“All You Need Is Love” means you can’t use it for an advertisement.

Do advertisers even listen to the songs they buy to sell their products? “All You Need Is Love” means YOU DON’T NEED ANYTHING ELSE. There could not be a more inappropriate song for use in an advertisement… unless, of course, you’re selling love.

Whoever is in charge of the Beatles’ catalog these days should never ever have sold this song to anybody. This is the most ridiculous use of a song to sell a product THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN. Even back to caveman times, I did the research.

Julie & Julia: Delightful.

I enjoyed this movie very much, although the plot was pretty much a disjointed mess. The story was cute and lots of great performances.

I loved Julia Child, and I love Meryl Streep, so that was a match made in heaven. I don’t think her performance was Oscar worthy, but the Academy and I seldom see eye-to-eye on these things. Interesting that Julia was 6′2” and Meryl is 5′6″, so I think that Meryl spent a lot of time walking on 8-inch boxes.

The authentic Julie/Julia Project blog is still up on Slate.

Performance capture: Why Avatar can’t be missed.

This is a link to a video showing how the actors were filmed to make Avatar. What really blew me away about this film is the performances of the actors and how they were captured by the new technology. The expressions, even the little tiny nuances, were absolutely wonderful.

This is what will totally revolutionize film making as we know it. It’s not the 3D, it’s not the trees and floating mountains, it’s all about the performances of these actors and how it was transferred through the technology to the screen.

See this movie again, and watch every single CGI performance captured frame with Zoe Saldana. Wonderful!

Stock and flow: media in the 21st century.

Something to think about for us bloggers and tweeters. I’m finding that there are things to be blogged and things to be tweeted and it’s not all about whether it fits Twitter’s 140-character limit. This article says you need some of both.

• Flow is the feed. It’s the posts and the tweets. It’s the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind peo­ple that you exist.
• Stock is the durable stuff. It’s the con­tent you pro­duce that’s as inter­est­ing in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what peo­ple dis­cover via search. It’s what spreads slowly but surely, build­ing fans over time.

Like Shangri-La, everything in moderation. Too much flow means too little substance. Too much stock means you’re too hard to digest.

Was there ever a good prequel?

Recently, I discovered that many sequels are actually good movies. Now I’m wondering if there are any prequels that are worth watching. Backstory, as a rule, should stay as backstory. There’s a reason why it’s not included in the main story.

Besides, we all know what’s going to happen because the original flick is already cast in stone. Gee, will Anakin kill Obi-Wan on Mustafar? Oh, I suppose not.

Here’s a list of prequels that might be actually good. Bigger list here, if you think I’ve missed some.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – a terrific movie, but I didn’t know it’s a prequel.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – oh yeah, that is a prequel!

My list only has two movies. I guess prequels really do, for the most part, suck.

Professional athletes are video gamers too.

I watched this play by Brandon Stokely, running along the goal line to use up time. I thought that was a real heads-up thing to do. He says it was based on his video game experience.

When I caught up with Stokley by telephone a few weeks later, I asked him point-blank: “Is that something out of a videogame?” “It definitely is,” Stokley said. “I think everybody who’s played those games has done that” — run around the field for a while at the end of the game to shave a few precious seconds off the clock. Stokley said he had performed that maneuver in a videogame “probably hundreds of times” before doing it in a real NFL game. “I don’t know if subconsciously it made me do it or not,” he said.

Reminds me of Lewis Hamilton, Formula 1 driver, in his first season, when asked about a track he’d never driven on, even in lesser formulas: “Well, I’ve done the Playstation.” Reportedly some of the NASCAR guys use video games to learn tracks as well.

Yay gaming!

Classic syfy scenes performed by typography.

Kinetic Type! Pretty sure this is type neepery, but I find it fun. Yes, I do like those Dennis Leary truck commercials too, even though I don’t like trucks. Sample below, lots more here.

Do you choose the video game or the mini muffin?

FREE! TAKE ME! said the note on the table by the video games and mini muffins. By noon that day, only one muffin remained… but NINE video games were still on the table. Proof positive that gamers value snacks over games!

Health care advocates can learn from the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

If you’re a health care advocate, you’re looking for any good news you can find. This article looks to the first Civil Rights Act, the one from 1957. The one you’ve never heard of. It was watered-down legislation, embarrassing in its ineffectiveness.

Sometimes the gates of history swing on small hinges, as the saying goes. The 1957 Civil Rights Act was a preposterously small hinge that helped swing open a very wide gate. It’s not out of the question that a pared-down health care bill might do the same.

That bill from 1957 laid the ground work for the successful Civil Rights Act of 1964 by bringing the issues to the attention of the nation. When you look at it that way, it wasn’t a waste at all. If that’s what it takes to get decent health care for America, then so be it.

Avatar is 27th best ever!

Before you get all excited about Avatar beating Titanic when it comes to counting dollars, here’s the real deal. Box Office Mojo has a chart adjusted for inflation that puts Dances With Smurfs at number 27. Still way way ahead on top: Gone With the Wind.