I'm 42, but I didn't used to be when I got sucked into these damn jazz board things. If only there had been government warnings in the 1990s about what this stuff could do to you. But no, it was all 1000 free hours of AOL this and You've Got Mail that. Now look at me. I blame JCS.

I saw Ender's Game and happily I never read the book, so the twist in the story worked for me. I enjoyed it.

Dr Dave wrote:

That looks really interesting to me. Goes on my list.

I had the pleasure of working with Anne Willan on one of her cookbooks as a junior editor. Bet her memoir made you hungry. I'll have to take a peak at that ZEALOT book, now the furor has died down. It seems like ground Renan covered in the 1800s, but I enjoyed Renan. I've been reading some enjoyable...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_bBYcfgFyaQM/So-EHSfI_bI/AAAAAAAABJo/WXXraOV2VVo/s400/1206996626_hin_koi_mil_gaya.jpg Every once in a while, a picture comes out that simultaneously blows your mind and tugs on your heartstrings, and really redefines what it is possible to accomplish in a motion picture. Bu...

steve(thelil) wrote:
It is, but on my Mac I have to swipe upwards to reveal the time and it's almost just as easy to type J which gets me jazz talk.net

Steve, if knowing the time is important then perhaps you should buy a second Mac to wear strapped to your wrist. Or would that interfere with your table tennis?

Movie 43. The best parts are weakly amusing. It isn't a long movie, so there's that.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Kismat_1968.jpg Kismat is a wonderful Bollywood feature from 1968 that explores the connection between love, music, and violence. Beautiful young Deepika is mad about the boy but her drummer lover is always pushing her head between the cymbals. Meanwhil...

Monte and stonemonkts sitting in a tree, K I S...... K I S M E T ! http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a2/Kismet_%281955_film%29_poster.jpg Never seen it. How about you, stoney? Unless walto means something else entirely: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d6/Kismat_1968.jpg

Speaking about movies about movies, how about movies about plays? Anybody seen Synecdoche, NY ? That thing was deep. I really enjoyed Synecdoche, despite its every attempt to ward off audience interest and understanding. It was an engaging puzzle. Of course you like Keenu Reeves as the Worthy Enlig...

Continuing my pain-in-the-ass period. I didn't like Hugo . Most of the plot was based on an absurd McGuffin that made no difference when the protagonist (Finally!) got it, and there was too much nostalgia during the last 20 minutes for an art form that, in reality, most people only pret...

Like all Bollywood pictures, this one was two days long. Still worth it. It's, you know, your basic 70s nostalgia reincarnation romance musical.

The Brits can say "cunt" all day long, the lucky bastards. It's not because they have the right view of the word and we have the wrong view. Americans can call each other "spazzes" and we won't even think of it as an insult, let alone a grievously offensive insult for which our r...

Scott Dolan wrote:I think Julianne Moore is one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood.

Hard to be sure, since JC is no more and we are stuck in this dump, but I believe you've said exactly the same thing about every actress in Hollywood.

Ah well. Diff'rent strokes 'n' shit. Me, I'm getting some ramen at the local Japanese at lunchtime. That film made me hungry.

Tampopo, 1985. I like a good life-affirming absurdity. This film reminds me very much of The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Good-humored, ridiculous, and warm.

I like the train metaphor. America was built with railroads and jazz. Try finding a train going anywhere you want to go today. It's all Amtrak or worse, Lincoln Center. Jazz stopped transporting the public decades ago. They still have awesome jazz in Europe and trains that do a job, but in America t...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yzer716cL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg I've been wanting to read Camelot 3000 since 1982 or so. Back in the day it was a 12-issue limited "maxi-series" priced at a buck or $1.25 per issue. Way outside my budget which had a ceiling of 75 cents. Anythi...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/08/Satyagraha_poster.jpg This was an interesting picture dealing with corruption versus people power that asks "What is the meaning of Gandhian political values in the new, rising India?" It stars Bollywood giant (and sometime political figure) A...

But Monte, he won the Pulitzer Prize! He must be really smart. Even that is not quite accurate. Hedges did not win the Pulitzer Prize, the prize was awarded to a team of NYT journalists for their reporting on global terrorism in 2002 and Hedges was on that team. Do I quibble? Hedges sure doesn't. B...

I want to thank my father who opened a new way of reading to me some years ago...the asshole way. He was seated there reading a book by Paul Theroux, so I said to him, "Paul Theroux, huh?" He says, "Yes. The guy is an asshole." For several months, Theroux was all he read. Chris H...

Strange Cargo, 1940. Clarke Gable, Joan Crawford, Peter Lorre, and Ian Hunter as the Lord of All Creation. Several convicts, one lady, and God escape from a French penal colony. Excellent film, one year out from MGM's miracle year of 1939 but belonging very much with those pictures. Four Montes.

More Nazis! More Nazis! More Nazis!

Boring legal asides aside, keeping private messages private is not a matter of law but of courtesy, which is something you can extend even to those persons you don't have a positive relationship with.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves pictures of Nazis!