The Hopp Stop

There is a new Fast & The Furious movie coming out, called…”Fast & Furious.” Thanks to Borders for directing me to the trailer. Looks awesome! Can’t wait.

Annoyingly, the embeddable version is of shite quality, so I recommend you click on the high-res option in the embedded video, which opens up a new window with higher quality video.

Good news for all you fans of entertaining bad movies with somewhat improbable plots, as well as Amy Smart: Crank 2: High Voltage is filming. A plot synopsis I found at Gizmodo is that “Jason Statham survives falling a thousand stories from a helicopter, thanks to his super adrenaline heart, which is stolen by a really old Chinese dude, and his mechanical replacement needs to be constantly zapped.”

In a word: Awesome! I think it’s better than the second one, really exciting. How many movie series stay this strong after 3 iterations?

Also, saw Big Trouble in Little China on Friday. Amusing, but dozed off in the middle of it. I think it warrants a repeat viewing. Kurt Russell is pretty funny in it.

Big news! The Silverdome is now back in Pontiac’s hands for an eventual sale. This has to enhance the value of my pewter Silverdome model. I guess the weekly rollerskating around the concourse wasn’t enough to pay the bills.

For the Matrix fans out there: today’s NPR Story of the Day podcast was about Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher who died yesterday. He’s notable for pioneering the idea of a simulated world that is so real that inhabitants cannot distinguish it from the real world. Sound familiar? The Wachowski brothers paid homage to Baudrillard by quoting him in the movie (Morpheus line “Welcome to the desert of the real.”) and hiding the virtual Jesus Neo sells in a copy of Simulacra and Simulations, a Baudrillard book. You can find the general Story of the Day podcast here, although there’s not much in there beyond what I said above. This page is apparently from a UCSB lecture on Baudrillard + the Matrix, which makes sense given that a UCSB prof is quoted on the podcast.

Free Press writer won an award for his story on killer carp. I shit you not. It’s pretty hilarious–basically combat fishing in which people have to wear helmets. Also worrisome as another case where foreign fauna and flora spread to new areas and crowd out native life.

A couple Apple links for you: iLounge editors have a roundtable discussion about the likely delay in a sixth-gen iPod due to the iPhone development and launch window. I for one am now more enthusiastic about a touchscreen, all-screen iPod than an iPhone (although I’m wont to vacillations). And the Onion comes through with news of a new Apple product.

And finally, a real-life cheese fountain a la Talladega Nights.

I’ve got some new articles to share from this month’s Esquire and GQ. First up, Chris and I were talking on Saturday about the potential for a massive volcano at Yosemite. What do you know, Esquire’s Answer Man responds to a reader question on the subject.

Also up are articles from my two favorite Esquire columnists, Ezra Dyer and Chuck Klosterman. Dyer has an article about guerrilla urban off-roading in Boston, which took me back to high school. Klosterman has a passable piece on stereotypes.

Moving on to GQ, I threw up in my mouth when I read that (1) Fred Durst is directing a movie, and (2) David Fincher is assisting him in his career change. Now, I know that Fincher came up as a music video director before Alien 3 and thus might feel some positive sentiments towards the music biz, but give me a break: Durst is a pig fucker of the highest order. I’m afraid this is going to color how much I enjoy Fincher films in the future (including Zodiac, the promising movie coming out this spring).

And…a Modest Mouse story that includes Isaac looking nice and plump. They’re all so slick and posed looking in this photo that I’m having fun imagining the pre-shot process, replete with Isaac sarcasm. Makes me think of that studio interview of the Mouse from before they hit it big, when the interviewer screwed something up and, IIRC, Isaac yelled out “Homework!” Borders, please confirm.

Finally, we have a GQ story on Barkley and the Inside the NBA crew. In reading Jack MacCallum’s book on the 2005-06 Phoenix Suns, it’s apparent that a lot of NBA coaches and some players think Barkley is full of it, despite the fawning nature of this article.

Random question: who thinks this site should be the Hopp Stopp instead of the Hopp Stop? Please advise in the comments. If Rob Thomas can share his thoughts, I’d really appreciate it.

I watched Jarhead last night. I liked it quite a bit, would give it 4/5 on the Netflix scale. I had forgotten that this is a Sam Mendes (American Beauty) movie. How long before the first movies start coming out on this gulf war? Until then, here are links to a couple scenes of chaos behind the wheel in Iraq, thanks to Winding Road for them.

How soldiers drive in Iraq. I don’t blame the soldiers for driving like that, given the risks they face, but if I was an Iraqi, it would be pretty damn annoying.

Rush hour in an Iraqi intersection.