Segacs's World I Know

Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category

You scored as Hermione Granger. You’re one intelligent witch, but you have a hard time believing it and require constant reassurance. You are a very supportive friend who would do anything and everything to help her friends out. Hermione Granger 85% Ron Weasley 65% Albus Dumbledore 60% Draco Malfoy 50% Ginny Weasley 50% Severus Snape 50% Remus Lupin 45% Sirius Black 45% Harry Potter 35% Lord Voldemort 25%

Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is…?
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(Via Imshin, who’s also a Hermione Granger).

Here’s why.

All right, that’s it: It was one thing when it was just getting Google to censor search results or other such “minor” infringements on freedom of speech. But now China has gone too far: It’s restricted the Simpsons:

D’oh! China has banished Homer Simpson, Pokemon and Mickey Mouse from prime time. Beginning Sept. 1, regulators have barred foreign cartoons from TV from 5 to 8 p.m. in an effort to protect China’s struggling animation studios, news reports said Sunday. The move allows the Monkey King and his Chinese pals to get the top TV viewing hours to themselves.

Foreign cartoons, especially from Japan, are hugely popular with China’s 250 million children and the country’s own animation studios have struggled to compete. Communist leaders are said to be frustrated that so many cartoons are foreign-made, especially after efforts to build up Chinese animation studios.

The most ironic part of this news story? That China, a Communist nation, is really doing nothing worse than what the CRTC does here in Canada. Ain’t it great living in such a free country?

Went to see Bon Cop, Bad Cop this afternoon. And I must say: absolutely brilliant!

This much-touted bilingual cop caper is an over-the-top parody of every shopworn Two Solitudes cliché in the book, with a whole lot of Québécois swearing thrown in for good measure. Anyone who takes this movie too seriously, and goes looking for minor things such as plot, suspense, logic or insight into human nature will probably be disappointed. But if you want to see some equal-opportunity bashing in two languages, then it’s highly worth the price of admission.

I hope some of you reading this in the ROC will go see this little gem when it’s released in theatres across the nation. Patrick Huard has perfect comic timing and one of those rubber faces and I hope this is the film to finally give him some much-deserved crossover success. Colm Feore is good at comedy – who knew? And Louis-Jose Houde steals every scene he’s in. The hockey plot as a backdrop is ludicrous, of course, but that’s kind of the point. It’s self-aware parody, and should be viewed as such.

Oh, and Rick Mercer’s imitation of Don Cherry is priceless.

Number of references to The West Wing on this blog: 18.

Number of references to this blog on The West Wing: 0.

Just in case anyone was wondering.

Want to watch something other than CNN? Clerks II opens this weekend.

A week late, but better late than never. Went to see Great Big Sea at Ottawa Bluesfest last night, and finally found all the maple leafs, cheesy t-shirts, and Canadian pride that had been sorely lacking from last week’s Canada Day festivities at the Old Port. The guys put on a great show, as usual, and went on for a while about their newfound obsession with Beaver Tails.

Moral of the story? Want Canadiana? Leave Montreal and head to Ottawa.

“The country is run by extremists… because moderates have $@#! to do” – Jon Stewart

This season will be the West Wing’s last. NBC announced that it is pulling the plug on the show at the end of this, its seventh season.

The show plunged downhill after Aaron Sorkin left three seasons ago but has recovered a little bit this season. However, its move to Sunday nights has caused the ratings to drop enough that the network feels it’s time.

They’ve promised to give us an election winner – Santos or Vinick – but this means neither of them will actually take office on the show. In a way, it’s fitting; this was about Jed Bartlet’s presidency, and while the transition might’ve been accomplished, things will have come full circle by now. And with John Spencer’s death, the decision makes even more sense.

Still, I’ll be sad to see one of the last remaining intelligent TV shows end. On the bright side, this probably means the 7-season DVD box set will make it to my Amazon Wish List really soon.

Stephen Colbert mock-saluted Paul Martin for “taking negative campaign ads to the next level”, based on the Liberal ad attacking Harper for being best friends with Bush.

Hey Paul: When even the American comedians are mocking your ads, they have to be really awful.

Then again, I suppose we should cut the Liberals some slack for how bad their campaign advertisements have been this time around. After all, their ad agencies all went and got themselves indicted in the sponsorship scandal.

(By the way, Colbert also had Andrew Sullivan on the show as his guest tonight. True to tongue-in-cheek form, his first question was “what is a blog?”)