Woody Allen Tribute (update)

It's almost 5am in New York City. I just finished updating the fairly new Woody Allen tribute I created... I posted a series of photos. You can find them at this link:

myspace.com/woody__allen

I'm a fan of Woody's films, especially Annie Hall, Manhattan, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Stardust Memories, Love & Death, and Sweet & Lowdown... There are still many of his films I haven't seen, especially the earlier ones. Overall I relate closely to his writings about life, religion, and relationships... as I do with Ingmar Bergman's, Luis Bunuel's and Federico Fellini's, who were also atheists, provocateurs, and great philosophers... as was Charlie Chaplin for that matter, and countless other remarkable artists.

Random people I've come in contact with over the past few years, as well as 2 or 3 friends, have routinely compared me to Woody Allen and Larry David... I'm sure it has to do with my inherent and at times extreme neuroses (i.e. excessive or irrational anxiety or obsession combined with my inability to keep my mouth shut), which may or may not come across through my profile(s) (half-grin). One of those things that's gotten me in plenty of trouble on dates (slight, half-grimaced chuckle)... Regardless of how beautiful you are on the outside, I have a difficult time keeping my mouth shut, when common sense and clarity are needed.

Oddly enough, the Groucho Marx quote also shows up in the Aquarius description someone pointed me towards a couple of years back -- posted on my profile page... I'm not disputing its veracity in my own experiences.

Alvy Singer: [addressing the camera] There's an old joke - um... two elderly women are at a Catskill mountain resort, and one of 'em says, "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible." The other one says, "Yeah, I know; and such small portions." Well, that's essentially how I feel about life - full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it's all over much too quickly. The... the other important joke, for me, is one that's usually attributed to Groucho Marx; but, I think it appears originally in Freud's "Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious," and it goes like this - I'm paraphrasing - um, "I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." That's the key joke of my adult life, in terms of my relationships with women.

[Alvy addresses a pair of strangers on the street]
Alvy Singer: Here, you look like a very happy couple, um, are you?
Female street stranger: Yeah.
Alvy Singer: Yeah? So, so, how do you account for it?
Female street stranger: Uh, I'm very shallow and empty and I have no ideas and nothing interesting to say.
Male street stranger: And I'm exactly the same way.
Alvy Singer: I see. Wow. That's very interesting. So you've managed to work out something?

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Bonus video ---

Allen's homage to Fellini's 8 1/2 in Stardust Memories:

People die at 21

"In this country, people die at 21. They die emotionally at 21, maybe even younger now. For those of us who are lucky not to die at 20, we keep on going. And my responsibility as an artist... is to help people get over 21."
--John Cassavetes

"The films are a road map through emotional and intellectual terrains... that provide a solution to how one can save pain. As people, we know that we are petty, vicious... violent and horrible. But my films make an effort to contain the depression within us... and to limit the depression to those areas that we can actually solve. The resolution of the films... is the assertion of a human spirit."
--John Cassavetes

myspace.com/john_cassavetes

The more I read and learn about the life and thoughts of filmmaker John Cassavetes, the more I feel a deep, personal and intellectual connection to his ideas and feelings about life and art. For many years, I've been saying that people graduate from college or high school, and put themselves out to pasture. They stop growing emotionally, intellectually, socially, etc... I've lost a great many acquaintances and potential relationships from my youth because of this. They stagnate, and I keep moving. They take jobs, make money, and pursue the standard path of consumption and possession. I seek answers, meaning, resolution, beauty, inspiration... I'm not saying it's easy, but I don't think life is supposed to be. Mine has never been.
-Carletto

Annie Hall

"We should call this relationship quits."
-Annie Hall to Woody Allen as she pulls away in a cab

"That's fine. That's fine. That's great. Well, I don't know what I did wrong... I mean I can't believe this. Somewhere she cooled off to me."
-Woody Allen to himself

"Is it something that I did?"
-Woody to an older woman walking on the sidewalk.

"It's never something you do. That's how people are. Love fades."
-Older woman

"Love fades. God, that's a depressing thought."
-Woody to himself as he continues walking on the sidewalk

"You look like a very happy couple. Are you?"
-Woody as he stops an attractive, well-dressed couple on the street

"Yeah."
-Attractive girl in couple responds.

"So, how do you account for it?"
-Woody

"Um... I'm very shallow and empty, and I have no ideas... and nothing interesting to say."
-Attractive girl in couple responds.

"Ya, and I'm exactly the same way."
-Attractive man in couple responds.

"I see. Well, that's very interesting. So you've managed to work out something."
-Woody Allen

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SO funny... I knew there was a reason I never enjoyed dating.

My favorite line: "I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member." -Groucho Marx (attributed to)

and Woody goes on to say: "That's the key joke of my adult life in terms of my relationships with women."