Empire 201

Usually I walk to Moda. It only takes about 10 mins and is a good opportunity to spend some time thinking, praying, listening to my mp3 player, or just smiling at people coming the other way. But tonight it was pouring down with rain so I decided to drive. I still got pretty wet just walking from the car to the coffeehouse. (I need to find out if it is ok to park outside Moda after 7:00pm)

I took along the latest issue of Empire (movie magazine). Looks like some good movies coming out over the next few months: mission:Impossible 3; Sunshine (sci-fi film. My wife will hate it, but I think I'll enjoy it. Looks like a similar genre to 2001/Solaris - great movies); a couple of films about 9/11; Pirates of the Caribbean 2; The Da Vinci Code (??? - I need to try and finish that book). The main feature was a list of the 201 best films of all time as voted by the readers (except for me). Maybe I should have voted because my all time favourite film, Star Wars came in 4th. Number 1 was The Shawshank Redemption - a good movie right enough.

I've seen just over half of the movies in the list which isn't bad going, but leaves some catching up to do. Some of the ones that stood out for me where:

• The Truman Show (154)
• Cinema Paradiso (128)
• Hero (125)
• The Blues Brothers (101)
• Moulin Rouge (61)
• American Beauty (51)
• The Matrix (10)
• Fight Club (8)
• and, of course, Star Wars (4)

There are a good few films in the list that I'd like to see, including:

• Fargo (120)
• Brazil (114) - I think I have that on tape somewhere??
• Cool Hand Luke (77) - someone recommended this to me just last week.
• Lawrence of Arabia (31)
• Alien (14)
• The Godfather (5) - I can't believe I haven't seem any of this trilogy!

It was raining even harder when I left Moda, but I promised my wife I'd get her a packet of Fruit Pastiles. I got soaked in the process, but it is Valentines Day.