Sunday Video: Charlie Brown: Blockhead's Revenge

A Funny or Die video intrroduced by John Carpenter warning the world of a potential new spree killer in the making.

Featuring Rachel Bloom and her horror movie calibre scream.

It also sort of goes with PG Porn's A Very Peanus Christmas.

Its A Meme, A Protest...

...and a television reference.

The November A-Z Movie Challenge

I picked up this little challenge from the Goozchix blog, and since I haven't done anything like this in a while, it seemed like something that would be fun to do.

The basic rules are:

* You must choose 1 movie to watch for each letter of the alphabet.
* Each movie must be one you have not seen.
* You have to watch them in alphabetical order (that was unwritten, but important)

I am supposed to write a post for each one, but I think I will likely take a page from Samuraifrog's book and do a weekly recap of the movies I watched.

And here is my tenative list for November:

Audition
Battle Royale
Cobra
Doomsday
Even Money
Forbidden Kingdom
Goal
Hard Boiled
Infernal Affairs
JCVD
Kung Fu Panda 2
Lady Snowblood
My Young Auntie
The Navigator
Ong Bak
Persona
Quantum of Solace
Rubber
Shaolin Soccer
THX-1138
Undead
A Very Long Engagement
Wolf Creek
X-Men First Class
The Young Poisoner’s Handbook
Zabriskie Point

So, anyone else think this seems like an interesting challenge too? (you don't have to do it in a month either ;) )

Midweek Video: Batman Interrogation

I just love how dumb Batman is in these videos.

A Song Of Ice and Fire Observation

George RR Martin writes battle scenes (at least in my limited experience) the way I generally prefer writers to tackle sex scenes.

Unless something particularly plotworthy happens, I don't need to see it, I just need to know it happened.

Gripe: Game Developers/Publishers and System Requirements

In many ways, console gamers have it so much easier than those who play on a PC or a Mac. And I am not simply talking about system configurations, drivers and OS compatibility issues.

I am talking about getting information about if you can even run a game before it is released.

I mean, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is coming out in about 2 and a half weeks, and yet, Bethesda somehow doesn't know what the system requirements are going to be. I don't really see how that is possible. The same goes for THQ, which is releasing Saints Row 3 a few days later. I don't think this is simply a case of, if you have to ask, you can't run it.

As a developer, they must have some idea of at what their recommended requirements for that game should be at this point. Since they are selling these games through digital distribution channels with preorder bonuses, as a potential customer, the hardware requirements are something that I would really need to know before making a commitment to spend money on their product. That is something which console gamers don't have to contend with... if they have the system which the game is coming out on, they know they can buy and play the game when it is released. Simple as that.

I think it is a reasonable expectation as a consumer.

EDIT: And as soon as I write this, the system requirements for Skyrim were finally released.

A Cake Fit For A King

Hail to the king baby... hail to the king!

Sunday Video: George Lucas

I've started watching the SMBC videos, and this is one of their most recent ones, which I think gets to the heart of a lot of the Lucas hate out there.

I love the little dance on the floor at the end. It reminds me of something, which I am not going to say, but I am hoping someone else sees it too.

Shameful Realization

I woke up last week to a shameful realization:

"Aw crap... I'm into soccer again."

Ace Of Spades

I think you could sell me on almost any movie by using Ace of Spades by Motorhead in the trailer.

And after seeing Smokin' Aces after the teaser trailer, it is a dirty trick perpetuated by utter bastards.

I guess I will always have the super Mad Max mashup to redeem the song though.

Midweek Video: The Walken Dead

Just goes to show that a well thought out and executed premise is comedy gold.

I just wish "The ice... is gonna break!" was in it though.

Awesome Muppet-Based Costumes

I wonder if the people inside do the speech effects too?

AWE______________________SOME!
AWE_________SOME!
AWE_SOME!
AWESOME!

Sunday Video: I Sell Dubstep And Dubstep Accessories

Hank Hill vs Dubstep

Scenes From A Poorly Acted Wrestling Class Struggle

I know that I usually don't write about political issues, or wrestling for that matter, but some recent storyline events in the WWE making a veiled reference to the Occupy Wall Street protest movement stirred me enough to write something about it.

So you have been forwarned about the following wresting-related post.

--

Wrestling tells morality tales, stories where the audience generally wants the wrestlers who represent good values to triumph over those who represent evil.

In general, good values in wrestling are working class, middle America values. Honesty and integrity, working hard to get ahead and playing by the rules are for the most part what defines someone who the audience is supposed to root for. The fact that earlier in the evolution of wrestling, quite a few wrestlers had gimmicks based on their day jobs, like police officers, prison guard, an undertaker, hog farmers and the like also lends itself to this kind of interpretation.

And when you are setting up a wrestler as a heel, one of the easiest ways to do it is to simply tell the audience that they are wealthy. That wrestler doesn't even have to do anything particularly heelish on their debut. Just the fact they are rich basically sells the audience on the fact that they are on the wrong side of things.

Wealth is one of those things which is a quick way of indicating that a wrestler is supposed to think he is better than you. Cheating and underhanded tactics naturally go along with being rich, because that's how the rich stay rich, which is an argument that is well supported by the countless stories of fraud, misrepresentation and shady business practices that have arisen as journalists investigate the global financial crisis and the failure of companies like Enron and Worldcom.

Let's take a quick look at some of the wealthy characters the WWE has given us in the past:

The Million Dollar Man: Ted Dibiase is the reason I am writing article. I remember him as one of the seminal heel characters from my childhood. He was a southern character who had a black manservant, couldn't win a real title belt, so he had one made for himself and he allied himself with IRS to form Money Inc., and one of his catch phrases was "Everybody has a price." And the public was supposed to hate him, and they did.

JBL: He made a fortune on Wall Street (for real too). Part of his entrance in a limousine, and used his wealth to hire other wrestlers to protect him. Who could forget when Shawn Michaels lost everything in the global financial crisis, and JBL bailed him out with the condition that Michaels would have to do his personal bidding to help him win the Heavyweight championship. Again, a character the public was supposed to hate, and did.

MVP: Wealth, in the form of his supposedly record setting contract was just a part of this character's heel persona, I admit, but it was still one of those elements which was used to set him up as a villain. After the character's heel/face turn, his wealth was never really brought up again, instead there was a greater emphasis on his humble origins and being an ex-con and how he turned his life around.

Alberto Del Rio: An arrogant, wealthy Mexican aristocratic character who is driven to ringside in an expensive car and has a personal ring announcer. That description alone makes him a heel based on precedence alone.

Vince McMahon: Do I really need to explain this one, though wealth is again, only part of the character's heelish nature, since he also has power which he exploits to his own ends, but that is also in keeping with the general idea of being easy to hate for being himself and his actions, many of which involved money or corporate interests, though his schemes were more often than not foiled by Stone Cold, the anti-hero which was arguably very much working class. And there was the Battle of the Billionaires, which really, was supposed to be win/win for the viewing public since at least one rich person would be humiliated.

Triple H: Oh, so many reasons. He was introduced to the WWE as the Connecticut Blue Blood and though that character morphed into the Triple H we are familiar with. Again, we have a character who started as an arrogant aristocrat, married into the McMahon family and both kayfabe and in real life used that influence to his own benefit, including becoming the COO of the WWE.

Now, I left Triple H until the very end for a very good reason.

Basically the situation that was being presented on Monday Night Raw was the onscreen and behind the scenes talent taking strike action against the management of the WWE to remove Triple H from his role as the COO of the company.

The way the narrative was written and supposed to have been interpreted, in the most bizarre of twists, Triple H as a member of management was being cast as the hero while those who walked out were the villains. And because John Cena, Sheamus and CM Punk joined Triple H in showing up to compete, they were supposed to be heroic as well.

That is not the narrative that I took from Monday nights events. Triple H was a management jerk who was belittling the concerns of the talent he was in charge of, and Cena, Sheamus and Punk were scabs who were also taking shots at their colleagues who were fighting for something which benefited them all. John Cena discussed his motto, and claimed he was loyal to the company, when he should have shown loyalty and respect to his coworkers, men and women who asked him for his support and solidarity with their cause. But it was CM Punk's betrayal that I feltwas so much worse because his opposition to the walkout seems to go against everything his character has been saying and doing the past few months. He seemed like the character who would stand with not only his coworkers, but perhaps stand in solidarity with those in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In the scenario that the WWE has now created, Cena, Sheamus and Punk, three of the company's top faces are now heels along with Triple H, which would fit with nearly every rendition of strike action or walkout on television drama or in the movies, since that is how that particular kind of story is told. Management is traditionally and rightfully the antagonist in those stories.

The overall point of the segment was to set up those four figures as a team against a backstage conspiracy, but there were better, less heavy-handed ways of doing so, because even without the anti-union/protest sentiment, it was a clumsy and badly planned storyline element, since the company still had to record an episode of Smackdown and do house shows after the initial walkout, which didn't make any sense after that.

I know that wrestling is based on people who are supposed to have outspoken beliefs and who act on their individual whims, but really, having those three performers dump on their friends and coworkers because of a labor dispute tarnishes them. Even though it was a group of heels who got the ball rolling with this walkout, since most of their counterparts left with them, enough of them must have grievances to act in solidarity with people whom they have problems with in the ring.
But this whole walkout storyline has also reminded me of discussions in the past about wrestlers forming a union to protect themselves from some of the abuses they suffer at the hand of management, with some of those issues being brought up during the lead up to the walkout. The fact that John Cena, someone who is rumored to be very much against unionization of wrestling and is likely the highest paid performer currently on WWE, and Triple H, the man who will inherit at least a share of the WWE, were both standing in opposition of collective labour action in what largely amounted to a throwaway segment at this point. Pulling in CM Punk, who has had quite a push as of late, but who also has a lot of indie credibility and Sheamus, who is developing some staying power as a young superstar, is supposed to make that anti-union/labor/protest message that much more universal, but in the end, it is simply the moneyed and powerful establishment telling the masses that elitist interests, not the interests of labor or the protestors, are good.

In nearly every narrative involving issues of money, especially in wrestling, the rich and privileged are the enemies, the heels, and the audience cheers when they get their comeuppance. The current story line defies that logic in the most insulting way. Vince McMahon used his public platform and performers to tell the world his feelings about a particular political movement in a ham-fisted and ill-advised way to the detriment of everyone involved.

I Would Totally Watch This Movie

For one of Cracked's photoplasty contests, someone created the following poster.

And if they actually made that movie, I'd totally go to see it.

I also wonder if Tigger would be a speed freak.

A Philosophy To Live By

I never claimed to be nice 100% of the time.

A Potential Problem From All These Soap Operas Ending

I just realized that with all these soap operas going down, one of the avenues for young actors to learn their craft and get exposure is slowly being squeezed out of existence.

I am sure most of my peers in pop culture and entertainment blogging have seen at least one list of high profile actors and actresses who got their big break working on a soap opera, and with live theatre going through its own downturn (well, it has been on the decline for a while given the costs of producing new and existing work), it seems that there are going to be fewer opportunities for those in the acting profession to learn their craft professionally. And that will be a real shame.

Sunday Video: Daft Punk Medley on Piano

This gal hits a bunch of Daft Punk classics on the piano.

Da Funk doesn't get the love it used to, and this medley made me realize that.

I Don't Want To Believe

My entire life, I knew that the Detroit Lions were bad, and they'd always be bad. Yes, there were some sparks of life during the Barry Sanders years, but they were never going to go to the Super Bowl, and I was naive to think they ever could during those years.

I don't want to believe that they could possibly be good this year because my worldview is predicated on them being bad. It was one of those universal truths, like winter following autumn, the sun rising and setting and that there will never be a frozen pizza as good as fresh.

Like all those Red Sox fans who wanted them to finally win the World Series, but deep down during those years, many were asking themselves, just how could they screw it up.

That is the question I am asking myself today... how are the Lions going to screw this up. I know they will, deep down in my heart, I know that they will fail, and if I start to believe they can actually have a chance of winning the whole ball of wax, and then they screw up in ways only they can imagine before they've happened

I think that is the strange masochism of sports fandom when you support a team which is bad 95% of the time.

Midweek Video: Waiting For The Bus

A Cyanide and Happiness toon full of triumph and tragedy.

So The Simpsons May Be Coming To A Close Soon

Apparently there is a rumor going around Hollywood that Fox may be considering cancelling The Simpsons, a show which has been on for so long, there is a generation of college kids who have never lived in a world without it.

But it isn't ratings or the quality of the show which may bring this chapter of American television to a close. No, it is simply a matter of money.

You see, the contracts of the voice cast are expiring and Fox wants them to take a large pay cut. The cast is willing to take a slightly smaller pay cut, but apparently they want a percentage of ancillary profits, meaning they'd get paid for every DVD, syndication sale and merchandise that is related to The Simpsons, which to me at least, seems entirely fair, but which Fox seemingly does not.

Personally, the way I thought The Simpsons was going to end was the death/firing/departure of one of the major voice actors and the others, including Groening deciding that without that member, the show should not and could not continue.

But in all honesty, I think the threat of cancelling the series is just that, an empty threat. The series still has better ratings than American Dad and The Cleveland Show, so to cancel it over a little money seems silly to say the least.

I think in the end, this is going to be merely a bump on the road in their contract negotiation. The numbers have gotten softer, prompting the request for lower salaries, but I don't think they are soft enough to merit cancellation.

The Paparazzi Should Be Chasing New Targets

It never really occured to me to think about it this way: basically we have an army of people chasing other people around when they are off work. I mean, they are chasing entertainers, people who jape and strut for our amusement when they are working.

I've been of the opinion that if someone is following you around with a camera all the time and you happened to punch them, that is justified since they are technically harassing you and you are defending yourself.

Do you know what I think of when the image of people being unwillingly pursued by reporters and cameramen when they aren't currently at work?

I think of news stories about corporate presidents and CEO's who had defrauded or harmed a great number of people with their products, corrupt politicians who lined their own pockets at the expense of their constituents, and even on a local level, contractors and the like who have left their honest customers in the lurch. And in every case, they do not want to discuss the matter with a member of the media, so the journalist crafting the story goes to their place of business and usually chases them to their car, asking them questions that their target will not answer.

And I am just thinking... how much different the world might be if those people spending their lives laying in the gutter trying to get upskirt shots of young female celebrities and chasing them down the street were doing that to people who really deserve that kind of attention... the kind of people investigative reporters used to harass and expose: the corrupt, the criminal and the incompetent.