Watchmen, the Saturday Morning Cartoon

A friend pointed out that I don't update this anymore. He's not wrong.

So, I'll try and update more.

There. Happy?

Speaking of, this video made me happy. Enjoy.

Stormtroopers: Can't shoot, can't dance...

...but Vader's got his routine pretty tight. Dancing must come from the dark side of the Force.

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Thanks to Jay Garmon from TechRepublic's Geekend column for pointing this out, and thanks to CollegeHumor for giving it a home in the tubes.

Sony DSLR links...

My birthday falls later this month, and I've decided on my present. I've cashed in some credit card reward points and ordered myself a Sony Alpha 200 DSLR camera kit. The package comes with a 18-70mm zoom lens, and then I splurged some of the rewards savings into a 50mm f/1.4 prime lens.

I'm really excited about getting into photography more seriously, and I've been thinking a lot about my particular choice. Here, I'm going to list some sites that I've referred to in my shopping, and which will be useful as I dig deeper into this hobby.

Digital Photography Review - A site with really in-depth news and reviews. Sadly, it takes them a long time to get their reviews posted.

Michael Hohner's Photography Pages - This guy has cataloged information on just about every camera and lens out there. This links to his pages about the A-mount lenses that Sony and Minolta used on their SLRs.

Dyxum.com - A site that offers extensive user reviews of A-mount hardware, even some stuff that's kinda weird. Nice lens database.

Dynax Digital Forums - A forum especially for A-mount camera users.

Photoclub Alpha - A blog run in conjunction with a magazine for A-mount users.

Alpha Mount World - Another news and enthusiast blog for Sony and Minolta DSLR owners.

Sorry that this post is little more than a blogroll. I just want to make sure that I have these resources handy, but if anyone else is interested in making photos with Sony DSLRs, maybe they'll find it useful, too.

Expect to see more photo content and picture posts as time goes on. First though, my camera has to come in.

How do you take your metaphors, shaken or stirred

Spam Subject Line of the Moment, Episode 5:

Success is a fish that is pulled from an ocean. Swim with the big fish, wear PRADA

Okay...so...let me get this straight. Success is a fish, and you want me to pull out the fish. Then where do the fish and I swim? In the pool, what?

Or do you mean I should swim with a different fish? A big fish? The Prada Fish?

I'm so confused. Like a fish outside of the box.

Och, if I give it any more she'll blow, Cap'n!

Sorry, Captain. I missed what he said. My Bluetooth is falling out of my ear.

Flickr user Poletti has posted a photostream he's calling "The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek". It's pretty fun looking back at the funny outfits and facepaint that the Original Series used. Clearly, in the 60's, the future was in metallic bras.

I grew up watching reruns of the series on Saturday afternoons after the morning's cartoons, and it's pretty fair to say that Star Trek was my first exposure to the mini-skirt. Ah, memories.

Check out the gallery for 60's boobs, feathered hair, and structurally unstable space fashions.

Title of the post comes from Star Trekkin', a song made famous by Dr. Demento. Rock.

This just might get me on MySpace...

The Kronos Gyros Woman has a profile on MySpace.


And she needs friends. Because, as you can see from looking at the corporate web site, she's been replaced by someone younger, and less 'ethnic' looking.


I think this is a travesty. Frankly, I appreciated having my processed gyro food stuffs advertised by a lovely lady who actually looks like she might be Greek. Considering that here in Chicago, you only see Kronos Gyros advertised in decidedly non-Greek pizza and burger joints, it just makes me feel better.

While we're talking about authenticity here, can I just say how unhappy I am with the concept of Chicken Gyros? This is just another tragic effort to make "ethnic" food that will sell to boring white people. Chicken gyros? Hey, I like chicken, and I like gyros, but I don't need them masquerading as each other. Chicken gyros seems to be the gyros option for people who don't like gyros. If that's you, then great. Go eat chicken. But hey would you want chicken pretending to be something you don't like? Why not try something else? Maybe...wait for it...Greek chicken???

Apparently, this isn't the first time that the corporate overlord has tried to mainstream their product. From the Kronos corporate web site, quoting an article from Crain's Chicago Business:

In 1975, Chris Tomaras founded Kronos to manufacture his own broiler, the Kronomatic. Until selling the company in 1994, he was his own marketing chief, picking point-of-sale materials from table tents to pita wrapping to get operators excited about the gyro. He also picked the first Kronos poster model, a blonde.

"The idea was to not have a Greek-looking girl, but an American girl," says Mr. Tomaras, 68. "And it worked. It worked by Americanizing the product."

Hah. Sure.

Racist.

I think this is the cheeky corn-fed American-looking girl that original Kronos owner Uncle Tomaras settled on for his advertising:

Boosted this photo from a very funny article at TODAY YOUR HAIR IS VERY NICE.
Go read it. It's funny.

It's a sad, but nothing lasts forever. Everything evolves. A new sandwich needs a new spokesmodel. My Gyros Woman wasn't the first, and she isn't the last, but in my opinion, she's the best. I'll take the Bronze Age Gyros Woman over the Modern Age knock-off, any old day.

For more gyros art, check out The Gyros Project, a labor of love featuring landmarks of the Chicago spindled-meat scene. Here's my favorite: Mmmm...I want Booby's.

And finally, I leave you with another choice tidbit from the Crain's article, which illustrates how steeped Chicago is in gyros history:

In the 1970s, some local entrepreneurs began innovating on the gyro (a word meaning "rotate" in Greek), then handmade in local Greek restaurants.

Among the first was Peter Parthenis Sr., an immigrant and University of Illinois engineering graduate who designed the Autodoner vertical broiler. He started mass-producing gyro meat in 1972 after seeing restaurateurs struggle to prepare it themselves.

"The first meat cone that we sent out of state was on a Greyhound bus," says Mr. Parthenis, 60.

Well. That explains why those buses smell that way.

Meat Cone?

That makes me feel a little dirty. And a little hungry.

Frank Miller's making a movie of The Spirit?!

Wow. Seems like Frank feels he learned a few things hanging around on the set with Robert Rodriguez and Zack Snyder. "Uhm, actually" you say, pushing up your nerd glasses, "Frank Miller was credited as a director on Sin City."

Sure. Whatever you say.

I like Frank Miller's writing work. Mostly. [I'll forgive him for Robocop 2 and 3, which--ironically--Encore was showing this last weekend as part of some geek-gasm. Everybody's gotta eat, and it sounds like he wasn't pleased with the interpretaion of his script.] His art is great, and has spawned a ton of imitators. But, while Frank has had some great moments as a hired gun (cf. and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Daredevil: The Man Without Fear), I think he's at his best when he's building his own house, as opposed to when he's painting someone else's. Just look at Sin City or 300. Those move beyond mere graphical novels and become works of literature. He and Will Eisner were friends, though, so the emotional connection might move Frank to produce some really great work.

I think he'll find that being a Film Director--all alone and without someone of Rodriguez's chops there to do all of the hard stuff--is a lot messier than being a writer. When you're director, there's no one else to blame; the buck stops with you, regardless of any other problems the project may face.

At least there's a decent cast...

	Scarlett Johansson	...	Silken Floss
	Samuel L. Jackson	...	The Octopus
	Eva Mendes	...	Sand Saref
	Jaime King	...	Lorelei Rox
	Gabriel Macht	...	The Spirit / Denny Colt
	Paz Vega	...	Plaster of Paris
	Sarah Paulson	...	Ellen Dolan

I like The Spirit, but I'm not sure that the darker aesthetic where Frank Miller does his best work is the right milieu for The Spirit. Will Eisner threaded his pulp-noir with a vein of high camp, and I don't know yet if Frank Miller can do camp in a way that does honor to Eisner's material.

I want Will Eisner's The Spirit. As Frank Miller's The Spirit, I'm not sure it will be as good. And it would surely be a shame to tarnish a legacy like Eisner's and a character like the Spirit.

Check out some production photos at TheMovingPicture.net. See Sam "Bad Mother Fucker" Jackson in funny clothes! See Scarlett Johansson do her best Enid impersonation! See Eva Mendes photocopying her butt! (Seriously.) Hurry! Before they get yanked by the studio!

Finally, Frank, I love and respect you. I only ask that you reassure me of one thing.



You're not the Dream Master, are you?