Roy Scheider: 1932-2008

Goddammit.

Roy Scheider died Sunday, February 10th.

I've been mulling over this post for two days now... and at the end of the day, there are plenty of other, better write-ups on the man and his life— try here, here, and here, for starters.

Still, I do have a few things of my own to say.

I don't have a single favorite movie, but when I get asked to name one, I consistently pick Jaws. Along with Aliens, E.T., and (to a lesser degree) Vertigo, watching Jaws was one of the most visceral and influential movie-going experiences—hell, art-going experiences— of my life. I don't remember the exact year I saw it, but I do remember the circumstances. In short: McDonald's was offering a promo with Universal Studios when I was about 10. They had two special cups, one featuring The Terminator (which I wanted badly), the other featuring the Jaws-attack from the Studio Tour. Apparently, I wanted the Terminator cup enough that I was able to convince my father to take me and my siblings to McDonald's, no small feat.

We got the Jaws cups. I, being me, asked my dad all about what the cup was about, and he told me, in general terms, the idea. I probably kept asking questions, so moved on the the best answer: he rented the VHS cassette that night, and we watched it.

Suffice to say that to this day, I have a really hard time swimming in any large body of water without someone swimming farther out that me. Because the shark will get him first.

To be clear, this is one of the best memories of my life, and I'm glad my dad showed me the movie when he did. It was the perfect time to change my life, and is probably one of the reason I'm out in Los Angeles, doing what I do. Getting the shit scared out of me for life was totally worth it.

All of this is to say: I would not be the same person had it not been for Roy Scheider. Chief Brody, the master of the deadpan-understatement, was a hero of mine from a young age, even if i didn't recognize it until late in my teens. If I was able to get back in the water at all, it was ultimately because the chief of police conquered his own fear and shot that son-of-a-bitch right in the air tank.

In other films, I always loved Scheider, even when the product wasn't at his level. He makes 2010 totally watchable for me— aside from a few other performances and a cool concept, he carries that film. "SeaQuest DSV" was never a great show, but he made it worth my while (which is probably why I tuned out of season three, when Michael Ironside took over).

It was only a few months ago that I wished Roy Scheider a happy birthday, and now he's gone.

At least he showed that shark who was boss.

Two Great Games

First up is "Spin The Black Circle," a simple flash game that is simply devious. It starts out easy, has some catchy music, and a simple interface. After the first few levels, you feel good about yourself, and then it gets hard, and you think Screw this, I'm going home... after I finish this level. So you work and work, and eventually finish the level, only to be greeted by another one. Holy fuck, that looks complicated! Well, I just want to see what this one is like...

Say goodbye to five or six hours, friend.

The second game is a little less... abstract. "Off-Road Raptor Safari" features an indestructible jeep, complete with a Triceratops skull and a boulder-sized mace. And a whole mess of feather velociraptors. Featuring a plot right out of Bad Taste, you have to harvest as many 'raptors as you can (to make food in the future) by ramming into them with your jeep, and then hooking them with your spiked ball.

Once you get past the carnage, it is awesome.

The game uses a custom engine you have to install, but it hasn't crashed my system yet, so it seems okay. The graphics and look remind me a lot of Pangea Software's "Nanosaur," a great game that came bundled with a lot of Macs back in the day.

[ Speaking of Bad Taste... enjoy! ]

He's A Man, Not A System

A certain Poughkeepsie man (a real scoundrel, it seems, leading police in a car chase) has what can only be described as the best name ever.

I'm serious; it doesn't get any better than this.

Please note how it's one name; imagine if someone was called Martinluther Phillips, or Georgewashington Baker.

The math works out on this one: L. Butler is 27, making his birthday fall somewhere in 1980-1981, after the May 21st, 1980 release of The Empire Strikes Back.

Productive Saturday

No real update today, despite yesterday's silence. I've been busy cleaning house, getting a haircut, finally sorting my DVD collection with the recent influx of HD titles, building that speaker cabinet, and other chores, along with getting ready to cook some dinner and have some folks over.

So a good day, but not much for the readership. My apologies. To fill the void, check out this fantastic macro-photograph of an insect (c/o kottke). I've never seen water droplets so small.

Stop by Sunday for a post or two.

Bon week-end!

The Weeks Fly By

So it's Thursday.

Again.

I woke up thinking that the weekend was far away, and hating that. Then I realized we were almost there, and I hate that more.

I have a lot of things I want to do. Build a cabinet for my center channel speaker. Finish designing my logo/style guide. Code my website. Start my Podcast. Watch Sunshine. Clean and organize the back room. Hang out with my friends, who I rarely see as much as I want to. Write my Cloverfield reaction (which I promise is still coming!). Write better blog entries.

And I do barely any of these.

Yes, I work a lot— I have a normal 10-hour day, and plenty of people here work more than that, including myself. But that isn't the issue. I like my job, and I have leisure time, but I end up using it for other things— watching the weekly shows I like ("Lost," "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles," "Project Runway," "House"), reading articles on the internet, finishing books, studying graphic design and HTML. Also things I like to do. Things I want to do.

How do we make our priorities work better? How do we balance all of the things a day demands (let alone a week!) with all of the things we want to do? These things... I don't want to see my goals get left behind... but I want to get at least a little sleep, and enjoy the spontaneous things that throw me off schedule.

If I didn't care about a social life, I'd try and start living on a 28-hour day, or something; I'd slowly fall in and out of sync with the world around me, as my "days" would be longer. I'd certainly get more done. No dice, though, as the social life is one of the things I need to make time for.

I don't know what the answer is. I think I'm going to try and take two lunch breaks a week, and write during lunch. Or design. Do something on the list, at least, while still leaving three lunches where I can sit with my coworkers and relax. And maybe wake up earlier on weekends... I tend to let myself sleep in to 10 or so, and that's time I could use. We'll see.

At the end of the day (or week), I think we all have to balance our needs with our goals. I'm not naive. I get that. I just want to do it better. You guys have any strategies that work for you? Any issues that seem particularly hard?

A Lazy Post

I'm not feeling my Muse today, or something, so in lieu of actually writing something, here's a nice assortment of links, videos, and pictures.

• Coolest guitar design ever.


• Ever wondered what a beehive looks like from the inside? Check this out— I love how the bees have a perfect sense of natural symmetry.


• Click here for a neat photographic look at how LEGO bricks are made [c/o Daring Fireball].


• Because everything is better in 30 seconds. I have to say, though, with regards to Pirates of the Caribbean 3, they got it wrong; it should be 25 seconds of people having meetings, followed by some battles. Ah well.


• Looks like Sam's Italian Sandwich Shops have been disposing of extra foodstuffs in the laziest way possible. Didn't these guys see The Host?


• Speaking of doughy blobs of mysterious origin...
  
  
  Yes, that is for real.


• Uh oh, I posted a video. Now I've done it; the floodgates are open. Well, this is far funnier than it has any right being:
  



• And this is for those of you wondering what I mean when I say "For frak's sake..."
  



• This is just way too cool [c/o kottke].
  



• Speaking of kottke, he put up a great post about using a hacked version of Super Mario World that demonstrates quantum mechanics and string theory. Watch that video in his post, and think about it. It could also apply to evolution and natural selection, come to think of it. If you are having trouble understanding what you see, here's the deal: when you see multiple Marios, those are the various attempts he made at surpassing that part of the level. When the surviving Mario pauses for a moment, the player saved the game, allowing more Marios to spawn from that point. Amazing graphic.


• Remember Johnny Chung Lee? Well, turns out he has a web site, with more videos of his Wii hacks and proofs-of-concept. This guy never ceases to amaze me [c/o mouser].


• Also from mouser, more proof as to just how awesome "Flight of the Conchords" is:
  

We're #1!

Good morning, all.

For it is indeed a good morning.

In doing a little internet research, I found myself performing Google searches on a friend of mine. And that made me think hey, I haven't googled myself in a while.

So I did, and lo and behold, wickedgoodblog.blogspot.com was search result number one! In past searches, my IMDb page had been the top hit. (Aside: Also interesting is that my IMDb page is hit three, right after my NYTimes.com bio page. As exciting as it is to be listed on the New York Times, there is zero information there, whereas my IMDb page has lots.)

Next, I decided to search for "wicked good blog" (with the quotation marks); past searches with the words ungrouped had placed my humble blog at hit three, and I wanted to feel better than three. Results: this site makes it to the first hit!

At this point, I was feeling a little excited, and did the same search again, sans quotation marks. The two sites to beat me in the past were "Our Wicked Good Blog," by a store in Salem, MA called "Wicked Goodz," at number two, with number one being a real estate website that had purchased a domain name that I wanted, "wickedgoodblog.com." I ended up with "thewickedgoodblog.com/.net," they stopped updating in January of last year, and now...

The Wicked Good Blog is the number one result!

I don't claim to know how the Google algorithms work; I know it boils down to page ranking, which is based on how many people link to a given site, and that those links are valued higher if they come from a site with a high page rank itself. So it looks like the thanks should go to... you.

To all of my regular readers, I thank you, first and foremost, for your attention and time—I'm writing this to be read, and you're reading it, so you give this site purpose. That being said, the nice links you seem to be adding are a pleasant bonus.

And for all of you new readers, these are the people you get to live up to...

Search rank is not a measure of success; but as I consider The Wicked Good Blog to be my digital home, I'm glad it comes up as the primary place to find me.

iPhone Upped to 16 Gigs

Straight from the horse's mouth.

I'd just like to quickly point out that this is exactly what I predicted back in November. A friend was concerned about getting an iPhone, because of the chance that they'd just come out with a new model at Macworld in January. And I said that the chances of that were small, I figured a true new model wouldn't hit before July, and was more likely for Fall 2008. I said that if we got any update at all before summer, it'd be a storage bump to 16 gigabytes.

Booyah.

Happy Birthday Dad!

My father turns 59 today; I'd wish him a happy birthday over the phone, except he's in Guatemala, building stoves with Pat Manley and the Masons on a Mission organization.

Well done Dad! Hope you're having a good one down there!

Super Bowl: Extended Reaction

Okay, the shock has worn off, so let's go through some specifics.

First off, thanks Will for hosting a great Super Bowl party; plenty of food, beer, and good times.

My overall take on the game: pretty dull, except for an exciting opening drive from each team, and an intense final 30 minutes or so.

Best play of the game: David Tyree's 33-yard catch, using his hand and his helmet, on a throw Eli Manning got off after escaping a near tackle by three Patriots. Well played, boys.

Special shout-out to Wes Welker as, in my opinion, he was the MVP if the game. But the Patriots lost, so no one is really talking about him, aside from the fact that he tied for most Super Bowl catches, with 11 receptions.

Let's talk halftime show; who else liked the vaginal beating heart under Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, which was (inevitably?) penetrated by the sperm- (and penis-) like arrow-guitar? It wasn't at the same level as Nipplegate or Prince's demon phallus, but funny nonetheless.

(Tangentially, something which is like a vaginal is "vaginal," like an ovum (or many ova) is oval (!), or like a phallus is phallic, but something which is like sperm is only "sperm-like." Bullshit.)

Plenty of good ads, and plenty of weak ones. Tops include Tide's "talking stain" ad, and Coca-Cola's "balloon" spot, while parts of both the Budweiser "Rocky/Clydesdale" and the Pepsi "Timberlake" commercials were pretty damn funny. The Doritos "Mousetrap" spot was beyond horrendous, and the two SalesGenie ads ("Panda" and "Double Sales") were offensive and borderline racist.

But my top pick for absolute worst ad goes to Toshiba's HD-DVD spot; not only was it an older spot that's been running for months, not broadcast nationally, and aired during the halftime pre-show recap, but it wasn't even in high definition! That's right, folks; Toshiba's multi-million dollar ploy to convince the country that HD-DVD is viable was a stale and uninspired commericial that was 4x3 letterboxed, small and paltry on the HD sets owned by the very people they're trying to attract as customers.

A heaping portion of Suck, with a healthy dollop of weak sauce.

Frequent readers will know that I love me my Daring Fireball, John Gruber's excellent web site/column. But to his comment on tonight's game, I have only this to say: Bite my ass, Yankees fan.

And for your daily dose of irony: on the Spike website, where I found all of these ads for your viewing pleasure, you occasionally have to watch a hosted advertisement before you can watch the Super Bowl ads. Sweet.

Super Bowl Results

The Giants defeat the Patriots.

Fuck.

Thomas Jefferson's Forged Wine?

Check out Patrick Radden Keefe's "The Jefferson Bottles" over at The New Yorker; the article is from September of last year, but is still damn interesting. Turns out the world of wine collecting has been recently rocked with forgery scandal, in this instance revolving around the "most expensive bottle of wine ever sold at auction."

The bottle came from a collection of wine that had reportedly been discovered behind a bricked-up cellar wall in an old building in Paris. The wines bore the names of top vineyard... and those initials, "Th.J." According to the catalogue, evidence suggested that the wine had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, and that the bottle at auction could "rightly be considered one of the world's greatest rarities."

Strangely enough, it looks like there are two film projects being developed based on this story; one from this article, and another based on an as-yet unpublished book. As intriguing as I found this story to be, I have a hard time imagining it working as a film. Then again, I certainly enjoy The Red Violin, so go ahead and prove me wrong, filmmakers.