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The other day I got an email, asking for money to help put this ad on TV. Before I say anything else, you'll need to check it out here. (Go ahead, I'll wait). California Yacht Party Well, did you watch it? If not, whatever I say next is going to make a hell of a lot more sense if you've actually watched the thing, so take a minute and check it out. OK, so I assume you've watched it now. Got any idea what the hell it's trying to say? I know, because I read the email that came with the link to the ad. But do you? 'Cause, after I watched it the first time, I really wondered if anyone watching this cold would have any idea what the message was. (Yachts are bad? Republicans are into potlatch? Pretty people like to bathe in champagne?) Knowing, as I did, the point of the video going in, you would think I wouldn't have had to watch it twice to see if I could find the message. After that second viewing, I realized that the extent of that message was in the title car...

Must be my hater week, I guess. Last year, when CompUSA was shutting down all its local stores (it's nearly 100% online only these days), they were selling stuff off at some pretty deep discounts. Current software was going for 40% or more off, so it made sense to pick up Windows Vista at that time. I wasn't in any great hurry to upgrade, but knew eventually we would and I wasn't going to see any discounts like that any time soon. (Hell, they're still selling full installs of XP for nearly $200. I got the Vista upgrade for less than that.) So when I was rebuilding my PC a few months ago, I figured 'what the hell' and installed Vista. (AND XP. I may be brave, but I'm not dumb.) Shouldn't be too surprising to find that I'm still using XP for the vast majority of what I do, but I do mess around in Vista occasionally. Besides, Vista's the only way to get DirectX 10 graphics, and Bioshock DOES look incredible in Vista. But DirectX 10 graphics are har...

Generally, I like living in (and around) LA… there's a ridiculous selection of movies available every week, theatre to be found any time I feel the inclination, the beach nearby, and great restaurants and entertainment options in every direction. (The fact that I may only take advantage of a very few of these things in any given month does not obviate the fact of their existence, or proximity.) And the smog, traffic, idiot/irate drivers and other annoyances that come with living in LA are simply part of the 'cost of doing business' here. I'm a city boy at heart. But sometimes… I hate LA. The last time I felt this was when we last visited Seattle, and I discovered the Elliot Bay Book Company . Here, in the heart of Seattle, was this massive, multi-level book store, filled with books. Old books. (And new books, as well.) But a bookstore dedicated to the idea that reading is cool and that, if you look hard enough, you're going to find something you like. There was a hu...

This could end up a VERY long list, as I find myself less and less tolerant of stupid things seemingly every day. But you've gotta start somewhere, right? (And yes, I'm well aware that 'ending a sentence in a preposition' could well be on other peoples "tired of" lists, but "Things of which I am Tired" simply wasn't going to do it for me. But that's a discussion for a whole 'nother post.) There's an annoying trend I've noticed lately in radio advertising, which I 'affectionately' refer to as "idiot advertising". It's the kind of ad campaign where the 'spokesperson' or main character or what have you is obviously an idiot, and the real reply to every question he (inevitably it's a male asking the moronic questions) should be "you're an idiot. Hang up now and stop wasting my time." A recent airline ad featured a guy calling up to ask about the 'extra leg room' the airline offer...

I've posted about this before ( more than once , actually). And I joke about it all the time. So you're probably tired of hearing about it by now. But, despite all rational thought and arguments about empirical thinking and such, I am continually impressed with the way the universe conspires to slow me down. Take this past weekend, for example. On the way to work, I have the usual slow-moving commuters to deal with, the 'can't make a left turn over 5 MPH' drivers to sit behind, and a bevy of other minor annoyances as I try to get us to the freeway. But, just before we get to the freeway, I have to pull into the nearby convenience store parking lot to get something out of the trunk that Dani needs. I pull out of the parking lot onto a little side street that leads back to the freeway, unfortunately right behind someone in a driver's education vehicle. Now, since this is a tiny little side street, instead of a major thoroughfare, chances are good that if you get...

I mentioned this briefly in the comments to my previous "Haters" post, but found it interesting enough to want to comment further. In this post from the Strongly Worded Letter blog, the blog's author (one of the DJs from KROQ radio here in LA) quotes a number of people and their reactions to the poor performance of George Clooney's new movie, Leatherheads . The reason he quotes them, and the reason I'm interested in this, is the vehemence expressed in these opinions… the fervor with which they condemn Clooney as, among other things "uneducated," "arrogant," "talentless" and, rather mind-bogglingly, "misogynistic." (I'm not terribly familiar with the man's education, but listening to him speak, I can argue that uneducated is the last word I'd ever use to describe him, that he's arrogant only in that he knows what he believes and isn't afraid to state it, talentless is laughable, and I'm completely no...

Recently, on KROQ , they interviewed the guys from Flobots about their song "Handlebars" . Turns out, this is one of those songs that's got everyone lining up to either love it or hate it, without a lot of middle ground. And a lot of those that don't like it, don't like it because of the politics and a perceived 'attack' on the president. (The guys from Flobots acknowledge they assumed people would think that, but that their real intent with the lyrics, especially the last verse, was a far more general 'this is the way of politics' sort of statement, and not an indictment of any one man or administration.) In an article in Entertainment Weekly last week on the director of the upcoming film " Stop-Loss ," the article refers to a recent screening of the trailer which was greeted with "reflexive hisses." Apparently the mere notion of a Hollywood film about Iraq is enough to generate hate within an audience. So when did we become a...

Blogger added an autosave feature a while back. It does as the name suggests, and saves your posts automatically every few minutes, so that you're less likely to lose the thing if your browser crashes. It also allows you to stop mid-post with the intention of coming back later and finishing the post. This is where the problem arises… Turns out, I LIKE autosave. A lot. A recent browse thorough my 'draft' posts revealed several that I'd finished, or nearly finished, then left off without posting because they'd already been saved as drafts. In more than one case, the posts were done, I just never hit publish. In the interest of not letting these go buried, and not willing to move the dates up to something more recent, here's a few posts that almost never saw the light of day. Who knows… maybe that was a good thing. Cloverfield's excellent conceit David Chase is full of crap Niggardly

I know I've been avoiding commenting on the Pres. for a while. What's the point, I figure? He's done the majority of the damage he can, we've got less than a year left of his bullshit, and it just makes me angry to listen to the prevaricating asshole. So why should I pay attention and stress myself out, right? Sadly, sometimes I can't avoid it. Like last week, when the moron-in-chief was asked about recession and replied with the equivalent of "Recession? What recession?" Then followed that up with a reply to a question about $4 a gallon gas prices with something along the lines of "I haven't heard anything about $4 a gallon gas prices." Yeah, George, like we're looking to you for an informative grasp on the issues. But, while I can embrace the notion of blissful ignorance (hence my refusal to listen to the bastard for the past few months), even THIS moron shouldn't get a free ride on this stuff. Gas prices have gone up 45 cents IN A ...

I know I've written dismissively about Pinkberry before , but this really puts a fine point on it for me… "When a person buys Pinkberry, of course they're paying for the yogurt. But they're also paying for the experience of waiting in line— I'm trendy! —and for a seat in a Philippe Starck chair— I'm so sophisticated! " This quote, from a Fast Company article from earlier this year just epitomizes a 'substance over style' mentality that makes me want to run screaming from the room. Need more? How about this… But Pinkberry isn't about the yogurt… The story of Pinkberry's success is really about the chain's image as a design brand. "In my stores, I serve you a $5 dessert, and I let you sit in $500 chairs," says Lee of the Philippe Starck Victoria Ghost chairs in every Pinkberry outlet. "People can tell the difference." I want to stand in line because it makes me feel trendy, and sitting in designer chairs makes me soph...

Strange, and more than a little surreal. But kind of amusing, at the same time. garfield minus garfield

Jesus, Nader's at it again: Nader Enters Presidential Race Swinging What an arrogant ass. But at least we've got these comforting thoughts from Mr. Nader: …he said there's no chance that his entry into the race will tip the election to John McCain. He said Americans won't vote for a "pro-war" McCain. And he told NBC that if the Democrats can't win in a landslide this year, they should "wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form." I'm so relieved now to know that there's no way the country's going to lose it's collective mind again (or the Republicans find another way to steal an election, depending on your level of mistrust/paranoia). Ralph's just come along to be the voice of reason for the common man. Frankly, while I might agree with some of the notions he puts forth (corporate lobbyists have too much power in Washington, for instance), I'm not at all convinced that this pain in the ass is the guy to do anything ab...

MSN has a new radio ad campaign. It's fascinating in its complete lack of anything resembling cool and its blatant attempt (and one presumes failure) to connect with it's target demographic. All it takes to sum it up is two words: MSN Raps . Seriously… someone thought that doing a hip-hop ad for MSN's investment strategies was a good idea? It's not bad enough that it's painfully bad rap, but I swear they've bought a 60 second spot to showcase the travesty. It may only be 30 seconds, but it feels like forever. Somewhere in Redmond (or wherever the decision makers for MSN reside) there's an ad exec, grinning ear to ear over the thought of this ad campaign. It's almost sad to think that.  

Much has been made of the nausea-inducing handheld camera work in the monsters-invading-New York movie Cloverfield . Reviews recommending that you sit towards the back of the theater, especially if you're susceptible to motion sickness, movie theaters posting signs, recommending the same… and a huge second week drop-off in ticket sales that, one assumes, has more to do with the nausea factor than any bad word of mouth. Because, say what you will about the movie's overwhelming conceit , you can't say it's not an effective one. (See meanings 3a and b — you're choice as to whether it's fanciful or strained in this case will, most likely, stem from your actual appreciation of said conceit.) I, generally, don't care much for hand held camera work (as I've stated, more than once ). But I not only didn't mind it this time, I found it incredibly effective and a great storytelling tool. This time around, the camera work is more in the style of Blair Witch Pr...

OK, so I lied. There was a bit of order imposed on this list. Turns out, most of the movies I DIDN'T care for ended up on the previous list . This one's got the better choices. P.S. I Love You Not that we're necessarily starting auspiciously. Let's face it, weepy romantic comedy ranks slightly lower then standard-issue romantic comedy on my "must see" list. But Dani really wanted to see this one, and that pretty much trumps. I didn't hate this one… Hilary Swank is almost always interesting to watch, and there were a lot of other good performances. And yes, despite the weepy nature of the movie, there were some genuinely funny moments. Overall, not terrible for a movie I wouldn't be caught dead going to on my own. I Am Legend Now this is more like it. I had my doubts going in to this one. I mean, I enjoyed The Omega Man years ago, but let's face it… it doesn't age well. And it's been far too many years since I last saw The Last Man on Earth...

Seriously… this is the name of the next Bond film? James Bond returns in 'Quantum of Solace' According to the article, it's based on the title of an Ian Fleming short story. I wonder what Ian was smoking at the time. Oh, wait… The crux is the emotional phenomenon… the Quantum of Solace, the smallest unit of human compassion that two people can have. As long as that compassion exists, people can survive, but when it is gone, when your partner no longer cares about your essential humanity, the relationship is over. Ah, it's all clear now.  

The holidays being what they are… weeks of madness to get the shopping done, the house decorated, then cleaned for the party, wrapping all those presents &mdash as well as the day-to-day work/chores/rest… and the studio's insistence on releasing all their really big holiday movies in one big chunk, the week between Christmas and New Years became time for our own little movie fest. In no particular order, here's my thoughts on some of the pics we saw. Fred Claus I'm cheating a bit here, since we actually caught this one before Christmas, but it's of the season anyway. Not terrible, but I'm getting really tired of Vince Vaughn's man-child shtick. We get it, it's cute/funny how you refuse to grow up until confronted with the repercussions of that childish behavior, then we all learn a lesson as you step up and become the adult we all knew you could be. Been there, done that, more than once, and he's on the verge of becoming as annoying/irrelevant as h...

I've REALLY been trying to avoid getting political lately. ALl it seems to do these days is make me angry, frustrated, annoyed and a generally hateful individual. But let's face it, the '08 campaigns are in full swing, and the California primary (along with, seemingly, most of the rest of the country) is only weeks away. It's not like I've had too much to stress about right now. The Democrats would have to run the second coming of Josef Stalin for me to consider voting Republican, so I don't even care who they're voting for right now. So it's really just a question of whether I want to vote for Hilary or Obama, right? And then along comes Iowa. I've really done a fine job of ignoring those damn Republicans — yadda, yadda, John McCain… mumble, mumble; Mit Romney… Don't care, don't trust either of you, so I don't need to know what you're going to say. But then along comes the uproar about Mit being a Mormon (and his disingenuous "d...

We saw Beowulf this past weekend in the Digital 3D version. (There are three versions right now — Digital 3D, IMAX 3D and plain old movie theatre digital. Seems like an embarrassment of riches, and I wonder if they're tracking all three combined to get the movies box office each weekend.) We saw trailers for a couple of new 3D films for next year (including the new live action Journey to the Center of the Earth ). James Cameron's directing Avatar and Dreamworks has Monsters vs. Aliens , both for 2009. 3D is obviously the "next big thing". As I was watching Beowulf, I had some thoughts on this. Overall, we both enjoyed the movie. It's a big, fun, loud action/adventure with a strong fantasy element… right up our alley. It doesn't hurt that it's based on a piece of classical literature so there's a strong story to work from. (Let's face it, if you're talking archetypes, Beowulf's gotta top the list. In fact, during the climactic battle, Dani...

So last month I made the observation that I hadn't posted a word about the acting I've been doing recently. Since then, it's been over a month since I've posted anything. In that time, I've been on vacation a couple of times, seen a few movies and read a couple of books, played a good game on the PC… oh, and spent a week in Paso Robles, where we'd gone on vacation, while Dani was hospitalized with a blood clot. And it occured to me, as I was studiously NOT blogging, that it's really all about what's too personal. I blog about a lot of things I find meaningful. Or important. Or amusing. I'm often snide, sarcastic and/or cynical. And I don't feel any real compulsion to share those things that are more personal. I almost never talk about work (not just because I don't want anyone from work stumbling across any rants I might feel compelled to post) and certainly don't feel like sharing my feelings on that week in Paso Robles. So here it is, t...