August 19, 2007 - August 25, 2007

From Phil Spector's movie poster collection

The latest dish: "Phil Spector’s adopted son Gary [said] that his father is convinced he’ll be found guilty, and is only spending millions of dollars on his defense team and witnesses because Phil feels it’s better to spend the money on his trial than giving all that money to the Clarkson family in the inevitable wrongful death lawsuit."

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 24, 2007 3:30 PM

World news stories you may have missed

Dildo robber in daylight rubbery (UK) As far as 'stick-ups' go, it was unique-- using a Rampant Rabbit vibrator to hold up a bookies.

Drug addict Nicki Jex, 27, had concealed his ex-girlfriend's vibrator in a carrier bag and pretended it was a gun in the raid on December 27 last year.

The robber-- who very appropriately acted alone-- was jailed for five years for his sex toy heist.

Teens suffer in hellish summer job (US) [O]fficials last week were apologetic, calling the conditions in which the teens labored "appalling" and "deplorable."

"It was gross," said Mary, who asked that her real name not be used. "It was spooky in there. It was dark because you couldn't see anything. There were no lights and none of the windows opened, so it was hot."

The building where the teens worked is slated to become housing for senior citizens.

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 24, 2007 2:43 AM

Fine rides

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 22, 2007 2:22 AM

The Monday Movie Quiz #137

Way too many Google-able quotes and names on this one, so I'll stick to just picture clues. And since our quiz movie in question also has lots of easily recognizable faces, we'll turn up the difficulty setting with these lesser-known moments:

Know the movie? Then send me an email by late Sunday night-- if you're correct, expect to feel the caress of next week's winner's circle on your name like an angora sweater.

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 20, 2007 1:31 AM

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Many warm thoughts accompanied the correct answers for last week's quiz movie, Woody Allen's Annie Hall (1977), including this pronouncement by one anonymous winner: "Probably the little molester's best movie." I'll sidestep that argument and instead mention that my own soft spot for Annie has more to do with its Oscar wins the following year, which put to rest forever Bob Hope's tired gripe that comedy films don't win Academy Awards. (Meaning, of course, that his didn't win, ignoring what a friend of mine observed: "That's because Bob makes comedy films that suck.")

Thirty years later, Annie Hall certainly doesn't suck, but I'm not sure it's aged particularly well, either. I'm also not sure that's all the fault of the film-- its many inventive stylistic and narrative tricks have now been so overdone by all the bad comedy it inspired that it's hard to give the original a fresh look. And many moments are justifiably in the comedy hall of fame, such as the Marshall McLuhan bit in last week's picture clue, where Allen pulls him out to put a loudmouth academic in his place. (Allen said he had to literally pull the camera-shy professor into the frame, and it shows.) And like other Allen films from the '70s, it features some later-famous faces, like party guest Jeff Goldblum, on the phone because he forgot his mantra:

And then there's Sigourney Weaver in her feature debut-- that's her on the far right as "Alvy's Date Outside Theater," in her only moment in the film.

Whatever you do, don't make my mistake and revisit Annie Hall right before you catch up with Woody's last self-starring comedy, Scoop, because his doddering performance in the latter looks even worse when you've just seen him at his best in his prime. Watching him stare into the middle distance during his scenes and waiting forever for him to finish stammering through an unfunny joke is not the way I want to see him go out-- someone needs to talk to him, mentioning the name Johnny Carson many times during the conversation.

So congratulations and a spider as big as a Buick to the following quiz winners: Wayne Palmer, Joe Rosenberg, Jennifer Haugh, Patrick Allen, Michael Mattson, Mike Kelly, E. Yarber, Maria Johnson, Sean Hoffman, Nancy Louise Rutherford, Brook Berry, Yuliy V. Krasnenkov, Jason Koffman, Song-Un Lee, Bill Hearne, Isaac Kaufman, Dean E. Carlson, Kevin Musolino, and Sarah Bergstrom. And super heavy-osity kudos to Mark Gisleson, who wins this week's Grand Prize: Valis, an opera by Tod Machover.

Posted by Steve Monaco at August 19, 2007 9:59 PM

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