Saw this on UniversalHub.com this morning, and thought it was too funny not to post here too.
After the stupidity of the past week’s events, why not play a game of Whack-a-Mooninite?
Seems the area where I work is full of ’em. That’s the Dunkin’ Donuts I go to right there in the middle of the photo.
Anyway, go ahead and play.
A friend of mine e-mailed last night and told me she thought “that gorilla campaign was moronic.” And of course, this got me thinking about how much more exciting this all would have been if it was an actual gorilla campaign and not a guerilla campaign.
Can you just imagine what it would have been like if there were gorillas on the side of 93 or outside a T stop holding up signs to promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie? That would have been so so so cool.
These Lite Brite thingamabobs are not cool at all by comparison.
And can you just imagine what would have happened when the gorillas got loose? King Kong only had one gorilla.We could have had 38!
Talk about a missed opportunity …
If you ask me, this whole bomb threat hoax story is a load of whooey.
Maybe it’s because I didn’t learn about the whole thing until 7pm last night, and only then it was because someone from out of town called me to ask about it, but it seems to me that the city is overreacting and, at least to me, it’s pretty ridiculous and kind of funny. This is a marketing effort that had been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities — including New York — and yet here is where the officials missed the boat? Huh??
What I want to know is, what happened in the other cities? Did no one notice, or were the folks there smart enough to realize it was a silly guerrilla marketing campaign for the movie version of a TV show that’s popular with college kids? I mean, those things didn’t look like bombs. And I’ll bet that as soon as folks who knew what they were saw the Mooninites being taken down, they laughed. I mean, even online in the Blogosphere, by early afternoon people knew this was related to a Cartoon Network program. So why all the extended hullabaloo? Why are city and state officials seemingly out for blood? Is it just because they look like like idiots? Is this a major CYA campaign? No one likes to be made a fool of, no one likes to be stuck in traffic for a stupid reason, etc. I get that. But this just reeks of overreaction.
So what of these poor guys who have been arrested for putting the things up? They’re just patsies in the whole thing. They were doing their jobs. Any young person in marketing or advertising hired to participate in something like this would have done the same thing. Give them a break. They’re not responsible. They were just doing what they were paid to do. Hell, I don’t even think the Cartoon Network deserves this much wrath. They apologized. That’s enough for me.
So yeah, I just don’t get it. Yes, I understand how on edge people are post-9/11, but c’mon. Lighten up, people.
[And as a side note, I love the fact that you can buy t-shirts to commemorate this whole thing.]
I forgot my T pass (I still can’t call it a “Charlie Card”) at home on Monday. It wasn’t the first time I’d done it, and it was particularly annoying because I had it in my hand while I was getting ready and put it down before putting it in my pocket. Thankfully, the train arrived at the Coolidge Corner station right when I got there, so I was able to “sneak” aboard at one of the back doors. But on the way home, I had to pay $2 for a one-time ticket.
Now, I realize anyone can use the excuse that they forgot their T pass at home, and I had no way to prove it, and yes, I realize that $2 isn’t so much money to pay, but isn’t there some way the MBTA can allow for some kind of amnesty and grant a “free ride” if you actually have purchased a pass and just don’t have it with you? Maybe you can scan an ID or something? Or maybe I should just be better about bringing my pass every day so I don’t have stupid questions like these.
There are movies you see because you want to, movies you see because you have to, and movies you see because, well, because they’re free. I’ll let you guess which one of those Because I Said So was for me. No need to give this a full review; if you’re a woman, you’ll probably love it. If you’re a woman and you see it with your mother, you’ll love it even more. If you’re a guy and you’re dragged to this movie, God help you. It’s shocking to learn that Because was directed by Michael Lehmann, who also directed Heathers, because this movie is so tame compared to that wickedly funny ’80s classic. Because is cliched, but it’s not awful, and you could do worse than watch Mandy Moore on a big screen for an hour and 45 minutes. Still, it’s puzzling what attracted someone like Diane Keaton to this movie, since she’s basically reduced to some bad physical comedy; at multiple times she either has a cake smashed in her face or she’s doing things like reacting to Internet porn in the most naive way (I said multiple times). When she gets the chance to actually act, it’s totally laughable. Certain movies just aren’t made for men, and this is one of them. I’m giving it a C.
Happy Monday?
Last month I gave you a heads up about one of my new favorite singers, Amy Winehouse, whose album, Back to Black, is dropping on March 13 and whose song “Rehab” I just love.
Well, add another name to your shopping list: Mika, whose song “Grace Kelly” is one of the catchiest tunes I’ve heard in a long time, and whose album, Life in Cartoon Motion, also drops in March, on the 27th (though you can already find a bunch of tracks online if you look in the right places).
Take Rufus Wainwright, make him less moody, and add some Freddie Mercury-ish attitude, and you’ve basically got Mika’s sound.
It’s piano-driven pop, and it’s fresh and cool and I hope he takes off in a big way.
The video for “Grace Kelly” is fun, and it’s already getting a lot of airplay on the MTV Hits channel. Listen for yourself here and check out the video below.
And while I’m on the subject, I burned one of my old-fashioned, typically eclectic “State of My iPod” mixes this weekend, a collection of all the songs currently on heavy rotation.
If you’re at all interested, here’s what’s on it (with selected links so you can sample some of the tracks; the unlinked ones — with the exception of the second Mika track — are on iTunes):
1. Mika – Grace Kelly
2. Amy Winehouse – Rehab
3. Lily Allen – Smile
4. Fall Out Boy – This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race
5. Justin Timberlake – What Goes Around Comes Around
6. Robbie Williams – She’s Madonna
7. Nelly Furtado – Say It Right
8. Gwen Stefani (with Akon) – The Sweet Escape
9. Jay-Z – Show Me What U Got
10. The Shins – Phantom Limb
11. Cold War Kids – Hang Me Up to Dry
12. Jason Mraz – The Beauty in Ugly
13. Mika – Stuck in the Middle
14. Mat Kearney – Nothing Left to Lose
15. RJD2 – Ghostwriter (remix)
16. Corinne Bailey Rae – Trouble Sleeping
17. Norah Jones – Thinking About You
18. Amy Winehouse – You Know I’m No Good (feat. Ghostface Killah)
19. Regina Spektor – Fidelity
20. Vanessa Hudgens – Come Back to Me
21. Steve Jobs – Macworld Keynote (remix)
And finally, if you like Lily Allen’s “Smile” (her album Alright Still comes out tomorrow), check out this alternate version by Mark Ronson.
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve gone and updated my top 10 list for last year because Notes on a Scandal surely deserves a place there.
And I’ll go one step further and say that Judi Dench deserves the Oscar for her performance here more than Helen Mirren does for her work in The Queen.
Dench is as scary an on-screen villain as there’s been in the movies this year, and her performance is mesmerizing. It’s hard to imagine that she went home every night and was a normal person. In the movie, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Continue reading
I thought this year would be different, what with my new computer and faster Internet connection and all. So I got up early (i.e.: at 9 am, which is early for me on a Saturday) and logged onto RedSox.com to do some recon work before the tickets went on sale at 10:00. And somewhere around 9:45 I clicked on the June 16 game vs the Giants, entered the “virtual waiting room,” and waited. And waited. And waited. I read the page a good handful of times, just for fun. You know, all that B.S. about how tickets are sold on a “first-come, first-served basis,” but patrons are selected from the waiting room “on a random basis.” And I watched the page refresh itself every 30 seconds, waiting on the edge of my seat as the numbers hit single digits, hoping the page would change to something — anything — different. And I waited for the ticket status at the bottom of the page to change and tell me everything was already sold out, but it only updated every hour, so I figured maybe, just maybe, I still had a chance of getting through. Hell, I even tried calling the ticketing phone numbers — both of them — and kept getting either a busy signal or the message that “all circuits are busy.”
Whatever. I’m generally a patient person, especially where stuff like this is concerned, but I waited for more than two hours in this stupid waiting room only to find out the game I wanted to see was sold out. I’m not trying again for another one; I’d rather go out and enjoy the day than sit by my computer waiting for Red Sox tickets. I’ll just have to watch Papi, Manny, Dice-K, J.V. and the boys on NESN like I did last year when I didn’t even bother trying to get tickets. That seems to be the smarter choice. Did anyone get through today? I mean, really — aside from connections and scalpers, how does anyone get Sox tickets in this city?
Some kids are cute. This one is snot.
(And no, I don’t have a clue who this is. I just randomly found it on the Interweb today.)
Alright, it’s only been two weeks and I’m already starting to tire of American Idol. It’s not that I think Simon and co. are too mean. On the contrary. It’s just that I wish — really wish — the producers would show some restraint and not put on some of the truly awful, attention-seeking people. It’s one thing when there are people who think they’re good but actually suck, and they’re cut down to size. That is funny. But some of these people who just have no chance and only want to be on tv simply wastes viewers’ time (aside from the fact that watching the show in the first place feels like a waste of time). Like that first guy Wednesday night, Ian something or other, who had that thick Brooklyn accent and barely even sang. Or that girl Sarah, who admitted she couldn’t sing and that she was tone deaf, and actually thought the judges would teach her how to sing during the competition, and then wouldn’t leave when they turned her down. These people shouldn’t be called back in the first place, and shouldn’t be given any airtime. I’d rather see the good people, with scattered bad ones in there. Enough of these two-hour, awful people only audition episodes. This season isn’t really shaping up to be any good so far.
Want to know how bad it’s been? Check out this video below of a woman from Memphis who thinks she’s sexy, very sexy, and who says her “confidentiality” is a key part of her style. Why do I continue to watch this show? I have no idea. And why am I writing about it? I think the better question is, why are you reading?
Martin's Musings 