Movie Log 2006 #20: Melinda and Melinda
Took a break from pub quiz and watched this, which arrived this weekend presumably about the time Matt was watching it. Everything he says about the film is right on. The framing scenes set me against the film from the get-go, and frankly Allen's total body of work is such that he can't afford to dig himself into such a hole early on. This guy was much more believable playing a religious assassin in a futuristic dystopia than as a struggling musician with a pad that makes the Friends loft look like a hovel.

As to Matt's theory that Will Ferrell could successfully remake Woody's early-to-mid films: Maybe Sleeper. Anything else would be a bad idea.

Movie Log 2006: #17-19
Seems like a big gap between movie posts. We've watched a fair amount of TV material on DVD, but I don't count it. I did catch up on a little bit of Oscar fodder with Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room and Brokeback Mountain. The former explained very simply just what was going on at that company, and could make one wish the death penalty extended to financial crimes. The latter was as good as everyone says it is, with the exception of Anne Hathaway, who seemed to be playing dressup.

On Saturday one of Dee's MDN selections was the excrable Newsies. It was a complete mess, but thankfully nothing about it really stuck with me.

3-Chord Monday #9
Crossfading between Blck History Month and Women's History Month, we have the UK's X-Ray Spex, featuring English-Somali singer Poly Styrene. She claimed she'd rather shave her head than be known as a sex symbol -- then she did, pre-dating Sinead O'Connor by a decade. X-Ray Spex cut one album, then Styrene quit and became a Hare Krishna.
X-ray Spex - "The Day the World Turned Day-glo"

I think that win was officially eked out. We trailed until after the photo round, where I think we only missed one -- Amazingly, we know what Serge Gainsbourg looks like. Then we had a sorta crappy final round, but others had a harder time, it seems.

so, some questions (and I finally updated the ones from last week, too):

How many teams play in the Grapefruit League? 18 - Since this is becoming "guess a number between 2 and 30," I'm invoking the mercy rule.

How many Ramona books has Beverly Cleary written? (that is, books where she's part of the title) eight (Mark) - I came up with five titles right away, but had forgotten Ramona Forever, Ramona and Her Mother and Ramona and Her Father. I am actually going to feel bad once I collect dead pool points for Ms. Cleary's passing.

95 percent of the world's opals come from what country? Australia (Mark) - Two of us independently came up with Madagascar, so we went with it. D'oh!

Who delivered the eulogy at Malcolm X's funeral? Ossie Davis (Brian) - I knew this stone cold; not sure why. I think it had to do with reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X for classes right around the time Do The Right Thing was out.


Who was the first president born after the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Martin Van Buren (Brian) - We were one off, guessing Jackson.

brilliant!
This succinctly sums up the problem with figure skating.

Hey, my curling post got eaten. Anyway, to sum up:

The US women faltered because unlike Sweden, they did not have a cheezy metal video promoting them:


Hammerfall - "Hearts on Fire"

3-Chord Monday #8
Black History Month + Presidents Day = Dead Kennedys. Why? Because of drummer DH Peligro, who went on to a brief stint with the Red Hot Chili Peppers before fronting his own band.
Dead Kennedys - "Take This Job and Shove It"