Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Thanks Giving

I've been aware of cartoonist Chris Ware for almost a year now. I came across his book The Acme Novelty Library in a Barnes & Noble one night and sat there on the floor just glued to it for at least thirty minutes. He communicates so much about the human condition in terms of loneliness and sorrow. I'm not meaning to sound snobby or intellectual when I say that, so let me put it in more direct language: The motherf%ck&r cuts deep.

With these themes in mind, Thanksgiving is a ripe occasion for his work. The New Yorker actually commissioned five different covers from him for their Thanksgiving issue. I've posted two of them down below. You have to click on the pictures and open them up, but trust me ... they are worth it.




Happy Thanksgiving, folks. Let's give thanks for our loved ones most of all.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

No Salvage Value

I get nervous when an actor I admire is about to do something stupid. I get real nervous when I get that vibe just looking at the poster. Case in point (via ComingSoon.net):



Sigh. For the record, the plot is described thusly:

"Dismissed from NASA's space program, former astronaut-in-training Charles Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton) pursues his lifelong dream by building his own rocket in the Polish Brothers' family film. On the eve of his launch, he must battle foreclosure on his ranch, a small-town community of disbelievers, the FAA, and FBI agents who want to shut him down in the name of Homeland Security - but remains determined to reach his goal and instill in his children the courage to pursue their own dreams, no matter the odds."

Kinda makes Kevin Costner's character in Field of Dreams sound downright levelheaded and sensible, don't it?

So, it seems they are going for a straight-faced feel-good drama, even though the inclination of most people when they see that poster will be to roll their eyes and/or burst out laughing. You can tell they are going for earnest, because the one thing the poster reminds me of (besides photoshopping over at Worth1000.com) is the poster of The Rookie, another earnest movie of some fortyish guy achieving their dreams while being backlit by a sunset. At least Dennis Quaid isn't wearing a spacesuit and riding a friggin horse!

When Billy Bob Thornton first came onto the scene, his down-home Southern demeanor had some comparing him to Andy Griffith (And for those of you who would consider this an insult, go see A Face in the Crowd). It is then ironic that this film bears an eerie similarity to a cult classic television movie called Salvage. This film starred Griffith as a junkyard owner who dreamed of going to the moon in a spacesuit and rocketship he builds himself. In case you're wondering, the film is every bit as silly as a 1979 TV movie about a homemade spacecraft can be.

I suppose if this film can draw a lesson from it's counterpart from almost thirty years ago, it is this: Keep something like this on the small screen ... and maybe broadcast it opposite the Super Bowl or something.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Skippy of the Day: Senator James M. Inhofe

Christian Fundamentalists who cannot divide their own personal beliefs from their duty to all Americans (believers and unbelievers alike) should not be in charge of decisions regarding the environment. And here is reason number one:
"In an interview with Fox and Friends this morning, outgoing Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works James Inhofe (R-OK) argued that the current wave of unprecedented warming is due to 'natural changes.' 'God’s still up there,' Inhofe said, and to the extent there is warming going on, it is 'due to the sun.'"
Congratulations, Senator. You just inherited the environmental pig-ignorance crown from former Secretary of the Interior James "My responsibility is to follow the Scriptures which call upon us to occupy the land until Jesus returns." Watt.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

How can slasher films work for you?

When website URL's are let go by webmasters who run out of money or simply don't want to run a website anymore, they are often replaced by clever, professional looking placeholders that look like a real website, but have simply take the keywords from the URL and generate lots of advertising links and incoherent text.

So imagine my amusement when I clicked on a link called The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and got this page:




You can have some real fun and create your own business technobabble for the text (spoken in charismatic tones by the blonde woman at the top of the page):

We help companies build chainsaw business productivity infrastructure to fuel chainsaw business growth and transform their chainsaw IT infrastructure into a strategic chainsaw asset!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006