Bonus Road Trip- (6 of 10) Springfield, Vt., to Springfield, Mass.

First of all, our apologies to Stephen Colbert and Morgan Spurlock. We were unable to put Colbert's, a political humorist/actor, and Spurlock's names into the tags from our last blog, so we will just simply, arbitrarly mention them here.

Today, we compare the relatively short distance between Springfield, Mass., home to the Basketball Hall of Fame, to Springfield, Vermont, which actually beat out all Springfields to host the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie" in 2007. Since many believe that the Springfield in "The Simpsons" is modeled after Springfield, Mass. (though that is never mentioned), many in basketball town were disappointed.

But, the premiere screening of the film took place in a historic old cinema in Springfied, Vt., which was pleasantly pleased with the publicity.

There are also Springfields in Illinois, Missouri, Virginia, Kentucky and...ahhh, I'm getting a headache!

Of course, if one were to take this short drive, they would probably want to go in a school bus, but they may not want a person like Otto Mann, (hmmm, I wonder if this is a joke about the Ottoman Empire; I am a Turkish-American, so I suppose I should be humored or annoyed by this. Ironically, Principal Skinner is an Armenian-American!), who is voiced by the great Harry Shearer.

Shearer, who is not only known for voicing Otto and Principal Skinner, but his great acting in the 1985 cult classic "This is Spinal Tap!," recently showed his serious side with a documentary called "The Big Uneasy" about the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. Shearer is a part-time resident of New Orleans.

So, is the distance between these two zip codes?:

A) 1 hour, 20 minutes

B) 1 hour, 30 minutes

C) 1 hour, 40 minutes

D) 1 hour, 55 minutes

E) 2 hours, 10 minutes

SIDEBAR: Alas, the University of North Carolina Tarheels women's volleyball team fell to Pepperdine University on the host school's home floor in Malibu, Calif., late last night (eastern time). The score for the Waves was 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-22), but junior Emily McGee of the 'Heels scared 18 kills; for her career, she now has 1,0004 kills in NCAA play.

SIDEBAR 2: Yes, it does appear that presidential campaign of fringe, far-right Republican candidate Herman Cain is now over with. But, we saw a tweet from "The Huffington Post" which said the former Godfather's Pizza baron, who has not admitted to infedelity or sexual harrassments charges, allegedly did fess up to quoting Pokemon in various campaign speeches.

Ten Films to Look for on DVD

I have combed through the last two issues of "Film Comment" and there is some great stuff that is coming out. Alas, Netflix made a highly unpopular decision yesterday to arbitrarily raise prices considerably. 72 percent of those surveyed said they disagreed with the company's move in an AOL survey. An exceptional article by Jonathan A. Knee in the current issue of "The Atlantic" illustrated how the company has grown massively, thanks largely to online streaming. According to Knee, the company now has 23 million subsribers, up from nine million in 2008, and Netflix is projected to make $3 billion this year.

Among the films I've chosen here are teh ultra-violent cult film "Hobo with a Shotgun" and the very depressing film "Another Year." I went with the image of anti-depressants for Mike Leigh films because I had technical problems with an image of a very big tree in Bursa, Turkey, that I was intending to use for the film (the poster for "Another Year" featured a big tree).

We also recommend the disturbing, but brilliant documentary "Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story" that I saw on the Sundance Channel a few years ago; a tank features prominently in the film.

And, since Morgan Spurloc's new film "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" is a documentary that examines product-placements in films, we just had to post an image of a Mars bar.

1. "Marwencol" (2010. doc. dir- Jeff Malmberg)

2. "Another Year" (2010. dir- Mike Leigh)

3. "Somewhere" (2010. dir- Sofia Coppola)

4. "Hobo with a Shotgun" (2010. dir-Jason Eisener)

5. "Cul de Sac: A Suburban War Story" (2002. doc. dir-Garrett Scott).

6. "How I Ended the Summer" (2010. Russia. dir-Alexie Popogrebsky)- Sarah Mankoff highly recommended this film in the May/June issue of "Film Comment."

7. "David Holzman's Diary" (1967. dir- Jim McBride)_ This is a brilliant experimental art film, which is perhaps in my top 100.

8. "Police Adjective" (2009. Romania. dir-Corneilu Porumbaiu). Romania has been making some surprsingly exceptional films, including this one, lately.

9. "Damnation Alley" (1977. dir-Jack Smight).

10. "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" (2011. doc. dir-Morgan Spurlock).

Things We Leaarned on Google Today_ It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

Actually, it was slightly longer than 20 years ago today, but the first McDonald's opened in Moscow in February of 1990 pre-dating both the end of the USSR as we know it and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The McDonald's at Pushkin Square in Moscow is the world's busiest as it serves up 30,000 customers a day! The fast food giant now operates in 37 cities across Russia.

I also saw a McDonald's in Baku, Azerbaijan, when I was there in 2008. Ironically, I actually liked the food at Misha's Cafe a lot better. The cafe which served Russian food is named after the 1980 Olympic mascot bear, pictured above.

Also, I must profess that I thought I was going to have heart attack (I am only 41 years old, but Dick Cheney* had his first heart attack at age 37), after I dined on a Quarter Pounder combo at a McDonald's in Virginia (yeah, we're not mentioning the town, sorry!). The incident in which my blood pressure went up 35-40 points reminded of the documentary film "Supersize Me" by Morgan Spurlock, who is only a few months younger than me (we were both born in 1970). And, Spurlock is originally from Beckley, West Virginia, which is relatively close to Roanoke, Va., where I am from. His new film "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold" about product placement should be in theatres soon.

I should mention that I am craving Milk Duds right now, those things are great for sore throats!

Incidentally, we were originally hoping to ask Google how many McDonald's there were in Moscow, Russia, and we never got an exact answer. However, we did go on the company's web site, and find that there were apparently two McD's in Moscow, Idaho!

*-This does not mean I liked him as veep/president.