Daily View, 8/31

• Yeah, I see the BVM on a turtle now that you mention it, but come on, my cat takes heart shaped leaks in his litter box. Sometimes a turtle is just a turtle.


• Poor Teletubbies!!


• Katie Couric suffers from Bag Lady Syndrome?? Katie Couric??


• Lego Star Wars game. I just like to say Lego Star Wars game.


• Um, were there really enough hedgehog incidents to make this a problem?? Wow. Poor little guys. They are pretty damn cute. And they make faces (wow, I always knew Cute Overload would come in handy someday...).


• Damn, I missed the makeout party.


• I cannot support the whole purple is the new black theory. Purple is for old ladies and fucking harlequin clowns. Blech.


• If you've got a little time and patience, this is actually some great sketch action. Though she ends up kinda 80s in the end... ah well.

Daily View, 8/30

• Ok, clearly Helen Mirren has a plan. I just found out that she also played Elizabeth I on TV last year. Guess the old girl finally said, "Fuck this, I want awards." Rock on, Hels.


• Supernova!


• "Wouldn't the paper disintegrate before you're finished writing down whatever it is you're writing?" SO not the point. Things that happen underwater are just cool.


• Poor Adrien Grenier. So he wore a brown shirt. Worse things have been done, and brown was the new black just a second ago. C'mon.


• What the... there's a God Spot??? Wait, wait, BoingBoing refutes.


• Hmm... I think my little brother just got caught kissing John Travolta... Ah well, at least it wasn't Cruise. Jon, if you're going to make out with celeb scientologists, at least gnaw on Jason Lee, eh?


• Social networking tries to get organized: HiveLive (BoingBoing just blew the invite only signup link wide open). Seriously, though, you could just use Backpack.


• Paddlestar Galactica. Points for the creative use of the blue Johnny-on-the-Spot.


• A hybrid Mini?? Sweet.


• Hey, Spike Lee made a movie about me. Oh wait... fuck.


• When I think decoupage, I think violet-scented crap. John Derian is making me reconsider (though I still get a faint whiff of the violets).


• Poachers suck. Fucking senseless. Arg. Lately I'm realizing how much human-on-animal violence upsets me. I cried when they killed the circus animals in Max Tivoli. I get an instant stress headache dealing with the trapping victim photos for the anti-fur websites we work with. There have been several movies lately with throwaway animal cruelty moments that have made me shudder and look away. Sigh. Yet animal-on-animal violence doesn't make me blink. I'm also relatively unmoved when humans do awful things to each other. Hmm. So maybe I will end up one of those old ladies living alone, squinting into the glow of the computer screen, surrounded by a hundred cats, hissing that humans are worthless. ACK.


• Awesome. Peter Callesen looks at a flat surface and brings it to 3-D life.


• Er, why? As much as I appreciate any sentence beginning with "Auch die Beauty-Accessoires der Bubblegumqueen...", I don't get the appeal of the shirt. And this one is just wrong.


• Despite an unfortunate appreciation for their early music during my 50s cheesecake phase in the 80s (how many times can one 12 year old listen to "Surfer Girl" before the parentals need to take that shizz away?), I have never been able to really appreciate the Beach Boys. They were even my very first "rock" concert (hahahahaha can I get a harmony chorus of shame?). Yet still, I just can't...


• Milkmoment. Har har.

Daily View, 8/29

• Hmmm, first Mimobots, which are now EVERYWHERE, and now hieroglyphic USB drives appear. I'm enough of a nerd to like the egyptology but in general I think this trend is pretty useless.


• Poor Aaron Eckhart. Don't worry, those of us who really love you will still see movies like Black Dahlia even though your name was so callously misspelled. Meanwhile, if you're curious about the actual murder case, more info is available on Elizabeth Short here. Hasn't been updated in a while, but photos of the severed body are there, which is really all you need, right? What? Psycho? Nah.


• So they opened up an old-school automat down on the LES (of course)... and they called it Bamn.


• Hmmm... I bet you can't identify this creature right away either. Cray-zee!

That's all I got today, peeps. My feeds died and I didn't have the strength of will to troll sites manually...

Daily View, 8/28

Today is the birthday of the guy I had a crazy crush on in junior high. WHY is this date still lodged in my brain? WHY? I don't need this information anymore. I've been over the guy for at least... let's count... oh, fifteen years. And yet, here it is: August 28th will apparently forever be his birthday in the database that is my head. Arg.

• It shouldn't be so funny, but I laugh like a damn trained monkey every time: sneezing panda


• Creepy cool green Empire State Building


• Dude, why are the Gin Blossoms playing the Apple Store? Since when is the Genius Bar where 90s bands go to die... all over again. ??


• When The Meth Goes Marching In. Damn, I love the whole mashup genre, even when it's bad. Comes from too much Saturday night party mix on Top 40 radio in the 80s, I bet... but dayum.


• Reviews of Idlewild are so damn mixed I don't know which way to turn. Whatever, like i'm not going to be front row at home when it comes out on DVD, but this was one I considered seeing in the theatre. Am still considering it... maybe not... ack.


• Speaking of movies, a friend and I saw The Illusionist on Friday. TERRIBLE. Yes, Jessica Biel does a fine job, which is the buzz fueling this dud. I don't usually like her but she does basically pull this one off. However, unless all you want from life is an eyeful of Jessica Biel, there isn't much else to recommend the film. Edward Norton, overrated as always, is terrifically boring as the lead, Rufus Sewell is on bully villain autopilot (come the fuck on, Roof, when are you going to be likeable in a film again. Ever? Where have you gone, Seth Starkadder?), and proven gold card Paul Giamatti gets all the chuckles as the police inspector but really has very little to do. The "twist" was obvious from about a third of the way in and everything was trite and anti-climactic. I was bored off my ass. And that takes A LOT, considering I have the patience to sit through just about anything. Sigh.


• WHY would you do this to a hot dog? Bento TV. *shudder* (*g, i don't know how you find this stuff—what's a veg doing trolling hot dog sites, anyway, mm?)


• And ohmigod, this casting is... astonishing. Helen Mirren—Helen Mirren!!—as Queen Elizabeth II?? James Cromwell—American James Cromwell, Farmer Hoggett himself—as Prince Philip??? Michael Sheen—MICHAEL SHEEN!—as Tony Blair???? I watched the trailer for The Queen wide-eyed and... they just might pull it off. Helen Mirren will likely get nominated for everything, and generations of men will mourn that she is certain not to take her top off in this one. MICHAEL SHEEN... I just can't believe that. Kate Beckinsale's babydaddy gets a break from playing period losers and may actually accomplish a star turn. Good on ya. I'm... I'm a bit bowled over, actually.


• Stereotype showdown on Overheard. Oh, and wow poor unfortunate Daryl Hannah.


• Dude. More chimeric animal hybrids, this time with an underwater theme.


• And, continuing with animals, there is a whole site mysteriously dedicated to yawning bunnies. Aw, Roebling the Brooklyn Bunny is yawning bunny #39. Meanwhile, this one is my vote for the best (er, of the ones I bothered to look at... come on, even I have better things to do than look at 60+ pictures of yawning bunnies. Shut up.)


• Malcolm Gladwell says that some bloggers "believe that a reaction is the same thing as an argument." This is so damn true, and it's really unfortunate. People are idiots. A fact underlined today as I found myself unintentionally tangled in a discussion of marketing to women on the 37signals blog. (Um, k8 would be me, in case you were wondering.) Fuck that shit from Anonymous Female. Sigh.


• Cool. Flickr gets mappy.


• It's true. Noah K. has much better hair than Ahree Lee.


• Strange and wonderful little animation featured today by Wired Magazine: Gerald become Geraldine.


• Can you correctly place the States? I actually did much better than I expected. Woo! Am feeling a little bit misty and proud to have gotten a 95%, I confess.


• I love that people on this subway platform look like they're about to launch into a musical number. New York, baby.


• "Orange juice is like a cheap whore to me now."

Daily View, 8/26

• Want to stir up some shit in airports? Next time you travel, wear a I Am Not A Terrorist tee, written in Arabic.


• Kottke's ode to poor demoted Pluto involved a mnemonic contest. Here are the winners. Meanwhile, Ze Frank's new Pluto-less mnenomic has become "My very educated mother just sucked Uncle Ned."


• Must... get... out... of... country.... The US has lost its mind. Damn the Republican regime!


• I blame Bush and Jesus for this mess as well: Forbes regresses back to 50s gender roles. BoingBoing covers this offensive nonsense here, with follow-ups here and here.


• Speaking of religion, if we have to discuss it at all, I'd rather Ricky Gervais do the talking.


• You can be film hipster cool and wear a Criterion Collection t-shirt. I admit it, I bought one. Yo' mama.


• Ok, I love that the Lomo sidekick bag is designed to keep your camera within easy reach... but isn't this precisely the reason why your camera will get STOLEN?


• I'm sure I've recommended this to everyone I know already, but just in case you missed my gushing, Rome is awesome (and I agree about that Gladiator scene). Though I'm biased, because I was already a huge fan of many of the character actors in the cast and have been waiting for them to be properly showcased for years (Kevin McKidd, Lindsay Duncan, Ciaran Hinds, Polly Walker, etc.). Historic liberties are taken but for the most part the attention to detail is excellent, and it sparks the viewer to learn more about the actualities of ancient Rome, so it succeeds in entertaining as well as jogging the brain. Expensive as hell, though, even on Amazon—rent it instead.


• Who needs Snakes on a Plane when you could have Apes at a Rave instead? My other favorite in this movie-title fest: That's Not Sangria!


• There's a ChiaPet widget. I always kinda wanted the ChiaBunny. I don't know what's holding me back. ? (thanks *g for the link)


• Hold out a few minutes for the guy in the horse mask in this bizarrely charming short film about North Carolina made by the band Sparklehorse (I think. Found it here). Comedy may shift and change but people in animal masks are immortal.


• I am a member of Judy's Book. Why? Because I'm an egomaniac and like to have people tell me that I'm giving good advice. No, really, they were giving away a free iPod if you wrote 50 reviews, so... there it is. Also, I figure if I actually make City Editor status that might look good on my resume. ?? But damn, I find myself frequently at a loss within this strange little online community. For example, one girl appeals to the JB community to answer Where does the wind come from? I couldn't make this shit up if I tried. Sigh. Maybe I don't want this shizz on my resume after all...


• I can't really blame Bush for God's Armor PJs. I doubt even he is this fucking crazy.

Have a good weekend!

Daily View, 8/25

Ok, well, I took a break for a while. A girl can burn out, can't she? A lot of these are the links I'd stored up to post before my abrupt departure, so some are a bit dusty...

• My initial reaction to improv is usually resistance, but the Jewel coincidence clearly indicates that the comedy gods were smiling on these fools who walked around Home Depot in slo-mo.


• Chimeric animals!!


• What the hell is really the different between Timbuk2's Specialty Messenger and their Metro, aside from a couple of centimeters here and there. I own two of the Metros—it is a great fucking bag. Now they've gone and thrown another mini-bag into the mix. Arg, Timbuk2. You've found my weakness, you rugged ballistic bastards.


• Dude. Star Wars knitting patterns. Two of my nerd universes just collided.


• I admit, I'm curious about all these new weird and wonderful workout devices and programs (Nike & Apple, iTrain, etc.)... but has anyone actually tried these? Speak your minds, guinea piggies...


• More consumerist goodness: I dig Namitatsu shoes. Not as cool as the Keds I had in high school that I drew Akira characters all over (goddamn, I really am a nerd), but still sweet.


• My friend Amanda's Flickr stream manages to make things like tomatoes look pretty beeyouteeful. Props, Muppster.


• And speaking of Flickr, I've gotten sucked in too: my Flickr stream. My toothbrush is art, damn it.


• Global warning is causing giant squid to become even more GARGANTUAN. Cool. Can't wait to see this movie.


• There is free Miyazaki on Sunday! Of course, the sun may have to actually come out for this to work... (it's pouring currently).


• What a great idea for more wintry times... too bad these USB heated gloves are granny vomit ugly. The boy versions aren't much better. Sigh. Clearly someone needs to make better use of those Star Wars patterns...


• The Biology of B-Movie Monsters


• I'm all for the bookswapping, but did they have to call it BookMooch? Meanwhile, BookCrossing is my choice.


• Tear-shaped, uteran... just talking 'bout treehouses.


• I'd vote for Cthulhu... maybe. To be honest, my Cthulhu interest is a bit fringe. The Cthulhu episode was my favorite of the old Ghostbusters animated series (the proper one, not the ridiculous one with the gorilla), so every time someone says Miskatonic I perk up but don't really have anything legitimate to contribute. For more info on Cthulhu, visit Wikipedia, which also reveals the alarming news that there is going to be a Cthulhu movie with Tori Spelling... now that is frightening.


• Ha, better snap up things like this solar system mobile before this whole Pluto thing kicks in and they start altering products.


• How sweet. Someone finally named an internet device after me.


• Yuck, Josh Spear. But this is cool chair idea. Um, c'mon IKEA. Get it together and make one in $14.99 white plastic so I can try it out and promptly get over it.


• Seemingly pointless, eerily cute robot turtles. At this point, why ask why?


• I have yet to see Lady in the Water, though I've been enjoying the pre-show feast of bad reviews. I have mixed feelings about M. Night Shyamalan, and Pajiba basically does too: "If it's true that more and more we've come to expect less and less from the movies we see and value as a community, then Shyamalan is doing his part to craft original, honest stories that reflect the skills and ideas of a truly gifted filmmaker. The biggest complaints lobbied against him aren't that he makes bad movies but that the movies themselves don't measure up to some arbitrary ideal that's been planted in the viewer's mind before they even enter the theater. And to watch movies that way is to live wearing blinders." I agree wholeheartedly. I enjoyed the Village, but went with a group of people who were all bent out of shape afterwards for no reason other than it wasn't what they expected. And while it's definitely amusing to have a fellow moviegoer stand up twenty minutes from the end (when even the people sleeping have figured out the twist), actually shake his fist at the screen and cry "BULLSHIT!", I think getting all worked up because you got suckered by marketing is ridiculous.


• Since I've clearly overdosed on PerpetualKid, here's one more weirdness: squid soap that inks you before you wash. I can't decide whether I love that or think it's gross.

I'll have to think back a bit about links I missed in August. More to come as I attempt to revive this dead beast.
This post is dedicated to friend and fellow blogging fool Kenbe.