Pop Culture Petri Dish

Vince Keenan.com opened up this fun movie nerd meme ( look it up ). I normally resist these damn things like a vampire sidestepping garlic, but I can't turn down this quick-and-dirty movie-nerd fix...Feel free to play along. 1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times. Casablanca, Suspiria, Star Wars . 2. Name a movie that you’ve seen multiple times in the theater. Raiders of the Lost Ark , Star Wars , John Carpenter's The Thing , Aliens 3. Name an actor who would make you more inclined to see a movie. Peter Cushing, Humphrey Bogart, Marjoe Gortner, Emma Thompson, Pam Grier, Russell Crowe, Clint Howard, Johnny Depp. 4. Name an actor who would make you less likely to see a movie. Kevin Costner. 5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 . As I've said before, as quotable as Casablanca or Pulp Fiction. "Lick my plate, you dog dick!" 6. Name a movie musical from which you know all the lyrics to all the songs. None, but ...

From this corner, The passing of Kurt Vonnegut doesn't just feel like a literary loss of epic proportions. More than any other author, Vonnegut felt like a friend to me, or more accurately, like my favorite uncle: The one with the crotchety-but-compassionate voice of wry, offhanded wit that managed to expand your mind massively even while you laughed your ass off. Like his role model in letters Samuel Clemens , Vonnegut was a master at calling bullsh%t on the greedheads, warriors, paper-pushers, and hypocrites who all-too-frequently run this world. He did so without ever letting his own--or his readers'--foibles and frailties skate by, and he wasn't above interspersing intense insights with the occasional fart joke or flight of science fiction fancy. Kurt Vonnegut's work forever changed the way I look at the world. His writing provided a big source of bonding between my girlfriend (now wife) and me back in the day. In high school I'd read--and like any rational hum...