Avengers movie third in line...

Marvel is planning something weird and wonderful, if you hadn't heard. Spiderman, the x-men and the fantastic four are all stuck with other studios, so they have to use their other super team. Unfortunately, this team is made up of individual super heroes that all sort of deserve their own movie. But Marvel is trying to create a consistent 'movie version' of their comic universe, evidenced by Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury in all projects (except the 'regular' comic universe, where he's still white) since the Hulk 2. Now that Jon Favreau has shown exactly how to make a cool, efficient and structurally solid comic book movie, that template can be used again and again. Iron Man 2 is a great example of what Thor and Captain America will be like. Nothing spectacular, just solid, straightforward action. The big problem is that they won't have Robert Downey Jr., who had as much to do with the success of those movies as Favreau. Instead, we're going have to watch some generic attractive men do it, and less than perfect directors. Kenneth Branagh for Thor, because of the Shakespearean dialogue and Joe Johnston for Captain America, presumably because the movie will be about his 1940's origin. Johnston directed the excellent the Rocketeer, but also Jumanji, which would bode ill. Both Films have to recoup 100 million plus budgets and lead in to a probably even more expensive Avengers team up film, but just imagine if it works. DC has been much more cautious with properties that aren't Batman or Superman, but they are making a green lantern film with Van Wilder as the titular hero. They'd just have to reboot Superman, or save costs and use Brian Singer's gay version - the sensible choice if Batman has to be Christian Bale, and maybe make a wonder woman movie to get just about every character for a Justice league movie. Don't fuck this up, Hollywood...

Will.i.am blands it up a notch

Jesus Christ, how bland can one song be? Will.i.am isn't exactly a favorite of mine, it always sounds like he steals 2 or 3 good bits from a good artist, then proceeds to surround it with pure shit. This is one is worse than most, though. There's some lackluster singing over a way too long intro, then a generic poppy ballad verse backing track backs the chorus, then it's back to the intro. I could have made this with Ableton, and I have no musical talent whatsoever. Why the hell would Micheal Jackson have been working with this guy? I genuinely liked Cheryl Cole's last song, because it had a brilliant base line, underneath the requisite diabetic coma of a love song. That video also had something going for it, weird outfits like some low-rent gaga and visual effects that weren't just as boring and confusing as maritime law. The split screens come together, it was all the same space all along? Just buy a fucking computer already, and do something interesting.

I have been watching...

You have been watching is an excellent show, tossing Charlie Brooker's astute and funny, but slightly grating television criticism together with a classic panel show format. One of the absolute best things, however, is that runs for an hour with commercials, so there's plenty of time for these sort of experiments, which there really ought to be more of. It's like a lemon meringue, an acidic host, dedicated to snarky commentary on pop culture, slashing through panel show fluffy egg white, with plenty of air whipped in. It makes both more palatable.

Congress is important...

Shockingly, Elmo is the only non-human ever to have given testimony to congress. I imagined there must have been some dogs and horses called before the HUAC in the fifties, but no, it's just Elmo. It baffles me that there's no video for this. But that picture says it all, anyway. Most of my google searches for video led to articles complaining about the marginalised role that congress apparently plays in the governing of the U.S., but none of that seemed particularly shocking, though. The executive branch is pretty much the legislative branch as well? Doesn't that always happen? Whether you form your government based on a majority in the parliament or just elect a leader, there still the issue of some kind of support from the legislature. And most shocking, according to the academic papers, congress issues stupid laws that don't work in the real world, but sound good and then shoot down the executive branch for executing them in a cynical way? Have these guys even heard of politicians before?

List 2

Well, six months on, and here's what I'm watching/reading/listening to these days...

- More horrible pop
-'exotica' and easy listening jazz
- Anything with Charlie Brooker in it
- The thick of it
- Gore Vidal books
- Finaly read David Foster Wallace's Infinite jest
- Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice
- Covers and lots of them...
- Robert Kirkman's Invincible
- Wonky Pop
- The Big Bang Theory
(It's not great, but it's so fucking nerdy...)