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Saturday, December 02, 2000
Those of you who, like me, hopped on the Soprano's bandwagon a bit late should know that HBO is rerunning the series from the beginning, two episodes back-to-back every week. It starts Sunday night at 8 on HBO and Friday night at 10 on HBOplus.
posted by MES 5:26 PM ET | discuss | link
It's been a long time since I've annoyed you with anything about Big Brother, but last week there was an interesting article in the LA Times talking about how much of a success it was on the Internet, while being considerable less successful on televisoin. "In this realm, history was made. A television network--indeed, one of the major networks--budgeted a significant amount of money for production, advertising and publicity for what turned out to be primarily a Web-based show."I wish the article had made a bigger point of the interactive aspect that was reflected in the airplane banners. By reading the article, you would think that only one banner flew over the compound, when in fact there were a total of 85 banners, four or five per day at the end, costing $300 each, adding up to a total cost of over $25,000. I think it's pretty remarkable for any show, whether web-based or TV-based, to drive people to spend that kind of money, just to have a small influence on the goings-on of the show.
posted by MES 11:45 AM ET | discuss | link
Friday, December 01, 2000
Just saw You Can Count on Me and I highly recommend it. Very good film. It's touching and sweet, but it's also very funny. Lots of laughs. And it's nice to see a cute Culkin kid again.
posted by MES 9:59 PM ET | discuss | link
That stupid virus is going around again. The subject heading to be on the lookout for this time is GREAT SHOCKWAVE MOVIE. Don't open it.
posted by LT2 8:26 PM ET | discuss | link
Colombian rebels tried to assasinate a US Senator and the US Ambassador yesterday. You know, with all the election hooplah, this story has really gotten lost, but is potentially very important. As far as I know, no foreign national has ever tried to assasinate an American Senator traveling abroad on a diplomatic mission. This is truly an unprecedented act and it happened in our own back yard. John Milius, who wrote Apocalypse Now and who has forgotten more about warfare than I will ever know, told me about a month ago that we would be at war in Colombia within three years. You listening Mr. Bush?
posted by LT2 12:56 PM ET | discuss | link
Thursday, November 30, 2000
I found this point interesting, as it was something that had not before occured to me. This is Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institute, as paraphrased by George Will:In any election, the first counting of ballots is, he says, the only count that is "double-blind." Voters and vote counters can only guess at the effects of their decisions on the election's outcome. After the initial count, each side knows exactly how many additional votes it would take to tilt the election for or against its candidate. "This knowledge," Rauch writes, "inevitably raises questions about every decision made regarding the subsequent recount efforts." The problem is compounded, Rauch notes, when the recount is manual:
posted by LT2 7:21 PM ET | discuss | link
See how well you'd do on a sample INS citizenship test. I have to say I was quite surprised I got all 12 right! (Although I had to guess on a couple of them.)
posted by MES 11:27 AM ET | discuss | link
Wednesday, November 29, 2000
"Now I feel really bad" **SLAP** "Bad llama!"This looks DAMN funny!
posted by LT2 2:19 PM ET | discuss | link
Whaddaya know? Possible-President-Elect Bush is opening his privately-funded transition office right here in McLean. I wonder if it's going to be here in the Tysons Corner part, or over in the 'downtown McLean' part?
posted by MES 1:17 AM ET | discuss | link
Tuesday, November 28, 2000
A Wired News story about AmIHotOrNot, which had a link to Monkey Hot or Not. And speaking of monkeys, be sure to check out George W. Bush or Chimpanzee.
posted by MES 8:48 PM ET | discuss | link
Anybody with a history of climbing up ladders in the middle of the night to alter signs for humorous effect (Lars, I'm looking in your direction, here), ought to appreciate the Billboard Liberation Front. You'll want to click on Clients to see the pictures. The New Economy ones are particularly timely.
posted by MES 8:32 PM ET | discuss | link
PETA wins the award for most irresponsible, narrow political view-powered, junk-science-based, health scare of the year.
posted by LT2 6:36 PM ET | discuss | link
MonkeyCraft.comNo explanation needed.
posted by LT2 1:26 PM ET | discuss | link
Here's a very funny look at what Gore was really saying last night.
posted by MES 1:10 PM ET | discuss | link
Hey, check it out, The Angry Pen was a runner-up in the Free Republic essay of the week contest. I had no idea. The Pen cannot help but be touched.
posted by LT2 11:09 AM ET | discuss | link
Monday, November 27, 2000
Guess who is ESPN.com's latest columnist. If you said Hunter S. Thompson, yer right! You can catch Hunter every Monday in ESPN's "Page 2" section. Knock yo'selves out!
posted by LT2 8:15 PM ET | discuss | link
My buddy Brian (BeeGee for those of you who frequent the chat boards) turned me onto a disturbing article in WIRED about the coming extinction of man. Check it out, though be forewarned, in addition to being freaky, it's really goddamn long.
posted by LT2 8:06 PM ET | discuss | link
I'm a pretty partisan guy, obviously, so it's fairly difficult for me to agrue that I would be making the same arguments about this election if I were an independent, but I saw Bill O'Reilly of Fox News, whom I truly believe is a genuine independent, make this argument yesterday and I decided to post it to prove that it is possible to agree that the circumstances of this recount are unfair and still be non-partisan (something Al Gore seems to think is impossible). Enjoy.By the way, you can't see the video he's talking about, but when he gets to the part about "looking at the tape from Broward County", he's showing video tape of a guy examining a ballot with a comically gigantic magnifying glass.
UPDATE: Thanks to Cousin Pat for the following picture
posted by LT2 7:15 PM ET | discuss | link
Oh, and speaking of NPR, today's All Things Considered, as a part of their series of the "100 most important American musical works of the 20th century", had a story about Carl Stalling, the musical genius who scored all of the WB cartoons from 1936 until his death in 1958. (Cartoons were never the same.) I missed the story, but I'll listen to it as soon as it gets posted to the web: here.Correction: Oops! I thought he died in 1958. He only retired in 1958, at the age of 70. He apparently died in 1972.
posted by MES 6:58 PM ET | discuss | link
Today's Marketplace radio show (check your local NPR station) has an essay about amihotornot.com, about 11 minutes into the program. Google found me the guy's site, which has the transcript, as well as the audio.
posted by MES 6:45 PM ET | discuss | link
Well, I seem to be the only living human being I know who hated UNBREAKABLE, but then Syracuse won the Great Alaksa Shootout by 23 points Saturday night, The Saints took over first place in the NFC West Sunday morning, and then Bush was declared President, so you can all kiss my big ole white butt.
posted by LT2 11:15 AM ET | discuss | link
