Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson’s new movie is called Moonrise Kingdom, and it looks great.

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas

Here’s a great remembrance and primer on a holiday classic I doubt few people outside of my narrow age range would remember: Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas.

Dustin Diamond’s Behind The Bell 

I was too old to give a shit about Saved By The Bell, but this epic review of Dustin Diamond’s memoir makes the author sound like a mentally unstable, insecure douchebag. 

Full Dance Card.

Tired. Very tired. Working on the 10-20 stuff last night; it’s going well, and the money’s good. Gotta keep it going until we get the site looking tight. I have a meeting with the Gebran folks tonight to see what they need; hopefully there’ll be another month or so of development on their product/s to keep the freelance going. So far we’ve billed and been paid and there’s another invoice out, with the promise of work in the summer-fall for Oakleaf.

I watched the rest of the Aliens special edition DVD the other night and I’ve been thinking about it ever since—it was my favorite movie in 1986 or 87 when it came out, and it hasn’t aged too badly. Probably also because I played the game yesterday—it’s hard. And frightening as hell- the movement on the aliens is a lot faster in the game, and they mess you up quickly. It’s hard to play as the Marine, and you get a real sense of how hard it would be to stay alive without a team with you (which is how the demo sends you out.)

Monsters.

I watched a Netflix On Demand movie last night while working called Monsters, and I was blown away. I think that Roger Ebert probably sums it up best in his review; I enjoyed it for many of the same reasons he did. The titular monsters are secondary to the characters, and the entire thing is shot by an actual photographer with an eye for moving images and subtle performances. The director did all the post production in his bedroom, and it’s exactly enough to serve the story without being CGI for CGI’s sake. Go check it out.

Hazy Shade of 80′s.

Working very, very late last night, I streamed “Less Than Zero” over Netflix on my second monitor. What a time capsule that movie is. From the fashions to the hairstyles to the subject matter to the music selections, it’s a fascinating portrait of the excesses, glamour, personalities and pathos of the Hollywood filmmaking machine in the late 80′s. Andrew McCarthy, the poster boy for ineffectual, feminine protagonists of the John Hughes era, actually does a pretty good job overall. Jami Gertz was inexplicably cast as a jaded, experienced party girl, and she comes off as a whiny teenager (some of her line readings made me actually cringe). Robert Downey Jr. was amazing, as usual, and completely sold the character of Julian; James Spader had the smarmy evil creep thing down to a science by then—a little hair gel and a pastel suit were all it took. There were a ton of tiny details I missed as a 17-year-old that made me smile twenty years later, and I’ve had the Bangles’ Hazy Shade of Winter going through my head all morning.

‘Natty Boh’ Drinkers Tap Into Nostalgia at Frisco Tap House in Columbia – Columbia, MD Patch

Wow, I had no idea National Bohemian wasn’t available on tap until recently. ‘Natty Boh’ Drinkers Tap Into Nostalgia at Frisco Tap House in Columbia.

W. Earl Brown

Here’s an awesome interview with W. Earl Brown, AKA Dan Dority from Deadwood, and Warren from There’s Something About Mary.

Movie stills.

This is supremely creepy stuff, but fascinating. I will let that description stand on its own.
(hint: go forward to The Shining examples.)

Random Musings.

The new AppleTV looks very tempting. We are currently paying for the FIOS triple-play as part of their 1-year promotion, so once our contract on that expires I’ll be looking for ways to ditch cable altogether and move to a more internet-oriented TV delivery system. AppleTV is now based on streaming vs. buying, which means there’s only 24 hours to watch a show or movie multiple times. I’m thinking this isn’t a huge deal for Jen or I (especially since we already have a Netflix account, which is supported in the new AppleTV) but for Finn, who will most likely want to see shows or movies multiple times, this could be a challenge. It would also mean giving up a few channels I’d like to have for her, including the kids’ music channel and Disney-free cartoon channels (in the rare event we let her watch TV).

I think the other thing I’d do with it is drop another terrabyte drive into our media server and load our DVD collection on there, along with as much kids’ programming as I could get my hands on in order to stream it to the TV. It would be so nice to retire the DVD player completely and subtract a big box from the TV stand; apparently there is a way to use the XBOX as a DVD player but I need an “XBOX DVD Movie Playback Kit” to do it.

Speaking of Apple, Jen’s new iPhone should be arriving on Friday, which is excellent news. Her old Motorola will be relegated to duty as Finn’s new toy, which is, sadly, about all it’s good for.