Speaking of the 80s, you will all remember a certain filmmaker from that time period who made mostly teen movies and was very successful in representing teens and their lives in what was considered at the time to be a new, more realistic way.   (more…)

Ok, this is basically impossible because there’s very little difference between them (and though I like Mark, I think this would be an even harder decision if Will were still around) but here’s my ranking of the top six:

Guys:                            Girls:

1. Joshua                      1. Chelsie

2. Twitch                      2. Courtney

3. Mark                         3. Katee

I think Katee may be technically slightly better than Courtney, but I like watching Courtney more, so I went with my gut.  The reality is that I will be happy with any of these dancers being in the final four. 

Here’s my ranking of the top 8 dancers after last night:

Guys:                                         Girls:

1. Will                                        1. Chelsie                                              

2. Joshua                                    2. Katee

3. Twitch                                    3. Courtney

4. Mark                                       4. Comfort

Unless there’s some grave injustice in the voting, Mark and Comfort will be leaving tonight.  Not because they aren’t great at what they do, just because the others are so strong.  Comfort has to be the girl to go.  She is a great hip hop dancer but it’s well established now that she is not great at much else.  After this week though, the voting gets very tough.  I don’t know how you pick among the top six, they are all so good.

In many ways there is little to say about this film that hasn’t already been said. It is as good as you’re all hoping. (more…)

Dr. Horrible has a PhD in horribleness and an evil plan to rule the world.  He has vowed to join the evil league of evil and combine forces with “the thoroughbred of sin,” Bad Horse.  Fortunately, he’s got a sing-a-long blog so we can have a front row seat to all of this awsomeness.

This whole thing presents several pertinent questions….but I can’t for the life of me think what they are.  Your thoughts?

Have you been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon? If not you are missing some superb television.

Tomorrow a new episode will air, followed by another new episode Friday and then Saturday is the big four-episode series finale. If you haven’t been watching the series go get caught up on the wikis here and here then watch the last few episodes.

This is good drama and good times folks. The story arc through the three seasons has been consistently coherent and compelling. The character development is outstanding. And the build up to the finale has been riveting. Unlike some shows on TV (I’m looking at you BSG!) one never gets the feeling that the writers were making things up as they went with this series. There has been a clear beginning, middle and end. I trust the grand finale coming up will satisfy as well. 8:00 PM on Nick.

The 30th Anniversary was actually last year, but a new box set of the album is coming out this month.  The year was 1977: Reggie Jackson, Son of Sam, Elvis died.  This album took the world by storm.  What was it?

For the answer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SwrklEY2ZM&feature=user

Sickening.  Sickening and maddening. (more…)

Lines from the Weezer song “Pork and Beans”:

Everyone likes to dance
To a happy song
(Hey, hey)
With a catchy chorus and beat
So they can sing along
(Hey, hey)
Timbaland knows the way
To reach the top of the charts
Maybe if I work with him
I can perfect the art

It’s Rivers Cuomo’s trademark sarcasm on display. But does it really make any sense at all to joke about Timbaland-produced songs on a Rick Rubin-produced album? Or has Cuomo finally reached the point of being so ironic that irony loses all of its meaning?

But hey, it is catchy. And the video is funny.

Now we know why the creative team nicknamed the season finale “frozen donkey wheel.” Who knew it would be so literal? More discussion of the final two thirds of the LOST season 4 finale (including spoilers, of course) after the break.
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Some of my fondest memories of my childhood involve staying up late with my father and playing Space Invaders on our Atari 2600. For some reason, Dad loved that game. We figured out the cheat where if you held down the reset button while you powered up the console, the game would give you double missiles. But when we weren’t playing Space Invaders, we were usually watching really bad movies on late-night television. As we sat there, we’d mock the shows we were watching and die laughing. To us, alone, late at night, it was hilarious. Years later, when I first saw “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” I knew immediately what was going on. The show captured the mood of our experience exactly, along with a goofy sci-fi premise. The show was both legitimately hilarious, no matter what time of day you watched it, and about ten times more clever than expected. Random, often obscure, pop-culture references were peppered throughout. It was immediately familiar and yet unlike anything I had seen before. I loved it.

So when I recently had the chance to interview the creators of MST3000, who have revived their shtick for a project called Cinematic Titanic, which will be released in individual episodes on DVD and direct downloads, I jumped at the chance.

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I have now seen this movie three times.  Aside from the fact that this makes me something of a freak, I discovered the following: (more…)

There’s a great featurette at starwars.com right now, comparing the original Marvel comic versions of the main Trilogy with the new Japanese manga. The contrast is striking, as the manga manages to be cooler and more interesting than the Marvel version in every way, in many instances outshining the movies themselves.

Is it really that difficult? And yet so often our expectations are ignored and scorned. Remember the Fantastic Four movie? Bah.

Well, Jon Favreau knows how to win over this fanboy’s heart. Check out the new Iron Man trailer. 2008 is going to be a great, great year for comic book adaptations. I predict this will be a winner.

In ascending order: (more…)

Not to brag or anything, but my Oscar ballot reads 13 categories correct out of 24.  How about yours?  My favorite win was Best Original Song: Falling Slowly from Once.  My secret weapon was The Bourne Ultimatum, which I correctly picked for best sound mixing and best sound editing.  You may now grovel at my film genius.

I took my 11 yr old daughter to Colbie Caillat’s concert on Friday night.  I went dragging my feet, but I left in a much different frame of mind.  I now must confess.  I feel so guilty.  The shame is almost too much to bear.  But, yes, it’s true:  I… Love… Colbie. 

Confession is good for the soul. So, who’s your guilty pleasure?

On the morning of Dec. 4, 2007, I listened to the Postal Service album “Give Up” for the first time. I was on the commuter bus and for some reason the combination of music and movement always spurs creative activity in my head. I had, of course, already heard the first two singles (which are also the first two tracks) from the album before. In fact, I had been obsessively listening to “The District Sleeps Tonight” for several months. As I worked through the tracks I had never heard before, I got this weird feeling that the album was science fiction. And by the time I got to “Brand New Colony” I was convinced. And then I got this image stuck in my head that turned into the phrase “Up in the Aerie, the Poet’s lover.” I dismissed it, but it returned. I thought it a bit precious, but then more started showing up. And then I got this idea. Why not write a cycle of connected short short stories based on each track on the album? I wrote a few notes on my PDA (a hand-me-down from my boss that I mainly use for calendar and tasks) and a few more when I got to work. (more…)

Have you seen Quarterlife?  It’s an internet series that my wife discovered and that we have all now become obsessed with.  It has apparently now been picked up by NBC (to much whining by the purist fans).  I think it’s as good or better than anything on TV.  What do you think?  Is this the future of television? 

Rock Band.

 I am Stony,  legendary rock drummer.  Hear my fans roar.  My band: Fall With The Herd.  We will rock your face off.

Q: Can this really be classified as a “video game” if I have tendonitis from banging the skins? 

A: This is so much more than a video game.

In reverse order.

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Awhile back, Jen posted asking for advice on how to represent her love for music as a tattoo. She got her music tattoo last week, and asked I that post an update (she doesn’t have time right now).

So here it is:

I think it may be one of the coolest tattoos I’ve ever seen.
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This year cannot be allowed to expire until we mark the 20th anniversary of the release of one of the great albums of the last century. 

It’s one of those signposts in the landscape of modern pop culture that only seems to loom larger the further you get from it.  It now seems incomprehensible that Rolling Stone placed this album only second on its list of the best albums of 1987 (although readers picked it #1), but it was then third on its 1990 list of the Best Albums of the 80s (behind Purple Rain #2 and London Calling #1), and #26 on its 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. 

Was it really 20 years ago?

I was between my junior and senior years of college, standing in a music store in Taipei, Taiwan on my day off from teaching English to endless classes of extremely well behaved Chinese children.  Mindlessly browsing through the racks for something new to stick in my yellow Sony Walkman Sport (remember?),  I picked up a new cassette from U2,  a band I had come to love through repeat listenings of The Unforgettable Fire and Under a Blood Red Sky.  I had heard next to nothing about this new album.  I bought it, put it in, went on my way, and didn’t take that tape out again for a very long time.  I listened to it while walking to work every day, between teaching classes, while walking back to my tiny apartment, while on public transportation, while writing in my journal, while falling asleep.  If I could have listened to it in the shower, I would have.  It became part of my subconscious.  What I heard was a revelation.  It was unflinchingly both political and religious, it was about war and drug addicton, missing children, obsessive love, deserted landscapes, death and faith.  I loved every single song.  I still do.

Where were you? 

Gang, it’s time I got myself some sweet new sneakers. Something comfortable and supportive for urban kicking-around wear. Let’s run through the big contenders, and you tell me your ideas? (more…)

Up until recently, I would’ve listed the top four thusly:

1. The Monkees
2. The Patridge Family
3. The band on Happy Days with Leather Tuscadero
4. The Brady Bunch

But all that’s changed.
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