Olympic Withdrawal

Now that the Beijing Olympics are finally over, I find myself missing the around-the-clock coverage that NBC provided this year. NBC, MSNBC, USA and CNBC - there didn't seem to be a moment when you couldn't get some Olympic action.

Here are some random observations on this year's Olympics:

- Basketball, football, water polo, handball, field hockey... all variations of the same "put the ball in your opponent's goal" game.


- That being said, handball rocks. We watched a women's match between Norway and Romania, and it was absolutely gripping. We rooted for Norway, simply because we were more likely to visit Norway than Romania someday. Norway ended up beating Russia for the gold medal. Go Norway!


- What was up with the Australian women basketball team uniforms? It was strange seeing bodysuits on the basketball court versus the usual baggy shorts. They looked like they should have been wrestling.


- There's an event in the Equestrian competition where the rider and the horse just clip clop around the field and spin around. It's not very compelling, and the most exciting thing we saw was when a horse take a poo during its routine.


- I found it surprising how little we saw of the Olympic mascots - Beibei, Yingying, ....and um, Totem Pole, Hothead, and Panda. It's not too late to get your commemorative wallpapers and screensavers here!


- Now that all the athletes and press have gone home, China can let all the air pollution back in again.


Ah, well. Only two more years until the winter games in Vancouver!

Foamheads

Now that the NFL pre-season is winding down and meaningful football games are going to be played soon, I think its time for everyone to start gearing up for watching the games. Behold: Foamheads! Conveniently available from the NFL Shop. Here are some of my favorites:





Oh, if only I could have them all. (Except the Patriots, of course. Boo! Hiss!)

Being a Raider fan, I especially love the Oakland Raiders foamhead. When you think of the typical Raiders fan, you think of this:


But look at the lovable smiling pirate. He looks like a big, happy foam Smurf.



Go Raiders!

It's All Ruined!

The other day at work I was surfing doing research on Amazon, and I came across the DVD for Idle Hands, a movie probably best known for having a young Jessica Alba. I don't remember much about the movie, except that it was kind of a black comedy about dead guys coming back to life. What caught my attention was how crappy the DVD cover was to the original poster. I remember back when the movie came out in 1999 they advertised it on the back of comic books, and the distinctive poster design really caught my eye and stuck with me all these years.

I imagine there are legal issues of usage involved, but they sure went from good to crappy real fast:

DVD Cover

Movie Poster

Speaking of other downhill slides, the movie poster for the 2008 Day of the Dead remake (which I never saw, and did it even come out in theaters, or was it straight to video?) is kind of cool. But for some reason they traded cool for a big pile of turd with the DVD cover:

DVD Cover

Movie Poster

Sure, the DVD cover was a lenticular image of a vomiting zombie (which may be a real bonus for some people), but it really didn't improve on the original poster. Look at that drooling zombie. That's quality.

One last one - Dead Man's Shoes was a movie that came out in the UK in 2004, but from what I gather was only released on DVD in the US. It was a surprisingly good revenge movie, but I think they made a mistake with the DVD cover:

DVD Cover

Movie Poster

The DVD cover isn't that bad, but I really wish they could have reused the movie poster design since its got a lot more of a graphic punch. Incidentally, I like the horizontal format that they use for movie posters in the UK and Europe. Why can't we do that more over here?

Poor Lily Allen

I don't know really know anything about Lily Allen...I know she's a British singer, but I don't know any of her songs. However, I find this picture hilarious:


She was outside of a nightclub one evening, and the following allegedly ensued:

Allen was filmed walking along the street when a female passer-by called her a "f**king a**ehole."

Lily then retaliated, and shouted: "Yeah, come and say that to my face you f**king c**t. "Where is that b**ch man? I'll f***ing batter her."

Allen then approached the woman, punching her several times in the back of the head, before adding: "Violence is bad."

Yes, Lily. Violence is bad. What makes this picture so funny is the "ha ha, Lily Allen is trying to punch me" look on the lady's face, as she and her friend try to leave the scene. Poor Lily didn't even connect...she just hit hair. Ow! Lily, stop it!

The Dark Knight

It's been out over a month already, but we finally saw The Dark Knight the other day (the IMAX version, of course), and it blew my mind.

Excuse me while I pick up the pieces of my blown mind. It was so good, it absolutely rocked. It just jumped to the top of my list as the best comic-based movie ever. It was gripping from start to finish, and there really wasn't a slow moment in between. Even in the quieter moments, there was still a dire urgency to it all.

Christian Bale was his usual menacing, gravelly-voiced Batman. Aaron Eckhart was good (wouldn't his left eye dry out if he didn't blink?); Maggie Gyllenhaal was good (way better than Katie Holmes). Heath Ledger was great - they should give the guy the posthumous Oscar. I'm glad Gary Oldman got a more substantial role this time out; its always nice to see him as the good guy rather than the nutcase bad guy. My only question is, why did they need Cillian Murphy?

I'm not sure if they should make another one after this - how can they possibly top it? One thing for sure: they should never do another version of the Joker. Let's call the Heath Ledger version the definitive onscreen one, and leave it at that.

Hatch Show Print

I was in Nashville, Tennessee this week for work, and I took a couple of hours to venture over to Hatch Show Print, a famous printing company known for their distinctive style of concert and advertising posters.


Hatch Show Print can be found in downtown Nashville, a block away from Sommet Center, where the Nashville Predators hockey team plays. The shop is nestled among a stretch of country music clubs and cowboy boot stores.


The shop has an area in front where you can buy posters and souvenirs, but otherwise its totally open to the rest of the printing facilities. I'd feel kind of weird if someone was always watching me work, but I guess the workers here are used to the tourists coming and going.


Hatch Show Print has always used the old-school letterpress printing method which is so instrumental in their posters' unique look. Everything is still done by hand, and there are no fancy modern printing presses to be found.


I wasn't really in the market for buying posters, but it was neat to be able to them up close. If I had a wad of cash, I would have bought a stack. Instead, I just got a coffee mug (to go with my South Carolina Michelin Man mug).


For a much better history than I could ever give, there's a great book available from Chronicle Books.

A New Member of the Family

Our video game, family that is. After collecting a myriad of gift cards, reward zone certificates, coupons, and all the loose change I could find, we went to our local Best Buy and picked an Xbox 360 Elite! At last!

Oddly enough, it was much easier than getting a PS3. I guess it really helps to wait three years after it was initially released.

Don't worry, PS3... I still love you.

Play nice, PS3. Don't knock your little brother off the shelf.