Wild Tangents » pop culture

OK….ok….I admit it, I was wrong

Marc — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:26:33 +0000

I know I talked bad about this show before it even came out. That was my mistake. Journeyman has been a joy to watch. I really like how they’ve woven the mythology of the time travel into the present day, how Dan’s actions in the past have an impact on his life and his family in the present. Plus, this is one of those shows that just makes you wonder what’s going on, much like Jericho and of course Lost.

I just really hate they’ve decided to cancel. I want to know what’s going on…..

Technorati Tags: 00′s, geek, journeyman, timetravel, scifi, tv

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
Visit my blog

Is an impressive press kit enough to go see a movie?

Marc — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:17:34 +0000

I have to say that I haven’t really had a desire to go see this movie “Walk Hard: The Dewy Cox Story“. It really seem a bit sophomoric to me and I’m a little gun shy after “Good Luck Chuck“, which while the previews didn’t imply it at, was an appalling movie. I have to say though, they have really put together an impressive press kit to promote it. The folks over at hitchmagazine.com got one of them and here’s what they had to say.

Normally, presskits I receive for new movies are just a boring little book of boring production notes with a CD of stills that’s not good for much of anything. Exception: the box just that just arrived for WALK HARD. I shudder to think of the cost-per-piece of this one. Photos of what’s in the “Cox Box” await you after the jump.

I doubt if I’ll go see this movie, but it’s still a pretty interesting press kit…

Technorati Tags: movies

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
Visit my blog

Dumb lawsuit of the day?

Marc — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 13:16:25 +0000

I must have missed this in my last visit to the greeting card section at Wal-Mart. Maybe that’s because it’s on the way to the aisle where they keep the gourmet chocolate. Who knows. Anyway, it seem that Hallmark has a new line of card that parody the celebrity of certain famous people, including Paris Hilton. Well, I guess Paris wasn’t too happy about a greeting card with her image on it. I think her image has been in a lot more places, but whatever.

According to the lawsuit filed Thursday, the card is titled “Paris’s First Day as a Waitress” and shows a photo of Hilton’s face on a cartoon of a waitress serving a plate of food to a patron. In a dialogue bubble she says, “Don’t touch that, it’s hot.” The customer cartoon asks, “What’s hot?” She answers, “That’s hot.”

The suit says Hilton owns the trademark “That’s hot,” which was registered on Feb. 13, 2007.

First of all, how can she register “That’s hot” as a trademark? I mean c’mon! Plus we get this little snippet which describes the complaints in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims commercial appropriation of identity, invasion of privacy, misappropriation of publicity, false representation that Hilton endorses the product, and infringement of a federally registered trademark. The damages would be based on profits from the $2.49 cards, said Hilton attorney Brent Blakely.

Invasion of privacy? In the way she has lived her life and allowed people into her most intimate moments, does she really have any “privacy” left? Besides, I don’t really understand how this is an invasion privacy. Of course I’m not a lawyer….

Yahoo also has a copy of the card you can view it here.

Now my question is doesn’t this really count as parody? I’d love to hear some input on what you think.

Technorati Tags: hilton, law, lawsuit, news, Pais, Hallmark

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
Visit my blog

This guy’s crazy! Scotty would take Harlan down!

Marc — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 03:20:44 +0000

According to Mr. Jay Garmon, Harlan Ellison would the victor if he and James Doohan got into a fist fight.

Ellison also makes an appearance and gets into it a little bit with Scotty in part 5, calling [Trek] ‘a cop show in space.’ I’m wondering who would win in a fist fight between the two.” Given Ellison’s notorious belligerence and Napoleon complex, my money’s on the writer.

I beg to differ. Mr. Doohan was a member of the Royal Canadian Army, landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and lost a finger in the fighting. I kind of think he would have been more likely to walk away without any limp after that fight.

Technorati Tags: rant, scifi, startrek, tv, youtube

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
Visit my blog

Watchmen comic fans, back me up here…..

Marc — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 13:10:51 +0000

WARNING: This post may or may not contain what could be considered spoilers for the Watchmen graphic novel and/or movie. You’ve been warned! (sort of)

Is it just me, or does this casting write up on Sci-Fi wire for the up coming Watchmen movie have a major spoiler in it?

I don’t think it’s just me.

Technorati Tags: comics, movies, spoilers, watchmen

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
Visit my blog

New Time Travel TV Show Journeyman – A rip off?

Marc — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 16:01:53 +0000

Now I just want you to read the synopsis froma story on SCIFI.COM about a new series on NBC that will be called Journeyman.

Journeyman stars Kevin McKidd (HBO’s Rome) as Dan Vasser, a newspaper reporter who finds himself inexplicably thrown back into different time periods within his own lifetime. He can’t control when or where he goes, but he seems to have a mission to change the future by affecting the lives of strangers in the past.

Now is it just me, or do I remember the first time this was on TV? Back then I think it was called “Quantum Leap“…..

From the opening dialogue Quantum Leap:

Theorizing that one could time-travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert, to develop a top-secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped into the project accelerator, and vanished…

HM….”within his own lifetime”…..”within his own lifetime”…..

HM indeed…..

If Journeyman goes down the path of saying that some external or supernatural force is guiding the main character through the past to correct things that are going wrong, then we know this really is a rip off.

Technorati Tags: quantumleap, scifi, tv

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
Visit my blog

Are you Lost in the Lost plane crash?

Marc — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:43:28 +0000

Lost is one of those shows you really have to keep track of. You can’t just start watching in the middle and expect know what the heck’s going on. To be honest, you can’t really expect to watch this show from the beginning and know what’s going on. But if you don’t do that, then you’re really LOST. For instance, the show revolves around an island. We don’t really know where this island is, but our heroes (or are they our heroes?) are survivors of Oceanic flight 815 which crashed on the island (or did it?). As new characters have been introduced over the past three seasons, you see the crash from their point of view. Well, it’s amazing how it changes your perspective if you look at all these scenes in chronological order. That’s what someone has made possible with the following video. I’m giving you fair spoiler waning here too. If you do not watch the show, this video could ruin certain aspects of the plot for you.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s even more after the jump…..Major spoilers ahead for that though.

Technorati Tags: accident, air travel, airplane, explosion, lost, tv

Another plot twist we Lost fans were presented with recently was the admission by Naomi that flight 815 had been found on the bottom of the ocean. Everyone was dead. Well, some fans put together a little video of news clips reporting this “discovery”. Keep in mind that this is not “canon”, that means it is not really a part of the fiction if that makes any sense. It’s just something some fans did for fun.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Gettin’ the yippie kay-ay fix on…..Only eight fifty

Marc — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 00:22:48 +0000

That’s right, this past Saturday i went out and watched the latest in my favorite action franchise, Live Free or Die Hard. And if Laura wants a review, she’ll get a review. It was a great ride too. It had everything you would expect from a Die Hard movie. It had action. It had humor. It had John McClane. But best of all, you got to see Justin Long get punched in the face. As an action movie goes, I could find little fault with this one. It was fast paced and kept you waiting to see what would happen next. All the actors were great in their roles. The exception being Kevin Smith, who was nothing more than a distraction. There was lots of humor, especially inside jokes. By the end of the movie, Justin Long was cracking one liners with Bruce Willis (the best of them).

The only other complaint I have about the movie (besides the presence of Kevin Smith) was that at times it was pretty obvious some of the dialogue had been re-recorded. It’s a well known fact that the producers decided to try and appeal to younger audience. Part of that was ensuring a “PG-13″ rating. I am wondering if the re-recording was done to help this. Excessive language can result in an “R” rating, especially the excessive use of one word in particular. They might have cut these out in order to get the “PG-13″.

Anyway, I highly recommend it. I thought it was good way to close out the series, until I head Bruce talking about possibly doing more. I guess we’ll see what the future holds.

BTW – I’m not the only “pseudo-cool dude” that liked it. Check out Thomas McKenzie’s “one-minute review” of the move. Better yet, subscribe to his “HajjPod cast”. It’s one of my favorites.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Technorati Tags: action, diehard, movies, yippekayay

Ocean’s 13….One cool movie

Marc — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:19:26 +0000

Suzette and I just went to see Ocean’s 13. I have to say it was a joy to watch. I can’ find any fault with it. Acting, story and filming were all excellent. It was just so entertaining. Like the two previous movies in the franchise, it really doesn’t take itself seriously at all and you shouldn’t take it seriously either. I wouldn’t really call it a comedy, but it was full of humor. With Al Pacino joining the cast, there were plenty of inside “Godfather” joke as well. I highly recommend this movie. Go see it it…..today!

Technorati Tags: movies

New Stevenote today….

Marc — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:01:51 +0000

Well, what an anti-climax today was. The only real big announcements made were complete duds.

First we have Safari browser for Windows. This has got to be the biggest “what were they thinking?” moment for me since Palm announced the Foleo. I mean really. I’m a die hard Mac user and I don’t use Safari. What makes anyone at Apple think that Windows users will convert in droves to Safari? Most of the people who would even have a clue what they doing by installing Safari on their PC would probably already be hooked on Firefox, or maybe Opera.

The other biggie was that there would be a way for third party developers to develop apps for the iPhone. They would have hooks that would allow access to functions on the phone. So basically the answer is that you can develop apps for that sub-par browser I just mentioned and that’s your way to put your own apps on the iPhone. My first thought was that it was a real cop out. My second thought was that anyone who develops…..at all…..would realize this already. I’m not sure why it was even a topic for discussion at this. It was jsut very disappointing.

A few other things of note were of course the previews for Leopard and some gaming news. The Leopard previews were really cool. I’m really looking forward to it. It doesn’t come out until October though. Apple recently announced that it was delayed due to having to shift some resources from Mac OS development to iPhone development. It makes me wonder where the resources to port Safari to Windows came from. The gaming news was that two major gaming players (sorry, couldn’t resist), EA and ID would start producing Mac versions of their games. This is a good thing. Even with the new version of Parallels that allows for 3DFX support for Windows VMs, I would still much rather play games in the native OS.

Overall though, I considered this Stevenote to be rather lame. To think, I could have spent that time getting a cavity drilled or something along those lines instead of sitting at my desk waiting for MacRumorsLive to refresh. All the Twitter conversation was fun though.

Technorati Tags: Apple, computers, development, macintosh, macosx, software, web

Another Heroes idea…..Jessica and Niki both have powers?

Marc — Wed, 23 May 2007 01:42:41 +0000

I posted something last week about Niki from Heroes. It was really meant to be a joke, but my buddy Mark made a comment that got me to thinking.

The producers have said that each powered individual on the show only has one inherent power. That is to say for instance Sylar has the ability to graft on to his brain the powers of others. Those powers he steals are not inherent to him though. At the same time, Peter’s empathic powers allow him to take on other’s abilities when he comes into contact with them. The point is though that both of them only have one inherent power. It also seem obvious that the specific powers everyone take on are influenced by who they are. For instance Peter’s empathy is something that is a part of his personality and the way he leads his life. Sylar’s ability to figure out how things work in another powered person’s brain seems to be influenced by his chosen profession as a watchmaker. Hiro’s power could well be influenced by his love for SciFi and comic books.

Now here’s the thing, Jessica and Niki are two individuals. They were twin sisters and since the powers on the show are genetic, isn’t not only possible but probable that they both had (have) powers? Hear me out… It seems that Niki’s power is some sort of super strength/endurance. I say it’s Niki’s because we know the powers are “in the brain” since Sylar “looks” at the brain to “figure out how it works”. We also know that Jessica’s body is buried, along with her brain. Niki’s power could’ve developed as a defense mechanism to her father’s abuse. I can see that. But what if Jessica also developed a power in response to her father’s abuse? What if her power was some sort of projection, something that would allow her to leave her body when she was being abused? Eventually she might have been able to enter someone else’s body. The first time she entered her sister’s body to protet her while their father was abusing Niki, she was probably surprised at how strong she was. She could have used that strength to fight off their father to protect Niki. The problem is that this made their father focus his abuse on Jessica, since he was probably now afraid of Niki and what he knew she could do to him. So what do you think would happen if Jessica was “projected” into Niki on that day she died? It’s something to think about.

Technorati Tags: geek, heroes, tv

What do I think of Paris Hilton going to jail? I’ll tell you.

Marc — Fri, 11 May 2007 17:37:05 +0000

In the long run, I shouldn’t really care. But in the long run when a celebrity does something so stupid that it endangers other people around them (yes even innocent people), I should care. We all should right? So I think she should go to jail. I do have to complain about them making an example of her though. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not like the whiners out there say, “They shouldn’t use her as a celebrity to make an example”. I think they should make an example out of her. These people that so many folks look up to as heroes exist on their celebrity status. Since they are role models, they should be held to higher standard. Paris got 45 days for doing something she have been given a sentence measured in months.

Technorati Tags: news, celebrity

Looks like it’s the end for ABC’s Lost

Marc — Mon, 07 May 2007 15:05:07 +0000

USAToday has the story of how ABC and the producers of Lost have announced the last episode, which will air in 2010.

The end is in sight for ABC’s acclaimed island mystery Lost, but fans will have to wait until 2010 for all the answers.

I actually kind of like this idea. I think it works for a show like Lost because it will give the producers a solid timeframe for building out the rest of and finishing the story. They have said from the beginning that Lost is not like shows like Desperate Housewives or ER in that they are here to tell a story. From the beginning, they knew this story had a start and finish. Once you reach that finish line, you are truly at the end.

It reminds me somewhat of Babylon 5. When JMS started Babylon 5, he had 5 seasons worth of story to tell. Keep in mind what I just said, I said “story”, not “stories”. He knew the basics of the story, including the end when he started. It had to develop overtime, but it still followed the same outline. The same seems to be true with Lost. I think setting a target end date give the writers and the producers the opportunity to the story on their own terms. It allows them to create their peaks and valleys in the plot as needed to tell the story right.

To be honest, I’m even more excited now than I was before hearing this.

Technorati Tags: lost, news, scifi, tv

Review of “Perfect Stranger”

Marc — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:02:11 +0000

This movie is easy as far as the recommendation. If you get a chance to go see it, don’t. The reasons for this negativity are not so easy to say. They’re easy to see, it’s just hard to say it. As someone who loves film, it’s just hard to say when a movie is so bad. But sometimes it must be said. This movie suffered for a horrible script, both dialogue and plot. It seems these days that a script full of expletives is always a good substitute for a good story. This movie takes that theory to extremes. Halle Barry’s character dropped enough “f bombs” to make Tony Montanta blush. Once the movie got started, well…..it never got started. It just ran slow as those annoying turtles on the Comcast commercials. I kept waiting for it to pick the pace and become exciting. I’m glad I didn’t hold my breath. It actually got slower at the end, which is fortunate since navigating the plot twists and turns gave me a bad case of whiplash. The only redeeming quality with this was of course the acting. Even with the horrid script, Bruce Willis and Halle Berry still gave outstanding performances. I just wish they had better material to work with.

Technorati Tags: movies, rant, reviews

More remakes to sour your stomach OR it’s happened before and it will happen again

Marc — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 17:14:12 +0000

I recently whined and moaned about the ongoing trend in Hollywood to remake everything thing that comes to mind while complaining about the proposed remake of “The Day The Earth Stood Still”.

Well, I am saddened that three (almost in a row) stories from SciFi Wire are about new plans for remakes. I hate this….

Goyer Updating Scanners

Yes, the David Cronenberg classic with exploding heads and Michael Ironside method acting is about to be ruined.
Get Smart’s First Look

Yes, the beloved 60′s cult TV show is about to be ruined.
Barbarella To Be Revived

As much as I like the band Duran Duran, I never really liked this one. But many folks did. It was a cult classic just like the other two one this list. For all those people that liked it, it’s about to be ruined.

Please Hollywood! Get a new sense of creativity!

Bonus cool points go to anyone who can cite the reference I made in the post title. It’s one of the few good remakes out there.

Technorati Tags: 60′s, 80′s, movies, scifi, tv

Random iTunes list

Marc — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 23:17:02 +0000

I’m bored…..But I haven’t been bored while in the shower the past few days. The way I overload myself with podcasts, I don’t get much time for music. Only the rare occasion that I am just driving down the street (too short a drive to get started good on a cast) or taking a shower (no, that’s not a rare occasion – the driving thing is the rare occasion) is when I usually use those files on the iPod that are considered “MUSIC”. Here’s a list of the last ten songs played. I’ve included ITMS links when the song is available. iTunes software is required for the links to work.

Getting Away With It – Electronic

The simple “electronic” melody and catchy lyrics of this one have always lifted my spirits and put a spring in my step. I don’t care what anyone else says about it!
I Won’t Be Home No More – Hank Williams

I love Hank. I wish he was still around.
I Have A Dream – 7 Seconds

Nothing beats an anti-racism punk rock ballad.
Games Without Frontiers – Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. This is one of his greatest songs.
Depression – Black Flag

Another punk classic, this one a little less upbeat.
Close to Me – The Cure

Have you ever felt boxed in, like there’s no way to get out?
In The Ghetto – Elvis

One of the most touching songs ever recorded. You really feel for the mother.
What am I Doing Hangin’ Round? – The Monkees

Yes, it’s a Monkees song. But give me a little credit. It’s one written and sung my Michael Nesmith. i am not afraid to admit that I love to sing along to this one either!
Mexican Radio – Wall Of Voodoo

Unfortunately iTunes doesn’t have anything from Wall of Voodoo except the album “Index Masters”. This means they don’t have “Call of the West”, which is the album this song was on. Bad iTunes! You are missing one great album.
Ich Bin Ein Auslander – Pop Will Eat Itself

Near the top of my favorite bands list is PWEI. This is a great song by them.

So there you have it. Feel free to make fun of my eclectic taste in music all you want. I’ve had this problem all my life, so I m used to it.

Technorati Tags: itunes, music

Hello Goodbye – Hello Beatles, or Goodbye DRM?

Marc — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 09:06:06 +0000

There’s been a lot of talk about the new announcement Steve Jobs is flying into London for today. Some have said it’s that The Beatles (among others) will be added to the iTunes library. Others are now saying it’s that the entire EMI catalogue will be added to iTunes “DRM free”. Both of these are significant. First there has been a long standing dispute between the record label founded by the Beatles called “Apple” and what was formerly known as “Apple Computer” that now calls itself “Apple Inc.”. The reasons for this dispute, while petty should be obvious, especially when you consider how Apple has become such a music powerhouse with the advent of the iPod and the iTunes music store.

So what’s it going to be? Will Jobs and EMI both put their money where their mouths are and go DRM free? Or it is the long awaited addition of the Beatles to the iTunes collection? Only time will tell and unfortunately I’ll be on a plane when it happens, if it happens. Let’s not forget that yesterday was April Fools Day.

UPDATE: DRM free music from EMI. get the scoop here.

Technorati Tags: Apple, geek, iPod, itunes, music, pop, tech

Lost – Expose

Marc — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 03:02:23 +0000

So…UM…WOW!

That was one of the most awesome “filler” episodes of any series I’ve ever seen. Just….WOW!

Did anyone else hear in the airport when they paged “Patrick Stewart” overhead?

Comment please! I want to hear what other folks think….

Technorati Tags: lost, tv

Maggie Gyllenhaal to take up Katie Holmes slack

Marc — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 01:47:44 +0000

According to SCI FI Wire, Maggie Gyllenhaal might be taking up the role of Rachel Dawes in the next Batman movie.

Maggie Gyllenhaal is in final talks to star opposite Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, the next installment in the revitalized Batman franchise, Variety reported. The news confirms rumors that Gyllenhaal (Stranger Than Fiction) was in line to replace Katie Holmes in the role of Rachel Dawes; Holmes dropped out of the project earlier in the year, the trade paper reported.

I guess maybe Katie decided doing another Batman movie would be against Hubbard or something. So they’ve found probably closest match looks wise, but they’ve also found a grat actress. Much better than Katie, who’s not a bad actress herself. We’ll see how it works out. But either way, Rachel Dawes isn’t going to make or break the movie anyway.

Technorati Tags: batman, comics, movies

Sit-coms, so simple cavemen could do them

Marc — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 20:19:10 +0000

It should be well known that my favorite commercials out right now are the Gieco caveman commercials. They use situation comedy to explain how easy it is to buy car insurance on their website with the phrase “So easy, a cave man could do it”. As it turns out they cavemen out there get a little upset and go on the news or talk to their therapists about it. These commercials are so funny and in a way endearing that ABC has decided to chronicle the exploits of these cavemen as they fight prejudice and stereotypes in a new sit-com. There’s not much in the way of details yet, but SCI FI Wire has a quick write up.

ABC has plans to turn a series of quirky commercials for insurance provider Geico which revolve around a number of indignant cavemen into a half-hour comedy pilot, Variety reported. Taking its cue from the ads, Cavemen centers on three prehistoric men who must battle prejudice as they attempt to live as normal 30-somethings in modern Atlanta.

The Atlanta location just makes it more interesting.

This one is either going to be brilliant or suck rotten eggs. I looking forward to seeing how it turns out and if Tina’s worth all the fuss….

Technorati Tags: Atlanta, humor, pop, comedy, tv