Empire, a British film magazine, published their 50 greatest independent films. It’s pretty good list, though I would like to think there are a few others that probably belong on the list. On the other hand, their films span decades and I have only been watching indie films for a couple years now. Still, here are some of my thoughts:

• Backwards I have a hard time agreeing that last year’s Sideways belongs even in the top 50 independent movies every made, surely not in the top 10. That’s not that I didn’t like the film, I just don’t think it was very classic or innovative.
• Hasta La Vista Though I like Reservoir Dogs for the #1 spot, I think The Terminator is probably worthier. A sci-fi, action blockbuster on a small budget? That’s an accomplishment. The film also made Arnold the star and politician he is today. Ok, maybe that’s why it got knocked down to #3.
• The Brothers Who? I think a list of independent films without a single Coen Brothers movie is pretty lacking. I am not sure exactly how many of their films have been produced by studios, but I know they have certainly done at least one independently.

Those are the thoughts that stick out in my head right now. I think there were others that were probably missed, but thats how these things go. I have seen 11 of the 50, not too bad. I got a long way to go though, I want to check out some of the others I haven’t seen now. Anyone got a copy of Bad Taste?

I cannot say I am really active with open source projects, but I do take interest in a number of projects, including Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is not just an alternative to Internet Explorer, it is a significant improvement over Microsoft’s web browser. The fact that it is not integrated directly into the Windows operating system makes it significantly safer than IE. That does not mean that Firefox is not free of vulnerabilities, but it is unaffected by viruses that target IE. I know people who have been spared of viruses because they had Firefox running as their default browser.

That’s not necessarily why I continue to use Firefox though. I love its improved interface, which includes tabbed browsing. When I first started using Firefox I didn’t use this feature much, but now I am hooked. It is so much nicer than opening half a dozen windows. Firefox also adheres to web standards better, so web pages may actually look better in it than in IE. I have just been continually impressed with the robustness of the browser and its user interface.

Anyway, they released the final 1.5 version today and I am very pleased with the new features. They are have also unveiled a new website today that appears to be geared towards consumers in hopes of attracting new users. These changes should be matched with a open source marketing blitz of some sort soon.

In any case, I just wanted to babel on about Firefox for a bit because some of my non-techie friends may read this. I highly recommend you download the new version and try it out.

My friend and I were going over the best films of the year, that we’ve seen so far and we could only come up with two: Crash and Sin City. Both are dark horse Oscar nominees at best. This was supposed to be a better year for films, but frankly I’ve been a little disappointed. Still, there’s some good stuff still to come.

I already got my pick for the 2005 Academy Award for Best Picture: Munich. What’s that you say? It’s Steven Spielberg’s upcoming movie about Israel’s response to the 1972 Munich Olympics attacks. You mean its not even out yet? No its not out yet, but the trailer is available in glorious HD. Sounds kind of controversial for the guy who made Hook? Sure, but Spielberg is also the serious filmmaker who brought us Schinder’s List and Saving Private Ryan.

Munich is sure to stur up plenty of movie controversy unseen since The Passion of the Christ. Spielberg’s wants to let the movie speak for itself. He has decided not to do a premiere, press junkets, or Oscar publicity about the movie. It will be in theaters in only a few weeks and the studios just saw their first look this weekend. Longtime Spielberg producer Kathleen Kennedy saw it for the first time at the screening and came out saying it may be his best.

I am pretty intrigued by it all. I have always been a Spielberg fan and I appreciate him wanting to offer a new viewpoint on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis and the broader topic of terrorism in general. I doubt it will come down to much on either side, but will definitely raise the level of debate about the issue. I look forward to seeing it this Christmas.

My Thanksgiving break is winding down to the end now. Here’s a rambling recap of the last couple days:

Thursday morning I got out to the annual Haverford-Upper Darby Thanksgiving game. The outcome was disappointing, given Haverford lost 40-7 to Upper Darby. I did get to catch up a bit with some of my old football teammates though, which was good. Its the only time of the year I really get to see most of these guys. Most of the conversation is reduced to a few lines of school is great and happy Thanksgiving. Some people have turned 21 since last time, so they were a little more hungover than usual. A lot have moved on to new jobs or transfered to new schools like Temple. A lot has changed since high school, but on Thanksgiving it seems very little has since we’re all gathered around a football game complaining about our team.

Friday my family went out before 5 to Best Buy to take part in the annual Black Friday shopping. I don’t think my mom really got as much out of it as we normally do. We didn’t even get a new computer. Still, I got 10 DVDs and a couple other things really cheap. Most of the DVDs I had could go for $15-20 and I averaged $8 a movie. I have posted my updated DVD listing now on this blog. I think that drained my DVD budget though, so I doubt I’ll be getting many more before Christmas.

Then last night I bundled up and went to the Strath Haven-Pottsville playoff game. It was probably one of the coldest games I have attended. The field was also frozen, which made it hard for players, especially the Strath Haven ones, to gain footing. Strath Haven couldn’t pass much on offense and could stop the pass on defense. The final score was 32-0. I think my dad was happy to have gotten this far, but ultimately pretty disappointed with the way they played. He started planning for next year this morning.

Today was a day of rest. The children went to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but I passed since there was no room left in the minivan. I started my DVD watching with Minority Report, which was a much cooler movie than I first realized. I think I am about 85% over my cold, which is good. Tonight I look forward to leftovers for dinner and sharing my new movies with the family.

And thus ends my rambling post. I am still unsure of whether I am returning to school tomorrow night or Monday morning. Regardless of where I am, I think tomorrow night will be spent doing homework. It’s difficult to imagine going back to school, but on Monday finals will only be two weeks away. The end is in sight!