What I'm Thankful For Submission Thread

What I'm thankful for:

After such a very long time, I'm thankful this year for an Australian film I can be deeply proud of again in the form of Animal Kingdom.

...and I look forward to many of my fellow chewers discovering it in just ten short days.

Isaac.

I'm thankful for the CHUD Forums' constantly giving me a jonesin' for pizza with its banner ads. Honestly! No snark at all. 2 medium, 2 toppings for $5.99 each!? I took advantage of that ad this past weekend, and I'm sure I'll do it again as long as you keep it there. It's just there to remind me how easy I have it, and for that I am grateful.

David Byrne interviewing David Byrne.


It's an old interview, but Byrne's delivery makes my day. Especially when I'm having to answer to accusations of being a torture porn pusher.

I'm thankful Michael Keaton is returning to good films this year with Toy Story 3 and The Other Guys. Whether as a manic bio-exorcist, a regretful addict, or the goddamned Batman, he opened all sorts of doors for quirky character actors to lead major motion pictures without ever watering down their edge. And while his influence can be seen in actors such as Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr., it's always nice to see good actors return from exile. And Keaton is one of the best.

Patrick

I'm thankful for the fact that even though CG and shakey-cam have dominated the action landscape as of late, there are still some people out there who are kickin' it old-school. Michael Bay can't touch this shit.

Evi

I'm thankful for the Awesomeness that is Top Gear, that show makes me proud to be British.

And Chud, because it's been keeping me entertained while I'm a jobless bum.

Edited to add a video from one of my favorate challanges:

http://www.topgear.com/UK/videos/sou...Mode=top-rated

I'm not 100% sure what you're getting at here, but I second Patrick's post. (Keaton was even a highlight of Cars. Not saying much maybe)

And being alive.

I'm thankful that Louis CK's show on FX has been renewed!

I'm thankful for classic 80s go-to movies on TV when everything else on is shit. Knowing that on AMC or Showcase or somewhere that I can catch Goonies or Jedi or Ghostbusters or Crocodile Dundee for the millionth time. Proper entertainment rather than the latest reality tv shit.

I'm also thankful for Comedy Central and it's continued support of South Park, Stewart and Colbert.

I'm thankful for Siskel & Ebert always finding a way of one-upping each other with insults.

Jamie.

I'm thankful for Christina Hendricks. Write that one up. Not just because she's hot, but because she's different. I like what she represents. ... And her breasts. It will generate some hits.

Nick, what is the policy about scoops in this thread?
I will submit the fact Tina Fey is awesome, Fringe is kinda safe under Fox's claws and the fact Breaking Bad is glorious TV (the later it's begging for a frontpage article).

Earlier last week I was thankful for Mother (particularly the final shot). This week I'm also thankful for Memories of Murder, which I never knew about and finally caught. So, I'll just make it simple and be thankful for Bong Joon-ho, who I think is on his way to making one of the all-time great movies.

I'm thankful that the existence of a Scott Pilgrim film means that I will be able to hold a CD containing Crash and the Boys' "I'm So Sad, So Very Very Sad" and "We Hate You, Please Die" in my grubby little mitts.

I'm thankful for the CHUD Podcast. And the Phantasm films.

-Mike

I'm thankful for the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is hunky.

This will fuel tons of mix tapes

The Enduring Legacy of H.P. Lovecraft



I was in a frat house a few years back that had a shelf in their living room dedicated to all of the major religions of the world. There was a Buddy Jesus, a Buddha, a Ganesha; and smack dab in the middle, a plush Cthulhu. It was then that I realized that Lovecraft wasn't just for horror nuts and bookworms anymore. His magnificent, twisted brain has wrapped it's tentacles around all of us, slowly and patiently. In much the same fashion as the Great Old Ones, his name wasn't spoken aloud, but his influences were felt.

In an era where the very concept of vampires and werewolves sent shivers down peoples spines, Howard Philips was weaving tales of unspeakable cosmic horror, decay both mental and physical, and jet black nihilism. While Bram Stoker wrote Dracula with a highly romantic flourish, Lovecraft tended to write in a cold, disaffected style. That is, until the things in the dark began to move. While Dracula seems to symbolize the triumph of Christianity and Western Civilization over the Pagan and Alien, Lovecraft's work offers no heavenly salvation for his protagonists, and laughs in the face of cultural preconceptions.

Few films that have been directly adapted from his work have made much of a splash (The Stuart Gordon directed films Re-Animator and From Beyond being a noteworthy exception). But, if we were to take a look at the list of films that either pay homage to, or just blatantly rip off, his ideas: Alien, Ghostbusters, The Thing, In The Mouth Of Madness, Hellboy, Evil Dead. . . and many, many more. Speaking of Hellboy, Lovecraft's influence seems to be getting increasingly stronger in the Comic Book medium, as well as in video games, music and horror literature. Cthulhu is a character in Scribblenauts, for crying out loud!

I'm a huge fan of H.P. Lovecraft, and grateful for the continuing legacy of influence that he leaves behind. We have an adaptation of At The Mountains Of Madness on the way, as well as a prequel to The Thing. When the current popular love affair with zombies and vampires dies down a bit, it looks like Lovecraft's monsters will be ready to creep out of the darkness to scare us all over again.

I'm thankful for the Alamo Drafthouse.

I am...Thankful, for CHUD.COM! I must thank...Nick Nunziata, for providing us with the best site on the web, and message boards with more, camaraderie, than in most sites. I will be even more thankful, on Friday, if...The Expendables, Kicks Ass! I am thankful for all the chewers, but especially those in the...B Action Movie Thread! Everyone else must be Thankful, I only posted a, paragraph.
John

I'm thankful I live in a country where the idea of someone burning books as a form of protest isn't met with that person disappearing into the night or with tanks rolling into his home town. As repellent as the idea is of burning a book to make your point -- and you're not even effectively removing the book from circulation, so it's a really impotent form of rage -- it's a protected form of expression. As is the expression of disgust and ridicule towards the idea of it. I'm not here to praise Terry Jones (well, the non-Python version, anyway), but his misguided actions have at least reminded us that freedom of speech means freedom of all speech, even that which we don't agree with. We come down on this uncomfortable form of expression, the next one someone comes down on may be one we hold dear.

So if someone were to write up a "What I'm Thankful For" article that's about the length of the ones on the front page, and it's actually well written and fun, it could get featured on the front page? Or has that ship sailed?

Curious about this as well. I've been loving most of the entries on this, and have a decent idea to write up about. Should I just type the whole bit up here, or submit it?

I am also keen to offer something up, I have messaged Nick but haven't heard anything back yet (I know he is busy)

I just sent you an e-mail with a Thankful submission. Thanks for the opportunity! I hope it gets the green light.