Peracchio linked me to this, and I loved it: "Fireman Dresses Up Like Spider-Man To Save Autistic Boy From Ledge." My favorite part was the last sentence 'Mr Yoosabai normally uses the costume to liven up fire drills in schools.' Best. Fireman. Ever.
100 Movies You Should See Before You Die
Yahoo! has created a list of "100 Movies To See Before You Die," which is making the rounds across the net. Cinephiles will probably have seen about 80, I would guess. I guessed - without looking at the list - that I would probably have seen about 40. Final tally: 45.
There's at least 20 movies that are on the list of "I need to watch this. Soon." In fact, at least a dozen are saved on my DVR, waiting impatiently for me to become classy enough to watch them (I'm looking at you, Sunset Boulevard). It's tough to find a couple hours out of the day to sit down and watch one.
Well, it's not that hard, but I just don't have the patience to do so.
Sexy People
Please check out Sexy People, a blog where people send in their terribly ill-advised Olan Mills pictures from the 70's and 80's. It's impossible not to giggle.
It's a nice compliment
I looked in the mirror this morning and realized that a recent spike in weight had suddenly given me a strong resemblance to Glenn Beck, who is not looking particularly well these days himself (as Colbert noted "the chins-to-Beck ratio is awfully high"). This is about as terrifying a thought as one can have in the morning, and so in my depression I gave up on shaving or combing my hair for the day and ventured out into the world in full "don't mess with me, compadre" mode.
I was searching for a book at the library a few hours later when another browsing gentleman caught my eye and walked up.
"Hey," he said, "do you know what famous person you look exactly like?"
Please don't say Glenn Beck. Please oh please ohpleaseohplease...
It turned out I reminded him of Neal McDonough, who is, in celebrity terms, the single best possible celebrity comparison for me, or rather, for my ego (by the way, I once met McDonough, who, though very polite, is absolutely terrifying in person).
The guy in the library turned out to be a bit of nut - he was taking out "Charmed" companion guide, which is the literary equivalent of giving up on your life - but we had a lovely conversation about the merits of the new "Street Fighter" movie, which I have not seen but know more than enough about movies to fake it ("the action sequences were great, but Chris Klein is just a terrible actor, right?" "Totally!"). After about 15 minutes of truly breathtakingly geeky conversation - it is not often that strangers expect you to know intricate details of the behind-the-scenes habits of the actors on "Smallville" - my new friend wandered off and I went off with a bounce in my step. It's not every day you remind someone of a clear-eyed six-foot bodybuilder. At least, not if you're me.
New American Idol Rule
I know that reality television should not be the first place I go for honesty, but I've been frustrated by the to-do over the new American Idol rule. The judges this year have been granted a "save" - that is, if they feel a contestant is good enough to win the whole contest but they got voted off, the judges can save them and give them another chance.
The example they keep giving - on the show, on talk shows, in interviews - is Chris Daughtry, who was surprisingly eliminated in the final rounds of the show despite being favored to win. The expression on his face when he finds out he's been voted off is priceless ego-check television - he really couldn't believe that he was cut. He went on to become one of Idol's most famous success stories, and the judges keep using this as the example of how they plan to use their save this year. "If we'd had the save back then," one of them mentioned in an interview the other day, "we definitely would have saved Daughtry." This is supposed to be important because whoever wins Idol is supposed to become the big star, and the producers feel that having a runner-up exceed the success of the winner devalues the competition (and, I suppose, it does). But Idol is always going to be beneficial primarily to easygoing, likable singers like eventual winner Taylor Hicks, who America consistently voted for but lacked any sort of commercial marketability. The same is true of this year's likely winner, Danny Gokey - he's talented, warm, and has a heartwrenching backstory, but nobody's gonna buy his CD. And Daughtry, though not quite likable enough to hold through to win the competition, is much more clearly the sort of artist who's capable of making records that people would actually buy. Though if the judges had had this save rule back then, maybe he would have won the competition, too.
Of course, it's not true - the new rule wouldn't have saved him at all. Daughtry, famously, finished fourth during the fifth season of Idol. The new rule only allows the judges to save people up until there are six people remaining.