Thursday night, a little bleary

[cleolinda]

I'm several days behind on the 'spam, so I harvested as much as I could off Google Reader before I just lost my will to spam completely. Because there was a lot.

You know how sometimes, you just see something so hideous you have to share it? Kind of like, "Oh my God, this is awful! Taste it! "? Westboro Baptist "Church" tries to guilt-trip the Ledger family into telling them where the funeral will be. If you can overlook the COMPLETELY HEINOUS NATURE of their open letter, the sheer absurdity of it verges on hilarious. Personally, I feel that the city of Perth should give them a map directing them to a "secret location" in the bush, "where a party of dingoes will escort you to the graveside service."

Meanwhile: 'ET,' 'Insider' Back Out Of Playing Heath Ledger Drug Video; Fan Rant: The Heath Ledger Video, which asks the question--the same one I wanted to ask--which is, why was the "Heath Ledger talking about drugs at a party and then possibly (?) doing some" (rightfully) yanked from entertainment news shows out of "respect," but we're subjected to Britney's mentally ill "antics" everyday? Why is one exploitative and the other not?

Also: Two-Face Ready For His 'Dark Knight' Close-Up, or, How WB Is Going to Market 'The Dark Knight' Now; Gilliam to Finish 'Parnassus' with a CGI Heath Ledger?; Michelle Williams pulling out of 'Shutter Island'?

Speaking of Britney: Britney Spears, Code Name 'The Package', Rushed To Hospital As GurneyGate 2.0 Unfolds Overnight. Did I mention Hostage Brituation 2008 when it first happened? I think I did. A while back, I resolved not to mention any drug-addled, mimsy-flashing starlets unless the story was really big or I thought of something semi-profound to say about it, and so far I feel like I've done a fairly good job restraining myself. (In this case, the subtext is "Britney getting help, finally.") Mostly because I just got tired of hearing about blonde young famewhores, but also because I'd begun to feel that if I really didn't want to hear any more, I should do my part and withdraw from the gossip media cycle--not pass the news on, not discuss it, not gawk at it myself. And a large part of that is the sense that the gossip cycle perpetuates itself with some of these celebutantes: they keep acting out because they crave the media exposure, then break down when they can't handle it. It's not a moral judgment on anyone who does enjoy celebrity gossip (and I enjoy other kinds of celebrity gossip); it's just my way of being--not carbon neutral, I guess, but gossip neutral. Anyway.

Writers Guild Reaches More Interim Agreements.

Do People Know That TV As They Know It Will Shut Down? And I'm pissed about it, too. Thanks for ensuring we all have to buy new TVs, jackasses.

Rio Carnival float depicting Holocaust banned. I don't have enough What?! for this. I think Westboro used all my What?! up, actually.

An Extensive History Of Terrible CNN.com Headlines.

Secret safe-words of the Emergency Broadcasting System.

Bloggers Can Be Bought, Just Like Editors!

Feltidermy?

Isabella Rossellini's bug porn. Because the Orangina commercial just wasn't brain-scarring enough.

Lessing Accepts Her Nobel Prize Nicely This Time.

Want to Save Book Sections? Write Better Reviews. O snap.

Ishmael Beah Still Sticks by His Memoir.

Alan Moore documentary on AlterTube.

Wait a minute, wasn't Captain America dead?

Nancy "Bart Simpson" Cartwright Gives $10 Million to Scientology. Man, I hope she kept the receipt for that.

Neil Gaiman: The People in 'Torchwood' Are All Too Stupid to Live.

Oscars to go on, possibly with 'packages of film and concepts' (oh God, poor Jon Stewart); Oscars Producer Ask WGA To Reconsider Decision To Picket; Oscars: 20 nominee portraits; Once's 'Falling Slowly' [Re-]Approved as Oscar Nominee; 'No Country for Old Men': mysteries dispelled (?) Get ready for 'Crash': The TV Series; ‘Juno’ Laid Low by Success; ‘Ratatouille’ cheated out of best picture nod?

‘Lost’ no more: Show returns for short run; One-Fisted Beer-Drinking, Cut From Tonight's Lost Episode; ''Lost'': Preseason cheat sheet; The Hater: Lost For Dummies; Everything You Need to Know About "Lost: Missing Pieces" Mobisodes; Lost Season 4 Oceanic Airlines adverts; Tidbits: ‘Lost’ star Garcia spills his take on the mystery; ''Lost'' star Emerson gets creepy; 5Top: Favorite ‘Lost’ characters; 'Last' man on 'Lost'; What could 'Lost' possibly do next? (Answer: "Anything"); Land Of The Lost Was Cooler Than Lost.

Carla Gugino Gets Sexy For Silk Spectre In ‘Watchmen’; Spoilers For Watchmen, Dragonball, Lost and CJ7.

It's Official: 'Cloverfield 2' is Coming!; Matt Reeves Directing Cloverfield Sequel and The Invisible Woman; Writer Drew Goddard returning; Cloverfield Has Secret Emo Rock Soundtrack.

New Prince Caspian Poster!

Indiana Jones Holds a Bazooka in New Movie Pic; 2nd Empire Indiana Jones Photo Online.

Xzibit Blogs on the Set of The X-Files Sequel ("Im in Canada,and its fuckin FREEZING!").

'Quantum of Solace' Poster and Behind the Scenes Bond Footage; Motormouth Gemma Arterton Reveals More 'Bond' Details; Mathieu Amalric On Being A Bond Baddie; 'Bond' Actors Talking Way Too Much About Their Roles; Five Sound Stages Simultaneously For 'Quantum of Solace'; 'Quantum of Solace' Natural Resource Revealed [SPOILER]? In case you're wondering, I actually haven't read any of these articles and am actually trying to go relatively spoiler-free.

David Yates to Direct "Deathly Hallows"? First Half-Blood Prince trailer released soon! Yes, that's all one headline. Also: Portions of the "Half-Blood Prince" script leaked, and there are some... changes.

Del Toro To Incite Audiences To ‘Madness’ With H.P. Lovecraft Project; In Which Cthulhu Kicks Cloverfield's Ass Without Ever Showing Its Face ['Call Of Cthulhu,' 2005].

3D 'Coraline' Trailer, Except Not in 3D. "I mean, just listen to the man in the theater shouting at the needle heading towards him. Some of that is actual fear and the inability to distinguish film from reality, but at least part is probably excitement at how good it looks."

Mark Romanek Quits 'The Wolf Man' Over Creative Werewolf Differences; Brett Ratner to Direct 'The Wolfman'? WHY GOD WHY.

'Last King of Scotland' Director Signs for 'Bobby Fischer Goes to War.'

Claire Danes Joins 'Me & Orson Welles.'

Mira Nair Replaces Noyce on Amelia Earhart Biopic.

Dueling 'Leatherheads' Posters -- Sports or Romance?

First Pics of Sean Penn as Harvey Milk Arrive Online. I'm getting the uneasy feeling that this is going to be another one of those Obvious from the Moment the Movie Comes Out Oscars.

Viggo Takes Young Wolverine On "The Road."

A Return To ‘Jurassic Park’ Wouldn’t Be Dino-Mite Says Star. Wah-wah-wahhhhhh.

Josh Hartnett Won’t Be Getting Jazzed For ‘Cool’ Chet Baker Flick.

Butler Joins Heigl in The Ugly Truth.

‘Be Kind’ trailer gets a low-budget remake. Oh, Michel Gondry, you so crazy.

Michael Bay Ready To Ruin 'Nightmare On Elm Street' For A New Generation Of Horror Fans.

'Son of Rambow' Trailer Far Better Than Actual 'Rambo.'

Slate Declares 'Meet the Spartans' a "Massive Consumer Fraud." You had to spend $10 to figure that out?

Comments

[akathorne.livejournal.com]

Next time I break up with someone, I'm going to say it's because of "creative werewolf differences." Just because.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Dude, now I want to find a random occasion to use that too.

[randombastary.livejournal.com]

The Westboro Baptist Church = why we can't have nice things.

[viorica8957.livejournal.com]

You know what's kind of sad? The example Neil Gaiman listed was one of the more minor stupidities on the show. A bigger one would be hiding a robot in the basement and hoping your boss won't notice. Or telling a crowd of pissed-off slightly drunk 1941ians (at a BRITISH MILITARY FUNCTION) that you're Japanese. Or snogging a man in front of said pissed 1941ians. Or using an unreliable (read: may not take effect, or else cause insanity and mass-murdering) drug on people who discover your Sekrit Organization. Or . . . I could go on all day. And yet, I still watch it. See icon for details.

Can the dingoes eat a Westboro baby?

[eruvadhril.livejournal.com]

I think they should just drop all pretense of secrecy, and put up public information posters.

TORCHWOOD
Extraterrestrial/Paranormal Investigators
Please report any weird shit to the Tourist Information Centre down at the Bay, or dial 1800-TORCHWOOD.

The weirdest thing is, everyone and their granny seems to know about Torchwood, except for the people who get attacked/abducted/whatever by aliens. Then it's all "WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE? WHAT IS THIS PLACE? BUT ALIENS DON'T EXIST!"

[aircrash.livejournal.com]

not sure if you've already seen this, but hypeful.com compiled a downloadable soundtrack for cloverfield - http://www.hypeful.com/2008/01/21/robs-party-mix-from-cloverfield/

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Ooo, thanks!

Captain America.

[kali921.livejournal.com]

Random Comic Geek Note: We all knew that a new Captain America was going to emerge as soon as series writer Ed Brubaker killed off Steve Rogers. Ed Brubaker started grooming Cap's old sidekick Bucky Barnes to be the new Cap way back in the Winter Soldier arc of 2005/2006, so the fact that Bucky is now the new Captain America is a surprise to probably no one.

What's sad is that Marvel doesn't have the balls to have a black Captain America. See, there are two characters with a much more legitimate claim to the Captain America title, that being Eli Bradley (Patriot) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_(comics)) and Josiah X. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_X) Both are descended from the very awesome Isaiah Bradley, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah_Bradley) who was the very first Captain America and who also happened to be black.

The fact that Marvel went with Bucky makes the baby Jesus cry.

Re: Captain America.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

I would sincerely approve of this. I was very disappointed, having gotten out of comic book geekery for about five or six years, to have come up with the idea of a black Captain America predating Steve Rogers, and then finding out someone at Marvel had hit on the idea a year or two before I did.

[poinsley.livejournal.com]

Let's skip JP 4 and go right to 5, since the odd ones have been awesome, and the evens not so much. (The anti-Star Trek franchise??)

[honorh.livejournal.com]

Fred Phelps is evil. I genuinely believe this. He's just evil. No one who's not evil could have that amount of hate in his heart.

The new Narnia poster, OTOH, is gorgeous. Reep!

[honorh.livejournal.com]

BTW, a few people at ihasatardis have been getting inspired by M15M:

TRUFAX! (http://community.livejournal.com/ihasatardis/898806.html)

A few more (http://community.livejournal.com/ihasatardis/898437.html#cutid1)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I saw! I kept debating whether I should link back to it--on one hand, it would show appreciation, but on the other--a nice comfortable community might not want an influx of newcomers.

[misachan.livejournal.com]

Everyone on Torchwood has terrible judgment. Everyone. Half the time I suspect Jack intentionally chose morons for his team so they wouldn't be sharp enough to figure out that a) he's a lunatic (and I say that with all affection)or b) he's an immortal time-traveler who's using them all to find the Doctor (again, all affection). Tosh, Owen and Ianto are textbook examples of high Int with low Wisdom (Gwen clearly skirts by on Charisma).

Still love the show.:)

[viorica8957.livejournal.com]

And Ianto's supposed to be the levelheaded one. *sigh* Personally, I think he's just there to make out with Jack. Not that I'm complaining. Owen's not smart, he's just an asshole And am I the only one who thinks that Gwen's a Mary Sue?

Int= intelligence?

[shadowsound.livejournal.com]

about the tv thing, I think I remember reading that two $40 vouchers will be be made available by request for most households to be used towards digital converter boxes...

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

Yeah - it'll cost you $20 each after the vouchers to get a little "digital-converter-thingie". Up to 2 per person/household.

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/index.html for info

[sound-of-bells.livejournal.com]

The idea of a Crash TV show makes me die a little bit. God, I hated that movie. *sigh*

Also, everybody needs to CHILL about Ratatouille. Yes, it was good. It was cute, I laughed, etc, etc. But to put it in the same category with No Country for Old Men, or even Juno, which I wasn't crazy about, is stupid. And come on: if people are looking for movies that got totally screwed this year, they need go no further than Once and I'm Not There.

[wirrrn.livejournal.com]

Hey,

As a Perthite, I must regret to inform you that we don't have much in the way of Dingos here with which to devour Phelps and his delusional band of bigoted antichrists. We do, however, have Perentie; 7 foot long predatory goannas- that would do the job just as well, if not better...

Michael Bay and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. As a long term NOES buff since I was eleven years old, I will personally show up in Michael Bay's dreams and strangle him with the film reel for the awful remake of THE HITCHER...

[celticangel76.livejournal.com]

I'm so with you on Bay and the NOES series. What ever happened to "if it ain't broke don't fix it"? Wonder what Robert Englund thinks about this.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

SQUEEE! Darwin LIVES!!!!!!

I have seen the 2005 "Call Of Cthulhu" and it is a thing of wonder and glory. The silent-film style is so well done that by the time you get to the dream sequences and the doors are made of cardboard you just accept it. And the "poor quality" of the film nicely keeps from showing too much of the monster which is much creepier. And you HAVE to watch the "making of" featurettes - but only AFTER you see the main event. There is some hilarious stuff there...

[anolinde.livejournal.com]

I'm confused about the TV thing, why do we have to buy new ones?

[cpip.livejournal.com]

You don't.

If you have an older-model TV with an analog tuner, AND you only receive over-the-air signals (no cable, no satellite), you'll need to buy a new digital antenna, which costs about $50.

The US government is issuing voucher coupons good for $80 (http://www.ntia.doc.gov/dtvcoupon/index.html) to defray the costs.

You don't need a new TV!

[stavia.livejournal.com]

Good lord.

The change is the shutdown of analog broadcasting. That is, a VHF/UHF antenna will stop working. Cable, satellite, fiberoptic, and *all* high-definition television, whether wired or over-the-air, is unaffected.

The federal government vouchers are to go toward the purchase of a digital converter box. This box makes it possible for old TVs with analog tuners to receive a signal from digital over-the-air broadcasting (read: an HD antenna).

If you pay for your television in any way, THIS DOES NOT AFFECT YOU.

Do you have cable, of any type? Do you have satellite, or FiOS, or an HD over-the-air antenna?

Yes to ANY of those means your TV can accept a digital signal and/or you already have a digital tuner, whether it's in your TV or in your cable/satellite/etc. box. You do not need a new TV, and you do not need a digital converter box.

The ONLY people who this affects are those who are still using rabbit ears or a direct connection from a VHF/UHF rooftop television antenna (or "aerial"), with no cable box or anything else in between. These are TVs whose signal comes from an antenna attached to two wires connected to two screws in the back. Is that you? Odds are it is not. Is it your parents? Odds are it is not. There is a chance this will affect your grandparents, if no one has ever sold them cable TV and they still think there's only three channels.

The whole problem is the panic, and that the simple sentence "If you have cable or satellite, this does not affect you at all" isn't being publicized.

Re: You don't need a new TV!

[narcissa-malfoy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, but I find the fact that this change is most likely to affect those most inconvenienced by it, and the poorest, to make it even worse.

[falco-conlon.livejournal.com]

oh my gosh. Michael Gondry is so, freaking, cute.

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

...why was the "Heath Ledger talking about drugs at a party and then possibly (?) doing some" (rightfully) yanked from entertainment news shows out of "respect," but we're subjected to Britney's mentally ill "antics" everyday? Why is one exploitative and the other not? — Apparently if you’re still (mouth-)breathing, you’re fair game.

And I’ve had my daily allowance of WTF and ohnotheydint! thanks to the Westboro letter. It’s the pretentiousness of “he would lift up his voice in a hideous scream, to wit...” that, in my opinion, tilts the balance from merely heinous to inadvertently hilarious.

[mercat.livejournal.com]

Noooooooooooo, Nancy Cartwright! D= Up until five minutes ago I was proud you were from my hometown! Don't do this to me! =(

[snacky]

Cleo, next time you linkspam, if you have room, would you link to the Snack Food Deathmatch? Thank you! :D

[khaman.livejournal.com]

I was vaguely hoping that No Country link was discussing the actual theme of the film. The most fascinating theory I've heard on it basically states that the whole film is an allegory of man's futile fight against death -

Moss - the common man
Chigurh - Death (it explains the bad haircut and the near-emotionlessness of most of his killings)
the Sheriff - the philosopher who fumbles in the dark, trying to make sense of things
Carla Jean - Free will

Alongside the theme of "this shit has happened before, it will happen again, and it has precisely dick to do with whether or not kids have green hair."

[khaman.livejournal.com]

Good place for this classic chestnut: Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A TV (http://davefaq.com/Opinions/Television/Onion.html)

From Analog to Digital

[apples-juice.livejournal.com]

The one thing that annoys me the most about the whole Digital transition is that people think they have to upgrade to High Definition (and throws a fit whenever the price is mentioned for such upgrade), which is not true.

Satellite television companies such as DirecTV and Dish Network and cable companies such as ComCast already produce a digital signal, meaning if you can receive a picture from your cable company, you're actually ready for the transition in Febuary 2009.

True, High Defintion does make the picture look better, but it's just a form of digital and it's not really required.

All this transition means that if you have analog over-the-air antennas for your local channels, you will lose that signal unless you buy a new one that can pick up a digital signal.

Chances are - unless your tv is so old, it can legally go to bars with you and gets drunk off its ass with you - you already have a digital-compatable television. Nothing much is really going to change.

So don't freak out and upgrade to High Definition when you can't really afford it. I personally won't upgrade to it because I work for DirecTV, and despite the fact we are the leading company when it comes to high definiton television, it's not the greatest service in the world. It's too new and all the bugs haven't been worked out yet. (I think the channels weren't ready to be launched, but don't tell my tech coordnator I said that... he's an intimitating guy and can snap me in half with his brain. I swear!)

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Westboro Baptist Church: Making Christians Look Like Loonies Since 2008 (And Probably Before)

I love how they assume gay teens would never have decided to be gay if not for Brokeback Mountain.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hell, one viewing in the theater turned me into a gay man.

[elbales]

Someone on that gawker.com page had this to say:

"Giant Lizards Invade Florida"
It's not right to talk about the Giuliani campaign like that.

FOR THE LULZ.
*wipes tears of laughter*

My favorite still has to be "Woman beats off burglar with gnome." Whoa.

blogger swag and celeb watching

[verbminx.livejournal.com]

I am also trying to avoid celebrity gossip; I have been for a few years. I don't read Perez Hilton, I try to stay away from OhNoTheyDidn't, I turn the channel if one of the half-hour entertainment tabloid shows comes on -- I think it's healthier, for the exact reasons you mention. The two things that are likely to trip me up are entertainment headlines on otherwise-reputable news sites (though maybe I should stop regarding CNN.com in that light, after taking that "wacky headline" link into account) and the IMDB gossip page. I STILL manage to get most of the news.

On another note, I'm a blogger -- a paid one, though, and not about beauty. There is a cap on what I am allowed to accept, and it is way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way... WAY WAY... below $500. I think there is a misconception that even relatively high-profile bloggers aren't held to some sort of standard, but we are. If I consistently wrote bad posts or gave out faulty info or accepted swag or trips, I'd be fired. (And I'm not all that high-profile. Even in my category I'm probably like #25 or something. There are higher profile bloggers in the category who accept all kinds of gifts and swag, and some who just accept samples; they're all either unpaid or paid by their own ad revenue.)

People who aren't contracted bloggers can, of course, take whatever they want, write badly, and still get attention... am I the only one who's been bemused by how awful the writing on Slave to Target has usually been? But I believe that independent beauty bloggers would be writing the same stuff with or without the swag.

Also, I believe the linked post on the topic is a little bit disingenuous, because everyone knows that beauty mags are advertorial. It doesn't matter what swag is or isn't given out; advertisers' products are going to be given good coverage.

Edited to finish first paragraph!