Wednesday, May 30, 2012

I feel the need to share this

I found the "20 Things I Should Have Known at 20" list from The Buried Life's tumblr though it was originally written by Julian Smith. I should remember to keep these in mind.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Watching All the Academy Award for Best Picture Winners

This just so happens to be one of the items on my Bucket List. I'm hoping it's one I can realistically cross off this summer. I know there's a few on this list also on the Top 250 list I've already posted, so I guess I can cross off some for both.

  1. Wings - 1927/28
  2. The Broadway Melody - 1928/29
  3. All Quiet on the Western Front - 1929/30 *
  4. Cimarron - 1930/31
  5. Grand Hotel - 1931/32
  6. Cavalcade - 1932/33
  7. It Happened One Night - 1934
  8. Mutiny on the Bounty - 1935
  9. The Great Ziegfeld - 1936
  10. The Life of Emile Zola - 1937
  11. You Can't Take it With You - 1938
  12. Gone With the Wind - 1939
  13. Rebecca - 1940
  14. How Green Was My Valley - 1941
  15. Mrs. Miniver - 1942
  16. Casablanca - 1943
  17. Going My Way - 1944
  18. The Lost Weekend - 1945
  19. The Best Years of Our Lives - 1946
  20. Gentleman's Agreement - 1947
  21. Hamlet - 1948 *
  22. All the Kings Men - 1949
  23. All About Eve - 1950
  24. An American In Paris - 1951
  25. The Greatest Show on Earth - 1952
  26. From Here to Eternity - 1953
  27. On the Waterfront - 1954
  28. Marty - 1955
  29. Around the World in 80 Days - 1956
  30. The Bridge on the River Kwai - 1957
  31. Gigi - 1958
  32. Ben-Hur - 1959
  33. The Apartment - 1960
  34. West Side Story - 1961
  35. Lawrence of Arabia - 1962
  36. Tom Jones - 1963
  37. My Fair Lady - 1964
  38. The Sound of Music - 1965
  39. A Man for All Seasons - 1966
  40. In the Heat of the Night - 1967
  41. Oliver! - 1968
  42. Midnight Cowboy - 1969
  43. Patton - 1970
  44. The French Connection - 1971
  45. The Godfather - 1972
  46. The Sting - 1973
  47. The Godfather Part II - 1974
  48. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 1975
  49. Rocky - 1976
  50. Annie Hall - 1977
  51. The Deer Hunter - 1978
  52. Kramer vs. Kramer - 1979
  53. Ordinary People - 1980
  54. Chariots of Fire - 1981
  55. Gandhi - 1982
  56. Terms of Endearment - 1983
  57. Amadeus - 1984
  58. Out of Africa - 1985
  59. Platoon - 1986
  60. The Last Emperor - 1987
  61. Rain Man - 1988
  62. Driving Miss Daisy - 1989
  63. Dances With Wolves - 1990
  64. The Silence of the Lambs - 1991
  65. Unforgiven - 1992
  66. Schindler's List - 1993
  67. Forrest Gump - 1994
  68. Braveheart - 1995
  69. The English Patient - 1996
  70. Titanic - 1997
  71. Shakespeare in Love - 1998
  72. American Beauty - 1999
  73. Gladiator - 2000
  74. A Beautiful Mind - 2001
  75. Chicago - 2002
  76. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 2003
  77. Million Dollar Baby - 2004
  78. Crash - 2005
  79. The Departed - 2006
  80. No Country for Old Men - 2007
  81. Slumdog Millionaire - 2008
  82. The Hurt Locker - 2009
  83. The King's Speech - 2010
  84. The Artist - 2011
  85. Argo- 2012
  86. 12 Years A Slave- 2013
Obviously the crossed off ones are movies that I have already seen. As of now it's 26 out of 84.

* I'm about 87% sure I've seen the whole of these films for different classes during High School but I don't know for a fact

I've also added movies 14 (The Avengers), 15 (Iron Man 2), and 16 (A Single Man) to the 360 List.
The Avengers was SO SO SO GOOD! Definitely 5 out of 5 stars.
Iron Man 2 I didn't think was all that great 2 out of 5 stars
A Single Man 4 out of 5 because it was intriguing and yet kind of confusing but I really liked the style of the film.

** Update (March 2014): 46 out of the 86 finished.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Add to the List

I had a wonderful girl's night yesterday with my friend Sandy. We ate pizza, drank wine, and watched We Bought a Zoo (movie number 13). It was adorable! I honestly had no desire to go see this movie in theaters, but when Sandy suggested it I wasn't about to say no. It's always nicer when something is better than expected. Now I want to buy a zoo, minus the exotic snakes. I'd give the movie 4 out of 5 stars.

Next thing to talk about is my reading list. 13 movies (out of 365) and 4 books (out of 50). I feel like it would have been much smarter to count all the movies I was watching instead of just ones I'd never seen before. Oh well, it's not about the destination exactly. Hopefully I can catch up a little on my reading list during my time off of school.

Anywho.... what I really was going to talk about was how I finished Catcher in the Rye. I never read this in high school or anything, but it's one of my cousin's favorite books so I thought I'd give it a try. Thank god I did. This may possibly be my new favorite book of all time. Don't get me wrong, this book is depressing as all get out, but it's a wonderful read. The whole book follows Holden Caulfield's story after he gets kicked out of yet another school and decides to go back to New York City alone before the term finishes. Holden hates on just about every person he meets/knows, even if he likes them he doesn't. He is alone in this big city with no one to call, it's quite sad. And when you think he finally finds a guiding light in this old english teacher he had, the man ends up being a complete creep (it's a total let down). His kid sister, Phoebe, is really the only person that makes him happy (children in general I guess). The book is full of all these great metaphors, true high school english class style (cue red hunting hat). I guess there's just so much in Holden that I personally identified with, which made me love the book even more.