Quote of the Week- Martin Scorsese

Wow! I just saw the stats for this blog, and assuredly if we were a cable reality tv show, we would have been cancelled three years ago. But, we do live in a world where more people watch "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" on Bravo than "Frontline" on PBS!

Today's quote of the day comes from Martin Scorsese. I guess one could argue about what is his best film: "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "Goodfellas" or "Kundun," but we only get into politics when it involves Greeks, Armenians or Republicans (forgive the ethnic humor; I happen to be the only person of Turkish heritage here in Welch, West Virginia*).

Here is our quote from Scorsese:

"Cinema is a matter of what's in frame and what's out."

SIDEBAR: Well, we learned from their web site that The Great American Beer Festival in Denver, Colo., which is going to be held from Sept. 29th to Oct. 1st is alas sold out!

But, should one be able to attend, there will be vendors from all parts of les etats unis**, including Boulder Beer from (of course!) Boulder, Colo., Fat Head's Brewery from Cleveland, and Cigar City Brewing from Tampa.

Closer to home, there is the third annual Brew Do, which is a beer festival in Blacksburg, Va., on Sept. 24. Hopefully, there will not be a home football game for Virginia Tech for those attending!

*- Not actually where I live, but it is a place that seems fairly similar to that.

**- The French word for The United States

Things We Learned on Twitter Tonight- Principal Skinner Mentions Roanoke, Va.

Harry Shearer, who has done many things besides voicing characters on "The Simpsons," mentioned Roanoke, Va., my hometown in a tweet tonight.

The tweet was regarding the fact that my friend Jason Garnett was screening Shearer's documentary "The Big Uneasy" about the Hurricane Katrina fiasco at The Shadowbox Cinema tonight. The film, which Shearer produced and directed, also shows at the same venue tomorrow night (Saturday night) at 8:00 p.m.

Here was the tweet from Shearer:

"Big Uneasy opens tonight in Roanoke, Va., and Encinitas, Ca., I'll be skyping the
Q & A at the latter, Palorma Theatre."

The film is also screening in Savannah, Georgia, this weekend.

I saw the screening at the Shadowbox and the documentary turned out to be a fairly well-done film, which features a number of funny cameos by John Goodman, that helps balance the depressing subject matter. The film's focus on how it affected New Orleans, where Shearer is a part-time resident, is quite moving.

As for Principal Seymour Skinner, I had found out a while back through Wikipedia that he was actually an Armenian-American?! This humored me because I am a Turkish-American, and for reasons why I won't go into (we only have so much time to dedicate to blog entries) our two groups have 'some political friction.'

Skinner's real name as revealed in a 1997 episode (it is easy to forget that the show has been on since 1990 and if Bart Simpson aged in real time he would have probably retired from skateboarding) is Armin Tamzarian.

In the episode in which the name of Skinner was revealed there is a real man named Seymour Skinner who confronts him for being an impostor. According to Wikiepdia, Shearer himself said that he intensely disliked the episode which many Simpsons fans apparently consider to be the equivalent of the infamous "Spock's Brain" episode of the original "Star Trek."

SIDEBAR: For my friends and followers back in my adopted city of Greensboro, NC, I also want to highly recommend "Talking Pictures," a new musical comedy by Tommy Trull and Chris Tilley who are (full disclosure) friends of mine. The two-act play is a farscial look at the early days of Hollywood when Harold LLoyd was the king of comedy. "Talking Pictures" is being staged at the historic Broach Theatre in downtown Greensboro. There will be a production tommorow night at 8:00 p.m.

Things We Learned on Twitter Today- Kim Kardashian Updates

Here are the latest tweets, as of 10 p.m. New York time, from our favorite Armenian-American (it should be pointed out that I'm half-Turkish, but I assure I would still be making fun of Ms. Kardashian any way!):

Kim: Watching The Notebook. I think I'm gonna cry.........I just had some cookies n cream and it didn't taste any good. I think I'm starting to not like sweets! This is an amazing day!