There were other open spots which made me stop and think, why?

It's Friday!

I am amazed at the online karaoke technology that has appeared over the years. First was singshot and now, Singsnap with many many more song options. So what are you waiting for, go over and record something and let me know when you do. Here's a recent song I recorded.



Speaking of songs, this guy, Corey Vidal, posted this star wars song on youtube. He makes it looks like he recorded himself singing the different acapella parts when he really is just lipsyncing and using a song recorded by Moosebutter.

Hi Ho Silver and awayyyyyyy... *belch*

Councilman and NYU Alumnus Eric Gioia appeared in a Jeopardy clue which read:

NYC Councilman Eric Gioia says 10 U.N. Missions owe the city $8 Million in these.

The answer? Any guesses? Unpaid Parking Tickets


Have a great Super Bowl Sunday weekend.

HOBO-ken

I had my tv sitcom writing class last night (which is really an amazing class) and then I took the path to, yes, Hoboken, where I spent the first night in my apartment. The path ride took no time at all and when I got to the path station a very well dressed couple was talking to a bloody-faced homeless man, and I mean bloody. It actually helped to curb my appetite and I proceeded home. HOBO KEN, makes a lot more sense now. I wonder if that was Ken?

I love my apartment. I really do! I stayed up late setting up my cable and television and putting together my tv stand. It sure feels good to sleep until 7:30. Really good. Oh, and if you are in the market for new sheets, forget thread count, buy Bamboo sheets. They are by far the most comfortable.

Oh another observation about Hoboken. I wish I had a camera to snap a photo of the people walking to the Path in the morning. Did you ever see the remake of the Thomas Crown Affair? When at the end a bunch of people dressed like the man in Rene Magritte's "The Son of Man" painting? Well that's what it was like today. People converging from all which ways and guess what? They were all wearing the same coat. well, not the exact same coat but all had black coats on. I, myself, own a few of these jackets but to see all of these people wearing basically the same coat and coming together at the PATH entrance. It was a sight.

I love getting mail so you can imagine how I felt when I heard they might be cutting a day of mail delivery!!???

mysterious snow design. Proof of alien life

There's Snow Business, Like Snow Business

I don't quite understand something. They can invent a vacuum cleaning robot machine that can vacuum your carpets on its own but they still don't know how to plow a snow covered road. Well, in New Jersey they don't. The roads are treacherous here this morning. I daringly took my car to the train station so that I could easily ride into Penn Station. WRONG. In addition to sliding on the road, when I got to the station, "phew, I made it", there were no parking spots left. That's right. So, fed up and not willing to risk getting into an accident, I'm going to wait it out for a little bit and then get a ride to the train and take a half day at work.

Babies in the snow are cute and cold.


Snow angel from Matt Hamilton on Vimeo.

Now this is the kind of story I love...


The next time you buy an MP3 player at the thrift shop, check it for Secret Military Files.

Post 646, Palindrome

Believe it or not, this is my 646th post, a palindrome, and while it amazes me how many posts I have written, I still have many to go before I hit 1,000. What does the word "palindrome" make you think of? Mrs. Suppleworth, your 4th grade teacher? A Man A Plan A Plan A Canal Panama? How about They Might Be Giants' "I Palindrome I?". I'm reminded of the following Weird Al song. Say what you wanna say, the man is a genius. The song uses all palindromes.



What were you doing looking at Obama, Drum Major!

When people stop going to the theater and Broadway shows are closing left and right. What to do...I know, THRILLER The Musical!

Yes, but can it give me a physical?

Everybody Dance Now..

Coming of Age in Korea

I hope you enjoyed the bitter weekend. It got cold outside and snow is on the way. On Saturday night I went to see my sister in the current show, Coming of Age in Korea now playing at The Castillo Theater. It's an interesting show that combines video, singing, and dancing. It's been selling out and was packed the other night. Despite a recorded music track and some cheesy video moments, I thought the show was enjoyable and full of emotion. The Castillo theatre is an excellent non-profit organization and if you can get a tour of the facilities, be sure to do so. It's a huge place!

I spent yesterday doing homework and coming up with ideas for my Office spec script for class. We were given a list of ideas that we are not allowed to use and whenever I come up with ideas, I now write them down in my moleskin notebook which I keep handy.

Google is slowly taking over the world.

I'm glad to see Arnold Diaz is still out there...


There are many jokes that can be made about this following story so go ahead, make your own:



Have a great MOnday!

TGIF

The weekend has finally arrived and I hope your week wasn't too hectic. So I'm taking a TV sitcom writing class and the teacher is really great. I think I'm going to love the class. We have to write a spec script and while I'll admit I haven't had much time to watch tv lately, I am looking forward to trying out some ideas and seeing what works and what doesn't.

I have mentioned In Search of the Wow Wow Wibble Woggle Wazzie Woodle Woo before on this blog. It's Tim Noah's masterpiece which I watched over and over as a youngster and was passed down to other generations in my family. You have to watch it. I'll let you borrow my copy. You might think it's stupid at first but sit through the whole thing. You won't be able to get the songs out of your head.

Just another day at the office:


The Great Office War from Runawaybox on Vimeo.

If you fall asleep on the subway you might just make it on here.

The temperature is supposed to reach nearly 50 today! Is the cold spell over? When is the blizzard of '09 coming?

I heard the founder of The Printed Blog interviewed on NPR. I wonder if it's going to take off.

Barack O'Bama...

I always wanted a Chia Pet as a kid but never got one. Well, who wouldn't want this.

Oscar Oscar

It's that time of year, the announcement of the 81st Academy Award Nominations. Who will be nominated? Who will be snubbed? Is this Kate Winslet's year? Mickey Rourke? Heath Ledger? We will find out soon....


UPDATE: Here are the nominations...
1. Best Picture: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

2. Actor: Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"; Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."

3. Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"; Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"; Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"; Meryl Streep, "Doubt"; Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

4. Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"; Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"; Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"; Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road."

5. Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "Doubt"; Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"; Viola Davis, "Doubt"; Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler."

6. Director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Gus Van Sant, "Milk"; Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"; Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

7. Foreign Film: "The Baader Meinhof Complex," Germany; "The Class," France; "Departures," Japan; "Revanche," Austria; "Waltz With Bashir," Israel.

8. Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth and Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"; Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"; David Hare, "The Reader"; Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire."

9. Original Screenplay: Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"; Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"; Martin McDonagh, "In Bruges"; Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"; Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, "WALL-E."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Bolt"; "Kung Fu Panda"; "WALL-E."

11. Art Direction: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Duchess," "Revolutionary Road."

12. Cinematography: "Changeling," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."

13. Sound Mixing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

14. Sound Editing: "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Slumdog Millionaire," "WALL-E," "Wanted."

15. Original Score: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat; "Defiance," James Newton Howard; "Milk," Danny Elfman; "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman; "WALL-E," Thomas Newman.

16. Original Song: "Down to Earth" from "WALL-E," Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman; "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Gulzar; "O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

17. Costume: "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Duchess," "Milk," "Revolutionary Road."

18. Documentary Feature: "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," "Encounters at the End of the World," "The Garden," "Man on Wire," "Trouble the Water."

19. Documentary (short subject): "The Conscience of Nhem En," "The Final Inch," "Smile Pinki," "The Witness—From the Balcony of Room 306."

20. Film Editing: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "Slumdog Millionaire."

21. Makeup: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

22. Animated Short Film: "La Maison en Petits Cubes," "Lavatory—Lovestory," "Oktapodi," "Presto," "This Way Up."

23. Live Action Short Film: "Auf der Strecke (On the Line)," "Manon on the Asphalt," "New Boy," "The Pig," "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

24. Visual Effects: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man."

Change

We experienced an amazing event yesterday. People around the world were watching, cheering, crying, laughing...experiencing a myriad of emotions. And did you see the Balls last night? They were all so, well, Hollywood. What stars are there, who's singing, who are you wearing, etc... Change is here. And speaking of change, today is my boss's last day in the office. We're all going to miss him dearly and wish him the best of luck at his new job.

Did you catch our favorite weatherman screaming out at President Obama? Here's the clip:



So the big event is tonight...the LOST season premiere and I can't wait. I won't be home in time to watch it as I have class so don't ruin it for my by posting spoiler alerts in the form of comments here. Who am I kidding? None of you ever leave comments anyway!

The Obama girls had a fun evening planned last night. The studios provided them with copies of Bolt and High School Musical 3. They had some friends over to their new home and had a movie night. I wonder if they have a popcorn machine in the White House?

There are some pretty crazy applications for the iPhone but I haven't seen anything quite like this.

Welcome to the White House

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and a long weekend for those who had yesterday off. I am happy to say that the mattress was finally delivered over the weekend and while that was happening I found out that the couch I had ordered was discontinued. So back to the drawing board. I saw a fight break out at the gym over the weekend. There wasn't any physical contact but just a lot of yelling. All of the treadmills were taken so this older man decided he would start looking at each persons machine to see how long they had been on there. One woman had a towel over her time so he asked if he could see it. She said "no". He got annoyed and then they exchanged words. Isn't NJ a wonderful place? My uber talented friend and animator, Amanda recently got married and I talked to her last night. I am so impressed with the photographer they used for their wedding. Her name is Karin von Voigtlander and her work is incredible. I love the way she uses color. Here's her website.

There is much excitement in the air as Barack Obama is hours away from being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. I hope you are able to watch the ceremony today. Here's a very cool interactive map and schedule of events.

Free Coffee at Oren's today.

This is just terrifying...and so is this.

Did you hear about the Al Gore ice sculpture?

Here's a fun clip of the day which you may or may not have seen before:

Inkheart left me with no heart

Don't get me wrong, I love movie premieres. The glitz, the glamour, the press, flash...flash, the red carpet, the free snacks, the excitement. Adam and I went to the premiere of Inkheart last night. I had never read the book and had no idea what the movie was about. For those of you who don't know, Inkheart is a young adult fantasy novel by German author Cornelia Funke and is the first book of the Inkworld trilogy. Oh yes, they plan on making movie sequels as well but I'm not sure they will follow through with that plan after the reviews come out for this one. The other books in the series are Inkspell and Inkdeath, something which I think I experienced 10 minutes into this film.

We made it to our assigned seats, grabbed our free snacks on the way in and wondered whether Brendan Fraser was going to watch the movie. If I were him, I don't think I could bear watching myself this time around. I was hoping for something satisfying, something that kids and adults could enjoy. Is that too much to ask for? Adam pointed to the fact that this was the first Brendan Fraser movie he would be seeing in the theatre and I'm almost definite it will also be the last. The great Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent's talents were wasted in this film. And Jennifer Connelly appears for a few brief seconds.

I powered off my cellphone and eventually the movie began. Here's the basic premise of the film directly from IMDB:

An adventure of a father and his young daughter, searching for a long lost book that will help reunite a missing, close relative, this fantasy takes a darker side whenever we hear Mo 'Silvertongue' Folchart reading out aloud from books. His ability to rise to life, to export, to release figures out of the page and into the real world is only relevant when the darker side of his stories appear to reek havoc and destruction. Join in the fantasy and revel at the marvel of Books in this adventure of adventures' that brings the best stories throughout the decades to life that transcends beyond imagine.

Intrigued? I sat through the film wishing myself into a book, any book. For being in any book would have been better than watching this movie. When the end credits started to roll, not only did I feel lifeless but my cellphone wouldn't turn on, the battery was dead. This film drained the life from my little buddy.

For all of you who always say I like every movie, I hope you are reading this post. I don't like every movie. I was trying to think of one positive thing to say about this film and I can't think of anything. If you want to see a movie in theaters, go check out one of the many great films now playing and skip Inkheart.

Snow

I forgot there was snow in the forecast so I was a little surprised when I opened the door to a freshly covered white ground. The bus trip took longer than usual but pretty soon there will be no more bus. Tonight Adam and I will be attending the Premiere of Inkheart. Have I read the book? No. Am I excited? You betcha! The lights, the glamor, the red carpet. Sometimes they even have free snacks. I'm sure you'll get the full report tomorrow.

Temperature is chilly here but I'm sure it's quite lovely in Tampa. Well, except for the feces throwing monkey.

Whose paying to have the Golden Globes investigated by the FCC? Puhlease.

Will...Obama..Obama...Will..Uma...

This is really bizarre.

Have a great day!

1-800-M-A-T-T-R-E-S..and leave off the last "S" for Stupid

I took a half day off of work yesterday to go wait in my apartment for the bed to be delivered. At about 5:00pm the driver called to say that for some reason they didn't load the box spring on the truck, only the mattress and frame. Just great. I was fuming. I called the company I ordered the mattress from and tried to remain as cool as I could but demanded they give me some money back. So I got 40% off my purchase. It pays to speak up.

My second annoyance is Joyce Honda of Denville NJ. My dad pointed out that the problem I had with my car, which apparently is really dangerous has happened to hundreds of thousands of people. There are entire forums of people badmouthing their local dealership. Honda released a statement saying there was something wrong with the car that was causing tires to wear and in some cases, fly off the car. It truly disturbs me that no one at the dealership mentioned this and they try acting like it's my fault for not rotating the wheels. WRONG. It's your fault Honda. And now I'm mad. You are going to pay for my new tires and I'm going straight to the Honda Corporation. Tom Duffy, you should have known about this and told me when I came in. Ray at the Service center at Joyce Honda, you should be ashamed of yourself. Blaming your customers for something that isn't their fault. You just lost a bunch of customers.

Okay, now that I got that out of my system. How about something fun? Ready for this? Barack, put down that blackberry and check it out:



Mm..Rocky Raccoon.

Short post today...much more tomorrow!!!

The Moon

I've been admiring the moon lately. It's been quite amazing. It's fullness has also been creating some problems. An annoying trip to the car dealership where everyone and anyone will try to sell you something you don't need. Then a call to the mattress company who tell me my mattress is no longer available. Everything has been worked out and the mattress and cable guy are coming today. Exciting stuff.

You think you send a lot of texts? Well, you don't.


I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite awkward moments from the Golden Globe Red Carpet. I think Tiki should stick to sports.



Looking for a job? Why not apply for the best job in the world. Thanks to Elise for sending this our way!

And now, some photos I took to capture Winter:

The Ikea Project

I hope you had a fun snowy weekend! Yesterday, I spent a good part of my day at Ikea, getting some things for the apartment. After probably 2.5 hours of roaming around looking at bookshelves and other accessories, I had completed a list of the items I wanted to purchase and wrote down the Aisle and Bin numbers so they would be easier to find when I got to the pickup area. I grabbed one of the heavy duty push carts and started loading up the cart. An hour and a sore back later, my cart was loaded except for the kitchen trolley which I had to pick up at a separate location. I had to rearrange all the boxes to fit the final item. Then it was time to get all 9 huge boxes into the car. Mind you, I drive a Honda Civic, very compact but the entire back seat goes down so I didn't think it would be a problem. I currently have a loaner car which somehow I forgot about when I drove straight through the EZ-Pass with no tag in the window. Whoops! I was just going to leave the cart in the pickup area and hope no one unloaded my stuff while I went to get the car. But I didn't. Rather, I used the handy locked cages they have so that you can lock up your cart while you go get your car. I pulled the car up and the unloading began. Boxes were loaded in, some were loaded out. It was like Tetris, trying to get the boxes to fit into the car but in the end, I completed the task and learned a valuable lesson; Bring someone with you when you go to Ikea.

I am a sucker when it comes to Hollywood Awards show. I can't get enough of them. So it will come to no surprise to you that I watched the Golden Globes last night with much excitement. The red carpet interviews were quite enjoyable because they were so bad. Apparently the crowd was so loud no one could hear anything. I'll admit, I had the show on the background while I was doing other things but turned to catch some of the better moments.

People will auction off just about anything.

Hello flying car!

George is back home in Maine.

Leave it to Adam to find this site. That's right, it's an excrement idea isn't it? He has some excellent posts so go read them right now.

MixMyGranola

For all of you Granola lovers out there, I interviewed one of the co-owners of this fairly new company, MixMyGranola. You can customize your own granola mix and they put it in a cool container with a name that you create. So I can create an Evan Mix. You can put your granola mix online at www.mixmygranola.com. There are a bunch of fruits, nuts, seeds and even extras to be added to your delicious creation.

It appears they took down the clip of adults fighting at Chuck E Cheese.

Who's entering the Faux Fois Grois contest? 10K on the line.

Barack and Spidey!

Have a great day!

Please Explain: 59Fifty

On today's "Please Explain" I'm asking my viewers to explain why people leave stickers on the New Era 59Fifty hats.

"The sticker just authenticates that the hat is the real thing."
-Marta Styni, Bronx, NY

"I keep it on because it's holographic and cool"
- Tyron Slade, Brooklyn, NY

"I honestly don't know why I keep it on but I think it's neat that people do"
- Steven Pravlo, Astoria, NY

"I don't get it myself. I mean, why don't we just start keeping our pant size stickers on our pants?"
- Rona Theronowitz, New York, NY


I received an email yesterday from YouTube about a short film that I posted done by my buddy Jon and starring me and Greg. It has been removed. I couldn't believe of all the stuff out there they removed our short film. Here's the email:

Dear niceevana,

Video Disabled

A copyright owner has claimed it owns some or all of the audio content in your video The Roommate. The audio content identified in your video is Our House by Crosby, Still, Nash & Young. We regret to inform you that your video has been blocked from playback due to a music rights issue.

Replace Your Audio with AudioSwap

Don't worry, we have plenty of music available for your use. Please visit our AudioSwap library to learn how you can easily replace the audio in your video with any track from our growing library of fully licensed songs.

Other Options

If you think there's been a mistake, or you have other questions, please visit the Copyright Notice page in your account.

Sincerely,
The YouTube Content Identification Team

More like Crosby, Stills and Cash. I'm imagining that someone reported it. There are millions of videos out there using music. Why ours? If you didn't get a chance to watch it it'll resurface, don't you worry.

Wow, this guy must sell a lot of dogs.

Mickey Rourke will appear in Iron Man 2!

Watch out MacBook Air...

MUST HAVE toy of the New Year.

The Ice Storm

Did you ever see Ang Lee's film, The Ice Storm? Well, that's what it was like in NJ this morning. A pretty thick sheet of ice covered the ground, the car, trees, power lines.

I love NJ news stories. Especially any involving UFOs! That's right, mysterious lights over Morris County? Must be a UFO!



I know what you're thinking...new Olympic sport? No, not quite. This is one reason why I am terrified of ski lifts. No ifs ands or butts. I feel sorry for this guy but at least he'll be able to answer the "what's your most embarrassing moment" question without having to think about it.

And now, time for another Classic Clips and Quips moment. Boaz and I used to go to the Toy Fair every year to play with all the new cool toys. This segment was filmed in 2007, and includes a guest appearance by Howie Mandel who just sort of showed up and walked into our shot.

Classic Clips and Quips

I miss the days when Boaz and I would go out and film segments at premieres, toy fairs, chocolate shows, and many other great events. I'm going to start posting classic Clips and Quips segments. If you want to see more go to www.clipsquips.com.

The Satsuma Mandarin

I love citrus. I should probably be living in florida owning a citrus company because I just love citrus. I have always really enjoyed the "Clementine". It's portable, sweet, and usually contains no seeds. But last night, I bought a box of Satsuma Mandarins. They look like clementines, but don't let their rough exterior fool you. They are the most delicious and most flavorful citrus I have had in awhile. I've never seen them in my local supermarket before so I was really excited. In addition to still having stems and leaves on them, these fruits were not from Spain or Chile, no they were from California. If you haven't had one of these you've got to try them. I brought some in with me today and if you're nice, I might give you a piece.

Tim Burton is an amazing man. If you have never seen this you should give it a watch:



I also saw the trailer for 9 last night, a film which he is producing. It looks interesting.



Did you see this clip of Barack? He looks for something that tastes good and for a good price:



So I brought back some maple syrup from Vermont and apparently there was a leak in the jug because when I got to the upper west side, it was half-empty, or half-full. It's causing quite a stir.

Get excited. NYC Winter Restaurant Week is coming...

Flora and the Goof-Off

Gosh, I hope you had a wonderful holiday! I can't believe the vacation went by so quickly. Well, let's start the New Year off right! While we were on hiatus, I made it to Vermont and back. I read, watched movies, went to some fun parties, started to pack and move stuff in to my new apartment. It was a busy few weeks.

Last night I went to Home Depot to specifically get one thing, Goof-Off. Apparently this is the stuff that will get off any goofs. I wonder if Ken Marino and David Wain know about this stuff. Of course, when you go into Home Depot, you end up finding numerous other items that you think you need, and you might. I pulled the cart over near the cleaning supplies because I am in the midst of cleaning the apartment. All of a sudden I hear this bright cheery voice shout "can I help you?". It was Flora. Standing at about 5'4, Flora used to clean houses full time and still does on occasion. She told me all about each product and which worked best for every counter,tub,toilet,floor..you name it, Flora knew how to clean it. She told me all of her friends who clean houses come in and buy certain products. She told me what these products were and I bought them. If Home Depot employees got paid based on commission, Flora would have gone home one rich lady. "When you are done washing your floor, put a little Fabuloso on it and it'll smell real nice" she said. Okay I didn't buy every product she recommended, but I did get a few of them. While she was distracting me, someone apparently thought it would be funny to empty out the items from my cart because they were too lazy to get one when they came into the store. I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe I had left it someplace else until I saw my items thrown onto a nearby tool box. Flora comforted me and then continued to tell me about how Electrolox is the best vacuum cleaner there is. She won't use any other. An hour and a half later, I checked out and before departing, I thought it would be nice to tell the manager about Flora and what a great help she had been. The manager said how nice to hear a customer saying something good about an employee. Now I just need to find Fauna. Maybe she's in plumbing.

He's good enough, smart enough and gosh darn it, people like him!

This story reminds me of a great film I watched over the break called Young@Heart. I didn't get a chance to see it in the theaters and I am so glad I got around to seeing it on DVD. It is an incredible documentary that will make you laugh and cry. I sure did.



Have a great day! Good to be back.