The Kline household finally goes Blu! Happy Monday and I hope you are all doing well after the LONG holiday weekend. I am still feeling jet lagged from all the travel and turkey of the last several days.
I do have some news - The Kline Household has finally gone Blu. On Thanksgiving Day I got up early and drove 45 minutes to Saint Joseph, MO to stand in line for an hour outside a dirty K-Mart store to buy a Sony BDP-S350 Blu Ray player. Then Friday I got up even earlier to make the trip to my local Wal-Mart to buy some cheap Blu Ray discs (Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, and The Fifth Element).
You may remember I was a pretty vocalHD DVD supporter and decided to make the switch to Blu Ray after holding out for quite a while (the good deals helped as well).
I will be getting a new (and much better) HDTV for X-Mas and will report back with a player and movie reviews. Also look for the DVD That Will Blow Your Mind to start including Blu Rays soon as well.
That is all for now - better try to get back to work. I will be back with another Blow Your Mind tomorrow...
Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Wednesday to you all and just a quick post here to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving Day and weekend.
I am relaxing at home mentally preparing myself for the crazy shopping day that is Black Friday and will not post again until Monday. Enjoy some time with your family and friends and remember to be safe on the roads if you are planning to travel.
Happy Tuesday and the last day of work for me before a LONG Thanksgiving break. I have two days of early morning shopping ahead of me (Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday) and I am excited to be knocking old ladies over for $15 Blu Rays and other not as good as last year deals.
Today another literary Blow Your Mind - on from the UK Gods Behaving Badly by Michelle Phillips. I love Greek Mythology and the book is about what would happen if the Greek gods were still alive and living together in an old London flat. They are losing their powers and just barely get by.
The book also tells the story about two mortals who cross the god's path and have to deal with the consequences. These two Alice and Neil really make the book for me - I was impressed that I wanted to hear more about them than Apollo or Aphrodite.
Phillips is a blogger in the UK and Gods is her first novel - I loved it and look forward to what she writes for us in the future. If you are a fan of the Greek myths like I am it is a great quick read - check it out.
Movie Trailer Thursday: The Wrestler
Happy Thursday to you all - I have been sick today but am feeling much better this evening. I wanted to share another movie trailer with you today - one for a film that I am very excited to see.
Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain is one of my favorite films and I was a HUGE WWF fan back in day - so Aronofsky's next film The Wrestler is double cool in my book. Plus Mickey Rourke is always awesome - check it out...
That looks great - I hope this gets Rourke an Oscar nod and some much needed respect. I also have to admire any film that goes behind the scenes of "sports entertainment" to show us just how unglamorous it really must be.
Happy Tuesday to you all and here is another Blow Your Mind. Today I am going to challenge you a little with one of the best and most difficult books I have ever read A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. It was difficult because Burgess creates a whole new language for the young characters to use as slang. It is part Russian and part Cockney slang that is a real challenge to grasp in the early parts of the novel.
Once you get used to the speech it is a great read. Chances are you have seen at least part of the 1970's Stanley Kubrick film version of Clockwork and it is great - but as usual the book is even better. Alex is even more out there in the book and the pace seems to be faster on the page than in the film.
There has been some controversy over the final chapter in the book - Burgess intended for there to be 21 chapters in it and some American printings only have 20 - the cover you see on the left is the version I have and it includes the 21st chapter - and it is amazing. It is much better than the film's ending and is what the author intended so look for that version.
Back with more later on...
Movie Trailer Thursday: Special
Happy Thursday - I have another movie trailer for you today and this one is a film I had never heard of until a few days ago: Special starring the very underrated Micheal Rappaport. Check it out:
Looks kinda meta like Adaptation. It also appears that this came out a while ago in the UK (they get all the good stuff before we do!) and was in theaters in the US this past summer - so look for it on video soon.
Back with more later...
WTF Wednesday: Karate Kid being remade - Why? Alright, time for me to get all pissy and rant about how dumb Hollywood is again. It appears someone is remaking The Karate Kid. Why? Is something made in the 1980's so OLD that it just has to be remade for today's kids to watch it? I remember watching movies from the 40's and 50's when I was a child and I am a better person because of it.
To make things even worse - Will Smith is involved with the project. He is producing the film for his son Jaden to star in. Daniel LaRusso will be will be played by the kid from The Pursuit of Happiness.
I love the original Karate Kid and remember how bad the sequels were - the one with Hillary Swank left a bad taste that is still in my mouth and I do not hold out much hope for a "reimagining" of the story for the kids of the Aughties.
Hopefully, this will end up not getting made like the Revenge of the Nerds remake that was talked about and then dropped. These remakes have to stop - just watch the original films and make NEW movies for people to see.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone are known by all as the creators and masterminds behind South Park but before that they made a student film about the true story of the only American ever convicted of cannibalism - Alfred Packer. The movie is very well made for a student film but when you look close you can tell it is a low budget affair (the clothes are a dead giveaway to me).
The music is quite good - a bit off kilter like all good South Park songs are. Better yet, the film is funny as hell. I watched this a few weeks ago in a hotel room and was laughing the whole time.
The original CTM DVD was put out by Troma and has since gone out of print - but next Tuesday there is a new "13th Anniversary Edition" coming out with all the original extras and some new stuff like an extra commentary track and more. I plan on picking it up as soon as I find a copy in retail stores and suggest you check it out as well.
Back with more later and have a Shpadoinkle day!
Recommended Firefox Extension: Fast Dial
Happy Monday - I hope you all had a good weekend and are ready for another week. Today I thought I would share with you a Firefox extension that has really helped enhance my web browsing and in turn helped me get more done during the workday.
Fast Dial is an extension that replaces empty tabs with a "Speed Dial" like panel with your most visited links.
You can customize Fast Dial to look and behave however you like - I like the dark background and tiles without borders - and if you set your homepage to be a blank page you will see it when you start Firefox. Check out more information on Fast Dial and download it here.
Back with more later on...
Friday Quick Links: Crichton dead, Palin dumb, kid lame edition
Well hello there - welcome to Friday and the first Friday Quick Links post in a LONG TIME - I was unable to gather these web nuggets while I was busy on the road - but now that I am back to mainly being in an office all day expect a return to the normal every other week FQL posts. As usual, you can click on the pictures or the source links to see the original story as I read it this week - here we go...
Micheal Crichton died this week at age 66 - he leaves a great legacy of books, TV shows, and films - R.I.P. Ain't it Cool News
Now that the election is over - reports are coming out the YES Sara Palin is as dumb as we all feared - and I am not surprised at all. ABC News.com
Some kid in the UK changed his name to Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined - at least we don't have to worry about him ever reproducing since no chick will EVER sleep with him now. Telegraph UK
There you go - all the best of the web for this week. Have a good weekend and I will be back on Monday with more...
Movie Trailer Thursdays: Fanboys
Alright, I have a new feature for you today. Tech Thursdays is a bust so they are gone and will now be replaced with Movie Trailer Thursdays. I noticed that I have posted a ton of movie trailers to the blog in the past and why not have one day dedicated to just them?
So here we go - Fanboys is a film that I have been hearing about for a very long time indeed. As a regular reader of Ain't It Cool News I have read what seems like hundreds of articles about the film and its rocky road to the big screen. Well, it seems that journey is almost at an end because an official trailer has been released and here it is:
Looks pretty darn good to me. Of course I am a Star Wars geek from way back so I get the humor and cameos and whatnot. I also love the movies version of Harry Knowles from AICN - it is just spot on and great.
I will try to have this be a weekly column like Blow Your Mind - there are plenty of great looking movies on the way to post.
Weird bit of news today that was so WTF Wednesday worthy I just had to post about it. Microsoft has officially killed Windows 3.11 today - that is right Windows 3.11 the system that was BEFORE Windows NT and Windows 95. Win 3.11 has long been remembered fondly by M$ fans - I hated it but to be fair I only used it on a terrible and unreliable Packard Bell P.O.S. so maybe I am not an authority. Apparently some people were still using the 15 year old OS on PC's that functioned as cash registers and whatnot. Well not anymore - Microsoft has killed it and says to move on - I hear you can buy Windows 98 pretty cheap these days on the internet so feel free to upgrade (or better yet give Linux a spin - you may like it!)
Happy Wednesday to you all - I am tired as hell after staying up until 11:30 Central time to watch Obama's amazing speech - really if you have not seen or heard it yet check it out and come back after - I'll wait.
Ok, now that you are done with that it is time for another Blow Your Mind - and today one of the best DVD's ever released Blade Runner - The Final Cut. I have told you about this cut of the film before and will let you read that post for the details on the cut of the film. The DVD is what I want to recommend here - and it is amazing. Blade Runner is one of those films where the behind the scenes story is almost as amazing as the film itself and it gets told in three (yes THREE) commentary tracks and an amazing Making of documentary on the second disc. There are hours and hours of bonus features to enjoy and they are all really well done and worth the time (something that is not always true of DVD extras).
If you even remotely like the film - then the Final Cut 2 disc DVD is a must have - it is well worth the $10 I had to pay for it (Amazon lists it for $15 as of this posting on 11-5-2008) so check it out.
Alright - another quick post here to tell you to GET OUT AND VOTE! Missouri first time voters are slacking off and not getting to the poles in the expected numbers - if you are one of them DO IT! I went bright and early this morning and there were lines - but they were not as long as I thought they would be.
I have been listening to 96.5 The Buzz all day and they are playing "Political Music" all day - pretty cool and worth a listen. You can check it out online (for free) here.
I will be back with a belated Blow Your Mind tomorrow and again GO VOTE!
Do not forget to VOTE!
Just a quick note today to remind you all to get out tomorrow and vote. This is perhaps the most important election in recent memory and every vote counts (especially in swing states like Missouri). I do not want to tell you who to vote for but do want to share this image...
