Third Eye Blind is a great band that has had a long absence from the scene, at least as far as creating anything new is concerned. (more…)

There are those who believe that life here began out there, far across the universe, with tribes of humans who may have been the forefathers of the Egyptians, or the Toltecs, or the Mayans. That they may have been the architects of the great pyramids, or the lost civilizations of Lemuria or Atlantis. Some believe that there may yet be brothers of man who even now fight to survive somewhere beyond the heavens…
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I was thinking about a post that Susan put up a year or two ago about the best use of a song in movies or TV. When I looked it up I realized that post was published more than four years ago. Anyhow, YouTube has more videos in 2009 than it had in 2005 (in fact there was no YouTube when Susan published that post…) so I figured we should try it again. But this time you should include a link to the scenes you want add to the list.

As my first entry I give you “Tiny Dancer” from Almost Famous. I doubt anyone will top this one but do your best:

NOTE: Just add links to YouTube or other videos. Only admins can embed videos.

My 9 year old LOVES Transformers and the first film, but the opening of the new film found me drawing the short straw on being the one who had to take him. (more…)

It’s just weird.

He was just weird.
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Maybe I just wasn’t in a good mood, but last night seemed rather boring to me. Am I the only one who was a little disappointed? Here’s who I thought stood out, although none of the routines made me think “Wow!”
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CHARACTERS
- Jack is still a jerk, but somehow a little more tolerable. His relationship with Sawyer is more interesting to me than his relationship with Locke. If they’d quit being a**holes to each other, they’d be a great team. (more…)

This is one of the best books I have read lately and now it is a movie starring Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana(?). I have no idea if it will be a good movie, but I’m looking forward to finding out. In the meantime, I recommend the book highly.

Supergenius note: I was supposed to go to this screening, but work intervened. I got a friend to go instead. His review is below. Sounds like I dodged a bullet.

Year One was a whimsical farce of ancient history and biblical lore. (more…)

The Brothers Bloom, the second film of writer/director Rian Johnson, is a near perfect, immensely entertaining, beautifully written and well-acted movie. It’s no an exaggeration to say that I liked it. A lot. Together with Johnson’s first movie, the pitch-perfect high-school noir Brick, Johnson has begun to build a body of work that establishes him as one of the best working filmmakers.

In this international con-man caper, the character Bloom (Adrien Brody) describes his con-artist brother and partner Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) as creating his long cons “the way dead Russians write novels” filled with metaphor and internal symbolism. On a meta level, the same thing can be said for Johnson’s movie: on its surface, it’s a rollicking genre film, filled with sight gags, snappy dialogue and plenty of gun shots and explosions, but barely beneath the surface lies a philosophical movie about creating one’s own reality and the meaning of authenticity. Yes, it’s also intricate and filled with metaphor and internal symbolism. And did I mention that stuff blows up?
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Stand outs this week for me:

Karla Garcia and Jonathan Platero – CONTEMPORARY
Choreographer: Stacey Tookey
“Falling Slowly” by the Frames

And not just because this routine used a song by one of my all-time favorite bands. I just thought it was so well done.
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I heard about the new book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies from fellow blogger about a month ago. Then a couple of weeks later I heard the tale end of an interview with the (co)author, Seth Grahame-Smith, on NPR and decided I must read it. (Of course by read it I really mean listen to it on my ipod via my Audible.com subscription…) Here are my thoughts:

Grade: B+

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book. Was it an homage to Pride and Prejudice? Was it a sequel of some kind? Turns out it was neither. Pride and Prejudice is now a public domain book so the new book is literally the original book with all kind of kung fu, zombie killings, ninjas, and general ultra-violent mayhem overlaid and integrated into the original text. It is quite literally Pride and Prejudice… and zombies; with a bunch of teenage-boy-style violence and jokes added.

The results, while fairly uneven, are pretty amusing.

Pros
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OK, I know there are lots of iPhone users on the list. Did you download the 3.0 update today? If so, what did you think?

I’ve only had a short time to play around with it and here are a few thoughts.

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Old or new, let’s just talk music.

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Here’s the video for “Notion” another great song from the Kings of Leon on their latest album Only By The Night.