Ok, it's been a week since i've been near this blog. I have checked out George Robinson's blog (www.cine-journal.blogspot.com) which is filled with links to his reviews on a lot of films - one reason is that the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum had the annual Jewish Film Festival. I went to two of the press screenings, which turned out to be documentaries. But the Jewish Film Festival has some unusual films this year: it's always instructive to see some of the early films which are shown. This year, there's a 1930 French film directed by Julien Duvivier starring Harry Baer. Michael Giltz's blog (www.popsurfing.blogspot.com) is now mostly links to various columns he's writing for the Huffington Post such as his weekly roundup of DVD releases.

Joe Baltake's blog (www.thepassionatemoviegoer.blogspot.com) has been very lively, because TCM's Star of the Month is Jack Lemmon, and Joe Baltake has written a book about Jack Lemmon, so he's able to give some amusing facts as well as his opinions on Lemmon's output. (TCM opened the series with the George Axelrod-Mark Robson "Phffft", which i think is wonderful, it's got one of Judy Holliday's most nuanced performances, and i was glad to see that Joe shared my enthusiasm for the film.)

On her blog in Variety, Anne Thompson has been compiling the nominees for the various guilds (Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild, Producers Guild, Directors Guild) and it's coming up with the same five films: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "The Dark Knight", "Frost/Nixon", "Milk", and "Slumdog Millionaire".

On her blog, Carrie Rickey asked her readers their opinion on the Golden Globes, and i realized that i've never watched the Golden Globes. I don't really like watching award shows now. In fact, when the Academy Awards are on, the last few years, it's been opposite a new episode of "The L Word", and, i'm sorry... i think it was two years ago, but the episode of "The L Word" just seemed to be one sex scene after another. Since "The L Word" has some of the most gorgeous women on TV, what's not to like? There was no contest.

But in the past few weeks, i've seen a few movies. Some of them include: "Just Another Love Story", "The Secret of the Grain", "Tokyo Sonata", "Cargo 200", "Mock Up on Mu", "Cherry Blossoms", "The Photograph", "Of Time and the City", "California Dreamin'". Plus there were movies which were either never released or had a really limited release, which played on TV: "Chaos Theory", "Smother", "My Mom's New Boyfriend". Plus the new print of Godard's "Made in U.S.A." and the restored print of Ken Jacobs and Bob Fleishner's "Blonde Cobra" as well as Ken Jacobs's "The Whirled".

But it's also a time to do the annual: last week, i went to the doctor's, and i have an appointment for tomorrow to check on the results of blood tests. (Is my cholesterol still high?) And i went to the eye doctor today: my eyes are actually getting better, but that sometimes happens with age, because if you're nearsighted, it's because your eyeball is oval when it should be round, but as you age, your eyeball shrinks a little, and becomes rounder. So i need new glasses, and i pick them up next week. These are the new "progressive" lenses, and i hope i'll get used to them.

But i actually have been thinking a lot about movies....