Whee!

Here's a bit of fun for you. One of those uplifting, darkly humorous videos about what we'll go through for love sometimes. And sometimes, what you're chasing isn't what's right for you. And sometimes, when you stop looking, and you've been roughed up by the skull man and his friends, you find love. And sometimes, when you're happiest, that beautiful dream from the past turns out to be a monster that comes back to haunt you. And it's all told with the magic of rotoscoped teddy bears, with a catchy alt-pop song to boot! You may want to pause the monkeytunes up top for the ultimate listening experience.

The time is coming for a new look...

I think January 1st will be the launch of an all-new Monkeywright.com. I've got a few things cooking, visual improvements, content, etc. Plus, the blog will be directly featured on the main page (which will help my google rankings. Does anyone like the Monkeytunes? I'm considering moving it sitewide...).

More importantly, I'll be launching surfmonkeydesigns.com - my web design studio! I need to get some graphic work finished up, but I have a large enough portfolio that I think it's time for the business to look like... well, a business.

The next two days will be rough. We're driving to Tucson for Thanksgiving with Aleks's friends, and then I've got to get up at 4AM to get over to BestBuy for a ridiculous good deal on a laptop. THEN, we have to find a CompUSA so Aleks can get more memory for her camera. I hate the crowds. I love the deals.

If you're in trouble in Germany, F.A.R.T.!!!

Yes! As I don't speak German, I can't be sure this is real. But man, oh man. I would just love to see a Tom Cruise action movie about these guys. A high rise tower under siege, spotlights paint the building. A drug crazed criminal pushes a flaming desk out of the top window, crashing onto a team of paramedics below. The sergeant on scene knows the situation has become too hot to handle. He grabs his walkie talkie and shouts, "Get me F.A.R.T.! I want F.A.R.T. all over this!"

http://f-a-r-t.net/blog/Team

We need some kind of tagline for the trailer - July 2007 - It will blow you away...
Or - July 2007 - Hold Your Breath...
Or -...? Let's make a contest out of this...

Anyway.
I've discovered the drawback of working with small children is working with their diseases, which they're all too happy to inadvertently pass on to me. So I'm off to a NyQuil induced coma. See you in a few weeks...

The Most Annoying Jingle of All Time

So. I was driving to work one day long ago when a commercial came on for the Penny Saver, one or those local classified papers where people sell cars, trucks, furniture, relatives, etc. So the lady starts by singing the words "Penny Saver". And she keeps repeating them. No problem, I think. Repetition, they're just playing the old Ad Game...

But she keeps saying Penny Saver. Penny Saver. Penny Saver. Penny Saver.
THEN, and this is the best part - she starts rapping about the Penny Saver.
But not in a way that would be cool or helpful in describing the product. No. She starts each line of the song with - you guessed it - Penny Saver.

Penny Saver Who? Penny Saver How? Penny Saver Kill Me! Now now now!

At first, I laughed. Then I cringed in horror. Then I laughed again. Surely this commercial couldn't go on much longer. I was wrong. Oh so wrong. They need to send this MP3 to Git'mo to aid in interrogation. This would break any suspect in under an hour...

Listen for yourself! This month, on the Monkeytunes, the last track is this aural poison. Listen if you dare!

Why I hate The King of Queens

You know those shows on TV that you just can't watch? You see even a second of the show, and it makes you want to go read for half an hour, or clean the toilet? For my wife, one of those shows is King of the Hill. For me, The King of Queens fits the bill. And I never quite knew why. Kevin James seems like a nice enough guy. Leah Remini seems okay, for a scientologist...
It's not really that I hate the show, but I always got this vague sense of discomfort while watching. (I get the same feeling with Everybody Loves Raymond, usually only when Brad Garrett is speaking in that annoying voice). I could never put my finger on it.

While on a visit to Wyoming recently, it finally hit me. They're related. Doug Heffernan (James) married his sister. Or at least, to me, it looks that way.

It's not even weird in that "married inbred yuppies" vibe you get from watching Friends. No, James and Remini look like fraternal twins to me. It's gross.

Plus, James has that whole goofy chubby frat guy thing going on, which adds to the annoyance factor. I'll take my chubby TV guys acerbic like Costanza, thank you. And my married couples, I want them realistic. No more chubby slobs with the hot chicks. You want a model for realistic marriages? Take two:

Boy. With issues like these on my mind, it's no wonder I have trouble writing lately. Between this and thirteen weeks with no new episodes of Lost, I'm on a downward spiral.

On the upside of things:

Welcome back to a Blue America!

Wah-Wah-Wee-Wow!

Borat. Do yourself a favor, vanilla-face, and go see this movie!

Easily the most smartest, most cutting, and by far the most offensive movie of the year. It's comedy that will have you squirming in your seat. The basic premise is a faux-documentary about a Kazakh reporter sent to America to bring cultural enrichment back home. It's difficult to tell which scenes in the movie are real and which are staged, but that only adds to the enjoyment.

The best kind of comedy holds a mirror up to society. You laugh in discomfort, either because you see part of yourself in the joke, or (hopefully) you realize that the people being lampooned are your friends and neighbors. Borat shows America as it really is, a nation of polite, friendly people (well, except in New York), many of whom hide ugly prejudices and bigotry. There are scenes where people who are held in high esteem are revealed to be quite evil, and those held as objects of disgust are revealed to be human after all.

From a hilarious rendition of the national anthem at a Virginia Rodeo (who knew Americans were so bloodthirsty?) to Borat's encounter with genteel Southern racists, the movie is non-stop laughter. Borat is an innocent looking man-child, a naive foreigner bouncing around America trying to discover who we are, and in the process, helping us discover as well. And if that sounds too highbrow for you, just wait until Borat's "disagreement" with the movie's producer near the end of the film.