I don’t believe in coincidences.  I really don’t.  But as far as I know, for no reason at all, I watched John Carpenter’s The Thing yesterday.

I watched it for no other reason than I had heard that it was good.
I didn’t know that my cousin was going to post a picture of himself holding a [...]

This must be the only blog entry ever written about the movie, Buddy Buddy, mustn’t it?

Watching it today was the epitome of virtually all viewing experiences for me these days.  I have to assume that the typical movie viewer doesn’t go through these emotions when watching old movies.
Stage 1.  Fascination/Disbelief
I begin to watch the film [...]

Have studios become more honest or have I become shrewder about what I choose to see?  I don’t know, but I can honestly say that I haven’t felt “tricked” when I have watched a movie since I was in high school.  One movie that immediately comes to my mind as hoodwinking me back then:  Carnival [...]

I was in a church the other day as a part of an odd theater performance (don’t ask), marveling again at how all of the various ornaments inside do have an affect on me, though I don’t believe in them.  I’d look at a delicate stoup or a chi rho on a stained glass window [...]

If you use Facebook I’m sure you have heard of the “Dislike Button Movement,” i.e., the online petition geared at giving us more options than a simple ‘like.’  It is doubtful that this will ever happen, of course.  Advertisers don’t care about what we don’t like (although the argument could be made that they certainly [...]

I’ve always been a fan of horror movies, particularly those made between 1960 and 1980, perhaps because they were before my time and after the old-fashioned monsters had run their course (e.g., Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.).  The Night of the Living Dead, The Omen, The Exorcist, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Psycho, and The Birds all come to my [...]

I fell in love with Ryan Air when I lived in Germany. I remember once taking a flight to Amsterdam and another to Rome for less than $100.
Now that I am in Norway, within a year of living near a Ryan Air hub I have learned to despise Ryan Air.
Dealing with Ryan Air is like playing [...]

Scandinavia is a bit different, at least where cartoons are concerned.  Over the years I’ve learned that the Smurfs were huge in the seventies (a decade before they made it to the US), that Popeye is called Karl Alfred in Sweden and that Donald Duck is, well, huge.  On a casual day in a grocery store [...]

Ever played the party game ‘Mafia,’ a.k.a. ‘Werewolf?’ It’s basically a game where all of the players try to conceal their identities in order to determine who the killer among them is.
‘I think you’re the killer because you didn’t look me in the eye just then.’
‘Well, you are obviously the killer because you’re accusing everyone [...]

Most of the following little tips have become no-brainers to me, but I have come to realize that swarms of people think that traveling alone means being alone.  It doesn’t.  First of all, there are prostitutes–kidding.  Here are some simple items to put onto your little checklist.
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1.  Become a member of [...]