BEAUTY PIC OF THE DAY

One of the things I would like to do on this blog is publish pics that I find interesting or just plain cool or incredibly beautiful.

So, in the interest of keeping this blog as beautiful as possible, I'm going to be putting up pics of women that I think are beautiful.

Now, before anyone gets worried, there are a couple of rules:

1. No nudity - I will be displaying mostly head and shoulder pics that may show a bit of cleavage but will go no further but if I do show more, the woman will be clothed in a dress or in some other flattering manner.  No swimsuits or lingerie photos will be featured.

2. I will try to identify the woman featured.  Now, I may not be able to do this all the time as I have many pics that are not identified but on the whole I will try and provide a name to go with the beautiful face.

So, without further ado, here is the

BEAUTY PIC OF THE DAY

Once more its Tiffany Taylor, this time at a Glamourcon event in a great red dress.  The ultimate Woman in Red.

 

 

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

If you got to know me a little, you would find out that I'm one of the few regular people that is on Twitter.

 

One thing that I like about Twitter is that you can get sent all kinds of interesting and funny and amazing pics, so I'm going to be posting those pics that I find interesting or funny or amazing.

So

without futher ado here is the

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

 

ROMEO AND JULIET

 

 

YOU CAN'T CHOOSE WHO YOUR FATHER IS

Continuing the discussion of Entertainment Weekly's Top 100 Films of All Time, we turn to the #2 film on the list which is, of course, THE GODFATHER.

Now, The Godfather is one of those almost perfect films.  It excels in all facets of its production and I would have no argument with calling it the greatest film of all time.
I'm currently reading a book called Five Families by Selwyn Raab about the history of the Mafia and it really brings home to me how good and authentic The Godfather really is.
But its more than that.
The Godfather is a film about a Mafia family and about a family in the Mafia and that's what makes it so profound from a story aspect.
And when you add that it is superbly directed, acted, shot, and scored, The Godfather emerges as a superior film that has to be seen to be believed.
However, I was recently perusing through a book in B&N called The Greatest Movies Ever by Gail Kim & Jim Piazza and they rank The Godfather as the greatest movie of all time...
BUT...
they also rank The Godfather Pt 2 as the greatest movie of all time.  Both movies at the #1 position on their list.
Uh.. NO.
First of all, you can't do that when making a best of list.  You can't put two movies as your #1 movie of all time.  That's at best indecisive and at worst cowardly.
When making a best of list, you have to make decisions and the biggest decision of any such list is your choice for the #1 position.
And secondly, what is this fascination with The Godfather Pt 2?  To me, it is a vastly inferior film when compared to The Godfather.  I've seen this film many times and although it features a great performance from Al Pacino, I think it just doesn't measure up.
My main complaint about the movie is that it doesn't make sense.
SPOILER ALERT
We all know that Fredo betrayed Michael but what exactly did he do?  Did he open the curtains in Michael's bedroom?  Did he let the shooters onto the estate?  Did he kill the shooters after they bungled the assassination attempt?  What did he do?  There is that scene where Fredo's wife freaks out and goes yelling hysterically into the night and is admonished by Fredo but what did she see or hear?  Its never explained in the movie.  All we find out is that Fredo knew Johnny Ola who worked for Hymen Roth and if you are not paying close attention, you will miss that little tidbit of information as its said in a very off-hand way. 
Not too mention all the lies that Michael tells everyone which further confuses the viewer.  He tells Tom one story, Pentagelli another, Fredo another, and Hymen Roth another.  Its all very confusing. 
And then you have the whole Pentangelli story which is sorta confusing with the appearance of the Rosatto brothers who claim to strangle him on orders from Michael ("Michael Corleone says hello") but they're not working for Michael (by the way this episode in the movie is based on a real event that took place in the late 60's in the Columbo family war known as The Gallo War as the Gallo brothers tried to seize control of the family and were discovered garotting a rival in a bar by a cop who was passing by).
Also, the whole flashback story about young Vito Corleone, while interesting, doesn't match up with the present-day story that is happening to Michael.  The two stories don't connect up and there are some mysteries in the flashback story also.  The biggest one is the scene where Fanucci gets his throat cut by two hoods in an alley which is witnessed by Vito.  Now, I've read the book, The Godfather, so I know what's going on in this scene because the reader is privy to Vito's thoughts, but in the movie, we have no idea what's going on and its never mentioned again in the movie.  That's sloppy film-making.
And lastly, the end of the movie (where everyone is killed) is not as effective as in the first movie (and sending Rocco to kill Roth in an airport, only to be killed himself doesn't really smack of a triumphant endeavor or a smart move on Michael's part to sacrifice his most important capo) and by this time, we are definitely not cheering for Michael as we are in The Godfather.
In The Godfather, we are firmly in Michael's corner and even though he reveals himself to be ruthless, because of the script, we identify with him and view him as the hero and savior of his Mafia family but at the cost of his personal family as exemplified by his lying to Kate and the closing of the study door in the final scene of the movie.  Pure brilliance.
A great movie on every level.

P.S.  If you are wanting more Godfather stuff, I would recomend reading the original novel by Mario Puzo although in one of the few cases, the movie is actually better than the book.  Also, you might want to check out the two continuation novels by Mark Winegardner, The Godfather Returns and The Godfather's Revenge which continue and expound upon both the original novel and both movies.

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

If you got to know me a little, you would find out that I'm one of the few regular people that is on Twitter.

Now, let me warn you, if you go to my twitter account don't be alarmed, because I tend to get very morbid and post very depressing things on my twitter as well as retweet some over 18 (18+) material.

I tend to use it as a place where I can vent and write some things that I can't express out loud or to anyone (kind of like a personal but public diary).

But, one thing that I like about Twitter is that you can get sent all kinds of interesting and funny and amazing pics, so I'm going to be posting those pics that I find interesting or funny or amazing.

So

without futher ado here is the

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

BEST TREEHOUSE EVER!!!



I  JUST "KANE" STAND IT!!!



Recently, Entertainment Weekly put out a list of its Top 100 Movies of All Time and, besides drumming up a lot of discussion amongst movie aficionados, it also was thoroughly ridiculed by yours truly.

The most glaring omission from the list is my personal favorite film of all time which is:  STAR WARS!!!

With the omission of this all-time classic movie the list is completely invalid IMHO.

And like the AFI list of a few years ago, the EW list puts a movie at #1 that I simply do not get. 

Yep, once again, its Citizen Kane as the best movie of all time and once again

I JUST DON'T GET IT!!!

So, in fairness and with a completely open mind, I watched Citizen Kane the other night and I gotta say,

I JUST DON'T GET IT!!!

This so-called masterpiece of a movie is nothing of the kind.  To me, it is an utterly forgettable movie.  It doesn't move me, it doesn't inspire me, it doesn't thrill me, it doesn't do anything for me.  I sat there after it was over just scratching my head trying to see the genius and

I JUST DIDN'T SEE IT ON THE SCREEN!!!

Now, I've read about all the technical innovations of photography that went into this movie such as the deep focus, wipes/fades, cameras set up below the floor boards so that the ceiling can be filmed and all that stuff.  I even read Roger Ebert's essay on Citizen Kane from his Greatest Movies book.

But,

 I STILL JUST DON'T GET IT!!!

Welles' performance is interesting but its not monumental when compared with other bravura performances such as Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia, or George C. Scott in Patton, or even Ben Kingsley in Gandhi.  Those are great performances of monumental characters (not too mention they were all based on real figures, whereas Kane is a fictional character based on a real-life figure - William Randolph Hearst). 

And I have to say something about the score of this movie.  Bernard Hermann provided a competent score but its not a great one, especially compared to his later work with Hitchcock.  And it is my contention (and I will repeat this over and over) that you cannot have a great movie, and certainly not the greatest movie of all time, without a great score.

The greatest movie of all time should represent the pinnacle of film-making in every facet of production.  Everything should be at the highest level and no movie should be able to compare to it in every category.  Some movies may be great in some categories but lack in other areas.

Citizen Kane lacks in just about every category.  I can't say that anything about the movie is the pinnacle of the film-making process.  Nothing.

So, why does it keep popping up on these lists as the #1 movie of all time?  I, frankly, don't have an answer to this question.  I think that someone, somewhere declared this movie the greatest and everyone just jumped on the bandwagon and now if you don't say that Citizen Kane is the best movie ever, you are looked upon as intellectually inferior or just plain ignorant of film.  

Well, I'll admit that I don't get this film and that I don't see the greatness of it but that doesn't make my opinion any less valid because even though I'm still only in my 40's I've seen my fair share of films and studied film for many years (especially from the music aspect of film-making) and I know a good film when I see one and Kane ain't one of those films.  So if that makes me intellectually backward or ignorant of films, well so be it.

I could name a hundred films better than Citizen Kane as it wouldn't even be in my Top 100 Films of All Time List (if I ever made one, that is).

IF YOU "KANE" STAND THE HEAT, GET OUT OF THE INCREDIBLY OVER SIZED FIREPLACE.

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

If you got to know me a little, you would find out that I'm one of the few regular people that is on Twitter.

Now, let me warn you, if you go to my twitter account don't be alarmed, because I tend to get very morbid and post very depressing things on my twitter as well as retweet some over 18 (18+) material.

I tend to use it as a place where I can vent and write some things that I can't express out loud or to anyone (kind of like a personal but public diary).

But, one thing that I like about Twitter is that you can get sent all kinds of interesting and funny and amazing pics, so I'm going to be posting those pics that I find interesting or funny or amazing.

So, without futher ado here is the first

TWITTER PIC OF THE DAY

TIGER IN A WATERFALL

Pretty cool, huh?  Don't you love big cats?



BEAUTY PIC OF THE DAY

One of the things I would like to do on this blog is publish pics that I find interesting or just plain cool or incredibly beautiful.

So, in the interest of keeping this blog as beautiful as possible, I'm going to be putting up pics of women that I think are beautiful.

Now, before anyone gets worried, there are a couple of rules:

1. No nudity - I will be displaying mostly head and shoulder pics that may show a bit of cleavage but will go no further but if I do show more, the woman will be clothed in a dress or in some other flattering manner.  No swimsuits or lingerie photos will be featured.

2. I will try to identify the woman featured.  Now, I may not be able to do this all the time as I have many pics that are not identified but on the whole I will try and provide a name to go with the beautiful face.

So, without further ado, here is the first

BEAUTY PIC OF THE DAY

This is Playboy Playmate Miss November 1998, Tiffany Taylor, and quite frankly and in all honesty, she is the most beautiful woman I've ever laid eyes on.  I'm fairly sure that I'm fairly obsessed with this woman and her pics may grace this blog many more times so be prepared.



FIRST POST!!!

Ok, so here goes nothing...

I've officially decided to start a blog.

This may be against my better judgement but I'm going to give it a try and see what I can do with this blogging thing.

To begin, I would like to state what I intend to blog about:

Well, it will be things I like, dislike, love, detest, admire, loathe, appreciate, and denegrate all to my heart's content.

I will do alot of blogging about the things I experience mostly related to culture such as movies, music, books, and pics.

I want to be as positive as possible but, knowing me, things may turn out a bit cynical, bordering on depressing, but I promise I will always give my honest opinion and always tell the truth about the way I feel about things that I observe. 

So, without further ado, lets get this party started.