Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog

Sounds pretty stupid, right?

Wrong.

It's a web-only comic musical. OK, it does sound stupid, but bear with me for a moment longer.

"Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog" is a web-only super-villain musical by Joss Whedon and stars Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris and here's a sneak-peek:


Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Looks awesome to me. For details, go read what Joss has to say.

"Oh my God the show has gotten so damn Complicated."

(found at Too Much Free Time)

Amy Winehouse makes me sad.

Up All Night with Amy Winehouse: "It's dawn on a hot sunday morning in June, and Amy Winehouse is inside her North London home, staring at her reflection in a dark tinted mirror, looking the tiny little body in front of her up and down, assessing the emaciated tattooed limbs, the jungle of a black beehive weave, the hallucinatory glow of her transparent green eyes. All around her, Winehouse's home is in disastrous disarray: Discarded bags of potato chips, crumpled nuggets of tinfoil, beer bottles, lingerie boxes and scattered old credit cards tell of a long night that hasn't ended in weeks, maybe months."

I apologize in advance for this.

Click through at your own risk:

Vern Troyer Sex Tape Being Shopped Around.

GAH!

Buildings are not supposed to move.

An artist's rendering of "the world's first building in motion."

For me, this one falls under the "just because you can, that doesn't mean you should" category, for a few reasons:

1. UGLY!
2. I like my buildings to remain motionless and on solid ground. This would be like living in a theme park attraction.
3. The designer strikes me as a snake oil salesman.

My gut just tells me this is a bad idea.

What Happened Next.

We all know the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty, or at least the version that Hollywood has shown us, but how many know what happened afterward, in the intervening centuries between then and now? Not me.

I had Turner Classic Movies on the other night, as background noise while I wasted time online. They were showing the Clark Gable version of Mutiny and afterwards they played a short film about Pitcairn Island, the extremely isolated South Pacific island where the mutineers took refuge. I had never heard of Pitcairn, so I started Googling and that's how I found out about the sex scandal. I couldn't believe what had gone on that I had never heard about!

For the whole story, from the mutiny through two centuries, until the sex scandal broke in the late 90s, read this fascinating 10-page Vanity Fair article, "Trouble in Paradise":

"But the movies never moved past sunset endings with a Gable or a Gibson standing with the Tahitian maidens on the cliffs of Pitcairn, looking out over his torched ship and the boundless Pacific, both the evidence and the way home sinking offshore. That was the beginning, not the end, of the odd colony the mutineers founded. Over the centuries Pitcairn, its population rising as high as 233 and now holding at 47, has become a mystical destination for those seeking escape, freedom, and the dream of paradise in the South Seas.

The news that has come off the rock in the last decade shocked the world and tainted the myth. In 2004, six men—a third of the island’s adult male population, including Pitcairn mayor Steve Christian, a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian’s—had been convicted under English law of 33 sexual offenses, some dating back as many as 40 years. The trials had been held in a makeshift courtroom on Pitcairn. At the Privy Council, on July 10, 2006, the prisoners were appealing those convictions.

Headlines around the world had focused on the criminal case: pitcairn’s cloud of vice. But a more dramatic story lay buried in the thousands of pages piled high on a table partly shielding the Privy Council lords from the commoners facing them.

For most of its history, Pitcairn lived with a secret sex culture that defined island life. Adultery was not just routine but pervasive, as was the sexual fondling of infants and socially approved sex games among young children. Incest and prostitution were not unknown. The criminal charges stemmed from a longtime island practice of “breaking in” girls as young as 10."

The best news I've heard all day.

"A big-screen version of Arrested Development is planned for next year."

I know what you're thinking: Hollywood has run out of ideas, they've made one too many movies based on television shows already, but I don't care! Didn't you hear what I said? New Arrested Development, the Bluths on the big screen! Yay!

I think this news calls for a clip...

The Coming Storm

Windmill, originally uploaded by gina64.

"That's not a show, that's a Gay Pride Parade!"

Steven Colbert hates The Smurfs just as much as I do:



ETA: I just realized that what I wrote makes it sound like I hate The Smurfs because they are like a Gay Pride Parade.

I would like to make it very clear that I have nothing against gay people, parades or the Gay Pride Parade! (although the marchers could do with putting on some pants before they leave the house)

That was just the funniest line from the video.

Aaand, the other shoe drops. Sort of.

Latest floating 'foot' turns out to be a hoax: "A 'skeletonized animal paw' had been placed in a sock and athletic shoe that was packed with dried seaweed, the British Columbia Coroners Service announced."

I bet the answer to the mystery won't be nearly as macabre as the theories my twisted brain has come up with after watching CSI, Forensice Files, Investigation Discovery, Cold Case Files and Silence of the Lambs one too many times.

The feet most likely belong to victims of a plane crash, whose feet disarticulated from their bodies after they spent some time decomposing at the bottom of the ocean. Because they were encased in buoyant sneakers, the feet drifted along currents until they washed up on a beach.

Because this is happening in and around Vancouver, I can't help but wonder, WWMD? (what would Mulder do?)

Meanwhile, authorities wait for the other shoe to drop.

The Vancouver Sun's full coverage of the fascinating Mystery of the Feet.

I have run through the fields...

I have run through the fields..., originally uploaded by gina64.

Let's not and say I did, ok?

Happy Landings Farm is a place I have always wanted to photograph, with its rolling farmland and ancient windmills. It's located just down the road from where my father used to live and we would drive by it all the time.

It's also very near to where I work, so I decided to go there during my lunch hour yesterday and take some pictures. What I didn't realize was that Happy Landings Farm is part of the Brookfield Nature Conservancy, with mowed trails running through and around it. It was a beautiful way to spend my lunch hour.

It's not something in the water.

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High: "As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town...All it took was a few simple questions before nearly half the expecting students, none older than 16, confessed to making a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together."

I have found the best Bloody Mary mix, EVER.

If you like Bloody Marys you MUST try this mix: York Harbor Bloody Mary.

It's made in Maine by lobstermen (of course it is), and it has a lobster and wasabi base. It is delicious. I bought one bottle at a local liquor store for Sheila's baby shower - Sheila's having a baby, BTW! Very soon! - and it was gone almost instantly. I was so sad that I didn't grab at least one more bottle.

At $10 a pop, it's not cheap, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to get it for less on my way up to the cabin in July. Bloody Marys have been a fixture during 'cocktail' hour on Petit Manan since as long as anyone can remember. ('Cocktail hour' being any time of the day after 12:00 PM!)

They found another foot in Vancouver!

Police pursue theories over severed feet: "The sixth foot turned up Wednesday -- a right foot in a man's size 10 black Adidas athletic shoe, police said. As in the previous cases, however, immediate answers as to the foot's origin eluded detectives. 'We are exploring the possibility that it could be people who may have drowned,' said Annie Linteau, a spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. 'It could be missing fishermen. It could be the remains of people who may have died in a plane crash.'"

So. Freaking. Weird.

A Major Loss for the World of Pugs

Tori Spelling Mourns Beloved Pug Mimi LaRue: "Aside from being fashionably hip, Mimi LaRue was a true member of the family, rarely giving up a chance for a fine meal or simply relaxing in Spelling's lap. 'She was a loving pet and a true diva to the end,' says Spelling."

After seeing little Mimi floating around the graphics in the previews for Tori's new reality show on Monday night, I said to Sheila, "She's going to be devastated when that dog dies." I didn't think it would happen so soon!

Rest in peace, little Mimi. Marty and Mickey send their condolences.

Revelations (Spoilers for BSG)

I wanted to post something about the amazing "mid-season" finale of Battlestar Galactica that aired last Friday. Since I know that most of my readers (all 3 of them!) don't watch the show, I thought, instead of doing a recap, I'd point you to some noteworthy items about it.

Before I do, I wanted to say that despite its hopeless, devastating ending, "Revelations" actually left me hopeful for a semi-happy ending for these poor people. Actually, it's because of the ending that I feel hopeful about things to come - it feels like we got the bad ending out of the way! I hope.

Anyway, here it is, the amazing tracking shot from the end of "Revelations", the quality of which you rarely see on TV (Contains the biggeset BSG SPOILER EVER , so consider yourself warned)



To read some great discussion and reviews of the episode try these links:

What's Alan Watching
TWoP Battlestar Galactica Forum

For information on the timetable for BSG's final season, read this Chicago Tribune column: "As he discussed here, the show’s executive producer, Ronald D. Moore, wrote 'Battlestar's' final episode, which, as written, is three hours long... Mary McDonnell described her reaction to the script this way: It filled her with 'an incredible feeling of adrenaline,” she told Ain't It Cool News. “It made me understand the entire saga, and made me excited for all of you.”"

And finally, the brilliant composer for BSG, Bear McCreary, writes about his experience scoring this episode over at his blog

At this point, according to TPTB over at SciFi, the final episodes of BSG are not scheduled to begin airing until "some time in the first quarter of 2009." My guess: March. If you have not started watching this amazing show yet, now is your chance - you've got at least 7 months to watch 3 and a half seasons on DVD. You can do it! I know you can!

Because I'm Eeeevil!

I have no idea what this is, where it's from, or if it's part of something bigger, but I like it.

He always looks so worried.

He always looks so worried., originally uploaded by gina64.

This isn't the best photo of Marty, but for the sake of equal time for each pug, I couldn't post a shot of Mickey without one of Marty ;)

Neither of them would sit still for me. That's probably because they were in the kitchen, a place where they must be constantly vigilant and on the move, lest they miss an eating opportunity.

I got this one as Mickey was about to jump on my face:

Oldies but Goodies

Oldies but Goodies, originally uploaded by gina64.

A mosaic of some of my favorite photos I've taken.

The question is: Did it have 4 toes or 5?

Fifth severed foot found on Canadian coast: "Our first step is to establish identity,' Brooks said. 'It is a little mysterious, but we don't know if it is linked to others.' According to the Vancouver Sun newspaper, the other four feet found in the area since August were right feet."

Weird!

The Onion AV Club Interview: James Callis

A fantastic interview with the brilliant actor who plays Gaius Baltar on Battlestar Galactica:

"To tackle the most complicated character on one of the most complicated shows on TV, James Callis used an old weapon: humor. Callis plays Gaius Baltar, the brilliant, cowardly, and possibly crazy scientist who was tricked into destroying practically the entire human race. While Baltar struggles with the guilt he feels and the friction he endures with his fellow survivors, he brings a sly wit to the job, making some of his most craven moments feel human."

Real-life Black Widow

Police investigate wife for five dead husbands: "Williams said he's still working to uncover as much as he can about Neumar's first two husbands, both of whom he said were from Ohio. One died in 1952, the other in 1955. He's also trying to piece together her life between her second husband's death and when she married Sills.'Keep in mind that it appears that after each husband, she moved on. So she could just tell any story she wanted to tell,' Williams said. 'That's just what happened. She would come up with some pretty wild stories that she told about herself or what happened to her husbands.'"

Every bird should get to fly.

Mid-season finale of BSG tonight!

"Mid-season finale" - that's just crap. The rest of season 4 won't air until early 2009, so why don't they just call it what it is? Two separate seasons!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to tonight. Here's the trailer for tonight's episode, and it looks like a doozy (Do NOT watch this if you have not seen at least seasons 1-3 in their entirety):

Tim Russert is dead at 58.

Tim Russert was one of the few cable news talking heads that I liked and respected, and one of the very few political reporters I could actually understand. RIP, Mr. Russert.

Click on the image to see the very brave and professional Tom Brokaw report the news of his friend's death.

I rolled a 2.

05-26-2008 062, originally uploaded by gina64.

A cabin in the woods.

05-26-2008 021, originally uploaded by gina64.

This is the cabin we stay in at the Mohawk Trail State Park in Massachusetts. I go there every Memorial Day Weekend with friends.

The park is also a campground, but the place is crawling with black bears, so tenting has become a less than appealing idea. The log cabins provide a much more relaxing alternative!

Hard work has its rewards.

Habitat NOLA 269, originally uploaded by gina64.

TomTom!

Around this time every year my mother begins to think about what to get me for my birthday. Invariably, she figures it out in a short amount of time and then can’t wait to give it to me, and I get my present from her in June. On Sunday she gave me this year’s gift: a TomTom GPS navigator for my car. Woo! I’ve been playing around with it and I was actually impressed by it last night. I had it on on the way home from work last night and it was navigating to our house in Maine, because I had put that in earlier in the day to see how it would tell me to get there. Anyway, it’s not a big deal because the way home from work and the way to Maine from work are the same, I just get off the highway in Waterbury. As soon as I got off the highway it re-calculated my route and told me how to get back on. So I turned onto a side road and set the TomTom to navigate to home. I was impressed because it took me down this side street and then up an access road that runs along the high school that I didn’t even know about, and back onto the main drag. Neat.

When I set it up, I chose the male British voice. It’s nice, but today I realized something: he sounds like creepy Raymond (Laurence Harvey) from The Manchurian Candidate. I’m not sure I want a brainwashed Communist assassin giving me directions in a strange town.

You can download other voices from their website for $5. I may have to get the sexy Scottish guy.

Poke it! Watch how it trembles!

Weight Watchers recipe cards, circa 1974: "These cards mystify me. None of them have calorie or nutrition information of any kind, and in some instances it's hard to tell what's dietetic about the recipes at all, except that they're unspeakably grim. And yet also, completely insane. They appear to be from a much kookier era of Weight Watchers. There's a certain serve-it-at- your-next-key-party freakiness to a lot of these dishes."

A sample of the insanity:



Did people really eat this stuff? The Mackerel Pudding? The Inspiration Soup? The Frankfurter Spectacular??? Incredible.

Sad news.

This is currently just a rumor, but there are reports circulating that Paul Newman is very sick with lung cancer.

If it's true, well, shit. That really sucks. He's 83 and he's had a long life filled with good works, a successful career and a loving family, yes, but it still sucks. It always sucks when a good person dies, no matter how old they are.

Listen to me, I've got him already dead and buried! Guess it's a good thing I'm not his doctor.

Anwyay, I wish him luck in this battle.

Every jump brings us a little bit closer to home.

What's Alan Watching? What's Alan doing in my head, is more like it. Mr. Sepinwall does an amazing job - much better than I ever could - of expressing exactly what I thought of Friday's exquisite Battlestar Galactica episode, "The Hub":

It's about time: "At this late date in the lifespan of 'Battlestar Galactica,' what superlatives are left to describe the work of Mary McDonnell? How can I praise this performance week after week, season after season, and capture how much better it keeps getting without sounding like a sycophantic broken record?

Here's the best I've got, really: if this were baseball, I'd start suspecting her of using steroids or HGH, because in recent weeks she's gone from late '90s Barry Bonds (consistently brilliant, but in a way that almost makes you take her for granted) to early '00s Barry Bonds (jaw-droppingly, insanely, don't-dare-change-the-channel amazing). Mary's head is still the same size, but somehow, she's found a way to take her game to a new level of late. I am so grateful that we get to watch her play this character."

"The Hub" had all of the elements that make Battlestar Galactica *still* one of the best things on TV - stunning acting and intelligent writing played out against a backdrop of gorgeous space battles and a haunting score - but what made it truly outstanding for me was the scene where Roslin and Adama finally, finally acknowledge their feelings for each other:



It's taken them a mini-series and three and a half long seasons to get to this point, and all the tiny steps forward in their relationship over the years were like the jumps of the basestar that brings them ever closer to home, to each other.

I love this show.

Senator John McCrazy

McCain Vows To Replace Secret Service With His Own Bare Fists

This is SO wrong.

Diet Book Author Advocates New 'No Food Diet'

Miss Ann's House

Before and After, originally uploaded by gina64.

We were assigned to work on Miss Aneita Page's house while in New Orleans. Miss Ann came to New Orleans over twenty years ago as a missionary. She works with pregnant teens and runs a shelter for teens at risk. Miss Ann lost everything in Katrina, but has qualified for a Habitat home. She will be living here with her mother. Miss Ann visited the site one day and it was great to be able to chat with her. Unfortunately, she didn't bring any of her delicious fried chicken that day.

The photos above are before and after shots. The annual Jimmy Carter Build was happening the week after we were there so we concentrated on getting the front of Miss Ann's house in "photo-op" shape for the dedication by President and Mrs. Carter.

I worked with my two friends Holly and Jill on laying down the porch decking and building the front porch steps, while Dan and Shaji, both graduating medical students and great guys, built the soffit along the roof line. We had a group of graduating midshipmen from Annapolis who finished putting up the siding. Once we all finished with our respective projects, we spent Friday painting.

I think it came out pretty nicely. Here are a couple of photos I took with my phone of the porch and stairs that we built:





To see all of the photos of the work site, as well as my other photos from the trip, click here for the entire collection.

Something for the grownups in the crowd.

Straight Shooter

Dirty Harry comes clean: "Eastwood has no time for Lee's gripes. 'He was complaining when I did Bird [the 1988 biopic of Charlie Parker]. Why would a white guy be doing that? I was the only guy who made it, that's why. He could have gone ahead and made it. Instead he was making something else.' As for Flags of Our Fathers, he says, yes, there was a small detachment of black troops on Iwo Jima as a part of a munitions company, 'but they didn't raise the flag. The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn't do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people'd go, 'This guy's lost his mind.' I mean, it's not accurate.'"

If I wasn't an enormous fan already, this article would win me over.

Fortunately for him, his stature in Hollywood allows him to say pretty much anything ("A guy like him should shut his face", for instance) without suffering any serious repercussions (It helps that he's usually speaking the truth). I wish they all had the latitude for such straight-talk.

(thanks, defamer)

For Johnny Canuck.

"The answers are there. You just have to know where to look."

FOX has released a new theatrical trailer for the X-Files movie that is much more informative and better than the teaser trailer (which I suppose is the point). It's up at YouTube, but I'm not sure for how long so watch it while you can:



You can also click here to view a better quality version.

Aaaand, how about some new, high-quality stills from the movie:



I may be alone in this opinion, but I do think her hair is too long. Whenever I see her I want to cut off about 4 or 5 inches. I hope it doesn't bother me while I'm watching to movie!

Oo, that's a good carrot.

Biggest drawing in the world.

Very cool.

Otters!

Ladies and Jellyspoons, the next President of the United States.

Obama crosses historic milestone: "Barack Obama has done what many just a year ago thought was impossible. He took on the most powerful family in Democratic politics and won...On Tuesday, Obama became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, marking the first time an African-American will head the ticket of a major political party."

I'm going to be honest and say that I wasn't able to decide between Clinton and Obama. Each of them, in their own right, present a worthwhile, qualified and hopeful alternative to the current administration and I would have voted for either of them as the Democratic nominee. Hopefully, Obama will offer Clinton the VP job and I'll be able to vote for both of them.

My prediction for November: Obama wipes the floor with McCain, especially if he's got Hillary on the ticket.

Girls, he back in the game.

Old news, I know! But I was away for almost the entire month of May and I couldn't let this pass without mentioning it here.

All of the important news breaks when I'm not around to blog about it. I hate that.

Poor Sarah's not taking it so well, but I guess she can console herself with the thought that she got closer to the prize than any other woman has so far. And she'll have the photos of that time he took her to the Academy Awards and not his mother.

Turn to clear vision.

05-26-2008 052, originally uploaded by gina64.

I was green.

Back of the pack., originally uploaded by gina64.

Summertime.

05-26-2008 032, originally uploaded by gina64.

Drive-Thru Review

Stardust - I was disappointed when I heard some mixed reviews on this when it first came out, but I am happy to report that they were all wrong and I really enjoyed it. Think, "Princess Bride", only with a little more drama. And bigger name stars. Some of them were odd choices - DeNiro, especially - but I thought overall it worked. I recommend it.

Damn, Dirty Pugs!