If you care about this sort of thing, you’ve probably already seen this. But on Wednesday, Disney Channel announced a 10-part Tron series for fall of 2011.
Disney XD (another channel, formerly known as “Toon Disney”) confirmed Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes for this fall. Check this out:
I haven’t read this yet (it is almost 600 pages) but I just downloaded the newWomen’s Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Progress Amid Resistance study released yesterday by Freedom House.
The United Arab Emirates starts on page 517, if you’re so inclined. That’s where I’m starting. I’ll let you know what I think when I’m done.
Foreign Policy has a fantastic set of photographs from war zones.
Check out: “The Shooting War.”
No.
No, no, no, no: “Hella number: scientists call for new word for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.”
Before this article I’d never heard of “Yotta-” before (it means Septillion) and now they want a number beyond that. Guess “Octillion” is too much like Octo-mom?
But “Hella-” is too much like No Cal “hella“, which I feel is hella lame.
I’ve got a weird obsession with Portand’s Time and Temperature Building. When Liz and I were looking for apartments, it was my dream, hope, wish, desire, to have one that looked out at the omnipresent display on top of 477 Congress Street telling me what the time is, then what the temperature is, then what the time is …
Well now I’ve learned that WMTM didn’t renew their lease to display its name on the sign: “WMTW relinquishes top Time and Temp spot.”
Dude! I can see it now!
“Josh”
“10:10″
“37 °”
“Josh”
“10:10″
“37 °”
Annnnnnnnnnd the worst idea I’ve heard this week is that Walt Disney Theatrical Productions, or Disney Theatrical Group, or Disney on Broadway, or whatever Tom Schumacher’s calling his cadre this week, wants make a Broadway version of Dumbo: “Disney’s ‘Dumbo’ bet.”
Ugh.
Stupid, useless, and a waste of money.
Imagine a chorus of blackface crows. In 2010.
Gee Tom, are you trying to ruin another corporate division?
What’s next, Song of the South?
Criminey.
Istithmar World Capital, the private equity and alternative investment arm of Istithmar World, part of Dubai World, a Dubai government-owned company (phew) has defaulted on their $300 million mortgage for the former Knickerbocker Hotel building in Times Square.
For more, we go to the Wall Street Journal: “Dubai World Coughs Up the Knickerbocker.”
How did I not think of this?
How did Foreign Policy magazine make this joke and not me?
In their post “This will not end well” they make a joke about the Dubai assassination and the subsequent Israeli … blockade … involving the 2008 Adam Sandler movie You Don’t Mess with the Zohan.
How did I not think of this?
No good news coming from Albany tonight – they’re reporting at the Times-Union that the Portland Pirates AHL hockey team is moving to the New York capital next season: “GM: Deal close for new team.”
Spencer Ackerman’s is a blog I read daily. He writes mostly about the Iraq War, but also about comic books and punk rock. He was also a consultant on the film In the Loop.
Much of his post today can be summed up by just the title – “Sarah Palin Is No Longer The Stupidest Republican Presidential Hopeful.” But I do want to quote more than half of the article anyway:
I have just read the foreign policy sections of Mitt Romney’s brand-new book No Apology: The Case For American Greatness and filed a piece about them for the Washington Independent. (Hence today’s slow posting.) It’s currently being edited. My biggest concern for the piece is that I simply lack the narrative and argumentative skill to convey to you, sufficiently, how deeply and thoroughly stupid the political persona known as Mitt Romney is. It’s causing a bit of an internal journalistic crisis in my brain.
UPDATE: Here’s the article: “Romney’s ‘No Apology’ Outlines Foreign Policy for Fantasy World.”
Key quote:
But a glance through the remarkable conflation of conservative shibboleths, paranoid global fantasies and deterministic myopia in “No Apology” makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the perennial GOP candidate might have been better off saying nothing at all.
Damn. And damning.
Slow news day so I’ve been catching up on the mass of articles about Leno last night. The battle-lines are drawn, most are either for him or against him, but every article seems to note how odd the last year has been for late night television.
Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly (“Jay Leno reclaims ‘The Tonight Show,’ Letterman acknowledges the return“) starts off with, well, some of that cynicism that Conan warned us about:
Jay Leno took back The Tonight Show from Conan O’Brien on Monday night, saying, “It’s good to be home.” Ha-ha-ha, oh, oh, I get it: Conan was a bully who kicked poor Jay out of his own house and stayed on as a squatter until the police (i.e., NBC) gave Jay back his property! Justice prevails!
Mmm snark!
The Washington Post (“Leno’s return to ‘Tonight’ gives off victorious air“), however, can’t seem to pick a side of the fence to be on:
In the end, Leno is talented in the most mediocre of ways, and this gives viewers great comfort. His big win here is a win for the middle of the road.
So, is that bad? Or good? Or … what?
The Los Angeles Times (“Jay Leno returns to ‘The Tonight Show’“) does what it does best, plays the middle of the road while dropping clever pop references:
It was quintessential Leno, man of the people, and after the new desk was unveiled, it did seem as if the last seven months were, if not a dream, then a sort of parallel universe, similar to this season’s “Lost.”
James Poniewozik at Time (“Jay Leno’s Long Nightmare Is Over“), who I felt eviscerated Leno in his cover story back in the autumn (“Jay Leno Is the Future of TV. Seriously“) veers into cynicism as well:
To be fair, Leno and NBC have a delicate task with the relaunch of the Tonight Show: making a premiere event of something that viewers were watching less than a year ago, without too many awkward reminders of what came between. At one point, Leno referred to his guest tomorrow, Sarah Palin, saying that she’s “never been on a late night show.” Palin appeared last year on Conan O’Brien’s Tonight (as a walk-on, not a scheduled guest, which she was on SNL). But, as we know, Conan O’Brien never existed.
(Incidentally, and maybe I’ve beaten this point to death, but would any of the Leno fans who complained about “that immature Conan O’Brien” care to explain to me the maturity and sophistication of Jay’s “World’s Tightest Pants” segment? Update: For those of you who missed it—extreme tight shot of someone’s wedgified butt crack. I realize I’m losing a lot of the nuance by summarizing.)
But the end-all, be-all of snark came from Mary Elizabeth Williams at Salon (“Leno’s late-night comeback“):
And then, seemingly hours later, it was over. All that was missing was a celebratory drink out of Conan O’Brien’s skull. In your face, America.
Wow.
I kind of wish it was a busier news day. That there were more stories about “The Bachelor” and “Dancing wth the Stars” and “The Marriage Ref”. Something about the Academy Awards. Celebrity drama of the Britney or Paris Hilton kind. C’mon. Anything but more snarky Jay Leno stories …
So last night was the first night of the new Tonight Show, re-starring Jay Leno.
Whoo.
I didn’t watch it, as much as out of solidarity with Conan as out of loathing of Leno.
(Also technically we don’t get NBC at our apartment. Horrible reception).
But I did go to the Tonight Show website, and I saw this new logo:
Now, I’m not a designer, but I’m pretty sure there’s no possible way to make his name any smaller without going into a micrscopic level.
Interesting …
I have no idea what website this came from, or what a “PaleyFest” is, but this article popped up on my radar yesterday: “‘Lost’ Creators Want to Get the Finale Right – PaleyFest Report.”
Most of it was useless info, but then there was this bit:
the most exciting bit of news for series fans might be that Disney is considering turning the island attraction at Disneyland (once the ‘Swiss Family Robinson’ Tree House, later a ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’-themed scene). Yes, ‘Lost Island.’ Theme park fans should stay tuned.
Awesome!
The problem is … it doesn’t make sense.
See, Disneyland (in California) had a Swiss Family Treehouse that turned into Tarzan’s Treehouse about a decade ago. No Pirates to be seen.
In case they messed up their coasts, Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdon (in Florida) has a Swiss Family Treehouse that’s still Swiss.
The Pirate Treehouse just doesn’t exist.
I think the attraction to which they are referring is actually Disneyland’s Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island.
In 2007 the island, formerly all Tom Sawyery, was invaded by Pirates for the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. They still haven’t left yet.
It’d be relatively cheap to overlay Lost on the island, and it’d be a huuuugggggeee draw. Especially for the repeat crowd in Southern California.
Yep, Sawyer on Tom Sawyer’s Island? Let the in-jokes begin …
Uh-oh. Retaliation begins: “Dubai: Israelis Will Be Denied UAE Entry.”
Of course, we’ve talked about Israelis and Dubai before (see Shahar Peer and Dubai).
But this is different.
The Emirates will now ”deny entry to anyone suspected of having Israeli citizenship,” Tamim said at a security conference in Abu Dhabi Monday.
So if my name sounds Jewish I’m not allowed in?
Huh.
Of course it still amuses me that Jeffrey Katzenberg and Stephen Spielberg are building a DreamWorks Animation theme park there (see News: DreamWorks Animation Theme Park in Dubai).
UPDATE: The article has a little more meat on it now, including this very interesting note:
[Dubai police Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim] did not explain what procedures would be used to identify the Israeli visitors, except that the police will ”develop skills” to recognize Israelis by ”physical features and the way they speak.”
Yes, you heard it here, they’re going to use sci-fi to keep the Jews out.
I’ve meant to write more about the Winter Olympics over in Vancouver, but I didn’t and now they’re over.
So the final medal count turned out pretty nicely:
I like that, while Germany and Canada came in 2nd and 3rd in overall medals, they got more Gold than the US – so in reality we all kind of won.
That’s nice.
So now the Islamic Solidarity Games have been called off because host-country Iran inscribed “Persian Gulf” on the tournament’s official logo and medals.
This, as we know from last week, is bad news (see Iran and the “Arabian Gulf”).
Check out the New York Times article: “Muslims Won’t Play Together.”
Now, we know from popular fiction that zombies don’t run. Real zombies shuffle around, moaning that they want to eat brains. In fact, that’s all that zombies do – shuffle and moan.
Thus real zombies do not run, jump, or climb stairs. That’s why living on the second floor is the best idea to avoid zombie attacks. They can’t get to you.
Any popular fiction where zombies do run, jump, or climb stairs is patently wrong and should be disregarded.
But last night, in my Target brand NyQuil-induced haze, I had a thought – what if zombies knocked down the walls of the first floor? Knocked down the whole house?
Then you’d be in trouble.
Apparently Maine Restaurant Week starts today.
So if you have extra money, and like to eat, I’d suggest you check it out.
This one is a half-percenter, but it’s the kind of thing the internet loves, so here we go.
Last week I talked about the trailer for the new documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty about Disney animation’s revival (see Waking Sleeping Beauty).
The image on the poster is old fashioned castle surrounded by dynamite and explosives with the plunger in the foreground:
I knew I’d seen the image before, turns out it was a goofy sketch that co-director Kirk Wise drew during Beauty and the Beast of then Disney Studio head Jeffrey Katzenberg:
Interesting how they removed Katzenberg from the movie poster.
Not surprising, considering he runs DreamWorks Animation, Disney’s main rival, but still, interesting.
I love mocking Portland “International” Jetport. But it’s friendly mocking.
“Ribbing”, if you will.
I was, however, concerned back in November when it was announced they were losing flights to Halifax, Nova Scotia – the only international route at the jetport (see “International” No More).
But then last month Air Canada stepped in and announced it’d soon start a twice-daily Toronto to Portland route (see International Again!).
Well now it looks like we’ll have service to Nova Scotia again – at least, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays: “Jetport restoring air service to Yarmouth, N.S.”
The “International” name lives on!
Josh finally lives in Maine again
after four years at Boston University, a stint in Southern California with
Walt Disney Feature Animation,
and two years in Dubai, UAE,
where he created and wrote
Newlywed in Dubai.
