Belén López, Seville, Spain, actress Benjamin Castaldi, Boulogne-Billancourt, France, reality TV host Blair Pickar, Los Angeles, California, composer Elliot Jaffe, state of New Jersey, child actor Eugene Grobler, London, England, lighting technician Hideki Okugawa, birthplace unspecified, Japanese video game composer Jennifer Weiner, De Ridder, Louisiana, novelist/wife of Adam Bonin Joe McDonald, Lackawanna, New York, sportswriter John Chase, Beverly, Massachusetts, writer/director Maki Mizuno, Tokyo, Japan, actress Mohammed Bilal, San Francisco, California, musician/”Real World” housemate Peter Ehrlich, birthplace unspecified, American animator Pettra Mapp, Texarkana, Texas, transcriber Vincent Anthony Vaughn, Minneapolis, Minnesota, actor
Today’s Winner: there were two things that happened when Letterman had his octuple bypass or whatever it was. Zach Galifianakis made his TV debut, and killed like no standup I’ve ever seen before or since on TV; and Vince Vaughn made an incredibly sharp and funny talk show host. It actually saddens me that his box office success has deprived television of the one guy who could have been the true successor to Johnny Carson. Instead he’s starting to look like the second coming of Eddie Murphy.
Anthony Pierce, Silverton, Oregon, writer/director
Brendan Hill, London, England, drummer
Brent Fitz, Winnipeg, Manitoba, drummer
Elizabeth Mitchell, Los Angeles, California, actress
Galit Farber, birthplace unspecified, Israeli young girl in revolving door
Gédéon Naudet, Paris, France, September 11 videographer
Ingo Schmoll, birthplace unspecified, German radio and TV host
Leila Pahlavi (died 10 June 2001), Tehran, Iran, daughter of the last Shah
Marc A. Dole, Malden, Massachusetts, short filmmaker
Mark Stirton, Aberdeen, Scotland, writer/director
Richard Wrightson, Brooklyn, New York, actor
Today’s Winner: from an interesting group, it has to be the guy who was working on the film about New York City firefighters during the week of 9 September 2001. Hard to overstate the repercussions of what unfolded next on the minds and hearts of people born – like the World Trade Center itself – in 1970.
Paul Bosvelt, Doetinchem, The Netherlands, soccer player
Today’s Winner: for the unrelenting splendor of In Bruges, and for lately so irritating The New Yorker’s black theater critic that people were forced to pause and take notice of the fact that The New Yorker even had a black theater critic.
Kenny Chaplin, Urbana, Illinois, assistant director
Nelson Ryland, Beverly, Massachusetts, film editor
Silvana Di Francesco, Buenos Aires, Argentina, location manager
Today’s Winner: I should make it Kari Matchett for looking like the poor man’s Jill Hennessey; but, instead, I’m making it Angela Gair, because I just can’t shake the sneaking suspicion that I know somebody that knows her.
David Muñoz, Barcelona, Spain, “The Dice” from early ‘80s Spanish pre-teen singing sensation Parchís
David Potts, Trumbull, Connecticut, video game tester
Deborah Kaufmann, Kleinmachnow, East Germany, actress
Giles Keyte, Norfolk, England, still photographer
Joanne Ridley, London, England, actress
Kate Jennings Grant, Elizabeth, New Jersey, actress
Melinda McCallum, Seattle, Washington, wrestler’s valet
Melissa Errico, New York, New York, Broadway actress
Pedro Couceiro, Lobito, Angola, race car driver
Tom Newby, county of San Diego, California, Star Wars fan
Today’s Winner: with all due respect to my college classmate, stuff like this is the exact reason I’m going to the trouble of looking up all these names in the first place.
Leontien van Moorsel, Boekel, The Netherlands, Olympic cyclist
Maria Hengge, Chicago, Illinois, actress
Naomi Stock, state of Ohio, actress
Darryl Neverson, Brooklyn, New York, producer
Stacia Widmer, San Francisco, California, actress
Vlatka Pokos, Salzburg, Austria, TV actress
William Azaroff, Vancouver, British Columbia, writer/director
Pawel Iwanicki, Warsaw, Poland, actor
Zenyep Kasimlioglu, birthplace unspecified, Turkish actor
Today’s Winner: this is a total cheat, but since 21 March baby Jaya was born in Manila, due to the date line and such, part of that day in North America was this day in the Philippines. And Jaya has a pretty interesting biography, and none of these folks seem to. So there you go.
Crispin Wells, Perth, Scotland, actor Josée Beauchamp, Buckingham, Quebec, person from Buckingham, Quebec Kelly Hughes, Winnipeg, Manitoba, child TV performer Mark Moran, Little Falls, Minnesota, extra Przemyslaw Bluszcz, Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, actor Przemyslaw Kamiski, Wroclaw, Poland, cameraman Rick Mirer, Elkhart, Indiana, NFL quarterback
Today’s Winner: edging out his countryman on Scrabble points.
Carter B. Smith, Washington, D.C., music video director
Dana Owens, Newark, New Jersey, Queen Latifah
Dave Cannon, Seoul, South Korea, reality TV editor
Haim Frank Ilfman, birthplace unspecified, Israeli composer
Isabelle Poupin, Orléans, France, actress
Jenna Wells, birthplace unspecified, German porn star
László Berger, Budapest, Hungary, cinematographer
Liza Fromer, Kitchener, Ontario, TV host
Mineke Vegter, birthplace unspecified, Dutch person
Phil Paul Call, New York, New York, producer of Stephon Marbury’s talk show
Raquel Gardner, North Hollywood, California, actress
Rich Warren, Lubbock, Texas, actor
Sara Erde, New York, New York, juvenile actress
Suzan Anbeh, Oberhausen, West Germany, actress
Tilmar Kuhn, Berlin, East Germany, actor
I’d be very curious to read Today’s Winner’s stats from when she was the power forward on her high school basketball team.Also, her dad’s name is Lancelot, which is awesome.
Honorable mention to Phil Paul Call.If anyone is traveling in China, please see if you can pick up a bootleg DVD of the complete first season of “Stars On Stars” for me.
***
Today, I’m suspending new entries for a two week vacation.Much as I am enjoying writing these, I can see no reason to deny myself the leeway to enjoy a trip out of town without strings.When I return, posts for the days I’ve been gone will appear all at once; then, it should back to daily postings from 1 April on.
Here’s a little quiz to keep you on your toes in my absence.
Between the 19th and the 31st of March was born the single most famous, most lauded, and most accomplished individual yet to have been born in 1970.By any standard – popularity, name recognition, records held in his field, to name but three – it’s no contest.People will still be talking about him 100 years from now.He is soon to be the subject of a major motion picture.He is, in all likelihood, the champion achiever of this entire year.
Who is he?See if you can guess without resorting to internet sources.Enjoy the anticipation.Thanks for reading; there will be plenty more where this came from.
Andrew Mackie, birthplace unspecified, American publicist/producer
Don Bernier, state of Maine, film editor
Florin Raducioiu, birthplace unspecified, Romanian soccer player
Gary Riotto, Teaneck, New Jersey, actor
Grisha Alasadi, birthplace unspecified, German cinematographer/editor
Harry Mearing, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lawman
Jason Novak, Los AngelesCalifornia, associate producer
Jerry Prochazka, Berwyn, Illinois, producer
Laura Netscher (died 5 May 2005), birthplace unspecified, South African reality TV producer
Michael Coleman, Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, extra
Mikael Marcimain, Stockholm, Sweden, TV director
Parrish Hurley, Brooklyn, New York, stand-up comedian
Sam Botta, West Hollywood, California, extra
Timothy Deenihan, McKeesport, Pennsylvania, actor
Todd Tomlinson, Santa Monica, California, child actor
Yanic Truesdale, Montreal, Quebec, actor
Femininity dictated that my wife watched a lot of Gilmore Girls reruns while pregnant with my daughter.So I was kind of soaking up bits and pieces of it by osmosis.I have no idea what Yanic Truesdale’s character was supposed to be: a butler?a fashion designer?a spy? A closest-thing-to-a-black-guy-in-rural-Connecticut? I’m making him the winner because he’s like the person in a dream who absolutely does not belong, and thereby helps tie the thing together.
I reserve the right to honor Ween at a later time.But I confess, I am skeptical of an honest-to-GodWeenSatan 1970 date of birth for those guys.Seems a little off to me.
Stojan Ivatovic, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, child actor
Tiina Mälberg, birthplace unspecified, Estonian actress
Well, all of these people are awesome, I’m sure.And they line up in three neat pairs and a trio.But if you’re not one of these people, and you’re reading this, and your birthday happens to be today too, there’s a very good chance that your track record in the entertainment business might equal or exceed any of theirs.
To wit: I’m giving the prize today to Brad Schacter, simply because he once played the voice of Schroeder in a Peanuts special.
Derek Parra, San Bernardino, California, Olympic champion speed skater
J. Brennan Smith, birthplace unspecified, child actor/adult softcore production assistant
Jan Glud, Gothenburg, Sweden, writer/director
Kristen Conran, state of Michigan, art director
Noel Hocquet, birthplace unspecified, French technical director
Todd Jeffrey, Miami, Florida, production assistant
Todd Kendall, Miami, Florida, short filmmaker
The winner today is the man from Athens, just because I like Athens.And I feel bad for all the collateral damage that the debt crisis that’s currently unfolding will wreak.
In addition to all of its other groovy features – the antiquities, the food, the climate, the general vibe on the streets – Athens will always hold an extremely dear place in my heart as a moviegoer.The open-air theaters of Greece are just about the greatest thing that I have ever seen.I hope to have the chance to visit more of them on future visits.But if you’re ever there in the summertime, you absolutely have to try to go.
The ones we have been to are:
The THESEION, 7 Apostolou Pavlou Street
What Wrigley Field is to sport, this place is to cinema.One of the two or three most incredible moviegoing experiences I have ever had.This in spite of the fact that the movie that was playing was absolutely terrible.It was the execrable Spike Lee sperm donor movie, which is redeemed only marginally by a laconically unhinged cameo by John Turturro as Monica Bellucci’s mobster father.I dwell on this only to underscore that you could see absolutely anything there, and still have it be a lifetime highlight.Why?Well, you have a movie screen surrounded by lush topiary and floral arrangements.You have tables and a full bar, plenty of elbow room to stretch out and relax in.On the night we visited, frolicsome kittens walked right up to us, and pluckily tried climbing straight up Shelley’s hairdo to the top of her head, to get a better view of things.But most of all, you go for the drop-dead gorgeous view of the Acropolis at night.It can be seen from all over Athens, of course, but nowhere more breathtakingly than from here.
The CINE PARIS, Kydathineion Street in the middle of the Plaka
This one is practically right under the Acropolis, but the Parthenon is kind of back over your shoulder from the screen.Very elegant entryway leads up to the cozy condition of a rooftop theater.It’s spacious, yet a little cramped, because it’s in the densest part of the old city.Also, it was Ocean’s Thirteen that was playing on the evening we were there, which may have made it more crowded than usual. But the breezes on a warm summer night taste very good indeed up there.
The CINE PSYRRI, 44 Sarri Street
Psyrri, the neighborhood, is a dingy ghost town by day, and a thriving cokedup party wonderland by night.It was appropriate, then, that SinCity would be playing when we were here.This theater was trying for a more upscale, collegiate feeling.It seemed new; an adjacent restaurant was still under construction when we visited.Full bar, for a cocktail to accompany your movie.
There was a fourth place, too, the name of which I’ll not remember.It was at least three or four miles out from the tourist heart of the city, in an English-free zone that felt like the equivalent of maybe the Grand Concourse in the Bronx.Here they were showing the original forties Postman Always Rings Twice, for some reason.It was just this big wide open gravel-strewn cinderblock lot, with apartments backed right up on it.It was good to have an excuse to get that deep into a random neighborhood.
So please, always take time to catch a movie when you travel to a strange city.But especially so if it’s Athens in the summertime.
Brett Bell, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Fox Mulder body double
Carolina Blok, birthplace unspecified, Dutch soap opera actress
Cary A. Davisson, Clarksburg, West Virgina, Civil War reënactor
Dalibor Gondík, Sokolov, Czechoslovakia, game show host
Dave Angelo, birthplace unspecified, putatively Canadian porn star
Dave “The Archbishop” Smith, Flat Holler, Kentucky, skater/biker/repo man/monkey tender
Erdal Türkmen, Istanbul, Turkey, comedian
Haruka Saito, Hirosaki, Japan, softball player
Ivaylo Natzev, Sofia, Bulgaria, soundman
Jaime Méndez, El Paso, Texas, extra
Jan Sosniok, Gummersbach, West Germany, actor
Kristian Bush, Knoxville, Tennessee, male singer/songwriter
Marcelo Ferrão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, documentarian
Mathias Klatchka, Uelzen, West Germany, writer
Meredith Salenger, Malibu, California, actress
Michael Hoffer, St. Paul, Minnesota, key grip
Michael Sonntag, St. Louis, Missouri, producer
Sabrina Culver, Cleveland, Ohio, actress
SeanLake, Nelsonville, Ohio, extra
Let me stand up on my soapbox here for a minute.
Daylight saving time begins at two AM on a Sunday.Why?Whose idea was this?Don’t we prefer cheeseball spectacle at every possible turn in this country?Friends, a golden opportunity is being wasted.
Let’s say, as with the Electoral College and alternate-side parking regulations, that we accept the rather screwy logic that permits this institution to exist in the first place.And I do: I don’t object to the notion of stacking our balmier days to favor early evening sunlight.Here’s the problem.The act of springing forward bums people out.And ever since 2007, when the United States chose to extend daylight saving time so that it starts in mid-March, it’s technically not even spring.Ing.Forward.Anymore.It’s “late-winter-ing”, which is far less catchy.
It bums people out to lose an hour of sleep.It makes us cranky.It causes us to repeat ourselves unnecessarily (like writing “bums people out” in consecutive paragraphs).There are (shaky, yes, but actual) scientific studies that indicate the mismanagement of heavy machinery increases for the first few days past the changeover.Everyone dreads it, to one degree or another.They forget it.The often aren’t awake at changing time, so the resetting of clocks occurs in a haphazard fashion for days afterward.
Why, then, could we not do away with an hour of work instead?
I’m launching an internet campaign today.Next year, instead of the second Sunday in March, let’s take a look at the Friday of the first full week.Let’s pick a time in the late afternoon.It should be after the end of a traditional school day, but before the start of the traditional rush hour.Let’s say, hmm, let’s say 4:20 pm.That’s perfect.Let’s flip the clock forward an hour then.Boom!Happy hour.The happiest!I mean, it’s perfect.It’s an excuse for a party, but it’s also an excuse for the hardworking wageslaves and their hardworking bosses to get their asses home an hour early to spend time with their loving families.
We all know what 4:20 connotes now.This has nothing to do with that – except perhaps as a handy mnemonic.This has to do with taking one day out of the year to honor the fact that there are some things more important than regular working hours.This would make everybody feel good.This would preserve our sleeping patterns much more effectively.And dammit, this would just be fun.
Best of all, it requires no edict of government, and no money.It can happen organically, virally.All one need do is set one’s watch forward, and make no appointments on the Saturday after.I realize that wristwatches have fallen out of favor with the young, and that cell phones are controlled by robots from on high.But use your imagination, then: simply tell yourself it’s an hour later.By the middle of the weekend, it will be.
C’mon, which one you people born on this day is with me?I’m looking at you, Archbishop!Thanks, Winner.
And next year, on Friday 3/11/11, if you truly believe in all that’s right and industrious and free about our land, you’ll make it a point to leave work an hour early.
Eric Fox Hays, Alton, Illinois, assistant director
Gabriel Heads, Cuernavaca, Mexico, producer
Jeff Winkler, Bridgeport, Connecticut, production manager
Jorge Fabregas, Miami, Florida, major league catcher
Karin Justman, Morristown, New Jersey, stuntwoman
Kristine Kreska, Detroit, Michigan, producer
Lisa Lutz, state of California, writer
Martin L. O’Neal, Gulfport, Mississippi, producer
Miles Malone, birthplace unspecified, American porn star
Nina Jurna, Arnheim, The Netherlands, journalist
Noah Beggs, Los Angeles, California, actor
Spencer Emmons, birthplace unspecified, American stage manager
Tim Story, Los Angeles, California, director
What a great job “location scout” sounds like.You go around and look at places, and take pictures, and take notes.What could be more fun?
I’m trying to recall some of my favorite tri-state area locations from the pictures Today’s Winner has been involved with.From Amateur, there is the hazy boundary where SoHo ends and TriBeCa begins, including that one picturesque alley I can never quite find.From CopLand, there are all those dumpy dead end streets that end in cliffs looking back toward Manhattan from West New York and Weehawken.
At the posh end of things, from Birth, there’s the very specific social and architectural microclimate of Central Park South, plus its adjacent pathways and playgrounds.Also there’s the downtown ATM that requires the blood and sinew of fresh kittens for dessert in American Psycho.And out on a lesser wavelength of the social spectrum, there’s that wonderful neighborhood where the proles live like trolls in the shadow of the BayonneBridge, and Jersey Tom Cruise tries and fails to repel and alien invasion, in Spielberg’s War of The Worlds.
Most vividly, to my memory, from Little Odessa, there are all those wonderful grotty storefronts and vacant lots in BrightonBeach and Coney Island.Not to mention the curve of the Broadway/Lafayette platform, where I once plucked my own wallet back from a pickpocket.
Daan Wijnands, birthplace unspecified, Dutch actor
Dave Eggers, Lake Forest, Illinois, writer/editor
Josh Hepola, Wilmington, Delaware, person of no interest
Lee-Tzsche, Seoul, South Korea, composer
Marine Delterme, Toulouse, France, actress
Ray Prewitt, College Station, Texas, actor/aircraft broker/hot sauce aficionado
Rex Walters, Omaha, Nebraska, basketball player/coach
Today’s Winner has done a lot of good writing, and played a role in presenting a lot more good writing by other people.It’s striking how recent his credits in the IMDb are; clearly he’s a personality with a broad enough following at this moment that many more moving pictures will be added to his hefty resume.But for most of the last two decades, it’s all been on the page, not the screen.
I like his passion, and the fact that one can never tell what his next book might be about.There’s something a little, I don’t know, SEVERE about his aesthetic that sometimes I’m a little cool to.And I worry about the younger brother, who puts me in mind of the son from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, whom things did not turn out well for.
But, bah on me, that’s ultimately none of my business.I just hope that the unquenchable quality that is the Dave Eggers “brand”, such as it is, stays unquenchable for a long time to come.He may just turn out to be the most important person born in 1970.It’s still too soon to tell.
Eddy Van Hamersveld, Antwerp, Belgium, short filmmaker
Haris Zambarloukos, Nicosia, Cyprus, cinematographer
Jason Justin Jenks, birthplace unspecified, North Carolina stage actor
Swathi Bhaskar, Alappuzha, India, writer/director
Todd Taylor (died 23 August 2006), Magrath, Alberta, grip
From today’s quintet, I’m going to celebrate the dead fellow.His biography makes plain that he was a can-do spirit, who worked on some big Hollywood product, as well as all manner of dinky things, including a bunch that don’t even make the list.
I admit I’m also kind of awed by the fact that a guy my own age has died (of causes unspecified), and left behind two pairs of children by two different mothers.That’s a lot of living in thirty-six years, for a Canadian.
