Sunday, August 19, 2007
Media Stop
It's been a while since I've consumed enough media to even have a Media Rodeo, but I've had a few busy Media Days.
For some reason I think people will take these suggestions and/or comment on these posts, but what the hell, that's what blogs are for.
Network
Holy Shit, what an amazing film. I knew it was Alterni-culturally relevant, and prophetic, but...Holy Shit!
What is about? Anchorman gets fired, flips out on air, gets rehired as "Truthspeaking Prophet", goes batshit crazy, gets awesome ratings, fights the Man, Man fights back while co-opting Rebellion and crushing the little guy...the usual.
Agentmatrix was kind enough to post 7 clips abbreviating and highlight the move. So if you want the Cliff Notes version, you can watch them all here:
I was going to post more, but this seems to be quite the largish post, so I'm gonna bag it until tomorrow or the next day.
For some reason I think people will take these suggestions and/or comment on these posts, but what the hell, that's what blogs are for.
Network
Holy Shit, what an amazing film. I knew it was Alterni-culturally relevant, and prophetic, but...Holy Shit!
What is about? Anchorman gets fired, flips out on air, gets rehired as "Truthspeaking Prophet", goes batshit crazy, gets awesome ratings, fights the Man, Man fights back while co-opting Rebellion and crushing the little guy...the usual.
Agentmatrix was kind enough to post 7 clips abbreviating and highlight the move. So if you want the Cliff Notes version, you can watch them all here:
I was going to post more, but this seems to be quite the largish post, so I'm gonna bag it until tomorrow or the next day.
Labels: Fuck The Man, Media, The Man
Sunday, July 22, 2007
A couple of more 12 hr days left
The Deadline for the catalogs is almost here. So far we've layed out each book at least 3 times and we are working hard today on redoing a 200+ page catalog. Wheeeee!
On the positive side, I will be paid hansomely for it, and they provided massages yesterday as well as lunch and dinner.
I spend yesterday evening reading Potter and I can't help but notice what a shitty wizard Harry is and how much Deus ex machina appears in this last books.
I mean, I know J.K. is writting for kids, but that doesn't excuse sloppy writing or the fact that nearly every aspect of Harry's success comes from events and people that conspire to help him.
On the positive side, I will be paid hansomely for it, and they provided massages yesterday as well as lunch and dinner.
I spend yesterday evening reading Potter and I can't help but notice what a shitty wizard Harry is and how much Deus ex machina appears in this last books.
I mean, I know J.K. is writting for kids, but that doesn't excuse sloppy writing or the fact that nearly every aspect of Harry's success comes from events and people that conspire to help him.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Daily Show's Samantha Bee on Missouri:
Have you ever been to Missouri? It's like an ingrown hair on America's 'taint'.Daily Show 6/12/07
Yes Sam you are correct. And it's the first time I actually laughed at a sentence with the word "taint" in it.
Labels: Ahahahahaha, Media
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Media Rodeo Part I
It's taken a while for me to consume enough media to make it worth my while to post my opinions about it, so bear with me if some of it is dated.
Movie-Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End. Was flashy, had its moments amongst the noise, but mostly just kind of there. Alessandra is very clever and she couldn't follow the story. Me, I had sort of already read "reviews" which detailed much of the story, but I still resent a movie that needs someone to explain the what the fuck I just saw. C-
TV- So rerun season is finally here and is going to last until January or February for my favorite shows. I suppose this is a good thing because I really hate when Fall Premieres arrive and you immediately start with the new episode/rerun loop due to the Holidays. But I digress.
Heroes: For a show that had a strong season with lots of WTF moments the Season 1 arc had an amazingly lame payoff. You know it's bad when the Executive Producer says "Yes, we know Peter can fly, but we'd like you to overlook that little plot hole and maintain that suspension of disbelief." C+
LOST: The opposite of Heroes. It started out lame and ended with me saying "Holy Shit!" even though most of my peers saw the big twist coming, I say it's because they spent too much time reading interviews with writers and creators. I was looking for weirdness and I didn't see it. A
Veronica Mars: I freely admit that I was watching a show about a teenage girl detective. It had good writing, clever dialog and an intricate story arc. Unfortunately, it was too serial for tv and as a result turned off new viewers before they could get involved. The subsequent mini arc plotlines, and retooling for the CWs demographics was the killer for the series which was canceled. The final episode set up a new arc for a season that won't happen. Not to mention in the past few episodes they had gone very heavy on product placement to the point of the characters actually holding discussions about said product. It was so nauseating that the creator Rob Thomas inserted a throwaway line for a character to call Thomas himself a whore immediately following one such placement. THAT was amusing. B
Sometime this month the Thomas is going to pitch the concept of moving Veronica into the future 4 years and putting her in the FBI Academy. I'd like to see that.
Books-Due to my love of the computer, my reading has been reduced to the Crapper and the bathtub on Shaving Day. So I had been sort of slothing through my books, and the instance of Catch 22, not even finishing. However, I can post opinions about two.
The Man in the High Castle By Phillip K. Dick. Androids Dream of Nazis and Tojo Winning WWII A very well written book, and was well deserving of the 1962 Hugo Award. While today, the concept of the Alternate History is rather passé unless done right, back in '62 it must have been a real mindblower. Still though, the book is lyrical in it's prose, and the characters connect on the same level as those seen in today's LOST; Dick also presents concepts which turn even Alt.history into a crazy mirror maze. Suppose in Alt.history world, the denizens were reading an alternative history "novel" where Germany and Japan lost WWII? Yeah buddy. I can't recommend this book enough. A
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Macguire . I'm not much of a Wizard of Oz guy. I've seen it maybe once or twice in it's entirety since my parents got divorced back the early 70s. I did read the book though a few years ago because Robert Heinlein references it all the time, and I wanted to read the source material, which was surprisingly good. Last year, the Wicked Broadway musical came through town, and I had seen the book for years in the SF/Fantasy section of the bookstore, so I grabbed a copy at a book fair and put off reading it until this past week.
Wow! Talk about an exercise in world building...Macguire populates Oz with 3 different religions, political upheaval, social ills, mythology, sex, philosophy and characters with genuine emotions. As I was reading I could mentally feel the solidity of Oz, and when I finished the book, I thought to myself, "Man, I am so going to have to ponder what I just read, then read it again." Plus I was emotionally moved the same way I was when I finished The Time Traveler's Wife. A+ I'd like to see the musical, but I am disappointed that learn that it has a distinctly happy ending vs the reader's choice one of the book.
Movie-Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End. Was flashy, had its moments amongst the noise, but mostly just kind of there. Alessandra is very clever and she couldn't follow the story. Me, I had sort of already read "reviews" which detailed much of the story, but I still resent a movie that needs someone to explain the what the fuck I just saw. C-
TV- So rerun season is finally here and is going to last until January or February for my favorite shows. I suppose this is a good thing because I really hate when Fall Premieres arrive and you immediately start with the new episode/rerun loop due to the Holidays. But I digress.
Heroes: For a show that had a strong season with lots of WTF moments the Season 1 arc had an amazingly lame payoff. You know it's bad when the Executive Producer says "Yes, we know Peter can fly, but we'd like you to overlook that little plot hole and maintain that suspension of disbelief." C+
LOST: The opposite of Heroes. It started out lame and ended with me saying "Holy Shit!" even though most of my peers saw the big twist coming, I say it's because they spent too much time reading interviews with writers and creators. I was looking for weirdness and I didn't see it. A
Veronica Mars: I freely admit that I was watching a show about a teenage girl detective. It had good writing, clever dialog and an intricate story arc. Unfortunately, it was too serial for tv and as a result turned off new viewers before they could get involved. The subsequent mini arc plotlines, and retooling for the CWs demographics was the killer for the series which was canceled. The final episode set up a new arc for a season that won't happen. Not to mention in the past few episodes they had gone very heavy on product placement to the point of the characters actually holding discussions about said product. It was so nauseating that the creator Rob Thomas inserted a throwaway line for a character to call Thomas himself a whore immediately following one such placement. THAT was amusing. B
Sometime this month the Thomas is going to pitch the concept of moving Veronica into the future 4 years and putting her in the FBI Academy. I'd like to see that.
Books-Due to my love of the computer, my reading has been reduced to the Crapper and the bathtub on Shaving Day. So I had been sort of slothing through my books, and the instance of Catch 22, not even finishing. However, I can post opinions about two.
The Man in the High Castle By Phillip K. Dick. Androids Dream of Nazis and Tojo Winning WWII A very well written book, and was well deserving of the 1962 Hugo Award. While today, the concept of the Alternate History is rather passé unless done right, back in '62 it must have been a real mindblower. Still though, the book is lyrical in it's prose, and the characters connect on the same level as those seen in today's LOST; Dick also presents concepts which turn even Alt.history into a crazy mirror maze. Suppose in Alt.history world, the denizens were reading an alternative history "novel" where Germany and Japan lost WWII? Yeah buddy. I can't recommend this book enough. A
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Macguire . I'm not much of a Wizard of Oz guy. I've seen it maybe once or twice in it's entirety since my parents got divorced back the early 70s. I did read the book though a few years ago because Robert Heinlein references it all the time, and I wanted to read the source material, which was surprisingly good. Last year, the Wicked Broadway musical came through town, and I had seen the book for years in the SF/Fantasy section of the bookstore, so I grabbed a copy at a book fair and put off reading it until this past week.
Wow! Talk about an exercise in world building...Macguire populates Oz with 3 different religions, political upheaval, social ills, mythology, sex, philosophy and characters with genuine emotions. As I was reading I could mentally feel the solidity of Oz, and when I finished the book, I thought to myself, "Man, I am so going to have to ponder what I just read, then read it again." Plus I was emotionally moved the same way I was when I finished The Time Traveler's Wife. A+ I'd like to see the musical, but I am disappointed that learn that it has a distinctly happy ending vs the reader's choice one of the book.
Labels: Media
Friday, March 30, 2007
Positive Impact
D_ is a kid who attends workshops at the non-profit I had been working for. Aside: we were cleared by the state and resumed classes this week, and while I had quit, I was a guest driver this week.
D_ is a virtual shut in because he lives in a bad neighborhood. He comes home from school and doesn't leave the house until school the next day because his mom keeps him in.
D_ is 12, does not have cable television, nor Internet, but what he does have is A LOT of questions:
Did you hear anything about the MARS company? There are rat poo in M & Ms.
Do you believe in Aliens? What does it mean to get "probed"?
What is politics?
What is the Da Vinci Code? What does the Mona Lisa have to do with it?
Why are there so many different religions?
Does the universe end or keep going?
Where do tornadoes come from?
What's it like to live in the county (as opposed to the city. Which while his street may be "bad" it's only a fraction of some of the other neighborhoods where our kids live).
Anyway, since it was my last trip with him on Thursday, I pulled together a large assortment of awesome books to give him:
The Handy Science Answer Book
The Handy History Answer Book
Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were: Creatures, Places, and People (my own treasured copy)
Universe (5.99 paperback filled with beautiful images)
and The Big Book of Urban Legends (The Big book Series)
10th Anniversary Calvin and Hobbes
A pop up book of Leonardo Da Vinci
And some cool book by Wired about future technology.
All of these books are designed to be flipped through and perused at random, perfect for a kid with lots of questions who doesn't really like reading.
I really hope he enjoys these half as much as I enjoyed giving them to him.
D_ is a virtual shut in because he lives in a bad neighborhood. He comes home from school and doesn't leave the house until school the next day because his mom keeps him in.
D_ is 12, does not have cable television, nor Internet, but what he does have is A LOT of questions:
Did you hear anything about the MARS company? There are rat poo in M & Ms.
Do you believe in Aliens? What does it mean to get "probed"?
What is politics?
What is the Da Vinci Code? What does the Mona Lisa have to do with it?
Why are there so many different religions?
Does the universe end or keep going?
Where do tornadoes come from?
What's it like to live in the county (as opposed to the city. Which while his street may be "bad" it's only a fraction of some of the other neighborhoods where our kids live).
Anyway, since it was my last trip with him on Thursday, I pulled together a large assortment of awesome books to give him:
The Handy Science Answer Book
The Handy History Answer Book
Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were: Creatures, Places, and People (my own treasured copy)
Universe (5.99 paperback filled with beautiful images)
and The Big Book of Urban Legends (The Big book Series)
10th Anniversary Calvin and Hobbes
A pop up book of Leonardo Da Vinci
And some cool book by Wired about future technology.
All of these books are designed to be flipped through and perused at random, perfect for a kid with lots of questions who doesn't really like reading.
I really hope he enjoys these half as much as I enjoyed giving them to him.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Media Rodeo
Media-Plural of medium, a means of communication. The definition will used very loosely if completely incorrectly.
The Prestige, the movie. Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. A pretty damn cool movie, much better than The Illusionist. Two illusionists (no relation) do battle over fame and fortune at the end of the 19th Century. Both characters are pretty unsympathetic, so I don't care who the winner was, but ending (though telegraphed) was neat. A solid B for effort.
The Prestige, the book by Greg Priest. The book came first, so you know it was better. Well written and told in diary form to the great-grand son and daughter of battling illusionists. Of course, the characters and their motives for besting each other are really nailed down, as well as their distinct personalities and character flaws. Although I knew the ending of the movie (and sneaked a peek at the ending of the book at Borders), the book still maintained my level of surprise right up until the end. A-/B+.
Battlestar Galactica, Season 3 Finale: Unfortunately I read the spoilers because it sounded just too frakin' unbelievable, but turned out to be true. Post no spoilers in the comments as Crazy Legs Dave hasn't watched it yet. I was still extremely pleased, and think waiting until Jan. 2008 is out of control but I'm expecting a quality product by then.B+. Season 2 and 2.5 finales A+
Allergy Shots, the medium of allergy control: I'm all for it, and just began to take them for the cats and the Great Out Doors, but rumors from a friend who had done it 15 years ago and left him worse off have left me questioning it. C
Baby Bunnys, awwwwww: Alessandra was cleaning the yard and fucked up their nest leaving them orphans. Luckily, our neighbors are willing to wake up every 3 hours and feed them puppy formula and hopefully nurse them back to health (they have bunny experience). A for cute D+/C- survivability.
Reality TV specifically Dancing with Stars, American Idol: I hate you for sucking me in while I practice guitar and spend time with my Sweety. You, you're producers and judges, contestants and sponsors will all burn in HELL.F.
Brazilian Soap Operas: As muleres estao mution gostoso A-
Cell Phones: Will I ever get a good signal? D unless there is an emergency and the phone is charged and I get through then it gets an A.
A cat in a turtleneck sweater: A+
Crocs: the medium of communication between foot and earth. Much ridiculed by myself (Style King) until actually placed on my feet. A happy foot is a happy Cap'n. 'Nuff said. A
Sleep, the medium of dreams and imagination. A++ when done right.
The Prestige, the movie. Directed by Christopher Nolan, starring Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. A pretty damn cool movie, much better than The Illusionist. Two illusionists (no relation) do battle over fame and fortune at the end of the 19th Century. Both characters are pretty unsympathetic, so I don't care who the winner was, but ending (though telegraphed) was neat. A solid B for effort.
The Prestige, the book by Greg Priest. The book came first, so you know it was better. Well written and told in diary form to the great-grand son and daughter of battling illusionists. Of course, the characters and their motives for besting each other are really nailed down, as well as their distinct personalities and character flaws. Although I knew the ending of the movie (and sneaked a peek at the ending of the book at Borders), the book still maintained my level of surprise right up until the end. A-/B+.
Battlestar Galactica, Season 3 Finale: Unfortunately I read the spoilers because it sounded just too frakin' unbelievable, but turned out to be true. Post no spoilers in the comments as Crazy Legs Dave hasn't watched it yet. I was still extremely pleased, and think waiting until Jan. 2008 is out of control but I'm expecting a quality product by then.B+. Season 2 and 2.5 finales A+
Allergy Shots, the medium of allergy control: I'm all for it, and just began to take them for the cats and the Great Out Doors, but rumors from a friend who had done it 15 years ago and left him worse off have left me questioning it. C
Baby Bunnys, awwwwww: Alessandra was cleaning the yard and fucked up their nest leaving them orphans. Luckily, our neighbors are willing to wake up every 3 hours and feed them puppy formula and hopefully nurse them back to health (they have bunny experience). A for cute D+/C- survivability.
Reality TV specifically Dancing with Stars, American Idol: I hate you for sucking me in while I practice guitar and spend time with my Sweety. You, you're producers and judges, contestants and sponsors will all burn in HELL.F.
Brazilian Soap Operas: As muleres estao mution gostoso A-
Cell Phones: Will I ever get a good signal? D unless there is an emergency and the phone is charged and I get through then it gets an A.
A cat in a turtleneck sweater: A+
Crocs: the medium of communication between foot and earth. Much ridiculed by myself (Style King) until actually placed on my feet. A happy foot is a happy Cap'n. 'Nuff said. A
Sleep, the medium of dreams and imagination. A++ when done right.
Labels: Media, Stuff, Too Much Information
