I like The Hulk

Film Threat Blogs » Blog Archive » In Defense of Big Green…

I agree with Felix at FilmThreat. I too like Ang Lee’s big-screen Hulk flick. I think it accomplishes exactly what Lee and company set out to accomplish and is more than a little entertaining. It deviates from the source material no more or less than other superhero flicks (Felix leaves out the fact that no one seems to decry the fact that the big-screen Spider-Man  has organic web shooters) and does stay true to the overall themes of the character. I think I just might pull this out tonight and give it another spin based on Felix’s post.

Pokemon is back

Advertising Age – Nintendo Unleashes Full Force of Pokemon

I think I just threw up in my mouth. Hadn’t we, as a people, moved past this? I feel like we all just collectively walked out of rehab all clean and clear, only to find the first smack dealer we could and blow him for a fix that we then washed down with absinthe.

The Chicago Machine

Mayor Daleys Son Appointed Head Of Illinois Nepotist Party | The Onion – Americas Finest News Source

It’s funny because it’s plausible.

A meeting of likeminds

Clay Parker Jones has a write-up of last Friday’s Likemind meetup of bloggers and online folk – about six of us altogether – who spent the better part of an hour chatting about blogging and such.

Meeting people in person whom I had either A) only conversed with online or B) never heard of before but who share a common interest is tremendously gratifying. “Friending” someone on a social network or linking them from a blog is fine and good but it’s so much better to put a face with the name and be exposed to an actual, non-hyperlinked conversation.

Not only do these people bring great stories (Mark was hit by a stingray, Hemel told us what the New York Likemind events are like) but talking to them reminds me that tone of voice is so important in telling a story. When I meet someone in person I read their blog differently cause I have a sense of how they speak, something that adds value to their site.

Here’s hoping this is the first of many Likemind-organized meetups here in Chicago.

The power of a sticker

This blog is called “Open the Dialogue.” The title (and I’m speaking for Tom here since I wasn’t around when he started it) is meant to illustrate the point that so much of what we talk about online is about encouraging communications. Brands are obsessed with harnessing the power of the consumer, be it through social networks, CGC ad contests or some other way to generate a conversation about their brand. All these Web 2.0 tools we use are very cool and very useful for doing just that – online. Too often, though, we lose track of the fact that there’s an offline world as well.

Last Thursday, as I was preparing to get off the train on the way home, I saw that the guy sitting in front of me packing up his laptop. On said laptop was a Feedburner sticker. You know the one. So I said to him, “I’m sorry – I couldn’t help but notice you have a Feedburner sticker on your laptop…You an online guy?” That’s how I met Evan Brown, Aurora resident, attorney and blogger. We talked for a few minutes about blogging and how we both knew FB’s Rick Klau – another guy who lives out in our neck of the Chicago suburbs.

Feedburner – however indirectly – facilitated this conversation. It started us talking. It opened the dialogue. With a sticker. Not a wiki, not a social network, not a widget. A sticker. I love that.

Niche films just trying not to get crushed

It’s hard out here for a pimp and it’s a hard summer in the offing for smaller, non-franchise films. Movies like Death at a Funeral, Stardust and other non-blockbusters are all vying for the attention of an audience that is constantly blasted by ads for bigger films.

To break out from their larger siblings, more niche films work on cultivating word-of-mouth from the festival circuit and preview screenings. It’s interesting to note the difference in attitude between Funeral director Frank Oz’s “I’m a filmmaker, not a marketer” comment and Stardust director Matthew Vaughn’s obsessive calculating of where his film falls.

Some of these non-blockbuster films are helped by the fact that they have bigger stars in them but even so they risk being drowned out by the sheer noise volume generated by the summer tent-pole features.