Movie Review: Guardians of the Galaxy

Watching the trailers, this one looked a little too cutesy.  But then Rotten Tomatoes posted a 92% positive rating for it.  Reviewers declared one of the lead characters to be the new Hans Solo, and that genetically engineered raccoon seemed like an interesting character.  Retro music can be used to good effect (remember Steven Wright's DJ part in Reservoir Dogs?), that might work here too.  So what the hell, let's go see.

Too cutesy.  It wasn't actively bad mind you, it had a few laughs.  It also had more than its share of mawkish moments, those got tiring.  If you want more details, go dig around the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.  I can't give it more than 1.5 stars.

Got to say though, the crowd was having a good time, I actually saw people swaying to the 70's music soundtrack, and there was lots of laughter floating around.  I'm betting that there'll be a sequel, maybe even a five-part trilogy or some such.  Meh, I never really cared for Garfield the cat or E.T. either, but lots of other people did.

Here, have some soothing music.

Did you find that calming, relaxing?
Here, have some more:

Best of the Forgotten Coast poll's up

Be sure to vote early and vote often – just not more than once per day – here.  Runs through September 4th.

Government-Sponsored Piracy

OK, so it was radio piracy (as opposed to the "avast ye scurvy dawgs" or "Maersk Alabama" kind of piracy), it was us doing the piracy, it was for a good cause, and it was during the Cold War.  Here's the article and video clip about Voice of America doing offshore broadcasting.  Cool stuff!

Bungee without the bounce?

Hard to tell exactly what's going on here, but it looks like bungee jumping with some kind of pulley system to damp the jumper's KE toward the end.

Presented as a courtesy to our readers, with only one editorial comment.  No, this doesn't rate an 'inner coyote' label.  It's too eurofratbro and not tech enough.  Does get a 'facepalm' rating though.

They're the night watch. Let'em Sleep.

Pediatricians say school should start later for teens health, at NPR.

Yep.

The First Radio Pirate

Introducing Captain Plugge, the driving force behind Radio Normandy, who went toe-to-toe with the BBC in the interwar years, encouraging them (in a commercial way) to actually broadcast stuff people wanted to hear.  Know your history, it frequently rhymes and in this case it is downright fun to study.  And for bonus, this history's presented in a half-hour show on the BBC's web site, including clips from several Radio Normandy broadcasts.  Download or listen in soon, it'll be pulled by this coming Thursday or Friday.

Is it just me, or did I hear a little bit of glee in the BBC presenter's voice when he covered the ending chapters of Radio Normandy?