31 Days of Horror Movies: 28 Days Later

Yesterday we focused on the original Night of the Living Dead. It is my opinion that there hasn't been a better zombie movie since that 1968 classic. If any serious film has come close (there have been some humorous outings within the genre), it would have to British director Danny Boyle's 2002 horror gem...

28 Days Later

A young man named Jim (Cillian Murphy) awakens in a deserted hospital, some 28 days after animal activists have inadvertently created a zombie apocalypse. The movie is basically us sticking with Jim as he tries to make sense of a world gone mad, populated by nasty -- and fast moving -- zombies. He encounters various people along the way, from a father and child on their own, to a military base run by folks whose actions and demeanor make you want to run back to the sickening arms of the zombified.

28 Days Later is notable for many reasons. It evokes the gritty realism first seen in Night of the Living Dead. The film also was one of the first (if not the first) to introduce zombies that run, rather than shuffle. It also reigned-in much of the silliness that had permeated zombie films beginning in the 1980s. Oh, and it featured Cillian Murphy nude. That's always a plus.

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Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing). It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....

Watching The Hours

A Twitter friend named Paula has asked for folks to submit ideas for a blog-a-thon about what we think will be the classic films of the future. In other words, what relatively recent movies (namely, from the 21st century), do we think will be considered classics in the decades to come, possibly airing on such venerable stations as Turner Classic Movies ? While a number of films come to mind for such a category, one in particular stood out from the rest, and thus is my entry for Paula's blog-a-thon.

She's Madonna

Today we're going to talk about something very important. We're going to talk about Madonna. "Madge," as she's affectionately known around the gay scene, has been making music for over thirty years. I grew up with her songs, many of them pop classics. In recent years, it can be arguably said that her popularity has waned a bit. During the past decade, Madonna has put out seventeen singles. Of those, three have charted in the US Top 40. Ten Failed to chart at all on the Billboard Hot 100. We now have at least one possibility offered as to why Madge's chart power is waning: Ageism. At least, that's what Diplo (just, Diplo), a producer of some of the tracks off her latest album, thinks . I know it's difficult to be objective about something you've worked on -- whether you were the producer or the artist -- but, as a listener/fan, I have to say that Madonna's most recent work has simply not been that good. Still, we'll hear what

Left to my own devices

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