Pop Song of the Week: "Clint Eastwood"

The good, the bad and the zombie apes.

Movie Song of the Week: "I've Got No Strings"

If only this song was true about most people.

Movie Quote of the Week

Merciful Father, I have squandered my days with plans of many things. This was not among them. But, at this moment, I beg only to live the next few minutes well. ... For all we ought to have thought and have not thought, all we ought to have said and have not said, all we ought to have done and have not done, I pray thee, God, for forgiveness
--Antonio Banderas, The Thirteenth Warrior (1999)

TV Quote of the Week

Don't you see? Your hand may be stilled, but your gift cannot be silenced if you refuse to let it be. The gift does not lie in your hands. I have hands, David. Hands that can make a scalpel sing. More than anything in my life I wanted to play, but I do not have the gift. I can play the notes, but I cannot make the music. You have performed Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Chopin. Even if you never do so again, you've already known a joy that I will never know as long as I live. Because the true gift is in your head and in your heart and in your soul. Now you can shut it off forever, or you can find new ways to share your gift with the world - through the baton, the classroom, or the pen. As to these works, they're for you, because you and the piano will always be as one.
--David Ogden Stiers, M*A*S*H, "Morale Victory"

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The Simpsons: “The Father, the Son, and the Holy Guest Star”

This was the episode that inspired the idea of Catholic Heaven -- which, as you might guess, was a lot more fun to visit than Protestant Heaven. (It's tempting to compare it to Atheist Heaven, but, alas, most freethinkers would consider Atheist Heaven to be at best an oxymoron.)

Plus we also got one of the few positive images of a Catholic priest that I have seen on an American TV show within the last twenty years. And Liam Neeson guest-starred as the priest! No doubt because of his very particular set of skills -- skills he had acquired over a very long career...

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The Twilight Zone (1985): “A Little Peace and Quiet”

Melinda Dillon played a humble housewife who stumbled across a gold pendant that gave her the magical ability to make time stop -- and restart -- whenever she wished, only to find out -- surprise, surprise! -- that there was a drawback to her newfound ability.

What else can I say? I must admit that this episode had one heck of a memorable ending -- but I could not help but wonder what happened next.

Quote of the Week

Does it ever occur to modern cinemagoers that Dirty Harry and Animal House and Full Metal Jacket and Kramer vs. Kramer may be propaganda, too, whether their makers know it or not?
--George MacDonald Fraser, The Hollywood History of the World

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The X-Files: “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster”

Apparently it sucks being human. Who knew?

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Veronica Mars: “The Bitch Is Back”

If nothing else, the last episode of Veronica Mars's infamous third season deserves credit for coming up with the show's creepiest image: a portrait of Veronica's deceased friend Lilly Kane that just happens to be in a house that Veronica breaks into, thus bringing her adventures back to the very mystery that inspired the show's first season to begin with.

If that wasn't enough, the episode ended on one of the most depressing cliffhangers that I have ever seen on an American TV show.

Movie Quote of the Week

Don't upset yourself, darling. It's only a bloody movie.
--Helen Mirren, Hitchcock (2012)

TV Quote of the Week

Now wait a minute. You think I’m evil... if I bring a group of girls on a camping trip and don’t touch them?
--Anthony Stewart Head, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “The Killer in Me”

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The Big Bang Theory: "The Comet Polarization"

You gotta feel sorry for Neil Gaiman after this episode. Granted, the joke was supposed to be about how silly the show's male characters were for not recognizing him but still.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

The X-Files: “My Struggle III”

It's official. The Cigarette-Smoking Man is not only one of the most memorable villains to ever appear on a TV show within the last quarter-century but he's also an outright bastard. Poor Scully.

And what happened to Agent Reyes? Who would have guessed that she of all people would cross over to the dark side?

Trailer of the Week: Salt

Oh, no! Angelina Jolie's character was accused of working for the Russians while pretending to work for the USA. Why does that sound familiar?

Fiddler on the Roof 2018

"Rabbi, is there a proper blessing for the current U.S. President?"

"A proper blessing for the current U.S. President? May God bless the President... and keep him far away from us."

* Cue laughter *

Pop Song of the Week: "Russians"

Just when I thought a particular song was out-of-date, some politician had to go and prove me wrong.

Movie Song of the Week: "I've Got a Dream"

The Dream Girl Cometh.

Quote of the Week

I write the way I do because (not though) I am a Catholic.
--Flannery O'Connor

Trailer of the Week: Friday the 13th (1980)

Because it's that day.

Movie Quote of the Week

It's not bad enough to have Friday the 13th, we've gotta have a full moon too. We keep statistics. We have more accidents, more rapes, more robberies, more homicides, more of everything when there's a full moon. It upsets people. Makes them nuts.
--Ronn Carroll, Friday the 13th (1980)

TV Quote of the Week

I think all I have... all any of us have, are the results of all the choices that we've made. And at the end of the day, we just hope... that we made the right one.
--David Duchovny, The X-Files, "Nothing Lasts Forever"

Poema de Mi Id: Parte VI

“The Mask”

I have worn a mask for ages.
So long I have forgotten
What my true face looks like.

Perhaps I was born with my mask.
Perhaps it was attached in my cradle.
I do not know; I never asked.

Life is easy behind the mask,
But life is hell without it.
My face exposed to the merciless crowd.

No, I'm glad I wear it.
Keeping my face hidden from
The sneers and frowns of my fellow man.

Alas, someday, I fear
I shall fall in love.
Then the real test will come.

Will she love me or
Will she love the mask
She thinks is me?

That is the question
That I must ask myself.
But I dare not.

For I have fallen in love
Before, only to find myself
In love with another's mask.

When I tried to peel it off her,
I found nothing beneath it
Save another mask and another...

Many masks I peeled away,
Until, at last I came to a
barren skull.

Then I realized right there and then
That the girl I loved had worn her mask
So long that she had lost her face.

And should the day ever come
When I too would have to unmask,
Then, I fear, I'll share her fate.

Pop Song of the Week: "If Your Kisses Can't Hold the Man You Love "

One of my favorite versions of an old Sophie Tucker tune.

Movie Song of the Week: "One Last Hope"

Hey, who among us would not want to have a Jewish satyr as a personal trainer? Especially if he was voiced by Danny De Vito?

Quote of the Week

How are we meant to feel about art that we both love and oppose? What if we are in the unusual position of having helped create it? Erasing history is a dangerous road when it comes to art -- change is essential, but so, too, is remembering the past, in all of its transgression and barbarism, so that we may properly gauge how far we have come, and also how far we still need to go.
--Molly Ringwald, "What About 'The Breakfast Club'?: Revisiting the Movies of My Youth in the Age of #MeToo," The New Yorker, April 6, 2018

R.I.P. Stephen Cozzi

Jill Cozzi of the Brilliant at Breakfast site has always been one of my favorite bloggers on the Internet as well as one of my favorite critics on the old Cinemarati site so I was more than a bit saddened to learn a few years ago that her husband Stephen had passed away and that she was now a widow.

I was a bit embarrassed to comment on it when I first heard about it since so much time had passed since the last time I visited her site. But as time went on, it seemed far better for me to try to say something than to say nothing at all.

Besides, Jill has always treated me in a civil manner even when I didn't deserve it and I still remember the kind words she wrote to me on the Cinemarati site after my father died. I can't pretend I know what it is like to lose a spouse but I do like to think I know something about grief.

In any event, I wish the best for Jill Cozzi.

And, of course, I'd like to think that her late husband has been -- and will be -- missed.

P.S. Upon re-reading the last post on her site, I suddenly remembered that Ms. Cozzi also lost her parents a few year back. I'm sorry for this loss as well -- and for not remembering it earlier.

Then again, when it comes to grief, it's better to risk saying the wrong thing than to say nothing at all.

Pop Song of the Week: "Too Young to Fall in Love"

No, this is not an excerpt from a recent Matt Damon film but I would not be surprised to learn that the makers of said film were inspired by this video.

For that matter, I was surprised to see Liv Tyler making an appearance in this video, but given the fact that it was made in the mid-1980s, it was more likely that her character was being played by someone who just looked like her.

Movie Song of the Week: "I'm Number One"

At long last a musical number that explains the complex relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. And it was made before Trump even thought of running for President.

Quote of the Week

The combines can never squeeze the small independent bookseller out of existence as they have squeezed the grocer and the milkman.
--George Orwell, "Bookshop Memories"

My Comment: Heh. Irony.

¡Feliz Pascua de Resurrección!

Adele Jergens and her friends want to join me in wishing all my readers a happy Easter. We hope that you all enjoy the holiday.

What? Sick Again?

Just when I had thought that I had survived cold and flu season, I found myself in the hospital with the flu. I originally went there for observation. However, I stopped breathing in the middle of the first night and they had to stick a tube down my throat. I eventually got better but not before I spent half a week off my feet which meant yet another lengthy stay in rehab so that I could learn again how to walk properly.

Oh, well. It could have been worse but it was still bad enough as it was. Then again they did eventually pull that tube out of my throat. And they did send me home yesterday. As you might guess, it feels so good to be home.