Sure, it wasn’t as funny as the Doritos samurai or the Snickers commercial that had Betty White getting tackled, but I think my favorite ad from the Super Bowl was Google’s. It’s rare that a 30 second commercial manages to tell a whole story, with a beginning, a middle, and a happy ending. The little touches, like the suggestions that come up as our protagonist is typing, leading you in different directions, are exceedingly well done. Instead of using cheap gimmicks to get easy laughs, Google raised the bar and went for something memorable for the right reasons. Bravo. C’est magnifique.
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Just in time for Christmas, Quentin Tarantino’s masterful Inglourious Basterds is coming to DVD and Blu-Ray. And it’s not some sort of slapped together, bare bones, rush job either. It’s a two-disc edition, with all sorts of bonus material. It comes out December 15th, but you can pre-order it 50% off at Amazon
Let’s shift from movies coming out on DVD to movies getting ready to made. If you’re a fan of Chuck Klosterman’s writing you’ll be happy to know that his book Fargo Rock City is getting made into a movie. That, in and of itself, is kind of interesting. But what makes it more interesting is WHO is making the movie: Craig Finn, lead singer of The Hold Steady, and Tom Ruprecht, a writer for Late Night with David Letterman. No word on a release date yet, but you can bet I’ll be there.
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Yesterday I saw a story on CNN about a Russian circus worker being killed by an ice skating bear. After reading that, a co-worker sent me this video. Apparently she couldn’t find one of an ice skating bear, but no worries, she found monkeys on skates. Doing tricks. In bad winter clothing. If there’s anything funnier than monkeys doing human things, I’ve never seen it:
Spike Jonze is cool. So it stands to reason that if he started a blog, the blog would be cool. Well, he has, and it is. He’s setup We Love You So, a blog ostensibly devoted to the inspirations behind his work on Where the Wild Things Are. He doesn’t stop with the inspirations though. He posts things that he just thinks are cool. And since he’s cool, if he thinks they’re cool, by the transitive property of cool, they must actually be cool.
Along with the site, we get this video of Spike testing out an early prototype of the Wild Things mask on a poor, though very suspecting, child:
Have you and your friends ever sat around and debated who would win a fight between Darth Vader and Gandalf? Or Han Solo vs. Indiana Jones? Or Luke Skywalker vs Spock? If so, you’re a dork. But you’re also in luck. Milo Ventimigla, aka Peter Petrelli on Heroes, is working on a new internet series that will pit geek fixtures against each other. Called Ultradome, the series will consist of three- to five-minute episodes which feature the classic characters locked in combat using their legendary skills and weapons. Sounds pretty badass.
Check for the first episodes of Ultradome this summer.
After 20+ years on the air The Simpsons are finally getting some recognition. The Postal Service announced Simpsons stamps this week. Fans of the show can go to the USPS site and vote for their favorite stamp. Oh, and the release of the stamps in May happens to correspond with the price of stamps going up 2 cents. D’oh!
Speaking of things that are overdue, every Beatles album is getting remastered and re-released. The new editions will be out on September 9th, corresponding with the release of the Rock Band Beatles edition. Truthfully I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, the mix on the current batch of Beatles CDs isn’t great, so it would be nice to get an upgrade. On the other hand, the vast majority of music these days is mixed WAY too loud, to the point where it eliminates the dynamics and clips damn near everything. Don’t want to see that happen to The Beatles. We’ll just have to wait and see how these turn out.
Are we getting to the point where Lego is a legitimate artistic medium for sculpture? Or at least as a serious model making medium? Seeing this recreation of the Japanese Battleship Yamoto in Lego I would have to say yes. The artist’s site has more pictures of this amazing creation.
Eastbound and Down is coming back for a second season. If you didn’t catch the first season on HBO you don’t know what you’ve missed. Danny McBride, who you may recognize from Pineapple Express or Tropic Thunder, plays a former major league relief pitcher whose arm gave out. He returns to his hometown and teaches gym while he works on his comeback. The show’s not for the faint of heart though. McBride’s character, Kenny Powers, is a racist, egocentric redneck. His catchphrase as a pitcher was “You’re Fuckin’ Out!”. In short, if you’re easily offended, maybe this isn’t the show for you.
Speaking of coming back, The Rentals have a set of new EPs on the way. They’re calling the series Songs About Time, and there will be one release every three months through the end of the year. You can pre-order the set now, plus purchase or stream the four songs from the first installment, The Story of a Thousand Seasons Past, at their site.
This is just unholy: Peeps Lip Balm.
Google and Univeral Music have decided to play nicely. In order to appease Universal’s concerns about their music videos on YouTube, the two companies will launch Vevo, a site dedicated to videos from Universal artists. I feel like as a music fan and internet junkie I should have an opinion on this, but oddly I don’t.
Finally, a group of film students in England have started what I hope will be the next big internet trend: Films in One Minute, One Take. They’re remaking big Hollywood movies, but in one continuous take that lasts one minute. Since they’re made on a very low budget, props are homemade. They’ve put together two so far, Forest Gump in One Minute, One Take and Kill Bill 1 & 2 in One Minute, One Take. Both are brilliant, but I’m partial to Kill Bill. Check it out:
Weezer has a new album coming out June 3rd
Here’s a fun little experiment. Just go to Google and type in “find Chuck Norris” and hit “I Feel Lucky”. What you get is a chilling reminder of the power the bearded one holds…
Ok, normally I think this type of stuff is stupid. But for some reason this site full of cat pictures made me laugh out loud. Maybe I just need more sleep.
Link to ridiculous number of these pics
UPDATE: Oh so many more of them
I think everyone is pretty much familiar with the “Chuck Norris Facts” floating around the net (Chuck Norris sleeps with a nightlight. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but because the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris.). Well, Chuck is in trouble, because here comes Jack Bauer! Time for some Jack Bauer facts!
Top 5 personal favorites:
-Life doesn’t give Jack Bauer lemons. Life asks him which fruit he wants.
-The city of Los Angeles once named a street after Jack Bauer in gratitude for his saving the city several times. They had to rename it after people kept dying when they tried to cross the street. No one crosses Jack Bauer and lives.
-When asked what he got on his S.A.T’s, Jack Bauer promptly responded “Blood.”
-Some people see the glass as half full. Others see it as half empty. Jack Bauer see the glass as a deadly weapon.
and finally…
-It’s no use crying over spilt milk… Unless that was Jack Bauer’s milk. Oh you are so screwed.
Did you hear that? I think Chuck Norris just wet himself.
That’s a lot of jug handles: Link
NewTeeVee is reporting that the first four episodes of 24 season 6 are available as torrents!!! w00t! That means you can now get the 1337357 show on TV on teh intrawebs before it’s aired. Season 6 is set to premiere Sunday on Fox.
This is a deeply twisted but absolutely hysterical video. It’s a Tickle Me Elmo (or more specifically a TMX) on fire. What makes it twisted is Elmo’s thrashing around and his pleas to “Stop it, stop!” What makes it hysterical is that it’s Elmo, on fire.
via BoingBoing
Ah, the joys of the Long Tail…
BrickFlick is a site dedicated to re-creating scenes from video games using only Legos. They apparently started by making a video of Grand Theft Auto, rendered in Legos, and have gone on to do scenes from Mortal Kombat, Contra (Up up, down down, left right, left right, B A Start!), and others.
I’m firmly convinced you can find ANYTHING on the internet, and finds like this only encourage that belief.
So someone known only as Celarent has made a brilliant animation of what Mario would have been like in communist Russia. Wish I had more info on this, but here’s the link anyway. Anyone know the deal? Leave it in the comments.
Apparently Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the genius deviants behind South Park, were contracted by Shockwave.com to do an online cartoon. They were contracted to do 64 episodes, but apparently Shockwave.com wasn’t happy with what they were getting, so only two were produced. They’re pretty funny, and really, really filthy.
Have you ever found yourself sitting at your computer one day thinking “I wonder what the Indiana State Sycamore’s football helmet looked like in 1987?” or better yet “When did UVA switch from white helmets to blue helmets? Well if you ever have then have I got the site for you. I was introduced to “The Helmet Project” a few years ago and have been constantly amazed at the level of detail this site has. The author of this site has documented the football helmet histories of every pro and college team in the United States since 1960. Have a burning desire to know when the Green Bay Packers switched from grey to green facemasks? Are you constantly perplexed by the myriad of helmet changes that the Oregon Ducks (and Nike) force on us? Well they’re all here. Enjoy! As a college football fan I love this site!
The internet is fertile ground for the niche. Unlike print, radio, or TV, the cost of entry is next to nothing, meaning that more people are able to publish about their passions. In traditional media if you publish something and only a few people read it you won’t be able to meet the monetary requirements to keep publishing. But on the internet, a site that only has a few loyal readers can keep going for about the cost of feeding a starving child in Africa. This leads to a wide variety of niche sites, each perfectly suited to its small but zealous readers. All of this is just a long winded way of saying I found a site that speaks to me deeply. I now present to you, for your reading pleasure, A Hamburger Today. (Go ahead, go read it. You can come back and thank me later).
Reasons why A Hamburger Today is genius:
- Hamburgers have been scientifically proven to be nature’s perfect food.
- Quality of hamburgers varies widely from restaurant to restaurant. From piles of monkey puke (Fuddruckers) to steamed pillows of glory (White Castle), to the best damn burger on the planet (Mike’s Grill, Blacksburg, VA). Because of this, it’s important to have someone rate burgers at various places, so we know what we’re getting into
- Who doesn’t love looking at pictures of burgers?
Ah, Mike’s Grill. My vote for “Happiest Place on Earth” (screw you Walt!). I’m going to get you a little drunk on words before I show you the money shot. Mike’s opened for business in 1976 (ooh, me too!) and the smart money bets that they haven’t cleaned the grill since. That’s the secret. The waitresses wear shorts all year (ooh, also like me!), the prices haven’t changed in years, and if, for some reason, you’re not in the mood for a burger, you can get a calzone the size of your head. They allegedly have pizza also, but I’ve never been able to substantiate that. Ok, are you ready now?
Reasons Mike’s is the best:
- The grill. Don’t think they ever clean it. Don’t think they ever should.
- The prices. Two people can have burgers, fries, and sodas for about $12. Gotta love college towns
- The decor. Faux wood panelling everywhere.
- They serve the burgers upside down. I asked why one time. The waitress told me it so the grease doesn’t soak through the thinner bottom bun. I love this place
