Alan Moore Talks Watchmen

Ever since I read Watchmen, I always thought Alan Moore to be incredibly unapproachable, and I guess I still think that, but because of this video I think it to a lesser degree. All you've been getting in the mainstream press is that he "Grr, doesn't want anything to do with this movie, or any other movie for that matter. They're all a bunch o' feckin' conts." Blah blah blah.



Has anybody ever seen The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, though? The guy has just a little reason to be bitter about his movie-making experiences. And, while I share his opinion that Watchmen was made to exploit it for its singularly graphic traits and is (probably) unfilmable, I don't think the movie necessarily adds to or subtracts from the quality of the graphic novel. So far, and there have only been 26 reviews as of this writing, Rotten Tomatoes has it at 81%, which is certified FRESH!

Kirk Cameron and Bananas

I offer no commentary.



This video speaks for itself.

Coheed & Cambria

This post is neither topical nor relevant. I'm just feeling like espousing some love for one of my favorite bands, and I don't care if they're doing anything special at the moment (even though they're on tour).

Coheed & Cambria are a - what - pseudo-prog rock band, with a catalog consisting of science fiction-based songs written by a well-coiffed singer who also pens a comic book that coincides with the music. It's complicated, but also extremely, extremely awesome. Unlike a lot of neo-prog bands, C&C are melodic and yet aggro. I don't know. It's sort of difficult to explain. You'll just have to check them out.

They have several albums out, which is daunting, I know. So, to help you out, I'll give you a little heads-up for the albums and songs I've been listening to.

My favorite album of theirs is also coincidentally the most well-known/popular. It's called - and bear with me - Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. I know. It sounds pretentious, and to a certain degree it is, but to an awesomely acceptable degree.

If you own Rock Band, then you'll recognize the song "Welcome Home" (not Sanitarium). You might be tempted to think it's the best song on the album, since it's the one on Rock Band, but you'd be wrong. "The Suffering" was the big single I remember, and it's a great one too. "Ten Speed (Of God's Blood & Burial)" is also a great song. If you start the album at track one and listen through a single time, though, I promise you'll be hooked. If, that is, you have good taste.

Well, that should get you started. Go and listen to great music.

'Funny People' Extended Trailer

One of the things I've learned over the last year is that I'm not cool and hipstery enough to disparage Judd Apatow. I guess that making really good movies doesn't really amount to much if they're popular. Oh well, I guess he can't go back to getting his shows canceled again so people will rave about what a fucking genius he is.

Now my disdain for hipsterism aside, the trailer for Funny People is over at Defamer, and it's pretty damn good. Sort of weepy looking, but his movies always have what doctors call "a heart". I'm excited.

Brett Ratner - Conan Gossip

I learned on MTV.COM by way of BamKapow! that Brett Ratner, if he were to direct a Conan re-boot (I'm already tired of that word) would need "an unknown". Those of you who've been crying of the possibility of HHH as the Savage Cimmerian can rejoice. Sort of. This thing's still in the planning stages.

Live Mocha: Learn a Language for Free

I know that, as far as blog posters go, I'm like the dad who moves away and starts a new family. I drop in, give you some drunken words of wisdom, and then jump into a convertible with my too-young wife, but today I really have something I want you to go check out. It's a service called Live Mocha.

On Live Mocha, you can learn a language - a la Rosetta Stone - for free, signing up for classes and having other people critique your work along the way to learning a language. The only problem is that you can only "learn" up to a certain level, and then you're on your own. But I think it's a great way to begin the process of learning a language. I signed up for Russian!

Jackie Earl Haley to be the New Freddy?

In what may turn out to be the coolest rumor of the week, it was reported that Samuel Bayer - director of the "Smells Like Teen Spirit Video" - has been tapped to direct the re-boot of the "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise, and the rumor is that Jackie Earl Haley - Rorschach from "Watchmen" - may play the spaghetti-faced monster. Cool.

Prioritize Your Life: E-Mail

I don't know of anybody who hasn't uttered the following phrase: There aren't enough hours in the day. I've said it more than once - often multiple times in a given day. But it doesn't have to be that way (and no, I'm not offering an "As seen on TV" device).

The advice I want to give you is, as far as time goes, the little things add up. Whether it's checking e-mail, checking the casserole, or checking this blog, there are plenty of time vacuums that rob you of your free time.

There is no single way to free up every minute of every day, but there are definite methods to give you a time rebate, so you can enjoy the things you love more and spend less time with the things that are plaguing your existence. Some of them you might not even realize you're doing.

I'll be blogging a series of these over the next couple of weeks, so check back in - although not too often!

E-MAIL:

E-Mail is a big time-waster. Think of how many times you check your e-mail over the course of the day. Five? Ten? Fifty? It can happen, and I know people who compulsively check their e-mail, thinking they might be missing something extremely important. Not true, in most cases.

Solution: Check your e-mail only a couple times over the course of the day, when traffic is at its height or when you've been away from the computer the longest. Optimally, you should check e-mail once in the morning when you wake up, at lunch, and then once in the evening.

For an added bonus: Deal with your e-mail in those sessions, clearing the inbox a little each time, rather than taking an hour or two to get it all cleaned up later in the week. Or, on the other hand, if it works best for you to deal with e-mail at once, make sure you have the most streamlined system possible.

That same principle - checking things only once or twice a day - can be applied to all web-surfing, but I'll get into it in more depth in another post.

SPAM:

If you spend as much time clicking and then deleting SPAM messages as you do sorting through important mail, then taking the time to install a proper SPAM filter may be the thing for you. A recent blog post over at Unclutterer discusses this very topic in depth, advocating that you install a server-side spam filter on your e-mail so that more unwanted messages go into the junk mail folder in the future. GMail - not to get on my high horse! - has a wonderful SPAM deterrent.

Penn & Teller On the Bible

My beliefs on religion are pretty out in the open, but somehow I can never find a way to articulate myself as well as Penn & Teller. Snide as they tend to be, sometimes they just it the nail right on the head.

The topic discussed in the video is one of the most troubling for Christians. They don't see it as the true paradox that it is. See, most "modern" Christians aren't literalists when it comes to the Bible; they see it more as a guiding tool than anything else.

Yet, they also state that The Bible is the true word of God. I mean, who would take it literally, if judged on the scriptures shown in the video? But doesn't the Bible also say that every word in it is true? Weird.