Category: Television

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Obligatory post about seeing Transformers

A lot of the people that I have been talking to about the new Transformers[imdb] movie have often been very excited about it, but many of them follow up with saying that they were never a fan of the original cartoon series. You know, “back in the day”?

I’m starting to wonder a couple of things. Is it too nerdy or geeky to admit that you watched this as a kid? On the other hand, was I just paying attention at the right age to let it take affect? Somewhere in my parent’s house, I still have a variety of Autobots[wiki] and Decepticons[wiki], some with more missing parts and pieces than others. I’m not afraid of saying that I loved the series growing up.

Ahead of seeing a killer futbol match this past Saturday, Rebecca and I caught the flick with Duane, John, and Travis downtown in a surprisingly half-full theatre. That only strikes me based on the $67.6 million that it took in over the weekend, and I’m ok with helping support that.

Optimus Prime

Bottom line, good movie. I was highly entertained, and that is always what I asked for in any movie that I watch.

What you want to know is if it does justice to what I remember as a kid, right? Well, it doesn’t, and I didn’t expect it to. There certainly is some homage to my oh so found memories of waking up very early on Saturday mornings to patiently wait through Jem[wiki] in order to hear that sweet theme song come on(this is prior to cable, and there wasn’t anything else to watch on the other three channels). I was once scolded in kindergarten for humming the tune far too loud for my teacher’s liking. If you think that’s bad, I had a fellow classmate in second grade who thought he really was a Transformer. When asked to transform, he always gave the excuse that there wasn’t enough room for him to do it.

Still the effects are outstanding. When you see Optimus Prime[wiki] for the first time, you can’t help but get a slight smile on your face. Then his voice kicks in, and I was instantly transported to those pre-sunrise hours of my childhood. Strange how Peter Cullen[wiki] can do that nearly twenty years later.

Bumblebee

I’m still upset that Bumblebee[wiki] isn’t a Volkswagen Beetle, but there is subtle homage to his original identity when he first makes an appearance. Jazz[wiki] was pretty spot on with his character, and there is a lot to the robots’ characters that reflect back to the cartoon series to keep things old school while getting an updated, Hollywood remake done to it.

It’s true that there are some plot line issues, and some details kinda skip along like a rock across water. Welcome to the world of summer blockbusters, and this is exactly what I expected going in. I wouldn’t say that my hopes were low, but there was a lot of satisfaction by what I experienced. I say that by taking it for what the movie was, not over thinking about the series I grew up with.

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Wanted to watch more Live Earth

I must admit, Live Earth was pretty cool, at least from what I saw. The basic, overall message seems to be in dispute, but the performances that I did catch were pretty amusing. Metallica got me to stay put, Spinal Tap was cool, the snip of the Beastie Boys left me wanting more, and Wolfmother in Sydney made me wish we had saw them in Vancouver.

We had a busy weekend, so there wasn’t much time to watch a lot of the performances. The awareness ads that ran during the commercial breaks were amusing, but it left me with a sense of people being apart of something to get their “big names” plastered into a world event. That’s not to say that the messages weren’t worthwhile, but Will Farrel or that one dude from those American Pie movies isn’t a name at the top of the list when I think about conserving energy and/or saving the environment.

With hope, Live Earth did what it was intended to do. In this MTV culture, the true test will see how well it sticks, no matter how successful it might have been.

Live Earth events drew more than 10 million online viewers Saturday, the most ever to simultaneously watch a concert broadcast over the Internet, according to Microsoft.

The concerts were beamed live from venues in or near New York, London, Hamburg, and several other major cities around the world over Microsoft’s MSN network. As of 3 p.m. Saturday, MSN had delivered more than 10 million video streams, the company said. [informationweek]

Even I will admit that I watched, and wanted to watch more, because of the musical acts. That’s not to say that I’m already contemplating the issues they were talking about on a near daily basis, but it’s totally the rock and roll that kept me coming back for more. Cameron Diaz talking about being one of the first actors in Hollywood to buy a hybrid car? I could kinda care less.

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Simpsons craze in the lower mainland

I know that I am completely behind on the hype, but in case you missed it, here is something completely worth noting. Rebecca and John Biehler have both been to and posted pictures of the smartest pieces of marketing that I have seen in a long time, if not the most brilliant.

Flickr photo by miss604
Photo credit: Miss604 on Flickr

Around the world, 7-11 has turned a selection of their stores into “Kwik-E-Marts” in anticipation of the upcoming Simpsons movie on July 27th.

Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of “The Simpsons” fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art.

Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO’s cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees. [yahoo]

Dan Lilly has a great series of pictures on Flickr, and I had a chance to talk to him the other day about it. He had a good point. There are numerous cities, around the world, that have one of these. New York, Chicago, Dallas, etc. All these large cities, and the one in Canada ends up in Coquitlam.

Flickr photo by Dan Lilly
Photo credit: zonaboy on Flickr

Buh? I have a hard enough time teaching some of my American friends that I live in Vancouver, not to mention that I live nowhere near Toronto or the frozen north. Perhaps this was a matter of the location meeting the requirements needed to make it look like an Apu-run Kwik-E-Mart, but the trek to get there is something many, hardcore fans are doing.

I’ve heard reports of people sticking to the floor around the “squishee” machine being worse than any movie theatre that they have ever been in, and there are 7-11’s in the downtown area selling plenty of merchandise to buy Matt Groening[wiki] another yacht yet.

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Von Bondies – c’mon c’mon

Just to help celebrate being two episodes into season four of Rescue Me. Well, at least if you’re in the states. And if you’re a Rescue Me fan, you’ll enjoy the full version of this track, not just the abbreviated-opening-sequence-edit of this awesome Von Bondies track.

I get a ton of hits from people searching for the details of Rescue Me and when it will be on Showcase in Canada. Chances are, you won’t see the first episodes of season four hitting the screen until the end of the season currently running in the states. That means July or August before that happens, but you might be surprised. If anyone has more details, feel free to post the news in the comments.

Update: Thanks to a comment from the folks at the Showcase Blog, which you can find out more on their blog post here, the fourth season of Rescue Me will premiere in Canada on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007.

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The Crazy Canucks on CTV!

Ha! I just saw myself on CTV, and the package on The Crazy Canucks wasn’t that bad. The only thing is that they said that we meet up every game day, and that’s not true. It’s once a week. Other that, pretty cool stuff. If someone recorded that, let us know. We’re hoping to get a copy of it on DVD. Ha!

Update: God bless the internet. Someone put this on YouTube. Thank you, whoever you are.

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Theme song for House

I just wanted to toss this out there for those who might be curious. It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that Rebecca and I were watching The Wedge when this piece of knowledge came to light.

Massive Attack - TeardropThe theme song to the television show House[wiki] is by the group Massive Attack[wiki]. Now I say group because the whole dynamic that makes these guys up is fascinating. They are one of these super groups that seem to do no wrong with everything they release. Can’t say that I’m an overly rabid fan, but what I have always known and heard of them, I’ve liked a lot.

I’ve also seen Tricky[wiki], a side project to Massive Attack, open up for Tool[wiki], if you can believe that. Mind blowing show, even for sitting in the seats on stage right of an arena venue.

Anyway, we just made it through some catching up on some of the TV series that we like to keep track of. WOXY played the track a long time ago, shortly after the series started, but I never scoped out who it was. The track, “Teardrop”[wiki], has actually been used in a variety of shows, but I think you’ll find that common with a lot of stuff from Massive Attack. They’re one of those acts who produce tracks that run perfectly in various scenes for film or television.

Other guilty folks that come to mind like this are Crystal Method, Air, or Coldplay. Who else might I be missing?

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Iraq: The Hidden Story

I don’t do this often, but the RSS feeds picked up this post today regarding a Channel 4 news introspective about the media coverage going on in Iraq. I found it rather interesting to watch, albeit nearly 50 minutes long. A lot of what it speaks about is nothing that I hadn’t already assumed, but they put it into much better words than I ever could.

If you have the time, check out Iraq: The Hidden Story. It really makes me wonder what the generations to come will say about this conflict, especially looking at the lifetime process I have given to understanding past conflicts. Even more so, there is mention of how bloggers are vital at getting information from inside the country that major news agencies have no way of gaining access to.

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The Countdown to Vancouver 2010

I’m a little under the weather today. Woke up with some sort of headache, sinus thing. With my cup of chai green tea and laptop on the couch, I was going to watch this whole kickoff for the countdown to the start of the 2010 winter games here in Vancouver.

Now the thing that gets me about this is the little promo packages that CTV has been running for this. I get the hoopla and drummed up excitement for the games, but this “special television event” makes my skin crawl. People are gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery and somewhere in Whistler for the clock to officially start ticking.

Of course, Tamera Taggert[wiki], the weather girl for CTV, is hanging out up in Whistler. I would love to go into a nice rant about how much this “meteorologist” annoys me, but there isn’t much more that needs to be said than that. Truth is, she graduated from BCIT the same year and class as John Shorthouse[wiki], both with studies in broadcast journalism. That won’t change the fact that she is up there today to give 2010 weather predictions.

2010? Her weather forecasts are barely correct for the next three days, yet alone what she is going to predict for three years from now.

There are protesters at this event as well. Apparently, there are not against the games as much as they are there to use this events to raise awareness on the homeless problem here in Vancouver. You can hear some of the chants, and there is some dude that has strategically place himself in between the main podium and the camera focused in on that location. Both of his hands are sticking up in the air, but only the middle fingers are raised on each hand. Ah the beauty of live television.

I can’t say that I’m much of a fan of the thunder stix, but those 2010 scarves aren’t too bad. The countdown clock is apparently location near the fountain on the Georgia Street side, closer to the intersection with Hornby.

“Homes not games.” That’s what the protesters appear to be shouting.

1096 days to go. The clock itself is close to the fountain[googlemaps], and I can’t help but feel like it’ll be a target for those who take issue with the games coming to Vancouver. At the same time, that clock is intended to be permanent, sticking around till after the games are over. It’s not the ugliest thing in the world, but you’ll probably notice it without too much difficulty.

So there you go. More fluff to make you feel good about the games coming to Vancouver, but not too much to say about the progress of the preparations or construction of new venues. I probably don’t get close enough to Southeast False Creek that often to really say how the Olympic Village construction is going, but with mostly piles of dirt sitting around, one can’t feel too comfortable. Even at the eleventh hour, will everything be in place?

Oh I can’t post this without Taggart’s snow report from Whistler, which only lasted two minutes at the very end of this “special”. Her prediction? Well, uh, nothing really. Just that VANOC has installed a bunch of weather monitoring stations to measure snowfall here and there to study any patterns. They’ve also invested millions of dollars, around the tune of 15+, to prepare for the event of having no snow on the hills, and there is such things as too much snow. There is not a lot to say about predicting the weather because no matter how much or little there is, machines will take care of the snow. Hmm, wonder if they could do the same with Taggart?

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A beef with the Oscar night of ads

Another Super Bowl post, I know, but there is only one reason why I truly watch it. It’s the commercials. I think in a previous life, I was an advertising guy of some sort, and at some other time, I was a professor of mass communication. Needless to say, I like to dissect a lot of the things I see.

There is a lot of talk that this year’s ads were disappointing, and I’m not here to argue that either way. What does bother me are two ads in particular, mostly in relation to the historic event of having both coaches of each team being of African American descent. Truly a momentous occasion and reason to celebrate another point in history. Albeit a professional football game, but historical nonetheless.

Nothing makes the significance a little less impactual when major companies find a way to use this to advertise their products. Coca-Cola and Frito-Lay both did it. They spent millions of dollars to layer a soft drink and snack food along side the accomplishments of American civil rights. That way you can feel better about consuming their junk food during the big game. Those chip crumbs on your belly are more than just that. Those leftovers for the vacuum are major achievements in humanity. It’s a warm, fuzzy moment, but it’s still an ad.

Yes, it’s Black History Month. Drink Coke. Buy chips.

Update: It’s gets worse. They are doing MRI’s of test subject’s brains while they watch Super Bowl ads to determine who the true winner is this year. Wouldn’t you know it, it’s Coca-Cola. There’s so many things flawed with this, I’m not even going to start.