Picking up the Spare: G. I. Joe

There’s a ton of stuff to talk about in the wake of the movie and so I’m putting this up off schedule, including:

• A Funny or Die video titled “The Ballad of G. I. Joe” that has some big time actors taking on the role of various characters in a music video that offers some insight into just how lonely and conflicted those characters really are. (PS I IM’d this to Tom and hebeat me to publishing it – clearly he’s lacking for real work to do)
• McSweeney’s publishes the Journal of a New Cobra Recruit (and its sequel Journal of a Seasoned Cobra Veteran) that sheds light on the terrorist organization’s less-than-rigorous training program. (via IO9)
• Richard Corliss says the movie was screened for bloggers and not more professional critics because the former are easier lays. Which is kind of the point, yeah.
• MediaFreak’s Mike Shields wonders the marathon of G. I. Joe cartoon episodes and other programming designed to tap into the movie’s buzz were.
• Last Friday Paramount worked with ticket seller Fandango to put an ad for the movie on Fandango’s mobile homepage.

http://player.ordienetworks.com/flash/fodplayer.swf

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Henry Rollins

Experiment Tracking #2

Second Monday of my great Media Experiment, where I try to get a sense of how much ad revenue I’m sending – according to Bit.ly trackable link stats – to media properties that keep talking about erecting pay walls because of all of us nasty bloggers.

These numbers are for 7/28 – 8/7.

• Links Shared: 48
• Click: 430
• Ad revenue at $50 CPM ($.05/click): $21.50
• Ad revenue at $30 CPM ($.03/click): $12.90

So if Steven Brill wants to charge $10 a month for me to access a coalition of newspapers and magazines, I’ve at least paid for one month if not two.

Marvel Villain of the Day: Dr. Doom

The Summer of Connelly

In the wake of the sad news that writer/director John Hughes passed away suddenly at age 59 (which, if you do the math, means he was in his early to mid 30′s when he was creating all those classic teenage-angst movies) a lot of people have been talking about what his movies meant to them. Many are picking some combination of The Trilogy – Pretty in Pink/Sixteen Candles/The Breakfast Club – but every now and again there’s a left-field pick. Such is the case with the MTV Movie Blog writing about their appreciation of Career Opportunities, which has Frank Whaley and Jennifer Connelly stuck in a Target all night and falling in love in the process.

They, as any guy who was in his teens when that movie came out in 1991 would do, uses a picture of Connelly riding a mechanical horse in the movie, as a picture in the post.

It’s important to remember, though, that not only did Connelly straddle that toy horse into our conscious in 1991 but that was also the year The Rocketeer came out. Say “Jennifer Connely in The Rocketeer” to any guy aged 30 to 40 and this is the image that comes to mind.

(Not the best pic, but the best I could find.)

So, you know, 1991 was a good year for Jennifer Connelly.