Kurt Vonnegut,1922-2007

An excerpt from Slaughter-house Five:


All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn't his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. I've changed all the names.

I really did go back to Dresden with Guggenheim money (God love it) in 1967. It looked a lot like Dayton, Ohio, more open spaces than Dayton has. There must be tons of human bone meal in the ground.

I went back there with an old war buddy, Bernard V. O'Hare, and we made friends with a cab driver, who took us to the slaughterhouse where we had been locked up at night as prisoners of war. His name was Gerhard Müller. He told us that he was a prisoner of the Americans for a while. We asked him how it was to live under Communism, and he said that it was terrible at first, because everybody had to work so hard, and because there wasn't much shelter or food or clothing. But things were much better now. He had a pleasant little apartment, and his daughter was getting an excellent education. His mother was incinerated in the Dresden fire-storm. So it goes.



The Reeler Reloaded

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Looks great, Stu!

Check out the revamped Reeler at www.thereeler.com.



According to Wikipedia...

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Filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan (who directed and wrote the Oscar nominated "You Can Count On Me"):


"is most famous for the screenplay for the 2000 film
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Lonergan



"Fried Green Tomatoes" UNCUT

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So what does an EXTENDED, NOT RATED version of "Fried Green Tomatoes" mean exactly?



Jump Cuts Take 2

Here's another series of memorable quotes from blogs, newspapers, websites, and such that I read or overhead recently:

"I got a very generous tip from a stripper who was going on a date. She was on her way to see "Wicked," the musical, with some guy she wasn't all that interested in, but he bought her the dress she was wearing, and the date was all paid for, so she was going despite her disinterest. The meter read $9.40 at the end of the trip. She gave me a $20 and told me to keep the change. I love strippers. They always know how to tip."

From New York Hack blog by Melissa Plaut, Yellow Cab Driver in NYC


"Residence hall students may not watch videos above a G rating when visiting homes in town and may not attend movie theaters. All weapons must be turned in for storage. Trigger locks are required for pistols. Fireworks are not permitted on campus."

From Bob Jones University's on campus living requirements for new students.


"Firstly and foremostly, I am a guy, which (in most cases) means I did not go see Titanic to see DiCaprio...although I think he can be a great actor. Reading through earlier comments, i grew a bit weary of hearing about lame script and shallow characters. I went to see a ship sink...the plot and the characters were, at least to me, a kind of icing on the Cake."

User comment on iMDB about the Oscar winning film, "Titanic"


"I'm Jewish so I don't believe in hell but I believe in fucking."

Overheard in Commonwealth, a bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn.



Onion Targets Bush's Weekly Radio Address With Usual Pinpoint Accuracy

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The Onion always has plenty of linkworthy pieces to blog about, whether it be great interviews with filmmakers like Noah Baumbach or "op ed" pieces like Michael Bay's outrage over "March of the Penguins."

I was recently excited to find a new section on their site after reading about how The White House asked the satirical newspaper to stop using the Presidential Seal. The Seal is featured in a section that parodies Bush's weekly radio addresses and is definitely my favorite new place to visit on the site. Kudos to White House spokesman Trent Duffy for bringing this to my attention (and to millions of others, since the story was picked up by CNN, Reuters, the AP, etc.)

Listen to this week's edition, which is probably their best one yet, where "President Bush honors those Americans who exercised their right to vote on Tuesday in the off-year elections."



Buy Gallo's Spunk, Increase Chances of Winning at Sundance?

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Karina Longworth at Cinematical blogs on the notorious actor/director/singer/Republican's apparent offering to sell his semen (for in-vitro fertilization) for $1 million dollars. Vincent Gallo prefers women with "naturally blonde hair and blue eyes," those with a "a direct family link to any of the German soldiers of the mid-century" (Nazis?), and "members of the Jewish religion," since if the "child moved into the profession of motion picture acting or became a musical performer, this connection to the Jewish faith would guarantee his offspring a better chance at good reviews and maybe even a prize at the Sundance Film Festival or an Oscar."

Those of the "dark complexion" need not apply.

So is this for real? I dunno, probably. The website reeks of Gallo's narcissistic, ranting delusions of grandeur. Remember the ad for the "Brown Bunny" camera he was selling on eBay last year?

UPDATE: I was speaking with an industry friend last night who worked closely with Gallo on his last film and confirmed that the website is indeed for real. Get out those checkbooks.



Jump Cuts Take 1

By reading numerous websites, blogs, and various other publications, I often think, Wow! this would be a great thing to write about in my blog. Generally, that impulse quickly passes and this blog goes yet another week with no new entries.

So for this latest attempt at getting Jump Cuts um, jumping, I've decided to just post some memorable quotes from a variety of sources that I found intriguing, amusing, offensive, inspiring, blah blah blah.

» Continue reading "Jump Cuts Take 1"


Sweet! NAPOLEON ad mocks THE VILLAGE

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When not hunting wolverines and practicing his nunchuk skills, Napoleon is out climbing the BO, as is apparent in this pisstake on THE VILLAGE's ad in today's New York Times.

You can't tell from the photos I took with the indieWIRE iPOP camera, but Napoleon's ad is actually a full page, while THE VILLAGE took out just a half page, a sign that interest in the film is waining after only a few weeks while Napoleon's is just now kicking into high gear after being released over two months ago.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported earlier this week how indie films like NAPOLEON DYNAMITE and GARDEN STATE are expanding more quickly thanks to Hollywood flops like CATWOMAN and KING ARTHUR.

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