Pajiba

Submission deadline?

How about July 22nd. -- DR

Pittsburgh is also my home...

I better get started.

Try this on bitches:

Did you know that the Slinky debuted at Gimbel's Department Store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1945? Didja? How 'bout this, honkies: The Slinky is made in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania with the original equipment. It's changed little in over 60 years, with the exception of a crimp added to the ends of the wire to ensure safe play and to stop lawsuits from parents of children who had lost fingers, poked out eyes, stabbed gerbils, and in the case of one Harrisburg incident, where a one-armed hobo used the sharp end of the popular toy to commit a heinous murder resulting in a six day Slinky stand-off with authorities. The hobo went down in a hail of gunfire after failing to impress SWAT members with the way it could "walk" down stairs. While the Slinky remains Pennsylvania's official State Toy, little is said of Roman Q. Pennyfeather, Pennsylvania's official State One Armed Hobo...

Now give me a goddamed shirt... Whazzat? Oh, you wanted film related stuff... Well, shit. Gimme a shirt anyhow?

Hmm. So much Pajibadelphia, so little time. I've got movies popping up in my brain like a batch of Orville's.

Fuck I didn't even manage to spell Dynamite correctly. This is just not my game I guess^

Fun fun fun. If I'm feeling motivated I'll have to take a stab at Wonder Boys or something.

And I don't fuck corpses, I molest them. There's a microscopic difference damn it!

Of course, this is the perfect time to start selling those PAjiba t-shirts I designed.

I designed them in that I thought you could capitalize P and A and get a double meaning! One color printing!

You're welcome!

Don't they got them cheesesteak things? Or is that where potato chips get made? Jeezum Crow, ain't anybody got a damned map or something? Where in the hell is Pawtucket, anyways? GODDAMIT GIMME A SHIRT! I TRIED MAKING MINE INTO A SWEET MUSCLE SHIRT AN... (whoa, caps lock error)... Listen, I know we've been through some tough times baby, but I'm for serious this time - I need a shirt. I really d... What's that? Well of course I've got other shirts, but this one... Well you know I like false deities and rumbling thunder, and ther... Hey, c'mon. Don't turn your back on me, sweetcheeks. That's not how we... Fine. Just keep walking then. I NEVER WANTED A GODDAMED SHIRT ANYW - I AM ANGRY, AND I WILL NOT STOP SHOUTING, YOU DUMB CU.... Okay... Okay... let's just start over okay? Gimme a hug and we'll start fresh.

Now gimme a motherfucking shirt before I stab you in the eyeballs...

"Johnstown, PA: Once one of the most prosperous steel cities in the United States has since become the least desirable place to live. Often hailed as one of the best sports movies ever made, Slap Shot has given a distinct honor to a region in need of a prized recognition. The War Memorial still stands strong a few hundred miles away from the steel mills that have polluted the Conemaugh River for the long haul.

Paul Newman (in a role originally slated for Al Pacino), along with an odd-ball cast, have portrayed the spirit of a city in an economic crisis. Not only has Slap Shot created one of the most entertaining trios in the Hanson brothers, but did so by utilizing Johnstown natives and actual players from the Johnstown Jets team. Through its absurdly comedic dialogue and real-life inspired hockey scenes, Slap Shot has given western PA natives a truly unique sports cinema experience.

I relish the opportunity to watch this film with anyone I meet from outside of Pittsburgh. And from a city where the bragging is few and far between, it's a wonderful feeling to have a movie to show off like Slap Shot."

197 words. my review is more depressing, but bare in mind, I lived in Johnstown for 20+ years of my life. you'd understand...

Man, except for "Fat Albert" and "It's Always Sunny, the television shows set in my adopted hometown are crap. Why does a fetid hole like Baltimore get great stuff like "Homicide" and "The Wire" while America's birthplace (fuck you, Boston) gets dreck like "Strong Medicine" and "Hack"?

"The Philadephia Story" wins hands down as the best movie set in Pennsylvania. It's got Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Kathryn Hepburn and other actors you'll recognize but can't name to save your life. The musical remake known as "The Philadephoa Story II: In my pants" or "High Society" had Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly, but wasn't nearly as interesting as the black and white, non-musical, rapid fire original. My favorite scene is when Grant and Stewart are drunk and Stewart belches and Grant says, "Excuse me," and Stewart says, "Huh?" It was adlibbed and they just continued with the scene as if it was supposed to be that way.

Here's my sad, sad attempt at a blurb.

Groundhog Day

Everyone has that moment where we think that we are trapped in our own life, a prisoner to our family, our job, and the routines that pacify us but ultimately keep us from ever actually doing anything. And then there is Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day, Phil Connors, who is trapped in one day of his life. For almost ten years. He's got you beat on that one, huh?

The story goes as such: Phil wakes up on Groundhog Day, he lives a little, he falls asleep, and wakes up to Groundhog Day. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Realizing that his actions have no long term effect, he progresses from wish-fulfillment, to attempting suicide, to using his misfortune to save others and win over his producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell).

It's one of the few great comedies of the 90's, and it's also a wonderful tribute to Pennsylvania. It shows the State for what it is rather than what others think it should be. It's got heart, class, and charm, even in the middle of winter, when the site of snow makes you wish global warming would hurry the eff up already.

190 words! Woo!

As the news circulates that the first photo rights of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's newly enlarged family have sold for $20 million dollars, one can't help but wonder: what has Angelina Jolie ever done to deserve this kind of iconic status? The answer is her Academy Award winning turn in Girl, Interrupted.

Based on the memoir by Susanna Kaysen and directed by James Mangold, Girl, Interrupted examines the darker side of women's socialization in the 1960s. Winona Ryder stars as Kaysen, who has entered a psych ward after a nervous breakdown (on a coincidental note, Ryder herself would implode in the limelight less than two years after this film was released). She's no slouch in this film, but she has to play the straight woman to a cast of heart-wrenching characters, led by Angelina Jolie at the top of her game. Each of Ryder's companions in the ward highlights one facet of the many pressures facing women 1960s America and the question facing Ryder/Kaysen is whether to surrender to that force or to try to rise above it.

Girl, Interreupted is far from a perfect film, or book for that matter. But it takes an upfront approach with some pretty daunting topics and it has the most haunting use of the Skeeter Davis classic "The End of the World." But most importantly, Jolie will rock your socks in a performance that could have easily become a caricature, and its nice to remember that in the midst of all this Brangelina hoopla.

Not enough can be said about the 1976 film, "Rocky". One of the most well known films in America, it stands today as an icon. Besides being nominated for nine academy awards (and winning three: Best Director, Best Picture, and Film Editing), "Rocky" has been honored by the AFI, the WGA, and was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Its enduring 'rags to riches' story, likeable-though-flawed hero, and the gritty realism of the darker corners of 1970s Philadelphia as captured by camera all go toward pulling the viewer into Rocky's world, and ensuring this flick's place in any film-lover's heart.

Few other movies have had such an amazing impact on pop culture. The famous "Rocky Steps" scene of the training montage which takes place in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art is easily one of the most recognized scenes in movie history. Philadelphia's City Commerce Director Dick Doran even claimed that Rocky had done more for Philadelphia than "anyone since Ben Franklin". The film went on to spawn five sequels (Rocky IV being undoubtedly the best) and to inspire countless film makers. Without question, this great film's legacy will last forever.

Whew, 200 words. I know it's not that good, but I wanted to try for one of those t-shirts.

I'm an occasional commenter who went to school north of Pittsburgh, and I have a soft spot in my heart for that area of the country - not simply Pittsburgh but for the surrounding areas near the Ohio border.

I've only seen Deer Hunter once, so most of my impressions are simply that: impressions laced with the powerful emotions the film left with me. Sure, half the film takes place in the chaotic rice paddies of Vietnam, but these scenes are so beautifully balanced by shots of the Alleghenies and scenes set in the - dare I say it - almost peacefulness of steel town mining country. The silences that hover over the hunting scenes in the film remind me of the silences that surrounded the town where I went to college and the open stretches of unbroken space, punctuated by the harsh, beautiful hills. There's a smokiness that hangs over the shots of the town, a smokiness in the bars, a smokiness that seems to come from the empty towers of factories that are no longer in use. I love the way this film depicts the Western Pennsylvania of the 1960's, a Western Pennsylvania that is virtually unchanged today.

Oh and good timing with the Pennsylvania theme, last week was Blobfest in Phoenixville at the Colonial Theater (you know where the Blob attacks everyone in the movie? It's also the place where I went on my first date and my dad chaperoned and embarassed the hell out of me).

I know it was mentioned above, but a mild case of fanaticism concerning The Philadelphia Story brings me out of the lurker shadows.

This is Cary Grant at some of his wry, sophisticated, twinkling best. This is Jimmy S. earnestly bumbling along his earnest way without the Mr. Smith patriotism to distract him from what really counts. This is Hepburn the First doing glamourous, prickly coltishness in the way only she could.

The basic story is this: Tracy Lord (Hepburn), a princess of the New England aristocracy, is getting ready to marry (his name is George, but we don't really care, because he's not worthy of her, anyway). Luckily, ex-husband C.K. Dexter-Haven is on hand with Spy magazine reporters Macaulay Connor (Stewart) and the delicious Elizabeth Imbrie to keep her from making a huge mistake with the help of a little blackmail concerning Papa Lord. Sexy, sophisticated hilarity ensues, but really it isn't the what at all, but the how that matters here.

You can't claim to love any of the three main actors without seeing this movie, and I'm not sure you can safely call yourself a B&W film lover unless this is in your private collection.

Witness starts out in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, which is ironic because all of Harrison Ford's police brethren want to kill him and then it moves to Intercourse which is ironic because despite Kelly McGillis's fantastic mirror flash they don't. The best part of course is that one of the villains, much like the viewing audience, is done in by being drowned in pure corn.

First when there's nothing
But a slow glowing dream
That your fear seems to hide
Deep inside your mind.

All alone I have cried
Silent tears full of pride
In a world made of steel,
Made of stone.

Well, I hear the music,
Close my eyes, feel the rhythm,
Wrap around, take a hold
Of my heart.

What a feeling.
Bein's believin'.
I can have it all, now I'm dancing for my life.
Take your passion
And make it happen.
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life.

Now I hear the music,
Close my eyes, I am rhythm.
In a flash it takes hold
Of my heart.

What a feeling.
Bein's believin'.
I can have it all, now I'm dancing for my life.
Take your passion
And make it happen.
Pictures come alive, now I'm dancing through my life.
What a feeling.

What a feeling. (I am music now)
Bein's believin' (I am rhythm now)
Pictures come alive, you can dance right through your life.
What a feeling. (You can really have it all)
What a feeling. (Pictures come alive when I can)
I can have it all. (I can really have it all)
Have it all (Pictures come alive when I call)
(Call, call, call, call -- what a feeling)
I can have it all. (Bein's believin')
Bein's believin'. (Take your passion)
(Make it happen)
Make it happen. (What a feeling)
What a feeling. (Bein's believin')

Need I say more?

A 2004 horror movie called "Brainiac" was also shot in Johnstown, PA. This movie must be combined with alcohol, so the review will have to be handled by someone who can remain coherent long enough to write it.

Nothing mysterious about PA. There, I said it.

Nononononononon Catnik nonononononononon fuckin' way nonononononononon fuckin' how "Fish That Saved Pittsburgh." That's not just a terrible sports movie, it's one of if not THE worst movie ever. For just one little thing, every basket in the movie is a slam dunk. Every. Damn. Basket. Near the end is a sequence where the scoreboard shows the Pisces trailing in the championship game by 12 points, followed by what must be a run of at least 136 Pisces dunks, and flash to the scoreboard which shows ... the Pisces ahead by 259 points? Nope. Still trailing by two.

I also have a cold spot in my heart for the bastards who filmed a fireworks sequence at 3 a.m. across the Mon River from my Point Park College dorm, waking my from my beauty rest and sending me and my roomie all WTF? and ducking for cover.

And they wasted Jonathan Winters.

So damn them. Damn them to hell.

And damn the people who made other terrible Pennsylvania movies, and there are a bunch of those too: something I think was called "Sudden Death," a hockey movie with Mario Lemieux, which I'm lucky never to have seen, and a bad Bruce Willis movie that was supposed to be called "Three Rivers" and wound up "Striking Distance," which I'm unlucky to have seen. Not all of the Romero canon is that great either.

Speaking of Romero, though, the magnificent "Dawn of the Dead" was filmed in the middle of the night in Monroeville Mall, where I used to shop when I lived in Swissvale, and where they now hold an annual weekend where yinz can dress like zombies and shuffle around n at. The skating rink is long gone, though.

And speaking of Romero again, When he was filming "Creepshow" Stephen King came to hang around for awhile, and ended up name-dropping a lot of Pittsburgh-area places in "Christine." They're geographically skewed, though. I mean, if you live there you know you couldn't get from one to the other where King puts them. Anyway, since "Christine" ended up being a pretty bad movie too, it's just as well they changed the setting to somewhere else ...

Well, hellfire and damnation, that's a lot of writing without a review of a good movie in it anywhere, so I guess I still have an entry left. Have to see if I can get up 200 words about "Martin."

(P.S. Colin: Didn't some of "All The Right Moves" get filmed at Point Stadium? And: Has there ever been a good movie made about the Johnstown Flood?)

Kamikaze Feminist: I think much of "Silence" was filmed in Pennsylvania but was any of it set there? My recall is it was set in Quantico, Va., West Virginia and Tennessee. And (really going from memory here) wasn't Buffalo Bill living in Ohio? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

bucdaddy, none of the silence of the lambs scenes were supposed to take place in Pittsburgh, just filmed there... the scene where he rips off the guys face takes place in Soldiers and Sailors museum in Oakland, found that out on my freshmen orientation years ago... haha

yep, that's the scene... check out the press interview with Anthony Heald's character, you can see it right behind him.

i'm a senior at Pitt right now, they threw in a bunch of pittsburgh movie trivia for my orientation.

I'll still be in Switzerland as of the concert date, so I won't enter, but I will share some tidbits for other Pajibavanians.

Some of the scenes for "Wonderboys" were shot at Carnegie Mellon while my brother was a student there. One day, he walked into class and there was Michael Douglas. They talked for a bit, and then Michael bummed a cigarette off my brother before he left.

When I drive home from visiting my grandmother in Muse, I pass the Avalon Motel from "The Mothman Prophecies". I invariably pass it at night, and it is the creepiest thing in the world, hand down.

There probably aren't a lot of people who remember the Que Creek Mining disaster near Somerset, PA, where 9 miners were trapped & thankfully rescued, and the made-for-tv movie that followed shortly after. Well, "The Pennsylvania Miners' Story" was shot in my hometown of Somerset, and there were all these scenes with John Ratzenberger in my favorite haunts, like the one in the Summit Diner, which elicited a fist pump from me during the movie.

Shit. I just realized you said "favorite". My first three are hardly... just know they were filmed there.

The 1993 film Gettysburg is probably my favorite offering from Pennsylvania. Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell, and depicting the events of July 1 - 3, 1863, it's a complex, interesting (as well as mostly historically accurate) film. There are some great performances, including Martin Sheen as Robert E. Lee--a man backed into a corner but too proud to run, Steven Lang as the blustering braggart Pickett, and an amazing turn from Jeff Daniels as Col. Joshua Chamberlain. There are many big-name actors involved, and even those who only have a line or two do an excellent job. Content-wise, the film walks a fine line by depicting neither side of the conflict as the "heros", but rather trying to humanize both. The battle scenes are impressive, particularly when you realize that nearly all of the extras were unpaid re-enactors. In all, a film that is edifying AND entertaining.

B.D.F., I may be the only other person here who knows where Muse is (between Cecil and Canonsburg).

And our house won't ever forget Quecreek because one of my wife's relatives was one of the nine miners. I have a "9-for-9" T-shirt commemorating the rescue and we've been the rescue site and the little museum in the barn next to it.

We used to like going to the Georgian Outlets until they pretty much evaporated. Sorry.

I've always thought Pittsburgh's film office did a hell of a job luring so many productions there, so much so that it snagged "Mothman" when real, actual West Virginia, where the Mothman legend is based, is just a few highway miles away.

Flashdance took place in Pittsburgh.

Dibs on Bob Roberts; right up my political alley, natch.

(Or, I should say, LEFT my political alley.

Never mind. I'll probably never get around to writing it, and can't afford plane fare anyway. In addition, I don't think I've ever written any review that was less than 1000 words.

goddamnit.

That Thing You Do, a 1996 film set in Erie, tells the story of a band that imitates the British Invasion style. The Wonders (changed from The Oneders) turn out a one-hit wonder (won-hit oneder?), "That Thing You Do." The movie is full of catchy songs and features entertaining, if treacly, performances from Tom Hanks, Tom Everett Scott, Ethan Embry, Liv Tyler, Charlize Theron, and Giovanni Ribisi.

My hometown: Emmaus, PA

bucdaddy, I am definitely stoked that you know where Muse is. Whenever I tell people where my Dad is from, it usually goes like this:

"He's from Muse" "Where?" "It's near Canonsburg" "Who?" "Close to Washington, PA" "Huh?" "It's south of Pittsburgh" "Oh, why didn't you say so?"

As for the Quecreek miners, it seems like everyone knew one of the guys. The dad of one of the girls I worked with that summer (at the Georgian Outlets no less) was one of the miners. The whole deal was really emotional. I remember staying up until 3 or 4 am watching the news until I knew all of the miners were rescued.

Also, when I was working that same summer, I got to meet the Grandmother of one of the flight attendants that died in Flight 93 (she had come in from Florida to visit the Flight 93 memorial site and stopped by the shop). My boss and I sat and talked with her for 2 hours, and she was so open and candid about her granddaughter that my we couldn't help but just cry along with her. It was one the most memorable experiences of my life.

And, consequently, being at the Quecreek rescue site means you've been to my friend's uncle's farm - the place where they pulled the miners out is right in the middle of a small field on his farm.

P.S. I love all yinz crazy Pajibavanians.

12 Monkeys.

Bruce Willis - insane convict time traveler - goes back in time to Philly to stop the army of the 12 monkeys from unleashing death and destruction in the form of a nasty cold, er, virus. Willis goes through a lot, chases a lot, and freaks out a lot. He follows shadows and graffiti. He leaves us wondering why future-Philly looks like 90's Baltimore. And he . . . well, that would just ruin it for you, now wouldn't it. It's a thriller. Watch it.

There's no right, there's no wrong, there's only popular opinion.

Wonder Boys

Pajibans may not find this movie worthy of an "Underappreciated Gem", but it gets my vote. Wonder Boys was adapted from the novel of the same name by Michael Chabon about a Pittsburgh professor/author Grady Tripp and his struggle with a seemingly never-ending novel that he just can't finish. Tripp's character (Michael Douglas) is known to be based on Chuck Kinder, a professor that instructed Chabon at the University of Pittsburgh.

Although the camera is peripatetic in its filming, leaving Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon, Chatham College and Shady Side Academy to view the other supportively dismal locations: Rochester, Rostraver Township and Beaver, its all Pennsylvania. The scenes are shadowed in cloud cover, ice storms, snow and rain, but the movie succeeds in not making PA seem uninviting, in fact, it does the opposite. The warmth of all those bodies vacillating in a blues bar while the snow falls outside or the sublime houses that every character seemed to inhabit. Wonder Boys pokes at your ribs, softly inviting you to Pennsylvania, reminding you to bring your favorite novel to accompany you along the way. It also doesn't hurt that Bob Dylan and director Chris Hanson wrote the entire score with a few original songs from Dylan himself.

(I forgot to add it above, but I thought I'd give a tv series a try; it was fun to write anyway, even if its not eligible)