So it was fake-nounced today on imdb that they are moving forward with the Arrested Development movie. I'm waiting until I hear this from a more credible source, but in the meantime, check out this amazing gallery of Arrested Development gif's.
I lol'd all over the place when I found these on oh no they didn't.
Beckstar blog lovin' Lil' Wayne.
Beckstar blog what the hell is he talking about at 0:55?
Beckstar blog Weezy invented a new style of talking.
Beckstar blog I am seriously considering replacing R Kelly with Wayne in my heart.
Beckstar blog Weezy considers good sex to be a job.
Beckstar blog how do I become one of Weezy's goons?
Beckstar blog WOW WOW WOW.
Beckstar blog watching this video over and over while hungover from Pride fun.
Beckstar blog you will love this.
But just to hang out. Maybe drink lemonade. Certainly not to write and act hours of Buffy/Dr. Horrible slash fanfic.
Oh Joss, you make me want to do evil.
So, anyhow - Joss Whedon created and wrote/produced Buffy - the best television show of all time, period. What Tarantino is to action film, Joss is to genre television - deep fans of their medium, their projects are a blend of homage and original creation, playing to a populist audience but with rich payoff for smarter/deeper viewers, and done with so much fun they make it look easy. Love the Joss.
So, during last year's writer strike, instead of getting bloated and lying around the California coastline, he wrote, produced and directed (with collaboration from his brother and some others) a three-part supervillian musical miniseries called Dr. Horrible, starring Neil Patrick Harris. Love the Joss.
It was broadcast online only, for free (although after this weekend it is supposed to be only on iTunes - $4) as an experiment in alternate distribution and, as Joss describes in a LA Times interview, to create an Internet event for the fans (and others) to enjoy because we enjoyed it so much Mission accomplished. The first installment was successful enough to crash the servers and, most importantly, is an amazing, compelling, hella fun little bit of cinema.
In the same interview, Joss mentions that he is doing a musical commentary for this, which is pretty much the best idea ever. LOVE THE JOSS.
You should go watch it right now.
...but what y'all call beef is not beef at all.
I don't know if you're following the old skool versus new skool beef between Ice-T and Soulja Boy, but if not, the Beckstar provides.
The play by play goes as follows: Ice-T disses Soulja Boy on the MixTape, Soulja Boy responds with video, Ice-T answers in kind. Kanye chimes in. Enjoy:
Ice-T --> "Soulja Boy - let me talk about Soulja Boy. I know you're young enough to be my kid, but you singlehandedly killed hip hop"
Soulja Boy --> "Real talk though. Mr T. you gots to- you must understand, shit is different now. When you was born, niggas was still driving in wood cars, god-damn Walmart wasn't made yet, you know. There wasn't no internet, there wasn't no video cameras to record this, to diss your whole ass on."
Ice-T --> "If any war, it's going to be good hip hop versus bad hip hop, you understand what I'm saying? And if there has to be a war on that battlefield, then' I'm proud to be the general, nigga. And I will never shoot a round off."
So I was reminiscing on one of my most popular posts - reviews of animated gifs of cats, and was inspired to log a similar entry. This time dragons.
This was an interesting project, because it highlighted a clear lack of understanding in our culture of what exactly a dragon is. Let's start with
Yes. Dragons are flying, fire-breathing badasses. If this gif included some burning villagers, it would be pretty much perfect.
Turds with faces.
Sexy alligators.
Interested in world events, sports, editorials or comics. In fact, I'm pretty sure that dragons can't read. Period.
Bats with pants.
This is a gyrating freak show. 
And then we have my personal favourite. Again... WTF?
...But her testimony quickly turned into a play-by-play of a fantasy basketball game in which Kelly was the star player. Kelly had a hit with "I Believe I Can Fly," from the soundtrack to the animated movie "Space Jam." According to Guerrero, Kelly also believed he could play ball.
Guerrero described--and prosecutors provided photos of--a mural on the wall of a half basketball court in the lower level of the home. In it, Kelly is a Michael Jordan doppelganger, bald, shiny, muscles rippling, committing a flagrant foul against the Tasmanian Devil. Jordan himself is the referee. And the audience? A cast of Looney Tunes characters, from Elmer Fudd to Sylvester, cheering on the one-on-one game and holding signs that read "Go R. Kelly!" and "Go Taz!"
- source
Are you kidding me? This is unprecedented.
Jamison also got a few laughs out of the court, such as when Adam asked her about the possibility of the tape having been altered with special effects. Had she seen the Wayans brothers movie "Little Man"? "It looked real, didn't it?" Adam asked. "Not really," Jamison replied with some sarcasm.
- source
The Wayan Brothers defense?
Kelly's attorneys suggest that a prayer group called "Midnight Missionaries" often came to the studio in the wee hours to pray about topics such as "sin and adultery."
- source
It's a hard time to be an R Kelly fan. Don't get me wrong, it's never been all that easy to be an R Kelly fan. But the infamous urination video seems a lot less funny in the cold light of the courtroom.
I, like the rest of society it seems, have inconsistent opinions about both the criminally famous and the sexualization of children. I only need to cite some first names - Britney, Miley, Jon-Benet - to make the point. Let's be clear - sexual activity with young teenagers, as a forty-year old man, is repugnant and appropriately criminal.
But my R Kelly love has never been about reason or ethics. It's a lawless love born of ego and delusion. And thus, I follow the trial. R Kelly, you never cease to amaze.
TURTLE POWER!
You will watch this video because:
a) you were with me when I was one toe over the line outside of the Astoria after the completely amazing Clips/Woodhands show, yelling this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle theme line and having people call back the Turtle Power! part;
b) you've ever seen the original version;
c) you wish to finally settle the question of whether any words can sound soulful and sincere with the right delivery;
d) you deserve a mellow, turtle-powered jazz break (which, obviously, you do);
e) you are willing to indulge me in a musing on media;
Quod erat demonstrandum - you press play now.
0:54 to 1:20 will blow your mind and break your heart simultaneously
Friends, meet David Choi. He's a moderately talented aspiring singer from LA playing mainly acoustic covers of popular songs, and his own saccharine ballads. But what strikes me is that David Choi is so 2.0 it's 2.econd nature.
Witness davidchoimusic.com - re-launched recently, it includes a member's community, links to multiple networks (he has about 15,000 myspace friends) an active text blog, video blog and Twitter feed, a (currently empty) store and even a LIVE DAVID CAM. Yes, you read that right. He even accepted my friend request on Facebook within twelve minutes of sending.
Hidden Website Secret! You can softly caress David's pet hamster in real time by pressing control-shift-e repeatedly on his homepage!
I've recently the pleasure of hearing two of today's most relevant digital thought leaders speak: Chris Anderson at this year's Vidfest keynote, and Richard Edelman at our offices (full disclosure - both Vidfest and Richard Edelman are connected to my current place of employ.)
Both made speeches which included an identical statement: If you're under 25, you know this already.
The need for this sentence is interesting. It isn't necessarily generational, but the gap between those who are using the digital space and those who are learning from slideshows about it has never been more important.
Social media is so specifically about interaction, I wonder if it's possible to understand it without actually participating in it.
Long-time readers will remember that this site used to have a '10 reasons why this blog is better than your myspace page' sidebar. Then I registered an account for personal reasons. I loved it, and am now active there and on Facebook as well as peripherally on some other sites. Being open to new social networking ideas helps create smart strategies, organize life, and have a lot of fun.
But, if you're under 25, you knew that already.
'cause it's gonna get sloppy!
1992 was amazing.
I love this line in particular:
By the time you add up all the people who are involved in creating an application, you'll end up with as many as 20 or 30 people.
"He's in his wiiiiiide stance! with his hammer pants down!" Hats off to you Jon Stewart.
Together in one amazing user-created vid. Seriously - this rules.
Flight of the Conchords. New Zealand's fourth most popular digi-folk paradists. If you don't know - now you know.
This video is obviously the theme song for anyone who's recently moved to Montreal.
Or check out this amazing rap battle between Hiphopopotamus and Rhymenoceros. You might want to say those out loud for maximum effect. Word.
My rhymes are so potent, that in this small segment
I made all of the ladies in the area pregnant
Cupcake addiction? Let's not go there.
My girl Marina is getting married next weekend and, as one of the bridesmaids, my job this weekend was to send her off in a drunken, hedonistic fever. Obviously, to the Beckstar, this means a cupcakestravaganza.
For you, woeful readers... I document it all in a photo essay.
The all-important 'pretend the fructose is a huge pile of cocaine' stage.
The setup for candying edible flowers - lazy variation: use of feather in place of paintbrush. Hey - whatever works, right?
The beautiful end result of project flower candy.
Mixmaster Beckstar.
Tasting of batter is extremely important at regular intervals. This is all entirely standard, and should not be questioned.
Enjoying a fresh warm batch of cupcakes. Is there any finer pleasure?
My signature recipe - cheesecake cupcakes. Drooooooool.
Batch 2 - Pineapple Coconut Cream Cheese Cupcakes. Fuck yeah!
And the gorgeous vanilla sisters. Can I get an amen?
A quick disclaimer: I am a dog person. Although I have known the odd cat who seemed a content, affectionate and cute-ish pet, they're just really not my thing.
Still, while there are many extreme examples of dog fanaticism, nobody does it like the cat folk.
You've seen stuffonmycat.com.
Omigod. Like, remember Construx?
You might have even spent some time on Flippy's Cat Page, gleaning such beautiful user-submitted prose as:
Happiness is:
... Sparkplug following me into the bathroom and watching me shave my legs.
... Brahms carefully watching the smaller kittens as they play.
... Walking into my mother’s house and having seventeen cats pounce on me and purr.
... Waking up to find a multitude of meowing fuzz balls sleeping with me.
... Having an "intelligent conversation" with a group of cats.
So today, the Beckstar turned a Wednesday into Wednfunsday!!!! Let's pretend that wordplay worked nicely and move on.
While in Portland over the weekend, I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Powell's Books, which was just as comprehensive, enormous and treasure-filled as its reputation suggested.
If you get a chance to go, be sure to visit the Technical Books Store around the corner. It's full of scientific/applied/instructional/awesome things of all sorts. Like this Magic Garden I bought. I enjoyed its growth all through my workday!
9:15am - Where it all goes down.
9:25am - Secret solution added. Muah ha ha!
9:55am - Baby crystals are the cutest. Look at their miniature little geometries! Awwwwwwww!
11:40am - If I'm ever fired, I think I will meditate on this photo for a little while.
3:20pm - Or maybe this one.
5:00pm - The view from day's end. Sweet!
If I've learned anything in the years I've walked this Earth - it's that this was totally awesome.
*
I will never forget the sight. The crystallisation vessel in which it (the chemical garden) exhibited itself, was three quarters filled with slightly slimey water, namely dilute water glass, and out of the sandy bottom sprung a grotesque small landscape of differently coloured growths, a confused vegetation composed of blue, green and brown spikes, reminiscent of algae, fungi, sessile polyps, but also mosses, then shells, fruit, treelets or branches of trees, here and there even limbs – the strangest thing I had ever seen: strange, not so much because of the, albeit wonderful and confusing sight, but because of its deeply melancholy nature.
