A: Girls in their summer clothes.
Q: The worst thing about summer?
A: Me in my summer clothes.
(My sincere apologies if this post made you think of that horrible, horrible Bruce Springsteen song, unless, of course, you like that song, in which case, you're welcome.)
A Canada Day Playlist
I put together this Canada Day Playlist on my other site, Dynamic Range Radio, and I thought I'd share it here too.
If you want to read my thoughts on each of the videos, just click the following link:
Canada Day Playlist on Dynamic Range Radio
If you want to read my thoughts on each of the videos, just click the following link:
Canada Day Playlist on Dynamic Range Radio
The Seventh Python - Neil Innes
A documentary about Neil Innes called The Seventh Python is having it's world premiere in Hollywood this Thursday, and you can read all about it here.
Or watch the trailer here:
(Well, not here, exactly, but several pixels below here. And by here I mean there. Up there. And to the left. Unless the text has wrapped onto the next line in your browser, in which case a simple "up there" might be more accurate when referring to the location of here. As for the trailer, it's down there.
If Neil Innes is The Seventh Python, I guess that makes Carol Cleveland the Linda McCartney that none of them slept with.
Or watch the trailer here:
(Well, not here, exactly, but several pixels below here. And by here I mean there. Up there. And to the left. Unless the text has wrapped onto the next line in your browser, in which case a simple "up there" might be more accurate when referring to the location of here. As for the trailer, it's down there.
If Neil Innes is The Seventh Python, I guess that makes Carol Cleveland the Linda McCartney that none of them slept with.
Lewis And Lewis: Come On Down To The Farm
Newsflash: Rednecks Hate Gays!
I suppose that revelation isn't exactly newsworthy, but the fact that senile hillbillies have figured out how to use YouTube is a bit surprising.
If you like your ignorant homophobia with a catchy country beat, then you'll thouroughly enjoy the following video.
I love the simplistic logic that says gay marriage = no reproduction = end of human race. If 10% of the population chooses not to reproduce, the worst that will happen is the massive burden of over-population may be eased somewhat, and maybe some of those nice gay couples can adopt some of the abandoned children produced by careless breeders.
I doubt this old-timer has ever met a gay person, and I'm not convinced he's spent much time on a farm either.
Most animals will screw anything that moves, regardless of gender or species. Growing up, I had a female dog who would hump my leg, which, according to Farmer John here, is not normal. Perhaps he'd be happier if my leg had been humping her.
And if we're using animals as the benchmark for what's normal, doesn't that make religion abnormal? Ray Lewis argues that he's never seen two roosters walking arm in arm, but I've never seen a rooster praying either.
And if you're in the mood to read Mr. Normal's lengthy, rambling manifesto, just head on over to the Lewis And Lewis website, y'all, and read up on Ray's Rantings, and listen to Missing In Action, both of which can easily be interpreted as a call to arms in a Holy War. But who Christians should be fighting is a bit unclear because, in addition to gays, Ray rants against illegal immigrants, China, the liberal media, Iran, apathetic Christians, Leprechauns, and just about everyone except him and the missus. Here's just a sample:
There's also lots of comments on "Come On Down To The Farm", many positive, and some negative, and in defense of the Lewises, they haven't removed those comments. Or perhaps they just haven't figured out the delete function yet.
And in related news, why does my Vancouver neighbourhood smell like manure today? There's a stiff wind blowing, but I doubt it carried that powerful stink all the way from Abbotsford.
I moved to the big city to escape that horrible stench, and to get away from people like Lewis And Lewis, so today was a series of unwelcome flashbacks for me.
I suppose that revelation isn't exactly newsworthy, but the fact that senile hillbillies have figured out how to use YouTube is a bit surprising.
If you like your ignorant homophobia with a catchy country beat, then you'll thouroughly enjoy the following video.
I love the simplistic logic that says gay marriage = no reproduction = end of human race. If 10% of the population chooses not to reproduce, the worst that will happen is the massive burden of over-population may be eased somewhat, and maybe some of those nice gay couples can adopt some of the abandoned children produced by careless breeders.
I doubt this old-timer has ever met a gay person, and I'm not convinced he's spent much time on a farm either.
Most animals will screw anything that moves, regardless of gender or species. Growing up, I had a female dog who would hump my leg, which, according to Farmer John here, is not normal. Perhaps he'd be happier if my leg had been humping her.
And if we're using animals as the benchmark for what's normal, doesn't that make religion abnormal? Ray Lewis argues that he's never seen two roosters walking arm in arm, but I've never seen a rooster praying either.
And if you're in the mood to read Mr. Normal's lengthy, rambling manifesto, just head on over to the Lewis And Lewis website, y'all, and read up on Ray's Rantings, and listen to Missing In Action, both of which can easily be interpreted as a call to arms in a Holy War. But who Christians should be fighting is a bit unclear because, in addition to gays, Ray rants against illegal immigrants, China, the liberal media, Iran, apathetic Christians, Leprechauns, and just about everyone except him and the missus. Here's just a sample:
This is our country. It was built on a Godly foundation .The freedoms we’ve enjoyed have come at a tremendous price. From our founding fathers who pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, to our sons and daughters in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other parts of the world. Blood has been the currency that has bought our liberty. It would be criminal, for those of us who still believe in the foundational principals of this great nation not to stand against those who would destroy our morality, our laws and our sacred heritage.
There's also lots of comments on "Come On Down To The Farm", many positive, and some negative, and in defense of the Lewises, they haven't removed those comments. Or perhaps they just haven't figured out the delete function yet.
And in related news, why does my Vancouver neighbourhood smell like manure today? There's a stiff wind blowing, but I doubt it carried that powerful stink all the way from Abbotsford.
I moved to the big city to escape that horrible stench, and to get away from people like Lewis And Lewis, so today was a series of unwelcome flashbacks for me.
Reverse Graffiti
Inhabitat.com offers this story on an interesting concept called reverse graffiti, where an artist scrapes through the grime on a wall in order to create art. And the results are intriguing.
Just imagine what this guy could do with the tiles in my bathroom.
Just imagine what this guy could do with the tiles in my bathroom.
Stan Winston RIP
The LA Times reports that legendary makeup and special effects man Stan Winston has died at 62. He was one of the best to be sure, having worked on Predator, Aliens, Edward Scissorhands, and countless others. He also worked on John Carpenter's The Thing, which was featured in the Wired article on coolest movie metamorphoses I wrote about just yesterday.
I'd hate to be the mortician who has to apply Stan Winston's makeup before the memorial. I'd be worried that his ghost would be hanging over my shoulder making note of everything I'm doing wrong.
I'd hate to be the mortician who has to apply Stan Winston's makeup before the memorial. I'd be worried that his ghost would be hanging over my shoulder making note of everything I'm doing wrong.
Memorable Movie Metamorphoses
Wired recently posted a list of their coolest movie metamorphoses, which is a pretty solid list, especially David Cronenberg's The Fly and American Werewolf In London. However, Smeagol's transformation into Gollum in the beginning of The Return Of The King should have made the list, and I thought there was one other glaring omission from a movie that many of you may have forgotten.
Fright Night was an entertaining horror comedy aimed squarely at teens, and the movie holds up fairly well, even now that I'm *ahem!* just a wee bit older. Roddy McDowall is priceless at Peter Vincent, an actor who's made a career playing fearless vampire killers in B-movies, but when he's forced to slay an actual vampire in real life he gets much more than he bargained for.
He's attacked by a character nicknamed Evil Ed, a horror movie geek who's the pathetic yet sympathetic best friend of the main character, Charlie Brewster. Evil Ed has been an outcast his entire life, so he becomes seduced by the power that being a vampire brings him.
He takes the form of a wolf, gets a stake through the heart courtesy of Peter Vincent, and the resulting transformation is one of the most memorable sequences in horror movie history.
Up until this point, Fright Night had been a fairly light-hearted, entertaining, and spooky flick, so I wasn't expecting such a poignant death scene, especially after the character had ostensibly become a villain. Top marks to the makeup and sound effects teams, the composer, both the actors involved, and the director for injecting so much unexpected pathos into a genre flick targeted at teenagers. Even watching this scene out of context via YouTube, it gave me chills.
Fright Night was an entertaining horror comedy aimed squarely at teens, and the movie holds up fairly well, even now that I'm *ahem!* just a wee bit older. Roddy McDowall is priceless at Peter Vincent, an actor who's made a career playing fearless vampire killers in B-movies, but when he's forced to slay an actual vampire in real life he gets much more than he bargained for.
He's attacked by a character nicknamed Evil Ed, a horror movie geek who's the pathetic yet sympathetic best friend of the main character, Charlie Brewster. Evil Ed has been an outcast his entire life, so he becomes seduced by the power that being a vampire brings him.
He takes the form of a wolf, gets a stake through the heart courtesy of Peter Vincent, and the resulting transformation is one of the most memorable sequences in horror movie history.
Up until this point, Fright Night had been a fairly light-hearted, entertaining, and spooky flick, so I wasn't expecting such a poignant death scene, especially after the character had ostensibly become a villain. Top marks to the makeup and sound effects teams, the composer, both the actors involved, and the director for injecting so much unexpected pathos into a genre flick targeted at teenagers. Even watching this scene out of context via YouTube, it gave me chills.
The Incredible Hulk on IMDB
I'm a big fan of the Internet Movie Database. I visit it several times a day to look up information on whatever movie I'm watching, thinking about, or reading about. I love participating in the polls and rating movies, and I have a morbid fascination with the message boards. Reading them makes me weep for the future of Hollywood (and humanity) but I can't seem to keep away.
But my enjoyment of the IMDB has been severely hampered for the last week or so by the in-your-face marketing for the Incredible Hulk on the site's main page.
The cartoonish CGI image of the Hulk replacing the normal banner is mildly distracting, but forgivable. The real problem has been the trailer which automatically begins to download every single time I visit the front page.
That's a ton of wasted bandwidth, so I find myself clicking on the first link I can find just to avoid downloading more of the trailer than is necessary. But if I want to actually read any of the material on the front page, I'm forced to endure that same bloody trailer over and over and over and over again.
Does that kind of endlessly repetitive marketing actually work on some people? It certainly doesn't work on me. Prior to this misguided marketing blitz, there was a small chance that I might see The Incredible Hulk in the theatre on a whim, but I'm so sick of that miserable trailer that I'm deliberately avoiding the movie in theatres, and I probably won't ever rent the DVD either.
Rushing out a reboot of the Hulk franchise a mere four years after Ang Lee's version reeks of desperation anyway, but the incessant marketing was the final straw.
Creating audience awareness is the first role of marketing, but enough is enough. My awareness has turned into annoyance.
But my enjoyment of the IMDB has been severely hampered for the last week or so by the in-your-face marketing for the Incredible Hulk on the site's main page.
The cartoonish CGI image of the Hulk replacing the normal banner is mildly distracting, but forgivable. The real problem has been the trailer which automatically begins to download every single time I visit the front page.
That's a ton of wasted bandwidth, so I find myself clicking on the first link I can find just to avoid downloading more of the trailer than is necessary. But if I want to actually read any of the material on the front page, I'm forced to endure that same bloody trailer over and over and over and over again.
Does that kind of endlessly repetitive marketing actually work on some people? It certainly doesn't work on me. Prior to this misguided marketing blitz, there was a small chance that I might see The Incredible Hulk in the theatre on a whim, but I'm so sick of that miserable trailer that I'm deliberately avoiding the movie in theatres, and I probably won't ever rent the DVD either.
Rushing out a reboot of the Hulk franchise a mere four years after Ang Lee's version reeks of desperation anyway, but the incessant marketing was the final straw.
Creating audience awareness is the first role of marketing, but enough is enough. My awareness has turned into annoyance.
Canadian DMCA: Bill C-61
The Republican Conservative Government of America Canada recently unveiled Bill C-61, which limits my rights to use the media I've purchased in the way I see fit.
Back in the stone age, I used a primitive audio-visual device known as a VCR to record television shows and movies that had been broadcast into my home via cable. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of a life of crime.
That big box of VHS tapes is now collecting dust in my closet alongside an old VCR that probably doesn't work any more, but the mere possession of those tapes makes me a criminal according to this laughable, convoluted, and unnecessary new legislation.
Also, that picture I posted of one of our American Overlords alongside our puppet prime minister is most definitely a violation of someone's copyright. Oh, the humanity!
If you're a Canadian who cares about your rights in the digital age, and if you don't want to see an entire generation of young Canadians being sued by corporate giants for posting videos on YouTube, then you should educate yourself on the implications of the Canadian Copyright Reform that's currently taking place.
Read the official government spin on the new bill here, then read an opposing viewpoint from Michael Geist by clicking here.
Write your MP before it's too late and ask him or her why the government is wasting your money on this nonsense when they should be improving health care, saving the environment, creating jobs, fixing that mess in Afghanistan...
Back in the stone age, I used a primitive audio-visual device known as a VCR to record television shows and movies that had been broadcast into my home via cable. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of a life of crime.
That big box of VHS tapes is now collecting dust in my closet alongside an old VCR that probably doesn't work any more, but the mere possession of those tapes makes me a criminal according to this laughable, convoluted, and unnecessary new legislation.
Also, that picture I posted of one of our American Overlords alongside our puppet prime minister is most definitely a violation of someone's copyright. Oh, the humanity!
If you're a Canadian who cares about your rights in the digital age, and if you don't want to see an entire generation of young Canadians being sued by corporate giants for posting videos on YouTube, then you should educate yourself on the implications of the Canadian Copyright Reform that's currently taking place.
Read the official government spin on the new bill here, then read an opposing viewpoint from Michael Geist by clicking here.
Write your MP before it's too late and ask him or her why the government is wasting your money on this nonsense when they should be improving health care, saving the environment, creating jobs, fixing that mess in Afghanistan...
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