“Sure, ‘Tiny House’ is indebted to the low-ceilinged office spaces of Being John Malkovich, but it’s still top-notch stuff. It may be the funniest ad of the past year.” While ascertaining just why there are so many Geico ads on TV, Seth Stevenson sings the praises of Tiny House.
Tag: Television
Beam Him Up.
R.I.P. James “Scotty” Doohan 1920-2005. From the beaches at Normandy to the Enterprise engine room, he was a good man in a pinch.
Sippin’ on Gin and Ingsoc.
“Just what does Tanqueray have in mind here? How is this foppish hipster supposed to sell gin?” Old friend Seth Stevenson assesses Tanqueray’s new spokesman, Tony Sinclair, who has come to grace a number of bus stops and billboards in my area. For the most part, I think gin is pretty vile — When it comes to the spirits, I’m a Jameson man. That being said, I did enjoy a glass of Victory Gin while re-watching Michael Radford’s powerful version of Nineteen Eighty-Four over the weekend. Winston Smith…now there’s a spokesman Tanqueray should get behind. Doubleplusgood.
Finding Naziland.
“That’s why I’m doing it. Schindler’s bloody List, The Pianist…Oscars coming out their ass.” Kate Winslet bucks for an award (by way of Godwin’s Law) in a new clip from Extras, the forthcoming show by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant of The Office. (More clips here.)
Marblehead & McNulty.
Hi y’all…sorry about the recent lack of updates around here. I was in Boston for a few days, where I enjoyed some meetings, a Fenway game, and a scenic excursion to the North Shore. Whatsmore, most of my free time of late has instead been spent catching up on back seasons of my most recent new-favorite show, The Wire. At any rate, updates should resume their normal schedule this week.
The Vanishings.
“A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as ‘petite,’ and it also helps if she’s the kind of woman who wouldn’t really mind being called ‘petite,’ a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality…Put all this together, and you get 24-7 coverage.” The Post‘s Eugene Robinson deconstructs the “Damsel in Distress” genre so beloved by today’s newsmedia. Obviously, if a friend or family member disappeared under strange circumstances, I might want some degree of media coverage in order to help find her. But, the amount of round-the-clock national attention devoted to these sad stories (and rubbernecking drek like the Michael Jackson trial) is patently ridiculous. Hey, don’t look now, but our nation is at war right now.
Crazed and Lost >
Two links of note courtesy of other fine blogs: LinkMachineGo points the way to online scans of Dave Sim’s Cerebus notebooks, and Fresh Hell discovers Lost reconceived as an Infocom game. I only caught the first episode, but perhaps the mystery creature is a lurking grue…?
Dems at the Gem.
Howard Dean, meet Al Swearingen. ‘Deadwood”s skepticism of government and celebration of individuality couldn’t be timelier. And its viciously profane yet pragmatic demonstrations of tolerance feel more stiff-spined and American than an anti-defamation industry that has been enthusiastically adopted by the same conservatives who once mocked it.” Salon‘s Matt Welch gamely makes the case for “Deadwood Democrats.”
The Riddler’s End.
See it Now.
The first pic from Goodnight & Good Luck, George Clooney’s forthcoming film about Edward Murrow’s televised unmasking of Joe McCarthy, is now online. The cast includes Clooney (Fred Friendly), David Strathairn (Murrow), Frank Langella (Bill Paley), Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels, and Robert Downey, Jr.