Tuesday, December 28, 2004

Worst online shopping experience of '04: Brooks Brothers. The whole point of the aging-preppy look is that it's effortless. I had a nice Christmas gift-card, so off I went to the online store. It took forever, the selection was quite limited, and I had to call them when I was done because the final invoice overcharged me by about 20%. Another iconic brand in trouble. 10:23:40 AM    comment []

Atrios says the added scenes in The Return of the King don't bring much value to the flick beyond fun, but I think the death of Saruman was pretty important to the movie. Another insert, the face-off between the boss Nazgul and Gandalf, bothered me because when they meet in the book Gandalf seems to be his equal, and in the movie the black rider breaks G's staff, which is a clear sign of superiority. Elijah says this was OK, it telegraphs the fact that the Nazgul is a supreme badass for moviegoers who may not know the story. I liked the mouthpiece of Sauron, but did not understand at all why Peter Jackson has Aragorn dismount his cavalry and allow his army to be surrounded -- a suicide mission to create a diversion should last as long as possible, no? My earlier complaints about the callowness of that other Elijah (Wood) are reinforced every time I hear his lugubrious faux-British accent. He is the worst thing in the movie, with little to do but roll his eyes back in his head and look ready to vomit. Previously: LOTR as Crusaders vs. Muslims; Dwarves as the Jews of Middle Earth. 9:24:12 AM    comment []

Jay Rosen is up to number four on his list of PressThink's top 10 ideas for '04. 9:09:47 AM    comment []

Tsunami news/relief blog. NYT on blog coverage, with links. Overall Times coverage, print and web, reminds us why newspapers matter. Now excuse me, I've got to go hug my children. 9:04:02 AM    comment []

Fortune: "Blogs are challenging the media and changing how people in advertising, marketing, and public relations do their jobs. A few companies like Microsoft are finding ways to work with the blogging world—even as they're getting hammered by it. So far, most others are simply ignoring it. "That will get harder" Flashback to October '03: "The most powerful piece of software inside Microsoft may be the $40 application from a tiny vendor called Userland that Robert Scoble uses to write his weblog." 8:50:29 AM    comment []