born 16 January 1970

Annie Donato, Red Bank, New Jersey, actress

Chad Henninger, Miami, Oklahoma, documentarian

Garth Ennis, Holywood, Northern Ireland, comic book writer

Mercedes Ortega, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, actress

Michael Patrick Schwartz, San Francisco, California, DJ Mix Master Mike

Nick Cook, London, England, Starfleet commander

Nicole Wilder, Newport Beach, California, production supervisor

Rebecca Rene Renfro, Arroyo Grande, California, schoolteacher

Rick Bogner, Calgary, Alberta, professional wrestler

Rob DaFoe, Santa Barbara, California, documentarian

Today’s Winner is Annie Donato, not primarily (or even secondarily) for her artistic achievements, but for something I discovered while rooting around her career’s spartan cupboards.

I was drawn to the user comment board for a dumpy little no-budget Troma picture that she’s in, called Scarlet Moon. There are precisely three remarks there, two pro, one con. The remarks are in no way extraordinary; I just like the fact that in and of themselves, they probably constitute one of the two most commonly consulted critical consensuses this movie is likely to find anywhere. (The other being Netflix, where it can be instantly

viewed, and where the eleven comments are equally divided on the question of worthy trash art vs. worthless trash art.)

I quote:

One might wonder what a unique talent like him would accomplish with a budget of even twenty or thirty thousand dollars.

- Ton_O, The Netherlands

I decided to do some research to see what other people though of NY Times Critic's Choice director Warren F. Disbrow's Scarlet Moon. I personal enjoyed this movie very much. It did suffer from budget and maybe not the best acting but those are not the only things that make a movie.

- Max Brower, South Cape May, New Jersey

Remember this name: Warren F. Disbrow…Remember it because if you find yourself holding a DVD with a movie he directed, so you can gently place it back where you found it with the care that you would handle a poisonous snake that you had accidentally picked up…The vampires are rather beefy looking, they eat Chinese food, they travel around, the have inane conversations, in short, they suck.

- TheaterX, Louisville, Kentucky

Again, nothing unusual about these remarks. I just find them exemplary of the fleeting, tender, oddball passions the internet serves to enflame on a daily basis.