Here’s a few more odds and ends, this time not video game related:
- Yesterday was the premiere of Crossballs, a satirical take on debate shows (the title’s a combination of Crossfire and Hardball in case you couldn’t guess it) which pits people with oppsoing views, with the catch being that one side is really a comic actor and the other is not in on the joke. As one would expect, the comic’s views are often irrational, and other “experts” will come on, who are supposed to be non-partial, but end up defending the comic’s side with even more ridiculous facts and opinions.
The show was simply “okay”. The only reason I even made an effort to catch the premiere in the first place was to see the return of Matt Besser to television, whom I’m a big fan of from his days as a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade. Besser (of course) was fun to watch since the guy has a true talent for getting under people’s skin, which oddly enough made his outlandish character somewhat believable, whereas everyone else is simply not as gifted a performers, and therefore are not only unconvincing, but just not as funny.
Then again, it was only one episode, and it didn’t even feature Jerry Minor, who’s pretty decent. Hopefully, they’ll keep Besser as a focal point. Perhaps the show will grow on my like Tough Crowd.
- I keep seeing ads for the Butterfly Affect on DVD. As far as I can tell, it’s about some guy who figures out who to go back in time using just his mind to prevent the death of his girlfriend, but something goes wrong (she ends up a whore or something), so he tries again, but things get further fucked up, so he tries again, and again, and etc. To be honest, I find the concept rather interesting because it’s all done through his mind (hey, as I’ve said countless times, I’m a sucker for time travel stories, no matter how far fetched the method). It seems to have a bit of a Donnie Darko vibe going on.
But the reason why I never saw it ther first time around, and why I never will, is due to it’s lead, Ashton Kutcher. I was never found the guy that annoying on That 70′s Show (course, I was far too busy staring at his delectable redheaded costar to really take notice of they guy anyway), but once he starting getting popular due to his MTV vehicle Pranked and began popping all over the place (wasn’t he Puff Daddy’s best white friend for a while or something?), I too began to hate him like the rest of world.
Though when the movie was set to come out, I seriously considered checking my contempt at the door and seeing it anyways. I thought just maybe Kutcher might be a decent actor afterall, and this film would prove it. After seeing Mark Wahlberg rise from the ashes in Boogie Nights, I’m always willing to give anyone a second chance, no matter how fucking annoying I think someone might be (and MTV has a real knack of making anyone detestable). But then I heard his performance pretty much single handley ruined the film and that more or less ended any interest in gambling two hours of my liffe. Real shame too, since I still dig the concept…
- I know I’m getting old when my initial reaction to the news of a brand new talk show starring Alf was not of total euphoria but of contempt. What’s next, a Night Court anime?
Hold on… that would actually rock now that I think of it!
- At work today, I came across a guy who’s just might be my new hero:
What’s that contraption he’s wearing? Why it’s only the greatest invention on this green earth since the air conditioner (and ketchup), the Argus 54/120 Power Harness. And you can yours on eBay right here.
Besides inventing a wondrous tool to help us all become more productive, he also seeks to enrich our minds as well, as evidenced by the inclusion of the entire screenplay of Batman Forever in this auction, and the all of Moby Dick for this one.
Plus he’s an artist too; check out this melted time keeper, which not only serves as a stirring tribute to Salvador Dali, but sorta looks like a vagina as well.
- Found out that a Millennium DVD box set is finally on it way! The show aired in the mid to late 90′s and starred Lance Henriksen as a man who could see inside the minds of deviants and used this power for (and later against) a clandestine organization that had affiliations to the Nazis and the Free Masons, among others. It was created by Chris Carter of X-Files fame and was easily one of my favorite shows at the time, hence why this is such awesome news. Trying to find info on the show was one of my first obsessions when embracing the internet in late ’99, which was nearly impossible due to the whole Y2K thing at the time.
Hopefully it will do well enough to warrant the release of season two; that season’s last episode is still one of the best hours of television I have ever seen. Plus, I might even pick up season three (the show only lasted three years) if it comes, since I think the Jose Chung episode (a cult character from X-Files) was from that year. Maybe they’ll even throw in that episode of X-Files that wrapped up Frank Black’s story, even if it was a lame story about zombies.
- Finally, and also at work today, the department head announced he was going on vacation starting next week. You know what that means, right? Time for a PIRATE PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
