And speaking of textbooks ...

... I discovered something after finishing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince recently: In the Harry Potter world, as much as twenty years can go by without Hogwarts requiring an updated edition of a textbook.

Clearly, the entire Wizarding community is casting as many repulsion spells as possible to keep the U.S. College textbook publishers out of Britain.

However, I have never owned a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88

I'm busy this week with Library programming and other stuff, so I'll offer up this little piece of trivia to show how much of a movie geek I am: I used to keep a college Chemistry book in the trunk of my car just in case.

"Vaporizing puppies will help"

Just got back hours ago and am still getting caught up with sites like Boing Boing. Sure enough, there was a post about a series of PSA's that include three of my cultural keywords: "Library", "Post-apocalyptic" and "Mississippi". Go see the video ... if you dare!

"And I didn't flash my ass at the gorramn law."

Mrs. Mosley and I leave tomorrow on our second trip to see in laws this month (this time in the lovely mountains on North Carolina). Until I get back, enjoy my latest LEGO project: My very own Firefly. Bye!

The Mill Creek & Brentwood collection

Don't mind me. I'm just organizing my DVD multipacks and this is the best place to do it. Unless you're interested in how many cheap crappy movies I own, you can move along ahead.


Gangsters 20 Movie Pack (Mill Creek Entertainment)

1. Bail Out
2. Cold Blood
3. Crime Boss, The
4. Death Collector
5. Five Minutes to Live
6. Jail Bait
7. Killing Affair, A
8. Lady Gangster
9. Manhunt
10. Master Touch
11. Mr. Scarface
12. Night of the Sharks
13. Paco
14. Port of New York
15. Prison Break
16. Ransom Money
17. Squeeze, The
18. Stoolie, The
19. Swap, The
20. Trained to Kill USA

Mean Guns 20 Movie Pack (Mill Creek Entertainment)

1. Any Gun Can Play
2. Billy the Kid's Range War
3. Boot Hill
4. Buffalo Stampede
5. Cry Blood Apache
6. Dan Candy's Law
7. Day of the Wolves
8. Dead Aim
9. Deadwood '76
10. Four Rode Out
11. God's Gun
12. Hanged Man, The
13. Joshua
14. Kid Vengeance
15. Law of .45's, The
16. Rawhide
17. Savage Guns
18. Savage Journey
19. This Man Can't Die
20. Yuma

Strange Tales 20 Movie Pack (Mill Creek Entertainment)

1. Alien Species
2. Amazing Transparent Man, The
3. Counterblast
4. Doomsday Machine, The
5. Evil Brain from Outer Space
6. Frozen Alive
7. Head, The
8. Idaho Transfer
9. Lost Jungle, The
10. Night Fright
11. Night of the Blood Beast
12. Prisoners of the Lost Universe
13. Robot Pilot
14. Star Odyssey
15. Terror Creatures from the Grave
16. This is not a Test
17. Unknown World
18. War of the Monsters
19. Warriors of the Wasteland
20. Wolfman

Kung Fu 20 Movie Pack (Mill Creek Entertainment)

1. Big Fight, The
2. Black Cobra
3. Chase Step by Step
4. Deadly Duo
5. Death Machines
6. Four Robbers
7. Hands of Death
8. Image of Bruce Lee
9. Infernal Street
10. Ninja Champion
11. Ninja Death I
12. Ninja Empire
13. Ninja: The Protector
14. Return of the Kung Fu Dragon
15. Shadow Ninja
16. Shaolin Deadly Kicks
17. Shaolin Temple
18. Snake, The Tiger, The Crane, The
19. Street Fighter, The
20. Weapons of Death

Gore and More 10 Movie Pack (Mill Creek Entertainment)

1. Bad Taste
2. Bloody Brood, The
3. Don't Look in the Basement
4. Driller Killer, The
5. Drive-in Massacre
6. Moon of the Wolf
7. Night Train to Terror
8. Pyx, The
9. Scream Bloody Murder
10. Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory

Black Action 10 Movie Pack (Mill Creek Entertainment)

1. Black Cobra
2. Black Cobra 2
3. Black Cobra 3
4. Black Fist
5. Black Godfather, The
6. Fighting Mad
7. Get Christie Love!
8. Guy from Harlem, The
9. Jive Turkey
10. TNT Jackson

Space Odyssey 10 Movies (Brentwood Home Video)

1. Abraxas: Guardian Of The Universe
2. Alien Species
3. Cosmos: War Of The Planets
4. Creature
5. Eyes Behind The Stars
6. Laser Mission
7. Slipstream
8. They Came From Beyond Space
9. Voyage To The Prehistoric Planet
10. War Of The Robots

Ancient Evil 10 Movies (Brentwood Home Video)

1. The Sadist
2. The Killing Kind
3. Anatomy of a Psycho
4. Maniac
5. Shiver
6. Horror Express: The Enigma
7. Back from Hell
8. Project Vampire
9. The Passing
10. Beyond Evil

Fists of Fire, Swords of Death 10 Movies (Brentwood Home Video)

1. Kung Fu On Sale
2. Lightning Kung Fu
3. Dragon Lee vs. The Five Brothers
4. Thousand Miles Escort
5. Fighting Ace
6. Hero's Blood
7. Shaolin vs. Manchu
8. Swordsman with an Umbrella
9. Macho Man
10. Monkey Fist Floating Snake

But will they still sell crappy RC robots?

My good friend recently commented on the seemingly unkillable Radio Shack. Boing Boing now reports that the retail chain is looking to retrofit their stores to resemble the monochromatic Apple stores. I don't know if this will do any good, but I did like the closing comments in the post:

Thumbs up, RadioShack! My only reservation: will I still be asked for my address and phone number by your bed head armada of hipster gadgetistas before they deign to sell me a pack of batteries? You don't want to dilute the proud brand of RadioShack too much. Some traditions should be sacrosanct.

Tuesday Morning strikes again!

I've gone and done it. I've spent another $40 at Tuesday Morning. Ah, but look what I got for my money:


The set is friggin huge, as it's numerous positive reviews will attest to. Being that we're in the midst of rearranging the house, I'm not even going to have the room to work on this for at least a couple of weeks. Still, it'll be a nice treat when I do.

Mum

President Bush attended former Press Secretary Tony Snow's funeral today. Here's an exclusive excerpt from his eulogy (first draft):

"He was known for his many good qualities. He was courageous, compassionate, intelligent, a loving husband, and a caring father. But most of all, he kept his fucking trap SHUT!"

If you can't beat the Internets, join the Internets

Lionsgate has cemented it's reputation by daring to distribute some of the edgiest movies of the past fifteen years: Pi, Gods and Monsters, The Blair Witch Project, Dogma, Ghost Dog, Jesus' Son, American Psycho, Requiem for a Dream, Monster's Ball, Saw, Hostel and the list goes on and on and on.

Well, it looks like they're now the first studio to finally do what the bigger studios won't: Work hand in hand with YouTube. Here's Need Coffee with the lowdown:

Well, this deserves its own post. Lionsgate is making far too much sense for a company in the movie industry. It's scaring the crap out of me, frankly. Here's the story: they've made a deal with YouTube. Rather than fighting to get clips of their films taken down, they're going to monetize the clips. They're going to have their own YouTube channel and let people share, embed, upload and mash up clips. That's what the Variety article says.

Pause here for a moment. Upload? That's fascinating. So does that mean they'll let you upload a clip from a Lionsgate movie if it's uploaded to their channel so it can be monetized? That seems fair enough. And as for mashup--does that mean they'll let you download and then re-upload your new version? If so...wow. This covers film and television programs. Now, users don't get free reign. If something's still in cinemas, clips will be removed. But that's perfectly reasonable.

Check this quote out from Curt Marvis, Lionsgate's president of digital media: "(The partnership) grew out of discussions about claiming -- the process of getting content off YouTube. But if there's an audience for our content, it was like, 'Wait a minute. Let's not put our heads in the sands here. Let's give them what they want and get revenue from it.'"

Holy crap. That sounded like somebody at a studio thinking? I'm floored. Wait. He's not done: "We're trying to be as progressive as we can be as opposed to shutting them down. That didn't seem to work very well for the music industry."

This is me, gobsmacked. Not only do they use common sense but they learn from others' mistakes? Curt Marvis, I want to buy you some coffee. In fact, I think I'll send you some. Seriously. Update: Done.

"Is anybody out there not having a good time?"

Twenty-four years ago, we were all teased, teased by the following title:

Buckaroo Banzai Versus The World Crime League

Well, the format may not be the same and the title may have changed, but it looks like that the content of that which was promised has finally come into being. Rejoice!

Targets

U.S. Soldiers, George Carlin and now... Tony Snow?!?!?

Right-wing preacher Fred Phelps's Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), an "anti-gay hate group," is planning to picket former White House press secretary Tony Snow's funeral. WBC members are upset because Snow was a "critic" of their operation and "a high-profile representative of godless Big Media and Big Government." In the past, WBC has said that "war casualties are divine revenge for America tolerating gays and lesbians."

You know, I'm most definitely not advocating such action, but it remains one of Life's greatest mysteries for me that no one has take a shot at these folks yet.

Cheap Shot Saturday (Late night edition)

Via Yahoo News:

Actors Josh Brolin and Jeffrey Wright, along with members of a crew filming an Oliver Stone movie, were arrested during a bar fight Saturday morning, police said.

Shreveport police Sgt. Willie Lewis said Brolin, Wright and five others were arrested just after 2 a.m. at a club called the Stray Cat bar.

A call to deal with a rowdy patron drew interference from other patrons, Lewis said.

The Times of Shreveport reported that Brolin was booked and posted $334 cash bond to be released. Police could not say Saturday night whether he or the others had been released. The paper said they are part of the crew on an Oliver Stone film, "W," about President George W. Bush.

A call to Brolin's publicist was not immediately returned Saturday night.

"W" began filming in May in Shreveport. Brolin plays President Bush and Wright plays former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Josh, Jeffrey, c'mon guys. I'm all for method acting, but this is getting out of hand. The next thing you know you'll be invading sovereign nations.

And that's it for me, folks. Don't forget to tip your waitress Goodnight!

Baaaar-ney Google!

Jeez, CNN. He was a press secretary for two years. Don't you have a better picture of the guy in your archives?



R.I.P., Tony

Wacky, nutty stuff.

Conservatives labeling liberals as crackpots is a tried and true tactic. If you chat up a global warming denier about liberals and climate change, he's likely to respond with something like, "Yeah, but do you know what other kinds of ridiculous crap those guys believe in?"

If you happen to find yourself in such a situation soon, feel free to point them to this headline:

Pope expresses worry about climate change

Uh, I think you mean "about"

I've doing some research for a very long winded post and came across a webpage that contained Albert Einstein's famous "God does not play dice with the Universe" quote. They have two subsections at the bottom of the page. The first is titled "Top 5 quotes from Albert Einstein". Click below and have a look at the heading of the second one:

mrnmrBRAINS! mrmmrmrmmrrmmrmnrmrmnrBRAINS!

Earlier this month, FOX News aired photos of two journalists who have been critical of the network. Their fair and balanced response to this was to photoshop them so they appear somewhat grotesque.

When they were called out on it, they showed no shame and proclaimed that all news networks do it. Funny, I don't remember CNN ever doctoring a photo that inflated some poor schmuck's face like it was stung by a swarm of angry bees.

Anyway, Vanity Fair decided to do some photoshopping of their own to the regulars at FOX News. Click on the link to view the complete portfolio.

Season One, Volume Two, Part Three, Act Four

Can we please put a stop to this?


No, I don't mean putting a stop to Jake and the Fatman, I mean putting a stop to this phenomenon of breaking DVD seasons into volumes. Would it really be that big a damn deal to just release entire seasons whole?

From what I can see, the shows that have been subjected to this treatment follow no discernible pattern. They range from goofy cartoons (Thundercats, Smurfs), classic sitcoms (I Love Lucy, My Three Sons), crime dramas (Untouchables, The Streets of San Francisco) and pure 1980's cheese (The Love Boat).

And then there was The Addams Family, the one DVD set I owned before the theft that was also so afflicted. The show lasted all of two seasons, yet when it was released on DVD, It was separated into volumes one, two and three. WHY?!?!?!

I guess the classic explanation is probably the correct one: Money. You can make more by splitting them up into more components and selling them separately. However, I would guess that the people who would really get pissed off are the fans of shows where the season breaks are connected to the overarching plot lines (as opposed to TV shows that are, well, episodic).

Final lesson: It's a damn good thing we didn't see Lost: Season One, Volume One in our local Best Buy. Fans might burned down the damn store.

And now, your 210 seconds of Hamster Zen.

A hamster using a LEGO elevator.



That is all.

What once was lost, is now on YouTube

While going through the video files on my desktop computer, I came across two video mashups I had downloaded years ago because they were so good. I counted myself lucky then, as they were quickly yanked off the Internet because of studios threatening lawsuits.

But I should have known that in this age of YouTube, it all gets posted eventually (except for SNL. Damn you Lorne Michaels!)







Oh, and if the very last line of that second video looks familiar, it's because I stole it for the very last line of mine.

"Wait! I haven't mowed the yard yet!"

Google Maps has added Jacksonville to its "Street View" feature group of cities.

Giancarlo Esposito Quote of the Month: July 2008

I'm off to Greenville, Mississippi tomorrow, folks, so I don't have a lot of time to be pithy about this month's quote. So I'll just throw the basics at you. SherryBaby: Maggie Gyllenhaal is a drugged up ex-con who can't get her act together and Giancarlo is her P.O. who's administering some tough love.

Parole Officer Hernandez: "Inpatient or Prison; Your choice. You know, I don't get you. You want to get clean. You don't want to do the work. You want your daughter, but you don't want to do the work. (sigh) I wish it could be some other way, but at this point you do not qualify for outpatient. Take the weekend. Say good-bye to your family. Report to me Monday morning at 8:00 am, and I will take you down. (heads towards the door) If I don't see you, I will issue a warrant for your arrest."