NDBT

I have pretty daffodils on my desk. It’s a cancer society fundraiser thing. (“it was a fun-raiser!”) Anyways, they were delivered as buds yesterday, but they’ve all burst into bloom over night.

There’s going to be a lunar eclipse tonight. Of course, this would be the first day in a month when we’ve been covered in fog. Maybe it’ll burn off? (PLEASE!!)

I forgot to mention that I saw the 400th ep. of the Simpsons on Sunday night, which I really enjoyed. Although it had a great Good Night and Good Luck reference in it (and a long discussion of truth in the media around the kitchen table – I kept waiting for Colbert to pop in), the ending, which takes aim at Fox in a far more viscious manner than usual, was priceless.

I found Merl Reagle’s site and downloaded his last month’s crosswords. Yay! Now I have more to do when I’m bored. (Yes, I’m writing this at work. I finished all my To Do list items an hour ago and I can’t clean the classrooms till 4 when classes wrap up…)

YES!!! Gonzalez resigned!!!! HAhahahahaha….. First Rummy, then Rove, now him… They should send him to Guantanamo.

Entertainment (lots of fun links and musings, and surprisingly none from Cleolinda); This fug made me laugh.

2007: summer of sequels from the NY Times. Basically, it makes the argument, that of the 9 sequels that premiered this summer (only 9?) only 3 were both critical and economic successes; Live Free or Die Hard, Harry Potter 5, and Bourne Ultimatum. She argues that Ocean’s 13 didn’t succeed because the lead character didn’t evolve, but I think Oceans 13 is more of an ensemble piece than just George Clooney, and I thought it was slick and fun. I also had fun at Pirates, although at this point I don’t think it lived up to the first 2. I’ll still watch it again, though (plus I think it might be one that improves on a repeat viewing because then you know what’s going on).

I also like this line from the article, “Tapping into boomer fears of computer malfunction and financial disaster, “Live Free or Die Hard” united at least two generations in modern angst and popcorn bliss. Much credit belongs to Mr. Willis, who hews to his tempered character with the long-suffering resignation of Brad Pitt when presented with yet another set of adoption papers.”

(BTW; the top 10 films of 2007 world-wide according to box office mojo (the Bourne Ultimatum might crack the top 10 yet, as it has only just been released overseas); Pirates, Harry 5, Spider man 3, Shrek 3, Transformers, 300, Simpsons, Ratatouille, Live Free or Die Hard, Oceans 13. These run the gambit from 301 million to 957 million, and Ratatouille was the only one to earn more than 50% of its returns dometically. And none of those have DVD receipts in yet.

Hitman has been pushed back to November (well, in America, at least).

And a review of Dedication. I am less than thrilled with the comparisons to knocked up (i.e. a woman settling for someone beneath her). But Billy Crudup is probably still enough of a reason to see it, “Even so, the marvelous Mr. Crudup is seldom less than mesmerizing.” Yup.

When movies turn to Vigilante-ism during war-time. The article makes a mention of “The Star Chamber” (apparently being remade) which seems to basically be a twist on the plot of 10 little Indians/ And then there were none by Agatha Christie. Plagirism!

Winehouse denies her husband attacked her. Aside from the fact that I want her to get it together so she can keep making music, this story reminds me of a time one of my teachers had just gotten a lab puppy and had to explain that when she came into class covered in scratches, it was because the puppy hadn’t learned not to bite and not because her husband had suddenly developed a predilection for S&M.

Also under the above link; Salman Khan arrested (finally) for killing an endangered deer, Jamie Foxx defends dogfighting, and now I’m not sure I want to see the Kingdom (because he was my main reason for not seeing it in the first place) (but, but… Michael Bluth! (and positive advance screening reviews)), and I’m sorry to hear that Owen Wilson has (allegedly) tried to kill himself, especially as the Darjeeling Limited is coming out soon.

A review for Right at Your Door (featuring 2 actors I like and the scariest premise ever; if a nuclear attack happened while your spouse was out; would you let them back into your home?).

Rainn Wilson to star in a film about Renn Faires. “STAPLES! I NEED STAPLES!” – Emily

There is theoretically a new UK version of the Jesse James trailer out. It doesn’t seem different to me, and more importantly, there’s no extra Sam in it…

Anchors kow-tow to Colbert. Okay – on the one hand, I love Colbert, and I think forcing politicians to show up on his show is a good thing (the article slams this). However, considering his show lamppons how tragic the national media is, why on earth would news anchors go along with one of his sketches? It digs them in deeper into being mockable.

On a related note; the main editorial in the Chch newspaper today is about Bush’s speech to the Veterans (you know, the Vietnam one?). However, the article points out that it was the blogosphere that reacted with the most in-depth thoughtful coverage, and the print media only caught up a few days afterwards. It also rightfully points out that in either case, the conservative and liberal sides are really preaching to the choir, rather than converting the country towards any unified consensus.

It’s times like these that I think of Robin, on How I Met your Mother;

Robin: I am Canadian. Remember? We celebrate Thanksgiving in October.
Ted: Oh right I forgot. You guys are weird and you pronounce the word ‘out’ ,’oot’.
Robin: You guys are the world’s leader in hand gun violence; your health care system is bankrupt and your country is deeply divided on almost every important issue.
Ted: (pause) Your cops are called ‘mounties’

And some gossip from EW’s news round-up: Ben Widdicombe: Eva Amurri was offered her mother Susan Sarandon’s role as Janet in a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. [Ed: Okay – as much as I enjoyed Eva Amurri in Saved, ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!? WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU REMAKE IT?!?]

Page Six: Warner Bros. has asked director Tim Burton to tone down the graphic violence in his film adaptation of Sweeney Todd, which stars Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sacha Baron Cohen. It releases in December. [NO! DON’T DO IT TIM!!]

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Monday, August 27th, 2007 at 7:18 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.