He’s said in the past that he’s wanted to do it, and it looks like he’s finally ready. Billy Joel is in the early stages of working on a Broadway musical. Hey, it’s not a pop album, but it’ll be close enough. =)

I really need to get to MOVIN’ OUT, too…

Have you ever watched different TV shows and noticed the same people showing up in cameos and guest appearances all the time? There was a time not long ago when anyone who played a bit part in X-FILES had already appeared on at least three other TV dramas in the past two years, because all of those shows filmed in Vancouver. In Canada, you have to hire a lot of Canadians. So the same actors get all the roles. (Yes, I know that X-FILES eventually moved to L.A.)

While NYC doesn’t have the same laws, they do have a healthy stable of waiters and bartenders — sorry, “actors” — looking for work. And Dick Wolf is a one man employment agency. With three different LAW AND ORDER series filming in NYC, he gets to keep NYC employed.

Their problem now is that they’re running out of actors. Maybe I should head over the Hudson and pretend to be a lawyer…

In what may be the king of all competitions for people who want to rock but don’t have the technical proficiency, we have news of the Air Guitar Championship.

The winner gets an electric guitar.

As always, I Kid You Not.

It’s an international sport. And here’s your quote of the day:

“We were all attracted by the sheer idiocy of the thing,” he said. “Air guitar is the classic pursuit for the average 25-year-old who doesn’t really know what he’s doing with his life but feels there has to be more to life than the office.”

Like I said, “arrested development.”

Any of us who’ve been around for longer than 25 years will remember the glory days of MTV, when they played videos, had some fun, and recreated music (albeit not necessarily for the better.) You’ll also remember AL TV. Anytime Weird Al Yankovic had a new album out, he’d take over the station for a period of time (a couple of hours? A day? I forget.) and run all the stuff he wanted to run.

MTV being what it is today, VH1 now runs with the baton. And tonight at 11 p.m., AL TV returns.

It also reruns a few times. Here is the full schedule.

When did we decide to drop the article, “the,” in front of the high school event? When my school held its prom in 1994, it was “the prom.” I remember seeing BEVERLY HILLS 90210 (also the originator/popularizer of “upspeak”) shortly after that referring to it simply as “prom.” Now, it seems to be the only way to refer to the event. “I’m going to prom.” It sounds so moronic to me.

I’m curious: Where did this comes from? How long has it been around? Anyone?

In a day and age where everyone gets all prissy and fancy in an effort to properly brush aside complaints and accusations, IBM is just cutting to the quick. Instead of bowing to every whim of the SCO lawsuit (that probably stands without merit, as nothing SCO has done so far would indicate otherwise), IBM is sticking up for itself. Gotta love their latest press release.

Short and to the point. A big middle finger to SCO. Good for IBM.

Amazon.com is set to ship hundreds of thousands of copies of the new HARRY POTTER book to kids all over North American on Saturday. And security is so tight that you’d think they were guarding Fort Knox.

After last week’s set of 2-disc special editions, it’s good to get a week off. This week’s list over at DVDJournal.com is unusually small, with nothing I’d consider spending my money on.

But I like to do this blogger entry every week, so here we are. Let’s make the best of this.

Air America: Operation Jaguar (2003)

Doesn’t even sound appealing. Is it a direct-to-video sequel to the 1990 Mel Gibson movie? Who knows and who cares?

Buffalo ’66 (1998)

I liked AMERICAN BUFFALO better, and that’s David Mamet at his most snooze-inducing… Even Dennis Franz and Dustin Hoffman couldn’t make that one fun.

Christ in Concrete (1939)

This title just cracks me up. Sounds like something a frustrated guy would scream after he’s used up all the swear words. Try it someday. Next time someone gets you angry, just scream out loud, “CHRIST IN CONCRETE!” If that fails, go with its cousin, “Jumpin’ Jesus on a pogo stick!”

Da Hip Hop Witch (2000)

Don’t look for this one on store shelves. They’ve put a hold on it. I think Eminem is suing to prevent its release. Remember, he’s a serious Oscar-winning actor now. Yeah, and Milli Vanilli won a Grammy. What’s his point?

Dracula II: Ascension (2003)
Frost: Portrait of a Vampire (2001)
Shadow of the Vampire (2001)
Tsui Hark’s Vampire Hunters


Just can’t get enough blood-sucking, can we?

Gods and Monsters (1998)

Hasn’t this thing been out for ages already?

The Man Show: Season One, Vol. One (3-disc set)

Funny. Not worth owning, though.

Stargate SG-1: Season Three (5-disc set) (1999)

It’s military MacGyver Gotta love it.

Better luck next week. AIR BUD STRIKES BACK is due out then. Ooh, but so it COWBOY BEBOP: THE MOVIE. Whoo-hoo!

Here is an interesting critique of the weak points of the script for THE MATRIX RELOADED. Wannabe writers and dramatists would do well to learn some lessons from it. I’ve heard plenty of criticism of the movie thus far, but this is the first time anyone made any salient points about the weaknesses of the movie.

Still, the highway scene at the end was amazing. ;-)

WETA Digital, the people behind the LORD OF THE RINGS movies, are serious about finishing the third installment in the trilogy. They just bought an extra $5,000,000 worth of computers to help finish up the digital work needed on the film. They now have a network with over 2000 processors linked together. That’s impressive.

The full story can be found here.

I finally got around to listing a few DVDs on eBay. I have too many taking up too much space around the place here, so I’m starting to dribble a few out to eBay. I’m going to try to put a list together to post on this site if there’s any interest. Avoiding eBay fees is a good thing. I don’t want to turn this into some sort of “Please support this web site” type of crap. I’m doing fine; I don’t need it. I’m just trying to find new homes for these discs and make buying the next round just a little bit easier on the wallet, thanks. I’ll throw up a link on the right sidebar, too, for future reference whenever there’s an auction of mine going on.

Click here for my eBay auctions. Thanks. (Oh, and I’m supposed to say, “Bid with confidence” here. Classic eBay cliche.)

MicroSoft is ceasing development of the MSIE browser for the Mac. Why?

“Microsoft felt that customers were better served by using Apple’s browser, noting that Microsoft does not have the access to the Macintosh operating system that it would need to compete”

I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time.

Does this mean that IE won’t be programmed to allow for non-standards-compliant web code, so as to allow equal competition and access to web sites for those using Safari (and Mozilla and opera, etc.)?

I didn’t think so, either.

HALF LIFE is my favorite first person shooter game of all time. UNREAL TOURNAMENT and DESCENT would tie for second. I don’t play many videogames, to tell you the truth, but I’m looking forward to HALF LIFE 2. Here is an interview with Valve Software about the upcoming release. The bad news? No demo. You’ll just have to wait for the game. Can’t say as I blame them. Demos are fun for the players, but a major pain in the arse for the developers to program. It may not be worth it.

I just can’t wait for the Team Fortress 2 MOD for it, since we’ll never see TF2 as a standalone… Grr… That was the last game I was truly addicted to, and that was net play on a dial-up connection.

I think when it comes right down to it that it would be nearly impossible to make a bad movie out of the Space Race of the 1960s. At the very least, you’d have to try real hard. APOLLO 13 was already one of my favorite movies of all time, and I think that THE RIGHT STUFF has to join that list somewhere. No, it won’t be on my top 3 or 5, but it’s a tremendous movie, nevertheless. It’s even more remarkable when you stop to consider that there was no such thing as CGI to help put it together back in the early 1980s.

I did a double take at the running time past 190 minutes, but once I sat down with the movie I never had the need to stop it. Sure, I checked the time once or twice — knowing it was a marathon — but I never took a break for the sake of getting. Very few movies of that length can do that for me.

The DVD quality is superb. The picture is as crisp and clear as you’re going to get for a color film made in 1983. In a day and age where everyone wants digital lifelike quality to their movie presentations, it’s nice to see a film that looks vivid and bright without being pinpoint perfect. This movie LOOKS LIKE a film. I like that.

I didn’t catch any annoying halos or edge enhancement. Just lots of solid colors, even in the busy sky and space scenes. Putting the voluminous special edition materials on their own disc allowed the producers to max out the film to fit the disc. It shows here.

The soundtrack to the film is amazing, with lots of classical and well-known music blasted in to perfect effect at key moments. They sound great across the front speakers, and the surround speakers are used nicely for the fly-over scenes. Whether it’s a rocket launch or an attempt at Mach 1 (or 2 or better), the sound “fills the stage,” as they say, and brings you right in.

The second disc has all the extra goodies. I haven’t had the chance to view them yet, but I’m looking forward to sneaking them in over the course of the next week as I have the time. I want to learn more about these astronauts again.

For $20, this is one of those DVD steals. There’s plenty of great viewing material on here before you get to the second disc.

(Poor Fred Ward. Look at the list of bad movies he’s been in recently. It’s almost sad that his filmography would include both CORKY ROMANO and JOE DIRT. I remember him best from NAKED GUN 33 1/3, though.)

No, this isn’t an advertisement for the big Pepsi sweepstakes.

It’s the story of a Coke employee who was fired for drinking Pepsi.

News flash: Showing good taste is not allowed at Coca-Cola.