Friday, July 4, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Finally Dandy
Over 6,000 people have watched this disaster video. It's hard not to love YouTube, but seriously, 6,382 people really had nothing better to do?
Meanwhile, only 24 people have watched this awesome new commercial for Gatorade Tiger.
The terrorists have won.
Meanwhile, only 24 people have watched this awesome new commercial for Gatorade Tiger.
The terrorists have won.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Songs From the Bank. . . .The Blood Bank!
So it's been over a week since my John Adams freak out and though I'm still not completely calm, I'll give you an update on what's been happening. Since my last post I've been working on something major that will most likely take up a lot of time here on this site. I'm still perfecting it, but it looks like I'll be satisfied and post it next week. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but I am going to need your help with it once I put it up. It's interactive and something I've never done before. So get ready for all of that.
Aside from that, I should let you know that a question that I submitted to a pop culture trivia contest on Hey! Neilsen. So, why don't you go over there and take it because if you win you can get a bunch of awesome gadgets and stuff. I think my question is somewhere in the middle. It's the one about The Office (UK) trivia contest in an episode from the first season. Yes, I realize that I submitted a question about a trivia contest for a trivia contest, and yes, I also realize that I am awesome. Also, you'll notice that a bunch of actual real sites that update regularly and are legit put up questions for this quiz. Does this mean that maybe BN/IN is about to blowup and hit it huge-time? Probably not, but still it's nice to be grouped in with IMDB and TV Squad amongst others. Now I know Queen Latifah must've felt like when she was nominated for an Oscar in 2002.
Finally, to hold you over for next week, I present to you the video for the song "Girl, It's Alright," by the one and only Steven Seagal. I don't know if this video was ever an internet sensation, but I saw it for the first time today and I have to admit that it's really not that terrible. Smell that guitar!
Apparently, Seagal has now released TWO full length albums, and not in the late '80s or early '90s when when some humans actually considered him relevant. His first album, Songs from the Crystal City (which I think inspired the title for the new Indiana Jones disaster), was released in 2005. 2005? He was exclusively a straight to DVD guy by then. I guess Seagal wanted to focus on his music, because in 2006, his second album dropped, the awesomely titled Mojo Priest which featured such classic songs like "Love Doctor," "Alligator Ass," and "Talk to My Ass." Nothing beats a good concept album.
***UPDATE!***
The Mojo Priest promo video!
Aside from that, I should let you know that a question that I submitted to a pop culture trivia contest on Hey! Neilsen. So, why don't you go over there and take it because if you win you can get a bunch of awesome gadgets and stuff. I think my question is somewhere in the middle. It's the one about The Office (UK) trivia contest in an episode from the first season. Yes, I realize that I submitted a question about a trivia contest for a trivia contest, and yes, I also realize that I am awesome. Also, you'll notice that a bunch of actual real sites that update regularly and are legit put up questions for this quiz. Does this mean that maybe BN/IN is about to blowup and hit it huge-time? Probably not, but still it's nice to be grouped in with IMDB and TV Squad amongst others. Now I know Queen Latifah must've felt like when she was nominated for an Oscar in 2002.
Finally, to hold you over for next week, I present to you the video for the song "Girl, It's Alright," by the one and only Steven Seagal. I don't know if this video was ever an internet sensation, but I saw it for the first time today and I have to admit that it's really not that terrible. Smell that guitar!
Apparently, Seagal has now released TWO full length albums, and not in the late '80s or early '90s when when some humans actually considered him relevant. His first album, Songs from the Crystal City (which I think inspired the title for the new Indiana Jones disaster), was released in 2005. 2005? He was exclusively a straight to DVD guy by then. I guess Seagal wanted to focus on his music, because in 2006, his second album dropped, the awesomely titled Mojo Priest which featured such classic songs like "Love Doctor," "Alligator Ass," and "Talk to My Ass." Nothing beats a good concept album.
***UPDATE!***
The Mojo Priest promo video!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Airing of Grievances, Volume I - Sit Down, John!
"I've got a lot of problems with you people!"
- Frank Costanza
One of my favorite (if not my favorite) episodes of Seinfeld is called, "The Strike." To most of the world, this episode is famous for introducing Festivus as a holiday. During the climatic dinner scene, Frank Costanza says the above quote when it's time for the Airing of Grievances where according to Festivus tradition, you tell everyone in the room how they've disappointed in the past year. Since I feel that Festivus should be celebrated at least bi-monthly, I'm starting a new feature here at BN/IN where I air my grievances on things that bother me. Volume I deals with the new miniseries, John Adams.
John Adams is a seven-part miniseries that is currently in its run on HBO. The miniseries is based on the book written by David McCullough and is being produced by Tom Hanks (and others) and stars Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, David Morse, and Tom Wilkinson. As of now, four of the seven parts have aired, and I just finally watched the fourth part tonight (after it had been clogging up my DVR since Sunday). It should be noted before we get into things that I did not read the book.
Now for the Airing...
1.) Paul Giamatti: I want to start off by saying that I like Paul Giamatti, though I can understand why maybe others feel differently. Sure his voice can be annoying sometimes, and he's not the most attractive fellow around, but so what? The man can act. So, when I found out that he was going to be playing John Adams I thought it was an interesting choice and that he would do a good job. I was wrong.
Well, not really. I think that Giamatti has done a great job, but I just can't get past the fact that I'm watching Paul Giamatti and not John Adams. The reason? His voice. While it’s true that no one can know for sure what John Adams sounded like (unless there’s some written description somewhere that goes into pointless detail), Paul Giamatti has such a recognizable voice that I just can’t get past anything he’s saying and believe that it’s Adams talking. All I can hear is a guy dressed up like John Adams screaming that he doesn’t want any f**king Merlot (family site). Unfortunately, this has caused me to look past anything he’s saying, while at the same time ignoring the other things that makes him such a great actor, like his facial expressions for instance. As much as I like Paul Giamatti, maybe the role would’ve been better suited for a lesser known actor, one like Giamatti was himself about ten years ago. Either someone like that, or Mr. Feeney.
Side Note: I hate going the ugly route here because I really respect Giamatti, but it would’ve helped if I didn’t have to see his hairy shoulders from Part Three, or his sex scene with Abigail in Part Four. Why did they think that we want to see John Adams have sex? I think about 0% of the world wanted to see that. I already have enough trouble sleeping. Thanks, HBO.
2. Laura Linney (and her retarded storyline): Here’s another actor that I really like who I just don’t like at all in this miniseries. Linney was nominated for an Oscar this year (for The Savages) and has been quietly very good for many years now. I still haven’t gotten over how she wasn’t nominated for The Squid and the Whale, and who could forget her scrumtrulescent performance in Congo? I think I may be the only person alive who liked that movie.
As Abigail Adams, however, I just find her to be boring and annoying (though this whole argument negates itself if this was the intent). Everyone knows about the letters that John and Abigail would send each other when they were apart. The unfortunate truth though is that it’s hard to transfer the exciting world of 18th century letter correspondence to the screen (especially in a post-Ken Burns world). So instead they have chosen to show Abigail’s home life with her children while John is away either in Philadelphia or Europe. Here is a brief overview of those scenes:
- Oooh! Watch as Abigail and her kids get smallpox and then treat it!
- Try to contain yourselves as you watch the neglected Adams family tend to the crops!
- Hold onto your seats as they talk about missing their father!
It’s all very entertaining stuff, but I just don’t think America’s ready for it yet. Give us a few more years. We’ve only now just fully accepted the Pet Rock.
3.) David Morse’s prosthetic George Washington nose: Here now is a list of things George Washington is known for:
- Crossing the Delaware
- Winning the Revolutionary War
- Becoming the First President of the United States
- Wooden teeth/cherry tree
- His white hair and his identifiable navy blue or black outfit that he wears in all the paintings
- He invented the peanut
- His large and distracting nose? This one’s new to me.
I want it to be clear that I do not doubt that George Washington had a big nose. I’m sure he did. I’ve been looking at some of his portraits since this series started, and I guess it’s kinda big. I guess. Is it really important though to show this minor detail in the miniseries? David Morse is a tall man and he actually even sort of looks like George Washington. Why then was it necessary to give him a large, fake nose? Is an abnormally large nose what most people think about when they think about George Washington? Did the producers think that we weren’t going to figure out which one was the George Washington-esque character? It’s George Washington for balls sake! He’s the most famous President ever! He kinda had a big hand in the birth of this country. Who cares if he had a big nose, or at least a bigger nose that David Morse’s. If they dressed up Delroy Lindo in a white wig and put him in a navy blue suit thingy with a frilly white collar I’d know right away that he was playing George Washington. Why then did they feel like they needed to put a man who actually looks like George Washington in a fake nose? Unacceptable.
4.) The Continental Congress: Am I really to believe that there was no singing involved? I saw this documentary a few years ago called, “1776,” and the Founding Fathers sang throughout almost the entire thing. It really was more like a musical than a documentary. This miniseries tries to be super accurate with George Washington’s nose, but am I to believe that the Founding Fathers didn’t hash out the specifics of the Declaration of Independence while prancing around and harmonizing?
5.) The Direction: The way that John Adams has been shot so far has really, really, really bothered me. While they’ve done an excellent job so far with the art direction, set design, effects and lighting, there have been too many distracting shots that are either at a weird angle, use an inappropriate lens, or are blocked unnecessarily by an object like a fence or a railing. I noticed these pointlessly stylistic trends right away and it instantly took away whatever chance I had of enjoying the show out of the equation. It’s gotten to the point where it’s just funny now.
There have been way too many shots where the camera is tight on someone’s face at a slanted angle where everything appears on a slope in the background. It also feels that every establishing shot is used with a fish eye lens vertically. It’s almost as if they’re shooting John Adams as they would a graphic novel. This isn’t 300 or Watchmen (which already looks awesome, by the way). We’re talking about the Founding Fathers here – you don’t need to make them look cool. This is not how we want to see the men who formed this country (and again, we still don’t want to see any Adams sex). They are the one group of people that mostly anyone can respect and admire to this day without giving a second thought (or remembering slavery). I don’t need to see John Adams suffering through a sickness in Europe from the point of view of a flying bug. Just show him coughing and sweating in a bed and I’ll get the point. It’s John Adams were talking about here, not Batman.
6.) Three Things I’ve Liked So Far: To be fair, there have been three things in this miniseries that I’ve enjoyed after the first four episodes. Also, for the record, I will watch this entire miniseries. All seven parts. I can’t stop watching something once I’ve started no matter how many problems I have.
1.) Tom Wilkinson as Ben Franklin: Wilkinson really has been excellent so far and has been the most believable out of all the characters. He’ll win awards for his performance though I’m sure he’d rather have won the Oscar this year. Too bad Anton Chigurh was in his way.
2.) John Adams’ dinner in France: Hands down the creepiest thing I’ve seen on TV all year. These were some of the whitest and ugliest faces I’ve ever seen (and I’m not even talking about the makeup), and though I’ve never used the term Freedom Fries before, I might have to move over to the dark side and hate France just like the rest of America.
3.) Tar and Feather: The tar and feather scene from the first episode was really awesome. I don’t know how they did it exactly, but I actually believed that they tarred and feathered that poor actor. From all of the things I’ve seen and read about the these times it seems like there was always some tar and some feathers nearby. I bet you couldn’t walk five feet without seeing one or the other. They must’ve been the iPods of the 18th century. Back to the actual scene though, it probably would’ve worked just as well without the balls.
Wow, that's probably too many words.
- Frank Costanza
One of my favorite (if not my favorite) episodes of Seinfeld is called, "The Strike." To most of the world, this episode is famous for introducing Festivus as a holiday. During the climatic dinner scene, Frank Costanza says the above quote when it's time for the Airing of Grievances where according to Festivus tradition, you tell everyone in the room how they've disappointed in the past year. Since I feel that Festivus should be celebrated at least bi-monthly, I'm starting a new feature here at BN/IN where I air my grievances on things that bother me. Volume I deals with the new miniseries, John Adams.
John Adams is a seven-part miniseries that is currently in its run on HBO. The miniseries is based on the book written by David McCullough and is being produced by Tom Hanks (and others) and stars Paul Giamatti, Laura Linney, David Morse, and Tom Wilkinson. As of now, four of the seven parts have aired, and I just finally watched the fourth part tonight (after it had been clogging up my DVR since Sunday). It should be noted before we get into things that I did not read the book.
Now for the Airing...
1.) Paul Giamatti: I want to start off by saying that I like Paul Giamatti, though I can understand why maybe others feel differently. Sure his voice can be annoying sometimes, and he's not the most attractive fellow around, but so what? The man can act. So, when I found out that he was going to be playing John Adams I thought it was an interesting choice and that he would do a good job. I was wrong.
Well, not really. I think that Giamatti has done a great job, but I just can't get past the fact that I'm watching Paul Giamatti and not John Adams. The reason? His voice. While it’s true that no one can know for sure what John Adams sounded like (unless there’s some written description somewhere that goes into pointless detail), Paul Giamatti has such a recognizable voice that I just can’t get past anything he’s saying and believe that it’s Adams talking. All I can hear is a guy dressed up like John Adams screaming that he doesn’t want any f**king Merlot (family site). Unfortunately, this has caused me to look past anything he’s saying, while at the same time ignoring the other things that makes him such a great actor, like his facial expressions for instance. As much as I like Paul Giamatti, maybe the role would’ve been better suited for a lesser known actor, one like Giamatti was himself about ten years ago. Either someone like that, or Mr. Feeney.
Side Note: I hate going the ugly route here because I really respect Giamatti, but it would’ve helped if I didn’t have to see his hairy shoulders from Part Three, or his sex scene with Abigail in Part Four. Why did they think that we want to see John Adams have sex? I think about 0% of the world wanted to see that. I already have enough trouble sleeping. Thanks, HBO.
2. Laura Linney (and her retarded storyline): Here’s another actor that I really like who I just don’t like at all in this miniseries. Linney was nominated for an Oscar this year (for The Savages) and has been quietly very good for many years now. I still haven’t gotten over how she wasn’t nominated for The Squid and the Whale, and who could forget her scrumtrulescent performance in Congo? I think I may be the only person alive who liked that movie.
As Abigail Adams, however, I just find her to be boring and annoying (though this whole argument negates itself if this was the intent). Everyone knows about the letters that John and Abigail would send each other when they were apart. The unfortunate truth though is that it’s hard to transfer the exciting world of 18th century letter correspondence to the screen (especially in a post-Ken Burns world). So instead they have chosen to show Abigail’s home life with her children while John is away either in Philadelphia or Europe. Here is a brief overview of those scenes:
- Oooh! Watch as Abigail and her kids get smallpox and then treat it!
- Try to contain yourselves as you watch the neglected Adams family tend to the crops!
- Hold onto your seats as they talk about missing their father!
It’s all very entertaining stuff, but I just don’t think America’s ready for it yet. Give us a few more years. We’ve only now just fully accepted the Pet Rock.
3.) David Morse’s prosthetic George Washington nose: Here now is a list of things George Washington is known for:
- Crossing the Delaware
- Winning the Revolutionary War
- Becoming the First President of the United States
- Wooden teeth/cherry tree
- His white hair and his identifiable navy blue or black outfit that he wears in all the paintings
- He invented the peanut
- His large and distracting nose? This one’s new to me.
I want it to be clear that I do not doubt that George Washington had a big nose. I’m sure he did. I’ve been looking at some of his portraits since this series started, and I guess it’s kinda big. I guess. Is it really important though to show this minor detail in the miniseries? David Morse is a tall man and he actually even sort of looks like George Washington. Why then was it necessary to give him a large, fake nose? Is an abnormally large nose what most people think about when they think about George Washington? Did the producers think that we weren’t going to figure out which one was the George Washington-esque character? It’s George Washington for balls sake! He’s the most famous President ever! He kinda had a big hand in the birth of this country. Who cares if he had a big nose, or at least a bigger nose that David Morse’s. If they dressed up Delroy Lindo in a white wig and put him in a navy blue suit thingy with a frilly white collar I’d know right away that he was playing George Washington. Why then did they feel like they needed to put a man who actually looks like George Washington in a fake nose? Unacceptable.
4.) The Continental Congress: Am I really to believe that there was no singing involved? I saw this documentary a few years ago called, “1776,” and the Founding Fathers sang throughout almost the entire thing. It really was more like a musical than a documentary. This miniseries tries to be super accurate with George Washington’s nose, but am I to believe that the Founding Fathers didn’t hash out the specifics of the Declaration of Independence while prancing around and harmonizing?
5.) The Direction: The way that John Adams has been shot so far has really, really, really bothered me. While they’ve done an excellent job so far with the art direction, set design, effects and lighting, there have been too many distracting shots that are either at a weird angle, use an inappropriate lens, or are blocked unnecessarily by an object like a fence or a railing. I noticed these pointlessly stylistic trends right away and it instantly took away whatever chance I had of enjoying the show out of the equation. It’s gotten to the point where it’s just funny now.
There have been way too many shots where the camera is tight on someone’s face at a slanted angle where everything appears on a slope in the background. It also feels that every establishing shot is used with a fish eye lens vertically. It’s almost as if they’re shooting John Adams as they would a graphic novel. This isn’t 300 or Watchmen (which already looks awesome, by the way). We’re talking about the Founding Fathers here – you don’t need to make them look cool. This is not how we want to see the men who formed this country (and again, we still don’t want to see any Adams sex). They are the one group of people that mostly anyone can respect and admire to this day without giving a second thought (or remembering slavery). I don’t need to see John Adams suffering through a sickness in Europe from the point of view of a flying bug. Just show him coughing and sweating in a bed and I’ll get the point. It’s John Adams were talking about here, not Batman.
6.) Three Things I’ve Liked So Far: To be fair, there have been three things in this miniseries that I’ve enjoyed after the first four episodes. Also, for the record, I will watch this entire miniseries. All seven parts. I can’t stop watching something once I’ve started no matter how many problems I have.
1.) Tom Wilkinson as Ben Franklin: Wilkinson really has been excellent so far and has been the most believable out of all the characters. He’ll win awards for his performance though I’m sure he’d rather have won the Oscar this year. Too bad Anton Chigurh was in his way.
2.) John Adams’ dinner in France: Hands down the creepiest thing I’ve seen on TV all year. These were some of the whitest and ugliest faces I’ve ever seen (and I’m not even talking about the makeup), and though I’ve never used the term Freedom Fries before, I might have to move over to the dark side and hate France just like the rest of America.
3.) Tar and Feather: The tar and feather scene from the first episode was really awesome. I don’t know how they did it exactly, but I actually believed that they tarred and feathered that poor actor. From all of the things I’ve seen and read about the these times it seems like there was always some tar and some feathers nearby. I bet you couldn’t walk five feet without seeing one or the other. They must’ve been the iPods of the 18th century. Back to the actual scene though, it probably would’ve worked just as well without the balls.
Wow, that's probably too many words.
Friday, March 28, 2008
No No No No No NO!
Please stop re-imagining things! It only worked once and a lot of that had to do with Dwight Schrute. I guess I can always not watch something, but unless it's on CBS, then it's really hard for me not to. Children of Men is one of my favorite movies ever and I just hope it isn't ruined for me the way David Cook ruined both Eleanor Rigby and Billie Jean.
Monday, March 24, 2008
U Got Twizzerld!
Now normally I don't like competitive street-dancing movies (too ethnic), but I think I could get behind this one. Please enjoy the trailer for the upcoming, U Got Twizzerld!, starring The Twirl Master, Chris Matthews, and Ellen Degeneres in the role of her lifetime. I smell Oscar!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
T.G.I. Frigay's
Yes, I'm late on this, but I only got home Tuesday night. Plus, I finally have a good reason to post this picture.
There's nothing I can say that would make this story any funnier.
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