Newsarama.com score an interview with Marc Guggenheim one of the writers on the Green Lantern Movie. The following bits got me excited – zombie voice: must get every toy.
“Oh, yeah! Actually, Greg and I are wrapping up the draft. I can’t tell you anything, to be honest with you. That’s the funny thing with these superhero movies; you do tend to develop them in secrecy. Maybe I’ll get smack from the message boards for this, but I think that’s in large part to how, when stuff leaks out, people hear about it out of context and get upset. There’s always the concern on the part of the studio that things will leak out out of context and people will get upset and make up their minds before the movie has even finished or even starts filming.”
“I think Green Lantern has the potential to be a very highly regarded superhero movie. We’re approaching it with such respect and such care. And really, it’s written to be a movie that everyone who’s not familiar with the character can enjoy, but there are so many nods to things that I know the fans love and care about that I think people will be very happy.”
I am a MacBook Pro User and when I would watch episodes of Sex and the City with my wife, it would always bother me that the apple on her laptop was upside down and I would say to my wife. “You know they (meaning Apple) fixed that and she should get a new laptop”.
I always thought it was a flaw with the show as clearly her character would have gotten a new macbook/ powerbook when it came out. Well for the movie it looks like she has and it has it’s own web page.
If you will notice in the picture above she is using Leopard the latest version of OS X but if you click the link on the page she is not. The show creators have clearly have decided Carrie is not an early adapter – wrong, she is! When it comes to fashion Carrie is an early adaptor and so she would be up on the cool new technology.
I know I’m crazy … this is not the first or last time I will prove it.
You may have heard the song “Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop” by Landon Pigg under a commercial or floating around in the air from a radio station. If you dig it, you can download the MP3 for free (even if you don’t dig it, it’s still free) by heading over to a promotional website for the commercial of which it is the soundtrack. Check it
Newts and Salamanders are some of the coolest animals. They look like lizards but are amphibians and are kinda slimy to the touch. The salamanders that are by me have a solid body and are bigger then the newts. When you hold a salamander it feels so muscular it seems very efficient in it design. Some of my favorite salamanders look like they are smiling. aw cute. Newts on the other hand are light and kinda float in the water and look pissed off. Wicked cool. Legend says salamanders are created from fire. Wikipedia says:
” This connection likely originates from the tendency of many salamanders to dwell inside rotting logs. When placed into a fire, the salamander would attempt to escape from the log, lending to the belief that the salamander was created from flames.”
The Daily Mail is reporting a story of a couple in Wiltshire who’s house was flooded they have been doing renovations for 8 months and last week they were flooded again. Now they have found some endangered newts taking up residence.
“Yet the couple still can’t move back into the house – because the great crested newt apparently got there first. The slippery squatter was discovered when a blocked drainage ditch near the couple’s garden sent water coursing through the property again last week.”
They won’t be able to continue until a 3 month survey is complete. full story
Here is a flickr sideshow of Newts and SalamandersCheck it
There is a new Instant Message/Email/Social Network application that just rocks. An application that is so long to describe you would think suffers from feature creep… (that’s when more and more features just keep creeping in to the application) but it doesn’t. Digsby does a really good job of taking all the major IM networks (yes.. even gtalk) and lets you rock them all in one place. A nice feature lets you merge a contact that you have across multiple different IM networks with a simple drag one onto the other. I used Trillian for ages and I’m afraid Digsby and gtalk killed Trillian for me. It also has support for Twitter, myspace and Facebook so you see updates from your friends and lets you send updates to your friends. The way it is done is not cumbersome and it goes away when you don’t need it.
It does email. I haven’t used this feature yet I plan on turning it on tomorrow. I have had no memorable issues ( meaning if it crashed or acted wonky I don’t remember)and it is still in beta. One feature I wish Digsby had and if it is there I couldn’t find it. I would like to be able to send the same message to a group or a couple of friends by ctrl+click.
Currently it is only available for Windows but they are developing a Mac and Linux version.
I opened up iTunes today and in the new releases section has a new record from Bauhaus. Holy Smoke! A new record from Bauhaus what year is it? Well that was an immediate download. It’s called “Go Away White” and is labeled as a new and final release from the band.
Veronica Belmont and Mahalo Daily went to WonderCon and asked the attendees what should the be the next superhero movie. The most popular answer was the Green Lantern. As a big Green Lantern dork myself ; I too want to see this movie made. The problem then becomes will it suck ass like some of the superhero movies. It’s fun to hope, that it will just be the best superhero movie ever made.
If you want to know more about the Green Lantern and why there are so many check this out.
In a response to his girlfriend, Sarah Silverman’s video “I’m F*#@ing Matt Damon” Jimmy Kimmel had a star studded video “I’m F*#@ing Ben Affleck”. I can not believe who is in this silly video , I wonder how you get those stars. “Hey I’m doing a video about f*#@ing Ben Affleck and I’d like you to be in it.”
The new Apple TV is great! Nice User Interface and movie rentals are cheap and easy. Add in Handbreak for the movies you already own and this bad boy gets you all the media you need all in one place.
Blockbuster you are dead to me.
Future purchase of Eye TV and soon Tivo will be dead to me too.
Herbie Hancock just won the Grammy for the Album of the year for “River: The Joni Letters”. It has been 43 years since the album of the year went to a jazz record. The Chicago native also had a nice performance on the show with Lang Lang doing Gershwin’s - Rhapsody in Blue. Check it! $8.99 DRM free www.herbiehancock.com
TCM is running 350 different Oscar®-winning and nominated films from the 20’s – 2003. They are uncut and commercial-free. They started on broadcasting on February 1st and will end on March 2.
The web site also has a cool little video/audio player called DayORam with video/audio from some of the movies they are showing.
I’m currently reading (listening to) “The Audacity of Hope” so far I am enjoying it. The book is narrated by Barack and the best part so far is a story of when Barack had a moment with President Bush in the first days of being in the senate. Barack does a slight impression of Bush; I had to listen to it twice I laughed thru the first time. The story or the impression are not mean spirited just a very visual moment of the book.
I’m so glad the Giants won … well really, I’m excited that the Patriots lost. I thought they should have had to forfeit the Jets game instead everyone treated them like the golden boys of the NFL. The following is not always true but today it is:
Written and directed by Minchung Cho the above animated video is about a girl on the train taking a little siesta. With it being 7 degrees outside in Chicago I am right there with the main character. There is a better quality Quicktime here and you can find Ms. Cho here. I look forward to seeing new work from her.
The above video is a top 10 list of movie monsters and it’s nice compilation with background around each monster. It is great to see all the different monsters and brought back some fond childhood memories. The reviewer starts out with little energy but gains as the list moves on. Without giving anything away and not taking it too seriously I have to say that one of the picks kinda bummed me out. They went for the joke and without explaining the reason for the pick. I think they could have had the joke and still had a good list if they would have started with the pick I’m referring too. – OK so I am being too serious just enjoy some cool monsters!
Let me set the stage for you. I’m sitting in the kitchen doing some reorganization of an external hard drive preparing to use time machine. As I move files from the hard drive to the iMac I have nothing to do durning the transfers. So I pour myself a short glass of Patron (silver) and jump into iTunes to look for something to fill the void. What I discovered is a well written show about an asshole who is too funny not to like but at the same time a sad person. David Duchovny does a great job as Hank, I totally forgot I was watching Mulder. I know I’m a little late to the Californication party but I’m glad I deiced to put some pants on, get in the car and go. Well worth the 1.99 for the pilot and I’ll be spending the $22 to get the rest of the season. I say check it out.
Sami Rami and ABC have agreed to creating a series due out this fall. The series is based on Goodkind’s best-selling epic fantasy series “The Sword of Truth” and will be named “Wizard’s First Rule”.
“Raimi called Goodkind a “brilliant author” and said he’s a big fan of the books, which he read with his family.”
“In discussing these incredible story lines and rich characters with my friends and partners Robert Tapert and Josh Donen, we agreed that ‘Wizard’s First Rule’ would make an amazing television series — one that could be produced with compelling, self-contained episodes,” Raimi said.”
The Point has come up with an idea to save us from the bad weather in Chicago.
“The answer is simple: we must build a dome around Chicago.”
Yep that’s right build a GIANT retractable dome. I have always said Chicago would be the best place in the world if it were not for the winter. It would be great 70 degree weather year round, we could open it up around Christmas, but only if snow is in the forecast keeping the white Christmas tradition.
I think it’s a way to get people talking about the site (well I fell for it). The site is designed to get groups of people to commit to an idea before the idea is put into action. So they are looking for people to pledge money, they think it will cost $10 billion dollars. Would you want a dome and how much is it worth to you?
The site has a bunch of Q /A and this is the best one:
“How do I get in and out of the dome? The same way you get in and out of Chicago now. There will be holes all over the place, including airplane shaped holes in the sky.”
The FCC has proposed to fine ABC $1.4 million for the broadcast of the scene above. It is from NYPD Blue from 2003…. WTF? Why did it take almost 5 years to figure out they should do something? I like my math of a dollar value per cheek but the FCC has their own way of coming up with the fee.
“Fifty-two broadcasters in the Central and Mountain time zones were cited for the broadcast; Eastern and Pacific zones aired the episode after 10 p.m. and thus were not subject to fines.
The FCC calculated the fine by applying the fee of $27,500 per infraction — the fee operative in 2003 — to the 52 stations. Congress has since raised the per-infraction fee to $325,000.”
Update: Ha! On YouTube (Views:1,356,390) the video has been viewed more now than when it was originally.
My son has his first pinewood derby tomorrow and we built a Yellow Submarine car so I thought I share a little Beatles. Yes he loves The Beatles and probably knows more Beatles tunes than I do and he is 6.
Edward Tufte is a data display guru who is widely known for criticizing the way most people use power point to communicate information. Here is what Wikipedia has to say:
“He is an expert in the presentation of informational graphics such as charts and diagrams, and is a fellow of the American Statistical Association. Tufte has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences.
Tufte lives in Cheshire, Connecticut. He periodically travels around the United States to offer one-day workshops on data presentation and information graphics.”
I went to one of his workshops and I recommend it.
The bubblegum sequencer is really fun and I cool way for kids to play with music. The whole bubblegum aspect is fun and inviting but after watching them put their hands all over the gum, I have 1 question. Who would want to eat it!? -yuck
The last time I cared what stamps looked like I was 10 years old but recently I have enjoyed the new stamps. Perhaps it’s the lost art of sending a real letter or USPS is making cooler looking stamps or maybe I’m getting old. Coming out this summer are the Charles and Ray Eames Stamps.
“In recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts, designers Charles and Ray Eames will be honored next summer with a pane of 16 stamps designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. If you’ve ever sat in a stackable molded chair, you’ve experienced their creativity. Perhaps best known for their furniture, the Eameses were husband and wife as well as design partners. Their extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public.”
So you haven’t seen the keynote. You didn’t have 3 screens watching the live blogging( for me Gizmodo was the only one that didn’t go down). Veronica and the gang at Mahalo have come to your rescue and put together a 60 sec version.
“David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a shape-shifting cuttlefish, a pair of fighting squid, and a mesmerizing gallery of bioluminescent fish that light up the blackest depths of the ocean.”
We just rocked out a wonderful birthday party Hello Kitty style. I found some great sites with the craziest hello kitty merchandise and tattoos and guns and images.
tvparadise.org is a nice hack to the private Hulu beta, they are using a feature from Hulu that allows the users to embed videos into other webpages…see below.Hulu describes themselves as:” Hulu, you’ll find a vast selection of premium programming across all genres and content types including hit shows, movies, clips and more” It has a good selection of stuff and it’s a complete rip off Hulu’s user interface. I would guess these guys will disappear after Hulu opens. Below are embed versions of Sideways (the movie) and Firefly(pilot) just for fun.Update:Sidways has disapeared and so has tvparadise.org. If you are looking for another source for Hulu content check out openhulu.com
I want to do this. I don’t have a need but it is just so cool.
“Using infrared (IR) light pens and the Wii Remote, it is possible to create very low-cost multi-point interactive whiteboards and multi-point tablet displays. Johnny Chung Lee, Carnegie Mellon University. The software can be downloaded at http://johnnylee.net “
Marvel has put up 250 comics online for free (for a limited time).
“Our Digital Comics feature your favorite superheroes in a new easy-to-read online format that you can read from any computer that’s connected to the internet. There’s no need to download any special software. We’ve even removed the ads”
I think free is the right price, they should keep the ads in the comic and give away back issues. I don’t see paying $5 or $10 a month for this service.
