Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Hudsucker Proxy



Not only am I a huge Coen Brothers film fan, this scene from The Hudsucker Proxy is one of my favorite clips. I use this movie in teaching my storyboard class from time to time. The scene is superb in its pace, editing, storytelling, its simplcity with music and the camera angles. I would highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen this movie to go out and pick it up. It's not Citizen Kane (but then what is?) but this little obscure gem is still worthy of a good fun evening in front of the idiot box.

Simple Minds- Don't You Forget About Me



This was another one of those mid 1980's ballads that struck a chord with me. I was in the middle of my CCS college life, young, goofy & idealistic and this song sort of captures some of that naive innocence back then.

Not only did it have fame in John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club" but it was also used as a touching closing credit in an episode of Futurama where Phillip Fry discovers that his adversarial brother had named his son in honor of him.

Love & Rockets- So Alive



This was one of those quintessential late 80's/ early 90's bands that I saw back in the day. They played at the Fox Theater alongside The Pixies. Hearing this song brings back good times and fond memories of the two gorgeously long legged back up singers they had on podiums behind the band!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Congrats to Dave Boyle



For what seemed like an eternal summer of hanging on pins & needles, one of my ex-students Dave Boyle finally has gainful employment for awhile. He's already ridden the roller coaster ride with Pandemic as to whether they were going to hire him on for an internship or not (ended up being not). But just a while back, he was given a huge freelance opportunity to do some work with them for their Australian office.

Funny how Dave's department chair, Bryon Fitzpatrick just retired and is on his way to Australia. I've been razzing Dave that he's actually taking food from Bryon's retirement and making the poor guy subsist on dingo meat in his well earned retirement.

Congrats to both.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Lois Maxwell- the steady Bond girl passes



'Twas a sad day this weekend when Kitchener, Ontario native Lois Maxwell passed away at the ripe old age of 80.

She will be forever known to pop culture enthusiasts as the unflappable Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond movie series. Moneypenny was always the bridge between M and the flippant rascal, Bond. She appeared in 14 Bond movies and was last seen in A View to a Kill. Roger Moore was quoted "I think it was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M. She would have been a wonderful M."