As you might already know, for the past few years I have been a loyal reader of John Campea’s The Movie Blog. The site started as a small movie opinion and news blog, but through the creativity and effort of its contributors grew into a community with a steady podcast, video reviews, and enough content to keep anyone busy for weeks.

John just announced through Twitter late last night that he is leaving the Movie Blog, I’m guessing to pursue his newest venture with the AMC Theatre blog. There has been no official announcement yet from the site itself, but my guess is he is leaving the blog in the hands of its current top contributor Rodney Brazeau; either that or the site will be dissolved and Rodney will switch over to his own blog, thestub.ca (really, .ca?).

I wish Campea the best of luck with AMC, now I need to find a new site to get movie news from…

On my way home I noticed some commotion at the bottom of my street… seems to be a fire? Half of the Montreal fire department seems to be there… very interesting. This isn’t the first fire on my street either… Hopefully everyone’s ok?

More pictures from the scene:

You might have seen my previous post about my addiction to taking pictures of neglected signage everywhere I go. Well, I have decided to make a series I will post on a regular basis whenever I get enough pictures that make up a solid set. I also keep the set updated on my Flickr Album

It has been more that a month since my last post, here’s some of the new ones I have found along the way:

I came across this odd banner for Sympatico Autos when browsing this morning. What always surprises me about these kinds of ads is how little self-awareness these companies must have. I mean, really? No one in MSN/Sympatico’s advertising team has the clarity of mind to notice the cliché they’re headed towards?

Advertising is a reality of a consumer culture, we all know this, but I would have hoped that we would have evolved past this kind of single-entendre marketing.

NOTE: I realize that by posting this, in a way I am drawing attention to the very product I am critiquing, but hopefully if enough people react to ads like these we may eventually see a shift from this kind of marketing, to this kind.

Yahoo Movies just released a promo poster for Iron Man 2 feature the movies interpretation of War Machine. Take a look!!

Without much ado, here are the five iPhone apps I use most:

Well those are the five applications I use the most, what are yours? I wouldn’t usually do “Top Ten” type lists, but I do see the allure of breaking things down like this… especially when it’s something you can talk about- you may see more app blogs coming in the not so distant future.

Saturday Night Live has been through its ups and downs since it began in the 1970’s and in the past couple of years it seems to be mostly downs.

It seems that there was a certain point a few years ago where SNL lost the spark that made it so great and became a very generic sketch show that had lost its relevancy. I think it was mostly due to the mass exodus of the show’s best cast members to the big screen or other projects that left a large hole that no new cast member was able to fill. In 2006 SNL lost many of their major cast members, including Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Finesse Mitchell, Chris Parnel and Horatio Sanz, many of which had been with the show for several years. I think SNL went through a period where it lost its personality and either tried new things that just didn’t fit or tried to force their new stars into the old mold, but to no avail.

However in the past year or so it seems like SNL may have found itself once more…

Relative newcomers to the show, Andy Samberg and Bill Hader have both found success outside of the latenight weekend time slot; Samberg with the massive success of the Digital Shorts and Lonely Island collaboration, and Hader with the Apatow crowd. So the ‘new’ SNL has some star power, but what is different about the show itself?

Not that long ago, it seemed like SNL was working with the philosophy that all they had to do is make fun of the president and throw in a few obnoxious characters and their job was done. Well it’s easy to make fun of George W. Bush and the “I’m making loud noises” schtick only really works with Will Ferrell. Lately, though it seems like the type of comedy the SNL staff is working with has changed.

One example is the skit, “What up with that,” where Kenan Thompson plays a spotlight-craving stage performer turned talk show host with guests like former vice-president Al Gore, James Franco and others. At first glance this would seem like any other ‘crazy character’ sketch, but when it gets time for the interview of his guests, Thompson keeps singing, and dancing… and doesn’t stop. It’s at this point that you realize the skit has nothing to do with the over the top songs or acting, but the very notion of inviting such huge guest stars on, just to ignore them. Not many shows save Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Great Job! have the comedic balls to make the statement that it’s not how you use the celebrity, but how you misuse them.

While SNL will never be what it was in decades past, it can be something new. The current cast is probably the best it has been in a few years and the writing staff has finally gotten their act together and are writing comedy instead of recycling it. Now if only they would stop choosing teenage pop stars for their hosts…

Are you a fan of Superman, the Justice League or DC Comics in general? Well prepare to get optically abused. The CW has just released pictures of the upcoming Smallville ‘event’ called Smallville: Absolute Justice.

The images include horribly campy renditions of some of DC’s more obscure heroes, including Hawkman, Doctor Fate and Stargirl posing awkwardly for the camera or in cheesy action poses.

For a while now Smallville has been a Bizzaro version of the DC Universe, but this is just getting ridiculous. They’re already so off canon, they might as well put a kryptonite bullet in Clark and save us all the misery. Take a look:

Source: io9

As many of us are already aware, rock icon David Bowie is about as close as you can get to a living legend. In addition to his monumental impact on music, Bowie has also acted in several films, and has continued in the role of celebrity enough to make Warhol proud.

However as a guy in my twenties, I can only speculate on his impact on past generations. What I can do is talk about Bowie’s impact on the now, more specifically his portrayal in pop culture.

As one of the most eclectic figures in the past few decades, Bowie is usually portrayed as having near limitless insight and wisdom. Is it something that is carried over from his music that gives him such an awesome reputation? Or is it his personality away from the stage?

To get a sense of how huge his impact has been, let’s take a look at David Bowie in pop culture over the past couple of years. First up, his most recent (big) role in ‘The Prestige’ as Nikola Tesla, who in his own right is pretty awesome:

In HBO’s ‘Flight of the Conchords,’ Bret’s dream-Bowie gives him some tips on being cool, “Get an eyepatch, Bret”:

Those examples too conservative in their use of Bowie? How about Adult Swim’s ‘Venture Bros.’ where he is depicted as the Sovereign of the super-villain club, the Guild of Calamitous Intent?

Wes Anderson, who has always had a taste for the peculiar, chose Bowie’s arsenal of songs as a base for his soundtrack; with a twist however, since they are all in Portuguese and sung by Seu Jorge:

Want to check out more of David Bowie in the 21st Century? Check out my Youtube playlist for more of Bowie in today’s popular culture, including more clips from Flight of the Conchords and new videos not featured here.




One more for the road!

Ever been in a bookstore, browsing through the computer’s directory and notice they don’t have a single copy of the book you’re looking for? Maybe not even a single copy from the entire series? Believe it or not this has happened to me more times than I can count on both hands; on books generally considered mainstream and not at all rare or limited.

More and more it seems like book stores are using their online inventory as a backup for in store stock. Big chains like Chapters and Indigo here in Quebec do not hesitate to encourage their employees to push online orders. After asking if they have Book X in stock, an all too familiar reply is “No we don’t have that right now… but you can order it online.” They say this to me as if it is news, as if I didn’t know there was a magical online bookstore with infinite amounts of everything.

The fact is, I like going into the store and flipping through a book before I buy it. Now it seems whenever I get inspired to finally go out to buy a book, the stores are eternally out of stock until I either give up and order online or something distracts me and I neglect the purchase altogether.

Do retailers limit their inventories because everything is so readily online? If I were to venture a guess it would be that they do, indeed. However I don’t think it is part of some malicious scheme to get patrons out of stores and on the web, I think it is simply a matter of being stingy on inventory (which many retailers without online stores can be guilty of, too). I just find it irritating that every time I want to flip through a new book or check out a series, I instead end up having to be spammed with online reviews and a section of books recommended “especially for me!”

I know I can’t expect bookstores to have each and every book that every individual wants, however it would be nice to not have to rely on ordering half my books online and playing the waiting game that follows.