I went a little overboard with the whole Halloween thing this year. It seemed every time I was going out to buy something I actually needed, there was a new Halloween decoration I absolutely needed to get for my party. And I’m damned if someone didn’t forward me a link to a “great Halloween party trick” idea every couple of days, these last few weeks. Last night, T came home to find me sewing a wig together.

I know we get to rot our teeth out at Easter too, but today I get to do that, and come to the office as a blonde wearing that leopardskin mini. I’ve always thought it was safe for work, cause my mom made it for me.

Where can I find a good selection of inexpensive Halloween wigs? It seems everywhere I go, they’re sold out of the better ones.

A while back, T’s company playtested one of their videogames on kids aged 8 to 10. 9 out of 10 named Grand Theft Auto Vice City as their favorite game. GTAVC is a game in which you play a smalltime crook working his way up the ranks of Miami organized crime. In this favorite among kiddies, you can pay to have sex with a hooker, then run her over to take your cash back. All this, to a cheerful 80s hits soundtrack.

Anyway… Electronic Gaming Magazine just did a great little exercise, where they took today’s kids and made them playtest the games we grew up on. Donkey Kong, Tetris, Space Invaders, etc.

About Tetris:

John: Why haven’t I won yet? I’ve paired up so many of the same color.

EGM: Don’t worry about colors.

John: I just lined up six of the same color. Why didn’t they blow up?

EGM: Nothing blows up.

About Donkey Kong:

EGM: Who’s that chick Mario is rescuing up there?

Brian: It’s Princess Peach.

Kirk: It’s a hooker.

Niko: She looks cut in half.

Tim: Oh wow—she’s one of those pole dancers.

(thanks Dr. Wank)

On Friday night, we had our now-pretty-regular card night. Mimi, our hostess, was going through her colorful collection of wigs and all of us wound up wearing funky hair for the night.

Although it’s Valentine’s Day I was born on, Halloween is truly my favorite holiday. No other holiday has a better atmosphere; I love the pumpkins, the weather around that time of year (usually), the gratuitous silliness of the parties, people shedding a few of their hang-ups for one night. Over the last few years I’ve gotten to be everything from Princess Leia to a Valkyrie. I love that all this is done in the name of nothing else but a good time.

The best party I’ve ever thrown was a Halloween party. We were over 100 people, and my co-host ended up naked on the Internet. Then again, there was the time in Sweden when I went as Cinderella, but days before the party, I jumped off a train and ended up disfigured with a shut, swollen black eye. “Oh yeah? Well you should see the stepsisters!”. That was also the year my friend Sporty Spice ended up “getting a private show” from Backstreet Boy Nick in the laundry room of the res. We still have no idea who he actually was. And what about the time my ex went to a sex-themed party as an exhibitionist, and my mom helped him make a huge dildo?

What about you? Any favorite Halloween memories?

Well, having now ruled out lightspeeddad…

To the person who signed up for DVDHype and took the time to put “lightspeedchick” in the “Special Coupon” box first as requested, thanks. You saved me 10$ on next month’s fee.

Patrick recently linked to The Observer’s list of the top 100 books ever written. Makes me want to pick up all the classics I’ve bought but haven’t yet gotten around to.

In a similar vein, I was recently trying to make an exhaustive listing of the “important” movies I have yet to see, then start working down the list. I mean, why waste time going to see Underworld, when I still haven’t seen Apocalypse Now?

So I used the imdb’s top 100 list as a starting point, though I disagree with much of it (it’s based on user ratings). I mean, The Shawshank Redemption is good, but the second best movie ever?

Turns out I’ve seen 60% of them, not bad.

Here, then, is the list:
(* = seen)
1. Godfather, The (1972) *
2. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) *
3. Godfather: Part II, The (1974) *
4. Schindler’s List (1993) *
5. Casablanca (1942) *
6. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) *
7. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) *
8. Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai) (1954)
9. Citizen Kane (1941) *
10. Star Wars (1977) *
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) *
12. Rear Window (1954)
13. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) *
14. Memento (2000) *
15. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) *
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) *
17. Usual Suspects, The (1995) *
18. Pulp Fiction (1994) *
19. North by Northwest (1959) *
20. Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) *
21. Psycho (1960) *
22. 12 Angry Men (1957)
23. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
24. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) *
25. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (The Good the Bad and the Ugly) (1966)
26. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) *
27. Goodfellas (1990) *
28. American Beauty (1999) *
29. Pianist, The (2002)
30. Vertigo (1958) *
31. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
32. Apocalypse Now (1979)
33. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
34. Matrix, The (1999) *
35. Some Like It Hot (1959)
36. Taxi Driver (1976) *
37. Third Man, The (1949)
38. Paths of Glory (1957)
39. Fight Club (1999) *
40. Boot, Das (1981)
41. Double Indemnity (1944) *
42. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (Spirited Away) (2001)
43. L.A. Confidential (1997) *
44. Chinatown (1974)
45. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
46. C’era una volta il West (Once Upon a Time in the West) (1968) *
47. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
48. Maltese Falcon, The (1941) *
49. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
50. M (1931)
51. All About Eve (1950)
52. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) *
53. Se7en (1995) *
54. Saving Private Ryan (1998) *
55. Raging Bull (1980) *
56. Wizard of Oz, The (1939) *
57. Sting, The (1973) *
58. Vita è bella, La (Life is Beautiful) (1997) *
59. American History X (1998) *
60. Rashômon (1950)
61. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
62. Wo hu cang long (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) (2000) *
63. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) *
64. Alien (1979) *
65. Léon (The Professional) (1994) *
66. Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) *
67. Touch of Evil (1958)
68. Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2002)
69. Great Escape, The (1963)
70. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)
71. Clockwork Orange, A (1971) *
72. Reservoir Dogs (1992) *
73. Annie Hall (1977) *
74. Jaws (1975) *
75. Amadeus (1984) *
76. Ran (1985)
77. On the Waterfront (1954)
78. Sixth Sense, The (1999) *
79. High Noon (1952)
80. Braveheart (1995) *
81. Modern Times (1936)
82. Fargo (1996) *
83. Apartment, The (1960)
84. Blade Runner (1982) *
85. Strangers on a Train (1951) *
86. Aliens (1986) *
87. Shining, The (1980) *
88. Donnie Darko (2001)
89. Duck Soup (1933)
90. Toy Story 2 (1999) *
91. Metropolis (1927)
92. Princess Bride, The (1987) *
93. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) *
94. Lola rennt (Run Lola Run) (1998) *
95. General, The (1927)
96. City Lights (1931)
97. Notorious (1946)
98. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
99. Rebecca (1940)
100. Sjunde inseglet, Det (The Seventh Seal) (1957)

I suspect some of those I’ve missed are movies that haven’t really aged all that well. I think I’ll be making my own list. Any suggestions?

I caught part of the new show Nip/Tuck on CTV the other night.

You know when you watch a show that used to be popular in the early eighties, and you wonder how you could ever have thought it good, how you could ever have taken it seriously (cf. Lance et Compte)? Well, that’s exactly what this show is like, but contemporary. Add gratuitous T&A, swearing and graphic surgery scenes and there you have it. I heartily agree with Dr. Wank’s assessment:

Basically just another “doctors in love” series, but focussing on plastic surgeons. So we get some nice exploitation shots of people with problems: A woman who has lost 200 lbs. and now has huge waddles of flesh hanging off her arms and back, a woman who’s had a complete double mastectomy (we get a nice close-up of her flat, scarred chest), etc. We get fat, dissatisfied people killing themselves. We get absolutely gorgeous people having sex with the plastic surgeons all over the place. The shots of the surgery itself are quite graphic, very much along the lines of TLC “documentaries”: big hunks of human tissues going into sterile silver bowls, bloody used instruments piling up, etc. But these guys do it Tarantino style with funky music and quick-cut editing and stuff. Intriguing, but just too voyeuristic for my tastes. I can’t help imagining the pitch “It’s ER plus those TLC documentaries, plus soap-opera bullshit a la L.A. Law!”

He forgot to mention the dumbass guy who gets asked to do a threesome with two cheerleaders and has some philosophical issues with it. At that point I just had to turn it off.

Well, unless you’re me…

From the “Which Billy Boyd character are you?” quiz:

Well! What a bit of luck you have found, and seems
to always follow you! You are just like
everyone’s favourite trouble causing hobbit,
Pippin! You have to have your pint of ale and a
bit of adventure.

What Billy Boyd Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I keep saying that the only two directors that have never made a bad movie, are Stanley Kubrick and Luc Besson (as a director!). But I haven’t seen everything from Kubrick, so I’ve lately set about seeing the missing movies (Lolita, Spartacus and Full Metal Jacket).

So the first movie I ordered from DVDHype was Lolita (1964). At the start it seemed like a much more dated movie than we were originally expected (it’s in black and white, and all the credits seem to be at the beginning). However, we were quickly amazed at how skillfully the story is told, compared to the in-your-face way everything seems to be explained in contemporary film, as if the average audience was unable to decipher subtlety in anything.

The movie deals with a very controversial topic even for today (pedophilia), and it did so at a relatively puritanical era. Thus, everything is implied, instead of being completely explicit, underscored with huge music and repeated four times in case you didn’t get it, as is the norm nowadays (cf. The Patriot, Reign of Fire, etc). The result is something much more realistic, absorbing and entertaining, as it resembles much more what people are truly like. You fully understand what the characters are feeling, even if nothing is actually said.

You know, you don’t need a PhD nor any culture to be quite good at reading subtle hints in others. We live our lives doing that, it’s one of the most essential social survival skills we possess. Why does Hollywood assume we cannot possibly grasp that someone is secretly elated, or uncomfortable, unless the music tells us so? Has the quality of acting dropped that sharply since the sixties? I doubt it.

Another thing I really liked about the movie relates to this, and it’s the fact that Kubrick let his actors *act*. Scenes aren’t just a series of a thousand talking-head shots, where you know every actor said every line 40 times and the editor chose his favorite for each one. The scenes in Lolita are often shot as long, master shots, putting on the actors the task of supporting the scenes. And they pull it off splendidly.

Despite a kind of anticlimatic ending, I have to chalk that one up as another great success from Kubrick. Il est très fort, ce Stanley.

(other movies by SK include Barry Lindon, 2001, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove)

After the Blockbuster debacle (see two entries ago), I finally decided to get my gams going and sign up for DVDHype. And it’s been fantastic.

This is how it works. You pay a monthly fee, no matter how many DVDs you rent, and there are no late fees. Then, you log in to their website. You make a list of movies you want to see in order of preference. They send you, by mail (and the warehouse is in Montreal so it’s next day delivery), the first three movies on your list, each with a stamped, addressed return envelope. You keep them as long as you like. As soon as you return one (by dropping it in a mailbox), they send you the next one on your list. You always have three movies out, at all times. You can always change your list of desired DVDs around. They have a great selection.

I’m hooked. The fee is 15$ for the first month, then 24$/month. This more than covers my Blockbuster bills.

Now, if you’re ever thinking of signing up or browsing their website, please enter “lightspeedchick” in the “Special Gift or Coupon” field on their opening page. That gives me and you both discounts. Thanks!