New article on Trashwire: DVD commentary tracks can be the best special feature

For years now, I’ve been quite the DVD commentary enthusiast. It began with the drunken track on the Cannibal: The Musical DVD featuring intoxicatingly funny conversation from an intoxicated Trey Parker and Matt Stone. That track showed that commentaries can be genuinely “special” features… if filmmakers use them to their full potential.

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Get a taste of the Cannibal: The Musical commentary at the top of this post and check out another section after the jump.

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Netflix Instant Watch now available for Mac!

While I’m partial to crediting Barack Obama for every good change that’s happened in my life the past few days, this one comes from the peeps at Netflix. Yes, Mac users are now free from the tyranny of having to watch movies with Windows virtualization software.

Today, I received an email in my inbox that broke some of the best news I’ve heard in–well, in a couple of days.

Netflix Watch Instantly now available for Mac

So naturally, I fired up my new MacBook Pro (yes, I have the latest and greatest MacBook Pro, thanks to a very generous donation from my grandma) and decided to try it out. Not only did the movie load in a few short seconds, but the quality was amazing!

With the crazy economy, I had to downgrade my Netflix service to a lower plan to save a few bucks. Now I no longer feel additionally ripped off that I pay the same amount as Windows users, but can’t utilize all the services.

Anyway, this was huge news for me since I love Netflix, but I love my Mac even more.

Film on the Rocks weekly wrap-up

Last night was fun, despite me being sick from dehydration. Astra Moveo was really good. The lead singer’s voice sounded great on every song and it was pretty impressive.

I also got my new Trashwire bumper stickers yesterday, so I gave them out to tons of people. I also made my mark on the famed signature wall by sticking one to a ceiling section that didn’t have any writing on it.

The guys from Mile High Sci-Fi did a great job with their short version of Big Trouble in Little China. In one particularly funny move, they threw in “Beat It” in a sequence where two rival gangs were battling in an alley.

I was super tired and still not feeling that great, so I left after the classic cartoon and didn’t stay for the movie.

On the way home, we stopped an Winchell’s. The dude at the counter gave us like 300 donuts for less than $10. It was insane. We ordered what we wanted and we were joking about our choices. He was listening to what we were saying and laughing at our jokes. Then he went down the line and added a shit load more to the box. He was like, “Here, for free for you ladies. I’m tired and I wanna go home, so here’s a bunch of free ones.” Who could resist free donuts?

Good mileage, free stuff, and bagels too?!

I got 44 mpg on my way to work today They say there’s a real art to effectively driving a hybrid. You have to know when to press the gas and how much pressure to apply to ensure that the car uses the electric motor instead of the gas one. There are entire communities on websites devoted to tips and tricks for how to drive a hybrid and save a nice chunk of change on your gas bills.

Today, on my drive to work, I went from young Padawan learner to full fledged Prius Jedi when I managed to get 44 mpg on the short trip.

You see, contrary to popular belief (and usually Toyota ads and EPA figures) the Prius does not actually get better mileage in town than on the highway. Like a normal car, highway driving is usually where you can see the bigger mpg numbers. I think this is because the Prius still uses a gas engine some of the time, and gas engines are better in highway driving, making the use of your gas engine during this time more efficient. In my typical stop-and-go city driving, I’ve been about to achieve high 30s and occasionally a 40 or 41 in my miles per gallon.

Today was different. Today, I paid extra attention to the little graph that shows how much gas you’re using and tried to make sure it stayed in the 50s when possible. This kind of crazy gas monitoring is probably not advisable if you’re driving in a lot of traffic because looking down at the bar chart every three seconds can definitely be dangerous.

When I finally pulled into the parking lot, I glanced down and saw a 44 in the display screen. With my drive to work being short and my walking-distance proximity to tons of stuff downtown, I feel like I’ll only have to fill up my car every 13 years!

Free promotional itemsThen, when I got into the office, it was even better. There was a Sprint rental and tons of cell phone vendors with free stuff to give out.

I don’t know what it is about cheap free shit, but I just had to have some. I managed to score a really weird squishy stress ball and a bunch of pens. Shawnna and I kept making trips past the vendor booths and grabbing more free crap, distributing our vast collections throughout the office for everyone to enjoy.

Then, as if a day of good mileage and free promotional schwag wasn’t enough, Dori told me there were tons of bagels in the kitchen. A cheaper commute, free tacky pens and stuff, and now free food! The fact that these things make me so happy proves I’m easy to please.