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to reiterate: i am a grad-school drop-out: Wired Style: Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age
hipsmart goes metric!
You are cool. Sunday, September 16, 2001
other great spoof of inter-camp championships: Mr. Show With Bob And David
wherin a group of Tibetan monks must beat the evil kids from fat camp in the final event: a freestyle rap-off refereed by camp-movie regular Brian Doyle Murray. in the end, Jon Cryer (as Ducky) shows up in a pink convertible.
erik 2:11 AM | permalink | yap
micro-review: Wet Hot American Summer (2001) | Official Site
i don't really understand all the negative reviews around the web for this movie. comparisons are made, in both the negative and the positive reviews, to Airplane, which might be understandable in terms of structure, but is totally inaccurate as relates to style. now, i liked Airplane, and i see how people could dislike it: it's just plain silly, full of non sequiters, and if you don't happen to like the majority of the jokes, you won't like the movie. my pal greg's rule of thumb for the fast-slinging jokes movies: more have to stick than not. so, while, yes, WHAS has the comedy flying by the handful, it's still not the non sequiter jokes of Robert Stack wearing two pairs of sunglasses or puns like Leslie Nielson saying, "don't call me shirley," that you have in Airplane.
instead of rapid-fire jokes, WHAS is fast satire. maybe not deep satire, or overwhelmingly insightful. but it's lampooning of summer camp movies is integral to the comedy. let me try to clarify: Airplane poked fun at disaster movies by filling what should have been a tense situation full of silly moments; WHAS pokes fun at Meatballs and its ilk by specifically targeting their standard forms: the rag-tag baseball team, the camp-counselor-shack-up, the big talent show, the nice-guy-wins-the-girl. now, i'm not even sure i buy this argument myself; maybe it is the same as Airplane, and they seem different only because they spoof different genres (i dunno how else you would spoof disaster flicks better than the zucker bros. did).
either way, i like both movies. great moment in WHAS: counselor Coop gives his big speech to the baseball team before the championship against the "generically evil" kids of Camp Tiger Claw, talking about how our heroes have managed to pull together a motley group of losers that no one thought could make to the championships (mind you, there's no background on this scene), and they'll go on to pull off a come-from-behind victory using "some sort of trick play" or something that they'll come up with. the kids then suggest that it seems sort of cliche and tired, and the coach of the just-arriving other team agrees that it's "hackneyed," so they just call it off.
the breakdown:
yup
yup
[does not go out to theaters]
erik 2:07 AM | permalink | yap
You are cool. Friday, September 14, 2001
i keep telling you: i'm just a temp
hmm? take more work home this weekend? geez, this isn't the best weekend--i'll be too busy.
[twiddling thumbs] heh. i've got nothing to do on a friday night. that'll show 'em!
related news items: Energetic Self-Starter Instantly Despised by Co-Workers | Accountz Reeceevin' Ain't For No Candy-Ass Temps
erik 10:08 PM | permalink | yap
You are cool. Thursday, September 13, 2001
don't i ever get tired of talking about kevin smith? Fletch Won (2002)
hot damn diggety, jason lee is fletch?
thanks to pete at analog cereal for breaking this one.
erik 6:50 PM | permalink | yap
i can't help being an English nerd. i checked the print edition of Wired Style out from my local library the other day, and i'm just fascinated by their style guide to techie issues not covered in the chicago manual. fer instance, i just love knowing that "fiber optics" should be hyphenated and singular when used as an adjective (in the opinion of the Wired editors).
related news items: Rules Grammar Change | Nation's Educators Alarmed by Poorly Written Teen Suicide Notes
erik 6:23 PM | permalink | yap
so, for instance, right now there are 19 metric Cubs games left in the season. later, i'll get around to changing the images and layout so that it says, "you are metric cool."
erik 6:14 PM | permalink | yap (4)
You are cool. Monday, September 10, 2001
ah, timing: B&N September 2001 Calendar
i just happened to grab a co-worker's copy of the Chicago Reader today because i saw an article about my neighborhood library. reading through the article, i discoverd an ad at the bottom of the page: Douglas Coupland will be appearing at a chicago barnes & noble tomorrow night to promote his new book, All Families Are Psychotic. yes, sir!
coincidentally, i've been re-reading Microserfs during my breaks at work. i just finished this afternoon. it's scary how much coupland's books affect me--i got the shivers as i read the closing pages, and had to put the book down for a minute before i read the last few paragraphs.
update, 11 Sep 2001: or maybe he won't be appearing tonight. but, as aimee at geektastic said, he'd probably have some choice words about today.
erik 6:55 PM | permalink | yap
You are cool. Friday, September 07, 2001
a pattern to your love life?
my brother seems to think that the ladies love argyle socks. i dunno, but i like them.
please note: the question mark is crossword notation for painfully bad pun.
erik 12:32 AM | permalink | yap (3)
You are cool. Thursday, September 06, 2001
you can kick the boy out of the reality-game, but you can't kick the reality-game out of the boy: The Amazing Race
ever since appearing in SBlog2, i've felt compelled to at least check in on every reality-game show on tv. big brother 2--ecch. manhunt? please. chains of love, oh, so sorry. this summer i enjoyed fox's run of murder in small town x, which was slightly overwhelming if you missed a few minutes, but had a nice twin peaks aura to it. i think fox's big two-hour finale this week was actually just two episodes crammed together, evidenced by the end credits halfway through--fox was unhappy with the ratings, and wanted to get on to something else next week.
tonight was the testing period for cbs's new show: the premiere of the amazing race. produced by jerry bruckheimer? at least it didn't show. the game was very compelling, and the contestants are hilarious. my faves (at the risk of jinxing them, like i did with andy on smalltown x): life partners joe and bill, and frat bros. kevin and drew. joe and bill consistently showed up first at every stop and giggled about it, annoying the hell out of chauvanist asshole frank like a pair of delightful, gay Pepe le Pews. the frat boys were constantly at each other's new-yawk accented throats, but really seemed to enjoy the bickering. best lines: "Here we are, in Zambia." "That's Namibia, you JACKASS." like he knows, or something.
speaking of lines, i sensed a definite high-quality audio to the best quips of contestants, even standing in the wilds of southern africa. do i detect a hint of re-recording after the event to spice up the dialogue?
erik 12:00 AM | permalink | yap (2)
You are cool. Wednesday, September 05, 2001
over the weekend: Tony Packo's
sure, ernie gets to go on a fabulous trip to seattle. what do liz and i do to measure up? endure a cross-midwest car trip with my parents to dazzling TOLEDO, OH, city of my childhood. actually, the day turned out nicely. we caught a mudhens game, toledo's minor-league baseball team, in one of their last games in ned skeldon stadium--they're moving to bank-sponsered fifth third field next season.
then we ate at tony packo's, the world-famous hungarian restaurant, often featured as klinger's favorite eatery on M*A*S*H. we bought a jar of pickles & peppers (wonderful spicy pickles!) to bring home. but why did we only buy one!?! it's almost gone. luckily, just like klinger had them shipped to korea, we can get them shipped, by the case, even, to chicago. bless you, jamie farr.
erik 7:24 PM | permalink | yap (1)
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read HipSmart old. |
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affiliated projects: Kopfschmerzen post-SurvivorBlog (vs.) |
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good blogs: nom de plume linkstew analog cereal        |
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SBlog2 trading cards: Ernie Alayna Benjy Ryan Comabound |
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the "+" indicates that, in addition to the Cubs losing, other teams must win a certain amount to eliminate the Cubs. Yeah, I know, the Cubs are doing well this year, so I should really be showing a Magic Number of games until they clinch a playoff berth. Just call me a traditionalist. There are 19 Cubs games left. |
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if i had a nickle for every crack i've
heard about the unitarians, i would have: |
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