Smallist

The Minisode network condenses television shows into 6 minutes. Unfortunately, this won’t catch you up on Lost; it’s just oldies. That said, spending 6 minutes on Policewoman is a bit more rational than spending a half hour on it. Among the other featured shows: Diff’rent Strokes, Silver Spoons, The Facts of Life, and surprisingly, Dilbert. Via Slashdot.

Via Neatorama.

Remember discussing background text items in 30 Rock? Well, Ward Cleaver wasn’t having no lorem ipsum either. Shorpy took a freeze-frame from an episode of Leave it to Beaver, where Ward is reading a letter, and found the following text:

Another paragraph of stuff. Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. My typing is lousy, but the typewriter isn’t so hot either. After all, why should I take the blame for these mechanical imperfections, with which all of us must contend. Lew Burdette just hit a home run and Milwaukee leads seven to one in the series. This is the last line of the filler material of the note. No, my mistake, that was only the next to last. This is last.

It’s like a time-capsule! Via BoingBoing.

HD television, combined with the pausing habits of fans, means that tv shows can’t fill onscreen papers with garbledegook anymore. The production designer of 30 Rock has turned this potential hassle into an opportunity for added gags:

I start devouring the other framed clippings and toward the end of “Jumping Jenna!” (another overcaffeinated example of fake celebrity journalism) find this paragraph: “Greek copy can be good if it’s written well and doesn’t look like you just slammed your hands around the keys making a mess. If there are some sentences and some words, you can get away with doing things like this: nvud or this: cndfund cjidf ckjd. But really you need to be careful. Cameras nowadays can pick up everything!”

That’s from a Wired article. (thanks sjb!)

Speaking of R2D2, I ran across this R2-D2 mailbox on 6th ave, I think at about 50th st. I assume it’s for the new commemorative stamps. Looks perfect for mailing Death Star plans.

On an editorial note, I think long after people forget all about Jedi and Sith and Anakin and Yoda, they’ll probably remember the R2D2 design. Smeared with dirt, slightly broken down, but lively and determined, R2D2 is a shorthand for the look and feel of the original movie, romantic and dystopian in contrast to earlier science fiction’s utopian modernism. The Millenium Falcon’s pretty cool too.

Sometimes, you don’t want a heavy meal, but you don’t want a snack either. And the filmic equivalent of the cobb salad is a feature under 90 minutes. Here’s a few to check out. Some are classics, some underappreciated gems. But all of them will get you to bed before midnight, even if you start at 10:30.

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If you’d like a refresher before the final episodes, here’s the Sopranos condensed to seven minutes. Via Metafilter.