Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: comic, comic con, comiccon, microsoft paint, san diego
Microsoft Paint and my free time bring you San Diego Comma Con
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: angel, bye bye birdie, criminal minds, Film, Hollywood, podcast, susan egan, television, trends, TV, xena warrior princess
On a whim, we recorded the following podcast at our kitchen table. We discuss certain cliches and syndromes and afflict our favorite movies and television shows. These syndromes include:
1) The Implied Goodbye
2) The Nice Bad Guy
3) Open Field Syndrome
4) Green Screen Driver
Comments, kvetches, and suggestions welcome.
The Opening Song is “How Lovely to Be a Woman” by Susan Egan. It is indeed from Bye Bye Birdie.
If the following flash does not work, here is a link to the podcast’s page.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: ads, advertising, capitalism, club penguin, DICE Summit 2010, Disney, Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long blog, Facebook, future, hulu, iPhone, jesse schell, marketing, Myspace, netflix, technology, twitter, Webkinz
We’re in a new stage of consumer evolution thanks to the latest advancements in technology. The last decade has seen Myspace, Facebook, the Wii, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, Hulu, Netflix, iPods, iPads, and the myriad of innovative explosive consumer cache that these devices inherently spawn.
Facebook games, iPhone applications, and product placement are only a few examples of the highly (surprisingly) profitable weeds that sprouted from capitalism’s planter.
Jesse Schell, Carnegie Mellon professor and former Disney imagineer, spoke at the 2010 Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (DICE) Summit about these capitalist wet-dreams.
“Facebook is weird,” he announces to the crowd, “Webkinz. Wha? Really?”
Technology is revolutionizing not only our relationship with technology but our relationship with reality. Webkinz is so obscenely successful because it employs psychological tricks to keep our children playing. All the games on the website are free – in which you earn points and in game money – but the only way to spend your hard earned money is to pay a small monthly fee.
In 2007 Club Penguin, a children’s internet game, was purchased for 350 million dollars by Disney.
According to tech crunch there are over 350 million Facebook users. By the end of 2009, Twitter reached 18 million users. Now, note that there are more Farmville accounts than Twitter accounts; the massively popular facebook game has purportedly surpassed 80 million active users.
The law of inertia finds that technology converges: Refrigerators fit with wi-fi, computer/tv screen, and anything else you could possibly imagine – or want – from one kitchen appliance.
Pockets are the exception.
“Pockets turn the law of divergence inside out,” said Schell, “The iPhone is a modern digital swiss army knife.” (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Erika Christensen, fancast, gilmore gilrs, hulu, Lauren Graham, maura tierney, monica potter, nbc, Parenthood, Peter Krause, sam jaeger, TV
Breakdown
Network: NBC
Air dates: March 2010 – ?
Main actors: Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, Monica Potter, Dax Shepard, Erika Christensen, Sam Jaeger
Availability: Hulu, Fancast, NBC Tuesday 10-11pm
Parenthood the 1989 film, repackaged for television, hit a screen near you last week. The show has been hyped as NBC’s new hit, the savior sent to resurrect the network from the depths of ratings damnation. Originally slated to premiere in September, the show had to be pushed back to March to allow for Maura Tierney’s cancer-caused departure and Lauren Graham’s arrival. This casting change also contributed to the show’s hype. This is Graham’s first television role since Gilmore Girls. Can Graham – and viewers – shed Lorlei or will fast-talking, coffee-addict forever overshadow her new roles? (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Brothers & Sisters, Dax Shepard, Erika Christensen, family, Gilmore Girls, Kristen Bell, Lauren Graham, Parenthood, Peter Krause
I was excited to watch the pilot of Parenthood, mainly because of Lauren Graham (I was a big fan of Gilmore Girls, whaddya want from me?). Unfortunately, she just couldn’t charm me enough in this to save her own…pilot.
Parenthood is about two sisters and two brothers and their families. And here we have my first problem. I guess it’s just been too long since I’ve seen a show about brothers and sisters…oh wait, how about the show Brothers & Sisters?
One of the sisters (Lauren Graham) just divorced her tortured-musician-drug-addict husband and has taken her kids (troublemaker teenage girl and crying-inside-because-he-misses-Dad teenage boy) and moved closer to her family. I think my adjectives are enough to show that there’s nothing quite new and exciting in this department.
The other sister (Erika Christensen) is married to an adorable stay-at-home dad and they have an equally adorable little girl. Christensen plays a successful lawyer who supports the family but in the process loses a bit of her relationship with her daughter. It was a little (more) interesting to see the dynamic between the mom worrying that the kid doesn’t like her while the kid clearly prefers Dad.
One of the brothers (Dax Shepard, who strangely enough is getting engaged to Kristen Bell in real life (Why, Kristen? WHY?)) is the one that sleeps around. And in the end of the episode, it certainly comes back to bite him in the butt.
The last brother (Peter Krause) seems to be the oldest, wisest brother who everyone looks up to and asks for advice. His family and his marriage even seems perfect. What I like about this part of the storyline was that in the end it’s not the cliche ‘he’s actually having marriage problems’, but (SPOILER ALERT) he and his wife find out their son has a form of autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, which I haven’t seen dealt with at all on TV.
Then you have the grumpy dad (or grandpa to some), the loving mom…you get the point.
Overall, I was bored. It was too close to reality for me. I don’t want to watch something on TV that either a) I’ve already seen before, or b) I know all about.
Sorry, Lauren Graham. I really did love Lorelai Gilmore.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Ben Shenkman, Canterbury's Law, CHUD, FOX, Julianna Margulies, law show, television, Terry Kinney
Breakdown
Network: FOX
Air dates: March – April 2008
Seasons: 1 Season, 6 episodes
Main actors: Julianna Margulies, Ben Shenkman, Terry Kinney
Availability: Netflix Watch Instantly, Amazon ($23 as of 3/2/10)
Elizabeth Canterbury (Margulies) is an unethical defense attorney.
She’ll be disbarred in every state she was ever licensed in if the Attorney Deputy General (Kinney) – to whom she’s never lost a case – has anything to say about it. Elizabeth Canterbury is a bad wife and mother. Her son was kidnapped; she’s been cheating on her husband. And yet, Elizabeth Canterbury is damn good at her job. Whether or not her clients are innocent, Canterbury defends those that ask for help.
Canterbury’s Law is indeed another law enforcement Hollywoodization. It is not, however, just another lawyer show. From the opening credits, an interesting splice of music and shot on its own, the show establishes itself as a shadier, if not darker, take on law and order in the USA. (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cory Buck, Film, IMDB, Jonathan Jackson, lifetime, Michelle Pfeiffer, Netflix Watch Instantly, Rotten Tomatoes, The Deep End of the Ocean, Treat Williams, Whoopi Goldberg
The Deep End of the Ocean (IMDB) is a 1999 adaptation of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s novel about a three year old boy who goes missing at his mother’s high school reunion and nine years later is found living two blocks from his biological family’s newly relocated home.
Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays the distraught and guilt riddled mother, is clearly the big name that drove this film to the theater and not, as I would argue, to its better fit in the Lifetime television forum. The Deep End of the Ocean is saturated with a made-for-tv feel and yet sheds some of the sap that hallmarks generally ooze.
The film is split into two sections: 1) mother loses son (Ben) at the Chicago high school reunion and the family suffers the emotional fallout. The film follows the parents’ anguish and resulting tumultuous marriage for a few months before 2) skipping 9 years ahead to the family’s relocation to Chicago where one day a boy rings the doorbell and asks to mow Pfeiffer’s lawn. Pfeiffer recognizes him (he matched the aging photographs the cops had printed years earlier). The boy is returned to his “original” family but struggles to match their memory of him as a 3 year old boy and the 12 year old he is now.
The film presents to viewers the balance of human relationships. Mother to son, Father to son, brother to brother, and parent to parent.
This is a Michelle Pfeiffer vehicle that ends up anchored by Cory Buck and Johnathan Jackson, the actors who play Vincent at age 7 and 16 respectively. 7 year old Vincent ends up taking care of his infant sister and fending for himself in the wake of his parents’ self destruction. At one point, overhearing his parents scream at each other, he goes into the baby’s room and makes her scream to get their attention. (more…)
