) Julia Kykkaenen. 19. Finland. Women's Ski-jumping.

5) Andres Bardal. 31. Norway. Men's Ski-jumping. Won bronze.

6) Maiken Caspersen Falla. 28. Norway. Cross-country Skiing. Won gold (pictured)

7) Kjetil Jansrud. 28. Norway. Alpine Skiing.

8) Charlotte Kalla. 26. Sweden. Women's Cross-country Skiing. Won silver.

9) Aleksander Barkos, Jr. 18. Finland. Men's Hockey. Plays for Florida Panthers.

10) Michelle Karvinen. 23. Finland. Women's Hockey. Plays for the Univ. of North Dakota.

http://www.sochi2014.com/en

http://www.bbc.com/sport/winter-olympics/2014

http://usa.um.dk/ (The Danish Embassy in Washington, DC)

https://www.washdiplomat.com/

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com (Our sister blog with more Olympics Lists)

Little Thinkers Quotes (6 of 16): Pablo Picasso

Greetings to our blog readers in Iceland, Costa Rica and Tunisia.

Today's quote of the day comes from the great Spanish painter Pablo Picasso:

"Action is the foundational key to all success."

Futbol Notebook: Two Guys Get Red Cards in Dutch Soccer

Tow Dutch futbolers Ard von Peppen (pictured bottom) for Roda and Ingo van Weert for Waalwijk got red cards in domestic play over the weekend. But, the week was a much happier for Siem de Jong (pictured top), a Dutch player who is the captain of Ajax Amsterdam, as he scored two goals as did Aron Johannsson, a American national of Icelandic heritage who plays for AZ Alkmaar, a team that tied this weekend.

A third soccer player Jarchinio Antonia, a Dutch international for Go Ahead Eagles (yes, that is the name of a Dutch soccer team), kicked in two goals within a two-minute (in the 9th and 10th minutes of play).

But, the player of the week had to be Alfredo Finnbogason, an Icelandic player, as he landed a hat trick with three goals for his team Heerenveen.

Here are the complete results of Dutch weekend soccer play:

Feyenoord 2 AZ Alkmaar 2 (tie)

Nimegen 0 Ajax Amsterdam 3

Breda 2 PSV Eindhoven 1

Roda 1 Go Ahead Eagles 4

Heerenveen 5 Waalwijk 2

Zwolle 1 Twente 1 (tie)

Den Haag 3 Cambur 0

Heracles 0 Groningen 3

Vitese 3 Utrecht 1


Vites tops the league, with AZ Alkmaar in second place, followed by Ajax Amsterdam in 3rd.

There was a huge soccer game between two Istanbul powerhouses Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, for the week in Turkish soccer, visit our sister blog "The Daily Vampire": http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

Image to Fill Space: A Dalmation

Greetings to our blog readers in Senegal, South Africa, Honduras, Jamaica, Chile, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Australia, Japan, France, Iceland, Bulgaria and Slovenia.

Tomorrow, we shall have something more substantive.

Soccer Week (7 of 8): American Player Tim Howard Shuts Down Chelsea

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
We now how Dutch international Maikel va der Werff, who plays for the Dutch soccer team Zwolle, felt when he kicked in an own goal which propelled Ajaz Amsterdam to defeat Zwolle 2-1.

As we were typing to score for the Southampton-West Ham game which ended in a 0-0 tie, we punched the wrong button and all of our work (if one can call blogging work) vanished.

But, our header was that American goal-keeper Tim Howard (pictured above) came back from helping Team USA earn a World Cup bid by defeating Mexico 2-0 in Columbus, Ohio. And, then he flew back to England to help his team Everton (based in Liverpool) defeat London powerhouse Chelsea 1-0.

The lone goal of the match was scored by Steven Naismith of Scotland during extra time of the first half.

Mesut Ozil, a German national of Turkish heritage, had a solid debut with Arsenal as he contributed an assist in the team's 3-1 win over Sunderland.

Gyfli Sigurdsson of Iceland score two goals for Tottenham Hotspur.

French national Yoan Gouffan scored the game-winner for Newcastle United in the 73rd minute of play.

Finally, the stars came out for Manchester United as both Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney came through for the home team.

Here is a complete list of weekend games in the English Premiere League:

Man U 2 Crystal Palace 0

Southampton 0 West Ham 0 (tie)

Liverpool 2 Swansea 2 (tie)

Aston Villa 1 Newcastle 2

Fulham 1 West Brom 1 (tie)

Tottenham 2 Norwich 0

Everton 1 Chelsea 0

Sunderland 1 Arsenal 3

Stoke City 0 Man City 0 (tie)

Hull City 1 Stoke City 1 (tie)

http://www.premiereleague.com

http://www.evertonfc.com

http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com

http://www.nufc.co.uk/

Free-Style Blogging: Let's Talk About ...........

Ok, take notes kids, this is how this works. We take some news items and political topics, such as climate change and Edward Snowden, and then mix them in with general things, such as Turkish Airlines (tonight's sponsor......yeah, that is a joke, but we hear they are great to fly with). And, then we make a complete blog entry out of them, which should get us noticed in Slovenia.

The topics will be marked with a single parenthesis.

Let's get rolling:

"Hmmmm..........I've noticed whenever I watch Fox News, they never seem to talk about 'climate change' even though all the glaciers in 'Iceland' are melting. Perhaps, this is because their average viewer lacks the attention span to read one 'Archie Comics.' But, they've been sooo brain-washed that at this point they would vote for 'Darth Vader' if he had an R by his name.

Of course, folks to the left of me (yes, there are always some of these people except in Provo, Utah), are focused on 'Bradley Manning' and the 'NSA.' My advice to 'Edward Snowden' would be to get on a 'Turkish Airlines' flight from Moscow to Istanbul where he can work at a tea house and inexplicably go unnoticed, but his narcissist ego may not like that.

There is also a lot of talk about the controversial 'Rolling Stone' cover, but no one mentions the fact that the cover story about the Boston Marathon bomber is quite well-written. And, in case, one is wondering, it's now 70 degrees and cloudy in 'Greensboro, NC'..........thanks for that info, Mr. Google.' 

Saturday Tweets_ Mary Lou Retton is Still One of America's Girls

Here are some tweets gathered from the 3:00-4:00 p.m. hour, New York time, when it was 7:00 p.m. in Akureyri, Iceland and 10:00 p.m. in Tel Aviv, Israel:

1) @WNYC (WNYC-New York): "Judge Nixes NYC's 5-Borough Taxi Overhaul."

2) @Sports_Greats: "Be cocky. Walk into the Georgia Dome like you own it_ Mary Lou Retton" (The 1984 American Olympic gymnast from West Virginia is pictured top).

3) @ColoradoRapids: "We are too @DenverZoo: #Rapids very excited for 2nd annual Wildlife Education Night and match today versus Chivas USA!" (The soccer team from Denver, Colo., tied Chivas USA of Los Angeles 1-1 tonight; one of their star players Conor Casey is pictured bottom).

4) @TheRealNimoy (Leonard Nimoy who played Mr. Spock on "Star Trek," pictured center): "They're saying many people won't care enough to vote in November. I hope they're wrong. Let's not slide backward to old policies."

5) @UGAGymnastics (University of Georgia Gymnastics): "A BIG thanks to all the fans who came out to picture day today. We couldn't do what we do without you all! It's Great to be a Bulldog!"

http://www.wnyc.,org

http://www.coloradrapids.com

http://www.denverzoo.org

http://www.marylouretton.com

http;//www.georgiadogs.com

Monday Morning (USA Time) Olympic Tweets: Shawn Johnson is Wearing Hot Pants

 

Wow! We had a real hard time loading these images! They are of: a) Misha the Bear, the mascot of the 1980 Moscow Olympics (we seem to be popular in Russia for some reason) b) Icelandic handball star Arnor Atlason;. Iceland beat the host Great Britain in men's handball today by a score of 41-24 and c) American gymnast Shawn John who won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics; she is not competing in London, but she has been watching gymnastics events in the stands at the Olympics.

As a Turkish-American, it was interesting to see one Turkish newspaper "The Daily Hurriyet" express optimism as Turkish women's sprinter Nevin Yanit, 26, who competes in hurdles finished first in her preliminary race yesterday, while another Turkish newspaper "Today's Zaman" was expressing pessimism as a tweet from the publication pointed that Turkey has yet to medal at the Olympics so far.

 

So, here are some of the things we have learned about the games on Twitter today; they do or may contain SPOILER ALERTS!

 1) @dominquedawes (Dominique Dawes): "Victoria Komova of RUS is up and ready and she definitely wants to redeem herself after the silver in AA."

2) @AlisonMitchell: "Got a feeling in my stomach like I used to before school. And, I'm not even competing! #goBeth #gymnastics" (This tweet is in reference to British gymnast Beth Tweedle, a contender for the bars event).

3) @bradplumer: "A few Olympic rule changes explain why so many gymnasts have been falling on their faces."

4) @nprnews: "Let's catch p: U.S. women's basketball Blowout, and Maroney's vault woes" (This is in reference to American gymnast Makayla Maroney falling on her second vault).

5) @ISROlympics2012: "Eran and Gideon in 11th place after 8 races" (This is talking about the Israeli men's sailing team of Gideon Kilger and Eran Sela. A later tweet from American tv reporter Christiane Amanpour said that Vojdan Shaherkan, a 16-year old female athlete from Saudi Arabia, one of Israel's main rivals had provided the first win for a female athlete for her country as she upset Melissa Mojica of Puerto Rico in judo. But, the result is not expected to change women's sporting rights in the kingdom.)

6) @shawnJohson (Shawn Johnson): "Hot pants! We're color coordinated."

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com 

http://timesofisrael.com 

http://www.todayszaman.com 

http://www.dominiquedawes.com 

http://www.shawnjohnson.net 

Top 10 Countries to Run Away To If Romney Wins

Yes, if former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney ascends to the Oval Office, those of us who are politically center-left, Democrats, progressives and even perhaps even Libertarians may want to seek shelter or political asylum in a foreign country as one will quickly realize his 'I'll find a job for you' will work only for members of his billionaires boys club.

So, here are ten suggestions to get away from it all for at least four years should Armageddon strike as it did when George W. Bush was elected in 2000:


1) Slovenia (pictured above): Amazingly enough this former Yugoslav republic is flourishing and the country recently made headlines for actually naming a bridge after Chuck Norris!

2) Argentina: Like most of of Latin America, Argentina had a turbulent period in the 1970s, but happy days are apparently here again.

3) Costa Rica: This will give a chance to finally see a blue frog!

4) Iceland: 24 hours of daylight during the spring and summer months will allow one to play golf at 3:00 a.m. Iceland Air recently began flights to Denver!

5) Norway: Kayaking in the fjords should give a person the opportunity to forget about partisan gridlock on the Beltway.

6) South Africa: Could give you a chance to see lions and cheetahs.

7) Cyprus (pictured below): The Turks and Greeks will probably argue over this island nation for centuries to come, but there are lots of great beaches and if problems resurface there is always the American embassy in Nicosia (the castle pictured is actually in Kyrenia; to let you on the in-joke, Tilly Gokbudak, the 'executive editor of this blog' is a Turkish-American).

8) Chile: See Argentina

9) Estonia: Tajikistan, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia.....yes, most of the former Soviet Republics have not really benefited from the collapse of the USSR, but Estonia is managing quite well.

10) Canada: Winner of the coin flip over France.


http://www.slovenia.info 

http://www.tourism-costarica.com

http://www.visiticeland.com

http://progressive-blogs.com

Republican Humor- Dear Casey

The following is meant to be political satire. Just so everyone in Generation Z or those of you from Belarus get the joke, Dear Casey or The Long Distance Dedication was a segment that was "Casey's Top 40," an American fm-radio music show when I was a teenager in the 1980s.


"Dear Casey:


I know that even though you are a political liberal like myself and a fellow person of Middle-Eastern heritage, you may hesitate to play this song for a truck driver I don't know in Sioux City, Iowa, as I am making this request for poltical reasons. Casey, I am afraid that the Republicans will nominate another execution-happy evangelist governor of Texas for their presidential candidate, and should Rick Perry actually become president I would have to flee America for Costa Rica or Iceland. Even though I'm sure those countries are wonderful places, I am not fluent in either Spanish or Icelandic, and I imagine this would make life very difficult for me. So, Casey, it is for these reasons that I am dedicating Conway Twitty's 1973 smash hit "You've Never Been This Far Before" to that truck driver I don't know in Sioux City, Iowa, in the hopes that_ and I never thought I'd say this_ vote for Mitt Romney in his town straw poll."

Conway Twitty (1933-1993) is alas no longer with us. I am actually a fan of his music (believe it or not) even though I'm not usually a listener of country music. Twitty was originally from Helena, Arkansas, and he is also known for his "Hello Darlin'" which was a big hit for him in 1971. Anyone living in the Chapel Hill, NC, area (not where I reside) may find vinyl records of his albums at All Day Records in nearby Carrboro, NC.

Casey Kasem is thankfully alive and well at age 79, which means that if Twitty were still alive they would be about the same age. Kasem was born in Detroit, and is active in both politically liberal and Arab-American causes (I am actually a Turkish-American). In addition to the famous radio show he hosted, Kasem was the voice of Shaggy on the original "Scooby-Doo," which first aired in 1969.

What We Are Working On.....

Since a lot has happened in the world since I last blogged on Thursday and I am now done looking at emails from L.L. Bean (apologies to the Maine-based company, but nice white shorts are not my priority right now!), I will give you the reader a glance of what to expect on this blog this week.

1. Since May 1st is a day associated with radical socialists, we will start quoting famous people from the far-left starting on Tuesdays this month. Though I'm not one myself, I love agitating Republicans, well except my good friends attorney Johann Hallbjorn in Bethesda, Maryland (the Icelandic name is a fake name, and Johann doesn't live in the DC Metro area), and journalist Aarne Eerikainen in Knoxville, Tenn.,(the Finnish name is also a fake name as well and Aarne doesn't have anything to do with the Volunteer State---that we are aware of).

2. On Wednesday, we will have a quote from a famous novelist. Perhaps, you've already read his book on Kindle?! Other quips from other authors will follow on Wednesdays in May.

3. On Thursday, we are planning to actually write a serious entry (?!) on how I came close to being at the scene of a terrorist bombing, not involving the now deceased eshol eshek (Turkish word for son of a donkey; it is a high insult there) Osama bin Laden, on strangely enough Sept. 10, 2001, in Istanbul, Turkey. The blast, which was a suicide bombing, killed two Istanbul police officers whom I had physically seen some 20 minutes prior to their untimely deaths. The bombing also killed an Australian tourist named Amanda Rigg, who was only 22.

Rigg's story was the feature of a 2007 "Sydney Morning Herald" I found on the web. Her death unfortunately became a bureaucratic nightmare for her family in Australia as the government would not let them recieve monetary compensation for her death as they had with terrorism victims in more universally recognized incidents, such as the bombing at a resort on the island of Bali in Indonesia. My interest in writing about my own experience again is due to the death of bin Laden, and the impact that terrorism leaves on all of us, irregardless of how large or small such incidents are in scale.

4) On a lighter note, this Friday, we hope to officially start a new series called "Things We Learned on Google Today." It will begin with a look at a country that was a republic in the former Soviet Union. We may not start with Kyrgystan since it was the only country from the old USSR that I could not name on a mentalfloss.com quiz! I did manage to get the other 12 right though.

Incidentally, we've included The Smurfs and their villain Gargamel here because they have been invading my dreams lately. We learned about them in research for this entry, but alas due to time constraints, we will share those unique little things some other time!

Ten People with Long Names (Females)

Those of us with long names, such as my own (Gokbudak), always feel deep sympathy for those with even longer names. Imagine trying to get a table at Applebees, a pair of bowling shoes or medications at the pharmacy with these names!

1. Ludmilia Petrushevskaya- (pictured) This 72-year-old Russian playwright/author had her short story "A Withered Branch" recently published in "The New Yorker."

2. Antoaneta Stefanova. It is actually the first name of this 32-year-old world chess champion from Bulgaria which poses more issues!

3. Sebnem Kimyacioglu. She is a 27-year-old Turkish-American who now plays pro basketball in Istanbul, Turkey, with the team GalataSaray. She played for the Stanford Cardinal in college, and her sister Yasemin plays for Santa Clara University.

4. Nadia Comaneci- At first glance, the name of this 49-year-old Romanian gymnastics legend doesn't appear to be that difficult, but just try saying it!

5. Svetlana Boginskaya- This 38-year-old gymnast who was known as "The Belarusian Swan" was butchered many times by American tv announcers when she won gold at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. She also competed until her late-twenties, which is unusual for a gymnast.

6. Agusta Erlendsdottir- This 29-year-old Icelandic singer who is famous in her homeland probably wishes her name was more simple like Bjork, a rock singer who is perhaps the most famous person from Iceland in the world.

7. Gro Hammerseng- Sticking with Scandanavia, this 31-year-old Norwegian athlete helped her country win team gold in handball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

8. Melina Kanakaredes- Greek-American actress, 44, who is best-known for her tv work on the shows "Providence" and "CSI: New York."

9. Kim Kashkashian- This 58-year-old violonist and Armenian-American who has played with Yo Yo Ma should not be confused with the model/actress/reality tv show persona Kim Kardashian, who all of us are probably following on Twitter.

10. Deepika Padukone-This 25-year-old Bollywood actress was born in Copenhagen, Denmark- of all places!

Quote from The Composers- Edvard Grieg

Since we really like kitsch and all things Scandanavian (though I've never been to Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden or Finland), we thought we'd quip the great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) for our entry in the series today.

Grieg is known piano miniatures "Lyric Pieces" and his piano concertos in A-minor; he was born in Bergen. The composer also drew inspiration from Norwegian folk music.

Earlier today, we learned that Norway is NOT one of the 27 European Union member nations (neither is Iceland) from our friends at "Mental Floss" (actually, we don't know a single person who works for that ultra-hip magazine, based in Birmingham, Alabama- of all places). I was able to name every member state except one: Cyprus. The irony here is quite well ironic because I have been to Cyprus (well, the northern Turkish part) and Greece and Turkey, the country of my late father, fought over the island nation in a short, but bloody war in 1974.

Getting back to Grieg, whose music is of course more relevant than silly ethnic squabbles (note to my friends in Athens: our yogurt is better than your yogurt!), here is a quip from the Norwegian master who perhaps just couldn't stand Swedes:

"Suddenly a mist fell from my eyes and I knew the way I had to take."

SIDEBAR: For those interested in classic music who live in Salt Lake City, Utah, the Utah Symphony will be conducting Stravinsky's Pulcinetta from Jan. 27-29, which we perhaps should have mentioned yesterday when we were quoting Russian composers!

Top Ten Places to Move to if Sarah Becomes Prez

My good friend Debbie Collins, a public librarian in Bethesda, Md., (pse- see other blog) has told me that if Sarah Palin becomes the next president, she will leave the country for The Land of Blue Frogs (Costa Rica).

I made a similar list in October on our other blog "The Daily Vampire," in which I named Iceland as my top choice, but Ms. Collins is inclined to go with warmer weather.

Interestingly enough, Mrs. Collins picked two Muslim countries in Morocco (she told me she's always wanted to go to Tangiers, the setting of William Burroughs's cult novel "Naked Lunch") and the United Arab Emirates (she said: "I hear there's lots of money in Dubai). She is not Muslim herself.

Two cold countries, Canada and Denmark, made her list, but she professed I was nuts for putting France on my top ten 'Escape from Sarah' list (it was number six on my list).

Canada was also one of three countries to make both of our lists, along with Argentina and Greece.

Here is her list, if you have one of your "Escape from Sarah" lists, email me at tango74@aol.com

1. Costa Rica

2. Greece

3. Brazil

4. South Africa

5. New Zealand

6. Argentina

7. Canada

8. Denmark

9. Morocco

10. United Arab Emirates