Awesome Scott Pilgrim Tattoo

via Fuck Yeah, Tattoos

Hopefully it doesn't become a tattoo like this in 20 years:

You Learn Something New Everyday

Fact I learned today:

The reason Clone High was cancelled after a single season was due to the costs involved with removing Gandhi from the material they had already produced.

And now I have closure, knowing that it will never return to the air to resolve the cliffhanger. I always figured it was gone for good, but I never knew why, and now that I know, well, it is still a little sad.

Midweek Video: Milkshake

The surreal animated video for Holy Fuck's Milkshake.

Warning: NSFW because there is a 4-5 second sequence where an animated woman masturbates. Just a heads up.

Supermarket Solicitations

Am I the only one who gets a little irritated when they go to a supermarket and there are parents and children in front of the store asking for money to support their little league/soccer/hockey team?

I don't mean selling some nominal thing for money, like a chocolate bar or other item of little value at an inflated price for that endeavor. I just mean they are asking flat out for money.

So it is sort of like this strange ritual where every weekend when I do my shopping, I try to slip past them unnoticed because I know that the whole experience is meant as a guilt trip all around. I think the frequency is one of the things that bothers me since it is almost every weekend that kids from one team or another are doing this with their parents in tow.

And the thing is, if it was someone collecting for the food bank or the mission, I wouldn't have a problem with it, and I would likely give them some money every time.

So is it just me being a huge curmudgeon, or does that sound a little suspect to anyone else?

Jennifer Garner As Miss Marple In Disney Reboot

OK, I think I know what they are going for here.

They're wrong, but I can see it.

See, in my mind, the modern conception of Miss Marple would be someone like Helen Mirren or Dame Judy Dench.

I know they want to work with an established property, but I think they should just do the show they want to do and keep Miss Marple out of it, or at worst, make it so that the original Miss Marple is Garner's slightly distant relative, like the sister of her grandfather, so she can have the name, but she is a completely different person.

I would respect that a lot more.

No One Will Believe You

I once had a House Party on The Sims so awesome that Bill Murray showed up.

Before he left, he put his finger to his mouth and said in Simlish "No one will ever believe you."

Sunday Video: Smells Like Rockin' Robin

When depressing and bouncy meet, something's got to give.

So who won this battle between Michael Jackson and Nirvana?

Week 45: Pageant of the Transmundane

A burgeoning French chessmaster has been implicated in cheating scandal involving a freeware chess application, mobile devices and a dude assuming particular positions in a hallway visible to the player in question.

My question is... couldn't they have just used the Cheers method?

This week's winner is simple in execution, but so hilarious. It involves one guy subtly altering the photos of a friend on Facebook, with winning results.

The winning entry comes from the blog Oli + Alex.

And since this week's winning entry has to do with photos, I thought the file photo of Homer with all the cigarettes in him mouth would best express this.

Congrats Oli. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Scott Adams And My Sheila Broflovski Moment

Ignorance really is bliss sometimes.

Like for instance, not knowing that a daily comic artist who you occasionally read (but enjoyed the animated version of) was a misogynistic dick.

That's right. Scott Adams not only put both feet in his mouth... he managed to swallow too.

Let's look at a sample from the blog post in question, shall we?

The reality is that women are treated differently by society for exactly the same reason that children and the mentally handicapped are treated differently. It’s just easier this way for everyone. You don’t argue with a four-year old about why he shouldn’t eat candy for dinner. You don’t punch a mentally handicapped guy even if he punches you first. And you don’t argue when a women tells you she’s only making 80 cents to your dollar. It’s the path of least resistance. You save your energy for more important battles.

And when people got mad, well, he decided to delete the post. And respond to criticism of said post on Feministe with the line "You’re angry, but I’ll bet every one of you agrees with me."

Um, yeah. Somehow I don't think that sentiment would go down too well in most places. Especially since he basically implies that the people who are complaining about it just didn't read it right.

And we all know how well that argument works.

The Venture Brothers Renewed For Two More Seasons

Yes! In a week full of depressing real world news (which I felts compelled to bitch about earlier in the week), this little tidbit really lifted my spirits.

Earlier this week Jackson Publick announced that the Cartoon Network has renewed The Venture Brothers for two more seasons and there is going to be a longer Venture Brothers related project as well.

I love The Venture Brothers so much it hurts and this news, along with the fact that I've discovered that G4Tech TV has started showing the second half of the 4th season up here in Canada... ooh, I'm in for some good times.

Now if some station would just start showing the second season, I'd be in total bliss.

Midweek Video: After Hours on TMNT

Another wonderful Cracked After Hours video.

I love where this one goes.

As Much As I Am Loath To Admit It...

...the major cable news network that I think of least when I think of the word "news" is actually carrying a lot more relevant news on their website's front page than their competitors.

FoxNews

CNN

MSNBC

If you showed me these three front pages without the identifying information and asked me which one would likely have the most actual news content, I'd have to pick FoxNews today.

And I saying that, I now want to throw up a little bit.

Don't get me wrong, this is a pop culture blog, and I totally respect entertainment related stories... but if it is between what is going on in Libya and Japan, and Elizabeth Taylor's death in terms of being newsworthy, I know which side of the scale demands more weight from my perspective. If the events happening right now around the world weren't so turbulent, disturbing and far reaching, then perhaps I could see devoting so much space above the fold to Elizabeth Taylor (or you know, starting a news broadcast with a retrospective about her), but this is not the time for that.

It is a loss yes, but this isn't a first segment/above the fold story right now.

I guess I could always turn to Al Jazeera's English site:

Yes, that seems sufficiently urgent to me, and actually seems like a bunch of stories which should be on the front page of a news site.

Weird Thought

Am I the only one who when they see a commercial for Abilify that that should have been the name for the drug in the movie Limitless?

First Robocop, Now Soapdish

OK, this one is right up there with Robocop in the silly remakes category.

I read last night that producers are working on a remake of Soapdish for a 2015 release.

You know, a movie that a) came out when soap operas were still relevant and b) had a cast which even today could sell a movie.

I mean, think about it, if someone told you they were making a comedy about the behind-the-scenes machinations on a soap opera and it was going to feature Sally Field, Kevin Kline, Robert Downey Jr, Teri Hatcher, Cathy Moriarty, Whoopi Goldberg and Elizabeth Shue, you could still sell that very movie today.

Honestly, what new thing could these people possibly bring to this material... and what kind of star power would you get for it to equal what has already been made?

I know Soapdish isn't the greatest movie ever made, but the original is still going to be a very hard act to follow.

Gah! What A Silly Product

There is an ad for a particular hand soap that has been bothering me lately.

You see, there is a certain brand of liquid soap that has been advertising a new touchless pump and playing up the fact that your kids don't have to touch the dirty top of the pump with this new innovation.

But the thought that occurred to me was what is the very next thing you do after you pushed liquid soap out of a dispenser?

If you are like me and the rest of the civilized world, you wash your hands. So why do you have to really worry about having a dirty pump if the next thing you are doing is rubbing your wet hands together into a lather, thus cleaning them.

But I can just imagine the paranoia that is feeding into, the fear that our hands in our own home can't be contaminated by germs for 2 seconds between when we touch something and when we wash our hands.

In thinking about it, the product that I think would sell like hotcakes is the hand soap that disinfects your taps and door handles immediately after use.

I am wondering if the people in R&D looked at the automatic water taps in public restrooms and thought, "hmm, we could trick the American public with a soap dispenser that does this."

KHHHHAAAAAAAAAANNN!

Once again proving Ricardo Montalban is awesome. Look at that joy.

Sunday Video: Fist Of Legend: Chen Zhen Vs The Dojo

I love this fight scene so much. I think it is mainly because the Jet Li counters seem so simple but effective. There is a real economy of movement in his fighting style.

It is like when you are watching a movie where youth is fighting an elder fighter and the old man makes the high flying athletic one look bad with simple, effective and painful counters.

Even The Cats Agree

Week 44: Pageant of the Transmundane

An Toledo, Ohio city councilman is getting some heat for tapping a maple tree on his front lawn and draining enough sap to make 2 gallons of maple syrup. The reason? The tree was technically on city property and thus, he needed permission to do so. Of all the things a politician can tap, a maple tree is likely the least offensive thing possible.

Anyway, this week's winning entry comes to us from urlesque.

In this case, it is a group of 20 pictures of Sad Etsy Boyfriends. It is funnier than those three words might indicate.

And since this has to do with poor schlubs wearing hats they didn't look comfortable in, I thought Homer looking rasta in a knit cap was the most appropriate image for this week's winner.

Congrats Cole. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Glee's Ryan Murphy Needs To Wise Up

If Glee's Ryan Murphy has been making a habit of ripping on artists who don't want their music on that show, then he should be shunned by the music community as a whole.

Disappointment that an artist didn't want to be part of your creative vision (especially when they are initially polite about it) is not an excuse to say bad things about them publicly.

I mean, for all he knows, at some point, they could've changed their mind. But those artists will absolutely not allow their music to be on that show now, and a few more who may have considered it will likely never allow it either.

Plus it makes his look like a petty little dick too.

Good on Dave Grohl for pre-emptively ripping on him.

Midweek Video: Maybe by Spearmint Fur

I guess they changed their name. I thought that it was just Zadia Lenders.

Very sad video.

I Wish This Was Happening Under Better Circumstances

My 2003 Halloween Costume is now 3rd on the Google Images search for "radiation suit"

With the news that people are evacuating Tokyo, these truly are some scary times in post-disaster Japan.

On The Continuing Threat Of A Robocop Remake

Didn't Murphy suffer enough in life and in his afterlife? Why do you Hollywood types keep trying to resurrect him?

If you wanted to keep the memory of his fine future work going, you'd pony up the money to build a statue of him in Detroit... because I am sure they would let it be built on city property if someone else was footing the bill.

I mean, the publicity would likely sell enough original Robocop DVD's to make it worth it.

Did Apple Kill The Music Industry? Bon Jovi Thinks So

Jon Bon Jovi has publicly come out against Steve Jobs and Apple for destroying the music industry and the local record store.

But it wasn't Apple that killed the music industry... it was the music industry that killed itself.

I don't use iTunes or any Apple product, so I am not defending the company, this is merely my observations on the situation. In fact, I am one of those strange people who is sort of against the idea of buying games, music, books and the like in digital download form because I like having the actual thing in my hand.

That being said, let's look at my objections.

First of all, when confronted with the threat/opportunity that digital downloads provided, the music industry kept its content locked in a vault or on media which it priced artificially high to maximize short term profits over long-term gains.

They then began treating their customers like thieves, putting intrusive copy protection schemes (including Sony's infamous rootkit) on their CDs alienating their customer base and using the RIAA to extort large sums of money for people as a way of threatening everyone who might think about downloading an mp3.

And while in the midst of doing that, the music industry also went after sites like Youtube which were featuring music videos, things that were designed for promotional purposes, and telling them to take them down. And let's not forget the effect of other legislation that their lobbyists helped get passed which all but destroyed internet radio and took a mighty swing at college radio as well, two forms of media which were aimed at a youth market and which played records which would otherwise have not gotten exposure in the mainstream media.

Then again, why would a record label need that kind of airplay, since they were dropping a lot of artists from their rosters who weren't selling enough albums, nor were they spending a lot of time developing a long term strategy with the artists they kept. Instead, they opted for a strategy which emphasized a hit single for an artist which they hoped would sell the album.

So as a consumer, why would you buy an album from these people who think so little of you (and let's be honest, so little of their artists given how much they get from both major label CD and iTunes sales) and treats you badly.

And let's be honest, I don't ever remember reading anything about how the 45 single was destroying the record industry either. If singles weren't a problem when they were on vinyl, than buying one on an online service should not pose a problem today.

But there was a second part to Bon Jovi's statement which I think needs to be mentioned (and frankly attacked), where he talks about "the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it."

So being an informed music consumer is a bad thing now? I mean, I thought the whole point was getting people to hear your music. I think the only time you'd want someone to buy something completely blind is if the quality isn't there. Yes, there are pleasant surprises, but in general, the less you want the people who may buy your work to know, the more likely they are to be disappointed by what they bought.

Because really, what are you trying to hide with that attitude?

Robert Zemeckis Remake Rejected: Fans of Good Cinema Rejoice

A recent story linked the failure of Mars Needs Moms to the cancellation of Robert Zemeckis's Yellow Submarine at Disney, and I think he should look at this philosophically.

You know, maybe he should take this opportunity to step back from the motion capture and, I don't know, direct a live action movie?

After all, it is something you haven't done in a very long time... it has been over a decade. Maybe he'll find that he actually still likes it.

He made some of the most iconic movies of the 1980's and 1990's... you'd think he'd want to explore some more of the territory around that, because there are so many ideas floating around for live action movies that he could put his touch on.

Even a non-motion captured sequel to Who Framed Roger Rabbit? would go over well these days.

I think the underlying message here, one that fellow blogger Samuraifrog has been vocal about for a while is, Zemeckis has to stop making these motion capture movies.

Steven Soderbergh Says He Is Retiring After His Next Two Movies

In a radio interview, Steven Soderbergh has claimed he is going to retire from the industry after he finishes working on Liberace and The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and I hope he keeps his word (for honesty's sake, not from any antipathy from me).

But he won't. There will be some other movie that he wants to make and people will forget that he said this.

I mean, I remember when Liam Neeson was going to retire. He was done with making movies. This was a few years ago. At any point did he disappear from films for a prolonged length of time? No.

I hate to keep saying this, but really, if you want to retire from the business, just stop taking work. You don't have to announce it.

Because how can we miss you when you won't go away.

So And So Just Had To Say Something, Didn't He

You remember last week when I discussed celebrity tweets about the Japanese Earthquakes/Tsunamis... and I mentioned that I fully expected some pundit to say something messed up about it?

Well, enter douchebag stage right, once again proving what a rotten human being he is.

The Greatest Game Trailer Of All-Time?

College Humor has pegged this trailer for Dead Island as the Best Video Game Trailer Ever made. I don't know about that.

It is very good. I am not going to deny that. It is suspenseful, poignant and heartbreaking. It makes me want to know more about the game. But I still like the backstory trailer for Homefront better.

As a side note, how awesome is it that they are advertising Homefront based on the writing (since John Milius wrote it).

Week 43: Pageant of the Transmundane

An Arizona man was arrested this week after he climbed through a residential window and became stuck in a hamper. R.Kelly is reportedly already at work writing an epic 12 part song about this event.

This week's winning entry comes to us from Techpotlight

In this case it is a youtube video theorizing what Super Mario Brothers would have been like if it had realistic sound effects.

Short. Colorful. Brilliant.

And since this week's winner has to do with reality... well, here is real Homer riding a bike.

Congrats to H. Bogard and the crew of Techspotlight. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Separated At Birth

Is it me or do Jason Reitman and Edgar Wright looks spookily similar?

I was watching a documentary about John Hughes with Reitman, and I noticed how much he looked like Wright.

Even their last names sound similar.

Does Anyone Care What Celebrities Think About The Earthquake/Tsunami?

This is in response to a particular story I saw on Yahoo! this morning.

Apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to take a bunch of twitter posts from celebrities and make a story about it.

Who gives a shit what celebrities think about this developing disaster? I mean, really.

Of all the things that a news organization could be devoting its time to at this moment, randomly picking celebrity tweets about a disaster is just asinine.

Because there are only a few things that they can say. You know, stuff like their thoughts and prayers are with the people of Japan and the other parts of the region affected by this tragedy. I don't think anyone outside of a particular segment of political or religious punditry would say something controversial about what is happening in Japan now. I know someone, somewhere will, but I doubt it will be a celebrity on Twitter.

When celebrities are holding a fundraiser for relief efforts, then talk about it. Until then, I wouldn't bother printing what they have to say about the matter.

(And yes, I could be doing something more important than bitching about this, I fully admit).

Midweek Video: Man Opens Temporal Rift With Live Videocast

This was posted just in time for Groundhog's Day.

Lady Gaga Wants To Own Her Concert Photos

Lady Gaga has come up with a new scheme which I am sure is going to have the effect she wants.

If you are a photographer at one of her shows, she wants you to sign a release stating that your pictures will belong to her.

She likely wants to either control her image or own these images to make a profit on them. Either way, the whole idea seems rather counterproductive to me, because she sort of needs those people to push her image out into the wider world.

Because in my mind, photographs at a public event are almost always above board, while I have a lot of ill-will towards those who go after celebrities when they are just trying to live their lives outside of the immediate spotlight of

So I can think of a solution which should nip this in the bud. The public at large can just decide to ignore Lady Gaga and without attention, she will shrivel up and disappear. And this will start with the photographers. They should refuse to take pictures of her or film her whenever they see her... make it a point not to give her any coverage.

But the thing is, she only wants smaller publications and less established photographers to sign that particular release, which means she might just be able to get away with it, just like she got away with ripping off Madonna again and again.

Creepy Ad Similarity?

Am I the only one who thinks that the commercials for Ancestry.com are getting suspiciously close to... I don't know... ads for dating sites?

I mean, there is the same kind of feeling and set up to a lot of eHarmony commercials. It is sort of weird when you think about it.

I wonder if the same ad agency sold ancestory.com and eharmony on the same pitch. I wouldn't doubt it.

Just creepy once you notice it... like these people are talking about getting matched with their ancestors.

Very Late To The Party: Patton Oswalt In Wired About The Necessary Death Of Geek Culture

Back in December, comedian Patton Oswalt wrote a tongue-in-cheek essay for Wired basically decrying both the convenience and increasing ubiquity of geek culture as part of pop culture as a whole.

And I am calling shenanigans on that notion.

Let's begin with the idea that all of geekdom has been exposed to the light of popular culture (Oswalt used an archeological/geologic analogy of exposing the strata of geek culture to the wider world).

But there are still depths to explore, still artifacts to unearth to use his analogy. Just because there are elements of so-called geek culture (I mean, Star Wars had a lot of crossover appeal and Lord Of The Rings was a best seller even before the movies) that have crossed over doesn't expose the entire strata that is geek culture.

What has really happened is the geek culture of our childhoods have become popular culture because the people who were geeks back then have the power to make decisions and push that knowledge out into the wider culture.

That leads into the next point. Oswalt complains that everyone is otaku (having obsessive, minute interests) now.

My problem with this part of the essay is it implies that there was a time when this wasn't the case. Everyone always had a fixation or two, those things that they were fiercely devoted to. It was just in the past, there were things which were culturally acceptable to be interested in and things that weren't whereas in the present day, there are a lot of geekish pursuits that have gained respectability in the wider world.

For instance, sports fans have always been geeks... but they were never acknowledged as such because that obsession was more culturally accepted. If you doubt me about this, think about of the people you've known in life who followed a particular team, especially in baseball, who can tell you the batting average of every player for every year of their childhood and have discussions with other people who can do the same about how two players from different eras compare based on an arcane set of references.

I've seen those discussions turn into something that was as passionately argued as the various Kirk/Picard debates that almost inevitably break out when Star Trek fans congregate. (OK, maybe that doesn't pop up every time you get Trekkers together, but I think you understand what I mean).

But the insular geek culture that we had as children doesn't exist in the same way anymore, and that is a good thing.

If I like something, I don't care if millions of other people do too or if it is just me and one or two other people. It doesn't diminish my love for that thing. It just means that I have more like-minded people to talk about them with. And I want to talk about, oh, how I want to talk about those things which I am obsessed with. Why is this a bad thing?

The final straw for me was his lamenting about the increasing availability of the materials to become otaku.

I am about 8 years younger than Oswalt, but I remember the utter suckage of being a geek when I was a kid because I had a ravenous appetite for information about the things I was completely into, but my options were limited by geography and the quality of my library system. The gaming magazines filled with titles that as a child I would never get the chance to play because my local stores would never get because they wouldn't be big sellers. I coveted things I would never own, not because I didn't have the resources to acquire them, but because they were not available for me to buy or to see. If you have an intense interest in something, what is the thing that is going to blunt your passion for it. In my case, it is not being able to experience in a timely manner, that feeling of being frustrated, because before I would have the desire to produce something new in the area of my minute and intense interest, I have to reach a point of at least partial satiation... I would have to become genre savvy.

I remember loving a particular series of books and having to rely on the vagaries of my local bookstore to get parts of the back catalog that I needed to read to get caught up. Oswalt acts like this is a wonderful state of being, because it made you have to savor the little bits you could get your hands on all the more.

But if you were starving, what would be more satisfying: eating a few scraps of bread that you scrounged up or being able to get a full banquet with all the fixings? I vote for the latter. Because you aren't going to gorge yourself every day if you have the option, but it is nice for it to be a possibility. It would be something you could do every so often, and it was there if you wanted it, but you wouldn't make a habit of it.

Put it this way. If I want something, I can have it, I can read it, watch it, play it. When I was a kid, my thought palace was a rickety barn. As an adult, I can build a towering edifice to my geekdom because I can literally fill it with as much information as I need to build it. And because I have as much information as I need to do so, I can also make connections between my various geekish fixations which gives me a much broader knowledge base across the things I love, so one helps shore up a new wing as it is being built.

For instance, for about 15 years, I have been sticking my toe into calm waters of soccer, and in the past few months, I have been becoming more and more geekish about it. Because of my educational background, my previously established geekdom with NFL/NCAA Football, military tactics and strategy and a lot of other subjects, there is a structure that already exists for digesting all this new information and putting it into a context which fits with everything I know. It all contextualizes itself into a huge, grand narrative of geekdom in my head.

And I believe in getting a broad picture of things from as many different angles and sources as I can. I have a history degree, and my theory of that discipline's pedagogy is that you start off with the broadest survey of the subject and then fill in details as a student closes in on a particular segment of that narrative so that they have a context for the events they are examining.

If you knew nothing about history and I tried to teach you a course over 13 weeks about World War II and just the raw events of that war, without establishing the reasons for those events or teaching you the aftermath, I am pretty sure you would be lost because the context matters, the why and how is as important and the who, what and when in those kinds of conversations.

With the internet, I can get that context. I can get a breadth of knowledge about a subject while still revering specific items within that branch of geekdom. I can find out what the broad strokes I should perhaps look at first before specializing in the aspect which pleases me the most.

Oswalt then goes on to discuss having to wait for the next issue of Watchmen to come out to find out what happens next? We still have to do that. The internet, both as a means of disseminating information and a place which facilitates commerce, can't bring you things which do not exist yet. I get the sense that in this argument he is making, even those who went to the comic book store and bought all the back issues of Watchmen or bought an anthology of it isn't a true geek either, since they didn't have to wait and savor each issue. I disagree with that.

I think in the end, my conception of what geekdom is differs greatly from Patton Oswalt, and that's ok. I still like him as a comedian, but I disagree with his humorous take on our collective community.

Sunday Video?: Climbatize

I had a hard time narrowing down my choices this weekend, so I just went with something that always delivers for me... The Prodigy's Climbatize. I did a search to see if I posted this already and nothing came up, so here we are.

Week 42: Pageant of the Transmundane

A DUI suspect in Northern Ohio made it really easy for the officer arresting him to prove that charge. Why? Well, he continued to drink while he was being arrested. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty open and shut to me (especially if it was caught on the dashboard cam).

This week's winning entry comes to us from the relatively new blog, The Mary Sue.

In this case, it is a collection of weird things they saw yesterday, but it wasn't even the full entry that won this award.

It was the first picture, of a pair of tattoos inspired by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, that won the day.

And since this week's winner has to do with a whale, I thought Homer as the Twitter fail whale would be an awesome way to go. This graphic was made by Edwheeler.

Congrats Susana and The Mary Sue. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Let It Never Be Said That CNN.com Doesn't Have A Sense Of Humor

Bazinga!

It was about computer viruses, but still.

Rubber

I want to see Rubber so bad it hurts.

A movie about a self-aware tire that kills people with telekinesis.

If that wasn't an idea whose time has come, I don't know what is.

And the fact that somehow they took an inanimate object with no human qualities and gave it a personality... that is an impressive feat. I mean, it is easy to make a doll or a car seem to possess character qualities because you can see a face in their features. A tire... that is an entirely new challenge.

So I have to see how this whole thing turned out. It is likely going to be disappointing, but I just have to know.

Midweek Video: The Tron Lebowski

I am just happy that they included the underrated misplaced joint scene in this loving parody.

When Wrestling and Reality Shows Collide

I just found out that Chris Jericho is going to be doing a reality competition show.

So now I have to watch Dancing With The Stars. Oh, the horror.

That's how much I like Chris Jericho as a performer. I have to see if he is also the best in the world at what he does when it comes to dancing.

I mean, he is a high-flying, acrobatic wrestler, so he likely has the chops to go quite far in that competition.

And don't get me wrong. He is probably the only wrestler I'd watch that show to see.

Ok, maybe I'd watch Rey Mysterio on it too.

I'm a wrestling fan, and I feel ashamed that I am going to watch DWTS.

Random Scene From A Dream

Jake Busey: Like, I can totally taste colors, man.

Me: That's because you are eating an orange, dipshit.

(I don't know why I used the word dipshit in the dream... it just seemed to fit).

Last Thing I Have To Say About Charlie Sheen For A While

I watched his interview on 20/20 last night, and there was a particular word that he kept saying that really caught my interest.

He kept mentioning judgment, as in he doesn't need his family, his producers, the CBS executives doing it. And I looked into some other interviews and it was a word that just kept coming up.

But you know, when you air your dirty laundry or you just do said laundry in such a way that the public finds out, well, you are in line for some judgment. It is as simple as that.

Three Soccer/Football Book Reviews

I was recently made the moderator for a Football Manager-related forum called The FM Reporter, and as part of my duties, I've written a few reviews of some soccer-related books I've read recently, and I thought I would share them here as well.

Inverting the Pyramid: Jonathan Wilson, a writer for The Guardian, The Independent and Sports Illustrated, wrote a rather comprehensive history of the tactics of soccer. I am a man who doesn't have a lot of background with the game, aside from playing FIFA and other games like that, so for one book to give me the confidence and understanding of an entire game

Because the focus is as much the figures and teams that employed these tactics and the reasons why as it is on the tactics themselves, the book becomes a stunningly interesting and informative read once you get into the early 20th century, because it took a while for the game to go from its formative years, where even the forward pass was looked as something foreign to the Englishmen who originally played the game, to a period of increased creativity and tactical thinking. The usual suspects that you would expect to be in a book like this are featured prominently: Jimmy Hogan, Meisl, Hebert Chapman, Rinus Michels, Herrera, Arrigo Sacchi, Alf Ramsey, Bela Guttman, Gusztáv Sebes, Bilardo and the like. I know I've forgotten to mention quite a few, but I am doing this by memory, so I hope you forgive the lapses.

But the thing that I found very educational about the book wasn't just that it diagrammed the positions of various players for specific historic games or went into the specifics of how a particular formation worked. It was the fact that it discussed why a particular change happened. More often than not, a change in tactics happened when a team had been isolated from international competition and they met up with another international squad which embarrassed them (England vs Hungary 1953 and Argentina at the 1958 World Cup comes to mind). That's the reason you really don't see tactics like the WM or the 2-3-5 any more (though, you never know, it may be such an antiquated formation now that a modern team running a version of it may stun an opponent that had never played against it on the field).

And it is the discussion of why a particular tactic fell out of favor that helped me really grasp soccer formations and tactics... because in thinking about the problem a manager in the past faced, it made me think about the sort of things I was seeing on the field in FM, and variations on the formations I used. It made me start really looking at formations in a critical way, and I think that was helpful for my development as a manager. I didn't try to emulate the formations I read about... I created my own based on the thinking this book inspired. I heartily recommend this book for anyone who is interested in tactics and formations. Even if you don't read it cover to cover, just reading a few chapters/sections might help you get a better grasp on the subject matter.

The Ball Is Round: I first read this book in late 2008, and it made a real impact on me, so when I started playing Football Manager, I decided to buy a copy instead of taking it out from the library again. If I was going to teach a university level course about the history of soccer, this would be the text book I would use as it gives a reader a very good survey of the totality of the game and its development around the world. Although David Goldblatt arguably wrote a popular history of the game, the depth and breadth of his study of the entirety of the subject is astonishing. Of course, given how massive the book is (it is nearly 1000 pages), that is to be expected.

Now, even though the book discusses soccer as a worldwide phenomenon, most of the emphasis is on England, Europe and Latin/South America, though Africa and to a much lesser extent Asia and North America have time devoted to them, but for those latter areas, it is a good start for someone who is interested in the history of soccer in those regions. And in many ways, The Ball is Round is as much a history of the societies that soccer was played in and the changing economics around the game as it is a history of the personalities within the game (but they certainly don't get short shrift either).

I was particularly taken by the sections detailing the dark days of the 1980's, where fan culture, corruption and crowd disasters almost destroyed the sport and the rebirth of soccer as a new entity in the 1990's. And any time someone talks about FIFA, I usually bring this book up as Goldblatt talks about the corruption that has plagued the organization, especially during the Havelange and Blatter years.

Tactics and formations get mentioned every so often, but they really aren't the focus of the book, so be aware of that (and if you are looking for a book that covers the history of tactics, Inverting the Pyramid is the way you want to go).

So if you are looking for a rather comprehensive history of the game, then this is the book for you, and a good jumping off point for more specialized study for a particular region.

Soccernomics: Written by Simon Kuper (Football Against The Enemy) and economist Stefan Szymanski has much in common with the book that may have given rise to it, Freakonomics.

The book discusses and largely debunks a number of the commonly assumed truths about soccer through statistical analysis of large reams of data.

It covers subjects like the seeming underperformance of the English National team, the oddities of the transfer market, the financial insolvency of the sport as a whole (because unless you are one of the big teams, you are likely losing money), penalty kicks, the movement of the major domestic and international silverware from provincial town clubs towards those in increasingly urban/capital areas.

The transfer market myth is that the more you spend on transfers, the more successful your team is going to be long-term when it seems that teams with higher salaries tend to be the winners again and again.

The book also examined soccer (and sport in general) and its correlation to suicide (turns out sports save more fans than it might lead to suicide), and in a related subject, the real reason cities and countries want to build big new stadiums and hold major competitions. It was a surprising revelation that has colored my thinking on the subject.

While it's revelations aren't as delightful as the ones from Freakonomics, it is still a fascinating book, and one worth reading by those interested in soccer.

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I think after 15 years, football/soccer has finally taken root with me.