Month: June 2002

Death Becomes Her

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I watched Death Becomes Her last night, as I had recorded it earlier in the week off of Sci-Fi. It’s an enjoyable black comedy from director Robert Zemeckis.

The film’s effects (from ILM) were amazing in 1992, and they still hold up today. Sure, like any geek nitpicker, I had to replay some of the scenes in slow-mo, and I did see the occasional instance of less-than-perfect motion tracking. But, that's just a minor quibble. And, I’m still not sure how ILM achieved those shotgun-blast holes in Goldie Hawn’s character (Helen).

My only real critique is with its foley. At times, it was just overdone. Hey, I enjoy overdone-foley as much as the next guy, when it’s appropriate for its genre. But, in Death Becomes Her, it just seemed exaggerated at times. For instance, through the course of the movie, three bodies fall down stairs. And, as the visual appeared, along with the “stair falling sound”, I could just picture the foley artists dropping shoes and other objects onto a wooden plank in their studio.

Oh, and why Sci-Fi didn’t air it in widescreen is beyond me :-/. It’s not like Sci-Fi has a no-widescreen policy, as they consistently air the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series as such. I want my missing 40%, dammit ;).

Hacking the Catacombs

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

It looks like there's a cat-and-mouse game afoot between the cops and the “cataphiles” in Paris:

[....] The cataphiles are in relentless war, “une guerre souterraine,” as Gadget calls it. Head-lamped cave-cops cruise the underground, chasing out trespassers, handing out thousand-franc fines, about $140. Manholes are soldered from above; whole teams descend hauling cement and cinder blocks — an awful sweaty job — to block off passages and seal up the rabbit holes. To no avail. Within days, the cataphiles go on the attack, using crowbars, sledgehammers, shovels, hydraulic jacks, high-powered rock drills: smashing the walls, busting the careful solders. One legendary manhole was closed and reopened and closed again 20 times in a week. The police, of course, find this infuriating; the cataphiles think it’s hilarious fun. […]

See also: Infiltration.org.

Worst Video Games

Ashley Bischoff7 Comments

I was amused by this article at MSNBC about the worst video games for console systems. Though it wasn’t even rated as most-bad, “Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure” was still impressively bad:

[...] Jaws, Jurassic Park, Backdraft, and Back to the Future have lines in front of them, and the only way to get in is to buy hats specific to each attraction.

And how, you may ask, do you buy the hats? Why, by picking up garbage.

I am not making this up. Walking around this virtual version of the Universal Studios Theme Park, you will find wadded up garbage littering every street. Picking this garbage up and hauling it to trash cans earns you points that you can redeem to purchase hats. […]

Self-foaming Soap

Ashley Bischoff11 Comments

I’m a sucker for convenience-gadgets, and this self-foaming/self-lathering liquid soap sounds neat-o. I may just have to pick some up next time I run out of hand soap.

Have you tried Dial Complete handwashing soap yet?

It looks like just another liquid soap, except the container is pink and a little more squat-looking. But it's quite different — it foams itself.

That’s right, it comes out of the spout pre-lathered.

Now, how lazy do you have to be, that you can’t even lather up your own soap?

But the fact is, few people are really good at lathering. Glops of unlathered soap are always falling into the sink, completely wasted.

With Dial Complete, that doesn’t happen. Everything you get out of the bottle is usable. No waste. [...]

(Link passed along by my brother Adrian)

DFWBlogs Cocktail Event

Ashley Bischoff6 Comments

I went to the DFWBlogs Cocktail Event earlier this evening, held this month at the Uptown Bar and Grill. I really had a good time. There’s just something pleasant about good conversation among people sharing a commonality (in this case, blogging). And, in many ways, the Uptown Bar and Grill turned out to be the anti-bar (a good thing).

  • No loud blaring music
  • No cigarette smoke in my eyes
  • An actual parking lot outside, not just vigilante street parking

And, the food was reasonably priced as well — I ordered a burger for about $6. But, this was no ordinary burger — Uptown Bar and Grill’s burgers have apparently been voted as Best Burger in the March 2002 issue of D Magazine. And, it was very tasty. Definitely one of the top 5 burgers that I’ve had.

Up until that point, Uptown Bar and Grill seemed to be a great find, but it wasn’t completely perfect. For my Sam Adams that I ordered to go with my burger, I was charged $4.25 as an Import Beer. What? Did Boston secede from the Union while I wasn’t looking? Bah.

But, other than that, I give high marks to Uptown Bar and Grill. And, I look forward to the next DFWBlogs get-together.