Pull the Krug and Drain the Pool
New Krugman. Go!
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New Krugman. Go!
So lately we've been trying to get into sports. Or at least thinking about trying to get into sports. However, when the mental image of us actually playing sports hits, it's not pretty, sort of like picturing "Samwise" from Lord of the Rings doing a serious ballet piece, perhaps with large slabs of Broccolli strapped to his wrists and nipples. See, while organized fun can be enjoyable, for those of us who are extremely bad at it, and would much rather read a book (or be plopped in front of a beer), it's somewhat akin to one of the dudes from the Redneck Comedy Tour reciting Leon Uris. And go ahead, call us "snobs" for that last comment. It's time to embrace our place in the world. An ex-girlfriend recently pointed out that, empirically, we (and most of our friends) are, well, kind of snobby. And to emphasize said snobbery (and also point out that those folks reading this who don't think they belong said ex-girlfriend's "snob" pool are sorely mistaken), allow us to point out a recent statistic, taken from a poll by The Economist, which plainly stated that, at minimum, 11.8 million Americans believe President Bush to be either "liberal" or "extremely liberal". God help us.
No talkie. Go watch it now.
Yikes. The Jeff Gannon ("Guckert" was the phony name he used that the White House Top-Secret Security folks apparently had no problem with) gets more ridiculous:
Perhaps more notable than the frequency of his attendance, however, is several distinct anomalies about his visits.Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities.
On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out.
In March, 2003, Guckert left the White House twice on days he had never checked in with the Secret Service. Over the next 22 months, Guckert failed to check out with the Service on fourteen days. On several of these visits, Guckert either entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his usual one. On one of these days, no briefing was held; on another, he checked in twice but failed to check out.
More here.
Planetarium has linked a few times in the past to particularly good essays by the New York Times' media critic Frank Rich, who has really been shining in the past year or so since they granted him full-court-press status. This week's is no different: a short but sweet article entitled "A High-Tech Lynching", which details (with some interesting facts we didn't know yet) the current right-wing paranoiac attack against the Supreme Court and the judicial process in general. Rather than dismissing it as yet another in an endless string of bizarre rightist misplaced-rage whinings, Rich coheres an argument as to the actual real danger these nutsos pose.
Serenity. Trailer. Tuesday. We're pumped. The man himself posted a note on the Serenity website yesterday:
Now, here's a word of warning: this trailer ain't shy. If you're looking to live totally spoiler-free, know that there's plenty of key dialogue and images running through this bad boy. It's pretty tasty, though, and it doesn't give everything away. But close scrutiny will definitely learn you much of what's to come. (Anakin TOTALLY goes evil.)
Click here to read the full statement.
New Krugman. Go!
Planetarium was a long-time Von Trier hater. No doubt. We own up. But after his magnificent The Five Obstructions, and the equally brilliant Dogville, we're a straight-up believer. So check out the trailer to his new one, Manderlay, and the second the trailer ends, you just KNOW it's gonna be Von-tastic. Ouch. Pretend we didn't say that.
Yeah, it'll be good.
Okay, for some reason, this ridiculous new trend of comedy films being remade into musicals is continuing unabated. We'd like to thank the people of New York City who have no taste whatsoever for forking over their money to these pieces of shit and encouraging yet more. The latest? The Wedding Singer, the Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore film, will be debuted on Broadway in fall of this year. We predict that up next will be the Broadway musical of Revenge of the Sith.
It's kind of freaky, but summer officially starts in Hollywood two weekends from now. Gotta love the "Summer Movie Season" that lasts from May through September. Anyways, as you know, Planetarium shifts into high gear with the blockbuster films- reviews, analyses, etc.- once the season begins, so we were wondering if there are any films you're particularly excited for. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? The Cave? Batman Begins? What's got you marking your calendar this year?
OH- and in other news, be sure to watch David Lynch's daily weather reports from his site DavidLynch.net. Yeah, at this point we've learned to just accept it.
It's rainy and dreary and beautiful today, and we're filling the PLanetarium office with the smoky sounds of Madeline Peyroux's new album, Careless Love. Who the hell is this thirtysomething-year-old white woman who can channel the spirit of Ella Fitzagerald so effortlessly? And break our hearts into tiny little pieces every time? And who else can turn a lesser Bob Dylan tune into an absolutely gorgeous jazzy soul number?
Just noticed there's only been updates every other day for the past week- lame. Promises on the part of Planetarium staff to do better are forthcoming. Guess we've been too busy lately watching online footage at ScreamingPickle.com of that Star Wars Kid trying to re-enact the lightsaber fight scene from Episode 2. Good stuff.
On an unrelated note, is anyone else kind of bummed that the remake of The Amityville Horror apparently blows giant donkey balls?
Really, it seems like it might be a tie at this point:
-Gwen Stefani, "What You Waiting For?"
vs.
-Kelly Clarkson, "Since You've Been Gone"
Both songs have a strong argument to be made for them, Gwen's can't-stop-the-beat against Kelly's i-dare-you-to-fuck-with-THIS-hook. Any takers as to the winner? We just can't decide. (If you've been living on the moon with your fingers in your ears for the past six months, then head over to Itunes, where you can hear both songs for free if you watch the videos.)
GOD, do we love Takashi Miike here at Planetarium. Every thing he's ever done, even if not always the greatest, is compelling and bizarre and just tends to scream "what the fuck?!?!" in the most brilliant way possible. Now- as though we had any reason to doubt, seeing as how the man chews up and spits out almost a half-dozen films a year- we get the trailer for his latest, which seems more in the horror vein, but still as gloriously fucked-up as always. And just TRY not to laugh at the last shot in this preview.
Today we've got the trailer for a movie that's just going to be good old simple fun. It's the preview for Undead, a low-budget Australian zombie flick with some horror, comedy, sci-fi, in a sort of Night of the Living Dead meets Evil Dead vein. We know a guy who saw this about a year ago and said it's exactly what you want (except, of course, no Bruce Campbell, which is a bummer), the kind of wildly entertaining B-movie that just wants you to sit back at smile at the screen. Should be a nice antidote to the film it's going up against opening weekend, the godawful Fantastic Four.
From the NYT:
BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 9 - Tens of thousands of Iraqis marked the second anniversary of the fall of Saddam Hussein on Saturday by marching here in the capital to demand the withdrawal of American forces.
Whooo! Awesome! That war totally kicked ass! Let us guess: Now there will be more resigned sighs about how much we'd love to leave, but we have to stay and "finish the job", right? About how they're "not ready" to rule themselves, right? And where, exactly, have we heard these arguments before? Yeah, you guessed it.
Kick ass. There's been Internet rumors swirling around for months regarding the fate of a little film from 2003 that is the biggest-grossing film in the history of Russia. The kicker being, of course, that you and I have never even heard of this 2+years-old film. The good news? For the first time in history, a Russian film is getting an American marketing campaign by, God bless 'em, Fox Searchlight. And if you're a nerd, you're going to be REALLY amped after seeing this. Russian crazy horror sci-fi fantasy? Big budget? Hell yes.
Con Air.
Up for debate?
Here are your three must-haves for the week:
Film: The Five Obstructions. Lars Von Trier's doc films the results of a challenge he makes to his directing mentor, Jurgen Leth, to re-make his short film "The Perfect Human" five times, with a series of obstacles designed to make him fail miserably. It's completely engrossing and completely cool.
Music: The Notwist- Neon Golden. This record puts the Postal Service to shame with it's seamless blending of live instrumentation and electronic drum beats, with Markus Acher's plaintive vocals echoing less cheesy lines than that Death Cab guy. Is "mesmerizing" an okay word again?
Book: Blindness, by Jose Saramago. This book won the Nobel Prize for literature, and there's a reason. Writing with possibly the most emotionless, flat, and detached style humanly possible, Saramago forces you to consider what bearing witness from an outside perspective means with this book-length rumination of human cruelty and compassion. Nobody does epic like the Spaniards.
New Krugman. Go!
As a special treat today, we found some guy who watched the film Closer after having been dubbed into Chinese. Clearly, the man China hired to do this must not get paid very well. "Sloppy translation" doesn't quite do it justice. Here's an excerpt from a conversation between Jude Law and Natalie Portman (the original, follow by how it was translated for subtitles):
A: How did you end up writing obituaries?
?A: What kinds of things do you like?
D: Well, I had dreams of being a writer...
?D: I like drinking beer.
D: But I had no voice -- what am I saying??
?D: But I don't drink often. Also..
D: ...I had no talent. So I ended up in obituaries, which is...
?D: I love singing. I can sing many songs.
D: ...the Siberia of journalism.
?D: ...including German folk songs.
A: Tell me what you do. I wanna imagine you in Siberia.
?A: I hope I'll have a chance to hear you sing.
D: Really?
?D: Really?
A: Mm.
?A: Mm.
D: Well... we call it "the obits page."
?D: Well... we don't often sing.
D: There's three of us. Me, Graham, and Harry.
?D: Because everyone is really busy.
D: When I get to work, without fail -- are you sure you wanna know?
?D: Especially when I'm working. Extremely busy.
(She nods.)
D: Well, if someone important died, we go to the "deep freeze."
?D: If someone died, we would sing the funeral hymn.
D: Which is, um, a computer file with all the obituaries, and we find that person's life.
?D: Although I rarely sing, singing is something I can't do without in my life.
A: People's obituaries are written while they're still alive?
?A: Do people like your singing?
D: Some people's. Then Harry -- he's the editor -- he decides who we're going to lead with...
?D: Some people. Sometimes we get invitations [to sing].
D: We make calls, we check facts...
?D: Some are favors, some paid...
D: At six we stand around at the computer and look at the next day's page...
?D: We're all happy to do it; the money doesn't matter. It's great.
D: ...make final changes, add a few euphemisms for our own amusement...
?D: It's a kind of addiction. But it's not like alcoholism.
A: Such as?
?A: eh?
D: "He was a convivial fellow." ...meaning he was an alcoholic.
?D: I have a really strange friend. A homosexual.
Give it up to TC Babelogue for bringing us this picture of a smart guy named Chuck who brought his own sign to the Terry Schiavo vigil.