THEME FROM THE 4:30 MOVIE. Somehow I got it into my "brain" that the theme from the old 4:30 Movie was from Casino Royale. Yet last night, when Ginny sang some of the notes, I recognized the tune...and it wasn't from Casino Royale!



Source (00:23)


And here's Burt Bacharach's theme from (the original) Casino Royale. Does anyone recognize any part of it (especially the descending string line) as the theme for a television movie show?



Source (2:27)

WHERE WAS I? TRIPLE CROWN 2008 SPECIAL EDITION

This time around, the competition revolves around guessing the top finishers of Saturday's Belmont Stakes. As you may know, Big Brown (a horse associated with Long Island) has a chance of being the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years. And the horse has dominated so far. But it has a hoof injury that might give it trouble.

As of yesterday, the field of horses consists of these ten, listed by post position.

1. Big Brown Kent Desormeaux 2-5
2. Guadalcanal Javier Castellano 50-1
3. Macho Again Garrett Gomez 20-1
4. Denis of Cork Robby Albarado 12-1
5. Casino Drive Edgar Prado 7-2
6. Da'Tara Alan Garcia 30-1
7. Tale of Ekati Eibar Coa 20-1
8. Anak Nakal Julien Leparoux 30-1
9. Ready's Echo John Velazquez 30-1
10. Icabad Crane Jeremy Rose 20-1

For this week's competition, pick the first three finishers in order by 5pm EST on Saturday, June 7. You can change your guess right up to that moment—and it's possible there will be scratches by that point. I haven't figured out exactly how I'll dish out points, but I do recommend you play this round. I will definitely consider special points to anyone who does better than I do—and in this case I will tend to follow the morning line. So at the moment, my selection is

Big Brown
Casino Drive
Denis of Cork

Looking for tips? Don't look at me, kid! Here's something from Steven Crist and here's something else from Timothy Peach.

And root for the horses to come out of this healthy as a...well, a horse—because if any of them seem to be seriously hurt, all bets may be off. (I am actually extremely ambivalent when it comes to this sport—and this year's Triple Crown contests have already resulted in the death of the filly Eight Belles.)

So leave your guesses in the comments section using a distinct moniker so you're not confused with the other players.

And, after the race, your self-scoring will be appreciated.

DEPARTMENT OF BRILLIANT IDEAS DEPARTMENT. Through offline discussions, some of you might be familiar with one of my pet ideas: a Web-based program that can identify tunes.

Well, I've learned from NY1 that a company called midomi claims to have created such a marvel. If you try it, let me know how much you like the actualization of the idea which was mine. (This could've been handy when I was obsessed with "You'd Better Love Me" and "People Make the World Go Round.")

In related news, I still haven't been paid for suggesting that Casino Royale should be remade.

Want to try out midomi? Try these tunes....

Here's Shirley Bassey singing "You'd Better Love Me" from the neglected musical High Spirits.



Source (1:56)


And here's a Freddie Hubbard cover of "People Make the World Go Round."



Source (4:56)


Photo: David Marc Fischer

CARTOON CAPTION/ANTI-CAPTION COVERAGE CONTINUES!

The winner of Caption Contest 138 (P. C. Vey's marriage counselor with water tank) is

"Get naked, jump in, and make this marriage work!"
Trent Swanson (Anchorage, AK)

That's the second win for Alaska, where, I imagine, Swanson is never far from frozen food.


In Caption Contest 140 (Gahan Wilson's covered wagon heading toward spotlights through a passd), the nominees are

"Forget Oregon. I'm going to Vegas."
Shyam Jha (Tucson, AZ)

"There's red carpets in them thar hills!"
William Binder (New York, NY)

"Indian casino. I'd say Comanche."
Jeremy Voas (Phoenix, AZ)

Interesting that this Western-themed cartoon has two nominees from Arizona. My loser:

"What did we do before E-ZPass?"

In Anti-Caption Contest 141 (Drew Dernavich's angel with big bat wings), the winner is

"Yeah, and 20 gigs more than the white!"
Heather

My losers:

"There are some things even a utility belt can't reverse, Robin."

"What do you mean, there's no Halloween in heaven?"

Caption Contest 142 is here, while Anti-Caption Contest 142 is here.


And congrats to Dan "Anti-Caption" Radosh on making Time's Top 25 Blogs.


THE STANDINGS

Here is the current New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest breakdown by state. You can find it all mapped out here.

25 California

20 New York (17 from the Big Apple)

12 New Jersey

6 Massachusetts
6 Pennsylvania
6 Virginia (three from NOVA, two from Richmond, one from Charlottesville)

5 Connecticut (two from New Haven, three not)
5 Illinois (four from Chicago—two captions by Lawrence Wood, two drawings by Leo Cullum)
5 Texas (three from Houston)

4 Georgia (includes two-time winner Carl Gables)
4 Maryland (none named Mary)

3 Minnesota (Minneapolis 2, St. Paul 1)
3 North Carolina
3 Ohio

2 Alaska
2 District of Columbia
2 Florida
2 Michigan
2 Mississippi
2 Missouri
2 New Hampshire
2 Oregon (both named Eric, both from Portland)
2 Rhode Island
2 Utah
2 Vermont

1 Alabama
1 Arizona
1 Delaware
1 Iowa
1 Kentucky
1 Nevada
1 New Mexico
1 Oklahoma
1 Washington

Map Introduction

Thanks to Andriy Bidochko for Map Builder.

Image by David Marc Fischer using Samsung cameraphone

"SOURCES" FOR I'M NOT THERE: DON'T LOOK BACK

After I finally saw I'm Not There, one of my first thoughts had to do with the cinematic "sources" for the movie. Why hadn't the Film Forum or some other NYC repertory house put together a complementary program of movies referenced by the director, Todd Haynes?

Soon after that, I saw the Film Forum's new schedule and noticed that at least two of the movies would be screened over the coming months.

Starting today and running for at least one week is the D.A. Pennebaker documentary Don't Look Back, which has been called essential for a full understanding of I'm Not There.

Coming to the Film Forum on April 18 and 19 (as part of a hit-filled United Artists 90th Anniversary retrospective) is another source: A Hard Day's Night, which Haynes mashes up with 8-1/2 in one of the cleverest sequences in I'm Not There.

Other movies that, I think, are related to I'm Not There (your own suggestions are welcome):

Casino Royale
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Renaldo and Clara
Stardust Memories

There's more on the subject here.

Here's a scene from Don't Look Back:



Source (6:21)

CARTOON CAPTION/ANTI-CAPTION COVERAGE CONTINUES!

Caption Contest 140 (Gahan Wilson's wagon train to spotlights) came down to two nominees from Arizona and one from New York. The winner is

"Indian casino. I'd say Comanche."
Jeremy Voas (Phoenix, AZ)

That's two wins for Arizona!


In Caption Contest 142 (Jack Ziegler's cab driving up stairs in stuffy club), the nominees are

"When you don't want one, they're everywhere."
Christopher Kemp (Rogers, AR)

"I'll concede I'm drunk, but you could have just taken my keys from me."
Mark Nebrig (Charlotte, NC)

"Why can't he take a limo like the rest of us?"
Chip Mergott (Stockton, NJ)

My loser:

"They'll do anything to avoid congestion pricing."

In Anti-Caption Contest 143 (P. C. Vey's businessman with inflatable doll), the winner is

"Yeah, actually there is an interesting story behind this. I like to fuck dolls. See ya Monday."
David John

My losers:

"Blahblahblahblahblahblahrapturereadyblahblahblahblah."


"Forget about the inflatable doll. Just forget about it, okay? What I've been trying to tell you for what feels like a week already is that last week's Anti-Caption Contest has the wrong number on it. But I just don't seem to be getting through to you.

"I don't get it. Maybe this is all a nightmare, and when I wake up everything will be all right--the number will be correct and all of us will be happy again: you and me and the inflatable doll. I sure hope so!"

Caption Contest 144 is here, while Anti-Caption Contest 144 is here.


THE STANDINGS

Here is the current New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest breakdown by state. You can find it all mapped out here.

25 California

21 New York (18 from the Big Apple)

12 New Jersey

6 Massachusetts
6 Pennsylvania
6 Virginia (three from NOVA, two from Richmond, one from Charlottesville)

5 Connecticut (two from New Haven, three not)
5 Illinois (four from Chicago—two captions by Lawrence Wood, two drawings by Leo Cullum)
5 Texas (three from Houston)

4 Georgia (includes two-time winner Carl Gables)
4 Maryland (none named Mary)

3 Minnesota (Minneapolis 2, St. Paul 1)
3 North Carolina
3 Ohio

2 Alaska
2 Arizona
2 District of Columbia
2 Florida
2 Michigan
2 Mississippi
2 Missouri
2 New Hampshire
2 Oregon (both named Eric, both from Portland)
2 Rhode Island
2 Utah
2 Vermont

1 Alabama
1 Delaware
1 Iowa
1 Kentucky
1 Nevada
1 New Mexico
1 Oklahoma
1 Washington

Map Introduction

Thanks to Andriy Bidochko for Map Builder.

Image by David Marc Fischer using Samsung cameraphone

GUITARCHIKS: MARY KAYE Mary Kaye of the Mary Kaye Trio is among the permanently departed of 2007 who were recently mourned by Rex Reed in the New York Observer: "They were giant lures on the casino-lounge scene for two decades, and their devoted fans included Elvis Presley and Howard Hughes."

Mary Kaye was famous for playing a Fender Stratocaster but she seems to have preferred a D'Angelico.

Look for Bobby Troup in this clip presented by Dumpsterpiece Theatre.



Source (8:16)


Click here for more Guitarchiks.

MILLION DOLLAR MOVIE. Following up on last week's 4:30 Movie post (I still haven't figured out last week's Casino Royale problem), here's the theme (and video) for the Million Dollar Movie. Of course, the music is from Max Steiner's score for Gone With the Wind.

Getting back to the Million Dollar Movie intro: Does anyone recognize the atrium in the montage?



Source (00:51)

MOVIE IDEAS AT BARGAIN PRICES! Screenwriters can earn lots of dough in Hollywood. But why labor over a screenplay when you can make big bucks merely by suggesting that someone else's book be made into a movie?

Graydon Carter did just that. As reported in The New York Observer and elsewhere, the wealthy Vanity Fair editor earned a whopping $100,000 (plus a "special thanks" credit and an Oscar night nod) for proposing that Brian Grazer produce a film based on Sylvia Nasar's 1998 book A Beautiful Mind.

That sounds like a great deal to me. But Carter had better not count on getting much more six-figure business. The market is just too competitive! For example, I offer the following suggestions at substantially lower rates:

Casino Royale
Ian Fleming
$88,888.95!

Fast Food Nation
Eric Schlosser
$88,888.95!

Foundation
Isaac Asimov
$88,888.95!

I Fu*ked Alec Baldwin in His A*s
Dessarae Bradford
$88,888.95!

Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy
Diana Preston
$88,888.95!

Mao's Last Dancer
Cunxin Li
$88,888.95!

Margaret Bourke-White
Vicki Goldberg
$88,888.95!

Suits Me: The Double Life of Billie Tipton
Diane Wood Middlebrook
$88,888.95!

The Time Traveler's Wife
Audrey Niffenegger
$88,888.95!

What We've Lost
Graydon Carter
$88,888.95!