As my Goonies DVD finally arrived the other day, this whole week has been about sampling the delights on that disk. First of all, if you’re a fan of the film, go right now to Amazon and order this thing. It’s fantastic. The highlights:

• Cyndi Lauper’s “Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough” video. I thought that this would just be the same one shown in Mikey’s house during the film, but in fact it was a mammoth two-parter featuring Cyndi, the kids from the movie, and a handful of WWF wrestlers. (Yeah, that was during Cyndi’s random WWF phase.) The plot has something to do with Cyndi’s parents’ gas station (Captain Lou Albano is her dad) being bought out by the Iron Sheik, Rowdy Roddy Piper, and Classy Freddy Blassy. But Cyndi finds a hole in the wall and a treasure map and they all end up chasing each other through the catacombs. The first video ends with Cyndi on the log bridge with enemies on either side of her. In the second one she’s captured with the Goonies and taken on board the pirate ship. They discover One Eyed Willie’s treasure and manage to escape back to the gas station. She tries to pay off the Iron Sheik, but he won’t take it. So Andre the Giant comes out and beats them all up. It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Snookums, not having lived through that period (and not having had a younger brother into WWF) had no clue what the hell was going on.
• “Making of ‘The Goonies’ Documentary.” This is a short little doc that looks like it was made for HBO or something. The best part is seeing the kids goofing off together and watching Richard Donner try to keep it all together.
• Outtakes. These rock! You get to see the infamous “Octopus” scene that Data refers to at the end but was cut from the original release. Basically, when the kids are swimming over to the ship this octopus is brushing Stef’s leg and she thinks Mouth’s doing it. They argue until the thing surfaces right behind them. It grabs them and everybody’s freaking out. Data dives down underwater, pulls a tape player out of his bag, turns it on, and stuffs it in the octopus’s mouth. Apparently cephalopods don’t like loud rock and roll, because the thing drops the kids and scurries off shaking. It’s some of the worst effects I’ve ever seen and it’s definitely for the best that they cut it. You also get to see a few other deleted scenes, including one in the 7-11 where Troy almost burns the map.
• Cast commentary. This is the best part of all. It starts out by showing you everyone all grown up (exactly as they were in the picture I linked to) and then the movie starts. Some of them, like Jeff Cohen (“Chunk”), have obviously watched the movie several times since it was released. Others, like Martha Plimpton (“Stef”), sounded like they hadn’t seen it since it was finished. Those two were actually my favorite commentators. Jeff kept pointing out little bloopers that he’s noticed that no one ever caught (he calls Josh Brolin “Josh” instead of “Brand” in one scene), and Martha just keeps ripping on her own performance. At the other end of the spectrum was Corey Feldman (“Mouth”), who comes off looking like the biggest loser ever. He talks constantly and keeps dropping names about all the other movies he was in. He’s the type of guy that will make a joke and no one will laugh, so he’ll assume they didn’t hear him and repeat it louder. Martha told a great story about how he came to her trailer one day and just repeated everything she said for half an hour, so she beat the crap out of him. That was funny. Richard Donner seems to have mellowed in his later years, and he gets in a few good lines. Sean Astin (“Mikey”) is only there for the first half hour, and the rest of the cast makes fun of him after he leaves. “Data” (since I can’t spell his real name) doesn’t say a heck of a lot, but the girls do persuade him to repeat his famous line, “I am wondering, what is in the bag?” Kerri Green (“Andi”) doesn’t say a lot, but she comes off as okay. And Josh Brolin (“Brand”) is just hot. Damn hot. And we’ll leave it at that.

So anyway, I think they’ve put together one of the best DVD packages I’ve seen. You should definitely get it.

And Goran falls even further in my estimation…

Sparky pointed to an interesting story about research on “parasitic computing” that’s being done at my alma mater. Dude, if the guys in charge (i.e. the priests) find out about this, I bet they shut it down. Forcing random webservers to covertly do your bidding doesn’t sound very nice and Catholic.

(NOTE: This post is probably only going to be interesting to people I went to school with, so feel free to skip if that doesn’t include you.)

Anyway, so I just had a nice IM chat with my good friend Nathaniel Cunningham (yes, he of “Turducken” fame). Not only did he point me to this way cool webcam the grad students have set up at his University, but he informed me that a friend of ours from college named Eric “Hoey” Robben is getting married soon. Hoey was in one of Notre Dame’s greatest bands, The Meteors. You can even download their mp3s. I know it’s a bit of a random post, but it was just so great to hear from/about people at home. I feel so out of the loop here sometimes. I miss college.

Notice anything different? I just read this post on Steve’s site and it got me to thinkin’. Why do I put the sidebar on the left? I use PCs and Macs equally, so I’m not sure I buy into that theory. And Steve’s point about text-based browsers is very valid. I think usability is important and I want to cater to as wide an audience as possible (not to mention the fact that Snookums has been known to use Lynx to browse now and again). So I’m doing an experiment. What do you think? Does it seem more natural to have the sidebar stuff on the right? Please take a second to vote in the poll and let me know what you think.

I know it’d be devastating and kill people and all, but I still can’t help thinking that a 45 ft. tidal wave would be a pretty cool sight. I mean, if you’re gonna go, you might as well go in a big-ass natural disaster.

More Information I Did NOT Need to Know: Albus Dumbledore uses Viagra (scroll down). *shudder*

I’ve joined the “My So-Called Life” DVD pre-pre-order mailing list. Have you?

My friend Tara D. (who I mentioned before) just revealed that not only does she read my blog tons, but she’s got her own! I’ve added her to my link list. You really should check it out sometime. As she herself put it, it’s kind of a “day in the life of a comic” type thing. Very cool.

All hail the first official cast picture from Dawson’s Creek Season 5! As usual, Dawson takes center stage and underwhelms us with his bad hair, XXXXXXL size pants, and massive forehead. Everyone else looks vaguely pissed off. (Wouldn’t you?) And why, oh why, are they hiding Pacey’s glorious studliness in the background? I hope this picture isn’t indicative of the way the season’s going to play out. I suppose there’s always PaceyPorn.

Update: I sent round that link to my two DC buddies in the office and one of them responded with these pictures of the new supporting characters this season. With the exception of Pacey’s new girlfriend, it ain’t pretty.