Saturday, September 29, 2007

Scutube!


Congratulations to Shannon and Tom, who got engaged on Friday. Nicely done, Tom. (That's actually Buzzy, not Tom, in the photo with Shannon. I don't seem to have any pictures of Tom on my computer.)

Posted by jwb at 10:11 AM  · 3 Comments   

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Kato! You have turned my apartment into a Chinese nooky factory!

Missy Peregrym is Canadian, in case you were wondering. I'll admit that I actually know who she is. Jenn forced me to watch that gymnastics movie not so long ago, and it was more interesting than I might have guessed. Its got Jeff Bridges in one of those "I need the money" roles and also Julie Warner--not seen by me since "Tommy Boy" (though I haven't really been paying attention)--as a hot mom.

Speaking of Canada, someone with too much time on his hands has put together a page of Hot Famous Canadian Babes. Monica Schnarre--haven't heard that name in a while.

The Nine Worst Asian Characters of all Time. This is BS--what about Kato?

In a sign of something that is probably diagnosable--mental illness, dissertation fatigue, boredom--I occasionally check Amazon to see if any of my favorite authors has a new book coming. Yesterday, I was wondering what Alan Furst has been up to and--lo and behold--The Spies of Warsaw coming in June of 2008.

I'm a fan of the oeuvre of Wes Anderson, especially the perenially underappreciated The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Anderson's new movie, The Darjeeling Limited, opens this weekend. I gather that, when it was shown at various film festivals, it followed a short epilogue called the Hotel Chevalier, noteworthy, according to various sources, because Natalie Portman's buttocks make an appearance. I'll just note that Natalie Portman's buttocks don't really do much for me, but in case you were curious about said buttocks, you can watch Hotel Chevalier for free at iTunes.

Posted by jwb at 7:13 AM  · 3 Comments   

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Cop Rock with Shelly Johnson


Welcome back to another edition of nonsequitur theatre.

Elisha Cuthburt--Canadian? Who knew? Also, Marty, you are correct. You are not very hip.

In other news from Canada, the US dollar and the Canadian dollar have reached parity. The horror! I used to think Canadian money was so cute. But no more. This means war!

I don't think it would qualify as a controversial statement to say that Jessica Alba--who, to my knowledge, is not Canadian--is pretty hot. However--in contrast, this may be controversial in some quarters--I've always thought she didn't have much presence on the big screen. Anyway, one of the dudes from Cinematical gets at this point in a review of Good Luck Chuck today: "As for Alba, she may be the dreamgirl for millions of teen boys -- or, rather, of pre-teen boys who sigh over their copies of Maxim and dream of one day being teens -- but on-screen she's deadly dull and exasperatingly stiff. Has Alba ever given a performance of any note? Or is she just a well-proportioned mammal whose fate and the insane nature of modern fame have mysteriously plucked her from a life of car shows and county fair product demonstrations?" Ouch! Discuss amongst yourselves.

So I read a review last weekend in the New York Times of Ben Macintyre's new book, Agent Zigzag. Like Macintyre's earlier books, it sounded very interesting--it's about a criminal turned spy during WWII--and thus I added to my Amazon wish list. I see on Cinematicalthat the dude's already got a movie deal. Holy cow! I'm not sure if this is good news, but Tom Hanks is involved. The guy from Cinematical asks a question dear to our hearts: "who do you think would make a good, womanizing double agent for this millenium?" We've touched on this type of thing before, but any suggestions?

I also see on Cinematical that some Hollywood pinheads want to remake one of my childhood favorites, The Wild Geese, with Roger Moore and Richards Burton and Harris as old geezer mercenaries involved in a war in Africa. This, I think, is potentially a good idea. However, until I see some evidence to the contrary, I'm assuming that they'll somehow fuck it up.

Oddly, Boston is currently over-run with movie stars. See here, if you don't believe me. Alas, no Eve Mendes sightings just yet.

And now to the question du jour: Are there any shows worth watching on TV these days? The short answer, sadly, is no. My original complaint about this was a response, to some extent, to the summer doldrums. At the time, the only shows we were recording on our DVR were new episodes of Weeds and old episodes of The Dog Whisperer--a very grim state of affairs, I would submit. Nick (cleverly disguised as "anonymous") and Raphy seem to agree. (Marty's problem is that he lives off the grid--which is hard to do in modern America. He needs a hand crank to get his DVD player working.) However, as Raphy helpfully points out, the new fall shows are about to start. Alas, the pickings are pretty slim--whatever that means. (There's a semi-helpful annotated list here at TWS.) I'm marginally excited about Viva Laughlin, but mainly because of Madchen Amick, who has been keeping a low profile since Twin Peaks (and who is not Canadian). Not so sure about the singing, however. And, like the Thighmaster, I heart Lucius Vorenus more than Titus Pullo did, but I'm not so sure about the time travelling reporter. Anyway, I've got to run, but I may have more to say on this pressing subject next week.

Posted by jwb at 11:15 AM  · 9 Comments   

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Bond 22

My sources tell me that the latest and, thus far, untitled Bond flick has begun filming. Daniel Craig and company were seen at a horse race of some sort in Italy--that's in Europe.

Also, this guy reports that the old guy whom Bond shot in the leg at the end of CR will return for Bond 22. I tend to agree with his observation that, while CR was brilliant, the villains in it were on the forgettable side.

UPDATE: I should also note that, according to my new favorite website, the latest authorized Bond novel, by the British novelist Sebastian Faulks, is due out in May of 2008. You can preorder it now from Amazon, if you're into that kind of thing. Says CommanderBond.net, "According to Faulks, Devil May Care is set in 1967 when 'Bond is damaged, aging and in a sense it is the return of the gunfighter for one last heroic mission.'" We can hope that it's an improvement on "Brokenclaw."

Posted by jwb at 3:19 PM  · 9 Comments   

Monday, September 10, 2007

Why doesn't Short Round call?


So the New York Times has this glossy real-estate section on Sunday. I see that there's this article about an apartment building in San Diego in which young people hang out with each other and, like, sometimes date each other and such. This is all presented as some sort of revelation, which makes me think the writer is unfamilar with a little show called "Melrose Place." Just sayin'.

In any case, one of the residents of the building is a young woman named Bethann Barry--no relation to me, so far as I know. I think to myself, "Jenn's cousin Tony dates a girl named Bethann Barry. Must be a coincidence." But then I turn the page and find a photograph of Bethann Barry's fridge, prominently featured upon which are several pictures of her boyfriend, better known to us as cousin Tony, which I thought was pretty cool. Tony, who is in the Navy, is in Iraq (or thereabouts) shooting at bad guys. Good luck, Tony!

Unrelatedly, methinks that the title of the new Indy flick--"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"--has too many words in it. Matthew Duss, at TAPPED, has some additional comments:
I can only suspect that the plot of the movie involves the getting of said skull. I must admit I'm still quite bitter about my own script being rejected. I think "Indiana Jones and the Search for Tenure" dealt with some important questions raised by the first three films, such as: With all of his swinging around in temples and shooting Nazis and being dragged behind trucks, when did he find time to publish? Surely Jones' global adventuring on the History Department's dime made him some enemies in the administration? Think about it: The Ark's in a government warehouse, the Shankara Stone he gave back to the village, and the Grail fell down a big crack in the temple floor. What does Jones have to show for all his time away, other than enormous expense reports, various scars, and a thousand-yard stare?


More here.

UPDATE: A reader at TAPPED points us to Indy's Tenure Bid Denial Letter (at McSweeney's).

Posted by jwb at 12:34 PM  · 2 Comments   

Thursday, September 06, 2007

I'll have a hot dog. A low-fat hot-dog.


Welcome back to nonsequitur theater.

In honor of the passing of John Gardner--among other things, the author of more Bond books than that Fleming guy--Raphy decided to read "Brokenclaw." The results were not pretty. (See the comments.)

Speaking of spies, in the wake of watching two-thirds of "The Company", I finally decided that the fact that most of what I know about the CIA comes from spy novels was slightly problematic for someone who likes to think of himself as at least slightly well-informed. Therefore, a week or so ago, I started reading Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. I'll have more to say about this fascinating book when I finish it, but the story is basically one shitstorm after another. Truly terrifying reading.

Speaking of terrifying, I feel like I should be reading the new Robert Draper book about our boy king, but I am afraid that it might make my head spin off. However, if you're in the mood for that sort of thing, Slate has some depressing excerpts here.

The TV situation these days is pretty grim. I was deleting old shows off our DVR over the weekend and was dismayed when it sunk in that "Rome", "Deadwood," and "The Sopranos" are all no more. To make matters worse, the current season of "Entourage"--which, while entertaining, is not in the same league as the shows just mentiioned--ended on Sunday. When the best thing on TV is "Weeds," we're in serious trouble. We were in such dire straights last night that we watched most of "Cruel Intentions" (starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Ryan Phillippe). My standards must be slipping, because I thought it was pretty good.

In related news, I've decided, against my better judgement, that Ryyann Philllipppe is actually a pretty good actor (see "Breach"--an excellent movie, btw--for one example). However, this does not seem like a very good idea.

In breaking news, chemcials in our food may not be good for us. Truly shocking stuff.

In other news, Canada becoming more war-like. Insert joke here.

That is all.

Posted by jwb at 10:06 AM  · 3 Comments