Merry Pocky Christmas!

Click here.

(And then click here for a glimpse of a typical day in my life, and here for even more Pocky madness.)

P.S.: Can't get enough? Behold Zombie Pocky!

The New Yorker interviews Philip Pullman

The New Yorker's Laura Miller interviews His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman for a fascinating (and satisfyingly lengthy) feature profile in this week's issue entitled Far From Narnia.

Wired Interviews Pastafarian Pope

Wired News has an interview with Bobby Henderson, founder of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. He discusses the forthcoming (and previously announced) Pastafarian Bible, aka The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (due out on March 14; pre-order it here) - the proceeds of which will go toward a missionary pirate ship.

Have you been touched by His noodly appendage?

Santa Pope freaks me out.

Click here if you dare. (And thank Glen for your new nightmares.)

Defending Science by Defining It

The Washington Post has an astute analysis of [G.W. Bush-appointed] U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III's landmark 139-page opinion eviscerating the so-called "intelligent design" theory (which is a mere hypothesis at best, btw) entitled Defending Science by Defining It. It's a fascinating and enlightened read.

The ruling gives two arguments for why intelligent design is not science but is, in the judge's words, "an old religious argument for the existence of God." The first is that intelligent design invokes "a supernatural designer," while science, by definition, deals only with natural phenomena. Second, the court found that intelligent design suffers from blatant flaws in logic, one of the chief tools of science.

Since the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, "science has been limited to the search for natural causes to explain natural phenomena," Jones writes, noting that the scientific revolution was explicitly about the rejection of "revelation" in favor of empirical evidence. Since then, he writes, "science has been a discipline in which testability, rather than any ecclesiastical authority or philosophical coherence, has been the measure of a scientific idea's worth."

Also: Jones writes, people would be well advised to remember that an argument against one thing cannot necessarily be interpreted as an argument for something else. For example, the fact that the fossil record is incomplete is not evidence that human beings must have been created in their current form." (Or that evolution is evidence either for or against the existence of God, for that matter.)

Meanwhile, TIME covers the ruling in an excellent piece entitled 'Breathtaking Inanity': How Intelligent Design Flunked Its Test Case, and also offers a practical look at the theory of evolution in Darwin Victorious.

The Pixar Exhibition at MoMA

Friday's New York Times reminded me that the Museum of Modern Art has mounted the largest, most object-oriented exhibition in its history devoted to film - Pixar: 20 Years of Animation.

"Divided thematically into three sections, devoted to character, narrative and settings, or worlds, the show contains more than 500 drawings, collages, storyboards and three-dimensional models by some 80 artists." It runs through February 6. (Chronicle Books has published a neat companion book of 100 postcards.)

Remembering John Spencer

While out of town on business Friday I was stunned to receive a text message that John Spencer, the Emmy Award-winning actor who played Leo McGarry on The West Wing, had died of a heart attack. He would have turned 59 on Tuesday.

Spencer first came to prominence through a remarkable string of roles in 1989 and 1990, when he co-starred in such films as Sea of Love, Black Rain, and Presumed Innocent, and then joined the cast of L.A. Law for its final four seasons as New York attorney Tommy Mullaney. Following that he gained further recognition in films that included The Rock, Cop Land, Twilight, and The Negotiator, but it was the role written for him by Aaron Sorkin that would be his crowning achievement, earning him a stunning five consecutive Emmy nominations for Best Supporting Actor. (He won in 2002, and was the first actor Sorkin cast.)

I didn't know him, but know people who did, and he seemed to be everything a fan would've hoped he was. He will be greatly missed.

The Nixie Watch

Dammit.

Here's something else I gotta add to my wishlist of dream robogifts...

Behold the ingeniously cool Nixie Watch by Cathode Corner.

It fills me with retro geek glee.

P.S.: For those of you scratching your heads, impress your friends with Nixie tube knowledge.

Alive In Joburg

Check out this remarkable six-minute short by Neill Blomkamp [direct download], who also directed this very cool commercial. (Found on MCN.)

Golden Globe Nominations

Oh, hey, Golden Globe nominations were announced by a bespectacled Kate Beckinsale this morning. (Particularly cool to see Kung Fu Hustle nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.)

What would you do with your own Batmobile?

When the Batmobile rolls into town, Clint Young is a star. Under his mask, Young, who portrays the Batman of the 1960s TV series, is a dead ringer for Adam West, who played the TV role. Young's love affair with all things Batman has existed for nearly his whole life. The show premiered on his birthday in 1966, proof to him that his current career is meant to be.

Young makes Batmobiles. The 1966 Batmobile, built on top of a 1972 Lincoln Mark IV, comes complete with a Batphone, Bat-computer and even runs on a Bat-tery. Available for $75,000, the cars are built from a fiberglass mold of the original Batmobile.

I want one.

(For more info and photos, visit his website at cyproductions.com.)

BNAT 7 has left the building...

rocked. I've been privileged to attend each and every Butt-Numb-A-Thon and have been disappointed only once (last year), but this was one of the best ever - and that's really saying something. It wrapped up a couple hours ago around 12:30pm, and comprised several outstanding and even great films (and only one real let-down, aside from the lack of any Superman Returns footage, which I'd hoped for). Here's a brief(ish) run-down of what we saw...

First up, per BNAT tradition, was a vintage film to set the mood (and set up the second film) - namely The Most Dangerous Game from 1932, starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Leslie Banks and Robert Armstrong. It was sheer twisted glee, and the perfect set-up for our second feature. But of course, before the first film we got our first batch of trailers, led by the premiere of the Apocalypto teaser (introduced on tape by a witty Mel Gibson), and then mind-boggling vintage trailers Argoman The Fantastic Superman, Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds, and of course the infamous Stunt Rock trailer.

Next was a special teaser presentation for Ray Harryhausen's new short film adaptation of Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum, as well as a sizzle reel for his attempt to remount King Kong director Marion C. Cooper's long-abandoned War Eagles project. Then around 2pm there was of course Peter Jackson's King Kong (an often breathtaking and heartbreaking masterpiece, even if the first act is a tad slow getting going), which was introduced on tape by Peter (after an amusing fake-out that we would instead be seeing a feature documentary on Avian Flu).

After our first break (thankfully breaks were fewer and farther between this year, which contributed greatly to the overall pace of things), we were treated to another vintage film around 5:30pm, Footlight Parade from 1933 starring James Cagney and Ruby Keeler, as well as some of the most spectacularly surreal Busby Berkeley musical numbers ever committed to film. (It was preceded by the Dave Fleischer "March of the Wooden Soldiers" Betty Boop short.) This triple feature of films set or made in 1932-33 was pretty much heaven for me.

The unenviable follow-up slot was given to Lucky McKee's short "Sick Girl" (starring May's fantastic Angela Bettis) for Showtime's Masters of Horror anthology series, which was a perverse change of pace. They were both in attendance, and introduced. Then, after a couple freaky old martial arts trailers (for Lucky Seven and The Soul of Bruce Lee), by 8:30pm we were watching a regional premiere of Chan Wook Park's absolutely stunning and unabashedly operatic Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, which is a genre masterpiece, and one of the best films I've seen all year.

After a break we got our third vintage film and our first and only Western - Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster in The Professionals (1966), which is a damn fine film (also starring Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Claudia Cardinale, Ralph Bellamy, Jack Palance as a Mexican, and cinematography by Conrad Hall). This was preceded by vintage trailers for El Desperado (which screened at QT Fest this year) and One Upon A Time In The West There Was A Man Called Invincible (and, inexplicably, the semi-new Pirates of the Caribbean teaser).

Then around 1am we got our second foreign film, a regional premiere of the Luc Besson-produced actioner Banlieue 13 (District 13), which kicked considerable ass. (It was preceded by bizarro vintage trailers for Scorpions and Miniskirts, Danger Girls, and Seven Golden Women Against Two 07 (Treasure Hunt).) Afterwards, the 3am hour gave us a teaser for Harry's impending 2gether 4ever horror project, and then the "Cigarette Burns" Masters of Horror episode (directed by John Carpenter, and written by Drew McWeeny & Scott Swan). This led to Eli Roth presenting a clip of Hostel in the middle of the night, followed by Neil Marshall's gripping English spelunking suspense thriller The Descent (which unfortunately suffered from the lack of a solid ending).

At 6am things were getting hazy, which added to the "holy crap" effect of at long last seeing the mythical Stunt Rock (1978; aka Sorcery, apparently). It was utterly surreal, though I admittedly dozed through much of it - which was also true of the next film, Drum (a confounding slaveploitation film from 1976 with Warren Oates and Pam Grier; it was preceded by vintage trailers for Eunuch of the Western Palace and Thundercops).

Then it was time for the breakfast/security break (will someone please show me how/when a movie has ever been pirated by a cel phone, btw?), leading to the big finish. Nicky Katt provided a rare print of an amazing Daffy Duck Nazi Nightmare animated short, which was followed by a vintage Atari commercial (for Starmaster) and trailer for The Return of Captain Invincible, then the X-Men 3 teaser and the premiere of the Mission: Impossible III teaser... and (I think) the first ever screening of V for Vendetta, which I gotta say was pretty damn impressive, and makes a hell of a political statement.

Kudos to Harry and Tim for a job well done! I had a great time.

The 7th Voyage of Butt-Numb-A-Thon

Holy crap. BNAT 7 is here. Or at least will be in less than 12 hours, so I'd better get some sleep. But per the explicit "no electronics" rule this year (grumble-grumble), I will try to be good and resist the urge to clandestinely blog the event live via a contraband Treo. (At least that's what I'm telling myself right now.)

Anyway, I'm excited about this year's mystery line-up, which everyone knows will include King Kong, but also six other premieres (two of which are foreign, I think), as well as five old/classic/cult/obscure films. As soon as I regain consciousness after the event, I'll try to post a fullish report (assuming I take coherent notes and/or maintain a lucid memory of the 24 hours). Think good thoughts!

Apophis is coming!

It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time.

The Fender Hello Kitty Guitar

Fender now makes a line of Hello Kitty guitars - including a pink Hello Kitty Stratocaster and a black Badtz-Maru Bronco bass.

I am of course profoundly disturbed by this. (Doubly so since seeing the freaky interactive e-card.)

P.S.: BTW, the monthly Hello Kitty online newsletter is called... "The Happy Times". Just so you know.

Stephen Colbert on Fresh Air

Well, I spoke too soon Monday, and have been dealing with a freaky computer meltdown the last couple days (my otherwise trusty PowerBook G4 suddenly and inexplicably became morassed in digital molasses, as though it's generating some sort of highly localized space-time distortion field, so I've had to dust off the old PowerBook G3).

Anyway, Stephen Colbert was interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air today, and it's well worth a listen if you missed it. Great stuff.

Spielberg talks Munich to TIME

(Oh, hey there. Sorry about the unnanounced hiatus, but I took a little break over Thanksgiving, and then got my ass kicked by the flu the week after. Anyway, I'm back, and will try to catch up later today.)

This week's TIME features Steven Spielberg on the cover and an interesting interview with him inside discussing his new film Munich (which, not coincidentally, TIME has the first review of, though if you want to read it online you need to find someone who embraces blatant copyright infringement).