push the pull door

Rather than taking the time to post about our Jamaica trip, I spent most of last night catching up on my own backed up blogroll. For most of the sites I track, I marked the posts as read and called it a day. But there were a few sites that I scanned a bit more thoroughly. One of those was Tastespotting. I can never resist some good food pics, and I always seem to find great recipes through that site.

This time, however, I found something other than recipes. I found this post asking people to list the foods they'd never let into their kitchens. The post was titled "Calling All Food Snobs," and I think it's meant to give foodies a place to rant about processed foods and box meals. But I come from a different place than those gourmands, and thus, have a very different list. (In fact, we have almost ALL of the items on the original post's list in our kitchen right now.)

Here are the ten things you'd never find in my kitchen (if my wife didn't bring them in, that is):

1. Soy Milk or other Soy products
2. Walnuts
3. Okra
4. Limburger Cheese
5. Fake salt
6. Cow Tongue or other Southern bizarro meats
7. Grits
8. Anchovies
9. Cherry tomatoes
10. Clean countertops and an empty sink

Guess where we just got back from? A week in Jamaica, mon! And before that, we participated in CityChase Atlanta, saw Jon Stewart live, saw Iron Man and went to a kick-ass Jason Mraz show.

But am I blogging about any of that stuff? Nah. Instead, I'm using my sorry excuse for a blog to test our embeddable player.

See what a devoted employee I am?

By the way, the test shows that the player needs work. For some reason, it's not pulling in the show name and/or tune-in. Both major mistakes.

Sometimes I bookmark things that I find funny, with the intent of posting about them at a later date. But then I forget about them completely, thus depriving the Internet of more hilarity. Or sometimes, I do post about them, then forget to delete the bookmark.

I'm not sure which is the case here, but I just found a link to the following in my bookmarks. I think it's very apropos of what I do for a living:

Five ways to leverage the mobile thinkosphere

1. blogmobisodes
2. webmobinars
3. telestreamanogisodes
4. lividmobipostiscussions
5. netconvermomomobomasations

- from 5ives

It reminds me of that commercial for DirecTV where the corporate cable wonk suggests that the solution to overcoming their competitor's claims is to "Blog it out!"

Last Wednesday, the Asian-American resource group within my company sponsored a pre-release screening of the new Speed Racer movie. Those of us who had registered for the event got to leave work to see a free film (popcorn and soda included), and then stick around for a Q & A with the voice actors from the English version of the original Speed Racer cartoon, Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.

The movie was better than I expected, though I have to admit I might have been in the perfect mood for it--ecstatic over being able to get away from the office during what was an incredibly stressful week. And the right mood always helps when going into a theater.

Speed Racer was a total popcorn film, meaning it was a visual spectacle, full of great effects and amazing action, but it won't get any award nominations for writing or acting. That's not much of a criticism, though. Popcorn films can be a lot of fun, and are perfect for summer viewing.

And I'm not trying to say the acting was bad. Emile Hirsch was perfect as Speed, staying earnest and childlike while injecting the role with a bit of an edge. Matthew Fox was solid as Racer X--staying masked and using a different tenor to his voice that kept this role from evoking memories of his well known character on Lost. I even thought Susan Sarandon and John Goodman were solid as Speed's parents. I worried that those two would be played for comedic effect and with a great deal of corniness, but they actually came off as loving and devoted parents and were the key characters in just about every serious scene in the film. I almost think the Wachowski brothers squeezed blood from a stone getting this random cast to each find the essence of the animated characters without seeming like cartoons, themselves. Like I said, no awards for acting, but this definitely wasn't a kitschy mess like the Flintstones or Scooby Doo live action films.

By the way, I should add here that I have a bit of a crush on Christina Ricci, who played Trixie in the film. I liked her when she was a chubby kid back in Mermaids and Casper, and then grew to lover her as an indie teen star in films like 200 Cigarettes and Pumpkin. Now that she's a nearly thirty, doe-eyed waif, she's still a favorite. To start with, she's got such striking features. And even if it's just the characters she plays and not her real persona, she's always come off as interesting and intelligent. In a way, she reminds me of my wife--a unique beauty with unique interests. The un-sorority girl--someone who will never bore and will always challenge you, physically, emotionally or intellectually.

Anyway, enough of my Ricci love. The summary is that although she has the fewest lines and least amount of camera time in the film (even the monkey gets more closeups), she still stole every scene she was in.

Overall, I would say Speed Racer was a decent film. I just read that it got killed in the box office this weekend, but it probably deserved a bit better. It wasn't that bad--it just fell into the nostalgia trap, where a studio makes a retro property into a film that's too kid-oriented for the thirty-something audience that grew up watching it, and too unfamiliar for the current crop of youngsters.

The film's effects were great (even if my old brain had trouble following the action at times), and the soundtrack was solid. If you're forced to attend a brainless popcorn film this summer, you could do worse than this one.

I actually received the following video before the weekend, but finally got around to watching it today. Now, I wish I hadn't waited.

In my opinion, this is the funniest video the nefarious members of One Two Three Comedy have done. All of their stuff is good, but this is just more accessible than the rest. And yes, I did just apply entertainment marketing speak to alternative comedy, for which I will go to hell someday.

...here you go.

I love every one of Jimmy's "unnecessary censorship" pieces, but this one is an instant classic.

Currently recording on our DVR:

Masterpiece "Cranford" (2008) A three-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford," about life in an 1840s Cheshire village. Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins star as sisters Matty and Deborah Jenkyns who, in the opener, welcome an old friend (Lisa Dillon) to live with them.

and...

Iron Man "Hands of the Mandarin" (1994) Tony Stark, billionare and technological genius, wages a war against his arch rival, The Mandarin. In his secret identity as the armored avenger, Iron Man, Stark has a vast range of weapons at his disposal, and is aided by his trusted teammates, Force Works.

Bet you can't guess which one of those is for me.

It's en episode from the 1990s animated series, being shown on Toon Disney's Jetix block of programming. They're showing six straight episodes (obviously riding this weekend's movie premiere buzz), calling it "Iron Man: First Strike." The series sucked--bad writing, bad art, and terrible, mullet-filled character design--but who am I to turn down a free shot of superhero nostalgia?

Now available at TBS.com: Upcoming Episodes widgets!

Coming soon: Video widgets!

My wife and I don't really watch any live television--we Tivo everything we're interested in and watch it at a later time. But somehow, we keep leaving the TV on just the right channel to accidentally catch The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. (This is especially weird considering the fact that we don't watch anything else on CBS.)

After catching bits and pieces of about a dozen episodes of The Late Late Show, we have one simple question: Who the heck finds Craig Ferguson funny?

I'll admit that his accent is charming, and he's a very likable guy. But watching him tell his corny jokes and mug for the camera is like watching your drunk uncle tell jokes. Some might be better than others, but even the few that are funny are ruined by the cheesy delivery and his constant need to explain the punchline and give that "Ooh, I made a funny!" grin.

i just don't get it. Maybe he's a throwback to the days of Vaudeville or something--someone that only people over seventy can appreciate. That would go a long way toward explaining how he got invited to do the White House Correspondent's Dinner this year. That crowd certainly matches the demographic.

Anyway, his performance at that event is available on YouTube. Here's part one:

If anything, I think it supports my claim that Mr. Ferguson is completely unfunny. Let me know if you disagree.