whatever...

Casting news on the move Choke. It's been awhile sence I've read the book so I think need to re-read to see if these people will fit. About time another Palahniuk book gets made into a movie.

Not really much to post here, but just thought I would anyway for anyone is still reading it.

I would highly recomend one of my new favorite movies The American Astronaut. I have put a clip and quote to the right. It's awesome.

Also I know some of you like T-shirts, if you are one of those people you should be reading tcritic.com

SIFF

The Seattle International Film Festival started last week and goes on till the 17th of June, so needlessly to say there are a bunch of movies that I want to see. Yesterday I saw Herzog's new Rescue Dawn, and today between jobs tried to go see Paris, Je T'Aime, which ended up being sold out. It's ok I guess because it comes out on Friday. Some other shows that I am going to try to attend are the US premiere of Day Watch, and Alien Autopsy, The Bet Collector, Black Sheep, Cthulhu, The Ferryman, Fido, Waiter, Eagle vs. Shark and anymore I have time for. If anyone one wants to look at the film list and give recomondations they would be welcome.

My basic review of Rescue Dawn is if you love Herzog you will enjoy it and if you don't you probably won't. It is to Herzog to be fully hollywood and yet to hollywood to be all Herzog. Watching it I think the guy just wanted to try his hand at making a big blockbusterish type movie. He didn't do a bad job it's just not what he was made to do. I would be surprised to see another film like this out of the master director. Overall I enjoyed it and would recomend it to you.
While watching it I couldn't help but think that Bale was his replacement for Kinski. No offense to Bale, but he just doesn't have the crazy raw insanity that Kinski brought to the screen.

B[ow]log

I started a Bowling blog, because I can't stop talking about bowling. I figured that most people don't want to hear it, but if there's one entity that does, it's the Internet. So, instead of posting about bowling news/events here, I'll be doing it there. Definitely still in it's beginning stages, so I'll be adding more content soon. Maybe I'll even post there frequently...


Its actually just my old "other" blog just converted into a bowling journal of sorts. More for personal record, but feel free to look.

B[eer]log

I started a beer blog, because I can't stop talking about beer. I figured that most people don't want to hear it, but if there's one entity that does, it's the Internet. So, instead of posting about beer news/events here, I'll be doing it there. Definitely still in it's beginning stages, so I'll be adding more content soon. Maybe I'll even post there frequently...

The Wright DVD

Tomorrow (or today, 4/24), Steven Wright has a DVD out titled, When the Leaves Blow Away. Despite the fact that I've sworn off buying movies for a while, I might need to pick this up, because...well...do I really need to explain? It's Steven Wright.

Awesome

WRISTCUTTERS TEASER

Wristcutters: A Love Story

And the trailer for The Tripper. What beats killing a bunch of dirty hippies?

Isn't it Ironic

I don't like Alanis Morissette, and I don't like the Black Eyed Peas, but, somehow, when you put them together, it spawns something I do like: this absolutely bizarre video featuring the crap-fest that is Morisette's style and the nonsensical lyrics of the Black Eyed Peas. I present to you, Alanis Morisette singing My Humps:

Via Table of Malcontents

Dumb Kids

So a bunch of bitchy kids went to see The Last Mimzy with their parents and the theater thought that it would be more fun to show The Hills Have Eyes 2. I guess the first scene in Hills is of some naked broad chained up giving birth to a mutant kid. Ha. Oh yeah and that happens before the credits so there wasn't any warning. Awesome. I hope the kids can't sleep for a year.

Via Cinematical

This is Cake Town!

Even if you haven't seen 300, you should still find this to be hilarious. And, if you don't, then there's something wrong with you.



Via Table of Malcontents

2 Quick Trailers

First of all here is the real trailer for Stardust. I don't think I need to say that I can't wait for this one.

And here is the trailer for Day Watch, which is the sequel to Night Watch. I thought Night Watch was cool and this one looks like it is going to step it up.

Oberon Release Events

With my recent obsession with beer events, I came across the news that Bell's will be celebrating the release of this year's Oberon at The Happy Gnome on Tuesday, March 27. I'm actually going to try to be at this thing. Seems fun. Larry Bell and others will be present. Bell's website describes the event: "Come enjoy a night of Oberon, pint specials, prizes and raffles, music, and friendly banter as Bell's launches another season of it's top selling beer." CChrist, I can't imagine why you wouldn't be interested in this. You do love the Bell's.

This will also be happening at Bryant Lake Bowl on Monday if you're in the Minneapolis area.

3D Beowulf

Small news bit about the upcoming Beowulf film: it'll run in 3D. Buried in an article on Variety.com about DreamWorks' decision to use a lot of 3D in the near future, it merely lists it in upcoming projects that will use it. Personally, I am excited for more 3D movies, especially after seeing The Nightmare Before Christmas last year.

Via: Neil Gaiman's journal

B[ow]log-Damn 7 pin...twice

X X X X X X 9/ X X X 9/ = 268
I left two solid 7 pins. Again I beat my previous high score by one, which is getting kind of old. About two months ago I bowled a 266 and then about a week later a 267 and now this. Will I ever break the 270 mark? I doesn't feel like it.

Mmm...Svankmajer

Wired recently did a gallery of stills from Jan Svankmajer's films. I'm a big fan of Svankmajer and feel that others should look through his work. And, no, I still haven't seen Lunacy yet. Leave me alone. I've been too busy playing SSX Blur.

Also, and I don't know how I missed this the first time I posted, Wired has an essay on Svankmajer's work as a whole. It's a nice intro if you don't know anything about him.

Idealism is guilty middle-class bullshit

Finally, finally one of my longtime favorite Linklater films, SubUrbia, is coming to DVD. I was really hoping that Criterion would pick this up after they did Dazed and Confused and Slacker, but, alas, Warner Home Video will be taking care of its transfer. Linklater says that Warner "is promising me they will try to out-Criterion Criterion's Collection. So we'll see, but I'm really happy that that'll be coming out." That about sums it up for me. I'm sick of not being able to watch it whenever I please simply because my VCR broke. And now, September has something for me to anticipate besides Labor Day.

Weird

Darth Vader has come back to life and resorted to armed robbery to fund a
3rd Death Star. Read all about it here.

A funny thing happened today at work. I was serving people coffee, like i do, and this huge fat
guy comes in, and I think to my self "God, I know this guy". Which was
weird because I don't normally pay attention to fat people. So we
started shooting the shit and he turned out to be supper funny. After
he left it came to me that he wasRalphie May from session 1 of Last Comic Standing...Weird.

In regards to Dan's last post (which was great) here is a picture of the next tattoo I'm getting...one of these days.

On Hamm's

The new VotM (video of the month), a Hamm's Beer commercial, combines three things I love: vintage cartoons, vintage ads, and beer. I was watching some TV earlier tonight, and on a commercial for WCCO News, they had a short bit about running the sports section with different local people. One of the "people" was the Hamm's bear, and the sportscaster simply turns to him and says, "Hamm's? Hamm's isn't a sport." While I tend to disagree, what I love about this is knowing that Hamm's, a once proud brewery started in 1865, is still remembered fondly in Minnesota today even if it's been bought out by the much larger Miller Brewing. With the thought of a new microbrewery hitting the area, it's interesting to think that Hamm's was once looked upon in much the same way. For the most part, my experience with people's reaction to Hamm's is, "Oh, they still make that?" It's pretty much been forgotten by everyone but a few loyal brand users, local historians, and, apparently, WCCO News.

And I can't get enough of these old commercials. I like thinking about a time in which it was okay to market a beer with a cartoon. And I absolutely love seeing the Hamm's presented in a nice weizen glass as the sun on the horizon.

Flat Earth Brewing Company

This is for those who are still in the St. Paul/MN area: a new brewery has opened up in Saint Paul. Started by a former brewer at Town Hall, Flat Earth Brewing Company promises "Brewing on the Edge!" The first beer out is the Flat Earth Pale Ale, which the site describes as...

"...a Belgian pale ale. Inspired by beers like Orval and Rare Vos. It is made with imported Belgian malt and a Belgian yeast strain. Our Belgian pale ale has a sweet malt aroma with traces of orange, plum and pear. Its complex malt backbone of biscuit and hints of toast compliment the spiciness of the yeast."

Sounds awesome to be, but why am I writing about this? Well, according to the forums at beeradvocate.com, Flat Earth Brewing will be tapping a keg at the Happy Gnome this Thursday, March 1 at 6pm. I may stop by after the Thursday night TV lineup (or before, I guess), but probably more likely just end up at the Muddy Pig, because it's in walking distance. But, it's always exciting to have another brewer in the area.

Details here.

Flow Charts

Wellington Grey, of whom I know nothing, has created two different flow charts. One shows how people use the scientific method to come to their conclusions, the other shows how people use faith to reach theirs. It'd be funnier if it weren't so true for so many people.

Via Boing Boing.

An Unholy Beard

Methinks this guy has been watching way, way too much Stigmata. He was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison for the death of a nun. He was, of course, simply attempting to exorcise a demon from her frail physical shell, but he probably shouldn't have chained her to a crucifix and starved her to death. The article states,

"She was treated for schizophrenia, but when she relapsed, Daniel Petru Corogeanu -- a monk who served as the priest for the secluded Holy Trinity convent in northeast Romania -- and the four other nuns tried exorcism."

Yeah, or, perhaps you should have had her treated for schizophrenia again. She must have been diagnosed with it at some point if she had been treated for it. But, you know, you can never trust those pesky scientists.

The church, since the incident, has condemned this particular case of exorcism, but it reeks of a simple, political "cover your ass" moment. Oh, but don't worry, on top of the jail time, they were excommunicated.

It's also good to realize that "Church officials noted he had dropped out halfway from the church's religion school. Despite leaving the program, he was anointed as a priest because of a shortage of priests to serve in new convents and monasteries." I'm always pleased to see when large institutions who have the power to banish your soul start hiring the dregs when they're in need.

Mostly, though, I think he should have been jailed for another 5 years for Unruly Beard Management.

DVDs vs. The Librarians

So I have switched over to the new account finally and have actually decided to post. Weird huh?

With the great book crazy sweeping thru our small group of friends right now, and me owning not so many books, I was feeling quite inadequate. In order to make up for my short comings I decided it was about time to catalog my DVD collection. There are a number of tools out there for use, and some are quite a bit better then others, one of the ones I know the most about is DVD Profiler. There is a free trail version of it out there and I believe you can load back-up libraries on the net to check your collection from other systems. But to stick with the Library Thing idea I decided to find an actual on-line database, that and until I get myself a laptop I didn't want to bye the nice version of DVD Profiler. So I have created an account at DVD Spot. Its not the greatest of all set ups, but you never have to pay anything and they have a very large selection of movies in the database (some times too many seeing as you can't tell which one you own and need to use the UPC).

To view my collection you can go here. Its in the works so not everything is there yet.

Some things to note:
1. Its a little weird looking thru a whole collection seeing as everything is placed in the 'owned' folder and then listed according to the 'Sort By:' field. I find it works much nicer to go to the advanced search page and look by genre. (the subgenre field is anded with the genre, not ored, so I don't like to use it).

2. Also there are filters that you can add/create on your own, selected by the 'Filter By' field. As an example, I created a Criterion Collection filter which will show all my Criterion films.

And we're back...

Well, as probably no one really noticed, we've changed over to New Blogger. I've spent the last two evenings updating the template, changing the layout (slightly), adding labels to a ton of posts (still more to do), and getting haloscan back up and running.

I changed VotW and QotD to VotM and QotW now, just to be more realistic. Otherwise, you probably won't notice anything, other than maybe we'll start posting more.

Oh, and bm_oran, you won't show up as a contributor until you change your login to google rather than blogger.

That's all.

B[ow]log: Wii

I just hope this, like other bowling videogames, isn't horrible. I'll try not to get my hopes up. But, really, just think about it: a fantastic bowling game with motion sensing controls and online play...it would be the end of my (already diminishing) social life.

In other videogame news, I beat Freebird on Expert [in GH2] last night. I was really proud of myself until I tried to conquer Buckethead's song. So difficult.

Stanhope

So, Doug Stanhope is going to be stopping by the Triple Rock on April 14. I know that if Sam were still around, he'd be down with going in a second. But, he's not. So, anyone interested in going to the show? If you don't know Stanhope, this is what you'd be getting yourself into:

A trailer or two

Ok I did have a bunch of trailers ready for posting and then I lost it all some how. So here is a quick two that I think need to be talked about.

Sunshine- Im sure everyone has already seen this, but it still looks awesome. I do love Danny Boyle and there had been a lack of good sci-fi movies in the last year or so...a genre that I greatly miss.

Hot Fuz- Shaun of the Dead, but about cops not zombies. Can't go wrong with this one.

Inland Empire will eat your soul

I don't think there is a whole lot I can write about Inland Empire. First of all I loved it. It is Lynch at his most Lynchist. I have read that it is going to be impossible to figure out. I don't think is true. It will take multiple viewing and probably some long discussions with people, but in the end we will be able to get some idea of what the movie is kind of about...maybe.
The first 30 min or so absolutely fucks with your head and then things start to become more and more normal and about an hour or so into it you are wondering when the Lynchness is going to kick back in. Then it does, and it doesn't stop. It makes Mulholland Dr. look like a Michael Bay flick. I think I'm going to go see it again in the next few days so I might have more to say about it then. If your a Lynch fan you will love it for sure and if your not a fan you should still see it just in case.
Anyway if you have seen it (or when you do) you should give me a call and we can talk about how fucking awesome it is.


I also just started watching the first session of Carnalval, and so far it's pretty damn good. Not what I expected at all, but still enjoyable.

The Bitches over here want to send a big congrats to Micah and Jess on the birth of Jaime Matthew. Good job guys. The kid kicks ass.

You've got your Star Trek in my Heroes

I already love Heroes. It's melodramatic, over-the-top, funny, and just fucking cool. And now, for tonight's episode, George Takei, best known as Sulu in Star Trek is appearing as everybody's favorite hero, Hiro's, father. All I can say is: fantastic.

Prehistoric Shark

If you haven't seen this yet, I think you should. The article sums up the events rather well:

"Marine park staff caught the 5 foot (1.6 meter) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times."

I guess part of me still loves watching videos of Loch Ness monsters and reading about fisherman finding living dinosaurs. And, plus, that thing is just looks amazing.

"We believe moving pictures of a live specimen are extremely rare," said an official at the park. "They live between 1,968 and 3,280 feet (600 and 1,000 meters) under the water, which is deeper than humans can go."

I also enjoy that the official hasn't heard that we're calling them videos now.

Your top 10 is not funny

I really enjoy IGN's top 10 tuesdays...sometimes. The videogame sector just did the top 10 books that should be videogames, and for the most part, I found that interesting (somebody really ought to make a Gulliver's Travels). So, as I meandered over to IGN DVD to see their top 10 list, I was excited to see the top 10 stand-up DVDs. Then I read the article. To save you the trouble of clicking the link (unless you want their explanations ), this is their list:

1. Comedian
2. The Aristocrats
3. Comedians of Comedy
4. Bill Hicks Live - Satirist, Social Critic, Stand-Up Comedian
5. Platinum Comedy Series - Dave Chappelle - Killin' Them Softly
6. Patton Oswald - No Reason to Complain
7. Steve Byrne in Thirteen or Bust
8. Sarah Silverman - Jesus is Magic
9. Richard Lewis - Concerts from Hell - The Vintage Years
10. Dane Cook - Vicious Circle

Instead of doing my own top 10 list (I don't think I've seen enough), I'm just going to criticize this one (and disregard his "rules" for the list). Personally, I don't care if it was complementary to a CD and I don't care if the extras are interesting. Being, apparently, a comedian himself, he seems more concerned that the DVD show off the travails of being a stand-up rather than judge it based on how good the comedy is. So, with that aside, here's what I would change...

First off, rearrange the order of the list. Seriously, move Hicks up to the top; no one is better. Period. And Comedian was, at best, a boring documentary. If you want good Seinfeld, go buy the $5 DVD I'm Telling You for the Last Time. You actually get to see him perform jokes and they're actually funny. I haven't seen Oswald's DVD, but I do know that it costs a lot more than it ought to. I'm not spending $20 on 40 minutes of Comedy Central material. (If you haven't experienced this yet, you should know that any DVD done by Comedy Central tends to be...well...crap.) And, really, take out The Aristocrats. You're not getting stand-up comedy, you're getting interviews with comedians, sometimes. You may as well add Coffee & Cigarettes simply because it has a scene with Stephen Wright and Roberto Benigni. It's the same complaint I had when I watched David Cross's DVD: more stand-up, less documentary (same with Comedian). It's funny, but it doesn't fit.

I do agree with having Sarah Silverman on there. If you haven't seen it, you probably should. And, as far as missing DVDs: Eddie Izzard's Dress to Kill, perhaps Stephen Lynch's Live at the El Ray (love Lynch, but the DVD quality can make it hard to enjoy, and it doesn't have all his top-notch material), and I'm surprised they didn't put Robin Williams on the list somewhere. If you're going to have an over-the-top, obnoxious comedian, at least put one on there that has some punch-lines (i.e., get rid of Dane Cook, put in the Williams).

I've heard good things about Richard Lewis's DVD, I know that Chappelle is funny, and I can't pass up a compilation that has Zach Galifinakis and Brian Posehn on it, but I haven't seen any of them, so can't speak to their direct qualities. Oh, and perhaps I should, but I have no idea who Steve Byrne is...so, he's gone too...

Computer God Parroting Puppet Gangster Slaves

I love this site. Nothing can cheer you up like a little Time Cube.

And if that's not enough, go take a listen to Francis E. Dec, Esquire's rants.

You can thank me later...

Octopaisley

And in the category of shameless wife-promotion (which really means self-promotion in the end), head on over to Threadless and vote for k(i)d's T-shirt design. And by vote, I mean click "I'd buy it" and "5."

Our iPhone

Recently on the Pandas comments thread, we developed what the iPhone should be. Conan bested us with a video:

B[ow]log-3 damn pins

I again feel the need to post on my bowling, but I'll keep it short. The other night I broke 2 personal records. I achieved my high score and high series.
First game was a 267, which is 1 pin higher than my previous high of 266. Second game was a 237 and the third was a disappointing 180.
Series= 684
Average=228

I like bowling.
300 game and 700 series here I come.