Film Festival Report

(Click on photos for full size.)

Until this year I have been at work when my little town’s film festival occurred. I’ve been to film festivals in big, medium and small cities. I don’t think population correlates to quality. A small town festival can sometimes risk showing edgier films, and the special guests are more unusual choices. The 16^th Annual Port Townsend Film Festival just ended. In three days I saw a dozen features, an equal number of shorts and hosted screenings with Beau Bridges, Chris Cooper and Marianne Leone Cooper.

How to Tell If You’re in a Film Noir

I love infographics. Here’s one about my favorite genre of American movies.

More Songs about Buildings and Food

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Terrorism in the Old West

The murders at the offices of Charlie Hebdo didn’t surprise me, because of an odd personal coincidence. One of the very first movies I remember affecting me deeply as a child contained a similar incident. I have replayed this act of onscreen brutality many times in my mind.  When you’re a child, you believe what you see. To me it was history, a real incident, not drama. As a result, I have understood since then that there are “bad guys” who will kill because someone prints things they disagree with.

Essential Cuban Films You Should Know

Sad Thoughtful Mysterious Intimate Reverent Merry Redeemed

2013 Christmas Clip Show

Cute Little Devils

Invisible Mikey

When I was a child, kids went out “Trick or Treating” with other kids.  Adult escorts were only employed to take infants door-to-door so they could also participate.

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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