Mortheim

Crazy ass Mordheim board someone made. The amount of detail is remarkable.

Chuck Berry Remembers Call From Cousin About White Kid Playing 'Johnny B. Goode' | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Chuck Berry Remembers Call From Cousin About White Kid Playing Johnny B. Goode

Calculate the carbon impact of your travels with Dopplr

Really cool: Dopplr has partnered with AMEE to show you how much carbon your travel uses.

Video of Transformers costumes

Video of Transformers costumes that actually transform.

Lego Dawn of Man

The 40th anniversary of 2001: A Space Odyssey happened when I was in California. Here’s a Lego rendition of The Dawn of Man.

20 Minutes Too Long

Working at a movie theater in high school, I learned a few rules of thumb about movie lengths: kids movies are 90 minutes long. Most comedies are 90 minutes or a little longer. Most other movies are two hours, summer blockbusters and war epics tend to be 2 ½. A new rule would be that Judd Apatow comedies are all 20 minutes too long1. Entertainment Weekly published a short piece a few weeks ago arguing just this. Here are the running times of select movies:

• The 40 Year Old Virgin: 114 minutes
• Knocked Up: 129 minutes
• Superbad: 118 minutes (produced)

It’s a funny thing to criticize. I can certainly see how you want those extra scenes to develop characters and play out comedy beats. One of the things I like most about going to the movies is getting lost in the picture. The lights go down and the story whisks you away. A challenge for filmmakers is to make me forget I’m sitting in an auditorium for as long as possible. Eventually, during almost every movie, there will be a moment where the story’s hold on me lapses and I wonder what time it is, or what I have to do later that week, or something. During these moments, you don’t want your audience thinking, “wow, I’ve been sitting here for a long time.” That happened to me during both The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. I liked them both, but wouldn’t have missed them if a scene here or there were cut/shortened.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall, out today, runs 112 minutes. Will it be too long, too?

1. In college I also learned that all Russian movies are one hour too long. They made some great movies over there, but clearly there was no shortage of film stock.

80th Aniversary of Action Comics

Today is the 80th anniversary of the publication of Action Comics 1, which introduced the character of Superman and started the genre of superhero comics as we know it. You can read the entire first issue online here. A federal ruling last month restored copyright to Jerry Siegel’s heirs. Siegel and co-creator Joe Shuster initially received very little compensation for the character who is now one of the most recognizable fictional creations on the planet. There’s lots of speculation as to what this means for future publication of the character, but it’s good to see the creators get compensation. And now, 80 years later, the best story ever written for the character is currently in publication in All Star Superman.

Clinton-Obama Debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and '60s Radicals

I’m losing interest in the Democratic race at this point. I’ve already cast my vote in my primary, and I’m about ready to just wait it out until something real happens. So I’m glad I didn’t watch last night’s debate: ABC Decides Top Issues Facing Americans Are Gaffes, Flag Pins and ’60s Radicals.

PvPonline My Parents are Dead

I had forgotten about this until I saw it linked on a board recently. It’s one of the best things Scott Kurtz has done: My Parents are Dead, the definitive Batman story of our age.

Overheard on the Metro this morning

Two guys are riding the Metro. Guy One remarks about how crowded it is.

Guy Two: It’s because the Pope’s here.

Guy One: What?

Guy Two points to today’s Express, with Pope Benedict XVI on the cover. That guy.

Guy One: Oh, The Pope.