Entertainment

This is, in a sense, a personal failure, but I always find it surprising that musicians are also erudite.

The occasional reminder appears, but with Ozzy, one expects craziness (train optional), and here we have people who go out and shout on stage seemingly giving a symposium.

I was friends with a kid in kindergarten (and beyond) who went into the music industry ... moved to New York and started a band. One of the smartest guys I've ever met, so I really should get over this sense that the pageantry has anything to do with the motivation.

If you've not seen this episode, fire up whatever streaming service it's on or hoist the sails. The is the first episode I've watched in years, and I feel like they've still got it.

One of the most delightfully strange and unique sci-fi movies ever, John Dies At The End, is free to watch on the Plex streaming service right now.

I cannot recommend it enough if you are into sci-fi and have never watched it (or read the books by David Wong).

Treat yourself.

Parenthetical added on account of "holiday" stateside tending to be Christmas music, and Mariah Carey is nowhere to be found in the story.

Until 1982, if you wanted to go on holiday, you had to go to a high street travel agent, who would generally make a bunch of phone calls and tell you to come back later. Then Thomson Holidays introduced the first computerised booking system and pricing was deregulated – enter the golden age of Brits-on-tour package trips to Benidorm, Torremolinos and the other resorts scattered along the Costa del Sol.

It created a curious phenomenon of its own: the hit single the holidaymakers brought home. Plenty of 1980s European artists won a single hit, perhaps two, in the UK before slinking back into obscurity or – just as often – back into the domestic or continental stardom they already had before the British deigned to take an interest. For a few weeks, their names were inescapable: Spagna, Sabrina, Modern Talking, Desireless, Baltimora, Opus, Nena. Then they became pub quiz answers.

I was at HEB yesterday, and 99 Luftballoons was playing over the intercom. Not the absurd English version, but the original German.

Fitting, I suppose, if anyone actually knew what she was saying ... "und daß sowas von sowas kommt."

Today's random suggestion from YouTube features a guy whose life fell apart in 2016 and 2017, and now he lives in a van.

So I guess that niche is already taken.

Once upon a time, film-makers were mysterious sorcerers hunched over Steenbecks and smoke machines, conjuring cinematic magic from the recesses of their cerebellums. These days it seems they spend half their time on Reddit, fighting like gremlins to stay one step ahead of the hive mind.

This week, Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts revealed that his original plan for the grand entrance of the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield versions of Spider-Man in the blockbuster Marvel epic was to have them turn up following the death of Aunt May, just as Spidey was at his lowest point. As our hero sheds tears on a grimy New York rooftop, the pair would enter through Doctor Strange portals at the perfect moment to reset the film and set Peter Parker on the path to redemption.

It was a perfectly serviceable plan to get the film moving again quickly before the entire multiplex ruined their popcorn with salty tears. But there was one tiny, weeny problem: the internet had thought of it first. “I was on Reddit, and I was looking at people who had already made fan art of, ‘This is probably what it’s going to be like when the two Spider-Men get revealed’,” Watts told Collider. [...]

To address the elephant in the room, this full series is on YouTube, but blocked in the U.S. (I'm sure it's available elsewhere, but I'm poor). Switching my VPN to Switzerland did the trick, though I realize that's not an option for everyone.

I ran into a suggestion to watch this in a comment on a Reddit thread about Star Trek-adjacent series, given that Gene Roddenberry gave both William Shatner and Patrick Stewart the full set of 10 books (the TV series only covers the first three) and told them to use Hornblower as a template for how they'd play captains.

This was one of those rare series where the writing is sharp, the mysteries compelling, the production values outstanding and the acting superb.

Each "episode" is two-hours long (sounds like movie-length to me), so it's not just something to throw on in the background, because everything ties together both within each story and as a whole, and there are a couple of cliffhangers in the back half that kept me up way too late because I couldn't go to bed without seeing how things got resolved.

Anyway, strongly recommended.

The actor Lea Thompson has had a distinguished screen career but hesitated to share it with her daughters when they were growing up. “I did not show them most of my stuff because I end up kissing people all the time and it was traumatic to my children,” she recalls. “Even when they were little the headline was, ‘Mom is kissing someone that’s not Dad and it’s making me cry!’”

Thompson’s most celebrated role would be especially hard to explain. As Lorraine Baines in Back to the Future, she falls in lust with her own son, Marty McFly, a teenage time traveller from 1985 who plunges into 1955 at the wheel of a DeLorean car.

Back to the Future, released 40 years ago on Thursday, is both entirely of its time and entirely timeless. It was a box office summer smash, set a benchmark for time travel movies and was quoted by everyone from President Ronald Reagan to Avengers: Endgame. It is arguably a perfect film, without a duff note or a scene out of place, a fantastic parable as endlessly watchable as It’s a Wonderful Life or Groundhog Day.

It's sort of surreal that movies from my childhood have become classics.

If you're unfamiliar with BlueJay on YouTube, you're missing out. He's not quite CGP Grey, but they're of the same ilk.

Insiders say that the studio and producers are interested in casting a British actor under the age of 30, with Jacob Elordi ("Saltburn"), Tom Holland("Spider-Man") and Harris Dickinson("Babygirl") at the top of the list. (Elordi is Australian, but that would not be a deal-breaker as far as Amazon is concerned; remember Aussie George Lazenby starred in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service.") While there has been speculation that Aaron Taylor-Johnson or Henry Cavill would be possible heirs to Craig, they are 35 and 42, respectively, and thus unlikely to fit the mandate. So, too, is fan-favorite Idris Elba, 52, who has ducked Bond speculation for years. (No meetings have happened at this stage

Denis Villeneuve will direct the next James Bond film, Amazon MGM Studios has revealed, with Tanya Lapointe signing on as an executive producer. As previously announced, Amy Pascal and David Heyman will serve as producers.

“Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007. I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since ‘Dr. No’ with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory,” Villeneuve said. “I intend to honor the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come. This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honor. Amy, David, and I are absolutely thrilled to bring him back to the screen. Thank you to Amazon MGM Studios for their trust.”

Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, added, “We are honored that Denis has agreed to direct James Bond’s next chapter. He is a cinematic master, whose filmography speaks for itself. From ‘Blade Runner 2049’ to ‘Arrival’ to the ‘Dune’ films, he has delivered compelling worlds, dynamic visuals, complex characters, and—most importantly—the immersive storytelling that global audiences yearn to experience in theaters. James Bond is in the hands of one of today’s greatest filmmakers and we cannot wait to get started on 007’s next adventure.”

After teasing a potential sequel to his Oscar-winning drama The Social Network for years, Aaron Sorkin looks to have found an angle to tackle for his follow-up film. Sources tell Deadline that Sorkin has been set to direct The Social Network Part II for Sony Pictures. Insiders say that while it’s being called part two, it’s not a straight sequel but rather a follow-up to the original movie that explored the origins of what would become the world’s biggest social media platform.

The new film project is in development with Todd Black, Peter Rice, Sorkin and Stuart Besser producing.