Cold Down Here in Georgia Today... Only 68 degrees!

Word of the day : refection : refreshment or nourishment of mind, spirit, or body ; the taking of refreshment

On tap for the Fischer family for tomorrow... Augusta, Georgia! 

New movies opening this week: 

The Three Stooges    Directed by the Farrelly Brothers, this one looks like a who-cares? misfire, with a weak lead cast: Sean Hayes (Larry), Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe), and Will Sasso (Curly).  There's some interest, I guess, in some of the supporting players (Sofia Vergara, Larry David, Jane Lynch), but what can you really say about this?  It doesn't look funny at all.  Although it was shot in Atlanta.  Why is the million-dollar question all around. 

The Cabin in the Woods    A lot of buzz and excitement and plenty of terrific reviews for for co-writer Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard's tale of five students who go to the title setting.  None of the reviews are giving anything away at that point, although I'm hearing descriptions like meta and self-reflexive tossed around and comparisons to The Matrix and Scream.  Critics are calling in imaginative, bloody, and fun.  Co-starring Richard Jenkins (?) 

Lockout    Futuristic junk starring a hammy, up-for-anything Guy Pearce (in Nic Cage mode), Maggie Grace, and Peter Stormare set a outer-space maximum security prison.  Looks derivative and bland - and guess what?  Critics are saying that it is. 

In commemoration of yesterday being the 51st anniversary of Bob Dylan's first major professional gig in New York City, opening for the late John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City, let me present the list of 10 Bob Dylan Songs I Never Want to Hear Again: 

- "Like a Rolling Stone"
- "Blowin' in the Wind"
- "The Times-They-Are-A-Changin'"
- "To Make You Feel My Love"
- "Forever Young"
- "Gotta Serve Somebody"
- "Quinn the Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)"
- "Idiot Wind"
- "You're a Big Girl Now"
- "A Hard Rain's-A Gonna Fall"

Stuff these in a time capsule.  Hopefully, people 200 hundred years ago will forget to dig them up.  Burn them.  Incinerate them.  Dump uric acid on them. 

And here are 10 underrated, fantastic Bobby D songs:

- "I Threw It All Away" (1969, Nashville Skyline)
- "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" (1997, Time Out of Mind)
- "Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You" (1969, Nashville Skyline)
- "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (1976, Greatest Hits Volume Two)
- "Dark Eyes" (1985, Empire Burlesque)
- "Goin' to Acapulco" (The Basement Tapes)
- "Every Grain of Sand" (1981, Shot of Love)
- "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" (1965, Highway 61 Revisited)
- "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine" (1968, John Wesley Harding)
- "Mississippi" (2001, Love and Theft) 

Today in History: 

The Civil War began, 151 years ago. 

I did this a couple of weeks back, but I'll do it again here, very briefly.  Let's look at who won some major Civil War battles: 

First Bull Run (1861, Virginia) - Won by Confederacy
Antietam (1862, Maryland) - Won by the Union
Shiloh (1862, Tennessee) - Won by the Union)
Second Bull Run (1862, Virginia) - Won by Confederacy
Fredericksburg  (1862, Virginia) - Won by Confederacy
Chickamauga  (1863, Georgia) - Won by Confederacy
Chancellorsville (1863, Virginia) - Won by Confederacy
Gettysburg (1863, Pennsylvania) - Won by the Union
Vicksburg (1863, Mississippi) - Won by the Union
Chattanooga (1863, Tennessee) - Won by the Union


- On a side note, in yesterday's post I mentioned the early, early Oscar buzz for Daniel Day Lewis and Bill Murray playing, respectively, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt in upcoming films.  Check this out: No actor has ever won an Oscar for playing a real-life U.S. president. 

- With the upcoming Pulitzer Prize unveiling on Monday, it's time to guess what book will win the fiction prize.  Here are my ten guesses:

- The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach
- The Tiger's Wife, Tea Obrecht
- Swamplandia!, Karen Russell
- The Marriage Plot, Jeffrey Eugenides (very, very slim, since he's won before)
- The Pale King, David Foster Wallace
- State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
- The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
- The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
- The Submission, Amy Waldman
-The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka

I'm thinking it's going to be Harbach's The Art of Fielding, which is why I'm going to start reading it pronto - well, right after I finish the William Boyd book I'm reading... This is not a broken record, I assure you.  I'm always reading Boyd.  And speaking of Boyd, I heard he will be writing the next James Bond book, which means there will finally be a Boyd book I have no interest in.  

David LaChapelle (#24) 

We're almost a quarter of the way through our photographers.

What should you know about LaChapelle?  Well, he crafts social messages behind a dizzying, striking, hyper-realist aesthetic.  His first real job was given to him by Andy Warhol for Interview, LaChapelle coming to the master's attention via his acclaimed photographic work in New York in the early 1980s.  His work has virtually everywhere since then: Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, French and Italian Vogue, GQ.  He has shot hundreds of celebrities: Tupac, Elizabeth Taylor, Paris Hilton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Hillary Clinton, Lance Armstrong, Daniel Day-Lewis, Lance Armstrong, Fleetwood Mac. 

He has made documentary films, music videos, and directed live theatrical events.  He now focuses almost exclusively on fine art photography.   

All his work is sensual, playful, colorful, provocative yet accessible, futuristic at times, erotic, baroque... LaChapelle (born in Connecticut in 1963) is one of the most recognized artists around.

Mrs. Pitt

 

David Beckham

Music videos he has directed include:

Joss Stone's "Super Duper Love"
Amy Winehouse's "Tears Dry on Their Own"
Elton John's "This Train Don't Top Here Anymore" (this one's pretty cool!)
No Doubt's "It's My Life"
Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty"

Which makes me wonder: Why waste so much money and talent and time on music videos?