Links for 2007-04-30
Posted April 30, 2007 1:17 AM.
- Monocle—bizarre magazine of the overpaid design-savvy intellectual elite—is selling co-branded bicycles... I'm still not sure I get the magazine, but I have to say I'm bloody loving the look of that bike. If I actually ever used a bike, that's exactly the kind of one I'd want...
- Matt Biddulph has gone full time as CTO of Dopplr... I'm very happy for Matt—and love dopplr—just can't help feeling a little bit sad that we're not working with each other, which is something I've wanted to do again pretty much immediately ever since we both left the BBC... Miss Webb as well...
- Grant Morrison has written a potential film script for We3, and a script review of it has found its way onto the internet... Any film of this would be heavily CGI, and it might not be an obvious candidate for the transition, given how sad and violent it is. But the comic was really weirdly moving. 21st Century Watership Down?
- The "Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies" has sold for $4000 at auction... 'Allo 'Allo went from quite poor to really terrible as time passed, but still I have some vague affection for the idea of this picture going to auction.
- My Los Angelene film industry chum Kerry recently went to watch the first episode of 'Drive' at the house of super-hot Firefly star, Nathan Fillion.... What he doesn't mention is how at the event he ran into Twitter's Biz Stone and then had a weird conversation about me. Had a conversation about me in a super-hot famous person's house? Let me know!
- London's Kerning is a huge—and I suspect quite beautiful—poster recreating a map of London out of typography... It's £100. I'm really tempted. I wonder how much it would cost to get framed. Probably a hell of a lot more money than I've got available at the moment...
- The Guardian Technology blog has revealed that for the second time in almost as many months The Independent has got something startlingly wrong... This is the mobile phones kill bees thing that went around a while back. Apparently even the researchers of the original paper are sort of horrified by the way it was presented by the increasingly 'invisible ray'-afraid Indy...
- Mike Migurski on Disinfo graphics... I have to say that I've found Dion Hinchcliffe's diagrams around this subject absolutely totally confusing and meaningless but I've never had the nerve to say so in public until Biddulph pointed me towards Mike's piece...
- I'm pretty gutted that Grindhouse's release date has been pushed back in the UK, and more concerned still that they might release it as two films... I mean, come on! The general noise is that people who went to see it loved it, but that a whole bunch of people didn't go and see it. Do people really think cutting it in half and making people pay twice will help?
Comments
Please stay on-topic, informative and polite. I reserve the right to remove comments for whatever vague capricious reasons seem reasonable at the time.
The Monocle bicycle looks like a beautiful, new Amsterdam bike. Mind you, if the A'dam bike was new and had a few shiny bits.
;o)
Congrats to Mr. Biddulph.
→ Posted by: Ms. Jen at April 30, 2007 4:31 AM
The Monocle looks like a soulless (and more expensive) version of a Pashley.
→ Posted by: chris at April 30, 2007 8:44 AM
About Grindhouse... i think it might help yes.
I was so fortunate to be in New York last week, and made use of the opportunity to see both movies in one go. Even though it's marvelous to see them back to back, i can see why three hours of b-movie glorification is not everyones idea of a good time.
But if they were released separately, i still would recommend both. Rodriguez' bit for the over the top gore, Tarantinos bit for the action. And ofcourse, the brilliant fake trailers inbetween. I hope they don't get chucked.
→ Posted by: Roy Verhaag at April 30, 2007 10:35 AM
bizarre magazine of the overpaid design-savvy intellectual elite
But, Tom...
→ Posted by: Phil at April 30, 2007 10:53 AM
Yeah Phil, I'm more than aware that I fit squarely into that demographic at the moment. However, I still don't get it!
→ Posted by: Tom Coates at April 30, 2007 12:25 PM
A guy here at work printed out the London map on A3 and put it up behind his desk, as long as you don't stand too close it looks pretty good...of course if you don't stand too close you can’t read any of the words so it looks like a plain old black and white map. Joy.
As for Grindhouse it didn't work when they split up Kill Bill, admittedly that was one movie and not two but even so it’s never a good idea. If studios are that worried about the length they can just suggest a cinema break like Return of The King (which I found most annoying but I guess some people have weak bladders).
→ Posted by: Tony at April 30, 2007 2:24 PM
Here in Australia, Those In The Know who I speak with are suggesting that Grindhouse won't even get a theatrical release here. It's supposedly going to be a straight-to-rental/DVD thing.
Then again, being shanked in the US box-office listings by something as dire as Disturbia has to have an effect. Is now the right time to mention that, like Baz Luhrmann, I find QT to be all mouth no trousers?
Anyway.
→ Posted by: Luke at April 30, 2007 5:27 PM
One problem with Grindhouse is that the key demographic for US film-goers just doesn't remember the double-feature, and foreign audiences more or less said goodbye to the two-film matinee much earlier. So there are reports of people leaving after the first film.
It seems made for the people (especially Americans) who were teenagers in the 1970s and now have a 50-inch flatscreen with full surround. (Heck, my wife's uncle has a projection room in his house. He's squarely in that demographic.) Expect an early DVD release and good sales from people who gave up on going to the cinema when they got rich.
→ Posted by: Nick S at April 30, 2007 6:45 PM
Perhaps they should've tried something viral a-la NIN's Year Zero to build it up and get a further understanding of the premise out there before it was released?
Either that, or Quentin should've sucked it up and released the thing straight to VHS, straight up.
→ Posted by: Luke at May 1, 2007 1:03 AM
Oh dear, Drive got pulled from the schedules. Final two episodes... online in the summer. Nathan Fillion doesn't get any luck.
→ Posted by: Nick S at May 1, 2007 5:11 AM