Cool Animated Gifs

Supermarket of the Stars

"Success Is The New Failure". Illeana Douglas gives up her Hollywood career to work in a local Supermarket. However as word gets around that Supermarket employment is the new fashion statment other celebrities start to materialize. Co-starring Jeff Goldblum, Jane Lynch, Ed Begley Jr and if you look hard enough Gene Wilder.

Illeana Douglas has created a series of short videos where she plays herself having decided to quit acting and work in a supermarket. Justine Bateman, Jerry Mathers, and others, co-star. The cameos are the best: whom can you recognize? Find the first video below:



The Daily Reel has a great story that includes a story about Zeitbyte (another video hosting service).

Transformers Trailer

For Gen-X...'nuff said.+

All He Has Is the Power Cosmic!

But somehow...it is enough!

Fantastic 4 Teaser Trailer

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A Glimpse Into My Home Library

I was reading science fiction author Chris Roberson's blog (Roberson's Interminable Ramble) the other day and he provided a link to Lou Anders' website. I am currently reading a collection of pop culture essays edited by Anders, so I clicked on over to the Anders' neighborhood. While browsing the site, I noticed an interesting inset on the sidebar of Anders' site which displayed some random books from Lou Anders' library. I knew I had to have a similar offering on my site as soon as possible.

I have been listing things that I am reading/watching/playing in my left sidebar for some time, but I don't update it as often as I should and it is usually sadly out of date. Case in point, up until I change the entry later today, this site says I am "reading" Darkly Dreaming Dexter. This is false. I finished reading the book some time ago, but haven't updated the site to include one of the books I am currently reading. Everyone who stops by this blog to see what I have to say deserves better than this, so I have decided to add a listing of random books from my library on the left sidebar. This will be in addition to the too rarely updated windows with peeks into what I am reading/playing/watching.

The feature is made possible by the Library Thing service. Library Thing is a combination of a database and a social networking site. It's like MySpace for bibliophiles. Instead of having a page that features one song you like and a video clip, you can amaze the world with your collection of literary wonders. Well...you can at least meet people online who share similar tastes in books, which leads me to some of the best things about the site. I earlier mentioned how much I like the Pandora online radio service because it makes musical recommendations based on your musical tastes. Library Thing has two similar functions, a book recommender and a book un-recommender. Unlike Pandora, these recommendations aren't based on an algorithm and the tags/decriptors of an elite reviewing staff, rather the recommendations are based on the selections and tags created by users of the site. Also unlike Pandora where you can listen to music online, you have to buy the book if you want to read it. This is only a small drawback which can easily be overcome by the social networking aspect of Library Thing. Is there a user with a high degree of similarity to you? You can email/post a message to that user asking why they like/dislike a particular book you are interested in reading.

It's a cool site with cool functions. Now if I can only get the discipline to enter more books...

Even if I can't, the "random books from" function already has a decent number of books from which to choose.

Chess Continues to Be Snubbed by Toy Hall of Fame

The National Toy Hall of Fame, founded in 1998, has let another year pass without inducting Chess into the Hall. Many experts considered Chess to be a shoe in for initial inauguration, which didn't happen, but who could have guessed that after 8 years of inductees that Chess would be left to wait another year for consideration?

2006 saw the induction of the Easy-Bake® Oven and the Lionel® Train Set. Worthy entries to be sure, but alas no Chess. Experts close to this reporter have shared that Chess's exclusion may be due to concerns regarding Chess's moral character. Incidents like that "One Night in Bangkok" and Chess's active participation in Cold War battles were mentioned as possible reasons for exclusion.

I would like to note that Chess was not even among the considered nominees for the prestigious Toy Hall in 2006. The 2006 nominees were: Atari® Game System, Big Wheel, Easy-Bake® Oven, Lite-Brite, Fisher-Price® Little People, Hot Wheels®, Lionel® Trains, Operation Skill Game, PEZ® Candy Dispenser, Rubber Duck, Skateboard, and Twister®.

Some anti-Chess activists have commented that Chess is a boardgame and not a toy and should thus be excluded from the Hall, but considering that prior inductees include Monopoly®, Checkers, and Candy Land®, this is complete rubbish. Let's see...a game invented by a flat tax advocate which lived its early years as an Econ class instruction tool, a game Chess could sue for trademark infringement, and the quintessential strategyless track game are included but Chess isn't?

One need not even mention the controversial induction of the Cardboard Box which is in all actuality a nomination for children's imagination (though that deserves a place in the Hall).



Please make sure to nominate Chess in the upcoming year. If the elites won't do it, it is time for We the People to do our part.

Eragon: A Concurring Opinion

I agree with much of what Rob has to say about the recent film Eragon, in particular with regards to the dragon character design and effects. Those were the only part of the film that could be considered good. As for my opinion of the film overall, Eragon wasn't quite as bad as The Sword and the Sorcerer, but worse than the first Dungeons and Dragons movie. Maybe the Gymkata comparison is a perfect one, as I am willing to rewatch Gymkata if only to mock its feeble attempt to emulate a martial arts film.

The novel Eragon was a clunky, but fun, piece of juvenalia that anyone older than 5 would recognize the tropes and lack of surprises. As for the movies, some jave gone as far as to say the movie is Star Wars remade, but that is only true in so far as Star Wars is an unabashed replication of the Hero of a Thousand Faces thesis.

Star Wars translates the Space Opera and Planetary Romance through the lens of Joseph Campbell while Eragon translates Star Wars through the lens of Tolkien and Romantic Fantasy.

My complaints about Eragon have nothing to do with whether the film was original in its ideas.

Eragon wasn't original, but neither was Star Wars. The first Lucas film, A New Hope, is riddled with images and narrative arcs liberally lifted from other material. In fact, there are those who say that Star Wars is merely Lord of the Rings. I am not one of those, I know that Star Wars is Flash Gordon meets Buck Rogers. Lucas even borrowed the "energy bridge swashbuckler swinging" scene from Flash Gordon. Regardless of its influences, Star Wars is a great movie. It is inspired by the serials and by planetary romances (don't forget that planetary romance giant Leigh Brackett wrote a draft of Empire Strikes Back -- she also wrote Rio Bravo one of my favorite Westerns)

Eragon, on the other hand, is uninspired. It borrows plot points, but lacks heart.

What does it have? Well...let's see.

• Young boy with unknown parents, raised by an uncle, destined for greatness ala King Arthur and Luke Skywalker? Check.


• Evil lord ruling the land ala Tolkien? Check.


• Order of mystical knights betrayed by one of their own like the Samurai, Jedi, and Knights of the Round Table? Check.


• A potent magic item of objectionable past ala Lord of the Rings and The Elric Saga, Hawk the Slayer, Sword and the Sorcerer, and Krull? Check.


• Elves and Dwarves? Heard of but not seen...Check


• Helms Deep? Check


• Powerful unnatural hunters pursuing our hero ala Lord of the Rings, The Shannara Series, and most Greek hero narratives? Check.


• Mysterious old master training our young pup ala Merlin, Obi Wan, and Cheiron? Check

Wow! This movie has everything but a flying frisbee weapon called the Glaive and yet it still lacks heart. The movie was just going through the motions.