5 Favorite Comedies

My alarm didn’t go off today.  I forgot to put the coffee grains in the coffee maker, and thus made a pot of hot water.  My computer crashed, and my project  file will not OPEN; making it impossible to do the work I planned for today because I have to redo everything.  These things all happened to me before 8 this morning and have put me in a foul mood.  So instead of dwelling I decided to turn to comedy.  In my opinion there is nothing like a good comedy to change your mood; especially for days like the one I’m having today.   Anyway that’s what inspired me to write about some of my favorite comedies.

Here is a list of Five movies I am always in the mood to watch:

I picked these movies because they make me laugh just as hard now as they did the very first time I saw them.

I hope you like my picks; and feel free to comment on what your favorite comedies are.

1. Tommy Boy

   Starring Chris Farley and David Spade; directed by Peter Segal; written by Bonnie Turner and Terry Turner

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1lbpj6868o&feature=relmfu

2. Planes Trains and Automobiles

   Starring John Candy and Steve Martin; Directed & Written by John Hughes

   

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2pu0m9iTo4&feature=relmfu

3. Bridesmaids

   Starring Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ellie Kemper, Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy; Directed by Paul Feig; Written by Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumolo

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1suBS0c_Io

4. The Great Outdoors

   Starring John Candy and Dan Aykroyd; Directed by Howard Deutch; Written by John Hughes

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBJ-MpPBDug&list=LPikdKBsEFSf4&index=1&feature=plcp

5. Eulogy

   Starring Hank Azaria, Zooey Deschanel, Debra Winger, Kelly Preston, Jesse Bradford, Glenne Headly, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie Rip Torn and Ray Romano: Written & Directed by Michael Clancy

   

   http://youtu.be/zTXJ2L5IJjI

PICASSO & DORA MAAR

Last Saturday afternoon, I spent my day with Picasso and his women, at the AGO exhibit – PICASSO: Masterpieces from The Musee National Picasso, Paris. It was amazing! I know a lot of people, when they think of Picasso, they think of his abstract, cubist art. Picasso in reality was much more than just a cubist painter; in fact, he was an artist of many different styles and mediums. Walking through the gallery space I was reminded of this. It had been a long time since I had seen so much of his work in one space. Like I said before, it was Amazing! One thing I like about Picasso is his ability to tell a story with his work. He is able to dive deep into the subject matter and reveal it in such style. One portrait of Dora Maar that I had seen once before at the Picasso Museum in Paris, France and was also displayed at this exhibit, was a piece I could not get out of my mind. I found myself revisiting this portrait a few times, and each time I felt like time had stopped. This portrait, like many of his portraits, reveals more than a painting, but a person as well. It feels like Picasso has tapped in to a bit of the subject’s soul. Picasso is revealing Dora Maar to us, as she sat for him, through flashes of perspective. I could not help but wonder more about who Dora Maar was. After my visit, I found out that she was a photographer/artist/poet and one of the many lovers of Picasso. Perhaps Picasso’s portraits are so intense because of his relationships with the subjects, as many of his portraits are of his lovers. Using Picasso’s portraits of Dora Maar as proof, there is no doubt in my mind that Picasso and Dora Maar’s relationship was intense, raw and beautiful. What a lot of people neglect to notice is Dora Maar’s portraits of Picasso. These portraits have a beauty and truth to them that could only have stemmed from their unique relationship.

Portrait of Dora Maar, by Picasso (1937), at the AGO exhibit –

PICASSO: Masterpieces from The Musee National Picasso, Paris.

Other Picasso Portraits of Dora Maar:

         

    

Portraits of Picasso, by Dora Maar

       

  

Dora Maar is best known for her documentation of Picasso’s Guernica

    1st State      2nd State

  3rd State      4th State

Guernica  by Picasso (1937) at Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain

After Guernica, Picasso began a series of portraits called The Weeping Woman(1937).  The final of the series is what I’ve chosen to show below and is part of the Tate collection.  These paintings are Picasso’s continuing development of the crying woman with child in Guernica; what developed was beyond the events of the Spanish Civil War, but a singular, universal vision of suffering.  The model for the Weeping Woman is Dora Maar.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weeping_Woman

The Weeping Woman (1937), Tate Museum, Liverpool

Self Portraits

  

  

A Hollywood Movie of Picasso and Dora Maar,

during the making of Guernica(1937) is in the works.  Gwyneth Paltrow will be playing Dora Maar and Antonio Banderas will be playing Picasso.

    

Please comment if you have anything to add to this.  I would like to see other perspectives on this.

 

CultureTop 5 Movie Scenes

Everybody has their list of favorite movies and movie scenes, so that is why I have chosen to do a list of my TOP 5 Movie scenes.  I have chosen these scenes because of the way they impacted me the very first time I saw them, and continue to entertain me every time I watch them.  I hope you enjoy my picks and appreciate these scenes the way I have; and hopefully I have inspired you to share your list.   Here we go!

My TOP 5 Movie Scenes:

1. Pulp Fiction:  The OD Scene,

   with John Travolta, Eric Stoltz, Rosanna Arquette, and Uma Thurman, written & directed by Quentin Tarantino

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GHkNpbGhgU

2. Being John Malkovich:  Malkovich in Malkovich Scene

   with John Malkovich and John Cusack, written by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Spike Jones

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Fuxkinhug

3. Little Miss Sunshine:  Car Push Scene

   with Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano, and Abigail Breslin; written by Michael Arndt; directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlbb0o_rQps&feature=plcp

4. Warrior: Final Fight Scene

   with Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Nick Nolte; written Gavin O’Connor, Anthony Tambakis, and Cliff Dorfman; directed by Gavin O’Connor

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djWjpbeD75k&feature=related

5. Gladiator:  Death Scene

   with Russel Crowe, Connie Nielsen, and Tomas Arana; written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson; directed by Ridley Scott

   

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Ij35niYHg&feature=youtu.be

   Please comment to let me know your favorite scenes.  I would love to hear from you.

   Thanks

Hello world!

Hello world!

 

I love, making lists, and I know I’m not the only one.  Thing is I am constantly making lists for myself, but I never really get a chance to share them with many people.  So I’m making this blog so I can share with you, my lists; and of course you can share yours.   For me lists are a way to; keep me focused, build inspiration; and instigate conversation.   My interests are Movies, TV, Music and any type of popular culture.  These topics will be what my Blog will be mostly about.  I hope you like my blog and please comment and give your versions as well.