Noise To Signal

» December 2007 Archives

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Ho Ho Ho, Readers! Merry Christmas! Ho Ho Ho! Yes, it's me, Father Christmas! I wonder what salty festive treats I've got stored up in my disgusting sack this year, just waiting to spray criticism allover your minds walls? Well, there's the terrible I Am Legend, the irritating I'm Not There, the wonderful Eastern Promises, the classic Fletch, and the surprising Extras Christmas Special. You get along reading those while I stuff one hundred mince pies in my fat mouth and drink all of this whiskey, before making off into the night to throw action men down chimneys with a magical crossbow.

Continue reading "A Laceyvision Christmas" »

Sunday, December 16, 2007

My new favorite thing ever, ever, ever.

It's an official and free archive of hundreds of streaming segments from Sesame Street, spanning it's entire 35+ year run. It's essentially a Sesame Street version of YouTube, and it's fantastic. You can organize the clips by character, which is great, because sometimes you get in the mood for a whole string of Bert and Ernie clips, or some great "Monty Python Junior" humor in the Grover-as-a-waiter skits.

Two downsides: you can't link directly to a video (otherwise, trust me, I'd have flooded you with recommendations by now), and there is no comment system. Though, the more you think about it, eliminating the comment system altogether is really the only way to keep the site entirely family-safe.

No idea how long they'll be able to keep this free and ad-less, so enjoy it now. And, I promise you, enjoy it you will. Anybody who thinks Sesame Street is just there to teach kids the alphabet clearly have no idea of why it was and is so successful.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

'London Horror Comic #1' Icon

John-Paul Kamath has written a comic. And assembled himself an art team. And got it printed up all proper-like. Then he smartly sent us a review copy, ensuring that we'll give it a try and tell the world what we thought. Now you too can see what my finely-tuned critic's eye thought of his effort, the first issue of horror anthology series, London Horror Comic!

Continue reading "London Horror Comic #1" »

Monday, December 10, 2007

About the only thing I have that comes even close to a Christmas tradition is reading The Catcher in the Rye at some point during the season. It's not anything I make sure to do...it's just that this time of year always makes me want to revisit it.

Evidently some folks like to revisit the story a whole other way: physically. And cnn.com has this interesting feature today: a guide to The Catcher in the Rye's New York locations.

I think I'm going to print this out and save it for my mid-life crisis.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

You may or may not be following the current One More Day arc over in the Spider-Man comics (a review of part 3 in the 4-part story can be found a few posts down on my new comics review blog, Comics Daily) but needless to say, if you were you'd probably have some strong opinions on it. The short of it is that current Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada is attempting to reset the status quo of the character to deal with what has long been seen as a problem - his marriage to Mary Jane. But there's a MAJOR twist just come to light, although one that's decidedly off-the-page...

Continue reading "One More Day, one more issue..." »

Sunday, December 2, 2007

'Review:  <i>Bender's Big Score</i>' Icon

Matt Groening fans have had a good year: both of his most popular creations made the leap to feature-length films. But as The Simpsons arrived with a huge budget, a global release and an advertising blitz that spared nobody, Futurama snuck directly onto retailer shelves and waited patiently.

This has always been the case. The Simpsons saturates...Futurama simmers quietly. The Simpsons finds you...you find Futurama.

Anyone who's seen Futurama knows that while it's always destined to be The Simpsons' less-popular little brother, it's a consistently rewarding program, mind-bending at times, tear-jerking at others, and always painfully sharp in its humor. Ratings aside, it's the better show of the two. But is it also the better film?

Well, spluh.

Continue reading "Review: Bender's Big Score" »