Beltmann

Interesting concept for an ad.

If that's the pick, then I have serious reservations about it. But I suppose we can save all that talk for tomorrow...

I'd say benefits are neither a right nor a reward; they are part of an agreed-upon compensation package.

Went to the movies today, and the "pre-show entertainment" included this gag-inducing . The dude yanking on the phallic sculpture might make it worth it, though.

Well, sure, in terms of the content of the speech. But the jokes were clearly chosen because they were the worst kind of vaudeville puns, and Norm's "conviction" in telling them exposed how his real joke was about form, not content. The real joke was about delivery, expectations, and the meaning of cheesiness. That might not be Andy Kaufman, but it's more than merely recycling some corny old jokes.

I know there are some fellow Beulah fans around here, so I thought I'd mention that A Good Band Is Easy to Kill is available OnDemand. I'm watching now.

Today, two silent films by Hitchcock: Champagne (1928) and The Ring (1927). Both are marked by innovative visual flourishes, but both stories--in the first, a socialite angers her father by eloping, while in the second, a prizefighter's marriage crumbles as his career takes off--are light melodramas. The Ring has a tighter, more complete structure, while Champagne has a greater sense of humor.

My wife and I laughed. "What the H is that for?"

In Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain!, a mad inventor dies, is buried under the tide, then exhumed and re-animated via jumper cables, then locked in a harp box for thirty years. Later, he's abducted and burned upside-down at the stake. And that's just for starters. Loved it.

I'm afraid TheMaker is correct. A few cherry-picked reviews from places like Pitchfork do not change the fact that, overall, the general critical response to Evil Urges has been quite positive, not negative.

The premise--Moore wants to ban the Fourth of July, but is then visited by three ghosts who show him what's great about America--could be a good starting point for biting satire, but it looks like the movie aims instead for the usual obvious, tired, broad slapstick. Is every joke in the movie about getting hit in the head? (Come to think of it, that was the same philosophy that made Zucker's Scary Movie 4 so unbearable.)

Has anyone seen the trailer for David Zucker's An American Carol? Normally I'd be plenty interested in a ZAZ-style spoof of the far-left, but this trailer doesn't offer much hope. The trailer makes the movie look like another witless parody in the vein of Epic Movie--Michael Moore is really fat! That's hysterical!!--and in the process makes the far-right look downright buffoonish, not to mention tone-deaf. The target audience appears to be 11-year-old boys, which begs the question: How many 11-year-old boys are longing for a parody of leftist politics? Who is this movie for?

Exactly. I felt a similar way this afternoon when I watched In Search of a Midnight Kiss. It was okay, but it reminded me of a Richard Linklater film, just not as good. (Nice soundtrack, though, filled with Okkervil River and Shearwater.)

I bought that mostly for the baseball, partially for McCaughey. I love that Ted Williams song!

Riviera - At the End of the American Century. Haven't listened to this for some time... it's still really good.

I don't like Accelerate either, but what's more dishonest--this record, or a random listener somewhere pretending he knows, beyond doubt, exactly what the band's motivations and ambitions were when recording this record?

Excellent post.

In the movie, that's not the body part that usually comes off. The movie also dramatizes one of my greatest personal fears, which is

Come here often?

By using the myth of vagina dentata as a metaphor for teenage sexual awakening, Teeth plays like a deadpan horror-comedy about repression, female vulnerabilities, and male fears, among other things. The final third loses the way, but overall I laughed--and cringed--a lot. The visit to the gynecologist is priceless.

I'd like to have an affair, but I just don't have the time nor the energy.

Key word.

Future ambitions, such as a cabinet position, might need protecting.

You know what might provoke road rage in me? That damn Spiritualized album.