The cake is a lie

For the gamers out there …

Found via Neil Gaiman’s Journal

Jonathan Coulton St. Paul

After a major snow storm on Thursday I wasn’t sure if heading to St. Paul for the Jonathan Coulton show Friday was really going to happen. Of course the weather held out so Derek and I decided to brave the drive (with the aid of a nice new GPS unit).

I have been listening to Coulton for a few years through various sources (starting out with podcasts, youtube and random Mp3s). His shows are pretty unique simply in the volume of fan knowledge of his catalog. Zombies anyone?

Paul and Storm opened the show and nearly gave me a head ache – from laughing so much. Amazing job from them. Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, the robots from Mystery Science Theater 3000 showed up to add a little “ARRRRRR” to the show.

Coulton wouldn’t be outdone with special guests with author, artist and all around awesome dude Neil Gaiman showing up on stage to help out with “Creepy Doll.”

Most of the favorites were played and everyone geeked out. Great time had by all.

P.S. If you don’t know who Jonathan Coulton is, educate yourself, you’ll be a fan soon enough.

My Oscar picks, yeah not so good

I am nearly a month into my new job as managing editor for the Tyler Tribute and it’s sister papers but I have to admit my touch on the pulse of pop culture around the world has been a little weak nearly since day one. I’m working to correct that, but it’s going to take time.

This all happened during the Oscar time. Normally I have a pretty good pulse on things, but this year I had a few misses including best actor, actress and director. I really shouldn’t be surprised by the out come. The word on “Slumdog Millionaire” was nearly deafening. I did have it up for best picture, but I wasn’t expecting our old friend Danny “Trainspotting” Boyle would come up with best director.

The man who gave us “38 Days Later” was not someone I expected the film industry would recognize. He is an amazing talent and I’m glad to see he got some props for his work. I can’t wait to see “Slumdog,” it’s going to be on DVD so my wait is a few months longer I’m sure.

On a completely different, non-Oscar related kick, it now looks like “Fanboys” is finally coming to Minnesota. For those who don’t know about the flick, it’s the story of a group of friends with the goal of seeing “Star Wars: Episode I” before it was released back in 1999. One of the characters has cancer and wants to see the flick before he dies.

I first heard about this movie years before it was green-lit for production. To see it made, knowing the saga it went through – one that rivals that of THE SAGA – is impressive. I’m planning a trip to the cities this weekend to see Jonathan Coulton and I might try to slip into a theater to see the movie before hand, not likely but I’m going to at least tell myself I’ll try.

Oscar picks for 2009

Around this time last year discussions started about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in “The Dark Knight.” The discussions generally centered around the fact that ledger had recently passed away. While I had expected great things from Ledger in the film based on short clips and photos, I was a little apprehensive about the way people were talking in light of his passing.

Months after Ledger died “The Dark Knight” was finally released and it turned out, the hype surrounding Ledger’s Joker wasn’t all hot air. He delivered an amazing performance that truly deserves recognition during this years Academy Awards. He is up for supporting actor and it seems he is a lock in for the win.

Ledger’s role in the latest Batman flick isn’t the only transformative performance to hit the silver screen this year. Mickey Rorke’s performance as “Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson” in “The Wrestler” has become an obvious choice for best actor.

While I haven’t seen The Wrestler myself, nor the apparent shoe in for best picture “Slumdog Millionaire” but both films feel like true masterpiece work for the film makers.

Here are a few of my picks for various categories:

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Director: David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Actor: Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Actress: Meryl Streep – Doubt
Supporting actor: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Supporting actress: Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Animated: Wall-E

Sure there are more categories, but that’s where I’m looking at this point.

I won’t be watching the Academy Awards live this year but my TiVo is set, with an additional hour for the obvious long speeches, so we’ll see what happens with this years show.

A new start in Tyler

A few weeks ago I posted a cryptic post about how I had some sort of big news coming, but I failed to follow through with what exactly that was. A little over one week ago I started a position as managing editor for the Tyler Tribute, Hendricks Pioneer and Lake Benton News newspapers.

At some point I will expound on all of this, but I haven’t really sat down to think about what it all means myself. My team helped push out three quality papers last week and we’re preparing to set out another group of papers in the next couple days.

I worked for the Marshall Independent newspaper for more then five years. I enjoyed nearly every moment of my time there and I can not thank those i worked with enough. I will continue to read the quality work done by the writers and editors of the Independent. They do a lot with limited resources and continue to produce strong content.