Monday update

[yendi]

Superbowl: Damned fine game, marred slightly by some dubious calls and by the Seahawks not showing up for parts of the game (and turning the clock management over to Herm Edwards, apparently). Commercials weren't nearly as good. Some outright blew. The magic wall beer commercial was cute (although I couldn't tell you what beer it was for), and a few others were fun (Stunt City comes to mind), but some were wretched (Jessica Simpson's Pizza Hut commercial, the very existence of a preview for the new Shaggy Dog movie, made worse by adding Chris Berman's voice overs to Tim Allen's complete and total lack of comedic talent, the use of Kermit in a half-assed car ad, etc).

KOL: I've ascended, finally. Going at it as a pathless Sauceror this time.

Other weekend TV: This week's episode of The Batman featured both Patton Oswalt and Patrick Warburton. Woohoo! And a good Ghost in the Shell: SAC. Not much else -- rerun city, for the most part.

Reading: Shadows Over Baker Street.. Highly recommended anthology combining Holmes and his crew with the Lovecraftian Mythos. It includes works by matociquala, deep_bluze, Barbara Hambly, Simon Clark, and some newcomer named Neil Gaiman, who pulled off a Hugo Award for his tale.

More on the Muslim/cartoon bruhaha: An archive of images of Muhammed throughout history, many of which have caused no riots at all (in spite of the fact that at least a few of them are more overtly and deliberately offensive than the ones published in the Danish paper).

Finally, for the chocoholics out there (as in, almost all of you), the latest issue of Saveur (which I already talked about earlier this weekend in the context of hamburger documentaries) mentioned these. Yes, roasted cocoa beans covered in layers of white, dark, and milk chocolate and then rolled in cocoa powder. Anyone who buys me a bag of these will be my best friend for all time.

Comments

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I only saw the commercials during the first quarter before my head exploded -- I was at a house with many, many cats. The magic beerwall was cute, but the Fed Ex commercial.... THAT is comedy.

bad commercials

[bitsyboo.livejournal.com]

I didn't catch most of the earlier ones, it's true. But the worst one IMO was the Hummer monstrosity (no pun intended) with the PREGNANT godzilla-like critter.

[yendi]

True. Only my frustration at FedEx in general recently had me holding back on that one. If it had been for a service that actually delivered packages on time and/or to the right address, it'd be gold.

Re: bad commercials

[yendi]

God, yes. What a horrible commercial. How anyone can fuck up a commercial with a giant robot and a Godzilla-wannabe is beyond me. Hummer -- fucking up the environment and entertainment.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

I haven't had any troubles with them lately, so....

Just that whole "doesn't exist yet" "not my problem" exchange.... That slayed me.

[pkthunder.livejournal.com]

I liked the Burger King commercial with the Whopperettes, and the FedEx one was pretty good. I also like the Ameriquest one with the doctors and the fly.

The problem with Super Bowl ads is half of them are promos for ABC shows. Although that one for Lost was kinda cute (the one with Robert Palmer), in general, they don't hold my attention. So if I'm not into the football and half the commercials are throwaways, it's not worth it to watch. We stopped watching the game at half time.

Maybe if I cared a little which team one. *shrug*

[yendi]

I didn't like the Palmer commercial, mainly because I hate the use of dead celebrities. But it didn't bother me nearly as much as the ubiquitous commecials for Sons and Daughters, not one of which actually contained a funny joke.

[yendi]

Yeah, that's what made it work for me, too. And the guy getting stomped at the end.

[onceupon.livejournal.com]

Getting stomped, but first kicking the small dino in frustration. *grin*

aw, crap

[pkthunder.livejournal.com]

Of course, I meant to say "which team won."

[celticfeministw.livejournal.com]

It was the dubious calls that had my entire family wondering if the officials were just bent on handing the Steelers the game regardless of the plays.

I thought the FedEx commercial was pretty damned funny, as well as the Bud commercials with the horses - but that's largely because I'm a built in sucker for just about anything that features critters. The logical part of me knows that sticking a cute animal in an ad is nothing more than an emotional ploy to sell.)

Also - just to illustrate how big of a nerd/dork I am, while I was highly amused by the FedEx commercial, there was a part of me that was going "But! This is wrong! Cavemen didn't exist at the same time as the dinosaurs!"

And is it bad that I read Going at it as a pathless Sauceror this time as "Going at it as a pantsless Sauceror this time"?

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Cavemen and dinosaurs

Ever read The Prehistory of the Far Side? Gary Larson mentions how guilty he'd feel when he combined cavemen and dinosaurs; he thought maybe there should be a special confession booth where cartoonists could say, "Forgive me, for I have sinned: I have put cavemen and dinosaurs in the same cartoon."

And just 'cause you reminded me of it:

Let me tell you 'bout a caveman lived a million years ago/ When Mother Earth was young and dinosaurs walked to and fro..." -- "The Ballad of the Caveman" by Oingo Boingo

commercials

No real standouts for me except the magic fridge (my mom howled at that one) and Career Builder's "That's OK. I work with a bunch of jackasses myself."

pantsless

Hey, anything sounds better when you substitute "pants"! ;-)

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I got the feeling that it would've appealed to Robert Palmer's sense of humor (he did OK Weird Al's "Addicted to Spuds," remember). But maybe I'm being overly generous.

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

You really thought it was a fine game? We were fairly bored, actually. After about the fifth flag on the Seahawks, I gave up and started reading random blogs.

A few cute commercials, but none that made us bust a gut.

Re: bad commercials

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Word, brother. I got a "trying way too hard" vibe from way too many commercials yesterday, like (for me) the Burger King one: I looked away during that. (Of course, having the "herding cats" commercial on the brain made several suffer by comparison...)

[ckd]

Yeah, watching the game made me think "I wonder how much money the officials had on the Steelers beating the spread?"

Re: bad commercials

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

And understand, "me looking away from good-looking dancers" really rarely happens... ;-)

[yendi]

I want to see someone ask Portis if he thought the refs were biased.

[yendi]

I did enjoy the game. Good defense, some nifty plays (especially the trick touchdown), and, with better officiating, it could have been the closest Superbowl in a long time.

[yendi]

Well, technically, right after reincarnation, I was a pantsless Sauceror. But I fixed that right quickly.

[yendi]

Heh. Yeah, I remember the Larsen comments.

[yendi]

True, but I prefer it when the artists themselves get to decide. Don't get me started on the "new" Amber novels.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Is it safe to ask you about the "old" Amber novels? This does not ring a bell... Edumacate me! (Oy, I'm demanding...)

[muse0fire.livejournal.com]

Eh, maybe we would have enjoyed it more if we'd been watching with company.

Hey, btw, when do the cookies come in?? I couldn't get any takers from my neighbors (diets blah blah blah) unfortunately.

[yendi]

http://zelazny.corrupt.net/amber.html

Amongst the works I consider truly essential in genre literature.

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

Zelazny! Sorry; haven't read him. Had I been working through the SF authors alphabetically I'd actually have an excuse...

Oo! Oo! One more Super Bowl commercial comment!

[chris-walsh.livejournal.com]

I've been meanin' to say it:

Uh, Diet Pepsi? Y'know the phrase "brown and bubbly" could also describe diarrhea, right? ;-)