http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/widget/widget.html?vid=1388766
From Late Night w/ Jimmy Fallon, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young present their version of Sexy & I Know It.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle … :)
My viewing habits lead me into some of the most interesting places. Below is what I invested time in this past weekend.
Pontypool – A 2008 film billed as a zombie movie on Netflix, Pontypool is … interesting. A unique take on the genre that uses zombie in the loosest sense of the word. It is more along the lines of The Crazies, I suppose, a George Romero film about a virus that breaks out in a small town. Same thing here, except the virus is spread by words, terms of endearment. Nearly the entire film takes place in a radio broadcast booth with three main characters and it isn’t until near the end when we start seeing more of the infected folk. Not really a horror movie, but suspenseful if you aren’t hungry for a lot of action.
Game of Thrones – Season 1, Episode 10 (season finale) – Fire & Blood – I finally finished the first season of Game of Thrones from HBO. If you have read my earlier post on the series, you already know how I feel about it. The season finale was fantastic and I’m tempted to sign up for HBO just to watch the second season that premiers in April. A must own.
Misfits, S1:E6 The Virtue Group - I finally watched the season one finale of Misfits. Misfits is one of those shows that you could go either way on – either love it or hate it. I suppose it could depend on your sense of humor, too. For me, I loved the show. Highly recommend you watch this one, especially if you are a fan of shows from “across the pond.” The finale was great and at last revealed just what Nathan’s power is. And that cliffhanger … a grave situation still played with humor.
The Walking Dead – S2:E13 Beside the Dying Fire – The season 2 finale of The Walking Dead … wow! It made up for the entire Lori/Rick/Shane love triangle that bristled some viewers backs all season long. Hershel’s farm went up in flames, a huge herd of zombies trampled over our cast and at the end … a surprise character for next season appeared! I didn’t really care for the show early in the season, and it wasn’t until the last 3 episodes that things picked up and got really good.
Bread Crumbs – Reviews say this is a take on the Hansel & Gretel fairytale. If that is what it truly is, then it really didn’t focus on the brother and sister very well. This is a move about an adult film crew that heads out into the woods and a cabin to film a porn stars last big “hurrah.” They come across a young brother and sister who are a bit off kilter and begin to torment and torture the crew. It has potential, but is lacking in the execution. Wouldn’t hurt to watch it if you have absolutely nothing else to do, but don’t expect too much.
If you haven’t heard by now, the popular streaming service Netflix has reached the end of their deal with the Starz! movie channel as of February 28th, 2012. To knock that down to movie terms – Netflix just lost over 1,000 movies from their library that the Starz! Network brought to the table. For those that saw my weekend entertainment post last week, where I had crammed several movies into my time off, that is why.
CNBC Article: Netflix Losing Starz Play
What are they going to do now? Well, Netflix is working on delivering their own original programming, for one. Their first release is a series called Lilyhammer, starring Steven Van Zandt, that details Zandt’s characters life after he is forced to go against the mob. Will people watch? More importantly, will I watch? After all, Netflix seems to be taking the chance most cable networks have already done by creating their own series. HBO, Showtime and Starz all have gone out on the ledge and been pretty successful. More open cable networks, like USA, Comedy Central and even MTV have their own exclusive series. But Netflix … Netflix isn’t a cable channel, they are an online streaming service and physical dvd rental company.
Online news articles from various corners of the web say exclusive channel rights elude Netflix, while networks and movie companies want to squeeze every cold hard penny out of the company for rights to stream their material. I can’t help but feel a price increase is on the horizon if we begin to demand more recent streaming movie releases from the service. Then again, Netflix has another plan they seem to be hoping will change our viewing habits and calm any fears. If you haven’t noticed, there are now a huge boat load of television series, documentaries and such available for instant streaming.
Entire seasons of television series are available on Netflix, even more recent episodes of Dr. Who have recently shown up on the streaming feed for the just wrapped season with Matt Smith’s Doctor. Sons of Anarchy, Weeds, Mad Men, The Walking Dead, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, Star Trek Voyager, Firefly, series from the ID Channel detailing crimes, several Law & Order series. Thousands of television shows are available. Will these be more attractive for subscribers? If you stream a movie, you get an hour or two of entertainment and then it is over. But if you find a television series you like, you could be looking at several seasons of content, with each season having a dozen or more episodes for our viewing pleasure!
So, should we care if Starz! pulled their programming? Should be upset that HBO won’t allow Game of Thrones or East Bound & Down to be shown on the service? Even Dexter was pulled from streaming by Showtime, though we have several seasons of Weeds readily available. Who makes these decisions, I wonder? We are losing movies, but gaining television shows. There are also attempts to target children, since content is available through gaming consoles now, including the Nintendo Wii. So not only should adults be covered, but kids have a wide selection of entertainment as well.
No matter what we may think of the deal, it is done and over. Some of the movies we will no longer be able to view include Toy Story 3, Tron Legacy, Scarface, Let Me In, and the series Spartacus. All I can say to Netflix is: I will continue giving you my little $8 + tax a month as long as you deliver me some quality entertainment that meets my taste. But I’ll not hesitate to drop it if they begin to fumble and drop the ball. After all, there’s always Hulu Plus … ugh …
I am a huge fan of the wonderful music put out by The Monkees back in their day. I’ve also enjoyed seeing their various appearances through out the years on television shows, talk shows, the occasional reunion and so on. Very sad to hear yesterday that Davey Jones had passed away from a heart attack.
Thanks for the great music, the fun television series and years of entertainment, sir.
Finally, I was able to watch an episode of AMC’s new series, Kevin Smith’s Comic Book Men. The show follows the antics of the staff in Smith’s comic shop, Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Billed as a limited 6-part series, the show is a mixture of reality television and video podcast. The episode I watched consisted to the cast, Walt, Ming, Mike, Bryan (who doesn’t actually work there) and podcast host Kevin Smith, as they sat around recording the radio show discussing what had happened that day/week in the shop. The dialogue was peppered with clips from what they were actually discussing, showing folks coming in to try and sell merchandise, casual talk between the guys and even a bet between them to see who could sell the most merchandise at a flea market.
At first I wasn’t aware that this was limited to only 6 episodes. Not knowing that, my first impression was that, while I enjoyed the episode, it wasn’t a show that was going to have a very long life. AMC would have cancelled this or refused to renew it after its first season. I base this on the fact that the content – comics and pop culture – has such a limited fan base that the ratings would have fell dramatically, or not even be there at all. It’s target audience is such that it excludes a much larger viewing audience, and I don’t see the regular viewing audience getting hyped about a discussion involving a particular issue of Batman or an artists signature on a particular book.
With that thought out there, like I said, I did enjoy it and will watch all 6 episodes. But, as Bryan said at the end of the episode, “Does anyone actually come in here to buy anything?” At no point in this episode was anyone shown buying anything. In fact, there were no other customers in view. The only content shown was people trying to come in and get excessive amounts of money for items that were valuable to them, only to be disappointed when they were offered much less and then usually refusing and leaving with their property.
If you like Kevin Smith, he only seems to be showcased in the podcast recording – which I believe is available on iTunes. If you enjoy geekdom and the comic and pop culture market, you may also enjoy this show. While not nail-biting reality television, it is decent entertainment.
One of the video games our son received for Christmas was Skylander’s: Spyro’s Adventure Starter Pack for the Nintendo Wii. This little game is probably going to be the starting point for a new fad of games. A starter pack – which is available for all console systems (Wii, DS, 3DS, Xbox 360, PS3) comes with three figures, the game and a Portal of Power. The figures are just 3 out of a large assortment that is available for the game, and the biggest catch is that you can use any figure on any of the console versions. Say, for example, you have the Wii version of Skylander’s, you can still take your Spyro figure and go to a friend’s house that has the PS3 version and play with them. An even bigger catch is that your character will still have their own level and equipment that you earned on your Wii version! Tell me this isn’t the start of something bigger and I’ll call you a fool, sir-and-or-madam!
The game is straight-forward with what you have to do and where you have to go. The main story arc puts you on a closed path and you would really, really have to try to stray off of it. Point A to Point B, shoot the bad guys in the middle and you complete the course. Where the game gets challenging and switches things up is in the figures available for the game. You can, without issue, play the game from beginning to end with only the three figures in the starter pack. But the catch is that there are side areas and powers in the game that can only be opened by using figures with a certain power set. At the moment, there are 8 power classes of figures and a total of over 30 figures in all that the player has the option of buying to add to their collection. Excuse me while I make a few “KA-CHING!” noises for the geniuses behind this marketing wonder.
So, you have a game that is playable out of the box with what is provided. 30+ additional figures with different powers and animations you (or your child if they are into this whole game thing) can buy to open up other areas of the game. AND … are you ready for this? AND each level, beautiful and well designed in their own rights, has goals. Not just one goal, but numerous goals that you can discover, unlock, achieve that all go toward the 100% of the game’s end. Yea, if you are a completist, you are also going to have to buy those other figures to unlock those areas that need exploring to complete each zone 100%. Darn you Activision!!
But wait, that’s not all! If you wonder why the PC doesn’t have its own version of the game … wait for it … IT DOES! With each figure comes a small card with an online activation code. Go to the games website, sign-up and in and enter the code, and you have a mini-game area where you can meet other Skylander players, show off your figure collection in what is called Skylanders: Spyro’s Universe! You get to choose your own island, claim your own cave and decorate it with your items. ZOMGBBQ, it just doesn’t seem to end!
Maybe I just haven’t played many games lately, but I love this as much as my son does. It’s fun, actually challenging as you go further into the story, yet simple enough for kids to pick up and play. The catch for collector’s is in the figures (which, depending on where you shop, range from $7.99 to $12.99). And for the completists, there are plenty of challenges. It’s available on all game consoles, so you don’t have to wish you had the PS3 or 360 to play. And if you place the Portal of Power far enough away, you could even get some exercise in there by having to get up and go change the figures around depending on what you are doing. I would definitely recommend this game no matter your skill level or even if you do or do not have children in the house. Plus, I can’t wait to see what other games spring from this idea of interactivity.
Hahaha! This is hilarious, please follow the link below to check out the post from Fibromy-Awesome. I will add that, unfortunately, the items listed in their blogpost transcend gender and race to include all people – at least all those people I know and have seen on Facebook.
Starting this topic, I honestly do not know why it hasn’t crossed my mind before. Apps are an every day part of life for so many people that I couldn’t imagine not having access to them. Quick and convenient solutions right in the palm of our hands.
With apps (short for applications) we have on us at all times instant weather reports, movies, television, games, task schedulers, medical information and diagnosis, social media networks, news, stocks, city guides — you name me anything and we can find an app for it.
I suppose apps are like anything else, though. What a person uses will be based on their individual tastes. Some might prefer to pay a little extra to get a better app or one with more features. I can understand, I’ve bought a couple myself. But mostly I go with the free stuff. That being said, what apps do you use everyday?
My list includes:
Facebook
Echofone ( a Twitter client)
Nook (mobile ebook reader)
GetGlue (social media check-ins)
Redbox
Netflix
FeeddlerRSS (rss subscriptions)
Wordpress
Goodreads (printed media social app)
Tiny Tower
Not a huge list compared to most, but they get daily use on my iPhone. What do you use? More business oriented apps, entertainment apps? No matter your interest, there is something for everyone.
A parody cover of Ke$ha’s “Tic-Toc” song, except it’s set to the 6th season events of Dr. Who. I give the guy points for trying, but sadly he’s no worse than Ke$ha herself.
New to comics? Been around awhile? Coming back after a long hiatus? In case you haven’t heard, DC is pushing a new relaunch of their universe with brand new #1′s across 52 titles. At $2.99 and $3.99 a title, I certainly realize picking up all 52 #1 issues may not be a viable option. So, which titles are worth buying and which should you spend your hard earned money on?
There are some “safe” titles, such as the Batman and Superman issues – you know those aren’t going away any time soon. But what about the others. Which ones should you invest time and money into? Well, if you head over to the Major Spoilers website – a fine group of folk who bring us news, reviews and discussions on comics and pop culture – you can read their opinions on the latest #1 titles each week.
Their section, named, The New 52, gives you an idea of whether or not you might enjoy a particular new series. And, while you’re there, I recommend going for the whole Major Spoilers Experience. Subscribe to their podcasts (The Top Five, Critical Hit & The Major Spoilers Podcast). For absolutely FREE you get 4 fabulous podcasts – that’s right, four – The Major Spoilers Podcast comes in 2 flavors, the “review” edition and the “weekend” edition. If you like it, and are able, let them know by supporting The Cause, and donate a couple of dollars. It’ll be the best money you’ll spend on entertainment because you WANTED to, not because you had to.
So, what are you waiting for? Clicky: Major Spoilers: The New 52!
