misscelany

Friday Night Lights

2010-05-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

Season 4 Episode 1 East of Dillon

Missing last part

32 of our most anticipated 2010 entertainments

2010-01-20T19:03:00.000-08:00

1. The return of Chuck (premières January 10)
Almost as soon as Chuck’s much-improved second season began last year, speculation about its fate raged; in spite of a major reboot that included attention to serialized show elements; a much looser, funnier ensemble; and an unabashed embrace of nerdtastic pop-culture references, the show wasn’t drawing a crowd. Websites with “Save Chuck” headlines popped up all over the place, and star Zachary Levi orchestrated an outing to show-sponsor Subway that numbered in the hundreds. Finally, at almost the 11th hour, NBC came through with a third-season order, and show-runner Josh Schwartz has ensured it will thank supporters in a big way. Just when the Chuck’s-on-the-sidelines formula was growing stale, Schwartz shook things up by imprinting Chuck with a host of new spy skills—à la The Matrix—and thus Levi will be at center stage again. Expect many Casey witticisms, too.

2. Los Campesinos!, Romance Is Boring (January 26)
Welsh youngsters Los Campesinos! delighted fans in 2007 with two critically acclaimed albums—the band’s inaugural outings. Underneath a veneer of infectious happiness were two albums’ worth of heartache, despair, and wisdom beyond the twentysomethings’ years. It seems some of the outward cheer has worn off in the group’s third, Romance Is Boring: keyboardist Aleks Campesinos has left the group, replaced by Kim Campesinos, sister of frontman Gareth Campesinos; and the group’s first single, “The Sea Is A Good Place To Think,” which leaked on the Internet a few months ago, pulls listeners into its drab world with deep, swirling guitars and plenty of signature LC! shouting. The mood is more overt, but the album should be just as enjoyable as its predecessors.

3. The Killer Inside Me (premières at Sundance in January; wide release TBD)
Jim Thompson’s famous noir novel about a psychopathic small-town sheriff who hides behind a mask of banality was adapted once before, in a largely disastrous 1976 version starring Stacy Keach. But you can’t hold down a story this great; now, Michael Winterbottom—who’s shown himself capable of directing great work in almost every film genre—is tackling it, with an eerily calm Casey Affleck in the lead. (The rest of the cast is hit-and-miss; the two female leads being handled by Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson doesn’t inspire confidence, but the supporting roles are rounded out by reliable pros like Ned Beatty, Elias Koteas, and Bill Pullman.) An early trailer was long enough to show lots of promising scenes and a great-looking period setting, but the filmmakers pulled it; Thompson fans can now only hope the completed movie is as good as the preview.

4. Don DeLillo, Point Omega (February 2)
Don DeLillo has proved time and time again that he’s one of the few contemporary authors whose every release is cause for excitement. His next book, Point Omega, will be released next year, and while it’s terribly slight (just over 150 pages), DeLillo is certainly capable of doing a lot with a little. Describing the plot of any book by one of the most intricate of postmodernists is generally an exercise in futility; this one involves an experimental film about a legendary weapons designer which is interrupted by the arrival of his estranged daughter, but what actually happens will likely take a back seat to explorations of language, relationship, and human connection. Point Omega’s publishers also hint that there’s some kind of link between the book and DeLillo’s masterful Underworld, which is all the more reason to look forward to it.

5. The final season of Lost (premières February 2)
The Lost creative team has promised that the final season will answer all the major questions the show has raised over the years, though when season six begins, they’re first going to have to explain just what the hell happened to the past and present Lostaways in the wake of season five’s climactic “Incident.” Rumor has it that Juliet’s bomb-bashing and the subsequent cut-to-white signaled a timeline reset, and that the new season will begin with the crash of Oceanic 815 having never happened. If so, will our heroes remember anything from their island life? Will this season be about resetting the timeline, and thus re-killing old favorites Charlie, Boone, Faraday, and Juliet? Show-runners Damon Lindelof and Carton Cuse have maintained Lost’s creative momentum through flashbacks, flash-forwards, time travel, and an ever-fluid concept of genre. Whatever they have planned for the series’ farewell tour, it’s bound to be unexpected, divisive, and ultimately amazing.

6. BioShock 2 (February 9)
2K Games’ BioShock was released in 2007, and its mixture of exciting first-person-shooter play, gorgeous set design and art, and story filled with moral complexity instantly won it a place on lists of best-ever videogames, including the #1 spot on The A.V. Club’s Best Videogames Of The Decade list. February will see the release of the game’s much-anticipated sequel; early teasers show that the art and animation are even more fantastic, and the gameplay itself promises to liven things up with various multiplayer options, greater interaction with the environment, and best of all, a chance to play one of the game’s intimidating, monstrous “Big Daddy” bosses. The story sounds promising as well, with the undersea dystopia of Rapture now under the control of a collectivist who will seemingly make things just as nightmarish as did the first game’s individualist.

7. Shutter Island (February 19)
The ’09 fall movie season became a lot less exciting when Paramount decided not to spend Oscar-campaign money on Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of the Dennis Lehane thriller Shutter Island. This February, we’ll finally get to see whether Scorsese has succeeded in turning Lehane’s novel into an amped-up homage to horror movies past and present (and foreign and domestic), or if Shutter Island’s odd plot twists and thick Boston accents have defeated the best efforts of an American master. The trailer looks kind of nutty, but Scorsese’s movies are often more fun to watch when he goes for broke instead of aiming for prestige. If Shutter Island is as stylish and crazy as it looks, 2010 could be off to a good start.

8. Frightened Rabbit, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks (March 2)
The jump in excellence between Frightened Rabbit’s first album, Sing The Grays, and its second, 2008’s incredible The Midnight Organ Fight, was huge—anticipating another such leap for the upcoming The Winter Of Mixed Drinks would be ridiculous. But if Drinks is even half as good as Organ Fight, it’ll be twice as good as just about anything else out there: The Scottish band perfectly combines raw emotion and the dourness of everyday life with spikes of roaring joy.

9. Alice In Wonderland (March 5)
Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s story has been adapted for the big screen countless times, but none of those adaptations (not even the pornographic one) captured the spirit of the original book. Given the trailers and production art that’s been released so far, Wonderland looks like a good match for Burton’s pop-art gothic style, with a cast of excitingly familiar faces. The movie isn’t a straight adaptation of the source, but that could work in Burton’s favor as well; one of the reasons Alice In Wonderland has resisted traditional movie structure is that the novel is basically structure-free, and each new story gives Burton a chance to inject some much-needed momentum. Nightmare fuel, whimsy, and Johnny Depp mad as a hatter? Yes, please.

10. Greenberg (March 12)
A new film by Noah Baumbach (The Squid And The Whale, Margot At The Wedding) is always cause for anticipation: No one else is currently as adept at milking comic misanthropy and abrasion for all it’s worth. But Greenberg promises more than usual, if only for the number of flashpoints it brings together: Ben Stiller exploiting his squirmy self-deprecation for pathos rather than annoying attempts at getting laughs opposite Greta Gerwig, break-out It Kid of the mumblecore scene (Hannah Takes The Stairs, Baghead) and seemingly a potential legit Hollywood star. Plus an original score by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy. Given his prowess in the wordless realm as shown by 45:33, it’s about time this happened. Fingers crossed.

11. Hot Tub Time Machine (March 19)
John Cusack is absolutely correct: A movie hinging on hot-tub-based time travel is the dumbest fucking thing we’ve ever heard in our fucking lives. Ever. But say those words with the same weight Craig Robinson gives them in the red-band trailer: “Hot tub time machine.” It’s simply giggle-inducing, as is the principal cast, which pairs Cusack and Robinson with Rob Corddry and Clark Duke as four longtime friends who inadvertently travel back to 1986 via a mountain-lodge hot tub. Like Snakes On A Plane, Hot Tub Time Machine has all the potential to be a stupid/genius premise fleshed out into a lackluster feature. Thankfully, unlike Snakes On A Plane, it’s an intentional comedy, and major elements of the film aren’t being crowdsourced to bunch of Internet bozos. It’s unlikely that the film will be anything greater than a minor cult hit, but Corddry, Duke, and Robinson could all use an ”Ed Helms in The Hangover”-style career boost, so here’s hoping Hot Tub Time Machine is the vehicle that takes them to that next level.

12-13. Season Of The Witch (March 19) / The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (July 16)
Nicolas Cage still has the potential to give terrific performances; his recent work in Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans showed it. But the past few years have also given us a new kind of Cage acting that, while not as artistically defensible, is nearly as entertaining to watch as his best films. The Wicker Man, Knowing, and Ghost Rider are lousy movies, but Cage, at his worst in them, is truly the best thing in all three, delivering the sort of weird, mannered acting tics that one doesn’t usually expect to see except around that homeless guy who has seizures for quarters on the subway. Truth be told, we don’t know much about Season Of The Witch or The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. They could be brilliant, ground-breaking new entries in the cinematic canon. But judging by the trailer from the former and photos from the latter, the “How’d it get burned!” potential is very, very high. We remain cautiously pessimistic.

14. Dillinger Escape Plan, Option Paralysis (March 23)
It’s been almost three yeas since Ire Works, the last album by the Dillinger Escape Plan, and as is typical for the doomstruck band, the years have been rather eventful. Drummer Gil Sharone left the band, singer Greg Puciato and guitarist Ben Weinman both went through severe illnesses and injuries, tours were canceled, and DEP parted ways with its record label over the way it marketed Ire Works, a tremendous album that didn’t get the push it deserved. Now, DEP is getting set to release its new album, Option Paralysis, with a new lineup, mysteriously hinted-at special guests, and the risky choice of going with its own label in the U.S. If the path the band has taken since its early days is any indication, Option Paralysis could be another great leap forward for a group that seems to make them with each recording.

15. Iron Man 2 (May 7)
2007’s Iron Man was a surprise smash hit, with Robert Downey Jr. fitting comfortably into the metal suit. It’s almost a shame this next iteration might suffer from inflated expectations. Still, it’s hard not to get excited about Downey Jr.’s return to playing the fame-whoring Tony Stark, now in top fame-whore fashion, having just revealed to everyone that he’s Iron Man. Don Cheadle replaces Terrence Howard as Stark’s best friend (a major upgrade), Mickey Rourke plays the film’s chief villain, Whiplash, and Mad Men madman extraordinaire John Slattery will appear as Stark’s dad. This film also puts director Jon Favreau one step closer to his original intention, which was to create an Iron Man trilogy; given the action and humor he spun out of the first film, it seems wise to give this man what he wants.

16. Toy Story 3 (June 18)
It’s become a cliché to say we’re looking forward to the next Pixar movie; anticipation for the next one sets in five minutes after the credits for the last one roll. Still, anticipation is particularly high for Toy Story 3, given the degree to which the second movie improved over the first one, and given how beloved and iconic the films’ cast of toy characters have become. And the plot—with those toys starting over at a day care after their owner leaves for college—seems surprisingly ambitious and even a grim for a series that’s always mined its deepest emotions out of the innocent but avid bond of love between toys and their children. Pixar reps have always said they wouldn’t delve into sequels without a really good story that justified returning to the same well. Here’s to that promise, and what it implies about Toy Story 3 being made for the right reasons.
17. China Miéville, Kraken (June 29)
Acclaimed British science-fantasy author China Miéville adamantly won’t speak about books in progress (on the occasions when he does interviews at all), so there’s precious little advance info about his upcoming novel, Kraken. Going by the novel’s listing on Amazon.co.uk—which, admittedly, Miéville has publicly discounted—Kraken will be released this spring, and disappointingly won’t be the fourth installment of his bizarre, beloved Bas-Lag series. Rather, like 2009’s The City & The City, it seems to be set somewhere within the borders of the real world, albeit a drastically darker and metaphysically scrambled one. And as the title implies, the book promises to have a giant squid in it, which proves Miéville didn’t get all the sea monsters out of his system in The Scar.

18. All Tomorrow’s Parties: Don’t Look Back (September 3)
In 2005, the newly reformed Stooges headlined All Tomorrow’s Parties’ first Don’t Look Back event by performing its 1970 album Fun House in its entirety. In May 2010, Iggy Pop and company will reconstitute 1973’s masterfully shitty Raw Power in honor of Don’t Look Back’s fifth anniversary in London. Thankfully for us Yanks, The Stooges will reprise that ATP festival in upstate New York in September—for which Sleep will awaken to perform its stoner-rock milestone Holy Mountain, and Mudhoney will barf up its proto-grunge masterpiece, Superfuzz Bigmuff. As an unexpected and wholly kick-ass bonus, Australian legend The Scientists—a band that never played the States during its original existence—will crank out its swampy, stunning 1983 classic, Blood Red River. Warning: There will be sludge.

19. Pavement reunion tour (launches September 21)
Considering that 2009 was a great year for new indie rock, the fact that Pavement’s upcoming reunion became one of the year’s biggest stories could be seen as an indication of the Pabst-and-ironic-tats set’s latent nostalgic streak. But consider this as well: In the 10 years since the slack-rock heroes’ last show, their already-considerable influence has spread exponentially, helped along by the Internet and a handsome reissue series. The likes of Los Campesinos! and Why?’s Yoni Wolf have covered its songs, while its hazy guitar textures echoed from other worthwhile young bands like Deerhunter and Cymbals Eat Guitars. There’s a whole generation of Pavement fans who never saw the band and aren’t satisfied with its members’ solo efforts—nor are they concerned by its reputation for being a shitty live act. As frontman Stephen Malkmus will sing to the rabid fans at ATP and Central Park, the music scene is crazy, bands start up each and every day—why begrudge one of the best for getting back together and not getting a new haircut?

20. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, part one (November 19)
Pottermania has waned since the seventh book hit shelves a few years ago, but expect a resurgence when its film adaptation hits theaters. Well, the first part, at least; the filmmakers have decided to split the final book into two installments, leaving as much space to tell J.K. Rowling’s epic tale as possible. This also marks the third film directed by David Yates, and his second collaboration with writer Steve Kloves (who penned all the movies except the fifth, Order Of The Phoenix). The two created some palpable dread in the last film, especially in scenes shot outside Hogwarts, like the seaside cave; given that this book transports Potter and friends all over the place, expect to inhabit many darkly affecting worlds, and see yet another great showcase for Rupert Grint’s dry sense of humor. We’ll take whatever little threads of Pottermania remain.

21. Tron Legacy (December 17)
We’ll be honest: Tron isn’t a great movie. It’s silly and unevenly paced, and the cast, apart from Jeff Bridges and David Warner, is largely charisma-free. But that isn’t the point. Tron doesn’t have to be great; the probably-coolest-when-you’re-12 art design of its fantasy world (because let’s face it, computer-lingo or no, this is pure fantasy) makes sitting through even the silliest dialogue a treat. Threats of a sequel have been floating around for a decade, but with trailers already floating through the data-sphere, it looks like Tron Legacy will be coming to a theater never all of us next year. Jeff Bridges is back, and Olivia Wilde, an impressive enough visual effect even without CGI, rounds out the younger cast. But really, it’s all about the light cycles, the MCP, and a strange world inspired by computer buzzwords and basic programming knowledge.

22. The Green Hornet (December 22)
Reasons to be jazzed for this comic-book adaptation film:

* A svelte Seth Rogen is the titular lead.
* Michel Gondry is going to direct so the film’s visuals might blow some minds.
* Edward James Olmos is making an appearance, hopefully with Battlestar Galactica-like stoic intensity.
* The band Anvil is in there, too.
* Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds plays the villain who tries to get every crime boss in Los Angeles to work together.
* Cameron Diaz, who actually wasn’t all that bad in The Box. Really!

23. Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom (TBD)
Jonathan Franzen’s darkly comic 2002 novel The Corrections afforded a certain tenderness to family dysfunction, shaking suburban malaise off its clichés while examining social mores of the turn of the century with cringe-invoking humor and unease. With Freedom slated for publication in fall 2010, only scattered details on the highly anticipated follow-up have begun to appear, but these include an extract published in The New Yorker on June 8. Good Neighbors finds Franzen comfortably snuggled in a gentrified neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota, with a collection of nosy families watching the slow unraveling of the Berlunds, the once-perfect pioneers of Ramsey Hill. Franzen peels back the curtains of these family homes, skillfully and subtly moving from broad jabs at yuppie travails (“How to respond when a poor person of color accused you of destroying her neighborhood? Was it true that the glaze of old Fiestaware contained dangerous amounts of lead?”) to a cautious empathy—all of which bode well for the forthcoming Freedom.

24. Freshman Roommates, a.k.a. “That movie with Tracy Morgan” (TBD)
Details are scarce on this one, but what’s out there sounds mighty promising. The film is slated for 2010 (at least according to IMDB); it was written by Nick Kroll and John Mulaney, two of the finest young stand-ups working today; it will star Tracy Morgan as the son of an African dictator who arrives in a college dorm when a student (T.J. Miller) drunkenly responds to an e-mail most others would assume was spam. Hilarity, as they say, ensues.

25. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (TBD)
It’s a pretty safe bet that Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series will make an easy transition to film, what with the comic books’ relatable twentysomething slacker milieu and a youthful pop-culture sensibility that draws heavily on indie-rock and videogame references. But factor in director/co-writer Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz), who has shown a remarkable aptitude for the comedy-action hybrid that characterizes the books, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has the potential to be something more than a likeable adaptation. Also goosing the odds: a perfectly cast Michael Cera as the tweaky, bumbling lead, and Jason Schwartzman as the “big bad”; a rumored mix of live-action and animation done by O’Malley himself; and glowing early buzz from directors Jason Reitman (Juno, Up In The Air) and Greg Motolla (Superbad, Adventureland) after seeing an early cut.

26. Christina Aguilera, untitled fourth album (TBD)
Wait, wait, wait, come back. Just hear us out, okay? Yes, she’s one of the poster girls for millennial bubblegum pap—er, pop—and her penchant for over-the-top melismatic bombast is somewhat questionable. But for her 2010 studio album, tentatively titled Light And Darkness, Christina Aguilera has amassed such an incongruous roster of collaborators that we can’t help but be intrigued about what might come of it: M.I.A., Santigold, Sia, Goldfrapp, and Le Tigre (yes, Le Tigre) all show up on the album’s credits, among others, contributing to what Aguilera has unhelpfully dubbed a “futuristic” sound. There’s no telling how all that indie-sanctioned femme energy will mesh with Aguilera’s hyper-polished vocal style, but whether it adds up to pop perfection or a total train wreck, it should be a spectacle at the very least.

27. Doctor Who Series Five (TBD)
After getting a jumpstart in the form of Christopher Eccleston, the revived Doctor Who franchise received a major facelift in 2005 in the form of David Tennant—who, after a few clumsy episodes, grew into one of the best Doctors of all time. But after the announcement of Tennant’s retirement from the show, the relatively young, unknown Matt Smith was tapped as his replacement; in another major shakeup, show-runner Russell T. Davies will also be replaced in 2010 by producer-writer Steven Moffat. Whether Moffat and Smith will try to recapture Russell’s and Tennant’s goofball-with-an-undercurrent-of-tragedy appeal—or go for an entirely different interpretation of the iconic Time Lord altogether—remains to be seen. But the unveiling of a new Doctor is always an occasion, and the hiatus between series four and five has done nothing but heighten the anticipation.

28. The Wrens, TBA (TBD)
The Wrens’ website welcomes visitors with the words “Keeping folks waiting… since 1989,” and that’s no joke. Working at a positively Terrence Malickian pace, the band took seven years between 1996’s Secaucus and 2003’s masterpiece The Meadowlands. Announced projects came and went—1999’s Abbott 1135 EP was at one point due for some re-recording and reissue, only to be dumped unceremoniously by the wayside—but 2009 marked a relative frenzy of productivity for New Jersey’s finest, with new song demos and sessions actually happening, capped off with a 20th-anniversary show consisting entirely of (eek!) new songs. Mastermind Charles Bissell has cautiously predicted a record done by spring and out by summer, which would bring the outfit up to four albums in 21 years. No one else combines punk energy, positively chromatic melodic sophistication, and a no-nonsense rock backbeat quite the same way.

29-30. Nailed/The Fighter (TBD)
After the notoriously difficult shoot of I Heart Huckabees resulted in screwball comic triumph, David O. Russell was deep in purgatory. Nailed—a D.C. satire—was set to bring him roaring back, but production shut down after Capitol Films imploded financially with the film nowhere close to done. Jessica Biel claimed there wasn’t enough footage to bring it together in post, but now the money’s been raised and the movie’s allegedly on track for the 2010 Cannes market. Meanwhile, Russell managed to shoot a whole other movie—The Fighter, a boxing movie starring the perfectly cast Mark Wahlberg—that’s also on track for release soon. Assuming the currently all-shook-up indie market can get its act together and buy/distribute the movies quickly, 2010 should give us not one but two Russell movies—even as the man himself prepares to do Pride And Prejudice And Zombies.

31. Seaguy Eternal (TBD)
Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart’s 2004 Vertigo mini-series Seaguy was such a stunning piece of work—wildly enjoyable, but crammed with incredibly dense symbolism—that fans were understandably nervous when it looked like a promised sequel might never happen. Then, earlier this year, Seaguy: Slaves Of Mickey Eye was finally published, and it didn’t disappoint: It darkened the overall tone of the story while keeping it full of mystery and wonder. While no formal announcements have been made, Morrison has hinted that the final chapter of what he calls his Watchmen may be coming out in 2010; if it happens, it will complete one of the most fascinating meditations on superhero comics in the medium’s history.

32. The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace (TBD, now maybe 2011?)
Posthumous releases always represent a moral quandary for an artist’s fans. There’s the understandable interest in seeing new work from someone who won’t be producing anything new ever again, but it’s a ghoulish feeling, like going through the pockets of a corpse that’s still warm. When David Foster Wallace committed suicide in 2008, he left behind an unfinished manuscript called The Pale King about a group of IRS workers struggling to deal with the massive boredom of their jobs. It’s problematic, to say the least—nowhere near finished, and with subject matter that doesn’t exactly promise grand thrills ahead. But Wallace’s fractal-like attention to detail makes for surprisingly compulsive reading, profound in its minutiae, beautiful in its tedium. The Pale King will, at best, be a depressing reminder of an abbreviated life, but at worst, it should have at least a little of Wallace’s insight and level-headed passion. And it will also have footnotes, and they will be excellent.

DVD Is Dead

2010-01-17T19:11:00.000-08:00

The DVD may have died this week.

Walmart is now selling Blu-Ray high-definition optical disk players for $68 in the U. S. Sure, plain old DVD players are cheaper still, but why would you buy one? Blu-Ray players can be used with your old DVD collection just fine and will line-double and up-shift your old disks a bit so they’ll look nice (but not as nice as 1080p Blu-Ray) on your new LCD or plasma TV. So unless the Blu-Ray can’t connect to your old TV for some reason, I can’t imagine why anyone would buy the old standard.

These things happen: Moore’s Law, remember? But in this case it feels to me like the transition is happening a little earlier than I expected it would. For that I blame the economy.

DVD sales have dropped 30 percent in the current recession, which was a big surprise to the major movie studios. They expected sales to go up because movies played at home (where the popcorn is cheaper and the butter is real) are supposed to be a bargain during a recession. In a sense it seemed a perfect time to introduce Blu-Ray and get people to upgrade their movie collections just as they had upgraded their VHS tape collections for DVDs a decade ago.

That VHS-to-DVD transition was the Golden Age of home video, when old flicks earned their weight in rhinestones all over again simply because people liked the prettier pictures and random access to slo-mo nude scenes offered by DVD. So everybody happily bought all their favorite movies all over again, home video revenue became bigger for the movie industry than box office revenue. And like all participants in an unsustainable economic bubble, the movie producers and backers told themselves it would go on forever.

It couldn’t last forever because eventually all the people who wanted to buy DVD’s of old movies had bought them and the industry could only bring out new movies at a certain rate — a rate that was nothing compared to that total library conversion. What was needed, they realized, was another VHS-to-DVD experience, though in this case to a high definition standard like Blu-Ray, or its competitor, HD-DVD.

Except it didn’t work out quite that way. Both Blue-Ray and HD-DVD were late. Like Betamax and VHS, they fought it out in the market, creating buyer confusion (and movie studio confusion too). By the time Sony and Blu-Ray had defeated Toshiba and HD-DVD the DVD business was in decline (movie-related game sales were, too) and there were signs of an impending recession, which brings us to today.

The movie studio fantasy was that we’d pay $20-$40 per Blu-Ray disk, but then Daddy was laid-off and that Blu-Ray copy of 8 Mile suddenly wasn’t THAT much better than the DVD version for half the price. Some people decided to wait while others gave up completely, leading to that $68 Blu-Ray player down at WalMart. Remember WalMart is the largest seller of DVD’s (and presumably Blu-Ray disks) in America and possibly the world. WalMart is such a Big Kahuna in the home video business that they can dictate prices pretty much to the rest of the market. I predict, therefore, that after Christmas Blu-Ray prices will crash to only marginally more than DVDs and maybe even the same.

This is — like short-selling your dream house – just an acceptance of reality by the major players. They missed their chance to make big money but are fairly confident we’ll all finally switch to Blu-Ray if the price difference isn’t very much.

Think about that. It means we’re going to buy all new disks yet again, Hollywood will return to normal, and again we’ll probably be happy about it.

Lucky us.

Driving over The Vitim River bridge

2009-12-30T06:24:00.000-08:00

It takes a set of brass balls to drive over this thing. 570 meter (1870 feet) long Vitim River bridge. The bridge is 15 meters above the water and has no railings.

Tiny Tim and global warming

2009-11-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

Merlin Season 2 Episode 2

2009-10-24T10:59:00.000-07:00

Part 1

part 2

part 3

part 4

Merlin Season 2 Episode 1

2009-10-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

The Curse of Cornelius Sigan
Part 1

Part 2

part 3

part 4

part 5

The Preamble in License Plates

2009-09-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States rendered in personalized license plates from each of the 50 states. Created by conceptual artist Mike Wilkins in 1987, the installation now resides in the Smithsonian.

Birds on the Wires

2009-09-06T08:48:00.000-07:00

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes. Not the most original idea in the universe, but I was curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.
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August, 2009

2009-08-28T14:59:00.001-07:00

An interesting fact about August, 2009

This August has:

- 5 Saturdays

- 5 Sundays

- 5 Mondays

All in One Month !!! This happens once in 823 years

Close call!

2009-08-26T08:24:00.001-07:00

Colorful

2009-07-25T06:19:00.001-07:00

Colorful
by Traysi

The RAREST All in the Family Clip on YouTube - their Salute to the Family Viewing Hour, 1975!!

2009-07-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

Backstory: The Family Viewing Hour, which was in effect from 1975 thru 1977, was mandated by the FCC to have the networks show ONLY family-friendly programming from 8 to 9 PM ET, since there was too much sex and violence on the tube during those hours.. (This ruling was rescinded two years later, in 1977.) This ruling forced Norman Lear, creator of "All in the Family," to move the show from its 8 PM Sat. time slot to 9 PM on Monday nights. The cast of "All in the Family" did a little in-house "tribute" to the Family Viewing our, with their new "1975 version" of the show's opening theme song...and here it is! This clip never aired, it was only performed live before a studio audience.

The friday five

2009-07-10T12:18:00.000-07:00

1. What is your favorite vegetable? Tomatoes
2. What is your favorite salad dressing, sauce, gravy, or condiment? ranch
3. What is your favorite culture's food (American, Chinese, Creole, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Soul Food, Southern U.S., etc.)? Indian
4. What is your favorite beverage? Coca Cola
5. What is your favorite food? turkey

fallacies

2009-06-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

So much of what we assume, upon further scrutiny, we discover to be just plain wrong. Collected here are some of our favorite bits of trivia that poke holes in our most coveted myths, misconceptions and outright falsehoods.

"Spermophobia" isn't what you think. It's the fear of germs.

The people in the famous painting American Gothic aren't husband and wife as most people assume. Presumably, they're father and daughter.

Dr. Seuss wasn't a real doctor. He used the "Dr." as a joke because his father always wanted him to get a doctorate and become a professor.

French toast isn't French. It's Russian.

Now you know. In truth, the "low man" on the totem pole is actually the most important man in the tribe.

The name of the film Easy Rider had nothing to do with riding motorcycles. An "easy rider" was the term used for a man living with a whore (because he had an "easy ride").

Sweetbread isn't bread. It's a dish made of the thymus or pancreas of an animal younger than one year old, usually piglets or calves.

A volcano never has fire in it, only heat.

Most people believe the story of Noah says he brought two of each animal on the ark. Actually, the Bible says, "Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth."

The slash character on keyboards is called a "virgule" or "solidus." For the record, URLs use forward slash characters, not back slash characters.

It's not "Daylight Savings Time," it's "Daylight Saving Time."

Hitler was not a vegetarian, as it is widely claimed. He ate sausages for breakfast every day.

Despite how they're commonly depicted, most barns are white, not red.

The phrase "balls to the wall" probably doesn't refer to what you think it refers to. It originated with pilots. It refers to the ball-shaped grip on the end of a pilot's throttle. Pushing the throttle (the ball) toward the wall (of the cockpit) meant to go fast.

Hyenas are more closely related to cats than dogs.

Steamboat Willie was not the first Mickey Mouse cartoon as is commonly believed. Two movies were released earlier, Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho. They weren't very successful, which is why they're often left out of Mickey's official filmography.

Tin cans aren't. They're 97 percent steel.

Most people think our air is mostly oxygen. However, Earth's atmosphere is actually about 80% nitrogen.

Nagasaki wasn't the intended target for the second atom bomb dropped in WWII. The original target was Kokura, but the pilot couldn't find it due to bad weather and switched to the nearest city he could find.

Leo LaPort loses it

2009-06-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

Leo Laporte calls out Mike Arrington of TechCrunch after Leo got mad at him for implying that his opinion of the Pre was effected by the fact he had a free review unit. Wow!!!!

Burning Man 2003 La Contessa and the Whale on the Black Rock

2009-06-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

part 1

part 2

Food Court Musical

2009-06-07T17:57:00.000-07:00

16 agents create a spontaneous musical in a food court in a Los Angeles mall. Using wireless microphones and the mall's PA system, both their voices and the music was amplified throughout the food court. All cameras were hidden behind two-way mirrors and other concealed structures.

Surprise Wedding Reception

2009-06-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Interesting cemeteries

2009-06-06T12:18:00.001-07:00

View from the top of the World Trade Center

2009-05-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

TV Summer 2009

2009-05-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Key
New series Returning series in new timeslot Returning Series in same timeslot

Monday
Mon 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Bachelorette Here Come the Newlyweds (info) (5/25)
CBS Big Bang Theory (Reruns) How I Met Your Mother (Reruns) Two and a Half Men (Reruns) Rules of Engagement (Reruns) CSI: Miami (Reruns)
NBC I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! (June 1-22) Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Reruns) Dateline NBC
FOX House (Reruns) Lie to Me (Reruns) Local Programming
CW Gossip Girl (Reruns) One Tree Hill (Reruns)
ABC Fam Secret Life of American Teenager (6/22) Make It or Break It (6/22)
TNT The Closer (6/8) Raising the Bar (6/8)
TLC Jon & Kate Plus 8 (5/25) Cake Boss (5/25)
Show Weeds (6/8) Nurse Jackie (6/8)
Notes: Dating in the Dark will air on ABC at 9pm from July 20th - August 24th once Here Come the Newlyweds ends its run on July 13th.

Tuesday
Tue 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC The Superstars (6/23) Various Reruns Primetime: Family Secrets (6/23)
CBS NCIS (Reruns) The Mentalist (Reruns) Without a Trace (Reruns)
NBC I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! (6/2) America’s Got Talent (6/23) Law & Order: SVU (Reruns)
FOX House (Reruns) Mental (info) (5/26) Local Programming
CW 90210 (Reruns) Hitched or Ditched (5/26)
A&E The First 48 (6/16) The Cleaner (6/23)
ABC Fam 10 Things I Hate About You (7/7) Ruby & the Rockits (7/21) Lincoln Heights (8/4)
FX Rescue Me
SciFi Warehouse 13 (7/7) ECW
TNT Wedding Day (6/16) Hawthorne (6/16) Saving Grace (6/16)
Notes: On FOX in July, Hell’s Kitchen will air at 7pm starting on July 21st. The new series More to Love will air at 8pm starting on July 28th.

On July 7th, the new CW series Blonde Charity Mafia will take over the 8pm timeslot.

Wednesday
Wed 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Wipeout (5/27) The Goode Family (5/27) Surviving Suburbia (5/27) The Unusuals (5/27)
CBS Old Christine (Reruns) Gary Unmarried (Reruns) Criminal Minds (Reruns) CSI: NY (Reruns)
NBC I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here (6/3) America’s Got Talent (6/24) The Philanthropist (6/24)
FOX So You Think You Can Dance (5/27) Local Programming
CW America’s Next Top Model (Reruns) Hitched or Ditched (Encores)
A&E Dog the Bounty Hunter (5/27) Tattoo Highway (5/27)
Bravo Top Chef Masters (6/10)
TBS House of Payne (Reruns) House of Payne (Reruns) House of Payne (Reruns) House of Payne (Reruns) Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns
TNT Leverage (7/15) Dark Blue (7/15)
Notes: ABC series I Survived a Japanese Game Show will take over the 8pm timeslot on July 8th and Primetime: Crime will start airing at 9pm on June 24th.

I’ve spent a lot of time putting together this grid and the many pages at TVPicks.net (including TV picks since March 1999 and Fall Grids since at least 1999). If you find any of this stuff helpful, please consider showing your gratitude with a donation or gift (emails are always appreciated as well). Thanks!
Donate with PayPalAmazon.com Wishlist

Thursday
Thu 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Ugly Betty (Reruns) Grey’s Anatomy (Reruns) Private Practice (Reruns)
CBS Various Reruns CSI (Reruns) Various Reruns
NBC I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here The Office (Reruns) 30 Rock (Reruns) The Listener (6/4)
FOX Bones (Reruns) So You Think You Can Dance Local Programming
CW Smallville (Reruns) Supernatural (Reruns)
CBS Burn Notice (6/4) Royal Pains (6/4)
Notes:

Friday
Fri 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Wife Swap (Reruns) Supernanny (Reruns) 20/20
CBS Ghost Whisperer (Reruns) Flashpoint (Reruns) Numb3rs (Reruns)
NBC Chopping Block (6/19) Dateline NBC
FOX Don’t Forget the Lyrics (5/22) Mental (Encores) Local Programming
CW Privileged (Reruns) Everybody Hates Chris (Reruns) The Game (Reruns) Local Programming
SciFi Eureka (7/10)
Notes: Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? rejoins the FOX lineup at 7pm on Fridays starting June 26th.

Saturday
Sat 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC ABC Saturday Night Movie Pushing Daisies (5/30)
Eli Stone (6/20)
Dirty Sexy Money (7/18)
CBS Various Reruns Harper’s Island 48 Hours Mystery (Reruns)
NBC Kings (6/13) Various Reruns Various Reruns
FOX Cops Cops (Reruns) America’s Most Wanted Local Programming
Notes: On ABC on Saturday nights at 9pm, they’ll be airing the remaining episodes of Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money.

When you’re done checking out the grid, you might want to go check out my TV picks for tonight. I’ve been posting TV picks most days since March of 1999. Stop by daily if you like what you see or subscribe via feed or email. Or you can read the picks on your Livejournal Friends List or be notified of when I update the picks via Twitter.

Sunday
Sun 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Reruns) Desperate Housewives (Reruns) Brothers & Sisters (Reruns)
CBS Million Dollar Password (5/24) Cold Case (Reruns) The Unit (Reruns)
NBC Merlin (6/21) Various Reruns Various Reruns
FOX The Simpsons (Reruns) King of the Hill (Reruns) Family Guy (Reruns) American Dad (Reruns) Local Programming
USA Law & Order: Criminal Intent In Plain Sight
USA True Blood (6/14) Hung (6/28)
Notes:

Grid for the 6pm hour and earlier times is below:
Sun 4:00 4:30 5:00 5:30 6:00 6:30
ABC America’s Funniest Home Videos (Reruns)
CBS 60 Minutes
NBC The Great American Road Trip (Encores) (7/12)
FOX Various Reruns
CW Jericho (Reruns)

Eye catching photos

2009-05-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Arby’s Freeby Wednesdays

2009-05-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

unning low on funds? BOOM - Arby’s got your back! From now until August 26th, select Arby’s across North America will be featuring Freeby Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, the home of roast beef awesomeness, will be offering a different free something (mainly sandwiches, but they’ve mixed in some other new items off the menu to get them out there).

The calendar reads as follows:
MAY
20 - Free Chocolate Malt Swirl Shake with any sandwich purchase
27 - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase

JUNE
3 - Free Iced FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
10 - Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
17 - Free Regular Sidekickers® with any sandwich purchase
24 - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase

JULY
1 - Free Regular Beef ‘n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase
8 - Free Orange Cream Swirl Shake with any sandwich purchase
15 - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
22 - Free Roastburger with any soft drink purchase
29 - Free Iced FruiTea with any sandwich purchase

AUGUST
5 - Free Regular Roast Beef with any soft drink purchase
12 - Free Roast Chicken Club with any soft drink purchase
19 - Free Iced FruiTea with any sandwich purchase
26 - Free Regular Beef ‘n Cheddar with any soft drink purchase

How fun is that?

Amazing HD Quality

2009-05-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

I-Movix SprintCam v3 NAB 2009 showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

Top Images of 2008

2009-05-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

Great Photos of Aircrafts

2009-04-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Uncommon Cufflinks

2009-04-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

The “Newseum” of Washington, D.C.

2009-04-15T05:26:00.000-07:00

One year ago this week, the new home of the “Newseum,” a 643,000-square-foot repository of historical artifacts and mementos that tells the story of the origins and outworkings of the American press, opened in Washington, D.C. The facility, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, is seven stories with a 90-foot-high atrium and the world’s tallest glass hydraulic-lift elevator.

Learn more from the video below:

2009-02-25T17:38:00.000-08:00

God-Why do good things happen to bad people?

2009-02-14T07:01:00.000-08:00

How to Have Less Awkward Conversations: Assuming Rapport

2007-12-22T08:03:00.001-08:00

Assuming rapport. This is definitely one of the best social skill tips I have ever learned about. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten a bit about it lately. Maybe you have too. Or missed it altogether. So I thought I’d bring it up again.

Now, what is assuming rapport?

Basically, instead of going into a conversation or meeting nervously and thinking “how will this go?” you take different approach. You assume that you and the person(s) will establish a good connection (rapport).

How do you do that? You simply pretend that you are meeting one of your best friends. Then you start the interaction in that frame of mind instead of the nervous one.

I have found that this advice is surprisingly useful and easy to implement.

Just before the meeting, you just think that you’ll be meeting a good friend. Then you’ll naturally slip into a more comfortable, confident and enjoyable emotional state and frame of mind.

This also helps you and the other people to set a good frame for the interaction. A frame is always set in the at the start of an interaction. It might be a nervous and stiff frame, a formal and let’s-get-to-the-point kind of frame or perhaps a super relaxed one. The thing is that the frame that is set in the beginning of the conversation is often one that may stay on for a while. First impressions last.

If it’s a very stiff frame then it may very well continue to be so until the end. It can be quite difficult to for instance change that frame into a more relaxed one. Often people – you and the others – adapt to the frame that is set and interact within it. Breaking or changing that frame may feel uncomfortable or a bit weird. And so you and the others can become reluctant to do so and instead just play along.

First impressions last
So setting a good frame at the very beginning can bring more enjoyment and better results out of any kind of meeting. That’s one of the reasons why it’s so useful to smile when you first meet someone. And it’s also important to consider that the impression made and frame set may not just last during the first conversation. It may continue throughout your relationship with this new friend, classmate or co-worker.

Now, meeting your best friend might not always be the best thing to think about before a meeting. If it’s a meeting at work or in school then you may need to have use a more formal frame (for instance without hugs and the relaxed attitude you have with friends). In that case you may want to try to imagine a similar meeting that went well and your interactions with the people there.

If you go into a conversation with the right frame of mind a lot of the problems you may have encountered before or created outside and inside your mind just never come up. Much of communication is non-verbal and can be difficult to manually correct in a conversation. But when you go in with a positive and relaxed energy then that is fed into the interaction by you using your non-verbal communication - like your voice tonality and body language - in good way.

Just be yourself
When you’re with your friend you don’t think about what you should say next or what funny comment you could pull out of your sleeve. You just stay in the present moment, moment by moment, and the conversation flows easily and naturally.

I think this is what some people mean when they give the often confusing advice to “just be yourself”. When your friends give you that advice then they may mean that you should be “like you are when you are hanging out with us”. They want to see you bring out your natural and relaxed self in other interactions.

One final useful thing about assuming rapport is that you may also start to feel positive feelings towards this new person, just as you do with your friend when you meet him/her. This is a pretty good starting point for getting the new person to reciprocate and for developing a good relationship.

2nd

2007-11-29T10:30:00.000-08:00

y-muzik

2007-11-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

ist post

2007-11-25T05:08:00.000-08:00