If you have not already wasted $10 and 140 minutes of your life trapped watching the latest installment of the Spiderman series, please listen to all the reviews and wait for it to hit NetFlix.
Tobey Maguire delivers a weak and unconvincing role as a dark version of Spiderman in the movie. As well, he ends up battling 3 different enemies, Sandman, Venom and the Green Goblin (or son of the Green Goblin). It is wrong for so many reasons. The first two Spiderman movies had one key villian and clearly defined characters. The lack of focus, lame one-liners, inconsistent character portrayals, which were so well done in the first two movies, make this movie particularly disappointing.
I have been reading Nick Denton's Valleywag for a few months now, and unlike most of the other blogs that I read, this one gets better the more you read it. Nick Denton has a wicked sense of humor and is fearless in going after the biggest companies and figures in technology. The public feud between Nick and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch fame is well documented, and will go down in blog history as a great public battle between two talented and influencial bloggers. Michael tends to try and ignore Valleywag's accusations and insults, but as anyone on Nick Denton's shit-list knows, he is relentless and always in attack mode.
It would be easy to dismiss Nick as a mean-spirited bully using his blog as a hammer. However, I think that is not giving him his due. Nick does his homework and knows a lot about the companies he covers, criticizes and applauds. Yes, he does give his props to those he believes are deserving. Also, he typically goes after hot companies and powerful figures, rather than easy targets down on their luck. In fact, if you are on top, that is when Valleywag looks to find out if you have a weakness. Take you down a peg. It is no wonder that Valleywag and TechCrunch do not mix well. TechCrunch is the king-making site, where Valleywag serves to declare that the emperor has no clothes. It is hard to keep up with all the Valleywag targets, but currently these companies and individuals are on the hit-list.
- Michael Arrington/Techcrunch: perpetual.
- Google/Sergey Brin: not hyper-critical, but definitely unafraid to point out when Google seems to be flexing their muscles a little too aggresively.
- Guy Kawasaki: His current favorite punching bag. Very brutal attacks on this charasmatic, Valley icon.
- Red Herring Magazine: Valleywag will be the first to dance on their grave.
Valleywag takes a little getting used to. I was originally a little turned-off by its mean-spirited attacks. If you make it past the abrasive style, you will find that Nick is a talented writer who gets the story right more often than not. Unlike Spiderman 3, Valleywag stays true to its character, has a consistent arch-nemesis (TechCrunch), continues to push the envelope, and is never boring.
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