Actor's thoughts on Early Roles

Big actors always start in much smaller roles (or at least at much smaller paychecks). I think a great video documentary would be to interview a series of A-list actors/actresses and find out what they think about some early roles that jumpstarted their careers.

• Tom Hanks on Big?
  
  
• Julia Roberts on Pretty Woman?
  
  
• Al Pacino on Scarface?
  
  
• Ray Liotta on Goodfellas?
  
  
• Joe Pesci on My Cousin Vinny?
  
  
• Geena Davis on League of their Own?
  
  
• Michael Keaton on Beetlejuice?
  
  
• Robin Williams on Dead Poet's Society?
  
  
• Ice Cube on Boyz in the Hood?
  
  
• Tim Allen on Santa Clause?
  
  
• Will Smith on Bad Boys?
  
  
• Martin Lawrence on House Party?
  
  
• Johnny Depp on Edward Scissorhands?
  
  
  Certainly there are many others...

Thoughts about Michael

Thinking about it for the last few hours, I've come to a conclusion. This is truly the most powerful death, I remember feeling. It'd be comparable to Snoop Dogg, Hammer, Deniro, Pacino, Clinton, or any other celebrity that has been a big part of my life. I still remember listening (and quasi-dancing) to "Beat It" in the mid-80's while living in NJ. When I finally got into music, Dangerous was one of my first albums. I also loved History (which re-introduced me to the old stuff) and even Invincible was quite good. Watching the "Jacksons: The American Dream" re-introduced me to the wonderful tunes of the Jackson 5, the first true "boy band". New Edition, Backstreet, N'Sync, NKOTB - they'd never be if it weren't for MK and the brothers.

So, over the years, I've seriously gotten more and more connected to MJ and his tunes. I was heavily debating whether or not to attend the 2001 tribute concert in NYC, even at $1000 a ticket. I ended up snagging a bootleg DVD of the concert, and it was terrific. All the oldies and even "Rock My World" (his only single off Invincible).

Many celebs have died over the past 15 years. Sinatra, Martin, Nixon, Ledger, Ford, Princess Diana, Jam Master Jay, Biggie, Tupac, Tim Russert, Peter Jennings and others I can't think of. None have hit this hard. Wow.

An early Michael Bay film

I got the Bad Boys Special Edition DVD from the library last week and finally had a chance to watch it. I already owned the original release, which had virtually no additional features, but it was released when DVDs came out in 1997. So, I was able to snag the re-released SE to see what they had to discuss.

Overall, they didn't say much. as It was quite a weak showing. You've got a discussion of a few stunts and special effects that were done, and then a detailed look at how each of the film's guns fired in real life. Snore. There were also some music videos and trailers - all of which can be found on Youtube.

Finally, there was a Michael Bay commentary track. This was certainly the highlight. It was recorded right before Pearl Harbor was released, so approximately 2000-01. This gave a good perspective of where his head was at while filming Bad Boys, since he had only done the big budgets of The Rock and Armageddon.

The commentary was generally pretty interesting. He's a fairly narcissistic guy and repeatedly impressed upon the audience how wonderful it was that he directed this picture while only being 29. He disclosed which sections of the film were improv'd by the lead actors as well as specifics that were done on the cheap and he'd have polished if there were more than his "meager" $15 mill of a budget.

If you already own the original or SuperBit version of this film, I certainly wouldn't go after this one. If you're a Bay fan, the commentary might be a worthwhile listen, but the remaining extras are worthless, so really at best try your local library or maybe even Netflix it, if you're desperate.

P.S. I've had significantly more success acquiring special edition and re-released versions of movies from my library rather than Netflix. The latter seems to carry as old a version as possible of DVDs, so keep this in mind.

Idol 2009

So, we've got 11 left (Jorge and Jasmine were just both booted).

It is a VERY solid group this year. It's almost too hard to choose. But, clearly, there are some superstars and then some that are simply "decent."

Here's the two groups:

Danny Gokey - the dude has a great voice and even better tactics on how to use his voice.

Adam Lambert - His theater background keeps his perfoming in high gear and his quality of vocals and ability to work songs into his own way.

Allison Iraheta - Gravely rocker (like Amanda Overmeyer from last year) but MUCH better

Lil Rounds - A Mary J wanna-be but one that can actually sing

Then we have the rest:

Anoop - great personality, but not quite the voices of the top 4

Kris - Doesn't voice and guitar but can't match the top group

Both Matts - Voices aren't as strong as the top four

Alexis - Judges loved her, but I think Allison crushes her

Megan - Judges say "quirky", I say "weird"

Scott - His blindness will win him votes, but his vocals aren't on par with even the rest of them. Heart doesn't last long in Idol.

What happenend to Xenon headlights?

About 12 years ago, I was looking around for my first car. I wanted something fun, high-schoolish, and fast. However, I was also looking for something with a good headlights, as I couldn't see well. I had come across the Xenon (whitish/bluish) headlights on my uncle's $100K BMW but that was just a bit above my price range. Outside of that, there wasn't a big difference. I tried a Nissan, Civic, and finally settle on a used BMW 318ti. It was a tight ride, that they discontinued a year later due to poor sales. The headlights were decent but not nearly what the Xenon could do.

Fast forward to 2000. I was again looking for a new ride, as my sister would get the BMW. At this point I had a more reasonable choice of an Audi A4 or a BMW 3-series. Both sported the Xenon headlight option, and my night driving was made much easier. Despite the poor reliability records of German cars, I had the Audi for 7 years without a great deal of trouble.

Now, I'm not looking for new cars at the moment, but it is quite interesting that there are not that many more models with these lights. You still can't get a Civic or Corolla. About the least expensive car is a Mazda3, which will set you back about $25K. They offer a significant increase in visibility, but manufacturers just aren't offering it. Granted it is usually at least a $500 upgrade, and I'm assuming most people just aren't interested, if it doesn't come standard. Also, I've heard reports that the bulbs being a hot ticket in the black market, so a rash of thefts may also be a deterrent.

Navigation systems, iPod adapters, and MP3-ready CD changers can be found on almost all cars these days. Some are even sporting USB ports for music playback, which I have to admit is very very cool. But, there seems to be a dearth of new cars with the brighter headlights. Hopefully, some new technology will come about that will be cheaper and better. Actually, it's a guarantee we'll see it.

Why is Twitter getting huge?

So, I signed up for Twitter a few weeks ago and was utterly amazed at how much its used. Most of the big shot tech luminaries are on it, (Guy Kawasaki, Kevin Rose, Chris Pirillo, Leo Laporte, etc.) and they are also VERY frequent posters. (Robert Scoble's there at least 5 times a day) Also, the number of followers each one has is incredible. Twitterholic has these stats and right now, Leo has over 37,000!! What's interesting is that he only has 900 or so messages posts (or "tweets"). Scoble is in 5th place in terms of followers but has over 12,ooo tweets. It's interesting the type of people who are followed. Seth Godin never posts anything unique - its simply the title of his daily blog post, which I already get in my RSS feed. Yet, over 5,500 people follow him.

The TWIT crew are even giving out their twitter names as of late - of course these are predominately those I mentioned above, but they are almost skipping out on their blog URLs. John C Dvorak used to mention his blog a few times a show (it was a running joke), but now Leo only mentions it at the onset and then they all repeat their Twitter names throughout. Neat how it has changed.

To answer my original question - I think it'll only continue getting bigger as long as the big shots keep using it. I'll also be interested how they initiate some direct cash-building exercises.

I bet Castro is STILL safe

The results show is tonight, and despite his crappy performances, I think Castro is gonna stay. He must have some type of weird appeal to the ladies and potheads, but otherwise he's terrible. He's repeatedly outsung, forgot some lyrics yesterday, and doesn't have a clue on how to remake songs. Yet, he's beat out much stronger competitors.

So, get your suitcases ready Syesha - you made a valiant effort, but popularity rules. on't worry sweetheart, we'll see you in the future.

And unless Cook is in the bottom two this week, Castro will be gone next week. As much as I like Mr. Cook, Archuletta has solidified his crown.