More of the same via Hollywoodtuna...
February 18, 2007
February 16, 2007
Idiocracy (2006)
After watching Idiocracy (2006) on DVD, I can see why 20th Century Fox had release issues. I can also see why it wasn't promoted. It's fairly....idiotic, overall. Office Space it isn't. But there is a great premise, as well as a few good laughs. A creation of Mike Judge, the guy behind Beavis and Butt-Head and Office Space (1999), Idiocracy is about Joe Bauer, "an Army librarian, judged to be absolutely average in every regard. He has no relatives and no future, so he's chosen to be one of the two test subjects in a top-secret hibernation program. He and hooker Rita were to awaken in one year, but things go wrong and they wake up instead in 2505. By this time, stupid people have outbred intelligent people; the world is (barely) run by morons--and Joe and Rita are the smartest people in America" (IMDb). The script title was originally "The United States of Uhh-merica", and the working title was "3001."
The first fifteen minutes contain dead-on, frighteningly (even sadly) accurate social satire:
"As the 20th century began, human evolution was at a turning point. 
Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest,
the fastest reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, 
a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man now began to favor different traits...
Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction - a dumbing down.
How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species...."
One mildly humorous bit charts the decrease in average IQ, wherein Mike Judge gets to once again (as he did in Office Space) parody Chili's/Bennigan's-style restaurants:
The future is crude and course. That reminded me of a bar that was once in Alvin, Texas, during the late seventies, early eighties, called "The Bucking Far."A few more of Judge's humorous (and again, most likely deadly accurate) ideas:
Engineering and architecture of the future
February 15, 2007
February 14, 2007
Kitty cuteness
Charlie, a Rottweiler mix, whose own mother rejected him, snuggles Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007 with his substitute mother, Satin, at the Meriden Humane Society in Meriden, Conn. The cat had just had her own litter of kittens and took on Charlie in addition. (AP Photo/Bob Child)And via Boing Boing, comes this sweet video of Nora, the piano "playing" cat. I'm pretty sure I heard a couple of Thelonious Monk licks in there:
"Exquisitely Bored"
From Pete Townshend's 1982 solo album, All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes:The song was written by Townshend during his stay in California for drug rehabilitation, and it may have been submitted for The Who's 1982 album, It's Hard.
Vice City Stories
Vice City Stories for the PS2 will be out in North America on March 6, 2007 and on European retail shelves on March 9, 2007. My favorite of all the Grand Theft Auto games is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, so I'm mildly psyched. In addition, Rockstar Games plans to release Manhunt 2 Summer 2007. 
February 13, 2007
Beaumont
As with any of these "small town" posts, this is by no means a complete representation of what Beaumont has to offer. I tend to focus on the physical remnants (neon signs, buildings, ghost signs, etc.) of the 1960s and earlier. I have no doubt there are many things I didn't get to while I was there. There were a couple of things which I wanted to get pictures of, but I was afraid of disturbing the
Beaumont, Texas is the Jefferson County Seat, located near the Texas Gulf Coast. It is 28 miles from the Louisiana state lane, 85 miles E of Houston, and 17 miles NW of Port Arthur.
World's (3rd) Largest Fire Hydrant (Texas Firefighters Memorial)
??? Building (left) and San Jacinto Building, with Crockett Street entrance in foreground
San Jacinto Building (Beaumont's tallest)
the 1939 First National Bank Building - one corner of what is called The Kyle Block (one of the best examples of Zig Zag architecture in Texas)
The New Rosemont Hotel - "$1.00 & UP" (I'm not sure as to the origin of the Haunted Hotel sign)
First City Building - whenever I see buildings that look like this one, I half expect Ann Marie or Mary Richards to come skipping out of the entrance. I dunno. It's one of those odd mental, engrained pop-cultural synapse connections.
Calder Cleaners - still open
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