See it. Now. Go!

“You’re a… teacher?”

“Part time.”

Exclamation Point!

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To say I am giddy as a schoolgirl about the upcoming Indy movie would be a tremendous understatement. I’m a gaggle of giddy schoolgirls, twittering every time I see a new poster. So keep that in mind as I gush rapturously over a couple of upcoming Lego Indiana Jones products.

Lucasarts, that crazy video game company owned by George Lucas (go figure) can make some really bad, lets make money quick, games (see most of the Star Wars video games.) They’ve also churned out some of the best games of all time (Sam ‘n Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis etc.) The Lego Star Wars games are fun, cute and easy; in what other game is dying actually kinda fun?

With a new Indiana Jones movie on May 22nd 2008 (early in the morning, I’m sure, like midnight...) Lucasarts is releasing… Lego Indiana Jones! Woot!

Also, some scans of the upcoming Indiana Jones Lego sets were released. WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! This may give away key plot points!

Click through to see.

I’ll leave the descriptions to Gizmodo (as you can see from the watermark the pictures came from there) so click through if you want to read them. (And while you’re at it click on some of their advertising for kicks, or maybe watch the clever Apple spot on the homepage.)

Indy sword fights with Cate Blanchett! Seriously can you think of anyone you’d rather see than Cate in an Indy movie? Outside of Marion? Okay and Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones’ brother (how cool the irony!) Other than that, Cate Blanchett!

Cool CCCP vehicle floats down river while Indy fights bad Ruski’s.

Ants… spiders are creepier, but gotta move on, I guess.

Mayan/Aztec/Incan? temple. Supposedly in Peru so Incan, but looks Mayan. Go historical accuracy.

Oh, and ultimate maybe spoiler. After denying reports that Shia plays Indy’s son (via Marion) Spielberg and co. are avoiding the subject. Makes sense to me, after all, what would commitment phobic Indy do but leave Marion with a bundle of joy he doesn’t know about…

“I was a child. I was in love. It was wrong and you knew it!”

“You knew what you were doing.”

Indy’s such a bastard :-D

PS You may not have noticed, but I’ve added a subtle countdown banner to the top of the site.

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The Good:

Chuck

I’d need to be a mutant freak to have enough thumbs to rate this one. I love this show. Consitently the best new show of the season. Great cast, funny and fun. Pokes fun at the superspy genre without being condescending. Over the top, but smart. Zachary Levi is perfect as Chuck.

Pushing Daisies

The pilot was the best episode of TV ever. The rest of the season has been very, very good. Quirky, funny, unique and very very cute. Little bits of extraordinary cleverness makes this a blast to watch.

Reaper

Way geek cool. I worry a bit about it becoming a demon of the week show, but so far, very good. The pilot was really, really good and while the rest of the season has been below that level it’s still better than nearly everything else.

Dirty Sexy Money

I’m surprised how much fun the show is. Donald Sutherland is fantastic as the patriarch of the Darling family and the show hits the right level of trash and intrigue. Better so far than Desperate Housewives ever was.

Samantha Who?

Proving that cast is everything this show is mediocre writing and an appealing cast. Christina Applegate is great and aside from her mother (played too broadly by Jean Smart) I like everyone else. Cute as a button pretty much sums up the show.

Journeyman

Didn’t think I’d like this much but it’s pretty good. The most surprising thing for me was when the writers didn’t manufacture tension by making Kevin McKidd’s character Dan Vasser lie to his wife about seeing his former fiance in the past. Instead they make him a good father and good husband. Imagine that. The things he does in the past are pretty ordinary but the toll it takes on his family and the interactions in the present work really well.

Aliens in Amercia

Funny if a bit formulaic. Justin acts like a teenager and does something stupid that alienates him from Raja. At some point he realizes he’s been an idiot and that getting along with Raja is really important even though Raja’s extreme goody-goodyness and weird religion makes that hard. Awwwwwwww. But it can be really funny, and you can’t help but like the kids.

Life

Haven’t watched much of this (I’ve got to draw the line somewhere) but for a cop show it’s pretty good. Mostly because the lead character is allowed to be unpredictable and kinda funny. Still a procedural cop show, though.

The Kinda OK Shows

Bionic Woman

It’s OK at times. Not nearly funny enough and takes itself really seriously. They’ve improved the goofy fast running a bit (mostly by cutting down on the effects) but mostly just kind of plods along. Some bits of fun (such as Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff) but a couple of episodes were plain bad and what was good wasn’t THAT good. They tried to make an edgy show but didn’t cast any edgy actors (again Katee Sackhoff would have been FAR better as THE Bionic Woman instead of the OLD Bionic Woman.) As silly as Chuck without the self-awareness that makes it work.

Moonlight

A vampire show where they took out all the complications of being a vampire. See it’s all a myth, they’re super strong and they can walk around in daylight as long as they wear sunglasses and don’t go too far. Should be darker, should be scarier and they should have worked a bit more on their mythology. It’s not Angel, it’s not Buffy it’s not much of anything.

Back To You

It’s not the ratings bonanza Fox hoped, but that’s probably because it’s not all that good. Grammar is Frasier and Heaton is annoying. Still like the the young news producer, though.

Private Practice

Warm, sunny and vapid. Tries to keep up with Grey’s Anatomy and despite the excellent cast, doesn’t succeed. Just kinda there, TV. Not bad, not good, just there.

The Bad

Cavemen
Really like Nick Kroll and pretty much dislike everything else. Occasionally chuckle worthy but mostly just dumb.

The Big Bang Theory

Stuart Levine of MSNBC thought this was a highlight. Whatever. For a show about smart people this one is as dumb as a fence-post. Only sporadically funny and over-broad. Makes fun of dorks without making them people. Gotta have actual characters, show.

Carpoolers

And I thought The Big Bang Theory was bad. With all the shows that DIDN’T make it, you’re telling me that THIS was better than everything else? This show proves that the networks really do have NO idea what they’re doing. Really, really, REALLY bad. Beyond bad. This is a putrescent pile of poop fermenting in a vat of vomit. I’m serious. It’s that bad. When Mr. Levine said The Big Bang Theory was a highlight, he must have watched it right after this. Only in comparison…

Never saw K-Ville, Women’s Murder Club, Cane, Big Shots, Viva Laughlin etc. I’ve heard that’s a good thing.

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Lucy’s On Display

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Hardly a new idea the Kindle is nevertheless an intriguing one. Initial impressions seem mixed, interestingly it’s the non-techies that seem to get Bezos’ vision. Most of the gadget geeks seem to fall on the side of meh. Those that use a cell phone only to make calls, a computer only to email and read the newspaper on paper every morning seem most intrigued. This is a device they can get behind.

The main innovation of the Kindle is that it is always connected. Like push email on a BlackBerry the Kindle will automatically receive the latest edition of a print newspaper such as The New York Times. Or magazine, or blog post. You can browse and buy books from Amazon’s web store from anywhere. More exciting is that there isn’t a monthly fee, at least for the wireless connection. You only pay for what you want, there’s no service fee or monthly charge. This, in and of itself, is surprising and a huge plus for the device.

It uses eInk technology, a display technology that uses small particles and electrical magic to display text in a way that has more in common with a paperback than a computer screen. It has no backlight, something that is seen as a good thing, and does not draw power unless the screen is redrawn. This means that it is no more fatiguing than reading a book, something that should appeal to a demographic that does not love LCD and CRT displays.

Much like Apple’s pushing of the $.99 price for each song Amazon has settled on a $9.99 price for new books, those in hardcover at the bookstore. Older books and classics will be less. Unlike Apple this does seem to be somewhat flexible and books could cost more (or less) depending on the publisher.

Interestingly, at least in some cases, Amazon appears to be losing money on some bestsellers since the publishers refuse to offer it for less than the cost of a printed book. A concept I, and apparently Bezos himself, think is ludicrous. Books are expensive to manufacture and ship, remove the costs of distribution (it apparently only costs $200 to creat an eBook) and the eBook should naturally cost less.

What doesn’t the Kindle have going for it? History, for one. EBook readers have been tried before, Sony currently has one that utilizes the same eInk technology as the Kindle, though most of its books cost at or near list price and it has no wireless connectivity. EBook readers and technology such as Microsoft Reader have not exactly set the world on fire, accounting for only drop-in-the-bucket type sales. At some point, I expect a device to come along that changes this, Amazon obviously hopes that time is now.

The Kindle is not cheap. At $399 (shipped, thankfully) it pushes the envelope of affordability. Assuming that each book costs $17.00 (a number I’m pulling out of the air) you’d have to buy 57 books to make up the cost of the reader. This begs the question is the convenience worth it? For frequent travelers, train/subway commuters, security “guards” and the like I’m betting yes. For older people the ability to easily change font-size, meaning all books are immediately large print, this could also be a yes. But fear of tech gadgets may and probably will outweigh this for the older generation.

Where the Kindle could shine is in the delivery of college textbooks. Big, heavy textbooks lugged around campus are a pain and the cost of each book is sky high. If the textbook publishers are to be believed, textbooks are just expensive to make, all that glossy paper and all. Discounted books available in a portable, easily read format is something I’m totally behind (plus it would justify the purchase.)

Also, in my opinion, the Kindle does not photograph well. When compared to Sony’s sleek little reader it seems out of date, an anachronism. According to Amazon this is intentional. They did not want a distracting device. The overwhelming design goal was to have the Kindle fade into the background when reading, after all the prettiest cover in the world disappears as soon as the book is open. To be fair, video of the device looks much better and I get the impression that in person it looks much better. It is incredibly thin.

What is the final word? We’ll have to wait and see. Even if the Kindle fails in the beauty department it is backed by Amazon who is first a bookstore. If anyone can do it (and someone will) Amazon can, perhaps not with their first try, but the revolution has started. People may lament the loss of paper books (trees will weep for joy) but eBooks are here to stay, sooner or later.

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The book the movie is based on is written by an atheist and contains anti-religious themes. Which, according to Prusse (and The Catholic League) means it must be banned.

It concerns me that a principal in a public school doesn’t think about how inappropriate it is to use his position for religious purposes. Even after the fact I doubt he understands it was wrong. The KSL article on it mentions that there was only one complaint and several thank-yous which sounds like justification. Just because most of your constituents agree with you (or just don’t care) does not mean it’s OK to push your view on others.

I expected to see more about this (maybe a real article) but nothing materialized. I assume that this antipathy is a product of the religious climate in Utah and the fact that people just don’t bother complaining when they should. The Catholic League is perfectly justified in pushing a boycott of this movie, the public school system is not. I plan on seeing this movie (it looks GOOD) and will probably check out the books as well.

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He’s a year and a half old, house-trained and very, very snuggly.  This is good until you have to leave at which point he barks hysterically. He never barks otherwise. Unless the doorbell rings (on TV or otherwise.) Or he sees a rabbit… rabbits are awesome.

He’s a eunuch now, though he doesn’t know it and will happily try to take over the territory of another dog. He runs into issues proving his manhood when he walks, since he prances like a poodle.

He has yet to figure out that he’s my dog and follows my wife around adoringly. If I walk out the door he looks for my wife.  If she walks out the door he sits by it and whimpers softly.

He’ll play fetch but he won’t give you the ball; you have to take it. He does, however, throw the ball to himself by tossing it backwards over his back.

The name came from a scientist contemporary to Charles Darwin Thomas Henry Huxley. Huxley was a talented comparative anatomist who was an early and vocal proponent of Darwin’s theory of evolution earning him the nickname ‘Darwin’s Bulldog.’ Plus this allows me to name my dog Huxley Humes which is awesomely alliterative.

Hello Huxley!

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Mr. The Rock seems to have fallen into a movie created by Richard Kelly. Richard created a little (very little) film called Donnie Darko. I have a serious man-crush on the film Donnie Darko (see the Donnie Darko trailer) which gives him a free pass to cast whomever he wants in his latest movie. (Yes I know I said man-crush and referenced a film that starred a star of Brokeback Mountain so go ahead, insert offensive gay joke here, haha you’re funny...)

This includes casting Dwayne (...ayne...ayne) ‘The Rock’ (...ock...ock) Johnson (...son...son) and Seann William Scott in his movie. He can also cast Mandy Moore and Buffy the Vampire Slayer too for all I care. While he’s at it, he might as well throw in Justin Timberlake for good measure. (Wait a minute...)

He can even name the movie Southland Tales when there’s a better name right in his trailer such as, maybe, ‘This Is the Way the World Ends.’

In any case, it looks good, click the Southland Tales link above to watch the trailer.

P.S. Please avoid the OTHER Dwayne Johnson movie, the one that involves football. Your brain cells will thank you.

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