Hoosier Daddy

20 Best Movies of the Decade

Here’s my selection for the 20 best movies of the past decade.  

1.      The Hours  - Powerful exploration of life, death and choice.  Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Ed Harris deliver amazing performances.

2.      Juno - Bright, original.  Ellen Page is sensational, but so is the entire cast

3.     O Brother Where Art Thou -- George Clooney & the Coen Brothers at their best -- set to a stunning soundtrack of "ol' timey music"  

4.      Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind  - Jim Carey & Kate Winslet in quirky romance about love that cannot be erased - "How happy is the blameless vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot.  Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd "

5.      Sideways  - Wine tasting will never be the same

6.      City of God - Stunning glimpse into the slums of Rio,

7.      Capote - Phillip Seymour Hoffman exposes Capote for all wit, narcissism,  cruelty and greatness. 

8.      The Reader - Kate Winslet is remarkable in a story about the imprint and sacrifice of love, however unlikely

9.      Lord of the Rings (trilogy) - Epic movie-making

10.      Chicago -- Jazz, sex, tabloids, murder, and lawyers - set to great music and dancing.  A rare great transition from stage to screen.

11.    Casino Royale -- Bond is back. 

12.    Pan’s Labyrynth - Wonderful imagery - a magical world to which a girl must escape to save herself from her brutal reality. (Spanish)  

13.    The Diving Bell and the Butterfly --  The true story of a French magazine editor struck down with a stroke that leaves his mind in tact, but with only the ability to blink one eye.  Only the most skilled actor and director could make this movie-  

14.    Up - In the first 10 minutes you know this is not an ordinary animated feature.     

15.    Slumdog Millionaire -- Bollywood comes to the American mainstream with this tale of children from the streets.  

16.    The Incredibles -- Mid-life crisis, fashion faux pas, and family conflicts meet the world of animation.            

17.    The Hangover -  Outrageous.  Pee-your-pants funny.   

18.    28 Days Later - Intense. An original horror/thriller of the first rank.      

19.    Michael Clayton -- The "fixer" lawyer struggles with what he has become.  

20.    Million Dollar Baby  -- Clint Eastwood filled the decade with great movies from Mystic River to Grand Torino, but the performances by Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman made this the best of the lot -- but not by much.

 

10 Most Important News Stories of the Decade

Here’s my selection for the 10 most important news events of the past decade.

 

1.      9/11     It changed us as a nation and as people.

 

2.      2000 Presidential Election.   The closest presidential election in history came down to maybe 300 votes in Florida.    There were recounts, accusations and court cases, but no tanks in the street , a true testament to our Constitution and the people of the United States.

3.      The election of the nation’s first African-American President.   Just 50 years ago, blacks were fighting and dying for the right to vote.  Barack Obama’s election was a milestone in the history of our nation, made even more significant by the fact that his top competitor for the nomination was Hilary Clinton, and his opponent in the fall selected a woman vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.

 

4.      .War in Iraq.   George W. Bush’s fateful decision looked so easy in the first weeks.  Mission Accomplished.  But not hardly.  Thousands of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, and corporate pilfering in the name of security – and all for a trumped up case for weapons of mass destruction that never existed.

 

5.      The bankruptcy of General Motors.   So much a symbol of   American industrial and economic strength that in the 1950s, the Secretary of Commerce said, “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.”  GM fell victim to globalization and its own monolithic inability or unwillingness to adapt.  The collapse of the world economy sealed its fate 

 

6.    Corporate greed.    Enron, World Com, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Arthur Anderson, and for gosh sake Martha frickin’ Stewart.  Sub-primes and credit default swaps.  Hundred million dollar bonuses and golden parachutes.   Greed and corporate cheating were everywhere and Wall Street ran amuck.  Then in 2008 the house of cards tumbled, nearly bringing down the entire American economy.

 

7.      War in Afghanistan.  The forgotten war has become America’s longest war.  And as the decade draws to a close, tens of thousands more American soldiers are destined for the “graveyard of empires.”

 

8.      Tsunami.  The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated coastal villages, towns and resorts from Indonesia, to Thailand and India, to Madagascar and west coast of Africa.  In its wake it left an estimated 230,000 dead, the deadliest tsunami in history.

 

9.      Katrina.  Never could we have envisioned a great American city crumbling before our eyes.   Even worse, thousands of people were left in the ruins, without food, water or sanitation – and it took four days for the federal government to organize and get help to them.

 

10.    Anthrax attacks.  Following so closely on 9/11, we suddenly found postal workers, Congress and news agencies being attacked by traces of white powder in seemingly harmless mail.  The anthrax attacks raised the annx of  the entire nation.  We were at risk in our very homes, our offices, in the routine of just opening the mail.  No longer were we  secure.

Hoosier Vampire Going to Jail

I thought I'd seen almost everything, but this is about as strange as it gets.  According to the Indianapolis Star, an Indiana man who claims to lead a vampire clan has been sentenced to jail for threatening an Indiana judge.

Rocky Flash,  who apparently was known as Jonathan Sharkey before becoming a vampire, claims to be head of "Vampyre Nation."  (Vampires not being known for their spelling prowess).  He was sentenced to two years for threatening to "torture, impale, dismember and decapitate"  Judge David Certo. In case you are wondering, Flash is not some disturbed or misdirected youth.  He's 45 years old. 

Do you think we should tell him all that vampire stuff is, well, made up?