Peace The Forks Out

to

Maurice Bernard

‘All Hands On‘

Sendak

June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012

Sendak is the author of my four favorite kids books EVER – Chicken Soup With Rice, Alligators All Around, Pierre and One Was Johnny. when someone I know gives birth to a child, the Nutshell Library four-pack of them titles is my go to gift for that newborn (+ this animated DVD & the Carol King songs!). I do this cause I want this new generation of kids to grow up in the world of Sendak wonder and weirdness, and not in one filled with kiddy crap about farting dogs and other poop.  You may regard Where The Wild Things Are as Sendak’s best work, but you’re just plain wrong, cause wild rumpuses are nothing compared to eating chicken soup every month of the year, alligators imitating Indians, not caring and then learning how to care, and knowing who #1 is (Johnny)

+

Goober

some leading lady none of us know

JFK dead body examiner 

ski gogglerer

Tapestry weaver

film lover

one of only two players to hit three home runs in World Series Game 7s

the falling bear

Nixoner who would walk over his own grandmother

he made burritos fly

a total slot

cheezie guy

Fisher’s Popcorn popper

&

the man who said ow

The Paramount Theatre

November 24, 1928 to August 1962

a movie palace with 4,084 seats, and a Wurlitzer that was second only in size to the organ at Radio City Music Hall, with 2,000 pipes and 257 stops.  it also hosted plenty of concerts, with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly and many many many others rocking its hizouse

then it was bought by Long Island University Brooklyn and the movie dreams were turned into hoop dreams…

The Arnold and Marie Schwartz Athletic Center

November 30, 1963 to Present

The Paramount Theatre was converted to a gymnasium and was home The LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds, until they moved to a new facility in 2006.  The Schwartz Athletic Center still stands, and plays host to the occasional sporting event

this is what it looked like in 2008

if it still looks like this, our new 2012 goal is to play basketball here

hat tip from - Beautiful Photographs of Decaying and Repurposed Movie Palaces

Peace The Forks Out

to

Adam Nathaniel

‘MCA‘

Yauch

August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012

I could never begin to explain what Adam Yauch and his fellow Boys of Beastie meant to me and my life.  sure, I sorta skipped the License To Ill pill in elementary school, and somehow never even entered Paul’s Boutique, but these amateur hour mistakes were soon to be corrected

like most kids, I wanted to be cool and I discovered the ultimate coolness in the form of their third album Check Your Head. it was a game changer for them (they played actual instruments, and it rocked) and a life changer for me (if these Jews could ooze cool and write the book on it, well, maybe this Jew could endlessly re-read that book and plagiarize it in the real world, by look and attitude.  luckily for everyone, I never embarked on a hip-hop career)

anything they touched was gold to me and that was a gold standard on which everything else would be judged.  my early high school bestie and I were so infatuated by the band that we actually fancied ourselves the unofficial 4th and 5th Beastie Boys

as I entered college, I sorta left the Boys behind, but they never left me as a person.  for without them (and the movie Fletch), there would probably be no Thigh Master or Thighs Wide Shut.  it’s true.  in fact, the very first website I ever visited (in 1995) was the Beastie Boys’ site.  my first Yahoo! search?  the meaning behind all the references dropped in Paul’s Boutique.  they pointed me to the web and here we are now, but really we’re nowhere without Adam Yauch living and breathing on this planet

I feel sorry for those who never got to see Adam, Mike and Adam shake their rumps live in the flesh, as every show I saw become a memory that would never be forgotten (lost one of my favorite hats, a Grand Royal one, natch, crowd surfing at their show at The Patriot Center in Virginia)

The Beasties Boys as we know it are over, but they never will be over.  that’s the most beautiful thing about music – it lives forever.  goodbye Mr Yauch.  you had so much to give, but you already gave us so much.  much love.  Beasties Boys 999999999999999999999ever

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Dench & Denturesability
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
PG-13 | 124 min

Do you love old British people AND India?  Well boy old boy, do we gotzz the movie for you!!!  It’s about old British people IN India!!!!!  The only thing more awesome than that is old Indian people IN Indiana!!!  Not really, and not really either for the movie about old British people IN India.  The old British people IN India movie is called The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and the only thing exotic in John Madden‘s screen take on some book not of the same name is… nothing

The old British people is be Judi Dench (being all Denchy), Bill Nighy (being mildly Nighyyy), Maggie Smith (she looks like walking death, even though she’s wheelchair bound in the flick), Tom Wilkinson (is he old?), Penelope Wilton (wait, that wasn’t Lynn Redgrave?  wait, Lynn Redgrave is dead????), Celia Imrie (she kinda skeeves us out) and some dude named Ronald Pickup (who seems kinda awesome!!!).  These old British people are wooed to the hotel in the title that’s run by Dev Patel, because he needs to co-star in some movie, right?  And guess what, the hotel is not as advertised!!  OH MY!, but wait…

AND GUESS WHAT, THESE GREAT BRITAINERSERS AINT IN GREAT BRITAIN NO MOOOO!!!!  THEY IN INDIA, SO IMAGINE THE FISH OUT OF WATERNESSNESS THAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN OLD BRITISH PEOPLE ARE IN INDIA!!!???  Don’t imagine too hard, cause the movie doesn’t imagine too hard neither.  It’s juss a 2 houred slow ride of old British people IN India, being British, IN India.  That about slums it up.   Zzzzzz???  Kinda, but in a sorta watchable way.  maybe?  DENCHY!!!

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges

Marigold is kind of a medal below bronze, in limited release tomorrow

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…

Bernie
Saint Misbehavin
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
PG-13 | 104 min

The true dark story of rich old lady killer Bernhardt ‘Bernie’ Tiede is charmed up with a giant wide Texas smile by Richard Linklater by way of Jack Black with a mustache and a jacked-up waistline.  Played sorta for laughs, but not really all that funny, this black comedy is more like a gray ho-hum that eeks along solely on Jack Black’s ability to keep up a sweet face from beginning to end.  Shirley MacLaine is the old lady, and outside of a scene of her chewing, she doesn’t do much scenery chewing.  Matthew McConaughey, in 80s bidness man glasses, is all bidness, and the only man in the tiny town who seems to think that Bernie’s capable of evil.  Everyone else rants and raves about Bernie and his good deeds (deeded with her money) in a faux-documentary style that makes you wish they had juss made an actual documentary instead of making a movie that barely berns

Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges

Bernie flickers in limited release

still, this poster is tres bestest

and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…