This is what I do during class, I sit and scroll through these, occasionally uncontrollably giggling and hoping that I'm not freaking out people sitting near me. This one might require a bit more HP obsessiveness
If you know who moot is then you and I most certainly can be friends... on second thought, maybe not. However if you too find him inextricably attractive... well we still can't be friends, but let me know so I can find assurance that I'm not crazy.
b t dubs, this is unquestionably my fave by far.
Check out Comixed.com for more if you haven't discovered this gem already, it is already in my toolbar on firefox.
So who remembers Superman Returns? Or maybe X2? Questions, questions, I know. Okay granted they are decent movies with high budgets. I mean hey, its hard to pull off a comic book character and story line, especially popular ones which have had prior media adaptations (Cartoons, live action series, not to mention wildly popular films released in a Hollywood era of "greater integrity"). Still neither of these movies -which grossed pretty high profits for sequels- are that perfect combination of mass appeal and fanboy accuracy. Unless that is, I suppose, if equate cheap melodramatic symbolism and gaping plot holes with the rustic feel of a comic book. Or unless perhaps you consider the awkward and unnecessary use of CGI and big flashy explosions and action sequences as the mark of true poetic filmography. I know I'm being harsh. Entertainment value wise I have to say I remember watching both of these films and enjoying them and even getting that fanboy(girl?) feeling of glee experiencing the overwhelming psychological thrill of American superhero personal association. But this does NOT a good movie make. And so Harris fades from my memory. UNTIL dun dun dun, I saw Into the Wild... which was not directed or written by Harris, but did have Emile Hirsch, who I came to have a great affinity toward in a span of two hours. A few quick clicks on IMDB and badabingbadaboom nestled between his rise to major motion picture stardom and his bit roles in TV movies and series, was DAN FRICKEN HARRIS. suck it! Imaginary Heroes "Okay, curious" I thought to myself. Click. Sigourney Weaver! wait, what?!! That dude who looks exactly like the annoying guy on Full House?!!? (Jeff Daniels) Michelle Williams. omg Ledger's girl (who at the time was still alive) Wait a second, Kip Pardue, what are you doing here? Somehow the name had stuck out in my mind from Remember the Titans, Deirdre O'Connell, Ryan Donowho, Jay Paulson, the list goes on.. I AM INTRIGUED! So I immediately put the film on my parents' Netflix queue, (which they hated when I did that), received, put in DVD player, and voila, I found one of my favorite films.
The story revolves around the Travis family, with Hirsch's character, Tim, serving as the sometimes narrator. We begin with quite the event: the older brother Matt, who is a shoo-in for the Olympic team in swimming, shoots himself. And the movie follows. Of course this is no "lets cry and be depressing and boring" movie, there are twists, deep and interesting characters, problems, frustrations, just people. Really, really, screwed up, and normal people. Weaver as the mother Sandy, Oh so delightful. Entiely beaten up by losing a child and finding all her relationships crumbling around her. She is so likable and entirely the perfect mother... well except for, eh watch the movie. Daniels is the perfect overbearing stage-dad, who is obsessed with his son's swimming career, some great psychological interworkings which come together (for so many reasons) in the end. Tim and his sister Penny deal with their own grief and their parents', while trying to carry on in some sort of vein of normalcy. I don't want to give too much, so watch it yourself.Perhaps my initial connection can be attributed to the somewhat macabre temperament of a girl on the precipice of being shoved into society, still being molded in the scalding fire of first experiences but having left the pubescent hormone-surge excitement. A first true depression. The period of an incredibly dry face of a disenfranchised youth. Poetic shit, you know. But the movie still gets to me, and anyone I have shown it to, no matter the age, is so effected. That is another great thing, you can keep watching the film without getting bored and tired. Death, drugs, guilt, retribution, sex, et cetera, the normal things, they are all here. Rarely could a character (Tim) of such emotional turmoil stand so solidly, without begging for ridicule. He is just so specific, such a person, it is wonderful! A dark comedy, nearly a perfect one at that. I'm not quite sure what inspired me to write this entry considering it has been a solid six months since my last viewing of the movie, but the fact that even with that sort of distance such vivid moments of poignancy and comedic beauteousness are easily brought to mind says quite a bit about the film. The Christmas party scene, hilarious! Very simple things will make you fall in love with the characters, such as the Sandy finding Tim's pot and smoking it herself, taking great glee in sort of assuming this different persona as she goes out for rolling papers, and then being hit on by a college student. The writing, the dialogue, the acting, the execution, the mood set up by music, lighting and camera, so great. So who knew? Dan Harris is an awesome writer/director, and in this case his heroes and totally super. (I like ending on corny jokes) PS. I entirely forgot, but hey, this is the title of my blog, I KNOW.
So I admit it: I'm a nerd. Maybe not a dweeb or spaz, who knows- but I have a few fascinations which are awkward to try to explain and I think that is all that is required. Once you catch yourself squealing (internally of course) in glee over these following trailers, there is no going back.
First, and probably the oldest of these is The Legend of Zelda trailer
I have to admit it is a bit cheesy, especially once you see the little hat on Link who apparently is Michael Cera's doppelganger, but STILL! I was never great at Zelda considering I just played around on my brother's Nintendo64 (I spent ages trying to get out of that stupid Great Deku Tree!) but I loved the game and it was an exciting little part of my childhood. Now I sort of want to spend the summer tyring to beat the Ocarina of Time, too bad the only game here is the stupid FF X which I lost the game card of all my play on. But yes the trailer is fake :( An independant film was made, which I saw the trailer for and found it a mix between hilariously bad and depressing bad, so I'm not goign to post it, but it can be found at www.theherooftime.com
Next is a super short one put together for a Green Lantern movie.
I was severely dissapointed when I realized that this wasn't real; althoguh it really just took the first notes of Lux Aeterna to make me doubt the clip. Apparently the creator used bits from the likes of Transformers, Daredevil, and Smallville of all things.
A more complex trailer for Green Lantern:
This is some pretty great editing I have to say, but obviously when you can pick out clips from Star Trek, it is a bit hard to suspend your disbelief for a glimmer of hope :) There are in fact a lot of goings on about when a GL movie will be made and there are ideas being tossed around. This site follows that progress: http://green-lantern.moviechronicles.com/
The last trailer I have to show, and one which makes me sooo mad for being obviously phoney is this Thundercats movie trailer
The guy who made this did some pretty intense work. Each frame was individually photoshopped and then the clip run through Premiere! As an artgraphics dabbeler that gives me a sympathy migraine. In reality there is concept work going on for a thundercats movie as well. To see the actual facts on that there is this website: http://thundercats-the-movie.net/
So yes. This was me practicing humility by exposing my geeky tendencies. Don't lie, they so gave you goosebumps.
So Thursday a Minnesota woman was given the ruling on a court case in which she was accused of violation of copyright. The woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, is a 32 year old single mother of four. She is being charged a total of $1.92 million. And how many songs did she download? Twenty-four. 24. four and twenty. That is about $80,000 per song. Just a bit harsh I think.
So what lesson does this teach us? Don't download illegally? Not likely. Lets have some honesty here. Most people don't download music, this is true. But when narrowing down to our demographic of computer users to those who have the knowledge of even how to do such a thing, we get into an age range of 15-30 (with obvious outliers). Then we take into account who has the money to buy music and can narrow a bit more to 15-22 (especially since past that age most people pretty much have their music collection set). The lower portion of this group of people more often than not is listening to crappy music which I would NEVER spend a dollar on, let alone 80,000 of them. Not of course that that is really an argument, but still. So here IS an actual argument: Free advertisement. Guess what? Music is for free everywhere. Youtube is a prime example of this. If one wanted to they could just download a video off youtube and move it to their ipod. Its not hard. For a while there youtube was muting videos with copyrighted music. Stupid. Then youtubers complained, and now we see little popup ads at the bottom of videos, providing links to the itunes store for the song playing. Smart.
The same sort of rule should be applied, but modified. This holds very true for movies and tv shows. People will download them to watch them, but usually you can't get great quality, or a version which can play in a dvd player. This automatically pushes people to buy the real deal. Companies also have learned to reel people in by putting some great extras on the dvd. The same has held true for music. Something as simple as great artwork can draw someone in to buying a CD. Offering deals online for whole albums at cheap prices in addition to giving the customer a discount at the band's store or entering them in a contest for tickets to their show. Something. Be inventive. I mean yes, people should support artists and buy their music, and they shouldn't be involved in illegal activities, BUT today is a new age. We are used to getting things fast and free. (I'm honestly more interested in how they are going to deal with newspapers going out of business!) But even then there is something to be said for the actual act of purchasing art. Many many many times a person will still go buy the CD or DVD even if they first downloaded it and even if there are no *extras* because ultimately our subconscious works us into it. The real product plays into our brains just as having a brand name item of clothing does. It feels official, we have bragging rights, we are supporting who we like, not to mention it is transient and we are a nation of materialists! You can continue to charge and incriminate people, but the internet and the people who use them are just far too innovative to prevent the transfer of information. So there it is. People are going to do it. You just make yourselves look like douchebags when you freak out about it. Quit complaining about "theoretical dollars", move on.
My first installment of awkwardness. More to come.
I hope this picture was taken by accident. First off, why is Julie Andrews in this photo? Is this the Von Trapp family in the Sound of Music Sequel: Liesl's revenge? You are 50, going on DEAD. This of course poses the question at to why Liesl here is so angry, and how she is performing the fabled mind control on her brother. And Mr. Man on the left is just screaming wtfery. He is possibly a priest... but I suppose this is his secret family. Perhaps he has gotten away with this by masquerading as a gym teacher.
Simply put: This is why I love gingers (and simultaneously proof they are evil).
And lastly: This is just sex. All family members are wearing matching Sears shirts. All family members are wearing pink bunny ears- except that is, for Mom. Mom is wearing BLACK bunny ears. Was she a bad bunny? Is that why she is wearing her come-hither face? Well regardless, the one thing which holds firm in logic is the stuffed moose (or perhaps reindeer) she is holding. With that our trust can be reestablished in the normalcy here.
I hope everyone revelled in that.
Check out more photos at http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com
Here we see what can only be described as moronic... or entirely hardcore (it is a very thin line to walk). Kimberley Vlaminck, 18, hails from Belgium, the land of three languages... which is perhaps what led to the 56 trampstamps displayed on her face. This loverly art (?) cost Kimberly € 50, but the possibly drunken desiscion might cost the artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, about €10,650. Kimberley here says she fell asleep after requesting 3 (three... TROIS) stars near her eye, and awoke to... well, this. Now this accusation begs a few questions immediately, as in: How do you fall asleep when your FACE is being jabbed with a needle repeatedly??? Obviously if in fact the teen was unconscious as she claims, she was likely either drunk or high on some sort of substance. Meanwhile Toumaniantz is not having any of this! He maintains that the girl REQUESTED this. He claims Kimberley was very pleased with his work until after encountering her father and boyfriend, who were just not too pleased with the addition of a constellation to the face of their pride n joy. Diego Vlaminck even went so far as to say that Toumaniantz hypnotized his poor daughter, who only wanted a tattoo so as to continue on the tradition of tattoos in her family, which is of course why Diego was paying for the ink. Toumaniantz assures he did not hypnotize the girl, and certainly could never have tattooed so many stars in such a sensative area without the girl's compliance. The only other possible probem which could have led to the law suit is simple misscomunication. While Kim speaks both Dutch and French, she says the tattoo artsis only spoke fractured English and French... no word yet on what his native tongue is, but his cadance in his intervies seems perfect! He says Kim "was awake and looked into the mirror several times as the proceedure was taking place." But the girl says her life has been ruined, and she feels like a circus freak. boo hoo. The laser removal she is suing for certainly won't remove everything. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but concidering I am more prone to belive the artist in this one, I think the chick needs to learn to own it. In more conservative situations she can always just cover it up with an opaque base makeup. Although if her story is true and I was her, the claimed damages would be a little higher.
Well either way I suppose Kimberley got exactly what she wanted... if you look at the shape, the tattoo is technically a 3 Star Tattoo...
This one might require a bit more HP obsessiveness
If you know who moot is then you and I most certainly can be friends... on second thought, maybe not. However if you too find him inextricably attractive... well we still can't be friends, but let me know so I can find assurance that I'm not crazy.
b t dubs, this is unquestionably my fave by far.
integrity"). Still neither of these movies -which grossed pretty high profits for sequels- are that perfect combination of mass appeal and fanboy accuracy. Unless that is, I suppose, if equate cheap melodramatic symbolism and gaping plot holes with the rustic feel of a comic book. Or unless perhaps you consider the awkward and unnecessary use of CGI and big flashy explosions and action sequences as the mark of true poetic filmography. I know I'm being harsh. Entertainment value wise I have to say I remember watching both of these films and enjoying them and even getting that fanboy(girl?) feeling of glee experiencing the overwhelming psychological thrill of American superhero personal association. But this does NOT a good movie make.
Sigourney Weaver! wait, what?!!
Perhaps my initial connection can be attributed to the somewhat macabre temperament of a girl on the precipice of being shoved into society, still being molded in the scalding fire of first experiences but having left the pubescent hormone-surge excitement. A first true depression. The period of an incredibly dry face of a disenfranchised youth. Poetic shit, you know. But the movie still gets to me, and anyone I have shown it to, no matter the age, is so effected. That is another great thing, you can keep watching the film without getting bored and tired.
f 15-30 (with obvious outliers). Then we take into account who has the money to buy music and can narrow a bit more to 15-22 (especially since past that age most people pretty much have their music collection set). The lower portion of this group of people more often than not is listening to crappy music which I would NEVER spend a dollar on, let alone 80,000 of them. Not of course that that is really an argument, but still.
Kimberley Vlaminck, 18, hails from Belgium, the land of three languages... which is perhaps what led to the 56 trampstamps displayed on her face. This loverly art (?) cost Kimberly € 50, but the possibly drunken desiscion might cost the artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, about €10,650.
Toumaniantz assures he did not hypnotize the girl, and certainly could never have tattooed so many stars in such a sensative area without the girl's compliance. The only other possible probem which could have led to the law suit is simple misscomunication. While Kim speaks both Dutch and French, she says the tattoo artsis only spoke fractured English and French... no word yet on what his native tongue is, but his cadance in his intervies seems perfect!
