October 23, 2004

Featured TV Show: Every so often a show comes along that grabs the attention of the television watching public and refuses to let it go. Lost is such a show. Forty eight people have survived a plane crash on an island somewhere in the South Pacific. They were driven far off course by bad weather, and so if anyone is looking for them, they're looking in the wrong place. So now these survivors have to fend for themselves until help arrives, assuming it ever does. Oh, and there seems to be some sort of monster or powerful force on the island. It might seem a touch hokey, but it's a wildly compelling hour of television. If you have been watching it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, it's time to start.

Featured Website: Take a second and scroll up to the top of this page. You will see the Dontmindme banner, with the slogan "Pop culture commentary gone every so wrong." Do you recognize the font? Odds are you don't, because it's not one of the boring standard fonts that come with your boring standard word processing software. No, that font is called Coolvetica, and it's available at Larabie Fonts. It features hundreds of fonts, all designed by Ray Larabie, who last year retired from Rockstar Games so he could work on typefaces full time. He also runs Typodermic, which features commercial fonts, and even custom designed fonts. With all these fonts, you'll have to fight the urge to download and install them all. I know I am using half a dozen larabie fonts these days, and I keep browsing for new ones. He's got something for almost every situation you can imagine.

Featured Word: It's a simple word of only four letters, but Cusp is a wonderful little word that isn't used nearly enough. Of course, that means that using it will make you stand out a little, but in a good way. What does it mean, you ask. Well, that depends on the concept. In geometry, cusp is the point on an arc where the two tangents coincide. In anatomy, it's the highest point on the crown of a tooth. In astronomy, it's either point of a crescent moon. In everyday use, it means point or edge. My favourite usage is "on the cusp," which sounds a lot more clever than "on the verge" or "very close to."

Featured DVD: Way back in 2000 when I got my DVD player, there was a promotion from Panasonic to mail in a coupon and your receipt to receive four free DVDs. You didn't get any choice about what DVDs you would receive, there was a bundle of four that I suppose Panasonic had purchased thousands of for the promotion. Being all about free stuff, I mailed in my coupons, and several weeks later my four free DVDs arrived. One of them was Fools Rush In. Now, I was not particularly excited about this, and I think I watched it once just to say that I had actually watched all my free DVDs. Back then, my reaction was "Meh." If you've looked at past featured DVDs on this site, you know that my tastes run more toward action than romantic comedy.
That was then, and this is now. The difference includes four years and marriage. My wife happens to like romantic comedies, and therefore I watch more of them than I used to. The other night we decided to watch a movie, and I remembered Fools Rush In. So we watched it, and we both really liked it. It's a far better movie than I had remembered. Sure, the story may be a little formulaic — two people from vastly different backgrounds meet, fall in love, get married, and then have to deal with the repercussions thereof, but when examined closely there's more depth there than to be expected. As well, Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek's performances raise the movie above the simplicity of the story. It also doesn't hurt that there are a few really funny and unexpected moments.