Posted Fri Mar 2, 2012 at 10:30 AM PST by Dick Ward
by Dick Ward
March is a month that tends to be associated with green beer, melting snow, and regular colored beer. It's a beer heavy month, but light on traditional holidays. Luckily, we've got plenty of non-traditional holidays to celebrate and some crazy good Blu-rays to go along with them.
I pride myself on not tackling the obvious holidays each month, and I contend that Irish-American Heritage Month is much different than St. Patrick's Day. To celebrate, the movie that comes right to mind is 'Gangs of New York.' It's not my favorite film, but it captures the struggles the Irish had to deal with when immigrating to the U.S. I also pride myself on being funny, which this last paragraph isn't. So... woozle wuzzle?
When some people think of frozen food, their minds go to TV dinners and bags of vegetables that never actually get eaten. For whatever reason - maybe it's because I've had too much coffee and not enough sleep over the past few years - my mind goes straight to Eddie from ' The Rocky Horror Picture Show'. "A rather tender subject. Another slice anyone?"
March 1st - Peanut Butter Lover's Day
'Funny People' is one of my current favorite movies and has been since it came out. Apatow's more serious look at the world of comedy is refreshing, and there's a lot that seems so true to life that I'm left wondering if it's some sort of comedy 'Citizen Kane.' I like to recommend this flick wherever I can, no matter how tenuous the link. So here you go - there's a scene in the movie where a dog licks peanut butter off of Adam Sandler's face.
March 5th - Multiple Personality Day
My mind is blown right now. There are so many movies that I'm waiting to pick up on Blu-ray - many of which were and are popular titles. Little did I know that on May 3rd of last year, one of my favorite little-known comedies made it to Blu-ray. 'Jekyll & Hyde Together Again' is a crazy funny movie starring Mark Blankfield, who you'll at the very least recognize as Blinkin from 'Men in Tights.' Dude's hilarious, and he's quite the singer too.
March 6th - Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simon's Birthday
Look, I really didn't want to go with the easy gag here. I wanted to talk about the 'Arrested Development' episode in which George and George Michael Bluth are set to pose as The Creation of Adam, but for some reason the series hasn't come to Blu-ray. So whatever, I'm linking to 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.' For what it's worth, the birthday of the real-life Casey Jones is March 14th, so you're getting kind of a double-whammy here.
Hey, I'm all for the celebration of these weird holidays, but if ' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' taught me anything, it taught me not to panic. On March 9th, I suggest shirking your Panic Day responsibilities and openly not-panicking. Also watching Sam Rockwell be amazing.
March 13th - Uranus Discovered
The name of the planet Uranus will never stop being funny. It's childish, but there's no getting around it. Of course, we're expected to act like adults and find laughing at such a sophomoric word to be below us. We know it's funny though, so we invent fictional characters like 'Beavis and Butthead' who laugh at it for us and let us enjoy the silliness through them. Heh-heh, I said "below us."
March 22nd - National Sing-Out Day
"If you want to sing out, sing out." If for nothing else, I would love 'Harold and Maude' just for that song. Of course, that's not the only reason to love Hal Ashby's incredibly dark comedy - the movie is nothing short of great. On April 17th, the Criterion Collection Blu-ray will hit shelves.
March 27th - National "Joe" Day
National "Joe" Day is a bit of an odd one. It's not made to celebrate people named Joe, nor does it exist to celebrate the army toys and cartoons from the 80s. "Joe" Day is for people who hate their names. Hate your name? Change it to Joe for the day. It's the sort of day that would help out Michael Bolton in 'Office Space,' though his stubborn personality would certainly mean that he'd expect the other Michael Bolton to change first.
There are doctors and then there's The Doctor. As much as I love folks in the medical profession, they're not time travelling aliens, or at least none that I've met are. 'Doctor Who: The End of Time' is a brilliant two-part episode and easily the best of the 'Doctor Who' reboot. It's The Doctor's day - his final adventure. Not only does Tennant leave the series here, but the amazing writer Russell T Davies does too.
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