

February: Seven Samurai
A couple of years ago, I watched the Criterion Collection version of Rashomon and was so intrigued I went down a rabbit hole of watching as many Kurosawa and Samurai movies as I could get my hands on. In this deep dive I viewed Seven Samurai for the first time since high school or college and on a much better print that looked incredible. I couldn't stop watching it. I watched the three and a half hour epic four or five times over just a few days. I consumed all the special f


Five Years Later: 2012 Movies
Hey, it's the first Five Year Hindsight Awards! It doesn't feel like all that long ago but it is just long enough to get a second wind for a movie or a second realization that a movie has gone stale. This was a good year for science fiction movies and a not so good year for prestige films as it was the year Argo won Best Picture but didn't get nominated for Best Director. I have an incomplete list of nominees and a complete ranking of all 2012 movies that I have watched last


Ten Years Later: 2007 Movies
Ah yes, it's the first annual (maybe last annual) Ten Year Hindsight Awards! What held up? What was surprisingly good? What was surprisingly tedious? What I did learn is that 2007 was an especially good year for movies and a transitional year for a number of genres. It was also a year of ridiculously long titles for movies. I have an incomplete list of nominees and a complete ranking of all 2007 movies that I have watched last year. Here are the actual Academy Award nominees


Baby Playlist
The little guy has made it to three months old (about a quarter of a year) and he is growing fast, most notably from his cartoonish hands and feet much like the grow pattern of an incredible Hulk. Unlike a Hulked out monster, our guy keeps his anger emotions pretty well in check. He has only had intense cries single instances of a surprise throat clearing by dad while walking by this morning and that one time the milk sprayed in his mouth too fast. It was too fast, I tell you


The Astros Are Good Enough
I have been reading the Jonah Keri books about the Tampa Bay Rays and the Montreal Expos recently and they have gotten me wishing there were in depth books for all teams. I don't think Keri has the time and life expectancy to research and get through writing about 28 more teams. Those books tell great stories like how Tampa was on the verge of getting the White Sox in the early '90's but the Illinois State Legislature passed a resolution to stop time so that that they could p