endomental

Feel the Force Friday

2012-01-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

Forget everything else and watch this for the next 2 hours:

This is Star Wars Uncut, a production 2 years in the making. The public was solicited to select 10 seconds of the movie and remake it, shot-for-shot. The submissions were then voted on by the public (yes, I voted!), stitched together, and we now have the Director's Cut.

I can't remember ever laughing out loud at a movie as often as I did at this. Genius.

How Return of the Jedi should have ended...

Mark Hughes' 50 "The Best Films Never Nominated For The Oscar For Best Picture"

2012-01-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

Hughes goes into detail on the first ten in his article, then lists the others. I wonder which of my readers have seen these films, so I'm going to color the ones I've seen in RED, and invite you to do the same. If you do, leave a message in the comments!

Also, what movies did he miss?

I believe I'll add this to my list of 1001 things for next time.

Metropolis (1927/28)
North by Northwest (1959)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God (1972)
Mean Streets (1973)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Sling Blade (1996)
Being John Malkovich (1999)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) The Dark Knight (2008)
Notorious (1946)
To Catch a Thief (1955)
Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
The Searchers (1956)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Young Frankenstein (1974)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Superman: The Movie (1978)
The China Syndrome (1979)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Blade Runner (1982)
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Blood Simple (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Matewan (1987)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Gorillas in the Mist (1988)
Die Hard (1988)
Glory (1989)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Thelma and Louise (1991)
The Player (1992)
Malcolm X (1992)
Germinal (1993, foreign language film)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
Seven (1995)
Rob Roy (1995)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Magnolia (1999)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
King Kong (2005)
Syriana (2005)
Children of Men (2006)
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Shotgun Stories (2008)
Che (2008, foreign language film)
Shutter Island (2010)

Nighty-night...

2012-01-20T22:00:00.000-05:00

Scenes from 64 horror films in 5 minutes, with accompanying creepy music.

List of the films and music here.
Sweet dreams...

www wednesday

2012-01-20T14:49:00.000-05:00

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading? Audio: 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann (for those keeping track, I recently finished his other audiobook, 1491). In print I'm still working on America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking

• What did you recently finish reading? The Unquiet by J.D. Robb. Since I didn't bother to review it, I guess it didn't make much of an impact. Another seasonal novella based around Halloween.

• What do you think you’ll read next? Still planning to read Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty by John M. Barry

Feel the Force Friday

2012-01-20T00:00:00.000-05:00

Add caption

Source: themarysue.com via I {heart} Rhody on Pinterest

The first Star Wars poster" per Reddit

Source: google.com via I {heart} Rhody on Pinterest

Taunton hotel

Source: google.com via I {heart} Rhody on Pinterest

Evian Star Wars Water (fake)

Source: google.com via I {heart} Rhody on Pinterest

Sunday Stealing

2012-01-17T11:48:00.001-05:00

Sunday Stealing: The Never Ending Meme, part two
(stolen from Kwizgiver)

21. Did you go to your high school prom? no

22. Perfect time to wake up? when I naturally wake up

23. Perfect time to go to bed? 10 or 11

24. Do you use your queen right away in chess? no

25. Ever been in a car accident? several over the years

26. Closer to mom or dad…or neither? both about the same.

27. What age is this exciting life over for you? I...don't know how to answer that.

28. What decade during the 20th century would you have chosen to be a teenager? I have very fond memories of the 80s

29. Favorite shoes you have EVER owned? black heels w/ 4 buckles. Kinda granny, but kinda fun.

30. Do you have an article of clothing you have had since you were in high school? no

31. Were you in track and field? no

32. Were you ever in a school talent show? yes

33. Have you ever written in a library book? no

34. Allergic to? cats, oranges and wintergreen

35. Favorite fruit? blackberries

Feel the Force Friday

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

Source: themarysue.com via I on Pinterest

episode IV - 8 bit style

Source: themarysue.com via I on Pinterest

www Wednesday

2012-01-12T15:27:00.001-05:00

To play along, just answer me these questions three (3)…

What are you currently reading? I'm listening to the audiobook of The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell, and reading America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking by Keith Stavely & Kathleen Fitzgerald.
What did you recently finish reading? 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, a cultural history of life in the Americas before Columbus
What do you think you’ll read next? Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty, by John M. Barry

I swiped this from Kwizgiver.

What's your name's hidden meaning?

2012-01-10T13:07:00.002-05:00

You Are Gracious and Amicable

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.

You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.

At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something.

You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense.

You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.

You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.
You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life.

You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip.

People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

...so, schizophrenic. That sounds about right.

The Never Ending Meme, part one

2012-01-08T20:32:00.001-05:00

swiped from Kwizgiver

1. Song that always makes you sad? none that always makes me sad. a few that have made me sad on occasion.

2. Last thing you bought? soda and cigarettes

3. Last person you argued with? my daughter

4. Do you put butter before putting the peanut butter on? what? no

5. One of your stuffed animals’ names as a kid? I...don't remember.

6. Did you ever at one time own a Barenaked Ladies CD? not a CD, but I do have one of their songs as an mp3.

7. Favorite day of the week? monday

8. Favorite sundae topping? hot fudge

9. Did you take piano lessons? yes

10. Most frequent song played? it depends, but I've been obsession on BNL's medley of God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen/We Three Kings

11. T.V. show you secretly enjoy? Hoarders

12. Would you rather play basketball or hockey? hockey, I suppose

13. Date someone older or younger? older

14. One place you could travel right now? England

15. Do you use umbrellas? rarely

16. Do you know all the words to the Canadian national anthem? no

17. Favorite cheese? probably Brie

18. The Smith’s or The Cure? no thank you

19. Do you prefer blondes or brunettes? I don't

20. Best job you ever had? the one I have now

Feel the Force Friday

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-05:00

via Reddit

Family Portrait
via reddit

Source: google.com via mary w. on Pinterest

Source: mymodernmet.com via mary w. on Pinterest

New Years Movie Meme

2012-01-05T20:28:00.000-05:00

found this via The Gal Herself, who lifted it from The Girl With the White Parasol, whose classic movie blog I will be following herewith.

1. What is your all-time favorite Grace Kelly costume? The Paris dress from Rear Window.

2. What classic film would you nominate for a remake? The Glass Menagerie

3. Name your favorite femme fatale. She's not a classic actress, but Catherine Zeta-Jones is a perfect femme fatale.

4. Name the best movie with the word "heaven" in its title. I don't remember seeing a movie with "Heaven" in the title.

5. Describe the worst performance by a child actor that you’ve ever seen (since Laura gave me the idea). Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace. "Mannequin Skywalker."

6. Who gets your vote for most tragic movie monster? Frankenstein.

7. What is the one Western that you would recommend to anybody? True Grit.

8. Who is your ideal movie-viewing partner? My oldest daughter. She's always good for the occasional snide comment, and an insightful discussion afterward.

9. Has a film ever made you want to change your life? If so, what was the film? Star Wars had a significant impact on my life. Also, I wanted to be fearless like Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.

10. Think of one performer that you truly love. Now think of one scene/movie/performance of theirs that is too uncomfortable for you to watch. Katharine Hepburn's sadly weak performance in Spitfire.

11. On the flip side, think of one really good scene/performance/movie from a performer that you truly loathe. I really liked National Treasure in spite of Nicholas Cage.

12. And finally, since it will be New Year's soon, do you have any movie or blogging-related resolutions for 2012? I have a list of movies that I wanted to watch for my 101 Things in 1001 Days (ending in May this year). I'd like to finish that.

2012 goal: 12 books I want to read.

2012-01-05T20:04:00.000-05:00

I feel like I never read. I start a book, put it down and it takes forever to get back to it. I can't remember how many books I started and didn't finish last year.

So I was surprised to see that my GoodReads total of Books read in 2011 was 50. 50! Although that doesn't seem like it could possibly be right, I'll pat myself on the back for a job well done anyway.

There are currently 177 books on my To Read list. I'm going to try to read 12 of them this year.

And those are...

1. America's Founding Food, by Keith Stavely. It's a history of New England cooking that I started last year and never finished. I'll finish it this time.

2. Book of Secrets, by Michael Holroyd. I think Kwizgiver recommended this...

3. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson. The story of the Dodd family, amabassador to Germany in the early 1930's.

4. The Last Witch of Langenberg, by Thomas Robisheaux. An historical text about death and politics in Medieval/Renaissance Germany.

5. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou. A memoir.

6. The Beautiful Cigar Girl, Daniel Stashower. How a local murder inspired Edgar Allan Poe.

7. Wicked Conduct: The Minister, the Mill Girl and the Murder that Captivated Old Rhode Island, by Rory Raven. For I {heart} Rhody.

8. Politics and Pasta, by Buddy Cianci. Another one for I {heart} Rhody.

9. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs. I started this last year and never finished it.

10. Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul, by John M. Barry. Yet another one for I {heart} Rhody.

11. Moon Called, by Patricia Briggs. Loaned to me by a friend. I really have to finish this.

12. 'twas the Night Before, by Jerry B. Jenkins. My Christmas read.

Which have you read?

2012-01-03T09:23:00.001-05:00

And who'd be interested in a bloggy reading circle for one of these books in February?

I found the list at By the Broomstick

The ones I've read are in blue.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Bible
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
Emma - Jane Austen
Persuasion - Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
Animal Farm - George Orwell
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Dune - Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
Dracula - Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
Ulysses - James Joyce
The Inferno – Dante
Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Germinal - Emile Zola -
Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession - AS Byatt
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte’s Web - EB White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
Watership Down - Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet - William Shakespeare
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

December wrap-up

2012-01-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

1) Candle scents this month:  Evergreen, Bonfire

2) What I read this month:  Unquiet (Nora Roberts)

3) Top three songs I was drawn to:  O Come O Come Emmanuel, O Holy Night

4) Movies I saw:

5) Favorite tv moments of the month:

6) Something yummy I made:  you'd think I would have made something this month, right?

7) Restaurants where I ate:  Good Steer (Lake Grove, NY)

8.) Five things I am loving this month:  Christmas!;

9) A goal I had for this month:  Just to pull off both Christmas and Bear's Sweet 16 without any major hitches.

10) This month I looked forward to:  The Tweet-Hop, Christmas, Bear's Sweet 16

11) Something I want to remember about this month:

12) A photo I took this month:

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

The Central Park Test

2011-12-31T08:04:00.003-05:00

You Are Philosophically Artistic

It's easy for you to get lost in your mind. You think amazing thoughts.

You're a bit of an introvert, but you're never lonely. You know how to entertain yourself.

You see so much depth in every corner of the world. It's all fascinating to you.

You like esoteric things, and you are attracted to people who are a little outside the mainstream.

The Central Park Test

Blogthings: We'll Tell You The Truth... Someone Has To!

Feel the Force Friday

2011-12-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

for my friends Molly and Andy - The Bumbles
via The Mary Sue

homemade Christmas card
via Reddit

R2-Tutu
via The Mary Sue

Han vs. Mal
via Reddit
PS- you can totally buy me this t-shirt.

How a Lightsaber works
via Reddit

Han in Carbonite brownies
via Reddit

via The Daily What: note that Obi-Wan's home planet is Stewjon, named after Jon Stewart of The Daily Show

Source: ibelieveinadv.com via mary w. on Pinterest

8 days of Hanukkah menorahs - day 8

2011-12-27T17:00:00.000-05:00

Dreidel menorah by limoryaron on etsy

Belated Christmas meme

2011-12-27T11:10:00.001-05:00

from Kwizgiver, naturally

1. The Christmas song I can listen to even in June is... God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen/We Three Kings medley by Barenaked Ladies

2. Hot Chocolate, Egg Nog or Mulled wine? hot chocolate

3. When do you put your decorations up? Which ones? It's a process. The tree goes up on 12/6.

4. What are you having for Christmas dinner? We had a buffet of lots of things: stuff flank steak, basil carrots, mashed potatoes, turkey, rice, peni, ham and more!

5. What is your favorite Christmas tradition? the light drive

6. Have you ever gone Carol singing? yes, several times. It's such fun!

7. When did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't even remember. I think my parents were content to let me believe as long as I wanted to, and I was content to let them think I believed for as long as I could.

8. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? with a star on top, and ornaments we've collected through the years.

9. What's the best thing about Christmas? Joy!

10. All I want for Christmas is... peace

Post-holiday holiday round-up

2011-12-27T08:18:00.002-05:00

Just a few things that didn't make it from the reader to the blog in time for Christmas...

Purportedly Harry Houdini's Christmas Card, ca. 1920
via The MarySue

via The Daily What

A note to Santa from 1911 (100 years ago!) found stuffed in a chimney in Dublin
via The Daily What

8 days of Hanukkah menorahs - day 7

2011-12-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

Spode china menorah via Posh Posh

8 days of Hanukkah menoras - day 6

2011-12-25T17:00:00.000-05:00

Circle of Life menorah by Maraz Studios

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

8 days of Hanukkah menorahs - day 5

2011-12-24T00:00:00.001-05:00

The Man-orah via HGTV