Will It Blend - iPhone and Glo-sticks

I love these things
Watch Tom obliterate an iPhone

Now watch him mutilate some Glo-Sticks

DCA gets a facelift and SUPER Indiana Jones Adventure

Hi kids!
Disney's California Adventure (DCA) is finally going to get its $1.2 BILLION makeover, starting in 2008. Can you imagine, not even ten years old and already getting a facelift? (If you've been there, though, you know it's in dire need.) And before the decade is through, Disneyland's ailing Tomorrowland and several other attractions will also be getting some renovations. The rumor is that in addition to a Star Tours 2.0 (featuring new destinations!), Lucasfilm and Disney are working together on creating a bigger, better Indiana Jones Adventure ride over in Adventureland. By the looks of it, they're trying to recapture the spirit of what the original attraction was intended to be - TWO rides intersecting with each other AND the existing Jungle Cruise.

Read about all the plans on MiceAge.

There's an interesting article from last year detailing what the original plans for the Indy ride were, complete with artwork and site plans showing how the two Indy rides and the Jungle Cruise would have intertwined.

Behold: what Indy might look like at Disneyland one day.

Toothepaste For Dinner - Go read some webcomics!

Drew's whole month of July is outstandingly hilarious.

I thought I should let you know in case you haven't read it yet.

Ghostbusters score

I'm a big fan of the 1984 movie Ghostbusters. It was one of the I watched repeatedly on HBO and VHS (pirated from HBO) growing up. And int he spirit of watching it on DVD this weekend, not once, but TWICE, I feel obliged to share with you other Ghostbuster junkies a link to the score. Now, I can't be certain, but I believe these tracks are actually from the 1998 disc, not the newer Varese one. There are 22 tracks here and the Varese one contains 39.

This material was unavailable for many years until Varese Sarabande released the full score as part of their "club" collection (which just means there's a limited run of 3,000 produced). There was a bootleg release in 1998, but they're hard to come by as well. Unfortunately, I've only recently been reaching out to other score junkies on the Internet and didn't know about this release until long after the disc was sold out (which was probably a matter if weeks.) Now if you want the score, it means forking over $50 bucks on ebay.

The first time I listened to these tracks I was sort of underwhelmed, but it really grows on you. So much of Elmer Bernstein's original cues are cut up or altogether replaced in the final cut of the film that the score at times felt like it went with an inferior movie. In a way, it is a portentious reminder what a turkey this film could have turned out to be. That's not a knock at all against Bernstein's score or the material, which was executed impeccably. Tracks like the beginning of #21 will instantly bring to mind exact moments in the movie for any GB junkie.

Go See It - Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix!

The second in what will be an occassional on-going series of posts about movies that have been released for at least 2 weeks and that I recommend you see...
I'm making this brief because I'm working on something else today.

- Possibly the BEST Potter flick yet.

- These movies aren't meant to be stand-alone anymore; meant to capitalize on Pottermania, which likely just passed its all-time peak in the last week with the release of Deathy Hallows

- Great for those familiar with the book as well as the overarching story of Potter vs. Voldemort

- effects look great, though Grawp still cartoonish- but at least he wasn't annoying

- Imelda Staunton is Psychotic - awesome

-Not enough Snape - never is

- Dumbledore shines, esp when Ministry comes to arrest him and at the Wizard Duel with Voldemort

Cereal - The Staple of Childhood

I originally intended to make this post all about the way children bond with cereals while growing up, but work has got me plenty busy right now. Instead, I'd like to give a shout to The Breakfast Bowl, a blog all about cereal and the latest happenings in the world of Kellogg's, General Mills, etc.

"Cereal???" you say. Yes, there's all kinds of interesting things going on continuously in the world of everyone's favorite breakfast treat. Did you know that the big cereal makers are shrinking the size of their packaging to reduce costs? Have you seen these new "cereal straws" popping up in your grocery store? Ever tried one? Caffeinated cereal? It could be happening.

Check out the Breakfast Bowl and the other cereal and food releated sites Lloyd links to. I think you'll find it enlightening, and if nothing else amusing.

AND, check this out...

There's an emerging food chain called Cereality. Situated around what seem to be college towns in mid-size markets, this cafe specializes in hot and cold cereals, cereal bars, and smoothies.

Hasbro's Indy IV toys at San Diego Comic Con

Sorry, this post was on-hold for a few days by accident.

Check'em out!

There's a close up of the "mini heroes" 2-packs here, some of which weren't in the Comic Con display. Interestingly, the Marion Ravenwood mini figure isn't in any of these sets.

Another look at the five 3 3/4 inch figures Hasbro will have. I hope they make a melting-face Toht, too!

Monster Squad on DVD

There's a pretty amusing and informative review of the 2-disc Monster Squad DVD over at CHUD today.

Go ahead, kick Wolfman in the nards one more time!

Indy IV Teaser Poster

The teaser one-sheet poster for next May's new Indy sequel was spotted at Comic Con this poast weekend. Head over to Slashfilm.com to get a bigger look.

WATCHMEN: The Poster

Another exciting piece of Watchmen news from Comic Con:

Loving the look of this, since it means Snyder still appears to remain committed to staying as true to the comic as possible.

HARRY POTTER AND THE LEAKY PLOT OF THE 7TH BOOK

It's true and it's all over the Net. Like trying to contain details on a Star Wars prequel or an Indiana Jones sequel, the secrets of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows have been pouring out all over the Internet in the last 24 hours.

But before I get to the "leaky" news, I thought it was interesting to note what JK Rowling herself said of the "Deathly" spoiler leaks: "please, ignore the misinformation popping up on the web."

Methinks she's not really saying the plot details are wrong (though, undoubtedly there must be numerous "spoiler" pages out there with made up shit which are there only to capitalize on the recent news), but that she just wants people to disregard it and try to keep themselves "virgin" for Saturday's release. Which is cool with me. I started to peek at them, but turned away before I was bespoiled too much.

Leaky Cauldron also has a bit on Scholastic's press release, which names the dastardly retailer who shipped the books early and wholeheartedly breached their contract with Scholastic.

Now, onto the SPOILERS!

Actually there are no spoilers on my page.

But somebody uploaded what is supposedly all 759 pages of the new book on BitTorrent and PirateBay. Screenshots are/were also available at bayimg.

Or you can check out this mysterious page for an alleged list of all the major SPOILERS. Take it all with a grain of salt if you do read it. It could just be some attention whore pulling your leg. COUGHjettl93COUGH
http://www.zendurl.com/h/hallows/

Or, just enjoy the book like the rest of us and wait to read it on Saturday at 12:01am!

Finky the Kid reminds you to choose wisely! (Hey, I just bring you the news here. It's up to you to decide what to do with it.)

He chose wisely. So can you.

Go See It! - RATATOUILLE

Sightseer and I saw this over the weekend and it truly exceeded my expectations. I had doubts and up until the final full trailer really felt Pixar might be falling on their face this summer.

But I was wrong.
In fact, I don't think Ratatouille has gotten enough acclaim in a summer full of overblown action movie sequels. The film was well written/directed/scored. It was Pixar's top quality product, second only to the Toy Story movies and tied (for me) with Incredibles for 2nd place among the best Pixar films.

But oddly enough, I find many people not knowing "what it's about" or "if it's any good". Hopefully the buzz builds in time for its DVD release.

And for what it's worth, Michael Giacchino scored Ratatouille- the same guy as the Incredibles. So if you enjoyed the jazzy throwback sounds of Incredibles...

Taking an Indy Break

In case you're wondering (and I have to imagine all four poeple who have seen this blog, at least two "accidentally", must be rolling around on your backs kicking and screaming about not having a new Indy IV post here) why I've not put up anything about all the recent Indy IV spoiler mudslinging going on lately, I'm just kind of in "Indy overload". There's more than enough of it out there for anybody who wants to keep up on it, but for the uninitiated, here are some links:

http://tinyurl.com/2orukj

http://tinyurl.com/35a4kg


In the meantime, I've been enjoying one of my favorite YouTube guilty pleasures, DRSMOOV's Transformer parodies. Guaranteed hands down to make any G1 fans laugh.

I think what I enjoy the most about "Shockwave's Burden" is the hilariously pathetic side DRSMOOV has shown us of Cybertron's brute-by-the-book "Guardian". It's really plays up some foibles that one might have suspected were always there, but I don't remember ever really seeing in the tv shows. Meanwhile, the dialogue DRSMOOV has given some of the characters just tops off the clever situations he's put the characters in. If you don't laugh at any of Shockwave's "Oh shit. What now?" or "What does this jerk want?" comments, you maybe be even less human than a transforming alien robot.

As for the Rude Awakening of Optimus Prime, besides hearing the iconic Autobot leader say words that would not have been fit for Sunbow, Prime's uber-human reactions to the remaining less-than-favorite Autobots seems to mirror much of my own (and undoubtedly other G1 fans') feelings towards Blur, Wheelie, Bumblebee's makeover, etc. when we first experienced these wonderful changes to the G1 Transformers.

To quote DRSMOOV's Prime: "Of all the Autobots to survive...fuck me." Yes, Prime. We all thought the same thing.

INDY IV - UPDATE!

IndianaJones.com has just posted new behind the scenes production video.

Check that link to see Harrison Ford moving around in full Indy garb. I'd elaborate, but that's really all it is. And a glance at a couple of soldiers holding him captive.

JETTL93 IS A LIAR

The title says it all, folks. It was one thing for the guy to lead people on for his own good time (still a shitty thing to do, but it got alot of good conversation going on the movie). But when this fuckstick admits he's full of it and becomes a complete ATTENTION WHORE, well, the welcome mat's worn out, fella.
It's all on this Talkback over at AICN.

So...whatever.

Rumor is that Billy Crudup has been cast as Dr. Manhattan in the upcoming film. Somewhat less speculative is that big casting announcements will be made at Comic Con this month.

Check out CHUD for more.

Who Watches the WATCHMEN?

Seems Zach Snyder's crew is getting the viral marketing campaign for next year's Watchmen flick up and going. Perhaps they felt compelled to catch up with the effort Dark Knight started last month? Remember this one?

A little over a week ago, the Rorschach's Journal website came to my attention, by way of Harry Knowles over at AICN.com. Since then, I've been exchanging cryptic e-mails with "Rorschach" himself.

Then last night I got this broadcast message from him:

instructions.need to find mask killer.help spread word.see how. http://rorschachsjournal.com/
.RR.

No, I didn't accidentally forget to leave spaces between the words, either. But, that's Walter Kovacs for you. So, what did he want? Head over there yourself and find out.

Possible Indy IV titles?? And Other Indy Info...

Well, the mysterious "JettL93" has been at it again on the AintItCool.com talkbacks. In the last day or two he/she has divulged:
**HIGHLIGHT TEXT FOR SPOILERS**

• Is the final script a rehash of older scripts? "besides a few key action sequences that where lifted (because) they were just to cool to ignore, the script is entirly different from the earlier drafts. and most of the leaked info was false or fan fic, including city of the gods, that title was never in the running, lucas has held onto it for possible use in a videogame."


• When can we expect a trailer? (One) teaser in the november before, a trailer in feb or march and a third trailer a month or so before the film is relesed...expect paramount to launch a huge online campaign with the official site (similar to what the dark night did with "i believe in harvet dent too")


• What movie will the trailer be attached to? (contains Title SPOILER) "Robert Zemeckis' Beowulf when it hit theatres this november...the teaser will not show a lot but will probabaly run in the range of a 1:45 to 2 mins, and you will see shots of the characters and certain action, the title "indiana jones and the Pharoah's crown" will also be revealed." Lucas has hinted that he would like to do 3 trailers, gradually showing more and more of the plot.


• And what about that title? "crown of the pharoh could possibly be the title instead of the pharoh's crown, george also had dynasty of the pharoahs as one of his suggested titles... if its not pharoah's crown, it will be a titlle (sic) that is very similar to it."


• What's the plot going to be? "The basic plot outline is (and I’m paraphrasing) the pharaoh’s crown was a crown that contained a large crystal (shaped like a skull) it held the power of the gods. Thousands of years ago a Egyptian tyrant stole the crown and tried to use its power to rule the world, the gods angry at this, unleashed a huge earthquake during which the crystal was separated from the crown and both were thought destroyed. However it turns out the crystal part of the crown was actually found 50 years ago (around 1910) by none other then Abner Ravenwood and has been stored by the Americans in the "raiders warehouse". Of course when the Russians discover the crown part they learn that the American’s have the crystal skull, they attempt to steal it and affix it to the crown to use the power to end the cold war and take over the world. The Americans are aware somebody has discovered the crown, since the crystal has been acting strangely, and causing weird things to be happening over area 51 (which the media has blamed on alien invasions) the American’s wanting the crown’s power to themselves decide to steal the crown from the Russians. However when Abner Ravenwood (john hurt) learns of this he is forced to come out of “hiding” and track down Indy (using shia) and convince him to find both pieces before the Americans and Russians do and destroy them both."

**END SPOILERS**
Now, be sure to take all the above with a high-blood pressure inducing amount of salt. "Jett" seems genuine enough, but I'm just cycnical enough to believe there's always someone out there willing to create an elaborate hoax with a mild-mannered demeanor.

Or, perhaps, this is an intentional "leak" by the Indy IV production to start building positive buzz early. This kind of internet "marketing" and PR has become increasingly popular and has really started to make a blip on the radar with some companies.

"Jett" says "more stuff will start to leak, i just have the advantage of being very close to the producer and able to get my hands on almost any info i want", which makes him/her even more intriguing.

Will we ever know who "Jett" really is?

Is this the boy who's got all the Indy info? (somehow, I doubt it)

Wanna see some photos from Indy IV?

A flurry of photographic activity has been happening in New Haven, Connecticut this week now that filming for Indy IV has gotten underway there.

Check out any of the below sites for pictures that appear to be Indy piggybacking a ride on the back of Shia" (Abner "Mutt" Ravenwood) motorcycle. Can you tell which are them and which are their stunt doubles?

http://www.dlisted.com/node/11958

http://tinyurl.com/2pdmln


http://tinyurl.com/37s5eh

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18532611&BRD=1281&PAG=461&dept_id=7576&rfi=6

Nelson laughs at Paris

Yeah, this is sorta yesterday's news, but I thought the image somebody made was still funny...