More Listening Pleasure

This is what's playing over the digital airwaves around me right now. I'm just in that kind of mood, along with the thankfulness expressed at the end of today's CSI entry.

Need More MP3 Player Space

Even though I watched this weeks ago (and had forgotten to post about it here), it was brought back today by one of my students was singing one of the songs - Good Morning Baltimore - in my class the other day.

It's a fun movie, which I would just watch over and over again for the John Travolta, Christopher Walken and Michelle Pfeiffer scenes, but I'll reserve judgment of whether the lead star is - to borrow a phrase from a recent post - a one trick pony.

The Net Good For Something Useful

Faster than inquirer.net or yahoo.com, in less than 30 minutes, this site had information on the occurence already.

Now THAT'S data dissemination.

The Other Extreme from Solemnity

As if I didn't come from a retreat yesterday, last night I finished watching this. It looks like the movie the cast of 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up wished they had made when they were still brat pack American Pie cast age.

The movie takes some crazy and unusual turns, especially the last scene of the night and the ending soon afterwards.

As usual, it glorifies geeks and their habits, as well as attempts to "belong".

Another Shambling Horde Shooter

Thanks to nodwick.com again for the reference. Click on the pic above to be redirected. Features a scientist (like Urban Dead) and a real time daytime preparation before the zombs show up at sunset.

Line Between Game Genres Blurring

Puzzle Quest is a game that's half puzzle (duh) and half role playing. Apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but, "May its tribe increase."

Un-PC Puppets

This is Lucy the Slut from Avenue Q. I was looking for a picture that accompanied the characters singing You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want When You're Making Love but being one of the high points of the musical, I guess they won't have spoilers of that online.

The point I'm trying to make, which I got from a friend's twitter, is that the original episodes of Sesame Street we grew up with are now classified as For Adults. I don't know what aspects specifically they find offensive.

But I do know that one time in the early nineties - years after I stopped watching religiously - I saw a clip of Muppets singing something along the line of "some boys like dolls and some girls like trucks".

Looking Forward to Next Term Already

It's academic advising time again - not like our system is anything like that pictured above. What's funny is that the diligent students who go for their advising on time are the ones who don't need it, while those who are irregular put it off until the last minute, so they usually get closed out on the sections they should have planned for in the first place.

It's a vicious cycle.

A One Song Playlist

A one-trick pony is what we call someone who, when given the chance to show off to other people, will repeat the same "talent" over and over again.

Unfortunately, last Friday's Talent Quest was witness to this. And, no, I'm not talking about Dodong or Bryle. Besides spinning books Dodong has a gift for stand up comedy, and Bryle in the past three Talent Quests has shown ability in physical comedy as well as dancing. I'm talking about someone who, in four different occasions in this school, has played the same song - the one song he bothered to learn to show people he has "musical talent".

Using The Net for Everything

I've seen people use public software for to-do lists, shopping lists and such. Now we can tell people of our debts to them, financial and otherwise.

The Domino Effect

Rube Goldberg's impractical machines have graduated from paper to electronic bits with the advent of net video, but this one is made from flash, and easier to produce than using physical objects.

Once again it was found courtesy of nodwick.com.

Clear Information Is A Two Way Street

Some girls are like this rider (the one on the right) dangling a carrot in front of a guy (the horse in this analogy) by letting them hope that one day their declaration of affection will be reciprocated.

Isn't it supposed to be the case that if the guy is honest enough to tell the girl of his true intentions, he deserve a more sincere answer than "I don't want to talk about it anymore because I don't want things to change between us."?

Can't you say directly "I don't like you in that way"? Or do you love the attention you are getting from all these guys who are fighting to be at your side?

No Need For Subtitles Or Sound

Besides 3 other movies that I've mentioned in csi the past week (Unrest, My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle) this is actually the last film I need to get off my backlog stack of posts.

I watched this during a birthday party where there were other more dominant sounds in the house. But it wasn't really needed, or having seen the first two installments, which I hadn't.

All that was really needed to know was that all the people placed in these torturous traps deserved their fate.

And it's still not my cup of tea, just good grossouts to share with friends who love to skirt the edge of squeamishness.

A Break

Will be returning to my Movies I've Recently Watched List Week tomorrow, when it will be extended to a week and a half.

For now, this is the closest approximation online I could find of that picture I talked about in csi that was in the hall of our retreat house.

In the dim light, it's possible to believe at first glance that the picture has opened its eyes and is looking at you as you pass.

Ah, the stories that can be told about the dead in holy places. It can rival old houses and war fortresses any day.

Balls of Inadequacy

Balls of Fury is obviously trying to do a Western version of Shaolin Soccer, using a sport that traditionally Asians also dominate - maybe even Talladega Nights or Blades of Glory.

The best part of this movie is Christopher Walken. He is at his scariest when he is trying to be friendly and smile.

Otherwise, there are very few good jokes, and there were several points when I thought "I could have come up with a good visual gag at that point.

Maybe if it were Rob Schneider or Will Ferrell behind the wheel it would have been different.

It's also sad once promising actors like Jason Scott Lee reduced to something like this.

Lust, Yield

I think this picture captures the essence of the movie. I would have passed up watching this movie from the poster alone, which made me this it's The Female Departed, then I saw a positive review in Jessica Zafra's site.

Somehow I forgot about reading on the sex scenes in the movie, so I was surprised by them, how graphic they were. Made me thankful I didn't watch Brokeback Mountain, if this is any indication of the director's intensity.

As for the story itself, it's definitely not formulaic Hollywood spy stuff.

Six Degrees

Hollywood is fast becoming an insider playground, as evidenced by the number of people in this movie who have shown up together in others.

Kevin Smith and Jennifer Garner were also both in Daredevil. Kevin Smith and Timothy Oliphant were also in Die Hard 4.0.

Anyway, the main plot of this movie is that Garner's fiance dies days before their wedding, and then he finds out about his secret life, supporting a woman and child in another state. Not really original. There's also something taken for granted about their living arrangement, she living in a house with his two best friends after the funeral, and a third guy who works in that other state, and knows about the secret life.

By the way, that dead fiance is never shown, not even in pictures, a running 'gag' throughout the movie.

One bright spot here is that Kevin Smith finally spews himself some of the witty banter he puts in other people's mouths in his other films.

Goodbye Horses

One of the early teaser posters for this movie before The Passion of the Clerks subtitle was finally dropped.

The movie does not disappoint. It contains the same juvenile humor and dialogue as the earlier films (as well as a hint of continuity from Dogma - except for Ben Affleck and Jason Lee's characters), with a dash of maturity (a hangover of Jersey Girl?) thrown in.

Besides, I want to support what few people there are in Hollywood who do not bend to the winds of shallow popularity.

BTW, the title of this post is the name of a song used in this movie that is lifted from another movie which has one scene recreated.

Joys of Pregnancy

Day 2 of my Movie List Update Week. Knocked Up has funny intelligent writing, and a great cast. I loved the banter between Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen just like in 40-Year Old Virgin, and Leslie Mann in a role very different from her best-remembered character of Ursula in George of the Jungle.

Sadly, Katherine Heigl wasn't playing someone very far from how Izzy in Grey's Anatomy would have acted.

This film is a great counterpoint to another very hilarious film about expecting, Nine Months starring Hugh Grant, Julianne Moore and Robin Williams

School for Scoundrels 2 - I Wish

This will be Adding to List of Movies I've Watched Week here, because I'm getting so far behind in putting down all of these if I keep it at once a month.

This movie was a bit disappointing. I thought it was a good premise considering Billy Bob Thornton's great role in School for Scoundrels, and I thought he would have a good fight in his hands against Stifler.

Unfortunately, that wasn't what we got. Sean William Scott is a guy who wrote a self-help book long after his traumatic experiences with a cruel Physical Education teacher, only to come home and find out that teacher is now dating his mother.

It wasn't as funny as the earlier mentioned Jon Heder film, and nor was the ending as satisfying.

There were so many unresolved plot points, such as how the town felt about Sean's character after his outburst at the commemmoration, and if Thornton's character was never reprimanded for his abuse of the students.