Unsought Input

Just thought this was nifty and wanted to share with all.

Good news, everyone! One of England’s best sitcoms ever created - Simon Pegg’s Spaced - has finally come ’round to Region 1 DVD here in America!

the cast of Spaced

Before Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were fighting zombies in Shaun of the Dead, they were slacking around North London as Tim and Mike in Spaced.  Spaced is a somewhat dark yet giggly show that wasn’t really about much of anything other than that stale bit of your life that falls between leaving the fun of your 20s behind and laying out how your 30s might pan out. Besides Pegg, the show stars and was co-written by Jessica Hynes (nee Stephenson) who didn’t have quite a large role Shaun but is a central character in Spaced.

The plot is simple - Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Hynes) are strangers when they meet in a cafe at the beginning of the show, but find that flat hunting is more lucrative as a pair. They find the perfect flat but are told the renter is looking for couples only, so they pose as a couple in order to be accepted. Also living in the house are cougar landlord Marsha (Julia Deakin) and conceptual artist Brian (Mark Heap). Frost plays Tim’s Army-obsessed best mate Mike and Daisy’s best friend Twist is played by Katy Carmichael.

Tim is a graphic artist/comic book writer and Daisy is an extremely unproductive writer. The two bounce around between jobs and being on the dole, inbetween marathon video game sessions and Robot Wars. Daisy is trying desperately to be fun and hip while Tim is trying to hold on to that last bit of childhood fun.

What’s most fun about the show is the endless homages to various sci-fi movies and shows, 70s and 80s pop culture, horror films, cartoons and video games. One of the extra features of the DVD set is a “Homage-o-meter” so you can follow along.

Besides the wink-wink-nudge-nudge of the homages, the writing, acting and filming of this show are all top notch. Each character is a bit of a caricature in contrast to the more boring Tim and Daisy yet they are mostly harmless and genuinely care about each other as part of a new surrogate family. Any resemblance to Friends pretty much ends there - none of the characters are successful, all of the characters are odd and/or awkward and they all live in an apartment they can seemingly afford.

The new Region 1 release has the complete show (all 14 episodes…goddamn that British short series!) plus the extras from the original discs in the form of outtakes, commentary, deleted scenes and a short documentary. New for this release is special commentary by American celebs Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Bill Hader (from SNL, not Napoleon Dynamite), Matt Stone, Patton Oswalt, and Diablo Cody.

It’s taken 7 years for this gem to come out in Region 1. Even though I’ve watched it a few times from a few different skeevy sources, I was still moved to buy the DVD set. It’s an absolutely perfect little show that show be part of any Gen Xer’s “I’m so fucking cool” DVD collection. I know the truly cool amongst you had it on Region 2 already but now you can stop pointing out how your pals didn’t hack their DVD players and get your Spaced on without prejudice. I love it when a plan comes together!

Sorry, I know that we don’t update this very often but over the Haunted House season I am planning on updating as much as I can with haunted house reviews for the local Cleveland Ohio area.  I am hoping that people will post their own feelings on the houses I review and maybe make comments about any phenomenal ones that I am missing.  I just feel there is a lack of good reviews for the houses in the Cleveland area.

Here’s the tentative list of the houses that I am planning on visiting this year.  Of course things are likely to change, so don’t hold me to this.  I haven’t created a grading scale yet but when I do I’ll post it up here and ask for your comments.

Haunted House Schedule 2008 Read the rest of this entry »

Here are pictures of the geeks at Comic Con dressed up in their cosplay outfits. Whats surprising is how many attractive girls there are, maybe I need to get my own lame costume.

Just to wrap up our Chemical of the Day miniseries I have brought out a special treat. Everybody get your groove on with Chemical Party! Badda da dum da, baddad da dum da. I would hate to be a noble gas at this party. Talk about wallflower!

Jesus, I know you are asking when this will stop.  I promise this is it.  I now it’s gone on way too long but who doesn’t want to hear about arsenic? These guys are cracking me up with this one. You just have to watch it. Arsenic is apparently the soap opera of elements. So dramatic and exciting. Really, I love these guys. And, check out the other elements in this feature, please.

No, boron does not stand for boring. This is the first video in our series with a female chemist. Sorry guys, she’s in love with boron, not looking for a boyfriend. It does start out with fire as well, so that is a plus. The crazy haired guy has a periodic table tie, too. I am totally digging it. And the way she says ’spatula’. It’s so science sexy.

Blah blah blah, you know the deal. And no groaning, you might learn something from watching these. You didn’t have to watch all of them. I did. Really, I know how hard it can be to make these interesting, mostly because most of them are incredibly dry. This one at least has some cool fireworks in it.

More from the element of the day series, Lanthanum. Really the whole reason to watch this one is to listen to the mnemonic, quite amusing according to him. “Language centers praise notes small promise of small European garden tubs dinosaurs hobble erotically thrumming yellow lutes.” What the hell? Maybe you should just memorize all of the elements, it sounds easier than trying to remember this little nursery rhyme. Anyway, watch and enjoy.

Apparently the CBC in Canada thought they would involve the fans in a contest to pick out a new theme song for hockey broadcasts.  This is just the sort of interactive, crowd-sourcing, brand-building exercise the Internet excels at.  It’s also a ripe invitation to pranksters like the Something Awful forum goons.

Here’s the top-viewed, top-voted entry right now:

This is the most beautiful sound ever to be associated with hockey.

Please, do your part and log in and vote for this anthem. Give the other entries a fair listen, but I think you’ll agree nothing captures the spirit of hockey quite like this techno mashup of sheep and babies crying.

Here’s the official music video:

In line with our Element of the day series, here is day two: phosphorus.  It’s our younger scientist’s favorite element, he has lot’s of scars from taking it out and playing with it.  Really, you shouldn’t have favorites, it makes the other elements jealous.  This one is lots of fun, fire and such.  Well, as much fun as you can get out of phosphorus I supposed.  Still, it burns a letter P onto the paper all by itself.  Isn’t that just precious?

Head over and check out this cool site, The Periodic Table of Videos. It’s pretty amusing, they have created a video for each element. So, you could watch all 118 videos if you wanted, or you could just let me watch them and check out the element of the day that I pick. Really, some of them are very bland. But…it’s a very cool idea and i give these guys mad props. Seriously. Who else but this crazy haired guy could get so excited about Niobium? It really is such a friendly metal.

If you haven’t checked out/heard of the band Notorious MSG maybe it’s time you should. When a band advertises that one of it’s newer songs will “ram the poo-poo back up your anus and blow it out your ears!” you know this band has got to be good. I mean, how else am I supposed to know about the hard life in Chinatown of NYC? Please let me introduce to you the Notorious MSG Story, Hot in the Kitchen.

And here they talk about how easy it is to get sex when you are a famous star. Read the rest of this entry »

Here is the trailer for the new documentary Religulous with comedian Bill Maher. Its a Michael Moore style documentary where Maher goes around and investigates religion and what is it exactly that people believe and why they are passionate about it. Of course Maher acts like a total ass in the process but what else is new. This is part of a growing trend of people questioning the notion that religion is an essential and necessary part of society and you can’t be a good person with out it.

Apparently here in Ohio prostitutes come cheap. Apparently about the cost of one Donato’s Pizza. The full story, which is brief in case you were worried, is basically a judge asked a “prostitute” (I put it in quotations because she is only an suspected prosty) to name her pimp. The prostitute denied the request, as you would assume. Then the judge had the little light bulb appear above her head and offered the young supposed sex worker a pizza in exchange for the offer.

I can only imagine that the conversation went like this:

Judge:  So, please name your pimp for the court.

Sex Worker:  Um…..I don’t have one?  Or I mean…Um?

Judge:  If you name your pimp the court will go easier on your sentence, I assure you.  You will be      protected against an repercussions that might occur.

Sex Worker: I’d rather not, thank you.  I just don’t think it’s right.

Judge: So, nothing will make you talk?  Even if it means reducing your own punishment?

Sex Worker: No, I don’t think so.

Judge: Hmmm………………… What about a free pizza?

Sex Worker: A free pizza?   Well…..That might work.  I do like pizza.

Judge: I know, who doesn’t like pizza.  So what do you think?  I’m thinking Pizza Hut?

Sex Worker: No, I don’t like their sauce.  What’s close to here?

Court Officer: I think there is a Donato’s close by.

Sex Worker: I love Donatos!  Extra pepperoni and mushrooms please and you have a deal!

Or something like that.

The judge bought the pizza and the sex worker ate it in the courthouse then sang like a canary. Just goes to show it doesn’t always have to be hard to get information out of suspects or witnesses. It just takes a free pizza.