Movie Madness: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight has everything: fabulous performances, gorgeous visuals, well-paced plot movement, even for a film that is over two and a half hours long.  And, while the story is great, it’s also ultimately unimportant.  The film is a character study and the real plot points are not about who did what or how it happened, but about order versus anarchy and pragmatism versus chaos.  It’s Good against Evil, with Batman in the middle trying to usher Gotham from the darkness to the light.

The Internet Is Your Playground: Paralympic Doping Edition

We have a big week planned for Culturegeist: a couple of new running features, a Movie Madness for Hellboy II, and lots of links to interesting, fun, and funny goodness.  Yes, you heard me right… actual content this week!  With words!  But first, here’s some links to start the week off right and avoid that case of the Mondays:

• USADA caught of a couple of track and field athletes doping… at the Paralympics.  Luckily, I am slow of wit and unable to get myself in trouble making fun of this story. [International Herald Tribune]
• The New Yorker has an interesting piece on how Chicago influenced Obama.  Unfortunately, the editors thought it would be a great idea to put a cartoon of the Obamas as machine gun toting, flag burning Muslims on the cover of the issue… so there’s that too. [New Yoker article here, the cover here via the NYT Politics Blog, and The Carpetbagger Report on the campagins' reactions here]
• Good news, bad news in D.C.  Another gunman in Adam’s Morgan this weekend: bad news.  Witnesses ran him down and the police caught him: good news, such as it is. [NBC4]
• Apparently product placement is bothering the FCC so much that it is considering regulating the practice.  One idea includes disclaimers… which, by my count, will draw attention to the product placement and only make it more effective.  Right? [Gawker]
• Advice for Elton Brand from Allen Iverson and Charles Barkley, a couple of players who know what it’s like to deal with Philly fans. [The 700 Level]

Muppets Take Manhattan

I just recently watched Manhattan and it reminded me of one of my favorite YouTube mashups.  And you know how I love to share:

Happy ‘merican Day!

Hello folks…

The AMT and I are scrambling to do some actual work… really… I know, it’s hard to believe… before the July 4th holiday and a busy weekend.

But because we are born entertainers, or something like that, we can’t just leave our loyal readers (all twelve of you) without entertainment. So, I present to you two spectacular videos. One only a few seconds, the other a few minutes. One funny on purpose, the other maybe not. It ain’t much, but it’ll have to be enough until after the weekend.

Have some beer, watch some fireworks, and get all ‘merican this weekend. We sure will be.

BADASSS LITTLE WIZARD ARCHAELOGIST BABIES!

So, this story from OhNoTheyDidn’t came our way this morning from AL. Reactions to the idea that Shia LaBeouf might be dating Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter movies were… as you might imagine… hilarious. The conversation after the jump immediately followed the news:

Movie Madness: Wanted

We have a link to a very good review of Wanted in The Internet Is Your Playground this morning, but there are a few notable things about the film that are not discussed in the review (or that are only discussed briefly.)

Wanted does a spectacular job of presenting a set of rules for the film and sticking to those rules. The rules themselves are absurd, but that’s fine, as long as it’s consistent. There is nothing that drives me up the wall faster than a film that does not understand its own rules. I am willing to suspend my disbelief in any way that a filmmaker asks, as long as he is consistent in his storytelling. Talking animals? Alien robots that turn into cars and planes? Time travel? Sold, sold, and sold… as long as the rules do not change in the middle of the film. Examples after the jump!

Post-Mortem for This Last Weekend in June

Wasn’t that fun?  Another busy weekend for me and AL.  Not only did we manage everything on the Weekending, we also managed to get royally sunburned (or at least I did).  At any rate, this weekend saw…

• the D.C. and L.A. premieres of a truly wonderful documentary about the 2006 Homeless World Cup, Kicking It.  Seriously, if you live in the District, get down to E Street and watch, even if you don’t like soccer.  Or Homeless People.
• the OuterNational Music Tour’s stop at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in scenic Columbia, Md.  And rain.  Lots of rain.  Right in the middle of TV on the Radio’s set.  Good times, nonetheless.  I’ve never really listened to Thievery Corporation or Ladytron, but they weren’t bad – definitely better suited to a club setting than the big, open, outdoor vista.  Though I think that there was plenty of chemical indulgence going on regardless of the venue.
• and the highlight of the weekend, D.C. United’s utter dismantling of David and the Beckhams.  4-1.  The Black-and-Red head into their “international break” with an even .500 record at 7-7-1, and sit 8 points shy of the top of the table, even after their completely abysmal start to the campaign.  They have one league match scheduled for the month of July, and it’s a makeup game against Houston that was deluged out originally.  United will be occupying their time playing in the SuperLiga, a cash cow joint venture between MLS and the Mexican Premiera Division.

Look forward to this week after the jump.

The Internet Is Your Playground: Monster Back to Work Edition

• A review of the Dave Matthews Band show I attended at Nissan Pavilion on Saturday. The review is pretty fair, but I might have some thoughts of my own to share later in the day. [InRich]
• How the hell do you get a stress fracture in your sternum?!? Everyone is saying the right things at the moment, but this could be bad for Team USA, considering the limited number of bigs on the roster. But, really, more than that… how do you get a stress fracture in your sternum?? [ESPN]
• The South will rise again! And by “rise,” I mean “vote for Obama?” Being from the Deep South, I am pretty cynical about any plan he has to win states down there, but Virginia, North Carolina, and even Georgia might really be in play. [NYT via Wonkette]
• I love stories about Amy Winehouse. She is absolutely my favorite walking train wreck right now. So… did you see her take a swing at a fan? Really. While you watch, take note of how bad the performance is. It’s really beyond words. [TMZ and TMZ Video]
• Saturday was the second birthday of Kissing Suzy Kolber. One day, we hope Culturegeist sees a second birthday, but right now we’re still hoping for a one month anniversary. [KSK]
• Here’s a really solid review of Wanted. Take a look at it, because we’re posting a long piece on the film in an hour or two. [UGO]
• Have you seen the trailer for Pineapple Express? I don’t want to sound too ridiculous, but when I watched this, I thought it had a chance to be Lebowski-esque. [IMDB]

Finally, just because I’m in a good mood, here’s one of the great Family Guy adaptations. It should totally help you avoid a case of the Mondays.

Weekending… Because Sometimes, You Wait Till the Last Minute for No Good Reason

I meant to work on this more, but I promised you a Weekending, so here it is…

• Movies!  Documentary about the Homeless World Cup that you may have heard something about somewhere, plus the cutest little robot since R2D2.  Kicking It, exclusive to E Street Cinema and WALL-E, playing most everywhere.
• Concert of the weekend:  Thievery Corporation, Ladytron, TV on the Radio, and more!  The OuternationalMusic Tour; Saturday, 5:30 doors, Merriweather Post Pavilion.
• This guy David Beckham is in town for some kind of a game where they don’t use their hands.  There may be tickets still available even, though 32,000+ have been sold.  D.C. United vs. Los Angeles Galaxy; Sunday, Noon, RFK Stadium (ABC).

There you go, kids.  Now get out there and enjoy the summer weather before the rains come!

Kickin’ It Old School!

Just a reminder that Kicking It, the documentary about the Homeless World Cup debuts in LA and DC today.  Tickets are already selling out (I couldn’t even get into the 7:10 show tonight…)  DC kids get your tickets right here.  Earlier post on the movie here.

Coincidentally, WALL-E also comes out today.  May as well make it a double-feature, right?

Look for a proper Weekending post sometime this afternoon.

Lost in the Tubes: Invisible Bloggers from a Galaxy Far, Far Away Edition

• “Billy” from the first Predator movie (who also dabbled in quality adult entertainment in the 70s as well as the U.S. penal system) is running for Senate.  As a Libertarian.  You can’t make this stuff up.  [Wonkette]
• The force is strong with Barack.  [Yeas & Nays]
• Ryan Avent has more on the wrong-headed (at best) and bogus (at worst) environmental opposition to developing Poplar Point.  [The Bellows via BeyondDC]
• So in the LA Times article that just won’t die a follow-up post on The Big Lead, McIntyre mentioned a KSK contributor by name.  Always remember, kids:  never take on  cavemen.  Especially when they’re smarter than you are they’re damn smart and have a rabid following.  [Kissing Suzy Kolber]

You Wanna Talk About the People’s Game?

Soccer, of course, is the world’s most popular sport.  Even in America, it seems, most of us play soccer at some point while growing up.  The 2006 World Cup championship match was watched by more than 700 million people worldwide.  I’m not sure there are 700 million households with televisions worldwide.

Soccer, like most sports it seems, is also a major form of escapism.  For those like me, it’s a chance to forget about the office, or the classroom, or problems at home, or whatever, and just lose yourself in something that has no actual bearing on your life.  For those who aren’t fortunate enough to have a laptop to use while blogging, however, it’s a much more literal form of escapism.  It can be a chance to escape poverty and earn a living by breaking into the professional ranks.

For those even less fortunate than that, it’s a bit of a combination.  It allows escape from the brutality of homeless life, and it may even help in survival.  This Friday is the L.A. and D.C. premieres of Kicking It, a documentary about the Homeless World Cup.  The event started in 2001, and has run every year since.  The film follows six of the five hundred participants of the 2006 edition in Capetown, South Africa.

A Very Merry Unbirthday to Me!

I suppose I do have 364 unbirthdays in a year (365 this year), but today is super-plus extra special, because it’s not only my unbirthday, it’s my half-birthday!  I think I’ll celebrate with a cup of tea.  Either that or a video of one of my favorite Disney songs, yeah that seems more blog-appropriate.

And a very merry unbirthday to all of you out there on the interwebs.  Unless it’s actually you’re birthday.

Movie Madness: The Incredible Hulk

Who says you can’t go home again? Marvel simply ignored Ang Lee’s 2003 disaster, Hulk, and started over with their new film, The Incredible Hulk, directed by Louis Leterrier. The new film was fast paced. It was pretty. It had a big green guy who’s hard to like when he’s angry. Basically, it had everything you need in a Hulk movie, and more.