Other than Fantasy Baseball, that is.
This link features a streaming video of singing World of Warcraft characters answering that very question. Don't worry if you don't like massive multiplayer online video games, that isn't a pre-requisite to enjoying this film. What is required is a tolerance for blue language, so if you are a child or easily offended avoid the link.
Quick answer...The internet is for porn.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Fantasy Baseball Time!!!
Anyone who is interested in joining Cinerati's fantasy baseball team...leave a message in the comments section.
Crazy Kill Bill Parody!
This is why I love the Interwebosphere!
Monday's article discussed the upcoming CBS/Aardman Animations production Creature Comforts. I am running through my, four times and hour, check to see if Cinerati has had any visitors/comments and lo and behold I have a comment!
Only I have no idea what it says. I don't speak Spanish or Portuguese, and I can't really tell the difference between the two when written, so you'll have to translate yourself.
I have never received spam in the haloscan hosted comments before, the comments appeared to have the words "animation and 3D", and the commentator had left a kind emoticon, so I clicked onto Azusa's homepage.
What I found there was one of the bright spots in my day. It appears that Azusa is working on an animated parody of Kill Bill entitled Bill Kill. Anyway, it features a superdeformed rendition of Uma that has to be seen to be believed.
Azusa, and your assistant P Chan (an entertaining character from Ranma 1/2, thanks for stopping by Cinerati.
Monday's article discussed the upcoming CBS/Aardman Animations production Creature Comforts. I am running through my, four times and hour, check to see if Cinerati has had any visitors/comments and lo and behold I have a comment!
Only I have no idea what it says. I don't speak Spanish or Portuguese, and I can't really tell the difference between the two when written, so you'll have to translate yourself.
Uiss, qué chuloo, qué buena pinta tiene, mola la animación aunque sea con plastilina en lugar de 3d
^_^
I have never received spam in the haloscan hosted comments before, the comments appeared to have the words "animation and 3D", and the commentator had left a kind emoticon, so I clicked onto Azusa's homepage.
What I found there was one of the bright spots in my day. It appears that Azusa is working on an animated parody of Kill Bill entitled Bill Kill. Anyway, it features a superdeformed rendition of Uma that has to be seen to be believed.
Azusa, and your assistant P Chan (an entertaining character from Ranma 1/2, thanks for stopping by Cinerati.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Blogging the Black Dahlia
As I mentioned in my post discussing my recent car break-in, I attended an LA Press Club event discussing the Black Dahlia murders. Donald Wolfe, the author of The Black Dahlia Files discussed his thesis while attempting to maintain enough mystery to convince the audience to purchase the book. Cathy Seipp, among others, was not convinced of Wolfe's conclusions, but still wanted to read the book. I purchased the book for future reference, but I lack the expertise to critique the book even after I finish reading it.
Larry Harnisch, on the other hand, seems to have the expertise and the time to give a detailed critique of the book and its arguments. Since February 3rd, he has been "blogging the book," and it has made for and interesting experience. Only one problem, if you don't read it regularly the "recent post" functionality of blogger lists the articles in reverse order. So...I thought I would give you the links of the first few in the order they were written.
Quick warning, Larry has only reached page 7 in his critique so get ready for some serious nitpicking.
Larry Harnisch, on the other hand, seems to have the expertise and the time to give a detailed critique of the book and its arguments. Since February 3rd, he has been "blogging the book," and it has made for and interesting experience. Only one problem, if you don't read it regularly the "recent post" functionality of blogger lists the articles in reverse order. So...I thought I would give you the links of the first few in the order they were written.
- Blogging the Wolfe Book
- Blogging the Wolfe Book, "The Monster"
- Blogging the Wolfe Book, Extra! Extra!
- Blogging the Wolfe Book, Sniff Test
- Blogging the Wolfe Book, the Boy on the Bicycle
- Blogging the Wolfe Book, Weather Report
Quick warning, Larry has only reached page 7 in his critique so get ready for some serious nitpicking.
Solving the Transportation Needs of the 21st Century With Mid-20th Century Technology.
Ray Bradbury, speculative author of numerous Sci-Fi classics, has an opinion piece in today's Los Angeles Times. Bradbury laments the growing transportation crisis the Southland will be facing in the next decade and offers a solution reminicent of Robert Heinlein's classic "The Roads Must Roll." It is Bradbury's opinion that the Southland abandon its current plans of Subway expansion, subways are for cold climates, and should begin immediately building a fast, efficient, and clean monorail system.
According to Bradbury, "Anyone who has ridden the Disneyland or Seattle monorails knows how quietly they move."
I'm sorry..."anyone who has ridden the Disneyland..." What the?! Are you kidding me? Should we be looking to yesterdays imagined accomplishments to solve today's problems?
To be fair the same could and should be said about that 19th century innovation, the Subway.
I don't think that solutions that would have worked had they been built at a time when they would have been visionary is the solution to today's problems. And I do honestly believe that Bradbury's early advocacy of the Monorail was visionary, but now it would take too long and cost too much. What we need more of is finding ways to remove the necessity of commuting at all. It is time for a number of businesses in Los Angeles to move, or move at least a segment, of the business to where the employees are.
For many jobs in our modern information/communication age, it doesn't matter where the employees are located. It only matters that the employees have the ability to communicate with one another swiftly and efficiently. I say, "tear down the financial skyscraper!" Let the stock advisors advise their middle class clients close to where they live. Why do we need "centralized" management and oversight? Can we not track efficiency that is remote?
Let us think beyond transportation! Let us use communication! If we can sign business deals with Chinese corporations from our living room, can't we sign local contracts from there as well?
Though...thinking about it...a monorail would be cool. I'd use it, at least until I acquired my flying car.
According to Bradbury, "Anyone who has ridden the Disneyland or Seattle monorails knows how quietly they move."
I'm sorry..."anyone who has ridden the Disneyland..." What the?! Are you kidding me? Should we be looking to yesterdays imagined accomplishments to solve today's problems?
To be fair the same could and should be said about that 19th century innovation, the Subway.
I don't think that solutions that would have worked had they been built at a time when they would have been visionary is the solution to today's problems. And I do honestly believe that Bradbury's early advocacy of the Monorail was visionary, but now it would take too long and cost too much. What we need more of is finding ways to remove the necessity of commuting at all. It is time for a number of businesses in Los Angeles to move, or move at least a segment, of the business to where the employees are.
For many jobs in our modern information/communication age, it doesn't matter where the employees are located. It only matters that the employees have the ability to communicate with one another swiftly and efficiently. I say, "tear down the financial skyscraper!" Let the stock advisors advise their middle class clients close to where they live. Why do we need "centralized" management and oversight? Can we not track efficiency that is remote?
Let us think beyond transportation! Let us use communication! If we can sign business deals with Chinese corporations from our living room, can't we sign local contracts from there as well?
Though...thinking about it...a monorail would be cool. I'd use it, at least until I acquired my flying car.
A Real Life Indiana Jones?
The advertisement links for King Kong and Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper over at The Shelf reminded me of a wonderful documentary that has been running on Turner Classic Movies.
I'm King Kong! The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper is a 60 minute documentary covering the life of the director of the original 1933 King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper. The documentary was released just in time to serve as an interesting biographical background piece for those going to see the 2005 remake directed by Peter Jackson.
I'm King Kong! spends little time on the creation of the 1933 classic, rather it covers the exciting life of the man behind the camera. Merian C. Cooper was a cinematic innovator who, prior to King Kong, had revolutionized the documentary in his travels to dangerous corners of the globe. One innovation in particular was the way he used the camera to capture animals in action. Merian didn't photograph tigers and lions from a distance. Instead he captured the hunting tiger in action and filmed elephant stampedes from within the stampede itself. Cooper's documentary's pushed the envelope both technologically and narratively. Instead of presenting apparent scientific, or anthropological, observations, Cooper attempted to present the stories of the peoples he was documenting.
But the adventures of Merian C. Cooper don't begin with his explorations and documentaries, no they begin much earlier in his life. Cooper served as a bomber pilot during the First World War and stayed after the war in Poland where he served as a part of an independant air squadron battling the invading during the Russo-Polish war. It was this brief segment of Cooper's life that I found the most intriguing.
Ever since I was young I have read the Blackhawk comic books, but I (like Wikipedia) never made a connection to any real world pilot squadron. To me the Blackhawks were an idea only applicable to the Second World War, though they also served as inspiration for the pilots in Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow. While the creators of Blackhawk were probably unaware of Cooper's piloting in Poland during the Russo-Poland war, this part of the documentary made it clear that Cooper was as much a real life Blackhawk as he was a real life Indiana Jones.
Cooper's life, as presented in I'm King Kong, is a life of adventure and struggle against all odds. It comes then as no surprise that Cooper's representation of the Denham character is an exercise of self-portrait. The exercise is taken even further with Jack Black's version of the character in the latest Kong film. Denham, like Cooper, was a man of action who lived close to the edge. If you get a chance, watch I'm King Kong the next time it shows on TCM.
I'm King Kong! The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper is a 60 minute documentary covering the life of the director of the original 1933 King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper. The documentary was released just in time to serve as an interesting biographical background piece for those going to see the 2005 remake directed by Peter Jackson.
I'm King Kong! spends little time on the creation of the 1933 classic, rather it covers the exciting life of the man behind the camera. Merian C. Cooper was a cinematic innovator who, prior to King Kong, had revolutionized the documentary in his travels to dangerous corners of the globe. One innovation in particular was the way he used the camera to capture animals in action. Merian didn't photograph tigers and lions from a distance. Instead he captured the hunting tiger in action and filmed elephant stampedes from within the stampede itself. Cooper's documentary's pushed the envelope both technologically and narratively. Instead of presenting apparent scientific, or anthropological, observations, Cooper attempted to present the stories of the peoples he was documenting.
But the adventures of Merian C. Cooper don't begin with his explorations and documentaries, no they begin much earlier in his life. Cooper served as a bomber pilot during the First World War and stayed after the war in Poland where he served as a part of an independant air squadron battling the invading during the Russo-Polish war. It was this brief segment of Cooper's life that I found the most intriguing.
Ever since I was young I have read the Blackhawk comic books, but I (like Wikipedia) never made a connection to any real world pilot squadron. To me the Blackhawks were an idea only applicable to the Second World War, though they also served as inspiration for the pilots in Sky Captain and the World of Tommorrow. While the creators of Blackhawk were probably unaware of Cooper's piloting in Poland during the Russo-Poland war, this part of the documentary made it clear that Cooper was as much a real life Blackhawk as he was a real life Indiana Jones.
Cooper's life, as presented in I'm King Kong, is a life of adventure and struggle against all odds. It comes then as no surprise that Cooper's representation of the Denham character is an exercise of self-portrait. The exercise is taken even further with Jack Black's version of the character in the latest Kong film. Denham, like Cooper, was a man of action who lived close to the edge. If you get a chance, watch I'm King Kong the next time it shows on TCM.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Aardman Productions and CBS Sign Deal for Clay Animated Series
2006 is looking to be a good year for Aardman Animations, and it is much needed -- especially after a 2005 fire destroyed artifacts from earlier animation projects. Coming quick on the heels of their Oscar nomination for last year's Wallace and Gromit film, Aardman has signed a deal to produce an American Version of its Creature Comforts Claymation series. (You can view a clip of the BBC version here.)
According to ICV2, "The CBS Creature Comforts series will be produced in England and Los Angeles, with King of the Hill scribe Kit Boss serving as executive producer." The Futon Critic has additional details:
The project, which is being targeted for a January 2007 bow at the earliest, is a U.S. version of the ITV series of the same name. Here's how BBC America, which also aired the series last year, describes the project: "Creature Comforts, a hilarious collection of film shorts from the makers of Wallace & Gromit, puts interview responses from the British public into the mouths of over one hundred animal characters. In Creature Comforts, a shar-pei will do his best impression of Julia Roberts, hens will explain how feng shui should be incorporated into the work place, and sea lions will speak out against liposuction."
The show has been given an initial order of seven episodes and is slated to be run during CBS's primetime lineup. As both Futon and ICV2 point out though, with the development time required to begin an animated project, we wond be seeing any episodes until January 2007 making Creature Comforts one of the first announced mid-season pick ups for next year.
Aardman Animation has a long running history of well crafted programming and Number One greatly looks forward to this show's first broadcast.
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