Thursday, March 26th, 2009
The staff at Yahoo! Movies has put together a list of the 100 films you must see before you die. I haven’t seen every movie on the list. There are quite a few foreign movies I haven’t seen. But there are some problems with some of the movies on the list. And a few omissions I’m surprised about.
For instance, they have the movie “Alien” but not “Aliens” which was a much better movie. One of the rare cases where a sequel was better than it’s original in a series. And it’s not on the list?
“Groundhog Day” is on the list but not “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off“? Outrageous! On what criteria was this decision made?
No “The Princess Bride“? That’s just crazy!
Well, at least there are plenty of good pictures on the list. Some of my favorites are “The African Queen“, “The Bridge on the River Kwai“, “Casablanca“, “Saving Private Ryan“, “The Searchers“, “Seven Samurai“, “The Shawshank Redemption“, and “Star Wars” to name just a few.
Of course any list like this is subjective. No one would ever have a list that matches mine. And that’s okay! It makes for a great discussion. I do intend to add some of the foreign films to my Netflix queue. We shall see what I think about them.
Tags: list, Movies, Yahoo
Posted in Entertainment | 3 Comments »
Monday, March 16th, 2009
John C. Dvorak has a nice piece in PC Magazine called “9 Reasons E-Mail Is Dead“. He has composed a list of behaviors or features of e-mail that has all but killed it as an efficient tool of communication. I have sort of written on his first complaint, “The ever-changing address”, previously at Useless Nexus when I wrote about what a terrible idea it is to use your ISPs email address. Over all, I agree with his assessment despite my love of email.
I once wrote a piece on my ideal of a modern communication tool. The idea was basically one drop box that recieves all the messages sent to me from the many places I am. This box would recieve messages from Twitter, e-mail, SMS, comment replies, voicemail, and all the other bacn that websites and communication services generate. This box would have an intelligence that would allow me to route these messages to the locations I want to receive it based upon who sent it, the time of day, or where I am. Then I could reply in the form I choose. But my response would be routed back to the sender and delivered the way they want to recieve it.
Communication message how I want, where I want from whom I want, when I want it!
I think the day that technology will make this possbile is approaching. Google Voice/GrandCentral may be a move in the right direction. If Google integrates Google Voice with Gmail and GTalk and allows for the same management capability and transcription Google Voice then it might be possible.
This doesn’t solve a single porblem of John C. Dvorak‘s list. But it at least gets each individual the power to choose how they want to communicate. The future could be very cool!
Tags: email, Google, John C. Dvorak, list, PC Mag
Posted in Communication | No Comments »
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
One of the great things about my job, and there are many, is that my office opens onto a lecture hall that is used by the “How to read film” class. So I can listen to some great movies and the discussions that teenagers have in regards to those movies.
The class just finished watching “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off“, one of my favorite movies and always brings up some of the few good memories from my high school days. So I decided to make a list of some of my other favorite movies.
So in no particular order, here are nine more of my favorite movies:
Casablanca is perhaps my number one movie. But that swings with my moods which is why I can’t put this list in any order. But I love the story of Rick and Ilsa. The drama and suspense of this world that they find themselves in and how different it is from the world they knew just a few years before the moment this movie takes place in intrigues me. And at the end of the movie I linger, wanting to know what happens to Rick and Renault. Or Sam, Carl, Yvonne, and Sascha? The characters are so strong that I am attached to them and dream of a sequel. Knowing a sequel would be ruined of course.
My friends know that I’m a huge John Wayne fan. I am annoyed by the people who say they don’t like John Wayne because most of them report that they have never seen The Searchers or The Quiet Man. These are two stories that anyone with a heart would find interesting. Of course there are over a hundred John Wayne movies and many are straight forward westerns and of a similar plot. I can see why people may tire of that. One of my favorites in this vein is Rio Bravo. What can I say, I love westerns!
Star Wars and Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back are in my top 10 list. The world they introduce us to is incredibly detailed and the story of good versus evil is classic. If this was my top 50 list then I would include most of the Star Wars movies simply because I love this series so much.
World War II and the movies made about it has always been a favorite topic and past time of mine. The Bridge on the River Kwai is one of my favorites. It has some fantastic acting and tells a great tale of a theater of the war that few people are even aware of. Saving Private Ryan is much more familiar to most people and is a more dramatic movie. Too dramatic for some people for can not take the gritty reality it attempts to present.
And lastly, The Princess Bride! Perhaps the greatest quotable movie for me. Romance, Princesses and Pirates, swordplay, giants and monsters. What more could any movie need?
“You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly less well-known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!” Vizzini a moment before dropping dead.
So tell me, how does my list compare to yours?
“Have fun stormin’ the castle!”
Tags: Entertainment, list, movie
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