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Ed Bagley's Articles Display Category|Title|Newest|Oldest "Tipping the Velvet" Is First Alternative Lifestyle Film with an Educational Message - Part 2 Based on Sarah Waters' acclaimed debut novel, Tipping the Velvet was adapted by Andrew Davies, an Emmy award-winning British screenwriter who has also written "Doctor Zhivago", "Bridget Jone's Diary", "Sense and Sensibility", "Vanity Fair" and "Pride and Prejudice". Davies is a very talented heavyweight. "Tipping the Velvet" Is First Alternative Lifestyle Film with an Educational Message - Part 1 "Tipping the Velvet" is what some viewers would consider a terrible film about a sinful, raunchy lifestyle, and what I would consider an excellent film despite any apparent raunchiness. The BBC brought this controversial movie to a 5-millon strong mainstream television audience in England. Tipping the Velvet is an incredibly unusual firm because you rarely, if ever, see an alternative lifestyle movie with a happy ending. "The Quiet Man" Is a Love Story Set in the Emerald Isle of Ireland No one ever said that filmmaking was easy, only that it could be very good and sometimes enduring, as in "The Quiet Man", starring John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara with legendary Director John Ford. The Quiet Man was the first American feature to be filmed in Ireland's picturesque countryside. Ford earned his 4th and last Best Director Oscar for The Quiet Man in 1952. See the film and understand why this love story will touch your heart. "Nanny McPhee" - An Excellent Movie with Magic and a Message for Children In an entertainment world full of trashy and violent video games and movies, Nanny McPhee is everything good about movies for children. You and your children can watch this film without fear of unpleasant and unwanted garbage rooted in sensationalism for ratings and greed. Nanny McPhee is an excellent film with a wonderful message for all children to recognize and understand. "A Lot Like Love" Is Light Enough to Fly Away and Never Be Missed "A Lot Like Love" chronicles the indecision of two young adults who are misguided and muddled in both their careers and love life. They haul off and do nothing with themselves and then wonder why they are not happy. No wonder they are confused about love. They deserve each other. See this film once and move on. Movie History: If You Thought "Titanic" Was the Largest Grossing Film in the U. S., Think Again A lot of moviegoers think that "Titanic" is the largest grossing domestic film of all time, topping $600+ million in revenue following its release in 1997. Titanic, while No. 1 in actual dollars generated, is only No. 6 when adjusted for inflation. Learn the real No. 1 largest grossing domestic film in moviemaking history in this article. A Disturbing Trend in Our Society: The Lack of Trust in Our Institutions - Part 2 The lack of trust for institutions in our society may be reaching epidemic levels. A recent survey shows trust in banks and financial institutions has dropped from 35% to 28% in 40 years, major companies from 26% to 17%, the nation's press from 24% to 9%, educational institutions from 36% to 27%, and organized religion from 35% to 24%. Learn why this is happening. A Disturbing Trend in Our Society: The Lack of Trust in Our Institutions - Part 1 The lack of trust for institutions in our society may be reaching epidemic levels. A recent survey shows trust in banks and financial institutions has dropped from 35% to 28% in 40 years, major companies from 26% to 17%, the nation's press from 24% to 9%, educational institutions from 36% to 27%, and organized religion from 35% to 24%. Learn why this is happening. "A Man for All Seasons" Demonstrates What Integrity Should Be in the Middle Ages and Now A Man for All Seasons poses the question: What would a man sacrifice for his principles? When Henry VIII seeks approval to divorce his wife and marry Anne Boleyn, his new Chancellor and Cardinal—Sir Thomas More—stands in his way. In the end, Sir Thomas becomes the only person in England who will die for his principles. A Man for All Seasons won 6 Oscars at the 1967 Academy Awards. "Ryan's Daughter" Is a Love Triangle with Passion, Adultery, Rebellion and a Village Idiot "Ryan's Daughter" is a love story that evolves into a love triangle set in the epic splendor of an isolated village on Ireland's scenic Dingle Peninsula. Like all love triangles, it ends in a disaster that becomes a tragedy. Cinematographer Freddie Young captures the raw beauty of Ireland with its ocean cliffs, green countryside, lazy pastures and hidden forest love nest. He won an Oscar for his filming. College Football - If You Thought SEC Was the Toughest NCAA Conference, Think Again There is so much buzz and hype about the Southeast Conference—better known as the SEC—you would think there are no other NCAA football conferences that can compare. I did a little investigating into the strength of schedule for the various conferences. Turns out that the toughest conference is not the SEC, it is the Pac 10. Find out why. College Football - How to Ferret Out Which Teams Are Rising and Falling in the Polls Many sports fans who anxiously await the release of the weekly football polls really miss one of the best parts of the poll when searching only to see where their favorite is ranked. Many newspapers and online services list only the Top 25 picks. You have to dig a little deeper to discover which teams received votes but not enough votes to make it into the Top 25. Where to find the rest of the poll. The Sagarin College Football Ratings: What They Are, How to Read Them and What to Do With Them While betting on sports is only legal in a few places in the United States, such as Las Vegas, millions of office workers are involved in sports pools every week now that the football season has arrived. For those who wager, it may be helpful to put some science on your side when you wager, and one of the best places to do that is with the Sagarin College Football Ratings. Here is what you need to know. "Lost in Translation" Makes the Meaning of Life Sound Elusive "Lost in Translation" was written and directed by Sofia Coppola and won enough awards to fill a grocery cart. Seeing this film, I would not have guessed it would have won so many awards. I gave this film an average rating rather than a good or excellent rating. I wanted real substance in this film and I was left wanting. Learn why in my review. Facts About the Second Most Controversial Topic in America - The First Is Abortion Many who read the title to this article might think that the second most controversial topic in America today is whether the United States should continue its war in Iraq. Those who thought that would be, in fact, dead wrong. This article is really about facts, not about our involvement in trying to make Iraq and its people adopt a democratic society, but to revisit the place God occupies in our public institutions and in our society. Nancy Meyers Comes Up With a Winner: A Romantic Comedy that Really Works Christmas is coming soon and everybody is busy getting ready for another holiday season. A movie can be great comic relief. We want to be entertained and interested by a story that keeps us attentive and has a happy ending. Nancy Meyers delivers what we need as the writer/director of "The Holiday", a romantic comedy with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Jack Black and Eli Wallach. "Breakfast on Pluto" Is Really Not About an Alien from Outer Space "Breakfast on Pluto" is a gender preference movie about a boy who really wants to be a girl, and settles for being a transvestite trying to find a place in a world that curses his very existence. I endured Boys Don't Cry and Transamerica and am pleased to say I did not have to endure Breakfast on Pluto. I think that Neil Jordan is the reason why. This film is worth viewing for its message: to thine ownself be true. Want a Six-Figure Income Without Getting a College Degree of Any Kind? Here Is How I have a client making $350,000 a year with a high school diploma. I have another client making $144,000 who is a high school graduate with two additional years of technical training. A third client is making $250,000 with a high school diploma only. If you are a high school graduate and have zero interest in getting a bachelor's degree at this point in your work career: go into sales if you have any people skills or personality. "Transamerica" Transsexual Tale Misses Opportunity to Inform and Educate Viewers There are easier films to review than productions involving alternative life styles, and Transamerica is an example. It is one thing to make a comedy or romantic comedy with no other purpose than to entertain viewers, it is quite another to tackle a difficult, controversial subject without assuming some responsibility for making its presentation a positive, productive impact upon viewers. To do less is entertaining but useless. Who Has Had the Greatest Influence on Your Life and Why? A lot of us remember our mother, and for good reason. I would never hesitate to talk about the most important person in my life, my mother. She was the biggest backer that I ever had. She was not a movie star, she was not famous, and she was not rich. She simply had the most important job in the world, she was a mother. There will be no greater calling, and there will be no greater reward. You Cannot Forget Captain Jack Sparrow, But National Treasure Is One Heck of a Hunt It took an inordinately long time for movie land to bring us a modern day treasure hunt worth watching, but Director Jon Turteltaub delivered big time in National Treasure, the story of a secret treasure that crosses the centuries. National Treasure is full of obscure clues. National Treasure stays focused on the clues with the actors not upstaging the treasure hunt story line. Nick Saban: A Great College Football Coach Who Might Bring Alabama Back to Greatness Nick Saban recently became the University of Alabama football coach by signing the richest contract ever awarded to a college football coach: 8 years for $32 million. Ah, it is good to be Nick Saban in Alabama today. Now he must win and win big, something he has been able to do at other college coaching positions at Toledo, Michigan State and LSU (Louisiana State). Running - There is an Inescapable Correlation Between Weight and Cardiovascular Efficiency - Part 5 Lifelong runners like myself who have been training and competing forever (47 years plus) know that there is an inescapable correlation between your weight and your cardiovascular efficiency. Essentially, when you lose 10% of your body weight, you increase your cardiovascular efficiency 10%. Learn why in this article. Running - How Popular Running Magazines Are Constantly Giving Very Poor Diet Advice - Part 4 Running magazines are great for recommending one-type-fits-all diets for runners, but they are dead wrong and their O blood type readers who follow their advice will not benefit from their recommendations. I used to swear by the advice of running magazines, and now I swear at their diet advice, especially regarding diets for runners. Learn why in this article. Baseball - Tom Glavine, Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Craig Biggio All Reach Milestones - Part 1 It has been a year of milestones for Major League Baseball. From Tom Glavine to Barry Bonds to Alex Rodriguez to Craig Biggio the records have been piling up like poker chips in a major tournament. Glavine won his 300th game, Bonds captured the career major league home run record, A-Rod (Rodriguez) hit his 500th career homer, and Biggio picked up his 3,000th hit. Check their stats. All are headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Pride and Prejudice Among 5 Films That Are Just Terrible Pride and Prejudice is among 5 flims that are just terrible. They include Pride and Prejudice (with Keira Knightly, who was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar), Punch-Drunk Love (with Adam Sandler), The Royal Tenenbaums (with Gene Hackman), Rumor Has It (with Jennifer Aniston) and Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Farley (which leaves out much of the best of Chris Farley). 2 Weird Films That Have Stood the Test of Time: "Drag Queens in the Desert" and "Rocky Horror" What would Hollywood be without its share of bitchy, catty, gaudy, outrageous and crazy films? Two examples are "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and "The Rocky Horror Picture "Show". Both of these films have a very limited audience because they are more negative than positive and have few redeeming qualities. Your Credit Score: FICO Plans to Eliminate Authorized Credit Card User Accounts - Part 3 For years young adults with no credit history, limited credit history or blemished credit history have worked around the problem by having someone with good credit—usually a parent, spouse or good friend—added as an authorized user to their credit card. All of this is about to end as Fair Isaac (the developer of the FICO credit score) will create a new scoring formula to eliminate the authorized user tactic. Your Credit Score: 6 Actions You Can Take To Improve Your Contract Terms - Part 2 The three top credit reporting agencies were too cheap to offer a toll-free line and better service on their own, and would not even continue to maintain the toll-free line system they were ordered to implement unless faced with prosecution by the Federal Trade Commission. Here are 6 things you can do to help protect yourself and your credit score. Your Credit Score: How It Can Cost You Thousands More on Your Mortgage - Part 1 A sharp rise in the delinquency of subprime mortgages has caused lenders to tighten up their standards and actually reject applications. Should you attempt to refinance your present mortgage or seek a new mortgage, your credit score has become more critical to your loan approval. Can it make a difference? Yes, it can make a significant difference in payment. Find out how and why. "Ed Wood" Is a Very Strange Movie About a Very Strange Real Life Director "Ed Wood" is a biographical movie about Edward D. Wood, Jr. who has been dubbed the worst director in the history of filmmaking. The movie depicts the life of Ed Wood in the 1950s and shows Wood as a very determined director with virtually no financial backing and no real talent. Wood liked to direct really bad films and enjoyed dressing as a woman on the set. Johnny Depp stars as Ed Wood. Arthur Lydiard, the World's Greatest Middle Distance Coach, on How to Train Effectively As a lifelong runner, master's and senior competitor in track, I have read hundreds of stories on techniques addressing specific aspects of training. It was not until I bought and read Running, The Lydiard Way that training philosophy became more important than individual workouts to achieve specific results. Lydiard's work is a textbook not only on his philosophy of running but also on the physiology of exercise. "The Departed" Is Best Mob Film Since Mario Puzo's "The Godfather" in 1972 Let me get to the most important thing first: Director Martin Scorsese won an Oscar for "The Departed". Scorsese, one of the most accomplished directors of our era, has been nominated for 7 Oscars—5 for Best Director and 2 for Best Screenplay—before winning with The Departed. The Departed is simply the best mob film since Mario Puzo's original Godfather in 1972. NAACP Decides to Symbolically Bury the "N" Word in a Major Move Forward The NAACP has put to rest a long-standing expression of racism by symbolically burying the "n" word in a ceremony. The NAACP recognized that the very word that was being buried is also used by blacks when referring to other blacks, especially in comedy routines, rap and hip-hop music. The move could potentially do more for race relations than anything in recent years. American Consumers Are Short on Discipline When it Comes to Parting With Their Income Like a 4-year-old child at the checkout counter in a supermarket, American consumers want just one more impulse buy to make their buying day complete, and apparently the more expensive it is, the better. All of this impulse buying is detailed in a recent USA Today article with this headline: "Spending is hotter than the 4th of July". And indeed it apparently is, but is this good cash management? Loss of Odor Perception Might Signal Alzheimer's Imagine my recoil when I read the above Associated Press headline recently: The story went on to detail the first study that linked loss of smell to Alzheimer's. Difficulty identifying odors was associated with a higher risk of progressing from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's. As someone with very little sense of smell and taste, perhaps I should be worried. Could You Be a Fan for a Team That Loses 10,000 Baseball Games? Philadelphia Phillies' fans are arguably the least patient and most volatile in baseball, and I know why. A report in USA Today (7-3-07) notes that the Phillies are on the verge of becoming the first pro sports franchise to record 10,000 losses. They had 9,996 losses as of July 3, 2007. The next nearest teams in losses are the Atlanta Braves (9,675) and Chicago Cubs (9,421). I would have guessed the Cubs but not the Braves. The Apparent Murder-Suicide of Chris Benoit Really Creates More Questions Than Answers News of the apparent murder-suicide of well-known and well-liked WWE wrestler Chris Benoit left me with mixed emotions: sadness and dismay. I do not believe that Vince McMahon, the World Wrestling Entertainment owner and arguably the most gifted of sports entertainment promoters ever, could really tolerate a person so quiet and respected as Christ Benoit. There are no words to describe my anguish over Chris Benoit. Is There Anything More Disingenuous Than a Whining, Petulant Political Party in America? Presidential elections provide a lot of humor when you can recognize the joke. Every few days some new, outrageous flap kicks another outrageous flap off of the front page of our nation's daily newspapers. I do not care if political parties whine about the events of the day. What I do care about is the righteousness with which the Democrats and Republicans do whine and complain. Please spare me the soap opera Four Average Movies: Two Messy and Two Unpretentious Here are four average movies, two of which are pretty screwed up (The Family Stone with Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson and Rachel McAdams, and Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts) and two of which are unpretentious and easy on the eye (Indian Summer with Diane Lane and Unlikely Angel with Dolly Parton) Despite being pure fluff, I would rate the last two better than the first two. On Politics- We Are a Nation Divided When It Comes to the "a" Word - Part 5 There comes a time in a person's life when you have to start thinking for yourself rather than be a lemming to politics, a political party, politicians, pundits, predators and a phony press. We are a nation divided when it comes to the "a" word. We are all about rights, and little about responsibilities. Rights crushed responsibilities a long time ago, and now we remain content to kill our unborn. It is really all about us. On Politics - Propaganda Is Now Disguised as News - Part 4 There is probably nothing that disappoints me more than the current sad, sorry state of newspapers in America today. There is more personal journalism in newspapers than news. Name brand newspapers that once had proud heritages with outstanding reporters have become nothing more than pandering sluts who cannot get enough of their personal journalism and politics into the news side of the paper. On Politics - One of the Most Lucrative Jobs in America - Part 3 Being a politician in America today is one of the best paying jobs a person could have. If you do not know that the vast majority of politicians lie, cheat and steal as necessary to get elected and stay elected, you do not understand much about politics in America today. The best job most national politicians actually do is helping themselves get rich legally at the expense of the electorate they are supposed to be representing. On Politics: News Writers Are Really Political Hacks - Part 2 When reading Krauthammer, I am reminded that Henry Ford said "the hardest thing to do in the world is to think, and that is why people do so little of it." This is especially true during Presidential elections which start about a year too early and end about a year too late. It is often hard for me to decide which is wearier, the droppings of a contentious person or a Presidential election. Yikes! We have 18 more months to go in this election. On Politics - Giuliani Is a Pro Choice Republican - Part 1 It is possible that Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has infuriated his Democratic rivals to the point of distraction. As a good Republican Giuliani should be pro life but he is pro choice. Only Democrats are supposed to be pro choice. Giuliani is now under searing attack from every Democrat and flaming left-wing Democratic news organization worthy of the name. These Two Films Create Confusion or Unbelievably Overblown Drama Ocean's Eleven is a confusing film about a $160 million heist of three Las Vegas casinos from an impenetrable safe 200 feet underground. Is Ocean's Eleven supposed to be an action flick, a comedy, a crime story or a drama? The Hours features three depressed women from three different generations trying to cope with life, some Academy Award-winning performances and a story line that is even more depressing and repugnant. Two Films With Tons of Recognition That Leave This Viewer Unfulfilled A lot of moviegoers saw Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World as a great picture with great acting and pretty much a shoo-in for a handful of Oscars. I did not see it the same way, nor did the Academy. The Lion in Winter is a 2 Star movie with some 4 Star (Excellent) performances. Both movies stir no emotion in me, foment ill will and breed confusion when clarity should rule the day and resolution should be the result. If You Think Little League Baseball Does Not Teach Important Survival Skills, Think Again Sometimes as parents we forget how simple and subtle the lessons in life can be. With all of the violence we are now seeing with youngsters, I am reminded that some of our children today seem less able to cope with adversity, and even less so with patience. How is it that they clearly lack coping skills and patience, two necessary traits for survival as an adult?	Sign Up for a free account and start submitting your articles. Submit Articles Member Login Top Authors Myspace Playlists Most Popular Articles Submission Guidelines Funny Videos Ezine Notifications Article RSS Feeds web site hosting reviews Partners Free Articles Directory About Us Link to Us Contact Us Terms of Service

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