Grammar Lessons

I've been bandying about the idea of writing a grammar post and have decided to go with it, even at the risk of boring my few readers who are much too fabulous to ever make any of these mistakes. I just have to get it off my chest!

I'm doing this because the use of bad/incorrect grammar drives me up a tree. One of the admins at work sent out an e-mail last year that read "…taken for granite…" Needless to say, I almost lost my mind on that one. Whatever happened to admins being exceptional in their grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, so they can fix the boss' mistakes because they're much too busy? I can tell you for a fact that it's gone right out the hermetically closed windows at my work.

I'm going to start with the easy ones (and probably my biggest pet peeve):

Your = possession, i.e., your house, your car, your butt, your mother, etc.
You're = You are, as in "you're welcome."

Yup, it's not "your welcome." It's "you are welcome," hence, "you're welcome."

We used to get people at the ESPN racing chat back in 1995/96 who would come in and "Your stupid. Racing sucks." Yeah, they were obviously brain trusts. And we'd get them a lot. It reached the point that when they'd show up, everybody else would sit back and wait for my grammar lesson, it invariably got them to leave very quickly which flaming back at them never did.

A corollary to the first one:

Its vs. it's - Oy vey, people, this is NOT hard!

Its = possession, i.e., its methodology, its arms (be they robotic or monster), its proximity, etc.
It's = it is

There are no exceptions to this rule. Trust me on this one!!!

Another of my pet peeves (yes, I have many in this subject area) is the recent proliferation of the apostrophe to form a plural. IT IS NOT NECESSARY!!! In fact, it's downright WRONG!! I have no clue why this is happening, but it honestly has to stop before I have a heart attack. ;-) It's freaking everywhere. There's a bakery in Greektown that has one of those dry erase boards on which they write what fabulous items they're selling that day (it doesn't change much, actually) and one day they had listed "éclair's, napoleons, cake's, meringue's, etc. I went up to that board and before going in, rubbed out all extraneous apostrophes with my finger. I have no clue why "napoleons" was done correctly, but it was. I don't care if the word ends in a vowel, the apostrophe is used to show possession or in a contraction (i.e., can not = can't), not multiples of an item. It can also be used as a single quote, but you damn well better be using two, one at the beginning and one at the end of the quote.

Next on my list (and again I have no clue how this started) is using the word "good" when you mean fine or well. The correct response to the question "How are you?" is NOT "good." You are well or fine, perhaps, even unwell, but not GOOD!!! Unless, of course, you just donated $100 to your favorite charity, but in that case you are a good person. Good is an adjective (see previous usage of good with person). Well/fine are adverbs and you need an adverb to describe how you *ARE*. Adverbs describe verbs (which is a-whole-nother paragraph), adjectives describe nouns.

Another example of where "well" should be used instead of "good" is in basic sports talk – "We played well tonight." I heard Kris Draper of the Red Wings say that a few years ago and I almost wept with joy at the correct grammar. "We played good" just puts my teeth on edge.

This brings us to the next lesson in adverbial usage. I'm going to use another sports example, since they're so common. "We played defensive." ARGH!! NO!!! "We played defensively." Or if you must use defensive… "We played a defensive game." Again, defensively describes how "we" PLAYED. I don't know what the poor –ly did to people, but it has damn near disappeared from usage and it makes me sad.

Another example: I walked home quickly yesterday because the wind chill was going right through me. – Quickly describing how I WALKED, not me.

Which brings me to my last grammatical point, at least for today, the use of he vs. him, she vs. her, etc., particularly after a preposition.

The other day my niece said, "So-and-so gave it to Tom & I." The YS and I immediately gave her a grammar lesson.

You wouldn't say "So-and-so gave it to I" you would say "to me." Therefore, just because whoever so-and-so is gave it (whatever it is) to Tom and you, it does not change the grammar rule of using the objective (me) vs. subjective (I). "Grandma gave it to Tom and me." Or expanded: "Tom and I were at Grandma's today and she gave a plate of cookies to him and me." (or "to us.")

This is a very common mistake with the preposition "between." I think people think it sounds more classy or something, because this one really makes people argue.

Incorrect - "The problem is between Tom & I and we'll solve it ourselves."
Correct - "The problem is between Tom and me, and we'll solve it ourselves."

Or even more commonly, "Between you and I,…" should always be "Between you and me,…"

And don't try to argue with me that it sounds better, etc., the wrong way because it doesn't. You just think it does, because it's so prevalent that it sounds right. When you get used to the correct way, you, too, will cringe the next time an athlete says, "Me and Tom played good tonight." I trust I don't have to discuss the "me" as subject usage nor its placement. ;-)

Joy Division

I hope Thanksgiving treated all of you United Statesians well. I didn't stop all weekend until Sunday as the YS was in town and I spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday (until I dropped her off at the airport) with her. Mom was home for Thanksgiving but then hopped on a plane Friday morning for Hawaii (which I didn't even know about until last Sunday when I asked her what time sushi was on Friday and she said "I'm not going to be there." "Why not?" "I'm going to be in Hawaii.") Everybody else knew, just not me. She's harassing the LB and his girlfriend, so more power to them.

I've decided to tell you all how I got so into Joy Division, since so many of you have never heard of them (which, sadly, is not surprising).

When I was 15 I got a job at the local Burger King, probably ¾ of mile from my house. I met great people over the course of the six painful horrible horrific years I worked there. The work was all those bad words, the people, for the most part, were lovely. Just making sure you knew that wasn't sarcasm.

There was an automotive plant across the street from us which gave us a ton of business. We'd see them coming and yell to get ready. We just ran our feet off Monday through Friday lunch time. It was insane. After a couple of years I had to "moved up" to opening the store (back in the days before BK served breakfast) along with a couple of other people and Joe D. Joe D is the only one I remember, however. There was an old fashioned record player there, for some reason, and Joe would bring in records to play. The favorite for way too long was Pink Floyd until I finally begged him to bring in something else. Dear God, I hated them. I don't hate them now, necessarily, but every single day for months was just too much. Joe next brought in T. Rex which I liked better than Pink Floyd, but still after a while I got tired of that too. Joe finally brought in Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures album, and that was it. It didn't get nearly the playing time that the others had gotten, sadly, but I definitely liked it immediately.

Joe was my age and lived in my town, but I went to Catholic school and he went to public, so we only ever saw each other at work. He was a good guy, but he didn't take stress very well and he would get really cranky when it was stupid busy and we'd have to wait on food to "push" orders. We actually liked each other, but in the heat of a rush, we became known for saying, "I hate you, Kathleen." "I hate you, Joe D." I'm pretty sure he started it. ;-) Anyway, some fellow co-workers actually thought we were serious, but while it wasn't really said in fun, it wasn't meant. If that makes sense. Joe was a great guy, just not meant for the fast food life, not that anybody really is.

I stopped working at Burger King while in college, but still stopped by on occasion and kept in touch with numerous people. In 1985, Joe joined a punk band with another former BK-er (although he was pretty short-lived as an employee). I forget the name of the band, but I keep thinking it had something to do with dead kittens - classic punk rock attitude there.

One day I was driving past the old BK and decided to stop in. There had been some discussion of catching the band at their next gig and I was looking for information. I walked in and somebody saw me (don't remember who it was for the life of me) and she went to get Ruth (the manager). Ruth came out and said (this is total paraphrasing, as 22 years later I don't remember exactly what was said, and probably couldn't have told you five minutes after she told me), "Oh, Kathleen. I'm so glad you stopped by. Joe was killed last night." I couldn't believe what she was telling me, but he had been driving eastbound on Plymouth Road in Detroit where they were doing construction and they had the eastbound traffic merged over next to the westbound lanes, so instead of the usual two lanes in each direction and a left hand turn lane, there was now two lanes, one in each direction. Somehow Joe crossed the line and hit a SEMTA bus head-on.

Ruth gave me the funeral home information and that night I went up to the funeral home and as I walked in I heard Joe's former girlfriend say, "I wonder if Kat knows." There was much crying, as expected, and many memories shared about our days at Burger King, as a good many BK-ers had shown up. They had an open casket and although I'd have to say the funeral director did an amazing job, considering, it didn't really look like Joe. I visited his gravesite a few times, but it has been many many years since I've been there.

A little after the funeral I asked my friend Daiva at college if her boyfriend Dave would make me tapes of Joy Division, as I knew he was a huge JD fan. I still have those tapes he made for me 20+ years ago, along with every CD Factory Records has put out of Joy Division's over the years, including the reissues earlier this month with an extra previously unreleased live concert CD in Unknown Pleasures, Closer, and Still. I even bought the reissued LPs even though I don't own a record player. Could that be a sign of obsession?

At any rate, I thank Joe D for introducing me to Joy Division all those years ago. I love you, Joe D.

PSA of the Week & People Suck

My Public Service Announcement of the Week

Do Not Walk to the Post Office (1.5 miles one way) to pick up a package when you have no friggin' idea how large the package is going to be. I thought I was going to be picking up something fairly small, so I decided to walk up there as it's 60-something degrees out there. I had my totebag to put the package in, but yeah, not so much. Stupid box was 13 x 13 x 16.5 and not all that light. It wasn't heavy for carrying to the car, but it was heavy for carrying home for 1.5 miles. I'm a bloody idiot.

Oooh, just realised I haven't finished FWG's book post yet. I should probably do that, eh?

I just read a story that made me physically sick to my stomach. It's about a teenaged girl (only 13) who killed herself after someone pretended to be a teenaged boy on MySpace, befriended her and then turned on her. The appalling part is that it was perpetrated by the mother of a former friend. Read the article for all the hideous details - it went beyond even those few details. What the bloody hell is wrong with people? I'm disgusted beyond words.

Why I Live in an Apartment

I live in an apartment, on purpose. I have no desire to own house nor to live in one, really. I live alone and like knowing there are people close by or who might miss me if they didn't see every so often. Besides that, I have zero interest in the outdoor arts, i.e., gardening, mowing the lawn, weeding, etc. I did enough of that as a kid, trust me. But a friend today sent me this and I think that I might actually contemplate cutting the lawn if I had one those. That is the most beautiful lawn mower I have ever seen in my life. The fact that it's based on the most beautiful race car ever in the history of the world has nothing to do with it.

Another reason I like apartment living is that when something goes wrong, I call Schneider and he fixes it. Like last night. When the pipe burst in the wall between the shower and the kitchen. I had just taken a shower with plans of crawling into bed and reading a little bit and was standing in the bathroom when I noticed Boris looking at something most intently. I looked where he was looking and what did I see? Rusty water running around both sides of the toilet. Oy vey. I ascertained that it was not the toilet that was causing the problem and threw the bathmat on the pool of water between the tub and the toilet. I went into the kitchen where I heard hissing as when the radiator is leaking water. Oy.Vey. I threw on clothes as I was in my nightshirt and it's not fit for public consumption and ran across the hall to Schneider's apt. He came over, took two steps into the kitchen and then bolted out of the apt. A few moments later, the hissing stopped.

I decided it would be smart to move the stuff I had stored under the kitchen sink out of the way of the panel that leads to the shower plumbing when once again I noticed Boris looking at me and then looking at the front door. My neighbor was at the door (which was open) and was wondering if Schneider had turned off the water because she didn't have any. "Oh, yeah, that must be what he did. The hissing in my kitchen stopped. I'm sorry."

Schneider comes back with his son, who is now old enough to drink beer - I remember when he was a little kid. ARGH! How does this happen?? They checked the pipes out and then disappeared again with the son telling me, "Don't drink my beer." I hadn't even realised he had brought one in with him. It was a Bud Light, so it was in no danger from me.

Schneider & Son come back and he informs me that I will not be able to shower in the morning (OH NO! I mean, yes I had just taken a shower and wasn't bound to need one in the morning to get clean, but it's how I wake up. I don't drink coffee.), but if I really needed to, he would leave his door unlocked and I could go over to his place (he's married) to shower in the morning. I didn't want to do that, really, nor disturb them, so I told him it was okay. I have short hair, so it got the washcloth treatment this morning.

The problem, as it turns out, relates back to the guy who was the super before Schneider. His name was Scott and he was about friggin' worthless. He would NOT turn on the boiler until Dec. 1. My first winter there I would come home from work to a 40-degree apartment whereupon I'd put on a pair of socks, a pair of long johns (top and bottom), another pair of socks, a pair of sweats (top and bottom) and then climb into bed with the electric blanket on high. I would call him every day with the temperature report. All to no avail - his building, however, which was directly behind mine, was very nicely heated. I went over once to pay my rent and found that it was toasty warm. Fucker. His wife was a complete wench, as well.

Anyway, when Scott converted what is now my bathtub into a shower (it's 80+ years old and apparently only came with a tub), he connected galvanised pipe to copper pipe which is quite the plumbing no-no from what Schneider tells me for a variety of reasons - they expand at different rates/temps, they cause build-up (which caused the galvanised pipe to burst last night), etc. Therefore, today Schneider and his son(s) are in my kitchen tearing my wall out to fix my shower, so that I may bathe tomorrow morning.

October's Movies & Books / The Return of Ocean's 11 & 12

Last Thursday I was returning to my desk after a foray to Shipping & Receiving, and I saw The Libertarian heading toward me. Now, I haven't seen him since he dumped me, essentially. A month or so ago, I asked if he could return my movies (he had Ocean's 11 & Ocean's 12), and he gave some lame excuse about not having access to my building, my old building. This is lame because all he had to do was call me and I would have let him into the building or met him at the door and gotten the movies. This was a clear indication to me that he didn't want to see me. I informed him that I was now in a building to which I knew he had access because I had gotten it for him, because he has regular meetings in my new old building aka Building A (for Fabulous). "Oh, okay, I'll bring them tomorrow."

Needless to say, at least for my fellow females, I got dressed up the next day. I wore a skirt and knee length boots. I looked fabulous, if I do say so myself. I knew he had a 10:00 a.m. meeting, but no show. I then thought that he'd come at lunch time because he ALWAYS goes out for lunch, but nope. I would have stayed until he showed up, but I had an appt. that afternoon with a financial advisor (I finally started a Roth IRA, thank you very much), so I had to leave. I rarely wear a skirt to work because you'd think the men in this building had never seen legs before and it's really a bit disconcerting the attention you get when you wear a skirt. I even had the welding guy leave his little welding closet and watch me walk out the door. Oy vey.

I finished my appointment and when I got home I called a co-worker who sits right by me and I asked if my movies had shown up. Nope. I was getting ticked. At 4:30 my phone rang and it was my co-worker. "A guy was just here and left your movies." "Thanks, Co-Worker, would you mind locking them up for me?" I was furious. He's the one who said, "Let's be friends." Don't freaking say it, if you don't mean it. He knew there was no way in hell I'd still be at my desk at 4:30. Frickin' wuss.

I, however, wasn't prepared to run into him in the hallway last Thursday. He was at the far end of the hall when I noticed him and immediately thought, "Shit." I wussed and intently read the piece of paper that was in my hand – a paper I had written, so I knew everything on it. After a few seconds, I realised that I had to look up, the scrap of paper wasn't that large to hold my attention that long. As I did so, I saw his forearm and hand wave to me as he headed into the Men's Room. I don't know if that's where he was heading or did it to avoid me, because initially I thought he was going to the studio which was next in that hallway. I felt like throwing up and crying. Not that I want him back or anything, it was just weird knowing that he's been avoiding me and then bam! when I don't expect to, I see him. I was stupid and got drunk that night. Friday I decided that's the last time I let him upset me. If I run into him again, no big deal. There is no need to get drunk. Thankfully I drank enough water that I didn't feel like crap on Friday. I was lucky.

On to my book reading and movie watching for the month!

Books

Dead Heat by Dick Francis & Felix Francis – 342 pages – Click the link for a very good synopsis. Loyal readers know I adore Dick Francis, and this book didn't change that at all. Felix Francis is his son and I guess taking over for his mother in helping his father with the books. This time the book takes place in the restaurant business, as well as horse racing. There are the usual quite evil villains and the usual love interest, but somehow his books never seem formulaic. I'm exhorting you to give Dick Francis a try. You can find his books at your local library and they're a quick read, but never boring and always worthwhile.

Native Son by Richard Wright – 397 pages – I read this for Banned Book Week which was the first week of October, but with the vacation to Maine and other stuff, it took me damn near all month to read it. I found myself not liking this book at all, but Richard Wright's writing style completely sucked me in, and I couldn't stop reading it. I ended up liking it better than I had while reading it, which is saying something because normally if I don't like a book, I don't like it. After Bigger killed the white girl, I consciously knew I wanted him to get caught, because obviously killing is wrong, but the way the book was written, I sometimes subconsciously found myself hoping he wouldn't get caught. The court room scenes were a bit mind-boggling as there's no way in hell, the prosecutor could get away with the inflammatory remarks that he was making in this day and age. Words like 'black beast" which were incredibly uncomfortable to read. I'm glad that Sal blogged about Banned Book Week, because I wouldn't have read this book otherwise, and it's definitely a worthwhile read, especially when you realise some things haven't changed in the 70-80 years since this book was written. Sad.

Little, Big by John Crowley – 627 pages – A fellow blogger (who never blogs anymore nor comments, because he's a jackass) recommended this book to me when we first "met" over two years ago. I ignored him (as I usually do, he'll tell you, but then I'd remind him about my MacBook) until a few months, when I saw that he had convinced Fermicat to read it. I bought it from Alibris used and when I saw that Fermi had started it, I started it. This was back in September. I was reading other things as well and only reading this at night, but then I reached the point where I wanted to finish it sooner rather than later and I stopped reading other books (once I finished Dead Heat and Native Son) and concentrated on this book.

I have no clue how to describe this book. It didn't feel as if it were over 600 pages, and I wasn't ready for it to end when it did. I will confess that I have no freaking clue what this book was about, at least I don't think I do. My friend didn't describe the book particularly well when he first tried to sell it to me (not literally), but now I understand. He was worried that I wasn't going to give it a chance because it's not chockfull of action and would say, "Read at least the first chapter. Don't give it up too early." I finally had to reassure him that I was liking the book. Even if I didn't know why, exactly. I kind of felt like Smoky Barnable – one of the book's character. is the best synopsis I could find.


This is going to make a certain person happy, but I have to do it. Book of the Month goes to Little, Big.


Movies

10/14 - Now, Voyager (TCM) – 88% - 1942 - This is a movie from my 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book. I have to confess that I thought it was a science fiction/space movie with that title, not a Bette Davis movie. This is the first movie in which I've seen Bette Davis where she's not a raving bitch (See All About Eve, Death on the Nile, The Whales of August). Okay, I lied. She wasn't a raving bitch in The Petrified Forest either, but I forgot she was in it, to me it was all about Bogie. I think her mother in this movie, however, was where she learned to be a raving bitch, however, because I dearly wanted to slap that woman. Bette plays a spinster daughter born late to the mother who does her best to keep Bette unattractive so that she'll stay with her and cater to her every whim (the mother's every whim). Bette's sister-in-law wants to help her sister-in-law break out and brings in a psychiatrist (played by Claude Rains). She blossoms in his care (mostly, because she was away in a sanitarium and therefore not under her mother's thumb. The movie is essentially about how she blossoms and falls in love and comes into her own as a woman. I highly recommend this movie.

10/16 - The Apartment (TCM) – 89% - 1960 – Another movie from my book. This one I didn't really like that much. It's about a guy (Jack Lemmon) who is single, but let's the married men from his work use his apartment for rendezvous with their paramours. He gets sick with a cold while waiting outside in the rain until the people leave. His neighbors think he's quite the Don Juan because it's all done in secret as this was 1960 and his landlady could have had him thrown out for violating his lease. He moves up in the company because all the men using his apartment are bigwigs. Shirley Maclaine is his love interest as well as Fred MacMurray's (the CEO, from what I could figure out). The ending helped make me not hate this movie outright, because he figures out he's been a schmuck and he throws away the top level job and ends up getting the girl. Eh.

10/17 - Camille (TCM) – 89% - 1932 – A Greta Garbo movie (yes, it's from the book). It's based on a story/book by Alexandre Dumas fils and is the basis for the opera La Traviata (thanks to IMDB for that bit of trivia). Greta Garbo plays a courtesan in 1847 Paris who falls in love with a young man of promise. After his father finds out, she gives the young man up as requested in order not to mess with his career. He doesn’t realise that she dumped him because of his father and he is heartbroken. At the end, they reunite right before she dies and they express their love for each other. All very tragic.

1/19 & 21 - Jaws (TCM) – 100% - 1975 – I confess that I had never ever seen this movie before. When it came out, I was too young and I have a tendency to avoid seeing movies for the first time on network television because they're all cut to hell. It didn't scare me at all, but I did enjoy it for what it was. I thought Robert Shaw was brilliant in it, and wonder why all kudos and film clips go to Roy Scheider or Richard Dreyfus, not that don't deserve them, it's just that I thought Robert Shaw was equally deserving. I'd recommend it, but I think everybody in the world has seen this.

10/24 - The Agronomist (IFC) – 96% - 2004 – This is a documentary on a Haitian activist, Jean Dominique, which follows him into exile in NYC and back to Haiti and then back to NYC and then back to Haiti one final time before he is gunned down outside his radio station. I found it to be very interesting as I knew very little about Haiti history (not that I'm an expert now or anything).

10/26 - Control (Maple Theatre) - 89% - 2007 - I've been talking about this movie for at least a week, as you all know. I saw it the day it opened with my friend BST. I did not cry as much as I thought I was going to, but I did need a tissue to dab at my eyes regularly. It was weird seeing Ian's life on screen, as Joy Division is an obscure enough band in the States that I never thought in a million years that a movie would be made about him. 24 Hour Party People was more a story about Factory Records and dealt with Joy Division only in the first part of the movie, before moving on to New Order briefly and then on to the Happy Mondays for the bulk of the movie. It was good, but it wasn't enough for me.

Sam Riley who plays Ian in Control looks so much like Ian that it was eerie. Anton Corbijn (brilliant man) found actors who could play instruments who also looked like their characters, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Tony Wilson & Rob Gretton. The guy who played Rob Gretton was bloody brilliant. And the guys who made up Joy Division played the music in the movie, so when you see Joy Division on stage in concert in this movie, it's the actors doing it all. It was Sam Riley doing the singing and sounding and looking and dancing like Ian. I figure it's the closest I'm going to get to seeing JD in concert unless I channel H.G. Wells and develop a time machine. I've always said that the first thing I would do was go back to 1978 & 1979 and see Joy Division live in concert.

As much as I loved seeing Ian's story on film, I did have a few issues with the film that unless you're a complete Joy Division freak you wouldn't know were issues. First, when Joy Division comes on stage for what I think was their first gig (at least shown in the movie), Bernard Sumner yells "You all forgot Rudolph Hess." Now, I've heard the bootleg from that concert (I told you that I was obsessed) and he literally yelled it over the sound of the crowd and it was not readily discernible. In the movie, Bernard more or less states it and the crowd is meekly quiet. That annoyed me.

Another issue was one of the last gigs shown in the movie Ian suffered an epileptic seizure on stage. In real life it was because the lighting guy had ignored the expressed command not to use the strobe light as that could set off a fit, however, in the movie, there was no strobe light.

To me, these were both things well-documented and easily achieved on screen, I would think, so I'm not sure how it got messed up.

Overall, I liked the movie very much (I've now seen it three times in the theatre, which I've never ever done before). I will recommend it, if you have the least bit interest in Joy Division or the punk/postpunk movement in England. There's even a re-enactment of a John Cooper Clarke performance piece done by JCC himself.

10/27 - Vertigo (AMC) - 100% - 1958 - I saw this was playing in AMC and DVRd it. It is not my favorite Hitchcock film. In fact, I would put it in the bottom 2 (Psycho is my least favorite). The first time I saw it I was living in San Francisco just living up Eddy from the house where Kim Novak goes to at Eddy & Gough. I don't think the house was there still, I know the church that is in the background burned down the month before I moved to SF. I enjoy the drive through SF and figuring out how she gets from each place and all that, but without backdrop of San Francisco, I'm not sure I would have bothered watching it again. There's nothing overtly wrong with it, I just don't care for it. I will, however, recommend that you watch it if you've never seen it, because it is Hitchcock and it is a very good movie. It just doesn't appeal to me.

10/28 - Control (Maple Theatre) - 89% - 2007 - I told you I saw it three times. Most of our friends couldn't go Friday, so BST and I went back on Sunday to see it with our friends. I vigorously defended Ian after the movie as I heard one friend say "What a dick." during the movie. I'm amazed at the number of people who don't cut suicidal people any slack. I would think that it's obvious that if someone commits suicide that they're not in their right mind and are bound not to be thinking clearly. I was talking to my brother yesterday after seeing it for the 3rd time and he asked if I were going to be buying a block of ice. "HUH?" He had heard that was how Ian killed himself. Bought a block of ice, put the noose around his neck and then stood on the block of ice and waited for it to melt. I dispelled that rumor right quick as it's, first of all, the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I informed him that I've read every single book, magazine article, etc. written on Joy Division and I had never ever heard that before. Can you imagine killing yourself that way? It'd certainly give you plenty of time to change your mind. Egads.

10/30 - Vanishing Point (N) - 75% - 1971 - The Zombieslayer recommend this movie to me last month when he asked about horror movies and I said that I prefer suspense to horror. This movie is essentially one long car chase scene with the suspense of wondering if he's going to make it to San Francisco, first, in time to win his bet and second, without the police catching him. I will not give away the ending, but I will say it surprised me.

Movie of the Month? Need you ask? CONTROL!