sherlock holmes mini-review

saw Sherlock Holmes with friends last night. i didn't like the story or the sets that much, but loved the 2 main characters--they played well together and were believable. downey played a nontraditional sherlock who seemed bipolar. i liked how the film showed his swift visual calculations and carry-through, the genius of holmes at his best.

repost of funny movies, people, and comedy sketches

I'm reposting this because it's summer and because I like to laugh. Also adding Hangover to the movie list--Lela says it's the funniest movie ever!

To avoid having to reinvent the wheel every time someone asks about funny movies, I'm putting this list on my blog. It has my own favorites and favorites from Lela, John, Pauline, Keith, Keith's friend Tony, Alec, Spike, Elizabeth, Nicky, Kathleen, Clarita, and Zoe, so it covers a variety of tastes as to just what is funny.

I'll update it as I hear from more people and if my memory about a funny film that I've forgotten gets jogged. And okay, okay, I know a few of these are TV shows, but you can rent them at the video store or online same as movies.

Here are 98 funny films and 26 funny people that will hopefully make you laugh, or at least cheer you up:

The 40-Year-Old Virgin - Tony
48 Hours - John
A Fish Called Wanda - Mary
All of Me - Pauline
Always - John
And Now for Something Completely Different - Alec
Annie Hall - Mary
As You Like It - Pauline
Back to the Future 1 - John
Being There - Mary, Pauline
Best of Saturday Night Live - John
Beverly Hills Cop - John
The Big Lebowski - Mary
Blazing Saddles - Mary, John, Kathleen
The Blues Brothers - John
Brain Donors - Alec
Bruce Almighty - Alec
Bugs Bunny classics, especially What's Opera, Doc? - Mary
Caddyshack - John
City Lights - John
Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker - Zoe
The Dish (Australian) - Tony
Down and Out in Beverly Hills - Pauline
Dr. Strangelove - Mary
Duck Soup - Mary
Ed Wood - Mary
Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill - Mary
Fargo - Mary
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - John
The Fifth Element - John
Forget Paris - John
Galaxy Quest - John
Ghostbusters - John
The Gods Must Be Crazy - Kathleen
Gold Rush - John
The Goodbye Girl - John
The Great Race (old one, not the remake) - John
Groundhog Day - John, Mary, Tony
Hangover - Lela
Happy Feet - Pauline
Honey I Shrunk the Kids - Pauline
Idiocracy - Mary
The Incredible Shrinking Woman - Pauline
It Happened One Night - Mary
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (old one, not the remake) - John
The Jerk - Pauline
LA Story - John
Lethal Weapon II - John
Liar, Liar - Alec, Pauline
Life of Brian - John, Alec
The Little Children - Nicky
Little Miss Sunshine - Mary, Tony
The Little Rascals/Our Gang - John
Love & Death - John
M.A.S.H. - Mary
MASH (old TV show) - John
The Mask - Pauline
Modern Times - John
Moonlighting (old TV show) - John
The Monster (Italian) - Clarita [stars Roberto Benigni, need I say more?]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - John, Alec, Spike
Monty Python's Flying Circus (old tv show) - John
Moonstruck - Mary, Clarita
Napoleon Dynamite - Spike
Nurse Betty - Nicky
O Brother Where Art Thou? - Mary
Office Space - Mary
Old screwball comedies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screwball_comedy - John [It Happened One Night being the best]
Parenthood - John
Patch Adams - Alec
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - John
Pee-Wee's Playhouse - John
The Pink Panther - Kathleen
Play It Again, Sam - John
The Princess Bride - Mary, Pauline
The Producers - Mary
Purple Rose of Cairo - John
Raising Arizona - Mary
Road Runner cartoons (pre-60s) - John
Roxanne - John
Saving Grace - Pauline
Shrek 1 - Mary, John, Pauline
Shrek 2 - Pauline
Singin' in the Rain - John
Sister Act - Mary
Sleeper - Mary
Some Like It Hot - Mary
South Park - Mary
Stalag 17 - John
The Sting - John
Stripes - John
The Tall Guy - Spike
There's Something About Mary - Mary, Tony
The Thin Man films - Mary
Tom & Jerry cartoons (pre-60s) - John
Tommy Boy - Tony
Trading Places - John, Pauline
True Lies - Pauline
Tootsie - Mary
Wedding Crashers - Clarita
What About Bob - Elizabeth
What Women Want - Mary, Pauline
What's Up Doc - John
When Harry Met Sally - Mary
Young Frankenstein - Mary
Zoolander - Spike

People who are funny:
Woody Allen - John
Lucille Ball - Pauline
Lewis Black - John
Victor Borge - Alec
Mel Brooks - Mary
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig - Mary
Jim Carrey - Mary, Pauline
Charlie Chaplin - John
Ellen DeGeneres - John
Jackie Chan - Mary
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean - Mary
Whoopi Goldberg - Mary
Cary Grant - Mary
Goldie Hawn - Pauline
Danny Kaye - Pauline
Larry the Cable Guy - John
Harold Lloyd - John
Steve Martin - Mary, Keith, John
The Marx Brothers - Mary
Larry Miller - John
Ninja Turtles - Pauline
Paula Poundstone - John
Chris Rock - Zoe
Jerry Seinfeld - John
Peter Sellers - Mary
Gene Wilder - Pauline
Robin Williams in concert - Alec

And last but certainly not least, I'm adding a link to the 50 greatest comedy sketches. Click the title of this post to view. Many of them have video clips. Thanks, John!

EFT videos

i lent my EFT videos (a set of them) to someone and now i can't remember who. it was in 2008, i'm pretty sure.

if you borrowed them, will you let me know?

how do you keep track of stuff like this? make a list, set a timeframe, or just know ahead of time you may not ever see again something you value enough to share?

video of rain

this is lovely. click the title to go to the article and watch the video.

solution to the zombie problem

from today's austin chronicle, writer mary jo pehl addresses the important question, why don't zombies just eat one another? enjoy!

wall-e

hannah is back from her dad's! she was gone for weeks, and it's great to have her back. she looks bigger, and her front teeth have grown in even more.

she's glad to be home.

we (and lela and bruce) went to see wall-e last night. hannah and i had seen the preview when we went to the indiana jones film and decided then we'd like to see it.

we all liked it. it's a love story, comedy, science fiction, hero's tale. there isn't much dialogue. the characterization of the robots is pretty amazing.

i give it two thumbs up.

how to live a good life

Thanks to Alec Nicholls for sending me this link. This is a lecture by Randy Pausch, a married father of 3 and prof at Carnegie-Mellon, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. It's about how to live a good life, how to achieve your childhood dreams.

Which of your childhood dreams have you achieved? Which still await fulfillment?

I achieved one earlier this year, when I spent 3 weeks on Maui.

I have an opportunity to go again, in October, with my teachers Tom & Bobbi Best, for a workshop on Hawaiian shamanism. For details, see http://www.nlpoptions.com/the_spirit_of_hawaii_in_han.html.

I'll decide by the end of June, best time to book airfare for October. If I go, I'll go for 10 days, building in time before Hana to watch a sunrise or sunset at Haleakala, hike the Sliding Sands trail, maybe even bike down the volcano, swim with dolphins at La Perouse Bay, have some hang time at Baldwin Beach, get supplies, camping permit, etc. I'll stay at Peace of Maui lodge those first few days, then camp at Waianapanapa State Park at Hana for the workshop. Cost will be about $2K, I estimate.

Wanna come?

must-see video: author of my stroke of insight

The author of the book I reviewed earlier this month, called My Stroke of Insight, gave a presentation at a conference. An 18-minute video of her presentation is available on the New York Times, along with a brief article.

You can click the title of this post to view the video. If you watch it, please watch it all. It's very compelling. She's a remarkable woman.

Also, I learned in the article that the author has a website. Go to http://www.drjilltaylor.com/index.html if you're interested.

funny movies, funny people

To avoid having to reinvent the wheel every time someone asks about funny movies, I'm putting this list on my blog. It has my own favorites and favorites from John, Pauline, Keith, Keith's friend Tony, Alec, Spike, Elizabeth, Nicky, Kathleen, Clarita, and Zoe, so it covers a variety of tastes as to just what is funny.

I'll update it as I hear from more people and if my memory about a funny film that I've forgotten gets jogged. And okay, okay, I know a few of these are TV shows, but you can rent them at the video store or online same as movies.

Here are 97 funny films and 26 funny people that will make you laugh, or at least cheer you up:

The 40-Year-Old Virgin - Tony
48 Hours - John
A Fish Called Wanda - Mary
All of Me - Pauline
Always - John
And Now for Something Completely Different - Alec
Annie Hall - Mary
As You Like It - Pauline
Back to the Future 1 - John
Being There - Mary, Pauline
Best of Saturday Night Live - John
Beverly Hills Cop - John
The Big Lebowski - Mary
Blazing Saddles - Mary, John, Kathleen
The Blues Brothers - John
Brain Donors - Alec
Bruce Almighty - Alec
Bugs Bunny classics, especially What's Opera, Doc? - Mary
Caddyshack - John
City Lights - John
Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker - Zoe
The Dish (Australian) - Tony
Down and Out in Beverly Hills - Pauline
Dr. Strangelove - Mary
Duck Soup - Mary
Ed Wood - Mary
Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill - Mary
Fargo - Mary
Ferris Bueller's Day Off - John
The Fifth Element - John
Forget Paris - John
Galaxy Quest - John
Ghostbusters - John
The Gods Must Be Crazy - Kathleen
Gold Rush - John
The Goodbye Girl - John
The Great Race (old one, not the remake) - John
Groundhog Day - John, Mary, Tony
Happy Feet - Pauline
Honey I Shrunk the Kids - Pauline
Idiocracy - Mary
The Incredible Shrinking Woman - Pauline
It Happened One Night - Mary
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (old one, not the remake) - John
The Jerk - Pauline
LA Story - John
Lethal Weapon II - John
Liar, Liar - Alec, Pauline
Life of Brian - John, Alec
The Little Children - Nicky
Little Miss Sunshine - Mary, Tony
The Little Rascals/Our Gang - John
Love & Death - John
M.A.S.H. - Mary
MASH (old TV show) - John
The Mask - Pauline
Modern Times - John
Moonlighting (old TV show) - John
The Monster (Italian) - Clarita [stars Robert Benigni, need I say more?]
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - John, Alec, Spike
Monty Python's Flying Circus (old tv show) - John
Moonstruck - Mary, Clarita
Napoleon Dynamite - Spike
Nurse Betty - Nicky
O Brother Where Art Thou? - Mary
Office Space - Mary
Old screwball comedies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screwball_comedy - John [It Happened One Night being the best]
Parenthood - John
Patch Adams - Alec
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure - John
Pee-Wee's Playhouse - John
The Pink Panther - Kathleen
Play It Again, Sam - John
The Princess Bride - Mary, Pauline
The Producers - Mary
Purple Rose of Cairo - John
Raising Arizona - Mary
Road Runner cartoons (pre-60s) - John
Roxanne - John
Saving Grace - Pauline
Shrek 1 - Mary, John, Pauline
Shrek 2 - Pauline
Singin' in the Rain - John
Sister Act - Mary
Sleeper - Mary
Some Like It Hot - Mary
South Park - Mary
Stalag 17 - John
The Sting - John
Stripes - John
The Tall Guy - Spike
There's Something About Mary - Mary, Tony
The Thin Man films - Mary
Tom & Jerry cartoons (pre-60s) - John
Tommy Boy - Tony
Trading Places - John, Pauline
True Lies - Pauline
Tootsie - Mary
Wedding Crashers - Clarita
What About Bob - Elizabeth
What Women Want - Mary, Pauline
What's Up Doc - John
When Harry Met Sally - Mary
Young Frankenstein - Mary
Zoolander - Spike

People who are funny:
Woody Allen - John
Lucille Ball - Pauline
Lewis Black - John
Victor Borge - Alec
Mel Brooks - Mary
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig - Mary
Jim Carrey - Mary, Pauline
Charlie Chaplin - John
Ellen DeGeneres - John
Jackie Chan - Mary
Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean - Mary
Whoopi Goldberg - Mary
Cary Grant - Mary
Goldie Hawn - Pauline
Danny Kaye - Pauline
Larry the Cable Guy - John
Harold Lloyd - John
Steve Martin - Mary, Keith, John
The Marx Brothers - Mary
Larry Miller - John
Ninja Turtles - Pauline
Paula Poundstone - John
Chris Rock - Zoe
Jerry Seinfeld - John
Peter Sellers - Mary
Gene Wilder - Pauline
Robin Williams in concert - Alec

And last but certainly not least, I'm adding a link to the 50 greatest comedy sketches. Click the title of this post to view. Many of them have video clips. Thanks, John!

oscars confession

this is a true confession. i watch the oscars on tv.

i know, i know, i tell people i never watch tv. and this is true. i have a set and only watch videos and DVDs on it. this year i made an exception and watched the oscars. i, mary, adjusted my antenna and watched tv for over two hours!

i was babysitting hannah sunday night. i turned the tv on when she was in the tub, and the show was already well underway. i missed the best supporting actor presentation and only learned on the internet the next day that javier bardem had won.

hannah joined me on the sofa after her bath, occasionally asking questions but mostly snuggling, falling asleep in my arms before the show ended. she liked the songs. she wants to be a singer with an art gallery when she grows up.

did i tell you i love being her grandmother?

i like movies. well, some movies. i had not seen many of the nominees this year. i read the reviews of "no country for old men" and "there will be blood," and because of the violence, i've shied away from seeing them in theaters.

recently, i came up with an NLP-based strategy to deal with the intensity of emotions at films like that: sit at the back of the theater and wear sunglasses. the better to dissociate with, my dear!

i also really want to see "the diving bell and the butterfly," "once," and "charlie wilson's war." i started reading "atonement" but couldn't get into it. the film might be better.

i did see "la vie en rose" on DVD and thought marion cotillard was wonderful. i saw "ratatouille" as well and liked it a lot.

last year i saw most of the nominated films, even the shorts, but this year was different. i spent a lot of time doing NLP training and then was in maui at a time when most of the nominated films are still playing. who wants to go to the movies on maui!? not me!

i have added the unseen greats to my netflix queue and may catch some that are still showing.

it can be hard to tell how different a character is from an actor's own personality if you've only seen one film and haven't seen them as themselves on award shows. that's one reason i like watching the oscars. who basically plays themselves? who gives themselves over to the character? i prefer the latter. i guess these folks are called "character actors" for that very reason, and it seems that the winners this year were all very talented character actors.

not to mention all being europeans playing american archetypes, except for cotillard.

i missed michael clayton--it's on my netflix list--but was thrilled when tilda swinton won best supporting actress. i saw her years ago in a wonderful film called "orlando". based on a novel by virginia woolf, it is a comic tale of an ageless person who at the beginning of the story centuries ago is an androgynous young nobleman. he has adventures--and then wakes up one day to discover he is now a she.

then she has adventures and wakes up one day to discover she is now a he. and so forth until present times.

tilda swinton was superb, believable as a man and as a woman. only a pretty great actress could have pulled this role off, and she did it wonderfully well at a young age.

she certainly doesn't fit the hollywood mold of actresses, wearing no makeup, with a simple haircut and a baggy dress covering her figure! you might think she is ascetic, like a buddhist nun or something. however, in her speech, she said that her oscar resembled her agent, even down to the buttocks, and mentioned george clooney's batman suit with nipples. wow, she managed to mention buttocks and nipples in her acceptance speech! go, tilda! you rock! if more people did that, maybe ratings wouldn't be so low. (yes, i read online newspapers for my news. even though i don't watch tv, i'm not totally out of it culturally.)

other highlights: daniel day-lewis playfully letting helen mirren knight him, jon stewart bringing back marketa irglova make her speech after she was cut off, jack nicholson reading his lines off a tele-prompter like everyone else but imbuing them with an air of spontaneity. i don't think i'd like him in person, but he is a fine actor.

so the 2007 oscars have been handed out, and the film industry is already working on the 2008 slate. will there be a blockbuster film, or will the winners be spread among many deserving films? stay tuned.