Something I repeat to myself
Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

Dear God, Ernestine. "One ringie dingie…two ringie dingies…" is still a good way to entertain myself after I dial a phone number.

Once used in an appropriate situation:

I'm so happy
that someone else knows about "Johnny Dangerously". I love the fake Latin the priest spouts on the way to the prison deathchamber. "Antemeridian. Uncle Meridian. All the little Meridians." Until now, I thought the only people who spoke that Latin were in my family.

If something's bland, you know what helps? Ketchup.

I haven't see "Goodbye Solo", but "Man Push Cart" and "Chop Shop" both feature lots of grim determination that kind of ends up shooting itself in the foot. That makes his movies sound like a slog, but they're far from it. But I'm curious to see how he's taking that and making something more commercial.

"Hail to the Thief" and "In Rainbows" have both gotten me through a lot of lawnmowing, so I can't call them overrated.

About classical music…once I listen to one performance of something, I take a while to warm up to its performance by anyone else. The problem can happen with pop covers too, but classical music was born to be played by anyone other than the original artists. So the classical warm-up problem happens all the time for me.

"Dude. How many movies have you seen?"

However it ages, I can't call Donnie Darko overrated. The first time I watched it, I had no idea what would happen next but I really wanted to find out. Very few movies have done that for me, and I will always be grateful.

I've seen a couple of Guy Maddin's films and liked them, but I can see why they'd wear thin. Here's what should happen…every time someone puts one of his movies in the DVD player, Maddin should be contractually obligated to fly out for a QnA session. The man is entertaining in a self-deprecating way, maybe more…

Two More
I hope there's no seniority requirement for starting a new thread —

Worst retroactive moviegoing experience: "The Thin Red Line". Reading the book, then seeing it, then realizing no one else who saw it would ever, ever read the book. Which is a damn shame.

Nipples mean something?

Dear Taibbi Haters
Seriously, check out this article on war profiteering in Iraq —
http://www.alternet.org/war…