Black And Blue

The new Killer Owl album is done.  I'm still kind of thinking of May 17th as the official release, since that's when I expect (or hope) to have it available on cdbaby.com  (and iTunes and amazon mp3, etc.).  I'm not sure when that will actually be, since I haven't even sent them the physical CDs yet.  Anyway, this album was first conceived at the very beginning of 2009.  There was a lot of time in the last two and a half years not spent on creating it.

Tiger on Broadway

My second cousin, Rajiv Joseph -- I'm sure we wouldn't know each other if we were trapped in an elevator together -- wrote "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo", Robin Williams' Broadway debut.  I'm not sure if it's still in previews or if it's had its official opening yet.  It sounds like it's attracting enough audience to be successful, based on what I saw in the NY Times.  Here's one glowing review, and another, well, not so much:  Zap2It couldn't wait for it to end, but the LA Times thinks it's brilliant.

Cary Grant Project

Today's Cary Grant movie, "The Amazing Adventure", like many from the 1930s, has him playing an Englishman -- although in this one he sounds like regular, old Cary Grant, not Cary Grant with an English accent. I can't say I recognize any of the co-stars. He's a bored wealthy dude who makes one of those crazy bets that rich people make in movies: if he can live for a year without relying on his wealth or connections, a doctor who snubbed him will shake his hand and apologize. And if he can't make it, he'll donate 50 grand to the doctor's clinic. I suspect he's going to learn about what's really important in life.

1. "North By Northwest", 1959, also starring Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
2. "Bringing Up Baby", 1938, also starring Katharine Hepburn
3. "Charade", 1963, also starring Audrey Hepburn
4. "The Philadelphia Story", 1940, also starring Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart
5. "The Awful Truth", 1937, also starring Irene Dunne
6. "Notorious", 1946, also starring Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains
7. "His Girl Friday", 1940, also starring Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy
8. "People Will Talk", 1951, also starring Hume Cronyn
9. "Houseboat", 1958, also starring Sophia Loren
10. "My Favorite Wife", 1940, also starring Irene Dunne
11. "Father Goose", 1964, also starring Leslie Caron
12. "Indiscreet", 1958, also starring Ingrid Bergman
13. "Suspicion", 1941, also starring Joan Fontaine
14. "The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer", 1947, also starring Myrna Loy
15. "An Affair To Remember", 1957, also starring Deborah Kerr
16. "To Catch A Thief", 1955, also starring Grace Kelly
17. "The Talk Of The Town", 1942, also starring Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman
18. "That Touch Of Mink", 1962, also starring Doris Day and Gig Young
19. "Operation Petticoat", 1959, also starring Tony Curtis
20. "Arsenic And Old Lace", 1944, also starring Raymond Massey
21. "The Bishop's Wife", 1947, also starring Loretta Young and David Niven
22. "Monkey Business", 1952, also starring Ginger Rogers
23. "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", 1948, also starring Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas
24. "Walk Don't Run", 1966
25. "Destination Tokyo", 1943, also starring John Garfield
26. "Only Angels Have Wings", 1939, also starring Jean Arthur
27. "I Was A Male War Bride", 1949, also starring Ann Sheridan
28. "Once Upon A Honeymoon", 1942, also starring Ginger Rogers
29. "In Name Only", 1939, also starring Carole Lombard
30. "The Amazing Adventure", 1936
31. "Topper", 1937, also starring Constance Bennett
32. "The Grass Is Greener", 1960, also starring Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum
33. "Kiss Them For Me", 1957, also starring Jayne Mansfield, Ray Walston, and Werner Klemperer
    
34. "Penny Serenade", 1941, also starring Irene Dunne
35. "Night And Day", 1946, also starring Alexis Smith
36. "The Howards Of Virginia", 1940, also starring Martha Scott
37. "Room For One More", 1952, also starring Betsy Drake
38. "Sylvia Scarlett", 1935, also starring Katharine Hepburn
39. "I'm No Angel", 1933, also starring Mae West
40. "Gunga Din", 1939, also starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
41. "None But The Lonely Heart", 1944, also starring Ethel Barrymore
42. "She Done Him Wrong", 1933, also starring Mae West
43. "The Pride And The Passion", 1957, also starring Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren

March In Review

Whoa. There goes another month. Still no job. Just as in Feb., I did have one on-site interview, this time in Madison.  I could become Madison Dan!  But, just as in Feb., nothing has come of it.

There was a bonus "heavy game day" this month. Usually it's only the even months.  This time it was "Angola", where each player represents a faction in the Angolan civil war in the mid-1970s and one pair of players plays against the other.  Believe it or not, it's actually interesting to play, even if you're one of the few who has no dog in this fight. Or someone who couldn't really say who won this war. It is long, though.  We called it quits after 8 hours or so, when it was pretty clear which side was going to win.

At "regular game day", I found myself in a couple of time killing games ("To Court The King" -- again -- and "Easy Come, Easy Go"), a simple game that the whole family could play ("Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers"), and a couple of games that are fun and interesting ("Power Grid" and "Amun-Re").

And there was still time for some movies, as shown below.  I finally plopped in the second movie in the "Planet Of The Apes" box set -- the only Blu-Ray movies I own.  There were several post-apocalyptic-nightmare movies I'd never even heard of before, but also one you hear about every once in a while that I'd never seen: "A Boy And His Dog", notable for being one of Don Johnson's earliest movies.  He was 25 when it came out. He communicates telepathically with his dog, which is the brains of their partnership, as they wander the wasteland looking for food and, well, women. Kind of a freaky, far-out, low-budget 1970s flick.  Finally, I was really fascinated by "District 9".  It was so easy to identify with the "hero", who definitely did not come from central casting's hero catalog. Having the aliens be a bunch of dim-witted thugs -- with a single genius scientist among them -- seemed kind of Sleestakian to me.  If I may say so.

+------------------------------------------------------+
| 2011-03-02 - King Solomon's Mines (1950)             |
| 2011-03-03 - Jennifer's Body (2009)                  |
| 2011-03-04 - Adventures Of Robin Hood, The (1938)    |
| 2011-03-04 - Da Vinci Code, The (2006)               |
| 2011-03-06 - Teen Wolf (1985)                        |
| 2011-03-06 - Star Is Born, A (1954)                  |
| 2011-03-10 - Secret Of My Success, The (1987)        |
| 2011-03-11 - Stranger Than Fiction (2006)            |
| 2011-03-13 - I'm No Angel (1933)                     |
| 2011-03-14 - Ghost Rider (2007)                      |
| 2011-03-15 - Five (1951)                             |
| 2011-03-18 - Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)   |
| 2011-03-19 - Losers, The (2010)                      |
| 2011-03-20 - Phase IV (1974)                         |
| 2011-03-20 - Grass Is Greener, The (1960)            |
| 2011-03-21 - Last Night (1998)                       |
| 2011-03-22 - 9 (2009)                                |
| 2011-03-23 - Boy And His Dog, A (1975)               |
| 2011-03-24 - Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)      |
| 2011-03-25 - Noah, The (1975)                        |
| 2011-03-25 - District 9 (2009)                       |
| 2011-03-26 - Domino (2005)                           |
| 2011-03-27 - Penny Serenade (1941)                   |
| 2011-03-27 - Charlie's Angels:  Full Throttle (2003) |
+------------------------------------------------------+
24 rows in set (0.01 sec)

Oh, and did I have a gallbladder attack near the end of the month? I'm not sure if there's any way to prove it, although at least one GI seemed adamant.  Great Caesar's Ghost! The jury's still out. I'd like to see what doctors who have known me for more than a day have to say about it.

Cary Grant Project

Today's entry is a pretty domestic-related film: "Penny Serenade". It's all about Cary Grant and Irene Dunne's marital woes and depressing life, centered around their hope of having a child. This one's got a couple of themes familiar from other lesser-known Cary Grant movies: divorce and adoption. Hmm. All 3 of his movies with Irene Dunne involved some kind of marital problems. But this one's got depression and despair sprinkled liberally throughout.

1. "North By Northwest", 1959, also starring Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
2. "Bringing Up Baby", 1938, also starring Katharine Hepburn
3. "Charade", 1963, also starring Audrey Hepburn
4. "The Philadelphia Story", 1940, also starring Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart
5. "The Awful Truth", 1937, also starring Irene Dunne
6. "Notorious", 1946, also starring Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains
7. "His Girl Friday", 1940, also starring Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy
8. "People Will Talk", 1951, also starring Hume Cronyn
9. "Houseboat", 1958, also starring Sophia Loren
10. "My Favorite Wife", 1940, also starring Irene Dunne
11. "Father Goose", 1964, also starring Leslie Caron
12. "Indiscreet", 1958, also starring Ingrid Bergman
13. "Suspicion", 1941, also starring Joan Fontaine
14. "The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer", 1947, also starring Myrna Loy
15. "An Affair To Remember", 1957, also starring Deborah Kerr
16. "To Catch A Thief", 1955, also starring Grace Kelly
17. "The Talk Of The Town", 1942, also starring Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman
18. "That Touch Of Mink", 1962, also starring Doris Day and Gig Young
19. "Operation Petticoat", 1959, also starring Tony Curtis
20. "Arsenic And Old Lace", 1944, also starring Raymond Massey
21. "The Bishop's Wife", 1947, also starring Loretta Young and David Niven
22. "Monkey Business", 1952, also starring Ginger Rogers
23. "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", 1948, also starring Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas
24. "Walk Don't Run", 1966
25. "Destination Tokyo", 1943, also starring John Garfield
26. "Only Angels Have Wings", 1939, also starring Jean Arthur
27. "I Was A Male War Bride", 1949, also starring Ann Sheridan
28. "Once Upon A Honeymoon", 1942, also starring Ginger Rogers
29. "In Name Only", 1939, also starring Carole Lombard
30. "Topper", 1937, also starring Constance Bennett
31. "The Grass Is Greener", 1960, also starring Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum
32. "Kiss Them For Me", 1957, also starring Jayne Mansfield, Ray Walston, and Werner Klemperer
    
33. "Penny Serenade", 1941, also starring Irene Dunne
34. "Night And Day", 1946, also starring Alexis Smith
35. "The Howards Of Virginia", 1940, also starring Martha Scott
36. "Room For One More", 1952, also starring Betsy Drake
37. "Sylvia Scarlett", 1935, also starring Katharine Hepburn
38. "I'm No Angel", 1933, also starring Mae West
39. "Gunga Din", 1939, also starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
40. "None But The Lonely Heart", 1944, also starring Ethel Barrymore
41. "She Done Him Wrong", 1933, also starring Mae West
42. "The Pride And The Passion", 1957, also starring Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren

Re-Death

I got a copy of my last show, "Death of a Salesman". And my biggest first impression is: Who's that old guy saying all my lines? I have gotten so old-looking. I no longer see any resemblance in me to Wil Wheaton (born 1972). But I see more and more the similarities to Zeljko Ivanek (born 1957).

Cary Grant Project

Here's a Cary Grant movie in which he doesn't play a mid-Atlantic American WASP: "The Grass Is Greener", from the twilight part of his acting career. He's the typical titled English gentlemen, with land and a name, but so little money that his house and grounds are open to tourists. And his wife grows and sells mushrooms. Mushrooms!  It's about marital infidelity -- in a stuffy British way; along with some contrast of the differences between Americans and Englishmen.  Cary Grant's wife's wandering eye is locked onto an American millionaire, Robert Mitchum.

The Cary Grant Project now has a completed decade! The 1960s. Of course, it is Cary Grant's least active decade -- only half a dozen movies -- but you gotta start somewhere.

1. "North By Northwest", 1959, also starring Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
2. "Bringing Up Baby", 1938, also starring Katharine Hepburn
3. "The Awful Truth", 1937, also starring Irene Dunne
4. "Charade", 1963, also starring Audrey Hepburn
5. "The Philadelphia Story", 1940, also starring Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart
6. "Notorious", 1946, also starring Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains
7. "His Girl Friday", 1940, also starring Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy
8. "People Will Talk", 1951, also starring Hume Cronyn
9. "Houseboat", 1958, also starring Sophia Loren
10. "My Favorite Wife", 1940, also starring Irene Dunne
11. "Father Goose", 1964, also starring Leslie Caron
12. "Indiscreet", 1958, also starring Ingrid Bergman
13. "Suspicion", 1941, also starring Joan Fontaine
14. "The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer", 1947, also starring Myrna Loy
15. "An Affair To Remember", 1957, also starring Deborah Kerr
16. "To Catch A Thief", 1955, also starring Grace Kelly
17. "The Talk Of The Town", 1942, also starring Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman
18. "That Touch Of Mink", 1962, also starring Doris Day and Gig Young
19. "Operation Petticoat", 1959, also starring Tony Curtis
20. "Arsenic And Old Lace", 1944, also starring Raymond Massey
21. "The Bishop's Wife", 1947, also starring Loretta Young and David Niven
22. "Monkey Business", 1952, also starring Ginger Rogers
23. "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", 1948, also starring Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas
24. "Walk Don't Run", 1966
25. "Destination Tokyo", 1943, also starring John Garfield
26. "Only Angels Have Wings", 1939, also starring Jean Arthur
27. "I Was A Male War Bride", 1949, also starring Ann Sheridan
28. "Once Upon A Honeymoon", 1942, also starring Ginger Rogers
29. "In Name Only", 1939, also starring Carole Lombard
30. "Topper", 1937, also starring Constance Bennett
31. "The Grass Is Greener", 1960, also starring Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum
32. "Kiss Them For Me", 1957, also starring Jayne Mansfield, Ray Walston, and Werner Klemperer
    
33. "Night And Day", 1946, also starring Alexis Smith
34. "The Howards Of Virginia", 1940, also starring Martha Scott
35. "Room For One More", 1952, also starring Betsy Drake
36. "Sylvia Scarlett", 1935, also starring Katharine Hepburn
37. "I'm No Angel", 1933, also starring Mae West
38. "Gunga Din", 1939, also starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
39. "None But The Lonely Heart", 1944, also starring Ethel Barrymore
40. "She Done Him Wrong", 1933, also starring Mae West
41. "The Pride And The Passion", 1957, also starring Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren

Jobs & Taxes

As part of my "organizational efforts" -- one of my many unadventurous, prosaic projects -- I now have all my old tax paperwork in one place. This became possible when I came across the oldest bundle, now labeled "1981-1982 & 1984-1988 Taxes". I'm still holding on to them, despite one of my other projects being the destruction of old bills -- you know, credit card, electric company, etc. Before I started Project Bill Destruction, I still had them all, going back to 1987, with a couple random earlier receipts thrown in from the time before credit cards and living on my own. Those are slowing disappearing with the help of a shredder and a data management program I'm continually updating for entering and retrieving all that info from a MySQL database.

Anyway, the point was the taxes. I've got 29 years of tax records counting the latest 2010 return. (There wasn't any income for 1983.) Adjusted Gross Income for 1981? $778. Party on. Granted, that wasn't a whole year of employment. Still, I remember it being $3.80 an hour -- more than minimum wage!

And speaking of 1983, that was part of the longest gap of not working I've ever had. (Knock on wood.) 17 months, I'm estimating, from the end of my high school co-op job until my college co-op job started. (Current active streak is at 11.5 months.)

Cary Grant Project

Now that I'm getting the netflix, I can see some of the more obscure titles I've been waiting to stumble across for this project.  "I'm No Angel", kind of like the other movie Cary Grant was in with Mae West, is really a Mae West movie and not a Cary Grant movie.  He's pretty much missing from the first hour.  I don't really get the popularity or attraction of Mae West, so given that it's her movie (she wrote it, too), it's no surprise I've buried it down near the end.  Cary Grant is a rich guy who falls for her lower-class (working class?) circus performer.  This is the movie where she tells her maid to peel her a grape.


And now we've hit 40 Cary Grant movies:

1. "North By Northwest", 1959, also starring Eva Marie Saint and James Mason
2. "Bringing Up Baby", 1938, also starring Katharine Hepburn
3. "The Awful Truth", 1937, also starring Irene Dunne
4. "Charade", 1963, also starring Audrey Hepburn
5. "The Philadelphia Story", 1940, also starring Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart
6. "Notorious", 1946, also starring Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains
7. "His Girl Friday", 1940, also starring Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy
8. "People Will Talk", 1951, also starring Hume Cronyn
9. "Houseboat", 1958, also starring Sophia Loren
10. "My Favorite Wife", 1940, also starring Irene Dunne
11. "Father Goose", 1964, also starring Leslie Caron
12. "Indiscreet", 1958, also starring Ingrid Bergman
13. "Suspicion", 1941, also starring Joan Fontaine
14. "The Bachelor And The Bobby-Soxer", 1947, also starring Myrna Loy
15. "An Affair To Remember", 1957, also starring Deborah Kerr
16. "To Catch A Thief", 1955, also starring Grace Kelly
17. "The Talk Of The Town", 1942, also starring Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman
18. "That Touch Of Mink", 1962, also starring Doris Day and Gig Young
19. "Operation Petticoat", 1959, also starring Tony Curtis
20. "Arsenic And Old Lace", 1944, also starring Raymond Massey
21. "The Bishop's Wife", 1947, also starring Loretta Young and David Niven
22. "Monkey Business", 1952, also starring Ginger Rogers
23. "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", 1948, also starring Myrna Loy and Melvyn Douglas
24. "Walk Don't Run", 1966
25. "Destination Tokyo", 1943, also starring John Garfield
26. "Only Angels Have Wings", 1939, also starring Jean Arthur
27. "I Was A Male War Bride", 1949, also starring Ann Sheridan
28. "Once Upon A Honeymoon", 1942, also starring Ginger Rogers
29. "In Name Only", 1939, also starring Carole Lombard
30. "Topper", 1937, also starring Constance Bennett
31. "Kiss Them For Me", 1957, also starring Jayne Mansfield, Ray Walston, and Werner Klemperer
    
32. "Night And Day", 1946, also starring Alexis Smith
33. "The Howards Of Virginia", 1940, also starring Martha Scott
34. "Room For One More", 1952, also starring Betsy Drake
35. "Sylvia Scarlett", 1935, also starring Katharine Hepburn
36. "I'm No Angel", 1933, also starring Mae West
37. "Gunga Din", 1939, also starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
38. "None But The Lonely Heart", 1944, also starring Ethel Barrymore
39. "She Done Him Wrong", 1933, also starring Mae West
40. "The Pride And The Passion", 1957, also starring Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren

Feb In Review

Another month has slipped away.  Still no job, although I did have one on-site interview.  Even with all the time I should have, it always feels like there's never enough time to do the things I want to do.  So in a way, I can understand old people who really have nothing to do and still feel like there's not enough time.  Anyway, at "heavy game day" this month, I played Through The Ages and Wealth Of Nations.  And the games at "regular game day" were London, To Court The King, and The Castle Of The Devil.  To Court The King is just a boring, dice rolling time filler and The Castle Of The Devil seems kind of random to me, even though some people seem to be able to figure out which team each player is on even without using cards that reveal that info to them.  But London is the kind of detailed strategy game built on an historical framework that I seem to really like.

This month's movie list is excessively, abnormally long, no doubt enhanced by the fact that I do have the time.  But what's a couple hours a day. That should still leave time for more stuff.  A lot of these movies are serious and often depressing -- but those are also the best of the bunch.   "The Little Foxes" is one.  Some of the characters are so mean, but the family seems realistic to me, even transposed to the present day, 70 years later.  "On The Beach" is a good post-apocalyptic-nightmare movie done in a serious way which I had not heard of before.  And "Marty" is always good, even though a little quiet and a little too close to home.  So to speak.  There are exceptions to the general themes of "seriousness" and "quality", of course.  Mega Python, anyone?

(Ordered by date viewed this month. Let the good times roll.)
+-----------------------------------------------------+
| 2011-02-01 - Book Of Eli, The (2010)                |
| 2011-02-02 - Great Dictator, The (1940)             |
| 2011-02-03 - Anne Of The Thousand Days (1969)       |
| 2011-02-04 - Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2011)        |
| 2011-02-05 - Little Foxes, The (1941)               |
| 2011-02-06 - Five Easy Pieces (1970)                |
| 2011-02-06 - Frighteners, The (1996)                |
| 2011-02-07 - Witness For The Prosecution (1957)     |
| 2011-02-08 - Separate Tables (1958)                 |
| 2011-02-09 - Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936)          |
| 2011-02-10 - House Of Rothschild, The (1934)        |
| 2011-02-10 - On The Beach (1959)                    |
| 2011-02-11 - Ball Of Fire (1941)                    |
| 2011-02-11 - Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) |
| 2011-02-13 - Annie Get Your Gun (1950)              |
| 2011-02-13 - Robin And The Seven Hoods (1964)       |
| 2011-02-14 - Machete (2010)                         |
| 2011-02-16 - Picture Of Dorian Gray, The (1945)     |
| 2011-02-17 - Cat Ballou (1965)                      |
| 2011-02-18 - Stagecoach (1939)                      |
| 2011-02-20 - Alice Adams (1935)                     |
| 2011-02-20 - Swing Time (1936)                      |
| 2011-02-21 - Blow-Up (1966)                         |
| 2011-02-21 - Room At The Top (1959)                 |
| 2011-02-22 - Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)           |
| 2011-02-23 - Marty (1955)                           |
| 2011-02-23 - Summertime (1955)                      |
| 2011-02-25 - Bad Seed, The (1956)                   |
| 2011-02-25 - Devil And Daniel Webster, The (1941)   |
| 2011-02-26 - Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)           |
| 2011-02-27 - You Can't Take It With You (1938)      |
| 2011-02-28 - Lavender Hill Mob, The (1951)          |
+-----------------------------------------------------+
32 rows in set (0.17 sec)