Up in the Aerosmith

caption by desmoncj

I don’t dislike Aerosmith. I owned their greatest hits as a rite of passage, and thought their comeback in the late 80’s/early 90’s was inspired.  My favorite song of theirs is “Lightning Strike.” Or is it called “When the Lightning Strikes?” Not sure, because I don’t love Aerosmith, and could barely be described as someone who likes them to a noticeable degree.

Steven Tyler, already a recovered drug addict when the band resurged, has been on a wild ride the past year. Working backwards, he is apparently back with the band now, after a long silence following his weird public appearance at a California Home Depot, where he sang over the intercom and sucked helium.  This was shortly after he checked himself into rehab for addiction to painkillers.  The impetus of that was probably his other impromptu public appearance at a liquor store, which is not as rock and roll as one would think.The reason I bring all this up on TLB is because now it appears that Aerosmith is kicking off a European tour with Mr. Tyler as intrepid frontman, and they really seem to think a lot of themselves. Tickets for the arena shows are £95.00, or about $157.00.  I can’t imagine paying that much for a concert unless it was like U2 and Springsteen together or something.  These ticket prices include the nosebleeds and the far back ground floor.  It makes me wonder if they’re hard up for cash after this year of bizarreness, and I kinda wonder if it was a publicity stunt. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. There be dinosaurs here. Scary ones.

Photoshop Contest: Sci-Fi Up the Nominated Films

Even with two films nominated for Best Picture this year, you just can’t have enough science fiction at the Oscars.  Gizmodo’s Adam Frucci asked for some submissions of Photoshopped Best Pic noms injected with elements of sci-fi, and here’s some of my favs.

2nd Place - Scott Campagnolo

Naturally they’re Star Wars heavy, but hey… it’s the Internet.  It’s what we do.  Go See More.

Epic Beard Man’s Opponent Interviewed

The fight heard ’round the world is not going away, just like I predicted.  In this interview (there’s also one with EBM (Thomas Bruso) (Vietnam Tom)) – we meet Michael, a real live 50 year old who looks like a 28 year old.  It happens.  But wow, this is turning out to be like the great Akira Kurosawa film, Rashomon.

(YouTube Link)

Like light through the amber lamps, these are the days of our lives…

ChatRoulette

The new phenomenon that is sweeping the intertubes has a very basic concept, with a huge potential for inter-connectivity.  Yeah, I know from what I have read that Chatroulette is vastly populated by genitalia, and therefore I am going to refrain from trying it myself… for now.  There is another side to it, too.  Creativity, humor, art and music.  The platform is simple: plug in your webcam, go to the website, and see who else is out there for an impromptu video chat.  You can click away from anyone at any time and be redirected to another random stranger.

This is one of many fascinating examples of usage via Buzzfeed, where these guys had a little fun with the interface.  Here‘s a short blurb and video about the young Russian student, Andrey Ternovsky, who created ChatRoulette.

Ternovsky tells RT that he thought the site would get less respect from potential users if they knew it was created by one guy rather than a more sophisticated software company.

Another screenshot showing two strangers meeting.

And this example of a French band getting to perform to a bunch of strangers on a spontaneous platform such as this is outstanding.

(YouTube Link)

“Like in gambling, you take risks.  You may win, and get something interesting; or you may see something bad.  Well, you can always click Next, and try again.” -Andrey Ternovsky

The Other Avatar

When James Cameron’s Avatar came out, quite a few people I spoke to about it thought I was talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender.  Being parents, they were familiar with this children’s tale that I’ve never heard of, and all I could think of was, “Wow, somebody didn’t get the memo about duplicate titles in one year.”  Anyway, here’s the Super Bowl ad for M. Night’s attempt to return to relevance… and it looks pretty dang good.  Maybe.  Never Forget.

I’m LOST

I think I’ll check out ABC and their thoughtful presentation of the LOST series recap.  I gave up on trying to understand this show eons (or was it seconds?) ago, strongly convinced the writers were just making stuff up with no clue how they were going to end it.  Maybe I can grasp the appeal in a one-hour summary of everything that has happened so far, and go ahead and watch the season opener.

But for now, the show so many adore can be astutely summed up by this gag-

Star Trek Insurrection Review

I was getting anxious tonight for the next installment of  RedLetterMedia‘s review of the Star Wars prequels; so much so that I tripped over this other (4-part) review by the same genius as the famed Episode I The Phantom Menace review (7 parts).  Full disclosure: I actually liked Insurrection, precisely because it felt like a throwback to the TV series.  But wow, great presentation here as to how bad that movie was.

Lexie Speaks on Martin Luther King Jr

My daughter learned about Martin Luther King Jr. in her first grade class this week.  Here’s her statement.

Doctor Luther King didn’t like the way people were.  Some people couldn’t drink out of the same fountains as white people, and some black kids couldn’t even go to the same schools as white people, so he changed all that, because everyone is created equal.  And then he got shot.

Not bad for a kid who spends most of her time making silly faces.

(when she’s not making real, honestly beautiful faces!)

Robin Hood Trailer

Russell and Ridley, together again.  William Hurt as the Sheriff.  Looks awesome enough to negate what Costner did with the role.

Watch Here.

Kingdom of the Spiders

KHAAAAN!!

The DVD release of William Shatner’s first movie (that I recall)* comes out on January 19, 2010.  From ArrowInTheHead‘s Ammon Gilbert:

That’s right bitches, it’s mothaf*ckin’ William Shatner in the house, fighting not just one spider, not just two spiders, but an entire kingdom of spiders!!! Only Shatner and his giant burning dong can save the day from all these damn, dirty spiders. This job smells of so much awesomeness that I can’t even believe I’ve never seen it before. Prepare to get Shatnified this January.

If I recall correctly, it wasn’t a very good movie.  But then again, Shatner.  And his character’s name is Dr. Robert “Rack” Hansen.  Awesome.

*Wrong!  After posting, I looked him up, and that honor goes to some horror film called Impulse.  Also interesting is how many TV shows he guest starred on.  The Six Million Dollar Man?  Wow.