January 31, 2011 - Birthday Edition

Justin Timberlake turns 30 (born 1981)
Portia de Rossi turns 38 (born 1973)
Minnie Driver turns 41 (born 1970)
Anthony La Paglia turns 52 (born 1959)
John Lyndon (lead singer for the Sex Pistols) turns 55 (born 1956)
Nolan Ryan turns 64 (born 1947)
Phillip Glass (composer) turn 74 (born 1937)
Ernie Banks turns 80 (born 1931)

Note: In addition to baseball greats Ernie Banks and Nolan Ryan sharing a birthday, Jackie Robinson's birthday was January 31st as well (born 1919). He died in 1972 at the age of 53.

January 30, 2011 - 40 Years Since Carole King's Tapestry

On January 30, 1971 Carole King's album Tapestry was released. This album became and remains the longest charting album by a female solo artists.

It ranked in the US at the number 1 position for 15 weeks, the longest of any female solo artists album.

At the Grammy's the following year the album would go on to win Album of the Year, Carole King would win best female vocalist, record of the year went to her single "It's Too Late", and song of the year went to her track "You've Got a Friend."

King wrote or co-wrote all the songs on the album, but some became famous when other artists sung them, including Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." Carol King's sung songs that would hit number 1 on the charts include "It's Too Late" and "I Feel The Earth Move."

Ideas to Blog
1. If you were alive when this album came out, what do you remember about it? Did this album have any influence on your life?

2. What quality does a female vocalist have that is different from a male vocalist and how does that impact your own personal music interests?

3. "It's Too Late" was covered and made popular by James Taylor the same year King's record came out. In 2010, Taylor & King have made a circuit of tours together (The Troubadour Reunion). What relevance do you find in the music of artist like Carole King and James Taylor 40 years after such peaks in their musical career?

New Film Release - January 28, 2011

Action
The Mechanic

Horror/Thriller
The Rite

Foreign
Biutiful

January 23, 2011: 70 years since Lindbergh's Congressional Testimony

On this date, 1941 aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies before congress and urges the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

What a change this would have brought to society and our modern world?

Phillip Roth explored this idea of Charles Lindbergh being a president of the US and having more hospitable relationships with Hitler in his revisionist history novel The Plot Against America.

Some related ideas to blog:
1. What events in history of the past 100 years do you find the post important?
2. What political relationships in retrospect are super positive for the country you live or which bounds do you wish were weaker?
3. Charles Lindbergh is an important "character" from the early/mid twentieth century. What associations about him are the strongest for you?
4. What's your thoughts on revisionist history novels like The Plot Against America that tell the past in different ways?

January 22, 2011 - 3 Years Since the death of Heath Ledger

It's been 3 years since the death of Heath Ledger. Celebrities pass every year, the Academy Awards montage reminds us of this, but there's those "defining" celebrity deaths that seem to have a media life of it's own. Heath Ledger's death was one of those when he died January 22, 2008.

Here's some questions to ponder and blog about...

(1) What about Heath Ledger's death made it have this defining characteristic?
(2) 3 years after his death, what type of legacy did Ledger leave behind?

New Film Release - January 21, 2011

Comedy
No Strings Attached

Drama
The Company Men
The Way Back

January 20, 2011

• Barack Obama assumed office 2 years ago (2009)

What's In A Name

Naming a baby is one of the fun rights of parenting you get with a new child. My wife & I's second child is due any day, and so I've taken the opportunity to blog about our son's name.

This post has inspired me to think of other name related post, including the following questions:

• Do you like your name?
• Do you find that you are similar to other people that share your name?
• If you were to have named yourself, what name would you have given yourself?
• How do you think your name impacts the way you are (and have been) perceived?

New Film Release - January 14, 2011

Comedy
The Dilemna

Action
The Green Hornet

Romance
The Heart Specialist

Drama
Rabbit Hole (expanding)

January 12, 2011 - Birthday Edition

• English singer Pixie Lott turns 20 (born 1991)
• English actress Gemma Arterton turns 25 (born 1986)
• Comporary Christian music artist Jeremy Camp turns 33 (born 1978)
• Melanie Chisholm (aka "Sporty Spice" of the Spice Girls) turns 37 (born 1974)
• Heather Mills, model and former wife of Paul McCartney, turns 43 (born 1968)
• American heavy metal rock legend Rod Zombie turns 46 (born 1965)
• Jeff Bezos, founder and chairman of Amazon.com turns 47 (born 1964)
• American Actor Oliver Platt turns 51 (born 1960)
• Shock Jock Howard Stern turns 57 (born 1954)
• Conservative radio host actovist Rush Limbaugh turns 60 (born 1951)
• Former Heavy Weight Champion Joe Frazier (Smokin' Joe) turns 67 (born 1944)

11

On 01-11-11 (January 11, 2011) it seems appropriate to think about the number Eleven. In fact, no other day does it seem so appropriate other than this upcoming November (11/11/11).

Here's some "Eleven" types of things - put some creative juice in and I bet you can write an 11 posts. Of course, you can also make 11 predictions for 2011, or 11 hopes for 2011, or 11 of whatever you want for 2011 as well.

Other Eleven-y things:

• 11 is the atomic number for Sodium (Na) on the periodic table of elements.
• Soccer, Field Hockey, and Football teams all have 11 players on the field at a time.
• Apollo 11 was the first manned spacecraft to the moon.
• There's that famous "Eleven-y" film: Oceans 11 (in fact two, the Frank Sinatra original and the George Clooney remake)
• An important Canadian number, with 11 points on the Canadian maple leaf
• In the card game Black Jack an Ace can count as a 1 or an 11
• The term "11th Hour" an expression that means at "a time that might be too late"
• The 11th Hour was a documentary produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio about ecological issues which was released in 2007.

Available on DVD: January 11, 2011

New Releases

• Alpha & Omega
• Piranha 3D
• The Social Network

Older Movies:

• Dances With Wolves
• Once Upon A Time in America

January 10, 2011

• 235 years since Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense (get the Common Sense eBook free here) (1776)
• 141 years since John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil (1870)
• 91 years since the Treaty of Versilles takes effect, ending WWI (1920)
• 21 years since Time Warner is formed by merging Time Inc. and Warner Communications (1990)
• Singer Rod Stewart turns 66 (born 1945)
• Heavy weight boxer George Foreman turns 62 (born 1949)
• Musician Shawn Colvin (Grammy Award Winner 1998 for record & song of the year for "Sunny Came Home") turns 55 (born 1956)
  
  

January 9, 2011: Blog-A-Thon

If you're into films, and more specifically film performances, I thought I would point you towards Stinky Lulu's 5th Annual Supporting Actress Blog-A-Thon.

What was your favorite supporting actress performance of 2010?

Contribute your own post to this blog-a-thon.

New Film Release - January 7, 2011

New
Season of the Witch (Relativity Media)

Expanding
Country Strong (Song/Screengems)
I Love You, Phillip Morris (Roadside Attractions)

January 5, 2011 - Birthday Edition

• January Jones, famous for her role in the TV series Mad Men, turns 33 (I've always wondered if she was born in January, looks like she was) (born 1978)
• Marilyn Manson, the controversial musician turns 42 (born 1969) (Manson's birth name was Brian Hugh Warner)
• George Tenet, CIA director CIA director under Bill Clinton & George W Bush (1997-2004) turns 58 (born 1953)
• Actress Diane Keaton turns 65 (born 1946)
• American talk show host and journalist Charlie Rose turns 69 (born 1942)
• American actor Robert Duvall turns 80 (born 1931)
• Walter Mondale, Vice President under Jimmy Carter turns 83 (born 1928)

Available on DVD: January 4, 2011

Case 39
Catfish
Dinner For Shmucks
Howl
The Last Exorcism
Machete

January 3, 2011

• 515 years since Leonardo Da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine (1496)
• 490 years since Martin Luther was ex communicated by Pope Leo X in the Decet Romanum Pontificem
• 119 years since the birth of J.R.R. Tolkein author of the Lord of The Rings trilogy
• 100 years since the birth of film director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape)
• 86 years since Benito Mussolini announced taking power over Italy
• 55 years since the top of Eiffel Tower is damaged by Fire
• 50 years since the US ends diplomatic relationship with Cuba
• 49 years since Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro
• Eli Manning, Quarterback of the New York Giants, turns 30 (b. 1981)
• January 3 is the Christian feast of St. Genevieve, patron saint of Paris