Entertainment/culture
oracknows | March 31, 2007Why is it that the concepts of freedom of religion and freedom of speech seem so hard for some people to understand? Witness a truly idiotic attempt to prevent someone from appearing on TV simply because he is a Scientologist:
March 31, 2007 -- - A German official is demanding that John Travolta be uninvited from a guest appearance on a popular German television show tonight because he's a Scientologist, but show officials insist he will appear as scheduled.
Guenther Oettinger, the state governor of Baden-Wuerttemberg, wants Travolta off "Wanna Bet?" a popular show in Germany seen by an…
oracknows | March 7, 2007...even ten years after his death.
I kind of like the reaction in this photo. It cracks me up. Maybe I should find a permanent home for it somewhere on the blog.
(Don't ask me how I became aware of this one.)
oracknows | February 25, 2007Taking a cue from Abel, I like the look of this:
This year marks a first. Usually, my wife and I have managed to see at least a couple of the nominees; in years past, when we were dating and after we first got married, sometimes we'd have seen most of the nominated films by the time the Oscars rolled around. Then our moviegoing decreased steadily over the years. Now, it can often be months between excursions to the movies. In any case, this year, of all the movies nominated for Best Picture, I've seen only one: Little Miss Sunshine. It was a hilarious movie (Alan Arkin stole the film), but I…
oracknows | February 17, 2007As a diehard Lord of the Rings fan since around age 13, I have only one thing to say about this:
They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!
I bet you can't get this out of your head now, can you?
This guy couldn't:
oracknows | February 11, 2007I have to admit, I don't quite "get" the whole Aqua Teen Hunger Force thing (I'm either too old or too uncool, I guess), but, as a certified 24 addict, I found this to be a rather amusing take on the terror scare caused by an ill-fated ad campaign in Boston a couple of weeks ago:
(Via Stupid Evil Bastard.)
oracknows | February 10, 2007It's sort of becoming a bit of a tradition here. Well, sporadically, anyway. This time, David Tennant himself joins in the fun...
oracknows | February 10, 2007Apparently I'm not safe, even here. I thought I could escape him.
Who am I talking about?
Richard Simmons, that's who, and he's shown up on ScienceBlogs on the mothership's official blog.
I'm having acid flashbacks.
You see, there was a time, back in 1997 or 1998, when I briefly met Richard Simmons. It was at BookExpo America, back when I was living in Chicago. Richard Simmons was pushing some cookbook or other of healthy recipes, as I recall, and, just for yucks, my wife and I decided to get in the line for a signing.
Well, Richard seemed to like me, and said I "looked very smart." When he…
oracknows | January 28, 2007I haven't seen a Broadway play in quite a while now, but it may be time for that to change. In the New York Times, I came across an ad for a revival of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee´s 1955 courtroom drama Inherit the Wind:
This revival of the play stars two great actors, Brian Dennehy as Matthew Harrison Brady and Christopher Plummer as Henry Drummond. For those who aren't familiar with the story, Inherit the Wind is a heavily fictionalized account of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, not to mention a great American play. Previews begin March 19, and the play opens on April 12. I think I…
oracknows | January 27, 2007I don't know if I'll make this a habit or not, but it's a Saturday, and once again I feel like posting a YouTube or two and dedicating it to one of the "targets" of the week. (Besides, after the last post, I could use something light-hearted, or at least funny.) This one, of course, has to be dedicated to Donnie Davies, the evangelical pastor whose homophobic song The Bible Says, all of which may or may not be a hoax:
And here's another take on this for Donnie to enjoy:
A two-fer: "Gay music" and rampant disrespect for a great American!
Finally, for a take on this great song that should…
oracknows | January 25, 2007Oh, no! The gay bands are here! Hide your children, and keep them away from this corruption! So sayeth Donnie Davies, an evangelical preacher who runs a website called Love God's Way:
One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children's listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy.
Oooh. Scary!
But let's look at the list of bands that Davies thinks we should all watch out for and protect our children from. The first thing I noticed is that Elton John is listed twice. Given what a…
oracknows | January 20, 2007Things have gotten a little heated around here, with an ID adherent named Dr. Cook taking umbrage at my expression of embarrassment for my profession over his having shown up over at Uncommon Descent and flaunting his excellent (albeit irrelevant to the discussion of evolution) credentials as he proudly told the assembled William Dembski sycophants there of his post-Darwinist "conversion story."
This song is dedicated to Dr. Cook, for reasons that I think should be obvious:
Actually, this is one of my absolute favorite David Bowie songs. It was great with Queen, but this version is really…
oracknows | December 31, 2006One of the great things about blogging is that I can do things that I always wanted to do but would never get hired in a million years to do, for example, to be a rock critic. Prior to blogging, the only time I ever got to indulge my critic wannabe side was in high school, where I wrote a couple of (in retrospect) badly done reviews of a couple of prominent albums from the 1979-1980 period. I don't know if I'm any better at it now, but I am a lot older and have developed much more varied tastes in music. Consequently, even from the very beginning of this blog, every year I've done a "Top Ten…
oracknows | December 10, 2006When I saw this test on ahistoricality, I just had to take it. I was disappointed. It was way too easy for me:
Rock Star
You scored 100%!
You damn rock star. You know all the basics, and if you got any wrong, I bet it was that stupid Traveling Wilburys question.
Your friends are probably intimidated by your knowledge of classic rock and envy your impressive collection. When a classic rock song comes on the radio, you can probably identify it before the vocals kick in most of the time. You probably get good scores on the "maiden name of Clapton's mom" tests, too.
My test…
oracknows | November 28, 2006I know I'm a bit late in on this one, and almost everyone's already commented on it. Obviously Richards' gratuitous use of the N-word was about as funny as a crutch, but Trey Ellis tells us why as he addresses Richards:
If you had just said the n word you might have one day been forgiven but you went for a lynch joke. Yes, a lynch joke. Is that being cheeky and irreverent? Is that like that wigger shit Tarentino tries to pull, crowbarring the n word into every script because he thinks he's that bad of a white boy?
I don't think so.
Suggesting that your obnoxious hecklers should be lynched for…
oracknows | November 24, 2006I haven't done this in a while, but it's a long holiday weekend during which time I'm ensconced within my Sanctum Sanctorum studying for my once a decade recertification examination in Surgery. I need tunes! So iTunes, lay them on me:
The Yardbirds, Happenings Ten Years Ago (from the album Ultimate!). Not their best work, but a solid blues psychedelic piece. Personally, my all-time favorite Yardbirds tunes are Heart Full of Soul and Still I'm Sad.
The Pogues, Fiesta (from the album If I Should Fall From Grace With God). I love the Pogues. True, Shane McGowan had a serious drinking problem…
oracknows | November 21, 2006On Saturday afternoon, after a morning of rounding on the service's patients and doing some odds and ends in the office and the lab, on the way home I stopped at the local Best Buy because I needed some blank DVDs. To my puzzlement, there were people lined up outside as though they were camping out for tickets for the most popular rock band in the world. There were sleeping bags, chairs, tents, and coolers. I had no clue what was going on. Then I saw this, and realized that it was the afternoon before the midnight launch of the Nintendo Wii.
Can someone explain to me why people would line up…
oracknows | November 15, 2006I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I really loved Babylon 5 while it was on; it was one of my favorite TV series of all time, and I own all five seasons on DVD. Even though the fifth and final season seemed a bit stretched out, the last five or six episodes of the series made up for it, so that the conclusion packed every bit of the punch that the high points of the best seasons (seasons two and three) did. So, what to make of this?
BURBANK, CA, November 13, 2006 - Warner Home Video (WHV) and Warner Bros. Television (WBTV) have announced the start of production of "Babylon 5: The Lost…
oracknows | November 11, 2006It sounds like casting genius, even if it's only a small role:
LAS VEGAS, Nov. 6, 2006 -- Hide the Bats! Christopher Walken has agreed to play the ultimate bad-boy rocker -- Ozzy Osbourne..
Motley Crue lead singer Vince Neil told ABC News Radio in an exclusive interview that the 63-year-old Oscar-winning actor will make a cameo appearance as Osbourne in "The Dirt," a movie based on the band's controversial 2001 autobiography.
"How funny is that going to be," Neil told ABC's Al Mancini at the Opening of Vince Neil Ink, the singer's new tattoo parlor in Las Vegas.
Walken's press representatives…
oracknows | November 10, 2006I saw the trailer for Spiderman 3 last night. The comic geek in me is starting to get excited, because the movie looks like it's going to be really, really good, perhaps the best Spider-Man movie so far. It looks as though Venom, the Sandman, and Harry Osbourne, Jr. taking up where his dad (the Green Goblin) left off will all be making an appearance. In case you missed it:
I can't wait until May 4.