John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Darth Maul cooks Christmas dinner for the whole family

The Space channel is airing this promo for a Star Wars marathon, tied into a promotion called the 12 Days of Spacemas. The title doesn't matter much, though, when you see Darth Maul fret over his kitchen, and Vader and the other unhappy Christmas guests at the table. (Best touch: a stormtrooper with a napkin.)

Monkey business: How a balloon game can pop away a day

[Surf's Up, as published in the St. John's Telegram on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009. Click here to read more Surf's Up.]

I’ve been trying to clear a few hurdles with my work this last week, but have been falling prey to a little vice that’s hard to resist. I can keep my hands off the cookies, can resist the call of a trashy TV show, but have had a hard time ignoring a bunch of little monkeys with darts, bombs and glue-guns.

Bloons Tower Defense 4
“Bloons” is a well-established franchise on the web, at least among cheap (i.e., free) and easy-to-play games. This is the fourth iteration in the series, and it’s pretty sophisticated. If you’re new to tower defence games, they follow a pattern: you establish towers, or weapons, along a route to defeat some kind of invaders. In this case, the invaders are balloons – hence the title – and your weapons involve monkeys. And darts, bombs, planes, glue, tacks and all kinds of other fun stuff. This series is more complicated and varied, with more patterns, skill levels and upgrades.

And, as I said, it can become a major drain on your time. I think I’ve invested (I can’t bring myself to say “wasted”) a few hours over the run of the last week or so. Because the games can run on for dozens and dozens of turns, I recommend registering (it’s free) so you can save a game for later resumption.

A final point: I was loading Bloons the other evening when my son took notice. “I didn’t know you knew this game,” he exclaimed, evidently unaware that grown-ups can definitely compete with the kids for mindless online fun. I don’t know whether my stock had risen with my son, or my credibility as an adult had sunk. I didn’t worry about it, and got on with my game.

Elsewhere this week

Santa parade
The Downtown Santa Parade in St. John’s is this Sunday; click here for route and bus information, photos and more. A suggestion for the sponsors: let parade users post their own pics to the galleries, or create and then link to a feed at a service like Flickr.

Starbucks Drinks Simplified (Kinda)
Ever been dazzled or confused while overhearing the sometimes-complicated drink orders at a Starbucks? This unofficial page collects the many, many drinks you can apparently order from a barista. (Good luck getting a ristretto, evidently.)

50 Most Important Recordings
Year-end lists are one thing, but we’ve already been seeing a lot of decade-recapping lists, of movies, cultural points, etc. In its review of music in the Oughts (it says something about a decade when people don’t even agree on what to call it), NPR opted not to list the best, but the most influential. How else could you explain the inclusion of both Arcade Fire and Britney Spears?



Best commercials
In a similar vein: From AdWeek, an interactive feature on some of the best television advertising – that is, the ones not created to appear on Super Bowl broadcasts. Some very clever work here; my vote went on Cadbury’s fascinating ‘Gorilla’ spot, featuring a gorilla drumming along to Phil Collins. This is just feature among many; click on the banner to go to an index to explore other materials.



Aldous Huxley vs. George Orwell
Here’s a thought-provoking illustration about the dystopic visions of Huxley’s Brave New World and Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, with a compare-and-contrast text borrowed from media critic Neil Postman’s still-relevant 1985 work, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Postman, who died six years ago, published the book long before many of the technologies depicted in the pictures shown here even existed, but his message is as clear as ever.



Star Wars status updates
From College Humor, a set of five faux Facebook status updates, with comments from various characters in the Star Wars universe. See why Obi-Wan Kenobi, for instance, jumped in with a rapid comment when Luke Skywalker got stoked with romantic thoughts about Princess Leia, or how a stormtrooper had remorse after a battle with the Ewoks.

John Gushue is a writer in St. John's, and is currently on leave from his job with CBC News in St. John's. John is on Twitter right here.

A merry, merry Hothmas for you

This T-shirt, a seasonal wink on The Empire Strikes Back battle on the ice planet Hoth, made me laugh. And I bought one (actually, more than one), too, because it's available today only. TeeFury sells its wares dirt cheap (US $9), but on a limited edition basis. 

When stormtroopers kill teddy bears: Faux Facebook status updates

The image above is the start of the funniest thing I read today: a list of five Facebook conversations involving the characters of the Star Wars galaxy. Here's the rest. (A head's up: not for young kids.)

When R2-D2 found true love ... on Sesame Street

A gem I had never seen before, from 1980, when C-3P0 and R2-D2 arrived in the nicest block in New York.

Darth Vader orders the penne alla arrabiata

I saw this today on a friend's Facebook feed (two of them, actually) and I cracked up laughing. Given that "Lego" and "Star Wars" are categories in this blog (see below), how could I not?

The setup: someone took a few minutes of British comedian Eddie Izzard riffing on how there must have been a cafeteria on the Death Star ... and animated it to Lego.

A warning: This is not safe for young children. Naughty language. A shame, since my kid would really get a kick out of this.

This is not the robot you're looking for

What do stormtroopers do during their downtime? This page has a fantastically funny gallery of domestically posed stormtroopers, generally well away from the Star Wars universe. The images all come from the Stormtroopers 365 Flickr feed.

Cary Grant TIEs one on

A crop duster in a Hitchcock film? Menacing.

A TIE fighter? Deadly. The painting is called, you knew it, Force By Northwest. (As seen on the always-recommended Accordion Guy.)

[My bad: I had originally used Jimmy Stewart's name in the title of this post.]

If Disney had made Star Wars

This is one of the entries in a Worth 1000 competition, to morph celebrities (including animated dogs, like Goofy, melded here with General Grievous) into Star Wars characters.

George Lucas in Love

How did I miss this before?