at least it's a possibility now

Lots of names are being thrown around for Bond, but none of them are the right one. The good news is that the whole shlemiel has been set back a year, (2006!) giving the producers yet another chance to pick the right person for Bond, Paul Bettany.



Don't believe me? see Gangster No. 1 and then just try to tell me this guy couldn't play the shit out of James Bond. The really good news is that they're actively talking to Paul McGuigan about directing, so they must also like Gangster. Or else Wicker Park had a lot more going for it than I thought. The bad news is that they're also talking to Guy Ritchie, but what can you do. As long as they don't fill the gap with some sort of young-bond-in-military-service weekly TV show (British JAG, anyone?)

Uh, holy shit?

Pinch me is right. Please let this mean the return of Chad Tonks, I need to have a copy of that in my iPod.

my money's on Dangermouse

After last week's Batman fiasco you can now bet on which superhero will be next. This is progress, baby. (click on the title link, and go to specials to place your bet.)

Here is what I know about poker. After 2+ years and probably over 5000 hands, I have boiled the entire game down to one skill, and if you can perfect that one thing you can walk away profitable every time. Avoid the bad beats. The bad beat will wipe out all of your hard work, it will kill your confidence, it's basically guaranteed to make you go home poorer. Now if I can figure out how to avoid them, I'll be rich like Croesus.

Thanks to the PVR, I'm seeing everything being offered on TV this year that might be halfway interesting. Here's the verdict so far:

King of the Pride: started out a total train wreck. Predictably, it has improved to the point where I can confidently call it "pretty okay." In a year when there have been no new or returning live action sitcoms I would rate above middling, pretty okay makes this show "THE BEST NEW COMEDY OF THE YEAR" (feel free to quote me, NBC)

Joey: middling. They don't know who to give the chandler lines to. They're hinting at an on again off again romance with the superintendant. Ugh. Just make with the funny, we already care about the guy without putting him through the kind of romantic shenanigans that are antithetical to his character anyways.

The Watchmacallit new Jason Alexander show: Holy fucking Dog Crap, Batman! I got through half an episode. Listen to me: Malcolm Jamal Warner is the best thing about this show. If that ain't a death sentence, I don't know what is.


Rescue Me: Sharp, sharp, sharp. This is the only weekly show dealing with 9/11, plus it's the only credible 9/11 influenced thing I'm aware of in any medium. Denis Leary rocks hard and the script just zings. Start watching this immediately.

Lost: Appointment television, maybe the reason Hi-Def was invented. If you have access to the beauty picture and sound you can catch this thing mixed in 5.1 and just marvel at the sheer scale of it. Otherwise, you'll have to content yourself with the brilliant pacing, score, and most of all the acting which just pulls you right into this story and won't let you go. The show already contains the best single TV moment I've seen in a long while, a grown man being sucked into a jet engine. The DVD's would already be on my wish list, but the show is so good I'm waiting for Blu-ray.

Clubhouse: A guilty pleasure. Dean Cain=good (you completely buy this guy as the only class act in baseball. it grounds the show firmly in fantasy every time he acts unselfishly). Jeremy Sumpter=really good (you can see how he got Peter Pan, it's impossible to dislike him) and the kid playing his b/f is the new Max Casella. How hard is it to love seeing Christopher Lloyd do his crusty older man routine. Plus the baseball stuff is so lovingly photographed it's like sports pornography. The team plays in a league where all games are scheduled during magic hour.

Still to come: House, Desperate Housewives, season two of Arrested Development and Corner Gas.

She's a Snowball, He's an icecube, I'm very very worried

Not to be outdone by the giant sperm twins, Neve and Gliz were unleashed today, in time for Turin 2006. If these two ever activate their wonder twin powers we are completely fucked, my friend.

Svengali

Holey moley. I thought Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was it, man. There are touches of the completely weirded out german expressionist mise-en-scene in everything from Son of Frankenstein to 12 Monkeys, but seeing Svengali is like sucking that shit right from the pipe. Plus, it's the second movie (after Palooka) where the title character's name has become an actual fucking word for something because of its popularity. But back to Svengali. Not only is this completely fun as a bizarre little look at what the foreign menace must have seemed like to isolationist post war middle america but the shooting is unreal here. There are model flyovers that would make Tim Burton cream in his pants.




1931 is looking like the year when sound went and became a usable commodity and not just some gimmick. Street Scene, M, La Chienne, The Public Enemy, Little Caesar, Monkey Business, The Front Page, even City Lights (although technically silent, Chaplin's original score is integral to its success) are all from 1931 and pretty much represent the first wave of real modern moviemaking

my new car

okay, a working, wind-powered AT-AT.

Boy, Batman really gets around

I got my books and, more importantly, my comic books unpacked today. About 8 running feet of them. It was good to see my old friends again (I'm talking to you, Doom Patrol). Also, I found issue nine of Dork! which I really didn't think I had bought, but of course even though everything stayed in its rough order I can't find the other 8 issues. Makes me wonder what else I've lost. Plus how many Batman crossovers did I fucking buy? Apparently they just couldn't make enough of those batman crossovers for me (Grendel! Spawn! Superman! I think I even have a Batman/Strawberry Shortcake special). Damn I miss the funny books.

I think I'll start blogging things

Okay - so I'm gonna start blogging things again. Here's what's going on: I had a blog, and my stupid blogging software crapped out on me and done erased most of said blog, and I lost interest. This was about, oh, six months ago. And I stopped blogging. So I'm starting again. We'll see how it goes.