Sparkly links... and another award

So summer's winding down and I promised myself I'd go back to the beach. The past few weeks, the weather's cooled off a little bit, but I'm still hoping for some real beach-appropriate weather. This summer hasn't been too bad. I've seen my share of outdoor movies, got involved in some great blogathons, and made some new City Mouse strips. I'd like to make some more strips, and hopefully I will, once I come up with a new idea or two.

I don't know what to say about the death of director Tony Scott beyond the obvious platitudes. I was never a huge fan of his, but I did enjoy True Romance, Crimson Tide, and Enemy of the State. And of course, Top Gun gave us one of the most awesome movie soundtracks ever, though I'm not sure how much of that can be credited to him. For someone who seemed to have everything one could want in life to cash in his chips is an undeniable tragedy.

I gladly accept this Liebster Award from my friend Alan over at The Great Movie Project, but I'm sorry... I am not passing this along to eleven more people. I'm just not.

Alan's questions:

What are your top five favorite movies of all time? They change fairly often, but today I'd say they are: Sunset Boulevard, Die Hard, Breaking the Waves, The Apartment, and Krush Groove. How's that for eclectic?
In your opinion, what is the best film translation of a book? There are a lot of books turned into movies that I've never read, but to pick one example among many that I have: I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn after seeing the movie and I thought the latter captured the spirit of the former very well.
What is your favorite movie moment? Again, far too many to choose one above all, but to pick one recent example: the climax of Toy Story 3.
What's the strangest movie you've ever watched? I dunno. Andy Warhol's Empire? Not that I sat through all of it, of course. 
Has it ever embarrassed you to watch a movie in the theater? If so, which one(s)? I'm sure there must have been at least one, but I can't recall which.
Are movies still relevant as an art form or has Hollywood's mass production strategy made them something else? There's a hell of a lot more to movies than Hollywood, so I'd have to say the answer to that is a big fat yes.
Which of the four Hogwarts Houses would you want to belong to? Pass. Never seen any of the Potter films nor have I read the books.
Who's the best movie villain?

You're sitting in a quiet theater during a horror movie, watching the killer creep up on the unsuspecting babysitter on the screen. What flavor of ice cream are you eating? Scare-amel, of course! Haw!

Who is your favorite movie hero/superhero? If we're going with superheroes, I gotta say the Christopher Reeve Superman.

What's a movie that surprised you by how much you enjoyed it? The Matrix. Got dragged to see it and I thought it was gonna be just another shoot-em-up.

Eleven things about me:

I'm a Pisces.

I'm left-handed.

I have a Worf T-shirt that I first bought back in the mid-90s and I still wear it!

I used to edit a short-lived comics magazine.

The first concert I ever went to was Rick Springfield at Radio City Music Hall with my sister.

I can recite the first few verses of Poe's "The Raven" from memory.

I went to college with The Tick creator Ben Edlund.

In junior high school, I used to draw portraits of my friends for money during lunch.

I once waited on Chloe Sevigny when I worked in video retail.

I taught a life drawing class when I lived in Columbus.

I prefer cats over dogs.

A reminder: my photos from the Red Hook waterfront (like this one) are up on the WSW Facebook page. Just click on the banner to the right - and 'like' me too, while you're at it!.

And now the links:

Ted from FlixChatter has some bad movies for you. (I've gotten away from bad movies lately; I should try and find one to write about again.)

Props to John for including Carol Burnett on his list of ten people who helped make him funny.

I am totally jealous of Alex for making this super awesome poster of every live-action Catwoman who has ever been.

The Master, the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, filmed in 70mm, secretly screened at MOMI last week.

Here's a nice piece about how critical opinion on movies can change over time, using, of all things, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as an example.

Finally, speaking of Alex, I found this on her Twitter feed: now let me ask you... what are the odds that two film bloggers would celebrate their 500th posts on the same weekend? Even more, what are the odds that both of them are also visual artists, and that both would choose to commemorate their 500th posts with original art? Behold!