Cult Movies

broderic on November 28, 2004

This has been going around the blogosphere. Saw it here from a link at APCB. Since I like movies, a lot, I’ll bore you with my experiences with these cult movies. Bold items are the ones I have seen.

1 This Is Spinal Tap: Funny, funny movie. As many great quotes as any. “This goes to 11.”

2 The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Saw it when I was a young’un. Three times. Participated in the fun. But now it is just ridiculous.

3 Freaks: Alex Winters. ‘Nuff said.

4 Harold And Maude

5 Pink Flamingos: John Waters is a local legend in Baltimore. Grossest scene ever. I could take it or leave it.

6 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Scares me too much.

7 Repo Man: The movie soundtrack was all the rave when I was a youn punk. “You find one in every car.”

8 Scarface: Going to the U at the tail end of the 80s. This was a classic to watch.

9 Blade Runner: This is the movie which all sci-fi movies derive from. Classic.

10 The Shawshank Redemption

11 Five Deadly Venoms: Kung fu theatre rulez! They should bring it back for lazy saturdays.

12 Plan 9 From Outer Space

13 Brazil: Prescient. We are all going to die via paperwork.

14 Eraserhead

15 Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

16 The Warriors: Why aren’t the gangs of today like this. Baseball furies.

17 Dazed And Confused: “I love high school girls. The older I get. They stay the same age.”

18 Hard-Boiled

19 Evil Dead II

20 The Mack

21 Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure: The Alamo’s basement!

22 Un Chien Andalou

23 Akira: I still don’t get it.

24 The Toxic Avenger

25 Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory: Oompa-Loompas! Ahh HBO in the summer at OC.

26 Stranger Than Paradise

27 Dawn Of The Dead: The original is still the best of the zombie flicks.

28 The Wiz

29 Clerks

30 The Harder They Come

31 Slap Shot

32 Re-Animator: The head that gives head.

33 Grey Gardens

34 The Big Lebowski: I’m the dude.

35 Withnail and I

36 Showgirls

37 A Bucket Of Bood

38 They Live: Rowdy Roddy Piper taking out alien invaders. What else do you need. “I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I’m all out of bubblegum.”

39 The Best Of Everything

40 Barbarella

41 Heathers: The young Jack Nickelson.

42 Rushmore: Bittersweet. Loved it.

43 The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension: Saw this when I was younger, I don’t remember much, but it must have been fun. As was all movies when I was a kid.

44 Love Streams

45 Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

46 Aguirre, The Wrath of God

47 Walking And Talking Nicole Holofcener

48 The Decline Of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years

49 Friday

50 Faces of Death, Vol. 1

51 Monty Python and the Holy Grail : Funnier than the number 1 movie on this list. It gets funnier everytime.

52 A Clockwork Orange: Ultraviolence and a little of the old in-n-out, too.

53 Mommie Dearest

54 The Princess Bride: Good but not great IMHO.

55 Swingers: My movie. Defines the nineties for me. I saw a weekday matinee. Several business men, some college kids, and I. I think I was the only one laughing throughout the movie. Classic.

56 UHF

57 Valley of the Dolls

58 Fight Club: I shall follow the first rule of the fight club.

59 Dead Alive (aka Braindead)

60 Better Off Dead

61 Donnie Darko

Sideways

broderic on November 27, 2004

Caught the latest Alexander Payne movie, Sideways. You can sum this movie up in one sentence, “Swingers for the over 40 crowd.” You heard that right. Swingers. Instead of hapless actors roaming around LA looking for fun, you have a mid-40’s oenophile looking for the next bottle of pinot noir. It has the same loose, enjoyable feel. It has the same mopey main character. Can he find love? Or at least some hapiness with his life? This movie follows his journey through a week when he treats his best friend to the Napa valley before his wedding. I liked it, but was a bit too long. Surely, this film will be a critical darling.

4 of 5 stars.

Source Search

broderic on November 26, 2004

The fellows over at Forwarding Address: Mac OSX linked to a site that allows you to search source code. Brilliant. This would come in handy when it is time to write some code. You can search many source listings of various languages for ideas. It should help as it gives examples of how to use operations. As a software engineer it would be nice to use as you learn from examples.

Trip Toe Phan

broderic on November 26, 2004

Home from Thanksgiving with the fam. Full. Maybe I should go to the gym tomorrow. Maybe this weekend. Should I shop on black friday?

“I’m Not His Wife — He Doesn’t Need To Scream At Me”

broderic on November 25, 2004

Leg 2 of the Amazing Race has our contestants flying from Iceland to Norway. Again, they are traipsing in some of the countries that I loved visiting. The visit Holmenkollen ski jump. I wondered what I would be like to have launched from there. Now I know. This time around there is much bickering. I can’t stand any team especially, that Johnathon guy. He mistreats his wife. Hopefully, he really isn’t like that. Dude is intense. I am rooting now for the Mormon hotties. They’re cute and haven’t bickered once. They almost got last. This leg shows that one essential skill you should have is driving stick. You never know what you’ll find in Europe, but you can expect to be driving a manual car. Learn it. Know it. Live it.

Bare walls

broderic on November 21, 2004

I had moved into my condo about 2 years ago. Being single I have barely furnished the place. The walls are still white and they are empty, so lately I want to put something up. I would like to put up original art, but if not some prints. These are a few artists that have something that appeals to me. Shag. Ragnar. Chris Bishop. I am trying to get a print via ebay of the previous two. The latter probably an original. Let’s see how it goes.

Game dev

broderic on November 20, 2004

This entry from a writer whose nom de plum is ea_spouse writes a lengthy post on what it is like to have your significant other work for EA Games. Most of it tells of horrid lengthy days spent in “crunch time” and no compensation for overtime work. My understanding of the game programming industry is that it was always like this. Except my understanding came when games were produced by small shops not the mega-development company that is EA Games. Working for the man sucks.

“She’s just a girl. She’s just a girl. The Girl U want.”

broderic on November 19, 2004

Last night I dreamt of S. The previous night I dreamt of I. Both of them are girls that I had major affection for. S being the latest about 8 years ago. It is very strange and disturbing that I had dreamt about them both in consecutive nights. Here is what I remember of the dreams.

The previous night was about I. She was my grade school crush. In this dream, I was back visiting our grade school because they were having a fair or flea market. I had gone because a friend was getting married there. I was dressed in a suit. I saw her standing there looking at items on a table. She was older than I remembered her to be. I guess that the years seperating the last time I saw her made my memory advance her age. I didn’t get to say anything to her as I was bumping into friends who were there for the wedding also. I catch a glimpse of her again, and I decide to talk to her. She is standing there looking across the field with some friends. She was taking pictures with a camera with a modest zoom lense. One of her friends was a guy. He helped stabilize her from behind. I did not want to disturb them both, so I feigned talking to her. I passed her by. Again, I bump into friends this time the bride. I decide I really need to talke to I. I run after her, but she has disappeared. I run to the front of the school. She’s not there. I realize that that was the last I will have seen of her, and walk dejectedly back to the wedding. They are unloading chairs from a dump truck for the wedding.

Last night was S’s turn to visit my dreams. In this one, I was working out at a gym. She just happened to be there. I bummped into her and we were both surprised to see each other. I think I was introducing a friend to her. While we were discussing some exercise related maneuver. I think I had tripped over something and fallen into her. I landed on her thighs. They felt great. I must have disgusted her when that happened. She went to change. So did I. Except I went to the bathroom. In a rush, I ran to meet up with her hoping to ask her out for some coffee. She was avoiding me. Moving from me quickly. I cornered her. She was reluctant to talk. I, being my loser self, never got to ask her out. She left. I silently practiced, “Would you like to go get some coffee?” Hoping to use it, but I now know that I won’t ever. What is most vivid about this dream is her face. A very pretty brunette with big brown eyes.

Their return in my dreams saddens me. I know I will never see them again. I hope they are doing well wherever they are. I am lonely.

The Game’s Afoot (Amazing Race 6)

broderic on November 17, 2004

The first episode of Amazing Race season 6 was on. I got it on Tivo. They visited Iceland as the first country. It is one of my favorite places on earth. I am glad to see that they have gone there. The teams this time around are all bickering no fun. I can’t like any of them. In fact the one team, Avi and Joe who would’ve been great to root for were philimated. They lost. Can the rest make the show fun to watch? Stay tuned.