Quo Vadimus


Saturday, June 28, 2003

 

posted by QV | 9:03 AM


Friday, June 27, 2003

 

Not Heroin.

This post made me recall another lunch bag crack-up:

Not sure exactly when this happened (mid-90s-ish?), but my dad's cousin's son (who you will recall from this post) returned from school and started the following exchange:

"Dad, you put a beer in my lunch."

"What?"

"You put a beer in my lunch. Why would you do that?"

"It must have been right next to the [whatever school-lunch-approved beverage he intended to throw in the bag]. What did you do with it?"

"I traded it to some kid for an orange soda."

posted by QV | 1:22 PM

 

Fun with Roth. #009:

This one is quite tame (a road-weary Roth!), but I dig this gem:

"It was then I realized my life was no longer truly in danger of Asian home-invasion gangs, Ernest."

posted by QV | 8:41 AM


Thursday, June 26, 2003

 

Here We Go.



Sure, no commentary track on this thing, but, man: the 12-minute short, Blossoms And Blood. Wonderful. Premiere magazine called this the best "extra" in the history of the DVD format.

LISTEN TO LOUD!

[UPDATE: That Mattress Man commercial rocks, too. Phil!]

posted by QV | 8:51 PM


Wednesday, June 25, 2003

 

Gone fishin' for power pop.

Ken Tucker reviewed the new Fountains of Wayne record on Fresh Air today. Good stuff - "stately and obstreperous; novelistic and nostalgic." Bingo, Ken.

More good FOW comments from Eppy here.

[WARNING: prolonged exposure, i.e., a listen or two, to "Stacy's Mom" will likely have you singing bits of the chorus - "Stacy's mom / has got it going on" - within earshot of co-workers and others who may not be too comfortable with such exuberant maternal longing.]

posted by QV | 9:48 PM

 

Splish-Splash: Rocking out with Ang Lee.

A common complaint about the QV is that I've had this little online newsletter since April and I have not done any posts about producer, screenwriter, and frequent Ang Lee collaborator Jim Schamus. This e-mail was particularly impactful (ha ha):

----- Original Message -----
From: David Tash
To: Quo Vadimus
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2003 1:48 PM
Subject: your blog.

Hi. I found your blog by doing a Google search. It was ok. Nothing on Schamus? Disappointing. Bye.
--------------------

Ask and you shall receive!

More Ang Lee? Ok! This week's The New Yorker features "Becoming The Hulk," a profile of Lee by John Lahr. Last week, Lee was on that Chuck Rose show talking about his "inner Hulk" and they cut to a clip of of some guy in the sensor suit. At first, I thought nothing of it since it seemed like the standard making-of clip with someone stomping around and growling, pretending to be a big, angry superhero picking up heavy things, holding them aloft, and smashing them on unsuspecting things below, but then I realized: that's Ang. Hulking it up! And here's this from the profile:

[Twice a week for nine months, in sessions that lasted up to eight hours, Lee donned a body suit studded with sensors that allowed computers to read and catalogue his movements, and went through the arduous task of enacting the Hulk's every possible gesture and facial expression. Lee had begun by using other actors, but for key emotional moments he took over the job himself. The work had some side benefits. "I got to yell and let aggression out," Lee says. "It was very therapeutic." Frederick Elmes, his cinematographer, says, "Something inside him allowed him to let go. He would actually roar a little bit, look up at the ceiling and scream. There was one point when he did such a good job that the second take was sort of just for him, because it felt good."]

And one more fun bit from the piece: that band that has most of the guys from GNR, plus the one lead singer that may be less reliable than Axl, recorded a song for the Hulk end credits. Lee attended a studio session where the band were filmed playing this song:

[Eventually, a collection of thin, tattooed, long-haired men of a certain middle age swaggered in. "So how's it going?" a frizzy-haired rocker with leather pants, sneakers, and what looked like a key chain attached to his nose asked Lee. "I hope you're gonna get the song out there," he added. "Gonna sit in with us? Maybe play some cowbells?" Lee smiled and turned to me. "That's Splash," he said. "Slash," his assistant said. While the members of the band performed the song four times with their backs to Lee, and Weiland tried to situate himself as close as possible to the handheld camera, the sound engineer stood at his console, like Little Richard at the piano, his long hair juddering to the drummer's ear-splitting downbeat. Lee seemed unfazed. The next morning, at the scoring studio, where Elfman was quietly making adjustments to the sound, Lee suddenly pushed his chair back, waved his arms, and started bouncing to the music like the Conway Studio engineer. "You're, like, boring," he said to Elfman.]

posted by QV | 6:33 PM

 

Interests: Everything Scooby-Doo, computers, cars, and cluttering up your in-box.

posted by QV | 7:22 AM


Tuesday, June 24, 2003

 

"Copy and Paste and Give No Credit" Herschel Weiner.

posted by QV | 2:20 PM

 

There are rules to follow and you may need a license, too.

posted by QV | 11:18 AM

 

see also.

More Sasha: Thom Yorke Is No Jeff Spicoli.

posted by QV | 7:49 AM


Monday, June 23, 2003

 

"The crickets and the rust beetles scuttled among the nettles of the sage thicket. 'Vamanos, amigos,' he whispered, and threw the busted leather flintcraw over the loose weave of the saddlecock. And they rode on in the friscalating dusklight." Headed for the bat caves?

posted by QV | 9:18 PM

 

The advertising for these things is touting them as being "weird". They're basically just the innards of other breakfast sandwiches (e.g., Egg McMuffin) in between two mini, syrup-infused pancakes.

Having read Fast Food Nation, I'm pretty sure the cakes are concocted at some flavor factory in Bayonne, N.J., but so be it. I tried the bacon (nicely crisp)/egg/cheese one and it was a pretty fun B+. The major flaw - the eggs are far from "fluffy". In fact, they're the opposite of fluffy. It's the usual fast food-y egg deal, a kind of folded-up eggsheet.

posted by QV | 1:39 PM

 

Back in May, I made a similar claim. Not sure what's more amusing here - the prospects of Carlson eating footwear on CNN, or the thought of Carlson consulting fetish web sites. And, come on, man - go all Herzog on this one. Boil and eat your shoe.

posted by QV | 12:21 PM

 

What does this mean?

----------

Salon subscription required to get all of this one. Maybe I'll do some copy-and-paste-em-ups and get the whole thing up here. Until then, here's a fun quote:

"It seems that Ms. Roberts' appreciation for 'Halo' presages a new era in popular culture," gaming academic Professor Henry Jenkins declaims to himself, as he peers out on the MIT quad. "Especially inasmuch as the game is a 'hardcore' title, in the lingua franca of the subculture: a gamer's game, as it were. Consider what it means for a figure so unlike the entrenched stereotype of the 'geek' or 'nerd,' to be one. It is perhaps even more significant and unexpected than Vin Diesel's recent self-outing as a Dungeons & Dragons fanatic -- since, it must be said, the action star resembles a half-orc already. But returning to Ms. Roberts: Here we see a leading, beloved light of the grandfather medium, the princess of mainstream acceptability, finding herself drawn to, and to a certain extent shaped by, our nascent interactive medium. This represents a cultural shift of epic meaning."

posted by QV | 8:07 AM


Sunday, June 22, 2003

 

Guess who's back, back again
Barschak's back, tell a friend

[UPDATE: Fun to see the Royal furor go from concerns about legit terrorism from this Comedy Terrorist to all like and on top of that he "took the gloss" off Billy's b-day bash. And please help The Sun make the most of this crack-up: DO YOU know Aaron Barschak? Have you seen him gatecrashing before or do you have a picture of him? Contact our newsdesk on 0207 782 4101 today and we’ll call you straight back. ]

[UPDATE 2: Kisses, rapturous applause, and "deep ****" - Barschak speaks!]

posted by QV | 8:09 PM

 

Words of Wisdom. #007:

"Kicking Argentines is generally approved of, but not in this specific case." - Nick Hornby, Sports Illustrated, 6/23/2003, on David Beckham's red card for kicking Argentina's Diego Simeone in the second round of the 1998 World Cup.

posted by QV | 4:26 PM

 

Fun with Roth. #008:

Man is it hard to decide what to pull from a Roth piece. I'll give you three this time:

"... I want a Mexican to make me tacos. ..."

"Viva la différence, as they say in Israel, ..."

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

posted by QV | 3:24 PM

 

Fun with Roth. #007:

"Oh, is that Hagar in the background?"

posted by QV | 3:16 PM

 

Telly Alert. #002:

Chris Moore is back. Poor Balis.

Project Greenlight 2.0.


Unfortunately, no Biagi this time.


"Shot lists are for wimps."

posted by QV | 8:14 AM

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