Edgy MD

For those who like to get sushi and not pay. http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/09/destroy-all-movies-t.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+boingboing/iBag+(Boing+Boing)

make up your own system.

Relative to the league, Bobby Bonilla was a two time All-Star with the Mets. Dykstra none. On the other hand, bb-r.com says Bonilla had 8.7 WARs for the Mets. Dykstra had 16.4.

We've had some leniancy in that system.

The root of the formula is (R^2*W)/10 R is Ranking with a number one ranking equal 30 and a number 30 ranking equaling 1. W is wins by the team (pro-rated to 162 for strike- or weather-shortened years). There's also some adjustments made for playoff success. So, while Bob Ojeda's 1986 was not the best season by any Met ever (probably not in the top ten), that season got him the most points of any player in a single season. But it works a lot better in the macro than in the micro.

i've got some work to do here. The true legacy of Gary Matthews, Jr. may be that he took enough time away from Angel Pagan to keep him from being the top Mets player.

I certainly think that's the order they are meant to be consumed in.

Were the time travellers young and sexy?

The truth is that even the book doesn't hold together if you look close enough at the plot. Part of what additionally makes it confusing is the existence of the motion picture code. The criminals at the center of Marlowe's investigation were part of a pornography ring, but the script was unallowed to mention the existence of pornography. They may have gotten in a few euphemistic references to "funny books" or something, but it's not easy to sort that out right away, and even harder as time has passed and references have become more obscure. He breaks into Geiger's house and the place is decorated in cheap orentalism and the younger sister (I think) is passed out in a silk dress. Well, we're all supposed to get the picture of what's going on. OK.

I thought I had a previous poll on this, but can't find it.

Cineaste, indeed. Hey, Bertie, "Here's lookin' at you, kid" was from another movie!

A lot of references to classic flim in 80s music --- songs taken from film titles ("Notorious," "Tender Is the Night") and actors' names ("Bette Davis Eyes," "Bella Lugosi's Dead," "Robert DeNiro's Waiting"); albums taken from film titles (The Red Shoes); and bands whose names come from classic characters (Duran Duran), settings (Heaven 17), film posters (Frankie Goes to Hollywood), or directors (The Cocteau Twins). A lot of cineastes going into music-making at the time.

sharpie wrote: Y'know it's been a long while since I've seen it and maybe there was some fudging. I mostly remember those scenes with Claude Rains and the party and the wine and the great crane shot plus some probably fake Rio scenery. Yeah, everything in Rio de Janiero is done with rear projections. It looks less fakey than Spellbound, though.

There's this period of a few weeks after they arrive in Rio, when they're waiting for her assignment, and the two develop the relationship that becomes the cause of so much of the later conflict. Don't they kind of fudge that part?

Ingrid Bergman plays the daughter of a convicted Nazi agent, recruited herself by an Amerian intelligence officer (Cary Grant) to infiltrate a ring of Nazis in Rio de Janiero. Hitchcock directs and suspense happens. Not to be confused with Notorious (2009) about the life of rapper Notorious B.I.G. That was different.

OK, first of all, that's six paragraphs with not one citation from the article. Seond of all, "the writer assumes Hitchcock was living in 2010" and the author holds Hitchcock to 2010 standards are two different statements. One of them is completely untenable. Third, presenting a charge that is pointless to deny, because the perpetrators are always blind to themselves, is a cheap rhetorical trick that even a Hitchock character would recognize and scoff at. Lastly, if you read the article, you'd see it was written in 1990, not in 2010, so the party most guilty of presentism appears to be you, though I'll resist the temptation to claim that it's pointless to deny it.

Well, if it's an accusation that is pointless to deny, I won't deny it. I'll just leave it as self-evidently absurd.

He assumes Hitchcock was making his films in 2010?

Wretched, boring, and plotless, except where it was boringly predictable.

Well, (1) he confesses at the beginning that he's playing around by psychoanalyzing Hitchcock, and (2) there's something more that's going on if you if you look at the whole. For a "great" filmmaker, he didn't have to do anything. He chose these stories, these themes, and these storyboards. And he didn't just put them in distress. Sometimes, he really fucked around with them. For high-end film-making, that's some oddball stuff. Plus there's stuff this: GREG GARRETT: Miss Hedren, there's a story about the little coffin that was supposedly sent to you by Hitch. Did it contain a little doll with a noose around the neck? What did that mean? Was that a joke? TIPPI HEDREN: This is the first time I've heard about the noose around the neck. I was called in to do � have a mask made of my face. And I really didn't think anything of it, because at the make-up facility at Universal there are faces of every actor up on the wall. So I thought, well, gee, I'm just going to join all that. That's fine, that's wonderful. It's a rather painful experience to go through this, with the plaster on your face and the straws up your nose and that sort of thing. However, I weathered it through. The outcome of that was a doll that was made for my daughter [Melanie Griffith] for a Christmas present. And the difference in this little doll was that most of the time when a doll is made of a celebrity or whatever, it's sort of a caricature of that person. This was an absolute replica of my face. Bob Dawn, who was absolutely brilliant in his field of prostheses and that sort of thing, had taken that mask and taken it down to this tiny little face, and it was absolutely perfect. The doll was then dressed in the green outfit that I wore in The Birds for six months. Unfortunately, they put the doll in a pine box. And then it was presented to my daughter for Christmas. And my little girl, Melanie, looked at it and just blanched white, and we had to put the doll away. Now this was not � and I truly believe this � this was not an intentional thing for Hitch to hurt my daughter. She was hurt by it. But this was not intentional on his part. I mean, he did a lot of really weird things, but this was not intentional, and there was no noose, believe me. No noose. GARRETT: Was it a joke? HEDREN: No, it really wasn't a joke, either. It was supposed to be a very, very, kind of wonderful, thoughtful gift. And one that had taken great thought, great effort, great expense, I'm sure. So it wasn't � I can't say that he was trying to hurt anybody. It was just unfortunate. It's hard to think she's not being over-generous there. The guy's attitude toward women is certainly worth examining. A lot of great directors have some mostrously strange egos. Ford did, Huston did, Cameron does. I think Scorscese does. But it's stilll worth turning a mirror on the guy supposedly turning a mirror on us.

Both movies have to be understood as shot through the lens of Paramount, so you konw a gentle, pulled-punches take had to be practically in their mission statement.

In the sequel to the 1997 documentary about loyal Star Trek fans, Denise Crosby logs some air miles to track the phenomeon internationally (England, France, Germany, Brazil, and whatever country Belgrade calls home now), as well as catch up on some of the figures the first film made famous. Things I did not know before viewing this movie: Sacramento musicians consider the city to be the Theme Band Capital of America.

I've long enjoyed Joe Queenan's take on Alfred, which was pretty much that he was as good a flimmaker as one can be without being great. Or (re-reading), he is great, but not great-great. Pretty good work by Queenan from back when his snark content was about 40% instead of the 80-85% it runs at now that he's a brand name.

Somebody else saw the film first and decided to comment --- I think in the Marvel movies thread --- but didn't feel like starting a polling thread. I definitely liked this better... than The Karate Kid, Part III.

Half way through. So far, so suck.