Random Tangent

Michael Crichton, one my all-time favourite authors, passed away a few days ago.

I loved his books and the way he wrote them: they were exciting, inspiring, and a whole lot of fun. Indeed, I’ve read all his fictional works though I’ve only read one of his non-fiction ones (must remedy that). I’ve also watched almost all of his films and remember being blown away by ‘West World’, ‘Jurassic Park’, and ‘Twister’. Heck, I even remember the ending scene from ‘The Andromeda Strain’ which I watched on TV back in the mid-80s! I must now watch the three films that I’ve missed.

You can read more about Crichton here:

• His official website
• His Wikipedia entry
• AiCN’s tribute (with videos)
• TED’s tribute

Rest in Peace, Michael.

Tags: Books, Film, Life, Technology, Television by Ameel
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The third season of the excellent NBC TV series Heroes started last week in Australia. And, in an incredibly awesome move on their part, you can now watch full episodes of the show on Yahoo!7 :)  Woo hoo!

Now if only Channel Nine would let you watch full episodes of The Mentalist on nineMSN and Channel Ten would let you watch full episodes of House on ten.com.au. Oh well. Some day…(hopefully soon).

Tags: Internet, Television by Ameel
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I am “seriously” impressed with Channel Ten’s new police action/drama Rush. The premise is fun (and makes for lots of good action), the writing is good, the storylines are interesting (yes, I know, we’re only two shows in but it looks good nonetheless), the characters are interesting, the cast is excellent (plus Claire van der Boom is gorgeous), and the production is fantastic (I love the immersion that handheld camera work gives viewers).

The best part: all of the show’s episodes are online along with a bunch of other behind-the-scene videos — that too for free! Channel Ten really kicks ass for doing this for so many of its biggest shows.

And speaking of good cop shows, I also like Channel 7′s City Homicide but its broadcast timing is such that I haven’t watch more than a few episodes of it. I guess I’ll have to wait till it comes out on DVD.

Tags: Television by Ameel
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PC Magazine has published its ‘Top 100 Classic Web Sites‘ list for 2008 and I have spent the last hour surfing the ‘net, learning lots of new things, and adding lots of new feeds to my Google Reader :)

Awesome.

Tags: Film, Internet, Life, Music, Technology, Television by Ameel
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ChannelFlip’s Justin Gayner made a really fun animated video to be used as a DVD extra in QI’s first season DVD that’s soon to be released.

It’s based, by the way, on this bit from QI:

:)

Tags: Music, Television by Ameel
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In case you missed the first episode of Salam Cafe — the new, very Aussie, very funny comedy panel and sketch show that debuted on SBS on Wednesday — you can now watch it on the SBS website. I’m guessing all future episodes will be published there as well.

The show is about the funny side of being a Muslim in Australia — which means there’s plenty of Muslim and Aussie humour — but is also about being a Muslim, particularly a young Muslim, in this day and age. Here’s what The Age had to say about it.

So, set your reminders for 10pm on Wednesdays on SBS and have a good laugh.

Tags: Life, Television by Ameel
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Want a deeper and most awesome analysis of the recent WGA strike? Read Matt Prager’s essay on Lawrence Lessig’s blog.

Tags: Film, Internet, Technology, Television by Ameel
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OMFG! Adobe Media Player has MacGyver, Twilight Zone, and Star Trek TOS episodes! And it’s not GeoIP locked!

Tags: Internet, Television by Ameel
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I’m not sure what I was doing today when a snippet of the theme song to The Littlest Hobo floated into my head. Since I hadn’t really researched that show on the web before — even though it was one my favourite shows growing up — I did a quick search and found an incredibly comprehensive website on the show as well as a video of its opening titles:

Ah, brings back memories, that does.

Tags: Television by Ameel
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Ah, the science fiction "babe". An elusive creature, if there ever was one — though that trend finally seems to be changing in film and on TV (thanks, Joss!).

Still, Flixster recently posted an article called ‘Science Fiction Film Babes Through Time‘ that lists five decades worth "babes" in order of "babe-itude". It’s a fun read. And though I don’t know a couple of the women listed there, in my opinion, their list is pretty accurate.

Tags: Film, Television by Ameel
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