The Bin – 2/5/10

The Bin – 2/5/10

Feb 05

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Back in the day, we used to just like stuff every week. We still like stuff, but now we mix in links, videos and other random claptrap. It’s like the Cold Stone Creamery of nerd-dom; we call it The Bin, and we’ve gotta have it.

Stuff We Like This Week

Jeff: Can I like hating Jack Shephard? It gives me joy. Conversely, I’m all about a different Shepard this week – Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. I’m restarting the first game in preparation for the sequel, and I’m remembering how much I love the universe that BioWare has built. For me, it is the best example of the type of world-building that the company is capable of, even more than its admittedly excellent treatments of the Star Wars universe or the Forgotten Realms.

Something else I like? My native Scranton, usually a bit of a wasteland in terms of live music (that I like), is scoring some great concerts in the near future. In the next few months, I’m looking forward to seeing Wilco, Coheed and Cambria and The Hold Steady without traveling more than a half hour from my front door to do so.

Sarah: Going to Disneyland on a chilly Thursday in February is pretty much always a good idea, because the place is gloriously EMPTY. Go on Space Mountain six times, stuff yourself with churros, wander to your heart’s content — all with no threat of lines! Anyway, I finally got a chance to see the refurbished-as-of-2009 Small World, now with more Disney characters incorporated. I felt a little weird about this when it was first announced, I guess cause it seemed like adding a bunch of recognizable cartoon folk might be sort of…obtrusive? Crass? Yes, I realize I’m talking about It’s a Small Freakin’ World. Anyway, the additions are actually quite cute and fun and done in a way that makes sense (Lilo and Stitch in Hawaii, Alice in Wonderland in England, Ariel in…Mermaidland or whatever). Kind of loved trying to guess who I might see next.

Matt: I’m still about 15 minutes from finishing the first two eps of this final season of Lost but what I’ve seen so far is pretty damn good. I like the simultaneous feeling that there’s so much more to see in this universe, and yet the plots are closing in and falling atop one another as questions are answered. As someone who long ago tired of yet more Kate and Jack-centric episodes, I have to say the prospect of a new Kate and Jack over which to obsess hasn’t turned me off yet. To me, this show has treaded its share of water, but the storytelling drive that’s on display so far is riveting.

Chris: I stopped watching Smallville after the first season and I wasn’t all that invested in that season as it was. I didn’t hate it, though I was disappointed by the adamant and dismissive “no-costume” rule, and the unspoken “weekly villains are linked to Kryptonite” rule. So, when the word came down that the JSA was going to show up, my ears pricked up – and when the Internet fanboys started to whine, my teeth were beared. Goddammit, it’s like nobody remembers life before the X-files, when genre TV was few and far between and comic TV did not exist outside of Saturday mornings. So you know what I like this week? The classic Sandman, Dr. Fate, et al, are going to be on TV and not as cartoons. And the whiners can suck my remote.

Link Stew

Our friends at Film Buff Online play detective with Fox’s mysterious Zorro musical developed in the 30s but never completed.

The new Avengers lineup looks a lot like the old New Avengers lineup, no?

Crime novelist and Cable scribe Duane Swierczynski is livetweeting the “hostage situation” in the Macmillan/Amazon conflict.

Heidi MacDonald has moved The Beat over to its spiffy-looking new home.

The Fantastic Fangirls are hosting their first-ever comic book awards. And anyone can vote! Goooooo, Moonstone!

Calvin and Hobbes homages by various artists – the last one made me all blubbery.

Etc.

David Byrne and Fatboy Slim are releasing a concept album about the life of Imelda Marcos. Go ahead, read that sentence a few times. Let it sink in. (Thanks to Dave for the heads-up on this one.)

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