Anyone catch the picture of Tony Blair on vacation with no shirt?
Hubba hubba!
I tried googling it but came up with nothing. A little help?
UPDATE: Thanks Hephaestion! Look upon Mr Blair’s Bearishness!
I Haven’t Mentioned This in a While
The Black Hole on IMDB.com. Great trivia. Bizzare explanation of the ending on the message boards. Geek Reading is Fun!
Disney’s first PG rating, indeed.
When I think of this movie, I’ve always imagined Disney as the struggling T-rex in a pool of tar as the little dinos sprouted feathery wings and flew away. However, as cheesey as it was, the movie had some impressive visuals. The Cygnus ship design was close to “science fact” with it’s supports and caged environments.
But I doubt that NASA will be putting in amusement ride tie-ins with their mission to Mars.
Channeling Betty Crocker
I went to my Da’s for dinner on Sunday to teach him how to use iPhoto and in return he fed me. We took a picture of a roast ham. I’m reminded of the nuclear glow of Marge Simpson’s pineapple ham.
Please Help.
I am channeling a weepy pleading Sally Struthers when I say Please send me to Japan.
I guess Apple is going to sue since it’s called “iFoot”.
(Photo via getty images via news.com via right clicking.)
The Dead Robot review of DQ: Dames
I was invited to the Friday night gala of DQ: Dames at the Hart House Theatre and I’m extremely suprised at the quality of production the actors and volunteers are presenting. So much so, I’m going back tonight.
I have to admit that I’ve seen some pretty low moments in DQ’s history via hand held, pre-digital video and I was a bit apprehensive about sitting through 2.5 hours of semi-obscure show tunes. From what I gleaned from these videos, DQ was a night of Casey House workers, volunteers and other influential community figures, crammed into dresses and paraded on stage, so they can flub a few lines and leave those who are “with it” laughing knowingly. Dames had very little “inside” jokes and actually relies on a loose story line, spanning a lifetime of showtunes and classic Hollywood musicals from vaudevillian 20s onwards, to keep us engaged. The story is loosely based on Mame, genetically implanted with Best Little Whore House while doing crack with Bob Fosse. It even took a moment to parody itself in a Ziegfeld-esque parade of tacky outfits and drunk, confused drag queens missing their cues. In the past, DQ was 90% lipsynced, just like a regular night at the 501. This time around, the cast sings nearly the entire show live (save for a couple Drag King vignettes) while full on dancing, which shocked the pants off of me. Who knew half these performers could sing? Why haven’t they sung live sooner? I’ve always said that I’d enjoy a drag show if the women displayed more talent than mouthing the words to a tired Celine song and putting on a frock found at Value Village.
Damn I miss Peggy Legs, performance Drag Queen from the mid-90s. But I digress.
I had the opportunity of meeting with the director, Graham Maxwell, at the cast party and he revealed a history of Cruise ship/Club Med performances. He has brought an invaluable talent of getting every last bit of talent from professional and volunteer cast members in a short period of time. The sustained standing ovation at the finale was greatly deserved, however a more definitive “ending” might be in order.
The techical problems with the microphones hopefully will be ironed out by now. God bless Holly Wood for being able to belt out her part without one. And my only artistic critique would be to ask why during the ’40s wartime segment, the ensemble does the “Robot” (Sharkboy explained it to me but I’m still a bit confused).
The show runs til Saturday night (with a Sat afternoon matinee). I cannot recommend this show more. It’s a great cause and worth more than the $45 tix being charged.
UPDATE: I’ve heard some rumblings that people didn’t like the format of this year’s show and wanted the old DQ back (skits and lipsyncing with outrageous costumes). To these people I say: Go to a Tuesday night at the 501, bitches. This format is miles better. I have to give my head a shake when stuck-in-the-mud people can’t accept anything new. (says the middle aged/middle class white guy)
I’ve got a bad feeling about this
I am sure Dawn (of Dawn’s Brain) and Evil Panda (of Dark Designs) can back me up on this:
You are contacted by a potential client (yay!), usually sent to you by word of mouth, and you’re making a shopping list with the money you will make as the client begins to explain their needs. Then it starts going south. You get a bad vibe and you start feeling that if you get involved with this project you might as well pick up your banjo and join the band on the deck as the design takes on icy water.
I just deflected a job that stank of sink. The client sent me a url of a site in development that the wanted my opinion on how to make it “better”. They also offered “suggestions” of what they would like to see. One of the questions they asked was “What program created the code?”
How odd…
I looked at the site and other than some garishly coloured graphics, I could find no fault in the code or the site layout. Whoever created the site knew their stuff: the CSS was like looking into the face of God. It was compliant to all standards and worked extremely well in Opera, Safari, Firefox and IE. The layout was smooth and professional and in the end I really could not see why they wanted to revamp this development site. I basically said to them that the site is done, just change the colours, dump the bright graphics and stop spending your money on redesign after redesign.
I got this back:
…your input was excellent.
In one paragraph you described the problem and
Offered (sic) the only solution possible.Thank you again
I breathed a huge sigh of relief as there was no “…now can you do it?” attached.
Of course I just spent 2 hours of my freelance life for free but I think I deflected hours of aggro.
The Most Annoying Commercial
…goes to Ritter Sport chocolate bars!
I can see this getting as big as Mentos because of it’s Euro-tacky, Richard Marx-like song (“lets get exciiiited!” – repeat ad nauseum) and the fact that it’s trying to sell chocolate to athletes. In an easy-open, resealable package. Riiiiight.
Cheese… Check!
Long day yesterday, ending in my Da’s birthday dinner. 73 years old and I still see him as a 50 yr old tail-chasing authority figure. He tells me that he’s going to get rid of the car (which is now only accessable by the passenger side, something is wrong with the driver’s door). Oh to have a higher paying job. While typing that last bit I felt somewhat trailer-trashy but he’s getting around fine without it and it’s just “a drain on the inheritance” as he says.
I get home and lift my man-bag off my shoulders to see *ZIP* a small black smudge move in my periferal vision. Did I just see a mouse? Yes. I did. It tried to climb up over my cables by the TV. Now, I’m no caricature of some 50’s housewife screaming on a chair, but I did feel uneasy about walking ’round my apartment barefooted. I called the Super this morning and told them about the little guy.
Apparently a mouse requires a work order to be filled out. I am glad that they’re sticklers about not entering your unit without permission (I bet they’ve been burned in the past) but couldn’t they just slip the sticky trap under the door or something?
To take my mind off my furry squatter, a friend showed me the as-not-yet-aired Family Guy episode that will be shown this Sunday. Fans will not be disappointed. The formula is unchanged: Terriffic Jeppetto and Pinoccio visual joke. Tom Tucker’s upsidedown face kid! The evil monkey in the closet! Jasper. the extremely creepy old guy from Chris’ paper route! The animation quality seems to have been raised a tad and best of all: Stewie and Brian ARE BACK! Brilliant writing for these two characters makes them deserving of their own show.
I Feel For You, Man
I really feel for Andrew, the guy who prints out the posters I design for the Black Eagle. He’s straight yet works in a print shop that oversees most of Church Street’s poster/marketing jobs and I am sure he’s seen his share of softcore gay porn images while processing these files.
The posters I plunk down on his desktop show various gay bondage images, somewhat hard core gay sex scenes and bizzare costumed leather daddy/boy/slave/master/kitty cat porn imagery. I always look at his face for some flicker of heterosexual reaction to these images as he goes through them one by one to check the instructions written on the proofs. I’m looking for some straight-guy-Pavlovian-reaction to gay porn. He gives me nothing. One time I made an 11×17 colour poster of an uncut dick the size of the poster, with lettering on the side. Nada.
Today, I brought in a poster of an upended furry butt with the event title on either side of the hole. Zzzt. Nothing. I point to the manhole image and say “You may have some difficulty opening that file,” seeing if he’ll react to the innuendo. Nope. We discuss the poster file and that’s it.
Kudos Andrew. You’re truly a cool guy.
“It must be weird…”
We’re tired and just finished watching Survivor (no suprises this week, really) and I don’t know how we got onto the topic, but I fessed up to never having seen Showgirls. Instantly, Sharkboy is on his feet and into the Vault. Zip! Into the VCR and we sit through the whole 2 hours and ten minutes of hooterboobies.
I am sure there are treatises out there about this movie. Was Verhoeven trying to make a feminist statement? Or a remake of All About Eve? Or did he swindle the studio into producing a soft core porn movie for mainstream distrubution?
And no American movie is complete without lipstick wearing, rampaging monkeys amongst bare chested women for a comedy break.