Thanksgiving Classic!

Thanksgiving is finally here! So, after you've watched all the great Broadway scenes in the Parade and "Muppet Family Christmas" what better way to celebrate than to gather the family around the table and read aloud the classic tale of the Turkey Prince. Here's the link to last year's post.

http://stephanie-piro.blogspot.com/2011/11/turkey-prince.html

"Homeland" Total Immersion

 

I spent last weekend watching the first season of the fantastically addictive Showtime series Homeland with the amazing Claire Danes as CIA agent Carrie Mathison and Damian Lewis as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody  who were so believable and compelling and realistic you felt you were part of the story and yelling advice to them from the sidelines. When do you ever do that? If you can't afford Showtime, (and really, who can?) check it out at your library. You'll be glad you did...and maybe find yourself looking into CIA job requirements. They might need a cartoonist. Or maybe, Showtime...you might want to add one to the cast!

Creative Differences

A few months back, fabulous cartoonist Jennifer Camper  invited me to do a full page comic for the Women's Review of Books. It had to include books, publishing, writers and women. I always love a good challenge and of course, these are topics I (and the Militant Recommender) feel strongly about. One thing that drives me crazy is that almost every title that gets published these days seems to be part of a series...so, even though I do read series, I am also excited when I read a great book and it is a stand alone (Scorpio Races, Break My Heart 1,000 Times, anyone?). Here's the cartoon I came up with.

Happy Christmas!!!

What better Christmas present can there be than this???

Scary Halloween Story

Fantastic Video: Eric Church

I never heard of Eric Church before but this is the best video I've seen in ages:

Movies Where You Can't Believe What You're Seeing

I was just reading in NY Magazine or someplace that a theater in NY is going to show one of my all time favorite movies and one that has been unavailable for years and is also one of those movies that is so fascinating, bizarre and just so original that you can't quite believe what you are seeing on the screen. When I saw this movie in the 70's it was called Outback. The book's and the original Australian film title is Wake in Fright. It's the story of a teacher (Gary Bond) on holiday who is going to Sydney to meet his girlfriend but some how ends up stuck in a small, crazy town called  Bundanyabba or just theYabba. There is a lot of drinking, shooting stuff (kangaroos) and playing of a weird coin-toss game. The fact that it is being shown in a theater in the US may be good news. Perhaps it will be released to DVD sometime in the near future. Meanwhile... here's the trailer:
Outback or Wake in Fright

Austrailia seems to be the home of some amazingly visionary filmmakers. If you haven't seen the how could anyone ever come up with a script like this Welcome to Woop Woop then you really need to find a way to see it. It is outrageously can't look away and truly insane. A small time gangster and bird smuggler (Jonathan Schaech) follows his escaped flock back to Australia where he rents a van and picks up this nubile nymphet  (Susie Porter) who takes him home to Daddy and the family in the town of Woop Woop where the family business is canning dog food (kangaroo, again) and singing Rodgers and Hammerstein songs. It really must be seen to be believed.
Here's the trailer:


Then there is one of the most oddball American movies I've ever seen, The Dark Backward starring Judd Nelson (as Marty) and Bill Paxton (as Gus) as garbage men in a sort of post-apocalyptic grimy city-scape. Marty has dreams of being a stand-up comic and Gus is his # 1 fan and accompanies him on the accordion. Marty is a huge flop, that is... until something happens that changes everything. He starts growing a third arm out of his back and...his career seems to take-off. This is another case of how did anyone come up with this concept and then create a fantastically other-worldy scuzzy, dirty setting. You really have to see this one!
The Dark Backward

And, lastly, another US movie, one that is not just unbeleivably off the wall ... but also funny and deserving of some real love for a great cast that includes Keith Carradine, Sally Kirckland and... in his best role, ever, Tom Waits. It revolves around horses, jewels and a road trip. Don't miss this one. It's a ...shall we say, gem!
(This is the only trailer I could find. From Video Detective)