Been awhile...

I'm in Miami right now, by the pool, its 80 and sunny, while the rest of America gets a cold snap and blizzard conditions. Here's Chris Nolan, director of the Dark Knight, in tribute to Heath Ledger.

Director of The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan, has written a very touching tribute to Heath Ledger.

One night, as I’m standing on LaSalle Street in Chicago, trying to line up a shot for “The Dark Knight,” a production assistant skateboards into my line of sight. Silently, I curse the moment that Heath first skated onto our set in full character makeup. I’d fretted about the reaction of Batman fans to a skateboarding Joker, but the actual result was a proliferation of skateboards among the younger crew members. If you’d asked those kids why they had chosen to bring their boards to work, they would have answered honestly that they didn’t know. That’s real charisma—as invisible and natural as gravity. That’s what Heath had.

Heath was bursting with creativity. It was in his every gesture. He once told me that he liked to wait between jobs until he was creatively hungry. Until he needed it again. He brought that attitude to our set every day. There aren’t many actors who can make you feel ashamed of how often you complain about doing the best job in the world. Heath was one of them.

One time he and another actor were shooting a complex scene. We had two days to shoot it, and at the end of the first day, they’d really found something and Heath was worried that he might not have it if we stopped. He wanted to carry on and finish. It’s tough to ask the crew to work late when we all know there’s plenty of time to finish the next day. But everyone seemed to understand that Heath had something special and that we had to capture it before it disappeared. Months later, I learned that as Heath left the set that night, he quietly thanked each crew member for working late. Quietly. Not trying to make a point, just grateful for the chance to create that they’d given him.

Those nights on the streets of Chicago were filled with stunts. These can be boring times for an actor, but Heath was fascinated, eagerly accepting our invitation to ride in the camera car as we chased vehicles through movie traffic—not just for the thrill ride, but to be a part of it. Of everything. He’d brought his laptop along in the car, and we had a high-speed screening of two of his works-in-progress: short films he’d made that were exciting and haunting. Their exuberance made me feel jaded and leaden. I’ve never felt as old as I did watching Heath explore his talents. That night I made him an offer—knowing he wouldn’t take me up on it—that he should feel free to come by the set when he had a night off so he could see what we were up to.

When you get into the edit suite after shooting a movie, you feel a responsibility to an actor who has trusted you, and Heath gave us everything. As we started my cut, I would wonder about each take we chose, each trim we made. I would visualize the screening where we’d have to show him the finished film—sitting three or four rows behind him, watching the movements of his head for clues to what he was thinking about what we’d done with all that he’d given us. Now that screening will never be real. I see him every day in my edit suite. I study his face, his voice. And I miss him terribly.

Back on LaSalle Street, I turn to my assistant director and I tell him to clear the skateboarding kid out of my line of sight when I realize—it’s Heath, woolly hat pulled low over his eyes, here on his night off to take me up on my offer. I can’t help but smile.

There's a joke here somewhere...

So I'm in Panera as usual on Saturday morning.
A redneck in a wheelchair and a swedish guy come in...

Rockstar Update

MTV Games, Harmonix And EA Confirm Plans To Ship Standalone Rock BandTM Instruments To U.S. Retail Stores

Harmonix, one of the world’s leading developers of music-based games, and MTV Games, , along with distribution partner Electronic Arts Inc. announced today that individual instrument peripherals for Rock Band™ will start shipping to U.S. store shelves beginning on February 12th.

“The release of standalone instruments allows Rock Band musicians to enjoy the full Rock Band experience, including drum, microphone and guitar head-to-head modes, creating a whole new level of competitive fun,” said Alex Rigopulos, CEO and co-founder, Harmonix. “We’re also delivering a stand-alone wireless guitar solution for all versions of Rock Band as well as providing the opportunity for consumers to build their band one instrument at a time.”


With the standalone instruments being made available, Let the ROCK OFFS BEGIN! with competing challenging play modes such as mic vs. mic, drum vs. drum and guitar vs. guitar. Players can battle each other in versus modes in "Score Duel" mode for the high score or in the challenging "tug of war" mode, Your skills better be tight. The awesome versus modes can be played locally or online and work with all rock band downloaded songs. But theres a downside, Both players must own the same song in order to play in these modes(why cant just one be the server running the damn song? why!!)

Rock Band Instrument Release Dates/Pricing:

* Rock Band Drum Kit (Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system) $79.99 MSRP; February 12, 2008

* Rock Band Wireless Fender® Stratocaster Guitar Controller (Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 system, PlayStation 2 system*) $59.99 MSRP; April 1, 2008


Standalone Rock Band game software is also available as well as the Special Edition Bundle which features the instruments you wholeheartedly love so much

* Note: The Rock Band PlayStation guitar and drums work for both PlayStation 2 and PLAYSTATION 3 systems.

Dilbert

You can add this to your own site now. Other sizes available.

R.I.P. Joker

Heath Ledger found dead. Apparent overdose of sleeping pills.
What was your favorite movie of his? Mine is A Knight's Tale. Maybe soon to be his last movie will be my favorite, Batman Returns.

Calvin & Hobbes Tribute

Achmed

Been meaning to add this, hope you haven't seen it.


Achmed The Terrorist - Watch more free videos

Big Movie Weekend

Couldn't have spent a better Saturday. Although, I could do without the Tornado warning. First I saw "I Am Legend". I like how the line was blurry between being a normal guy living alone with a dog for three years while fighting to stay alive AND perform medical experiments. Then some existentialism thrown in for good measure. Probably from Will's new friend Tom Cruise.
Next was National Treasure, Book of Secret Hair implants. There were so many close ups I began to count the plugs on his fivehead. Major mistake where Cage yells "Ed, Push!", but Ed Harris's character is named Mitch. I needed more history and riddles, there seemed to be more in the first movie, kind of like Indiana Jones, the Last Crusade.
Then to top off my day is Cloverfield. 90% of the movie you see nothing of the creature. The suspense building, until finally, "WHAT THE F@$% IS THAT!!" A handful more of surprises thrown in and it was a good time. Especially with the comic relief of the cameraman. A little love story and Blair Witch with Godzilla combined. Now if I can only find the Korean flick, the Host, that touted to be better. Maybe I'm insensitive, but I saw no reason to include hate because its set in NYC and 9/11. I would have never thought of it.
Over all I'll rank today's movies, Cloverfield, Legend and Treasure, best to thank god I didn't pay for it!, in that order.

Wish I got invited... :(

Paul keg party if everyone was a website.

New Kind of Vacation

The sequel is going to be on absinthe. You slowly go insane while painting artwork that nobody will buy. Then cut off your ear and die penniless.

A note from Christopher Paolini, about the release of the third book of the Trilogy (which may actually go to four books.)As usual the books have been much better than the movie.

I am pleased to tell you that the title of Book Three in the Inheritance cycle is Brisingr. Sometimes one's first thought is best, and so it was with naming this book. After many months of trying to sum up a complex story in a single word, it struck me that I had had the name all along. For reasons that will become clear when you read Brisingr, this title is perfect.

Brisingr is an Old Norse word for fire. As you may remember, in Eragon, Brom uses the word brisingr to start a fire. This is the first time Eragon hears an ancient language word, a word of magic. Later, when Eragon is cornered by Urgals in Yazuac, he shouts "Brisingr!" to great effect (see Eragon chapters "Revelation at Yazuac" and "Admonishments").

Both elements of the cover, the gold dragon Glaedr and the title, touch on Eragon's inheritance. With his painting, John Jude Palencar has captured the dignity and wisdom of Glaedr, and Random House has again designed an awesome book cover.

Doomsday

Take a little bit of Escape from New York, a dash of The Road Warrior, and a pinch of Resident Evil, bake for 28 Days and you get the following...



UPDATE: I guess Rhona Mitra's role in Boston Legal must have gotten her really popular. So besides the above movie, she has just signed on for Underworld 3, in place of Kate Beckinsale. Cool tidbit I just found out about the original writer of Underworld, Kevin Grevioux. He has a degree in microbiology and was in grad school for genetic engineering when he switched to movie related interests. He is the giant jacked-up Black werewolf in the opening subway scene.

Fat guy update!

Even tho' I had very nice meals at Momma Carreo's a few times this week, I still managed to lose 5 lbs. I don't know where from, 'cuz my pants still don't fit right. I was sitting in the chair for an hour, I started to look for the remote, only to realize I had been sitting on it the whole time.
I AM killing me!

I.F.H. Monday's

I would love to go here for happy hour! They'd probably forget to give me a bill,
so I could just tip them.


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What writer's strike?

Let's just start bringing Japanese shows over like this. Try watching this without laughing!

Strange Wilderness

The original link disappeared, so here is a new link. I just might take up smoking to really enjoy this.

DO WANT!!!

Hog Hustle

I have done your typical lemming move for most Americans at this time of the year. I made a New Year's Resolution and joined a gym, (again!)
Right now, as a gauge for where I am, I can't run a mile, much less one time around the track. I am following a program that promises to have me running a 5K in two months. So maybe I will to the Hog Hustle (HA!) in April.
I will also keep progress of strength training to see how well I snap back. 5th set of 5 reps at 225lbs was hard. That used to be the first or second set.
I'm weigh in at 270lbs officially today. Target weight, according to my lovely walking, talking form of motivation is 220. I was thinking more like 230, but anything below 240 will be awesome. Besides, I really don't want to buy more clothes cause I need to go up on size (again.) I'll keep you posted.

Hey, anyone else tired of zombie movies? It's like... it's like they won't die or something...
Anyways, George Romero comes back from the dead to introduce this trailer for Diary of the Dead, which opens next month. I think the big secret of Cloverfield is that it's actually this movie.
I don't know what's so scary about the dead coming back to life anyway. Isn't that what happened to Jesus? He came out of his cave, saw his shadow, then got pissed and ate peoples' brains and there were six more weeks of winter?
And then the rabbits came.
That would've been way cooler.

Conan is still a barbarian

No, I'm not talking about the late-nite talk show host.
They are going forward with doing another Conan the Barbarian movie. Supposedly, it will be more faithful to the original writing.
(That's what they always say with remakes.)
But, they'd better include something like this classic clip.



P.S. Thanks to Cresenet for adding me to their blog roll.

Next Best Thing

If you aren't able to pony up for the average Led Zeppelin ticket at $14k each, then here might be something just as good. I think better.

The best show you're not watching.

CBS, seeking to fill programming holes left by the writers' strike, said on Monday it will rerun the entire first season of the crime drama "Dexter" from Showtime.
"Dexter," which stars Michael C. Hall (formerly of HBO's "Six Feet Under") as a police forensics investigator who moonlights as a serial killer, will make its CBS debut on February 17 and air for 12 consecutive Sunday broadcasts.
NBC said last month that it will recycle episodes of "Monk" and "Psych" from its sibling cable outlet, the USA Network, beginning in March.
But the move of "Dexter" to CBS marks the first time that a full season of a pay-cable series has made the transition to commercial television, the network said.
The nine-week-old screenwriters strike against major studios has brought production on all prime-time scripted series to a halt. That has left broadcast networks with a shortage of original dramas and comedies to put on the air this year as their stockpile of newly produced episodes runs low.
Starting this month, the networks have turned to a bigger-than-usual supply of reality shows and reruns to pick up much of the programming slack. NBC drew strong ratings with Sunday's two-hour debut of its new reality contest show "American Gladiators."
But broadcasters are trying hard to keep some fresh scripted offerings on the air. In addition to "Dexter," CBS is considering borrowing the series "Weeds," about a pot-dealing mom, from Showtime as well.

Happy Birthday!

Robert Duvall, 77 yrs old today.

I'm thirsty

So what's wrong with drinking six beers at once?

Happy New Year!!

How many times are you going to write 2007 on something like your rent checks? So let's dispense with the usual silliness and exercise our brains.