Whoops — Scott just replied to a similar "new vs. old" comment above, which obviously clarifies things better than I could.

In his NCC intro article, Scott cited "The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg" (1964), "Army Of Shadows" (1969), "Killer Of Sheep" (1977), and "I Am Cuba" (1964) as possible features. Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought Scott wanted to do a sort of continuation of Danny Peary's cult-movie writing, in the sense that he would focus on…

Well, Scott did mention that he'd consider "older films that have resurfaced to renewed interest," although perhaps Haxan doesn't qualify under those terms either. At any rate, it's a damn cool movie.

Yep. It sure does. I think. And while I'm posting this, let me add "Who Can Kill a Child?"

Woo! Sports!
I'm pretty good at pretending to have an interest in sports, like when I'm around guys at work (I can fairly proficiently articulate my fake opinions, predictions, outrages, etc.), and I ably played most every sport my high school had to offer, but otherwise I'm a total girly-man.

Ah, what the hell.
Here are some of my suggestions for future entries into the New Cult Canon (in no order at all, off the top of my head, surely leaving out others not immediately occurring to me):

Les Vampires
"Irma Vep" is a terrific movie, made for neither the elite nor the masses, but simply for people who love movies. As enjoyable as it is in and of itself, I hope it might inspire viewers to check out the original "Les Vampires" serials; like any iconic classic, those films are probably more taken for…

It's only logical that you'd refer to the man you married as your husband, so I like it when gay couples are resolute about that (i.e., Dan Savage, who writes about his husband, son, and their "conservative" family unit). I look forward to someday hearing gay people say "ex-husband" or "ex-wife" like their…

Incidentally (and I'm sorry to respond to my own post yet again), the Mark Harris who wrote this book is married to Tony Kushner, author of "Angels in America." I didn't want to unintentionally create more confusion about the myriad Mark Harrises.

Sorry, it's "Yankee Doodle Homo." My apologies to that Mark Harris (and my condolences to the other Mark Harrises).

Old meets new
I just read a short story by Christopher Fowler that contained a passage nicely summing up the epochal Hollywood of the late '60s:

A funny, "close-to-beautiful" girl is definitely more attractive to me than a humorless knockout. The thing is, a potential mate's sense of humor is as easily idealized as his or her looks; just as someone can be bar-attractive, they can be bar-funny — there are personalities that clean up real nice but are not so…

Oh, no, "hooker" doesn't require any sort of feminine diminutive, since there's nothing out-of-place about a woman doing that kind of work.

Conversely, you could simply say that a sense of humor adds to someone's attractiveness. However: Another thing that makes articles like the one in Vanity Fair ridiculous is that professionally, publicly funny people are often privately introverted and distant. At least that's always been the take on male comedians,…

I like to refer to a female comedian as a "comedienne." (Similarly, I call lady doctors "doctorettes" or "foxy doctors," etc.)

GeoGreg, you can listen to and/or download a Thompson track called "Harlan's Bounce" here:

I'm all nerded out to see the new Harlan Ellison documentary film, "Dreams With Sharp Teeth," which will premiere at SXSW. On the one hand, Richard Thompson did the soundtrack; on the other hand, I read that the movie features an appearance by Robin Williams.

I used to be much more of an object-fetishist when it came to books, compulsively obsessive about square corners and uncracked spines, buying stuff from Brodart Library Supplies. Then I married a woman who likes to read (and who occasionally drops books) in the bathtub, who crams books into her purse and carry-on…

I collect books, and I also accumulate books. When I was a kid, members of my family would say, "Why don't you sell the books you've read? You could have a little yard sale." I'd try to explain that I liked *having* books, even if it was unlikely I'd read some of them again, but they just didn't get it. I do give…

I love libraries (that would be one of my tantalizing American Idol "10 Things We Don't Know About You"). The library of the small, working-class suburb where I live has a Starbucks-like cafe in it, and, like the other libraries in my area, there are eye-catching displays of new and noteworthy books, in many cases…