Michel Gondry deserves worship. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know how much I love the guy. I am super excited about his latest film "Be Kind Rewind" starring Jack Black and Mos Def that comes out tomorrow. I MUST watch it this weekend.

To promote the film, Gondry decided to recreate the entire preview trailer using low budget props and starring himself in the spirit of the film's concept. Watch the original film and Gondry's "sweded" version below.

I also recommend that you check out the movie website which pretends to erase the internet and then provide you with a low budget version that includes a fake MySpace and Google page. CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE.

ORIGINAL TRAILER

GONDRY'S "SWEDED" TRAILER

Jerry and I just finished getting interviewed by Nellie Sciutto for a video segment called "Trendspotting". It was fun to share some insight on the inner workings of Muttpop. We'll let you know when some form of the video is viewable online.

Since it was pretty early in the day (8:30am) I was nearly comatose and Jerry was super animated. I'm looking forward to seeing how the final version of the interview turns out.

After seeing the trailers and previews of "Professor Layton & The Curious Village" I purchased the Nintendo DS game about a week and a half ago. I love it.

The music and characters are great. The story is fun. The logic puzzles are super addicting.

Now, you have to understand, I LOVE logic puzzles. With the logic puzzles alone, there would be plenty worthy of my purchase. But what really makes this game more than just another Nintendo "Brain Age" game is the way it builds a beautiful universe around those puzzles. Yeah, it get's annoying that everybody has a puzzle for you (as the PENNY ARCADE guys snidely point out) but it's a small complaint to a game that is cleverly accessible to a variety of gaming types. I even love the jigsaw puzzle and (to a lesser extent) hotel room sidequests. It's a thrill to win pieces to that damned puzzle (GIVE ME 3 MORE PIECES, BASTARDS).

Man, I'm bummed. I accidentally deleted this post and a comment (sorry!).

Anyways, the jist of it was I was looking forward to the Spike Jonze live-action "Where The Wild Things Are" movie. Maurice Sendak's "Where The Wild Things Are" children's book is a personal favorite. Spike Jonze music videos have a charming mix of naive and sophistication that I was hoping would translate into the penultimate live action Children's movie.  

But, the first footage showcased from the film suggests that the magic I was hoping for was not captured.

It's easy to imagine a Jonze "Where The Wild Things Are" after watching Bjork's "It's So Quiet" and Beastie Boys "Sabotage". So why in the world the we end up getting THIS? (sorry! The clip was yanked off of Ain't It Cool News)

Man, Jamario Moon and Rudy Gay really let me down! Gay's dunks were good by forgettable. Moon's "Beyond The Freethrow Line" dunk became a "Lob the Ball in the Air and I'll dunk from a Foot inside the Free Throw Line". Super, super disappointing!

Former champ Gerald Green and Dwight Howard more than made up for it with an entertaining plethora of creativity. Neither brought the showmanship of Vince Carter's Matrix-Breaking 2000 Slam Dunk run. But they brought plenty of athleticism, artistry, and (the King of this year's contest) props.

The most memorable dunks were the "Birthday Cake" and "Superman". I still don't think the "Superman" should be considered a dunk (he's not even close to the rim!). But their both wonderful spectacles.

Gerald Green's other dunks were good but had a sense of "I've seen something like it before" (please, let's just retire the under the leg thing... I know it's hard, but every variation of it looks like J.R. Rider's dunk from the 1990s!).

Everything that Dwight Howard felt new. He established momentum with the first dunk (my favorite: a bounce the ball off of the BACK of the backboard windmill). and wisely built on it with every round.

I'm still BOTHERED that the Superman was not a dunk! What do you think?
SEE THE "SUPERMAN" AND "BIRTHDAY CAKE" DUNKS BELOW:

Street Fighter 4 was playable at AOU 2008 (an Arcade Game conference in Japan). One stage and 10 playable characters were shown. The majority of major videogame websites have a decent collection of gameplay videos.

The gameplay looks pretty nice in motion. Speed and strategies feel true to the Street Fighter style. The 3D graphics look sharp and don't appear to affect the classic 2D gamplay.

I still wish they did something a bit more stylized, but all in all it's looking pretty nice. I also hope we get some interesting new characters.

CHECK OUT MORE GAMEPLAY VIDEOS HERE.