The Greatest Christmas Movies of All-Time: #4-A Christmas Story

In life, sometimes you find the journey is far more enjoyable than the destination. Often times Christmas seems the same, with the fevered anticipation leading up to the 25th being far better than the day itself. The hanging of the lights, the trimming of the tree, the baking of cookies, the purchasing of presents, the expectation of gifts, the sightings of Santa and the drinking of eggnog lattes in the run-up to Christmas are what make the season special. Christmas day itself is usually an anticlimax, an almost depressing day marking the end of the good times. No film is a better embodiment of this dynamic than A Christmas Story.

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill is one of the oldest and most prestigious Architecture firms in the world, these are the buildings that have left an indelible mark on its hometown, Chicago.

How to turn a bull into a dog

Recently, I’ve done extensive research for a story I’m writing about following a hot dog from pasture to plate. So far I’ve interviewed the President-elect of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (the ‘Beef, it’s what’s for dinner’ people), visited a farm in Western Indiana, toured hot dog factory to see it’s production and for some reason, I thought this would make for a good cartoon. Mind you, I’ve never done this before, but I actually turned this thing in as a final project in my masters journalism program. I don’t think my teacher had seen anything like the weirdness this video contains.

The Airwave of the Future

Radio unceremoniously booted Adam Carolla out the door, but with his podcast finding success and technology spreading the medium at a time when advertisers want in, he’s not looking back

Second City is Serious Business

Despite the downturned economy, the world-renowned, Chicago-based Second City Training Center is flourishing.

The Second City Training Center isn’t just doing it for laughs.

For nearly 25 years the Chicago-based company has turned teaching improv into a business, growing from a few workshops to three centers in Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles.

Since it began in 1985, The Second City Inc.’s training center has molded aspiring actors and comedians in the improv tradition that has propelled many of its alumni to stardom. However, the instructional arm of the venerable comedy theater has been working to broaden its reach, making itself not just a place for aspiring Stephen Colberts and Tina Feys, but a place for novices as well.

The Biggest Loser–Joe vs. Tyler 2008

2 men. 10 weeks. Who will lose the most weight? Who will be crowned the Biggest Loser? Which man has the guts to lose the most gut?

Here’s the lowdown: these fine young gentlemen wish to shed those last few layers of baby fat so they can be lean and mean by the time they hit the slopes this winter. The game is simple, the execution, exceedingly more difficult: whoever loses the most weight by December 17th shall be declared “The Biggest Loser.”

Prizes will be awarded along the way for the man who wins each weigh-in, with the overall loser suffering the terrible fate of having to spend the first part of 2009 as a vegetarian. We encourage you to “pick a horse” and help them along the way to vanquishing their opponent. You can track the fellas’ progress on joevstyler.wordpress.com and we encourage you to vote for who you think the winner will be on the Joe vs. Tyler Facebook Page

United Paint the Town Red

Manchester United claim their third European Club Championship in dramatic style Wednesday night in Moscow

For the red side of Manchester, May 21, 2008 will go down as one of the greatest of European nights in their history. For John Terry, it will be a night he will forever be trying to forget.

Fifty years from the Munich Air Disaster which claimed the lives of seven Manchester United players when their plane caught fire and crashed on its way back from a European Cup match, the Reds capped a season devoted to their fallen legends by defeating Chelsea in the European Cup Final on penalties.

And the Oscar Goes to…

Reptastic live blogs from the red carpet at the 80th Annual Academy Awards

Last night we at Reptastic blogged live from the Red Carpet (by red carpet we mean the blood-stained carpet in our Seattle apartment) to bring you all the goings-on of the 80th Academy Awards. It was a night with a few surprises and some superb cinema, heightened by the deft touch of Jon Stewart who showed an uncommon level of sincerity in his role as host. A lovely night, some lovely winners, let’s relive it:

5:31–”Welcome to the make-up sex.”
Master of ceremonies and political funnyman Jon Stewart takes the stage to start us off on this long, arduous journey which is the Academy Awards telecast. He instantly amuses by asserting the proceedings would provide an amorous end to the writers strike.

But with this being a Hollywood crowd obsessed with back-patting, some of Stewart’s best material actually receives scattered groans from the crowd, including the priceless line, “Even Norbit got a nomination this year which I think is great. Too often the Academy ignores movies that are not good.”

His monologue was decidedly short though, betraying the obvious time crunch for him to complete it in the short time since the writers strike. It could also be that the higher-ups at the Academy want to keep this sprawling mess of a show under 5-hours, let’s see if they’re successful.

Ad Naseam: The Super Bowl of Advertising

Super Bowl Sunday saw two unexpected results–a Giants championship and a game which vastly outperformed an unimaginative crop of commercials

After large events happen, sometimes it’s good to sit back, reflect, and ask the question, “what have we learned?” Last night was the most watched Super Bowl ever and we learned quite a bit actually. Those 97 million who gathered around the tube to view the game learned the Patriots aren’t the greatest team of all time, we learned Eli Manning is ready for prime time, and we learned that even Tom Brady can look human in the face of unrelenting pressure. But hell, that’s not the important stuff, what did we learn from those commercials is the more important question. After all, this is the advertising industry’s Super Bowl as much as it is the NFL’s.

No Country for Old Men

In honor of it’s eight Academy Award nominations, Reptastic reprises it’s review of our pick for best film of 2007

The barren, scorched earth of 1980s West Texas is unforgiving, unrelenting; the same could be said for Anton Chigurh, a man who’s chillingly violent pursuit of $2 million cash is the epicenter of Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest film No Country for Old Men.The Coen brothers’ adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel find them at the peak of their talents, beautifully conveying the jagged and jaded Texas terrain familiar to McCarthy’s many western novels, expertly building tension in the cat and mouse game that drives their plot and conveying a wariness that comes with watching helplessly as the world changes before you.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Sherriff Ed Tom Bell and it’s hard to imagine anyone else capturing the sardonic, ill-at-ease, old lawman who doesn’t recognize or at least doesn’t want to face the world which surrounds him. Bell is a third-generation officer who longs for the days when his father and grandfather before him weren’t even required to carry guns to perform their duties. He shudders at the ebbing morality in society and the rising tide of violence and drugs which now plague the only place he and his family has ever really called home. The violence he will encounter on his pursuit of the various men mixed up in a failed drug deal will offer him no respite from his world-weary state.