Jumping on the bandwagon (and NOT) with my 2008 movie list

So, like a lot of people at the end of the year, I'm making up a list of movies for 2008. I looked through this list of 2008 releases to see how many I've watched. Any guesses? It's a whopping three! I saw:

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Iron Man (unfortunately)
WALL-E (a couple times)

(I do still want to see some more on this list, like Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.)

Yes, three movies in a year would be rather pathetic for a movie blogger, but I did watch tons of other, older movies. This just goes to show a few things about me. Firstly, I am out of the habit of seeing movies in the theater. It used to be an almost weekly event for me, but living in NY for a while (with low funds and high ticket prices) cured me of that. I had to get more selective about what I watched, and became more content to wait to see things when they came out on video.

Also, I think it's possible that I'm just not a movie critic at heart. Sure, I enjoy ripping a bad movie to shreds and analyzing all the details of a good movie, but I'm not trying to be the next Roger Ebert or anything. Nobody pays me to sit through a crappy movie, and if they offered to I would probably tell them no anyway! I don't watch movies that I think from the start will stink. I also don't usually like being shocked, scared, or offended, which for me rules out (even popular) films with lots of language, sex, and violence.

Finally, this just reinforces my stand as a classic movie lover. While I only managed to see three new releases this year, I did see many new-to-me classic movies. Although I wasn't keeping track and therefore may be leaving some out, here's a list of old movies I sought out or discovered in 2008 (links are to my reviews):

Boomerang! (1947)
The Doll
The Grapes of Wrath
Hud
Jane Eyre (1944)
Rachel and the Stranger
The Thief
The Thin Man
The War of the Worlds (1953)
Witness for the Prosecution

Not that I didn't watch any newer movies, here's a few more recent movies that I watched in 2008:

Across the Universe
Dreamgirls
Eat Drink Man Woman
Enchanted
Helvetica
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
P.S. I Love You

I watched these newer ones with more mixed results than the older movies. I also re-watched tons of favorites, as I do every year, but I won't even try to include them here. So, that's my list. Where else could you find WALL-E and The Grapes of Wrath together for 2008?

The Apostolic Constitutions

I have managed to find an online copy of the Apostolic Constitutions a document believed to have been compiled largely in Syria in the 4th century although there are a few distinctly Roman features in it. It is worth a read particularly the sections on the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy. The salient excerpt is follows (with my highlights)

SEC. VII.--ON ASSEMBLING IN THE CHURCH.
AN EXACT DESCRIPTION OF A CHURCH AND THE CLERGY, AND WHAT THINGS IN PARTICULAR EVERY ONE IS TO DO IN THE SOLEMN ASSEMBLIES OF THE CLERGY AND LAITY FOR, RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.

LVII. But be thou, O bishop, holy, unblameable, no striker, not soon angry, not cruel; but a builder up, a converter, apt to teach, forbear-ing of evil, of a gentle mind, meek, long-suffering, ready to exhort, ready to comfort, as a man of God. When thou callest an assembly of the Church as one that is the commander of a great ship, appoint the assemblies to be made with all possible skill, charging the deacons as mariners to prepare places for the brethren as for passengers, with all due care and decency.

And first, let the building be long, with its head to the east, with its vestries on both sides at the east end, and so it will be like a ship. In the middle let the bishop's throne be placed,
and on each side of him let the presbytery sit down; and let the deacons stand near at hand, in close and small girt garments, for they are like the mariners and managers of the ship: with regard to these,

let the laity sit on the other side, with all quietness and good order.
And let the women sit by themselves, they also keeping silence.

And further on after a description of the liturgy of the Word:

After this, let all rise up with one consent, and looking towards the east, after the catechumens and penitents are gone out, pray to God eastward, who ascended up to the heaven of heavens to the east; remembering also the ancient situation of paradise in the east, from whence the first man, when he had yielded to the persuasion of the serpent, and disobeyed the command of God, was expelled.

Now that our large liturgical celebrations are over, it being time to think of other things like getting out on the water and getting some sailing in.

Skandia is now in the lead in the Sydney to Hobart as I write.

As servers we are deputising for the deacons. So we are like the crew of the ship, with the Bishop as its helmsman.

Christmas 08

Four weeks ago we began the advent season, a time for prayer and reflection in preparation for Christmas. Advent was a time for us; in the words of St John the Baptist to prepare a way for the Lord. Advent has an important eschatological theme, Christ will return, he will come again as he once did, no longer as the infant, but rather as the pantocrator, the just judge. Now at last Christmas has arrived. Did Christmas spring up on us like the thief in the night, or did we come prepared to welcome the joyful feast?

The liturgical cycle, is to show us the history of salvation so that we learn our history, but it is also a tool to prepare us to those last hours of our lives and the hour of our judgement. The Christmas story is filled with multiple messages, one of such is if there is room, just as the holy family were seeking a room to spend the night on the first Christmas eve, so too now does Christ look to see if there is any room in the inn of our Hearts. The Lord of all creation somehow does not take up much room, just a little manger, but somehow he is too big for even the weekends of our lives….

“Today Christ is born, today the saviour has appeared; today the angels sing on earth, the archangels rejoice; today upright men shout out for joy: Glory be to God on high, alleluia.” Magnificat ant of Vespers II of Christmas

To all my dear readers, I wish to pass on my warmest Christmas wishes, Merry Christmas and a happy new year, I look back fondly on our many blogging adventures. I invite all my readers to share with us in the comment section just a little about who they are and why they read this blog .(I have a suspicion that people read this blog).

Felix Nativitas!!

Felix Nativitas et pax vobis!! to all our readers of this blog.

We will have more pics and comment in the new year for you to enjoy and comment on.

Here is a dying Church

On Cathnews there is an article on the Parish of Caloundra on Queensland's Sunshine Coast cancelling Midnight Mass. Now for those of you around the world, Caloundra parish is the next closest thing to St Mary's in South Brisbane. When I last attended Mass there a few years ago the Roman Rite was almost unrecognisable, and I felt incredibly alienated by a liturgy that I did not understand. To top it off my sister accused me of being "un-christian" when I refused to talk to the person next to me before Mass when instructed to do so by the whoever that was at the ambo.

For those of you not familiar to the area Caloundra, (or rather Catholic Caloundra) is basically God's waiting room. The congregation is very elderly. They are ministered to by elderly priests, who are very much locked into a revolutionary post Vatican II mindset, and see any other opposing opinion as evil. This flows right through into the arrangement of the church and the liturgy. Actually you see here what Pope Benedict calls the "desintegration of liturgy". I will not bore you with details, you can go into the St Marys website to see that, the only difference here is that the liturgy is mainly done by 70 to 90 year old women.

After internal desintegration, here we see the first signs of a parish's corporate worship starting to disintegrate on the outside. The parish community is too old to attend a midnight Mass. The priests are too old to celebrate midnight Mass. The community feels isolated and at risk because of the drunks (pretty all of whom would have no religious belief), and the neighbours. As the community ages further it will reduce in numbers (there is really nothing attractive about the style of liturgies), and the priests will retire. The liturgies will reduce in number. It is then likely to fade away with a small "rump" left of Vatican II hippies living in the past.

The question is then what replaces it? Will the local church regenerate into a small strong church that is attractive young and welcoming??

Incidently at our local Cathedral there is one pub very close by. (There used to be two before one burnt down). We have not have any problem with drunks at all. Maybe because that the odd few drunks have to contend with a crowd of over 1,000 worshippers, and the incense chases them away. A verse comes to mind:

"There was 2 against 2000, and when the smoke finally settled we had beaten the shit out of both of them"

The Propers of the Season (Anglican chant)

Here is a good one from the Hermeneutic of Continuity blogspot. I just love Anglican chant!

The Cassock and Surplice

"The Priory is wondering how business is going. Do you think you should share your gothic surplice or is it special? What is the market like? Do you have much competition from those who offer training services with appareled alb ? Is the financial crisis having an adverse effect? Is it still bringing home the bacon?"

Well, I have two Gothic Surplices, one I frequently loan out to others, the other I reserve for myself, expect for a few occasions such as for a priest for his first blessing and for the use of the mad Franciscan during the ACCC conference. The Market is almost non-existent, Modern parishes find my services too traditional, or too far beyond what there used to. As for competition, my services also extent to appareled albs... but alas it is far to difficult to organizes three matching apparaled albs, as well as being far to prentcious to be the only one on the altar in apparales (tend to look better then most celebrants). In regards to the crisis, perhaps if business was booming, the effect might be felt, but jobs are far and few between.

As I mentioned at the priory, just in case someone wants to be a stick in the mud... (I'm looking at a partuclar Benedictine oblate as well as a few self rightous Latin Massers) I am not serving for money or financial benefit, that's sinful, stupid and down right non profitable, just pointing out the obvious to some. (Cough, Cough)


"And finally, any pre-Mass superstitions? Like pouring the wine into the cruets before the water?"

A few, such as if the Indian is late, then all hell will break loose, Don't work with animmals and Children and make sure you put out a lavabo towel, otherwise the celebrant will use the slevee of your alb to dry his hands. Post Mass superstitions would involve not letting certain servers leave too early, they undoubtly will try to flirt with women using the pickup line "Did you see up there, I was the thurifer smoking the place out, you should come next week, I'll be the MC then"...

Finally just a word of advice to parishes, priests and to Catholic education. Servers are great, not only do they promote vocations (if they are male), but they do serve practical purposes (such as helping out at benediction) and they tend to look better then draftee laybodys who want to be involved (or are rather forced)

New Advertising

Our friends at the priory have quite laudably and quite unexpectedly done our post about a humble little blog here. Quite surprisingly they have written praises that I fear we do not deserve, or at least I do not, perhaps I should post a few more times before I retire to my hermitage.

Our friends join the ranks of the many who have noticed my permanent add about the server for hire. Perhaps a brief history lesson is in order about it's origins. Not to long ago, Rev Albert Speer and I were discussing my blog before his Weekly low Mass at a secret location...... needless to say I was wearing my appareled alb..... and he was wearing mountains of lace, a cardboard sandwich and a funny hat. Rev Albert suggested I do an Australian version of Traditio, I kindly declined the offer saying that it was already done by the learnared Coo ees. Having shot down his previous idea, Rev Albert then suggest I do an advertisment say "Have cassock and surplice will travel". I agreed and decided to put one up on the blog....

Where has it got me so far? Well unfortunatly business is slow. A kind hearted Dominican, who belives me to be a little version of himself has requested me to serve his ordination.... unfortunatly he only agreed to pay my bus fare to it. This has been the only case of business that the blog has generated. Closer to home a local Jesuit requested that I sever the ACCC confrerence in Brisbane, a few fun adventures were had, but the yeild was only a grand total of $50.... which was promply divided with my sidekick... and spent on sun glasses and a fabric belt.
Finally the local parish and the Charismatic mother of my school captain, offered to have my serve the 13th Fatmia devotions in the local parish. After 3hrs of offkey music, praying in tounges, forgetting the lavabo towel and discussing laity with the parish priest, I had $35 dollars thrust into my hand....

I do belive I have come a long way from my former days at the Polish Church.. being paid a megar $10 a year.

I'll leave the twenty question till the next post. Must run I have a potential client to meet with.... Sharpey !

How did you get into classic movies?

The poll is closed and the results are in. In answer to the above question, 8% of respondents got into classic movies thanks to school or a film class, 33% got started with recommendations from friends or family, and the majority (50%) found old movies on TV. That leaves another 8% that fell in love with classic movies some other way. (Yeah, that only adds up to 99%, but that's the numbers my poll gave me.)

This brings up other questions that can't be so easily gotten in a click-to-answer poll:

For those that found old movies on TV, what channel were you watching? TCM, AMC, or just a late-night showing of something classic?

For those who didn't find their answer on the poll, how did you discover classic movies? Video rental? Something else I haven't thought of?

For everyone: Was there one movie you can point to as being the first old movie you really got into? A movie that made you take notice and think, what other wonderful classics have I been missing?

As for me, I grew up watching old movies, so my answer would be family recommendations. But I've also benefited from video rentals and old movies on TV (especially TCM) for rounding out my classic movie knowledge. There are so many movies I have seen so many times since I was young that I can't remember my first reactions to them (Citizen Kane, Some Like it Hot, The Maltese Falcon) but there are a few that I remember discovering later, sometimes on my own, and loving the fact that I found them (The Hustler, Out of the Past, The Major and the Minor).

Whether you answered in the original poll or not, feel free to weigh in with your answers here.

My answer to the 20 Actresses Meme: I like Actors better

There's a 20 favorite actresses meme going around. It started at The Film Experience blog. I've had a terrible time trying to come up with a list of my own. Not because there are so many actresses out there, but because I've realized that there aren't a lot of actresses I think are really great. How can this be? I don't know. Maybe I am jealous watching someone else get the leading man of my dreams. Maybe I am jealous of really beautiful women. Maybe as a girl, I've just learned to be catty to other girls. Isn't that sad? Whatever the case, I have come up with a list of 20 actresses that don't (usually) annoy me:


That's Leslie, Lee, Marilyn, Cate, Grace; Katharine, pre-botox Meg, Ingrid, Tina, Judy; Meryl, Natalie, Ginger, Mary, Amy; Hayley, Gwyneth, Judy, Agnes & Lauren.

Cate Blanchett has the distinction of being the only one on this list whose movies I don't own. I just think she is a good actress (and she doesn't irritate me).

My favorites on here are Katharine Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman & Ginger Rogers.

As I was making this list, I decided it would be much more fun to make a list of favorite actors. I thought, surely someone is bound to answer back the top 20 actresses list with their top 20 actors, right? It might as well be me. And so I made this list, and it was such a breeze! Here come the men:

That's Clark, Henry, Gene, Joseph, George C., Spencer, Humphrey, Dana, William, Jack; Cary, Paul, Jimmy, Ray, Orson; Marlon, Kirk, Sidney, George & Alec.

You'll see this list was made with only classic movie actors. So as a bonus, here's another five new(er) actors I happen to like:

Jude, Harrison, Ewan, Leo & Tom.

If I tried to narrow this list down to top favorites, it would probably be Spencer Tracy, Jack Lemmon, Humphrey Bogart, Dana Andrews, Cary Grant, Ray Milland, Orson Welles, Jimmy Stewart, Paul Newman & Tom Hanks. See how much more generous I am to the males?

If you want to make your own list, feel free to choose actresses or actors or both. If you do actors, please link or comment here with your lists. I'd like to see some more testosterone about. Let the 20 Actors meme begin!

Some Recent Comments on Celebration Ad-orientem

Over at the New Litugical Movement, there have been some interesting comments by priests and bishops introducing ad-orientem celebration.

This ancient practice also avoids giving the impression that the priest and the congregation are engaged in a conversation about God, rather than the worship of God. The third reason was that it reduces the temptation to regard the celebrant as an actor on a liturgical stage. When he and the congregation together face forward to Christ, it makes it easier to visualize that the priest is offering the Mass in the person of Christ. Bp Edward Slattery Dioces of Tulsa, Oklahoma

Why? To restore a healthy sense of the sacred, the transcendent. So that this is not perceived as a social hour or “Entertainment Tonight”, but the Church’s worship of the triune God. Fr. Peter Stravinskas

Thomas Merton

Since high school I have been interested in the spirituality of Thomas Merton. I was reminded today that it is the 40th anniversary of his death.

Books that I have of his are A Thomas Merton Reader (an anthology), The Sign of Jonas, and The Monastic Journey and The Way of Lao Tzu. They have all been of use in my own spiritual journey, particualrly through my teenage years. It was he who was my spiritual guide through discerning my own vocation (which I found was not the cistercian one), in getting into the habit of reading the Office daily, and in getting in touch with who I really am. He introduced me to the desert fathers, and the great cistercian writers such as St Aelred of Rievaulx and Isaac of Stella, all of whom I still enjoy.

My main criticism of his writings is that they sometimes got too introspective about techniques of contemplation. Some of the traditionals/conservatives dont like him because he dabbled in eastern religions, and went all hippy in his hermitage. This is not correct. He kept to his catholic faith and was very orthodox but made the effort to reach out to others. In that he actually found that in terms of spiritual discipline, other religions have a lot in common with ours. Some of them like Zen are a lot more strict. He found echoes of Zen running through strands of Catholicism particularly in the spitituality of St John of the Cross. I actually find St John of the Cross and the great Zen master Dogen as equally obscure.

Here is a good short doco that I found through Whispers in the Loggia which gives a good overview of his life.

Overlooked Oldies: Holiday

Giving the label "overlooked" to some movies seems to me a risky thing to do. It begs for people to pounce on the choice, saying "That's not an overlooked movie! Everyone has seen that! What are you talking about?" My purpose in making a list of Overlooked Oldies is to highlight some movies that are worthy of watching even though they haven't gotten as much attention as some other classics. They might not be the most obscure films ever, but they're not the movies on the top of everyone's classic must-see lists, either. If you haven't seen the movies that always seem to make these lists (like Citizen Kane and Casablanca) by all means do so. My selections are meant to supplement and round out such lists.

Now I'll stop being defensive and share my next Overlooked Oldies pick: Holiday. Not The Holiday or Roman Holiday, just Holiday.

This 1938 George Cukor movie stars Cary Grant as Johnny Case, a self-made man recently engaged to the beautiful Julia Seton (Doris Nolan). Since their courtship has been brief, he knows very little about her, and is thus shocked when he goes to meet her family and finds out how rich they are.

The other Seton children are Linda (Katharine Hepburn) and Ned (Lew Ayres). The sibling relationships can be summed up in this bit of dialogue:

Linda: "Well, I know you wouldn't expect it of a man in father's position, but the fact is, money is our god here."

Julia: "Johnny, it isn't true at all."

Ned: "No? What is then?"

Julia is the most like her father and shares his reverence for riches while Linda is fed up and looking for something else to do with her life. She is thus known as the black sheep of the family. Ned tends to agree with Linda although he appears to have given up on his dreams, spending his time drinking instead of fighting his father. It's quite heartbreaking to watch him, actually.

The movie is not named for any holiday celebrations (although there are two very different New Year's Eve parties in the film). The title instead refers to Johnny's goal of taking some time off to enjoy life. He's been working since he was ten and is now ready for a break to find out why he's doing it. His plan is this: "Retire young, work old. Come back and work when I know what I'm working for."

Julia and her father have other ideas for Johnny and try to pressure him into a new job and way of thinking. More understanding of Johnny's plan is sister Linda. You can probably guess how things will turn out, but it is still fun to go along with these characters for the ride.

Other things that make the movie enjoyable: the moments that showcase Cary Grant's acrobatic skills ("Can you do a back-flip-flop, can you really?") and Johnny's down to earth friends Nick and Susan Potter, played by Jean Dixon and wonderful character actor Edward Everett Horton.

If you've seen and enjoyed The Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby, don't miss Holiday, another great pairing of Grant and Hepburn.

What's Tom Hardy doing in Marie Antoinette?

The first time I saw him was as Shinzon, the evil Picard clone in Star Trek: Nemesis. With the veins popping out on his bald head, the crazy costume and his creepy agenda, he is a loathsome offensive brute, yet I couldn't look away. There was something about his quiet power, the smoldering intensity reminiscent of early Brando. "Who is this guy," I thought, "and what does he look like with hair?"

The answer to both questions came when I watched The Virgin Queen. As Robert Dudley, the childhood friend and love interest of Queen Elizabeth I, Tom Hardy is alternately charming and manipulative. Even though I knew Elizabeth never married, I found myself wondering how she could resist such a man. His portrayal leaves open for interpretation whether Dudley was more interested in Elizabeth for herself or for her power as queen. ("Cannot a man love both?" is his answer, which probably amounts to the truth.)

Now for my third Tom Hardy spotting and the reason for the title question of this post. Confession: I was much more interested in Marie Antoinette when I heard that Tom Hardy had a role in it. Though small, his few moments on screen as Raumont are charged with the strength of his presence. He appears in one short scene at a party where, after being thanked for providing the oysters, he plays along with a silly guessing game while the queen and Count Fersen make eyes at each other. In the following scene, Raumont expresses to the queen's friend his disapproval (and jealousy?) of Marie Antoinette's interest in the count. It goes a little something like this:

Raumont: "Our queen seems rather fond of looking at Count Fersen."

Queen's Friend: "Well, he's easy on the eyes."

R, after a piercing look in the count's direction: "Don't you think she favors him too clearly?"

QF: "Just because it is not you."

R: "Don't you think it unbecoming to our queen, I mean, he has quite the reputation."

QF: "He amuses her and she likes to be amused. There's nothing unregal in that, Monsieur."

The funny thing is, this exchange wouldn't have been entirely out of place in The Virgin Queen, as just these sorts of things could have been said about Elizabeth and Dudley. The lines feel a bit hypocritical, coming as they do from the man who played another queen's favorite. It is almost as if Robert Dudley has appeared in a new century with a new costume, still wanting to be as close as possible to whatever queen is at hand.

Given that this scene amounts to the meat of Tom Hardy's role in Marie Antoinette, it seems that he is in the movie specifically for a little inside joke. I don't know how many people saw both Marie Antoinette and The Virgin Queen and made the Tom Hardy connection, but I for one found this moment rather amusing due to the casting choice.

Movies + LEGO = Fun

The Toy Zone has posted 20 Classic Films Recreated in LEGO. Although I must question the label "classic" given some of the movies, it's still a pretty cool list and makes me want to recreate a movie scene with LEGOs. (Can I say LEGOs, or is the plural still LEGO, like deer or something?)

One Hybrid Movie Meme

Don't know where they started, but I found two movie memes here and here. I am merging the best bits (that is, the questions I want to answer) from each into one hybrid movie meme.

1. One movie that made you laugh: The Palm Beach Story

2. One movie that made you cry: A River Runs Through It

3. One movie you loved when you were a child: The Wizard of Oz

4. One movie that you have seen more than 10 times: Citizen Kane

5. One movie you've seen multiple times in the theater: Apollo 13

6. One movie you walked out on: Cabin Boy

7. One movie that you can and do quote from: Joe Vs. the Volcano ("I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?", "I'm not arguing that with you!", "I have no response to that.", "Brain cloud," with the accompanying hand gesture over the top of the head.)

8. One movie you loved, but were embarrassed to admit it: 13 Going on 30

9. One movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't gotten around to watching yet: Ninotchka

10. One movie you hated: Signs

11. One movie that scared you: Touch of Evil

12. One movie that made you happy: Stranger Than Fiction

13. One movie that made you miserable: The Conversation

14. One movie musical for which you know all the lyrics to all the songs: Oklahoma! (yes, even "Pore Jud is Daid")

15. One movie that you have been known to sing along with: Evita

16. One movie you would recommend that everyone see: 12 Angry Men

17. One movie character you’ve fallen in love with: William Holden as Paul Verrall in Born Yesterday. (I think it's the glasses.)

18. One actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie: Dana Andrews

19. One actor that would make you less likely to see a movie: Can I choose a writer instead? Anything adapted from a Nicholas Sparks novel. (Sorry, Nicholas Sparks.)

20. One of the last movies you saw: Across the Universe

21. One of the next movies you hope to see: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

If you want to play along, consider yourself tagged!

Ten Great Things About Old Movies

I had been thinking about doing a list of reasons why I love old movies. Then I found two cool lists of love for classic movies on Another Old Movie Blog and Self-Styled Siren. These lists don't bother to mention the obvious (good writing, acting, etc.) but instead focus on the little things that make watching the classics so enjoyable. I decided to follow suit with my own list of things I love to see in old movies.

1. Hats
From the classic top hat or fedora to the ridiculously tall, pointy, floppy, or drape-y numbers, I am fascinated by hats. Sometimes a poor hat is sat upon, and this always makes for some funny moments. I love that no matter what other craziness is going on, people remember to put on their hats. Why did we ever stop wearing them?

2. Real-looking people
Sure, old movies have their share of unusually pretty people. But I rejoice every time I see an actor (character or star) with some odd little quirks and imperfections. I'm not saying that nobody ever had work done in the old days, but at least the actors in classic movies don't seem totally propped up by silicone and botox.

3. Glorious black & white!
Ok, maybe this is a bigger point than some others, but in our world of sensory overload I appreciate the simple contrast of light and dark and the soothing shades of gray. Some things just look better in black and white.

4. Special effects (or the lack thereof)
Sometimes old movie special effects are so bad they're good, sometimes they are so slight that they still require plentiful use of the imagination, and sometimes they are nonexistent, allowing the focus instead to be on character building, witty dialogue, and actual plots and stories!

5. Train travel
Self-Styled Siren mentioned trains on her list and I have to concur and expand on that because there is just so much to love about trains in old movies. Shots of the wheels on the tracks and going through tunnels, hiding from the porter, sneaking into a sleeping car or someone else's berth, eating with a stranger in the dining car, those awkward moments of passing someone in the tiny hallways... ah, movie train travel!

6. Obsolete jobs
Seeing elevator operators, gas station attendants, soda jerks, milkmen and switchboard operators is always bittersweet; they remind me of simpler times past and the illusion of job security all at the same time.

7. The corner drugstore
The corner drugstore is the place to be for sharing a soda, making a phone call, or getting a full meal. Pot roast, pie, milk, and some snappy advice from the guy or gal behind the counter -- all this for less than a quarter.

8. Comeuppance
Some people probably don't like the censorship involved with the old movie Production Code, but I happen to like the subtlety and lack of explicit sex, violence and bad language that it enforced. I especially like when the bad guys get what's coming to them, although this doesn't always mean that the law has to be involved. There are lots of creative and artistic ways old movies use to show that crime doesn't pay. (I guess this just appeals to my sense of justice.)

9. Old cars and driving scenes
Cars don't have to be aerodynamic to be cool! I love the way old cars look and always enjoy driving scenes in classic movies. Conversations in cars are great, too, either when characters pull over to really talk or when they chat away while driving. Who needs to look at the road when the car is stationary anyway, with the scenery projected in the background and a machine providing the wind in your hair?

10. Use of the phrase "Take it easy."
Hearing someone get told to chill out in this way gets me every time.

Go ahead, tell me what I missed.