Work From Home Friday videos reach a new… height… sort of.

Tammy and I had a rare and coveted free Saturday last weekend. We took the opportunity to see a matinee at the Movie Tavern. We decided to go see something brainlessly funny, something we wouldn’t have to think about, just some good old yuk-yuk entertainment. So we bought tickets for Mall Cop.

Ten minutes after the movie was supposed to start, after we’d already ordered our food, the manager stuck his head in and said he was replacing the bulb on the projector. “Hang tight.” Ten minutes later, he stuck his head in again and gave us the bad news. The project was a “no worky.” We could either get a refund or see something else.

Several times over the last few months, Tammy and I have lamented that Hollywood is just not putting out anything we want to see. Gory horror flicks, sappy chick-flicks, and feel-bad sob stories just aren’t worth my twenty bucks. I’d like to see Grand Torino, but that is not a “Tammy movie.”

The only other option that was even on our radar was Coraline. I had a feeling it was going to be too weird and gothic for Tammy (and that turned out to be true) but it was all we had left.

I’m a big fan of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and the sub-genre that it spawned. So Corline had an automatic head start on my review. It was only available in 3D, which may have canceled out that head start. There’s a big wave of 3D movies coming out and I’m just not a fan. The technology has been around for 50 years. Oooh, the thing reaches out from the screen in that one seen and makes your head rock back. I get it. If it doesn’t contribute to the whole experience of the movie, it’s not worth wearing the uncomfortable plastic glasses for two hours.

Coraline, like Despereaux, is based on a book, which means you have to go into it with that in mind, knowing that there’s more to the story that you won’t see, knowing that the plot will not follow normal movie patterns, and knowing that it might feel a little awkward in this medium.

With that in mind, the story is great. It has a great moral (eventually) and it’s entertaining. It is weird. It is gothic. It has a heavy dose of tween girl angst. (Didn’t that used to be teen angst? When did angst move in to elementary school?) But, ultimately it’s a fun story for grown-ups too.

I feel I should warn you. I would not take someone younger than, say, 12 to see Coraline, despite the target audience. It’s got some really scary scenes. And there is one scene, which I would call PG-13 (or worse). Without giving away too much, imagine (or rather, try not to imagine) an overweight septuagenarian dancing and singing wearing a bejeweled thong and pasties. Yeah. Ick.

My heart for the genre is just enough to pull this movie up to three grins.

I’m not sure how this review fell through the cracks. I saw this movie in the theater months ago and just stumbled across this draft this morning.

I understand the less than stellar reviews from some. The Tale of Despereaux is not Toy Story or Madagascar. Don’t expect to see Buzz Lightyear kitsch, or Shrek fart-jokes. It is a fairy tale of the finest sort.

I am a long time fan of CGI animation, since the days before Pixar was a household name (and I do love Toy Story). The artistry and technical achievements in this film leave me speechless. The characters emoted better than many live-action films. (They did seem to cut a couple of corners on non-critical characters. The cat was pretty bad by comparison, but it’s only in two scenes.)

The feel is very literary, as it should be. And you get the feeling they made some sacrifices to get the book to the screen. (Don’t they always?) The film makes me want to read the book and see what I missed. Still, the story stands well on it’s own.

The voice talent (What a star packed cast!!) was held in check allowing the story to shine through. You don’t find yourself thinking, “Hey, it’s Robin Williams!” or “Hey, it’s Mike Meyers!” (Thank God!) Instead, you enjoy the characters and only momentarily think, “I think I know that voice.”

It may be too cerebral (read “old skool”) for some of today’s iPod, Dragon Ball Z, Nintendo DS, 24/7 non-stop stimulation generation, but it’s exactly the kind of story they need.

I enjoyed the movie and will likely own it, but only because of my irrational need to own all of Pixar’s movies. I think the little mouse earned 3 grins

What a great game. I was rooting for the Cards. Oh well. The game was awesome anyway.

I saw almost all the commercials, but only heard about half of them because we put on a youth party for the game and the din was overpowering. It was a great party, just loud. It was the first year we got a TV signal in The Loft (our youth room with the concrete floor and exposed metal roofing) where we could use the stage sound system and big screen projectors.

The party seemed to be a great success. We did Superbowl bingo, a football squares grid, and an eating contest. I made chili for the first time in years. The mild batch was really tasty and several of the kids loved the extra hot batch. They’re stomach linings are young and strong. They should enjoy them while they have them.

The commercials this year where not the best ever, but they were pretty good. (I think last year was better.)

Here are a few of my favs (roughly in reverse order of how much I liked them).

Coke’s insect heist – Cute award

Pepsi Max’s “I’m good.”

Hulu’s mush brain

Monster’s moose mount

Bridgestone’s potato heads

Bridgestone’s hip rover

Career Buildeter “It’s probably time.” – Probably my favorite

Still, I’m not sure any of them beat last year’s talking stain. I still chuckle just thinking about it.

Be sure to vote for your favorite (and catch any of those you missed) on Hulu.com/superbowl/

This week Microsoft rocked the world with the release of their Mac killing, do-it-yourself music software called “Songsmith.”

Now, if you know anyone who owns a Mac and has any talent at all, you’ve heard of Garage Band. It’s the Mac software that allows you to put together some really nice music mixes. You provide some vocals, and maybe a guitar riff here and there, and you can add very authentic sounding drum tracks, bass guitar, and maybe even a horn section. It’s very intuitive and has made hundreds, if not thousands, of teenagers wailing angst ridden songs actually sound pretty good.

Naturally, anything that’s really successful in the tech world is eventually copied by Microsoft and made into a pitiful mockery. That’s Songsmith.

You sing into your PC mic (no musical talent required), tweak a few settings (Do you want “rock” or “ballad”? “Bouncy” or “easy”?), then let Bill Gates carry you into the world of the rock superstar. Or… not.

In a matter of days, folks have taken the vocal tracks from some of rock’s iconic songs and turned them into the kind of schlock that I used to do with my Casio keyboard in the mid 80’s. (Click the link below.)

Some of my younger readers may never have heard the original version of any of these songs, so please find them and listen to them *before* you listen to these blasphemous mockeries.

Clicky clicky.

My favorite is the “Love Boat Lounge” remix of Roxanne.

I’m often guilty of talking too much. I know, I know. Hard to believe, but it’s true. When I tell stories, I tend to spend too much time on trivialities. When I do movie reviews, I tend to take three paragraphs to say, “This movie sucks.”

So here is the perfect example of what I need to strive for: Shortest movie review ever!

It’s Faaaaaat Albert.  On Hulu!  Dyno-mite!!

Clicky clicky.

This week’s WFHF video is not a knee slapper. It’s a heart tugger and a thought provoker.

Sorry. I’ll get sillier next time. Back to the fun stuff. This is just something that I had to do.

Watch it anyway. It could change your life.

On a technical note, good grief! I have GOT to figure out how to get better sound quality. I tried everything on this video (as evidenced by the many different sounding audio clips… Sorry). It was windy outside and from a distance, some of the audio was just plain usuable. I have a mic jack on my camera, but no good mic to use, and even if I did, I’d really need a wirele$$. Sigh.

Oh.. Em.. Gee…

If you thought you could waste time on the internet, you have been fooling yourself until now.

Let there be no doubt. MTV is the bane of modern society. The cable channel has single handedly ruined the moral character of generations of Americans. And now, as if to add insult to injury, you can relive every wonderful minute of it for free.

Surf at your own risk: mtvmusic.com

Let me recommend some favorites:
Jacko was monster long before his surgeons turned him into one
Christopher Walken dances into history
Weird Al beat’s jacko (The original here)
Al parties like it’s 1699 (The original here)

… and so many more but I’m out of time!

We’re still waiting for the Texas DPS to process our CHL applications. (Yes, plural. Tammy’s getting one too.) Seems there’s been huge surge in applications since Bronco Bomber has been winning the hearts and souls of the national media.