"SHOES"... to make a difference.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

All proceeds earned in May will benefit Kingston Interval House. Catch Greg's walk at the Cataraqui Town Centre. Become a sponsor by clicking on the link below to Walkamilekingston, and donating to "SHOES... to make a difference".

RED SHOE DIARIES:


My goal is to raise $200.00.

"SOLE MATE" level donations ($20.00):

Kelly P. of Kingston
Charles F. of Kingston
Paul L. of Hillier, ON
Charles L. of Brockville ($30.00)


Total so far: $90.00

"ARCH-SUPPORTERS" level donations ($10.00):

None so far.
http://walkamilekingston.ca/

TOP TELEVISION SHOWS (ALL-TIME)

The Office (BBC)

THE OFFICE (Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant), BBC, UK

THE NEWSROOM (Ken Finkelman), CBC, Canada

MADE IN CANADA, Canada, theme song: Blow at High Dough, The Hip

Gross, and Diefenbaker

DUE SOUTH (Paul Gross, Paul Haggis), Canada, awesome Canadian music

THE OFFICE (Steve Carell), NBC, USA

HILL STREET BLUES, NBC, USA

MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS, BBC, UK

John Candy, Eugene Levy, et al

S.C.T.V. (John Candy, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, etc.), CBC, Canada

The Kids in the Hall

THE KIDS IN THE HALL (Scott Thompson, Mark Kinney, etc.), CBC, Canada

THE RICK MERCER REPORT (Rick Mercer), CBC, Canada

THIS HOUR HAS 22 MINUTES, CBC, Canada

THE GOOD WIFE, CBS, USA

SIX FEET UNDER, HBO, USA

FAWLTY TOWERS (John Cleese), BBC, UK

TITANIC DINNER AT THE RENAISSANCE

Table Numer Two

 The Renaissance held a Titanic dinner last Thursday night. I was lucky enough to serve. The guests dressed up as passengers from 1912. I was telling them: If you survive tonight? NEVER bet on the Leafs. And if you like to play the stock market... avoid Studebaker. And 1929? A little bumpy.

Parking lot scene, after dinner

F**K !!! F**K!!!! F**K!!!

In the parking lot of La Salle Secondary School there sat a kid at the wheel of a parked car, listening to VERY LOUD and VERY OBNOXIOUS rap music. The bass was making the ground shake. I walked up to the drivers side window and knocked. He rolled down the window. I yelled:

"COULD YOU PLEASE TURN THAT UP!!? THAT'S MY FAVOURITE SONG FROM THAT ALBUM!! I LOVE THE LYRICS!! THE FIRST F**K IS KIND OF PREDICTABLE, BUT THE NEXT FIFTY-THREE F**KS..?  SHEER GENIUS!!"





Music Lover from la Salle

I started to walk away, but went back with: "WAS THAT THEIR CHRISTMAS ALBUM!!?"

BEST MOVIES EVER

The 3-D version of Titanic just sent the total earnings for the movie over $1 Bazillion. Only two movies have ever, in the history of movies, earned more than $1 Bazillion: Titanic and Avatar. Both are directed by James Cameron. Both have one word titles. And both are NOT on my list of BEST EVER.

TOP TEN (no particular order):

"The Soggy Bottom Boys"

O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? (The Coen Brothers) 2000
    Awesome music. Funny. The Coen brothers. John Goodman. George Clooney's first movie role. John Goodman has been used in more Coen movies than any other actor. 

Perry, and Jack

THE FISHER KING (Terry Gilliam) 1991
    Jeff Bridges, my favourite actor. Robin Williams. Mercedes Ruehl in an Academy Award performance.
    Amanda Plummer, daughter of Christopher. Harry Shearer in a cameo. And David Hyde Pierce.
    

LIFE OF BRIAN (Monty Python) 1979
     Irreverent. Clever. Smart. The absurdity of religious beliefs and prejudices. Banned in Scotland.

DOCTOR STRANGELOVE (Stanley Kubrick) 1964
     Peter Sellers playing three, very different, roles. Clever. Funny. Chilling. "Gentlemen. This is the war room. You cannot fight in the war room".

LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (David Lean) 1962
     Peter O'Toole. Alec Guiness. Anthony Quinn. The desert. Omar Sharif's first role because he could ride
     camel. Breathtaking cinematography.

THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL (John Sturges) 1965
     Campy. Good, clean fun. Burt Lancaster in a comic role. Martin Landau as an Indian. Horribly incorrect. 

FORREST GUMP (Robert Zemeckis) 1994
     Tom Hanks. Good music.

Some People Call Me... "TIM"

MONTY PYTHON and the HOLY GRAIL (Monty Python) 1975
     Irreverent. Clever. Smart. Coconuts for horses. Killer bunnies. Tim.

"The boys" in full regalia

THIS IS SPINAL TAP (Rob Reiner) 1984
     Reiner's first movie. Mockumentary. "Love Pump". "Sex Farm". Those are song titles. From the album, Sniff the Glove. The band still tours. Harry Shearer is the guy on the left. He has a cameo in The Fisher King. As does David Hyde Pierce.

RANGO (Gore Verbinski) 2011
     Johnny Depp's voice. "The Hero of the West" appears near the end. Very funny. References EVERY
     western ever filmed.Only animated movie on the list.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (Rob Reiner, again)
     "I'll have what she's having." Spoken by Rob Reiner's mother. Best line ever in a movie. Billy Crystal. Meg Ryan (before the botox). Clever. That's eleven movies. MY amplifier goes up to eleven.

SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (Jonathan Demme)

Our muse

    Starring... who else? Spalding Gray.

HISTORIC ANNIVERSARY OF THE TITANIC

Today is an historic anniversary, indeed. Unless you live under a rock, you will already know this. Today is the anniversary of the Titanic. Fifteen years, four months, and seventeen days ago on this day in 1997 James Cameron launched his "unsinkable" motion picture, "Titanic". It has been called one of the greatest Maureen disasters in history. Maureen is my sister and she loves good movies. Maureen went to see "Titanic" on its opening day, and she was horribly disappointed. She called it an unmitigated disaster. "Typical Hollywood ending," she wrote at the time," The big boat sinks. Entirely predictable. I could see it coming a mile away." In her scathing review, she goes on to say that the whole plot was basically unbelievable. "Sure!!" she taunted Mr. Cameron, "Pull the other one!!" She also pointed out that the Leonardo DiCaprio line: "I'm KING of the world!!" was stolen from an Academy Awards acceptance speech. 

In tomorrow's blog, I will speak with actual living survivors... people whose love of great film survived the bombastic and gratuitous vehicle known to the world as "Titanic". I speak to, for example, Clara Hutson in Belleville, ON, about how she managed to escape from the theatre before the start of the second act. She will tell us about the usher who tried to stop her, saying: "It's women and children first!!" (Clara is not the most attractive of women... I say that, not to insult her, but to explain the usher's confusion. She decided to pass as an eight year old child rather than to try to prove her gender to him.)

Watch for our 3-D blog on Saturday. Get your glasses from neighbour's recycling box. If you want free SUNglasses, just call me. I have lots.  

MISUNDERSTANDING

My grandfather was a survivor of the Titanic sinking in 1912. There is no truth at all to the rumour that he somehow cheated to get himself on a lifeboat. His story that he fainted and woke up in Halifax seems credible to me. Here is a picture of Poppa right after waking up in Canada.

K. L. Milledge, Titanic survivor