Archive for July, 2012

 

The Pee-wee Herman Show on Broadway

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of movies

{4/5} “I know you are but what am I?” Pee-wee would like to be able to fly like his friend Pterri (the pterodactyl). His friend Sergio hooks up cable so he can connect to the internet on his computer. And his friends Miss Yvonne and Cowboy Curtis like each other but are too shy to […]

Movies that are supposed to be funny

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of movies

There are a few movies lately that I started watching but didn’t finish. They were all supposed to be comedies but I didn’t find them funny. It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World This is a 1963 movie in which a dying thief tells the people around him where a lot of money is (that […]

Surviving the World: a funny web comic

Posted by Dave Switzer under From the web

Here’s another web comic I’ve just discovered, created by Dante Shepherd. It shares some qualities with xkcd but is definitely unique. It consists of photos of Dante’s writing (occasionally a graph) on a chalkboard. It’s been going since 2008 and he updates it every day. Surviving the World: Daily Lessons in Science, Literature, Love, and […]

A Fine and Private Place

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4/5} “Caring about things is much more important to the dead because it’s all they have to keep them conscious. Without it they fade, dwindle, thin to the texture of a whisper. The same thing happens to people, but nobody notices it because their bodies act as masks. The dead have no masks.” Jonathan lives […]

The King of Comedy

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of movies

{3.5/5} “Better to be king for a night than shmuck for a lifetime.” Rupert Pupkin wants to be a stand-up comedian. He practises in front of a fake audience in his basement. One day he manages to have a conversation with famous and beloved talk show host Jerry Langford. Rupert wants to be on Jerry’s […]

The Dark Knight Rises

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of movies

{4/5} “A hero can be anyone. Even a man doing something as simple and reassuring as putting a coat around a little boy’s shoulders to let him know that the world hadn’t ended.” It’s 8 years after Batman took the fall for the death of Harvey Dent — Bruce Wayne is a recluse in his […]

The Day After Tomorrow

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of movies

{4.5/5} “Sir, I am president of the Electronics Club, the Math Club, and the Chess Club. Now if there’s a bigger nerd in here, please… point him out.” The politicians don’t listen to the scientists, and a huge disaster hits the largely unprepared people of Earth. A sudden climate shift begins with a series of […]

Political Animals (premiere)

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of TV shows

{5/5} “I hate campaigning. It’s an Olympic sport in hypocrisy. Fat smokers frowning on and on about their… medical coverage. Smiling when babies with runny noses are shoved in my face. And most of all, I hate lying… telling people that things are going to get better when they never will.” Elaine almost becomes the […]

xkcd: A very funny web comic

Posted by Dave Switzer under From the web

xkcd is a comic strip on the web I just discovered (although there’s some chance I discovered it in the past and then forgot about it) — it’s done by Randall Munroe. Many comics are based on obscure bits of math or science. It’s sometimes not funny but it’s often very funny. xkcd: A webcomic […]

The Sirens of Titan

Posted by Dave Switzer under Reviews of books

{4.5/5} “Winston Niles Rumfoord had run his private space ship right into the heart of an uncharted chrono-synclastic infundibulum two days out of Mars. Only his dog had been along. Now Winston Niles Rumfoord and his dog Kazak existed as wave phenomena — apparently pulsing in a distorted spiral with its origin in the Sun […]