New Crum Member

I know most of you were expecting a new member to the Crum family to come from Michal and me and to come in September. Jon, however, notified me that, to my surprise and great delight, Gerald Crum is even now celebrating the birth of his son, David Devin (sorry, I got his name wrong).

Now, I know what some of you are thinking: who the heck is Gerald? But I will remind you, his last name is Crum, that's right, Crum...

Adult male, perhaps Gerald, with alleged new born son, David (or maybe some other child). Also, an unknown hand from a third-party, perhaps the mother or a grandparent or something.

Thanks for the heads-up Jon.

TR2N

Sometimes I know I'm a Jonny-come-lately. We don't watch television and so I stumble upon news after most people think it's common knowledge. However, I would be surprised if any of you have heard of this yet:

TRON 2

A teaser trailer was released at Comic-con in California a couple days ago. It shows an older Jeff Bridges watching an updated light-bike race. Pretty cool.

More info here | light-bike race here

Movie Trailers

I was just looking through movie trailers that I hadn't yet seen (on a site that I just found, Trailer Addict). I had just finished watching the trailer for Jim Carry's new movie, Yes Man (looks pretty good), when I saw this: "The Mummy: Tomb of the Drag..." now having already seen the preview for the new Mummy movie I had to wonder if the "tomb of the drag" wouldn't actually garner better reviews than whatever the real full title is.



I have also been thinking recently, does anyone know why pre-views are sometimes called "trailer". Is it because it trails the commercials before the movie?

Preview or teaser seem to make more sense.

Peter, do you know the definitions here?

A Country Full Of Idiots

I usually don't comment on the politics, but this caught my attention; everyone seems to be up in arms about this magazine cover. Barack Obama doesn't like it and John McCain doesn't like it. I read an article on another site reporting that even the editors of The New Yorker were concerned that the average person on seeing this cover wouldn't get it, and could be offended or misunderstand the intent. My first thought upon seeing the cover was that it was funny, followed closely by how unusual it is to see such a pointed cartoon so prominently displayed. Then when I read the news story about the controversy surrounding the cover, that's when I got offended. Barack Obama, John McCain and The New Yorker all think I'm a stupid idiot. Sure, what they say is that we're a country of idiots, but I kind of take it personally and only hear myself being called an idiot. If a magazine realeases a cover making fun of all the attacks aimed at one candidate, then why would that candidate complain? If it is obviously a piece of satire, why would the opposing candidate complain? If it's funny, creative and eye-catching, why would the magazine itself distance itself from the cover? Of course I know the answer to all three of these questions, maybe asking them with such naivete is what makes me an idiot...

Hitchcock Revisited

A few months ago Vanity Fair (a magazine that I neither subscribe to nor read) ran a series of staged photographs inspired by famous scenes from Alfred Hitchcock films. Some of these are really cool, some of them are so-so, but it is certainly worth a look-see. Link

TV first, Theater later

Peter said recently in a response to the questions "is this film worth seeing in the theater or should we wait for DVD?", if a movie is worth seeing, it's worth seeing in a theater.

So Peter, I've got a question. Mark Cuban, the billionaire / media-mogul / IU Alum is planning on showing movies produced by his company Magnolia Pictures on TV before they are released in the theater.

His hope is that they will do better at the box office because of this rather than worse (as would be expected: "why pay $10 if I can watch it for free?").

What's your opinion, does this make sense or not?

(read the full Wired.com article | here)

The Movies

One of the things I enjoy about being alive, being an America, and living in Bloomington is the drive-in movies. Now, I know that the drive-in isn't really the best place to "experience" movies (or films) the way they were meant to be enjoyed, that is, on an iPod. Nevertheless, drive-in movies are a lot of fun for multiple reasons. First, you drive, park, open the trunk, pull out your lawn chairs and watch a movie or two in the great outdoors (in other words, you can smoke while watching). Second, at many drive-ins (though, regrettably not the one in Bloomington) you pay by car, not by person. Thus, an entire car-full can often watch a movie (or two) for what? $10!!! And third, something I've already mentioned twice. You often get to see TWO movies in a row, for one low price! So the sound's not great and the picture is harder to see but hey, it's good-ol' American fun.

So if you happen to be in Bloomington today, and you happen to read this. Meet me at the drive-in, tonight's double feature: Wall-e & Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk.