No geek
is an island

Simon Pegg’s Stalker is hoping to have seen all of the IMDb’s Top 100 films by the end of the year. With 25% to go, that’s a reasonable but achievable task. I’m shocked to discover that I’ve not seen 56 of these films.

Looking through the list, though, there are a number which I’ve taken a conscious decision in the past not to watch. The Shawshank Redemption has never appealed to me. Nor have Casablanca or The Matrix (does the latter make me a faux geek?). Still, there are a handful I’d like to watch so I’ll aim to have seen more than half of the list by the end of the year.

1. The Godfather (1972)
2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
4. The Godfather: Part II (1974)
5. Shichinin no samurai (1954) (The Seven Samurai)
6. Casablanca (1942)
7. Schindler’s List (1993)
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
9. Citizen Kane (1941)
10. Star Wars (1977)
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
12. Pulp Fiction (1994)
13. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
14. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
15. Rear Window (1954)
16. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
17. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly)
18. The Usual Suspects (1995)
19. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
20. Cidade de Deus (2002)
21. 12 Angry Men (1957)
22. Memento (2000)
23. Psycho (1960)
24. C’era una volta il West (1968)
25. North by Northwest (1959)
26. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
27. Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)
28. Goodfellas (1990)
29. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
30. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
31. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
32. American Beauty (1999)
33. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
34. Apocalypse Now (1979)
35. The Matrix (1999)
36. Paths of Glory (1957)
37. Fight Club (1999)
38. Vertigo (1958)
39. The Third Man (1949)
40. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) (Spirited Away)
41. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
42. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
43. Double Indemnity (1944)
44. Boot, Das (1981)
45. Taxi Driver (1976)
46. M (1931)
47. The Pianist (2002)
48. Rashômon (1950)
49. Se7en (1995)
50. All About Eve (1950)
51. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
52. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
53. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
54. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
55. Chinatown (1974)
56. Some Like It Hot (1959)
57. L.A. Confidential (1997)
58. Léon (1994)
59. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
60. Alien (1979)
61. American History X (1998)
62. Modern Times (1936)
63. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
64. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
65. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
66. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
67. The Sting (1973)
68. On the Waterfront (1954)
69. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
70. Raging Bull (1980)
71. Ran (1985)
72. Amadeus (1984)
73. Vita è bella, La (1997)
74. Touch of Evil (1958)
75. The Great Escape (1963)
76. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
77. City Lights (1931)
78. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
79. The Apartment (1960)
80. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
81. Metropolis (1927)
82. The Shining (1980)
83. High Noon (1952)
84. Jaws (1975)
85. Aliens (1986)
86. Finding Nemo (2003)
87. Annie Hall (1977)
88. Braveheart (1995)
89. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
90. Wo hu cang long (2000) (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
91. Fargo (1996)
92. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
93. Oldboy (2003)
94. Yojimbo (1961)
95. The Incredibles (2004)
96. Blade Runner (1982)
97. Strangers on a Train (1951)
98. Donnie Darko (2001)
99. The Sixth Sense (1999)
100. The Princess Bride (1987)

I recently wrote to my MP, Eric Joyce, about the Elect the Lords campaign. I told him I was supporting the campaign, gave him my reasons, and asked him his views and to give his support if he agreed. I also asked him to forward my letter to the Lord Chancellor.

Last week I got a reply. Here is the substance of it.

I have written on your behalf to The RT Hon,[sic] Lord Falconer of Thornton[sic] QC, as you requested and I will contact you again on receipt of his response.

That’s it. No comment on the issue at all, not even an “I’m yet to decide” (i.e., “I’m yet to be told what to think”). But that shouldn’t be a surprise since Joyce is one of the Guardian’s Top Toadies.

I don’t post many of these quiz thangs but this one was spot on.

(Nod: doctorvee)

Scheduled up against tonight’s Doctor Who themed programming on BBC Two is a reality TV show on BBC Three. Job for the Slob is on as I type. And the “slob” is my brother.

Dan texts to say he’s spotted himself on this blog - “at last!” Fair enough, since it was over two months ago that I explained that I tend not to mentione non-blogging friends by name and he said I should feel free to name and shame him. Unfortunately, that was during my most recent phoneless period and therefore didn’t get blogged.

Flashback: Monday, 27 - Wednesday, 29 December 2004

During that long, empty period between Christmas and New Year, Dan and I had what he termed (fairly optimistically) an “arts and crafts” week. On the Monday, we went to see John Hegley and both managed to get roped into audience participation rituals (I sang; Dan’s involved a vegetable). The show was in North London at The Pleasance, a venue I realised I’d been to around seven and a half years earlier to see Cluub Zarathustra. My clearest memory of that (and I don’t mean to make this a flashback inside a flashback) is drinking in the bar afterwards and mouthing off about parts of the anatomy that are anagrams of other parts of the anatomy (to this day I can only come up with two-and-a-half pairs).

The following day, we went to Brighton. Went to a café-bar with poor service (fortunately for them I’ve forgotten its name) and then to Next where I bought a coat in a particularly exciting shade of beige.

Back in London on the Wedneaday, we popped into H&M where, encouraged by Dan, I picked up a somewhat controversial flat cap before going to see Napoleon Dynamite. That was very funny, although it couldn’t quite live up to the superlatives splashed on the posters. It was a refreshingly different type of film though with a very strong central performance. And after watching a movie’s worth of Napoleon and his awkward dress sense, my new cap seemed that much cooler.

I like the word facetious. It contains all the vowels in alphabetical order.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Master of the Queen’s Music, demonstrates the meaning of the word after being cautioned by the police who found a bird at his house.

(As I typed that the full Doctor Who trailer came on the TV in front of me and I got the shivers. Only 8 days to go!)