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So, I just finished watching the "scrubs" musical episode, and I have to say that I'm very happy. Aside from the "Guy Love" song, which I had downloaded (for free!) from iTunes and instantly loved, there were more than a few other instant classics.

Aside from managing to get tons of medical jargon into the songs, they managed to do parodies of "Pirates of Penzance" and "Grease", but I'm sure that there were a few others in there that I've heard before but couldn't exactly place. Regardless. Awesome.

I don't know what it is about musicals, but they just make me happy. I don't know if I've mentioned this in the blog at all - or ever - but it's my opinion that there just aren't enough musicals in the world. They used to have tons of them back in the day (the 50's, 60's, 70's), but they just don't make them as much any more. Why? I don't know. I do know that Disney had a hit with their "High School Musical" thing - so apparently musicals are popular, at least with the so called "tweeners".

Where was I? Oh yeah, "scrubs" musical. I'm glad I taped it - I have to make Jen watch it about 10 times.

If you haven't see Shaun of the Dead yet, buy/rent it and watch it now. I'll wait. (And if you get the urge to buy the Shaun of the Dead 12-Inch Talking Action Figure while you're watching it, then I can't really stop you, can I?)

Simon Pegg teams up with Nick Frost (among others) to bring us Hot Fuzz, another brilliant comedy. How brilliant? The tagline says it all: Big Cops. Small Town. Moderate Violence.

As usual, there's more than a bit of tounge-in-cheek joking, lots of action, and I'm sure just as many references to other movies that will miss if you're not paying attention. If you want to watch a trailer (which includes an extra mustache joke, just for US viewers!) check it out at Yahoo!.

Woody from Dateline Hollywood managed to get into the media lineup for the "Snakes on a Plane" premiere. The results? They boggle the mind:

All Your Snakes are Belong to Us

YouTube - The Pipettes "Pull Shapes"

When I first got this link, I figured it would be usual YouTube fare. And it was.

But the video, which at first seems to just be a movie clip they stuck in for the video, actually seems to be the video for the song - so it's either from some movie in the 60's or a well done spoof video. Either way, it's kind of enjoyable. The song is kinda "pop"-y, and spunky to boot.

Having just received confirmation that it's an actual group and this is them having some fun. Nice.

Ironic Sans: The Google Maps Guide to Ghostbusters

Take Google Maps, add in the info about Ghostbusters (along with screen captures), and you have the Ghostbusting Google Map Mashup (which, by the way, is a mouthful!).

This dovetails nicely with something I've been meaning to write about - Ghostbusters. The kids LOVE it.

Sure, there's a few parts that are a little scary, and some language that they shouldn't hear - but to be honest, while I'm no longshoreman, I can't always refrain from swearing, no matter how much I try. But the idea of the movie is appealing to the youngsters, what with the ghosts and the sliming and let's not forget the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. Mmmmm.

On "Stargate: SG-1" tonight, there was some discussion about what movie to watch for their "movie night". Teal'c was thinking of choosing "Old School," but at the end of the show, Cam suggested "Starship Troopers."
Teal'c: "Is it funny?"
Cam: "You betcha!"

Considering they'd just dealt with "bugs" of another sort during the episode, and considering the campiness of "Troopers"... Yeah, it's funny. This episode was a nice change, in some ways, from the more "we have to fight these people" episodes of late, mostly because they tried to tie in some of the political infighting that they've been bringing more to the fore of late. It was a nice plot device, and added some relief to the overwhelming-ness of the "Ori" story line - at least when the System Lords were the main bad guys, they'd switch things up every now and then and try to keep it interesting with some new villan of the week, on occasion. Or bring up the Asgard and their Replicator problems - little changes to bring on some variety.

"Stargate: Atlantis" was... well, not funny in that way. It was, however, funny in another way - I saw this episode about 2 weeks ago, when I got it on a CD from a friend who got it online. I guess the UK version of the show is airing ahead of the US version again, so he must have got it online. That internet thing is cool - I should check it out sometime. I hear Al Gore invented it....

"Battlestar Galactica" was frakking good, as usual. I must say that I appreciate any show that introduces a new "swear" word into my vocabulary. There was "frell" in Farscape, and now "frak" in BSG. Can't go wrong, I always say - especially since it gives me a word to say in front of the kids when I'd would really rather use some slightly more choice words... Anyway, I have been enjoying this season, but I have to say that some of the major plot points I saw coming a mile away:
Pegasus jumping into a trap? Yeah, of course.
Roslyn appeasing her largest voting block? Yeah.
Lee Adama getting command of Pegasus (aka The Beast)? Saw that two miles away.
Baltar flipping on Roslyn so he could try to become President himself? Well, that's been coming for a while.

All in all, I'd say that SciFi has a good thing going with their SciFi Friday lineup - SG-1 is the old hand, drawing in the regular fans. Atlantis keeps them around, since it's similar to SG-1 in some ways, but wildly different in others. And BSG is getting rave reviews from all over the place, and it's become quite a hot little item. As long as they don't frak it up, like they did by cancelling some of their best works (aka "Invisible Man" or "Farscape"), or they don't jump the shark in some way, we should be enjoying these shows for at least a couple of years.

So, yeah, it's Christmas time once again. Many things were bought for the kids, and let's just say that the mess in the living room rivaled years past. But it's all good. I've got some photos that I'm going to be posting online at some point, but I wanted to mention how much fun certain things were - like, for example, how much more complicated Transformer toys are these days.

When I was a kid, it was in the box as a robot, then you turned it into a vehicle, and then it was back to a robot again. Simple. Occasionally there was a "super" robot that took a couple robots and turned them into a big robot. That was it.

:noah: got some kind of super-omni-mega robot - it came with two trucks (a firetruck and a car carrier), which individually turn from robot to vehicle and back. But then you can also take some of their "extra" bits and make them mega-robots. Or.... Take the two, and their extras, and make a super-omni-mega robot. Or something. Two tabloid sized pages (that's two 8.5" x 11" pages side by side) with instructions on both sides - approximately 500 total steps for all the things you can do. With just one set. Awesome. Just awesome.

Next up was the MegaBlocks G.I. Joe armored vehicle thing. It came with a part that was semi-melted (it still worked, but....) and several of the pieces don't stay in place - one of my sticking points with MegaBlocks. Lego or nothing, I say.

We got the kids two DVD's for Christmas: The Polar Express about a week before for a Christmas party with some friends and then Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the big day. We saw Polar Express in the theaters and loved it, but Charlie was something that the kids but not parents had seen. I got a chance to watch it today, and was quite pleased with the movie.

Like many people, I've seen the original movie (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) more than a few times, so I had some pre-conceived notions about how the movie should play out. I'm pleased to say that for the most part, it was just as I expected. I particularly liked some of the casting choices - Johnny Depp once again proved his acting abilities, and the kids did quite a good job acting like their previous incarnations. Overall, a very good re-make.

:abby: got a "My Little Pony" Butterfly Island set, and it was quite a sight to behold - all colorful, with sound effects and music for the full audio/visual overload experience.

:ethan: got some new toys and a new "Baby Mozart" DVD, which we hope will keep him entertained a bit - he seems to like the others so far, so this will only add to his enjoyment - and lead to another kid addicted to tv, no doubt.

:emma:, who's supposed to be reading at a level 30 by the end of this school year, is currently at level 32 now. When pressed for book suggestions (Grisham, Clancy, King?), her teacher suggested the "Lemony Snicket" series - always a good choice, I gather. We also got her a nice set of jammies.

Serenity is now - well, in a few hours - available on DVD. From what I've read (below and elsewhere on the internet) it's a great movie - details that we never learned on the show, and new and fun information. I hear that some people died during the course of the story - very sad, and I wish I didn't know about it - but sometimes these things happen and are just the way things have to be.

A write up of the DVD: UGO.com Film/TV - Serenity DVD Review - UGO Blasts Off with Serenity

So, go buy a copy of the DVD - they didn't do extremely well in the theaters, so lets help them make up for it with this DVD release.

The Man Who Walked Between The Towers

by Mordicai Gerstein

It's a great story, but since Gerstein is a realist, he mentions that the towers are gone. I know that the pages are coming, and that it's going to once again hit me like a ton of bricks, but every single time, it just stops me cold. There's only one page after that, but it's hard to read when you're all choked up like that. Even so, I recommend this book to anyone - it's a great story, and it's nice to think of the towers in another way.

FX is currently showing "Smallpox," an original movie that's played out more like a documentary after the fact - It reviews the alleged events of April 2002, when a smallpox outbreak "occurred" and killed something like 60 million people. They put a very clear warning at the beginning of the movie that it was a movie, not fact, and that it was NOT based on actual events - I guess trying to prevent a "War of the Worlds" type reaction. No offense, but I think that they should have repeated the warning more often - it's some pretty realistic and scary looking stuff.

I was going to tape it and watch it later, if I thought the first few minutes of the movie were good, but it just sucked me right in - a good sign. It looks like some of the logic behind how such an attack could happen is pretty sound - i.e. people stealing samples of Smallpox from various locations - notably, in this example, Russia and the former Soviet Republic - and then the spread of the disease once it's out in the public.

Ok, it's back on, more later when I've seen the whole thing.