Whoops, disregard that audio recording thing from the last post--it's still under construction.

Hey, I just saw the new, expanded trailer for James Cameron's Avatar--it's cool, but jeez, I wish they wouldn't give so much of the movie away. I hate this thing in our movie culture now where success is so heavily based on the first weekend's grosses, so they throw absolutely everything at you before the movie is even released. I like to be surprised. That was half the fun of going to movies when I was a kid: seeing some mysterious, vague images (think of the TV spots for Star Wars, or the original poster for Rocky--I didn't even know it was about boxing!), then getting my socks knocked off when I went to the movie.

I've been watching some episodes of The Incredible Hulk lately, a show I had no interest in when it originally ran on TV, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how not-terrible it is. It's at least as good as the two big-budget Hulk movies they just made. And speaking of movies, one thing that I've found amusing is how the TV show recycles special-effects from movies. For instance, I just watched an episode that used all the truck footage (including the climactic cliff-plunge) from Steven Spielberg's Duel. The studio owns the footage, so they can do whatever they want, but I wonder how Spielberg feels about that. And another Hulk episode uses all the exterior 747 shots from Airport 1975--I kept waiting for Charlton Heston and Karen Black to appear. Maybe if I keep watching, the Hulk will have episodes that take place in a capsized cruise ship or a burning high-rise, or he'll have to fight a great white shark. He's like Forrest Gump!