The Name of The Blog

Having reached the end of my poor sinner's life, my hair now white, I grow old as the world does, waiting to be lost in the bottomless pit of silent and deserted divinity, confined now with my heavy, ailing body in this cell in the dear monastery of Melk . . .  sorry, thinking of another reference.

If you look to the right you'll see Things Have Changed is from a Bob Dylan song of the same name for which there is a lousy video.  It's from the movie Wonder Boys (2000), starring Michael Douglas, Frances McDormand, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr and Katie Holmes, directed by Curtis Hanson (of whom more below).  Dylan wrote the song for the movie and received a Grammy.   

Wonder Boys is set at a small Pennsylvania college with Douglas playing an older, cranky, dissatisfied, stuck in a rut, mildly dissipated professor.  There's no one who does older, cranky, dissatisfied, stuck in a rut, mildly dissipated, better than Michael Douglas and it's worth watching.

Prior to Wonder Boys, Curtis Hanson directed L.A. Confidential, one of my favorite films.  Superb cast (Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger and Danny DeVito), story and cinematography.  Set in LA in the late 1940s.  First time I remember noticing Crowe and he's astoundingly good.