Gasp! We're... DEAD??

Well, even though we're both still alive, the show is pretty much dead. Our last episode exists somewhere, I guess, but Monica quit doing the show.

And if she quits, I quit.

It's a long story, and I don't want to explain it any more than I have, so with that... be safe, have fun, and spoil your dinner!

-Johnny

Sorry, I lied... again.

So I've been busy. Again. Friday we had a storm, Saturday was Monica's graduation party, and yesterday I just didn't get around to doing this.

Excuses, excuses.

To make a long story short, the next episode won't be until this Saturday (I HOPE).

-Johnny

Video... Friday?

Yes, I forgot about doing a post yesterday. But can you blame me? I had my final in Consumer Education yesterday, even though the last day of school, officially, was today. Anyway, Monica will be talking all about Doctor Who tomorrow at noon (Pacific Daylight Time), and here is the link to the latest episode.

I swear, I've gotta keep up with that stuff better!

And now, on to a video! This is a hilarious one that parodies the Wii, which was the first console Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People was released on:



And that's all, folks!

-Johnny

And another thing!

This is even worse than the original!

A message from Uncle Swanson

We want YOU to send us e-mails!

Um, yes, that was a very bad joke, but it had to be made. Honestly.

I mean, our e-mail is like a graveyard! All we have is spam e-mail to laugh or boo at. So please, do us a favor and shoot us an e-mail or post a comment on our blog. Don't worry about it not getting read; since we--AHEM--hardly ever receive any e-mails, we will read any we get (unless we--AHEM--actually get a lot).

And yes, this means YOU! Everyone reading this post must follow these steps:

1)Listen to an episode of the show (skip if already done).

2)Post a comment and/or send an e-mail, preferably both.

3)Tell your friends and family about the show (if you like it).

If you like the show, and you want us to keep making episodes, this is the only way to keep it running.

Oh, and "You guys suck" is not valid; "I think you need to edit better" is because it's specific.

On the flip side, "It's a good show" is not valid; "I like how you guys make random jokes once in a while" is because it's specific.

And obviously, "First", "Second", "Third", etc. are not comments, and therefore not valid. In other words, only comment about what you like or dislike about the show, and be specific.

Also, tomorrow at noon is when the next episode (#6) will go live (that is central time, by the way).

See ya then!

-Johnny

Video Thursday

And I'm back, with a new video for you! Also related to commercials, this is a YouTube Poop (the only one that Monica even tolerates, in fact) that parodies the infomercial for the Magic Bullet, complete with jokes... about s***.



...And there go all of the people who enjoyed Video Thursday.

Oh yes, Monica and I will be recording the next episode of the show tomorrow. I will be talking all about Homestar Runner! But that's going to be on Saturday (at noon this time, I swear). Until then, have another bad commercial:

That is another commercial we talked about on the commercials show. You know, I just can't find the commercial for 1-800-buy-a-car!

But oh well. See you tomorrow, where I shall give you a preview of Saturday's show.

Oh, and Episode 5 is here. Monica? Why didn't you blog that?

-Johnny

BeutlerSureTel.wmv

This video's audio has just been recorded into our podcast. This is only a preview of what we've done on this week's show...

Video Thursday

Yes, I'm still doing stuff, too.

Okay, so I've taken over Video Thursday, and I've decided that during each podcast week (from the Saturday the show goes live until the Friday we record the next one), my posts on Thursday and Friday will be related to the topic of our previous show. So, here's a video from the game show I was talking about called "Balderdash":



This is only the bonus round, although at least one episode does exist on YouTube (it's in the related videos section, which will pop up under the video once it's done playing, or on the side if you click on the title).

And also, the show I was talking about with the rings that say "Help Me" on the inside is called Studio 7. I saw one episode of it, a long time ago. No episodes exist on YouTube, but according to Wikipedia, there was going to be a second season, but... well, just click here and find out for yourself!

Tomorrow, I'll talk about something else related to game shows, as well as give you a preview of our next show! Stay tuned!

-Johnny

TMI Chicago #4: The Game Shows Show

This week, Johnny and I (along with my boyfriend Jason) discuss game shows--good ones, bad ones, and forgotten ones. Here is the latest episode.

And, for your viewing pleasure, this is the parody of "The Weakest Link" that I mentioned in this week's episode:



We'll have more game show videos later in the week (hopefully).

Have comments about the show? Want to suggest a future episode? Want to discuss some of your favorite game shows? Send us an email! You can contact us at tmichicagoshow@gmail.com.

Tune in next week as we discuss commercials!

Movie review: Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 is probably the most highly anticipated Pixar movie EVER. They have a well-earned reputation for consistent excellence in animation and storytelling (and they don't sacrifice one for the other). From the trailers, it looked to be a heartwarming and hilarious final installment to one of my all-time favorite movie series.

Could they possibly live up to such high expectations? Yes, and more. This movie was flat-out fantastic. The opening scene is one of Andy's more elaborate fantasies, and for the first time we are able to see the way it looks in Andy's imagination (which would have been impossible, animation-wise, even for TS2). It looked amazing, and both that scene and the rest of the movie were full of throwbacks to the first two.

There was a lot going on in terms of plot, but it never felt overwhelming (Spider-Man 3, I'm looking at you). They introduced a lot of new characters, which meant that they were unable to do much character development for any of them, but they seemed to have real personalities right from the beginning. That right there is a mark of good writing: if it feels like you know a character that has just been introduced. The story moved along at a good pace, with all of the twists and turns I have come to expect (including expecting to be surprised). How is it that I can be so nervous about the ending of a G-rated movie? I know that everything has to come out all right. There is no way they could possibly get away with anything less. And yet, I was genuinely worried.

The end of the movie was just perfect. I will not say anything more. I could kind of see it coming, and I did not mind at all.

To top it all off, this was probably the overall funniest Pixar movie in the past few years. Don't get me wrong, they all have their moments, but I haven't laughed so hard at a movie in a long time. Four little words: Buzz Lightyear En Espanol. And the kids in the daycare center! I think I recognized a few of them...

One final note: the toys attempting to break out of the daycare was fabulous. They could give the Leverage crew a run for their money. Except for the part where...well, I won't spoil it.

Go see Toy Story 3! Now!
5/5 stars (obviously)

Happy 4th of July!

Alas, due to technical difficulties, TMI Chicago's "Game Shows Show" is running late. It has been recorded and edited, but we are having difficulties with the uploading process. Stay tuned; it's a great show and we have a very special guest!

In the meantime, here are a few patriotic videos for your viewing pleasure.

First of all, here is an amazing video that I found this morning on the Epbot blog.



Fantastic song; I shall have to go and download it now.

Next up, we have a classic bit of patriotism. This is, without a doubt, the only reason I can recite the Preamble.



Schoolhouse Rock for the win! I can learn just about anything when it is set to music. Which leads me to my final video. I am still trying to memorize this one, from my all-time favorite cartoon show, Animaniacs.



You would think, after learning to sing "Nations of the World," that 40 presidents would be easy (this is, admittedly, outdated by 2 presidents now). But I must put in more practice.

TMI Chicago #3: Top 10 Sitcoms

This week, Johnny and I discuss ten of our favorite situation comedies. You can find the episode here.

I was sort of surprised by all of the overlap. More than half of my shows were on Johnny's list as well. On the other hand, I really should not be too surprised because we watch a lot of sitcoms together. The other interesting note is that none of the shows we discussed are still running new episodes. We decided that this was because the current crop of sitcoms are either aimed at adults (with all of the immature "mature" humor) or aimed at kids. Our favorites were designed for families to watch together, which is no longer a target demographic for ANYTHING.

If you have comments, suggestions, or interesting business opportunities, please send us an e-mail! Our address is tmichicagoshow@gmail.com. Question for the week: What is your favorite sitcom? Also, be sure to join us next week for the Game Shows Show!

I had an excellent time at the CON!! Look for pictures soon-ish.

Night of the Living Blog!

Hello, hello, one and all! I must apologize for the lack of blog entries. There are two main reasons for this. The first is that on Wednesday, we had another thunderstorm that knocked out the power; this time it was out for a good twenty-four hours. The second is that when I decided to do daily blog posts, I was anticipating a summer with nothing much to do. I was incredibly fortunate to find a job within a week of graduating from college, but the slight downside is that I will have to reconsider the "daily blog post" deal. Johnny and I will discuss it, and I think what will probably happen is that he and I will each try and post something 2 to 3 times a week.

We just finished recording TMI Chicago #3, where we discuss some of our favorite sitcoms! It will be available for your listening pleasure tomorrow. This was a fun episode to record, because we had a lot of shows in common. This also means that we got a bit long-winded. I promise that we are going to try and keep future episodes around an hour.

One more bit of news: Look for pictures in the next few days from Cyphan! This is going to be my first time going to a con (CON!!) so I am hoping to get a lot of good photos. The lovely Jewel Staite, AKA Kaylee from "Firefly," is going to be there. I probably will not get her autograph, because I am impatient and cheap, but it should be fun anyhow.

Monday website AND new TV show review!

Today's blog comes to you in two parts. Part one: your weekly time-wasting website recommendation. This week's site is called Reasonably Clever. It is run by a guy named Chris. The home page features the latest strip of Chris's webcomic, which is called "Brick House." Despite also being made of Lego creations, "Brick House" is completely different from "Irregular Webcomic!" (which was first mentioned a couple weeks ago). Anyway, "Brick House" is worth a read, but it is harder than IWC for new readers to jump into.

I am recommending "Reasonably Clever" for two main reasons. The first is the Lego Mini-Mizer, which allows you to create your own Lego people. Here is an example of some of the Lego people I've made:



We have Dracula, the wolfman, and Frankenstein's monster! There are also a ton of superhero costumes, Star Trek uniforms, and a collection of T-shirts. You can even add a background.

The other cool thing about Reasonably Clever is Chris's photo gallery of his Lego creations. He is crazy talented! Here is the main build page, which includes (among others) LIFE-SIZED Tom Servo and Crow made ENTIRELY from Legos! Also worth a look: Lego "Serenity" and a church for the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" (scaled to accommodate Lego mini-figs).

All right, part 2 is a review of ABC's new show "The Gates." It is a drama chronicling the lives of residents in a gated community cleverly named The Gates. But The Gates must be one of those places like Sunnydale that attracts weirdness. The new police chief has just moved his family into the community and has no idea about what is really going on. So far, we have a werewolf pack at the high school, witches owning shops downtown, and a couple of vampires who live next door with their adopted (human) daughter.

The first episode was pretty good. We get to know a bit about all of the characters in the ensemble, although I hope that all of the main characters have been introduced already. If the ensemble gets too large, it turns into a soap opera. The main reason I stopped watching "Heroes" is because they had too many damn characters. I would watch the show every week, and still had trouble following it!

Anyway, the acting and writing are decent, but not spectacular. So far, I am most intrigued by the vampires, Claire and Dylan (big surprise). They moved to The Gates to protect their daughter Emily from other vampires. The only problem with this plan is that Claire has trouble controlling her hunger. Dylan seems to have a handle on it, but I think he is more the exception than the rule when it comes to vampires. I would like to hear more about their daughter and why they decided to adopt.

We also have Peg and Devon, who both own shops that sell herbs and holistic junk. They haven't stated it outright yet, but it is heavily implied that they practice witchcraft. Peg is the "good" witch and Devon is the "bad" witch. Then there is the werewolf pack, which appears to be composed of about half a dozen teenage boys. Not too much has been said about them, except that there is a "code" and running around as a werewolf is not allowed inside the community. I'm guessing that they fall into the "turn into a wolf at will" category rather than the "change at the full moon" category.

Interwoven with all of this is the story of the Monohans, who have just moved in. Nick is the new police chief (from Chicago!) and is suspicious of his new neighbors, Claire and Dylan. His wife Sarah thinks Claire is a wonderful woman. Claire recommended Peg to Sarah, but Sarah ended up going to Devon's shop instead. Their son Charlie has a crush on a werewolf's girlfriend. They also have a daughter, who is just kind of there. Maybe she'll end up being friends with the vampires' daughter or something. Actually, that would be pretty interesting.

The show has potential. I will probably tune in again next week.

Leverage: Season 3 review coming soon! It is downloading as we speak.

TMI Chicago #2: Endurance Training

This week, I discuss topics that bore Johnny and he discusses topics that bore me! Johnny talks about one of his favorite websites, Homestar Runner; I discuss Doctor Who. In the second half, Johnny discusses "YouTube Poops" and I talk about the vampire drama Blood Ties. We only hope that nobody thinks we're boring!

I apologize for the show being late. As Johnny explained yesterday, our power went out last night. It was back on surprisingly fast; despite the large number of fallen trees and branches, the outage only lasted four hours. However, we finished recording the show after ten o'clock last night, and then we had a brownout and decided to shut down the computer until today.

Long story short, our latest episode is available here.

Have comments about the show? Want to add to our discussion, or suggest a topic for an upcoming show? We would love to hear from you! Our email address is tmichicagoshow@gmail.com.

Coming up next week: A countdown of our favorite sitcoms!

Another Power Failure!

While I was editing last night, the power went out.

Again.

Then it came back on, but that was our signal to go to bed. So anyway, I'm just finishing editing right now, but I don't even know how to put stuff on Podshow (or whatever it's called now), so Monica will have to show me that.

Anyway, expect minor delays in getting the show live. Sorry.

-Johnny

Power Failure and Other Stuff!

Johnny here. Monica and I just went through a long power outage, so for awhile we weren't able to record the show.

The power, obviously, just came on.

So here we are, about to get ready to start the show. A reminder, the theme this week is "Endurance Training", where Monica talks about Doctor Who and Blood Ties (which I hate), and I talk about Homestar Runner and YouTube Poops (which Monica hates). Oh yeah, this is going to be one fun Friday evening!

Also note that we will be putting the show on iTunes at some point (provided we can figure out how to get the "Publish a Podcast" link/button/whatever you want to call it to work), so keep an eye out for that!

-Johnny

Video Thursday #3: Our Favorite Things

It's time for another Video Thursday! This week's theme, to recap our first show, is Our Favorite Things. I decided to focus on three of the items that appeared on Johnny's and my lists.

First up: Leverage. This is a preview of the first episode in Season 3.



Seriously, think "Mission: Impossible" meets "Robin Hood" and you've got a pretty good picture of Leverage. The acting and writing are FANTASTIC. I am so ready for the new season! I discovered it back when I had cable, and so now I buy it on iTunes. New episodes are available the day after they air on TV, which is pretty sweet.

All right, next up is the trailer from one of our favorite movies. Dracula: Dead and Loving It is Dracula done by Mel Brooks. This is probably one of the most quoted movies at our house, along with "The Emperor's New Groove."



The whole movie is available on YouTube, though I am not sure it was uploaded legally. Of course, I would never link to it unless I was sure.

And finally, here is an excellent Marvel/DC video from RandomGuy! What if the "Twilight" series was done by your favorite comic book characters? We have the Joker as Edward, Green Goblin as Jacob, and Harley Quinn as Bella.



When not parodying the rivalry between the comic book companies, RandomGuy and RandomGal also do parodies of movie trailers. This one is about to become relevant again, with the release of "Eclipse" later this month.

And to explain the end of this one: RandomGuy has established that all of the movie trailer parodies are Spider-Man's dreams. The other superheroes find them so entertaining that they have taken to spiking his milkshakes. Batman is not too pleased.

Website/Favorite Things: TV Tropes

Hello, I'm back! Sorry that there was no post yesterday; I was out of town and found myself without Internet access. It was actually a very nice little getaway: did some shopping, spent time with my family, and generally just got to relax and have fun. But more on that tomorrow. Wednesdays are going to be my "off-topic" day when there is no site news.

So...TV Tropes. Guaranteed to waste hours and hours of your time! It is a collection of all of the "tricks of the trade" for writing fiction. They began with television, but now they have books, movies, cartoon shows, pro wrestling, you name it.

There are two main types of pages: pages for works and pages for tropes. Pages for tropes introduce a concept that is often found in fiction, like "Damsel In Distress." A tropes page will explain the concept, along with related concepts (aka "tropes"). It will then list examples of the trope, organized by media. Pages for works are pages centered around a certain book, movie, etc. It is easy to tell what most of the tropers enjoy because those pages will be ridiculously long. A works page will explain the plot or setup and then list the tropes found in that work.

This is a wiki site, like Wikipedia. However, unlike Wikipedia, when they say "anyone can edit" they do mean ANYONE, and you can edit anything. Signing up is ridiculously easy--not even an email address is required--and from there you can begin adding examples to the pages. Editing is also very easy to learn; internal links can be added by typing Wiki Words, where you just type the words without spaces and it is all correctly formatted by Wiki Magic. Much easier than Blogger (sorry, Blogger!).

If none of that sounds interesting, you are probably better off. I am being completely serious here: I could happily spend an entire day on their site...in fact, I probably have. The question is whether or not I should (obviously not). TV Tropes' greatest advantage is also its biggest weakness. Gee, I wonder if there's a trope for that...

You can find TV Tropes here. Click at your own risk, especially if you have something important to do.

You have been warned.

TMI Chicago #1: A Few of Our Favorite Things

The TMI Chicago podcast is on the air! This week, Johnny and I each discuss five of our favorite television shows, movies, and pieces of Internet media. To keep us from rambling too long, we used a timer.

Here is our first episode.

Linkage!
* Cake Wrecks
* Homestar Runner
* Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series on YouTube and their official site.
* ItsJustSomeRandomGuy's channel, home of the Marvel/DC videos.
* The Vlogbrothers channel. DFTBA!
* TV Tropes (CAUTION: TV Tropes is highly addictive and may lead to a dramatic decrease in productivity).

Question for the week: what are some of your favorite things? We would love to hear from you! E-mail us at tmichicagoshow@gmail.com.

Coming next week: Johnny and I try to annoy each other by discussing things the other person cannot stand! Should be fun.

Movie review: Shrek 4

Shrek 4 begins with our title character adjusting to life as a father. He longs for the days when he was a fierce ogre and could take a mud bath in peace. After a fight with Fiona, Shrek is walking home alone when he runs into Rumplestiltskin, who offers Shrek one day as a "real" ogre in exchange for one day from his past. Shrek takes the deal, and soon discovers that the day Rumplestiltskin took was the day Shrek was born.

Which means that Shrek no longer exists.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie. It is definitely better than the forgettable third, and at least as good as the second. It was interesting to see how the characters' lives are different in a world without Shrek. Puss, for example, would not look out of place on the Biggest Loser ranch (that cat could give Garfield a run for his money). The gingerbread man has taken to fighting animal crackers in the street. Rumplestiltskin rules Far Far Away and has a squad of Wicked Witches who track down ogres. The witches have pumpkin bombs, which I thought was hilarious.

The best change, though, is what happened to Fiona. After waiting for her true love, who never came, Fiona rescued herself from the Dragon's Keep. Heck yes! As if she wasn't badass enough in the first movie, now she is a true self-rescuing princess. Of course, the curse is still in effect. Fiona has embraced her ogre side. Now, instead of seeing herself as a princess who turns into an ogre, she is an ogre who hides the fact that she turns into a human during the day. By night, she leads the other ogres in The Resistance as they fight to overthrow Rumplestiltskin.

Stiltskin (as he is known to his enemies) was a decent villain. I have no idea what was up with his goose, though. Was it a robot? Or just a really big goose? I think it had gold teeth, too. It must have been the goose that lays the golden eggs, although they never explained it. That will probably turn up on the DVD as a deleted scene. I thought from the posters that maybe Lord Farquaad would be back. I was a bit disappointed that he never showed up. Incidentally, I wonder how all of the fairy tale creatures ended up in Far Far Away without Shrek and Fiona bringing them there. I suppose that Farquaad shipped them off there after he had rounded them all up.

The one thing that bugged me about this movie was the sudden appearance of the underground ogre society. Had it existed in the original timeline, without Shrek ever mentioning it? He seemed unsurprised to find a whole society of ogres. If he knew about other ogres, why had they never been mentioned before? If they somehow came into existence because of the contract, how did that happen? And why was there no shock about suddenly discovering the existence of dozens of his kind? And why were they still around after the contract was broken?

Right, spoiler alert. But (A) this movie has been out for over a month and (B) would anyone actually expect it to end with Shrek disappearing from existence? I will not spoil how it all works out, but I will say that I thought it was clever and well-plotted. The first movie had a lot of originality, so it was great to see some in this movie as well.

Overall, Shrek 4 gets 4 stars/5.

Netflix Friday #2: Looney Tunes Back In Action

Today's Netflix recommendation is an underrated movie starring the Looney Tunes. This was their second attempt at combining Bugs and company with live action; the first was the regrettable "Space Jam," when Michael Jordan proved once again that he should really stick to basketball. I enjoyed "Space Jam" at the time, because I love the Looney Tunes and I thought Michael Jordan was the coolest. Also, I was eight years old.

Looney Tunes: Back In Action sets up a world where cartoon characters wander freely around the "real" world (similar to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"). Daffy Duck, tired of Bugs getting all the attention, quits his job. He teams up with a recently fired stuntman and they set off to search for the plot device.

They don't refer to it as the plot device, although the movie is almost self-aware enough that they could have pulled that off. I guess that would be a little too meta, though. Anyway, all of the classic Looney Tunes characters are back. They sort of team up to have a major battle between all of the good guys and all of the bad guys. Among other things, they find a flying car that takes them to Area 52 (not Area 51); run through the paintings in the Louvre (easily one of the best scenes) and even end up in outer space for the return of Duck Dodgers In The Twenty-Fourth-and-a-half CENTURY!

*KABOOM*

It has been a while since I last saw this one, so the plot details are a bit fuzzy, but I still remember the jokes. And really, when it comes to the Looney Tunes, that's what it's all about.

Video Thursday #2: Stop-Motion Animation

I love stop-motion animation, because you can do all sorts of neat effects without any kind of fancy equipment. All you need is a camera and a lot of time. And patience.

First up this week, we have Lego Tetris. It is a stop-motion animation video combining the world's greatest building toy with a classic video game.



'Nuff said.

Next up, this video from Rhett and Link was so popular that they were actually asked to do a commercial for McDonald's using the same concept. They link to their commercial at the end of this video; here is the original T-Shirt Wars:



And finally, as an example of just how much time and patience is needed for professional stop-motion animation: on a good day, they were able to get seven seconds of footage. From the people who brought you "Wallace and Gromit," here is the trailer for one of my favorite movies, Chicken Run.

Hi!

Um, yes, Monica posted an entry before me, but she said my first entry would go up early this week. Despite the fact that I just finished finals, my brain cells are not too terribly deep-fried.

Oh, yes, introductions! I am Johnny, and I love posting stuff to blogs! Monica and I, as she said, recorded our first episode today, and it feels awesome to start with a BANG! Now, I usually like saying random stuff that has nothing to do with the topic of the blog (see our old blog for examples), but we want to create a better podcast than Video Revue.

Therefore, I'm staying on topic.

Even while typing.

Now, I will be alternating with Monica Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, as I LOVE posting videos to the blog! NOTE: we just decided on Thursday while recording.

So, now you've gotten to know me a bit; on Saturday... you'll know BOTH of us even MORE!!!!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-- okay, I'm done now.

-Johnny

Quick site news

Johnny and I have just finished recording our first episode of the TMI Chicago podcast! I still need to do some editing, and figure out how to upload it to Podshow, and possibly create an RSS feed...barring any major technical difficulties, it should be available on Saturday morning.

This first episode ran kind of long--around 90 minutes. We are going to try and keep future episodes to around an hour, but since this was our first episode we really wanted to give you, the listeners, a sense of who we are. I do hope you will tune in and give it a listen!

Favorite Things: Irregular Webcomic!

Irregular Webcomic! is done by David Morgan-Marr. All of the characters (aside from David, who will appear as himself in photos) are either Lego minifigs or D&D models. There is a new strip every day, which may make you wonder why it's called "Irregular." That would be because of the content.

David has about 20 different sets of characters, each with their own storylines, and they are all pretty strange. Among others, we have:
-Shakespeare, in the 21st century, working in an office and writing fanfiction.
-Adam and Jamie of the Mythbusters, who have gone back in time to become their own grandpas. They ended up becoming each other's grandfathers instead.
-The deaths, including Death By Insanely Overpowered Fireballs and Death of Being Stared At By A Giant Frog. And the Head Death.
-An Indiana Jones parody, with Montana Jones and his father fighting some Nazis and Hitler's brain in a jar.

The different themes frequently cross over (the Deaths, in particular, have met just about EVERYONE...and they are notoriously inefficient). Right now, it looks like he's building towards a mega-crossover that will destroy the multiverse.

Again.

Like I said, it's highly irregular. It is also uproariously funny, especially if you like science puns. David bases a lot of his humor on bad puns, which is fine by me. Some stories are easier for new readers to pick up on than others; I suggest just jumping in and look through the archives a bit. David has an index broken down by character set, so if you find a storyline that looks interesting you can start there. I started with Mythbusters.

Some quick links:
Here is the latest comic.
Here is the list of characters. From there you can jump to the first and latest strip in each theme.
David also works on Darths & Droids, which aims to answer the question, "What if Star Wars had been created by gamers?" It is a must for fans of Star Wars and/or roleplaying games.
He also does a blog, which is sometimes about the comics but mostly about other things in his life. He does wine reviews fairly often, so if you're into that it's worth checking out.

Fun Website: Think Geek

Think Geek is one of my favorite online stores, because they have a ton of fun and funny stuff. Their tagline is "Stuff for smart masses" (haha!) and they really have it all, no matter what kind of a geek you are.

First off, I must mention their phenomenal selection of geeky T-shirts. I'm all about the fun T-shirts. My current favorite is this one, which I think is brand-new.



Heck yes. Pinky and the Brain FTW. Other favorites include one from Sunnydale High School and one that says "Self-Rescuing Princess." In fact, I could probably fill a whole dresser full of geeky shirts from TG.

For annoying friends, coworkers, and neighbors, we have the Marshmallow Mforcer Semi-Automatic Pistol. That's right. It's not just a marshmallow gun; it's a marshmallow semi-automatic pistol. Geeky? Yes. Awesome? Absolutely!



Load it up with mini-marshmallows and you're good to go!

To geekify your bathroom or kitchen, what better way than with an LED light that makes the hot water look like it's red, and the cold water look like it's neon blue? Seriously, as soon as I get my own apartment I am buying one of these.



I could keep going, but really the best thing for me to do is just link to the site and say, "Go explore!"

So...Go explore!

Podcast preview

Next Saturday is the debut episode of the TMI Chicago podcast! For our first episode, we're going to introduce ourselves to you, the listeners, by discussing a few of our favorite things from TV, movies, and the Internet.

One of the things you'll learn about us is that we like to talk. A lot. So to keep our first show from running all evening, we're limiting ourselves to two minutes per topic. We've got a timer and everything. It's like speed dating! Not that I've ever been speed dating. In fact, I cannot remember ever seeing a real-life example of speed dating. My only exposure comes from using speed dating as a sitcom plot device. Or in this video, which is set up like a Candid Camera gag and is much funnier if you know who Tom Baker is. Otherwise you may be a bit confused.

See what I mean about getting off topic?

Each of us has a list of fifteen items to discuss (five movies, five TV shows, and five examples of Internet media). Please join us a week from today, and spread the word!

Johnny and I are going to alternate the Monday and Tuesday posts, so look for his first blog entry early next week.

Netflix Friday #1: Dawn

Today's Netflix streaming recommendation is for a movie I discovered a couple years ago, back when instant streaming was brand-new. At the time, I was looking for anything I could find with vampires. I came across this little independent gem simply by scrolling through all of their horror offerings.

"Dawn" is not your typical vampire movie. It is the story of a man and his daughter, Dawn. They are forced to forever wander from place to place to hide their secret: Dawn is a vampire. Technically, she is half-human, half-vampire. However, rather than this making her a super-speshul miracle baby, this means that she has all of a vampire's desire to kill along with all of a human's compassion for her victims. Their solution to this is to drive around until Dawn senses a human who is dying; she will only kill those who are terminally ill. However, this doesn't stop a would-be Van Helsing from setting out to avenge his mother.

If you are looking for tons of action and blood, "Dawn" is not for you. The movie is more of a character study of Dawn and her father. It's clear that they love each other very much, in spite of everything. The character development is excellent, particularly Dawn's struggle to meld her vampire and human halves. It builds to a tragic but inevitable conclusion. Despite its overall dark tone, there are a few funny scenes. My favorite is the conversation between Dawn's father and a goth chick.

There are a couple of caveats: first, the film is shot entirely in black and white. I think it was used effectively here, but it is another thing that sets it apart from other movies. Also, the acting isn't always the best. If you can overlook that, however, "Dawn" is a haunting little film that will stay with you for a long time.

Video Thursday #1

Welcome to the first Video Thursday! Every week I'll have a few of my favorite videos to share with you. Once the podcast gets going I'll tie them in with the show's theme, but for now they are unrelated.

This first one is from one of my favorite online series, Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series. YGOTAS takes scenes from Yu-Gi-Oh and re-dubs them. All of the voices are done by one guy, who calls himself Little Kuriboh. Lately, he's been doing song parodies. Little Kuriboh + Lady Gaga = Hilarious! Seriously, the first time I saw this I could not stop laughing.



Next up, please be VERY CAREFUL before you try and quote the tongue twisters in this video. I wonder how many takes they needed. This is from one of my favorite shows of all time, "Pinky and the Brain."



And, finally, from one of my favorite guilty pleasures, a sneak peek at "Eclipse."



Twilight gets a lot of flak, for many reasons, not all of which are unjustified. I will be the first to admit that Bella and Edward have an unhealthy relationship. She totally should have ended up with Jacob. And sparkly vampires are a dumb idea, I'm sorry, and the movies don't even do the effect very well. All the same, I did find the books enjoyable. I think that Stephenie Meyer is very good at developing characters, but then has no idea what to do with them. It's a shame, really. It looks like they're going to play up Bree's story in "Eclipse" but anyone who's read the book--or seen the title of the new "novella" at Borders--knows how her story ends.

Tomorrow, I'll have a recommendation from Netflix!

Movie review: Iron Man 2

I never saw the first Iron Man movie, so I walked into this one not knowing much about Iron Man except that he walks around in a robotic suit. Of course, I was able to get an idea of his personality from the Marvel/DC videos on YouTube: he's a millionaire playboy, possibly an alcoholic, and he may or may not have herpes.



As it turned out, that description was surprisingly accurate. Iron Man's an interesting character. Unlike Spider-Man or Superman or Batman, Iron Man wants everyone to know who he "really" is, and he is unapologetic for any of his actions. He does a pretty good job of convincing people that he really doesn't care about anything. As the movie opens, we find out that the core of his suit which is keeping him alive is also poisoning him. At the same time, he needs to defeat a Russain mobster with a grudge (and a super-suit!). Oh, and keep his company running.

It was an enjoyable movie. The acting was great, and the special effects were superb. I love all of Tony Stark's techno-gadgets--aside from his Iron Man suit, he has the coolest computer system EVER. The 3-D holograms that he can resize with his hands? Sweet. I wish technology like that existed in real life...and who knows? It very well may someday. The scenes between the Russain and Stark's rival Justin Hammer were pretty funny. I loved how Hammer was under the illusion that he was still the one in charge.

The movie was good, but it wasn't fantastic. It seemed like it was just a lot of stuff getting destroyed, with some semblance of a plot to tie it all together. And working the Avengers in. They've been hinting at an Avengers movie since 2008, and the movie isn't coming until 2012. This will probably be the first movie that has been hyped for 4 years before it's released. We'll have to see if that type of marketing is a good idea or a really stupid one. My other problem with the movie was that it was really loud, which ties in with all of the destruction. Overall, I'd say it's a good popcorn movie: entertaining, enjoyable, but without a lot of substance.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars.

And now, to kick off Video Thursday, please enjoy this Iron Man video from ItsJustSomeRandomGuy!

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - Official Trailer

This is being posted for 2 reasons:
1. This movie looks awesome.
2. I'm playing around with different blog formats to find one that will allow me to post HD videos without cutting them off on the side. Either that, or I'm going to learn HTML coding.

I try not to judge movies by the trailer too much, but already I've got some quotable lines.
"Wait, we're fighting over Ramona?"
"Yeah, didn't you get my e-mail explaining the situation?"
"I skimmed it..."

"If we're going to date, you may have to defeat my seven evil ex-boyfriends."

Blog Schedule

I'm trying to work out how to organize the blog. Right now I'm thinking about having a different feature every day of the week. Here is what I have so far:

Monday: Article/review for one of my favorite websites (to make your Monday more fun).
Tuesday: An in-depth look at one of my "Favorite Things" (which will be discussed more on our first episode).
Wednesday: Site news. Why not?
Thursday: Video Thursdays! Otherwise I'll just post videos all the time.
Friday: Netflix Friday. I'll recommend something that can be viewed online through Netflix Instant Streaming. They're still not paying me...
Saturday: New podcast episode!
Sunday: And on the seventh day, we shall rest.

All themes subject to change, and I'm open to suggestions if there is something you would like to see. Any of those can be supplemented/replaced when I have a new movie review. So stay tuned! The first Video Thursday will be tomorrow, in addition to my review of Iron Man 2 either tomorrow or tonight.

Also, the new podcast now has an e-mail address! Contact Monica and Johnny at tmichicagoshow@gmail.com.

Welcome!

T.M.I. Chicago is a podcast focusing on different topics in Television, Movies, and Internet media. Our first episode is coming in mid-June. Until then, please enjoy daily blog posts. My name is Monica, and I'll be writing most of the blog posts. My co-host is my brother Johnny; he'll join me for the show and contribute to the blog as well.

If you listened to our other podcast, Video Revue, welcome back! The new show is going to be a ton of fun (and update more consistently!) and I'm so glad you're along for the ride. Click here to read our blog posts for Video Revue.