largely ignored » 2007

Clever Ravens: “Their skills when it comes to tricking and cheating, for example, have not been thoroughly explored. Ravens are cunning enough to set up mock hiding places in order to distract their thievish fellows from their real food stores. They’re generally very inventive when it comes to tricking those who would snatch away their food. But how much truth is there to reports according to which ravens play dead next to carcasses in order to simulate a case of food poisoning?” Watch one make and use a tool and another use a busy road to crack nuts (with David Attenborough narrating, though this time it’s a crow, which are from the same family as ravens) Youtube.

Simpsons did it, then Family Guy did it again.

Full Metal Jacket for the Wii.

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Linkdump for May 4th, 2007 - Dennis Kucinich’s Hot 29 Year Old Wife?!

May 4, 2007 at 1:54 am · Filed under Uncategorized

Dennis Kucinich somehow has a hot 29 year old wife. That’s his wife behind him. You can’t tell in the video, but she’s like a foot taller than him, too. If the man can pull this off for himself, imagine what he could do with diplomacy in the Middle East.

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Linkdump for May 3rd, 2007 - Willem Dafoe is a Shithead, Foul-Mouthed Felt

May 3, 2007 at 7:10 am · Filed under Linkdump

Willem Dafoe is a Shithead. Check out the freshly-ended (maybe not) I Love Movies podcast by comedian Doug Benson (who I know from the Marijuanalogues and bobanddavid.com, but you might know from Best Week Ever) which features a guest every week (usually a comedian, sometimes not) talking about movies. It’s hilarious. Sean Cullen was particularly funny, so start with him.

Quentin Tarantino in Muppets Wizard of Oz. The word “bitchslap” is used, and not by Tarantino.

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Car Chase Marathon #1: Bullitt

May 1, 2007 at 8:18 pm · Filed under Movies

Bullitt (1968)

Movie: 5/10

I found myself, for the first time, searching for the function on the remote that would let me know how far I was into the movie. I was only 30 minutes into the 2 hour running time. The boredom was periodically relieved by something interesting happening onscreen, most notably the car chase, but quickly returned when something silly happened. (Apparently there’s only one Sunshine Cab in all of San Francisco?)

It wasn’t all bad. Steve McQueen was a badass and when he called “Bullshit!” on Robert Vaughn, I knew instantly that it was the first time it had been uttered in a mainstream movie. I appreciate what the performance and character meant at the time and can see their influence in countless films, for better or for worse.

Car chase: 7/10

I probably would’ve rated this an 8 had it not been for the silly ending. I’m sure it was novel for the time but I’ve seen too many car chases end at an exploding gas station for me to forgive what may have been the first. The hills of San Francisco make for the perfect setting as the danger of what’s coming around the corner is compounded by the danger of what’s coming up the hill. It didn’t have me on the edge of my seat but I certainly was entertained by it.

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