Archives

Posted under Blog, Site info on August 30th, 2006 by

DG mentioned last night that she had trouble trying to find an old post on Biggerboat. She didn’t know that the categories at the bottom of each post—i.e., “Blog” or “Reviews”—were links to category archives, and she said she didn’t notice the search box. While I don’t feel as if the site is that difficult to navigate, it did have me wondering whether anyone else was having trouble accessing any of the archived entries.

I’ve upgraded the search function to a Google site search and added links to the “Blog” and “Asides” archives (all along the left navigation bar). I could add links to category archives or even a monthly archive if people would prefer. Choose your own adventure! and let me know what you’d like to see with a well-considered comment below.

The Descent

Posted under Blog, Movies, Reviews on August 28th, 2006 by

Note: I wrote this review on spec for a local newspaper, but to my knowledge it wasn’t published, so I thought I’d just toss it up here. Enjoy…

The television ad campaign for The Descent claim the film is “from the people who brought you Saw and Hostel,” two sadistic horror films that focus on human torture. The ads do an injustice both to fans of those films (who may not enjoy this one) and people who don’t like those films (and just might like The Descent).

The Descent is an old-fashioned monster movie with a modern horror film sensibility. It was released in Great Britain over a year ago (and is already out on DVD over there), but did so well in the UK that “the people who brought you Saw and Hostel” decided to buy the North American distribution rights and give it a theatrical release here–an honor not accorded to Marshall’s previous film, Dog Soldiers (2002), one of the better werewolf movies out there.
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“Gotham by Gaslight” Batman action figure

Posted under Blog, Comics, Reviews, Toys on August 25th, 2006 by

Though on occasion I’ve gone through a period of interest in comic books, I wouldn’t classify myself as a superhero fan. I do love Hellboy, but I don’t really consider him a superhero per se. At times I’ve enjoyed reading the X-Men and whatnot, but if there’s a superhero I really appreciate, it’s Batman.

There are countless Batman stories out there, and toy company DC Direct (DCD) has worked hard to give us a figure from each one of them. But one of my favorite Batman stories is Gotham by Gaslight (1989), the first Elseworlds story (the brand was applied retroactively). Gaslight places the Batman story in the late Victorian era, with Batman tracking Jack the Ripper, who’s now running loose in Gotham.
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Wikipedia question

Posted under Blog on August 25th, 2006 by

I have a question for everyone: when using Wikipedia, who among you simply types “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/” into the address bar with a word or two after the backslash to go directly to an article (for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Red_Sox), rather than going to the main Wikipedia page and doing a search (or using Google)?

I’ve been doing the former for ages and am wondering if anyone else does.

Hematophagous

Posted under Blog, Red Sox on August 24th, 2006 by

Dan Shaughnessy has some advice for Red Sox fans.

Some might look at all of the above and have negative thoughts. Not me. I have seen the light. I am buying the plan. This isn’t about this year. Never was. The Sox are planning on being great in 2007 and even better in 2008. Let those foolish New Yorkers delude themselves into thinking that the future is now. We know better. We watch the Red Sox.

I can’t understand how such a relentlessly negative person has been able to profit so much from said attitude. Is his “popularity” (assuming it exists) due to some sort of latent masochism on the part of Red Sox fans? The man created the so-called “Curse of the Bambino” and profited from it for twenty years. His columns come fast and furious when the Sox are having trouble—more than a dozen so far in August—whereas in July he wrote two pieces on the Sox, from what I could find (both were warnings that the Sox weren’t really doing that well and that, regular as death and taxes, the Yankees would soon reassert their dominance). Maybe he was on vacation in July, I don’t know. But he sure made himself available when the Sox started having trouble. He’s like one of those guys in Harvard Square with “The End is Near” boards depicting a fiery apocalypse.
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Pluto sent to the doghouse

Posted under Asides on August 24th, 2006 by

Start reprinting those textbooks! Pluto is no longer a planet.

Snakes on a Plane

Posted under Blog, Movies on August 21st, 2006 by

Well, I saw Snakes on a Plane yesterday. It was a solid B-movie—a combination of Speed, Anaconda and Passenger 57, and probably more fun than all three combined. Was it worth all that ironic Internet hype? Not really, and its box office showing (a modest $14 million) reflects that.

Snakes‘s mediocre box office take is yet another example of just how small and unrepresentative of the real world the blogosophere is. Clearly, the Internet community does not give the slightest indication of the situation on the ground. People with the time, money and inclination to write or read a blog or discuss topics at length online do not represent a very good cross-section of America.

That said, I think the execs who produced Snakes knew that they had a second-tier flick on their hands and that going along with the hype couldn’t hurt. In the end, it probably netted them an extra $1.4 million in preview night tickets. Of course, for the Snakes fans the film was always secondary, and I suspect it will sink very quickly.

But the filmmakers did do about as much as they could with the concept. You get to see snakes biting every conceivable body part (yes, every one). You get a gratuitous Mile High Club scene. You get Samuel L. Jackson swearing and generally being Samuel L. Jackson. And you’ll happily forget all about the film ten minutes after leaving the theater.

Rock Star: Storm

Posted under Blog, Music on August 16th, 2006 by

DG suckered me into watching Rock Star: INXS last year. In my defense, it was interesting to see a show on prime time where live rock was played on a weekly basis; plus, they used a lot of music from the era during which my music tastes ossified (1991-95). But while the show was interesting, I wasn’t much interested in the outcome because I wasn’t an INXS fan.

This season seemed a little more interesting; rather than an established band with an established sound, they were creating a new band with Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, Jason Newstead (formerly of Metallica), and Gilby Clarke (apparently formerly of Guns ‘N Roses). I found this a bit more interesting since there was at least some possibility I might be interested in listening to this band’s CD.

Initially, the only contestant that interested me was Dilana. I picked her to win very early on. I remember the blondes—Jill, Jenny and Storm—blurred together originally. I was all about Dilana.
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Snakes on a Phone

Posted under Asides on August 15th, 2006 by

How to lose friends and annoy people. Fun though!

“Trek” is a weird word

Posted under Asides on August 15th, 2006 by

Star Trek Inspirational Posters.

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