Mikey’s Absurdly Geeky Oscar Trivia Quiz

In Search of Ancient Oscars

Did you know the word “quiz” originally meant an odd person?  That’s from the Oxford English Dictionary.  In the days before the Internet I used to read dictionaries and reference indexes while in residence upon the porcelain throne.  Some prefer magazines, I’m told.

In Anticipation

Like the weather in my region, I’m in a holding pattern.  I haven’t felt the need to write much lately.  I’m recharging my psychic batteries, reading, dreaming, and waiting for it to get warmer and dryer so I can enjoy more outdoor activities.

Controversial Films (Part Two)

Nazis, Newborns & Nuts

“We built that!”

When I was ten, I got into an advanced education program and began attending a different school where most of my classmates were Jewish.  The benefit of being immersed and welcomed into Jewish culture was at least as valuable as anything I learned in class.

Controversial Films (Part One)

Clansmen, Commies, Catholics and Climaxes

“What am I, Gandalf of Arabia?”

All movies are propaganda in the sense that they try to persuade the audience to believe that what’s on the screen is “real”.  It’s always an illusion.

The Best of Mikey (so far)

Since I’m nearing 300 posts, it’s time for another retrospective.  These articles were among those most viewed, but more importantly, I thought they were good even when re-read.

Full Steam Ahead

Steam-powered zero carbon water taxi

Having always been an odd boy, at different ages I sought identity among the punk enclaves where I lived.

Films for At-Risk Youth

When I was a lonely, nerdy little boy in peril, I learned important survival tips and got cheap therapy from seeing movies about other young ones who were having a hard time.

Page to Screen

Books and movies aren’t the same thing.  That should be obvious on the face of it, but I’ve read hundreds of articles here and in all kinds of publications that miss that central, inescapable point.  A film adaptation will never, can never and shouldn’t be evaluated on the basis of being “like the book”.

10 Scares You Shouldn’t Miss

It’s less than two weeks until Halloween, the holiday that empowers children, usually the victims of the rest of the big, scary world, to become the scary ones themselves for one night.  All of us were children once.  Now that we’ve survived, it’s fun to look back on the kinds of things that once filled us with fear.  Here are ten seldom seen spooky movies to get you in the right mood.

Old Guys Who Made Good

My son wrote me an email in which he suggested I not call myself old, so I thought about some of the many men who produced significant work in my areas of interest when they were at least a decade older than me.

More Music You Didn’t Know You Knew

The original page with “O Fortuna” in Carmina Burana

Romantic, Classical and Baroque music is often repurposed for film soundtracks and other things.  It’s evocative and heightens emotional impact if chosen wisely, and it’s cheap compared to the cost of licensing current pop songs

Cheap Things No One Needs

(It’s easy to find copies of movies that show on TV all the time.)

There were few patients today at the Urgent Care where I work, so I spent a pleasant hour at the thrift store nearby.  Thrift stores in the Pacific Northwest are exceptionally good.  There are unbelievable deals on clothing and household goods.  People recycle their excess possessions with great dedication in this region.  But what I like best is to window shop the media items folks have decided they can live without.  I would seriously like to know what kind of inner voice urged people to buy these things in the first place.

Why I Know

There’s an underbelly to show business that’s every bit as ugly as all those stories you might have thought were urban legends.

My Trigger

I was reading Zeenat’s post about daily methods for reinforcing your inner upside (
http://positiveprovocations.com/2011/02/21/top-9-ways-to-be-positive-and-happy-everyday/
).  The first one listed was to Carry a positive Trigger.  She was writing about having a token of something that makes you happy with you at all times.  When you get sidetracked, you can use it to get back in the game of life.  She did not realize that by saying this she reopened a beautiful memory from my early childhood.  I’ve had a positive trigger inside me since I was three!  It’s Trigger

Return of the Son of Bad Movies

An Antidote for Awards Season

Bad art dissolves the hairballs in my overworked heart.  It is normally made with good intentions.  It’s just that somewhere in the process things go screwy.

“If You’re So Smart…

…why aren’t you rich?”

That’s what they used to say to me back in the Midwest, in response to my being an insufferable know-it-all.  I am a more sufferable know-it-all these days, so I am rarely asked this question, which is disappointing since I now have many good answers for it.

I Hated It, and I’m Right

What do you mean you don’t think this is great acting? I’m not moving, not blinking and I’m speaking brilliant sarcasm as fast as humanly possible.

Movies about Work

I don’t usually write list-based posts, but I enjoy reading them so I suppose it can’t hurt to write one every so often.  I learn a lot from books, but over the course of my lifetime it’s usually films that change my mind and make me think about things differently.  Films begin as a very serious form of writing

Yellow Brick Road

You’ll have a richer experience of life if you can look below the surface.  Our lives have meaning beyond what they appear to be outwardly.  A big part of learning to understand anything in more depth is to be able to make connections and recognize why and how things represent other things that are bigger in scope and more universal in significance.

That’s why I love the arts.  Great works of art open the door

Drawn by Lot

When it’s Christmas season, I like to watch lots of Christmas movies and listen to and sing as many of those familiar songs as I can.  It opens the door to many memories, both good and bad ones, and allows me to have a rich experience and new understanding at a time of year when people act differently than they do normally.