Abby Martin

Hmm. Last two posts about my child have been very Norman Rockwell. Need to try to recover my cynical outer shell perhaps....especially if we are going to NYC. [We can still be sappy for Boston. Bostonians are less jaded methinks.] - Abby Martin

You could stay with the wickedawesome deer. Plenty of Canadians in New England. - Flitcraft

Flitcraft- I was born and mostly raised in NYC and I miss it a lot. New England is nice though- really nice. And I have thought about staying - I miss the States. But the Hubs loves Toronto and hated the other places we lived for his work. Refuses to live anywhere else in North America. So it goes. - Abby Martin

"A sure sign you really like a director is that you can come up with a list of ten films he's directed that you really like. As regular readers of this blog (both of us) know my look at favorite directors has become a weekly series and today's post on Martin Scorsese marks part six. Previous directors that I've recognized are Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock, William Wellman, John Ford and Howard Hawks. I love listening to Scorsese talk about films. He can be seen and heard in film documentaries and featurettes aplenty. His love of and appreciation for films from all parts of the world from all decades is as evident as the brilliance of his directing. Scrosese doesn’t just talk about films and directors and stars, he enthuses about them. This enthusiasm is infectious....Scorsese’s unabashed love of film comes through in his style of film making. He holds nothing back. Stories are told with great verve and excitement. And honesty. Is there now a more honest filmmaker?" - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

His personal journey through american cinema is one of my all time faves... "director as smuggler" is a concept that keeps haunting me! - Brent Schaus

Liking your comment Brent! - Abby Martin

My thoughts are with you and your family. - Akiva Moskovitz

*hugs & prayers* - Jannifer Stoddard

"Europe and the USA have joined forces to bring the world some beautiful images of distant galaxies. The image above, of the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, combines pictures from the European Space Agency's Herschel space observatory and the Hubble telescope. The Hubble telescope can take pictures in the visible spectrum, and the Herschel telescope can take sharp pictures in the infrared wavelengths. The combined images are high resolution and can show new details about the objects they capture. Here, the red clumps are known areas of star formation." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

Haven't they recently suggested that the Milky Way might not be a whirlpool spiral after all but a barred spiral instead? - Akiva Moskovitz

"Michael Steinberger has yet to find a French publisher for his new book, and to be frank, he's not all that surprised. It may have something to do with his contention in Au Revoir to All That: Food, Wine and the End of France that the country's cuisine has become an ossified relic, weighed down by time-worn conventions and overshadowed in many eyes by more innovative cookery in countries such as Spain. Mr. Steinberger, the wine columnist for Slate online magazine, calls the book a “love letter to France from a concerned friend.” Unfortunately, he points out, “the French are not interested in what other people think of them, especially when it comes to food.” Perhaps even more so when it's an American telling the French that they are losing – and have been for three decades – the food culture that made the country famous. Vineyards are going broke, dozens of restaurants are closing each day, artisanal cheeses are disappearing. Even Camembert, one of the country's signature cheeses, is under siege." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

"The image of what could be Tesla's upstate New York lab is just one of many engrossing environments created by Florida concept designer Mitchell Mohrhauser. He seems to specialize in vistas that combine high technology with lush, natural settings. Some of his work has a touch of steampunk to it, with spaceships being crafted in what look like late-nineteenth century factories. Find out more about Mohrhauser's work on his blog." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

"The Syfy Channel is rebooting another classic series, with a brand new Alien Nation. No doubt hoping to pull down BSG numbers, they've even brought in Tim "Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse" Minear to write the new series." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

Tim Minear? YAY!!!!! [Now how about picking up TSCC too?] - Abby Martin

Hee. Well done. - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

PS LOVE Helvetica! :) - Abby Martin

We love you (I mean Helvetica) too!! ;-) - Amani

Aww. Helevetica loves you too I am sure (as much as a font can) :) [And we got good and muddy and my daughter is curled up under a blanket watching Wubzy now. Smiles alll around!] - Abby Martin

My daughter has done the trick lately but before that- a jar of nutella and a spoon plus a favourite old movie. - Abby Martin

My guitar and My fender Amp set on about 8.5. - works every time. - Brent - Mugwumps R Us

"What is Germany's favorite natural wonder? This is the question posed by the Heinz Sielmann Foundation, which is putting 42 of the country's most beautiful sites to the public vote." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

"Well, it's about time. The magical presence that is Bill Nighy will apparently be gracing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, according to a report in The Independent. The conjecture is that he'll play Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, on whom more below (spoiler-phobes, skip the following paragraph)." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

"I'm sorry Phillip" sorry could not resist. But it will be awesome to have him in Harry Potter. - Aden

I'm okay with it. Especially if I have to be at work. Doesn't seem so bad then. But if it's consistently beautiful outside, I resent having to be cooped up inside. :) - pea ♥ fierce as a woozle

once in a while OK - otherwise makes me sad - Tracy Benham

"An FDA panel this week recommended that the use of the popular prescription painkilling drugs Vicodin and Percocet be banned because they are hard on the human liver. The pair of drugs rely partly on acetaminophen, which is the leading cause of liver damage in this country. Acetaminophen, as you probably know, is also the active ingredient in Tylenol and Excedrin and a number of other over-the-counter medications. Now, we are not by any means recreational, habitual, or even occasional users of either painkiller. But it strikes us that there is a pattern emerging here: Modern life, in general, is bad for your liver. Let's walk through this: Alcohol is bad for your liver. Taking Tylenol to help your hangover is terrible for your liver. Painkillers that help you after broken limbs or for chronic pain are bad for your liver. There's a risk for liver damage after eating delicious raw oysters and steak tartare, drinking too much caffeine (and forget Diet Coke), or taking countless... more... - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

30 Added: I wanted to be 30 since I was 13 I think and the year just went by so fast. It was the first time ever where I felt my age, in a good way. It felt right. True, that was probably because I'd waited and idealized that particular year for so long but it didn't disappoint. - pea ♥ fierce as a woozle

8. It's the last time I remember being truly happy without a care in the world. If only I could recapture that innocence and bliss. - Lis Miller

"Gabrielle Anwar was the naughty young thing in "Scent of a Woman" and, more recently, the naughty less-young sister of Henry VIII on "The Tudors"; also, she plays a former IRA super-spy lady in "Burn Notice," now in its third season. We caught up with the England-born actress on a recent Friday afternoon in Miami." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

I grin every time you quote that, Josh - Michael W. May

"Long Island Sound is literally packed full of dolphins right now. There are 150 to 200 of them out there, according to Newsday, so many that if you waded into the surf you might just come face to face with one of their slimy, smiley faces. They came all together in a group and were hanging around Cold Spring Harbor last week, but now they've split into two groups, says the paper, and are branching out: "One group headed for City Island in the Bronx while the others were seen in the Long Island Sound near Bayville."" - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

*singing "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish" and watching the sky for the Vogon demolition ships* - Ladybug Heather

"Guy Pearce just doesn't do enough movies for my liking. It's not as though he's vanished, but he seems to maintain a fairly low profile every time he blows everyone away with a big, meaty part like L.A. Confidential or Memento. But he has a lot of great projects coming up (the most exciting of which has to be The Road), and he's added a very intriguing one to his slate: the remake of 1973's telepic Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Pearce and Bailee Madison have joined Katie Holmes in Troy Nixey's remake. It's a fairly loose adaptation of the 1973 original, which was centered around a couple, Sally and Alex, who inherited an old mansion from Sally's grandmother. Sally accidentally uncovers a hellish portal that allows a bunch of demons to escape and wreck bloody havoc. Naturally, no one believes her, and is convinced she's having a nervous breakdown thanks to all that home repair. Because it was the 1970s, it didn't even end well for Sally who just... more... - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

It's more of a sexy growl. :) [The soundtrack for the movie is floating around out there. I think he also dabbles in music in Australia but I think someone who lives there would know better about that than myself....] - Abby Martin

"The video shop was a place to find hidden gems, to see what magazines like Fangoria or Starburst were talking about. There were no internet chat-rooms, very few reviews and anything out of the ordinary, underground or obscure was game. It was here in the video shop that budget didn't matter and that imagination reigned supreme. From films like Sword and the Sorcerer and Deathstalker and their ilk (with those amazing Frank Frazetta-like covers, trying so very hard to cash in on the celluloid success of Conan but in no way living up to what the lush artwork promised), to being introduced to the world of George Romero and his zombies, the video shop had it all. If you wanted action and adventure, instead of fantasy, picking up something like Robocop was essential, but if you couldn't get your hands on such in-demand new releases of the time, the lower-budget versions with the same story were always available to pick up. ‘Classics' such as Chopping Mall, Eliminators or Ninja Terminator... more... - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

Tim Burton's style is instantly recognisable, as demonstrated in this week's Alice in Wonderland pics. We look back over his history to see how it developed, in the man's own words: "When you do a fairytale, you're a little bit at odds with yourself, because a fairytale is a romantic version of certain things. Taking something real and heightening it. So what you have is an inherent balancing problem between the real and the unreal. I think that's where I run into trouble a lot of the time, because of the unwieldy nature of it." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

"Jason Lee and Michelle Trachtenberg have joined the cast of Warner Bros. cop comedy "A Couple of Dicks," starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Kevin Smith is directing. Marc Platt's producing the project with Polly Johnsen and Michael Tadross. The scripting team of Robb and Marc Cullen penned the screenplay, centered on a pair of cops who track down a stolen baseball card, rescue a Mexican beauty and must deal with gangsters and laundered drug money. Trachtenberg will play the daughter of Willis' character, and Lee will portray her stepfather." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

I love driving. Which is a good thing because I keep seeming to find jobs that require I be behind the wheel of a car a lot. - pea ♥ fierce as a woozle

Inner city driving in Australia, as elsewhere, is little fun. Long-haul from my regional city to the capital - made pleasurable by the countryside and with my iPod plugged in to an audio book read. - Kate Foy

" Bloody Disgusting are reporting that John Landis has sold the remake rights for An American Werewolf in London to Dimension films, the 'genre' offshoot of the Weinsteins' Miramax. The question is, are we looking at a potential "American Werewolf in..." franchise? Remaking the first movie seems like a horrendous idea, but if it leads to better sequels than An American Werewolf in Paris then maybe we'll look the other way for the time being. Dimension are behind the Rob Zombie Halloween films (part 2 is out in August) and are currently battling with revolving-door directors on a remake of Hellraiser (Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury and Pascal Laugier have already been and gone)." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

Are they going to remake every single movie I loved? I fear so.... - Abby Martin

"They should be called leaders. We know them as trailers, but they don't trail anything; they play before the movie, not after it. The name dates to their earliest incarnation, when they actually did follow the feature. The documentary "Coming Attractions" dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled "What Happened to Mary?" After each installment, a black card with white text would appear to inform audiences "The next incident in the series of 'What Happened to Mary' will be shown a week from now." Not exactly "In a world..." but it did the trick back in 1912. What happened to Mary wasn't nearly as important as what happened to trailers, which have grown into one of the most popular forms of advertising in the world. Some think they spoil the movies -- Gene Siskel famously hated them so much he wouldn't enter a theater while they were playing -- but for the rest of us, they're a treasured part of the moviegoing ritual, a delicious cinematic appetizer to prepare us... more... - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

A film festival dedicated to Nicholas Ray! They're playing In A Lonely Place for a week on the big screen! - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

Abby, I'm a veritable aficionado! Though I have only been for a few short years, so my film knowledge is limited. My uncle is my film knowledge mentor. The man really ought to be a film professor - he remembers thousands of movies shot for shot and line for line and writes me 10 page emails about film all the time. - Zach Landes

"A small, icy moon that orbits Saturn probably has an underground saltwater ocean, according to scientists who have found sodium in tiny ice grains that have spewed out of the moon and into Saturn's outermost ring. Researchers have wondered if the moon Enceladus might contain a secret ocean ever since NASA's Cassini spacecraft flew by in 2005 and discovered giant plumes of fine, icy particles shooting up into space." - Abby Martin via Bookmarklet

This has been so exciting me of late! I just watched a show last night all about Titan. It's amazing how Saturn's and Jupiter's moons are proving to be at least as exciting as the planets they orbit. - James