The Phantom City » TV

I, Simpson

Shane Thacker — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:50:45 +0000

Just in case you don’t know what I look like, I offer here an accurate representation of myself:

Handsome devil, that. All yellow and…ahem…a few pounds less heavy than I would have thought.

It’s from the Simpsons Avatar Creator, on The Simpsons movie site. Their application works even better than the one for South Park, but South Park’s does let you become a pirate, which is cool.

Link courtesy of Best Week Ever, which tries for Paris Hilton, but I think this might work better as Paris in the Simpsons universe:

The Inanimate Carbon Rod.

Spam and Amanda Bynes

Shane Thacker — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 01:58:51 +0000

I love the Akismet integration in WordPress. It does such a great job of protecting me from comment spam I barely have to moderate anymore. 9,048 spam comments and counting.

However, sometimes I do wander into the spam room to see what’s popular lately, and this time one particular entry struck me:

Thanks for the good site and usefulinfo. I found amanda bynes feet

That’s good, Spam. You found her feet. I hope the rest was still attached, and no tragedy has befallen Ms. Bynes.

Hot 5

Shane Thacker — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:18:18 +0000

Hmm, looks like Maxim came out with its Hot 100 (supposedly straight), and AfterEllen.com responded with a lesbian version. Let’s see how they match up with a…uh…“random” list of five women.

List	Maxim rank	AfterEllen rank
Alyson Hannigan	n/a	74
Jenna Fischer	n/a	n/a
Kristen Bell	46	56
Sarah McLachlan	n/a	n/a
Shakira	38	n/a

Yep, looks like my interests aren’t well-represented on either list, but more closely on the Maxim side based on the numbers. However, I was surprised at how much easier it would be to pick a second five from the AfterEllen list. C’mon, Maxim, you seriously listed Lindsay Lohan (#1, no less), Fergie (#10), and Shanna Moakler (I’m not going to bother looking that up) in your top 100? Combine that with Second Life avatars, and it’s just wasted space.

Veronica Mars has left the building

Shane Thacker — Thu, 17 May 2007 18:51:14 +0000

I’m going to step out on a really wide, solid limb here, and say that the first season of Veronica Mars was the best show on television that year. (Yeah, that includes Lost.) The second season almost measured up to that standard. Then the CW decided to start messing with it, and then they canceled it. Thanks, CW, for saving us from quality television.

In the meantime, pick up Veronica Mars – The Complete First Season. You will enjoy it.

Buck Rogers in the 20th Century, Eighth Decade

Shane Thacker — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:51:14 +0000

The Buck Rogers pilot was released in theaters before its TV debut, and X-Ray Spex has the movie’s far different take on the opening credits.

While it would be hard to complain about Erin Gray in a silver suit, I wonder why Buck appears to be making out with Tootsie? (Those are some huge glasses/goggles/whatever.)

Takei on Hardaway

Shane Thacker — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 03:42:20 +0000

Hee hee hee…

Courtesy of PeterDavid.net.

Beauty and the Geek topics

Shane Thacker — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:17:13 +0000

We like to watch the show Beauty and the Geek on The CW. It’s an interesting social experiment, even though it requires a lot of stereotyping to function. However, it normally treats it with a little self-consciousness. However, catching up on recent episodes, we heard this statement: “Guys, we’re going to ask you questions about topics women like to talk about: Fashion, beauty, and pop culture.” The women were asked questions about aeronautics.

Wow. Just…wow.

Actually, I’ve never really understood the pop culture basis of many of the “Geek” questions. While it’s possible a geek might lock themselves away from the rest of the world, most smart people I know tend to be information sponges. I’m thinking there’s a decent likelihood that they’re going to know pop culture references that the audience is also expected to know. On the other hand, field-specific information that hasn’t been studied since high school seems a little more likely to stump “Beauties” who don’t normally get exposed to any of it. As a result, the challenges are usually more interesting than the quiz sessions at the end.

Update: Just noticed that the quiz section is much shorter this year. Maybe the producers thought it was boring as well.

Acting!

Shane Thacker — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 02:21:37 +0000

You know, I missed out on this particular cultural phenomenon, and now I am so sorry that I did. All My Children. Transsexual. Zarf. “I have a penis.” Words fail.

Courtesy of Best Week Ever.

Me in South Park

Shane Thacker — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:28:46 +0000

What I would look like in South Park:

You can make your own as well.

Link courtesy of HOWBlog.

There are Klingons in the White House

Shane Thacker — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:08:17 +0000

Congressman David Wu (D-Oregon) warns: “Don’t let faux Klingons send real Americans to war!” Sage words, indeed.

Link courtesy of TV Squad

Update: Yes, by including the video in the page, the XHTML 1.1 validation is completely screwed up.