Meme Streets

Proving conclusively that this meme has now well and truly jumped the shark, run its course, shot its wad and bought the farm, Julie.O from Mental Origami tagged me to drag this bloated dead horse of a topic yet a few feet further. Don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining (much), but I know enough to know that if blog-meme makes it down to my sad benthic depths, then surely all the pretty fish swimming above in sparkling clear waters have already had their fill. Any day now I expect to have someone tag me to describe "your favorite three new disco moves."

Anywhooo... on with the show:

1. ONE (1) earliest film-related memory:
I recall the old threading projector GENERAL CINEMA lead-in, and I recall sitting in a crowded theater to see THE ARISTOCATS (1970). I'm pretty sure I also saw THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969), as I have clear recollection of boith that movie as well as the theatrical trailer for KRAKATOA EAST OF JAVA, a movie which I have never heard mentioned anywhere or seen on TV. When I check IMDB, I see that KRAKATOA came out that same summer as BoB, so it makes sense.

2. TWO (2) favorite lines from movies:
-- "Let's play ball." (final words spoken by Roy Hobbs in THE NATURAL)
and
-- "We can't all be lion tamers." (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA)

3. THREE (3) jobs you'd do if you could not work in the "biz":
-- graphic designer
-- home builder/remodeler
-- magazine columnist

4. FOUR (4) jobs you actually have held outside the industry:
-- graphic designer
-- construction worker
-- ice cream scooper
-- ditch digger

5. THREE (3) book authors I like:
-- Clive Cussler
-- David Foster Wallace
-- David Brin

6. TWO (2) movies you'd like to remake or properties you'd like to adapt:
remake: THE GREAT RACE-- a ridiculously overblown period comedy by Blake Edwards from the early 60s which re-paired Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, it was always one of my favorite movies to catch when I was a kid, and now on DVD my own kids insist on watching it at least once a month.

adapt: [not gonna say]. Seriously, that's not meant as a joke, but there are three or four biographies I'd love to take a crack at, and I'm not going risk contaminating any of them by sharing them with a pond brimming with hungry screenwriters. I may be stupid, but I ain't dumb.

7. ONE (1) screenwriter you think is underrated:
-- Richard Maibaum (1909-1991)
The man started his career in 1936 with fare like GOLDDIGGERS OF 1937, and his last credit is posthumous for the story for the 1996 Mel Gibson flick RANSOM (Maibaum died in '91). But in the 60 years between those career bookends, he basically defined modern cinema's longest running franchise, penning THIRTEEN of the James Bond movies, including ALL the early Connery Bonds which pretty much defined the franchise:

DR. NO (1962)
FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (1963)
GOLDFINGER (1964)
THUNDERBALL (1965)
ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE 1971)
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971)
THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974)
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977)
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY (1981)
OCTOPUSSY (1983)
A VIEW TO A KILL (1985)
THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987)
LICENSE TO KILL (1989)

That's one hellacious run of iconic movies, and loads of memorable scenes and dialog exchanges, yet you never hear Maibaum's name mentioned.

Genius? Perhaps not, but "underrated?" Oh hell yeah.

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So at this point in the proceedings the tag-ee (me) would normally be expected to tag three other friends to carry on the meme, but seeing as how I have no friends, and as how this meme has already been driven into the ground like a tent stake into soft sand, and how the remaining untagged bloggers available for such a hand-off are of the sort who are far more into Lithuanian death metal, I think I'll just let the meme trail end here.

"And there was much rejoicing..."
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B