Bottom Of The Barrel: January 2008

Lost is back!

To prepare for tonight's season opener, here is an 8 minute, 15 second recap of the first 3 seasons:

Is it 9 PM yet?

Need help with the 08 race?

A week from today, voters in 24 states will head to their local polling locations to participate in the largest Super Tuesday in our nation's history. Now if your like me [and many citizens] and your not sure where each candidate stands on the issues, Political Base can help. The site is chuck full of information on the candidates, other important political figures, campaign contributions, polls and the major issues being debated during this presidential election season.

The best part is the personal comparison grid where you can select your potential candidates and the issues which you would like to know where they stand. This tool may help you decide which candidate holds the same ideals as you do. No matter what happens next Tuesday, it is sure to be a time for change so get out there and be part of the process.

Zep US Tour?

Could it be true? Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page said today [while in Tokyo promoting their "new" album Mothership] he was ready to take the iconic band on a world tour after burning up the stage at last month's reunion concert in London... but it probably won't be before September.

"The amount of work we put into O2 was what you would normally put into a world tour anyway," Page, 64, said of the intense rehearsing the band did for the December 10th benefit concert at London's O2 Arena for late Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun.

If we thought this years Police tour was big - which sold 1.8 million tickets to the tune of $212 million - how big could a world wide once-in-a-lifetime tour including the band's three surviving members — Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones — and the late John Bonham's son Jason on drums? [Not that the boys in the band need the money]

For a guy who was all of the age of 9 when the band stopped performing because of the untimely death of Bonham, I say bring on a world tour, play a couple of nights in every major city in America [especially the TD Bank North Garden] and give us one more chance to walk like a Fool In The Rain, be a Heartbreaker and take the Stairway to Heaven.

Watch Out For Google Maps

Cool Person Test

COOL PERSON TEST

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Just kidding. Thanks to DJ Resin for the idea.

The Cloverfield Experience

To build buzz for this year's first highly anticipated releases, the team behind Cloverfield created a cryptic trailer was placed in front of last summer's blockbuster Transformers film and launched a 6 month long viral marketing effort. Their efforts paid off, to the tune of $46 million dollars last weekend and the highest ever January opening.

The film uses the Blair Witch story telling methodology of the "found" homemade movie tape just being played back to deliver the story. The director also used a clever tape or existing recording to reveal additional back story which would have been awkward to add to the Going Away Party and forward story told on the film. I was pleasantly surprised that the "monster" was shown in several scenes and their use of "parasites" added some good interaction between the people and the thing destroying New York City.

As with many Sci-Fi movies several elements must be ignored in order to make the movie work like staying in the city during the attack, the fact that most people would ditch the camera as soon as the shit started to hit the fan, and if I took a piece of steel rod to the chest I wouldn't be able to walk down 50+ flights of stairs and then begin to run allow over the city - but I digress.

On the plus side, the scene on the Brooklyn Bridge was great [and was by far the shakiest part of the film] and unexpected, Marlena being bitten and then later, umm, exploding I think, was excellent, and helicopter view gave us show idea of the size of this thing everyone is running from. I would recommend taking the movie in at the theater to get the full effect of the hand held camera work and full effect of the monster looking down on you.

Although the movie contains no score or music, which accompany most movies these days, the guys over at Hypeful have put together Rob's Party Mix from Cloverfield. The great thing about the list of songs is a link to an mp3 of each track so you can put together your very own cd for your next party featuring gaggles of ridiculously good-looking hipsters.

So that's it right? Well, there seems to be plenty more going on with regards to the film. The site 1-18-08 has posted new photo's that may show aftermath of the attack. Their has been some speculation that perhaps others may have filmed the attack and their are other vantage points for a sequel. The last scene showed something dropping into the ocean before the attack and and what about the strange transmission at the end of the credits? I'm not sure what all that means but it at least [for now] creates some additional buzz for us bloggers to banter about while we wait for our Cloverfield Monster Movie Toy, due in September.

See a penny, pick it up

Is good advice, but it can be taken to the extremes. Vicki Armstrong, of Shreveport, Louisiana, has been saving pennies for almost 19 years, from all sources - change, co-workers, the street - where ever she found them, she kept them. If you went to her home, you might find a vase, bowl or shoebox full of pennies. And now that she is going to retire, Armstrong is ready to turn them all into her local bank - all 55,000 she has collected. That is for sure the hard way to collect $550 and is probably by far the heaviest - 55,000 pennies would weigh just over 300 pounds. Now that's some heavy dough!

New Math

What do you get when you add phat Andrea Vadrucci drum beats to thec circa 1988 Super Mario 2 soundtrack? 3 minutes and 39 seconds of head bobbing goodness. Enjoy!

10 things I didn't know about you

10. Your first name was actually Heathcliff.
9. You and your sister were named after characters in Wuthering Heights.
8. You were selected to the State U17 squad in field hockey in Australia.
7. Most of your wardrobe was designed by your friend Shem Watson.
6. You performed all of your own stunts in The Patriot.
5. You were one of seven godparents of Elizabeth Hurley's son Damien.
4. You started a record label with Ben Harper.
3. You directed 3 music videos.
2. You are the first non-American actor to portray the Joker.
1. Your last role will be in the film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, due next year.

Abrams continues his assult on the net

Now that Cloverfield has blown up the box office over the weekend [as in $46 million dollars - highest ever January opening], über producer/director J. J. Abrams has begun to tease us with his next project - The Star Trek reboot due this Christmas. Here is the teaser trailer for the upcoming 11th Trek film:

Knowing how Abrams loves to leverage the internet to create buz around his projects, it should come as no surprise the the official movie site would lead [for those who are observant enjoy to notice the red dot next to "Under Construction"] to an add on site/alternative reality game called the NCC-1701 Shipyard which currently shows 3 out of 4 working cameras of the construction of the famous ship. Note reloading the page will change the working cameras and each view has a slider to bring the image into focus. I can't wait to see what the BadRobot team dreams up for this site over the next 11 months. Surf Long and Prosper.

Full Tilt, not such a bad idea

on February 3rd, Superbowl XLII is is going to feature the New England Patriots versus the New York Giants. Along with those two teams comes a number of story lines:

- New England's pursuit of perfection
- Patriots trying for their 4th ring in 7 years
- New York as the huge underdog, as they have been all along in this playoff season
- The Giants winning all 4 playoff games on the road
- The other Manning playing in his first Superbowl
- Manning brothers going back-to-back
- Guys with a shot at their first ring [Moss, Seau]
- Nice weather [for a change] in this year's playoffs

Watching Lawrence Tynes kick a 47-yard field goal to put the Giants into the Superbowl, it occurred to me that what is more interesting than all of these other stories is a look to the recent past and how that makes more sense today.

The Patriots visited the Giants for the last game of the regular season. That December 29th game in New York was hyped mostly because of the historical value to the Patriots because it had no impact on the playoffs - the Pats were the #1 seed in the AFC and the Giants were going to be the #5 seed in the NFC. Many had predicted the Giants would rest their starters and focus on their first playoff game however going against traditional wisdom, Coach Coughlin put his starting guys on the field and pushed for a "meaningless" victory, which they almost got and now are going to the big game. On the flip side, the Patriots and Coach Belichick have been playing full speed all season and many have lampooned the team for "running up the score" in several games. Of course the Patriots are now the only team to finish the regular season undefeated and are going for the first 19 and 0 season so those complaints are long forgotten.

Now with the big game only 12 days away, maybe we now see a new traditional wisdom with regards to playing your starters versus resting them at the end of the season. Just ask any players on the Patriots or Giants, they might agree.

Now that's a move...

I now pronounce you another Adam Sandler movie

Last night I watched I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry staring Adam Sandler and Kevin James as longtime friends and fireman who enter a domestic partnership for benefits reasons. While I liked the film and laughed at several parts of the movie, I did notice that there are several ongoing themes running through Sandlers last few films.

Courts:

In IPYCAL, Anger Management, and Big Daddy a Sandler character ends up in court for one reason or another. [You could also add Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo to the list where Sandler was the executive producer and has an uncredited voice roll in the film]. I was almost expecting the judge from Big Daddy and Deuce Bigalow to be on the panel in the final act of IPYCAL.

Sandler is a chick magnet:

In IPYCAL, we meet Sandler's Chuck - a guy who is Mr. February in the firefighters calender and is picked up from the hospital by 5 Hooters Girls and later has a scene in his very humble apartment with said Hooters Girls and his hot Doctor, who he calls Dr. Honey. Back in 50 First dates he is also shown as a real lady killer. I think I preferred it better when he was just the goofy one or as his Henry Roth character said "I'm sorry I'm not better looking."

Weird Ministers:

In IPYCAL, Chuck and Larry formalize their "partnership" in a Canadian chapel where we get to meet the very odd Asian Minister. Back in 50 First Dates, Sandler is married by another odd looking minister named Ula. Can't a guy just find a normal place to get married with a very typical minister? Probably not in a Sandler picture.

Posse:

As with other comedy groups around Hollywood,, Sandler packs his movies with many of the same actors - Steve Buscemi, Robert Smigel and Peter Dante. Not that this is a bad thing, but sometimes I find myself watching where they will pop up in the film. However, once in a while you meet a guy like Allen Covert's Ten Second Ted, which was great. A new addition to Sandler's posse seems to be Dan Aykroyd who has appeared in both IPYCAL and 50 First Dates as a person of authority.

Next up for Sandler is his 2008 summer comedy entitled You Don't Mess With The Zohan, which is about an Israeli commando who fakes his own death in order to pursue his dream: becoming a hairstylist in New York. Hopefully in this film we will see less of the NYC court system, Sandler as a babe magnet and crazy ministers. We will probably see many of Sandler's friends show up here and the Zohan [that's pronounced Zoo-Han] as a killing machine turned hair stylist extraordinaire [who will also get his share of the ladies].

Got this email today... and it's on!

This is to notify you that your entry into the 112th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 21, 2008 has been accepted, provided that the information you submitted is accurate.

You can verify your acceptance into the field by searching the 112th Boston Marathon "Entrants" database on the B.A.A. web site, www.baa.org/2008/cf/Public/EntryLists.cfm. Additionally, an acceptance postcard will be mailed to you via US Postal Service mail.

In early April 2008, an official Number Pick-up Card and extensive information regarding the B.A.A. Boston Marathon and related race week activities will be mailed to you via US Postal Service first class mail. If you do not receive your Number Pick-up Card (required to claim number) and brochure by April 11, please contact our Registration Office at registration@baa.org. Registration related inquiries may also be directed to 508-435-6905.

Note that bib numbers will not be distributed on Race Day. Your travel arrangements should take into account picking up your number at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston on Friday, April 18 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., or Saturday, April 19 or Sunday, April 20 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

We look forward to seeing you in April! Best of luck in your training!

Sincerely,

Boston Athletic Association

Who needs personality...

... when you talk like a truck driver!

I guess ABC might be implementing a tape delay soon...

American Idol is back

Tonight was the beginning of the 7th season of American Idol and with the current writers strike in full effect, AI should easily be the biggest show of the second half of the tv season - with or without a few stand out singer star's in the making. In the Philly auditions, I saw two promising new singers:

Female - Kristy Lee Cook

Male - Chris Watson

And of course the odd ball of the night - Ben Haar

Also from Philly I got a new favorite saying [or perhaps new salutation for outlook]:

"Love, Peace and Chicken Grease!" - Randy Jackson

I'm not sure what it means, but I get a chuckle every time I say it. Maybe I will go with just LPCG for short. LPCG, Out!

Maybe they should continue to study the data

A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.

"Winter is warming greater than any other season," said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master's thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.

Of course then comes the winter of 2007 - 2008.

This winter we have the snowiest December on record [over 30 inches] and so far we are off to a great start here in January with another 8 inches today. Welcome to a true New England winter.

Die Hard - The Song

Yippee-ki-yay

Here's a man with a lot to say...

Bill Balsamico - proprietor of Casa D’ice, a restaurant located west of Pittsburgh - sure has his own views of the US and is not afraid to share. The above pictures are from his road side sign and he even keeps a Famous Sign page on their website where you can look through some of his past postings. It's kind of like blogging just in big print instead of online. Maybe we should call this Slogging [that's short for Sign Logging]!

A real ED commercial

He Said, She Said

Only two people know the truth about Roger Clemens and his alleged steroid use and based on their phone conversation, they can't seem to get the whole story out into the public.

This whole thing started with Clemens long time trainer, Brian McNamee, who told investigators working on the now infamous Mitchell Report that he injected Clemens with steroids in 1998 while they were with the Toronto Blue Jays, and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001 while they were with the Yankees.

In his first response to the report, Clemens released a video where he denied use of steroids or human growth hormone (HGH). He went on to say "I did not provide any drugs to Brian McNamee with any drugs to inject into my body." What he didn't clarify in his video was what he did have McNamee inject him with.

McNamee also told the Mitchell investigators that he injected Clemens longtime teammate, friend and training partner Andy Pettitte with HGH. McNamme said he injected Pettitte with HGH that he obtained from [former Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk] Radomski. Pettitte released a statement just two days after the report was released confirming he did use HGH twice as the report stated [but not steroids].

Clemens continued his innocent plea by going on 60 Minutes and talking with Mike Wallace about the issue. He continues his denial of illegal of steroid use. He deflected the questions about McNamee and Pettitte only to state "Andy's case is totally seperate." Clemens claims in this interview that the only thing McNamee injected him with is "Lidocaine and B-12. It's for my joints, and B-12, I still take today."

I'm no medical professional but why would a trainer with a masters degree in sports medicine inject lidocaine, a local anesthetic commonly used by dentists and in minor surgery, into a professional athlete's buttocks?

Yesterday, Clemens and his lawyer played a taped conversation between himself and McNamee which took place on last Friday. During this conversation, McNamee tells Clemens 21 times "Tell me what you want me to do" at which Clemens only responded "I need somebody to tell the truth." At the end of the tape one thing is clear, both men have been well coached on how not to lead a witness and they are also being very coy about the true details of what may or may not have happened between 1998 and 2001.

So for now let's stick with the facts as we know them:

1. McNamee injected Pettitte with HGH
2. McNamee injected Clemens with something
3. Lidocaine is a local anesthetic

Next up for Clemens and McNamee is a trip to Washington DC [along with Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch and Radomski] to visit the House Oversight Committee on January 16th. This should be interesting because we will finally get these two men in the same room as once and for all answer the questions on what was really injected into Clemens because, as we have scene before, you don't lie to the federal government. Just ask Martha Stewart.

Let The [Viral] Games Begin

To help build [or rebuild since the end of the 3rd season was about 8 months ago] internet buzz for the start of the 4th season, the guys over at Lost have created a new online viral game called Find815.com. On the site, you will help Sam find information about the downed plane and his missing partner Sonya. The game looks to be adding to the overall story of the show with new clues like a deep water location called The Sunda Trench, a salvage boat named Christiane I, and a company called The Maxwell Group. I find this to be a very clever way to add depth and characters to the show and use web 2.0 technologies to create viral excitement. Just check out Find815's Flickr account as an example. Can't wait to see what else I can do with the items on Sam's desk.

The real presidential fight

Now that the Iowa Caucus is behind us, the 2008 election season is underway. And you now have the chance to see if you can take your canidate all the way with Kung-Fu Election.

This is a clone of the original Mortal Kombat with each canidate having their own special move. While I like McCain's Air Stike, John Edward's Freeze and Barack's Doves it is Hillary's Bill Clinton Attack that is by far the best use of political power in a fighting game - ever. Fight!

Late Night Is Back and Scruffy

Even though the WGA Writers strike is entering it's 9th week, the Late Night Shows crossed the picket lines and went back on the air last night. Some with writers, some without. Some with guests, some without. But the biggest story is some shaved and some did not. So who does sport the best beard between Conan and Dave?

Conan called his growth his "strike beard" and grew out of solidarity for my writers, and to prove that he actually had some testosterone.

Dave did not have a clever name for his full on beard but Robin Williams wasted no time comparing Dave to General Robert E. Lee, a rabbi, and someone who should have their own cough drop.

Based on the 8 weeks worth of growth, I give the edge in beards to Conan but I think if this were a year long contest, Dave would win hands down with a full on Santa beard by next Christmas.

Buyer Beware

Below is text taken from a actual support chat [after checking the feeder, cleaning the rollers, clearing the memory] with Lexmark regarding my now malfunctioning x3470 all-in-one ink jet printer/scanner/copier [names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty]:

[Bob] The Paper Jam is mainly concerned only with the "Rollers" of the printer and rollers are defective since it is not feeding the paper in.
[Jill] is it common that they fail this way after just over a year of use?
[Bob] Not always Jill, I understand your question but sometimes problems might occur but this does not happen always with all the printers.
[Bob] I understand how you feel.
[Jill] I have found many posts online about this issue but no resolution. Does this indicate to you that all of these other printers also have defective rollers?
[Bob] Jill, this is a very good question, I will definitely pass this comments to our "Research and Development" team.
[Bob] Not all printers are defective but sometimes only few of the printers 1 out of 100 might get defective.
[Jill] http://www.fixya.com/support/t223658-paper_jam_lexmark_x3470#SameProblemContinued
[Jill] this page might give you a different point of view. Sounds like another design flaw [just like the switch that fell apart and literally hundreds of people have fixed on their own].
[Jill] So what now? Buy another printer?
[Bob] Jill, I just came to know that X3470 due to its multiple defects had been stopped and there is better printer than X3470 which is upgraded one X3550 which had no defects.
[Jill] So my model has been discontinued because it was so poorly designed and built. The replacement x3550 runs about $85. If I was under warranty, what would you ship me?
[Bob] We would have shipped X3550.
[Jill] but since I am over by 4 months I am just simply out of luck?
[Bob] Yes Jill, I am really sorry for that.
[Bob] I really wish that your printer was under warranty.
[Jill] I really wish your corporation A. made good products and B. would stand behind them in a case where it has been discontinued because it is such a poor machine.
[Bob] I would like to give you 20% discount Jill, If you don't mind.
[Jill] That is better than nothing.
[Jill] although, honestly, am not sure I could ever buy another lexmark product now that I know you ship this level of defective machines
[Bob] No Jill, if the you find the printer defective again, we will definitely be able to help you since we will have this transcript of chat session stored and you can also get the transcript emailed to your email address.
[Bob] X3550 is the upgraded one with no defects.
[Jill] help is one thing, aggravation and time is another. I can't get my time back this morning trying to correct a known defective product.
[Bob] I suggest you to buy X3550 to work without any problem.
[Bob] I really understand how you feel Jill.
[Bob] I am really very sorry for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard.
[Jill] Well if nothing more can be done, I guess I'll be off to look for an HP or Epson or Cannon.
[Bob] I would have definitely replaced the printer if it was under warranty.
[Jill] I would hope so Bob.

I guess the moral of the story is to make sure you break your printer 11 months after it is purchased so that the manufacturer will have to replace it and therefore you can get at least 2 years out of the product.

Bottom Of The Barrel