Arune.Com’s Weekly YouTube Fix

We’re back with more videos this week, simply because it’s always fun to run these videos and get comments from people who enjoy the unique Arune.Com mix of videos. This first clip involves Johnny Damon, star player for the New York Yankees, getting involved in TNA’s upcoming pay-per-view. Yes, baseball players wrestle and cut really good promos.

We’ve got another TNA video, one that wrestling fans will enjoy– the return of Scott Steiner. It was a great ending to this week’s episode of Impact.

Now here’s another blast from the past for Canadian readers– the music video to “Ooh It’s Kinda Crazy” by soulDecision. I think this was their biggest song in Canada, or at the very elast it was the one I heard most often. It’s their most fun video and while it’s quite dated, it’s still an enjoyable 4 minutes or so.

We’ll end with a Smallville music video made by a fan, featuring the Justicle League and the Spider-Man song “Hero.”

Random + Television + Thoughts

There are a lot of little television tidbits I wanted to write more about, but I lack the time and energy to do that right now, so I’m going to touch upon them all here with the hope I can expand on these thoughts later this week. I doubt it’ll happen, but we’ll see how things turn out– after all, I never thought Arune.Com would be this busy one year later and we’re on pace to top last January’s numbers, with even better content than a year ago.

• Heroes returns this week, after finally airing an episode I liked and piquing my interest. I’ll say one thing for this show– it’s true to what it is, doesn’t have any delusions of grandeur and delivers real payoff. I do think that the pace hinders the shows in ways that affect my enjoyment, but considering the stellar reception by the rest of the world, I’m in the minority. I’m not sure I’ll watch this Monday, as I’m already recording two other shows, but I look forward to watching it on Sci-Fi later in the week. Fans need to check out CBR’s exclusive Heroes videos spotlighting this week’s episode and some specific cast members. CBR also offers weekly Q&A with the show’s writers, so make sure to check the site every Monday for more updates.
• WWE Monday Night Raw threatens to become less and less important to me, as each week’s show becomes more boring. Friday Night Smackdown is a brilliantly done wrestling show and with some minor exceptions, is the perfect wrestling program for me. TNA Impact!, airing on Wednesday this week, needs to promote the high flying X-Division if it wants to stay in the game. Right now it’s looking like a second rate show and not a real competitor.
• 24 has another new episode this week, hopefully without the “Stupid Person Plot Device.” What is that you ask? The father in last week’s premiere felt over the top stupid, when he knew what he was doing and still helped the terrorists. I understand the big impact of the final moments, but it would have mattered more to me if the character who put it into motion wasn’t acting so stupid. Same with the death of a major character– he seemed wildly out of character and his death had no meaning to me. I’m still loving the show, but I hope the silliness ends sooner than later. Jack’s “Count Jackula” moment was still pretty cool.
• Goodbye Smallville. I can’t begin to list all the reasons I dislike this show and I’ve watched it primarily because I’m a Superman fan…but since this Clark Kent is a petty, hypocritical jackass, there’s not much Superman for me to watch anymore on television. Still, one can’t ignore how much this show helped keep Superman in the spotlight over the last six years and for that reason I’m glad it came around. It also still features what I consider one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen and had some pretty good moments along the way, but I’m done with it now.
• For the Canadians, how much do Corner Gas DVD sets cost up North? The prices on websites seem ludicrious, so I’m hoping that Future Shop/Best Buy might have some deal on them that I’m not aware of right now. It sounds like a hilarious show and I’d love to check it out.
• With the cancellation of Passions and likely Days Of Our Lives cancellation in 2009, one has to wonder if the daytime soap opera is long for this world and if the powers that be will do anything to draw in new viewers– or even retain the ones they’re driving away. That’s a whole blog entry for another time, though I’d be surprised if we see daytime soaps on our television in 10 years.
• Studio 60 may be cancelled, which doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me, since the show hasn’t been able to find an audience. It’s a shame that television shows aren’t given more time to grow an audience and I’m hoping Studio 60 survives.
• If you’ve forgotten, Battlestar Galactica is back tonight.

Arune.Com’s Weekly YouTube Fix

Another week, another set of videos– as always, I’d click on the video, away from the play symbol and let it load in a new window. That just seems to work better.. We’ll start off with a “Canadian Heritage Moment” commerical that my Canadian friends will recognize. Canada has often claimed Superman as part of their heritage and this commercial explains it. I used to see this all time on television when I was younger.

This is an odd video. TNA wrestling has a star called Lance Hoyt and he’s one tall guy. So what happens when he teams with Ron “The Truth” Killings, TNA’s resident hip hop star? Well, Hoyt starts dancing and it is hilarious. You need only watch the first minute to see Hoyt bust out some moves. It looks odd for someone like Hoyt to move the way he does, but he’s got great flow and it’s just a fun video.

We’ll wrap up with two trailers for the new film Smokin Aces, which looks like a lot of fun and I’ll check it out on DVD. I fear it could be more style over substance, but the trailers look like a lot of fun and there’s a great cast involved.

Check Out 9 Seconds

Please check out the new short film 9 Seconds, created by my friend George Tramountanas. It’s an excellent short film and if you’re especially fond of Superman, you’ll enjoy it even more.

Click here for the goodness!!

Arune.Com’s Weekly YouTube Fix

We’re back with more videos for you to watch and re-watch over the weekend. Let’s start this off with my favorite topic– Superman– and an ad for the upcoming Ultimate Superman Collection, a new DVD set featuring all the Superman films, with new bonuses, and the two-disc Superman Returns DVD set.

Next we’ve got The Fray’s video for their hit song “How To Save A Life.” Overplayed? Yup. But in my books it’s still a good, fun song.

Finally, we end with a Canadian Tire commerical from 1995– I remember this one very well! For those not in the know, Canadian Tire is a huge chain of stories in Canada, specializing in all your household, non-grocery needs…as well as some cool sports equipment. Our illustrious friend Kurt Ingram might have a better description of the place, but I just remember that if I needed groceries, I went to Sunkist/Garden Basket; for pharmaceutical/health stuff I hit Shopper’s Drug Mart; and then hit Canadian Tire for everything else.

It was a joke with my friends, but you can always tell when the Christmas season begins in earnest by the amount of Canadian Tire “Scrooge” ads on television.

How To Be A Geek & Not A Target

Of all the things that I’ve been teased about, or for all the reasons I was bullied as a kid, the one thing that never was much of a problem for me was my interest in “geeky” things, of which comic books were the king. I’m not condoning bullying, nor am I advocating it, but the times people did take me to task for being so into comics, it actually strengthened my resolve and made me learn to better verbalize what I loved about the medium. In the end, the key to not being bullied about my love for comics was simple: confidence.

As long as you’re not continually pushing your passion in people’s faces, and confidently wear your interests as a badge of honor, I’ve found that you’re not likely to get bullied, or teased, by too many people. I’ve found that true when I was overweight and now that I’m built like an NFL reject. It’s just a matter of how people percieve you, and if they see that sign of weakness, the people who give into their baser emotions will pounce on that weakness. It’s not right, it’s not fair, but for the time being it is the way that life works. Sure, some bullies just bully for the hell of it, and yeah, wearing a Punisher t-shirt every day won’t do you a lot of favors, but confidence gets you by. It’s hard to know when confidence becomes arrogance, but I think if you act with the mindset that there’s nothing wrong with loving comics, and that it’s cool if others don’t like it but just respect your passion, then you’ll be fine.

However, sometimes no amount of logical action will stop blind discrimination. Some things we just can’t control. So love your comics, be respectful of others’ views on them, be confident that there’s nothing wrong in geeking out over the new Spider-Man 3 trailer, and you’ll be fine. The key is confidence, with a little side serving of a balanced life so that you don’t go off the deep end and think that you really have Jedi mind powers. If I can get by having tattoos of Superman’s “S” and symbols from Angel, then you’ll be fine.

When in doubt, just rock one of the cool shirts from this store, which features nerd t-shirts that are not only unique, but also not too boxy and baggy (at least from the ones I own).

Sports: The Great Ice Breaker?

The inspiration for this story goes to my buddy Mike, AKA The Fresh Prince of New York City, who was talking to me on Sunday about how much sports knowledge helps to grease the wheels of business. This is no revelation I’m sure, as watercooler talk is something we’re all familiar with, but it just got me thinking about why sports is, to me, the best subject for casual conversation among friends, co-workers, or anyone else. Now this is all of course based on my experience in life, so you may have a totally different perspective, and that’s cool with me– feel free to leave some comments.

Around the world, it seems that sports are a rallying point for national pride, even when people aren’t too familiar with the sport. You think that most Americans care about curling? Nope, but when it involves winning the Olympics and earning bragging right, you better believe that the USA cares. I can’t speak for other countries, but in Canada and the US, we grow up with sports. We see it on television. We play the games at school. Our first interactions in life are often based around playing sports, physical activity, or watching a live sporting event. Even for someone like myself, who was as interested in playing sports as little as terrorists are interested in peace, there was something awesome about watching these games with my family. I can remember waking up each morning to watch Sportsdesk on TSN and talking with my brother about our favorite teams. I can remember going to baseball games with my family and debating the merits of various players, plays, or umpire decisions. Sports are forever intertwined with the beginnings of my journey to learn how to best express myself in the world. Living in Toronto and becoming a fan of the Montreal Canadiens may well in fact have been my first sign of individuality & independent thought. Even as I’ve become older, I’ve found that when you meet other men, talking sports is one of the easiest ways to break the ice and get to know each other. When people tell you why they’re a fan of a team or a player, you learn a lot about them– we’re they’re from, the life experiences that drove them to become a fan, why they can’t stand a sport, etc. Even those who aren’t sports fans reveal a lot about why they’re not fans and it allows for an easy way to learn more about their interests.

Now I made a claim earlier that sports were the best kind of watercooler talk and that’s something I’m sure will cause a lot of readers to disagree. But I’ve found that, as mentioned above, sports provide the best context for understanding someone else and the easiest way to get to know something “real” about other people. We all have so much history and strong emotion tied up with sports than when talking about them, it’s bound to come out. Sure, that can happen with comic books, television and other sources of entertainment, but I’ve found that sports are the most consistent source of the aforementioned enlightenment. Sure, I can talk to you about Superman, but you’re not going to learn as much about me as quickly as you will if I tell you about my love for the Montreal Canadiens, since that reveals where I’m from, the sports I like, the fact that I get bored by slower sports, etc. Not that discussion about Superman won’t reveal anything about me, but it’s a much different reveal and not as easily understood as a discussion about sports. Hell, you can often figure out a person’s ability to craft a logical and valid argument by how they argue about sports. Some people seem wholly irrational, while you’ll find that some are so analytical and objective that their intelligence is obvious. Now I’m not saying to judge someone by their taste in sports or reasons why– sometimes you like a team “because” and that’s fine– but it’s just another facet of person that can be revealed by sports talk.

When it comes to breaking the ice with women, sports don’t seem to work as well, but that’s a discussion for another time. That’s not a slight against females, just my observation that men are socially conditioned to embrace sports in a far different way than women, which is neither good nor bad, just the way I see it. Then again, the women I get along with best all seem to love sports, so there are lots of cool females out there who happen to enjoy a good game of hockey (the greatest sport on Earth).

Random + Questions

Some things in life confuse me. And every so often, I’ll run a column asking questions about those confusing issues, some silly, some serious, but all 100% confusing to me. Are you ready?

• How can you have a Level/Floor 0 in a hotel? I was talking to my friend Jonah about this, because a few years back we were in London, where we stayed at a great hotel where the first floor was numbered as “0.” How does that work? Your base floor is the first floor, and thus either “M” for Main or “1″ as the first floor (the former is more common). So is this Floor 0 thing more common than I realize? Am I nuts to remember this years later?
• Is there a limit to the popularity of Heroes? Even CNN is hailing it as the big success of the new television season. I tried watching a couple recent episodes and still can’t into it, but I gotta say that it has improved since the pilot. Am I the only one not enjoying this show? Regardless, I’m glad to see a superhero show do so well and connect with people, because in theory it’ll help people see that comic books (and superhero tales in particular) don’t have to be stupid or infantile. I hope we see Heroes continue to grow in popularity.
• What the heck is an activist judge? Both sides of the political spectrum use this term liberally, but what does it mean? Judges are supposed to interpret the law, so as long as they do that honestly, how are they activists? By definition I think they’d be considered activists anyway, since they’re interpreting law and dispensing judgement, but how can you tell when someone is doing it in a way not consistent with the laws & values of a city/state/country?
• I’ve asked this before I think, but what does “fuck you” actually mean? Grammatically, I’m not sure it’s anything beyong a sentence fragment, but what is the insult supposed to mean? While we’re on the subject, flipping someone the bird is equally odd, as it would convey the message that you want to put your finger…y’know. Perhaps I’m thinking through this too much, but shouldn’t insults at least make sense?
• Why is Superman considered “lame” by so many people? I’m obviously biased, as I have a tattoo of his damn logo on my shoulder (as does my brother, making it our family crest I guess), but I’ve never understand how the character was any less “cool” than Batman, Spider-Man or the like. He’s always seemed like a beautifully complex character to me, beyond the obvious Christ metaphor, because he is the ultimate immigrant and is so concerned with making the world a better place. The former is great for exploring identity and how we all defines ourselves. The latter brings up many interesting ethical and socio-political questions. Superman’s problems aren’t as clear cut as Spider-Man’s issues, and his quest isn’t as gritty as that of Batman, but I’ve always seemed the character as really complex and compelling.

Random + News

Randy Orton & Edge beat DX! Whoo! The Era Of the Rated R-KO Superstars begins!

Ahem.

We’re back for a new week of blogging. I must confess, I feel like I’ve covered so much ground in the last few months that I’m having a harder time trying to find things to discuss. I don’t want to be critical all the time, but I also don’t want to force “positive” articles either. I’ll probably move back to including more entertainment-centric articles as time goes on, but I want to focus on articles that mean something, hence the lack of many “Random News” entries.

• Will Daniel Craig cut it as James Bond? I think he’s perfect for the role, as evidenced by his work in Munich and Layer Cake, but I understand that some people may have fears about someone new assuming such an iconic role. To me, the funniest thing is seeing how angry and vitrolic some people get because Craig is blond and doesn’t have darker hair, or that he doesn’t fit their definition of “good looking.” I just don’t get it at all. I mean, I don’t much like Heroes, but I won’t sit here and spew venom at it all day long. What’s the point?
• Eric Bischoff talks about the WWE, nWo and more. Eric is the man who made WCW such a powerful brand and I’m glad to see him back in the WWE. I enjoyed his recent book, Controversy Creates Cash, though I am a bit saddened to learn he won’t be bringing the nWo back anytime soon. They were a good wrestling stable for heels (IE: bad guys) and since he’s so associated with Edge & Randy Orton, it’d be fun to see them wearing the black and white. I think that Bischoff’s reasoning is probably correct, but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t love to see two of my favorite wrestlers get an even bigger push.
• It seems that Heroes is turning out to be quite the hit, which makes my prediction from way back about the show’s success all the more correct. Giving credit where credit is due, this show moves at a quick pace and it really does feel like it is going somewhere. Now I think that the speed undercuts the character development/exploration, but I can see how the combination of very prompt plot progression and appealing characters (they’re a diverse group, many are considered attractive, etc) would win over viewers. I’ve seen the first two episodes and still feel that it’s just not my thing, but I may just check out another episode to see if it has improved. I still feel that my criticisms of the pilot were fair but I’m willing to be open to the show improving (after all, I did sit through the first season of Babylon 5) and I’d love to love the show– it is about superheroes after all!
• You can rest assured that the Superman Returns sequel will be action packed, according to the star himself, Brandon Routh. In looking back, I can really see how the lack of a real physical battle hurt this film at the box office. Even if the fights had been simple, as in Spider-Man, I think that you’d have drawn more people in and created a desire for repeat viewings from customers. With the DVD release later this month, here’s to hoping that more people are exposed to the film, and the next film can be more successful.
• Check out “Operation Comix Relief” and help our American troops by sending them some comic books. ‘Tis the season!

Random + News + Returns

It’s a new month and to be honest, I’m not sure how busy it’ll be here at Arune.Com this month. The last two months have been extremely productive on the site, but I want to keep my focus on original content and not just these kinds of “link dumps,” so I may have fewer posts, but I’ll try to keep ‘em at a higher quality. We’ll see how it all works out, but I’ll try to keep this site fresh, even if it involves more of the following.

• I broke the news of Degrassi: The Next Generation’s new animated shorts, in my interview with the awesome Christopher Jackson. As someone who grew up with Degrassi– I remember it from my sex ed classes– it is cool to be a big part of promoting this new comic book tie-in series and it helps that the show & comic are such excellent products. Chris provided a lot of insight into the show and details about this excellent, outside the box promotional effort for the Degrassi: Extra Credit graphic novels.
• The next Punisher movie will be grittier and feature a better plot. I liked Thomas Jane in the first film and thought that there were some fantastic moments strung together by a weak plot. At its core, Punisher works for me because he’s a character about getting revenge on the wicked and making them suffer, which is something I could and would never do, but it’s something where you can always cheer for the guy because he only deals with really bad people. Just like Jack Bauer does what he has to and is never wrong, always validated by the evil in the hearts of his enemies, Punisher is similarily motivated and just has a much more, um, “graphic” way of dealing with things. Now before you get worried that this new film will be the vigilante version of Saw, I have a feeling it won’t be like that at all, and will probably just be a really gritty vigilante flick. I wouldn’t want to see a lot of movies like that myself, but with the Punisher, it makes sense to make his world so dark that in a twisted way, his brand of justice becomes the light.
• Want spoilers for Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Lost and more? Just click on the link.
• Buy your Autobot steering wheel cover today and get one step closer to turning your vehicle into a Transformer.
• If Jack Bauer said these things, you better believe you’d listen.