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06.14.09 by Aaron @ 6:24 am  Widge's Note: In addition to being one half of Ireland's ambassador team to Needcoffee, Aaron (along with his partner in crime, Brian, both of them from Quick Stop Entertainment's Cabin Fever) are going to be reviewing hip hop for the site. Why? Because we can. Here, he reveals his hip hoppity past and explains his own personal yardstick for the musical genre. Enjoy. Hi, my name is Aaron and I got into hip-hop because of DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince. I'm not ashamed to say it. It's not the most of credible starts I'll admit, but there was a time that they were considered part of the cool kids. Before the TV show, the movies and the "Big Will" moniker, The Fresh Prince played second fiddle to a highly respected hip-hop DJ called Jazzy Jeff. Back when De La Soul, Leaders of the New School and A Tribe Called Quest made a name for themselves by providing fun, clever and smooth rhymes/beats. Categorized as: Stimuli
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06.12.09 by Widge @ 2:44 pm What you're about to watch now is...just simply odd. Direct link for the feedreaders. When I first saw this, I thought it had to be a contemporary film, produced as a spoof. But no, it's from a series of comedy shorts called "Dogville" that played out...pretty much exactly as you might imagine. This particular one is from 1930 and it's like William Wegman went on a bender and made a screwball musical comedy. You can see the entirety of the film, "The Dogway Melody," on the Turner Classic Movies site. And here's "All Quiet on the Canine Front." Others are available by searching for "Dogville" on the TCM site. They don't appear to have been released on DVD. Categorized as: Stimuli
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06.11.09 by Widge @ 1:51 am The guy's name is Pogo and he's an Australian remixer of sound-things. Check out this fantastic bit, based on samples from Mary Poppins: Direct link for the feedreaders. Here's a slightly unrelated bit, but I realized it when we ran a contest for Mary Poppins a little ways back: the little girl is Karen Dotrice. I thought, "Huh. Dotrice isn't a very common name, I don't think...is she any relation to Roy?" Of course she is. It's Roy Dotrice's daughter. Roy Dotrice is perhaps best known to all of you as the dad in the Beauty in the Beast series with Ron Perlman. He was most recently the Elfin King in Hellboy II. And he read the audiobook of the first three books of A Song of Ice and Fire and rocked the house on each one. Anyway, there--your Widge-realized trivia bit of the day. Found via @Metaglyph. Pogo's MySpace is here. Another vid after the break. Categorized as: Stimuli
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06.09.09 by Widge @ 11:33 am  Why is this young lady smiling? I have not seen Land of the Lost. And I share this characteristic with a goodly number of Americans, which is why the film tanked at the box office. It didn't Pluto Nash, but for a $100 million film starring Will Ferrell opening against a film with no major stars to make less than $20M? And while $20M isn't terrible, it's a lot less than Universal was banking on. Hence: rather tankish. The reason for this is twofold, and I was discussing it with Doc yesterday. My main thought about What Went Wrong is they failed the "300 Trailer Test." This test asks the question of "Is your trailer as cool as 300's? If not, then go home." The reason for this is, as has been said here before, if you don't have a compelling reason to go see a movie in the cinema--such as Digital 3-D or the trailer makes it look like a must-see--you won't. Because if you wait a couple of months, it'll hit DVD for the cost of two tickets. And you probably haven't watched all the DVDs you own anyway. Or maybe you already paid for World of Warcraft for this month and you might as well hang out with a few of your virtual friends. Categorized as: Stimuli
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06.03.09 by Widge @ 3:05 pm Historians have long debated the actual birthdate of Prof. John Hodgman. Some place it as February 29th, some as Arbor Day, and there is at least one who states that Hodgman has always existed and was never actually "born"--but the current consensus among scholars is that it is June 3rd. So we say a good evening to one of the world's greatest historians. Why is he great? Because he knows his own birthday--and all of these other historians must simply debate the matter. That is concrete proof. Here we have his classic tale of Hobo Matters: Direct link for the feedreaders. This was taken, of course, from the audiobook of The Areas of My Expertise. The bad news is that due to a hobo conspiracy, it is no longer in print. The good news is that despite their best efforts, the dark forces that control the earth have not destroyed all the copies and you can still snag it. Categorized as: Stimuli
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05.27.09 by ScottC @ 12:14 pm  We are at the final round. I would once again like to thank all the participants for going along with my mad scheme. There have been some very interesting choices from comics, television, film, and literature. You can check these out at the Geek Draft Table. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can check the description and rules here. Now we move on to Round Five. Leigh, make your selection. Categorized as: Stimuli
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05.26.09 by Widge @ 11:50 pm  For those of you flipping out because of the announcement of a new Whedon-less Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie--after you Buffy-fans have gotten a hold of a paper bag and used it to stop hyperventilating--I want you to consider something. The blame for this becoming a possibility--and if it helps you breathe, this may never hit cinemas in its present Whedon-less form or hit cinemas at all--can be laid at the feet of Star Trek. I know that sounds mental, but trust me: Hollywood operates in mentalsville. And I must admit that I didn't see this consequence of the Trek reboot's success. Other reboots, sure. Hollywood can easily see--based on this, Batman Begins and Casino Royale--that it is possible to successfully relaunch a franchise if the right people are involved. But what Trek has done has confused the issue--and Hollywood execs are easily confused. Categorized as: Stimuli
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05.25.09 by ScottC @ 11:43 pm We have completed the second round picks. I would again like to thank all the participants for going along with my mad scheme. There have been some more classic standbys as well as some more very interesting choices. You can check these out at the Geek Draft Table. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can check the description and rules here. Now we move on to Round Three. Leigh, make your selection. Categorized as: Stimuli
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05.24.09 by ScottC @ 8:53 pm We have completed the first round picks. I would like thank all the participants for going along with my mad scheme. There have been some classic standbys as well as some very interesting choices. You can check these out at the Geek Draft Table. And if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can check the description and rules here. Now we move on to Round Two. Leigh, make your selection. Categorized as: Stimuli
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05.22.09 by ScottC @ 10:59 pm OK, we have our six participants. In no particular order:
I rolled an actual D6 to figure out the order and that order is... Categorized as: Stimuli
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