January 2009
85 posts
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
What a sad, maudlin movie. It’s like The Color Purple, life is hard and then you die.
Brad Pitt’s Benjamin is a lot like Forrest Gump or Tobey Maguire from Cider House Rules, virtuous and bereft of any personality at all.
I’m not saying I didn’t cry through the last hour of it…
December 2008
86 posts
“In April, we’re publishing the early anticipated and long-awaited Star...”
– Andy Schmidt: IDW’s Star Trek Captain: Interviews & Features Archive - Comics Bulletin
You may consider my birthday gift selected.
“I believe it was J.P. Freire who twittered recently, apropos of Valkyrie, that...”
– The Confabulum - James Poulos
Giggidy
You learn something new every day: My mom likes Family Guy more than American Dad, and thinks I do a creditable Quagmire impression…
I personally prefer American Dad to Family Guy, so I guess that makes me the cerebral one.
“Fiennes looked so much like Göth in costume that when Mila Pfefferberg, a...”
– Another gem from wikipedia. That Fiennes lost out on the Oscar to Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive is one of the great crimes in the Academy’s history.
“Neeson felt “[Schindler] enjoyed fookin’ [sic] with the Nazis. In...”
– Schindler’s List - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I am disturbed by the recurring motif in American history of people from Arkansas (or what have you) getting the better of New Yorkers (or what have you).
Shallow Thought
A Taste of Armageddon is a pretty awesome Star Trek episode.
Cars leaving lots without drivers | Philadelphia... →
More signs of the times. It seems strange to me that GMAC would deprive a point of sale of its inventory. I know they plan to close dealerships, but doesn’t it make sense to keep them open until they’ve liquidated the cars on the lot?
Or does GM have a faster way of doing that?
Scary
I have Certificates of Deposit (bought in 2005) that are paying a higher interest rate than going mortgage rates…
Fee simple - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia →
English common law is very messy but sophisticated. You can see the shadow of it in football and baseball rules, I think.
WatchHulu - Saturday Night Live: Night School Musical
“The Auteurist critics—Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Éric...”
– Auteur theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Minitrue Continued
wOW! My original PSAT scores and the workbook.
The only class I’m keeping everything from is my 101 Physics class with Werner Däppen.
Ministry of Truth
I have saved my acceptance letters from USC and the film school, and my SAT and ACT test reports.
I have shredded my USC, RHP, and CNTV applications and essays.
For the interested
I also have about thirty-two 800’ 1/4 inch Quantegy 406 rolls with the production sound of Marshall Davidson’s Game Day, DA88s with the cut tracks, and cue sheets. Not to mention a lined script and spotting notes for Odin Schaffer.
Master Shredder
Now in the process of throwing out most of the random papers I have from college. Keeping a few things, but most everything is going byebye. I’m having to run vast quantities of paper through the shredder, as USC had a pathological tendency to put your Social on every slip of paper it sends you.
Journey down memory lane: FAFSA, Stafford Loan Master Promisory Note, Touch-Tone...
“I took the liberty of seeing Domino a few months ago as part of my research for...”
–
Southland Tales (2006) Recap @ the agony booth
Dance of the Dead (Original Soundtrack) →
Boba Fett: You are alone? Maybe I can help you.
Announcer: Tobor is robot spelled backwards.
Bea Arthur: Krelman. What a ... nice name.
Fighting the Frizzies, at Eleven
Oh Yes! I can feel my creation! Oh! We are excited, aren’t we?
Happy Life Day, everybody.
Brand New: Brand New: Best & Worst 2008 →
New Ford logo rocks.
“A good heavy has to have a great sense of his own rightness”
– Frank Capra, Jr., elucidating the success of Edward Arnold in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Get Smart (2008)
This movie is a goddamn mess, but the VFX are superb.
The action direction is pretty bad though. Every fight scene is a billion little cuts back and forth between two medium shots.
Farewell, Delgo: From 2,100 Screens to Zero in a... →
Truly bizzare. My back-of-the-envelope calculation is that 2100 prints for a 90 minute movie will run you about $8,505,000.
Watches: The Cabestan Winch Tourbillion Watch is... →
Even I think that’s a little ridiculous.
NB.
Owing to certain unknowns on my part, the purchase of clear Converse high-tops is left as an exercise to the reader.
The Fountainhead of Bedford Falls →
THE BROKERS WITH HANDS ON THEIR FACES BLOG →
Awesome!
Ecofont | Take a look at the Ecofont →
If you find yourself seriously thinking about that 20% ink savings, you need to be buying cheaper ink.
Calculated Risk: Negative Yields on Money Market... →
You know the economy is in a funny state when some MMAs have an effective negative APR.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
Well… it certainly looks expensive. And the barely semi-human Klatu is really the rôle Keanu Reeves was born to play.
I am not a fan of CGI Gort, and the explanation for his name is ridiculous. As a matter if fact, just about any stretch of lines where a character explains something is an embarassment.
Apple: Apple Announces Last Year at Macworld, No... →
Wow.
Apparently, there’s this trend of graffitoes spray painting the surprise ending of Marley & Me on bus stop posters and billboards. I won’t link to it here, but if you think about it, I’ve probably already given you enough information.
Golden Retriever + Surprise Ending that Counter-programs Ad Campaign = ?
Logan's Run (1976)
1976, complete with a scene in Washington, D.C!
Seth rented this and I was observing as we watched it that distant-future dystopia movies are essentially re-contextualizations of Ancient Rome movies, to wit:
Lots of youthful people engaged in sybaritic lives of ease, ignorant of toil.
The main characters are slaves to Big Important Historical Events.
Along these lines, Christ or an...
twitter baby →
I can see how a certain quality of person in a certain life situation might think this is cute.
Caribou and Moose
They’re both even-toed ungulates, but Moose are larger and have broad, hand-like antlers.
Bob Yari crashes into Chapter 11 - Variety →
Oooof.
Slashdot | Great Games To Put On a Free PC? →
For my later reference
MySpace Video X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE HD by... →
Overpromising is never a good sign, particularly if the commitment to the material is weak.
Sarcasm useful for detecting dementia →
Oh I’m so sure.
Athanasius Kircher from the 1911 EB →
Better than nothing.
“[The Smoking Gun] has finally obtained the 1982 Van Halen World Tour...”
– Van Halen’s Legendary M&M’s Rider