Our Olympians are hotter than yours.
With a mere roster of 15 sports—mostly variations on skiing, skating and sledding—the Winter Olympics just don’t seem as exciting as the Summer games. And since snowboarding, hockey and figure skating are the most high profile activities, many of you may need an incentive (you unpatriotic jerks) to focus full attention on the Games starting Feb. 12. This is why I have compiled a brief list of Team Canada hotties to help familiarize you with our Vancouver-bound athletes. Think I’m being crass? Thank me after this list helps you name drop winter athletes beyond Jarome Iginla (made the list) and Hayley Wickenheiser (didn’t) during your morning water cooler session. Plus, why else would CTV.ca publish their photos, other than to allow me to ogle and judge our country’s top athletes based on their looks?
The third episode of Caprica revealed even more of the twisted web it will weave. It does so efficiently, spreading bread crumbs and widening the scope of last weeks events. Lost amid the shuffle however is any sort of further character development or nuance, both key qualities that separate this show (and its predecessor) from the chaff. Also, no scenes of people hugging robots? Booooooo.
More after the jump. And of course: spoilers ahead!
The Morning Dump: Talk Show Host (music), Hollywood heists, El Bulli’s Inedible Swan Song
- ?uestlove of The Roots, band for Late Nate with Jimmy Fallon, writes the piece someone should have thought to write but nobody did, and does it in Twitlonger form no less: a brief history of talk show entrance music and how it works in today’s music marketplace. No, it’s not as easy as him and The Roots just fooling around and playing whatever they want. And for amusement’s sake, last year ?uest walked Rolling Stone through his favourite back-handed song choices. My fav is “Barbara Ann” for John McCain, referencing the senator’s horrible “Bomb Iran, Bomb Bomb Iran” riff, because it made him cop a mea culpa of sorts on the spot.
- Is the culture of personality to blame for the “Bling Ring” celebrity-targeting teen robbers? Or is it just bad parenting? Vanity Fair explores the story of a group of L.A.-area kids that allegedly filched $3-million worth of jewelery, clothes and cash from some of Hollywood’s most overexposed talent. Fascinating anecdotes: apparently they got access to Paris Hilton’s mansion via a key left under the doormat; Orlando Bloom had a door unlocked while shooting in Manhattan; one of the accused teens took a crap in Rachel Bilson’s toilet. Fascinating shit, and totally Hollyweird.
- If you like food, you probably gasped last week when Spanish Chef Ferran Adria, regarded as the father of molecular gastronomy (think: edible foam), announced plans to take a two year sabbatical from 2012-2014. Adria’s El Bulli is almost universally considered the best dining establishment on the planet for good reason; the 47 year-old Chef runs El Bulli less like Denny’s and more like D.A.R.P.A., spending most of the year researching and developing new unheard of ways for people to enjoy food then unleashing his creativity on just 8,000 lucky epicureans a year. The Wall Street Journal nabbed an enlightening interview with the celebrated chef after his press conference, where he discusses the gig at Harvard he hopes will recharge him after a career of 15 hour days, blurring lines and pushing boundaries between food, science and art. I bet his class fills up fast too.
When it became known that Vice magazine, the vulgar yet wildly popular trend setting magazine for hipsters young and old, would pair up with CNN, that vulgar yet wildly popular and trendsetting broadcast news channel for people, young and old, who prefer to have their news shoved down their throats, you could almost hear the collective groan across North America. I know because I was there, groaning and scratching my head and thinking this is just another nail in the coffin for a magazine I used to devour for it’s cutting edge, racy and hilarious content, but has gotten kinda soft over the years.
But that was then (way back in January).
Sure the Do’s and Dont’s column is complete crap now that Gavin McInnes isn’t writing it anymore, which is fine because Gavin is much funnier/offensive on his own site, and the whole mag/website just seems like a giant ad for American Apparel, but Vice TV is different. It somehow manages to be cutting edge, insulting and entertaining, and sometimes it just makes for some damn fine journalism.
We are everybody! But who the hell is this guy?
Knowing that the ingredients for a good LOST episode is a healthy mix of “!!” and “??” Jef and Anupa will be interrobanging the show’s final season every week. As LOST winds down to its conclusion, can its creators dish out all the needed explanations without resorting to exposition? Can they keep up the mystery without succumbing to just more mindfuckery? SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. Shit gets geeky after the jump:
It might not be a stretch to call Bill Watterson my favourite artist of all time. If pictures are worth a thousand words, Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes were tiny microcosmic epics — each three panel strip having the wit, imagination, verve and poignancy of any an English lit curriculum novel.
With Calvin & Hobbes commemorative stamps about to be launched by the U.S. Postal Service, Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter John Campanelli took a total shot in the dark, emailing the reclusive cartoonist a series of questions with no expectations of a reply. Incredibly, Watterson did in fact send back answers, the first “interview” the local artist had done since roughly 1989. It isn’t without cause that Watterson was jokingly called “The J.D. Salinger of cartoonists,” but coincidentally this interview took place before Salinger’s recent death.
The transcription isn’t particularly insightful, but reveals a lot about Watterson’s artistic sensibilities about his work and his own (clearly private) personal life.
Read the full article here.
In one of my earliest Ashcan posts I wrote about Jason “the Green Ranger” David Frank’s intended move into the world of mixed martial arts competition. I’m very proud to update that report with news that Frank fought his first match and came out on top, and more importantly that at least one part of my childhood is still in tact. It’s disheartening when our childhood heroes turn out to be disappointments — adulterers, racists, Republicans (any combination of those things being purely coincidental) — so let’s all bask in the knowledge that at least one former Power Ranger really CAN kick ass in real life. He’s still got that whole “Jesus Didn’t Tap” thing going against him, but, you know, it’s not like he’s wrong about that. (Jason David Frank: one more thing in common with Jesus.) What with the Pink Ranger holding it down weekly on “Flashpoint“, I think we’re about ready for a reunion, yes? (Minus the Yellow Ranger, of course, RIP.) Get on that, Jimmy Fallon.
Video (and awesome soundtrack) after the jump:
Thank the gods for creating whatever force brought normalcy and balance back to Hollywood by nominating Sandra Bullock for the worst actress category at the 30th annual Razzie Awards, because her whole Oscar nod was really starting to make me feel like I was in some sort of bizarro world.
Although I hear she’s pretty good in The Blind Side, which I haven’t seen but I believe she plays an annoying, tom boyish awkward gal who gets a crazy makeover and wins a beauty contest, makes out with Keanu Reeves, inspires a homeless boy to become a first overall NFL draft pick by showing him her mother’s scrapbook of pictures documenting the crazy antics of the “ya ya” sisterhood, all while not traveling below 80 MPH on a city bus full of people. Then she does it all again on a cruise ship. It sounds like a whirlwind of a ride, and the role definitely plays to all of Bullock’s strengths (mostly just that knee slapping trip scene in Miss Congeniality), so she actually has a chance of winning it.
Plus, Hollywood loves a good comeback story when it doesn’t involve Mickey Rourke, and if your two previous movies were All about Steve and The Proposal, then an Oscar contending movie is definitely considered a comeback.
Speaking of All about Steve, this fine piece of work is what garnered Bullock the Razzie nod, not only restoring the crucial spiritual balance that keeps the tectonic plates from shifting and swallowing up Hollywood in a pit of fire and melted collagen, but also gives her the chance, as the Razzie press release reads, of “pull[ing] off the unprecedented feat of “winning” a Razzie one day before winning an Oscar.”
Oh ya, there were some other nominations as well. Vote for Bullock!
For many shows, the second episode after the pilot is usually the best indicator of what to expect on a weekly basis. Subscribing to that philosophy, I believe fans of Battlestar Galactica are really, really going to like Caprica.
Faux intimacy via cinema-vérité? Check. Original (and catchy) BSG vernacular, BSG universe continuity, attention to character and setting minutiae, no fear of tackling heavy issues, octagonal paper products? Check, check, check, check annnnnd check. The Ronald D. Moore cylon saga doesn’t miss a step during the jump to prequel form and sci-fi fans from any planet will surely feel right at home.
Instead of recapping, I’m just going to share my thoughts about the episode. I don’t think anyone is going to come to this blog to catch up on missing episodes. Really, we all know you’re here to see me make a fool of myself. On that note:
**** SPOILERS AHEAD ****
The Legend of Jeremy Lin continues to grow.
A second ESPN article popped up last week while the Harvard senior got a shout-out on Deadspin today, surely sending all new scores of basketball fans scurrying to YouTube. This is not a story about basketball though. Whether he likes it or not (and the answer seems to be not), Lin’s scenario clearly reveals raw cultural nerves rooted deeper than mere athletic achievement.
I don’t know how to say the following without coming off sounding ignorant (great preface) but: I think Asian immigrants to North America, and particularly their naturalized lineage, are apt to want nothing more than pretend society is now post-racial (at least, insofar as it applies to us). I’m not saying we believe this. I’m just saying, a lot of times, this is how we act.