This film starred and was directed by Frank Sinatra. Theo recorded it for me off of Encore because I once told her that my parents appeared briefly in it as extras.

My first summer job during college involved walking dogs. Back then, it was a great deal easier than now (I didn't have to clean up after them). The woman I worked for (Mary Jane Lane) was also a theatrical agent and told my parents that she could get jobs as extras for them in locally shot films.

Near the beginning of The Detective, there is a scene with Frank Sinatra and Lee Remick shot at a stadium. My parents (Jayne and Joe) told me that they had to pretend there was a game going on at the field. They had to leap up and cheer, then sit down and talk. Then, they had to do the same thing over, but without making any sound (so the stars' dialog could be heard).

I saw both my parents behind and upstairs from Frank. They both looked so young! Then, I realized that my mother was 38 at that time and I'm 20 years older now than she was back then. It gave me a kind of sad feeling, since she passed away 20 years ago this April, but she will always be young on that film in that scene. My father appeared as an extra in a number of other films that year (the private detective business was a little slow). If you ever see "Goodbye Columbus," he's the guy in glasses dancing the Hora with a fat redhead at the wedding reception scene and having a helluva time!

Believe it or not, this was the first time I had ever seen the film. It actually was quite good, had some complicated plot turns, and interesting character development.

NYj

Now Tyler Perry looks like Alex Cross should! They are making the movie, "I, Alex Cross". As much as I like Morgan Freeman he just wasnt Alex.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118031257

A lone Indian Gurkha soldier armed only with his Khukri knife fended off some forty armed robbers on a train when they attempted to rape the 18 year old girl sitting near him.

Full story here:
http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index....s_id=27100

So I watched Going The Distance and Dinner For Schmucks this weekend and both provide enough laughs to make them watchable IMO. Of the two I liked GTD a bit more because I enjoy rom-coms. Justin Long and Drew Barrymore provide enough chemistry and his two buddies enough raunchy humor to make it worth a rent. DFS tries a little too hard at times but if you like Carell, you'll like this.

Not to be picky but< in re-reading Ground Zero I stumbled upon a slight error.
When Weezy is asking Jack to fly to LA, he thinks to himself that he had flown only one other time.
I'm sure he remembers his flight to see his Dad after his wreck but maybe he wants to forget about his aborted trip to become Mirko Abdic.
Am I being a tad anal?

I pose these questions to Mr. Wilson, of course, and to all other writers on the forum as well:

How do you go about choosing names for your characters?

Is it more important for the name to be meaningful, cool sounding, or just plain easy to read?

Or does the name have to match the character's personality?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this subject.

Thanks,

John

Today I saw "RED" starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Helen Mirren. What made this movie so much fun is these casts!

They are three ex-CIA agents, and one ex-MI6 agent. Now they retired. But once somebody tried to kill them, they gather again to fight enemy.
Action scenes were superb and sometimes funny.

What surprised me was Ernest Borgnine. "Holy crap! He's still alive!"

Yeah, he is 94...:eek:

I had forgotten about the My So-Called Life feature so I read through a few months worth last night and found several things of interest.

First and foremost is "Night Dive". It says its being reprinted but I don't remember this one at all. Where was it initially published?

Second: very cool news about the YA books getting the graphic treatment-any idea who the illustrator might be.

Third: I liked "Run Away" by The Hollow", "The Sun Aint Gonna Shine Anymore" and "While My guitar Gently Weeps" so thanks for those and I'll be hunting for both The Hollow and The Walker Brothers.

Fourth: ordered the Fear anthology with my amazon Christmas money.

And finally those were some good interviews.

SPOILERS!!!

The premise: A mad doctor that specializes in seperating conjoined twins decides to use his awesome talents to go the other way and attach people together into one creature. Unfortunately he attaches them butthole to mouth making them into a human centipede.

I haven't actually seen this yet, my oldest nephew lent me the DVD but I think I'll take a pass on this one. The whole concept makes me want to vomit. The blurb on the movie poster claims that the procedure is 100% medically accurate.

Has anyone actually seen this?

I don't post too often these days - stop by, just don't post - but have been moved to make a post after reading Draculas.
What a thrill ride! Thoroughly enjoyed this book and well done to all concerned. Books don't seem to turn my stomach much these days but there were many, many times in this book where I was kinda grossed out.
So a double thumbs-up from me!