Va. Tech

My thoughts and prayers go out to all in the area.

Howard Stern, Smarter Than We Might Think?

You're probably thinking that I must be pretty hard up for ideas if I am writing about this infamous shock jock. Well, you are right to some extent, but I didn't want to have yet another online blog appear about Don Imus(one can't go anywhere online without seeing a link to something about him), at least not right off the bat.
I subscribe to Sirius radio, mostly for the music, but Howard was a great added bonus. About a year ago it was announced that Katie Couric would be leaving the Today Show to take an achor's position on CBS Evening news. Stern, who was currently embroiled in a major dispute with both CBS and it's CEO Les Moonves, congratulated Couric but warned against what she was doing. He claimed that her persona was not what people wanted for evening news and that CBS didn't really have the best of judgment when it came to selecting employees, he even made a small mention of Don Imus. Interesting to note that when Stern started in Talk Radio they wanted to make him the next Don Imus, at least according to the movie Private Parts (interesting source material).
Cut to a year later. Couric and CBS News are third of the major networks in the evening line-up, and Imus, the individual who was apparently once seen as a pinnacle for Talk Radio, is out of a job and most likely forever labeled a racist. I am not saying that Stern is a genius and such, but of all the risque material he might pull, he is still the one in least danger of losing his job. Should Sirius choose to court Don Imus for a job in satellite radio, I will be interested in seeing what antics Stern will employ as a reaction. I doubt it will be earth shattering, but I am sure it will grab headlines.

Grindhouse: a fun double feature, but remember what you're watching

I had the opportunity to check out this opus from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino last night. Lots of fun, especially if you have a couple of beers before viewing. The movie(s)format is definitely unique, trying and succeeding in accomplishing the feel of old sleazy double features from the 70s (or so I have to believe, too young to have partook), complete with (intentionally) scratchy film, missing reels, and lapses in dialogue. Adding to the fun, other horror movie auteurs such as Rob Zombie and Eli Roth have contributed fake previews to play during the intermission between the features. I loved the movie personally, but this is a case where the judgment call on whether or not the movie is good depends highly on the audience "getting it." I "got it", but I can tell that the humor and intentions of this movie will be lost on 90% of the general movie public.
Not that it matters. Stuff like this can last a long time if enough people go see it late at night on weekends (the time frame for which the source influence was made anyway). Not to mention the powerhouse that is DVD, which does a lot for niche productions such as this one. Furthermore, I do not know what made the people in the marketing department for this movie think that Easter Weekend would be a great time to release an homage to gorefest movies where the stories consist of a psychotic stunt driver who gets sexual gratification from killing women with his car and a zombie movie where the heroine is a go-go dancer with a machine gun for a leg.
Still, it's fun!!!

Back again...for now

Sorry for the silence. I have had to re-work the login process and cannot seem to get this to work on many PCs. I have tried posting from both home and a public one and neither seem to be taking to the new system issued by blogger, or more accurately g-mail since they appear to have bought out the way to which I am accustomed.
I seem to now have no choice but to post from work, so I will either be doing this after hours or on my lunch breaks. A few pointers:

-300:awesome movie, go see it! However, don't look for historical accuracy, it's based on a comic book afterall.

-President Bush looks more like a spoiled whiny brat (as opposed to pompous jackass) now that he is facing a forced withdrawal from Iraq. One can tell from his new interviews that he has been used to getting his way and not having any opposition for whatever action/resolution he requests from Congress. Our government has always been about "checks and balances," we just haven't seen any of it in practice for the past seven years or so.


More later, when I have the ample time, or maybe a debugged PC.