The second trailer for Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is out:
When this was first announced, it was disclosed that it was set in the Alien universe, but it wasn’t clear whether the xenomorphs themselves would make an appearance. After this trailer, I feel pretty safe in saying that they will.
Howard Waldrop and I will review this when it comes out.
So I saw this video on Fark on how to peel garlic in ten seconds by shaking the cloves between two steel bowls a while back:
I make fresh salsa from time to (and have won some honorable mentions at a local hot sauce competition for same), and one of the biggest pains in the ass is peeling 4-5 whole bulbs of fresh garlic (the jar stuff just doesn’t work as well). So I thought I would give it a try.
What do you know? It works. Not 10 seconds, or quite as well peeled as in the video, but my two steel bowls are smaller than this guy’s. Even so, this easily cut about 80% of my garlic peeling time, which adds up to over an hour in the course of a year.
This may be an old tip for many of you, but I thought I would share it for those who regularly have to peel garlic…
Try to avoid getting stabbed today.
In celebration, here’s an extremely abbreviated version of Julius Caesar, performed at a Little Caesar’s:
Never let it be said that my blog is short on highfalutin culture…
Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You” is the music Bruce Sterling would put on at the end of the party after every Turkey City Writer’s Workshop held at his house, mainly so people would leave. It worked too, not because it was bad, but because the waltz tempo, echoey steel guitar and smoky vocals make it the perfect “chill out at the end of a long day and feel your eyelids getting heavy” song. I bought the single off iTunes, but I think I might need to pick up the entire album, So Tonight That I Might See, as I’ve developed a craving for Hope Sandoval’s voice, which combines that smokey, chill tone of a classic jazz/blues chanteuse with peak-period Sinatra’s last-second, end-of-the-measure timing.
Is Mazzy Star shoegazer? I think they’re more sui generis, but I’ve seen “Fade Into You” on several Best of Shoegazer lists, and that’s good enough for me…
Flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond theme:
This was done at Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science‘s Vijay Kumar, Daniel Melligner and Alex Kushleyev. The quadrotors are under computer control.
It’s not a particularly good version, but I’m sure they’ll have time to improve before the final enslavement of humanity. Now you’ll have to excuse me, I have to write a quadrotor heist novel…
(Hat tip: Derek Johnson)
Howard and I will review Brave, Pixar’s animated film this year, for Locus Online.
Given that it’s Pixar, we fully expect it to fall somewhere between “really good” and “totally awesome.”
Like Supercar, Plastic Girl in Closet is another Japanese band treading the boundary between Shoegaze and J-Pop. Also like Supercar, their dress sense seems to come from The Beatles circa 1964.
Second up for Howard Waldrop and I to review in 2012 is Pixar’s first live action film, John Carter (based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars) due out March 9.
The first trailer had me worried, because there were no four-armed green dudes. This trailer? Four-armed green dudes everywhere. Also, since Michael Chabon had a hand in the script, I’m really looking forward to it.
Just for the record, I should note that the John Carter of Mars in this film is not my U.S. congressman, John Carter of Round Rock.
Howard and I signed up to review a number of films for Locus Online this year, and I thought i would put up some trailers for them. First up on the list is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, due out February 17.
We’re review it because: A.) Someone has to, B.) We reviewed the first one, and C.) I’m hoping with Crank directors Neveldine/Taylor at the helm it will be good, stupid, over-the-top, sleazy exploitation fun.
The first segment has Shatner talking about difficult acting jobs he had to perform on Star Trek. The second features him singing. Guess which one I watched all the way through?