Apr

30

Stephen Colbert.

Filed Under Broadcast Media, Humor | Leave a Comment

Not having cable, I cannot allege with a straight face that I have watched an entire episode of the “Colbert Report.” But I can say with certainty that I find the motherfucker to have some enormously amusing antics. Take, for example, his speech and sketch at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. Awkward, quasi-mean spirited comedy gold. Gives whole new meaning to “so funny, they forgot to laugh.” Because that’s what acutally happened.

Apr

29

Trivia.

Filed Under Film | Leave a Comment

Know what the fifth highest grossing film of 1981 was? According to IMDb, it was a movie called Quest for Fire. And it starred a very young Ron Perlman in one of his first on screen roles.

Speaking of early on screen roles, the new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has an IMDb entry that is moderately revealing. Most of his credits are what you’d expect: “Fox News Sunday” (which he hosted), “The O’Reilly Factor” (on which he was a frequent guest, and even a guest host at one point), “Real Time with Bill Maher” (on which he was an occasional guest). But his earliest film role was, apparently, as “TV Host” in The Birdcage. The one where Nathan Lane, Gene Hackman, and Robin Williams put on ladies clothing and pranced around for an hour and a half. The American remake, that is. The French The Birdcage was a superior film. But I digress. Bush’s pick as the mouthpiece of the Whitehouse attached himself to a film about transvestite transsexuals and homosexuals a mere ten years ago. How far we’ve come.

Apr

28

Google Book Search and Fair Use.

Filed Under Law | Leave a Comment

This semester, I wrote a paper for intellectual property expert and visiting professor Malla Pollack on Google Book Search’s Library Project under the fair use doctrine. I thought the topic interesting, and I thought most of the efforts to date (see Google’s compilation of legal analyses) focused on policy questions rather than the result under current law. So what churned out was a fairly caselaw-centric piece. Nothing particular groundbreaking. But thorough. Or at least as thorough as I was able to muster in my last semester in law school where the paper itself was an academic indulgence, filling no school-mandated need.

Today I turned in my final copy. Having been told that “the paper meets the standard for publishable quality barely, if at all” by Professor Pollack, I’ve decided to throw the damned thing up on Yodelling Llama. See if anyone bites.

So, for your reading pleasure, I give you Google Book Search and Fair Use.

Apr

28

Alice and Viril.

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Recently watched an odd little film (Steven Shainberg as director, Mark Gordon as cinematographer, a young Angelina Jolie as actress, and an unidentified man as actor) called Alice and Viril. Depicts one of the all-time great screen villains. Or not. But it’s enjoyable, nevertheless.

[From Video Dog.]

Apr

28

C for Cookie.

Filed Under Humor | Leave a Comment

Beautiful V for Vendetta parody using “Sesame Street” characters called C for Cookie.

[From BoingBoing.]

Apr

27

She Wants Revenge.

Filed Under Humor, Music | Leave a Comment

I have never listened to She Wants Revenge. Dale listens to them. But I don’t. And I have never listened extensively to Joy Division. Or Interpol. Or New Order. But I still find David Thorpe’s new piece tearing them a new asshole absolutely hilarious. “She Wants Revenge is merely a ploy created by Interpol to deflect the ‘Joy Division rip-off’ criticism onto a weaker target.” Enjoy.

Apr

27

Play IMDb for me.

Filed Under Film | 2 Comments

I’ve been playing around with my IMDb voting history. I didn’t start recording everything I’ve seen until, perhaps, eight years ago. So there are some conspicuous absenses. And my feelings about films have changed with time, or with repeat viewings. So these ratings may not accurately reflect my current opinions.

But I downloaded everything to a spreadsheet. I found my average vote is 6.93. That’s pretty high. Partly it is because I tend to seek out only that which is recommended in some way–either it appears at the top of some “great movie” list, or that a friend has tapped it, or a critic I trust has raved about it, or it is connected with artists I trust–rather than relying on advertising. So that explains some of the disparity. But ultimately, I think I’m not rating low enough for the true stinkers. And I’m rating the mediocre too high. Perhaps I’ll endeavor to fix that.

I also found that, after examining the years of release, the average film I see is over seventeen years old. And you have to go back to the 20s before you’ll find a year without a single representative. Which I think makes me more schooled in older films than almost anyone else I know.

More analysis to come…

Apr

27

Channel 102 Roundup.

Filed Under Channel 101 | Leave a Comment

“We dropped the bomb on Saddam.” Another beautiful episode of Cakey! led the pack. The F-to-D+ transformation, the Neosporin, and the destructive fat-related self-image problems of the father all elicited chuckles. But I fear Cakey! may not be able to keep it up much longer. It’s showing signs of relying heavily on cliches, not just for the set-ups, but for the punchlines. A similar fate eventually befell My Wife, the Ghost; will Cakey! voluntarily bow out soon as well?

“All puppets carry around the letters of their names with them all the time.” Puppet Rapist just keeps getting better. Unlike so many 101 & 102 series, I’m genuinely engaged. Characters have motives. The plot has twists. Mystery abound. Huzzah!

Armed with a delightfully corny theme song, Sexual Intercourse: American Style is a reasonably effective effort to create a genuinely awkward moment. Is it funny? Sort of. But not laugh-out-loud funny. More “hunh” funny. If the awkwardness in future episodes increases exponentially, I predict a four or five episode run. If this is the best Mitch Magee can come up with…well, then look for a cancellation next month.

“The creature is driven by alcohol, and pursued by his sponsor from an anonymous organization.” Very low production values do not hold back the guffah-inducing newcomer The Incredible Drunk. A well-crafted, knowing parody of the 70s The Incredible Hulk television program, Drunk packs a lot into five minutes, notwithstanding its occassionally slow pacing. The “beekeeper” gag is fantastic, and the unabashed use of bodily fluids made me smile.

“Don’t worry about it babe. We’re in a totally monogamous relationship. So, that’s why it’s cool for me to see other people.” The “evil brain chip” development in 28 Day Slater makes the show more coherent, plot-wise. But I’m not sure I’m down the explanation. No matter. Again the “dream” sequence makes the episode, this time featuring a cheesy 80s nightclub and Boyz II Men. And they even took my advice and rerecorded the theme song with a nonmumblemouth singer. Very amusing.

The Outer Limit has finally ended. And I’m still confused. But it was a good run, and a better-than-usual closer, and I cannot disparage Karels and company for their efforts.

Apr

27

Don Knotts is Dubya.

Filed Under Humor | Leave a Comment

Chuckles abound in a rather amusing faux trailer for a biopic about the current U.S. president…starring Don Knotts.

[From Ocelot Slideshow.]

Apr

27

How I learned to stop worrying and love high oil prices.

Filed Under Politics | Leave a Comment

I’ve lately been reading an extremely informative, well-cited, and well-written blog on peak oil and alternative energy called R-Squared, written by a chemical engineer named Robert Rapier. [Get it? R-Squared?] Sort of like Andrew Leonard’s How the World Works with a narrower focus.

There are many great things about high oil prices, some of which have come up in R-Squared. The obvious ones, like stimulating demand for alternative energy sources (e.g. biodiesel, nuclear/solar/wind-powered water-to-hydrogen, etc.) and encouraging efficiencies are well-developed ideas.

What I’m somewhat surprised has been little discussed is the good that can come from chilling international trade. The labor-related and regulation-related savings one realizes by offshoring manufacturing only make sense if they exceed the additional cost of transportation. Say you’re looking at a company that makes shirts in North Carolina and sells them throughout the Southeastern U.S. That company now feels pressure from its competitors, who have been sending the work to Thailand and China. Its offshoring competitors have been able to cut the labor costs and safety regulation costs drastically by doing so. But they have to ship the finished product from Asia to North Carolina. As the price of energy rises, the cost of moving the shirts that far eats away at whatever savings are realized by manufacturing overseas. The pressure is reduced. The North Carolina company who continues to trade on the “Made in America” label is less likely to incur the costs of moving out of the country. Hell, they may even be in so much better a position that they’ll expand. This should please the antiglobalization crowd.

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