O, hai?

Good day, Action and Action readers. As Rob mentioned a few days ago, there will be a couple new faces here, and I’m one of them. We’re going to be doing things a little differently around here. While Rob’s gallivanting around the world playing elephant polo, watching the Watchmen, or doing whatever the hell he does, yours truly will be contributing. Get prepared for lots – and I mean lots – of rick rolling.

Okay, that’s not going to happen.

Anyhow, I’d write a little bio or introduction about myself, but those entries always seem so… self indulgent, you know? I mean, unless you’re deeply, unforgivably, in love with me, why would anyone want to know? Does it really matter if an anonymous blogger, say, lives in Toronto, thinks that the Rural Alberta Advantage is one of the best bands in Canada, advocates the written work of Paul Quarrington, or writes for other blogs? Why would anyone, save their mothers, want to read their Twitter pages? Does it matter what their pasty, mouth-breathing asses look like?

No, it doesn’t. What matters, friends, is life, love, and Sharon Stone's Bronze-aged pencil-erasing nips (which bear an uncanny resemblance to Popeye's elbows). Actually, forget pencil erasing, I need a mind eraser.

Action and Action-ites, it’s nice to meet you.

Love,

Mark

this just made my head explode.

I...I'm actually speechless. Please just watch this clip in its entirety, it is worth seeing the ten full minutes.



via Videogum

How does this not have 50 million views? This is like the hidden jewel in the ocean of human waste that is Youtube. Oh, speaking of which, I started a Youtube channel.

Joaquin Phoenix insanity recap.

I haven't mentioned anything thus far about the epic Joaquin Phoenix meltdown that has been going on for the last few weeks, as it just seemed too...easy. But you know what, fuck it, this is rapidly becoming one of my all-time favourite celebrity meltdowns, and I don't care whether its really real or if its all just an elaborate media stunt to create a compelling documentary subject for his brother-in-law Casey Affleck. This shit is funny. First he claimed to be retiring from acting to concentrate on his music career. Then there was his first ever live concert that made a collective nation say, "what the fuck??" Then there was the already-legendary Letterman appearance. Now he is being mocked mercilessly by Alec Baldwin and Ben Stiller. Seriously, what the hell is going on with this guy? Whatever it is, I personally prefer my crazed-Letterman appearances to be a bit more Crispin Glover-y.

crazy exciting changes.

So I know I wrote that long-winded piece the other night at 4am about how I was going to start using this space to talk about my personal life a bit more, but I ultimately decided that that was a silly idea. This blog has never really been about me, only things that I happen to be interested in. So I ended up starting a totally new blog where you can go from now on if you want to find out exactly what is going on in my ridiculous life.

So from this point on, Action and Action is going to exclusively be about different aspects of the pop culture universe...more or less exactly what it's been since I started it. But it has occured to me that I am never going to have the time or dedication that is required to make this blog into what I really think it could be, so I've contacted a few like-minded friends who are going to start contributing here, and I am really excited about this decision. It will add some much-needed fresh perspective and some new voices into the mix, but the bottom line as that way more content is going to be going up, and I think it's going to be good times for everyone.

So all that's going to be happening in the next little while, and I hope you guys enjoy the changes!

oscar mania.

So, it was the Oscars last night, and no, I did not watch them, as I do not have cable. I did follow them on some various liveblogs for a while, but instead of paying attention until the end I opted to watch Danny McBride's new HBO show Eastbound and Down, which incidentally is fucking hilarious and far more entertaining than the Oscars could ever hope to be. But I do have a vested interest in the winners of the awards so let's see how I did on my picks.

Hmm..it looks like I correctly called the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Actress categories. Yawn. Unfortunately Mickey Rourke was completely screwed out of his best actor award. Now, I like Sean Penn and don't want to take anything away from his work in Milk, but the way the character of Randy "The Ram" Robinson and the real life persona of Mickey Rourke came together in The Wrestler...that was one of my favourite film moments in a long, long time, and I thought Rourke deserved to be awarded for the performance (some kind of mention of Darren Aronofsky, cinemetographer Maryse Alberti, or writer Robert Siegel would have been nice too.) But hey, its the Academy, you can't expect too much of them I guess.

I don't really have all that much else to say. Except I would like to point out that I predicted the inevitable Heath Ledger Oscar a full 8 months ago*, after I had only seen the trailer for the Dark Knight, so that shows you just how shallow and predictable the Academy is. But I still feel they got this right even it was maybe for the wrong reasons. Heath's Joker is easily one of the most iconic screen villains of all time, and that performance was objectively astounding, no matter what happened after he finished his work on the film and if you disagree with me here, you are wrong.

Then again, it is just some meaningless gold statues that cause all this fuss, and the Oscars ceased being relevant or even very interesting years ago, so who cares really.

*OK, I acknowledge that I predicted his nomination 8 months ago, but come on, that's still pretty good. And once they announced the nomination my exact words were "this one belongs to Heath," so I feel like all in all, I am allowed to boast about this.

Obama's elf.

a dalmation riding a bike.

Also, this clip comes from Japan so that pretty much makes it an epic win for all parties involved.



via afrojacks