It's been two months and 190 posts and I'm having more fun with the blog than I imagined, but I'm heading out of town for a week. You'll have to live for a week without me ranting or posting videos. It'll be tough, but be strong.
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Have a great week!
Ferris turns forty in a new script circulating around Hollywood. Word is it is pretty good, but getting anyone involved with the original interested in revisiting the 80s classic may take some doing. A lot of bloggers think it's a bad idea, but I think done right it might be a blast from the past. Then again, I may just be looking for an excuse to see Mia Sara on the screen again.
So, what happens in the script? Ferris has turned his carefree "Life Moves Pretty Fast" motto into a motivational self-help career with best friend Cameron managing his business. Coming up on his 40th birthday Ferris takes off again, sending Cameron and others in pursuit.
The new scriptwriter envisions the whole gang making an appearance. Jeannie is married to the boy she met in the police station, Rooney still stalks Ferris for revenge (how sad) (but no sadder than actor Jeffrey Jones' real life), and Sloane Peterson is a Hollywood star going through a rough marriage.
So, what do you think? Interesting concept? Or major sacrilege?
If you should get big and famous at some point in your life, here is a piece of advice: Find someone who can say "no" to you, and listen.
Celebs who flame out seem to suffer from a problem: They think because they are famous, that means they are entitled to fulfill every wish and desire, no matter how senseless, dangerous, or ill conceived.
Take Lindsay Lohan and her "mother" and "manager" Dina. At every turn, Dina has backed her daughter no matter how reckless or damaging her daughter's behavior has become. I know it's hard to keep track, but here is Lindsay's 2007 track record:
If you can watch this video without feeling grateful for what you have, then you need a healthy dose of reality. This lovely little film is about an effort to deliver a water buffalo to a needy family in China. The family they select is four people from four generations--a great grandmother, grandmother, father, and daughter. The ending isn't quite the emotional outpouring you might expect, but the quiet dignity, gratitude, and incomprehension at the magnitude of the gift is very touching.
I listened to this video twice, and I still cannot figure out what this Miss Teen USA contestant is trying to say (and it doesn't get any less embarrassing watching a second time). Wouldn't it be a better world if we let smart people answer questions on TV and left the beautiful people to act, model, and work at Hooters?
The video has no explanation on LiveLeak--it is simply called, "Topless Tazing Training." It appears to be a military training exercise that involves tasering GIs. (Actually, I suspect this is really not the US Military, although the video is tagged that way.) My question is: What the hell does getting zapped by 50,000 volts train you to do?
Here's another good commercial that makes you stop and take notice. Take the All-Bran Cereal 10-Day Challenge, and you too could get stuff moving on a construction site. Thanks to J for sending this my way.
Ah, those wacky Mac guys and their anti-Microsoft videos. Who can get enough of them?
I happen to like my Zune (although I don't like the Zune online music service), but Microsoft is certainly not making much of a splash in the music player world with the Zune. The Zune is getting it's ass kicked up and down the block by the iPod.
Here's a humorous video that takes aim at Microsoft's tendency to copy Apple, it's stodginess, and it's habit of missing release dates. I'm sure this video hurts Microsoft deeply--they'll just have to take consolation in their whopping monopoly-like market share in computing and the fact their market cap is more than 100% greater than Apple's.
More evidence that Japanese Reality TV is so much better than ours: A man does a 35-foot belly flop into just 12 inches of water. Watch the video--it appears even more insane than it sounds!
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Why Mellow Thursday? The week has a head of steam, and you're probably rushing to the weekend. Time to sit back and enjoy a bit of mellow music to clear your head.
They may sound like a novelty act, but Apocalyptica is a great band. They just happen to be the world's only heavy metal cello band. This song is both powerful and mellow, and it demonstrates what an interesting and original sound Apocalyptica crafts. Enjoy!
Following this article you'll find an interesting and insightful video that conveys a history of the Internet as it moves from form to content to functionality, from HTML to XML, and from static to dynamic. It also attempts to explain the term "Web 2.0".
I hate the term Web 2.0. Yes, I understand it. There certainly are profound changes occurring on the Internet and to human communication, but the term reeks of magazine-selling headlines, sleazy sales pitches, and consultantspeak. ("Hey, don't miss the Web 2.0 bandwagon!")
The changes that some call Web 2.0 may be picking up steam, but they aren't really new. For example for many years now, eBay was allowing users to rate other users, an example of simple, facilitated social networking. In fact, eBay's entire model, providing an easy-to-use tool for facilitating bidding, selling, and communicating from individual to individual is a pretty fine example of Web 2.0 that dates back 13 years. For another example take Affiliate Programs, where a small site can sell products for a larger e-commerce site by inserting a few lines of code into their pages. Affiliate Programs are a great example of Web 2.0's use of the Internet as a sharable platform for data and functionality--and the first affiliate program launched in the mid 90s.
Besides, who decides which major changes represent the new version of the Web? Perhaps we should've considered the launch and success of e-commerce, a term which was coined in the 1970s but came into common usage on the Internet around 1998, as Web 2.0? Or what about the introduction and growth of broadband, a change which altered people's perception and use of the Internet and formed the foundation for today's more dynamic and interactive online experiences?
Another reason I hate Web 2.0 is that we humans didn't always seem so obsessed with labeling and categorizing things. Did color TV get called TV 2.0? Was Cable television the era of TV 3.0? Did VCRs usher in TV 4.0? If we consider DVRs, video on demand, stereo broadcast, dish networks, High-Def, and home theaters, are we at TV 9.0.2.3, Service Pack 2 now?
To me the changes we're seeing with social networking, data sharing, mashups, widgets, and the like are merely the natural extension of where the Internet started and always was headed. After all, while blogger.com makes it very easy to share information and create pages on the Internet today, many of us were doing the same thing via slightly more complicated means using HTML 2.0 back in 1995.
The reason we early adopters did what we did when the Internet first opened to the public wasn't that we were looking to "publish,"an old school term that makes the Internet sound like nothing more than a static collection of digital books communicating in one direction. No, we created those first, crude, Web sites because we wanted to exchange information and create new networks of friends and contacts. Sounds pretty Web 2.0, doesn't it?
Which brings me to my real reason for hating the term "Web 2.0," which is that it seems to be used by people who are just now waking up to what the Internet always was. These people love to grab on to any handle that permits them to sell a repackaged concept. They are probably the same folks who were throwing around terms like "the information superhighway" and "24-hour storefront" back in the mid 90s. Sometime around the dot-com boom and bust, they were trying to sell the Internet as something it wasn't by comparing it to TV, newspapers, or physical retail operations rather than recognizing it as the truly different medium it's always been.
So, if I seem grumpy about the term and the people who use it, it may be that they wouldn't need a new term if they'd understood the beauty and power of the Internet all along!
If you send a video like this to a friend who maintains a blog, he's gonna post it. Enjoy this fun, customized video starring J and S!
Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!
Could it be overly dramatic? Hell yeah! Did it sometimes feature an uneven mixture of humor and pathos? You bet! And did the characters tend to sound simultaneously too smart, too witty, too funny, and too contemplative? It wouldn't have been an Aaron Sorkin show otherwise.
Perhaps this clip demonstrates what was both great and weak about Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It's from the Christmas episode. Here's the plot: When members of the Studio 60 band start calling in sick, Matt and Danny realize they're doing so to provide work for New Orleans musicians displaced by Hurricane Katrina. So the two producers decide to feature a stunning and somber moment on the show (within a show) with Big Easy players performing "O Holy Night" before a backdrop of New Orleans scenes.
Would the Producer/Director really leave the set of a live show to declare his love for a woman? Of course not. Did Amanda Peet's mouthful of sandwich make the scene silly? Yes it did. But the scene is still more affecting and memorable than 99% of the crap that passes for network TV these days.
Aaron Sorkin, please stop playing around on Broadway and come back to television soon!
Click here to enjoy the clip from Studio 60's Christmas show. 
If you are about to fly, do NOT click here. Maxim.com shares their list of the 10 best plane crashes in movie history.
Top five things I learned from watching these clips:
5. Wear your damn seat belt or you'll get thrown around or sucked out the back of the plane. That's just plane good advice (pun intended).
4. If you hear dramatic music, get ready for the crash. All plane crashes are preceded and accompanied by dramatic music.
3. Planes almost never just crash--they usually first bounce their landing gear, wing, or tail dramatically off the top of a mountain or nearby sign before reaching their final destination.
2. Never trust an overly dramatic pilot. They'll just scream useless things like, "Mother of God No!", throw their hands over their face, and let the darn plane crash.
1. If you have to ask if you're flying too close to the mountains, you're flying too damn close to the mountains!
I also learned that the special effects for Lost's plane crash stand up pretty well against those big-budget movie crashes. (Do I really have to wait five more months to see another original episode of Lost?!?)
Having jumped out of a plane twice, I can't imagine doing what these two guys do. Within one minute they go from strolling through a university tower to leaping out the window to landing 30 or 40 stories below. Nice POV shot of the entire experience.
While there's nothing funny about what this guy is accused of doing (assaulting his 79-year-old mother), you gotta admit he finds a direct, quick, and foolproof way of getting the reporter off his front porch. I'm sure this will work for any unwelcome visitors. Give it a try and post here with your results!
Clearly, the stress and boredom in Iraq are getting to our men and women. This is one odd video, but I'd much rather our GIs blow of steam this way then taunting or harassing Iraqis (as we've seen in some past videos I've posted.)
When merely jumping from a plane isn't exciting enough, you might as well add a little something extra to your parachute jump.
I love that we live in a great big world of diverse people, cultures and languages. Really I do. But I expect the company to whom I pay $100 a month for cell phone service and wireless access to be able to respond to my question in my language--the primary language of the country in which I live.
I'm not racist, bigoted, or a closet Nazi. I just expect decent service!
I wrote to Sprint about their GPS service for my phone. My message ended, "I'd even seen a July date promised in some published materials. When can I expect to see this service being offered for my phone?"
Sounds like a simple enough question. I did not receive a simple response. If someone can tell me what the hell the following means, I'd appreciate it:
Thank you for contacting Sprint. I will be happy to assist you regarding the updates of your phone.Am I unresonable? Is it too much to ask that my cell phone company--which expects me to be literate enough to write them checks or use online billpay each month--employ people who can communicate effectively using English?
I appreciate your feedback regarding the same. I would like to inform you that I have forwarded your suggestion. You will get to know about the same from high profile promotions.
Thank you for emailing us. It was a pleasure assisting you and I am looking forward for more opportunities to serve you in future. Have a great day!
Politicians love to make statements. Most of the times, they make those statements with their mouths. Sometimes, they make them by passing bills that they know are unconstitutional but will help them pander to their constituency and get re-elected.
Such is the case of the laws many states and cities have passed preventing the sale of violent video games to minors. On the surface, it sounds like a swell idea, since we all have the vague and nagging feeling certain games are inappropriate for children.
But on a deeper level, these laws suck. And not just because they're unconstitutional (as evidenced by the complete and uniform rejection of these laws by Federal judges across the country.) These laws suck because they're "feel good" laws with dubious basis in fact or research.
Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, violence is part of childhood. It always has been. The bough breaks and cradle will fall with baby and all. Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the woods by their parents and threatened with being cooked alive by a cannibalistic witch. The witch poisons Snow White with a fatal apple. Bambi's mother is shot by a hunter. Scar murders Mufasa. And the number of murders and acts of violence in the Harry Potter series are countless.
Kids see violence all around them, so why should video game violence freak us out? Proponents of the violent game laws like to point out that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were avid players of games like Doom, but that's a little like saying they wore shoes--it's true, but it also doesn't distinguish them in any way from any of their peers.
Besides, games are just one form of media to which people are exposed, and that means anything can inspire the mentally ill to violence. John Hinckley, Jr. saw "Taxi Driver" fifteen times before attempting to assassinate President Reagan; David (Son of Sam) Berkowitz claimed the Hall & Oates song "Rich Girl" motivated his murders; and Mark David Chapman, who shot and killed John Lennon, was carrying the book "Catcher in the Rye" when he was arrested and referred to it in his statement to police.
Don't get me wrong--there are all sorts of violent media to which children should not have access. I'm totally in support of violent and useless games such as Postal being kept out of the hands of kids not old enough to understand or critique the intended humor of the game. I just don't think that's the job of the government.
Which leads me to an ironclad, legal, foolproof way to keep violent games out of the hands of children: Parents, don't buy violent games for your kids. If your kids have so much access to cash and so little monitoring of their computer usage, that's a problem; it's just not a problem the government should solve.
If mom and dad would exercise their parental obligations and rights, then lawmakers could use your tax dollars to solve real problems rather than focusing on passing laws they know will get struck down but will make them look and feel good.
One of the hottest trends online is "casual gaming"--games that are easy to learn, fun to play, and often make a point.
Here's an example: PETA's Super Chick Sisters.
What's it like? Start with Super Mario Bros. Substitute a chicken for Mario. Insert Pamela Anderson in place of Princess Peach. Oh yeah--and add KFC buckets dripping blood and animated protesters sharing info about KFC's abuse of animals. It's easy to play and enlightening!
Why do some people hate the word "moist"? Seems like a perfectly good work to me--especially when joined with the word "cake".
I accidentally typed Amazone.com instead of Amazon.com, and I found myself at the French version of Amazon. I was about to move off the site when a couple products at the top of the home page caught my eye.
My French isn't too good, but I'm pretty sure I can figure out what these books are about. Can you possibly see these products appearing on the top page of the American version of Amazon.com?
Funny thing is, despite our puritanical obsession with anything sexual, the country where these products topped the home page for anyone to see has a lower rate of rape, murder , and total crime. Maybe we should worry a little less about what people see and a little more about what people do?
Not sure what I'll learn from these books, but I think I ought to order Osez... la sodomie and Osez... tout savoir sur la fellation.
Some guys find Amy Winehouse to be a hot mess. I think they're half right.
All that talent and she can't hold it together enough to stay in rehab once she gets there. It's sad to see such talent threatened by self-destructive behavior. I loved her album, but seeing her is like watching a train wreck happen before your eyes.
I think I liked this song more before I knew much about Amy. Now, instead of being fun, it just seems kinda sad.
The September U.S. edition of Vogue (featuring Sienna Miller on the cover) is a record setter: 727 of the 840 pages are ads. 727 frickin' pages?!? For 113 pages of content?!?
I know, I know--to women who read this magazine, the ads are the content (which in itself is a pretty damn sad comment). (And obviously the term "read" is a pretty loose one for a mag with 727 pretty, glossy pictures).
To try to convey to you how many ads that really is, the following graphics demonstrate what 727 pages looks like. Each tiny cover of the record-setting edition of Vogue represents one page of ads in the edition.
All I can say is that Entertainment Weekly better not get any ideas!
I know, you probably thought you were listening to 2006's best-selling CD as you rocked to Nickelback's "All the Right Reasons," danced to Justin Timberlake's "Futuresex/Love," or got mellow to James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam." But you would be wrong--the real best seller of 2006 had sales more than 38% greater than any of those albums!
And you probably think you saw the most-watched, most-talked-about, can't-miss TV show this year when The Sopranos faded to black. But you're wrong again. Another TV broadcast drew close to 50% more viewers than Tony and his family.
So, what is this juggernaut that blows away powerhouses like Justin Timberlake and Tony Soprano? If you're the parent of a teenage girl, you already know the answer.
The soundtrack from last year's "High School Musical" sold 3.7 million units in 2006 to become the best-selling album of the year. And the premiere broadcast of the sequel, "High School Musical 2," not only bested The Sopranos, it also became the #1 basic cable movie of all time and the #1 TV telecast (broadcast or cable) of the past five years.
Now, maybe I should be happy that kids are watching wholesome TV rather than looking up Dirty Sanchez on Wikipedia. And, as a closet lover of musicals, I should probably take joy that musicals are experiencing a comeback (albeit with songs that would make Rodgers and Hammerstein vomit).
But here's the thing that gets under my skin: How did we allow kids to control so much of American media? Think about it. First of all, most kids don't earn a cent--they are entirely beholden to their hard-working parents to buy the HSM soundtrack and HSM posters and HSM dolls and HSM Dance Mats and HSM Panties and HSM novels and HSM Tees and HSM Backpacks.
Secondly, there's more of us than them! In 2005, just 27.5% of the U.S. population was under 20 years of age. By comparison, 35.4% were in the lucrative media-buying and -consuming ages of 20 to 44.
Thirdly, it wasn't always like this. Check out the TV ratings for 1970. Do you see a kid's show on the top ten list? Sure, family-friendly programs like Marcus Welby can be found among the mature fare such as Flip Wilson, Ironside, and Hawaii Five-O. But in 1970, kids controlled so little of the family's TV viewing that the highest-rated program aimed at children was "The Wonderful World of Disney" at #14.
So, if we adults outnumber them and most of those under 20 don't possess any of their own liquid assets, what's changed in the last three decades? Kids haven't changed, but parents have.
So, what do I care if parents want to shovel cash at their children? I don't, until those same parents want the government to provide the oversight they refuse to furnish for their own offspring.
Parents make their children marketing magnets by providing them so much access to media and so much authority over family purchasing decisions that advertisers take notice--then mom and dad petition the FTC to ban marketing to children.
Hey parents, here's a thought: If your 8-year-old child had no money and you stopped permitting him or her to rule your buying decisions, how attractive do you think your kid would be to marketers? People in the ad business don't get paid to invest in marketing that reaches people who can't purchase (or affect the purchase of) the product.
So, while I am thrilled families are enjoying the gooey and wholesome "High School Musical 2" together, I can't help but wonder what kind of world we're creating when children possess more buying power than adults. And what will it take to restore some sanity and balance to this situation? How about the word, "No"?
I had no idea the little "Walk" and "Don't Walk" guys hated each other so much.
The Tracey Ullman Show lasted only four seasons and has been gone for over 15 years, but it remains one of my favorite shows of all time. It earned four Emmys, spawned the Simpsons, and started Paula Abdul's career. (We'll forgive Tracey for that last one.)
Here's the very first Simpson short to appear on the show. Who knew these crudely-animated characters would outlast Tracey's show by decades!
Here's a great ad that makes you pay attention and makes the point the brand wanted.
I guess there's something for everyone on the Internet. Presenting the Virtual Shoe Museum. Yes, for real.
Apparently Mena shaved her head for a role, but you'd think after the Britney hair debacle the appeal of shaved scalps might've passed. Mena's does NOT get to enter the list of women who look better bald. 
This one is almost too amazing to believe. It doesn't look like any special effects were used, but it's hard to believe two guys could use bats to whack a baseball back and forth on a tennis court this many times.
I cannot imagine how frustrating it is for military personnel in Iraq. You're away from family and friends, it's unspeakably hot and dusty, you get shot at, cars you drive past may explode without warning, and it probably seems that few of the Iraqis are happy you're there. That said, we cannot allow boredom, frustration, or anger at the Iraqis or the mission to discourage our armed forces and permit them to start behaving like jerks.
I've already posted videos of soldiers launching a flash grenade at an innocent Iraqi standing on the side of the road and laughing about it, taunting kids with a bottle of water, and teaching children to crudely insult their country in language they don't understand. Here's another one that will make you cringe: Americans drag a Meal Ready to Eat (MRE) behind their truck and laugh at the kids trying to reach it.
I support the troops--most of them. But I cannot support the ones that act like this. The kids in this video are going to grow up hating Americans--and we know where that gets us. With behavior like this, are we spreading democracy and encouraging peaceful relations with the U.S., or are we doing precisely the opposite?
I hate Cold Stone Creamery. When you're standing there wrestling with which size to order, that damn "Like It" bowl looks like it wouldn't satisfy a six-year old, so you order the "Love It" instead and find it's enough to feed the six-year-old's entire little league team. No one needs that much ice cream in one sitting! (And don't even get me started on the "Gotta Have It" size.)
But what I really don't appreciate is the Dick-Cheney-like side of Cold Stone Creamery. They act more like Stone Cold Creamery when it comes to your health. Their Web site promotes the heck out of their products while shrouding their nutrition info in secrecy.
Check out the nutrition info on their site: They lie: "Your Health- Just as Important as Taste." Anyone believe that? Neither do I.
And apparently, neither do they since you can't find info about their creations. The Cold Stone Web site trumpets all their terrific Signature Creations, made from combinations of ice cream, toppings, candy, and the like. But you cannot find any nutritional data about these predefined combinations; instead, Cold Stone makes you go searching separate PDFs for nutrition info about the ice cream, the toppings, the waffle cones, etc.
Either they have standard combos or they don't--they can't have it one way on their "Signature Creations" page and another way on their nutrition page. Can you imagine McDonald's making you do the legwork to add up the calories and fat in each bun, each pickle, the ketchup, the cheese, and the meat in a burger?
For example, may I present the "Chocolate Devotion" treat? The company has no problem telling you it consists of Chocolate Ice Cream, Chocolate Chips, Brownie, and Fudge. What they seem unable to tell you is the total nutrition of this standardized combination of ingredients. With more legwork, here's what I found about their smallest size of that treat:
No, they're better than OK, but their song is OK. Really, the song is better than OK, but that's it's name: OK. (I feel an Abbott and Costello routine coming on.)
The video is great. That's not it's name; it's just great. Gives new meaning to Pop Up Video.
This is weird. A very strange coincidence just happened, and it demonstrated the different ways we humans interact with each other--even when under shock and stress.
Moments ago I was watching a viral video of an auto accident and its aftermath. I wasn't going to post it here because it's kinda boring. The reason to watch it is the reaction of the guy who was rear-ended: he gets out of his car and starts swearing at the guy who hit him. The driver of the second vehicle probably deserved it; he was obviously moving way too fast.
But as I was watching that video, I heard the sickening sound of metal meeting metal outside my window. Sure enough, an identical auto accident has just happened outside. A Honda was apparently moving too fast for the wet conditions and rear-ended a van.
What was striking was the reaction of the van driver. Even though there was modest damage done to his vehicle, he got out of the van, walked back to the driver who hit him, and comforted the guy who just struck him. I couldn't hear what was being said, but the second driver was obviously upset at what he'd caused, and the driver of the van reached into the window and gave the man a comforting rub on the shoulder.
Classiest thing I'll see all month; maybe all year. And as I watched this demonstration of patience and forgiveness, I could still hear the video playing on my speakers with the guy whose car was struck screaming, "What the #!$*" at the other driver.
Isn't it ironic, don't you think?
Exactly 25 years ago yesterday, the world's first compact disc was produced at a Philips factory in Germany, sparking a global music revolution. That first CD was Abba's "The Visitors," containing tunes like
