Worth Your Consideration 007 - A GF5 Linkdump

• News Askew is reporting that NBC will re-air Saturday Night Live’s inaugural episode this Saturday night, an episode which was hosted by the recently departed George Carlin. The classic episode will apparently be aired in its entirety, which, according to News Askew, doesn’t happen all that often on NBC.
• I’m embedding George Carlin’s take on the Ten Commandments above because it’s criminal that I didn’t embed something of his when I posted my initial thoughts on his passing.
• On a much lighter note, Gary Vaynerchuk has posted the episode of Wine Library TV that was filmed in Boston recently, an episode that I made it into the city to see last week. I think it’s a perfect “entrance” episode for anyone who is mildly interested in wine and in seeing what Gary does. There’s a great blend of humor, education, and flat-out thunder here.
• Apple will apparently be releasing a free remote control application for iPhone and iPod Touch users which will allow them to control iTunes from anywhere in their house. This is something I’ve seen quite a few people clamoring for on the Apple boards across the Web. The real key, for me, and for a lot of others, will be if this works with the Apple TV. I loves me my simple two-button Apple TV remote, but it would be nice to have something a little more robust when I needed it.
• Lastly, for the comic book fans out there, be sure to check out Newsarama’s poll of what titles the pros think we consumers are missing. The Walking Dead, which Brandice recommended to me recently is one book that gets mentioned as a must-read.

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Worth Your Consideration 006 - A GF5 Linkdump

• Nine Inch Nails and Pitchfork.tv have followed up on Monday’s posting of the rehearsal of “1,000,000” with two more clips of tour rehearsal footage, one for “Letting You” and a second for “Echoplex”. These clips further solidify the fact that I am an idiot for not having a ticket to see NIN on this tour yet. Good grief, this new line-up is good!
• In other NIN news, check out the picture above for a sneak peek at how the band is using Google Earth to enhance the tour experience this time around, and check out the notes on the photo on Flickr for a more details. It almost makes me want to download Google Earth. Almost. (Why can’t that program run in a browser yet?)
• And, lastly, in non-NIN news, and on a much more somber note, please do read Kevin Smith’s thoughts on George Carlin’s passing, which show just how much the filmmaker admired the late comic and his work.

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Rest in Peace, George

I’m sure that I’m not the only member of my generation who first came to know the comedian George Carlin thanks to 1989’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, where he played Bill and Ted’s time-traveling mentor Rufus. But I’m pretty sure that I am one of a very few people in the world who, when they heard about the death of George Carlin, thought about his performance in Kevin Smith’s Jersey Girl first and foremost.

If you haven’t seen Jersey Girl—and, let’s face it, very few have, considering the horrible reviews it was given in the wake of Gigli—allow me to illuminate you. Carlin plays the father of Ben Affleck’s Ollie Trinke, and Carlin’s character, Bart, along with the eponymous Jersey Girl herself, are the glue that holds Ollie together after his wife dies in childbirth.

Carlin gets all the great lines and, in my opinion, steals or comes close to stealing nearly every scene he’s in. And for me, the film is worth watching if only to catch Carlin’s performance in a scene near the end, a scene wherein this battle-tested comedian gives an incredibly real and painfully heartbreaking dramatic performance.

I’m not sure if IMDB has the exchange exactly right, but they’ve got the gist of it:

Ollie: Come on, Dad. Don’t you wanna live alone again?
Bart: Not as much as I don’t wanna die alone.

Of course, Carlin also gets his share of hilarious jabs and colorful language in the film, too. But everyone who knows Carlin knows going into the film that he’s funny. I’ll always remember him in Jersey Girl because, for me, it was the film where he proved he could do it all.

Rest in peace, George.

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Zack and Miri Fighting An NC-17

According to News Askew, Zack and Miri Make a Porno may be fighting an NC-17 rating. Their sources include “Zack” himself, Mr. Seth Rogen.

Personally, while I understand that an NC-17 equals marketing death, I’m not all that worried or upset. If Zack and Miri earns an NC-17, that just means far fewer annoying kids in the theater. And, seriously, self-absorbed teenagers talking on their Godforsaken cellphones throughout the entire show have been responsible for ruining about 90% of the movies I’ve seen in the last few years. So, fuck ‘em. Give me an NC-17 rated movie and let the thing find its audience on home video, which is where all Kevin Smith films eventually find their audience anyway.

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Worth Your Consideration 001 - A GF5 Linkdump

“Other sites have linkdumps, so why not Geek Force Five?”

Well, that’s a good question, Laddie. And I don’t have a good answer. So, here you go:

• The teaser for Kevin Smith’s next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (previously mentioned here), has been pulled off of the Internet by the MPAA. Apparently, Kevin’s production company forgot to follow some “important guidelines” or something. Have I mentioned how much I love the MPAA lately?
• The lack of ‘Mac’ branding on certain posters spotted at the Moscone Center in San Francisco (where Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference will begin on Monday) has made the natives restless. Mac Rumors’s Page 2 is wondering if this signals the arrival of OS X for PCs. I, for one, hope it does. I’m sick of seeing poor John Hodgman so mopey all of the time in those Mac vs PC commercials. If he were running OS X, he’d be much happier, right? Isn’t that the idea?
• Apple retailers in Australia have received packages they’re not supposed to open until after the WWDC keynote. This is exciting only because it means some Australian dude is going to be sued by Apple for opening a box ahead of time and leaking photos of the new iPhone onto the Interweb. And we all love a lawsuit, don’t we?

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