Comedy Central unveiled it's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-Up Comedians of All Time last week. (The list was quite subjective, I don't know who voted, no one asked me.) But it was a fun series of shows to watch. They are replaying it endlessly if you'd like to catch it. You can view their list here, if you'd like some help coming up with names for this week's questions!
1. Who is your favorite stand-up comedian of all time? I'd have to go with Bill Hicks or David Cross. I like Dave Atell quite a bit as well.
2. Which one could you do without? (Not your type of humor, or just plain stupid!) I think the generic answers here for me would be Paula Poundstone and Carrot Top, but I don't much care for Bruce Villance either.
3. Which comedian do you think has gone on to have a great career aside from doing stand-up? Tim Thomerson, I mean, come on, he starred in Dollman AND the Trancers series.
~Bonus~ If you went to a comedy club on amateur night, and they gave you some jokes and a microphone, would you go onstage? No, only if I could go on freestyle, canned jokes just don't work, only that pure raw agression and bile that I'm known for.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Monday, April 26, 2004
Welcome
I've been walking by a display of these things for a couple of weeks now at work, and they've always set my mind a wondering.
Is this something dirty? I realize that the hole is in the side of the girly pants because it is between the front and back pocket, but the belt looks like it is in the front with the 'Welcome' on a belt buckle, therefore placing the bird-hole in a very interesting location.
What are they saying with this thing?
Is this something dirty? I realize that the hole is in the side of the girly pants because it is between the front and back pocket, but the belt looks like it is in the front with the 'Welcome' on a belt buckle, therefore placing the bird-hole in a very interesting location.
What are they saying with this thing?
Thursday, April 22, 2004
...Meanwhile
In the rinsing of her mixing bowl her hands played like a line of dolphins. "Those folks who are concerned with freedom, real freedom--not the freedom to say 'shit' in public or to criticize their leaders or to worship God in the church of their choice, but the freedom to be free of languages and leaders and gods--well, they must use style to alter content. If our style is masterful, if it is fluid and at the same time complete, then we can re-create ourselves, or rather, we can re-create the Infinite of Goof within us. We can live on top of content, float above the predictable responses, social programming and hereditary circuitry, letting the bits of color and electricity and light filter up to us, where we may incorporate them at will into our actions. That's what the voices said. They said that content is what a man harbors but does not parade. And I love a parade."
Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, p. 208
Double Feature
Caught the Tuesday revenge double feature, starting with The Punisher, followed up by Kill Bill, vol. 2. Both revenge pictures, but both going for a different approach, each one successful.
The Punisher
A story about revenge, loosely based on the Garth Ennis version of the Marvel character.
Tom Jayne stars as Frank Castle, former special forces soldier and FBI special undercover agent who is retiring after one last case. Set in Tampa, Florida with a backdrop of Cuban gangsters and cigarette boats, gone is the comic's Vietnam backdrop and gritty New York skyline (and no Spider-Man).
Jayne goes from one note cop and family man to one note grim vigilante on a mission, but that's o.k. since the Punisher is a one note character.
By the way, I always thought Jayne was a scary dead-ringer for Christopher Lambert, and that the movie that he was most Lambertian in was Dreamcatcher, but this film is like what if Conner McLeod had no accent and was killing criminals with guns.
Gone as well is Ennis' take that Frank is a Psychopath and keeps killing because he enjoys it, this Frank Castle loses his entire family to assassins bullets, and takes a lot of lead on himself in the process.
One of the things that I found interesting in the lead up to this film was the downplay of John Travolta's role in the film. I would have thought he would at least be mentioned in the trailers, rather than just getting a shot of him throwing down a knife.
I liked the movie, fans of the character will like the movie. Blah, blah blah.
Now the reason I felt moved to write about this movie, Harry Knowles' review of the film at AICN.
Alot of the time I agree with Harry (more often with Moriarty), but here he just veers off into la-la land never to return.
Firstly, the nit pick--Harry must have really hated the movie so much that he wasn't paying attention, or went blind, or, whatever, because Kevin Nash's 'Russian' doesn't talk in the movie, and what's the problem with him being a throwback character? He was a throwback in the comic, and at least they didn't go through with his transformation into a cyborg she-male after Frank 'kills' him (yet). I believe it was the mystical black guy that says the go with God bit.
Secondly I didn't get that Frank's look of surprise at seeing Quentin Glass kissing another man was a homophobic one, I got that it was a genuine look of surprise. He was expecting Glass to rough up or kill the guy, not kiss him, yes Glass's sexuality is used as a plot point, but I don't think it's a gay-bashing one. Frank doesn't target him because he's gay, there's no indication of that. He targets him because he was one of the people who gunned down everyone in the Castle family. What he finds out in his recon is fodder for use. I get the impression that the homo-phobic character in the movie is Howard Saint, due to Glass' incredible fear of being outed to him, and after having seen Saint kill a number of people pretty ruthlessly, not to mention going along with the order to kill women and children, that isn't such a far stretch.
Anyway, Harry is full of it and must have had some bad burrito's before viewing the film, like I did when I initially panned 'The Big Lebowski.' Go to the movies on an empty stomach, or after something that won't upset you.
Yeah. Punisher good comic film, not bad like Daredevil, not as good as Spider-man or Hellboy though.
Maybe I'll talk about Kill Bill tomorrow.
The Punisher
A story about revenge, loosely based on the Garth Ennis version of the Marvel character.
Tom Jayne stars as Frank Castle, former special forces soldier and FBI special undercover agent who is retiring after one last case. Set in Tampa, Florida with a backdrop of Cuban gangsters and cigarette boats, gone is the comic's Vietnam backdrop and gritty New York skyline (and no Spider-Man).
Jayne goes from one note cop and family man to one note grim vigilante on a mission, but that's o.k. since the Punisher is a one note character.
By the way, I always thought Jayne was a scary dead-ringer for Christopher Lambert, and that the movie that he was most Lambertian in was Dreamcatcher, but this film is like what if Conner McLeod had no accent and was killing criminals with guns.
Gone as well is Ennis' take that Frank is a Psychopath and keeps killing because he enjoys it, this Frank Castle loses his entire family to assassins bullets, and takes a lot of lead on himself in the process.
One of the things that I found interesting in the lead up to this film was the downplay of John Travolta's role in the film. I would have thought he would at least be mentioned in the trailers, rather than just getting a shot of him throwing down a knife.
I liked the movie, fans of the character will like the movie. Blah, blah blah.
Now the reason I felt moved to write about this movie, Harry Knowles' review of the film at AICN.
Alot of the time I agree with Harry (more often with Moriarty), but here he just veers off into la-la land never to return.
Firstly, the nit pick--Harry must have really hated the movie so much that he wasn't paying attention, or went blind, or, whatever, because Kevin Nash's 'Russian' doesn't talk in the movie, and what's the problem with him being a throwback character? He was a throwback in the comic, and at least they didn't go through with his transformation into a cyborg she-male after Frank 'kills' him (yet). I believe it was the mystical black guy that says the go with God bit.
Secondly I didn't get that Frank's look of surprise at seeing Quentin Glass kissing another man was a homophobic one, I got that it was a genuine look of surprise. He was expecting Glass to rough up or kill the guy, not kiss him, yes Glass's sexuality is used as a plot point, but I don't think it's a gay-bashing one. Frank doesn't target him because he's gay, there's no indication of that. He targets him because he was one of the people who gunned down everyone in the Castle family. What he finds out in his recon is fodder for use. I get the impression that the homo-phobic character in the movie is Howard Saint, due to Glass' incredible fear of being outed to him, and after having seen Saint kill a number of people pretty ruthlessly, not to mention going along with the order to kill women and children, that isn't such a far stretch.
Anyway, Harry is full of it and must have had some bad burrito's before viewing the film, like I did when I initially panned 'The Big Lebowski.' Go to the movies on an empty stomach, or after something that won't upset you.
Yeah. Punisher good comic film, not bad like Daredevil, not as good as Spider-man or Hellboy though.
Maybe I'll talk about Kill Bill tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
TV Tuesday
Whether it was Barney Fife with one bullet in his pocket, or Lt. Columbo's "Just one more thing…", we could be sure in the old days that TV cops would wrap everything up neatly in 30 to 60 minutes. These days it may take a few episodes, but TV's top cops still manage to right most of the world's wrongs.
1. Who is your favorite (past or present) TV cop? Robocop, and after him, probably Cartman.
2. Which TV cop do you think was the most crooked, or the most inept? Definitely not Robocop, probably Andy Griffith. You could tell Andy's on the take what with the lack of criminals in his jail.
3. Which TV show had the best ensemble cast of police officers? C.O.P.S.: Central Organization of Police Specialists, and after them, maybe Cops.
~Bonus~ You need to hire a bodyguard for yourself. Which TV cop do you choose? Ray 'Big Bossman' Traylor.
Thanks for playing… Let's be careful out there!
....and as a special addendum, I give you TV Last Tuesday:
Game Shows have kept us playing along for years… From What's My Line? to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, we watch, yell at stupid contestants and generally feel superior, because we could be doing so much better! So let's see, do you have what it takes to play the game, or are you the Weakest Link?
1. Is there a game show (past or present) you think you would do really well on, as a contestant? Caesar's Palace (I think that was the name of the show, it was a bit like Jeopardy, only with a casino theme, complete with giant slot machine.
2. Is there a game show you think is the stupidest thing you've ever seen? The aforementioned Caesar's Palace, due to the exceedingly simple difficulty of the questions and overall halfassedness of the show in general.
3. Is there a game show you watch, but don't like to admit to watching? (A guilty pleasure!) That Street Smarts show, but I can't take it for very long periods of time, but what I watch I like, mostly the really stupid people trying to guess how stupid other stupid people are.
~Bonus~ Who is your favorite game show host? Who is your least favorite? Favorite: Henry Rollins on Junkyard Wars, and Least Favorite is Alex 'Smug Bastard' Trebek.
1. Who is your favorite (past or present) TV cop? Robocop, and after him, probably Cartman.
2. Which TV cop do you think was the most crooked, or the most inept? Definitely not Robocop, probably Andy Griffith. You could tell Andy's on the take what with the lack of criminals in his jail.
3. Which TV show had the best ensemble cast of police officers? C.O.P.S.: Central Organization of Police Specialists, and after them, maybe Cops.
~Bonus~ You need to hire a bodyguard for yourself. Which TV cop do you choose? Ray 'Big Bossman' Traylor.
Thanks for playing… Let's be careful out there!
....and as a special addendum, I give you TV Last Tuesday:
Game Shows have kept us playing along for years… From What's My Line? to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, we watch, yell at stupid contestants and generally feel superior, because we could be doing so much better! So let's see, do you have what it takes to play the game, or are you the Weakest Link?
1. Is there a game show (past or present) you think you would do really well on, as a contestant? Caesar's Palace (I think that was the name of the show, it was a bit like Jeopardy, only with a casino theme, complete with giant slot machine.
2. Is there a game show you think is the stupidest thing you've ever seen? The aforementioned Caesar's Palace, due to the exceedingly simple difficulty of the questions and overall halfassedness of the show in general.
3. Is there a game show you watch, but don't like to admit to watching? (A guilty pleasure!) That Street Smarts show, but I can't take it for very long periods of time, but what I watch I like, mostly the really stupid people trying to guess how stupid other stupid people are.
~Bonus~ Who is your favorite game show host? Who is your least favorite? Favorite: Henry Rollins on Junkyard Wars, and Least Favorite is Alex 'Smug Bastard' Trebek.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
What to do?
It's raining like the bejeesus here, but as I sit down to my dinner of strawberry pop-tarts and a bannana, I see by the program guide that on the one channel they're showing The Postman and on another is Waterworld, which post-apocalyptic Kevin-Costner-against-impossible-odds movie should I watch?
Oh the agony.
Methinks I'll watch X-Play instead.
Oh the agony.
Methinks I'll watch X-Play instead.
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