Happy Halloween from the Netflix Challenge

I'm not a big gross-out horror guy, but this funny and scary Norwegian Nazi zombie movie, Dead Snow, is a whole lot of fun.



Just 49 titles remain on the queue.

Blogger slams use of 'slams' in headlines

If I read one more "So and So slams So and So or Such and Such" headline, I'm going to puke on the computer.

It's indicative of two things:
1) The laziness of contemporary journalism, where it's much easier to write and report on "he said this quote, then she responded with this quote" stories;

2) The public's appetite for gossipy personal drama over facts that might actually impact them. Somewhere, somebody has done a study that shows headlines that include "slam" generate more clicks.

Here's a random sampling from the past week or so:


James Carville slams Obama

Deputy FM slams Vatican communique as libel against Jews

Taylor Swift slams Kanye West

Iraqi PM Slams Timing Of WikiLeaks Revelations

BJP slams Kashmir interlocutors for Pak remark

Archbishop Dolan Slams New York Times for Bias

Glenn Beck slams Tides Foundation, George Soros over boycott threat

Zaragoza Coach Jose Aurelio Gay Slams Referee In Wake Of Barcelona Loss

Steve Jobs SLAMS Competitors In Lengthy Rant

Sharron Angle SLAMMED By Tea Party Rival Jon Scott Ashjian: 'She Lies'

Conway's Attack On Paul Slammed By Fellow Dems

Arianna Slams Wall Street On CNN's 'Parker Spitzer': They're Not Making Things, They're Making Things Up

Olbermann Slams O'Reilly For 'View' Comments: 'Bigot And Islamophobe'

Gardner Slams Markey On Immigration Stance

Marijuana Legalization Group SAFER Slams Hickenlooper, Lauds Tancredo

Brewer Slams Mexico for Legal Brief Criticizing Immigration Law

Watchdog Slams Companies Hired To Prevent Foreclosures

Karl Rove Slams Fox News Hosts For Bringing Up Anti-Rove Protesters

Netflix Challenge: Super High Me, Singles and SNL

While a couple of weeks have passed since the last update to the Netflix Challenge tally sheet, that doesn't mean we haven't been hard at work whittling down the queue.

Super High Me
This one has been on the queue almost since the beginning. We finally got to it, and it wasn't too bad. Inspired by Super Size Me, comedian Doug Benson (who High Times magazine called the second best "Pot Comic" working today) begins an experiment where he'll spend 30 days without smoking weed, followed by 30 days of intensive weed smoking. The results of the experiment aren't that interesting, except he did score higher on the SAT while high. What is interesting is his tour of the legal grass dispensaries in California. The sticky icky is lovingly photographed. Makes you want to move to Cali with back pains.





Singles
Members of Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains (Nirvana said no) all make appearances in this Cameron Crowe movie that's a little too Camerony-Crowey for me.





SNL: The Best of Commercial Parodies
The commercial parodies are often the best part of any SNL episode. This compilation includes some of the best of all time: Bass-O-Matic, Buckwheat Sings, Oops I Crapped My Pants ("imagine this pitcher of iced-tea is really a gallon of your feces"), Mom Jeans, Chris Farley's "Hibernol," and maybe my favorite:




Doubt
I've been wanting to see this Philip Seymour Hoffman movie for a while, but when it comes down to it, you're just never in the right mood for a drama about priests and sex abuse. So, it gets pushed farther and farther down the queue until one day Netflix removes it from the Instant catalog. Thanks, Netflix. That takes off a lot of the pressure, not to mention one more film from the queue.

Countdown: An even 50 remain.