During one of our regular diner outings my friends and myself brought up a pretty decent discussion that I felt like sharing to you guys. We were talking about who are favorite directors are (active and non-active).

Now we only really had one simple rule, and that was that the director had to make at least more than one full-length movie (Sorry Neill Blomkamp) and had a decent ratio of good to bad movies (Sorry Irvin Kershner).

The List (In no significant order, we got lazy):

• Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind, Eternal Sunshine)
• Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia)
• Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, The Departed, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, too many to name)
• Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk)
• Francis Ford Coppola (Godfather series, Tetro, Apocalypse Now)
• Satoshi Kon (Tokyo Godfathers, Millennium Actress, Paprika)
• Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins/Dark Knight, The Prestige, Memento)
• David Fincher (Fight Club, Zodiac, Se7en, Benjamin Button)
• Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Man on the Moon, Amadeus)
• Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill series, Inglourious Basterds, Reservoir Dogs)
• George Lucas (American Graffiti, Star Wars)
• Steven Spielberg (Munich, Minority Report, Saving Private Ryan, Empire of the Sun, Indiana Jones series, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
• Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Ran, Rashômon, just SO many more really)
• Peter Jackson (King Kong, Lord of the Rings series, Braindead, The Frighteners, Heavenly Creatures)
• Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y tu mamá también)
• Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionare, Sunshine, 28 Days Later, Trainspotting)
• Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket, The Shining, Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Spartacus)
• Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds, Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Rear Window, Dial M For Murder)
• Sam Mendes (Away We Go, Revolutionary Road, Jarhead, American Beauty, Road to Perdition)
• Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future Series, Cast Away, Forest Gump)
• Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic)
• James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Abyss, Aliens)
• Ridley Scott (American Gangster, Black Hawk Down, Matchstick Men, Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator)
• Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Twelve Monkeys. Brazil)
• Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream, Pi)
• Roman Polanski (The Pianist, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown)
• Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Devil’s Backbone)
• Clint Eastwood (Gran Torino, Letters from Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, Unforgiven)
• David Lynch (Mulholland Dr., Elephant Man, Eraserhead)
• Hayao Miyazaki (Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)
• Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, Godzilla, 10,000 BC)
• Chan-wook Park (Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance)
• Coen Brothers (Fargo, No Country for Old Men, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn’t There,  The Big Lebowski, Raising Arizona)
• Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile)
• Guy Richie (Snatch., Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels; RocknRolla)
• Robert Rodriguez (Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn, Spy Kids)
• Woody Allen (Annie Hall, Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
• Michael Bay (Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Armageddon, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Pearl Harbor
• Michael Mann (Public Enemies, Collateral, Heat)
• J.J. Abrams (Star Trek, Mission Impossible III)
• Sergio Leone (A Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly)
• Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant)’

So do you approve of our list? Did we miss anyone? Do you disagree with us?  Note that for a lot of foreign movies, like say Amelie and Cidade de Deus we loved those movies but haven’t really seen any other movies but the directors so going by are rules they don’t count.

…plus Jean-Pierre Jeunet directed Alien: Resurrection. I don’t get that.

11:49 pm  •  6 December 2009

clientsfromhell:

Client: “I just want you to know that I know you’re both working really hard, and that I really love the work you’ve been doing for me thus far.”

My partner: “Great, we’re happy with it as well, and excited to get this (brochure) to print.”

Client: “That’s the thing. I don’t think that we’re that close yet. I’m just not sure about the copy or the images. I’m going to send you a report that my (high school-aged) son did for his marketing class last year. It’s really good, and I think it’ll definitely help you get some better ideas so we can wrap this up.”

11:02 pm  •  6 December 2009

The Hedgehog

8:17 pm  •  6 December 2009

libraryland:

i12bent:

Dec. 6, 1933 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that the James Joyce’s novel Ulysses is not obscene.

Joyce is not amused at the Judge’s learned opinion:

“Whilst in many places the effect of Ulysses on the reader undoubtedly is somewhat emetic, nowhere does it tend to be an aphrodisiac.”

Yet Joyce states triumphantly that “one half of the English speaking world surrenders; the other half will follow…” (Source)

7:11 pm  •  6 December 2009

Found this under my own devices (as opposed to thisiswhyyourefat)

It’s called the Holy Grail Desert and Christ. It’s beautiful.

6:08 pm  •  6 December 2009

Today’s Special

5:08 pm  •  6 December 2009

sofuckingmetal:

Using ketchup to decry landmine use is so fucking metal.

(Special thanks to Hatie Pyro-tina).

4:41 pm  •  6 December 2009

libraryland:

(via welcometowonderland)

3:40 pm  •  6 December 2009

libraryland:

52books:

#47: Lush Life by Richard Price

Every single review I have read of this book mentions the author’s connection to HBO’s The Wire. The show is astoundingly good (anyone know where I can get the box set for cheap?), but this book takes Richard Price’s inside knowledge of crime and punishment to a different level. It’s one thing to see and it’s another thing to read. Trying do decide what voice inflection the characters would use or invisioning the inside of a squad car was more difficult that I thought it would be.

One of the most exciting (should I say exciting when the book is about a pointless murder?) aspect of the novel is that it is set in New York City’s lower east side. It’s not a neighborhood I’m all that familiar with, besides the Economy Candy Shop, but it is full of history and culture. The entirety of Lush Life takes place within a small piece of urban territory, but at times it feels like a landscape of endless depth. New York actually becomes one of the dramatic players, allowing people to become involved with one another therefore furthering the plot.

Finally, I feel the need to tell you that this is the first book I checked out of the NYPL. That’s right, I have a library card now. Success!

2:38 pm  •  6 December 2009

1:37 pm  •  6 December 2009