Sunshine (Award) on my shoulder

Thanks to Dusty over at the Playground of Doom blog for throwing some light in my direction and nominating me for The Sunshine Award*. It's always a pleasure to receive such attention from a like-minded cinephile, outstanding writer and all-around, good egg.

10 Questions 

1. Favorite actor/actress who is not a household name?

Nick Damici from Mulberry Street, Stake Land and the upcoming Somos lo que hay remake. Damici, in addition to being a fine actor, has an old-school tough guy look very reminiscent of Charles Bronson or William Smith and is anything but the omnipresent generic pretty-boy of modern day cinema.

Émilie Dequenne - a Belgian actress who made an impressive debut as a desperate underclass working girl in the Dardenne brother's Rosetta and followed this up playing royalty in Christophe Gans' fantastic genre mash-up Brotherhood of the Wolf. She continues to mix it up nicely doing horror like 2010's, The Pack, mysteries like 2006's, Fissures and more serious stuff like The Girl on the Train from 2009.

2. Favorite Animal?

The California King Snake -

There are a lot of rattlesnakes in Shasta County where I live. However, there are none where I work and it's due to this guy, who is a natural predator of the rattlesnake, but not a danger to people. Thanks for keeping me safe on the job California King snake, you do indeed rule. 

3. Favorite non-alcoholic beverage?

Almond chocolate milk - mmm, low calorie and delicious.

4. Favorite music?

I've got pretty eclectic tastes which is probably why movie soundtracks take up the majority of my ipod space. Everything from Bollywood to 70's Italian genre cinema.

5. Favorite TV show? 

Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986)  The weird thing is I don't like any of the Robin Hood cinema adaptations at all. This Richard Carpenter creation did it right though by filming on location, using Clannad's music and throwing in just a pinch of mysticism for flavor. Plus, Ray Winstone is the coolest Will Scarlet ever. Yes, the cheap film stock is grainy as hell, but it's still enjoyable despite this and quite different than any other incarnation of the story.

6. Favorite sport?

Baseball to watch, bowling to play.

7. Movie that most people love that I dislike?

Gone with the Wind is so melodramatic but still incredibly dull and plodding. Inglorious Basterds was a tonal mess with a ridiculous climax and the most unbelievable WWII film ever made.

8. Favorite short film?

Suspicious (1994) An urban legend-like, shaggy dog story that works thanks to Michael Rooker. Don't believe the insanely low rating on IMdB, this short is solid.

9. Passion?

No doubt about it, it's film. I'm averaging about 700 a year and watch virtually no TV nowadays. I've been getting into a lot of older films of late and am amazed by how much quality stuff I still haven't seen.

10. Favorite soundtrack from 2013?

Haven't seen any films from 2013! However, my favorite soundtrack of all time is from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Night of the Comet are two of the funnest pop soundtracks.

Blog Picks

There is no shortage of great movie blogs written, but the first two of the choices below are so good, they inspired me to start up my own humble effort.

1. Hans' Quiet Cool is an intelligent, incisive and gloriously esoteric look at the heyday of European genre cinema. 
2. Emily's insightful, humorous and very entertaining Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense delves into some of the most obscure gourmet fromage horror films you've never heard of.  
3. Brian's Rupert Pupkin Speaks features some great lists of forgotten movie gems by knowledgable guests and Brian himself.
4. K.H. Brown's incredibly comprehensive Giallo Fever blog has covered about every giallo film ever made and many other Euro treasures as well. A great resource if you want to dig deep into the genre.
5. Although the posts are few and far between both Dean Brierly's Fifties Crime Films and Sixties Crime Films are quality looks at under-seen crime films from these decades.
6. The Euro-western genre is covered in extensive detail by Tom B. in Westerns... All' Italiana!
7. A blog that's relatively new to me, but I love the choices of films reviewed thus far is Jeffrey Canino's Nessun timore.
8. An old favorite, written by the Mill Creeps podcaster and GGtMC contributor Aaron is The Death Rattle blog.
9. Mykal covers many of my favorite classic sci-fi films from the golden age at the Radiation Cinema! blog
10. Another blog I'm new to written by a guy named Jeff who has outstanding taste in old movies (sounds familiar) is The Stalking Moon.

Thanks to all who take the time and make the effort to share their love of cinema. Some of the best movies I've viewed in recent years have been because of your writings.

*S.A. Rules -

Participation is strictly voluntary.

1. Include the award’s logo in a post or on your blog.

2. Link to the person who nominated you.

3. Answer 10 questions about yourself (use these or come up with your own).

4. Nominate 10 bloggers to pass the award on to.  (This is as much about sharing as it is about receiving.)  

5. Link your nominees to the post and comment on their blogs, letting them know they have been nominated.