My father, Craig Dennis Thigpen, passed away on July 13th 2010. I thank him for the memories that he has given me:
watching Bruce Lee Week with him and my brother... Old English Pizza... my first comic books... introducing me to Doctor Who and Buffy the Vampire Slayer... taking me to see the NBA in it's prime (Magic, Bird and Jordan)... my first NFL game (so what if it was the Falcons?)... teaching me to fight dirty, "helping" us with our school projects... watching him dote on his grandchildren... watching the NCAA tournament and the term "start up the bus"... his catch phrase "the thing about it is"... how proud he looked after my high school graduation... going to Gullifty's... going to Erol's and Movies Unlimited to rent movies for the weekend... the family slide shows with popcorn... the Kappa Bug... going to his office in the PSFS building for the first time... introducing me to Pat Metheny, Miles Davis and John Coltrane... Thursday nights at the supermarket... the horrible video and the "Is this live?" comment...
I will cherish these memories and many more for the rest of my life. I hope that I made him proud of me, as I was always proud of him. I just wish I had the chance to tell him that, and that I loved him, as I don't think I have told him enough. I know that he knew it, but I wish I got to say it just once more.
We love to list things. I think we do it so we can have something to argue about. No matter who compiles it, we flock to the lists and then the debate begins. “Why wasn’t this person/movie/team included?” “How did person/team/movie make this list?” the arguments go on and one. Some of these list are very well done (Empire’s 500 Greatest Movies of All Time list comes to mind and can be experienced right here), others not so much (Entertainment Weekly’s various attempts at the same type of list).
I had a subscription to EW once, and I hated it. They seem more interested in making nice with the actors and studios than actually giving you any real information on anything interesting. The potential for great things is there, but just has never been realized. It’s too bad. I think that they could be the US equivalent of Empire if they really tried, but it will never happen. EW's most recent list is at least interesting. EW has listed (according to them) The100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years. The characters are from movies, TV and video games. Why did they do this? Your guess is as good as mine. You can buy a copy of EW to read the reasoning behind the list (then tell me because I refuse to buy the magazine) or view the entire list here. Here is the top 20:
20. Ally McBeal from Ally
McBeal
19. Morpheus from The Matrix
series
18. Sue Sylvester from Glee
17. Lara Croft from the Tomb
Raider franchise
16. Bridget Jones from the Bridget
Jones series
15. Shrek from the Shrek
series
14. Jeff “The Dude” Lebowski from The
Big Lebowski
13. Jack Sparrow from the Pirates
of the Caribbean series
12. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from The
X-Files
11. Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld
10. SpongeBob SquarePants from SpongeBob
SquarePants
9. Carrie Bradshaw from Sex
and the City
8. Hannibal Lecter from The
Silence of the Lambs and its sequels
7. Edward Scissorhands from Edward
Scissorhands
6. Rachel Green from Friends
5. The Joker from The Dark
Knight
4. Tony Soprano from The
Sopranos
3. Buffy from Buffy the
Vampire Slayer
2. Harry Potter from the Harry
Potter series
1. Homer Simpson from The
Simpsons
The Empire Strikes Back turned 30 this month. I can remember going to see it for the first time, how excited that I was. I was trying hard to imagine what would happen, trying to put together what I saw in the previews into some type of coherence, to give me a clue as to what to expect. What I got was so much more, and it was one of the best movie going experiences of my young life.
Saying all of that, I am not one of the people that took Star Wars as a religion or swear by the original 3 movies as the Greatest Trilogy of All Time. I would say that Empire is the best of the series (and I am including all six films), but the best trilogy of films is something open to debate. I just wanted to acknowledge Empire’s anniversary.
The remake/reboot train in Hollywood is still barreling down the track, and next up is The Karate Kid. The original movie was released back in 1984 (and the name The Karate Kid is a trademark of DC comics for the character of the same name for those who didn't know) and can basically be described as Rocky Jr. The plot revolves around a boy forced to move from New Jersey to California with his mom, and while trying to adjust to life in his new surroundings he falls in love with a girl that as an ex boyfriend that has a black belt and bad attitude. The bully and his friends proceed to beat up on our young hero until a janitor proficient in the martial arts takes pity on the hero and trains him. This culminates in a battle between hero and bully in a local martial arts tournament. If you can’t see how this movie ends, there is just no help for you.
The new version sees the lead character move to China. So this kid looks like he will be a true fish out of water, having to deal with not only new surroundings but also a new culture. He too gets beat up by bullies, and is saved then trained by a guy that looks to be a janitor as well. There are also scenes of a tournament in this film as well. Again, if you cannot see how this is going to end…
It has been 26 years since the original, and that means that there is a whole generation of kids that have no idea who Ralph Macchio/Daniel-san is. It is possible that the parents who remember the original fondly will show it to their kids before or after seeing the new one, but I doubt that will happen. Fans of the first will see some similarities in the training (“Put on the jacket/Take off the jacket” as opposed to “Wax on/Wax off”). There will be a kid getting beat up by other kids for reasons that only make sense to other kids (usually the bullies). There will be some type of message that you can take away from the film at the end. But beyond those things, I am sure that this movie will make its mark in its own way, maybe not distancing itself from the original but doing something to establish itself as “new” somehow. I wish it the best.
If this movie does well, there will be even more remakes/reboots on the horizon. It will just become a question of whether a film is too "sacred" to be touched. And in Hollywood, there is no such thing as sacred.
James Cameron has the top 2 highest grossing movies ever, Avatar followed by Titanic. Both movies have made billions of dollars. Maybe now Cameron can make a movie about how the US economy gets better, and then that movie could make billions too. Then the government would have a plan that they could follow.
The Winter Olympics start this weekend. Millions of people will be glued to their TVs watching Curling, and have no idea what the hell is going on.
Downloaded music, movies and video games are supposed to be the wave of the future, replacing physical media. All of that downloaded content is saved to a hard drive of some sort. What happens if that had drive crashes? Would I really have to buy all that stuff again? Or, after downloading it to my drive, am I considered a pirate if I back it up on a disk?
If Superman was less than super one day, could you sue him for false advertising?
The TV show Lost is in its final season. Good. Cause it's awful.*
Movies in 3D is a fad. Again. What makes a come back next? Good music?
*I tried watching the first 3 episodes of Lost when it first started. The show just didn't grab me, and I found that I hated all of the characters. For those who love it and will miss it, I am sorry for your loss. But not really, cause it was awful.
I would like to wish you a Happy New Year, and no it's not too late to do that. It's still January, so it counts.
This post is mainly to inform you of some changes to this blog. As this is a new year, I have decided to make some changes in the way that I do some things. I am going to attempt to post at least twice a month, most likely once every other week.... starting in February. Life happens, so I may not be as able to post as often as I want (or even have anything worth saying) but I figure that every other week is a schedule that I should be able to keep. The type of posts will still be the same, for the most part. I am also in the planning stages of a re-design of the blog page itself, though I do not know how long that will actually take.
What you will no longer see on this blog are stories of various lengths or any more poems. That stuff will be posted to a new blog that will be dedicated to those things only. Once I have what I feel is enough content, I will let everyone know that the page is up and available for viewing.
To those who have been visiting and hanging in there with me, thanks. I hope that you like what you have seen and see in the coming months.
