Saturday, January 19, 2008

Wonderful Fast Times?

I just finished watching Superbad, which I'd missed in the theatres. My nephew's dad, who has the DVD, loaned it to me. He didn't say this, but I think it was a way of thanking me for doing things with his kid.

The movie's nuts. Not the absolute hilarity fest I'd been led to expect by the reviews, but funny, and also a little smarter than you think it's going to be.

That I didn't find it as superb as many have is, I think, more down to me than to many flaws in the movie itself. In the first place, even though I am a guy, the funnier "high school" movies to me tend to be the ones that focus at least as much on the girls' experience.

Think Fast Times at Ridgemont High
or Some Kind of Wonderful.

Although Fast Times certainly can be accused of objectifying women, it also treats some of them (at least) as interesting characters in their own right.

In Superbad, though it seems apparent the writers tried to give their female characters some authentic texture, their comfort zone was clearly more with the boy horny teenage geeks.

Martha MacIsaac (left) and especially Emma Stone (below, in my favorite color), as the objects of the boys' throbbing biological urges, transcend the sparseness of their parts, but the script doesn't give them much to build on.



Single-named actress Aviva (above) has even less to do and does less with it. Her role exists primarily as a celebration of her ass.

In the second place, you might say my problem is generational. For me, the coming-of-age film well, "came of age," with Revenge of the Nerds.

This woman has nothing much to do with anything, but dang, she's pretty.
But then, my nephew's dad is older than I am, and he thinks Superbad is one of the great comedies of last year...

Blue Room




(Ross Barber, Lagoons)

That caption is so dead-on it's scary


Create Fake Magazine Covers

(much love to PJ for the idea)

All I want...is what you want. I'm always waiting for a red letter day. For something special, somehow new, Someone saying "I love you..."

On the other side of the screen...it all looks so easy.

Patric M. Verrone is a once and future writer for some of my most-liked shows

Learn something new every day.

Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America West and a leader of the Writer's Strike, has credits including Futurama--where he wrote one of their finest, "The Sting," among others, and acted as supervising producer for the whole run.


He also wrote for The Critic and Muppets Tonight, where he worked on the episode I think of most highly: Guest-starring the artist then formerly but now presently known as Prince.

Note to Johnny B: Don't take hallucinogens before you look at this

Friday, January 18, 2008

So I watch you wash your hair. Underwater, unaware.



In all the places we were hiding love

What was it we were thinking of?



...Peter Gabriel

Eva Amurri...something, something, something, tit joke

I'm sorry but that's all I've got.

This is great

[Johnny} Depp spent four hours at the hospital telling bedtime stories to patients dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow.


h/t The Reluctant Optimist.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

My favorite color thinks as much of "Rory Gilmore" as I do



These are a few of my favorite things

something about all women...





paying tribute to my favorite color...

...and again...


and again...


in leopard print.

swimming underwater.


And in Astérix and Obélix vs. César.

All of the above? Laetitia Casta.

I suppose it's true, really, but only as far as it goes.



...since on the other hand I also like women like Milla, who would never be able to hold up a strapless evening gown.











Link: The Tits, Ass, and Cuteness Test written by chicken_pot_pie on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test
Curvy and Naughty
Raw score: 62% Big Breasts, 59% Big Ass, and 36% Cute!




Thanks for taking the T and A and C test! Based on your selections, the results are clear: you show an attraction to larger breasts, larger asses, and sexier composures than others who've taken the test.

Note that you like women overall curvier than average.

My third variable, "cuteness" is a mostly objective measure of how innocent a given model looked. It's determined by a combination of a lot of factors: lack of dark eye makeup, facial expression, posture, etc. If you scored high on that variable, you are either really nice OR you're into deflowering teens. If you scored low, you are attracted to raunchier, sexier, women. In your case, your lower than average score suggests you appreciate a sexier, naughtier look. Kudos!

Recommended Celebrities: Supermodel Laetitia Casta and Actress Angelina Jolie.


What if you held a wedding and nobody cared?

While it's true I'm no fan of Katharine McPhee's, I don't have anything against her, either. Not Katharine McPhee, the woman, who is hot and shapely and for all I know a very nice person.

It's her rabid fan base I think should be put down like the dogs that they are. It shouldn't take that long to round 'em all up, either-apparently, there aren't that many.

Which lack of interest is presumably why McPhee was turned down by In Touch and OK! magazines (among others) when she tried to sell them photos from her upcoming wedding.

Nevertheless, I certainly hope she enjoys her day. Weddings should be about two people who are meant to be together having found each other and declaring their love in front of friends and family, don't you think?

Please god, tell me that's not a euphemism.

In Riyadh today, the president participated in a traditional sword dance with one of the princes of the royal family.
From story headlined:
Exclusive: Bush Says 'They View Me as a Warmonger'
Yes, that's one of the unfortunate after-effects of monging war.

Pretty...

Definitive dialogue exchanges of film


Juliet Forrest: What are you doing?
Rigby Reardon: Adjusting your breasts. You fainted and they... shifted all outta whack. There.
Juliet Forrest: Thank you.

--In Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Monday, January 14, 2008

What happens when you open the wrong door backstage here at Dictionopolis in Digitopolis...



...or the right one...

...waving flags, that don't mean much to me. Black versus white, women versus men The power of the dollar and the price of the yen!



We have a vision of a future time
Where we all live in grace and pride
And everyone will have their say



And know they're part of the future way

We have a dream of heaven on earth
Where we all work together and know our worth
joy and laughter and love and affection
Will keep us movin' in the right direction.



HERE'S TO FUTURE DAYS

Scientists Test Dinosaurs Sexual Maturity

You don't want to read the report about the dinosaur Tailhook...

(real news item)

This is a comic page for PJ.

...and of course for anyone else who wants to look. Click picture to make bigger.

Cool Runnings

The following is self-indulgent, completely '80s-retro, almost quaint in its sexism and with a hint of lesbianism



What more do you want?

Yes, she can see you.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Love the Terminator, apathetic about the Chronicles

The best thing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has going for it is the decision to forget the plot of the third film. That movie was not just like watching a car wreck, it was like watching a Pinto get into a car wreck. So when I read of this decision beforehand, I decided to give the show a try. Maybe there was hope.

Was I right? Well, maybe a little yes, a little no. First problem as I see it is that I was most satisfied with Summer Glau (below, left) as the new "protector/terminator" I think because hers is the only character so far who's showing me anything new.

Glau actually manages to do some subtle work filling a part not normally known for its subtlety. I kinda wish that instead of putting the weight of the series on Lena Headey (right), as Sarah, and Thomas Dekker (center), as John, who are playing characters we've seen and loved before, they'd build more of the show around her/it.

But Headey and Dekker are good, especially Headey, and I'm not prepared, after only one episode, to say that they can't make us love their portrayals too.

BTW, Glau's character is cover-named "Cameron," as an in-joke; in a more subtle one, the FBI agent chasing the Connors is named "Ellison."

This series has a fight on their hands, but the least I can say for it is that it just might-might! be a fair one.

PS: Turns out Glau is from Texas. What is it with ladies and the water there? Kelly Clarkson, Molly Ivins, Amanda Marcotte, The Dixie Chicks, Linda Ellerbee, Summer Glau...

Random Flickr Blogging 3193



Jinn-De, the Jedi cat, waited patiently, light sabre over his left shoulder, for his arch-nemesis, the evil Boba Fachar.

Credit

Women who know too much.