ProVarinati Diner & Saloon and Beyond

[ShowMeTwice]

Just like you can’t condense 3700+ pages of Dune into a single movie (first one).

The newer remake is good, and a major step up from the first. But still, if you read the books, even the newer Dune falls short.

At least the new one will be a total of three movies. But, still.

As a big time bookworm, I don’t much care for some of Hollywood’s lame/feeble attempts to script movies from books. All too often they fall way short.

Having said that, LOTR and The Hobbit were well done, all things considered.

But, I get it, currently we live in times where people want the big screen or simple mindless TV shows versus actual reading and using ones imagination. <<< sigh >>>

Give me books over watching TV or movie’s - - - any day, every day. It’s normal for me to have 3 books going at a time. Major Bookworm

 

[ShowMeTwice]

It was one great moment in my life. I've been fortunate enough to have more than I can count, and I've forgotten none.

I think it's the eyes. Enitre stories are told inside of them.

“The eyes are the window to your soul.”
- William Shakespeare

And it’s so true!!!

 

[Bronze]

@DPLongo22

Hearts in Atlantis is one of my very favorite movies. Actually, nearly all the movies A. Hopkins has acted in are huge favs.

Sir Anthony Hopkins is one of my most favorite actors. Only a very select few can match his acting skill, IMHO.

He is also a very gifted pianist in real life. He posts some of his performances on his FB page. He also posts some other pretty funny videos there.

Also liked his role in Meet Joe Black, with Brad Pitt. Oh and the ever lovely Claire Forlani… jeez.

Brad Pitt is one of the few actors who are able to match A. Hopkins acting level.

This is kinda what I was looking for by bringing up movie discussion. A little insight to some of our favorite movies. Might lead to others wanting to watch them. I will give Atlantis a go at some point because I agree, Hopkins is very talented and I always like good acting.

I first learned of Anthony Hopkins in a movie called Magic shortly after it was released. He was quite young then (weren’t we all)..Anne Margeret was in it…what a beauty. A rather creepy movie but held my interest. Hopkins did a great job playing a character coming unglued.

 

[DPLongo22]

Having said that, LOTR and The Hobbit were well done, all things considered.

AGREED! The odd thing was that EVERYONE said the same thing. Basically, that it looked in the movie exactly as we had all imagined it.

Upon further review & consideration, Tolkien's work was SO EXTREMELY DETAILED, that Jackson was able to reconstruct things as closely as was humanly possible. A brilliant job too, for sure!

I first learned of Anthony Hopkins in a movie called Magic shortly after it was released.

That was another book that I had read before the movie came out. I LOVED the book, so was quite excited when they made a movie. All things considered, it too was very well done. It's hard to miss with Hopkins, but we didn't KNOW that back then.

Another day lived, another something learned.

GREAT idea, General @Bronze !

 

[ShowMeTwice]

Any of you ever watch the movie What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Max von Sydow?

We've watched it a couple times. Liked it a lot. Thought it was a very well done movie.

It's a surrealist/fantasy tale about the afterlife. Robin Williams character dies in a car accident. His wife takes his death real hard, ends up committing suicide and ends up in hell. Robin Williams leaves heaven to find her and bring her to heaven.

The cinematography is awesome. Especially the vivid colors of the depicted heaven.

Robin Williams was another brilliant/amazing actor. His HBO comedy specials were killer.

 

[Bronze]

One of those movies I’ve watched a hundred times already is 1917. And it’s been out only 4 or 5 years. Yes, the music by Thomas Newman was second to none (as always), the camera work was also second to none with those super long scenes. And I liked that they intentionally avoided using big name actors in the lead parts so as to put the focus on the movie and not on the actors. All good but not why I loved the movie.

The story was nothing special. A couple soldiers delivering a message across war torn France. It wasn’t about any battles or heroes. In fact, some people thought it was boring.

I watch it over and over because it had extra special meaning to me. My Grandfather fought in WW1 France. He was on a motorcycle crossing the countryside and a shell went off next to his bike. Knocked him unconscious. No one was sure how long he laid out there. Long enough for gangrene to set in. Bad enough they had to take his mangled leg. He had no memory of it. A shell landed next to him and his next memory was waking up in a hospital minus a limb. He was lucky to be alive. My father wouldn’t be born for another 14 years so the line of my existence is thin as a thread.

That story is all I knew about my Grandfather’s war experience (he died when I was 26). He simply never spoke of it. Not even to his eventual wife and son (my Grandmother and Father). Nary a word except a very rare funny story about a comrade. But we all knew that war ruled his life. Toughest SOB I ever knew. Yet tears would fill his eyes when he heard our anthem. He didn’t want anyone to know so he intentionally waited to turn his daily ritual (his baseball games) on only after they played the anthem.

But because I was denied his war experience it did not stop me from wanting to know what he saw. What little film we have of WW1 had been reworked, modified, preserved but always remained grainy at best…and without sound. The movement is certainly not natural with 100+ year old film. No color. Little feeling of reality, almost as if it never happened. Like paintings of our founders…we know they existed but it would mean more if we could at least see a photograph of them. It would be more believable. We would understand them more.

1917, the movie, gave that to me. The trenches, no man’s land, obliterated Ecouste. In full color, in natural motion and sound. I know the moviemakers made it look as it did in 1917 France. And I saw what my Grandfather saw. Something I always wanted to see.

 

[Bronze]

Any of you ever watch the movie What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Max von Sydow?

View attachment 1007720

We've watched it a couple times. Liked it a lot. Thought it was a very well done movie.

It's a surrealist/fantasy tale about the afterlife. Robin Williams character dies in a car accident. His wife takes his death real hard, ends up committing suicide and ends up in hell. Robin Williams leaves heaven to find her and bring her to heaven.

The cinematography is awesome. Especially the vivid colors of the depicted heaven.

Robin Williams was another brilliant/amazing actor. His HBO comedy specials were killer.

Max Von Sydow. Ha! They were playing The Exorcist last night. I stopped a few moments to watch Max exercising his exorcism. Geez, he looked old then. And that movie (believe it or not) is 51 years old.

 

[ShowMeTwice]

Australia's Tash Sultana and her song 'Jungle'............



My youngest daughter turned me on to her some years back. Tash Sultana is pretty much a master of live looping. She records each part into a looper on her pedalboard. Each part can then be independently controlled with the flick of a switch on the looper. Pretty nice guitar solo at about 8:20 in.

 

[Bronze]

Radha Mitchell in Man on Fire. Smokin' hot lady in a great movie.

 

[ShowMeTwice]

Radha Mitchell in Man on Fire. Smokin' hot lady in a great movie.

That's also a favorite.

I like anything with Denzel Washington.

Some from memory.........

The Book of Eli
The Hurricane
John Q.
Antwone Fisher
Déjà Vu
The Great Debaters
Philadelphia
Cry Freedom
Malcolm X
The Equalizer

 

[Bronze]

That's also a favorite.

I like anything with Denzel Washington.

Some from memory.........

The Book of Eli
The Hurricane
John Q.
Antwone Fisher
Déjà Vu
The Great Debaters
Philadelphia
Cry Freedom
Malcolm X
The Equalizer

Flight
Unstoppable

 

[Bronze]

Training Day

 

[DPLongo22]

Music, movies, movies & music. Sometimes they shall meet, and sometimes true greatness shines!
In today's world, there may well be bigger, brighter, richer, and louder, but NONE will EVER hold a candle to The Queen. It's not even close.

 

[DPLongo22]

A most appropriate day for this one, I'd say.

 

[DPLongo22]

Some additional reminders -

 

[Bronze]

I have a very similar story to this clip from Good Will Hunting...




I was a broke undergrad student. I got tickets to this Cubs game but I got distracted the night before at my buddies party. It was all dudes. We were all drinkin', listening to music, playing pool in the basement, etc. In comes one of my friends. He has with him this stunningly beautiful, tall blonde that made the entire room freeze in position. She'd flash a big smile and those bright white teeth were as if the sun came out. From that point on, we all kinda stumbled around looking at this work of art. We noticed our friend who had brought her wasn't paying attention to her (He was kind of a weird dude). This went on a good hour. This tall blonde had us mesmerized to the point all of us were afraid to talk to her. Finally, I said to hell with it. What have I got to lose. I approached her and asked her if she wanted to play some billiards. She enthusiastically said yes. She never played pool in her life so the nice guy that I am said I would teach her. So for about another hour I had her to myself showing her how to play pool...of course, that required getting close to her. I barely kept myself together.

It turns out this perfect morsel was from Denmark on a 1-year visa. Her name was Charlotte (pronounced Char-lotta). She spoke 7 languages including English. It was slightly broken but if this Scandinavian beauty didn't kill you with her looks her accent would finish you off. I also learned she was not "involved" with my friend who brought her. She was a friend of the family and that's where she was staying. Well, I worked up the nerve to ask her if she wanted to go out the next day. She did! She hadn't been to Chicago yet so that's where I took her. We toured the Loop for awhile then I took her to a Thai restaurant for an early dinner. Took her back to my tiny apartment and this is where I'll stop. This is a family forum.

But while I was in rapture all day with this tall Scandanavian there was something going on just a few miles away...the Cubs game I had tickets for that I never went to. No big deal, right? Well, look at the date. That was the game Pete Rose tied the all time hits record. I knew I had a chance to see that but I chose to spend my day with this beautiful girl. I tell this story once in awhile and no one believes me that I had tickets to that game (much less not going to it). Alas, I have proof! And here it is. Note, it's a full, untorn, unblemished ticket to the game that Pete Rose tied the all time hits record.

I dated this girl several times after before she had to go back to Denmark. But it was a memory I will never forget.

It begs the question for you fellas. What would you have done if you were me?

 

[DPLongo22]

I have a very similar story to this clip from Good Will Hunting...




I was a broke undergrad student. I got tickets to this Cubs game but I got distracted the night before at my buddies party. It was all dudes. We were all drinkin', listening to music, playing pool in the basement, etc. In comes one of my friends. He has with him this stunningly beautiful, tall blonde that made the entire room freeze in position. She'd flash a big smile and those bright white teeth were as if the sun came out. From that point on, we all kinda stumbled around looking at this work of art. We noticed our friend who had brought her wasn't paying attention to her (He was kind of a weird dude). This went on a good hour. This tall blonde had us mesmerized to the point all of us were afraid to talk to her. Finally, I said to hell with it. What have I got to lose. I approached her and asked her if she wanted to play some billiards. She enthusiastically said yes. She never played pool in her life so the nice guy that I am said I would teach her. So for about another hour I had her to myself showing her how to play pool...of course, that required getting close to her. I barely kept myself together.

It turns out this perfect morsel was from Denmark on a 1-year visa. Her name was Charlotte (pronounced Char-lotta). She spoke 7 languages including English. It was slightly broken but if this Scandinavian beauty didn't kill you with her looks her accent would finish you off. I also learned she was not "involved" with my friend who brought her. She was a friend of the family and that's where she was staying. Well, I worked up the nerve to ask her if she wanted to go out the next day. She did! She hadn't been to Chicago yet so that's where I took her. We toured the Loop for awhile then I took her to a Thai restaurant for an early dinner. Took her back to my tiny apartment and this is where I'll stop. This is a family forum.

But while I was in rapture all day with this tall Scandanavian there was something going on just a few miles away...the Cubs game I had tickets for that I never went to. No big deal, right? Well, look at the date. That was the game Pete Rose tied the all time hits record. I knew I had a chance to see that but I chose to spend my day with this beautiful girl. I tell this story once in awhile and no one believes me that I had tickets to that game (much less not going to it). Alas, I have proof! And here it is. Note, it's a full, untorn, unblemished ticket to the game that Pete Rose tied the all time hits record.

View attachment 1008839

I dated this girl several times after before she had to go back to Denmark. But it was a memory I will never forget.

It begs the question for you fellas. What would you have done if you were me?

NO dilemma for ME. Color me Danish and give me the girl.

Well, back THEN, at least. Now? I'd probably skip on both. WAY too much energy required with either decision!

The only difference might have been that I'd have been dumb enough to throw away the ticket.

GREAT story, Bronze! Love it.

 

[Bronze]

NO dilemma for ME. Color me Danish and give me the girl.

Well, back THEN, at least. Now? I'd probably skip on both. WAY too much energy required with either decision!

The only difference might have been that I'd have been dumb enough to throw away the ticket.

GREAT story, Bronze! Love it.

Girl: 1 2
Game: 0

 

[Bronze]

BTW, that ticket is worth something. Last I checked was years ago. Wanna say $500. Not sure. Who knows now. Sports memorabilia fluctuates widely, in both directions.

 

[DPLongo22]

BTW, that ticket is worth something. Last I checked was years ago. Wanna say $500. Not sure. Who knows now. Sports memorabilia fluctuates widely, in both directions.

You read my mind.