Various and Sundry

RIP, Robert Osbourne

Growing up in the DC area, my dad made full use of all the free film series places like the National Archives, Library of Congress, and East Gallery would provide. And, of course, he’d take us along. It was at these places that I first saw such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Fort Apache, and Gone with the Wind. “It was TCM before TCM,” I explained. Earlier this week, the man who epitomized Turner…

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Raves

My 50 Favorite Films, 2016 Edition

It’s time, once again, for my biennial 50 Favorite Films. Okay, granted I’ve been doing it offline intermittently for about 30 years, but for comparison, you can also see my 2012 list and 2014 list. You can also read about how I rank the films via a pairwise comparison sort based on the criteria of quality, watchability, and personal resonance. There were significant changes this year, something that convinces me this is a fun exercise…

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Raves

My 50 Favorite Films, 2014 Edition

Every two years, I do a sort to come up with my 50 favorite films. You can see the 2012 version here, and the 2016 version will go up tomorrow. The actual pool of films I rank usually numbers in the hundreds. That’s because I’ve found that some films will dramatically change in ranking. For that reason –and the amount of time needed to do the rankings and write them all down– I only do the ranking every two…

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Raves

My 50 Favorite Films, 2012 Edition

Earlier this week, I mentioned I spent last weekend sorting out my favorite films, circa 2016. Well, yes. And love ya, Dame Julie, but that film didn’t make the 2012 list. Part of the fun of doing this biennial sort is to compare my current favorites to years past and see what has changed. For that reason, I’m sharing both the previous sorts I did using my current sorting method of pairwise comparison. As with…

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Raves Various and Sundry

How I Sort My Favorite Films

This past weekend I had some free time. What do project managers do with free time? Make lists! Specifically, I decided it was time once again for my biennial Favorite Films sort. (you can find posts about the favorite film here). Creating a list of favorite films has been something I’ve been doing since at least the late 80s, but my current method is something I’ve been doing since 2012 and have found easy –and not…

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Various and Sundry

Real Vikings Don’t Wear Horns

Being proud of our Norwegian heritage and an above-average amateur historian, our dad made sure we knew from an early age that real Vikings didn’t wear horned helmets. But why do so many people think so? An article in Vox gets to the root cause. Dang costume designers. Growing up, we didn’t have a wealth of Viking drama, so it was inevitable that the family would seek out what they could. That inevitably led to that…

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Various and Sundry

Recommended Reading: Requiem for a Video Store

Reading a recent piece reflecting on the demise of video stores, specifically independent video stores, made me reflect on the demise of Video Vault, an indie film mainstay in Alexandria that supplied film fans for a generation. Mike Musgrove’s article in the Washington Post about the Vault’s closing gives one a good idea of the pressures that made it close. That article is probably a good warm-up for the aforementioned piece on indie video stores.…

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Various and Sundry

Speaking of that other Star Thing

I finally saw it today. You know, that space movie I was talking about the other day. I can now roam the Internet freely. I liked it. That’s about all I will tell you. If you liked the original trilogy, you should like it. If you liked the prequels, I still don’t see why you wouldn’t like it. In fact, if you were planning to see it, go ahead and see it already. Don’t you…

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Various and Sundry

Star Trek Fans: We Are Probably Doomed

I meant to post this earlier when the Star Trek Beyond trailer dropped, but holiday obligations meant I needed to stew with the implications for days. And alas, amid the season where I should be counting blessings and giving thanks, I have some geek-related dread. (I should note, that I am counting blessings and giving thanks as one might expect. Nothing Trek-related could be that impactful unless I was somehow involved in the creation of…

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