We're Back Again! Washington Post Comics Quotes

Greetings to those of you in Latvia, Malta, and Bosnia........

We highly recommend the TED Talk from Astro Teller, an entrepreneur, scientist who maintains we can learn a lot from failure, which has been true with this blog........

Our celebrity of the day is Parker Posey!

Here are nine dialogue quotes from comic strips that ran in the Sunday edition of The Washington Post on Sept. 17th, 2017:

1) Aauugh! Shark! (Sherman's Lagoon)

2) No way! (Baby Blues)

3) What's your favorite movie quote? (Pickles)

4) Agnes, did you do your homework? (Agnes)

5) That's your book report? (Peanuts)

6) That's all anyone needs to know (Judge Parker)

7) Eating popcorn at your work station? (Dustin)

8) I know what I'm doing (Big Nate)

9) Sounds good (Baldo)

Potluck Quote of the Day (10 of 10): Kristen Stewart

Tonight's Quote of the Day comes from superstar actress Kristen Stewart who was seen in Woody Allen's "Cafe Society," which also features Parker Posey, one of our favorite actresses, this summer. Stewart is on the cover of the July/August issue of "Film Comment." Here is a quote from her:

"The strange part about being famous is you don't get to give first impressions anymore. Everyone already has an impression of you before you meet them."

http://www.kristenstewart.com

http://www.filmcomment.com

Last Ten Films We've Seen (earlier in June): James Franco Directs

Greetings to our blog readers in Australia, Canada (Happy Canada Day), and Norway......

Today, we look at ten films we've recently watched. Many of them, like "The Lifeguard,""Cold in July" and "Before I Disappear"were independent films shown at the Sundance Film Festival. James Franco did in fact direct "As I Lay Dying," a film based on a William Faulkner novel, and it was almost an artistic success.

Perhaps, the most unique film on the list is "Blume in Love," a Hollywood studio with a highly controversial plot twist that would assure the film would not be made, at least by a studio, today.

The Turkish film "Destiny," which is on this list, was not released in the United State.

We got this idea from "Film Comment" magazine http://www.filmcomment.com

The images above are in reference to 1) "The Lifeguard" (though the film has nothing to do with "Baywatch"), 2) David Copperfield, the magician, is something we thought of for "Before I Disappear," but the film is not about a magician, and 3) perhaps, most confusing, we went with an image of a Maine lobster for "Cold in July" because Maine is one of the few places we can think of where it is actually cold in July (the film takes place in Texas).

Here is the list:

1. Hateship/Loveship. director: Liza Johnson. 2013. w/ Kristen Wiig

2. As I Lay Dying. dir: James Franco. 2013

3. The Lifeguard. Liza W. Garcia. 2013 w/ Kristen Bell

4. HairBrained. Billy Kent. 2013 2/Parker Posey

5. Blume in Love. Paul Mazursky. 1975. w/ George Segal

6. Destiny ("Kader"). Turkey. Zeki Demirkubuz. 2006.

7. Before I Disappear. Shawn Christensen. 2014

8. Cold in July. Jim Mickle. 2014 w/ Michael C. Hall

9. Force Majuere. Sweden. Ruben Ostlund. 2014

10. Sister. Switzerland. Ursula Meier. 2012.

Top 10 Dinner Guests: Will Alexandra Petri Be Running Late.....

Greetings to our blog readers in Ireland, Greece and Pakistan....

Today, we start a new entry series as we look at ten dinner guests we would love to have at our table for dinner; we got this idea from both "Washingtonian" magazine http://www.washingtonian.com and the NPR show "The Dinner Party Download" http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org which runs on radio stations such as WUNC-FM (91.5-Chapel Hill, NC) http://www.wunc.org

Among our guests would be "Washington Post" social life columnist Alexandra Petri http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/ who wrote a vintage column about the art of losing.

The other people who made our top ten include: 1) Ambassador Rudolf Bekink of The Netherlands (pict. top), 2) Film director Sofia Coppola (pict. center) and 3) Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.). Here is our top ten:

1. Rudolf Bekink

2. Sofia Coppola

3. Cong. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va; even though we don't tend to agree with him).....

4) Gillian Jacobs of "Community"

5) Stephan Pastis, comic strip guy

6) Alexandra Petri

7) Cong. Jared Polis (D-Colo.)

8) Parker Posey, independent film actress

9) Zeynep Tufekci, UNC professor, expert on Turkey

10) Roy Williams, UNC men's basketball coach

The Last Ten Films I've Seen: "Ordinary People" is a Christmas Movie?.........no kidding.........

For those unfamiliar with our blog, when we do these lists, we usually go with something that is referred to in the film rather than an image from the film or whatever our list is about.

Hence, the reason for the image of a burrito for "Eating," a photo of Jackie Kennedy for "The House of Yes," in which Parker Posey plays a young woman who thinks she is the former first lady, and the Harvard sweatshirt is for "The Paper Chase," a film which takes place on that Ivy League school's campus. That film won a Best Supporting Oscar for John Houseman.

Seven years later, that same award would go to Timothy Hutton, then only 20 years old for "Ordinary People," the 1980 Best Picture Oscar winner which is perhaps the most depressing Oscar winner ever (ok, so there is also"One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Schindler's List")........

"Mental Floss" featured an online article about how "Ordinary People" is actually a 'Christmas movie' as it indeed takes place in December, but, yeah, it's probably better to watch "A Christmas Story" as a family unit......

Here are the last ten films I've seen; this idea came from the great cinema magazine "Film Comment" (please don't sue us for $2.6 million).........

1) Intimate Lighting (fmr Czechoslavakia. 1965. dir: Ivan Passer)

2) Eating (1990. dir: Henry Jaglom)

3) The House of Yes. (1997. dir: Mark Waters)

4) Starstruck (Australia. 1982. dir: Gillian Armstrong)

5) Amour (Austria. 2012. dir: Michael Haneke)

6) The Theory of Everything. (2014. dir: James Marsh)

7) Elysium. (2013. dir: Neill Blomkamp)

8) Ordinary People (1980. dir: Robert Redford)

9) An Unmarried Woman (1978. dir: Paul Mazursky w/Jill Clayburgh)

10) The Paper Chase (1973. dir: James Bridges)

http://www.filmcomment.com

http://www.mentalfloss.com

Happy Thanksgivingukkah: Our Dream Thanksgiving Dinner List

Since tomorrow is the first known Thanksginukkah, a combination of Thanksgiving and Hanukah, in the modern calendar, we thought we'd post an entry for the occasion with the 16 people we'd most like to have for dinner. Of course, as you'll soon see, many of the people mentioned here may have problems sitting beside each other. But, that would, of course, make the occasion which is highly unlikely to ever happen all the more ironic and enjoyable.


Here we go:

1. Cong. Morgan Griffith (R-Va, pictured top)

2. Michael Moore (a liberal documentarian)

3. Bruce Tinsley (a conservative cartoonist of "Mallard Fillmore" fame)

4. Keith Knight (a liberal cartoonist of "Knight Life" and "K-Chronicles" fame)

5. Rudolf Bekink (Dutch ambassador to America)

6. Clarence Thomas (the most conservative Supreme Court justice)

7. Sonja Sotomayor (one of the most liberal Supreme Court justices)

8. Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

9. Parker Posey  (film/stage actress perhaps best-known for "Waiting for Guffman;" pictured center)

10. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va)

11. Joe Lieberman, a former member of the U.S. Senate, though he was a Democrat for three of his four terms it seems like he is more popular amongst Republicans.

12. Joan Baez, popular '60s folk singer

13. Abdullah Antepli, a Turkish man who is the first imam for Muslim students at Duke University.

14. Gwen Ifill, the PBS moderator of "Washington Weekly."

15. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn., considered to be one of the most liberal members of the Senate)

16. Namik Tan (Turkish ambassador to America; pictured bottom)

http://www.kchronicles.com

http://www.joanbaez.com

http://www.vashington.be.mfa.gov.tr

http://www.dc.the-netherlands.org

http://www.morgangriffith.house.gov/

http://www.hagan.senate.gov

Chuck Norris vs. Cuneyt Arkin_ The Wonder Kick Years

It is 6:30 a.m. in Harare, Zimbabwe, 1:30 p.m. where one might be having sushi for lunch in Tokyo, Japan, and 9:30 a.m. in Karachi, Pakistan; we read an article in "Mental Floss" that said 9:30 a.m. on Mondays was the best time to post a blog entry. The problem is I don't think we get too blog-reader traffic from Pakistan, but perhaps today is that day.

We are looking at the collective careers of American action movie star Chuck Norris, who turned 72 on March 10th, and his Turkish counterpart Cuneyt Arkin, who is now 75. Both actors have right-wing views, well we are not 100-percent sure of Arkin, but since Norris said that the re-election of President Barack Obama would bring 1,000 years of darkness, it is safe to Norris is very conservative. But, he may actually be to the left of the Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

In 1977, Norris had a break-out role as a truck-driver hell-bent on finding his missing brother in "Breaker! Breaker!," a film which has been screened on IFC (The Independent Film Channel) here in the states. There was a time when IFC would show arthouse films with indy screen goddess Parker Posey ("House of Yes," "Personal Velocity"), but it appears that Norris films get slightly better ratings.

On a sad note, Norris' co-star in "Breaker! Breaker," veteran actor George Murdock, who also played Testikov in a "Seinfeld" episode in 1994, died this year.

So, we are asking which actor actually won a Best Actor the year Norris made "Breaker! Breaker!," which incidentally has a 3.4 on the Internet Movie Database, in 1997.

Is the answer?:

A) Jack Nicholson

B) Dustin Hoffman

C) Richard Dreyfuss

D) Marlon Brando

E) Jon Voight

As to the answer in our last entry in this series, in 1982,  the year that Cuneyt Arkin was in  "The Turkish Star Wars" the Oscar went to B) Ben Kingsley for the title role in "Gandhi."

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogspot.com

 http://www.chucknorris.com

http://www.ifc.com

http://www.imdb.com

http://www.parkerposey.org

http://www.cuneytarkin.com.tr

http://www.mentalfloss.com

Last Ten Women I've Dated (Satire!!!)

Those who know me well, and hopefully few of you who regularly read this blog actually do, know that I have always had some problems going out with girls. (I am using the image of 1920s cinematic hearthrob Rudollph Valentino to show irony).

It really dates back to high school, when those of us of my generation were watching John Hughes movies like "The Breakfast Club," and while I love my life as an independent bachelor even at age 40, I must profess a certain amount of "kiskanchlik" (the Turkish word for jealousy) when I find out that women I am attracted to, even a celebrity bomb-shell, is going out with someone--- or even worse about to marry the guy (especially if he seems be a fill-in-the-blank, and perhaps some of them actually are!).

So, here is a satirical list of 'the last ten women I have dated.' I will explain who they are (not all of them are household names in the USA and Canada), and if in fact they have a significant other (hate the word boyfriend). But, to my knowledge, none of these women are actually married, and they are all alive!

1. Uma Thurman (no surprise here!)
2. Jennifer Love Hewitt
3. Penelope Cruz (she turns 36 today.)
4. Daria Bijak
5. Parker Posey
6. Sibel Kekili
7. Minissha Lambay
8. Susan Sarandon
9. Aleksandra Zhekova
10. Roya (her real name is Roya Aykhan)

For starters, yes, I know Penelope Cruz (happy birthday, btw!) is rumored to be engaged to fellow movie star Javier Bardem, but I did like her when she was making Spanish art films (like the Oscar-winning Spanish film "Belle Epoque") in the early '90s which only true movie buffs like me were going to see.

Jennifer Love Hewitt may seem like a very young woman, but she is 30 years old now. Apparently, she has dated lots of men in the tv/movie industry even as we speak, but she has yet to marry any of them (she was engaged a few years ago).

UMA is the only woman here who is actually my age (well, I am 40 and she is 39, but we were both born in 1970). Assuredly, she is taken!

Daria Bijak is a 23-year-old German Olympic gymnast who just finished her collegiate gymnastics career with the University of Utah. She is one of the most physically attractive gymnasts in recent memory (I am a huge fan of the sport). Of course, like virtually every gorgeous girl on the planet, she has a boyfriend who is apparently a German tennis player.

Parker Posey is an indy film darling. Reportedly, she was romantically involved with some guy who is a novelist. We don't know much about him, but we love her films, especially the ones she did with director Hal Hartley ("Fay Grimm" being the most recent). Her performance in "The House of Yes" was exceptional, but it is a film that relatively few people have seen. Posey is just slightly older than me.

Sibel Kekili is a German actress of Turkish heritage who was also in "Fay Grimm," but in a very small part (the movie was partially filmed in Istanbul, Turkey). Kekili, who was born in 1980, gave a break-through performance in director Fatih Akin's fairly recent German-Turkish film "Head-On." She was the subject of controversy in the German and Turkish press because she was allegedly in some adult films early in her career.

Minissha Lambay is a very attractive Bollywood (Indian) actress. Honestly, we don't know much about her but she was in the hit film "Yahaan (Here). 2005)."

Susan Sarandon is 63 years old. I decided to put an older woman on this list because I found out apparently Warren Beatty actually dated the late Joan Crawford (yes, the one who inspired "Mommie Dearest") in the 1960s when Beatty was one of Hollywood's most swinging young bachelors. Sarandon recently broke up with long-time companion Tim Robbins. She is actually to the left of me (I'm a moderate Democrat. Sarandon is not known for being moderate), but we are both against capital punishment so that would make for a good conversation starter at a Starbucks.

Aleksandra Zekova is a gorgeous Bulgarian snow-skier in her twenties who was in my opinion was the most attractive competitior at the recent Vancouver Olympics.

And, there is Roya, who is like the Madonna of Baku. The Azerbaijani pop singer in her late twenties (we presume) is known for her outlandishness. Roya has even filmed music videos where she performs topless. This is quite amazing because Azerbaijan is a Muslim country! She made it big with the hit single "Bilirsenim" (which we think means "Do You Know Me?" Turkish and Azerbaijani are linguistically similar languages). She recently gave birth to a son, so chances are Roya wouldn't have time for me. Besides, there are (to our knowledge) no Starbucks in Baku!