So Disney just bought Marvel for $4 Billion dollars. Thoughts?
Marvel, of course, has been struggling a bit since the collapse of the comic book bubble in the late 90′s. It’s movies, which I believe was constituting most of its profits the last decade, have been mixed. Yes Spiderman and Iron Man did fantastic. Other venues, such as The Punisher, have been far more mixed.
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There are times, just a few as a rule, where a great band gets slated to play in a venue where it really has no business playing. You know, Nirvana gets contractually obligated to play the Puyallup fair, or U2 ends up playing at Kilby Court because no one in Utah has heard The Unforgettable Fire yet. (more…)
So Apple’s Snow Leopard comes out tomorrow. I had mine pre-ordered via Amazon but they are only shipping starting Friday. Which means I’d have got it on Tuesday. So I cancelled the order and will pick it up from the local Apple shop.
This is an upgrade without the “gee whiz” features of previous editions. It’s mainly cleaning things up, making things faster and smaller, and eliminating the beachball of terror that crops up in many apps. (Finder and Safari, I’m looking at you)
Looks like an interesting and potentially cool fall movie. (more…)
Since we’re talking movies, let me tell you about the best movie I’ve seen in awhile: Big Man Japan!
At first glance, it looks like a Godzilla movie with a giant human instead of Godzilla fighting the monsters.
It pretty much is. But it’s a lot more than that, too.
It’s awesome. (more…)
Quick review since no one has commented on it yet.
First, don’t think of it as a “historic” movie. Think of it as a movie about movies. You’ll enjoy it more. (I suppose there have been enough spoilers about the second half so everyone knows this)
Second, realize it’s much more Tarantino’s riff on European cinema than American war movies. (Probably half the dialog is in French or German with subtitles)
Third, yes, Christoph Waltz is that good as “the Jew Hunter.” While it’s too early to say he’ll win, I think an Oscar nomination goes without saying.
Fourth, the whole plot is more Tarantino dealing with how movies about WWII tend to mythologize it and he’s just taking it to its obvious conclusions. Of course historically (and unfortunately) the Allies really didn’t care about the atrocities to the Jews. A lot of that mythology started developing into the 60′s until now it’s part of the American mind about WWII. This film can be seen as “what if that were true?” In part, of course.
I saw this movie last weekend but since it has been out for a while now, instead of a traditional review, I’d like to talk generally about the body of work of the writer, producer and director of the movie, Judd Apatow. (more…)
(Crossposted to Clark’s Tech Blog)
A short review of the xGPS. As I mentioned in my Jailbreak post this is one of the best reasons to jailbreak your iPhone. While my posts on jailbreaking make it seem like Linux at it’s worst, that’s more because I’m interested in doing some useful scripting of the phone. Few would want to do that. However if you simply want some “unauthorized” apps that could never make it past Apple’s draconian AppStore rules then jailbreaking is a great idea. You basically download an application, plug in your phone, and click a button. You then click a button on your phone and suddenly you have a second app store. In there you’ll find xGPS in a prominent location and it’s easy to get running. Nothing technical about it really.
First let me talk about my comparison. I’ve used Google Maps on the iPhone for a year to run around. Then last fall I bought G-Map US West for a trip to the Bay Area (since there is little internet coverage in the Nevada desert and because AT&T coverage is only slightly better in San Francisco). The big news this week was Tom Tom’s release. I’ve not used it and can’t imagine paying $100 for it. However I’ve read many reviews.
Last night I saw The Fruit Bats in concert at the Crocodile in Seattle. The Fruit Bats, in case you were unaware, has Eric Johnson (of Shins fame) as its frontman; their music ranges from Shins-esque to 70′s Southern Rock.
It was a night of tranquil swaying and toe-tapping, music perfect for a summer evening. (more…)
I have never had any desire to join Facebook. But over the weekend I was forced to. I offer this post as a public service and warning to others.
New York is America’s most recognizable city and world-class in every sense. No matter what your personal feelings about the city—and opinions tend to run strong—it’s a city that everyone should see at least once.
The itinerary below is based on a vacation I took there last week after an inordinate amount of research and planning. Hopefully, someone else will also find it useful. This itinerary was prepared for adults traveling without kids. (Not to say that kids wouldn’t enjoy a lot of it, but you’d have to scale it back quite a bit I think.) It was also prepared with the goal of saving money wherever possible without missing out on a unique New York experience.
I apologize in advance for the length of this post. It’s not very friendly to the Twitter generation.
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We have previously anticipated this movie here, and the book was previously reviewed here.
Before I get into the review, I should probably say that this would be a tough movie for me to like no matter how it was made, because I really liked the book, so I had high expectations and a lot of fears about how they could screw it up. (more…)
The lowdown: DISTRICT 9 is one of the most technologically accomplished, emotionally gripping and morally compelling films of the year; within its science fiction genre, it’s an amazing piece of work and my favorite sci-fi since CHILDREN OF MEN. Neill Blomkamp, a South African director, has brought us a quick-moving yet profound twist on the alien genre; here, the question is not “what will the aliens do to us?” but rather, “what will we do to them?” (more…)
I saw my favorite songwriter in concert last night. Jackson Browne.
Here are some of the things I love about him.
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There is currently no greater name in animation than Hayao Miyazaki. While American animators continue to hone an incredible level of technical (and computer-generated) expertise, Miyazaki’s films are lovingly hand-crafted and with a mythic quality lacking from, say, HOODWINKED. PONYO falls in the grand tradition of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO or SPIRITED AWAY, in which the everyday world of a child is touched by deep and ancient magic. Ultimately, while more reflective and personal than either of those, it is also far more simplistic, making PONYO the most child-accessible of Miyazaki’s films. (more…)
It may be a little bit late in the season to add to the summer reading list, but if you can squeeze Jedediah Berry’s The Manual of Detection in as a late entry, I recommend it. This very enjoyable, exceptionally well-written book is unlike anything I’ve read recently. A post-modern, surrealist, alternate-reality detective novel, The Manual of Detection is an unlikely, but successful, combination of Raymond Chandler, Haruki Murakami and Franz Kafka (with perhaps a bit of Norton Juster thrown in as well).
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OK, I’m not going to be able to watch tonight. (I have to work late) But I figured I’d put up a post now so others can comment.
Here’s my predictions and commentary in anticipation of tonight.
Scary. I heard about this on Security Now this week. CNet is reporting that Buy.com is giving your credit card information to other companies who sign you up to programs when you enter an email on an ad. The Feds are investigating. (more…)
OK, we updated to the latest version of WordPress. I think we also fixed the “can’t upload graphics” problem as well. If you have any problems with the blog please let me know here and I’ll try and fix things as fast as I can.
Can we get a round of applause for the British Broadcasting Corporation? The Brits are using their publicly funded network to produce one droll, absurdist comedy series after another and exporting them to the U.S. There’s been a good run of these in the past 10 years, and many of them are freely available online.
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