Mass Media

How very like Fred Rogers for there to have already been a page up at the Mr. Rogers website this morning to help parents talk to their kids about his death. It’s very nicely done, and it’s very sad to have to be reading it.

I recently received a copy of the Special 30th Anniversay Edition School House Rock! DVD, and it’s every bit as fun as you would expect. I had no idea they had made forty-six songs, but they’re all here, along with nifty extra features and a new video and everything. My favorites are “Interjections!” and “I’m Just a Bill!”. But I noticed something odd in one of my other favorites, “A Noun Is A Person, Place or Thing”. Check out their rendering of Chubby Checker I’ve included here. Is it just me, or is there something off with that image?

I detest the media. The Columbia destruction is a tragedy for both the astronaut’s families and everyone at NASA associated with the project. I am sure that nobody there is feeling relief that Bush said we will continue space exploration, as the pundits started saying after he spoke. I can’t imagine they are feeling anything but grief over the loss of their teammates lives and the failure of the mission, and agonizing over whether there is anything they could have done to have prevented it. I hope that people’s thoughts and prayers go out to them as well. The loss … Continue reading Columbia still a tragedy

If you haven’t already seen it, the only decent Superbowl commercial has an extended 3.5 minute version too: Terry Tate: Office Linebacker. Hilarious!

I was dubious at first, but my friend J seems to have stumbled across the definitive evidence that the Simpsons is set in Springfield, Michigan. In the second season episode Three Men and a Comic Book, Bart turns in a soda bottle for recycling to Apu and declines to credit the cash towards a purchase, saying “No, not today, I need the dime”. And as you can see in this chart of Beverage Container Deposit Systems in the U.S., Michigan is the only state with 10 cent deposits. Q.E.D. Very nice work, J!

Of course I saw The Two Towers tonight, and of course it was wonderful, and I could blather about what I liked and what could have been done better and what adjustments they made to the book. But what I did not expect was the audience composition at the 3:45pm showing I attended. Sure, there were the hardcore geek fans with their cloaks and scruffy beards. But the most significant, and certainly the loudest, group was the early-adolescent girls with “I [heart] Frodo” painted on their face and pictures of Elijah Wood pinned to their shirt, who serenaded Orlando Bloom … Continue reading LOTR Fans

I can’t resist a Star Trek movie, no matter how much I know I should, so I saw Nemesis this evening. Full review of Star Trek: Nemesis here, but it really is as bad as you might fear from the previews. Taking a darker tone this time around really didn’t help. I’m a bit sorry I bothered to go see it, though I know that no number of bad reviews would really allow me to skip a Trek movie. I’m glad this is supposed to be the last one and I hope they stick with that promise.

I listened to the streaming VH1 radio for about a week before it mysteriously disappeared. I’ve become really sick of all of my MP3s again so I looked around and found Live 365 and they seem to have an okay selection of stations. Honestly, I haven’t looked beyond 80’s Retro Radio yet tonight. The first 10 songs up, I knew every word to, and it’s great grading music (which is what I’m doing right now). How can you go wrong with a station that starts with In Your Eyes, and then moves on through Breakout, Bette Davis Eyes, Simply Irresistible, … Continue reading Streaming Radio

Remember kids: always check Rotten Tomatoes before plunking down your perfectly good money for a movie. It was ignoring this advice which led me to see Full Frontal this evening. I at least enjoyed it more than the person I saw it with, but both of us left the theater shaking our heads. It was a self-aware film about film making, and tried to be all cute and clever about being not just about film making but also about making films about film making, and so on. It’s all very meta. With the tag line “Everybody needs a release” on … Continue reading Viewer Beware

After a series of internet radio stations I enjoyed went off the air, I’d given up on internet radio, but I saw someone mention Radio VH1 and decided to give it a try. I’m loving it. They have a ton of different stations, in different genres, including some really fun ones like a compilation of their top 100 one-hit wonders or the “Summer Fun” mix station (currently playing). You have to register to listen (and the site doesn’t make that entirely clear), but I’m really enjoying it. [edited to add: Of course, I found this through the wonderful Pop Culture … Continue reading Internet Radio