Around the Blogosphere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...

...Ivan at Thrilling Days of Yesteryear had a very interesting post in his ongoing series on Region 2 Cinema, about STATION WEST (1948) with Dick Powell and Jane Greer. It sounds like my kind of movie! Click the title of this post for the link.

...The L.A. Times had an interesting article on the Dodgers' Japanese-Spanish translator.

...If it's October, can new Christmas music be far behind? This year's new entries include SANDI PATTY CHRISTMAS LIVE and Andrea Boccelli's MY CHRISTMAS.

...Last week I mentioned my fondness for the film THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992). Fans of the film may be interested in this 2006 blog essay, "'Stay alive, no matter what occurs': Sex and Survival in The Last of the Mohicans." It's a thoughtful take on the film as a "primal epic of survival."

...I also enjoyed another MOHICANS write-up calling the film "virtually flawless" and a review appreciating director Michael Mann's "keenly visual approach to storytelling -- he strips away dialogue with the instincts of a silent-era auteur" concentrating "on the poetry of movement."

...The Self-Styled Siren recently wrote an amusing critique of the Bronte Sisters biopic DEVOTION (1946). Her best line among many: "Favorite moments include [Paul] Henreid blandly explaining away his Austrian accent by saying he had spent a lot of time on the Continent, as though one could send Wallace Beery over there and he'd come back sounding like S.Z. Sakall."

...Don't miss Leonard Maltin's report on the Gala Opening of the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco on September 29th.

...Here's a look at the cover of Sarah Palin's GOING ROGUE: AN AMERICAN LIFE, which has zoomed to the top of Amazon and Barnes & Noble's bestseller lists weeks before its November 17th release date.

..."Obama's Work Ethic" by Ed Lasky at American Thinker was one of my favorite political reads this week... It should also be carefully noted that this past week the Senate rejected amendments which would prohibit abortion funding or requiring immigration checks as part of a federal healthcare takeover.

...We just switched from Time Warner to Verizon FiOS -- if anyone at Time Warner is reading this, this explains why -- and took advantage of a discounted introductory fee to try out a movie package with the Encore channels. Having the Encore Westerns channel means I can record episodes of my favorite TV series, MAVERICK, which aren't in my collection! One of my favorites, "Plunder of Paradise" with Ruta Lee, is coming up in a few days. As far as I can tell the shows are supposed to be unedited and commercial free; the only negative is a permanent station logo in the lower right corner. (I wish the logo just faded in and out occasionally like on TCM.)

...Encore Westerns is also showing one of my favorite Westerns next week, the relatively little known A MAN ALONE (1955), starring and directed by Ray Milland. I only have a scratchy used rental videotape and am hoping Encore might show a better print; I plan to watch and review it soon.

Have a great weekend!