Archive for April 2010
from St. George, Utah
I’m here pretending to be a competitor at their first annual IRONMAN race. (Of the 2,500 people on the 2.4mi swim, I’d be the only one to drown.)
Will run/bike some of the course today, just for fun.
And camp up near Snow Canyon. And, what the heck, try the Snow Canyon trail too, while I’m here.
Dune: House Corrino
Corrino is the 3rd in the prequel trilogy of books leading up to the original novel, Dune.
I enjoyed it so much that I’ll continue with the audio version of the master work, itself.
I see a huge future film epic something like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, the acting and story more important than special effects.
Paramount, I expect, wants to make another Avatar 3D, but … you know, … in the desert.
Chase Palmer has been hired to write director Pierre Morel’s (Taken, From Paris With Love) version of Dune at Paramount. According to THR, Palmer will be working with Morel to stick close to the original source material, which is the 1965 classic book by Frank Herbert. As most of you know, David Lynch took a crack at Dune back in 1984 at Universal.
It’s important to note while Palmer has been hired to write the script, that doesn’t mean Dune is moving in front of the cameras anytime soon. With what has to be a huge budget and complicated source material to adapt, many have tried to get Dune off the ground with little success (Peter Berg). Just because a hot director wants to make the film, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. It’s going to take a lot of happy studio executives and some big name stars to get this thing rolling. More as we hear it.
why movies are so BAD
I saw the movie 2012 and could not comprehend how and why talented people would conspire to make a move so terrible.
… Peter Travers of Rolling Stone criticized the film by comparing it to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: “Beware 2012, which works the dubious miracle of almost matching Transformers 2 for sheer, cynical, mind-numbing, time-wasting, money-draining, soul-sucking stupidity …
What’s the business model for making even John Cusack embarrassed for having joined the cast?
… It topped the international box office in its first weekend with $225 million … ultimately grossed over $769 million worldwide …
Crap like that sells. I guess.
Why do movies suck? Because you’re too old, probably. Author Edward Jay Epstein explains why in his fascinating new book The Hollywood Economist, and the future looks bleak for audiences over 25 or so years of age. …
full article – Noted journalist Jay Epstein explains why movies suck
Amazon – The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies
What a shame.
from University of Florida, Gainesville
I’ve been here nearly a week.
The Women’s NCAA Gymnastics Championships brought me to Gainesville. An awesome competition this year. Florida did not win.
It’s an honour to finally get to such a prestigious centre of sporting excellence, though.
… The University of Florida’s intercollegiate sports teams, known as the “Florida Gators,” compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). …
Florida’s athletic program has ranked among the top five in the nation in twelve of the past seventeen years, and it is the only Division I program that has ranked among the top ten athletic programs in the country in each of the last twenty-three years.
Florida is one of only two Division I FBS universities to win multiple national championships in each of the two most popular NCAA sports: football (1996, 2006, 2008) and men’s basketball (2006, 2007). …
… The university is also the sixth largest single-campus university in the United States by student population …
Great Spring weather. Plenty of pretty Florida girls. A beautiful campus …
The most memorable part of my week, though, was wandering the backstreets of historic downtown Gainesville. Dilapidated old shacks. Lovely buildings a century old. Folks playing gospel and the Blues in their yards. …
I stayed right across the street from the Hippodrome Theatre (1911).
Shout out to the zen center and Gainesville Florida hostel. One of the most unique I’ve ever seen. I recommend it highly.
Departing Tuesday for Lost Wages.
Jon Stewart vs FOX News
An interesting article by BRIAN STELTER of the obviously Commie NY Times …
… Fox News Channel is Jon Stewart’s new enemy No. 1. …
Comedian Jon Stewart’s job of host on The Daily Show has been renewed until into 2013. Is that good or bad news for FOX?
Both, I’d say.
… he may well be television’s pre-eminent fact-checker of Fox News, the nation’s highest-rated cable news channel.
It has been noticed by, among other people, the Fox host Bill O’Reilly, who called Mr. Stewart a “devoted critic” of Fox News and said “his influence is growing.” …
Personally I’m sick of Jon Stewart. But thrilled that somebody is raking FOX News over the coals.
As Jon Stewart says, FOX News is “truly a terrible, cynical, disingenuous news organization.”
Yet millions of people believe the many bald-faced lies told on FOX interspersed between actual news.
O’Reilly responded to Mr. Stewart on his Fox program on Wednesday, calling “The Daily Show” a “key component of left-wing television” …
Not. The Daily Show has independent writers who have no hot line to the White House. It’s on a Comedy Network. If Bill O’Reilly was on the Comedy Network, I wouldn’t complain. I’d chuckle.
FOX News parrots Republican Party talking points on multiple TV shows all day long. I’m embarrassed to have been born in an era where FOX News could be so successful. The end of the world is nigh.
a battle of wits
read the article for yourself – Jon Stewart’s Punching Bag, Fox News
why I won’t buy a new Apple laptop
I was disappointed in the upgrade of laptops recently announced. Not much new. No big reduction in price.
Apple has been concentrating on iPhone and iPad, me thinks.
Next laptop I’ll be buying used.
… On the other hand, Om Malik is very impressed with a near doubling of battery life on the 15″ MacBook Pro. And more:
… it is really really really fast. Much faster than my old MacBook Pro, which has an SSD drive and 8 GB of memory. Apps start in a blink of an eye and even iTunes works as if it was suddenly Barry Bonds. …
What’s So Hot About the New MacBook Pros? The Stuff You Can’t See
the first YouTube video
One of the founders, Jawed Karim, at the zoo, April 23, 2005.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
… The video doesn’t look much, but it sparked a revolution; by July 2006, more than 65,000 videos were uploaded to the site every day. In October that same year Google acquired YouTube for $1.65 billion – a reminder of how fast things move in the age of the internet. …
KFC – Quadruple Down sandwich
I couldn’t resist.
… two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce. …
It’s as disgustingly delicious as it looks!
… the sodium content is high — a whopping 1,380 milligrams — more than a half-teaspoon’s worth of salt. For comparison’s sake, the American Heart Association recommends people eat less than 1,500 mg of sodium in an entire day.
Considering the rising consciousness on healthy eating — from rules that will require calorie counts on menus nationwide to Jamie Oliver teaching kids in West Virginia to make better food choices — it was pretty gutsy of KFC to market a product that sandwiches bacon and mayo-based sauce between two pieces of fried chicken.
Still, KFC’s new creation might surprise you a little on the nutritional front. At 540 calories, the Double Down, though not exactly a dieting food, is 90 calories lighter than McDonald’s Premium Crispy Chicken Club Sandwich. …
UPDATE – Is it really 540 calories? Or more like 1190 calories?
This crime against humanity will not be sold in Canada. America’s rank as the most obese major nation is safe, for now.
And just in case Wendy’s wants to challenge, KFC has this “sandwich” in the lab …
(via This is why you’re Fat)
DOH – bumbling through Nevada
I rushed out of the fantasy world of Vegas to search out the best hikes in Southern Nevada for my hiking site.
Of the first 4 I tried to hike this weekend, something went wrong on ALL.
1) snowed in …
2) access road now “NO trespassing”
3) needed an odometer to find the unmarked parking lot. (My Honda has a broken odometer.)
4) part way down the remote 30mi washboard access road I realized I had left behind my oil cap. Merde!
Still, I’m loving driving around the sunny S.W. equipped with a mountain bike!
Here I’m being challenged by a desert tortoise.
I carefully, slowly lifted him well off the highway in the direction I thought he was trying to go. … Unfortunately he seemed to be walking the yellow line when I found him.
great guitar – Springstein and Tom Morello
Dan recommended the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary concert in Madison Square Garden, New York City.
Here’s one terrific highlight clip:
Bruce Springsteen calls Tom Morello on stage to let him rage against the general harmony of the song, “The Ghost of Tom Joad”. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary in Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Watch the complete song on YouTube. (9min)
Tom Morello is a …
Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club. He is best-known for his use of guitar effects, his innovative guitar solos, his use of the tapping and his heavy-riffs. He was featured as one of the guitarists in Rolling Stone’s “The Top 20 New Guitarists” article and was ranked #26 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”
He and Bruce both are leftist political activists, especially Morello. He’s pretty much an American Billy Bragg.
Rage Against The Machine, plays Springstein’s The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) song in concert.
