Kseniya Simonova
Posted on January 31, 2010
Filed Under art, foreigners, video | Leave a Comment
Now playing
Posted on December 30, 2009
Filed Under film, video games | Leave a Comment
The pre-Avatar media blitz was something else, wasn’t it? Seemed you couldn’t pick up a magazine or turn on the telly without seeing a profile of James Cameron. When I read the New Yorker’s take on him, I got hung up on this:
“Creating a universe is daunting,” George Lucas said. “I’m glad Jim is doing it—there are only a few people in the world who are nuts enough to. I did it with ‘Star Wars,’ and now he’s trying to challenge that. It’s a lot of work. I do believe Jim will take this further out than anyone’s ever conceived of.”
That’s pretty heavy — Lucas has spent his whole life creating his universe; Cameron’s film is (far as I know) a one-off. In fact I never would have wondered whether Avatar would be the “next” Star Wars if I hadn’t read this — so perhaps that was a little gamesmanship by Lucas, perhaps he was intentionally setting the bar too high. Because Avatar is not the next Star Wars. It’s a good movie, certainly a quantum advance in digital effects, but it doesn’t come close to Star Wars in terms of complexity. Does it create a universe? Sure, or at least a planet. But the nagging question I had for George Lucas is this: Is creating a universe really so hard or rare? Films don’t do it too often — look back through the top-grossing films of the last few years and Avatar is, indeed, the first blockbuster sci-fi/fantasy since Revenge of the Sith in 2005. But that doesn’t mean there’s a dearth of universe-creating. It’s just happening in video games.
As I watched the opening scenes of Avatar, I felt like I’d been through this before — this was Halo, or Doom, or Bioshock. The intro was uncannily like a video-game setup. I couldn’t shake that feeling throughout — that Avatar was a good film that might ought to have been a video game. There’s no way to check this, but I wonder whether the critics and viewers who are so nutso about Avatar happen to be a bit ignorant about the state of console gaming.
Without words
Posted on December 30, 2009
Filed Under music, tv | Leave a Comment
It’s been, what — two weeks? — since the season finale of Californication aired and I still can’t get “Rocket Man” out of my head. I don’t particularly like Elton John, but this scene just blew me away. It was an uneven season, and I often couldn’t make up my mind whether I was watching one of the best of the HBO/Showtime bunch or one of the worst. Commenters at New York magazine’s site were similarly ambivalent about the season, but I was surprised how many didn’t like this ending. Compare it to the Dexter ending. Both Dexter and Californication’s Hank have been getting sloppy (actually, Hank started sloppy), and that sloppiness has finally bitten them in the ass. Hard. Dexter pulled a traditional last-second shock move — you think it’s over, and then it’s so not. With Hank, I never bought that it would be over, never bought that he’d actually get back together with Karen and live happily ever after. It was just a question of how and when it would unravel, and that unraveling was a banal event poetically told. With dialogue, it’s a confession, an argument, a physical struggle. The Elton John song puts the emphasis back on Hank: Things aren’t falling apart because Hank slept with Mia, who was like a daughter to Karen, etc., they’re falling apart because Hank can’t get the hang of this terrestrial life. The song elevates the scene, and for me, the scene has elevated the song. I really like it now. And the drums help:
Talk about your cats getting weeded down
Posted on December 1, 2009
Filed Under tv, wtf | Leave a Comment
True story: I was a little uncomfortable leaving the big NYC penis image at the top of the page. What if I didn’t post for a week or two — do I want this thing dangling there indefinitely? Like the old saying about wearing clean underwear in case you’re hit by a car crossing the street. So I did up a post on this video (below), which had me laughing out loud in the Starbucks the first time I watched it, and told Wordpress to post it the day after the NYC penis post. Then I check the blog today after the Thanksgiving hubbub has died down and — cool, big NYC penis at top of page, no sign of this video. Yep, NYC penis has been in the top spot for nine days. To anyone traumatized, I offer my apologies. This is still funny tho:
Anatomy of the city
Posted on November 22, 2009
Filed Under art, interesting images, new york, private area | 1 Comment
On the subway today trying to explain the MTA map to the curious kid. Looking at it anew, I noticed — not that I shared this with him — yeah, it does look like a shlong, doesn’t it? All in all it was a nice visit to the Upper East Urethra but I’m glad to be home in west Bozack. [Image from Subway Art Blog.]
OED WotY FAIL
Posted on November 18, 2009
Filed Under geek, unlikely, writing | Leave a Comment
The Oxford English Dictionary has chosen “unfriend” as its word of the year.
Problem: The term is de-friend, not unfriend. I have de-friended numerous people over the years. Twitter is a different matter — on Twitter you follow, and then when the person starts spouting a bunch of Fox News garbage you unfollow. But on Facebook and MySpace you do not unfriend. You de-friend. Unfriend doesn’t sound at all right.
That was my reaction when I heard of the OED’s pick. It was also Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes’ reaction. I hear he knows his Facebook lingo pretty well.
Drunk Ewoks
Posted on October 30, 2009
Filed Under drink, film, star wars, tv, video, wtf | Leave a Comment
Delicious
Posted on October 28, 2009
Filed Under art, food, interesting images | Leave a Comment
Flags made out of food at the Sydney International Food Festival 2009.
I knew it was bad, but … $26k?
Posted on October 28, 2009
Filed Under money, new york, recession | Leave a Comment
Bearer of bad tidings was Jason Buhrmester. If you live in Atlanta, buy his book — you can afford it.
95 (ish) yard goal
Posted on October 27, 2009
Filed Under sports, unlikely, video | Leave a Comment
95-Yard Soccer Goal - Watch more Funny Videos
-
itchy
