Movies I saw in theaters in 2008

I decided to move these off the sidebar to help clean things up a bit.

Slumdog Millionaire 3.5/4
Bollywood meets Regis (sort of)! A cleverly crafted boy meets girl story with the Bollywood touch.

Taxi Driver 4/4
Still holds up, even if I saw a crappy print. "You lookin' at me?"

The Big Lebowski 4/4
Crazed fun. The 2 Busby Berkeley dream sequences just knocked me out, dude.

Vicki Christina Barcelona 3/4
Beautiful people, well-crafted, but I don't buy that artists are so special that they should live by different rules

Lawrence of Arabia 4/4
The first half is the best first half of any movie; the post-intermission part is merely great

Encounters at the End of the World 3.5/4
Werner Herzog visits McMurdo Bay, Antarctica -- what more do you need?

Mongol 3.5/4
Another stunner, about the rise of Genghis Khan. Not a life for the faint hearted, that's for sure

The Fall 3.5/4
Visually stunning, trippy period piece about a suicidal actor at the end of the silent movie era

The Visitor 3.5/4
College prof disengaged from life finds squatters in his in-town apartment; they slowly warm to each other. Very warm.

Iron Man 3/4
Well done superhero stuff

Young@Heart 4/4
See my separate post

The Band's Visit 3/4
Egyptian police band gets off at wrong stop in Israel; warm-hearted look at the universality of people being people

In Bruges 4/4
Honor code amongst hit men extraordinarily well done and acted. True to itself through and through. I came away learning that there are two kinds of people in the world, those who think Bruges is a fockin' fairyland and those for whom hell is fockin' Bruges. Uh, don't bring the kiddies.

Persepolis 4/4
Wonderful, wonderful animated film about a young lady's life during and after the Iranian revolution of the 70s and her eventual escape to study in France.

There Will Be Blood 4/4
Strong, violent study of an oilman's rise to wealth and how his unchecked ambition builds an empire and destroys his soul.

Books read in 2008

I figure that moving the books I read less recently off the sidebar would improve the look of the blog.

President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman 4/4
William Lee Miller
Fascinating look at the moral underpinnings of Lincoln's decisions

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York 3.5/4.0
Robert A. Caro
Prepare for a long hard but worthwhile read

The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg 3/4
Nicholas Dawidoff

Winning the Peace, the Marshall Plan & America's Coming of Age as a Superpower 2/4
Nicolaus Mills

Taking on the Trust, The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller 3/4
Steve Weinberg

The Jedburghs 2.5/4
Lt. Col. Will Irwin (Ret.)
Higher if you are a big WWII buff

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information 4/4
Edward Tufte

Now, Discover Your Strengths 3/4

Baseball Prospectus 2008 3.5/4
Hate the font

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford 3/4

Could Fr. Senye Really Have Said Something Funny?

Fr. Senye was the intimidating Headmaster at Devon Prep in the late 1960s. With his pitch-perfect Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula Hungarian Accent™, his most formidable proboscis, and his hawk-like stare, a fired up Fr. Senye was a indomitable opponent to any student who rebelled against the 19th century mindset of the Piarist Fathers.

One day in my sophomore or junior year, I stayed after school to hang around and watch the school team play basketball in the evening. A number of other guys were doing the same thing. Some of us decided that we needed to play some poker, as we missed the afternoon version of our rolling poker game that took place daily on our school bus rides. We went to the back of the gym, in one of the side rooms alongside the stage. It was a pretty out of the way place.

After a few hands we drew quite a crowd of observers. One game, Jacks or Better, went on for a number of deals. Finally, we were down to two players, Billy Wilson and me, and a monstrous 7 bucks in the pot. Sitting with my back to the door, suddenly the atmosphere in the little room changed, as a voice rang out, "Waaal, I see we have a DO-nay-tion for the MEEE-tions". Of course I almost jumped out of my skin, but had the sense to gather in my money as Fr. Senye grabbed the pot for his favorite mission. We got a tongue-lashing up in the Headmasters office in which we were informed that our parents would get a letter. For me, all I got was a second tongue-lashing from my Dad for being stupid enough to get caught.

Years later when remembering the incident, it dawned on me just how funny the line was that the good Father laid on us.