Watchmen

I heard excited rumoring that a graphic novel called Watchmen was going to be made into a movie and that it would be directed by Darren Aronofsky, who directed Requiem For a Dream, and that the screenplay was being written by David Hayter, who wrote both Xmen movies. My interest was piqued. I decided to find out what the hell this book was and everywhere I looked people talked about this thing like it was the second coming. One guy called it the comic book world's War and Peace. I know as well as anyone that geeks aren't afraid of a little hyperbole, but I picked it up anyway.

Here's my review: Read it now. Whether you're a comic fan or have never picked up a comic book in your life. Go find this thing and read it. This is easily the best comic I've ever read, but it's also become the best work of fiction I've read in a while. On top of being just a damn good piece of work, it's eerily poignient even though it's from the mid-eighties. I never thought comics could be like this.

The REAL Joe-mentum

I am now officially a Joe Hoeffel for Senate volunteer. In fact, I'm writing this blog at from the campaign. I understand that later today I'll be folding bumper stickers. Not the most exciting work I suppose, but if they have to be folded, they have to be folded.

And Now...The Main Event

Kerry did his speechifying last night, but I missed it. How could I miss it you ask? I was READING of all things! Anyway, I caught it online, and if you missed it you should too. I must say that the Convention was, for me, increadibly effective. Between speakers like Clinton, Obama, Sharpton, Edwards, and now Kerry, I feel like I'm no longer voting against Bush. I'm voting FOR Kerry/Edwards. Yeah, I'm still way further left than they are and I'm bound to disagree with their adminstration on a lot of issues, but that's fine. My gripe with the Democrats in 2000 is that I hardly agreed with ANYTHING Gore ran on. Anyway, I think the party's pretty jazzed right about now. After we get that Republican Convention nonsense out of the way it's on to the debates!

More ilovebees.com

I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, but looking at the latest Official Xbox Magazine it looks like the August 24 date which figures so prominently in this viral marketing campaign could be referring to a Halo 2 demo coming out next month. The weekly updates that Bungie has been releasing have been getting increasingly boring, with most of them referring to increasingly minor bug fixes, which says to me that they might be spending their time making a demo. It's all just speculation, but wouldn't it be an awfully big coincidence for one date to crop up twice in the Xbox world?

Is This Really Happening?

Go here. Listen to John Edwards speech from last night. Now, I know there's a big difference between what people say during a campaign and what actually happens in an administration, but this guy is talking about really really great things. Who in their right mind wouldn't want John Edwards as the VP?

Did We Expect Anything Less?

Really, is anyone who isn't a big fan going to notice these changes? Probably not, but it's sure going to piss off the fans.

I'll just leave you with this: At the end of Jedi, Vader's ghost will be Hayden Christiansan. My head hurts with the stupid.

00-Pierce No More

Pierce Brosnan, who looks absolutely horrible with a mustache by the way, has turned in his keys to the missle-firing Aston Martin. I've heard disturbing rumors that Orlando Bloom might be handed the reigns, but the list at the Yahoo story is much better. Clive Owen gets my vote.

The Kid's Got Moxy!

Here's a link to several speeches from last night at the convention. Might I suggest you all go watch Barack Obama's speech? A guy on the Pandagon comments said this, and I am starting to agree, this is like watching Alex Rodriguiz getting scouted in high school. Other than Kerry/Edwards, this guy's the talk of the party now and it's easy to see why.

Also, here's a link to a transcript of his speech for those of you on slower connections.

2, 2, 2 Blogs In One!

This is mega cool both as a form of advertising and for new video game news. You should all read the story because it's pretty cool, but the very very short version is this: At the end of the theatrical trailer for Halo 2 which started showing a week or so ago, the www.xbox.com underneath the Xbox logo changes for a fraction of a second to www.ilovebees.com. The article breaks the site, and its evolution, down better, but it looks now like www.ilovebees.com is what is called viral marketing.

This is exactly the kind of advertising I want to see in the future. Well, no. I want to see NO advertising in the future, but ads are a fact of the world we live in, so they might as well be entertaining. Like the multi-part ads from the mid-90s (where a story was broken up into a series of ads), this type of advertising makes the ad itself a form of entertainment as well as a means of disseminating information about whatever product it's hawking.

And I love Halo 2 and if it loved me back I would have its babies if man/video game mating technology were more developed. But no, G.W. cut back on funding for that to! Is there no science he likes?!

I've Never Seen A Roll Of Quarters That Round!

There's a rumor that some of our readers are more interested in the topic of "Men in Hot Pants" than either "Politics" or "Wackyass Things Ben Finds On The Internet". So there, I'm bowing to public demand. We're THIS close to completely changing the site over to a porn site.  

Incidentally, here's the link to where this pic came so I don't get any legal trouble from Big Underwear.

Moore v. O'Reilly

The lesson from this appearance is that Mike just isn't very good in a live debate and should, I humbley submit, probably have had me there to prepare him notecards. He let the debate spend WAY too long on whether Bush lied or not and didn't even argue the point very well.

I'll be the first to recommend Moore's films to people, but O'Reilly's just more accustomed to the live format. I did, however, send in an e-mail to the Factor making some of the points I thought should have been made, so if you watch tomorrow you may get to hear old Bill read a letter from Ben Allen.

UPDATE: Here's the e-mail I wrote to The Factor in case it doesn't get on:

Bill,
I was disappointed with Moore's response on the "Did Bush lie?" question. We
don't need to press whether he lied for the purposes of the election because
Bush made a colossal mistake which has cost us incredible amounts of money, but
more importantly the lives of hundreds of our troops as well as our ability to
credibly threaten countries like North Korea and Iran who we now know actually
possess WMDs. Yes, Bush may have gotten bad info from lots of people about
Iraq, but he is the boss and ultimately is responsible for the decisions he
makes, especially in an election year. Saddam was a horrible dictator, but I'd
feel a lot better if we weren't committed to nation building when Iran and N.
Korea are going nuclear.

If this were a company and you made mistakes of the magnitude Bush did with
Iraq, would your contract get renewed? I think not, even if it was because
you got some bad info.

Sincerely,
Ben Allen

UPDATE #2: Let's assume that this isn't going to make it onto national tv. Why don't you readers post in the comments how you think O'Reilly would respond to my letter if it DID make it on.

Affleck At The Convention

Affleck's on the Factor and he's doing WAY better than I thought he would be, and especially good for the Factor. Actually, I'm also extrodinarily impressed with how reasonable Bill's being, though his conclussions are still wrong.

This is, of course, just a preview for the O'Reilly v. Moore rumble that's coming up next.

The Answer Is 42

They're making a movie of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy and here's a teaser trailer for it. Hopefully it'll be a tad better than the BBC version. I just hope the Death Star orbiting Saturn doesn't destroy the planet before we can get the question whose answer is 42.

That's No Moon

It looks like the Empire is about to strike back, at us. My only hope is that they never got around to reactivating the tractor beam or fixing that exhaust port. If any of you need me, I'll be out in Begger's Canyon bullseyeing wamp rats in my T-16.

An O'Reilly To See?

According to Tom Tomorrow of This Modern World, Micheal Moore might be on the Factor tonight. I should be studying for my final tomorrow, but I'll probably tune in for that.

No, you're not the only one who doesn't `get' Ann Coulter

Apparently, the editors at USA Today couldn't make heads or tails of Ann Coulter's summary of the Dems' convention. We get to read it with their own comments. There's a direct link here, though it appears to be verbatim on kos.

They're Gonna Party Like It's 1999

Well, the convention has started and while I hear a lot about parties that people either can or can't get into I haven't really heard much worth reporting.

Episode III: The Jedi Save Oompaloompas Of Loompa Land

Episode III has officially been named "The Revenge of the Sith". I'll go on record right now and say that bringing back the Princess Leia outfit from Jabba's sail barge would go a long way towards making me like Star Wars again. Oh, that and better writing.

He's A Demon On Wheels

It was pretty well decided before the last through the Alps, but Lance Armstrong has officially snagged his record sixth straight Tour de France win. He's all smiles now, but wait 'till he sees what Racer X has in store for Chim Chim.

KenJen Gets A Breather

Not much new info here other than to say that Ken Jennings busted out the biggest single day win ever on Jeopardy, but has to wait until September to keep taking money from those game show fat cats.

Also, I didn't know that he had already promised to tithe 10% of his winnings to the Mormon Church.