The Friday Fives

1. What useful unknown website do you wish more people knew about?
I have been obsessed with these two little ditties all week:
Drivenlisten uses an algorithm to grab dashcam video from youtube and matches that up with a radio station from cities and nations all over the globe to create the experience that you are driving around Amsterdam and listening to Dutch radio. It is nice to have it playing in the background while you Google cast your browser to your television.

astornaut.io is based on premise that this is what the aliens in space are watching as they observe us – again based on a youtube algorithm that grabs low to no viewer coun short videos and randomly runs through them.

2. What is a commonly held misconception that drives you up the wall every time you hear it?
Most conspiracy theories but the biggest one that really drives me up the wall are the pervasive theory that we didn’t land on the Moon – We landed on the moon, mother fuckers! pull out some binoculars or a telescope – you can see some of the trash that we left behind.

I have discovered a nice piece of Nerd-vana podcast: “I Quit Star Trek” where each week some London grad students micro-parse episodes of the various versions of ‘Trek to decide if based on the highlighted episode is worth quit watching Star Trek. From their episode, I take issue with their theory that Kirk and Spock have a deep homosexual love affair that dates back to their days at the academy.

3. What movie have you watched at least 5 times because it’s so good?
Parsing this down to just one is difficult but I will go with Casablanca, a nearly perfect film that I have written about on this blog several times before.

4.
You got a potato in your hand, what do you do with it?
Peel it and take a nice big bite out of it – I have always liked a bite or two of a raw potato. I can’t eat a ton of them but a few bites are quite earthy, sweet, and yummy.

5. What’s a movie with a great premise but a terrible execution?
Most remakes – the one that immediately comes to mind is the scene-by-scene remake of “Psychic” by Gus Van Zandt. One of my favorite directors, but he missed the boat on this one.

3 Replies to “The Friday Fives”

  1. 1) MySpace

    2) That we live in a basically do-what-you-want free country. That’s not how our country’s form of government works, but hey let’s keep going with that notion so a true dictator can take the ball from this and take control of our country. Then those who think freedom means my way is the only way are bound for a despotic leader that will, in fact, take away their idea of freedoms. Our country is set up to allow for freedom to elect the people who will govern us. And we do get some say on what that governance consists of, but it is not individual free for all freedom.

    3) I won these two fils as well…Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Never Cry Wolf.

    4) Cut that spud up and roast it.

    5) Because Greg Bernstein is so wrong about this, all the Star Wars except the first three made.

  2. 1. The CIA World Factbook. So much great, relatively objective information about the societies and economies of every country on earth.

    2. Your precious “freedom,” comes with the responsibility of not being a dickbag, and placing the greater good ahead of your own self interests. So many people have zero understanding of this.

    3. Too many to list. Ferris Beuller’s Day Off was the first that came to mind.

    4. I throw it directly into the trash. I know for a fact I won’t cook with it. I rarely use them in food.

    5. Gigli.

  3. 1) http://www.woot.com

    2) That politicians are representing their voters best interests.

    3) The Outsiders, Shawshank Redemption

    4) Wash it, stab it repeatedly with a fork, rub it in olive oil, season it, wrap it in tin foil, bake it, unwrap it, cut it open, butter and smash up the insides, hidden valley ranch drizzled over it and consume.

    5) first screw you Tony Molinaro! Second I’d say most Stephen King movies. They just can’t make them well.

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