Open Thread for November 11, 2011

Happy 11/11/11 day, Overthinkers! Crank it up. Real quick blitz this week, because I’m exhausted: Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars; the passing of hip hop legend Heavy D; Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar Hoover biopic and Tarsem Singh’s Clash of the … Continued

Happy 11/11/11 day, Overthinkers! Crank it up.

Real quick blitz this week, because I’m exhausted: Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars; the passing of hip hop legend Heavy D; Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar Hoover biopic and Tarsem Singh’s Clash of the Green Screens open in theaters; and Citigroup is selling off EMI.

How loud are you cranking your stereos today? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.

9 Comments on “Open Thread for November 11, 2011”

  1. Gab #

    Am I the only one getting a lot of (false) FB statuses that Tiger Woods is dead?

    Anyway, I still remember the year Titanic was up for Best Picture and Billy Crystal was lying on that couch in place of Kate Winslet for his opening montage. So funny. I think I may actually try and watch the show this time, just for him. They couldn’t have picked a better replacement. That makes me wonder, what are the contenders this year? What opening gag would he be able to do combining Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hangover Part II, and Cowboys and Aliens?

    EMI: So does this sale mean we’ll get a Peter Gabriel musical called “Shock the Monkey”?

    If you’re a fan of Jurassic Park, you’ll get a kick out of this.

    http://www.themarysue.com/jurassic-park-cosplay/

    Perich, thoughts on the pilot of Hell on Wheels?

    Reply

    • Megan from Lombard #

      Funny you mention ‘Titanic’ because I just finished listening to a recent Nerdist podcast with Neil deGrasse Tyson on it and he actually had a (justified) rant about the movie- how James got all the little details about the ship right but couldn’t get the stars right even though we know date, location, ect about it.

      I found that interesting because we had to take the majority of that movie on faith that he was getting it right because unless you have a lot of money and spare time there’s no way to know what was what about the ship, yet the one detail that is common knowledge was gotten wrong.

      Reply

      • Gab #

        Have you seen BBC’s Sherlock? The ‘common knowledge’ thing totally crops up in one of the episodes in a rather fantastically parallel way…

        If you haven’t seen it, watch it somehow. It’s on Netflix streaming. So. Friggin’. Good.

        Reply

    • Brian #

      Linking the velociraptor claw with high heel shoes seems so obvious now.

      I’m interested in Perich’s thoughts on Hell on Wheels too. I liked the show for the most part, couldn’t keep up with all the canted angles at times but I shouldn’t pout too much.

      Reply

      • John Perich OTI Staff #

        Honestly, haven’t seen Hell on Wheels yet. It’s been a busy autumn for me; four TV shows (Boardwalk Empire, Walking Dead, Community and the occasional Modern Family) are plenty.

        Reply

  2. Leigh #

    That McRib article you guys tweeted earlier this week was awesome. It’s hard to grasp the scale at which McDonalds operates, and putting the macroeconomics of a single corporation into context was one of the successes of the article. Plus, the author made an amusing crack about the sandwich’s creepiness in almost every paragraph. Well worth the read, in my opinion, and perhaps even worth a little attention in an article or podcast.

    Link again, for those who missed it:
    http://www.theawl.com/2011/11/a-conspiracy-of-hogs-the-mcrib-as-arbitrage

    Reply

  3. Trevor #

    Now that we’ve found love, what *are* we gonna do without Heavy D?

    I think the Oscars gig has become something of a litmus test, not in terms of conservative vs. liberal or red state vs. blue state, but in terms of broad comedy vs. narrow, clique-driven comedy. The popular appeal of Billy Crystal is anathema to the audience that would probably love Andy Kaufman or George Carlin (both of whom are dead and thus unavailable to host), in a lot of ways it’s Leno vs. Conan all over again. Eddie Murphy might have been a disaster as host, or he might have been great; really, with Eddie it’s hard to tell because he really hasn’t done much lately to render judgment on his suitability to host. Ricky Gervais would be great for the Oscars, except that he’d take the piss out of it and you’re really not supposed to (or if you do, you had better damn sure do it reverently). I guess I’m surprised more by the absence of Murphy than the acquisition of Crystal as host this upcoming year. I was looking forward to it, albeit with my hands covering my eyes.

    I missed 11/11/11 in terms of knowing it was “Crank It Up Day,” I will try to remedy that post-haste on 12/12/12 (unless the world ends. Thanks a lot, Mayans! How’s that whole “predicting the end of the world” thing working for you? Yeah, Mayans…wait, they’re all gone? Maybe they were right all along…….)

    Reply

    • Trevor #

      Granted, Murphy has done his fair share of broad comedies over the years, few of which were actually funny, so maybe he wouldn’t be as different from Crystal as, say, Leno hosting the Oscars. And does anybody know what happened to Carlos Mencia? His show was everything that’s wrong with comedy, but he’s been off the grid for a while. I think I saw him on a commercial promoting some weight-loss machine, but that’s been about it.

      Reply

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