Mass Media

Squeeee! A Bad News Bears remake with Greg Kinear and Billy Bob Thorton! I loved the original movie, and I watched the television series religiously (which, by the way, check out the cast for that show: you’ve got Jack Warden who’s been in every movie ever made, Catherine Hicks and Phillip Allen who are both alums of Star Trek movies, AND a pre-Stand By Me, pre-Goonies Corey Feldman!) I’ll definitely be seeing the 2006 remake. Of course, the burning question – who will be playing Amanda?

I’m only idly watching the Olympics, but I was impressed by the Beach Volleyball coverage. It was so useful for the commentators to point out that the sand surface is forgiving but the women have to brush the sand off themselves – the closeup of Misty May’s sandy thighs didn’t communicate that fact sufficiently.

One of the reasons I can only grudgingly admit that I watch Survivor is that the reaction of people who don’t religiously watch the show is fairly accurately summed up by this dialog between an enthusiast and a newbie. Though he’s right, the show implied by the title could also be entertaining…

You know what the world really needed? A movie about a 13-year old girl who turns into 30-year old after playing a game, finds herself in a marketing-type job, gets into wacky hijinks because she doesn’t understand the adult world and probably teaches the people around her to reclaim their playfulness and pulls together a winning project at work using the freshness of looking at the world through the eyes of a child. Oh wait, we already had it.

The web is more entertaining when it is tearing down instead of building up – c.f. Cinematic Disasters: The 50 Worst Films of the Decade, meaning the 90’s. Good for me – I’ve only seen six of them, but I do remember some of these coming out and being horrified. [via PCJM]

Oooooo – I’m so ticked off. I’ve had my television tuned to educational access pretty much constantly since they started airing NASA-TV round the clock. It’s the only place (in visual media – their website is great) that actually explains the science and engineering with any detail or accuracy. Listening to their press conferences and then the reports made on the evening news is like watching a big game of telephone, and one where the most interesting bits are left out. So I switched it on this morning to see how they’re progressing with getting Opportunity up and moving, and … Continue reading More Space, Less Sports

I’m not a huge video game player, and I don’t enjoy horror movies, but this review of Ghost Master makes me want to go buy a copy and spend the weekend curled up on my sofa with my laptop. It sounds like a more goal-oriented, and silly, version of the Sims… with ghosts. I could rent Ghostbusters and while I played and pretend I was back in high school.

I’ve got the Emmy’s on in the background while I’m cooking dinner (wooo – the Daily Show just won its second Emmy of the night!), and Dennis Miller did a bit on the “year in review” which was mostly predictable, but his sports highlight from the year was the Milwaukee sausage getting clobbered by a Pirate! Wheeee! That video clip never gets old. I haven’t watched the Emmy’s in years, though – I’d no idea they were so goofy. It’s like a ton of minute-long comedy bits, with hyper-rushed 30 second award presentations. It also seems wrong that the Academy … Continue reading Rage Against the Sausage

I grew up with 3-2-1 Contact, remembered mostly to me as “that show with The Bloodhound Gang”, because everyone knew that was why you tuned in. (And, by the way, I am quite sadenned that searching for the actual show title by Googling “Bloodhound Gang” results in pages of links to a band which appears to be best known for a song called “Hooray for Boobies”, because the internet shouldn’t tarnish all my childhood memories.) After 3-2-1 Contact went off the air (and stopped publishing their very cool magazine…), I found Square One, which I watched way passed the intended … Continue reading Science Shows, Old and New

I was heartily amused by TeeVee’s commentary on the media coverage of “Blackout 2003”. Not that I got to actually see any of that coverage, what with being in the blackout zone and all. So I can’t comment on how accurate their statement is that coverage focused on New York City more than on the several other states (and provinces) which were effected. A huge city without power is bad, sure, but it sounds like their television and radio stations both had generators and knew how to turn them on. Round these upstate parts, we were in media blackout, making … Continue reading NY is a state