Around the Blogosphere This Week

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

...Happy Daytona 500 Sunday! It was a Cinderella finish to NASCAR's big race, as rookie Trevor Bayne -- who turned 20 yesterday -- won his first Sprint Cup race; it was only the second time he'd raced in the Sprint Cup series. Bayne is the youngest driver to ever win the Daytona 500.

...Panavia999 ran a very nice post at her blog, Stuff, suggesting films for Valentine's Day. They're not only good movies for Valentine's Day, they make great viewing year-round. Reading Panavia's post made me want to watch THE VOICE OF THE TURTLE (1947) again!

...I discovered that Dave at Goodfella's Movie Blog reviewed NIGHT HAS A THOUSAND EYES (1948) at the end of January. I saw it last weekend and found it strange but quite interesting. Although Dave considers it excellent film noir, he also likens it to a Val Lewton horror movie. He writes "This is a little seen film that is definitely worth seeking out." I agree.

..."The Mystery of the Discolored Van Goghs" is a fascinating detective story about yellow paint turning brown in some of the great artist's paintings.

...There was a good interview with Tom Selleck in the L.A. Times last weekend. I loved this bit: "The key to Magnum was that he woke up one day at 33 and realized he had never been 23." I watched the BLUE BLOODS pilot a few days ago and thought it was pretty good; I'm going to keep watching. (A Big Hollywood writer chose the show as the Best Show of 2010.) I also still have a couple more of Selleck's excellent JESSE STONE movies to watch.

...Southern California will soon have a sit-down restaurant where orders are placed via an iPad placed at each table.

...Fellow STAR WARS fans, join me in admitting you kinda want a Darth Vader spatula. :) It's available from Williams-Sonoma, the same company which began selling STAR WARS cookie cutters last year.

...There are some very interesting graphics and stats in this Slashfilm article, "How Netflix is Destroying Blockbuster." For starters, Netflix has more subscribers than the entire population of Australia...and a mere 2% of Netflix's subscribers use more than 20% of Internet traffic during peak evening hours.

...For royal wedding watchers, Prince William and Catherine Middleton have chosen their wedding party and sent out the invitations for their April 29th wedding.

...It's a total splurge, but I couldn't resist this movie-themed Kate Spade case for my new iPhone, especially as it's in my favorite color!

...Lou Lumenick discusses Vincente Minnelli films recently released by Warner Archive. Lumenick says the prints are "great-looking transfers"...and even better, he says that one of my personal favorites, Fred Astaire's YOLANDA AND THE THIEF (1945), is being remastered for a future Archive release.

...Dave Kehr looks at the same films in the New York Times.

...New cookbooks: BLUE RIBBON DESSERTS from Cook's Country will be released March 1st, and last December MR. SUNDAY'S SOUPS was published. The latter is by Lorraine Wallace, wife of FOX NEWS SUNDAY host Chris Wallace.

...Some favorite posts among the many interesting pieces posted for the For the Love of Film (Noir) Blogathon: Greenbriar Picture Shows on THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS, Parts One and Two...Sean Axmaker on Ida Lupino in THE MAN I LOVE (1947), ROAD HOUSE (1948), and THE HITCH-HIKER (1953)...Sean also wrote an excellent post on Anthony Mann's "period noirs" REIGN OF TERROR (1949) and THE TALL TARGET (1951); the latter is a terrific film with Dick Powell trying to stop a planned attempt on the life of Abraham Lincoln before his Inauguration...KC writes about Dane Clark and Gail Russell in MOONRISE (1948) at Classic Movies. MOONRISE is in my "to watch" stack!...Vince Keenan wrote about Robert Taylor in HIGH WALL (1947) and Peter Lorre in STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR (1940).

...Speaking of MOONRISE, the Caftan Woman profiled Allyn Joslyn, who was in that film's supporting cast. Joslyn is one of my favorite character actors; a search of my blog reveals his name comes up in over a dozen titles reviewed in the last few years.

...The New York Times supported the For the Love of Film (Noir) Blogathon on its editorial page.

...A bill to repeal the loony incandescent light bulb ban was introduced Thursday. Let's hope sanity prevails so that we're not all forced to have our homes lit with toxic mercury-filled CFL's. Can you imagine how quickly an earthquake could turn a home filled with CFL's into a toxic waste dump?!

...Coming May 12th: GLENN FORD: A LIFE by Peter Ford, the son of Glenn Ford and Eleanor Powell. I'm looking forward to this one very much. There's more at the TCM website.

...THE KING'S SPEECH (2010) is doing very well at the box office in smaller markets across the U.S.

...Next month 30 "behind the scenes" employees of Turner Classic Movies each select a film which they will introduce with Robert Osborne. The list includes the rarely seen CAUGHT (1949) with Robert Ryan, James Mason, and Barbara Bel Geddes. I'll have more info on the March TCM schedule in a few days!

Have a great week!