Tony Island Blog - Sane Thoughts for an Insane World

Welcome back! Well, after the other day's fiasco with Mel Brooks' High Anxiety, I sat down to watch Mrs Henderson Presents ( Judi Dench , Bob Hoskins ) and I must say it was a total 180 in experience! It's a wonderful little film, based on a true story, about an eccentric rich widow ( Dench ) who buys a run down theater, renovates it and then reopens it, with the help of hired manager Van Damm ( Hoskins ), as a British vaudeville theater. Soon after, the other local theaters begin to copy the success of the Windmill Theater, causing it to lose money. Dench decides that they'll introduce female nudity and the rest, as they say, is history. The story take place just before and during World War II and as such the war makes an impact on the theater and vice versa. Dench does an Oscar nominated performance as Mrs Henderson. Though not nominated, Hoskins' Van Damm is just as good. Their chemistry together is truly wonderful. The supporting cast does a very good job as th...

Welcome back! So I decided that I wanted to try a comedy - I've been doing lots of dramas, etc and it was high time for a comedy in the mix. Mel Brooks box set was recently released and I hadn't seen all the films in the set, so I dutifully added them to my Blockbuster Online queue. The first film from the box set, High Anxiety ( Mel Brooks , Madeline Kahn ), arrived the other day. Now, normally, I don't rent films I've seen (if they're good, I buy them!) and I had seen this film as a kid (for some odd reason, I didn't delete it from my queue when it was added automatically with the other films from the box set). Anyway, I vaguely remember the film as being so-so and I totally forgot it was Brooks' homage to Alfred Hitchcock (an opening blurb mentioning that reminded me!) Well, I wasn't in for my expected laugh fest - maybe in 1977 when I was 13 years old I found this funny.....but now, when I'm -- um, never mind-- I found it stupid. Madeline Kahn...

Welcome back! Well, it's a long weekend here in the United States - the unofficial beginning of the summer season (which will end unofficially Labor Day weekend in September). Monday is Memorial Day - a national holiday we set aside to remember the dead, especially those who died in the armed forces serving our country, from major conflicts like World War II to anti-terrorist strikes in Afghanistan and peacekeeping in Iran. There is a White House Commission on Remembrance which is tasked as follows: " The White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance was established by Congress as an independent government agency. The Commission encourages Americans to honor the sacrifices of America’s fallen and the families they left behind.   It promotes acts of remembrance throughout the year and asks Americans to pay our debt of gratitude in memory of our fallen by giving something back to the Nation.   The Commission is also tasked to unite the country in the National M...

Welcome back! I have yet to watch a minute of the ABC hit series LOST, but I own the entire first season on DVD and am looking ahead to purchasing season 2 ! Is that crazy or what? The first season got such good overall reviews that I took the plunge and purchased the DVD set when it was on sale. I just read a strong positive review of last night's season 2 finale -- so, I'm thinking of picking up season 2 without having seen season 1! It's crazy, I tell ya! You know what else is crazy? I have the first season of Desperate Housewives on DVD and, you guessed it, haven't seen a minute of it either! I did read that season 2 wasn't as strong, so now I'm in one of those conundrums - do I take it on faith that I will like Season 1 (when I finally view it) and thus take the plunge on season 2 while it's on sale? Or do I eBay season 1 and rent the whole damn thing instead?!? Life poses such hard choices! Oddly, none of the above indecisions apply to Will & Gr...

Welcome back! Well, we have less than a week to go before Memorial Day, which is the traditional start of summer here in the United States. And, as always, Hollywood is ready to roll out its so called blockbusters -- are you interested in any of them? Some early releases include the remake of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure , now known simply as Poseidon and this weekend's The DaVinci Code. Memorial Day weekend will see the opening of the third (and probably last) X-Men sequel - X-MEN: The Last Stand. The following weekend (June 2) sees Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn in The Break-Up. June 6th sees yet another remake release - The Omen. June 9th sees Disney's latest animated feature Cars. June 16th sees the latest in the Fast and Furious series with The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift; the Lake House (which actually has an interesting premise) also releases that day. At the end of June, we'll see the latest in the Superman saga with Superman Returns. Whew - a ...

Welcome back! I'm sitting here waiting for the Wizard....of OZ, that is. Well, more precisely, my Wizard of OZ trading cards box from Breygent Marketing . This set promises to have a TON of goodies - from sketch cards to "cut signature" cards (from Judy Garland and Jack Haley) to prop cards (including Yellow Brick!), this set has it all! How about a rare card containing either a piece of Dorothy's dress or the Wicked Witch's hat?!? This set has it! I have an odd relationship with the Wizard of OZ - I don't conside myself any sort of OZ groupie, but yet I have a ton of OZ related stuff - from the movie on every major media format (VHS, DVD, DVD collector's set, laserdisc) plus a book about the Wizard! I think I might even have one of those Franklin Mint collector's plate (not sure on that one though)! Yet, like I said, I don't consider myself an OZ groupie (what do they call OZ fanatics?). I guess it goes back to my childhood - all these things O...

Welcome back! As you can tell from my entry title, I've hit a bit of a roadblock -- where do I go from here? Should I post yet another DVD review? Discuss some thoughts I've had about changing America for the better? Discuss Willie Harris' game ending "caught stealing" second base out? How about some football tidbits? I haven't posted anything about the New England Patriots - even after the NFL draft a few weekends ago. From everything I've read, they made some decent picks. I think the RB and WR they chose in the first two rounds look impressive. Now let's hope their college skills can be used professionally. Do you think NFL football is America's version of ancient Rome's gladiator games? They don't have the deaths, though they do have the injuries. Your thoughts? Do I keep posting even if I get no feedback? Do I ever stop complaining? Find out next time....on Tony Island blog! Feel free to post some ideas for future blog entries -- tell ...

Welcome back! So far, most of my DVD reviews have been rather ho-hum...the movies themselves have been good for the most part, but nothing to get overly excited about either. I would definitely recommend renting them at the least. Call Northside 777 ( James Stewart ) falls into the "wow - that was good!" category. Based on a true story , Call Northside 777 opens with a narrator explaining life in Chicago in 1932. Lots of underworld violence has resulted in many policemen being killed in the line of duty. We see one such murder of a policeman take place in a deli which was a front for a speakeasy. Fast forward 11 years -- the editor of a Chicago newspaper sees a small personal ad that catches his attention. It's offering a $5000 reward for any information regarding the murdered policeman from the film's opening scene. The editor assigns one of his reporters (James Stewart) to check out the story behind the ad. The ad leads to a middle-aged scrub woman, Tillie Wiecek, ...

Welcome back! I thought I'd share a little piece of fiction I wrote oh-so-many-years-ago for a high school assignment. It's still kind of fun to read.....let me know what you think! It's not Shakespeare, but what is these days? :) I'll be back to my regular postings next time! The Cycle Edenville was a typical American town. As a matter of fact, towns like it were spread all across the globe... ********************************************************************************** The meat clever floated effortlessly through the air to its destination. "No! Please, please, stop it!!" pleaded the officer. He moved backwards towards the wall, frantically waving his hands in front of him. "Nooooo......!!!!" The cleaver plunged into his chest. The lifeless mass slumped to the floor as blood spurted wildly, staining the surrounding furniture. Quint moved toward the body, laughing almost uncontrollably. He dipped his finger into the fresh blood ...

Welcome back! I recently viewed Roman Polsanski's Oliver Twist , Charles Dickens' story of an orphaned boy attempting to survive19th century London. I thought it was very well done - the acting was top-notch with the sets wonderfully re-creating 19th century London.The overall atmosphere was very Dickens-ian.. The story is condensed from the original source material - necessary since the original material is about 300 pages! So, some of the twists and turns of the original have been elminated or changed to fit the set of characters presented here (ie, they used the core set of characters from the book thus minor characters and their roles in the plot were eliminated or given to the characters used here). I didn't realize that Fagin was played by the wonderful Ben Kingsley ! That's how good he is and how good the makeup/atmosphere is. 9 year old Barney Clark did a fine job as Oliver while 14 year old Harry Eden makes a fine Artful Dodger. The DVD has several special feat...

Welcome back! OK - so this is a sign of desperation...but I really want to know if anyone is reading my blog! So, to promote my blog, I'm going to give away $1.00 to the FIRST (and only the first!) blog reader to leave a COMMENT! That's right, follow the simple rules below and earn $1.00! 1) Leave a coherent comment - full sentences, punctuation, etc - to any PREVIOUS entry (NOT THIS ONE!) 2) NO SPAM! 3) Have a PAYPAL account that accepts US dollars! 4) Leave a valid email address so I can contact you. That's it! I'll contact the first person to leave a comment to any previous entry in my blog (as of today, there have been no comments at all!) And get this -- you could earn another $1.00 by finding my OTHER Tony Island blog!! That's right - I have two Tony Island blogs on two different hosts - find the other one and earn another $1.00! Tags: paypal , 1.00 Powered by Qumana

Welcome back! I'm sitting here scratching at my eyes - they're itchy due to all the pollen in the air. We've had some rain here today and I had hoped that would help reduce the pollen floating around. It did during the day - I wasn't scratching my eyes and my nose wasn't as stuffy...but tonight is slightly different. While the nose is fairly dry, the eyes are making up for it! Yikes! It seems that the night is almost as bad as the day - I wonder if pollen is being sprayed at night? I dunno. According to Pollen.com and weather.com, the alergy alert for my immediate area is HIGH . Great! Itchy eyes galore. Pollen.com does say that Thursday - Saturday should be medium - whew! Speaking of Pollen.com, I was going to direct you to my home page and let you check the alergy alert for your area - but they declined my request to add their Alergy Alert script to my Web site. Why, you ask? Well, it's quite simple - they claim I don't have a Web site....hmmmmm...click t...

Welcome back! As I mentioned in my last post, I picked up a copy of Blogging for Dummies -- and am still slogging thru it. It's a really good read and most likely I'll read the whole thing cover-to-cover! Not to sound like a shill for the "Dummies" publisher, but I do enjoy their books - mind you, I haven't read a lot of them, but they are useful to get a good, quick grounding on a particular subject. I remember buying the HTML for Dummies book a few years ago - it was a good breezy read and got me up and running in no time. I do like the light hearted manner in which they are written - the interesting thing being that they are mostly written by different authors, so I assume maintaining that light-hearted approach takes some effort on the editor's part. The only problem I find with them is that they don't make great reference books after you have the material down pat (ie, when you're ready for the next level). But for going from novice to beginner, t...

Welcome back! I'm back, too! Took a small breather from posting - a chance to recompose myself (no pun intended!) and figure out where Tony Island Blog is headed. I also picked up a copy of Blogging for Dummies (really, I did!) - so hopefully that will give me a better handle on this blogging thing! I wasn't sitting around either - I watched a few DVDs, some of which I'll mention in more detail next time. And....I indulged in my guilty pleasure by watching CBS' "Dynasty Reunion: Catfights & Caviar" on Tuesday night! Did you see it? If so, post your comments! OK - this was just a quick post to let you know I'm alive. Thanks again for stopping by - don't forget to leave a comment before you surf away - and add our RSS feed to your RSS reader! Tags: Dynasty , Joan Collins , Linda Evans , John Forsythe Powered by Qumana