Junk-Drawer Post.

[A little linky, a little love, a lot of yammering on about things.]

Once I upload my pictures, I'll give you a recap of the "going-to-the-Juicebox-as-a-Cubs-fan" experience. Of course, the ending is already spoiled.

So today, since I have a plethora of links and a dearth of good ideas, I'm opening up the junk drawer and dumping out some old links I've been meaning to find a use for.

• When the link works, this YouTube video is neat: it uses film clips to count from 100 down to 1. Each quote is a few seconds, but you can imagine the amount of effort it took to compile these clips. And it's fun to find well-known clips mixed among the obscure ones.
• How about another YouTube video? Here's a series of eerily prescient AT&T ads. Most, if not all, of the technologies promised in these ads 14 years ago have come to pass. Pretty interesting. Especially since most of these technologies were developed by others.
• Wizard Magazine presents their list of the 50 Greatest Deaths in Comic Book History. The number one choice was pretty obvious and completely appropriate. (Obviously contains spoilers, if you try to avoid such things. Though, if you really cared, you'd have read them already.)
• How about another Wizard list? Here's the Top 25 Cliffhangers. Geared toward the geeks among us, it includes comics and video games, but there are also TV mentions and other mainstream references for you lamewads who don't get into the cool stuff. (Again, spoileriffic, so be forewarned.)
• In case you don't read Manders' page (you should) and didn't see the link there, here's the trailer to the new Wes Anderson film, "The Darjeeling Limited."
• Okay, it's funnier in concept than execution, because really, Gabe Kaplan is the only possible Mr. Kotter. But it's a funny attempt to jump on a cultural bandwagon moment.
• I'm looking forward to the return of the TV show, "How I Met Your Mother." One of the funniest episodes last season was "Robin Sparkles"--not just because you find out that one of the main characters was a cheesy teen idol in Canada, but because it was the birth of the infamous "slap bet" between Barney and Marshall. Barney lost, and Marshall won 5 free slaps across the face to be delivered at any time from here to eternity. We've already seen two. The question among fans was, will the writers follow up with the next 3 slaps? Well, not only is that storyline not forgotten, but they've given us a countdown timer for Slap #3. I'm not sure if this adds to the excitement or takes away the mystery. I'm leaning toward the former, because even if you know it's coming, it's still freakin hilarious.
• Can you name all 43 presidents? You have ten minutes. I could only get 32.
• Did you hear about the entire internet crashing? Onion News Network has this special report.
• In case you weren't in San Diego for Comic-Con (and most of you weren't, i'm guessing), you missed out on the teaser trailer for the new "Iron Man" movie. Paramount's been trying to scrub it from YouTube, but I found a copy. Watch it soon, it will probably be gone tomorrow.
• If you don't own the brilliantly bizarre film "Bubba Ho-Tep," it may be time to pick it up, now that this snazzy special edition is available. Thankya, thankyaverymuch.
• Fans of Waterdeep, rejoice! The new album is now available.
• I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet: One of the biggest events surrounding the release of "Transformers" may have been one of the trailers that preceded it. J.J. Abrams (the guy behind "Lost," "Alias," and "Felicity"--no, I can't figure that one out, either) is producing a new monster movie set in New York and filmed entirely with hand-held cameras. It comes out on 1-18-08, and currently has no official title. If you haven't seen the trailer, you must check it out here (click on a screen size). The official website has photographs that can be manipulated like real paper photos (and can also be flipped over). The "working title" for the film--one of them, anyway--is "Cloverfield" which is what fans have been calling it. Based on the trailer, it could be awesome. I'll keep you posted if I find out more.
• Early in Season 3 of Lost, IGN posted this list of 50 loose ends/mysteries in the show. I saved the link and was planning on posting about how several of these issues have now been addressed ("18 of 50" is my conservative estimate), as an answer to the show's critics who say nothing was resolved this past season. Unfortunately, James Poniewozik of Time Magazine's "Tuned In" blog covered this before I got my lazy butt in gear to do it (I had filed it away and forgotten about it.) I know it means nothing now, but I want to make the claim that I thought of this first.

And finally, because I think this is a pretty song, here's a live version of the song playing over the final end-credits of that anime I keep talking about:



Have a good Thursday (and, possibly, weekend), my friends.


[Communal hat-tip: Several of the links above came from Pop Candy, though I also need to credit Wizbang, Evangelical Outpost, Rick's Good Coffee, and Manders, for contributing to the linkage.]