It's Interactivity Time, Leaguers!
I was planning to do a Valentine's Day post about Romantic Movies, or movies that are, essentially, about romantic love. But I thought I'd leave this one to you
This would probably be a good "Mellies" question, but let's just think of this is a warm up.
3 questions:
1) What movie do you think best exemplifies the ultimate expression of romantic love?
2) What movie do you think demonstrates the most fun look at Mad Love?
3) What movie do you think most accurately depicts or reflects how you feel about romantic love in your own reality?
Now add a "Why" to each of those categories.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
The League's Past Few Days
The weekend has come and gone.
We now have both wireless and wired internets delivering packets to our modems.
Natalie was supposed to be in town, but I don't think she was here as she never got in touch.
Friday night was dinner and then not much. Saturday Jamie and I played with Andy and Jason, me on bass, Jamie on piano. I am a bit unsure as to this whole band business. I hear I may be slated to play one tune with the rock band "Crack" at SXS1st during SXSW (although our configuration will be called "Sigmund and the Steans Monsters). I have also been told that I am to keep my ideas to myself. It's a tough way to start in with a band. Apparently I crossed some very upsetting lines when I was trying to come up with lyrics. It seems I don't carry the same filter when facing a crowd that the others shoulder, and there were fears of police action.
All I'm sayin' is that nobody else was coming up with any ideas.
Saturday night Jamie and I hit Kerbey Lane, and I drank too much coffee. I was still flying at 2:30AM.
Sunday Jamie woke me from my slumber with the following message:
"If you want to watch the Intel Building implode, I taped it. Also, there's bagels and coffee downstairs."
It's the little moments like that which make me realize I am the luckiest guy alive.
Around Noon'ish, we assisted Steven G. Harms and Lauren in their move. Steven is the best movee ever. "I have six boxes, two chairs and an armoire," he instructed. "The rest is already moved." Apparently Lauren, who is in no way what one envisions as a burly mover-person, had already moved most of their joint property while Steven was out of town.
So it was pretty quick work. And they still bought us lunch. Kudos to Steven and Lauren for their good work and excellent choice of a new pad. It's quite the set-up.
Today I looked for jobs and realized how dangerous I am with a computer in an office and no other distractions. I have found that I will disappear into this room, intending to check e-mail and emerge three hours later. I completel missed going to the bank today as I went to check e-mail at 4:00 and when I looked at the clock next, it was 6:00. Kind of scary.
Still, I'm happy to be at a desk of sorts instead of sitting on the couch with the laptop burning a rectangular spot on my stomach (I sit sort of inverted, with my legs propped up).
Comic reviews are up at Comic Fodder.
We now have both wireless and wired internets delivering packets to our modems.
Natalie was supposed to be in town, but I don't think she was here as she never got in touch.
Friday night was dinner and then not much. Saturday Jamie and I played with Andy and Jason, me on bass, Jamie on piano. I am a bit unsure as to this whole band business. I hear I may be slated to play one tune with the rock band "Crack" at SXS1st during SXSW (although our configuration will be called "Sigmund and the Steans Monsters). I have also been told that I am to keep my ideas to myself. It's a tough way to start in with a band. Apparently I crossed some very upsetting lines when I was trying to come up with lyrics. It seems I don't carry the same filter when facing a crowd that the others shoulder, and there were fears of police action.
All I'm sayin' is that nobody else was coming up with any ideas.
Saturday night Jamie and I hit Kerbey Lane, and I drank too much coffee. I was still flying at 2:30AM.
Sunday Jamie woke me from my slumber with the following message:
"If you want to watch the Intel Building implode, I taped it. Also, there's bagels and coffee downstairs."
It's the little moments like that which make me realize I am the luckiest guy alive.
Around Noon'ish, we assisted Steven G. Harms and Lauren in their move. Steven is the best movee ever. "I have six boxes, two chairs and an armoire," he instructed. "The rest is already moved." Apparently Lauren, who is in no way what one envisions as a burly mover-person, had already moved most of their joint property while Steven was out of town.
So it was pretty quick work. And they still bought us lunch. Kudos to Steven and Lauren for their good work and excellent choice of a new pad. It's quite the set-up.
Today I looked for jobs and realized how dangerous I am with a computer in an office and no other distractions. I have found that I will disappear into this room, intending to check e-mail and emerge three hours later. I completel missed going to the bank today as I went to check e-mail at 4:00 and when I looked at the clock next, it was 6:00. Kind of scary.
Still, I'm happy to be at a desk of sorts instead of sitting on the couch with the laptop burning a rectangular spot on my stomach (I sit sort of inverted, with my legs propped up).
Comic reviews are up at Comic Fodder.
NFL Draft Guys Dot Com
Congrats to Sigmund Bloom on his launch of NFL Draft Guys.
From the Press Release:
So bookmark it.
From the Press Release:
Football junkies have a new home.
NfL Draftguys showcases:
* Accessible, in-depth, year-round college
scouting.
* Decisive fantasy projections for your rookie
drafts.
* Insightful commentary that goes deeper than the
stats.
Cecil Lammey.
Sigmund Bloom.
The stars of The Audible and Footballguys.com know the
game.
The offseason is the new season of NFL football, and
everything that's anything related to the draft can be
found right here. Our scouts attend every major event
from the Shrine Game through the draft, and they don't
mince words when it comes to their projections. You
want informed opinions? You got 'em. In spades.
But our coverage doesn't just start when the players
hang up their helmets -- NFL Draftguys updates player
profiles and rankings constantly throughout the
college season.
So bookmark it.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Academy Awards
When many of you were in college and were expanding your musical horizons, The League sort of made a half-hearted effort to do the same. Our passing interest in David Bowie increased seven-fold, We went through a period where we bought every Talking Heads, David Byrne and related album (and slept happily beneath a subway poster of the least-exciting looking band in rock). And, when JAL took me to the Paramount to see "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" around March of 1995, I fell for the film scores of Ennio Morricone.
I was familiar with soundtrack to "The Mission", and a few other Morricone works, but first "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and then "Once Upon a Time in The West" and continuing with "Once Upon a Time in America"... Morricone stood out to me (as a wide-eyed film student) as the perfect blending of film and music, rivalling John Williams for pure, iconic themes that told the story as much or more than, oftentimes, the dialogue itself.
The score to "Once Upon a Time in America", along with the one-sheet movie poster, are probably actually better than the final product of the film. The score manages to accomplish what many scores fail to do (but what I thought Ottman managed to accomplish quite well with "Superman Returns"), and that is speak the inner monologues for the characters.
As long-time Leaguers will know, I gave up on the Oscars several years ago when I realized most of the pictures nominated either never made it to my neighborhood, or could not possibly live up to the hype once it began. In addition, why on earth would I watch a bunch of over-paid actors run through a list of agents and producers to get their name on the air and thereby force the actor in question to beg for more work even as they're supposedly receiving their profession's highest accolade?
Hollywood is a sick, sick town.
So it was this evening that Jamie lured me down from the Fortress of Nerditude to watch the "honorary" or "lifetime achievement" award to Ennio Morricone, as he must not have ever won an award before and it was making the Academy look kind of dumb. Especially if Morricone died with no awards and having re-written the way in which film scores could work.
It was awkward enough that Eastwood didn't wear his glasses and in front of an audience of 1 billion people couldn't read the teleprompter, but...
well, (a) nobody in the audience really applauded for any of Morricone's scores as they played, except for "Good, Bad and the Ugly". And (b) as if to add insult to injury, someone tapped Celine Dion to lay words over the score to "Deborah's Theme" from "Once Upon a Time in America". Apparently not Dion, the lyricist, the Academy, any directors or producers had actually seen "Once Upon a Time in America" and knew that "Deborah's Theme" was not a song about finding one another in the moonlight. I don't want to get too much into what I THINK it's about, but it is not about filling up four extra minutes in your show at the Bellagio.
Also, Celine forgot the words at the mid-point of the song and just let out a "whooooo!" to cover it up. Well played, Celine. Well played.
This was followed by the appearance that the Academy was unaware that Morricone does not speak English. They invited him to give a speech, and a few awkward moments went by as Eastwood stood there and was supposed to translate, I guess. or Eastwood forgot his glasses and couldn't read the teleprompter again. We may never know.
The good part was that when Morricone got up to give his speech (in Italian, which Paltrow was pretending to understand), Quincy Jones and his daughter (Karen, from "The Office") totally stole Morricone's seat. No, he didn't steal it. He moved down to fill in for the cameras, but I like to think he and his daughter were treating it like a baseball game and thinking "if that guy leaves, we're totally snagging those seats!"
Also, for some reason, a Mussolini look-alike was seated behind Morricone's wife. I guess the Morricone's are old school Italians..?
I suppose I'm mostly irritated to know that the Soccer-Moms of America will now be driving around in their Ford Excursions listening to "the new Celine", unaware that Dion has butchered a once perfectly reputable bit of movie scoring.
Only at the Oscars would people choose to honor a man by taking one of his greatest works, render it unrecognizable, and hand it over to help a hokey Vegas-act sell some CD's at Wal-Mart while diluting any sense of the man's genius from the song. After all, Celine's producer's soft-rock sensibility know that lowest common denomintaor sound that really sells.
Congrats, Ennio. Welcome to LA.
I was familiar with soundtrack to "The Mission", and a few other Morricone works, but first "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" and then "Once Upon a Time in The West" and continuing with "Once Upon a Time in America"... Morricone stood out to me (as a wide-eyed film student) as the perfect blending of film and music, rivalling John Williams for pure, iconic themes that told the story as much or more than, oftentimes, the dialogue itself.
The score to "Once Upon a Time in America", along with the one-sheet movie poster, are probably actually better than the final product of the film. The score manages to accomplish what many scores fail to do (but what I thought Ottman managed to accomplish quite well with "Superman Returns"), and that is speak the inner monologues for the characters.
As long-time Leaguers will know, I gave up on the Oscars several years ago when I realized most of the pictures nominated either never made it to my neighborhood, or could not possibly live up to the hype once it began. In addition, why on earth would I watch a bunch of over-paid actors run through a list of agents and producers to get their name on the air and thereby force the actor in question to beg for more work even as they're supposedly receiving their profession's highest accolade?
Hollywood is a sick, sick town.
So it was this evening that Jamie lured me down from the Fortress of Nerditude to watch the "honorary" or "lifetime achievement" award to Ennio Morricone, as he must not have ever won an award before and it was making the Academy look kind of dumb. Especially if Morricone died with no awards and having re-written the way in which film scores could work.
It was awkward enough that Eastwood didn't wear his glasses and in front of an audience of 1 billion people couldn't read the teleprompter, but...
well, (a) nobody in the audience really applauded for any of Morricone's scores as they played, except for "Good, Bad and the Ugly". And (b) as if to add insult to injury, someone tapped Celine Dion to lay words over the score to "Deborah's Theme" from "Once Upon a Time in America". Apparently not Dion, the lyricist, the Academy, any directors or producers had actually seen "Once Upon a Time in America" and knew that "Deborah's Theme" was not a song about finding one another in the moonlight. I don't want to get too much into what I THINK it's about, but it is not about filling up four extra minutes in your show at the Bellagio.
Also, Celine forgot the words at the mid-point of the song and just let out a "whooooo!" to cover it up. Well played, Celine. Well played.
This was followed by the appearance that the Academy was unaware that Morricone does not speak English. They invited him to give a speech, and a few awkward moments went by as Eastwood stood there and was supposed to translate, I guess. or Eastwood forgot his glasses and couldn't read the teleprompter again. We may never know.
The good part was that when Morricone got up to give his speech (in Italian, which Paltrow was pretending to understand), Quincy Jones and his daughter (Karen, from "The Office") totally stole Morricone's seat. No, he didn't steal it. He moved down to fill in for the cameras, but I like to think he and his daughter were treating it like a baseball game and thinking "if that guy leaves, we're totally snagging those seats!"
Also, for some reason, a Mussolini look-alike was seated behind Morricone's wife. I guess the Morricone's are old school Italians..?
I suppose I'm mostly irritated to know that the Soccer-Moms of America will now be driving around in their Ford Excursions listening to "the new Celine", unaware that Dion has butchered a once perfectly reputable bit of movie scoring.
Only at the Oscars would people choose to honor a man by taking one of his greatest works, render it unrecognizable, and hand it over to help a hokey Vegas-act sell some CD's at Wal-Mart while diluting any sense of the man's genius from the song. After all, Celine's producer's soft-rock sensibility know that lowest common denomintaor sound that really sells.
Congrats, Ennio. Welcome to LA.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters
Coming soon...
I now know this film will have everything I ever wanted to see in a single movie.
Thank you, movie poster.
I now know this film will have everything I ever wanted to see in a single movie.
Thank you, movie poster.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Justice League of America: THE MOVIE?
Great Rao!
Warner Bros. to try the impossible and make a JLA film!
Randy sent along this link.
Comic Fodder had this to say (Shawn's words, not mine).
Ain't It Cool News
And the all-seeing eye of Variety. Note that Variety used a JLU comic cover with Vibe right smack dab in the middle. I take this as an ill-omen.
***UPDATE***
I've posted a bit on some thoughts for WB as they embark on this venture.
Warner Bros. to try the impossible and make a JLA film!
Randy sent along this link.
Comic Fodder had this to say (Shawn's words, not mine).
Ain't It Cool News
And the all-seeing eye of Variety. Note that Variety used a JLU comic cover with Vibe right smack dab in the middle. I take this as an ill-omen.
***UPDATE***
I've posted a bit on some thoughts for WB as they embark on this venture.
New Machine
No Obama
I didn't see Obama today. I'm a bit down about it. Apparently Texans for Obama underestimated the appeal of their own candidate as I circled for twenty or thirty minutes looking for a place to park north and south of the river, and as I was on my lonesome and it began raining, I threw in the towel and went home.
News8 was estimating 20,000 folks were there to see Obama, and Texans for Obama thought they'd max out at 16,000. Originally the meet had been scheduled for Gregory Gym. That would have been a fiasco as Gregory Gym sits at the center of campus and has zero parking and accessibility for non-UT staff and students.
I take it Mr. Obama's campaign is going well.
At lunch the other day we were discussing Obama, and I think his appeal over Clinton is that Hilary might be the smartest person in the room... or she might not. She's sort of the valedictorian who got there by sacrificing every moment of social time and spending lunches in the library. She knows she's worked for it, and thus believes she deserves the position and the accolades. But when she goes up to give her big valedictorian address, she comes off bitter and weird and demanding of respect. When she talks about her high school years, and what she sees for the future, everyone sort of realizes "Wow, you spent every Saturday night watching SNL alone, didn't you?"
Let the Conversation Begin? ...yikes...
Oh, Hilary, you over-achiever, you.
Obama might be more of the same, but he's so new to the national political scene and he's been fairly consistent since he came on the scene that one doesn't look at him with 16 years of baggage tied on. And, as my friend Juan said, he's got that "Mr. Obama Goes to Washington" vibe going on.
I guess since I missed him, now I have to read his website.
A Vista with a View
Leaguers may recall that I recently purchased a new desk. Leaguers may also recall that the motherboard on my laptop recently took the dirt nap.
So, unable to deal with the realities of the modern world sans computer, I went and ordered a Dell Desktop. As you can imagine, all new Dell's come with Microsoft Vista.
I was pleased with the haul I got with my fairly standard desktop. 20" monitor, printer, some fairly nice speakers, optical mouse and a really, really clacky keyboard. Clack. Clack. Clack.
I'm sort of non-plussed with Vista, as I suspected I would be. They've sort of changed everything just enough that you have to spend an extra twenty seconds poking around for once familiar icons, etc... As the Mac commercials promise, Vista does have the Agent Smith security asking you questions as you plug along, but I don't think it's really any different from what MS has tradionally done with Windows. That's not to say I love the pop-ups, but I sort of feel like that's par for the course when dealing with Microsoft's security problems.
The look is certainly inspired by the gummy, glassy look Mac's UI has sported for the past few years, although it's tinged with a bit of the ol' MS sterility.
One thing MS should do when you get your new computer is ask you: Are you an idiot? Click here for "yes", click here for "no". In a week or so, the questions and "getting to know you" screens will quit appearing. For now I just minimize them and occasionally poke around, but for the most part... Windows is windows, and I don't really need a tutorial. And my guess is, most folks buying Vista aren't going to welcome those screens, either.
There's a feature called "Gadgets" that's sort of dumb, but I confess to liking the big, shiny clock and calendar living in the background.
I sort of miss 3.1 every once in a while. Oh, sweet Packard Bell 486, you were my first love. We got through the Clinton years together. Sure, it was weird in those final months when I had to tap the hard drive on the desk to get it to start spinning... but those were good times. Good times.
New Route
The problem now is that I think I figured out that my Linksys wireless router's WIRED portion isn't working. In short, I can either run the WAN into the wireless router and Jamie has access, or I run it into my machine and I have internet access.
Is four years too late to return a wireless router to Best Buy?
I didn't see Obama today. I'm a bit down about it. Apparently Texans for Obama underestimated the appeal of their own candidate as I circled for twenty or thirty minutes looking for a place to park north and south of the river, and as I was on my lonesome and it began raining, I threw in the towel and went home.
News8 was estimating 20,000 folks were there to see Obama, and Texans for Obama thought they'd max out at 16,000. Originally the meet had been scheduled for Gregory Gym. That would have been a fiasco as Gregory Gym sits at the center of campus and has zero parking and accessibility for non-UT staff and students.
I take it Mr. Obama's campaign is going well.
At lunch the other day we were discussing Obama, and I think his appeal over Clinton is that Hilary might be the smartest person in the room... or she might not. She's sort of the valedictorian who got there by sacrificing every moment of social time and spending lunches in the library. She knows she's worked for it, and thus believes she deserves the position and the accolades. But when she goes up to give her big valedictorian address, she comes off bitter and weird and demanding of respect. When she talks about her high school years, and what she sees for the future, everyone sort of realizes "Wow, you spent every Saturday night watching SNL alone, didn't you?"
Let the Conversation Begin? ...yikes...
Oh, Hilary, you over-achiever, you.
Obama might be more of the same, but he's so new to the national political scene and he's been fairly consistent since he came on the scene that one doesn't look at him with 16 years of baggage tied on. And, as my friend Juan said, he's got that "Mr. Obama Goes to Washington" vibe going on.
I guess since I missed him, now I have to read his website.
A Vista with a View
Leaguers may recall that I recently purchased a new desk. Leaguers may also recall that the motherboard on my laptop recently took the dirt nap.
So, unable to deal with the realities of the modern world sans computer, I went and ordered a Dell Desktop. As you can imagine, all new Dell's come with Microsoft Vista.
I was pleased with the haul I got with my fairly standard desktop. 20" monitor, printer, some fairly nice speakers, optical mouse and a really, really clacky keyboard. Clack. Clack. Clack.
I'm sort of non-plussed with Vista, as I suspected I would be. They've sort of changed everything just enough that you have to spend an extra twenty seconds poking around for once familiar icons, etc... As the Mac commercials promise, Vista does have the Agent Smith security asking you questions as you plug along, but I don't think it's really any different from what MS has tradionally done with Windows. That's not to say I love the pop-ups, but I sort of feel like that's par for the course when dealing with Microsoft's security problems.
The look is certainly inspired by the gummy, glassy look Mac's UI has sported for the past few years, although it's tinged with a bit of the ol' MS sterility.
One thing MS should do when you get your new computer is ask you: Are you an idiot? Click here for "yes", click here for "no". In a week or so, the questions and "getting to know you" screens will quit appearing. For now I just minimize them and occasionally poke around, but for the most part... Windows is windows, and I don't really need a tutorial. And my guess is, most folks buying Vista aren't going to welcome those screens, either.
There's a feature called "Gadgets" that's sort of dumb, but I confess to liking the big, shiny clock and calendar living in the background.
I sort of miss 3.1 every once in a while. Oh, sweet Packard Bell 486, you were my first love. We got through the Clinton years together. Sure, it was weird in those final months when I had to tap the hard drive on the desk to get it to start spinning... but those were good times. Good times.
New Route
The problem now is that I think I figured out that my Linksys wireless router's WIRED portion isn't working. In short, I can either run the WAN into the wireless router and Jamie has access, or I run it into my machine and I have internet access.
Is four years too late to return a wireless router to Best Buy?
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