Jessica Simpson Bounces to DVD

I reported before that there were talks of Jessica Simpson's new movie Blonde Ambition was getting a direct to DVD release. Well, some sites are reporting that the movie is getting a direct to DVD release, however there are also reports that it will get a theatrical release. What is going on here?

Here's the actual information.

The next day, the studio behind the movie says they'll release it in a limited release in Texas.

((Says Wolfe: "It is being released in this crowded marketplace in eight theaters in Texas. The reason we chose Texas is the two stars are from Texas: Jessica Simpson and Luke Wilson. As an independent studio, we, as a rule, don't have major wide releases. It's a very common release practice for independent studios." ))

This sounds like a way to stop all the bad press the movie has been getting because of its direct to DVD release. Perhaps Simpson's PR folks had something to do with this. Why was it reported that it would get a full release?

Then, there's this report,

((A source has revealed that the film is a dud primarily because of the Simpson’s performance and is therefore going for a DVD release. "The movie is absolutely horrible. It’s just a bomb, mainly because of Jessica’s acting," Usmagazine quoted the source, as saying. ))

Well, you can always fall back on your singing career.

BTW, The Samurai Frog gives a convincing reason why Jessica Simpson needs to keep her clothes on.

About that MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice feud

About that MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice feud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7klcNEnwshM&feature=related

Back in the day, MC Hammer had Vanilla Ice on his tour. Ice opened for Hammer. During that time, Hammer was the man, and he had sold out tours. Well, they got into it, and Vanilla made some negative statements about Hammer in the press.

Arsenio Hall is really good friends with Hammer and actually confronted Vanilla on the show. The video above gets a little heated, and you can see Vanilla squirm in his chair.

I think apart of the reason Arsenio Hall went after Vanilla so hard was because the whole Vanilla Ice thing was so fake. Plus, he brought out Flava-Flav for no reason, claiming that they were good friends. Flav would later claim that he wasn’t sure why he was on the show.

I have to give Arsenio Hall credit for not being fake and going after Ice Ice Baby.

I love this guy’s alien suit in the video.

Bell Biv Devoe: Poison (The Remix)

Bell Biv Devoe: Poison (The Remix)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Np8dTOGMSv8

This version is about 7 minutes long.

You have to love the New Jack Swing beat and the rap intermission. The ‘colorful’ cross-color clothing is in full effect in the video. Also, check out the gear the fine ladies are wearing in the video.

I love the radio version used in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as well.

Yes, I still sing this song today.

Remember, never trust a big butt and smile.

Here’s the normal shorter version (with that stupid intro)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn-trsdQv3g

Timbaland and the Acidjazzed Evening

Timbaland and the Acidjazzed Evening

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Timbaland_plagiarism_controversy

The reason I decided to post this old news clip was because it is not always clear what is simply sampling or ripping off a former artist. I actually like Timbaland’s beats, and he was one of the main reasons Justin Timberlake even has a good solo career now. In a lot of ways, he’s made hip-hop fun again with his interesting beats and bright songs. More DJs need to learn from his style. Rap Music can be informative and hardcore, but there is room for joy filled hip-hop music as well.

However, did Timbaland actually steal music from Finnish demoscener Janne Suni? It should be noted that Suni, the writer of the song, has made a statement that the whole case has been closed and Suni won't talk about it.

I believe there is enough evidence to conclude that Timbaland used a large portion of Suni’s music, but is it enough to call it stealing?

I am not certain of that because hip-hop is about sampling and mixing things around. It is the very heart of rap music from the beginning. DJs have been using everything around them to make a musical beat, which includes demo music. On the other, I do believe the original artist needs to at least receive some type of payment for the sampling of their music. Anyway, it looks like it has been settled. I just thought I’d make a post about it.

Links and videos below.

Here's the Nelly Furtado video and song:

The whole thing is detailed here. Listen the whole thing. Is this music ripping or just sampling.

Here is the song picked apart.

Here is the way it is supposed to be played. It reminds me of those Sonic the Hedgehog songs from the games. It is a pretty good song.

Man, I need to get one of these music programs and try out my own remixes.

Dead Like Me: The Movie

I knew nothing about this DVD movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu35AKC-eGI

The movie came out of nowhere. Dead Like Me the movie is a spin off of the canceled Showtime tv show.

Former Star Trek Voyager writer Bryan Fuller created the show, and left the series over creative differences with the studio. I can’t seem to find his name anywhere in the creative process of the DVD movie. He might be a little bit too busy with Heroes and another TV show right now.

Ellen Muth looks really good in this movie. Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond from LOST, Brotha) is Mandy Patinkin’s replacement. BTW, there appears to be a huge time jump between the show and this movie.

I might check this out, because I enjoyed the first season of this strange show.

I'd like cheese with that...

Once again, MC has found one of the strangest movies I’ve heard of.

The Machine Girl

http://rantocracy.blogspot.com/2007/12/now-this-looks-like-campy-fun.html

Just head over to his post and watch the trailer (warning not safe for work, and extremely bloody)

I don’t know what’s cooler a cute Japanese girl in a school outfit or the big ass freaking machine gun attached to her arm.

I want to see more of this Asami lady

The Norfolk Southern Police shooting

The Norfolk Southern Police shooting

This whole story got stranger and stranger. Here’s why,

((Henderson said the shooting began shortly after 5:30 p.m. Sunday across the street from the New Albany Public Library on Scribner Drive when Baldon got out of the car he had been riding in with his girlfriend and their 3-year-old daughter and fired two shots at the vehicle. No one in the vehicle was hurt.))

Why in the heck did he get out of his car and start blasting away at his family in the car? Did he lose his mind? His young daughter was in the car.

Anyway, it gets even stranger, read on.

((Baldon then walked a block along Scribner to the front of a house at the corner of Spring Street and fired several more shots, including two that struck the New Albany Police Department headquarters across the street, the prosecutor said.))

He shot at the police station…the HQ. Did the actual cops from the station respond? Nope, someone else did.

((Officer John Hartman of the Norfolk Southern railroad police drove up, got out of his car and fired five shots at Baldon but did not hit him, Henderson said. Baldon was found dead in the driveway beside the house.))

A Rail Road Officer came up and fired at him, not the local police. Keep in mind that all six major railroad companies have their own police forces. They guard and monitor their rail systems. Like university police, they are real police officers.

Well, it isn’t over.

((Henderson said an autopsy and investigation showed that 29-year-old DeWayne L. Baldon died of a single shot fired from the 9 mm handgun he had been firing in the direction of others seconds before.))

Yep, the man took his own life. No one killed him. He killed himself. I’m not even sure we’ll get any answers to the story. No one else was hurt in the shooting. Why did he shoot at his family and the police HQ? He was from Louisville, but was in Indiana shooting up the place.

Kickin’ It Old Skool

Kickin’ It Old Skool

Jamie Kennedy sucks, no he sucks badly. I can’t believe how badly this guy ruins a movie. After the Son of the Mask, no one should have ever given him another movie or TV show. The guy is unable to be funny in any way or shape. In Old Skool, Jamie does his old act of acting like a white rapper, but this time he’s a dancer. Wasn’t this played to death in Malibu’s Most Wanted? We get it, Jamie, you like rap music and ‘acting like a street hood’. Stick a camera in your face and film it as youtube clip. Oh, wait you’ve already did that. Listen, I know I’m attacking Kennedy pretty hard, but I blame him for this mess of a film. It is a shit film with a shit actor.

The actual concept of the movie could have made for a wonderfully funny movie. However, the writing is so bad that they set up a funny scene and ruin it with a stupid payoff. Kennedy receives a head injury while performing a dance move and is thrown into a coma. He wakes up exactly 20 years later. This was where the funny was supposed to go. Instead, we get scenes that go on for far too long and jokes that go nowhere.

Yeah, there are a ton of 80s jokes and references, but most of them fall flat. Then there are the unfunny cameos. Yeah, David Hasselhoff has an appearance, but unlike his other appearances in recent movies, it isn’t even funny. Plus, we get yet another appearance by KITT. However, the same damn joke was done on The Benchwarmers, and that movie actually got the guy that did the voice of the KITT from show to reprise his role.

This movie doesn’t even try to be funny. Don’t even bother renting this movie to make fun of it. Jamie Kennedy should never do anything ever again.

Grade: D-

(Note: I did like the Alan Ruck cameo with him doing a reprisal of sorts of his Frye character from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. It is Cameron Frye, but his last name is spelled differently. He even mentions his accident with his father’s car!)

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Actually, those clips of him drunk or high on Youtube are far better than his appearance here in this film.

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Is he farting in their faces? BTW, a bum pees on those guys in the background. I'm not making it up.

Hoser

Hoser

((Hoser is both a slang term and a stereotype, originating from and used primarily in Canada.^[1]

Like the very similar term hosehead, it originally referred to farmers of the Canadian prairies, who would siphon gas from farming vehicles with a hose during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The expression has since been converted to the verb 'to hose' as in to trick, deceive, or steal - for example: "That card-shark sure hosed me." Hosed has an additional meaning of becoming drunk - for example: "Let's go out and get hosed."

The term "hoser" refers to an era in hockey before the ice resurfacing machine came into use. The losing team had to hose off the ice. The term "hoser" can then be construed to mean loser.

Another possibility is that it might be related to the term hoosier.))

MC pointed out there appeared to be a similar name called hoser in the Canadian pop culture to Hoosier. And, he’s correct there does seem to be a loose connection to the two words.

From the Urban Dictionary,

Used as a negative, it basically means "idiot." When used positively, it's a phrase of light endearment.

Now, the reason I say there might be a connection is because of the Anglo-Saxon roots of the word ‘Hoo’. Then, there is the old use of calling poor farmers ‘hosehead’.

While there might not be a direct connection, they are similar basic roots.

I love looking this type of thing up.

Hoosier

Hoosier

Yeah, I live in Louisville, KY, but I never fully understood what the hell a Hoosier meant. I knew people from Indiana were called that name. People from Louisville use the term in a derogatory manner. Like this, “Those freaking Hoosiers clog up our expressways when they head over the bridge.”

Given that Indiana is right across the river, you would think I’d know about it. Well, another guy asked me what a Hoosier meant, because I’m known as Mr. Knowitall. I was very shameful when I couldn’t answer his question. So, I looked it up.

((The term is commonly accepted and employed at all levels of discourse by people from Indiana themselves, and is considered neither derogatory nor informal when used to describe people from Indiana.))

Okay, this is certainly not a bad term in this statement. However there is a negative connection to this term.

((The term has long had a derogatory connotation as used by Americans in general, reflected in the definition given in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary: “an awkward, unhandy, or unskilled person; esp.: an ignorant rustic.” The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., defines a Hoosier as an inhabitant of Indiana or “an inexperienced, awkward, or unsophisticated person.”))

Now, it’s becoming clear. I wonder why Kentucky doesn’t have a term like this, well other than rednecks. Then again, people see U of K fans as being one big joke about Kentucky.

Here is the history behind the name.

((Although the linguistic etymology is murky, its historical attachment to Indiana is rather well documented. In colonial America, the terms “cracker” and “hoosier” were widely used to refer to white farmers who did not own slaves or large plantations.))

Now, Hoosiers take pride in their name it seems.

Gates, the Innovator

Sorry, Bill Gates, you’re a fartknocker.

He believes everyone copies Microsoft.

This is a mind of an idiot, sure intelligent, but still an idiot. Does Bill really think his company is an innovator? Well, the article rips Mr. Gates a new one.

((Gates declared that what Microsoft does is the baseline for the entire industry, and whatever it doesn't do is the innovation.))

This man ripped off other people’s programs when he ‘created’ windows. Hey, don’t be upset that Apple and Nintendo have ripped you a new one this year. Hey, there’s always Vista…oh wait.

The article mentions these products, and I wouldn’t call these products innovative…

Zune: Piece of crap knock off of an IPod. It failed, but MS won’t admit it.

XBOX: Sure, the Halo Box is a hit, but they wouldn’t be in the gaming industry if it wasn’t for Sony and Nintendo. (Got to love their stoner fan base too)

MSN: Hey, let’s make a complete clone of AOL right down to the instant messaging. While never being a hit, we’ll never mention its failure.

Blue Screen of death: Okay, you did invent something after all. Making people pay for shitty software and then giving them a nice blue screen sounds like a great business plan to me.

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Nice glasses there, young Bill.

Working...

Working sucks, but these tips could make your experience much better.

Whoa, this explains a lot.

The link above gives ten reasons why they don’t like you at work. Probably, the first one pretty much has me dead on. Then again, I don’t care if they like me that much anyway. However, these other tips are very sound.

Here are some worth noting,

((2. Chains of Love
Are you never around because you're always out on a "smoking break?" Limit your puffs to standard break times.))

It seems smokers are always getting more breaks than non-smokers. I am really not sure the reason for this. Can’t you go through two hours without smoking? I might be bias because of my general dislike of smoking.

((4. People Magazine Office Edition
You're very good at filing away information about everyone in the office! If you want to keep friends, learn to keep a secret.))

It goes deeper than that. There seems to be that overweight older woman that wants to know what’s going on in everyone’s life. She makes it her point to listen in on every conversation. These women aren’t satisfied with their stupid boring married home life, but they feel the need to monitor everyone around them, and then talk about them in the break room. These people piss me off more than the smokers.

((7. You gotta see the ba-a-aby!
Related to the yadda-yadda-yadda talker is the baby babbler who incessantly gushes about her children. Only family and close friends should be privy to details about every syllable uttered, step taken or diaper dirtied. It's wonderful that you love your baby, but just don't make it your only topic of conversation.))

Listen, most of my friends are, dating, married or have babies now. They don’t go out of their way to remind me I’m single and a lonely bum. Yet, there are plenty of people at work that can’t stop talking about their children and family. Thank you for reminding me I’m always going to a restaurant for a table for one. Knock it off.

Superbad

Superbad

I heard about this film through its extensive viral marketing on the web. However, I missed it during its run in the theaters.

Superbad is a raunchy, if limited in scope, comedy with some enjoyable moments. The movie seems to have a focus, which was drastically lacking in Hot Rod, and it moves along to that key plot point. That key point is the two characters getting laid.

Judd Apatow is producer behind this project with Greg Mottola being the director. For all purposes, Apatow’s style is all over this movie, and it feels like he directed portions of it. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the script. It has a certain comedic sparks of the Rogen/Apatow pair.

There are a ton of dirty jokes and nasty sight gags thrown in for good measure, but they’re not done solely for ticket sells. (Watch any of the American Pie movies post American Wedding for that crap.) Actually, there is one joke involving a girl in a miniskirt that I won’t even mention in this review, because it is really nasty. Michael Cera is useless mainly because he’s still playing George-Michael Bluth from Arrested Development. So, Jonah Hill and Seth Rogen are the guys that end up saving this movie.

Superbad is definitely better than many of the other safe teen comedies that came out this year. While the plot is focused on an end goal, the story tends to loose some steam in a few places. I wouldn’t say this was one of the best comedies of the year, but it was still a pretty good movie. It made me laugh, and that’s all I wanted from a comedy.

Grade: B-