Patrick Saxton Brown is a student at the University of Illinois and an occasional free-lance writer, for which he is never paid. In 2005, he won an Illinois Collegiate Press Award, but has been working hard ever since to make sure that is the only accolade he receives for the rest of his natural life.

A list of Mr. Brown’s favorite films could reach to the moon and back, were he in a space craft about to set down on the moon. They include Ikiru, Spirit of the Beehive, and a number of other pretentious selections from the Criterion Collection. He loathes biopics and films by Brian DePalma and Oliver Stone (especially when either director makes a biopic), but is willing to see any film starring Will Smith or Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Pat currently resides in Urbana, Illinois, having recently made the almost 2-mile move from his last hometown, Champaign, Illinois. Urbana is mentioned in at least 3 films he knows of: 2001 A Space Odyssey, wherein Urbana serves as the birthplace of psychopathic computer HAL 9000; Some Like It Hot, wherein Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon choose gender swapping over a trip to Urbana-Champaign; and The Beginning of the End, wherein Urbana is stomped by giant grasshoppers who outwit Peter Graves.