Movies Til Dawn

Click here to see a Maltin Minute in praise of...take a guess. Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian, actually included clips of yours truly in this very nice review of the movie. Strange to see myself wandering around the set with Alan Arkin and Andy Garcia--something of a time capsule back a couple of years (I'd not previously seen this behind the scenes footage). I feel like Leonard Maltin has been part of my cinematic life forever. Recently I've appeared at his USC class and occasionally we run into each other at the odd old movie event in Los Angeles. But his presence in my life literally goes back to the dawn of my interest in movies. When I was quite young (nine, ten?) and started getting heavily into the history of old movies, I got a subscription to Film Fan Monthly, a lovely little magazine that Maltin put out every month (or so) focusing largely on forgotten movie actors of the past, including their filmographies and rare stills. Maltin himself wasn't much o...

Behold your neighborhood 7-11. Pause in front of this shrine to grease, low-cost hot dogs, crappy bathroom products, poisonous soda's in so-called "big gulp" cups (the better to hasten the poisoning process, my dear), the odd assortment of discount candies and gums, case after case of beers, burritos, motor oils and barbeque supplies (self-lite, natch). And now inhale deeply and recall the fragrant moments of your suburban youth, which without a doubt frequently involved stops at this "convenience" store as well as nighttime parking lot hangouts. Ask yourself: how many times did you go to the 7-11 stoned and hungry? If you can't remember it's because you were stoned and hungry. And now behold this DVD pile-up in a Red Box outside of a 7-11 in the Bronx, New York. For me, the circle of life has been completed. From "7-11's Got Slurpy Rock Cups" (TV ad circa 1977), through "Oh Thank Heaven for 7-11" (as nauseatingly intoned by Vin...