Monkee Davy Jones Dies

I'm so sorry to hear of the passing of Monkee Davy Jones. I saw him just last winter at the PBS press tour and he was so exuberant and joyful. I was always a Peter Tork girl myself, but you had to love cute little Davy regardless.
I suppose I could make some funny pun about The Last Train To Clarksville, but instead I'll just say he gave generations of teenage girls someone to dream about.
RIP Davy Jones

TCM Guest Programmers for 2012

TCM has announced some of it's guest programmers for 2012 Including Cartoonist Jules Feiffer,celebrity chef  Anthony Bourdain ,Actress Debra Winger, Actress Ellen Barkin, Director Spike Lee, television personality Regis Philbin and Newsman Jim Lehrer.


As Robert Osborne says "One of the things I enjoy doing most at TCM is sitting down with people from different backgrounds to talk about movies they love, and finding out why.This year's list of Guest Programmers is an amazing mix of remarkable people who've chosen an intriguing mix of films for reasons I think TCM's audience will find, in most cases, surprising and absolutely fascinating."

I can't wait. Here is the complete list of Guest prgrammers and their choices

Jules Feiffer airs Tuesday, March 20. His picks for the night include the Depression-era musical Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), the delightful screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (1936), the gripping melodrama They Drive By Night (1940) and the film noir classic This Gun for Hire (1942).

Anthony Bourdain airs Tuesday, April 10. He has chosen John Ford's stunning western The Searchers (1956), the moody French-Italian thriller Eyes Without a Face (1960), the acclaimed British crime film Get Carter (1971) and the offbeat comedy-drama Withnail & I (1987).

Debra Winger airs Tuesday, May 22. Her night of films includes John Huston's film version of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana (1964), Wim Wenders' rich fantasy Wings of Desire (1987), Jules Dassin's French heist film Rififi (1955) and the sultry film noir Gilda (1946).

Ellen Barkin airs in June. She has chosen John Huston's boxing drama Fat City (1972), Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957), Mike Nichols' powerful film version of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966) and Peter Bogdanovich's Texas-set drama The Last Picture Show (1971).

Spike Lee airs in July. His movie selections include Billy Wilder's cynical drama Ace in the Hole (1951), the nightmarish thriller The Night of the Hunter (1955), the bitingly satirical drama A Face in the Crowd (1957) and Elia Kazan's Oscar-winning blue-collar drama On the Waterfront (1954).

Regis Philbin airs in September. He is set to present the domestic comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), the love-triangle musical High Society (1956), the boxing biopic Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and George Stevens' rousing action-adventure Gunga Din (1939).

Jim Leher airs in October, amidst the final buildup to the 2012 Presidential election, to present four of his favorites, including the Oscar-winning political drama All the King's Men (1949), Frank Capra's romantic screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934), George Cukor's Oscar-winning musical My Fair Lady (1964) and Alfred Hitchcock's nail-biting thriller North by Northwest (1959).

TCM will announce additional 2012 Guest Programmers in the coming months.

PBS The Cat In The Hat-A-Thon

March 2nd is Dr. Seuss' 108th birthday come celebrate with PBS and THE CAT IN THE HAT-A-THON. The two-hour marathon will feature two new episodes. While you're waiting for the big day go online to PBSKids.com or your mobile app for games and videos. The Cat In The Hat-A-Thon will air March 2nd at 8am.

Please join PBS KIDS on Thursday, March 1 from 9 -10 p.m. ET when they'll be hosting a twitter party with Random House.

 For your chance to win one of two copies of The Cat In The Hat episodes and 3D books, leave your name and email in the comment section.

 All entrants should be in the contiguous US.

 I will draw winners on March 2nd from Random.org

 Good Luck!

Special thanks to Random House for the books and NCircle Entertainment for the DVDs


WINNERS



Doreen and Adrienne, number 1 and 8 are our winners!
Please email me your addresses ladies and I will ship your prize packs. Elisesramblings@Yahoo.com
Thanks for entering everyone!

Mad Men Season 5 trailer

Love the new trailers for Mad Men. Just a teeny bit more than a month till our wait is over. Can't believe we made it. Thank god for The Hour and Downton Abbey for easing the pain.

PS Vita On Sale Feb 22

This Wednesday Feb 22 the Playstation PS Vita hits shelves. The new PS Vita 3G/Wi-Fi, is powered by AT&T's Mobile Broadband Network.

Being a member of the PS Family has allowed me to get a sneak peak at some of the games that will launch with it. I have a few favorites.

Escape Plan - I loves the retro silent film quality this game evokes. It's slap sticky, black and white, and has great music.

The new Uncharted title, Golden Abyss Everyone loves The Uncharted brand and this is another fun edition.

Ben 10 Galatic Racing a racing game that is incredibly fun.

This system has some great features too. You have the option of Wi-Fi or 3G. There are also front and back cameras, motion sensors touch screen on front and back,GPS, and cross platform play.

It really is a fun new system. It starts at $249 and will be available this Wednesday. It will be compatible with 275 PSP games on launch day and 26 new titles for the Vita.

Now I want this post to say PLAYSTATION, like on TV, but I can't make it do that so you imagine that here

BBC America Reairs The Hour

BBC America is reairing The Hour on Wednesday nights. I loved this series.

They announced there will be a second season sometime in 2012. If you haven't seen the first you better get on it, you'll want to be all caught up when the new season begins.

For details on The Hour season 1 and 2 visit BBC America

8 at The Ebell Theatre

8 will be performed at the Ebell Theatre March 3 to benefit The American Foundation for Equal Rights. The play is based on the court testimony from the trial to overturn California's Proposition 8, to legalized same sex marriage.

The play will be read by an all star cast including George Clooney, Martin Sheen, Jane Lynch and Jessie Tyler Ferguson among others.

This is a one night only benefit performance so the ticket are quite expensive. $500 and $1000. There are other packages that soar up to $250,000. If you have the means I highly recommend attending.

If you find this out of your reach but would like to contribute to the cause visit The American Foundation for Equal Rights website. They will gladly take any donations, I am sure.

Drew Barrymore and Osborne host "The Essentials"

Drew Barrymore and Robert Osborne will be hosting "The Essentials" Saturday nights on TCM starting March 3rd 8PM est 5PM pst. The first night will premier with Lemmon/Curtis/Monroe favorite Some Like It Hot and will have a late night special feature presentation of Spinal Tap. I guess they're turning it up to 11 for Drew Barrymore.

Here is the entire line up, I've bolded my essential essentials. If you haven't seen these film make sure you catch them.

March 3 – Some Like It Hot (1959)
March 3 – Special Late-Night Presentation at 2 a.m.: This is Spinal Tap (1984)
March 10 – The Razor's Edge (1946)
March 17 – Alice Adams (1935)
March 24 – The Goodbye Girl (1977)
March 31 – Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
April 7 – Gilda (1946)
April 14 – The Fallen Idol (1948)
April 21 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
April 28 – The Third Man (1949)
May 5 – Camille (1936)
May 12 – Diabolique (1955)
May 19 – Wuthering Heights (1939)
May 26 – Dinner at Eight (1933)
June 2 – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
June 9 – Jezebel (1938)
June 16 – Special Double Feature: The Way We Were (1973)
June 16 – Special Late-Night Presentation: Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
June 23 – Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
June 30 – Sullivan's Travels (1941)
July 7 – Summertime (1955)
July 14 – The Band Wagon (1953)
July 21 – To Have and Have Not (1944)
July 28 – What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Aug. 4 – Some Like it Hot (1959)
Aug. 11 – Lolita (1962)
Aug. 18 – Captains Courageous (1937)
Aug. 25 – The Razor's Edge (1946)
Sept. 1 – Alice Adams (1935)
Sept. 8 – The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Sept. 15 – Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
Sept. 22 – Gilda (1946)
Sept. 29 – The Fallen Idol (1948)
Oct. 6 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Oct. 6 – Special Late-Night Presentation: The Wild Bunch (1969)
Oct. 13 – The Third Man (1949)
Oct. 20 – Camille (1936)
Oct. 27 – Diabolique (1955)
Nov. 3 – Wuthering Heights (1939)
Nov. 10 – Dinner at Eight (19)
Nov. 17 – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974)
Nov. 24 – Jezebel (19)
Dec. 1 – Sullivan's Travels (1941)
Dec. 1 – Special Late-Night Presentation: Lost in America (1985)
Dec. 8 – Summertime (1955)
Dec. 15 – The Band Wagon (1953)
Dec. 22 – Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
Dec. 29 – The Way We Were (1973)
Jan. 5, 2013– To Have and Have Not (1944)
Jan. 12, 2013 – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
Jan. 19, 2013 – Lolita (1962)
Jan. 26, 2013 – Captains Courageous (1937)

I've created a huge list of must see films on the review app Wikets. If you're interested the app is free. You can friend me there and see my whole list of films. If you use the promo code EliseCD you'll recieve double points.

Cirque Du Soleil OVO at The Santa Monica Pier

Cirque Du Soleil has extended their Santa Monica Pier show an extra week (now running through March 25) to benefit 7 Days For A Better World, an awareness program imagined by Cirque Du Soleil in support of ONE DROP Foundation.

One Drop Foundation believes in the power of global solidarity to drive change and realize the dream of safe water for all, today and tomorrow.

If you haven't already gotten tickets to this incredible show you really should. And why not help this amazing charity while you enjoy the show?

You can read my full review of Cirque Du Soleil's OVO at the Santa Monica Pier on MomsLA.

Dead Celebrity Cookbook

I have an interview with Dead Celebrity Cookbook author Frank Decaro at MomsLA today.

Highly recommend this book to everyone, but the classic geeks will really love it!