TAR 12 – Episode 7 – The Road to Hell

An absolutely grueling leg for all remaining teams. Endless driving, tears, teeth-gnashing, killer fatigue, rituals involving flag tossing and obvious Blackberry product placements all reared their ugly heads.
Details on the episode (SPOILERS!) follow the jump.

Find of the Day: Kevin Macdonald’s heritage

I had no idea that director Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) was the grandson of Emeric Pressburger, but browsing his Criterion Top 10 confirms it. Is it just me, or is it the whole web buzzing with Powell & Pressburger? I just watched Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and enjoyed it immensely. [...]

James Who?

Sorry for no updates lately. I’ve been a busy bee at work and updating this list of movies seen by director (still woefully incomplete).
After spending many hours updating the list, I’m pretty disgusted that I’ve seen more films by some hack named James Mangold than I’ve seen of masters like Antonioni, Bergman, Capra, Fellini, Godard, [...]

Find of the Day: John Coltrane & Stan Getz: Hackensack (Rifftide)

From the YouTube description:
Tenor giants John Coltrane and Stan Getz lead an incredible group through a tune claimed by both Thelonius Monk (Hackensack) and Coleman Hawkins (Rifftide).
Oscar Peterson sits in on piano with the incomparable rhythm section of Paul Chambers (bass) and Jimmy Cobb (drums).
Great playing and the video is cool, [...]

TAR 12 – Episode 6 – Airport Follies

Just another Amazing Race episode to remind you how badly air travel sucks. Hey, everybody, have fun traveling home for the holidays! I don’t even attempt O’Hare over Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This episode was won and lost thanks to the airline industry. That and the fact that luck is completely fickle. If only the world’s destinations [...]

+1 Lists – Episodes 31-40

More Filmspotting/Cinecast Top Five Plus One lists…
Around the time of the original broadcasts, Adam and original co-host Sam were doing two shows a week, but only providing one weekly top five list. I think the first show of the week announced movies that “just missed” inclusion in the next show’s top five list. In the [...]

Remembering 2007 in list form

Thankfully, I don’t have to do the list of lists, because Rex at Fimoculous already has.
Lists of particular importance to me:

Asshole of the Year 2007: I’m guessing George Bush edges out Michael Vick in a gripping finale.
Time’s and LA Times’ Top Children’s Books: Mo Willems, kids author extraordinaire, gets a mention in each. My son [...]

TAR 12 – Episode 5 – Counting your lucky stars

So, we didn’t see animals in this episode (I do NOT count corporate shill gnomes) so my dream of a final roadblock — where the contestants have to make animal noises in the order in which they appeared in the race — is apparently not going to happen. Sigh.
Instead we got stilt-walking and counting – [...]

Get thee behind me, November

Gave myself a lot to accomplish by the end of the month. Let’s recap.