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Ponderings For 2008-11-17

  • OK, so my posts have been slow lately. Hey, I at least got a review posted for Quantum Of Solace. What more do you want? How about me admitting defeat when it comes to the reviews? Well, then you're in luck. Rather than attempt actual reviews for all the ones that are long overdue, I've begun adding a simple single paragraph review ("reviewlettes?") for ones that are still lacking full reviews. Their brief reviews are contained with their entry on my 2008 Films list. And yes, I know The Dark Knight is missing a brief review. That's because I do actually plan to finally get my full review of that one published.
  • Speaking of Quantum Of Solace, it entered the James Bond franchise record books this weekend.
  • The new trailer for Star Trek has gone live.
  • It's sad to see that Pushing Daisies is on death watch. I suppose there are plenty of puns that can be used with the title of the show. I'm a HUGE fan of the show, and will be sad to see it go. I can't say I'm surprised, though. First, it's a wonderfully odd show, which instantly makes it hard to market (as any TV network will tell you, "same is good"). Add to that the fact that it's made by the folks who brought us Wonderfalls, one of the greatest shows of all time, which was short-lived with a 13 episode run on Fox. But like all insanely brilliant shows that don't live long, one can adopt the viewpoint of "hey, a short run of a fantastic show is still something to enjoy and be proud of." I have my fingers crossed that Daisies can survive. But if not, it was great to get whatever we could from such a great series. If it dies, I just ask that the second (also short) season gets released on Blu-Ray.
  • And on the topic of series cancellation, NBC has killed My Own Worst Enemy. While following episodes weren't as great as the awesome pilot episode, I did like the series. Not the greatest one on the air or anything, but a fun show. And it made a great companion in the time slot to follow Chuck (which IS one of the best shows on the air).
  • A new trailer for Joss Whedon's upcoming Dollhouse has hit the web
  • Could it be? Knight Rider is being retooled yet again? But hey, it sounds like they are correcting many of the problems I had with it once it went to series. I liked the TV movie from earlier this year, but it totally went off the rails when they brought it to series, when it became completely ridiculous and lost focus of what the show should be. Sounds like NBC has figured out their mistakes. I now look forward to seeing what the later half of the season will be like.
  • And in the good news department regarding cancellations of series, The CW has scrapped plans for their uber-retarded sounding Graysons series.
  • RIP: Michael Crichton
  • RIP: Phoenix
  • "Insane" barely begins to describe this dog. Wow.
  • Here's a hilarious breakdown of the events in Cloverfield using Google Maps.
  • Like many other Academy Awards disqualifications from the past, Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard's score to The Dark Knight has been ridiculously disqualified from awards consideration.
  • Google has release the new version 7 of their 3D modeling program SketchUp.
  • Here's a pretty good collection of photos from the LA Times of the recent California fires.
  • And here's a cool photo set of New York in the 1930's
  • Coolness. USA Network's series In Plain Sight (of which I'm a fan) has cast the fantastic Joshua Malina in a recurring role.
  • Ever wonder what happens to the planes when smaller budget airlines go out of business?
  • They may not wear eye patches and have peg legs, but pirates are hardly a thing of the past.
  • The kick-butt new USB 3.0 standard has finally been stamped with approval. It'll be very cool to see the new devices in the hopefully near future.
  • Incidentally, I'm now on AT&T's brand new 18mb U-Verse data tier. So far, it's working great.
  • Here's a great experiment with Google Suggest
  • Oh nooooo....

Ponderings For 2008-11-02

  • So, did you have a fun Halloween? This might be the nicest weather Halloween I can remember. The number of trick & treaters to visit my house tripled this year, with a total of 9 (yes, there were only 3 last year).
  • Coming as a surprise to almost nobody, Circuit City has announced the closure of 155 of their locations, which is just short of 25% of their total locations. Most of the ones in my area are remaining open. One thing is for sure, the company is clearly not doing well pulling out of the tailspin they've been in for a while. This new move is surely just to pull themselves out of their current crisis of being warned of their stock being de-listed because it's been below the requisite $1 level for more than a month. My sympathies go out to the many Circuit City employees who are getting caught in this crossfire, particularly the ones who have suffered through the previous layoff spree the company did a little while back.
  • Another recent bit of news that isn't too surprising is the announcement by David Tennant that he is leaving his Doctor Who role after 2009's set of TV specials. While my initial reaction is to be sad to see him leave (he's my favorite actor in the role for the entire 10 actor, 45 year history of the show), I'll be interested to see who the next actor will be. The rumors have started flying like crazy, of course, but given the reliability of the UK tabloid press on stuff like this, surely nobody has yet to accurately guess anything.
  • The newly-transmitting Hubble has sent back this pretty cool shot. You know, when you stop and think about the 400 million light year distance involved in this, it kinda blows your mind (or at least it should).
  • This is equally funny and disturbing. One thing's for sure, I know what will be in your nightmares tonight.
  • Check out this collection of photos from Paris during the 1900 Paris Exposition.
  • Congrats to The Pirate Bay for crossing yet another crazy milestone, 20 million unique clients.
  • So Fox has canceled King Of The Hill. Heh, to be honest I didn't realize it was still in production.
  • Oh, and The Ex List is another new series for the season to buy the farm. I hadn't even gotten around to watching any of them yet (though I did intend to give the show a shot, and do have the episodes saved to check out).
  • On the subject of new series for this season, Joss Whedon's upcoming mid-season replacement series, Dollhouse, has picked up one of my single favorite TV writers/producers, Jane Espenson. This should come as no huge shock, as Jane has worked on all of Joss' previous shows.
  • And speaking of TV, looks like AT&T is adding a new slate of HD channels to the U-Verse line-up. Nothing much that I care about, though.
  • The Terrance Howard situation with Iron Man 2 continues to get interesting. I also wanna know how he ended up the highest paid cast member of the first (if that's indeed true).
  • You know, for all the complaints that Microsoft gets for their monopolizing, they don't hold a candel to Apple's continuous propriatorization. It's one of the reasons I will have nothing to do with their technology (probably the primary reason).
  • Speaking of the all-powerful Apple, how in the WORLD is it that The Beatles have yet to end up on the annoyingly impiracle iTunes yet?
  • With the campaign process in the final stretch this weekend, it was fun to see the SNL skit from yesterday featuring McCain himself, and of course the great Tina Fey as Palin again.
  • Speaking of political situations, looks like one of the places you don't wanna be right now is Congo (or anywhere surrounding it for that matter).
  • Here's an interesting Google Maps mash-up, providing local movie listings.
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