He Says the Sun Came Out Last Night. He Says it Sang to Him.

"Stand up straight" or "strand upstate," which one?

I am snacking incessantly today; I don't know why. I'm not nervous about anything that I know of. And I'm not hungry. Yet I keep drifting into the kitchen, and grabbing this and that to nibble on. Weird. The later it gets, the more I will regret eating... acid reflux, prepare for your big entrance! Meh, pain can be controlled - you just disconnect it...

Spent the bulk of the day today sifting through hundreds of rug-related pictures in my extensive archive, gathering visual elements for the new version of Rug Care Central. I also watched a couple movies on Netfix as well... hey, I can do both concurrently - I have two computers, remember? I should coin a third term that straddles "work" and "play"... if you know of one that exists already, let me know, eh?

Anyway, I watched Primal Fear, with Richard Gear and Edward Norton. Forgot how good that one is. A good courtroom drama, great performance by Norton - his first movie role, I believe. Snagged an Oscar nomination for that role. Pretty impressive, I'd say...

I also watched Miller's Crossing, which was the Coen Brother's 4th film. It's a 1930's gangster film starring Gabriel Byrne and Albert Finney, and it was much better than I even remember it being. The thing that struck me this time was the fact that, for an R rated film, it had no profanity in it, whatsoever. Oh, it was violent, and there was great acting and it had a nice, rough-textured feel to it, but I was rather surprised about the total lack of profanity. The dialog was excellent, actually, and the characters were all quirky and rich, as with most Coen Brother's efforts. Not that I've seen all of them (only 9 out of the 17 they've made thus far, actually), but I've liked almost all of the ones I've seen so far, especially Raising Arizona and The Hudsucker Proxy. The others had they're pluses, including their two Best Picture Winners. I wouldn't call myself a true fan of theirs, but I do appreciate their craftsmanship.

Speaking of Albert Finney, he gave what was perhaps the best performance I've ever seen on film in a 1983 movie called The Dresser, which he starred in along with a British actor named Tom Courtenay. Both of them were nominated for Best Actor Oscars for that film, and it was a staggeringly well-acted film. It's set during WW2, and Finney plays an aging legendary theater actor that is losing his mind, and Courtenay plays his assistant (or, his "dresser") who has to try and do what he can to get Finney in costume and make-up so he can get onstage and perform the lead in King Lear that night. I tell you, I'm not often left speechless during and at the end of a film, but Finney was mesmerizing.

I'm having trouble tracking down the trailer in an embeddable form, so I'm going to post the link. It will give you a glimpse of what I'm talking about, if you're interested. Here is the trailer on the IMDB site... well worth 2.5 minutes of your time.

In fact, they've put The Dresser back on Watch Instantly on Netflix! Yay! Imma watch it again. I've never seen Tender Mercies, but I can't imagine Robert Duvall's performance in that film was strong enough to snag the Best Actor Oscar away from Finney. I see they have Tender Mercies on Watch Instantly now as well... I'll have to watch it and get back to you...

(Some of) My Favorite Acting Performances (in no order):
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Albert Finney, The Dresser
Johnny Depp, Pirates of the Caribbean 1
Eric Bana, Chopper
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront
Katherine Hepburn, The Lion in Winter
Denzel Washington, Training Day
F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus
Mel Gibson, Hamlet
Benicio Del Toro, 21 Grams
George C. Scott, Patton
Daniel Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood

By no means a comprehensive list, even among films I've seen... and as you can see, I pretty much stuck with the male performances over female... not to say there aren't terrific actresses as well... Kate Winslett, Naomi Watts, Meryl Streep obviously pop to mind... I just didn't want to list too many...


Thought I'd throw in a Funny Picture... a few of you are falling asleep... gotta keep you awake! Father, the sleeper has awakened!

Watched a cool little slideshow online today called World's Most Useless Facts. Here's a few for ya...

- Tarantula's can live up to 30 years.
- Pain travels through the body at a speed of 350 feet per second.
- If you stand with your knees locked for long enough, you'll pass out.
- An average person will grow 590 miles of hair during his/her lifetime.
- An average office desk has 400 times more bacteria on it than an average toilet.

and the one that depresses me most...

- Between the ages of 30 and 70, your nose will lengthen and widen up to another half inch.

There, don't say I never taught you anything...

Check this shoe out...


For the woman that thinks, when it comes to shoes, she's seen everything! Yes, that is a shoe. It's called the Mojito (since it's creator thinks it looks like a "twist of lime peel" from the drink of the same name), and the story of its development is pretty interesting, if you'd like to read about it.

Todayve In History: September 23
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- September 23, 1642: 1st commencement of Harvard College in Cambridge. (Mathematics is the only true universal language.)

- September 23, 1846: The planet Neptune is discovered. (It can only be attributable to human error.)

- September 23, 1889: Nintendo is founded, to produce hand-made hanafuda cards. (I'll give him this: he's consistent!)

That is not a typo - Nintendo really was founded in 1889. Get the lowdown here, if you want the history.

Check out this crazy list of famous people that were born on September 23: Greek playwrite Euripides (480BC), Augustus Caesar (63 BC), Kublai Khan (1215), Mickey Rooney (1920), John Coltrane (1926), Ray Charles (1930), Julio Iglesias (1943), and Bruce Springsteen (1949).

Not sure how they can know for sure the exact birthday of a person like Kublai Khan or Euripides, but I suppose September 23 is as good as any day... And if Marky was still around, he'd appreciate this, being a huge Springsteen fan...



I guess that's it for me today. It's been confusion from the word go! Until tomorrow, remember, I got the better end of the deal... I only lent you my body - you lent me your dream.

Director's Cut of tonight's post.