DEAR DODGE,

I don't know if anyone has told you... but American car companies aren't doing so hot. So when you have a car that people may actually both want to, and be able to buy... LET THEM SIT IN IT AT THE AUTO SHOW!!!! And if you don't, then don't be surprised when your section is a ghost town and Chevy has everyone and their mother sitting in Bumblebee (for the record the Autobot Package is only like 300 more dollars... I'd do it even though I'd regret it later) and ogling the Stingray.

love,

Garrison Dean

I'M SURE THIS HAPPENS IN IRAQ ALL THE TIME

I'm happily entrenched in Borderlands with whatever time I can scrape together for games, but I'm hoping that Santa brings me Modern Warfare 2. And if he doesn't then I'll be my own Santa because I loved the knives in MW1 and you couldn't throw them then.

-GD

(via Kotaku)

Last night I found the Bottom of the Barrel

Being too cheap/poor to pay for movie channels on our cable I often troll through the Free HD Movies section in our OnDemand. So last night as there was nothing on and all I really wanted to do was play Borderlands but that would bore the wife. [side note: still at the beginning but Borderlands is a lot of fun already] So we checked out all the new flicks in OnDemand. There is a bunch of horror stuff which I'll get to at some point like Hostel 2. Didn't really like Hostel 1, but I do love boobs... sooooo anyways... One of the movies was called The Order of the Black Eagle and was described as such: Hitler is still alive and a British Spy is tasked with traveling to South America to stop Neo Nazi organization from helping is rise.

Now, if I were the space between two buildings that connects major streets a movie like that would be right up me. It's tough to fuck up a Hitler is still alive story so I was curious how I'd never heard of this. The movie was via the Impact channel which always prefaces it's films ratings with goofy fake ratinigs. This had Kn: for Killing Nazis Cg: for cool gadgets (or something) and then there was Ms: for Monkey Sidekick... I thought they were kidding. They weren't.

The film is basically some Michael Bolton look-alike running around poorly mic'd rooms with his Baboon sidekick who's main talent is giving people the "Hey, up yours!" fist gesture. I can only assume they couldn't afford to train him to raise his middle finger. I'm not even mentioning the horrible effects, sets, acting, stereotypical Arab dude, Bad guy who is not Orson Welles, the fact that it was produced by "Polo Players LTD" and the fact that I only made it to the 22 min mark before I gave up. Yeah.. me I gave up, thats how bad it was. Don't believe me? Here is a screen shot I grabbed.

Unbeliveable. How this gets transfered to HD for OnDemand (seriously.. I don't think it was ever released on DVD) and I still can't get Star Wars on Blu-ray is a crying shame.

-GD

C'est chouette

Pretty amazing stuff getting worked out here, that I will for sure study and make use of in some way. And of course anything Serge related gets my love. I guess this is related to that French biopic coming out about him that I really really hope gets at the least a limited release here.

(via World of Kane)

-GD

YUB NUB INDEED

Thanks to a new baby, and a grandma staying with us to help, I get to watch way more Today Show than I should. And when they turn their Halloween show into a giant Star Wars tribute I perk up. And oh man was it worth it to watch as much as I could.

From a youth to today, I've always stood by the Ewoks. Even when cynical film fans, series fans, and Gen Xers said they were lame, I said they were awesome... here is final proof. Watch this whole segment dissolve before this poor Martha Stewart wannabe's eyes as her furry mischievous friends drink, showboat, fight and moonwalk and ultimately steal the show... and your heart. awwweee.

The whole thing is great, but it really hits when drunk pissed off Wicket rolls in around the 2:00 min mark.

oh, and Natalie Morales is a piece as Padme. And I'm pretty sure she's a Star Wars fan as this is what she wore last year, while on Maternity Leave no less!

-GD

CUMULOUS SIMPSONUS

I still try and pick out shapes from clouds so yesterday as I left my apartment I looked up and saw this doozy.

If this isn't a Simpsons Character, I don't know what is. Initially I leaned towards Homer, but it may be more Grandpa, or perhaps one more obscure... Discuss.

Seriously, no Photoshopperie going on here. Somehow the light from the sun just hit those two little cloud bursts. It's iPhone, so otherwise I would've zoomed, but click on it for it a bit bigger.

-GD

Not rare, just good.

I'm posting this not because you've never heard of Air, but probably because if you're like me your interest was at a point where unless someone told you to give it a listen, you probably wouldn't. So here is your notification.

I'm a sucker for almost all things French when it comes to music, as you'll find out if you keep reading. 10 years ago Air's Moon Safari came out and grabbed me hook line and sinker. I enjoyed some of the ambient/"chill" stuff that was coming out. Living in DC at the time we were flush with the 18th St Lounge Music but too often it was boring and way too clean, too digital (I hesitate to say electronic because there are few things I love more than some straight Synth stuff). Moon Safari was more organic, more natural. And, it drew from the past without sounding "retro".

They continued to release albums, some better than others. Some held me for repeated listenings for a while, others seemed like dull exercises in knob twiddling, but I still remained interested.

Now they have a new album out and it feels good. Love 2, is a return to form though not a rehash of the old sound. It sounds like they've taken what they've learned from their exercises in electronics and combined it with a decades worth of experience and further learning. So for you I'll cheat... here's the best song off the album. Called Tropical Disease it sounds like it could be the Theme song for the movie "Emmanuelle in Space", a movie that doesn't exist, though I'm sorely tempted to make it now that I've thought of it. EDIT: um.. apparently there is a whole series of "Emmanuelle in Space"... go figure. That said, I doubt it swings with the proper vibe this would bring. Yeah... Looks like I'm right.

Air: Tropical Disease

While no Moon Safari, the rest of the album is quite good as well.

-GD

Saskia - 10.12.09

The little one is here. She's terrific. More later.

-GD