90 minutes of this would be so much better than most anythingt Hollywood has to offer:
Throw in some ballet-dancing cyborg action, and you may just have the perfect movie:
Greatest. Summer movie idea. Ever.
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Category Archives: Entertainment
Voiceover fun
The chances of ’70s disco coming from Mars…
Bad Astronomy Blog has a reminder of the awesomeness that is The War of the Worlds. The very first commenter to his post referenced the 1978 concept album, and another showed us where to find an addictive montage of ’70s cheese and fake UFO pics:
The chances of anything coming from Mars – The best video clips are right here
You have to wait until about 6 minutes into the video to get to the hook: Once Richard Burton gets a break from narrating, Ogilvy the Astronomer gets a tenor solo (courtesy of Justin Hayward) about his opinion of the chances of life on Mars. My dad own(s)(ed) this opus on vinyl LP, and I recall many a weekend marveling at the artwork and not realizing how cheesy it all was. (True confession: I bought the CD’s on sale at Waterloo in 2002.) I dare you to listen to the whole thing, though. It’s catchy.
Does anyone else think…
…that this whole Miley Cyrus topless thing is some sort of publicity stunt? I mean, she’s supposedly shocked, shocked and appalled at photographs for which she posed, probably for hours, but now she’s all over the headlines. I for one, was only vaguely aware of media personalities by the names Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana, but I didn’t realize until this week they were the same person (or that Billy Ray Cyrus had procreated). But really, this is waaay more interesting than, say, the ongoing Iraq war, the reconsituted al-Qaeda force in Pakistan, or Russia and Georgia’s brewing war in Abkhazia. Just to name a few yawners.
Acting shout-out: Todd Anderson in "North Country"
I watched the movie North Country this morning (h/t Netflix), a 2005 Oscar-baiting Charlize Theron film, and I have several salutes I have to make here.
First off, and obviously most importantly, it really is a pretty good film about the issue of sexual harassment, as well as how crappy it must be to work in an iron mine.
On a less-socially-conscious note, the film proves Carlize Theron is beautiful even with ridiculously-authentic ’80s hair, and it offers a glimpse of hometown hottie Amber Heard in the undoubtedly-daunting role of a young (teenaged) Charlize Theron.
Really though, the point of this post is this: I must tip my hat generally to the grotesque depiction the film offers of the types of harassment the women had to endure, and specifically to Todd Anderson, who portrays a mine worker whose preferred method of harassment is to ejaculate into Michelle Monaghan‘s locker. I single out Mr. Anderson for his courage and fortitude, based on the fact that he may forever be known, thanks to the film’s credits, as “Semen Man.”
That has got to be hell on a resume.
In support of redhead nudity
Cognitive dissonance goes great with smut!
Get this: the Parents’ Television Council, whose raison d’etre is to “to ensure that children are not constantly assaulted by sex, violence and profanity on television and in other media,” posts what it considers to be the most-objectionable TV material on its website as “The Worst Cable Content of the Week” (h/t SexInt).
As of today, March 21, 2008, the “worst” recipient is FX’s Nip/Tuck. A clip from the episode “Rachel Ben Natan” is posted, along with a play-by-play of the salacious bits, e.g.:
Receptionist Bettina performs oral sex on Christian as he reads his phone messages. Her head briefly pops up as he asks her a question. Christian grabs the back of her neck and shoves her face back into his crotch, just below camera range.
…
Bettina has sex with Christian on the couch. Both are clothed, though she leans back, displaying her cleavage.
…
Christian is shown having sex with Bettina from behind, as she kneels on his desk wearing a bra and panties.
Bettina: “God, you’re in great shape!”
Christian spanks her.
…
Christian has sex with Bettina who is lying on a desk wearing only a bra on top. She answers the phone while having sex. He buries his face in her breasts.
…
Bettina lies on the couch, her legs over Christian’s shoulders as they have sex. Both are naked. No breasts or genitals are seen. Both scream as they climax.
Shortly after they’ve finished, Christian fires Bettina for mispronouncing Julia’s name.
I guess if there’s gonna be a bombardment of smut anyway, it might as well come from a “parents’ advocacy group.
Remembering the greatest nerd of all time
Sir Arthur C. Clarke, hero and icon to nerds and geeks alike, passed away today at the age of 90. I have been a fan since I first saw 2001 at the age of 7 or 8, and an admirer since I read Childhood’s End and Rendezvous with Rama at the age of 13.
In addition to being a screenwriter and prolific author, he also first thought up quite a few things we find commonplace nowadays:
Clarke also was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.
His non-fiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
I’m also a big fan of Clarke’s Three Laws:
- When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
- The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
I’m not sure there can be as fertile an imagination as his anytime soon. I hope the first people to venture beyond the moon do so at least partly in his honor. I’ll bid him farewell with a little Also Sprach Zarathustra:
See you out there in the universe, Sir Clarke.
When times were simpler…and bubblier
I did not watch the Superbowl, as I don’t particularly care about the Giants, the Patriots, the NFL, or the game of football all that much. I also no longer find the commercials all that entertaining–the secret formula is out, and there is really no way to surprise us anymore.
Still, it is worth remembering the glory days, when Superbowl ads were unusual and edgy, and the idea of a “.com” company held endless promise. I think this was from the 2000 Superbowl:
At least E*Trade survived the crash, abeit with some problems.
My 2-second music video career
I was an extra in a music video once:
You can see the back of my bare-ass-bald head beginning at the 3:48 mark (I’m in front of the hot redhead). Interesting shoot for an interesting band. I pretty much had no idea what the hell was going on. This was back during my days as a music video company executive (ah, 2003…), and I was baby-sitting the camera. Not a happy story.