Intermission

For anybody still hanging around here, be forewarned that posting will be even more intermittent for the next week. Intellikid is home for Spring break, and I'm planning to spend as much quality time with her as possible before I have to schlep off to Columbus, OH on Wednesday for a conference.

Meanwhile, the countdown to "50" goes on. Impending birthdays - and "milestone" birthdays in particular - seem to be natural occasions for reflection and remembering. Some of my earliest memories are surely the product of being told a certain story over & over again and not a true recollection, but I think that sensory memories must be the real deal. One of my earliest visual memories dates to when I was about 2 years old, watching the opening of a drive-in movie from the backseat of the old green Plymouth sedan my dad had (presumably acquired when he became a family man, and his sporty Alfa Romeo didn't comfortably or safely transport a wife and two kids). I can recall the title of the movie, "Fanny," which I thought was hilarious. Who would name a girl after a heiney? I don't remember anything else about the film, unfortunately -- dressed in our pajamas and bundled into a makeshift bed in the car, my younger sister and I slept through the rest of the movie.

But back to the "50" theme: I decided to avoid doing some productive work the other day and instead attempted to list 50 of my favorite movies. They are not by any means what I would claim to be the greatest of all time, but are instead films that touched, amused, distracted, disturbed, or otherwise entertained me enough that I would watch them more than once (if I haven't already).

The list is nothing if not eclectic:


2001: A Space Odyssey
A Boy and His Dog
A Fish Called Wanda
A Walk in the Clouds
Across the Universe
Bambi Meets Godzilla
Bread and Tulips
Casablanca
Chicken Run
Coming Home
Delicatessen
Diva
Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Zhivago
Elling
Fantasia
Grey Gardens (the Maysles Bros' original)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Harold and Maude
Lord of the Rings (have to re-watch all to pick my fave of the 3)
Love, Actually
M*A*S*H*
On Golden Pond
One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Romeo and Juliet
Scotland, PA
Shrek
Singin' in the Rain
Sophie's Choice
Spirited Away
The Big Chill
The Bird Cage
The Birds
The Blues Brothers
The Commitments
The Full Monty
The Life of Brian
The Man Who Knew Too Little
The Mouse That Roared
The Princess Bride
The Remains of the Day
The Sound of Music
Titus
Tom Jones (Why is this the only scene I can remember?)
Tommy
Toy Story II
What about Bob?
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
*(Something Marx Brothers' - can't decide on a favorite)
*(Something of John Waters' - can't decide what's not too gross to admit liking :-))