Android's Bionic Woman: Women Rule

Check out the Droid Bionic teaser:

Wow. Could this be any more different than the Droid "Pretty" commercial from a few years ago?  Remember that one, which dissed the iPhone as a digitally clueless Barbie phone?  

Even as Android has been gobbling up marketshare in cell phones, they've kind of been striking out with women the past few years. Have you heard rumors that the HTC Bliss is going to be the first Android phone targeted specifically for women?  Early reports said that it might feature shopping/calorie-counting apps and something bizarre called an "indicator charm," which all seems like fairly clueless digital thinking to me.  But nothing has been confirmed just yet.

For my money, this teaser points out a couple of interesting things:
- Droid and other device makers are trying to find some way to market power to women without alienating men
- Bad-ass female action stars are increasingly becoming a bankable property across all media -- it doesn't seem like a coincidence to me that the actress in this commercial looks like a cross between Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman
- Fighting robots are always awesome

It will be interesting to see how this commercial campaign plays out -- and how Droid's sales figures reflect it.

Thanks to E. for sending the spot my way. "It's not a fembot!" he said.  Indeed.

Brooklyn, America

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Last week I made the trek to Coney Island with friends for a Brooklyn Cyclones game. We grabbed pizzas from Totonnos, ate slices near the Jackie Robinson memorial, and drank beer together under the stadium awning while rain and lightning shut down the game for over an hour.

I love Coney Island. I don't love it, too.  It takes an hour to get out there, and there's never a G train to connect to on the way home. It's loud and sandy, and all the food is terrible for you. There's all these new rides out there. But it takes an hour to get there, and if you ride the Q train you get to see really interesting platforms and views. And the beach is full of characters, and Nathan's cheese fries are delicious.  And there's new stuff out there. It's all good and bad and everything in between. 

I moved to Brooklyn just about four years ago. It's an amazing transition, moving to New York. Things and people feel superbright, like neon flashing signs of New York Importance, for a long, long time after you move in. It's exhilarating, and also exhausting. I was feeling a little worn out from all the awesomeness of New York a few weeks after I moved, and that's when E. took me to my first Brooklyn Cyclones game. We sat in the stands, burning our faces off because we forgot sunscreen, and I ate a pretzel and looked at the great mass of Brooklynites cheering on their minor league team and I thought, "Yeah, this is home."  

Brooklyn, America.  I love it now more than I did then, even more than I ever could have imagined.

Weekly Talkies: Dragons Go After Hours and make the Tabloids

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So, hey, here's a round-up of the flicks I saw this past week.

Tabloid
I know that a chief criticism of this film is that Errol Morris just isn't serious enough about it, and that he indulges too much in the very tabloid pleasures that he's ostensibly exploring. But I think that's a bit unwarranted.  No doubt, it was really enjoyable to experience Errol Morris inhabiting a tabloid narrative, delivering up the very thrills he ought to be (and we ought to be) suspicious of. But it was thought-provoking to reflect on my varied reactions as the crazy, conflicting details of Joyce McKinney's tabloid odyssey unfolded -- and I think that's very much the point.  And Spirit Booger.  That's the point, too.

How To Train Your Dragon
I'll admit, I was not into the idea of this film when I first heard about it.  But now that I've seen it on DVD, I'm feeling all DANGIT that I didn't see it in 3D at the theatre.  The flying sequences are super joyous, even in a 2D rendering, and I can only imagine how great they were with that extra D.  I guess that's what you get when you hire Roger Deakins to be your visual consultant... But, alas, there's a lot more than zippy flying sequences to love here, namely a wonderfully imagined dragon sidekick named Toothless, and a big sincere message about friendship and trust that's delivered in smart and sweet ways.  What can I say?  I'm a softie.  And also a big fan of any movie that can make Gerard Butler's (even animated) presence palatable.   

After Hours
Now that I've been in New York for four years, it just seemed right to revisit one of my favorite Scorsese movies. It's a real treat, not only to see that cast (Whoah, Will Patton!  Whoah, Linda Fiorentino! Whoah, Terri Garr/Catherine O'Hara! Whoah, Bronson Pinchot?) but also because it's kind of a marvel to see Tribeca back when it looked more like Bushwick than Tribeca. This film captures the paranoid-but-exhilarating essence of every semi-secret little party I've ever been to in a not-supposed-to-be-a-loft building in Brooklyn. So awesome.

My prediction: it's just a matter of time before we start to see Plaster of Paris bagel & cream cheese paperweights start to appear at the Renegade Craft Fair. Mark it down.



August Days

Late summer days always make me think of things I haven't done: kites I haven't flown, beaches I haven't been to, lazy lemonade days that probably don't exist (but I want them anyway). The weight of this list makes me forget that I've eaten tacos on the West Coast twice in the past month, and marveled at fireflies in Georgia, and laughed with friends by the side of a bonfire over the 4th of July. I always want to soak up the most of what's here and now in the sunny times. But late summer lets me admit some relief. The shade feels good, and I look forward to not seeing everyone's bra straps all the time. When my bike gets a flat tire, the G train is a giant metal inchworm. But its cool air feels so nice.

A Tale of Two Chompys

Check out my friend Seth Shelden putting his lawyering skills on display in this Washington City Paper post about Chompie/Chompy the Shark, the inflatable mascot for Discovery's Shark Week.  At issue is a blogger who named the shark Chompy during its original installation, who's now miffed that Discovery has taken to calling it Chompie. He contends that it's a misspelling (and that he's not getting any credit). Anyhow, Seth busts out some trademark law on this issue, and makes what I think is an increasingly important point about trademark in our digital world: "Trademark law isn't interested in protecting creativity; it's interested in ensuring that consumers aren't confused about the source of a good or a service."

If the law were interested in protecting creativity or, for that matter, good taste, this blogger should surely get some credit for his superior spelling.  Take it from a Tammy-with-a-y (not a Tammy-with-an-ie): the 'y' is always better.

Attack the Blog

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Attack the Block slayed me with some serious awesomess: it's entertaining from beginning to end, it has a sharp script and a pack of dynamic young actors that bring it to life without making it seem like work (mad props especially to John Boyega and Alex Esmail), and it surfaces a variety of real issues (racism, classism, what it means to be part of a block) with a very deft touch. I can't help but think that John Carpenter would love this film.

Go see it. It's a movie that makes you feel glad you just plunked down 15 bucks to see it.