Friday, December 30, 2005

The Mystery of Dinner for One

Every New Year's Eve, half of all Germans plunk down in front of their televisions to watch a 1963 English comedy sketch called Dinner for One. Walk into any bar in Bavaria and shout the film's refrain: "The same procedure as last year, madam?" The whole crowd will shout back in automatic, if stilted, English: "The same procedure as every year, James."

How an obscure British skit has become Germany's most popular New Year's tradition.

Who boy!

A million (give or take) remixes of the Doctor Who theme music.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Three things

The good, the very good and the "le sigh"...

• I have become a recent convert to and big fan of Amazon Prime, the "all-you-can-eat" free two-day shipping service. Of course, it's not free after the three-month trial they're offering; it renews at $79 annually. But for the amount of holiday shopping and incidental me-me-me buying I do, it will handily pay for itself and save me money besides.


• My Christmas treat to myself was a new digital camera. I flirted with the idea of making the jump to digital SLR but, based on some website reviews and personal recommendations, instead bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5. My golly, it's nice: A 12X optical zoom Leica lens, superior stabilization feature to reduce blur from handshake and enough manual settings to satisfy what little photo geek I have in me. I'm still getting the hang of its many features but for the price (about $350) and size, I'm mightily impressed.


• Last night, I returned home to discover that the hard drive on which my iTunes music library resides est morte. Oh well, at least I have a backup. Unfortunately, that backup is in the form of several hundred CDs stored in boxes in the basement. But hey, reripping my entire music collection is a great opportunity to sample at a consistent bitrate and get that metadata right the first time, right? Right? *cries*
  
  Also lost in the crash: Six years of server logs for this site right here (no big), a ton of digital photos (all on Flickr anyway) and some porn (some commercial, some more...um, personal in nature). Ah well. No more tears! Enough is enough.

A new camera, a new hard drive and a new year speeding toward me. Excelsior!

In Color!

It looks as though Police Squad! finally may be coming to DVD! Huzzah! Once upon a time, I had two VHS cassettes of this short-lived TV show—upon which the Naked Gun movies were based—but I foolishly lent them and they slipped my grasp, never to return.

I can't wait to get this show on disc. Despite having only a six-episode lifespan, there are so many classic moments to relive. In just one example, the series included one of my favorite comic exchanges of all time:

Gangster: Who are you? And how did you get in here?
Frank Drebin (undercover): I'm a locksmith. And...I'm a locksmith.

The sight gags, the guest stars, the "freeze" takes at the end of each show. So much comedy gold.

Ah, well…

I'd been holding out a bit of hope that cutie John Barrowman would finally come to his senses and rush into my arms, but alas, that now seems not likely to be. He's gettin' hitched. (Congrats.)

Thursday, December 22, 2005

It was inevitable…

Last night on David Letterman's Late Show, actor Nathan Lane performed a medley of songs from the newest project he and Matthew Broderick are undertaking: Brokeback! The Musical. [QuickTime movie file; please be kind to my bandwidth!]

Hi-larious.

Monday, December 5, 2005

Sunday, December 4, 2005

What a bunch of characters!

This description of the mayhem that erupts on Hollywood Blvd. when costumed characters (some hobbyists, some full-timers) compete for space and tips is just priceless. My favorite paragraph:

Mr. Harper, the 40-year-old Elmo, says he was set up by the cops. But upon returning to his spot a day after his arrest, he conceded that things are tense these days among the characters, who form cliques and alliances to defend their turf and make money. Mr. Harper, for example, says his Elmo is a foe of Batman and Superman, but in cahoots with Mr. Incredible, SpongeBob SquarePants and at least one of the half-dozen Spider-Men who prowl the street.

Fair warning, visitors to Los Angeles: Do not incur the wrath of the dreaded Mr. Incredible-SpongeBob-Elmo alliance! [via The Slumbering Lungfish]

Bonus comic: Public School.