Hotseat! Grill a MoFo: Monkeypunch

Well, well, well, finally an opportunity to prod and probe the simian into submission. Thou vile vine swinger, thou matted malodorous pinnacle of ape japery!

Take your swings, mofos, let us expose the famous and infamous Monkeypunch!

Was wondering when you'd get to me. LOL. Do your worst...ummm, but politely.

Hi Monkey... think I'm going to start with the same questions I asked the other Hotseat MoFo's...

1) If you could change one feature on your face, what would it be?

2) Did you ever talk to the monster in your closet when you were younger?

3) If you could follow one celebrity around for a month, who would it be?

4) Do you march to your own drums or someone else’s?

5) Do you like The Beatles? And if so, what is your favorite song?

6) Who do you admire more than anyone else? And why?

7) Buried or cremated?

8) If you could go back in time and witness one historical event, what would it be?

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Yo monkey!

1) I see that Mel Brooks The Producers is your fave movie made before 1990. What is it that puts it into that spot? Are there other "older" movies you've enjoyed? How about any classics which left you cold? Details please. (Forgive me if The Producers on your list is the new one.)

2) What does a nobody lost in America like to do when he's being lazy? How about on those rare times when you're not lazy; what do you do then? Also, where's your fave place to get lost in America and why?

3) Answer this question as seriously as possible because it's meant to be answered that way. What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to be when you grow down? Oh, hell. Answer it any way you want.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

fun questions!

1. I'd like to have a smaller nose, certainly. I have my dad's huge honker.

2. The monster in my closet when i was younger would have been a Gremlin, and I was terrified of that bastard. I was certain he'd bite my feet if I got out of bed.

3. I suppose I'd follow around George Clooney, I've always liked his movies, and he seems like a cool guy. If I chose a female celebrity, I'm afraid that would qualify as stalking.

4. A bit of both, really.

5. I do like the Beatles, I'd say my favourite song is "Across the Universe," with "Norwegian Wood" coming in second.

6. I have to say I admire my uncle Frank the most. He's probably the smartest person I've ever met, and he's lived the kind of life I've only read about in books. He's also our family historian, I could listen to him all day.

7. Cremated, definitely. I want my ashes spread into the ocean at the beach I used to live near when I was little. I don't want there to be a grave for future generations of my family to feel they HAVE to visit.

8. I have always wanted to go back in time and go to Woodstock. I'd have made an excellent hippie.

Double post, i know, but I haven't figured out how to quote two posts in one.

1. The Producers is one of those movies that the first time I saw it, I laughed till tears rolled down my face. Every line, every bit of over-acting, every moment of rude provocation...it's all hilarious. As for other older flicks, some of my favourites are "Duck Soup," "The Graduate," "King Kong," "Rope," "From Here to Eternity," "Rear Window," "Touch of Evil," "Meet John Doe," "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," and "Bonnie and Clyde." (I could go on and on, really, because I saw more older films growing up than I did current ones.) As for ones that left me cold, I hate to admit, as a big time James Bond fan, that "Dr. No," just had me wondering "ummm, was that it?" If I hadn't seen any of the other Bond films before that one, I'd never have watched any more after it.

2. When i'm being lazy, I like to read, sometimes comics, sometimes real books, and I like to watch sci-fi TV shows. I'm quite addicted to Battlestar Galactica. When i'm not being lazy, I like to draw. I guess you'd say art has been my passion in life since I was little, scribbling crude drawings of Snoopy in crayon on anything I could get my hands on. I'm loads better now as an adult, but still not where I'd like to be. My favourite place? I'd say the city of Boston. When I first got out of the army, I remember taking the train to the city, and looking up at the skyline, and thinking "I'm home." My favourite places in Boston are The Brattle Theater, Million Year Picnic (a comic book shop), and Boston Common.

3. Well, I think i'm as grown up as I'll ever get, but I've always dreamed I'd be a comics artist. Still working on that one.

Howdy.

What manga do you like? From your user-name it's obvious you dig Lupin. Are there any others we should know about?

What are five comics that you'd really like to see adapted to film? Live-action or animated?

I've had "Across The Universe" stuck in my head for the past 4 days!

The Akira manga is a big favourite of mine, as is Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, and lately I've been enjoying Rurouni Kenshin, it's historically accurate, and yet still insane and over the top!

Five comics that should be made into films:

-Maus by Art Spiegelman (animated, of course. I've never read a comic that's affected me more than this one, and it could reach a larger audience as a film.)
- The Ultimates by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch (Live action, but really they will NEVER make this one, or at least not true to the original series. Savagely funny and subversive satire on celebrity culture and U.S. foreign policy disguised as a Marvel comic.)
- Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon (Live action. I've read they're going to attempt to make this as a series for HBO, but really, I need to see it in all it's widescreen glory. It would be like a John Ford western gone horribly, thrillingly wrong.)
- Bone by Jeff Smith (a trilogy of animated films! part Lord of the Rings, part Looney Toons. Jeff Smith deserves greater recognition, and imagining the series as a lushly animated epic fantasy would be brilliant.)
- Lupin III (live Action. I would bet this could work, given the right cast. Ideally, Jim Carrey could play Lupin, with Tommy Lee Jones as his right hand man, I cant think of who'd play the police inspector though.)

1. Monkey, how did you pick your user name and your avatar? Have you had any other avatars, and if so, can you share them?

2. What are your favorite songs by your three most poetic lyricists: Dylan, Cohen and Folds? Can you try to share what each one means to you?

3. You seem like you watch some "mindless entertainment" (your "fave" film of the year, Ghost Rider ), but I'm guessing you watched that because you liked the character. How would you have changed what they did in the movie to make it better and more faithful to the source? Be creative.

4. What is it about The Royal Tenenbaums which hits you so deeply? Is it because it's about three men at sea working together to try to kill a man-eating shark? Wait a sec there; why do you love The Royal Tenenbaums?

Just one question from me:

What is your favorite comedy and why, and what is your fav Drama, and have you read the book "Next" by Mike C., oh yeah and do you like the Temptations?

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

All right there, King Arthur.

1. The user name is actually the pen-name of a comics artist from Japan who made a series I'm very fond of called Lupin III, about a master thief. The avatar just seemed to go along with the monkey part. I've had a lot of them, but they're mostly lost to time and to my old computer crashing. lol.

2. My favourite Bob Dylan song is "Idiot Wind" from Blood on the Tracks, it's probably the most honest break-up song ever, and it blew me away the first time I heard it. There's a lot of both sadness and anger in the lyrics and in Dylan's vocals. I'm still a bit of a Leonard Cohen Newbie, I've only got 3 of his cds, but so far I would say that "Stranger Song" on Songs of Leonard Cohen is my favourite, the song sort of just wraps around my brain, the words, the way it's sung...does that make any sense? and as for Ben Folds, I would definitely go with "Fred Jones Part 2," the live version with John McCrea of Cake singing back-up, which is on the Ben Folds Live CD. It's a brilliant story song, and it's sung beautifully.

3. I think that the one HUGE problem with Ghost Rider was the director. He was pretty poorly chosen. Imagine what a more competent genre director, like maybe Alex Proyas, could have done with the same character. Also, it could have done without Nic Cage. I like him as an actor, but not as an action star.

4. The Royal Tennenbaums isn't about three men trying to kill a shark, thats The Life Aquatic. The Royal Tennenbaums has Gene Hackman, Angelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Gwynneth Paltrow in it, and is very hard to describe in a brief sentence or so. Gene Hackman plays an old man who's not exactly the most moral of people. He finds out that his wife wants to re-marry, and he tries to worm his way back into her life and into the lives of their adult children, all of whom were child prodigies, spectacular failures, and all of whose lives he'd completely ruined through years of neglect, betrayal, and poor parenting. Oh, and it's a comedy. I love it because in it's relatively short running time, it still creates vivid characters, it has a distinct visual style that makes it feel more intimate than your average film, and there are hundreds of quotable lines in it.

Okay, okay, I have a pretty simple one (gotta start trying to think of others): Lupin - do you prefer the Miyazaki version of the character or the original Monkeypunch version?

What are your top 3 movie monkeys?

My favourite comedy is The Big Lebowski, cause I doubt I've ever laughed as hard as I did while watching that, well, maybe during Hot Fuzz, but that's a close second...

My favourite Drama would have to be Almost Famous, I have a definite soft spot for the music of the 1970's (nobody can ever tell me the 70's sucked. lol), and I also think Cameron Crowe is a brilliant writer and director.

Haven't read "Next." Should I?

And I always get the Temptations and the 4 Tops confused. I like one of them, certainly.

The Miyazaki one was the first time I'd come across the character, and what got me interested, but I do like the more anarchistic original a bit better.

1. King Kong
2. Dr. Zaius
3. King Louie

How has your cat been doing?

What is your favorite version of King Kong?

Have you ever seen Monkey Shine?

Have you ever seen Link?

Have you ever seen Project X?

If so, what did you think of them?

Do you like Peter Gabriel's Shock the Monkey?

Last, but not least . . .

If you had to throw away all your movies but one, which one would you keep?

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Oh cool, I was hoping somebody would ask me more questions!

My cat is doing well, she's up and running and being a little nuisance once again. I complain, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Well, thats hard to say, cause I love all the versions of King Kong. The original has the awesome stop motion effects, the 1970's one was the first one I saw, and a favourite of mine as a child (I remember my dad allowing me to stay up late to watch it as long as I went to bed directly after, and me and my brother cheering on Kong's rampage through NYC), and the newest one has astonishing effects, and I laughed myself silly at the t-rex fight. So all 3 are my favourite. LOL.

I have not seen Monkey Shine, nor Project X, but I saw a tv show called Lancelot Link, and that amused me to no end.

I love Peter Gabriel, and Shock The Monkey is one of my favourite tracks.

Ahhh, thats a tough question...

I think I'd rescue The Big Lebowski from being tossed away, because it never gets old, but I'd miss my other films dearly.

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"You, me, everyone...we are all made of star stuff." - Neil Degrasse Tyson

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