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....

To the beat of his own Drum

Tonight I learned that Kevin Drum has died. He passed away on Friday, March 7th, from Multiple Myeloma (the same illness that took my uncle Paul several years ago). Drum's diagnosis came in 2014, and he talked about it openly on his blog , up to and including just a few days before his death. I knew of Kevin Drum through his blogging. During the early aughts, when I started to become more politically aware and involved, I began reading certain online musings by folks -- Andrew Sullivan and, on a local level, IlliniPundit, to name a couple. Drum's blog at that time was Calpundit . Eventually, he began blogging at Mother Jones . When they parted ways, he started what would be his final online venture. So, yeah, I've been reading Kevin's musings for over twenty years.

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.

Left to my own devices

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