Films about teachers

Turner Classic Movies ran Mr. Holland's Opus [imdb] at 8 in the evening. The wife and I watched this after putting the daughter to bed. I was certain I'd seen this before and I kept looking for Madeline Zima to make an appearence. It turns out that neither of us had seen this film, and I was thinking of The Sandy Bottom Ochestra [imdb] which which has Zima in it. It came out in 2000 and was a TV movie. Mr. Holland was from 1995. The film is excellent and the soundtrack (like Forest Gump, there are two albums out) is a wonderful mix of classical and contemporary music from the 1960s (and before) up to the then current 1995. Now I want to see Sandy Bottom Ochestra again. By a strange turn of events, Glenne Headly [imdb] has leading parts both films. As for Zima, in Sandy Bottom Ochestra she played a character named "Rachel Green". Friends [imdb] had been on for 6 years when this was made.

The next film up was To Sir, with Love [imdb] whichI've seen parts of several times, but never all at one sitting. The cinematography in the museum visit was very well done. Sidney Poitier's acting style is amazing. He was 40 the year that film was made. I was just born. He directed Stir Crazy [imdb]? I didn't know that. It seems that 1967 was a busy year for him with To Sir, In the Heat of the Night [imdb] and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [imdb].

We went to sleep then, not watching Goodbye, Mr. Chips and Dead Poets Society.

(written 9/6/2007; back-dated to 9/5/2007)

Make your own Venture Bros Bonus Audio CD

The Venture Bros has to be one of the best shows on TV and sadly, the new season won't be on Adult Swim until "winter" which could mean late 2007 or early 2008. I have season 1 and I still need to get the actual DVDs of season 2, even though it's been out for 3 months and a couple of days. There are quite a few extra songs and such out on the net and if you put them all together, it makes a nifty bonus CD. I was going to post this over a year ago and everytime I'd get close, I'd find something else to add. As it is I even found another person's blog entry in the same vain, but my list has a few more things. They are grouped in show order, then in order of release and the extra commentary is at the end. Feel free to choose your own order:

1. Venture Bros Open - 0:53 (ZIP file) [Adult Swim]
2. Revv Me Up - 4:09 ("Mid-Life Chrysalis", episode 8 - Brocks workout song) [Offical Site]
3. Look Away - 2:02 ("Return to Spider-Skull Island", episode 13 - end of season 1) [Offical Site] or (ZIP file) from [Adult Swim]
4. Everybody's Free - 3:32 ("Powerless in the Face of Death", episode 14 - start of season 2) [YTMND]
5. Mitre Storm - 3:04 ("I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills" - episode 23) [Offical Site]
6. Wedding Song - 3:20 ("Showdown at Cremation Creek (Part I)" - episode 25) [QuickStop]
7. Venture Bros Close - 0:33 (ZIP file) [Adult Swim]
8. Monarch Prison Phone Call to Henchmen - 3:21 [IGN]
9. Monarch Prison Phone Call to Dr. Girlfriend - 3:11 [IGN]
10. Little Drummer Boy - 4:48 (Christmas 2004) [IGN] or [QuickStop]
11. Hard Candy Christmas - 5:08 (Christmas 2005) [IGN] or [QuickStop]
12. Venture Aid - 3:07 (Christmas 2006) [QuickStop]
13. Lost Commentary (1x07) - 23:13 ("Home Insecurity" - episode 3) [QuickStop]

Yes, "Everybody's Free" by Aquagen featuring Rozalla is not actually a freebie. But I'm not telling you to save it.

There are plenty of graphics out there to make a nice cover for it. Of course, you can still go and and get your own Brock Sampson OSI ID at the official Venture Brothers website.

TV Saturday Morning

Up late last night, but up in time to talk with the wife on the phone. The daughter is not behaving as she should and so she's "in jail". That is, in her room, with nothing to do, except for meals and the bathroom.

The history channel ran "Beyond the War of the Worlds" about Mars. It featured Jeff Wayne's musical version of "The War of the Worlds" which is a 2006 computer animated movie.

Flipping channels and I see that Khaled Hosseini is on C-SPAN2's "Book TV" talking about "A Thousand Splendid Suns". It is from 5/24/07 recored in Philidelphia. He's reading the first chapter. But I've got things to do and I'm going to turn it off and either listen to the radio or to a movie that I've seen and don't need to watch. Maybe. I may just listen in, as it's not too distracting.

Waterworld - ABC version

Tonight I found out that the longer version of Waterworld, the one that was on ABC years ago was on the SciFi Channel. Unfortunately, it was already an hour into the broadcast. It would be a good project to get that recorded and then to integrate it with the wide screen footage of the DVD. You could even make it so that the full screen parts were properly centered within the letter boxed area. It would look funny when it transitioned, but it would be cool.

Ramsay's $#%*@! Nightmare

Worked late getting things done so as to take Friday off. When I got home, watched some of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare on BBC America. I've never heard a show with so much bleeping. I don't get it. What's the fascination with such a huge level of crude language? It's childish and it gets old quickly with me. I saw this show years ago. Lenny Henry was in it, it was called Chef! and at that time it was enjoyable to watch.

(written 6/15/2007; back-dated to 6/14/2007)

Supersize Me - again

Morgan Spurlock's Supersize Me was on MSNBC last night. The wife and I watched it a couple of weeks back on a Friday. I've still missed just the beginning. I'm still eating out from time to time, but I've kept my resolution about no McDonalds for all of 2007.