Dark Piranha's Feeding Frenzy

Come visit the new blog! Victory-DiGital.com

2010-07-02T03:25:00.003-05:00

That's right, there's a new blog in town, and it's on my official website. It'll be a little bit more focused on video production, but I plan on having lots of fun stuff in there as well.

But from this point on, this is now an archival blog. No new stuff will be posted here. For all your Vic DiGital or Dark Piranha goodness, you'll have to visit the new blog.

What are you waiting for!

You know you want to! Do it! Click it!

Michael Vick's New Ad Campaign

2009-08-09T20:30:00.002-05:00

Getting Back in the Blogging Game

2009-02-04T19:11:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I blogged anything here (three months!) but that's mostly because most of my bloggy activities are now on Facebook. But I'm going to start blogging here and on my NEW companion blog, VicDiGital's Production Blog, where I blog exclusively about video production, filmmaking and productivity, from the perspective of a very small business owner.

This will be created in conjunction with my revamped website. However, I'm thinking of having the blog replace the website, as it allows me to be far more interactive with it. We'll see. I'll leave my Dark Piranhas blog for all things media and fun related.

Until then, take care and God bless.

I'm Not 100% Sure, But I Think I Hate Blu-Ray

2008-11-08T09:40:00.000-06:00

How can this be? The highest (thus far) of the high-definition formats available to home consumers is something I don't like?

It's true.

My local Best Buy and Circuit City have had the full Blu-Ray/1080 HDTV setup on display for a few months now, and every time I go, I make a point of checking it out, especially when they have a new DVD release. And EVERY time, I get freaked out, in a bad way, at the image quality I see.

It's just TOO good. Films look like it's high definition VIDEO. It almost looks like live-action. It's too crisp. Too clean. Too grain-free.

From many many experiences watching TV and movies with non-media people, I know that 99% of the viewing public usually doesn't notice, or can't tell the difference between a video look and a film look, and even when I point it out to them, they don't care. So I know that when I gripe about the look of Blu-ray, I'm going to be in the extreme minority.

I know I sound like those nutjob audio purists that turn their nose up at CD's and mp3's, saying that only analog playback (like albums or audiotape) can truly present music in it's full glory. But my complaint is the exact opposite.

Film, or the 'film look' is NOT a pristine image. It's a purposefully grainy and/or degraded image. It's how film has always been, and how I WANT it to always be. Even films shot on HD video in recent years retain that 'film look' when projected from a film projector, because it's still film as an end product.

But now, we have Blu-Ray, which bypasses the film projection step, so the image that appears on your HDTV is perfect. What's worse, is that the studios have actually gone back and REMOVED grain from films because people with new HDTV's were complaining about it. Gah!

I don't want total clarity with the FILMS that I watch. I don't want it to seem like it's happening NOW, or right in front of me. The 'film look' allows for that layer of separation, that filter of being at least one step removed from the events unfolding on screen. It's still a story being told with some perspective, rather than something happening like a news broadcast or reality show.

I know that it's all over for me. There isn't going to be some "Let's Save the Grain!" movement that's going to pop up. This is what the masses want, even though the don't know it's not what they really want. But it's what they're going to get.

So don't feel sorry for me when in a few years when you see me scouring the plain old DVD releases as opposed to the Blu-Ray shelf. I'm there on purpose. I'm stubbornly and (correctly) holding on to the BEST movie experience available to me.

Chinese Astronauts

2008-10-02T11:33:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I deliberately posted something (thanks, Ike!). My "Survivor" post from the other day was actually something I had created a draft for several months ago and post-dated it "way in the future", and apparently that post-date was this week. Oh well.

Anyway, enjoy this brilliant news item from The Onion.

China Launches First Willing Manned Mission Into Space

SURVIVOR Around the World - 1 - Bulgaria

2008-09-30T08:59:00.000-05:00

Welcome to a new series! This is inspired by this article I came across this morning, talking about how huge a hit the Israeli version of "Survivor" is in Israel. I started watching the opening segments of various international versions of the show and found it fascinating to see the similarities and differences between our culture and other cultures. Most of them were merely interesting until I got to this one, and this guy in particular.

It's Rasputin! He's on Survivor Bulgaria!

Here's the rest of the intro segment. I'll post a new one each day this week.

I Am Home Alone Legend

2008-08-23T14:37:00.000-05:00

Excellent trailer mashup.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

For those of you not getting enough Olympics coverage.

2008-08-19T08:09:00.000-05:00

I especially love the cycling. They don't have a 'degree of difficulty' component of Olympic cycling, but I'd certainly vote for this to become a part of it.

http://view.break.com/157415 - Watch more free videos

Top Ten Summer Movies - It's All Over But the Crying

2008-08-16T22:09:00.000-05:00

So I saw Tropic Thunder today, bringing to a close the summer movie season for 2008. On the whole, it was a'ight. I'll finish filling in the remaining mini-reviews for the films I've seen and then at the end, I'll rank them in the order I felt they finished. Here's a refresher on what I was hoping for going into the summer.

1) The Dark Knight - 10/10. Nothing more really needs be said. By the time I finish typing this, it will have moved past Star Wars into second place on the all-time domestic box office chart, trailing only Titanic, which isn't in any danger of being overtaken, even by this juggernaut. Dark Knight was built up with an almost unprecedented amount of hype, half of which was brought on by Heath Ledger's unfortunate demise. But it managed to not only live up to that hype, but surpass it. Adding to it's awesomeness, it was the only place (for a while) where you could see the equally amazing Watchmen trailer.

2) Iron Man - 9/10 This movie was lots of fun. Perfect sort of superhero movie. He's not as well-established as most other superheroes that have had movies made of them, so it was easier for them to play around with the history and not have it come across as false. For 99% of the world, this will be THE Iron Man. Sequels galore are already in the works.

3) Narnia: Prince Caspian - 6.5/10 This movie left me a bit whelmed. It was good, but nothing really memorable. However, that said, I wish the first film had had this look and tone to it. Narnia is more like a real place this go-round, whereas the first movie was more like a fairy land.

4) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 4/10 I was RIGHT to dread this film. What a mess. What a miscalculation. It reeks of George Lucas's myopic vision. For a really good list of what's wrong with this film, check this out.

5) Speed Racer - 0/10 Well, that's not a totally fair rating, because I didn't see it. But the closer it got, the less interested I was in seeing it. However, while waiting for Indy IV to restart (glitch in framing of the film), I wandered over to Speed Racer to catch a couple of minutes of it, just to see. The five minutes I watched were excruciating. I don't know who this film was made for. What a wreck...

6) The Happening - n/a This also looked more and more like a disaster the closer it got, and reviews have been universally bad. As I was only kinda interested in seeing it, this made my decision easier. I'll catch it on cable one day... maybe.

7) The Incredible Hulk - 7.5/10 The closer this one came to release, the more optimistic the reviews became. While the Hulk's CGI never got any better over the course of the previews, the reports were that the story and presentation were right in line with the precedent that Iron Man set earlier in the summer. And those reports were right. This was a mostly fun film, firmly set in the Iron Man version of the Marvel universe. I look forward to the next Marvel Studios film.

8) Hellboy II: The Golden Army - 6.5/10 This one had a chance to be really special, but somehow, Guellermo Del Toro opted to pull back and create a film that was ultimately pretty lazy. The visuals of this film were second to none this summer, I'll grant it that. I'm looking forward to watching this on DVD and freeze-framing some of the screens that were jam-packed with eye-candy. But the story left a lot to be desired. It just seemd to be more interested in trying to be a fun film rather than a logical one. It missed the chance to be something really amazing.

9) Wall*E - I still haven't seen this one. I might try to check it out before school starts back up. While everything about it sounds magical, I just haven't been inspired enough yet to drive down to the theater.

10) Tropic Thunder - 5/10 Sigh... I was really expecting this to be a minor masterpiece. But... it really ended up missing the mark for me. All of the best stuff was in the trailer. Actually, if the film had been based on the trailer, it would have been an amazing film. One thing the trailer seemed to imply was that there'd be a lot more amusing conflict surrounding Robert Downey Jr.'s portrayal of a black man. But it seemed to just gloss over that for the most part. Downey indeed plays the role of the black man for 99% of the film, and never goes out of character, but most of his lines are just regular things someone would say. Likewise, the rest of the film was just too mainstream and by-the-numbers when it could have been really savage and insightful about Hollywood. By the end of the film, it was just hitting all the same typical movie beats that any film that is either an action film or a comedy film is required by law to hit. Could have been a classic...

And that's it. For a brief period, it seemed like The Clone Wars might creep up into contention, but the reviews have been brutal. And the ones I most respect, like Alexandra Dupont on Aint-it-Cool-News, sadly sum up for me my worst fears for the Star Wars franchise. I'll likely see this at some point, but it pains me to not be seeing a Star Wars film on opening night... by choice.

So, here's my final ranking of the Summer of 2008.

1) Dark Knight
2) Iron Man
3) Watchmen trailer
4) Incredible Hulk
5) Prince Caspian
6) Hellboy II
7) Wall•E (still unseen)
8) Everyting else

This fall looks to be interesting. I'll post my preview sometime in the next few weeks.

Until then...

Watchmen movie - Commercial contest

2008-08-16T12:53:00.000-05:00

A couple of months ago, Zach Snyder (director of Watchmen) posted a contest on YouTube inviting everyone to create a fake commercial for one of the fake products that exists in the Watchmen universe. These focused primarily on the products put out by Adrian Veidt, one of the main characters of Watchmen. Veidt was a costumed adventurer named Ozymandias who got out of the hero game right before the government passed an act outlawing vigilante heroes. Veidt proceeded to cash in on his hero fame and by the time the movie starts (about a decade after this anti-vigilante act), he's a billionaire many times over. (this moment in Watchmen history brought to you by Irony Coast Films)

Anyway, Veidt product logos, animations and product shots were provided to everyone to facilitate creation of commercials for these products. The winners would be put on display on a giant bank of TVs that Ozymandias watches from his secret base. There will be dozens of TV's all flashing tons of images, so the chances of anyone actually being able to pinpoint any of these fake commercials would be remote, but that's not the point. WE'D know we had something we created in the Watchmen, and that was all the mattered.

So I thought about what I'd produce that I didn't think everyone else would already be doing and I settled in on Veidt Sport (his line of atheletic shoes). And since Ozymandias/Veidt's personal theme is Egyptian, and Ramses II in particular, I went along that route.

I wasn't chosen as one of the finalists, but I still had lots of fun doing it. Congrats to the winners. They were all very deserving.

WATCHFRIENDS - Observations about The Dark Knight

2008-08-15T22:33:00.004-05:00

More specifically, observations about Heath Ledger. I loved The Dark Knight and think it's an automatic nominee for Best Picture. I think one of the reasons this film has attained such lofty aspirations is the amazing performance of Heath Ledger. His amazing portrayal of the Joker has been well-documented far more eloquently than I could ever hope to match. If he doesn't got the posthumous Best Supporting Actor statue next year, it will be a crime.

THAT SAID...

I no longer buy the argument that he can't be replaced in any future Batman film.

Over the past week, I've seen a multitude of Dark Knight parody videos, all of them featuring the Joker. And what has stood out to me more than anything is that just about everyone is doing a pretty good Heath Ledger Joker. The nasally mumbling and lip-licking is apparently pretty easy to do. I like this one in particular. And I'd say more than half of them could even pass for the Ledger Joker (well... if you squint a bit, maybe).

With a bit of sloppy-applied white makeup, and smeared red lips, just about anyone can pull off a good Joker. I think it would be child's play for Hollywood, and for the production team behind what is soon to be the number two grossing film of all time (unadjusted) , to successfully install another actor into the role.

Out of respect for Ledger, no one else should ever play the role. But out of respect for the truckloads of money that a second Batman/Joker film could bring in, I think it's only a matter of time before a new Joker is cast. In fact, the controversy over such a casting would likely generate something of a similar buzz/curiosity that led to some of Dark Knight's record-setting haul.

For my money, I think there's one actor that is primed for the role, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He's a fantastic up-and-coming actor, known for taking serious roles. He's about the same age as Ledger, and most importantly, he already looks a lot like Ledger.

Take a look.

I rest my case.

WATCHFRIENDS - I'm amazed at how many really great parody videos are out there

2008-08-14T22:18:00.003-05:00

So one of the byproducts of creating a parody video is that you start looking to see what "the other guys" are doing. Over the past week, I've seen dozens going on hundreds of parody/inspired-by videos centering around just the Watchmen and Dark Knight. In the old days (five years ago), I'd expect about 90% of them to be crap. But I have to say that only a few of them were a waste of my time.

People are REALLY creative, and the video production tools that were once totally cost-prohibitive are now readily available to anyone with a couple of hundred bucks (and they only have to pay that if they don't want to use the crappy, but functional software that was bundled with your computer).

I'm a video producer by trade, so I look at these videos with a slightly more critical eye. But more and more, I'm seeing homemade videos that look really good, with creative angles, good lighting, cool effects and tight editing. Even the videos that maybe don't have the highest production values are still impressive with the competent-to-excellent storytelling skills displayed.

It's like with the barrier to creating these things removed from their path, people are no longer telling themselves "That's too hard to do." (Professional video producer confession: It's not)

If you're someone that's always wanted to do a video of some kind, just get out there and do it. I have every reason to believe that you inherently know how to put a story together. That after a lifetime of watching movies and TV that you've absorbed by osmosis how to tell a story on a screen. Do it! And when you do, come back here and show it to me and tell me how you did it.

WATCHFRIENDS - The Side by Side Comparison

2008-08-14T12:46:00.001-05:00

So just for the fun of it, I placed both the original trailer and the WATCHFRIENDS trailer one on top of the other. For me, this version of the video is the preferred version. I find WATCHFRIENDS far more absurd (my original intent) when you can contrast it with the utter seriousness of Watchmen. To see Gleek onscreen at the same moment as Rorschach, or Zan's ice cube disentregration synced up with Dr. Manhattan, it just makes me smile. Hopefully you'll have the same reaction.

Next time, for those of you into that sort of thing, I plan on breaking down the video, explaining what I had initially wanted to do and why I ultimately chose each of the final shots.

WATCHFRIENDS - Observations in my quest to make a video someone hadn't already done

2008-08-13T21:55:00.001-05:00

Over the last year or two, I've lost count of the number of times my friend Corey and I have come across a brilliant little video on YouTube and smacked our heads at the obviousness of it. "Why didn't we think of that?" is a commonly heard utterance.

A few years ago, a friend of mine and I thought it would be funny if there was zombie porn, and speculated on how ridiculous that might be. A Google search later than night brought no fewer than 115,000 hits for "zombie porn".

A few months back, my brother came up with what I thought was a hilarious idea for a video spoof. "Jihad Joe!" Brilliant! Al Queda toys! Later that night, I googled "Jihad Joe" and found dozens, if not hundreds of references to it. There were at least five really well done toy commercial parodies for Jihad Joe. My spirit was crushed.

Were there NO good ideas that haven't been done yet?

So last week the idea for WATCHFRIENDS struck me, and I still don't remember what the inspiration was. Maybe it was having seen the official Watchmen trailer for the hundredth time. Maybe I'd seen a reference to Hanna-Barbera earlier in the day. Who knows? But somehow the vision of the Watchmen trailer replaced with Super-Friends footage bloomed fully-formed in my brain.

And for the first time, a Google search turned up ZERO hits. I knew I had to act quickly.

The video I actually ended up creating turned out better than the one I was amusing myself with in my brain.

So, for at least this one time, I managed to be the first one with whatever stupid idea I came up with. I can rest easy... well, at least until I finish creating the first-ever WATCHSMURFS* trailer!

* There's no way I'm subjecting myself to dozens of ours of sifting through Smurfs episodes... If anyone reading this wants to attempt to do a WATCHSMURFS video, I give you my blessing... and my sympathy.

WATCHFRIENDS

2008-08-11T22:11:00.004-05:00

So I finally did one of those "Someone needs to make that" videos. About a week ago, I was blinded with the flash of an idea for what I thought would make a great parody video. Mashing together the Watchmen movie trailer and the Super-Friends. I could instantly see it in my mind's eye and for the next five days, it became a bit of an obsession for me.

I've always loved the Super-Friends videos that have popped up since the birth of the internet, the WASSUP?!? spot being an all-time classic, with the Office Space one coming in a close second. The first thing I did when I came up with my idea, I did a quick check to make sure no one else had already done it. Woo hoo! No matches anywhere for "Watchfriends".

I scoured dozens of hours of old Super-Friends videos and DVDs looking for imagery that could be used to recreate the amazing Watchmen trailer. It was a lot tougher than I imagined, because the Super-Friends was produced back in the dark ages of animation. There were very few shots that ventured beyond the typical sideways flying and walking. The Super-Friends sure did do a lot of walking and riding in vehicles! And it shouldn't have surprised me, but there were next to no shots of anyone punching someone else, which is a common image from the Watchmen trailer.

It took the better part of a full day to edit the video. I have to I put the finishing touches on it at 4:30AM this morning.
Be sure to check back, as I'll be posting a side-by-side comparison video that has both WATCHFRIENDS and the original Watchmen trailer lined up so you can see how closely (or not) the shots line up. In some cases, it's scary. I'll also post an annotated video that points out exactly what episodes each clip came from.

And now, I present to you my magnum opus parody trailer video. The WATCHFRIENDS.

Enjoy.

It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

2008-08-09T18:00:00.002-05:00

...that the greatest hockey player of all time was traded from the greatest team of all time to the middle of the hockey wasteland, Los Angeles.

It's ironic that this anniversary is almost on the same day as another monumental trade, Brett Favre being shipped to the New York Jets after weeks of his un-retirement dominating the sports headlines.

But I remember the Gretzky trade like it was yesterday. My personal sports hero, Wayne Gretzky, fresh off of a fourth championship in five years with the Edmonton Oilers, was traded without any warning (this was back in the pre-internet days) to the Los Angeles Kings.

I was crushed!

And what made things worse was Gretzky would be donning the most hideous hockey jerseys in the league. The purple and gold of the Kings.

However, my horror turned to joy about ten hours later when I saw this image from the news conference:

That silver and black Kings jersey was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I was converted in an instant. In fact, the new Kings colors would go on to inspire the color scheme for my fantasy football team, the Dark Piranhas, who were also born in the month of August, 1988... but that's a story for another day.

A few months later, I'd buy my own Kings jersey, and a little over two years later, I'd actually met Wayne Gretzky in an amazing set of circumstances, also a story for another day.

In any event, August 9, 1988 was a monumental day in hockey history. Gretzky's presence in Los Angeles opened the doors for hockey teams to spring up all over the South, in places as diverse as Dallas, Miami, and Nashville.

So here's part of both press conferences (Edmonton and Los Angeles) from that day, followed by some twenty year later retrospectives I've found.

http://watch.tsn.ca/nhl/clip72747#clip72747

The Venture Bros. - The Lepidopterists

2008-08-03T12:11:00.000-05:00

Now we're talking!

After a season that has so far been very very strange (not bad, but strange), we finally get a Venture Bros. that nails it. Not the least of what kept a constant smile on my face was this:

My friends, behold Ventronic! And yes, that's an ice cream cone he has for an arm (don't ask...watch the episode).

This episode focused entirely on Jonas Venture Jr., Rusty's vestigal twin brother. In fact, we didn't see Rusty or Hank or Dean at any point in this episode. Jonas Jr. is starting to spread his Protagonist wings more and more, leading to an epic showdown between him and The Monarch.

Too many hilarious things to mention from this episode, but the two OSI agents, Henchman #1, and Scarantula's laser cannon discussion have all moved into the Venture Bros. hall of fame.

While a lot of this season has been somewhat uneventful, they all paid off marvelously in this episode.

Watch this week's episode right here.

Have Yourself a Perry Little Christmas

2008-08-02T08:14:00.000-05:00

More Black20.com fun stuff.

Lion Cop

2008-08-01T08:02:00.001-05:00

More amusing stuff from Black20.com

Journey to the Center of the Earth

2008-07-31T13:26:00.001-05:00

(by way of Black20.com)

Battle of the Batmans

2008-07-31T07:40:00.001-05:00

I hadn't checked out Black20.com in a while, but they've got a few new brilliant videos.

Conspiracy's Worst Nightmare Has Come to Pass

2008-07-27T22:50:00.002-05:00

Ex-Astronaut: Aliens Are Real and Government Knows It

It took me about a dozen times seeing some variation of this headline over the last few days before I finally clicked on it. While the claim Mitchell makes is amazing and possibly historic (if it can be remotely authenticated as more than the rantings of a 77 year-old man who once went to the moon), I was more fascinated by the implications it posed for a specific segment of the public - the Conspiracy Theorists.

Bear with me, here.

For 60-something years, a passionate group of individuals has insisted that the government has been covering up alien visitations. We've all seen them on Larry King or heard them on late-night radio talk shows. For those 60-something years, there hasn't really been a credible person to step up to verify ANY of these claims.

Until now.

A respected astronaut. One of the few men who ever walked on the moon. Someone who was part of NASA from way back. Doesn't get much more credible than that. This must be a glorious day for all the Conspiracists. Their messiah has arrived.

But.... maybe not...

According to most accepted conspiracy theories, the Moon Landing Never Happened!

So... what is a Conspiracist to do? What an amazing Catch-22! The greatest advocate for their Alien Visitation Cover-up conspiracy is a man renowned for something they don't acknowledge ever happened. Can they say that this astronaut was lying about one thing, but is now telling the truth about something else?

The mind swims with the contradictions this implies. One would almost think that THIS is a deliberate conspiracy by NASA to short-circuit the brains of as many Conspiracists as possible.

It's the greatest conundrum since "The Buttered Cat Paradox"

I can't wait to see how this plays out.

The Dark Knight - This Changes Everything

2008-07-19T12:03:00.003-05:00

Dark Knight might be the comic book film that changes everything and allows comic books and comic book ideas to be taken seriously. Since the dawn of superhero movies, we've been given a steady diet of the same thing, time after time. Some sort of origin story (either the hero, or the villain if it's sequels) coupled with some sort of plot to destroy/conquer the city/world. For the origin movie, it's almost always where the villain and hero are created from the same source, or are otherwise tied together somehow. Insert incredible action sequences and give the hero some sort of dramatic crisis for the climax. Wash, rinse, repeat.

That's not to say that past comic book movies have been bad. Spider-man 2 was my favorite film of 2004, while Iron Man was easily one of the best films this year so far, superhero or otherwise. Batman Begins, while really good, left me a bit flat because it still followed all the required superhero beats (ultimately). But at least it was trying to do something different. Iron Man also injected a bit more effort into the story to make it 'about' something.

But all that was setup for The Dark Knight. I think we needed all of those adaptations to where we got to the point where the superhero movie is ingrained in the national (or even worldwide) psyche in a way where it isn't just viewed as a geeky genre, but just as a type of film every bit as valid and encoded into our DNA as westerns or war films or detective thrillers. Watchmen director Zach Snyder has been talking about this very thing as now being the exact right time to finally release a Watchmen film. Watchmen deconstructed comics for those that were familiar with its rhythms. Now the public is at a point where they are so familiar with superhero tropes that a similar film deconstruction of comic book movies can be accomplished.

However, while Snyder was expecting that cultural shift to occur with the relase of his film, I reallly think it's happened this weekend, with The Dark Knight.

Dark Knight wasn't telling a superhero story. It was telling a complex crime story, but completely grounded within the Batman universe, pulling the best elements of both, and ramping up the drama, the stakes, the themes to levels you can only achieve with something like a comic book story. This was a crime drama overlaid with a brilliant examination of the extremes of good vs evil, black and white, with every shade in between.

Hopefully, this will signal a sea-change in the types of stories that movie studios feel can be told within the framework of a superhero story. I fear that because of the budgets and the need to make these types of films EVENT films that we'll not be able to get the nuance and subtlety that you can get from a great comic book story told over the course of a dozen or more issues. How many times can characters be put through the wringer at these escalating stakes and it not become even more repetitive and dull?

The Watchmen film is telling a specific story that has been proven to be effective and multi-layered. Dark Knight, while not based on any paticular piece of comic literature, definitely was born from an IDEA, not simply the desire to make a sequel and feature the next villain out of Batman's Rogue's Gallery. But I don't know if other comic properties will be able to be about something more than being a sequel.

Iron Man has a good head start in that there is an established comic story arc where Tony Stark battles alcoholism. That, when layered into the next Iron Man sequel, will make for a compelling, 'on purpose' sort of story.

Spider-Man 4, on the other hand, is going to be just the next sequel. Some themes and ideas might be able to be tacked onto it, but we're already beyond that with this franchise. Incredible Hulk tried to sort of be about something, but I felt it ended up a bit flat. I can't imagine how a sequel will be any more compelling. However, with all of these Marvel films, they're all leading up to an eventual Avengers film, which could be something really amazing if done right.

A future comic book film that could definitely be 'about' something is Captain America. I think there's never been a better time to do a film that allows this country to reflect on what it once stood for, and contrast that to what it does now. How America interfaced with the world 60 years ago, and how much it's changed today. If they just make Captain America a fun, superhero film, I think they'll have missed a chance to do something special. They can and should reach for a cross between Dark Knight and Saving Private Ryan.

In any event, superhero films now have a chance to reach for epic concepts and themes, not just epic special effects. Let's see who chooses to take up that challenge.

The Official WATCHMEN Trailer is Here

2008-07-17T14:55:00.002-05:00

After more than twenty years, we finally have some real live moving images of The Watchmen, the pinnacle (thus far) of the comic book/graphic novel form. I've lost count of the number of false starts this project has teased us with over the years, with Terry Gilliam and Darren Aronofsky the two biggest name directors attached. But it wasn't until the massive success of "300", directed by Zach Snyder, that movie studios finally decided to pull the trigger on this one and give Snyder a chance.

Over the past few months, we've been teased with character images and set visits, but nothing showing any of the action on the screen... until today. It's set to premiere before "The Dark Knight" (which I will be attending tonight at midnight), but Empire Magazine was given the early exclusive. Click here to see it in beautiful full resolution, but here it is (until it gets yanked) in a reasonable YouTube version

First thoughts? Unexpected. Epic. Taking no prisoners.

It doesn't look like a superhero film, and yet, it has all the elements you'd typically expect from such a film.

I'm most curious as to how those unfamiliar with Watchmen will react. The trailer doesn't give ANY inkling as to what the story is about. If anything, they'll think it's about Dr. Manhattan (the big blue guy, for you Watchmen neophytes), as the trailer does kind of show his origin, and he's easily the most prominent figure in the trailer. All the images are amazing. But what will it mean to newbies?

Moreso than any other comic adaptation (except for maybe "300"), the images from the trailer are all immediately recognizable directly from the comic. 200-ft tall Dr. Manhattan blasting the Viet Cong soldier, Ozymandias smacking the assassin with the ashtray, Rorschach's hairspray blowtorch, the Owlship rising out of the water, Dr. Manhattan creating the crystal palace on Mars, and of course, the Comedian being launched through a plate glass window. All these images are totally familiar and yet completely unlike what I was expecting.

This trailer was a crucial step in winning over me (and all the other diehard Watchmen loyalists). We've been holding our breaths for months awaiting this. And now that it's here, I'm more eager than ever to see if they can bring this thing all the way home.

If you're a Watchmen rookie, what do YOU think of this trailer? What does it make you think the film is going to be about? How similar or different than other comic book adaptations does it seem?

If you want to follow this film more closely as it develops, or just want more Watchmen info than you can cram into your brain, I highly recommend WatchmenComicMovie.com

Groverfield

2008-07-17T07:57:00.000-05:00

I know the whole Cloverfield craze has come and gone already and this is way late in arriving on my radar, but it's too funny and well-made to pass up.

(mildly Not Safe For Work, as it uses one profanity from the original film)

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Greatest First Dance Ever

2008-07-10T03:07:00.000-05:00

Back in the early days of my previous company, MediaPost, we supplemented our income by doing wedding videos. Lots of them. I still do the occasional wedding for family and friends, but it's thankfully only once or twice a year now. The highlight of how we do the wedding videos is making a "music video" out of the couple's first dance. Check out here and here for some examples of wedding highlight videos I've done. (Writing this blog post reminds me I have to get around to finally editing my brother's wedding from 2007...)

But unless these weddings are done for family or friends, they are excruciating to attend and edit. They're all the same. Mind-numbing after the first half-dozen or so. Everyone chooses the same five songs as their First Dance song.

That's why this video shows what would have been the greatest First Dance EVER. Oh, to have had something like THIS to break the monotony of the same wedding over and over. Enjoy.

I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime...

2008-07-04T12:01:00.000-05:00

...but I did.

Just a few moments ago, I got to see a dog-off.

In an epic battle, Joey Chestnut defeated Kobayashi for the title of Hot Dog Eating Champion. In OVERTIME!

It was amazing. After ten minutes of ramming hot dogs down their throats, Chestnut and Kobayashi were tied at 59 dogs apiece. The tiny chunks of dog and bun plastered over all over their faces were a testament to their dedication to eating more hot dogs in ten minutes than most of us will eat this year.

But it went to a dog-off. Two men. Five dogs. First one to shove all of them in their mouth and swallow them, without gagging, would be the 2008 champ.

And amazingly, Joey Chestnut retained the championship he wrested from Kobayashi last year. Kobayashi had won the previous six years and had taken the sport of competitive eating from little known 4th of July event to a year round industry where people compete to shove all sorts of things down their throats in short spans of time. Clams, ice cream, hamburgers, entire breakfasts, mini-burgers, you name it. There's apparently nothing we're unwilling to eat dozens of in less than five minutes.

Now I have to go throw up.

Have a happy 4th.

Blindsided by a Song

2008-06-30T23:59:00.000-05:00

Looks like this week's theme is going to be music. I kept on thinking about how I was 'blindsided" by Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" song and became immediately obsessed with it. It made me try to recall those songs from my musical history that also came out of nowhere. There have been plenth of songs that I connected with on first listen, but I guess for the purposes of this classification, I'm trying to remember songs that upon hearing for the first time made me stop in my tracks and say "What the heck was THAT??" Also, I had to not know who it was upon first hearing.

So far, the list is made up of only one other song: "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince. I remember clearly the first time I heard this song. I had no idea it was Prince and I remember spending the next hour or so trying to get through to the radio station to find out who it was. I was stunned to discover it was Prince. At that point, I was not a Prince fan at all. His most recent song at the time was "When Doves Cry", and I kinda hated that song. So I was almost disappointed to discover it was Prince. But if it was Prince that sang that amazing song, then so be it. I had my parents take me to a record store (the old Bookworm's Apple) and in short order, that tape was the only thing I listened to for the next few weeks. Ah, memories...

I'm sure there are others that came out of nowhere, but I can't think of them right now.

Are there any songs that absolutely blindsided you and went from unknown to your all-time top ten from the very first time you heard it?

Viva La Vida!

2008-06-29T19:03:00.001-05:00

Being that I'm now old, and a musical fuddy-duddy that complains about today's crappy music and longs for the wonderful old days of the 80's, it's a rare occurrence when some actual NEW music comes along and catches my fancy. It's rarer still when I get a little bit of that wonderful teenage ability to obsess over new music.

So a couple of weeks ago, I catch this commercial for the first time.

I'm not a big Coldplay fan (I can NAME two of their songs, and that's it). But something about it connected with me right away and not ten seconds later I was logging into iTunes to see if the song was available. It was, and (I love modern technology), within three minutes of seeing the commercial and hearing that sample for the first time, I was listening to the full version of the song.

The CD came out about a week later and I made a special trip to Wal-mart to get it. It was early enough that they didn't even have it out on the floor yet and had to go dig it out of the warehouse in the back.

And then I eagerly listened to the CD... and kind of shrugged. None of the other songs were as immediately fantastic as "Viva La Vida". But I gave it a couple of more listens in the background while I was doing other things and a couple of songs started planting roots in my brain.

But it wasn't until my son, who also was entranced by the Ipod commercial, started listening to the CD over and over and kind of listening to it through his ears and hearing which ones were his favorites helped me to listen in a different light.

So flash-forward to this past week when we went to Louisiana for work, and we listened to the CD all the way to and from Houston, and now, this is easily my favorite CD of the 2000's. And that first song that caught my attention, "Viva La Vida", has now been running on almost a constant loop today while I work, and I'm not only not tired of it, I can't get enough of it.

It's neat when you discover that something special like connecting with a song can still happen to you, years after you thought you were done with that sort of thing.

And watching that iPod commercial again after not having seen it since that first time, I marvel at how much the look and feel of that commercial totally captures and expresses the way the song feels. Excellent job. It has nothing to do with the song itself (the POV of the singer is that of a deposed king, likely Louis XVI or Charles X), but that commercial is the song. When they release this song as a single, they need to do the whole music video like this.

The Gas Crisis Hits Home

2008-06-23T08:30:00.003-05:00

So I'm driving home from my mother's house last night and suddenly my car starts sputtering. I'm out of gas. I haven't run out of gas in twenty years. My excuse is that I'm currently driving a rental car (thanks to a fun rear-ending accident I caused a couple of weeks ago), and while the gauge says I have a partial notch of gas left in the tank, apparently there's not actually any gas left in the tank.

However, this is one of those stories that has a fun ending. So my car starts sputtering, and I realize I'm out of gas. The power steering loses its power. It's 11:30pm. A recipe for disaster, usually, or at least a recipe for extreme inconvenience. But not tonight!

I was only a couple of blocks from my house, so I just let the car coast. Thankfully there was no traffic on the road. I coasted and slowly lost steam. Right at the corner of my street, it was really struggling. I had to really force the steering wheel to make the turn, but I managed it. I finally lost all momentum right in front of my house. The car came to a dead stop and I just got out and went in my house.

In spite of the stupidity of running out of gas, I'm actually quite amused how this turned out.

That's all. Nothing more interesting than I ran out of gas and coasted home. Move along, everyone... move along.

Top Ten Summer Movies - Summer Solstice Progress Report

2008-06-22T00:09:00.003-05:00

Here we are, close to midway through the summer movie season. Time to check in on how the movies are doing.

It's just about time for the Summer Blockbuster Season to roll around, so I'm starting to plan what I actually want to see. Usually I INTEND to see most of them, but wind up only seeing half or less. Unlike many recent summers, I'm actually really looking forward to quite a few films.

So without further ado, here's the list (and not necessarily in order of looking-forward-to-ness)

1) The Dark Knight - Doesn't come out for another month or so. Getting more excited about it, though.

2) Iron Man - 9/10 This movie was lots of fun. Perfect sort of superhero movie. He's not as well-established as most other superheroes that have had movies made of them, so it was easier for them to play around with the history and not have it come across as false. For 99% of the world, this will be THE Iron Man. Sequels galore are already in the works.

3) Narnia: Prince Caspian - 6.5/10 This movie left me a bit whelmed. It was good, but nothing really memorable. However, that said, I wish the first film had had this look and tone to it. Narnia is more like a real place this go-round, whereas the first movie was more like a fairy land.

4) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - 4/10 I was RIGHT to dread this film. What a mess. What a miscalculation. It reeks of George Lucas's myopic vision. For a really good list of what's wrong with this film, check this out.

5) Speed Racer - 0/10 Well, that's not a totally fair rating, because I didn't see it. But the closer it got, the less interested I was in seeing it. However, while waiting for Indy IV to restart (glitch in framing of the film), I wandered over to Speed Racer to catch a couple of minutes of it, just to see. The five minutes I watched were excruciating. I don't know who this film was made for. What a wreck...

6) The Happening - n/a This also looked more and more like a disaster the closer it got, and reviews have been universally bad. As I was only kinda interested in seeing it, this made my decision easier. I'll catch it on cable one day... maybe.

7) The Incredible Hulk - 7.5/10 The closer this one came to release, the more optimistic the reviews became. While the Hulk's CGI never got any better over the course of the previews, the reports were that the story and presentation were right in line with the precedent that Iron Man set earlier in the summer. And those reports were right. This was a mostly fun film, firmly set in the Iron Man version of the Marvel universe. I look forward to the next Marvel Studios film.

8) Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Still waiting for this one to come out. Recent previews make this look really epic.

9) Wall*E - This comes out next week. Latest previews are even stronger. Hard to imagine this not being a great Pixar film.

10) Tropic Thunder - Still the film I have the highest hopes for. Should be fun.

Update!

10.5) Hancock - I'm still on the fence about this one...

11) Honorable mentions - The rest of these films I'm going to keep my eye on, but they all seem like DVD rentals at best.

Get Smart - It opened this weekend, but I'm less than interested in seeing it...
Love Guru - It also opened this weekend, and it looks like total dreck.
Wanted - Growing more meh about this by the day.
Kung Fu Panda - This got great reviews and is a huge hit, but I just can't bring myself to see it yet. Looks like a DVD rental for sure.
Meet Dave - Whatever interest I had in seeing this has evaporated.

And as always, there's going to be at least one film that comes out of nowhere to become a surprise hit. What will be this year's Knocked Up?

Time will tell.

48 Hour Film Project 2008 - Final Thoughts

2008-06-15T20:42:00.003-05:00

Okay... it's been a week since we turned in our film nine minutes late. I wish I could say I feel better about the whole experience, but I don't. And it doesn't have anything to do with turning the film in nine minutes late. I think if we'd have gotten it in on time I'd actually feel worse.

While our film is 'okay', by no means is it a good film. We did the best we could with the time we had. The fact that we even wound up with something that had a semi-coherent narrative was a miracle in itself. On THAT level, this year was a resounding success.

Here's a slightly altered version of the film (I'll post the official version that we turned into the festival in the next day or so.)

I'm still intending on doing the Director's Cut, and it will be a massively different take. I played around with it a bit last Friday and there are some entire scenes I've already removed. I think it might be able to be turned into a film I feel better about...eventually.

There were a variety of reasons why we didn't get the film in on time, notably audio problems and lack of a dedicated editor, but neither of those were reasons why the film didn't live up to my expectations.

For starters, unless all elements line up perfectly, producing a GOOD 48 Hour Film is a losing proposition. The weekend is filled with nothing but compromises and cutting corners and having to settle for whatever you happen to have at that moment. Not one of the decisions we made this year were good, outside of the selection of our acting talent. We were blessed with that this year, and if not for them, our film would have been much less successful.

While I feel like I'm done with this contest (and other time-limited filmmaking contests), there's still a hint of a groundswell among other team members that we give this one more try. While I'm not going to push for it, if someone else steps up and takes on most of the back end stuff, I'm not opposed to participating again, with some major changes in how we operate.

For one, the need for a dedicated editor is a top priority. We need someone capturing footage and piecing together scenes BEFORE Sunday morning rolls around. Not just for getting the film in on time, but for really putting together the best film we can, with the least amount of scrambling as possible. We had a dedicated editor this year, but he bailed out at the last moment, leaving us in a bind that we never really recovered from. If we can't get a dedicated editor next year, and if we can't get a real commitment from him/her, then I won't even consider participating.

Secondly, the creative team/writing team has to be limited to two, maybe three people, including me. For three years now, we've had a writing team of five or six or more, and while everyone on that team is very creative and had great ideas, they all ultimately didn't mesh. Too many disparate ideas and visions that had no chance of coming together in one whole. The first two years we managed to work through it, mostly because the initial idea we came up with had fewer directions it could go, but this year, the idea we had was so cerebral and so open-ended that all the various ideas we had pulled this film in too many directions. At the first call, we didn't even have a full script, just a couple of scenes that kind of could be turned into something later (we were assuming we'd come up with a script for the rest of the film throughout the day, which we kind of did... kind of).

It's a testament to everyone there that we actually managed to salvage it this year, as we had almost nothing as late as noon on Saturday.

But back to the scripting- For good or ill, the writing team has to be no more than three people. The problem is, there are way more than three people that want to be on the creative team. How do you pick? Who do you tell, "Thanks, but we won't need your help on the writing team this year" ? I have to be on it, because one, for a project like this, I trust my own instincts, and two, I know what I can shoot and edit in a two day span.

Something else that probably won't sill well with some people is that I have no interest in attempting a 'serious' film again, or one with a 'message'. Not for this contest, anyway. It just doesn't work. People want to laugh. People want the film to be straightforward and to make clear sense every step of the way. Message films are great, and I'm totally in favor of making them, but to do them right, they need to be really massaged and refined every step of the way. Slamming together a message film just creates a mess.

In all honesty, the person I feel would be most helpful in the writing room on Friday night would be my brother, Guy. He's not a filmmaker or a writer, but he and I bounce ideas off of each other better than anyone else I know. Collaboration is such a delicate, fragile thing, especially when time is of the essence. With some people, on commercials and other projects, I work fantastically with them, but when it comes to something like a film, it's a total clash of sensibilities. I can't put a value on collaborating with someone that shares your mindset. I've been fortunate enough to work with many people over the years who fit that description, but only a couple where the collaboration turns into something magical or inspired.

It's not an easy thing to balance.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've joked with some people that the 48 Hour Film needs to be run like a benevolent dictatorship, not a democracy. These things need one singular vision to work right. That singular vision can come from one or two or three people, but it has to be rock solid. We didn't have that this year by ANY stretch of the imagination. Everyone, myself included, had a different vision of what this film was going to be.

This becomes more pronounced when I compare our films (this year's, and the previous two) to the one I think is the best this year. In fact, I think it's the most successful 48 Hour Film I've seen, period, any city, any year. It's called "Rushin'" and I thought it was absolutely fantastic. Take a gander here.

This film had a very clear vision, and everything in the film contributed to that vision. As far as I'm concerned, this film didn't make one false step.

What's interesting (to me) is the conversations I had with them after the film, and the answers they gave during the post-screening Q&A. They talked a lot about problems they faced previous years, such as too many cooks/writers, attempting to do something serious, attempting to deliver a message, attempting too many locations, etc. In fact, based on their previous films, I wouldn't have thought they had this film in them. Having spoken with them, I see that their previous films had failed for the same reasons I think our films have failed. But this year, they went into it with a totally different plan. Everything they talked about is exactly what I wanted to do this year, but let it get away from me again, and their success only underscores how the 'Reduce and Simplify' plan is the best one.

And while my ideas may very well turn out to be crap, at least the failure will be one that I can own. It really just doesn't sit well with me that this film I directed has no connection to something I would have wanted to do if I had done this entirely on my own. I know it sounds arrogant, but I know that if I had done it all by myself (writing and directing, that is), the film would have had a beginning, middle and ending, and would have had a cohesive and filmable story.

I guess we'll see if I'm right when I attempt to produce "Zombie Wrangler" later this summer. That will be a script I write and direct entirely on my own. If I have any idea what I'm doing, I guess we'll find out then.

So I apologize if you're still reading all the way to here. I know I've drifted over into ranting, but I kind of have to in order to put this experience to bed. It's just been a very frustrating and enlightening experience. Creative democracies just don't work on films. One vision, and everyone else can help round out that vision as much as the visioneer allows them. But in the end, it has to be one person's vision. That's how it has to work.

Okay... I'm still a bit burned out, but I think I'm about ready to get back to full creative steam.

Zeroes - The Auditions

2008-06-07T08:07:00.000-05:00

Turns out this was all part of an NBC promo guy's marketing plan. One that he came up with on his own. Check out this interview.

Anyway, great job. We close out the week with an audition video for Zeroes. It's not as funny as the other videos, but it allows you to have gotten the FULL Zeroes experience.

Zeroes - The Trailer

2008-06-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

They put together a little trailer for the first four episodes of Zeroes. Some funny stuff still to be mined from this concept. Especially the guy that can do the stomach thing.

12 Hours away from 48 Hour (Film Project)

2008-06-06T06:15:00.003-05:00

I should be sleeping right now. In fact, I was. I got to bed at about 2:30, after finally arriving home after a long long long day marked by TV commercial production, 48 Hour Film preparation, trips to Louisiana and back, and a session with a friend on how to use the Firestore with the HVX 200 (that's 100% video geekspeak...don't attempt to figure out what that means unless you KNOW what it means.) Oh yeah, I even managed to squeeze a funeral in.

But today's going to be a long day, too. So why am I not sleeping???

Because I woke up about thirty minutes ago with something I ate last night not setting well with me. I'm not nauseous. It's more like a stomach cramp. I took some Pepto, and while I wait for it to work its magic, I'm sitting here typing.

This year is shaping up to be both more organized and prepared AND more chaotic. I think we have our best team yet, both in front of and behind the camera. For once, I won't be the only editing option, as we have a skilled, dedicated editor assigned. He should be able to start editing while we are still shooting. That should make Sunday's final edit session a thousand times easier. Plus, there will be at least two others of us (me and Chris) who will be able to either spell him, or work on segments or special effects on separate computers. We also have a dedicated composer for our film's music (but we still have Digital Juice on hand as backup).

The more chaotic part comes in the form that we aren't nearly as set on good locations as we were in previous years. We've got my office secured, a few outdoor areas, and I've got paperwork in for using our office building's interior (which has some cool elevators and a wide open atrium). Also this year, we don't have ONE perfect staging area. We'll be meeting at one location for the giant group gathering, a different location for the script-writing session, and a third location for editing. If not for the fact that my office building turns off the A/C on weekends, we could do everything there. As it is, we can probably meet for SOME of the time on Saturday (especially if we are doing any shooting there). But for Sunday, if we want to use my edit systems, we'll have to suffer through horrible stuffy heat (or else bring a couple of dozen fans. Our other option is to set up the edit system at someone's house. We WERE going to set up at the dedicated editor's house, but within the past week or so, he has moved, so all of his stuff is in boxes. We still haven't got this one figured out yet.

But I'm most excited about our cast. We have a rather large pool of talent this year, just about all of which have prior acting experience (either in REAL films, or else have been on our team in years past). My only concern is our coming up with a concept and a script that manages to give everyone a solid part. Because of the talent level this year, I'm more confident about our writing a looser script and allowing the actors to improvise more. This will make it easier at the script stage, but a bit tougher during the edit. We'll see.

As we do every year, we try to anticipate potential story ideas based on the potential genres we might pull. If our film ends up with a zoo murder in it, or a jury deliberation room, or a kidnapped newscaster, or extensive funny subtitles, then you'll know we managed to use one of those ideas. However, as also happens every year, we will almost certainly come up with something brand new that really integrates the required elements. I'm confident in our ability to come up with something really good, either way.

It's always an incredibly fun weekend, but amazingly exhausting. The last two years, our goal was to WIN this event, which we didn't do (although we did win bunches of individual awards/smiley face stickers). THIS year, our goal isn't to win, but to produce an amazing short film. Winning would be a nice byproduct obviously, but at the end of the day, we're more concerned with ending up with something we're very proud of.

Irony Coast Productions should be up to the task.

Zeroes - Episode 4

2008-06-05T08:07:00.000-05:00

It's too bad this one just sort of ends. Except for an audition video (coming Saturday!) it doesn't appear they've produced any more videos in this series, which is a shame. I've laughed out loud consistently at these videos.

Good job!

Coming tomorrow, the Trailer for this show that has some additional Zeroes in it that haven't been featured in the show yet.

Zeroes - Episode 3

2008-06-04T08:07:00.001-05:00

The guy with the art powers has become my favorite character. His drawings are brilliant and the way it parodies the real Heroes is fantastic.

Zeroes - Episode 2

2008-06-03T08:07:00.000-05:00

I wish I could claim credit for these videos. They're everything a good viral video series should be. Short, concise, witty, and very well-made. I love the small touches.

Penguins 4 - Red Wings 3 (Red Wings lead series 3-2)

2008-06-03T07:36:00.004-05:00

Wow. If ever there was a game the Penguins didn't deserve to win, that was it. I missed the first two periods (fortunately, there were another four still to come), so I can't vouch for how they played then, but over the third period and almost the entire overtime, they were terrified, tentative, and sloppy. No one seemed to want the puck. Any time the puck was on a Penguins stick, they couldn't wait to get rid of it to let someone else have the dread responsibility of somehow salvaging this game. I lost count of the number of weak passes they made and the number of times they found themselves horribly out of position. It seemed like there were seven Red Wings on the ice at all times.

But... the Hockey gods were with them tonight. They live to fight another day. Perhaps it's their...destiny...to win this thing after all.

Actually, the only reason the Penguins are playing Wednesday night is because Marc-Andre Fleury played the most amazing game of his career. There was at least a dozen times the series should have been over, but Fleury's heroic goaltending kept the Penguins in the game. 55 saves. And most of them during that stretch when the rest of the Pens weren't providing any help at all.

Game six is Wednesday night, and I'll be plopped in front of the TV for that entire game, adorned with my Penguins jersey. If they can pull THAT off, then I'll have a dilemma. Gave seven will be Saturday evening. This year's 48 Hour Film Project will be in full swing on Saturday and if it's anything like it was the last two years, I'll still be deep in the shooting of it when the game starts... grrr... Now, in addition to all the other required elements of the contest, I have an additional required element of getting done in time to see at least some of the game.

Anyway, thanks Pens, for extending this amazing season at least ONE more game.

Venture Bros.- Season 3 - Episode 1 - "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny"

2008-06-02T13:33:00.001-05:00

Yay! Venture Bros. is/are back! It kind of sneaked up on me. Actually, I knew it was going to be returning near the beginning of June, it's just that the whole month of June kind of sneaked up on me. In any event, its return comes not a moment too soon, what with the season finale of Lost and the series derailment of Battlestar Galactica.

This episode had nary a glimpse of Hank or Dean, and only a couple of moments of Dr. Venture and Brock. But that's okay. The Venture Bros isn't a show about the characters themselves, it's about the whole Venture-Bros-iverse. As long as they bring the funny, and this week, they did.

Basically what we had was a sort of origin story for the Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend as they apply for membership into the League of Calamitous Intent. Lots of fun moments, too many to recount. Nothing gut-busting, but all of it good. What I'm sure will become a fun quest is figuring out who the shadowy members of the Council of Thirteen are. I haven't done any Googling to see if any of them have been identified, but the only one I think I've figured out is that the main one that was speaking is Wile E. Coyote. (okay... now I'm going to go Googling... nope... so far only Wile E. Coyote).

One of my favorite things about this show is the codifying of Supervillainry that they've done. My favorite of these is the term "arching", which is what you do when you have an arch-enemy (which I have!)

Anyway, Venture Bros. is always more about the sum of the whole, rather than the individual parts. This was another solid episode in what looks to be a great season. Can't wait to see more of Manotaur and his Malevolent Murder Maze. And I want to see more of Truckules.

Because it's going to be such a long long time before anything good returns to the airwaves, it might be a good time to revisit The Venture Bros. from the beginning.

Zeroes - Episode 1

2008-06-02T08:07:00.000-05:00

Stumbled upon this a few days ago and was highly impressed. Nice production values, decent acting, funny ideas, all extremely well executed.

I laugh every time the black guy uses his power. Great stuff.

Join me here every day this week for a new episode, and an amusing trailer at the end of the week.

Are you a fan of Heroes (or a former fan, like myself)?

Battlestar Galactica - "Sine Qua Non"

2008-06-01T22:30:00.006-05:00

There was a time not that long ago where I had the whole Battlestar Galactica storyline down cold. I could name ships and characters and knew what all the mystical stuff meant.

But not anymore.

BSG has completely lost me. It hit me a couple of episodes ago when in the midst of the shows latest string of visions and prophecies and dreams, I suddenly realized I didn't have a clue what was going on anymore. I had no clue how any of it tied together.

And the worst part? I didn't care anymore.

BSG is at the point where I know enough about the behind-the-scenes development of this show that I know they're really making this all up as they go along. I know that any ideas or plot threads that they might have had in season one or two have been completely rebuilt from the ground up and ret-conned into submission. And for me, that totally ruins the experience. Unlike the Cylons, the creative team does NOT have a plan.

And that in itself is a joke. I defy ANYone to tell me in less than a thousand words what the Cylon's plan is. Better yet, tell me what it was at each stage of this show. Wipe out all the humans? Wipe out all of them except for a few? Find Earth? Not find Earth? Have there been prophecies all along? Where do they get their spiritual info from? Where's the Cylon Bible?

It's all so convoluted and contradictory that I doubt the writing staff of this show could explain it to you.

In spite of the ret-con plot integrity betrayal last season with the reveal of four of the Final Five Cylons, I was giving this season a chance to tie it all together and hit a home run. But that hasn't happened.

"Sine Qua Non" was easily one of the weakest episodes of the entire season. Battlestar Galactica works best when it's just telling its story in a straightforward way. The first few episodes of each season, this one included, usually start out that way. Just the presentation of the events in a serialized, connected way. It's only when the show hits the middle parts of the season when we start to get the stand-alone episodes. These eps usually have some sort of stupid 'theme' or style or homage they are paying. This week on BSG, we had the crazy/damaged consultant that sees dead cats. It was as silly as that sentence made it sound.

Which is sad, because there were several momentous events that took place that were completely diluted by the 'main' story. Adama declares his love for Roslin, Lee becomes President, and Tigh & Six conceive the first Cylon-Cylon baby (inconceivable!). While its true the President Lee Adama storyline was actually the main plot, it felt like a side element to the 'search for the candidate' that dominated much of the episode (and gave us the silly, showy, Romo Lampkin mental breakdown plot. My favorite comment on Romo Lampkin comes from Alan Sepinwall's blog,

"The entire story with Lee and Romo Lampkin was particularly annoying. I think the "Galactica" writers like Romo a lot more than the guy deserves, as he's less a character than a collection of colorful tics."

Sepinwall has a great, far more thorough, review on his blog as well, check it out.

And the contradictions continue to mount. It's bad enough that the show contradicts itself from episode to episode, but when it does it within the same episode, it makes me wonder who's in charge of this show. Case in point, in the middle of the episode, it's revealed to Admiral Adama that Tigh has been canoodling with prisoner Six, so much so that she's pregnant. Adama is suitably infuriated by this which leads to a knock-down fight between the two. That was okay. But not five minutes later, Adama decides to leave on a quest to find the missing Laura Roslin, and leaves "the only person he can trust," Tigh, in command of the entire fleet. WHAT? This guy just proved he can't be trusted and that he's consorting with the enemy. And a second example comes at the end of the ep when recently off-her-rocker Starbuck is now apparently the unquestioned CAG. First off, she was crazy just a couple of episodes ago, and she also her miraculous resurrection still hasn't been adequately explained. To me, that's someone that shouldn't be allowed near a command. And finally, there's the continuing trust of Athena. She's a CYLON. Regardless of how much she may want to fight her programming, she's still a Cylon, and ultimately can't and shouldn't be trusted. Adama's giving daughter Hera back to Athena after his justified berating of her simply smacked of "Let's just get this episode over and make sure we have all our pieces in place for the next episode."

In fact, the whole series feels that way. Regardless of how much sense it might or might not make, they make sure everything is set up for the next episode.

But right now... I just don't care. I imagine I'll keep watching just to see what happens, but I'm no longer invested in this show, and that's just sad. After the One Year Later jump, and the first five episodes of the next season, I was ready to declare BSG one of the all-time great shows. And then the wheels totally fell of the wagon. It's been a mess ever since.

And I'm sure I'll make this declaration way too many times in the coming weeks and months and years, but "The Wire" has totally ruined regular TV for me. After seeing what TV can look like when someone REALLY puts their effort into it and reaches for something special...now when I see half-hearted, "good enough" TV, it just infuriates me. I'm so tired of lazy TV. I just pray that "The Wire" isn't the last of its kind that we'll see...

Oh well.

If it's any consolation, at least it looks like next week's BSG actually has stuff that happens in it.

What's you're take? Do you still care? Do you have a clue what's going on?

Breaking Sports News

2008-05-28T10:29:00.000-05:00

2-Year-Old Donkey Called Up To Pro Donkey Basketball League

Long Lost Video - Kermit the Frog helps write "Yankee Doodle"

2008-05-26T10:07:00.001-05:00

Wow. I thought I'd never see this video again. I remember watching it when I was a wee lad. It was hilarious when I saw it 30-odd years ago, and all these years later, it's still pretty good. It's fun watching old Sesame Street things and seeing the adult touches that Jim Henson and Frank Oz and the rest managed to slip in. Nothing bad, but just stuff that would go over the head of a kid.

What's most interesting is that the majority of this skit isn't at all like I remember. But the ending and final version of the song is almost word for word as it is in my memory. Weird. Anyway, here it is, Kermit the Frog, deconstructing "Yankee Doodle" and helping the songwriter rewrite it to make it make sense.

The Wire - The More Things Change... Season Three Review

2008-05-25T21:44:00.003-05:00

Any fears I had about The Wire turning into standard TV vanished within an episode or two of Season Three. Having seen Season Four as of this writing (but not Season Five), I think Season Three is the strongest of the series so far.

At risk of spoiling the show for the five to ten people that might ever read this review, I have to share some specific details.

Like previous seasons, The Wire continued the threads of the previous seasons while adding an assortment of new ones. The main plot of S3 is the continuing investigation of the Barksdale drug organization. Despite kingpin Avon Barksdale's incarceration, he still runs the show, with partner Stringer Bell running things on the outside. The beauty of this show, and the epic, tragic scale of this show comes from these two characters interaction and season-long dance.

Avon is an old-school banger, and despite the massive amounts of money their organization has accumulated, he can't move past that thug mentality. Stringer, on the other hand, wants to take that wealth and move into more legitimate business, having taken business courses at college and buying up real estate. Increasingly, he has to do this without Avon's knowledge or approval.

It all is working okay until Avon works a way to get himself out of prison early. He returns to the neighborhood to get everything back in order, and that's when he and Stringer start to butt heads. Compounding everything is Det. Jimmy McNulty's personal investigation into the prison 'suicide' of Avon's nephew (and Season One main character) D'Angelo Barksdale. D'Angelo's death was ordered by Stringer (without Avon's knowledge) because D'Angelo was planning on flipping and turning all of them in.

So the amazingly tense conflict for this season ramps ever higher episode by episode. Our sympathies as the audience shifts from scene to scene, as we admire Stringer for attempting to move out of the drug trade. But we sympathize with Avon because of Stringer's betrayal and ordering the murder of D'Angelo. But we side against Avon because he can't pull himself out of the lowest-common-denominator lifestyle. But we like Stringer because he's the only person on the street with a plan. But we side against him because of how D'Angelo's mother was lied to about his death. But we side against HER because she is the one that convinced D'Angelo not to flip on the organization. And on and on and on.

I marveled constantly at the airtight plotting that allowed these shifts to occur and to be so powerful. And much of the conflict has its roots all the way back in the first episodes of Season One.

For anyone remotely interested in writing TV (or anything for that matter), this show is a masterclass on plotting and dialogue. It doesn't cut corners or go for the easy story at ANY time.

All the while, the good guys' story is compelling as well, but not nearly to the extent of Avon vs Stringer. These two kingpin's ultimate fates is pure Greek tragedy with a healthy dose of Shakespeare. Brilliant.

I could go on for days exalting this show. It just never makes a wrong step.

The ultimate compliment I can pay it is that I have to steal from it now. The Wire has the exact tone I was seeing and hearing and feeling in my head as I worked on "Going Nova". I want that kind of uncompromising honesty in my story, regardless of how unpleasant it might be or how bleak (for some characters) it might prove. Because if nothing else, The Wire has me thinking about drugs, crime, education, politics (and the News industry, I'm sure, after I watch Season Five) in a completely different light.

It's going to be hard watching regular TV ever again after experiencing this show.

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 7 - "Greatest Hits"

2008-05-25T08:01:00.000-05:00

Fortunately, someone went and did a compilation of all the great Tate hits.

Enjoy

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 6 - "Streaker"

2008-05-24T08:09:00.000-05:00

Short and sweet.

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 5 - "Sensitivity Training"

2008-05-23T08:57:00.000-05:00

They were starting to run out of steam a bit with this one, but it still brings the funny.

(warning: Mildly Not Safe For Work)

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 4 - "Office Athelete of the Century"

2008-05-22T08:21:00.000-05:00

As always, it's the little details that put these videos over the top for me.

"Like many children, Terry was born."

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 3 - "Vacation"

2008-05-21T08:21:00.001-05:00

This has some good moments in it. My favorite is the guy photocopying his butt on the copy machine. He's just enraptured.

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 2 - "Draft Day"

2008-05-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

The first Terry Tate video was perfect.

"The restroom's a privilege, not a right, PUNK!"

And the re-enactment of the classic NFL "helicopter hit" was a brilliant touch.

Well done, gentlemen....

Terry Tate - Office Linebacker - Part 1 - "Terry's World"

2008-05-19T08:20:00.000-05:00

Ah... Terry Tate... For me, this was the first true "Viral Video", in that it was easy to find, and easy to send to other people. And it was hilarious. And looking back on it now, I can even see some of the tone that would ultimately turn into "The Office" (disclaimer: I'm not sure which one came first).

The number of brilliant touches to this video can't be counted. But "You kill the joe, you make some mo'" became a fun catchphrase for a while.

Enjoy...

(warning: Mildly Not Safe For Work)

Penguins 6 - Flyers 0 (Pens win series 4-1)

2008-05-18T22:16:00.004-05:00

Again, they made it look easy. Watching the game, it seemed like the Flyers were playing at half-speed. The Penguins always seemed a step ahead, a step faster.

But... based on the talent of this team, a berth in the Stanley Cup finals is the only logical end result for this season. None of their opponents in the east were remotely at their level. The teams most likely to give them problems, Montreal and New Jersey, got knocked out early.

Now we only have to await the winner of Detroit-Dallas. Detroit stormed out to a 3 games to zip lead, but Dallas has won the last two to make it an interesting series. While the better matchup would be Detroit, I'm kind of hoping for a Dallas miracle comeback, just because it would allow the Penguins to retain home ice (Detroit, by virtue of the best record in the league would host the Finals should they make it), but also because it would allow me the outside chance at securing some tickets to a game in Dallas. VERY slim chance I'd be able to get tickets, but I have some connections that MIGHT have a way to get me into the arena for one of the games.

We'll see.

But a Detroit-Pittsburgh Finals would be one of the most compelling since New Jersey-Colorado or New Jersey-Dallas. It seems like just about every year over the past decade or so that at least one of the two Finals participants didn't really deserve to be there in the grand scheme of things. Usually, they way overachieve and end up not even making the playoffs the next year and certainly not making the Finals again anytime soon. I'm talking to YOU, Tampa Bay, Calgary, Anaheim, Carolina, Buffalo, Washington and Edmonton). Detroit-Pittsburgh is the first recent series I really think could become an annual event for the next few years.

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 7 - "Behind the Scenes"

2008-05-18T08:51:00.000-05:00

I believe this is one of the videos on the official website, but here it is for your easy digestion. Fun stuff...

Jerry Seinfeld & Superman - AmEx Commercials - Behind The Sc
Uploaded by joecool85

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 6 - "Saving Lois"

2008-05-17T08:41:00.000-05:00

I'd never seen this commercial before. From the looks of it, they got a different animation house to do Superman. It lacks most of the Curt Swan/Superfriends charm of the other spots. But it still has Seinfeld and Patrick Warburton, so it still works.

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 5 - "The Today Show Interview"

2008-05-16T08:31:00.001-05:00

I'd never seen this until today when I was searching for all the commercials. Pretty good stuff, even if Matt Lauer plays it up just a bit too much. I'm curious to see if Patrick Warbuton was actually on the couch and they just animated over him, or if Matt and Jerry were acting to empty air.

Anyway, enjoy!

Flyers 4 - Penguins 2 (Pens lead series 3-1)

2008-05-15T23:15:00.000-05:00

I totally missed this game, as I was at a preview screening of the new film "Son of Rambow". But it looks like if I had to miss one game, this was the one. I kind of didn't expect them to sweep, because I think they would rather wrap up the series on home ice (and I'm sure the team and arena owners don't mind the revenue an extra home game gives them). Not that they threw it, but that losing one game (and only one game) on the road wasn't the worst thing that could happen.

Incredible Stop-motion Animation

2008-05-15T22:21:00.002-05:00

I really don't have words to describe this. The older you get, the more you think you've pretty much seen everything. But this... this is amazing. I never would have thought to do something like this, and this guy (these people?) not only did it, but set the bar so high that I shudder to think anyone else even trying.

Enjoy.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 4 - "Oh Yes, Wyoming!"

2008-05-15T08:49:00.002-05:00

And somehow, after all of the brilliance of the videos, the website gave us this nugget of goodness-- The full version of "Oh Yes, Wyoming!"

Click on the image below, and once the flash animation of the screen setting up finishes, you'll see the Playbill cover below. Click on that, and you'll be rewarded with the catchiest show tune you ever did hear!

(update: 8-8-08 Flash page seems to not have sound.)

Here's a new link to the song.

Here are the lyrics if you'd like to sing along.

Oh Yes Wyoming!
With the tress and the horses and the rocks and the sheep

Oh Yes I’m Going!
Through the plains and the trails and the streams and the hills

Oh No Nebraska!
Is there a plainer state I ask ya

Oh Yes Wyoming!
There’s no place I’d rather be roaming

With the geysers and the canyons and the watering holes
With the geysers and the canyons and the watering holes

Oh Yes Wyoming!
With the mountains and the lakes and the plentiful fish

Oh Yes I’m knowing!
This land will fulfill my every wish

Oh No Dakota!
Doesn’t interest me one iota

Oh Yes Wyoming!
There’s no place I’d rather be roaming

[spoken]
Hey Zeke!
What is it Antelope Joe?
You know I love them girls back in Wyoming
I heard you like the geezers too
It’s geysers and anyway that’s just a rumour
I’m talking about my special girl Daisy
I call her ol’ faithful
I heard she ain’t that faithful
She sure is old though
Ha ha ha ha

Oh Yes Wyoming!
With the cabins and the camping and the bakin’ beans

Oh Yes I’m Glowing!
With the bison and the banjos and the wily raccoons

Oh No Ohio
I can hardly wait to say goodbye-oh

Oh Yes Wyoming!
There’s no place I’d rather be…
Ends with m-i-n-g…
Shout it out loud with me
W-Y-O-M-I-N-G

Oh Yes!

Join us next time for the final chapter of this retrospective, as we bring to you a little-seen Today Show interview with Matt Lauer, Jerry Seinfeld, and the Man of Steel himself.

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 3 - "It's the Green Lantern!"

2008-05-14T08:18:00.000-05:00

This one's a shorty, but it's still pretty good. It's a payoff to some content from the website.

On the flash website, there's some other phone messages you can listen to (click on the phone), but here's the fun followup teaser commercial.

The Wire - Trouble on the Docks? Season Two Review

2008-05-13T23:20:00.004-05:00

Thanks to a really bad cold that confined me to my bed this past weekend, I managed to burn through all of Season Two of The Wire in just two days. You could say I was watching them feverishly.

I haven't had much luck with Season Two's lately. Dexter S2 totally let me down, to the point where I don't think I want to watch Season Three. Heroes S2 lost me only two episodes into the season. It totally jumped the tracks. Lost had a bumpy S2, as did Battlestar Galactica (although both of those recovered well enough over the short term).

I'm not sure what it is about second seasons that prove to be such bugaboos for the creative teams. I guess it's that during the successful first season, they never really had time to analyze what they were doing, and just reacted on pure instinct, which turned out to be right. After S1 ends, they sit back, and TRY to figure out what audiences liked about the show and try to break it down to the point where they believe they can construct the second season using only the good stuff, and none of the fluff. And almost every time, they're wrong. Recent movies have shown the same tendency. The Matrix sequels and Pirates sequels were wrong wrong wrong on just about every level. Utter disasters. Peter Jackson guessed wrong with King Kong, figuring that if we loved the cool Legolas scenes from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, that we'd LOVE a whole King Kong movie filled with nothing but those wildly over-the-top sequences. What worked beautifully ONCE per film became mind-numbing in King Kong. And I even have a personal example. The first Addy Awards we did in 1995 was received amazingly well (or so we're told, since we were too chicken to go to the show to see if anyone laughed or jeered what we did), leading Don and I to approach the 1996 show with a bit of over-confidence, and the belief that we could 'nail it this time'. Didn't work out that way. While it was received well enough, we knew almost right away that we'd missed the mark.

Point is, it's tough to catch lightning in a bottle twice. And that was the mindset I was going into for Season Two of the The Wire.

I'm happy to report that The Wire mostly safely navigated the dangerous waters of Season Two. My review? 8.5 teeth out of ten.

Some specifics- I loved how they continued everyone's stories, even the street characters, even though their stories seemingly came to an end after S1. We got to follow Avon and Dee in prison, and Stringer Bell as he attempted to hold together the crumbling pieces of the Barksdale empire. We got to meet a few new street characters that promise to feature prominently in seasons to come.

Omar became the Boba Fett of this series. It took me a while to figure out what made his character so appealing and interesting (besides the fact that I've never before seen a homicidal gay thug as a sympathetic main character). He doesn't have a whole lot of airtime, but like Boba Fett, the time he's given he makes the most of. He's decisive, he has a strict code that he sticks to (he only robs people in "the game"), and most of all, he moves easily back and forth between the worlds of the good guys and the bad, working with whoever serves his purpose at the time.

The cops story had some interesting turns. It took until the eighth (of 13) episodes until the whole team was actually back together. They ways they managed to keep them all together, even though they were all working in different departments, was pretty clever, but a weeee bit TV-ish, which is where I docked a quarter of a tooth.

Where the show lost most of its points was in the overall Port Murders plotline. The mystery itself was excellently done, it's just that a few of the aspects of the Greeks, the bad guys of this season, were a bit too fiendishly evil. Season One's drug lords and street thugs all had believable motivations for doing what they did. but The Greek, and Vanos were evil with no balancing good traits to make them human. The one thing that really confused me was the FBI leak. I'm still not sure how that guy worked, but the whole time, it felt very much like just a plot device to eventually lead to betrayals and twists, which is exactly what happened.

The Dock workers themselves were pretty good and I can't dock them any points except for a half-tooth for some cheesy dialogue late in the season. Especially good were the actors that played Ziggy and Nico. They had very tough roles with very fine lines they had to walk. But they were given strong parts to play. They were on the opposite side of the law, but were made human by making all their decisions, especially the bad ones, fit perfectly within their worldviews.

We got one major new character, Beadie Russell, played by Amy Ryan, who was really good, and who I hope they bring back in the final three seasons (early word is that she does return, but probably as a love interest rather than a member of the team). Prior to this, the only place I knew Amy Ryan from was her amazing performance in Gone Baby Gone. As it is, I didn't recognizer her at all, so different is this character and her portrayal, and in fact, I only knew it was her by looking it up on IMDb.

One of the things I like so much about this show is its unrelenting bleakness. There's no way for the Law to slow down or make the endless wave of Crime even NOTICE. The cops know they are only putting band-aids on the problem. But they go to work knowing that for a while at least, they can fractionally stop the bleeding. While it would be nice to think that The Wire offers up a far too pessimistic version of the war on drugs and crime, I tend to think that it portrays it pretty accurately, bleakness and all.

The Wire S2 missed the mark a tiny little bit, but as far as second seasons go, it is easily the most successful according to ME. I was riveted from first frame to last. I'm invested in these characters and mourn the loss of those that unexpectedly didn't make it to the end, including my favorite character, the one character who seemed primed for a nice redemption arc. But...his act of reaching for redemption is what ultimately cost him his life. Rest in peace, dude...

And with that, I get ready to fire up Season Three. I have no idea what it's about, and I love it. But from everything I HAVE allowed myself to read, it seems that Season Two was the show's only bump in the road and that it only got better from here on, with Season Four being a masterpiece. We'll see...

Penguins 4 - Flyers 1 (Pens lead series 3-0)

2008-05-13T23:14:00.002-05:00

And then there was one. One more win to advance to the Finals. It's funny how doing this March of the Penguins has really made it seem like the championship is just a formality. 11 wins and one loss... not too many teams have put up that kind of string. There's still five wins to go, but it really does seem like Crosby and Malkin and Fleury will be among the new names inscribed on the Stanley Cup in a few short weeks.

Time marches on...

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 2 - "Hindsight is 20/20"

2008-05-13T08:37:00.001-05:00

Yes... it was a mere four years ago that Jerry Seinfeld was still considered funny. Before the Dark Times... Before... "Bee Movie". These Superman/American Express commercials hit at exactly the right time, when nostalgia for Jerry was at it's highest (before we realized he wasn't funny anymore), and when anticipation for a new Superman movie was just starting to build (before we knew how bad that film would turn out). Ahh.. the naivete' of youth...

Anyway, here's part two of the series of commercials and other assorted associated elements. I love how even Superman's suitcase is animated.

Here's a link to the American Express/Seinfeld/Superman website. Click on stuff. Have fun.

Seinfeld / Superman team-up. Part 1 - "A Uniform Used to Mean Something"

2008-05-12T08:53:00.003-05:00

Back in the olden days before "Viral Video" and YouTube, way back in aught-four, a herald of things to come emerged on our computers. It wasn't the first web-only video advertisement, but it was the best, and all these many years later, it's still one of the best.

Jerry Seinfeld teamed up with American Express to produce a series of brilliant videos teaming Seinfeld up with an animated Superman (played to perfection by Patrick Warburton). It's all live action, but Superman is animated. And Superman's portrayal is right out of an episode of "Seinfeld"

Brilliant concept, brilliant execution, and brilliant tie-in. I'll have to do some research to see how this whole thing worked for American Express. Here's a link to the the website (or at least to the company that created the website that still has a working link available on their site)

There were three official videos, a sing-a-long flash video, and a Today Show interview. I'll be doing a retrospective on one of them every day this week. But without any further ado, here's part one.

Penguins 4 - Flyers 2 (Pens lead series 2-0)

2008-05-11T22:35:00.003-05:00

Man.. I sure picked the right horse this year, didn't I? The Penguins become the first team since 1995 to win 10 of its first 11 games. I only got to see the third period of this one, but over the last 16 minutes or so of the game, and nursing a 3-2 lead, the Penguins only allowed one scoring chance. And this against the team that was the offensive leader in the postseason.

The next couple of games in Philly should be tough. But the Flyers are down a few key players, so the home ice advantage probably is cancelled out.

As you can see, six wins away from hoisting the Cup.

The Wire - Best TV series ever? Season One Review

2008-05-11T20:55:00.006-05:00

I'm a TV and Movie curmudgeon now. I freely admit it. I go into every bit of filmed entertainment looking for, and waiting for, that point in which a show or movie jumps off the tracks. For me, there's no excuse for any TV show to get lazy or silly or fall into cliche'.

My favorite TV shows of late (notably "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica") seem to eventually not have any idea what they are doing. Until "Lost" got its act together late last season, it was on the verge of my declaring it the most disappointing show ever produced. This season has restored nearly all of my anger towards the show, but ultimately, I can't forget that for a while, "Lost" was unfaithful to me. You can forgive, but you can never truly put it out of your mind. As such, "Lost" and "BSG" will forever be "almosts'.

Earlier this year, I wrote reviews of "Dexter", both season 1, and season 2. That show had an amazing first season, and then completely jumped the rails in the second season. I was convinced that finding "The Best TV Show Ever" would prove to be a pointless endeavor.

So, it was with that mindset that I sat down to finally watch "The Wire". Not sure what prompted me to pick up the first disk of season one, but there I was last week, putting the disk in the DVD player and sitting down to watch.

And I have to say, that season one delivered, 100%. I don't have a single bad thing to say about season one. I normally don't even LIKE cop shows, finding the procedure tedious and cliche'd.

However, "The Wire" did everything right.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, "The Wire" is a police drama set in Baltimore. Season one centered on drugs and featured both the law and the street. It's hard to say if there truly are 'main' characters, as the cast is a couple dozen deep, all given major screen time. They range from the lowest of the low (homeless drug addicts), to the top (police commissioners and judges). And what's most remarkable is that more successfully than any movie or TV show has dome, "The Wire" has given every character both good and bad qualities. One of my favorite characters was one of the drug dealers. The ostensible 'hero' of the series, Jimmy McNulty, is a completely screwed up mess. These are all real people who exhibit the best and worst of humanity.

Part of what makes this show so good is that it never once compromised the logical next step of the story for a cheap Hollywood cliche'. No character was ever put in false danger for the sake of drama. Even the non-case related situations (such as the home lives of some of the characters) was handled perfectly and added to the overall tableau.

This show has been described as 'televised novel', and I'd have to agree. None of the episodes have forced themes or situations. They all form once chapter of what feels like a book.

Best of all, it seems obvious that each season was intricately plotted and planned prior to filing, so that there doesn't seem to be any abandoned plotlines, or abrupt changes in direction. And best of all, no filler episodes.

What makes this show even more gritty and realistic is that it is 100% realistic in its portrayal of these characters, especially the language. This show aired on HBO, so make no mistake, the language is pretty raw. I learned a few dozen new ways to use profanity. Every once in a while it seems a bit gratuitous, but for the most part, it seems pretty authentic to the characters and this world. It really stands in stark contrast to typical, neutered TV language. I have no problem with keeping the language clean on broadcast networks, but at the same time, when the language is authentic to the story, I have no problem with excessive profanity.

Adding to the authenticity is that "The Wire" casts many of its minor roles with local people who have little or no prior acting experience. Some of them are painfully obvious to point out, but even those ultimately work, making everything feel more like it's a documentary rather than a fictional drama.

Again, the acting across the board was uniformly brilliant. Every actor is interesting, and no matter what character they switch focus to, it's always exciting to see what happens next. Proof of this is that as I stated previously, even all the bad guys are sympathetic.

I could go on writing for hours about this show (and will probably return to it at some point), but I simply have this to say-

SEE THIS TV SERIES AT ALL COSTS.

It's that good.

Ten teeth out of ten.

(Coming soon, review of season two)

Penguins 4 - Flyers 2 (Pens lead series 1-0)

2008-05-10T05:45:00.004-05:00

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. These guys are starting to be 80's Oilers good. The only problem (that the 80's Oilers didn't have) is a salary cap that will prevent the Penguins from keeping all of their budding superstars.

Anyway, here are the highlights of the game.

Thanks to the NHL Network for tonight's video highlights.

Penguins 3 - Rangers 2 (OT) (Pens win series 4-1)

2008-05-04T19:53:00.001-05:00

I was in the midst of attempted computer repair, so I missed most of this game, but out of the corner of my eye, I did get to see the last part of the third period and overtime.

DVD Review - No Ending For Old Men

2008-05-04T17:11:00.000-05:00

I more or less liked "No Country for Old Men" when I saw it late last year. I was confounded by the ending, but still thought it was okay.

Well, my wife and I watched the DVD last night, and on second viewing, it just makes me more angry that the film denies us a proper ending.

The acting was uniformly great, and Bardem's Oscar was well-deserved. But the presentation of the film ultimately failed for me.

I know how the film is SUPPOSED to be about the path everyone takes to get where they are, and how it's about the senselessness of violence and greed, but that's not what the movie gave us for the first 95% of its running time. We had a well-plotted, clear, concise film, with incredibly tense scenes. But then the Coen Bros abandon this over the last ten minutes or so, and decide that telling a cohesively-plotted story isn't what they were doing after all. The movie ends with (spoiler alert!) the main character getting killed offscreen by people who we didn't see until moments before the shootout took place (offscreen). And then we don't learn for sure if Chigur did indeed end up with the money, then we're only given the implication that he kills Josh Brolin's wife, and then we don't find out what ultimately happens to Chigur after he walks away from a car crash.

Some people loved that this film went against convention and turned the ending on its head, but it didn't work for me. And I also don't care if that's how the book ended.

But... it won Best Picture, so I guess someone really liked it.

Woo Hoo! I won a book in an online contest!

2008-05-03T12:43:00.006-05:00

One of my favorite blogs is "Pat's Fantasy Hotlist" that covers, you guessed it, all the fantasy book news (and some sci-fi) that's fit to print. Tons of great reviews as well. This guy is a reading machine. Anyway, from time to time, he holds contests to win books that he is given by publishers. I've been entering the contests for the books I've been interested in for a few months now, and today, it finally bore fruit.The book I'm winning is called "Bloodheir", which is the sequel to "Winterbirth".

This is a new fantasy series by a new author, Brian Ruckley, that's been given loads of praise. The books and world-building are being compared to George R.R. Martin, which is heady praise indeed. Of course, everything is compared with Martin nowadays, as it has become the defacto standard for modern fantasy. If he'd only write a little faster, I'd feel a bit more confident in that declaration. The longer he takes to write each book, the less confidence his fans have that he will actually complete the "Song of Ice and Fire" series (he's writing book five of seven right now). Anyway, that's a digression for another day.

I've been looking forward to reading "Winterbirth", and now winning "Bloodheir" with this generous contest, I'm even more excited about tackling this series.

Yay me.

Stunning Aerial Photos of Africa

2008-05-03T01:35:00.001-05:00

By this time in my life, I'm pretty jaded when it comes to nature photography in that I think I've seen it all. But then I see something like THIS. I looked at every one of these photos and was amazed and awed at each one of them.

Handy tip if you go to this page- It's a Flash page, which means you can zoom in on it and the overall resolution should increase to match your zoom level. The default of the page is that you get a relatively small photo, but if you right-click anywhere on the page, you'll get the option to 'zoom in'. Do so as many times as your current screen resolution will allow you while still letting you see the navigation buttons. Refreshing the page, or right-clicking and hitting 'zoom out' will put it back to normal at any time.

Weakness Will Be My Downfall

2008-05-02T16:36:00.000-05:00

I'm SO angry at myself! My timidity and indecisiveness cripple yet another perfect plan.

After leaving home early this morning for work (on a 'shoot' - HA!), I made quick time to Lake Charles. Stopped at the Amry Surplus Supply store on Hwy 90 on the way in to see if they had anything new. Nothing really, but I did get a cool new black ski mask. Had breakfast at Pitt Grill in Sulphur. Read the Lagniappe (that Pierre... what a character!).

Then I made my way to the TV station and just waited on the roof of the building next to the parking lot. Around lunch, Jim attempted to slip away secretly in his vehicle. There was NO ONE else around. The streets were empty, the parking lot was empty. It was PERFECT.

But I couldn't do it. Something held me back yet again. Curse my weakness!!

He drove off moments later and that was that.

I raced back home in time to pick my son up from school and now here I am, being eaten up from the inside by my shortcomings.

I am in a dark mood...

Astronauts Suffer Agonizing, High-Pitched Death After Helium Leak

2008-05-02T15:04:00.001-05:00

My heart goes out to the families...

Astronauts Suffer Agonizing, High-Pitched Death After Helium Leak

Rangers 3 - Penguins 0 (Pens lead series 3-1)

2008-05-02T05:53:00.000-05:00

You figured there had to be one of these games coming for the Penguins sooner or later. Jagr had two goals in what was probably his last big game for the Rangers. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jagr sign with the Penguins next season to finish out his NHL career.

In the meantime, here are the highlights (And I'm posting this WAY late, as I didn't even get to see this game, being in Louisiana for that weekend)

Sidney Crosby - Gatorade League of Clutch commercial

2008-05-01T10:34:00.000-05:00

I love these commercials that Gatorade has been running for a few months. Amazing imagery, incredible intensity. They all tell a story and present both the player and the sport in the most dramatic light.

I'm not yet exactly sure how they accomplish the commercials on a technical level. If I had to guess, I'd say they took frame grabs of High Definition images and cut out the athletes then recomposited them back over other still images. Whatever way they do it, I'm impressed.

Anyway, here's the latest one, featuring Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, my current favorite sports team (yeah, I'm one of those guys that doesn't have an entrenched loyalty to any one team or city or region. I go with the best story, and for the next few years, that will be the Penguins).

If I Didn't Know How Right I Was, I'd Think I Was Paranoid

2008-05-01T03:34:00.001-05:00

This whole Jim thing has me a bit on edge. My mind can't stop thinking about the horrible things he has planned for me and my family...

I've gotta do something...

Cognitive Surplus - What do we do with it?

2008-04-30T12:50:00.006-05:00

If you're like me (and I'm assuming you are), you wonder how you're going to find time to do all the cool things you want to accomplish. You THINK you don't have any time, but when you really sit down and look at how you spend your time, you realize that you waste a lot more time than you actually think. For many of us, a lot of that wasted time comes from watching TV.

About a decade ago, I reached a breaking point and decided to completely unplug my cable TV. I did it successfully for two solid years (this was before I got married). And I have to say, that it was a Golden Age for me. A period of productivity and life enjoyment that I never had before or since. Much like smokers find it impossible to quit smoking when they are living with other smokers, as much as I'd like to once again go completely cold turkey on TV, I live with other TV watchers. So for now, I have to just do my best to monitor and restrict my useless TV watching.

Anyway, here's a great video about how we use our time and how to carve out part of your life to accomplish cool stuff.

Penguins 5 - Rangers 3 (Pens lead series 3-0)

2008-04-30T09:20:00.004-05:00

I was at my writer's group meeting, so I didn't get to see any of this game, but from all accounts, it was more of the same for the Penguins. Two goals and an assist for Malkin, two assists for Crosby, 36 saves for Fleury, dominating special teams on both ends of the ice.

The Pens are 7-0 in the playoffs so far this post-season, a feat which hasn't happened since the Rangers did it in 1994 en route to winning the Cup. Montreal did it in 1989 en route to losing the Cup finals to Calgary, and the leader in the clubhouse is the 1985 Oilers who reeled off nine straight wins to start the post-season en route to winning the Cup.

Earlier in the day, Malkin was named as one of the finalists for the Hart Trophy (the NHL's MVP award). So that gives the Pens two finalists (Crosby last year, who won it) in the last two years. Right now, the only thing that could derail this bunch of talented young players is their own over-confidence.

Onward to game four and hopefully a second straight sweep.

What To Do About Pesky Arch-Enemies

2008-04-30T02:50:00.001-05:00

Yes... the question always hangs in the air...

"What do I do about my arch-enemy?"

You can sit back and wait for them to make the first move... wait for them to make the first mistake. But what if they're doing the same thing? Any self-respecting arch-enemy would not only be planning the next step, they'd be thinking TEN steps ahead.

And I'm sure that MY arch-enemy, Jim, is doing exactly that. After careful consideration, here's what I think he's doing:

1) Tapping my phone line. Although technically, this shouldn't count, because I'm sure he did that years ago already.

2) Stealing my credit card information. This is most insidious because he wouldn't use that information just yet. He'd save it for when it would be of most benefit to himself, and most damaging to me. (Must make mental note to change credit cards later tonight.)

3) Secretly swiping some of my DNA. Again, I'm sure he's done this at least once already, but with the decay of DNA samples, and the concurrent advancement of DNA marker identification, I'm sure he'll be needing fresh samples. Must think-- has anyone scraped skin off of my arm in passing? Did I feel a sharp sting recently and not know where it came from? Oh no... I just had my hair cut this morning and forgot to demand they give me the hair clippings. Those bits of snipped hair could even now be en route to Jim.

4) Sending inappropriate emails to my child. He hasn't done this yet, but I'm sure it's one of his next steps. I'm sure he's searching through his massive amounts of porn to find just the right clips and photos that will be most damaging to my child's psyche and emotional development. I can only pray that he doesn't send any of himself.

5) Updating his yarn and push-pin map of my comings and goings. I've been lax in covering my tracks of late. The map is probably far more accurate than I'm comfortable with.

6) Securing getaway car. Again, this is basic stuff, but there is no better time than now to do a thorough sweep of everything to make sure it's all still working properly.

7) Re-establishing aliases. Restrictions are a bit tighter now, so you have to be a bit more diligent about keeping your aliases up-to-date. The last thing you'd want to do is check into a hotel under an assumed name and discover that there is no longer any record of your alias's existence.

8) Introducing subtle poison into my water system. Not enough to kill me or my family, but enough to dull my wits when I need them most. Must remember to replace filters on all faucets.

9) Buying more heavy-duty garbage bags. Of course, depending on Jim's recent activity level, he may still have plenty on tap.

10) And finally, it goes without saying that he's befriending my friends. There's no more insidious way to destroy someone than from within, through those closest to him. (Must make a mental note to test my friends' loyalty and attempt to gauge Jim's currently level of influence.)

With all of this in mind, what must *I* do?

Humor for Hockey Fans

2008-04-29T16:19:00.001-05:00

This is funny only if you're a hockey fan. Actually, if you're a hockey fan, it's probably not funny because it hits a little too close to home.

NHL Star Called Up To Big Leagues To Play For NFL Team

Land of the Lost - The Movie - First Images

2008-04-29T01:16:00.005-05:00

Okay... I've been following this film's development with a bit of skepticism. It's one of the last bastions of cheesy childhood TV (of my favorites, that is) that hasn't yet been ironically deconstructed and regurgitated for today's audiences.

I know the Land of the Lost TV show was incredibly cheesy. I don't know if I will ever watch the original TV series again, preferring to allow my childhood memories of it remain pure. This opening title sequence is as much as I'll watch.

I loved that show. The evil Sleestaks scared the crap out of me. I know if I ever DID watch the show again, I'd discover all sorts of phobias and mindsets of mine that had their genesis here.

But I won't.

However, I WILL watch the movie when it comes out, thanks to this wonderful first image that has been released. (click to embiggen)This is beautiful. This one image sums up everything I loved about the original series.

The movie, starring Will Ferrell, promises to be faithful-ish to the original. Instead of a dad and two kids, it's three adults. But I'd be shocked if we don't see the same hole/cave that they hide in, the same dinos that attack them (and each other) that live on either side of a ravine, and I had BETTER see Enik, pylons, and the control tables that you put the multi-colored crystals in.

I'll be following this one with interest... Land of the Lost is currently set to premiere July 17, 2009. Click here to read USA Today's story.

Battlestar Galactica - Season Four - Episode 4

2008-04-28T00:18:00.000-05:00

Good episode overall. Not great, but at least continuing this season's string of solid stories. Rather than delve into plot details (there's plenty of sites of the web great for that), I'll instead focus on the show from a director/writer's standpoint, and what I may have derived from this episode.

For starters, not much happened to drive the meta plot forward. Mostly what we had was fallout from the first three episodes. The focus was very tight and character-based. While in the past, I've tended to dread these episodes (as they are usually filler), this one didn't suffer from that at all. Three of the four secret Cylons (Tory, Tigh, and Tyrol) all had the hems of their sanity start to fray a little bit. I imagine the encounter between Tigh and Six might have looked pretty dicey on the page, but the actors pulled off these scenes fantastically. Solid writing and acting all around.

The one area where I feel the show is sliding in the opposite direction is Baltar's journey into Christ status. In spite of the fact that they've been setting him up since the finale of Season One to be some sort of eventual religious figure, it still rings totally false. I don't buy his character converting. The fact that Baltar is so often played for laughs tends to undermine the power I think his religious arc is supposed to have. The writers seem to drift back and forth from making it seem like it really IS a genuine religious conversion, to making it seem like it's 100% fakery on Baltar's part. I think it needed to pick one or the other. Instead of being intrigued by Baltar's journey, I'm bored and skeptical.

In any event, it looks like Baltar is headed for Christ status, as it seems destined that Baltar be killed or sacrificed for the sake of his religion. I'll just continue watching and continue cringing every time Baltar starts spouting off religious mumbo-jumbo.

Finally, I have to say that the scene where Head Six seems to pick Baltar up was amusingly well-done. Casts more doubt and wonder on exactly what's going on with Baltar's innter Cylon.

Next week looks like we get to spend a lot more time on the Demetrius.

Penguins 2 - Rangers 0 (Pens lead series 2 -0)

2008-04-27T23:54:00.004-05:00

(continuing a series of posts meant only for me, as I can't imagine anyone else possibly interested in the NHL Playoffs.)

So it's looking more and more like it's going to be the Pens' year. Six straight games. They're making it look easy.

Crosby has had to deal with allegations of diving the past couple of days. Hopefully he'll get that under control and just play the game rather than over-react to draw penalties.

The series shifts back to New York now, where the Rangers should enjoy a slightly better advantage. They may get one win, but I think that's it.

Penguins 5 - Rangers 4 (Penguins lead series 1-0)

2008-04-25T20:35:00.005-05:00

It looked a little dicey for awhile as the Pens were down 3-0, but they steadily chipped away at the lead, tying it in the third, and then taking the lead 4-3. The Rangers tied it, but a late powerplay deflection goal by Malkin, off a shot by Crosby, was the game-winner.

The Pens were flying in the third, with precision passing like I haven't seen in a long time. It was lots of fun to watch. It's preposterous to compare these baby Penguins to the flying Oilers of the 80's, but I haven't enjoyed watching hockey this much since the glory days of Gretzky and Lemieux.

Go Pens!

Foxmarks (Great Firefox add-on)

2008-04-25T09:54:00.001-05:00

Part three in my multi-part series on indispensable Firefox add-ons leads me to Foxmarks. If you have multiple computers you use, say a home computer and a work computer, and maybe even a laptop computer, and you're tired of adding and subtracting bookmarks from all the computers, then Foxmarks is for you!

Once you sign up for it initially (simple sign-up procedure, but it does require you to set up a username and password, which might be annoying to some of you. But it's free, so don't fret),
it uploads all of your bookmarks to an online location (in the Bahamas, I think). Then when you go to your other computers, you just install Foxmarks on the those, log in, and now you've got matching bookmarks on all your computers. Anytime you make a change on one computer, or add a new bookmark, it synchronizes it with all the other computers. The links toolbar is the same, the bookmarks menu is the same, everything is the same on all your computers. The only thing you have to do is set up your user names and passwords on any sites that require them, as Foxmarks doesn't synchronize that.

Once you set it up, it runs without you ever having to mess with it again. Your bookmarks are now just magically synced up on all your computers.

FireShot (Great Firefox add-on)

2008-04-24T09:45:00.001-05:00

Fireshot is another invaluable Firefox add-on I use all the time. It's basically a screen capture utility that takes a snapshot of whatever is in your browser. It then immediately goes to a quick edit screen that allows you to do minor editing and cropping of the image. Then you can save it or do whatever you want with it.

It's great for blogging, especially when you just need a small part of a page, or something like that. Just click the FireShot toolbar button (just one little old button. Very unobtrusive) and it snaps a picture.

I like tools and add-ons that become transparent in their ease of use and usefulness. It's as easy as click, crop, and save.

Top Ten Movies I'm Looking Forward To This Summer

2008-04-24T08:02:00.002-05:00

It's just about time for the Summer Blockbuster Season to roll around, so I'm starting to plan what I actually want to see. Usually I INTEND to see most of them, but wind up only seeing half or less. Unlike many recent summers, I'm actually really looking forward to quite a few films.

So without further ado, here's the list (and not necessarily in order of looking-forward-to-ness)

1) The Dark Knight - This actually IS the one I'm most anticipating. I love everything director Christopher Nolan has done so far, and conventional wisdom would indicate that the combination of this being Nolan's second go-round with Batman, and the acting chops of Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhal, et al, should mean that The Dark Knight is destined to be a classic. As it's one of the last movies of the summer, we have a ways to go to make that determination.

2) Iron Man - Usually a movie's ad campaign wears me out long before the movie actually debuts. But I really have to hand it to Iron Man. I have loved every last thing I've seen from this film so far. Brilliant job of marketing this. I just hope that the movie turns out as fun as all the trailers would lead us to believe.

3) Narnia: Prince Caspian - I was only so-so on the first Narnia movie, but as with Dark Knight, I'm expecting them to successfully tweak the franchise to where it's even better than the first one. All trailers and imagery I've seen so far indicate that this will be much darker, and more adult than The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I remember really liking Prince Caspian the second best among all the books, and can't wait to see Reepicheep brought to life.

4) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - I'm actually REALLY dreading this film. I can't imagine it's going to be any good. I really detested Last Crusade, and I fear that this film will travel further down the overly-jokey path that film started. The trailer made it look like it was one over-the-top action sequence after another. I've had my fill with the last two Pirates films, and King Kong. But... I'm going to have to see it anyway, on the off chance that it somehow proves me wrong. Of course, if critical consensus is overwhelmingly negative, I don't know if I'll be able to force myself into a theater to see it.

5) Speed Racer - Yet another movie that looks like it's wall-to-wall silly action. Again, I can't imagine I'll like this. But... it has such a unique visual style it might be worth seeing just on that basis. Every image I've seen from the film has been dazzling.

6) The Happening - I've been really harsh on M. Knight Shymalan the last few years, and have enjoyed riding on the backlash bandwagon (which has been well-deserved). But I'm hoping and expecting that he'll return to form one of these days and make a visionary movie similar to Sixth Sense or Signs (I really liked it, even though it caught some flak from some corners). This is some sort of alien invasion film, and I don't know a lot about it, and I hope to stay that way so that whatever surprises M. Knight has in store for us, that they STAY surprises for me.

7) The Incredible Hulk - I was meh on the first Hulk, and so far all the trailers and images for this (as well as the behind the scenes stories) make me worry that this will be a disaster. But... here's hoping that I'm wrong and this film somehow pulls it out and makes a fun film.

8) Hellboy II: The Golden Army - I liked the first one, and since that movie came out, Guillermo del Toro has become something of a visionary. Everything he touches turns to gold, not unlike Christopher Nolan. And similar to Dark Knight, this is a second go-round, so I expect a much more confident film from del Toro. Everything about it so far looks solid.

9) Wall*E - It's a Pixar film, so there's no reason NOT to see it. Trailers turned me from an early doubter to someone that's very much looking forward to this film.

10) Tropic Thunder - This one kind of came out of nowhere to land firmly on my radar. Trailer and other promotional items so far look hilarious. Robert Downey Jr. as an actor who underwent surgery to turn himself black is a brilliant idea (at least in the trailer).

Update!

10.5) Hancock - A new trailer for this came out right after I posted this (actually it debuted on American Idol last night, but I didn't see it until this morning), and it makes it at least SEEM like it might be a fun ride. The early reviews I've read of this haven't been overly positive. But... we'll see, I guess.

11) Honorable mentions - The rest of these films I'm going to keep my eye on, but they all seem like DVD rentals at best.

Get Smart
Love Guru
Wanted
Kung Fu Panda
Meet Dave

And as always, there's going to be at least one film that comes out of nowhere to become a surprise hit. What will be this year's Knocked Up?

Time will tell.

Taboo (Great Firefox add-on)

2008-04-23T11:29:00.004-05:00

If you're a Firefox user (and if you're not, shame on you!), then this is a fantastic add-on. It's called Taboo and it's basically a cool little gizmo that allows you to store pages away for later reading, or for research or whatever.

After you install it, it puts two new icons on your toolbar.

They're pretty self-explanatory as to their functions. But what's really cool and efficient about this is that anytime you're on a page you want to save for later, just click on the Add button. Then later on, when you want to revisit some of the pages you tabbed for later (taboo, tabbed... get it?), just click on the View Taboos button and a neat grid of all your selected items shows up. It shows you a thumbnail of what the page looked like when you added it. When you click on the page in the View Taboos mode, it will then take you to the webpage at the exact spot you were at when you clicked on it (say you were halfway down a long page when you saw something that caught your eye).

Anyway, I've been using this for a while now and it's really really useful and simple and intuitive.

Updated!

The designer of Taboo was kind enough to drop by my blog, and within the body of his comment below was a link to this handy little video that kind of shows you a little bit about how Taboo works. Thank you Demo Girl. Can't wait to check out some of your other videos.

I Am Legend (Well, not ME, but, umm...well, just read it)

2008-04-23T02:05:00.004-05:00

Finally got around to watching "I Am Legend".

I was aware of all the grumbling about the film going into watching it. Complaints about the ending and about the horrible CGI. But I was still giving this one a chance. I'd heard enough fair to good reviews by friends of mine that I figured this just might be one of those 'taste' movies.

Alas...

For starters, let me say that Will Smith was fantastic in this. He's one of our true A+ movie stars. He was given an impossibly difficult role to play, being the only actor in the film for 90% of its running time. I normally cringe when movies have characters talk to themselves or to animals or inanimate objects, as it usually comes across as very obvious that it's just a device so that there's not just 90 minutes of a guy walking around quietly by himself. But Will Smith pulled it off.

But...

But then we get to the "Darkseekers". Here lies the treacherous path the movie decides to take. I just did a bit of research on the original novel this movie is based on, and discovered that vampires/zombies were not only very much a part of the novel, but even more overt than they are in the movie. But they also make a lot more sense than in the movie. The movie tries to make the epidemic a reaction to a cancer vaccine. While this in itself isn't a bad idea, it's where it leads that winds up making no sense.

Now, instead of the more "plausible" reason of vampirism as to why everyone else has superpowers and can climb walls like Spider-man and can leap twenty feet through the air, and on and on, now we have to somehow imagine that these powers are the result of a vaccine gone bad. It doesn't work for me, sorry. It should have either just be straight up vampires, or else dropped the super-abilities of those suffering from this problem.

The ending, while nice and bleak, is pointless because it's just so silly. Just another typical action film ending where everything comes together at the final moment, including Will Smith's character remembering one key thing his son said to him that winds up being the key to everything. How convenient that he remembers that quote and finally puts meaning to it right at the last possible moment.

I then went and watched the alternate ending, where Will Smith's character lives, by making some sort of silly connection with the lead Darkseeker. An infected Darkseeker that Will Smith had been experimenting on just so happens to be the wife or girlfriend of the lead Darkseeker, who ends up carrying her out with him. It has gotten tons of praise for being so clearly the better ending, but I think it's actually sillier than the theatrical version. I think the studios made a wise choice, at least as far as these two endings are concerned.

As far as the book ending (spoiler alert!), he ends up being the last remaining human on an earth that is now overrun by vampires, so now HE is the mythical creature causing problems for the rest of (vampire) society. HE is the Legend. It's kind of a Planet of the Apes sort of ending (haven't read the book, just a brief synopsis), and it makes much more sense than either of the silly movie endings.

While the film is ultimately silly, I can honestly say I was never bored, and never less than riveted to what was going on. But...I can only give this film six and a half teeth out of ten. Will Smith gets 9.5 teeth out of ten. The Darkseekers get one tooth out of ten.

Untooning Jessica Rabbit

2008-04-22T15:52:00.003-05:00

Found this today... REALLY cool. I'm okay with Photoshop, and in watching this "speedpainting" video, I know intellectually what the guy is doing, and what tools he's using and the process... but this is way beyond what I'm capable of. Bravo.

Picking Apart Logical Fallacies

2008-04-21T19:32:00.001-05:00

Wired Magazine posted a funny AND useful video today about the most common types of internet arguments.

High Tech Noon

2008-04-21T11:47:00.002-05:00

Here's one of those weird mash-ups that people come up with. Funny stuff.

Wheels: The Movie

2008-04-19T07:45:00.001-05:00

Another video from Black20.com This one is great. It plays it almost totally straight. Makes me want to go out and make a trailer for a film.

Tetris: The Movie

2008-04-18T18:48:00.003-05:00

Not sure who these guys at Black20.com are, or if it's a site where anyone can post their videos, but some of the stuff on here is pretty good. Like this one.

I especially love how they've thought out all the controls for controlling these ships.

Good stuff.

Simpsons A.D.

2008-04-18T09:19:00.002-05:00

A.D. as in Arrested Development, one of the top five comedy series of all time. I'll talk about it more one day, but for today, I came across a website where an artist named Dean T Fraser has done a series of cool Simpsonized movie and TV characters. Above, you see a Simpsonized version of Tobias Funke during his time as a member of Blue Man Group. There's also a nod to Tobias being an adherent to "Never Nude". (Trust me, this all works in the context of the show.) (Hey... I just realized that I can embed an entire episode within this post.)

Arrested Development only lasted three truncated seasons, but it's a masterpiece from beginning to end. Ironically, the show that the above image uses as its inspiration, The Simpsons, is a show that has been on the air now for about 18 seasons or so, and for me, stopped being funny about a decade ago.

Anyway, the other Simpsonized characters are very well done. Here are a few of my favorites.

Lost: A Video that Asks all the Questions Viewers Want Answers To

2008-04-17T08:05:00.000-05:00

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Penguins 3 - Senators 1 (Pens win series 4-0)

2008-04-16T20:45:00.002-05:00

Sweep! Phase one of the Penguins Championship has been completed. Another solid game from the Pens. While everyone was expecting the Penguins to light it up offensively, it's the defense that's really surprising so far. Five goals allowed in a series is a team record.

Fun with Google

2008-04-16T09:48:00.002-05:00

This is more of a how-to on getting the information you're interested in piped straight into your computer.

I assume all of you are using Google Reader. If not, it's by far the most efficient way to read blogs and surf websites. It's so awesome, it'll take over your life for a bit before you get it under control and tone it down. Instead of having to go out to each of your favorite websites to see if there's new content, Google Reader will collect it all in one convenient location, just like your email site (you ARE using Gmail, aren't you?). Granted, there are other newsreaders out there that do the same thing, but Google Reader is the best I've come across.

That's step one.

Step two is going to Google Blog Search.
What this allows you to do is type in a search term, say "Watchmen Movie", and the specialized search engine will turn up all blog postings that feature something to do with your search query. While this is cool in itself, they've added a neat new feature which allows you to subscribe to the search results as if it were a blog in itself. For example, I've now subscribed to the "Watchmen Movie" blog search results, and anytime anyone publishes something about the Watchmen movie, it will show up in my Google Reader, without me ever having to do another search! Too cool.

Obviously, this could get out of hand if you subscribe to a search result that is wildly popular ("Star Wars" or "Harry Potter" would get you hundreds of posts a day, I'm sure) but if you use standard search criteria to narrow down your selection, this should become a valuable resource for you.

Enjoy!

Grandfathers Accidentally Switched At Hospital

2008-04-16T08:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry if I'm bombarding you with Onion stories, but they are truly the vanguard of topical and irreverent humor in these troubled times.

Grandfathers Accidentally Switched At Hospital

LOS ANGELES—Hospital officials informed Janice Redding that the man her family knew as "Grandpa" for the past half-year actually belonged to someone else.

Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer to Become Full-Length Film

2008-04-15T19:11:00.002-05:00

Them there boys over at the Onion are at it again...

Wildly Popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film