I take back anything bad I’ve ever said or thought about McG. On Monday, Kristin Kreuk started a multi-episode guest appearance on Chuck. You may remember her as Lana Lang on Smallville; coincidentally (or perhaps not) Superman Returns actor Brandon Routh has also joined the cast. On Chuck Kristin will be joining the Nerd Herd, which means she’ll be wearing their official uniform, which looks like it was stolen off a Catholic schoolgirl. I’ve never noticed that uniform at Best Buy’s Geek Squad, but then again I never never seen anyone quite worthy of wearing it.
Zachary Levi does his impression of me in Kristin's presence.
I hadn’t been keeping up with my Strongbad emails, but I was running out of nonproductive ways to procrastinate so I thought I’d catch up a little. Anyway, I thought his take on the state of independent/indie films today was pretty spot on.
Scaring misbehaving cats is hilarious. Using a bunch of technology to do it is even better. Be sure to check out the last video (dated 10-17). Hat tip to Masterchief.
Just a quick note that Half Blood Prince is worth seeing in IMAX 3D. I thought the last movie was, too. The difference is that instead of the 20 minute 3D finale we got in Order of the Phoenix, we get a 13 minute 3D starting sequence. Still, extremely well done. And I thought the movie was great, especially considering all the material from the book that had to be thrown out.
Oh, if you’re not familiar with Harry Potter, here are some American Dad clips that pretty much sum it up:
So about 5 years ago, I wrote about how you didn’t need to add your cell phone to the National Do Not Call Registry, and how rumors that the gov’t would allow telemarketers to call them were BS. Well, recently I’ve been getting calls from telemarketers on my cell phone, but when I went to complain, they wouldn’t allow it because my phone number wasn’t registered. There was no “this is a cell phone” box to check. Thank you, bastard politicians or shortsighted bureaucrats, whichever the case may be. So go register your cell number before they get you, too.
BTW, these weren’t 800/866/888 numbers, they were local (310) numbers I didn’t recognize. I didn’t answer, they didn’t leave a message, but I Googled the numbers and found them on 800notes.com. Pretty handy site.
Trent Reznor has written a very intelligent, thoughtful piece on marketing your band. If you want to make it in this relatively new world of rampant digital piracy, you have to approach the market in a different way.
Of the two, I found Kwaidan to be more memorable. It contains four ghost stories set in old Japan, filmed with painterly cinematography. I had always assumed they were classic Japanese tales, but I have just read that they were in fact “adapted from the fiction of Greek-born Lafcadio Hearn (a.k.a. Yakumo Koizumi, 1850-1904), who assimilated into Japanese culture so thoroughly that his writings reveal no evidence of Western influence.” There are scenes here that I think may have directly influenced Tarantino’s Kill Bill.1 If you are expecting The Grudge, I think you will be thrilled. Unless you (inexplicably) liked The Grudge.
I’m thinking of the showdown with O-Ren Ishii in the snowy garden. [↩]
“…the average I.Q. of a person in 1917 would amount to only 73 on today’s I.Q. test. Half the population of 1917 would be considered mentally retarded by today’s measurements…”
By my calculations, based on personal experience, I think we’ve lowered that figure from one half to about 48%. Good job, America!
But seriously, there are some interesting ways to trick kids into raising their IQ. And yes, a couple methods that don’t involve subterfuge.
