IM movie clips- June 30, 2008 A new service called PopTok allows users to insert video one-liners of movies into instant messages and email. Creator Illi Edry describes the inspiration for his service: "Everybody quotes films. We produce one hour of television broadcasting for prime time at a cost of millions and at the end of the day, people quote one sentence. I came to the realization if the one hour is supporting that sentence, let's keep the sentence." Of course, it's this mentality that led to the whole world...http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/video_im.php Times Square, dirty and Dursty again- June 26, 2008 Today the Times examines the recreation of 70's era Times Square on W. 38th St, for a movie called All Good Things. The movie is about (or at least "inspired by") the story of Robert Durst (crazy oldest son of the prominent real estate family) and his first wife Kathleen who, along with just about everybody else in Mr. Durst's life, is presumed to have died under very mysterious circumstances. The movie is directed by Andrew Jarecki, who did the excellent documentary Capturing the...http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/times_square_dirty_and_dursty.php Germany-Turkey throwdown- June 25, 2008 This afternoon, Turkey plays Germany in a semi-final game of the Euro Cup. I really love the added political drama of international sports when one country plays its own former colony, like when Senegal trounced France in the very first game of the 2002 World Cup. Games like that don't happen much in the Euro Cup, but the long and mostly exploitative relationship between Turkey and Germany means this game is going to be a good one to watch, even if Turkey doesn't have the greatest chance of...http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/germanyturkey_throwdown.php You know you're a '00's kid if...- June 24, 2008 VH1 started its newest installment of the "I Love The..." series last night with "I Love the New Millennium", a show that looks back fondly on the decade that we're still in. Message boards on VH1 and IMDb are full of "Are you kidding me" and "What's next 'I Love 45 minutes Ago'" comments, but personally, I have no problem with a nostalgia show about just a few years ago. I don't feel especially nostalgic for when I was 9 or when I was 16. I feel nostalgic for when I was 27. The 2000 and..http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/you_know_youre_a_00s_kid_if.php WMD or single malt- June 23, 2008 Ever wonder what secret WMD plants look like They look like whiskey distilleries. Wired has a funny story today about our intelligence agencies and how they gather information about the chemical weapon development around the world. Bruichladdich, a small whiskey producer on Islay in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, got an email one day from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (part of DoD), asking why their distillery webcam had recently gone offline. Yikes. The folks at the whiskey..http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/wmd_or_single_malt.php Reprise- June 19, 2008 Reprise opened in limited release about a month ago. It's by a first-time Norwegian director and stars young actors unknown in the US, so it isn't going to draw any viewers from Kung Fu Panda, but it's one of the better movies I've seen so far this year. It can be tricky to make a movie about young, idealistic artists prone to immaturity and mental illness, because these characters tend to be pretentious, self-indulgent, and irritating (see The Doors, The Basketball Diaries, Glitter.) ...http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/reprise.php FUMTV- June 17, 2008 The promo above shows that MTV is trying to reintroduce music videos. And it is promoting them by poking fun at itself and its all-reality-all-the-time programming. In this ad, Pete Wentz is talking with some MTV reality girl and tells her: "Music videos still exist, and we're playing them on MTV for you." The show is called FNMTV which I thought was a pun on "Friday Night MTV" when the show premieres, and "Fuckin' MTV" which would be kind of awesome. And maybe it is, but they also claim "F..http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/fumtv_1.php In honor of OTB- June 17, 2008 Last weekend our city saw a dramatic, last-minute state takeover of New York's Off-Track Betting industry, which saved it from getting shut down. Thank you, Governor! In honor of city's 68 betting outlets and 1,500 employees, I decided to exercise my hard-won wagering liberties and head to my local OTB to play some ponies. The short version: it was pretty fun. The other people there were helpful and friendly, if not exactly interested in making small-talk. I made a bunch of bets and came..http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/in_celebration_of_the_otb.php The mental world of children's merchandising- June 13, 2008 Here's what Strawberry Shortcake looked like in olden times of the 1980's: Here's what she's looked like in recent years: And here's her new look, unveiled earlier this week: The changing look of Strawberry makes me wonder--how do companies market toys and merchandise to small children who can't always verbalize their preferences as consumers Do 6 year-old girls really want to own more Strawberry Shortcake stickers and sleeping bags if she looks like a skinny-armed anime character with.http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/the_mental_world_of_childrens.php Straight people: Start being more like non-straight people- June 12, 2008 Lisa "Opt out revolution" Belkin has a piece in the upcoming NYT magazine about parents who, radically, share the work. The Times is clearly prepared for this to be the most-emailed article of the week, having already given Belkin a blog entitled "Equal Parenting". As usual with Belkin, the article is really about middle class problems. Although she claims that the maldistribution of domestic work persists across economic classes, this 'solution' is apparently only appropriate for middle...http://amysrobot.com/archives/2008/06/straight_people_start_being_mo_1.php |