No, I didn’t get an iPod this weekend. But reportedly a lot of people did. Did any of you? Personally, I’m glad I waited. There are reports of folks with odd AT&T plans having problems and being put on indefinite hold to get their iPhones activated. I have a family plan so… However the general consensus from what I’ve been reading is that, if anything, the phone actually surpassed the hype. Quite the feat given what seems like to biggest hype machine ever. (So big that even Apple was trying to downplay things after a while)
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Burn Notice.
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Greetings from Goodland, Kansas. The family stayed here last night, the midpoint way station for this summer’s cross-country car trip. Goodland is a pretty nondescript town in most respects. It’s a tiny little one-Walmart burgh, heavily rural with the obligatory interstate oasis of chain efficiency hotels and fast food stops. However, it is home to the World’s Largest Easel, which supports a giant replica of one of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings.

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Bruce Willis said a few weeks back in a Q&A session that Live Free or Die Hard was the best of the Die Hard movies.

Was he lying? (more…)

I saw a Cold Stone Creamery commercial last night that blew me away. I just thought it was so well done. It’s definitely my currrent fave. If you use a DVR maybe you’ve missed it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3Yor58HGClw

Feel free to post nostalgic ones if you want.

I am one of those people who tends to develop mini-obsessions. For a few weeks or months, I’ll order the same type of thing in every restaurant I go to; listen to the same song or songs over and over; read the same genre/style of books. Anybody else do that? Maybe not. But whatever — I’m now going to subject you to my list of current obsessions. Feel free to share your own, make fun of mine, etc. (more…)

We’ve talked Indiana Jones before. I bet everyone’s curious as to what Harrison Ford will look like playing a 60 year old Indiana Jones. The other films took place in 1938 or earlier whereas this one takes place, as I recall, in 1959. So I guess Ford is actually playing Indiana as 55 or so - a bit younger than his real age.
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According to this website, The Shawshank Redemption is the best adaptation of a Stephen King story.

‘1408′, being released this weekend, will mark the 99th adaptation (for TV or film) from the mind of Stephen King. In honour of this, The Pocono Record lists their top 5 SK adaptations: (more…)

So at the end of last season of Heroes everyone thought the Samurai charging down on Hiro was none other than his own father, George Takei. Well you were wrong!
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Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End has a ton of problems. The plot is confusing and ridiculous, what with all the double- and triple-cross betrayals (there might’ve even been a quadruple-cross or two). Most of the characters were not real at all—it was not clear why they were doing what they were doing. The love drama was entirely unconvincing. Because of all those problems the stakes were pretty low for me as the story unfolded. I didn’t like the characters and I didn’t really care how things turned out in the end for anybody. Plus, even though I didn’t care about the characters’ fates, I hated the way it ended.
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I got a 10 note today. Much to my shock it was orange and not green. What’s this? Is someone trying to give me some Canadian money? Nope. Apparently the new bills are a bit more colorful. Maybe this has been around for a while. I don’t know. I honestly don’t use cash a lot. But wow. What’s next? A looney?

What’s worse? I’m going to Canada for a week and the dollar exchange has gone from $0.86 to $0.94! So everything’s not only orange, it’s more expensive to shop in Canada!

Hollywood has always been an unimaginative lot plumbing its past successes for new ideas. Sometimes though they kill what was still good. Case in point? How about Futurama which scheduled to return with new episodes to Cartoon Network this summer. Now there are two ways a show can return. Return “as itself” the way Futurama has. Or return as a “reimagined” show the way Battlestar Galactica did. (Say what you will about the show but it is far superior to the original) Of course sometimes a show returns that no one was asking for. (Is there anyone eagerly awaiting reinvention of The Bionic Woman?)

So, what shows do you wish would return, either as a continuation or as a reimagining?
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Thus saith Entertainment Weekly. I largely agree with their list.

Right at the end of Ocean’s Thirteen, George Clooney’s character bids Brad Pitt goodbye and quips, “Settle down and have a couple of kids or something.” Pitt grins and the audience laughs knowingly at the Brangelina gag.

Except for me. I wanted to puke. (more…)

This Sunday. 10 pm. Cartoon Network.

Say it ain’t so, but Kelly Clarkson has cancelled her summer tour. I’m sad for her — I think she’s clearly tried to break free of the cookie-cutter mould that the American Idol Machine had in mind for her. Her new album is supposed to have more of a rock sound, and I’m wishing now that I could listen to it and see for myself. Strangely, the idea of her rejection by Top 40 only increases her appeal in my eyes.

(sings “Since U Been Gone” to himself……)

That’s the gist of this Guardian article, in any event, which has a number of musicians and music industry people taking on the sacred icons of rock to tell us why they suck. At times, they’re convincing, like when Wayne from the Flaming Lips says (of Nirvana’s “Nevermind”): “but you don’t ever find yourself longing to listen to it.”

Still — bagging on Sgt. Pepper??? Bah. And the irony of Scritti Politti bagging on Arcade Fire is disgusting.

Premiere, recently listed the top 100 Greatest Movie Lines.

The top 10 looked like this: (more…)

I mainly started watching this show because I miss Project Greenlight. For anyone not familiar, On the Lot is a reality competition show for movie directors. The final winner will receive a $1 million deal with Dreamworks. All the (short) movies made for the show are posted on the website here.

What I liked about Project Greenlight was it gave the little amateur indie filmmaker a chance. And you got to see a lot of the real headaches that go into making a movie. Unlike your typical “behind the scenes” clips, which are done as marketing more than anything else.

What I quickly realized about On the Lot was they’re really going for a generic, typical-Hollywood director. In other words, pretty boring stuff. However, I’ve hung in with it, and there are a couple of directors who are standing out for me.
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Last night, I heard a performance of the recently-debuted collaboration between Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing. The piece provides a musical setting for some twenty poems. The poems are by Cohen, the famous Canadian singer-songwriter (who, for example, wrote the song “Hallelujah” that shows up in the first Shrek movie at the point when all of the main characters are separated and depressed) and sometime Buddhist monk. Glass, composer of various operas, symphonies, film scores (The Thin Red Line, Notes on a Scandal, The Hours, Kundun, The Illusionist, Candyman, etc.), and less traditional musical forms, supplies the orchestral and vocal score. (more…)

I don’t think Kathy Griffin is very funny. But I do find her entertaining. I especially love how she makes fun of celebrity. And some of the pranks she pulls remind me a tiny bit of Andy Kaufman. Of course no one could ever come close to his level of genius. But Kathy swore at the Extreme Home Makeover team when they beat her at the Emmys and stormed out. And she arranged a bunch of dates with other celebrities just for the publicity. This is good stuff.

But my favorite current comedian would have to be Jim Gaffigan.
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You asked for it. (more…)

This will be the most brief of my reviews. It won’t be as brief as the review of Spinal Tap’s “Shark Sandwich,” but close. (more…)

Apple kicked off its World Wide Developer’s Conference today. Mostly it addressed what will be in the next version of their operating system. After reading the various write-ups, I’m underwhelmed. No new toys, and the only compelling feature for many people will be the automatic backups that were announced six months ago. No clarity yet on if this feature uses Sun’s ZFS file system, which would be cool. Bah! What a bummer. (more…)

Brown Sugar, The Rolling Stones, 1971. My experience in listening to this song is entirely dominated by its horrifying lyrics, which draw on imagery involving the slave trade, including slave owners’ violence toward slaves, for erotic purposes. Clearly, there is a (very successful!) effort at violating taboos at work here. Yet the deliberate taboo-breaking in this song creates its own terrible consequences, since it suggests that the lyricist sees interracial sex — the central topic of the song — as fundamentally as taboo a topic as slavery and sexual violence. I think it is, and perhaps should be, impossible to really get past this racially-loaded material and appreciate the music through which it is presented. (more…)