Archive for May, 2009

If you saw Pixar's Up tonight, you probably saw the teaser-trailer for Pixar's upcoming Toy Story 3. And it's very likely you were happy about it.

If you didn't, you can see it at the Apple trailer page (or at the official Disney site, but you'll have to put up with a commercial first; I'd stick with the Apple site).

Looks like they managed to fit everyone into the teaser and all the original voices are back (except for the late Jim Varney's Slinky Dog, presumably), and they even crammed in some new toys. So far Pixar has never let me down — Cars was the weakest for me, mostly because they stuck race cars into Doc Hollywood, and even that was fun to watch — so I'm officially already looking forward to this.

And if you haven't seen Up… go see Up.

Just announced at weirdal.com (and on Al's Twitter feed):

INTERNET LEAKS
…is NOT the name of the next Weird Al album (we have no idea yet when that’s coming out)… but Al will be “leaking” new tracks to the Internet over the summer, and for bookkeeping reasons we had to call them SOMETHING, so “Internet Leaks” it is! Al’s T.I. parody “Whatever You Like” retroactively becomes the first song in the collection, and there will be 4 new original songs released digitally over the next few months. The first new song (and video!) will be out on June 16, and will be available wherever mp3s are sold or stolen.

Usually his albums come out every 2 years or so, but these days amateur parodists are whipping out new joke songs on YouTube before the echos of the original event have faded, so he's speeding things up. His last song, "Whatever You Like," was released directly to iTunes last year (get it at iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, Zune, and Walmart).

"Save Hiatus" remains on — sigh — hiatus while Adam and I both deal with the parts of our lives that demand money, there's still places to get your whacky space fun on. I highly recommend "The Good Ship Chronicles," by Tauhid Bondia. It's the story of the ongoing reality show based on the Starcorp Delivery/Transport ship, the SS Gossamer. Captained by Hap Manning, the ship is the last stop for less-0than-stellar crewmen who have been transferred from other ships. Manning takes that as a challenge.

The various in and outs of daily starship life, combined with the regular holovision diary entries of the crew and the occasional event as someone else screws with them for ratings, leads to a hilarious webcomic. You got your overbearing and mildly delusional captain, your competent and long-suffering first officer, your openly racist and sexist counselor, your skilled doctor banished for haviung more integrity than sense, your feisty, sexy head of security, your overweight and wheelchair-bound engineer, your too-cool-for-starschool alien rep, your brimming-with too-much-information pilot, your intern who was killed in a tragic rescuing, and more.  The artwork's as good as any webcomic I've seen and the humor rocks. Go check it out.

Just come back when we're ready, OK?

We're about to go rejoin the Y in the hopes that putting ourselves in the proximity of lots of exercise machines and a pool will somehow frighten our bodies into toughening up. Problem: there's a pool.

Which is good, because Teres and I both love to swim and it's good for you. But I haven't bought of pair of swim trunks for many fashion cycles now –  jean shorts, which aren't allowed at our Y — have served me well for decades now, and I'm at a loss. What to buy?

Last time, years back, the style was for fairly short shorts that now, compared to the usual knee-length versions I see around me, make me look like a pervert who's temporarily misplaced his trenchcoat, and this is not the image I wish to portray (we'll leave the accuracy of it alone for a moment). But should I get the knee-length ones?

According to eHow.com, hell no:

Pass on the board shorts if you are big in the belly. These have a tendency to hang low under the gut emphasing it more than you want.

As I resemble an albino manatee, they recommend something called "volley" shorts, in dark colors, no stripes, all cotton, possibly with warning buoys to ward off speeding motorboats.

Personally I kinda like the old-fashioned look (see above), but only if I can find a straw hat to go with it. What do you think? What should a fat man wear to the pool?

It's not always enough to be able to merely turn your wienies or flip your burgers. Often you must defend yourself from overeager diners, nagging neighbors, or competitive BBQers who persist in their mistaken belief that their sauce is superior to yours. What to do?

Draw. Your. Sword.

ThinkGeek brings us the ultimate in home-cooking-defense
:

Thankfully, we now have a 19" long skewer designed to punch holes in your enemy's armor as well as fit up to four large marshmallows on double-tongs! Rejoice, ye violent gourmands! Now you don't have to choose between seeing your enemies flee before you, and roasting the perfect weenie.

Just $19.99, in stock now.

The first round of the "Tweet me a Story" writing contest from NYCmidnight was last night. Entrants were assigned a word at 7 p.m. and had 5 hours to come up with up to 3 stories, under 140 characters each, including that word in proper usage.

My group got the word "HEAVEN." Here's what I submitted (titles added for fun afterward, not included in submission):

SUBMISSION #1: "Watching the Fur Fly""

"I don't think 'All Dogs Go to Heaven' was a suggestion, Bill."
"Just keep feeding me cartridges," Bill said. "This is gonna take a while."

SUBMISSION #2: "Sacrificial Yammering"

"What do you mean I can't come in," he said. "I gave up everything to get to heaven."
"Exactly," said St. Peter. "You're too boring now."

SUBMISSION #3: "Afterlife Is a Bitch, and Then You're Dead"

Listen: Sometimes Heaven and Hell swap, as a lesson to the saved and damned souls alike.
Where will you go if you die tonight? Depends…

Granted, they're more like scenes than actual beginning-middle-resolution stories, but those are a pain to cram into a tiny box.

On June 1st, 15 winning stories from each group get posted for online voting, and the winners progress to round two. I expect slavish, devoted voting for me from all of you.

Artist Jonathan Baldwin has created an extremely limited edition (i.e. 1 of 1) board game based loosely on Hunter S. Thompson's immortal tome, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Packed in a suitcase, you get rows of phenethylamines, game cards, stimulants, a board, hallucinogens, game pieces, petri dishes, adventure cards, a shot glass, and much more.

OK, the drugs are lookalike fakes, but still, this is an amazing work that you'll never, ever get through airport security. Apparently designed to be played over a weekend of debauchery, gameplay includes "activities" such as going to a fair and inquiring about the price of one of the apes "with the most serious face you can manage," and challenges such as catching two of three things hurled at you while someone flicks the lights on and off. There are also dosage cards letting you know what all the fake drugs do.

Just add some grapefruit and a few bats and you've got the makings of a great game for the whole family for just $3,500! Which is certainly cheaper than assembling an actual suitcase full of drugs, plus hotel room repair charges. Check out lots of pics here.

(thanks to boingboing.net)

Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub over at Collider.com is clearing out his closet and offering giveaways of a pile of pop culture goodies clogging up his life. "Land of the Lost" stuff, promo shirts, a "Family Guy" DVD set, "Weeds" Season 4, a $100 Banana Republic card… and one of the promo Dollhouse dolls that was sent to media outlets.

Here's how to maybe win it:

So you’re probably asking how you can win something. Here’s what you need to do….

Email thecollidermailbox@gmail.com

In the headline say COLLIDER’s NEW SITE MEANS I GET FREE SWAG

In the body of the email please provide the answers to the 3 questions plus your mailing address. If you win, you’ll get an email from me and soon after you’ll get something in the mail.

Finally, this contest ends June 20^th at noon Pacific Time.

Here are the three questions and further down are images and info on what you can win. Of course this contest wouldn’t be possible without the PR firms and the various studios that make it happen. So a big thanks to them. Also, a big thank you to all of you for continuing to read the site.

Question 1 – What day did J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” get released here in America.

Question 2 – What was Steven Seagal’s first movie? His character’s name was Nico Toscani

Question 3 – What NHL game did I recently rave about on my Twitter account? It’s for the Sega Genesis.

More details here. Good luck!

Cameron's famous cantilevered house with the glass carport from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is for sale, and the carport is still there (car not included).

The Ben Rose Home-site of the famous movie 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', cantilevered over the ravine, these two steel and glass buildings, which can never be duplicated, have incredible vistas of the surrounding woods. This is a unique property designed by A. James Speyer and David Haid, both notable architects of the 20th Century. Estate Sale Sold 'As Is' No disclosures! This is an amazing architectural treasure.

Just $2.3 mil and it's all yours!

(Thanks to PopCandy)

TFAW's annual spring cleaning sale dropped to 80% off, which means you can get some Serenity stuff more cheaply than ever before.

Inara Shuttle Ornament: $29.99 $5.99
Reaver Ornament: $39.99 $7.99
Geoffrey Mandel's "Worlds of the Alliance" lithograph: $39.95 $7.99
Ben Mund's Serenity Valley map: $39.95 $7.99

Plus the 1,400 other books, comics, statues, and collectibles that have been marked down to ridiculous prices. Sale's over soon, don;'t miss out on this great opportunity.