(no subject)

Haven’t had time to do this lately, but…

LINKSPAM 3000: RETURN OF THE LINKSPAM’S SON’S PUBLICIST

Bay Area
Hair and mushroom mats help clean up oil spill
Toyota apologizes to Great City of Fresno, bow before its name
Cal’s band subject game to its geekery.
The above performance, from the recent UC Berkeley versus Washington State football contest features tunes and bitmap band formations from Tetris, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario World, Mortal Kombat and more.
We rule.
Oh, and Wikipedia to moves to San Francisco!

The United States and its captive commonwealth
Brilliant comparison of presidential candidates to hip-hop stars.
Noooo pet massacres in Puerto Rico
MySpace faked by enemy's parents drives 13-year-old to suicide.
There are no words.

world news
Winds halt cleanup of Russian oil spill. With this and the spill polluting My Bay -sniff- (okay it wasn’t pristine before the spill, but still!) environmentalists call for ban on bunker fuel
Spain v. Venezuela: The Dance Remix
Quake in Chile kills 2, 7.7 on the Richter scale.
Don’t want to trivialize the tragedy, but I just have to point out: Of course the San Francisco Chronicle article is the one that puts the Richter scale measure in the headline.
6 dead after Hamas fires on Arafat rally
Monkeys on rampage in New Delhi
an explanation (and slight condemnation) of the Foreign Language Oscar rules

go Gunners go!
Arsenal Ladies nominated Team of the Year
Via [Bad username or site: gunner girls @ livejournal.com], from before the Reading game: When Reading host Arsenal tonight at the Madejski Stadium, Ibrahima Sonko will come face-to-face with long-lost cousin Bacary Sagna for the first time.
Awwwwwww….
We had to go lunch with mom that day, so I was only able to watch the game right up to Flamini’s goal. Aw noo I missed Rosa’s little kick celebration thing with Mathieu. This is why we have Youtube.
yaaaaaaaaaaaaay
Hee Arsene. Aww Rosa. DON’T GO TO INTER
And yay Ade scored Arsenal’s 1000th goal! And #1001 for Hleb!
Cesc interview: "I like to sit around the house and watch my favourite TV programmes - Lost, Prison Break, Desperate Housewives but I really like playing football on my X-Box…I'm happy to play wearing just my boxer shorts and it's good to log and play against other people who don't know who I am and see how good they are or how good I am."

other soccer stuff
Toronto FC’s fans are fantastic! Seriously, you guys are an inspiration.
Opinion: The Champions League, sorry the Tri-Nations, just isn't working
Becks cooks for Gary Neville.
Link and translation via misssamjones: Jose Mourinho vs. little kid
“Apparently, José pulled a 12 year old's hair and ears, because the little insulted José's daughter quite badly. Daughter and boy are classmates. But José apologized and wrote letters to the school and to the boy's parents.”
But let’s get serious: Another footballer dies from heart attack.

actors and actresses
James Marsters learns how to leave Spike behind
Russia! Magazine Presents Actor Viggo Mortensen With 'Best Russian Accent' Award
Katee Sackhoff interview
Kristen Schaal, who plays the cute/crazy fan on Flight of the Conchords. Check her out in this Funny or Die video. Also, FotC on NPR.
Fabio v. George Clooney: FIGHT!
Ellen Page says: "I think people who grow up surrounded by that self-important, self-indulgent, surreal lifestyle forget that the majority of the world could give a rat's ass."
Natalie Portman, director.

music is where the insane go to play
“Dance” with Rick James, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Prince, & Rod Stewart.
KISS’s Gene Simmons says: “They’ve got freckles. That’s a crook.”
David Bowie to play King of Atlantis on Spongebob
Mathematical breakdowns of hip-hop lyrics. GEEKS PWN THE WORLD, YO.
Christmas with Queens of the Stone Age!
The furor over “musical miscegenation.”
From the comments: “Strange days when Playboy publishes more insightful articles than the New Yorker.”
Heavy Metal coloring book!
Sufjan Stevens says “Rock is dead.” He then writes orchestral suite about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Here’s a preview. Here’s Sufjan as a pumpkin. Here he is, giving a tour of the BQE. Some BQE MP3s. A review of the BQE performance. And a Christmas song exchange contest!
Here’s how it works: write an original Christmas song, record it, and email the song to Asthmatic Kitty. They’ll pick a winner who will then trade all legal rights to their song for all legal rights to Sufjan’s song. All entries are due by midnight on December 1 and the winner should be announced around December 15.

the realm of the less insane music items
Help choose who gets on a label.
Muse celebrates Halloween in Vegas
Caetano Veloso explains his musical influences
Former Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein has a new blog on NPR’s site
I would rather discuss and examine what it is that people actually consume than to tell you what you should be listening to. There are already plenty of great blogs and online resources that tell us what the best new music is or that unearth rarities and lost classics. Though I might occasionally review a piece of music, I would rather explore the contexts and the ways in which we enjoy or maybe even despise it.
She’s doing a fine job so far. Check her comic skills in Thunderant’s Feminist Bookstore.
And, because I know my flist: Sondre Lerche performs on Late Night. Also, watch his live appearance at Amoeba Music in SF.

that new Star Trek movie
Cast news, some from a while ago:
Via canadian_turtle: Eric Bana to play villain, Chris Pine to play Kirk. Simon Pegg is Scotty, John Cho is Sulu, Winona Ryder to play Spock’s mom. Chris Hemsworth to play Kirk Sr., House’s Jennifer Morrison to have a role. Bruce Greenwood to play Capt. Pike. Shatner not in movie.
And, via logovo1: Edward Gorey meets Star Trek!

if they mess up these films I will hurt someone
Remaking High Noon?
Live action Akira to happen after all?
The Descent director to follow up with Doomsday
So far we know that Doomsday will be a gritty futuristic action thriller that stars Rhona Mitra, Malcolm McDowell, Bob Hoskins and the awesome Sean Pertwee. So far so good. The story deals with a Britain that's been walled up and infected for three full decades -- until someone has to re-enter the danger zone for a very important reason.
Wolfgang Petersen’s Ender’s Game?
Pegg and Frost to take on America in new movie
Danny Boyle prepares for Slumdog Millionaire

other movies
Ricky Gervais' movie sounds interesting.
First look at James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie in Wanted. From the director of Night Watch. Seems different than the Wanted comic.
Cloverfield’s title to be…Cloverfield?
aack poster
Hey, y’all: The Eye is a remake of a Korean film, not a Japanese one.
Batman director says: pollution was not the enemy!
Tom Cruise: Eye-patch-wearer, enemy of Hitler.. Bryan Singer what have you done,! And oh, hi, Kenneth Branaugh.
Paul Giamatti to be in Philip K. Dick biopic.
Michel Gondry and son to work on animated film. Wouldn’t it be cool if Gondry directed the Philip K. Dick movie?
Cate Blanchett ready to reteam with Edgar Wright, voice Mrs. Fox
Cillian Murphy and Al Pacino in Dali and I: The Surreal Story. Surreal indeed.

First pics of Maria Bello from The Mummy 3. Here’s her character’s IMDB page.
Rec from never_evil: Penelope. It looks like a tolerable!cute romantic comedy. Stars Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Peter Dinklage, and Reese Witherspoon. I checked the IMDB page, and hey Nick Frost is in it too! Comes out in Feb in US.
Of course: Hamlet 2.

projects gone before their time
No more Polanski’s Pompeii
No more Halo movie. I agree with the article’s view: It really is a shame, and I hope people from Universal and Fox read this, because this dude Neill Blomkamp would've made an amazing Halo film, unlike any video game adaptation out there. Just check out some of the things he says about his vision: "I wanted it to feel like the most brutal, real version of science fiction in a war environment that you've seen in a while. And Universal was on board with that. I don't really remember what Fox thought about it, but Universal seemed down with it. It would have been cool, it would have been a unique take on things, science fiction in a dirty, organic way."
Really, watch Blomkamp’s short films on Youtube. He does fantastic work with realistic sci-fi.

WGA and other strike-related news
handy chart about episodes of all shows. Via logovo1: another.
Via cleolinda: How the strike will affect other workers
writer defends Ellen's character
Damon Lindelof: “Mourning TV”
British writers warned not to break strike
Dogs can strike too!
'Scrubs' Creator Refuses To Bow to Strike Pressure
Some soap writers cross picket line
Joss on strike
More on the Broadway stagehands strike
Should comic writers unionize?

Phew, that took a little less than forever. Had to save the advertising and Heroes sections for a later date. Hope you all enjoyed that.

Many links via cleolinda.