A retro look at the Top 100 toys, TV Cream’s Top 100 Toys
Some of my old favorites… just seeing them brought back memories:
- 81 Merlin
- 58 Stretch Armstrong
- 46 Ricochet Racers
- 19 Evel Knievel – ah the ol’ crank-up cycle that couldn’t jump the street curb much less the snake river.
- 11 TCR – remember the slot cars that had a lane-change switch on top of the pistol?
- 7 Big Trak – ah the ol’ 6-wheeled ‘programmable’ tank
Pardon my absence, I was moving across the country, getting a new house, job, and life. With all that going on, there’s just no time for the hassle of blog posting with Moveable Type’s clunky interface.
But no more! After 20 seconds of configuring and one click on the toolbar, I’m posting again with Flock, the buzzy vision of a Web 2.0 browser that does all the non-HTML things people do on the Internet these days.
As far as I can tell so far, it’s a Mozilla browser with some new buttons. But at least 11 people seem to have quit their day jobs to work on it, so I think it at least deserves a look.
Technorati Tags: Flock, Web browser
Becky and I attended the two big kick-off screenings for the Austin Film Festival. Both of them had two lines around the block (from the Paramount around the SFA down to that new bakery). We had fun chatting with the people in line, especially because we always meet people who we didn’t know where at some other film event or that we recognize from a past event (or two) but have never met. Enough rambling. Here’s what you want to know about:
Shopgirl – We read the Steve Martin penned novella that was the basis for the Steve Martin scripted screenplay for this film that stars Steve Martin for Becky’s Book Club. I remember the trouble I had putting my finger on the feelings the book evoked. There was a very quiet and disturbing (for me) unease in the melancholy that surrounded this very human story about relationships. During the Q&A after the film (with director Anand Tucker, and actors Claire Danes and Jason Schwartzman) the director finally identified it for me in the word “longing”. The film deals with the contrasts of men and boys in the way they deal with the ladies and the fact that intentions and communication are often incompatible. Also like the book there are brief — almost instantaneous — incongruous moments that don’t neccesarily distract from the film but don’t really make sense to me. Ultimately I would say the movie is much funnier than the book but still retains it’s strong underlying current of melancholy longing. It would make a great date movie or girl’s night out (or be a way for you men to get in touch with your emotions.)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a return of sorts for writer (and first-time director) Shane Black whose last big studio film was Lethal Weapon 4 and it is preceded by a string a similar summer action blockbusters that were critical failures and break-even box office takes at best. However with this film it looks like the writer, who started with Lethal Weapon (yes, he wrote all 4 of them), is breaking ground again and should sweep the critics and audiences into a laugh frenzy. Remember how revolutionary Lethal Weapon was? the first action movie with a straight man and fall guy, wise-cracking the whole time. It’s been overdone since but at the time it was original and hilarious. The same can be said of this film. Black turned several L.A. and film conventons on their head and made it work expertly. During the Q&A Black mentioned that he created the film specifically to not spoon-feed the audience. For me, that almost gaurantees a second viewing since I missed a lot of lines while I was laughing at the previous line. The only downside I can really give this film, other than it’s occasional Python-esque silliness, was that the closing song was written and performed by the star, Robert Downey, Jr. — sorry dude, not cool.