In 11th grade, my AP US History class made a video documentary (almost two hours long!) about the 1960's. The song we used to introduce the Vietnam War?
Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth."
Says Neil Genzlinger, from the New York Times:
Its instantly recognizable two-note opening rings like an alarm bell for the viewer: “Warning: Regurgitation of a lot of stuff you already know ahead.”
...Scientists suspect that overnight work is dangerous because it disrupts the circadian rhythm, the body's biological clock. The hormone melatonin, which can suppress tumor development, is normally produced at night.
Grant Barrett put together a nice write-up on words that were cemented into the vernacular last year.
Although many were not first said or written in 2007, they are nonetheless the tattoos, scars and medals that differentiate this year from any other.
Here're a few internet finds from the past week or so:
Say what?
That's some great machinima; I especially love the hand wave at the start, and the arm raise that cuts to air guitars for the first chorus. Also, it's a cool ass song.
This is the kind of thing you wouldn't believe if someone told you. Watch the whole thing, it's incredible.
I really love the quality of their moving timelapse; they probably just did wide-angle photography, and then created the camera move in a computer by zooming in and moving the frame, but it still looks damn cool.
Lastly, click here to catch a (brief) glimpse of the new Henry Selick film of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. I read the book over the holiday and loved it; it was kind of like "House of Leaves" for kids. So I look forward to this 3-D film, which is also boasting a killer cast. Except for... Terry Hatcher?!
It's hard to believe anyone can take this seriously; every few years, Northern Maine starts talking about secession, but that makes a lot more sense, and also has the merit of having become almost traditional. When the loggers and farmers say their interests are different from those of the tourism/vacation industry, I get it, even though I disagree. But when the mayor of a town that relies on tourism starts complaining about supporting our northern friends, that's just plain stupid.
"The state of Maine needs South Portland more than South Portland needs the state of Maine," Soule said in his inaugural address to about 35 people in the council chambers.
I got really frustrated with the love that 28 Weeks Later got this summer. Other than an intense and startling opening ten minutes, I found it be one of the dullest and most unoriginal movies of the summer. Incredibly disappointing.
So it makes me happy to see other, more famous and respected people rip into it— see #7.
"Neill Cumpston" submits early movie reviews to Ain't It Cool News every so often, and they are pretty much always damned hilarious. There are a lot of rumors that he may, in fact, be Patton Oswalt, who is himself pretty much always damned hilarious, so hey, there may be some truth here.
Not that it matters since, in the end, his reviews rock.
Digging through the AICN archives, I found a few exemplary submissions from years recent and long past:
I intended to write about Disney's Enchanted when I saw it a while back, but, as is so often the case, I found myself distracted.
So here are the two (and a half?) most salient of my thoughts on the matter:
This is a damn fantastic bit of film analysis, taking a look at the end of the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men.
Simple ideas, backed up by the text. And I love the concept of a Glass Key ending. My mind starts skipping towards Chinatown just thinking about it...
[c/o Scanners]
Goddamn, if Jason Kottke doesn't find the best stuff.
Here're a few highlights from the same post I got the previous Star Wars link from:
The Millenium Falcon may look like a beat-up old freighter but it can outrun any Imperial ship in normal space or hyperspace, hang in a firefight with a Star Destroyer or outmaneouvre a dozen top-of-the-line TIE fighters. It's a remarkable feat of engineering and must have cost a colossal fortune to build. How does Han come to own a ship like that? He only thinks he does, actually it's Chewie's. Half-way through RotS, we see the Falcon landing at the Senate building on Coruscant. If it's the same ship (which of course it is) then it was the personal transport of one of the senatorial delegations — a much more likely source to commission its design.
