woW.

Just wow. I didn't even recognize Josh Brolin.



There are other versions of this trailer floating around, but the Talking Heads song really adds an appropriately surreal, tragi-comedy sense to this. Which is what the last eight years have been.

Short way 'round

I was looking around for some Formula 1 photos from Friday's nighttime practice session in Singapore, in prep for Sunday's first F1 race under lights, but didn't see much. Did find some sweet Moto GP shots though.


Though he looks like he's sliding on his side, I assure you he's riding out of this. The Chupa Chups man, Jorge Lorenzo, at Twin Ring Motegi during practice Friday (for us). Shot by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images.

You know what else is a PC?

And enter Matt Lavery's favorite joke. Which is always funny, but you have to know him to know what I'm talking about. So anyway ...



PC really hit back hard against Mac with a new ad campaign I think debuted tonight. I caught it while watching the season premier of "The Office." I'm glad they waited a good few years before responding to those "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ads though. That's the gentlemanly way to conduct the ol' advertising fisticuffs — wait 'till the iron's good and cold, then hurl it as hard as you can.

Had PC responded with this as 5-second spots instead — especially the "and I have a beard" guy — that maybe eventually all got put together for long ads, that would have been much more effective. Or just leave them as 5-second spots. More abstract, funnier, and the short length would have been more non-traditional and against the PC stereotype without actually stating that's what they were going for.

Also, Deepak Chopra. Completely full of shit, or just mostly?

The power of orange

Just the power of orange, USC.

Dillon in Philly

The Old City branch of my comic book store, Brave New Worlds, will be hosting artist Steve Dillon tonight from 6 to 9 p.m. Dillon — artist on little projects like Preacher, Hellblazer, Wolverine: Origins and Punisher — will be signing and doing $15 head sketches to raise funds for the ComicsPRO retailer organization. Which I assume look something like the below:


Dillon pretty much rules, so I'm going to try and make it out. You might want to as well.

UPDATE: Money was actually being raised for The Hero Initiative, and Dillon was appearing at stores that are a part of ComicsPro, which makes more sense.

Anyway, Steve Dillon was a cool guy who sketched well past posted hours and explained what a "spacker" was, George treated to drinks, and fun was had by all despite a parking ticket for me (never a doubt) and some bad karaoke we were all submitted to in an otherwise pretty cool bar.

Then again, as Dillon pointed out, awful karaoke is probably more entertaining than good karaoke.

Orange On the Aisle: Capote

Truman Capote, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, has a name for his book, and he's only too happy to share it with Kansas lawman Alvin Dewey, played by Chris Cooper, who led the investigation of a murdered farm family. In Cold Blood he giddily tells Cooper, maybe expecting the impressed smiles and back-slapping he's just returned from in New York.

Cooper's lawman is not impressed, in turn asking Capote if the title describes the murders or Capote's own efforts to keep the convicted murderers from their appointment with the hangman. Life might be a little slower in Kansas, but Dewey recognizes cold blood when he sees it. But Capote's blood would run colder yet, as he eventually executes his own home invasion and killings, so to speak.

Right off the bat Capote felt like a good film — especially with Hoffman's performance and the nicely crafted photography and direction taking center stage. But it took a bit to get into the film having already seen a good portion of the other recent Capote film, Infamous. Much of the same ground was being covered early on, just with different emphasis.

Once you get past that you can enjoy Capote on its own terms, and I assume Infamous as well, though I still haven't seen it all the way through. The one drawback with Infamous is, having seen him in Layer Cake and Casino Royale among others, Daniel Craig playing killer Perry Smith doesn't really work for me.

But Capote works in all aspects. Befitting the subject matter and setting, it takes a cold, understated approach where what's unsaid usually carries much more weight. And shows how taking years to write a book can be as destructive as brief moments of violence.

— 4 out of 5 picturesque Kansas landscape shots

Evan Tanner, R.I.P.

MMA fighter, and former UFC middleweight champ Evan Tanner died yesterday at age 37.

From a fighting aspect, I always liked Tanner's style. He would stand in the pocket with anyone, and was always very relaxed on the ground, not leaping at the first chance to try and take someone's back, but rather patiently looking to extend the punishment before opponents retreated to their guard. Unfortunately as he got older, it was his younger, quicker opponents getting that big shot in during the stand up exchanges.

He was likely just as well known in recent years for his Internet presence. I remember T-Bone showing me Tanner's gallery of hilarious MySpace photos (no longer there), and Tanner would go on to be a pretty prolific blogger. His posts were often painfully personal, some detailing his struggles with alcohol, but always somehow positive as well. In addition to regular MySpace posts he frequently updated his own Web site with news of his plans and projects, and worked as a regular blogger for Spike TV. His honesty and good-naturedness might have won him more fans than his fighting, actually.

His early death would be tragic no matter the cause, but I was at least glad to see it was nothing related to his personal demons. He enjoyed exploring the outdoors, something I'm not surprised he enjoyed considering his life outlook and recent Grizly Adams appearance. RIP.

***

In other MMA news, Chuck Liddell sat at one of the featured tables during one of tonight's World Series of Poker broadcasts. Acting as if he just learned to play hours previous, he somehow still took a big pot off a pro Mark Seif (Seif's fault) and caught a lucky two-pair in a hand he should not have been in, but was bounced when his (lack of) skill caught up to his luck and he went all-in when he should definitely not have.

Oh, and Phil Helmuth came in dressed as Patton, or something. And while he said he wanted to go to Afghanistan to visit the troops, there was apparently no reason for the uniformed entrance. Unless I missed something while watching the Phillies. It was humorous, though.

Oh oh, and Phil Laak was disguised as an old man, in a Spike Jones-style make-up job. Again, for no reason.

When all you do is play poker, I guess it helps to liven it up once in a while.

What what?

"What Drives the Weak" by Shadows Fall. Nothing new, it's four years old at this point, but it rips.

The singer, Brian Fair, was previously in the band Overcast which, according to Wikipedia, reformed and just put out an album.

What Wikipedia doesn't tell you is that they played way too long as one of the opening bands at a Stroudsburg (Shippensburg?) show that included Union and Damnation A.D. back in the day. You don't short Damnation on set time, dudes. Hopefully you'll remember this time 'round.

Won and done

I finally finished posting all my photos from the American Le Mans Series race at Lime Rock to my Flickr page, so check 'em if interested. There's a bunch of shots from the Porsche corral, and some racing ones too.

Though I couldn't see it from my seating position, David Brabham made an awesome last-lap pass to take the overall win in the Patron Highcroft Acura P2 prototype, passing the rival Penske Porsche RS Spyder in Turn 1 from the outside like the Porsche wasn't even inside of him. Brilliant mate!

Fedor is quietly amused, and will break you

UFC President Dana White, always quotable, and yet not afraid to talk out of his ass on occasion (or several), called Fedor Emelianenko "completely (expletive) irrelevant" at a press conference announcing the UFC 91 match between Brock Lesnar and Randy Couture, returning to UFC having settled his legal dispute with White and the organization.

OK, let's back up a sec. Yes, it's good news Couture will be back in an octagon, ring or whatever, so long as he's fighting. And as his departure from UFC as the heavyweight champ left a sour taste, it's good he'll be fighting for the belt right away again (read the story for those details). And the Lesnar match is a great one — a physically imposing opponent billed as the next big thing. Would love to see Randy take him to school. Especially in light of Lesnar's whining about Fedor.

Which brings us back to ... Irrelevant? Did White not see Fedor dispatch former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia in about 20 seconds in his last fight? White has maybe fairly criticized Fedor in recent years for not facing any top fighters, but I had no doubt he was still the best. I don't think White did either, but he certainly shouldn't now.

I'm just a little bummed this will mean a Fedor/Couture fight will wait that much longer, and Randy isn't getting any younger. White was implying the Affliction promotion that Fedor is contracted to is in financial trouble (possible bullshit, who knows). If so, Fedor/Couture could happen sooner, but it's still a ways off. Actually, after reading Lesnar's nonsense, I'd love to see Fedor take him apart first.

But let it be said — Fedor is a bad man. Don't believe me? Get thee to YouTube. He trains by hitting tires with a sledge hammer, his mere presence makes children cry, and King King would tap.

In a world without Don LaFontaine

Did you enjoy that piece on great name holder and voiceover legend Don LaFontaine? Because he died yesterday. Now how do you feel?

So he doesn't go out on a lame Denny's joke, let's enjoy some of his work:



"His loyalty was to a child." Ha ha.



(Just a rad trailer on its own, too.) R.I.P. Don.