Maybe toy properties just shouldn’t be made into movies.

The Super Bowl spot for G.I. Joe – The Rise of Cobra has popped up online a day before the game and… yeah, not thrilling to it.  After my last go around with the Paramount licensing department over images from this movie (which resulted in me being shut down for almost a day), I’m just going to link you to a site for now that is showing the trailer 100% for sure with permission.  They’re running it over at The Inquisitr and you can download it in 480p, 720p or 1080p if you prefer to watch it in high definition. As soon as I am sure it is cleared, I will embed a copy in this post also.

Basically it leaves me cold.  About the only thing that looks 100% right is Sienna Miller as The Baroness.  I have no clue why Desto, played by Christopher Eccleston, is runing around without his trademark helmet.  The “super suits” the Joes are wearing just look silly and have them doing things they were never meant to do.  Snake Eyes hopping all around the screen is one thing, the other members of the team were never meant to.  Yes, they are highly trained soldiers, but not all of them were supposed to have all sorts of martial arts skills, as well as the super strength and speed.

This had the possibilty of being a fun little movie, but instead I think we are going to end up with a schlock fest that everyone who sees it is going to wish they could erase the memory.

I’ve resisted the urge to discuss Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen since June, so I think I’ve earned another post.

During the production of the first film, I posted endlessly about y dread for the project, which turned out to be pretty spot on once I saw the first one, but this time I just don’t care.  I think it’s because I primarily know what to expect this time, and I will just resolve to go “Ugh, this sucks” even as I watch it.

So I am brought back to the subject again as the first official footage will debut tomorrow during the third quarter of the Super Bowl, followed by it being posted online shortly thereafter.  Another teaser trailer will be attached to the film Friday the 13th, with an online release following a week later.  Michael Bay is promising you won’t see much footage as he doesn’t want to give away the best bits, but finally seeing something is better than nothing.

What has officially gotten out is official pictures of the first toy for the new Decepticon Soundwave.  While he turned into a cassette player back in the old days, apparently he now turns into some sort of Cybertronian jet, and rumors circulate that at some point he is also a satellite.  Nice to see Soundwave show up this time, but I am not sold on his design yet.

Another picture that popped up online for a few days was a picture of two new Autobots known as “the twins”.  It appears the green one is named “Skids”, which is taken from an early vehicle in the toy line, and the orange one is rumored to be named “Mudflap”, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Since this image came from a website for the upcoming video game, these designs may not be 100% spot on to how they will appear in the film, but it is probably fairly close. I am a bit concerned by their faces having a bit of a whimsical aspect to them, and I have strong suspicions these two are the new comic relief for the film.  This is exactly what the film doesn’t need, but everyone knows Michael Bay loves his wacky comedy moments.  Maybe we’ll get lucky and one of them will “lubricate” on someone.

I’ll do another post in the not too distant future giving you the breakdown as I know it of all the robots on both sides.  Until then, enjoy whatever footage we see in the next few weeks.

It’s episode 28… Scattercast refuses to drink the crazy juice! It doesn’t give in to peer pressure!

This week is a collection of random craziness… my favorite kind of episode!

- What do you think about me adding intro music?

- What a week I’ve had. Yeesh.

- 24 really went over the edge of realism this time.

- Nancy Cartwright abuses the voice of Bart Simpson.

- PETA wants you to love… THE SEA KITTENS!

Here’s

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

Have you ever woken up one morning and thought, “Wow, I really hate living… perhaps I should just kill myself via bacon.”

That would be my guess as to how the Bacon Explosion Recipe from BBQ Addicts came about.  How else can you explain something that contains 5,000 calories and 500 grams of fat?  And how do you reach these astounding numbers?

• 2 pounds thick cut bacon
• 2 pounds Italian sausage
• 1 jar of your favorite barbeque sauce
• 1 jar of your favorite barbeque rub

I like bacon as much as the next guy, and I love Italian sausage, butas someone who is trying to lose weight, I also kinda believe in eating anything, no matter how good it is, in moderation.  Is it any wonder that over weight people have become such an issue in the United States when we are coming up with things like this?  Mind you, this is an overweight person saying this that has recently lost 70 lbs, and has more to go, so I know of what I am speaking of.  Even at my heaviest, I really don’t think you would have ever seen me take a bite of this.  I may have been heavy, but I like to think I wasn’t insane.

Nancy Cartwright, a devout Scientologist, is using her famous Bart Simpson voice in Church of Scientology phone calls.

It has come to light that Ms. Cartwright is mixing the voice of Bart Simpson, and his name, with her own while making automated robocalls promoting a Church of Scientology event.  Last time I checked, none of the voice actors on The Simpsons were allowed to use their famous characters voices without the express consent of the show.  Somehow I find it hard to believe that such consent would be given for endorsement use with a controversial organization such as Scientology, but, of course, I could be wrong, but I find that unlikely.

The robocall was recorded on an answering machine and uploaded to YouTube.  I am embedding the video below, and linking to it, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if this disappears in the not-to-distant future by either the producers of the series or the Scientologists.

This is disturbing on many levels as Bart Simpson is an endorsement that could be used to recruit children to the questionable “church”, although it does sound like this call is being placed to, or supposed to be, to existing members of the group as she uses some fairly specific terms (“auditing”, “OT 7″) that are not known to the general public.  It looks like this call may have been misdirected to an OP (“Oppresive Person”, the Scientologist term for a non-believer who speaks against the group), and they never expected it to ever be known outside of their little circle of followers.

I would hope we might hear a comment from Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, clarifying if this was done with or without the permission of the show.  If it is done without their permission, it will be interesting to see what, if any action is taken against Ms. Cartwrigh for using the character and voice in such a way.

Am I biased?  Sure I am, I make no effort to hide my dislike of this group, and am always looking for a reason to speak out against them, such as when “I Found The Card” last year put out there by the anti-Scientology activists Anonymous to educate people about their antics.  So, yes, I do tend to jump on any mis-steps they make, and this may be one of the largest mistakes they have made in quite awhile.  Let the fireworks begin!

UPDATED: One of the show’s producers, Al Jean, gave a quote to E! Online:

“The Simpsons does not, and never has, endorsed any religion, philosophy or system of beliefs any more profound than Butterfinger bars,” said executive producer Al Jean in response to the implied connection.

I know I can’t be alone in this, but I am really fed up with being cold.

My mother has a theory that I am feeling the cold more than usual this year due to my 70+ pound weight loss.  While I am sure it is a factor, it does not explain why everyone else I know is also complaining about how cold it is this year.  While speaking to “M” the other night, she also commented on how bitterly cold it feels this year.  Mind you she was born and raised in the northeastern United States, and still resides there, so she should be used to the cold.  Instead she was asking me for advice on how to better heat her new apartment.

Something has changed.  “Global Warming”, “Climate Change”, whatever word we’re using today, you can add me to the believer list because things have obviously changed with the climate over the past several years.  What exactly?  Well, I’m certainly no scientist, but something for sure is different about the winters, and I sure as heck don’t like it.

One quick example is my warehouse and it’s heating system.  This is our 6th winter in this building, and each year prior to this one, we have gotten by on about 250 gallons of natural gas for an entire winter season.  Well, I came in the office Saturday morning and discovered… no heat.  It’s only January and we’ve already burned through our usual allotment for the entire winter.  No, we haven’t been setting heat higher or anything, it is just that much colder.

Unfortunately I don’t see myself moving any time soon, so it’s a situation that is unlikely to change any time soon..  All I know is it can get as hot as it wants to this summer, and you won’t hear me complaining one bit about the temparture at that point.

Updated: Immediately after writing this post, I had to go load a trailer.  … I am currently waiting to regain feeling in my face.

There has been much debate over whether one should monetize their message stream on Twitter, and I think I have finally come down on the side of “no”.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, it’s a popular microblogging service that allows you to share with your followes what you are doing at any given time in 140 characters or less.  What started off as a niche product has turned into a mainstream hit with mentions on The Big Bang Theory, being used by celebrities (Stephen Fry in particular enjoys using Twitter), playing into political campaigns and a whole lot more.  As you gain more popularity on the service, and people find you interesting to read, they will “follow” you, meaning that your tweets, slang for the short messages, show up in the friend’s are of your account.

While many people have puzzled over why Twitter itself has still yet to place any advertising on the site in hopes of making money, that hasn’t stopped people from trying to monetize their accounts on their own.  While some are using affiliate links, others are selling their background images via companies like Twittad (full disclosure: I have, and do, sell my background through them for my @seanpaune Twitter account), and others try to sell actual tweets though companies like Ad Cause.  This is to say that when you sell tweet advertising, an automated system will place an actual ad in your tweet stream so that all of your followers can see it.

This is where I draw the line.  I am obviously not adverse to advertising as I have admitted to selling my background, and this very blog carries ads in the right column, but I am opposed to ads being forced on a person.  When I sell my background, it is just that, a background image.  It does not change the way Twitter works in any way, and no one has to read it that doesn’t choose to.  Selling an ad in your normal Twitter stream, though, totally changes the user experience for your followers.  As the site is built around conversation, imagine what would happen if you started randomly shouting out advertisements as you talked to one.

Steve: So, Bob, I heard you went out with Stacey last night.  Lucky dog!

Bob: Oh, yeah, thanks Steve, it was a pretty great evening.

Steve: Where’d you go?  Somewhere nice?

Bob: Yeah, it was pretty swanky.

Steve: I hope it goes well for you, she’s quite a catch!

Bob: VISIT SHIM-SHAMMY.COM TODAY AND RECEIVE 10% OFF YOUR ENTIRE ORDER!

Steve: … You sold your conversations again, didn’t you?

Bob: I had to pay for the dinner somehow!

Not so pleasant, is it?

Even affiliate links don’t bother me so much if you are talking about something relevant.  Say you send me a tweet about a DVD you loved, I have no problem with you making an affiliate link to that DVD, but don’t just think it’s okay to randomly have messages show up that are nothing but a blatant ad.

I know full well that this post won’t stop people who are determined to use their Twitter streams as advertising revenue, but I also hope you understand when I unfollow you for doing it.

My nightmare is officially coming true as the American version of Absolutely Fabulous is officially going to pilot at Fox.

As I mentioned back in October, Fox has been planning a remake of Absolutely Fabulous for some time.  The news from Variety is that Fox has finally greenlighted the production of a pilot with Jennifer Saunders and Christine Zander as executive producers, along with Ian Moffitt, Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum.

For those of you unfamiliar with how television shows get to be a series, let me explain.

• A concept is brought to the networks, or rights are purchased for a remake, such as in this case.
• If they survive the concept stage, they move on to development which is where more staff is brought in to flesh out the concept.
• If the networks like the way things are developing, they will order a pilot episode which is a fully completed test episode.  If they don’t like the development, the series dies here without a pilot ever being filmed.
• The pilot is filmed and then shown to test audiences and executives.  Sometimes the pilots will be used as the first aired episode of the series, sometimes they won’t air at all, so not all pilots are always seen by the larger broadcast audience.  This is especially true if actors are changed out.  If they do air, you will sometimes see set redesigns between the first and second episodes of a series.
• If the pilot goes over well, and it is picked up as a series, typically 13 episodes are ordered, with an option for 9 more to be added on “the backend” of season.
• Either a fall or mid-season time slot is chosen to launch the series.

Even with AbFab going to pilot, it doesn’t guarantee that it will ever make it to air, but due to the investment placed in this, and people like Mr. Hurwitz of Arrested Development fame being involved, I would say the likely hood is high.

I am still nervous, even with all of this great talent involved, of Americans screwing up one of my favorite British comedies.  American television is littered with disastorous remakes of British shows like Coupling and Payne, but, to be fair, there have also been successful British transitions such as Three’s Company and All in the Family.

I think a lot of the problem stems from British “series” (their word for “season), tend to be only 6 episodes long.  So, if a show is on for four series, then it is the equivialnt of just one of our seasons, which is 22 episodes long.  Trying to come up with 22 concepts at once as opposed to just 6 at a time is where I think we fall down so often.  They can take the time to craft their stories and work in much smaller bursts, where we are pumping out episodes like some sort of mass production factory line.

Whatever the case may be for so many failures, this one is heading to pilot for sure, and I wish them all the luck in the world, but it still makes me nervous.  Remember,  Roseanne Barr already abandoned this concept some years ago because she didn’t feel the humor would translate to American audiences, so you have to wonder what they think they can do differently this time.

I had the most random thought about Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope today, and I have no idea why it popped in to my head.

While I used to obsess over every insane little detail of Star Wars, I really haven’t done that in a long time, so I am at a complete loss as to why I suddenly started thinking about the attack on the Death Star today at the end of the fourth film.  I’m talking about when the actual attack run on the trench is going on, and the turbo lasers are firing at the fighters as they fly down the trench.

Why didn’t somebody just go block the exhaust port?

Obviously Grand Moff Tarkin, the commander of the battle station, had taken the view that the fighters would never succeed, but did no low level gunner or soldier not see there was an obvious problem with what was going on?  Here is how I envisioned a conversation going on inside one of the turbolaser batteries during the fight.

Gunner #1 – I don’t get this!  Why do they keep coming down our trench?!

Gunner #2 – I know!  I just heard from Bob over in trench E-22, and he said they haven’t seen one of these fighters yet!

Gunner #1 – Really?  I heard from Steve over in W-34, and he said the same thing!

Gunner #2 – Wonder why they picked our trench… I mean, all we have is that exhaust port, right below the main port, and I can’t imagine any one getting the excited over…

-gunners stare at each other-

Gunner#1 – Hey, you think maybe we should go weld something over that real quick?

Gunner #2 – Naw, I mean, what are the chances of one of them sinking any torpedoes in that?… Hey, did you just hear a big explosion?

Obviously this conversation never happened, otherwise Luke Skywalker would have never sunk his magically controlled torpedos down the tube to destroy the station.  You do have to wonder how they never noticed the Rebels were flying down this one particular trench over and over, and ignoring all the rest.  Did no one in the Imperial Navy not pick up on this odd little fact?

Okay, yeah, I do think of the oddest things while shampooing my hair.

It’s episode 27… Scattercast was born in a small town…

This week is all about living in a small town, and some of the hurdles that presents. Here is a taste of what this episode contains.

- Going to Sam’s Club to stock up for things since it is 90 miles away.

- Flying is a pain in the behind as you usually have to leave a day early.

- Some general thoughts on the closing of Circuit City.

- A whole lot of rambling.

Here’s

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

for those who wish to download it, subscribe to Scattercast via iTunes.

The nominees for the 81st annual Academy Awards have been announced, and, not too much to my surprise, I have seen hardly any of these films so far.

Every year I wait for the Oscar nominations, and each year I walk away saying, “Wow, wish I had seen most of these.”  I think it is a combination of my living in a small town that doesn’t get the lesser known films, and even for the major releases such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, I simply don’t have the time to get out to the theater often enough.  This film will probably be the big winner this year as it has 13 nominations (second only to Titanic that holds the record with 14… and I can still say I have never seen it), but there have been other big disappointments in the past, so who knows.

The most intriguing category is Best Supporting Actor.  Lots of people debated if Heath Ledger would make the cut for his turn as the Joker in The Dark Knight, and he did, but you wonder if it isn’t based somewhat on sympathy.  I felt it was a brilliant performance, and worthy of the award, but it will always be questioned if he wins.  And did anyone see Robert Downey, Jr. getting a nod for Tropic Thunder?  I haven’t seen it yet, and I heard he was amazing in it, but still a bit of a surprise for a comedy to get in there.

Overall, an interesting mix this year, and several films I am dying to see (most notably, Slumdog Millionaire), but, for now, we will just have to stay happy with the nominations.  I’ve listed them all below the cut for your convenience.

Continue Reading ->

I am really getting fed up with cell phone exclusivity.

While cell phone manufacturers have been signing exclusivity deals for years, I don’t think it really got into the mainstream consensus until Apple made the iPhone exclusive to AT&T in the United States.  They then followed this up with exclusive deals in every country they launched the phone in, and it seemed to send a whole new surge of interest into cellular carriers getting the latest handsets exclusive to them.

While I still love my BlackBerry 8830, I have been using it 16-months now, and it is about that time your eye starts to wander around to changing your phone.  The BlackBerry Bold (AKA BlackBerry 9000) certainly has my attention as a handset I would like to upgrade to.  I’m finding myself more and more wishing I had a camera phone for blogging reasons, and this one has a decent one.  Add in Wi-Fi, world portability, streaming media capabalities and so on, and it is a good phone by any ones measure.

So, what’s stopping me from getting it?  Well, the same thing that stopped me from getting an iPhone; it’s exclusive to AT&T.

Say what you will about Sprint, my current carrier, but I am currently happy with them.  It doesn’t change the fact they are currently missing handsets such as the Bold, the BlackBerry Storm, the G1 and, yes, the iPhone.  Rumor has been that the Bold exclusive is a limited time deal, but there hasn’t been any word that I can find of it moving to another carrier yet.  I haven’t heard a peep about the plans on the Storm or G1 (or a similarly Android-powered phone) as of yet, and Apple re-upped their exclusive deal through 2011.

In the particular case of the iPhone, I know that AT&T has paid a premium to Apple for the deal, so technically they are coming out on the positive side of the arrangement.  What I question though is if it is enough to make up for the lost sales from people such as myself who refuse to change carriers to just get the latest shiny new gadget?  Sure I would love to stop carrying my BlackBerry and iPod Touch with me all the time and just carry one device, but I’m just not going to do it and be tied down to a company I have had less than thrilling dealings with in the past.

Hopefully the BlackBerrys will come off of their exclsuive deals by the time I really need to upgrade, but for now, well, Sprint isn’t offering anything that is really an improvement over my 8830, and I feel kind of stuck.  Come on cell phone makers, stop playing games and let people buy the phones they want from the carriers they want.