Wacky Fun Links

Little bit of cleanup here on the last day of August...and a fine day it is, whenever you can see your favourite ball club beat Satan's squad. The Blue Jays are now 70-66, so they at least have a shot at finishing above .500. Yay consistent mediocrity! Fun fact: since the 1994 strike, only six teams have never made the playoffs --- the Blue Jays, Rays, Royals, Brewers, Pirates and Nationals. And right now it's looking like the Rays and Brew Crew are solid bets to get into the postseason, which leaves Toronto alone with the three worst franchises in baseball. Just great. In a way, I blame my cat. We got him on the same day the Jays won the 1993 World Series (thus why I wanted to name him 'Carter' but was overruled), and since then the team hasn't won a damn thing. It's probably some karmic influence related to owning a cat and rooting for a team named after birds. Maybe this means I should sell my cat, but that wouldn't work since, as music has taught me, he'd just come back the very next day.

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Onto more pleasant matters, namely the ten coolest commercials directed by well-known film directors. Most of these I hadn't seen before, and of the ones I had seen, I didn't realize in most cases that such big names were behind the camera. Now, a couple of the directors (Gondry, Fincher) got their start in TV ads, so it's a bit of a cheat --- it's not like, "Oh yeah, here's a Swiffer Sweeper ad directed by Stanley Kubrick" or anything like that. Even still, it's worth noting when the likes of Michael Mann or Terry Gilliam are involved in a simple commercial. I also love how Wes Anderson's commercial is a self-parody, while Lynch's commercial only seems like self-parody.

I must say, however, that while the Spike Jonze entry on the list was good, this other Jonze ad was great. Oh, Sweden. Is there nothing you can't do correctly?

(Self-plug, my list of the top ten Spike Jonze-directed music videos from last year. Yay re-hashing old material! I'm basically David Lynch.)

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The latest Oscar poll is up, so get to voting, people! The 'winner' (really, the loser) of the last one was Chicago, with five votes, narrowly edging out Beautiful Mind. I've got to say, I'm surprised --- I actually like Chicago a lot. I even own the DVD. My vote mos def went to the largely terrible Beautiful Mind. But, the people have spoken. Who am I to argue the results?...well, wait, actually, Departed somehow got two votes, so I'm forced to argue things once again.

The only other votes went to Return of the King (wtf?) and No Country For Old Men (double wtf?). Seriously, everyone liked Crash and Gladiator? Boy....I'm at a loss.

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And finally, this is who the Republicans think should be vice-president of the United States. I think my favourite user comment was "She has experience staring blankly into a camera and saying other people's words: perhaps she is ready to be a Republican president..." Not to be outdone, expect Stephen Harper to name Jennifer Hedger as his new finance minister.