I was thinking today, of all the strange things that we, as consumers, put up with from our 'corprate masters'.
For one, gift cards. What's the point? I can see a use in a few cases - Get a kinko's (or simmilar) stored value card, for a project when multiple people want to bill to the same place. But...Del Taco gift cards? Michel's Gift Cards? Who the hell needs em. If you want to give someone a gift, either use your head, and chose something you thin they'll like, or give cash!
I was going through my wallet. I have three gift cards I got from various people, and I have bad news for them - you gave me a flimsy peice of plastic, and that's it. You gave my gift to the companies you purchased the gift card from.
The worst part of them, is they're never redeamable for cash. I wouldn't mind it so much if they were - even if they took a fee, in addition to sitting on the intrest earned between the sale of the card, and the disposition of the merchendice. Take a few percent of my gift card's value - hell, make me wait till it's about to expire, hop around on one foot and chant to satan, but, I want my money back!
On an entirely diffrent note, I bought the first CD, and the first DVD I've
purchaced in a long while. DJ Yoda - How to Cut & Paste: 80's Edition. It's great. Loads of bad 80's pop and rap mixed together by one of the better DJ's I've heard in a while. I also purchased Half Baked Fully Baked Widescreen Edition. We all know the movie kicks ass (If you haven't seen it, shame on you! You don't even have to be a stoner to apriciate the true genious of Dave Chappelle's comedy.) The special features, however, leave something to be desired. They are:
"Hilarious Alternate Ending" - Ok, I'll give it that - it is. I think they should have included it in the film. Thugood, after of walking off with Mary Jane, runs back and dives off the edge of the bridge to rescue his joint. There's more, but you'll just have to see it to see.
"10 Outrageous Deleted Scenes" - They're not so much "Deleted", as extended. I saw it the other day, so I forget what exactly it all was, but I rember this: It was HELLA poor quality, and most of the stuff seemed to be delted for a reason. It wasn't that funny, but it was nice to see some stuff I'd never seen before with half baked. There is a funny twist to Killer's story that doesn't really make sence, but made me laugh.
"Five Minutes with the 'Guy on the Couch'" - This was retarded. It's 5 minutes of a guy wearing a wig, who looks NOTHING like Stephen Wright lying on a really bad replica of the Half Baked set. There's smoke that gets blown around him, and occasionaly there's a burp, fart, cough, or bong rip sound effect. I was hoping it'd be an interview with Stephen Wright, about the movie...or something. But yeah. F---- on this one.
"Different types of Smokers Featurette" - They took the pure brilliance of the Diffrent types of Smokers from the film, and took a big, fat, smelly shit on it. Insted of being well written, filmed, and directed, they're poorly animated skits, of at best, really poor stereotypes of smokers. Could this be worse then the Guy on the Coutch bit? I almost think so.
"Granny's Guide to Bakin'" - I have only one thing to say to this. What. The. Fuck. I'm not sure how long it is, since I turned it off after about 30 seconds. It's someone in a really bad old lady costume going through a recipe book, and basicly giggleing at any recipie that contains the words "pot", "smoked", "baked", etc. It looked like a middle school film project, at best.
"Director's Commentary with Tamra Davis" - I tried to watch it with the comentary on right after I watched the film, but Tamara Davis is the only one talking, and she 1) has hardly anything to say and 2) is thoroughly unenthusiastic while saying it. I'm sure I'll watch it again to get every bit of half baked trivia I can find, but it'll be painful. Dave, why couldn't you take a short break from swiming in your phat piles of comedy central cash, and make us all laugh once again talking about that first, and best work of yours!
I think I had a point before I fell into that review. Oh yeah. I bought CDs and DVDs, and feel kind of dirtry and ripped off. Don't bother buying the new Half Baked DVD for the features.
/KH