Van Dammage

My pondering of the day: What's better, his martial arts or his dancing?

It's been a long time coming

Cult classic sketch comedy The State is coming to DVD or iTunes later this year according to cast member Thomas Lennon in this article. So all six of you who got The State's irreverent brand of humor may join me in rejoicing. Apparently there's going to be a new soundtrack due to legal issues. I'm curious to see how some of the skits will turn out since the music contributed to the jokes, like the "Why don't you try wearing pants?" skit set to the Breeders' "Cannonball" or "$240 worth of pudding" set to "Sexual Healing." Whatever. I'll simply be happy to finally have this show immortalized on DVD and retire our VHS copy.

Vulgarity as an art form

I love the Big Lebowski. It's gets funnier every time I watch. Especially "The Jesus." Watching this waste of time made me realize how often the word fuck is used. I never noticed before, maybe because it's being uttered every nanosecond or so and I just got desensitized to its vulgarness. That takes some talent...

Samuel L.'s snake

Press junkets for films are more or less mind-numbing, tedious work for both actors and journalists alike. Actors sit around in a hotel room for a whole day meeting with who knows how many media outlets, asking the same battery of questions concerning the film they're promoting or anything else not worth asking. But after watching this, I think Samuel L. Jackson is going to have a lot of fun promoting Snakes on a Plane. August 18 motherfucka!!!!!

Back to the future!

Remakes. Reloads. Revivals. The past couple of years have seen the film industry relying on nostalgia to make some money. Just look at Superman or Bewitched or Starsky & Hutch and Miami Vice, all brought back from the dead. It’s not a matter of if a certain 15-20 year-old property is brought back from obscurity, it’s when. This coming year will see a few more things from my childhood. A live-action Transformers movie, a sequel to Robotech, a DVD release of Voltron, a computer-animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. What’s next? What's left?

The industry tends to go through cycles too so I’m curious if 10-20 years down the line it’ll go into remake mode again and bring back whatever's big with the younger set these days. Sponge Bob Squarepants? Power Rangers? Spider-Man?

Uuuurrrnnnhhhhh! Huuh!!!

I still can't believe there's going to be a sixth Rocky movie. I don't care if it sucks (actually I expect it to), but it better have a montage. Because if there's one good thing about a Rocky movie, it's the montage. Like this one. And this one. Definitely this one. And this one. I don't know how Stallone finds ways to make grunting so riveting.

I choo-choo-choose you!

It wasn’t long ago when I decided there was nothing good about Thom Yorke’s songwriting post Kid A. Aside from lyrics I couldn’t comprehend even if I tried, there were irregular blips and beeps coupled with keyboards and guitars mashed together in what passed as a song to him. These songs earned an automatic skip for me on recent Radiohead albums. I had no intention of checking out his new solo album (pressing a few buttons to download it would’ve been too much effort) but I gave it a listen after someone gave it to me. As a whole, it’s no keeper but I actually liked a few songs enough to listen to them more than twice. Then it led me to wonder why I get into certain types of music at certain times. I go through phases, I know that; listen to the same song/album/genre long enough you get tired of it. I just wonder why I can go from singer-songwriter to samba to alternative and then jazz for no reason.

Two quotes keep ringing in my head concerning this: “You don’t choose music; music chooses you,” and “I found it [the music] at the right time.” The first is from music critic Lester Bangs in the movie Almost Famous and the second from my buddy Eric. Both make sense, I just wish I didn’t waste space on my hard drive hoping music will choose me a few months from now.

Ciao

The World Cup's been over and done with for a few days so this post isn't exactly timely, but I've got photos to share. Ever since I worked in newspapers, I've always been amazed by sports photography and how a telephoto lens and a split second can capture "the moment." Part of it's the equipment, but a lot of it comes down to the photographer's understanding of the game and gut instinct.

It's been a long month but Italy's in ecstasy and I've got memories of great goals, master thespians, headbutts and sleep deprivation. It's another four years until the next tournament takes place in South Africa and thanks to my future occupation and the time zone difference, I'll likely put sleep on the line for soccer again.

Last soccer post for a long time. Promise.

The 'S' stands for Quality

Watching it in a theater equipped with lazyboy recliners and free refills for popcorn and soda adds to the enjoyment. Having to pee for the whole movie thanks to said soda detracts from the enjoyment somewhat. Seriously though, Bryan Singer did it justice. Good casting, solid story and the same feeling that "He's back!" that everyone in the movie felt. I'm sure X-Men 3 would've turned out better if Singer stuck with it but I'm glad he jumped ship for this.

Random fact: Brandon Routh has the same birthday as me, except I'm a year older.

ahhhhhhhh....

You truly suck, Hasselhoff

I should be studying, I really should, but I'm in a funk trying to understand how David Hasselhoff got hurt and had to have surgery the other day. He hit his head on a chandelier while shaving, causing the chandelier to fall, shatter and shower his arm with broken glass. As far as I know, normal guys shave standing still. Then again, normal guys don't star in TV shows about talking cars and women who run on the beach over and over again and become the idol of Deutschland with crappy cock rock.

At least the news gave me an excuse to share another golden moment with the 'Hoff captured on film. I'm not going to try to understand the whole point of the pic because with David Hasselhoff, there is no point.