Jenna Elfman (remember her?) went out and got herself a website too! Not quite sure why, but it’s nice to know she’s still kicking it.

Why am I posting this? Though she has done hardly much in her career, she’s bubbly and in all fairness Keeping the Faith - the religious comedy starring Ed Norton, Ben Stiller and herself - is one of my guilty pleasures. I could watch that thing in bits and pieces whenever it aired on Comedy Central during college . . . usually at 3 a.m. and stumbling home from a bar. But still.

Whoah, that movie came out in 2000. Ah someone needs to get a new agent because she’s wasting her comedic talents by not working. [via]

Josh Greenbaum won the 2007 MTVu Award for Best Filmmaker on Campus for his short film “Border Patrol”. Three friends voluntarily guard our border against illegals. This is their story. Ah and it’s the old comedic switcheroo, full of border hijinks and shenanigans.

Say shenanigans one more time! Hey Farva what’s that restaurant you used to eat at? Super Troopers has nothing to do with Josh Greenbaum’s short film, but that was a funny movie. You can watch episodes over at Atom, but you might want to watch the trailer first and judge for yourself if it’s worth your time. Kinda hard to say, but I do love a certain racist, stereotype humor with a political bent.

And honestly, I sort of loath the use of Carmen Burana for comedic purposes. Not because it isn’t funny, but hasn’t it been done to a seventh circle of hell type of death? Calling it overused would be understated how often the song is used to be “funny.”

As television grew more popular and multiplexes spread across America, offering air conditioning and stadium seating and all the accoutrements you could want, no one particularly cared that the summer vacation staple - the drive-in theater - was dying out.  There are only 400 drive-ins still operating today and I know of only a handful in all of New England and have yet to find one in Oregon.

But the drive-in is about magic.  The first movie I ever saw was Bambi at an Indiana drive-in.  I was tucked away in the back seat under blankets and pillows and got to watch the hunters kill Bambi’s mother.  Thanks mom and dad!  But I wouldn’t trade that or the chance to load up people into a car to watch a schlocky double feature.

Time takes a look at the state of the drive-in movie theater and finds that it is surprisingly healthy?

Some owners, like D. Edward Vogel, administrative secretary of the United Drive-In Theater Owners Association and the passionate proprietor of Bengies, a drive-in theater in Baltimore, Md., are determined to succeed on ticket sales alone. He says he “puts [his] heart and soul into it. It’s taken 22 years but it’s a big payoff. People are really starting to appreciate and respect what I do.”

Wobbly finances aside, it seems that the drive-in is an American icon that will never completely fade — perhaps because of its irrefutable and enduring appeal, says Wright. “If it were just nostalgia, people would come one night and they would go ‘Okay, did that, check that off the list,’” Wright says. “But it’s not that. They literally are coming every week, week after week. On a beautiful night, with the stars out, it is an experience that I think will survive.”

Well, yeah sure, you’ll always be able to find one theater owner who is doing okay, not great, mind you.  One of the big things is that in this age of on demand media, do most people even know drive-ins still exist?  That might be the hardest aspect of owning one of these theaters.

The problem for theater owners is that you can’t make the movies free to draw larger crowds because there is no system in place to make up the revenue through concession sales.  Most people just bring a cooler of food and beverages with them.  But if you could make the movies free and figure out another revenue stream you might just have a gold mine.

Yesterday, I went and volunteered for the Livestrong Bike Ride in Portland. I basically manned the water and Gatorade station. A highly pivotal role. It felt good to contribute something while these guys went out and rode 40, 70, or 100 miles to raise money for cancer research and pay their respects for the cancer survivors or the ones they lost.

At the station I was volunteering for there was a group of pirate entertainers, who weren’t so entertaining. Actually, their schtick was funny at first but then it got old.  Quickly.

Towards the end of the day, several volunteers realized that one of the pirates may have inadvertently sexually harassed one of the riders and then there was a cringe worthy exchange.

A rider came to the rest stop on back of his jersey were three names whom he was riding “In Memory” of.  One pirate saw the names and offered to do a pirate cheer in their honor.  Sounds great.  They do the cheer, except the cheers ends with “Who’s better than us?  No one’s better than us, because everyone else is dead!”  Which is probably not the best way to end a salute in honor of people who have died from cancer.  Just sayin’.

The whole point of this is that it was a big weekend for cancer.  MORE »

The teaser trailer for the latest James Bond adventure has finally surfaced.  This one is going to be attached to Hancock if you’re looking to see it up on the big screen.  I would say this isn’t much of a teaser but a full-blown first course.  We’ve given a bevy of fight scenes, car chases, beautiful women, James Bond going off the reservation and only a sliver of the plot.

It looks badass and the idea of a Bond movie being a direct sequel to the previous movie sounds intriguing.  All Bond movies heretofore have all existed in this little vacuum.  It’s nice to finally see some emotional connection to the women in Bond’s life - how it drives him, shuts him off emotionally, etc.

Quantum of Solace is in theaters November 7.

We’ve all been there - bunkered down in the foxhole known as a cubicle.  Eyelids glazed over, drool slowly beginning to develop, a pile of work you just don’t have the energy to do, trying to master the art of “alt + tab.”

Tiny earbuds barely protruding so that your boss, let’s call him Stan, doesn’t know you’re rocking out to Motley Crue or Poison (yes, I know I just dropped a reference from the late 80’s but still, c’mon “Nothing But a Good Thing” is killer), you’re keeping your head low so that you don’t catch incoming fire from Sally across the way because Sally will inevitably ask you do to some menial task that is below your intelligence and a waste of your time.

You could easily hide out by the coffee machine or pretend to drop a dookie and instead catch some z’s, but wouldn’t you rather waste time at work by doing something fun instead of surfing around the internet on the four sites that your office doesn’t block out?

Yeah we thought so.  MORE »

I find the architectural designs that are being created in the Middle East absolutely fascinating. The region of the world, known more in these parts for terrorism, failed states, and oil cartels are at the cutting edge of architectural wonders. So much so, that they are shaming design in the U.S.

Part wishes that our designs were 1/10 as courageous as anything in Dubai, including that newly announced rotating skyscraper, and now this cultural center that is going to be built in Saudi Arabia for King Abdulaziz. The amorphous building is striking and oddly reminds me of the alien life form from The Abyss.

In competition with some of the world’s greatest architects, Snøhetta has won the competition about designing Saudi Arabia’s new Cultural Center. Saudi Aramco – the world’s largest oil company – is the client.

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz set the cornerstone for the Cultural Center which will house a museum, library, theater, cinema and more. The building reflects the history of oil in Saudi Arabia and is different from the country’s architectonic traditions with its abstract and spectacular form.

Along with five other internationally know architect offices, Snøhetta participated in the competition and was chosen in preference to famous names as Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas.

[via]

When I tried tuning in for the Sigur Ros and Bjork live concert feed on Saturday, I gave up after a few tries when nothing loaded. I’d say it’s highly disappointing and that National Geographic should have been prepared to deliver a better stream or handle the high volume of track. Either way, it’s upsetting.

What I didn’t realize is that Sigur Ros and Bjork were playing together or would play together. They each did a set and then played together. Sorry, I’ve been in the sun all morning. There hasn’t been much in the way of decent clips, Lots of great clips can be found, but here’s the latest single from the new Sigur Ros album, “Gobbledigook.” I love that Bjork is on drums and looks so excited to be playing.

I woulda given anything to be able to watch this and would have given more to have seen this show live.

For good measure we’ve got Bjork singing “Wanderlust” and “Hyperballad” after the jump. MORE »

Yeah, yeah.  It’s becoming apparent that The Dark Knight is the greatest movie ever made.  All the early screenings are hitting the net and you can’t cross the street without people throwing around superlatives like Godfather II or Heat or epicfuckingmoviethat’sthebestthingevermade. It also doesn’t hurt that the push for Heath Ledger’s posthumous Oscar has already started.

Be that as it may, we can now turn our attention to promoting another movie.  Hellboy. I tried explaining the premise behind the franchise to a co-worker a few days ago (he also celebrated the recent SJC Second Amendment decision, there is no correlation to what I’m about to say, except that I thought you should know this.  Also, I’m going to get him to take me to a shooting range.  See, dreams do come true!) and he was just baffled by it.

I was like, so Satan’s child gets sucked through a dimensional portal to Earth by the Nazis during WW II, except he’s rescued by a benevolent American and raised like a human and he protects us from mystical  creatures.  He likes to drink and cuss and eat Snickers and he loves cats.  Basically, he’s like a petulant teenager, except he has horns and a huge right hand that may or may not one day bring about the apocalypse.

I wish I captured his facial expression.  Priceless.  But my guess is he’s now intrigued enough to go and see Hellboy II: The Golden Army when it opens July 11.

According to John Anderson of Variety, “In a previous life, del Toro might have been a maker of clocks — clocks inhabited by gargoyles instead of cuckoos, and which exploded on the hour. But there’s a precision to the visual ornateness of “Hellboy II” that exceeds even that of its predecessor. It’s certainly a more deliberately (and successfully) funny movie, thanks largely to the drily ironic Hellboy — Ron Perlman, who returns with the rest of the cast, and without whom an onscreen Hellboy would have been almost unthinkable.”

Anderson thinks that del Toro got a huge push from Universal, but if anything the studio hampered del Toro’s vision the first time around almost neutering the franchise from the onset.  Given a second chance, it is abundantly clear that del Toro’s chutzpah oozes out of every frame and second of film.  To call him a visionary director would be to short change just what an impressive run he has been on over his last four or five pictures.   MORE »

The U.S. is ramping up covert operation inside Iran, essentially trying to lay the groundwork for an inevitable invasion there as well.  It’s been rumored that Pres. Bush wants to invade the country before the end of his Presidency, especially if it looks as if Sen. Obama is going to win the White House and put his administration in a difficult place.  On the other hand, if McCain wins then he knows his lacky will carry out his policies.

Yay for that.  This bit of news comes from one of the last great journalists, Seymour Hirsch (he who uncovered Abu Graib) in an article for this week’s New Yorker.  It’s thought that it will be Israel bombing Iran in the beginning and that the US would come to its aid.  Where the extra troops would come from … who knows?

Being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer, Hersch said, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have rejected findings from U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran has halted a clandestine effort to build a nuclear bomb and that they “do not want to leave Iran in place with a nuclear program.”

Hmmm… so they are once again basing decisions on their own internal logic rather than the facts that are presented to them.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees—the so-called Gang of Eight. Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed.

[Preparing the Battlefield]

Last night at Glastonbury, UK’s venerable music festival, Jay-Z took to the stage and pimped slapped Oasis’s Noel Gallagher by mockingly opening his set with “Wonderwall.”

Some back story: A little bit ago, Noel Gallagher said that Jay-Z and hip-hop don’t belong at the festival.  In fact, the word he used was “wrong.”

Jay-Z defended himself and the supposed beef had everyone all aflutter.  And I think it’s safe to say that Jigga took to the stage and put the beef to rest.  Brilliant and classy way to tell Noel he’s a douche.  Even if the performance itself is pretty awful, the intention behind it is anything but.