Few of the poets who have held the title of poet laureate of the United States can claim to have accomplished quite so much as Robert Pinksy, who held the position from 1997 through this past May. Pinsky, who was the creative force behind the Favorite Poem Project, recently engaged in an e-mail conversation with cnn.com to discuss the impact of the Project upon his life, the perks of such a position, and his successor to the title, Stanley Kunitz.

The Favorite Poem Project is a nationwide campaign dedicated to creating "an audio and video archive of many Americans-from every state and of many ages, professions and backgrounds-each saying aloud a poem the person loves." The project , a cooperative effort between Pinsky, the New England Foundation for the Arts, the Library of Congress and Boston University, is still going strong and is available online at www.favoritepoem.org.

Since X-Men has been raking in the moolah at the box office, it's no surprise that Marvel Comics has kicked their next big-screen live-action adaptation into gear: Spider-Man. A few things have been known for a while about this project, such as the director (Sam Raimi, best known for A Simple Plan and For the Love of the Game), the studio (not Fox this time, but Columbia Pictures) and a tentative release date (November 2001). Now, though, the lead role has finally best cast, and it's about time -- online speculation ran almost as high for this part as for the next Anakin (Hayden Christiansen, BTW). On Monday, studio chairman Amy Pascal announced that the wallcrawler will be played by Tobey Maguire.

"I am delighted with this choice," said Pascal in the press release. "Tobey's acting ability and incredible screen presence and Sam's creative vision are a powerful combination to bring 'Spider-Man' to the screen." In further studio trumpetry, Raimi calls Maguire "a director's dream... He has all the qualities we were looking for in our Peter Parker.''

Personally, our feelings on the matter here at DML HQ are slightly mixed. While Maguire was phenomenal in Cider House Rules and Wonder Boys, we kind of like Maguire as a poster boy for the pseudo-arthouse scene. Can't blame the guy for wanting to branch out, that's for sure, but we're secretly hoping Spider-Man bombs and Tobey goes back to more highbrow material.

Disc One: Toy Story
Audio Commentary by the Filmmakers
The Making of Toy Story
On-Set Interviews
Academy Award® - Winning Short: Tin Toy
Toy Story Treats
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins Preview
THX-Certified

Disc Two: Toy Story 2
Academy Award® - Winning Short: Luxo Jr.
Outtakes
Monsters, Inc. Sneak Peek
Audio Commentary
Music-Only Track
Effects-Only Track
THX-Certified

Disc Three: Supplemental Features
The History of Toy Story
Characters and Design
Story Development
Movie-Making Secrets
Deleted Animation
Publicity
The Toy Box
Outtakes

Well, it had to happen -- the biggest band in the world has launched their own official website. U2.com has gone live, and promises to be a fairly intriguing weekly click. The new site is fashioned as a virtual studio, with webcams monitoring the actual studio where the band and producers Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite are finishing up the new album. The new disc, which remains untitled at this point, is tentatively set for release in the fall.

In related U2 news, those of us with two brain cells to rub together are infuriated by the absence of The Million Dollar Hotel here in the States. The film, which was written by U2's Bono and directed by Wim Wenders (director of Wings of Desire, Faraway So Close! and Until the End of the World, stars Mel Gibson, Jeremy Davies and Milla Jovovich, and has been receiving critical acclaim and rave reviews almost everywhere else in the world. So when is this star-studded film showing up in America? Surprise! It's not! Apparently, since the vast majority of the American viewing public has been lobotomized by the likes of Titanic and its ilk, the market just isn't here, and so we are forced to wait until it shows up on video. That's assuming the distributors (who are apparently even more mindless than the American viewing public) deigns to release it on video at all... More news on this front is available at the official website, milliondollarhotel.com.

Following Dreamer-in-Chief Geoffrey Long's graduation from Kenyon College in May, Dreamsbay Media Labs has relocated to the Washington DC metro area. In common English, that means we've moved to Montgomery Village, Maryland, which is about ten miles or so outside of the city. The summer has been an intense one, filled with apartment shopping, supply gathering and finally the long, arduous search for a day job. On the upside, Dreamsbay's co-founders are once again living in the same neck of the woods, and the future of the company is bright indeed (as we are now able to sit around and discuss new project ideas over the microbrewed root beer at Hops in Alexandria).

The first of these new project ideas, as you might be able to tell, is the gradual migration of several of Dreamsbay's key areas to the Blogger system. What? You've never heard of Blogger? Check it out!

More updates are on the way -- stay tuned!