Re: Good Times

1

The Irish, after all, are the Magic Negroes of Europe.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:14 PM
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So true. I even thought that in the movie, but we're in America, so no guilt. And it was leavened by the charming Czech lady.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:17 PM
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but we're in America, so no guilt

Being Irish in America is better than being Irish in Ireland.


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:20 PM
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I'm going to have to give that a shot. I'm moorish Irish, you see.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:24 PM
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5

I am a Magic Honky.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:24 PM
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That's your underwear, gswift.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:26 PM
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Does every continent have its own Magic Negroes? Can the Lur be the Magic Negroes of South Asia?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:28 PM
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I'm the Magic Honky baby, I've got grits ...


Posted by: Gonerill | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:31 PM
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9

The garments are bad times. I didn't last long with them. My willingness to play along for my wife's sake had limits.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:31 PM
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ogged had a date, ogged had a da-ate! But he's home so early. Sad face. Or else he's going to liveblog the sex! Happy face.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:36 PM
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Does every continent have its own Magic Negroes?

Interesting question. You'd guess so, right?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:36 PM
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ogged had a date

Ogged went by himself, Calabobala.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:37 PM
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Sadder face.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:38 PM
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But he had a good time?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:39 PM
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Does every continent have its own Magic Negroes?

In Africa maybe they just use pygmies or something.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:42 PM
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Was there a happy ending?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 10:42 PM
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17

My recommendations for the evening: Icky Thump (though I'm actually still listening through for the first time and just assuming that I'll enjoy the rest of it as much as I have so far), Out of the Past.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 11:02 PM
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Ha, I listened to Icky Thump last night. Some of the songs are a lot of fun. What's Out of the Past?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 11:04 PM
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This movie


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 11:07 PM
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Ah, cool. I do like Mitchum.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 11:09 PM
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I forgot my italic tags when I wrote it, which may have caused confusion.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06-23-07 11:09 PM
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Out of the Past may be my very favorite movie. I have probably watched it 100 times. Arguably the best and perfect film noir. A lot of people like Double indemnity or Postman Rings Twice but Jane Greer looks innocent sweet & small, and a better femme fatale. I could go on. The best Mitchum movie, the movie Mitchum taught Kirk Douglas how to underact, Tourneur's use of chiascuro, the fucking inevitabilty of corruption.

Everyone though my dad was the splitting image of Mitchum in the late 40s.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 12:12 AM
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23

The best noir I've seen lately is Jimmy Stewart in Call Northside 777. (IMDB.) He plays an unwillingly crusading reporter who eventually helps clear a man of murder. Apparently it's based on a real wrongful-conviction case.

Set in Chicago of the Prohibition/prewar era -- kind of amazing how strong the Polish and other ethnic stereotypes are. Not the greatest dialogue, but not bad either.

As far as Once, I probably mentioned this before, but the street scene in the beginning was shot live, and apparently the first time the guitar got stolen some bystanders decided to help by catching the "thief".


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 6:52 AM
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Thanks, 22 -- I love The Night of the Hunter -- have added Out of the Past to my list.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 7:17 AM
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Ogged, you'll be happy to know that I've started watching The Wire on DVD. I'm only four episodes in, but am enjoying it so far.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 8:43 AM
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Does the new baby like The Wire?


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 8:54 AM
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you'll be happy to know that I've started watching The Wire

Yes! Just stick with it through the first season and I guarantee you'll be hooked.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 9:29 AM
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The loss of the Wire was the most difficult part about deciding to go cable-less. Great show.

Omar was great.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 9:41 AM
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I guarantee you'll be hooked

This is primarily because you'll finally have sussed out the accents, or dialects, or whatever they are.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 9:59 AM
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I saw Sicko last night. It was damn good. A few minor quibbles or things I was ambivalent about, but it's probably Moore's best movie.


Posted by: M/tch M/lls | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 2:38 PM
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Metacritic is a much better site than Rotten Tomatoes.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 2:51 PM
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I second the recommendation of Call Northside 777.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 3:53 PM
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28: I have recently discovered that not having TV, cable, or internet reliable enough to make bit torrent worthwhile still does not prevent me from watching whatever TV I want, whenever I want, for free.

It's disorientingly wonderful how much easier the internet makes stealing media as opposed to paying for it.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:01 PM
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Metacritic is a much better site than Rotten Tomatoes.

What?? It doesn't even have a tomatometer.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:02 PM
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Incidentally, does anyone have any recommendations for software for ripping dvds on a windows computer?


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:04 PM
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I second the recommendation of Call Northside 777.

Oh, hey, eb, don't know what your geekification factor is, but if you're curious about the real-life story behind the movie, you may be interested in the writeup on the case, from Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:05 PM
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34 - It performs the same function as Rotten Tomatoes but instead of including all of the reviewers from Crackpot Podunk Press, it creates a recommendation score by using a weighted average from the best reviewers in the country. Sure, it's not called a tomatometer but it serves the same function.

Do you just want a tomatometer?


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:07 PM
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Do you just want a tomatometer?

Yes.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:08 PM
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I thought the Greeks were the Magic Negroes of Europe. For northern Africa I've heard that it's the Dogon. (Berbers are too trendy)

Eighteenth the recommendation of "Out of the Past".

I'm surprised that so many people still have cable TV. I haven't had it since my first year in the dorms (2000-01). I use the TV for watching videos. Any sports event I'd want to use the TV for is either on broadcast (World Series) or wouldn't be shown here anyway. I choose to have internet access at home instead of cable for about 150 different reasons, the main one being that otherwise I'd stay at the office until 11PM every night.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:09 PM
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40

Of course you would. Style over substance.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:09 PM
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It performs the same function as Rotten Tomatoes but instead of being ugly and hard to read, it has a clean layout and well-selected review sentences.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:15 PM
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don't know what your geekification factor is

More than high enough to find that writeup really interesting.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:17 PM
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being ugly and hard to read, it has a clean layout and well-selected review sentences

You've gotta be kidding. RT is much easier to read than Metacritic.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:19 PM
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You've gotta be kidding. RT is much easier to read than Metacritic.

Now you're just trolling.


Posted by: Becks | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:21 PM
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More than high enough to find that writeup really interesting.

Oh, excellent.

(Also, according to the slightly less reliable IMDB trivia section, he actually did remarry his ex-wife. A case of reality being more implausible than Hollywood.)


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:25 PM
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First of all, light text on a dark background is the devil. Second, having one long list, instead of three columns, doesn't give you the general tenor of the reviews so quickly, which is what I'm really after from these sites.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:25 PM
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I cannot believe I am taking this troll bait.

Look, I don't love the light text either, but the busy, uneven layout and non-intiuitive graphics of the RT site are lousy. Give me one long linear list and let me run my eye down it in a second or two, thanks very much.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:29 PM
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I also don't like that the reviews are ordered by score. I'd rather have the same reviewers consistently on the same space on the page, so I think "oh so and so liked it, so and so hated it, so and so hated it too." That gives me a better sense of what the reviewers I care about thought.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:33 PM
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Isn't it nice we have the Internet, so that people with all sorts of odd preferences can be satisfied?

(viva net neutrality!)


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 06-24-07 4:37 PM
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23 appears to be recommending a film and simultaneously revealing the ending. Not that people need to be anal about spoiler warnings, but if this is the case it's somewhat annoying.

I've been recommending the use of metacritic over rotten tomatoes for a number of years now, I don't see any reason to change my mind now.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 12:12 AM
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First of all, light text on a dark background is the devil.

My job is 8 hours of straight computer work, on two 19'' monitors. And that's not including any computer time at home. Non stop white backgrounds can be like staring straight into a godamn lightbulb.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 12:24 AM
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I confess that I don't understand why people are so concerned with spoilers, especially with older films. Also, soylent orange is plankton.


Posted by: eb | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 12:52 AM
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Does anyone else say "tomatometer" so it rhymes with "thermometer"? Seems logical to me, but people look at me all weird when I do it.


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 12:56 AM
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One of the joys of having a narrative spooling out before you for the first time is wondering and speculating about just where it is going. Losing the ability to do this is losing the chance for an enjoyable experience.


Posted by: washerdreyer | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 1:13 AM
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I have been watching some Patton Oswalt clips on YouTube and, damn, this guy is funny:

Clip 1

Clip 2


Posted by: Gaijin Biker | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 2:05 AM
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One of the joys of having a narrative spooling out before you for the first time is wondering and speculating about just where it is going. Losing the ability to do this is losing the chance for an enjoyable experience.

Ah, sorry. That's quite understandable.

It didn't even occur to me that that was technically a spoiler -- that particular movie to me was much more about the "how" than the "if."


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 4:56 AM
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28: I don't understand Omar; in contrast to pretty much everyone else, he's treated sentimentally, at least in seasons 1 and 2. How is he not a contemporary translation of the hooker with a heart of gold? The show is great, and he's fun on the screen, partly because he gets such funny lines, but there's something out of tune about him.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 06-25-07 8:08 AM
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Continuing in my strange habit of taking entertainment advice from Unfogged, we will be going to see Once tomorrow evening.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06-29-07 10:52 AM
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Yeah -- good times. It is a sweet movie.


Posted by: Clownaesthesiologist | Link to this comment | 06-30-07 7:38 PM
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