trailers i liked this week.
1. The Intouchables
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2. Safety Not Guaranteed
colbert and the daily show.
Thanks to Hulu, I’ve become a faithful watcher of these shows again, of late.
The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
thug life.
When Geraldo made his insane comments about hoodies last week, I couldn’t even get my brain to the inherent racism, the excuse for violence, or the fact that he would go so far as to blame hoodies for the death, but not guns. My brain got stuck on how stupid you have to be to associate hoodies with any kind of violent image. I couldn’t even take the offensiveness of the statement seriously because Geraldo, and then O’Reilly (later agreeing with Geraldo), are actually that detached from American culture. Before I can even get my brain to process how obscene it is to blame an innocent young black man for getting shot because of the way he was dressed, I have to get my brain to understand how stupid the people on FOX News really are. They aren’t just racist, they’re flat out brain-dead.
I, along with every person I went to college with, wore hoodies almost every day. I did this because I was lazy, not because I wanted to rob a 7-11. My friend Lori, a physical therapist at a VA hospital in NY who is also potentially both the whitest and most conservative human being I know (barring her parents) wears hoodies almost exclusively.
However, then I saw the following photographic evidence, and decided I had hoodies all wrong. They really are nothing but glorified gang paraphernalia. Be warned, some of the images advocate a dangerously thuggish lifestyle, including nerds, adorable babies, world’s greatest daughters and more. See for yourself:
Chilling stuff.
my ideas are already taken.
I really need to get finished with writing a book, because if not my ideas will all be used before I can get anything written. Remember that moment in Mad Men‘s first season, when Pete Campbell mentioned arriving at the idea of Direct Marketing independently before realizing it already existed? Well, I need to get some ideas out in the world in some official capacity before everyone else arrives at them independently.
So far, the book I am working on slowly at the moment has had some troubling similarities to a few movies on the way. One of those movies is called The Seventh Son. They just released the first concept art for the film yesterday.
The synopsis is:
“In a time long past, an evil is about to be unleashed that will reignite the war between the forces of the supernatural and humankind once more. Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) is a knight who had imprisoned the malevolently powerful witch, Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), centuries ago. But now she has escaped and is seeking vengeance. Summoning her followers of every incarnation, Mother Malkin is preparing to unleash her terrible wrath on an unsuspecting world. Only one thing stands in her way: Master Gregory.
“In a deadly reunion, Gregory comes face to face with the evil he always feared would someday return. Now he has only until the next full moon to do what usually takes years: train his new apprentice, Tom Ward (Ben Barnes) to fight a dark magic unlike any other. Man’s only hope lies in the seventh son of a seventh son.”
Also, my book is called The Last Guardian. Here is a trailer for a Dreamworks film that is on its way, The Rise of the Guardians. It’s based on a series of books, and it seems like it contains a combination of elements from what I am working on now, in some ways, and an idea I had ten years ago about a cool idea to make Mickey Mouse more relevant for Disney again. In a lot of ways, it is a much more detailed, meaty treatment of Fantasmic!, having Mickey team up with a cynical artist on the verge of giving up believing, as they fight to protect childhood hope and imagination from a great evil trying to take over the world.
I have to admit, I actually kind of want to see this.
two more things.
Over the last few days, I’ve been able to join five of my favorite human beings in watching the following:
1. The Hunger Games
Right up until this film came out, I was worried it wouldn’t be good. I felt like so many of the previews and such I saw for the film was underwhelming. I was actually pleasantly surprised when the critical response to the film was so strong. Either way, no amount of poor marketing was going to keep me from seeing it, because I loved the books. Also, it must have just been me who didn’t like the marketing, because people are going to see it in droves.
Anyway. In my opinion, the movie was absolutely wonderful. It was a much, much higher level of film-making than I was expecting. It was smart, understated, literate, and coherent from beginning to end. I have my gripes, which will be the case any time a beloved book is turned into a film, but all in all I was so happy with the film. I was completely engaged from beginning to end. Great storytelling/filmmaking.
2. Mad Men, Season Five Premiere
I’ve seen conflicting responses to the most watched episode in Mad Men history. My response is that it was a really engaging episode. I thought it was funnier than the show has been in some time, as well as skillful in setting up the coming season without giving us a boring ‘set-up’ episode, as shows are often wont to do, especially after such a long time away.
Things are pretty good in the world of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, which can’t last. We’ve got three seasons to go, so sooner rather than later, shit’s going to get real.
five previously neglected things.
Five things I should have blogged about much, much earlier, but haven’t yet.
1. Assassin’s Creed III
Early reports are that they are finally reinventing the game, instead of just releasing the same game three times with different names. It’s odd that this trailer sort of gives the impression that the Colonies are the good guys and the British are the bad guys, but an interview I saw with a developer said that a big reason they went with a Native American Assassin is because it’s not a game about Brits vs. Americans, it always has to be a game about Assassins vs. Templars.
I really hope this game is good.
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2. Borderlands 2
Secondofly, another game. This one’s for Josué. This game is undoubtedly going to be lots of fun. Undoubtedly.
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3. 21 Jump Street
I wanted one thing, and one thing only, when we went to this movie: to laugh loudly and often. Wish granted.
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4. Being Elmo
As inspiring as it gets. A wonderful film.
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5. Lilith by George MacDonald
One of the best “fairy stories” I’ve ever read. It’s certainly dense at times, but each page crackles with wisdom and insight. The book is a spiritual treasure trove.
travel posters for lazy people.
Lately, my insomnia has been replaced by hypersomnia. It’s the sort of thing that happens from time to time, but this time it is lasting much longer than normal. I seem to do nothing but sleep lately. I’m never fully awake, always on the verge of sleep. It’s frustrating.
However, in honor of this, here are some awesome travel posters for lazy people I saw on the internets today.
[via @Caldwell Tanner]
teenage non-mutant ninja turtles.
It’s been a few days and I still haven’t written about how evil Michael Bay is. Rebooting TMNT and making them come from space as an alien race? Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles?!? WTF?!?!?!?!?! Then he writes a response to the criticism saying we all just need to calm down because we haven’t read the script yet? We don’t have to read the script to know you’re breaking this. They’re mutant ninja turtles. You can’t drop the mutant backstory from the most beloved part of our childhood and expect us to just be calm and wait for the script. Especially with you involved, Mr. Bay. There are loads of directors whom I would consider listening to when they told me to relax, but you? Really? Michael ‘I’m going to blow as much shit up as possible in slow motion and pretend that somehow constitutes a story’ Bay has the audacity to tell us to wait for the script? Was there even a script written for the last two Transformer movies? I’m pretty sure you just threw darts to decide what you were going to blow up and then handed off the results to a special effects company.
We were all terrified when you touched the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to begin with, you don’t get to tell us to relax.
Hey guys, I’m going to write a reboot of Fat Albert, but I’m going to make him white, skinny, and name him Jimmy. Then I’m going to write a reboot of Three’s Company, but I’m going to drop the zany sexual tension and replace the two girls and a guy formula by making the series about three dogs who live together. Also, I’m rewriting M.A.S.H. to take place in a Beverly Hills clothing store.