Bird Calls

I don't know why but Nicole and I stopped at FAO SCHWARTZ toy store in Midtown while we were around that area. It was huge and filled with yapping children and their parents. There was a section of stuffed birds by Audubon Society, where you can make birds sing by squeezing the small voice boxes in them. We spent about half an hour squeezing and tossing as many stuffed birds we could get our grubby hands on. We must've looked like a pair of crazy bird haters to innocent kids. It was fun.

Essence of the '80s

Liquid Sky (1982) - Tsukerman

An UFO the size of a dinner plate lands on the roof of a fashion model, Margaret (Anne Carlisle)'s penthouse apartment in Midtown Manhattan. The alien is after effects of heroin and similar effects of endorphin produced by humans when they reach an orgasm. Margaret is the object of desire. Whether she likes it or not, everyone wants to have a way with her. People start to evaporate into thin air right after having sex with Margaret, leaving her with the god complex and still no orgasm.

Funny, corny, endlessly nihilistic and beautiful, it's a wondrous experience. Neon lights, fashion, drugs, fame and androgyny fill up the screen. If you could bottle up the essence of the 80s, Liquid Sky would be it. This will make a killer double feature with The Man Who Fell to Earth.

I've been riding with the ghost

The Eclipse (2009) - McPherson


A touching ghost story that is miles better than any other recent boo! horror. Michael (Ciaran Hinds) is a sad faced widower with two kids and an old father-in-law in a nursing home in the small gothic town of Cobh, Ireland. There is a literary festival going on and as he always has been for many years, Michael is volunteering for driving writers around town. He meets Lena, a famous writer who writes about ghosts and supernatural encounters. Funny, because he's been having spooky encounters lately, with the ghost his still alive(but for how long) father-in-law.

With blustering Aidan Quinn as a famous writer who has hots for Lena, the acting in Eclipse is superb, so as careful framing and effective steadycam shots- it's all silhouettes and lots of breathing rooms. There are only a handful of ghost sequences and they are truly terrifying. McPherson's ghost story is mature and rings true for anyone who experienced or thought about grief, death and fear of losing the memories of past love. Thanks Ben, for this rec.