Wednesday, February 2, 2011

"Car" Movies

I love NASCAR, yeah, nothing new and thank goodness the season is less then 3 weeks away! Even with that said, I still get this craving for fast cars! In an effort to amuse myself I went in search of all the “car” movies I could find, they range from comedies to suspense to cartoon to fact based movies. I also included some “truck” movies too! Oh, they are not in any order of like or dislike and I've only seen a few of these, my favorites are 31, 43, 40, 34, 19, 8, 5, 6, and 4!


1. “Driven” Sly Stallone takes on the auto racing genre with predictable results.

2. “Speed Racer” It’s auto racing eye-candy, pure and simple.

3. “Redline” Get ready for some serious car envy.

4. “Herbie Fully Loaded” Hooray for the little guy! The latest entry in the Love Bug film franchise.

5. Stroker Ace-Burt in a car sounds like a movie to me.

6. “Six Pack” a washed-up racer with a pit crew staffed by mechanically-minded orphaned kids.

7. “Days of Thunder” (1990) – Tom Cruise and NASCAR, more than enough said!

8. “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” (2006) – Will Farrell takes on NASCAR

9. “Greased Lightning” (1977) loosely based on the real-life exploits of Wendell Scott, a taxi driver and moonshine transporter who became a stock car champion in the 1960s.

10. “Grand Prix” (1966) – Four Formula One drivers are followed through the fictional 1966 season.

11. “Cannonball” (1976) – Covering an illegal cross-continent road race, the real-life material that inspired Cannonball would later be used in films like The Cannonball Run

12. “Heart Like a Wheel” (1983) – Shirley Muldowney was a real-life champion drag racer during the ‘70s and early-’80s. This is her story.

13. “Megalopolis Expressway Trial” (1988) –this influential Japanese street racing film was banned from theaters in its home country

14. “Two-Lane Blacktop” (1971)

15. “Le Mans” (1971) about the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

16. “The Fast and the Furious” (2001)

17. “Bullitt” (1968) –the ultimate car chase movie

18. “Gone in 60 Seconds” (1974) – A group of car thieves only have a few days to steal 48 cars, with the final prize being a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 nicknamed “Eleanor

19. “The Cannonball Run” (1981) - This madcap movie about an illegal road race across America

20. “Taxi” (1998) wanna-be racecar driver who takes a job as a taxi operator. Three sequels would follow, and it’s become one of the most successful French film franchises of all time.

21. “Vanishing Point” (1971) –former racecar driver and Vietnam vet with nothing to lose gets hired to get a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco.

22. “Christine” (1983) – a red possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury, ‘nuff said!

23. “The Transporter” (2002)

24. “Death Race 2000” (1975) – the annual running of the Transcontinental Road Race, an event where drivers can pick up extra points by running down pedestrians with their cars.

25. “Death Race” (2008) – a former racecar driver who’s framed for the murder of his wife. Sent to prison, he soon learns that the whole thing was a set-up in order to get him to compete in the “Death Race,” a brutal and often lethal competition.

26. “The Driver” (1978)-Some of the best pickup driving ever caught on film.

27. “Take This Job And Shove It” (1981)

28. “Hell Drivers” (1957)

29. “They Drive By Night” (1940)

30. “White Line Fever” (1975)

31. “Smokey and The Bandit” (1977) -The second biggest hit of 1977 behind "Star Wars." And "Star Wars" didn't feature a Kenworth.

32. “White Heat” (1949)-gang of crooks uses a tanker truck as a Trojan horse to take over a refinery.

33. “The Road Warrior” (1981) Still one of the greatest stunt fests in cinematic history, with the action centered around a few drops of gasoline aboard a right-hand-drive Mack.

34. "Convoy" (1978): based off the C.W. McCall country trucker anthem.

35. "Coast to Coast" (1980)

36. "Road Games" (1981)

37. "Joy Ride" (2001)

38. "Duel" (1971): the movie that put its director Steven Spielberg on the map.

39. "Breakdown" (1997): one of the top truck movies of all time.

40. "Big Trouble in Little China" (1986): How can you go wrong with Kurt Russell in another trucker film

41. "Sorcerer" (1977): highly intense remake of the classic "Wages of Fear."

42. "Wages of Fear" (1953): T

43. Cars-Pixar meets NASCAR

Sunday, January 30, 2011

a book of books!

January 30th


Bibliotherapy, the girls guide to books for every phase of our lives….national book month would not be complete without the perfect guide for every reading mood, catagories like bad girl books, bad boys books, Inner voice books to middle life crisis books…there’s no telling what you’ll discover! And there’s also a version of the book about movies for every viewing mood!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

i love it!

I blogged in April 2010 about my point system for NASCAR and guess what was made official just a few minutes ago!! Oh yeah, NASCAR will now be simplier, 43 points for a win and 1 for coming in last!!!!! Ok, so NASCAR will still give points for a win, leading a lap and leading the most laps but the most points a driver can get in any single race is, sigh, 48.

Monday, January 24, 2011

blessings

too often I race through my day without a thought on how grateful I should be for what I have in my life. I have a wonderful family and utterly fantastic friends. I have 3 four-legged children, 2 feline and 1 canine, who bring me joy! my life is not perfect but it isn't over yet! I have dreams, I want more then a happy ending I want an awesome story! I need to take time to think about all the blessings in my life; especially when I start to feel a bit down.

This week brings a new job to a dear friend and sister of my heart, that is so wonderful! I found an old friend, rather she found me on FaceBook. I have laughed with some friends, I found a great cookie recipe, I have plans this coming weekend with my mother.

Yes, I am blessed.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

week 4 of my favorite books

Gone With the Wind- I read this book in one weekend. I love Katie Scarlett O’Hara, she is the most misunderstood woman in fictional history! Don’t believe everything you saw in the movie, the book is ten times better!!


I picked this book for this week in honor of my Grandmother, Madeline Wolf, this day, January 23 is her birthday. No she wasn’t from Georgia, she was born in New York to German father John Pfholman and Swedish mother Matilda Lofstrom, so why this book for on her birthday? The only book I ever saw my grandmother read was the sequel written for this book, Scarlett, a novel written in 1991 by Alexandra Ripley. While I enjoyed the sequel the real deal is Gone with the Wind.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Book 3

Hunters Moon- A hunting trip goes bad, really bad.


This is the first Dana Stabenow book I read and I almost didn’t read anymore of her books, don’t get me wrong I loved the book but the pain and agony Kate Shugak goes though in this book hurt my heart but also made me love this strong woman and there are not enough strong female characters in literature today. She is a Native Alaskan, an Aleut, living in a fictional national park in Alaska, a former investigator for the Anchorage District Attorney's office, an incident during which she is badly injured on the job causes her to quit and return home to live on her own with her best friend Mutt; a wolf-dog. Throughout the series she embraces her heritage but also struggles with it. She’s made tough choices and is true to herself.

I suggest starting at the beginning when at all possible, the characters in this series are fascinating, funny, interesting, simple, complex and worth reading about.



A Cold Day for Murder (1992)

A Fatal Thaw (1992)

Dead in the Water (1993)

A Cold-blooded Business (1994)

Play With Fire (1995)

Blood Will Tell (1996)

Breakup (1997)

Killing Grounds (1998)

Hunter's Moon (1999)

Midnight Come Again (2000)

The Singing of the Dead (2001)

A Fine and Bitter Snow (2002)

A Grave Denied (2003)

A Taint in the Blood (2004)

A Deeper Sleep (2007)

Whisper to the Blood (February, 2009)

A Night Too Dark (February 2010)

Though Not Dead (February 2011)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Up next Book 2

January 9 2011


Secret of the Old Clock- the first mystery I ever read, The Secret of the Old Clock is also the first volume in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series written under the pseudonym Carolyn Keene. It was first published in April, 1930. Nancy Drew is an eighteen-year-old recent high school graduate and and her father, Carson Drew, is well-known criminal defense lawyer in River Heights. Her mother has died and her father and Hannah Gruen, the housekeeper basically raise her.

I mostly read the original books from the 30’s and some from the 50’s. I love her friends Bess and George and her BF the cute college boy, Ned. Love that she has a brain and guts, she was no dumb blonde! The teenage sleuth is the perfect read for young girls. I have not read the updated versions but will admit to playing several of the Nancy Drew computer games which are set in “modern times”.

It was because of "Nancy Drew" that I have a great love of mystery books, she was a great start to a long history of amazing books and authors...Dana Stabenow, Diane Mott Davidson, Sue Henry, Marcia Muller, Janet Evanovich, Sue Grafton, Carolyn Hart...just to mention a few.

The list below is the next 49 books in the series, they may seem a bit campy but give them a try!

The Hidden Staircase

The Bungalow Mystery

The Mystery at Lilac Inn

The Secret at Shadow Ranch

The Secret of Red Gate Farm

The Clue in the Diary

Nancy’s Mysterious Letter

The Sign of the Twisted Candles

The Password to Larkspur Lane

The Clue of the Broken Locket

The Message in the Hollow Oak

The Mystery of the Ivory Charm

The Whispering Statue

The Haunted Bridge

The Clue of the Tapping Heels

The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk

The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion

The Quest of the Missing Map

The Clue in the Jewel Box

The Secret in the Old Attic

The Clue in the Crumbling Wall

The Mystery of the Tolling Bell

The Clue in the Old Album

The Ghost of Blackwood Hall

The Clue of the Leaning Chimney

The Secret of the Wooden Lady

The Clue of the Black Keys

The Mystery at the Ski Jump

The Clue of the Velvet Mask

The Ringmaster’s Secret

The Scarlet Slipper Mystery

The Witch Tree Symbol

The Hidden Window Mystery

The Haunted Showboat

The Secret of the Golden Pavilion

The Clue in the Old Stagecoach

The Mystery of the Fire Dragon

The Clue of the Dancing Puppet

The Moonstone Castle Mystery

The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes

The Phantom of Pine Hill

The Mystery of the 99 Steps

The Clue in the Crossword Cipher

The Spider Sapphire Mystery

The Invisible Intruder

The Mysterious Mannequin

The Crooked Banister

The Secret of Mirror Bay

The Double Jinx Mystery