As excited as I am for the upcoming film version of Sweeney Todd - with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp on board, it’s hard to resist - I can’t help but be a little disappointed that the trailer includes almost no music. The backbone of the show - indeed, the reason it is so brilliantly dark - is the music of Stephen Sondheim. Clearly, this December will be filled with Sondheim’s devilishly good lyrics, but it’s such a tease not to include more of it in the trailer.

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It’s Friday, and that means time for another video from Movie Hawk. Enjoy the music video of “Car Crash” by Matt Nathanson. Anyone who reads this site with any regularity needs no explanation for why I’m posting this.

Edit: Whoops, looks like they aren’t allowing embedding. Here’s the link.

As early-season loss to a young team, featuring more turnovers than I’d like to see and disconcerting trouble at the foul line, is something that, last year, would have shaken my confidence in the Hawks. But Tuesday night’s 72-69 loss to Syracuse didn’t disappoint me so much as it did show promise for the coming months. Though sloppy play did the Hawks in, they also showed improved team defense and more shooting and passing confidence when facing a zone defense. Pat Calathes, who has taken his share of hits from me, played one of the best games of his SJU career, and newcomer Tasheed Carr (a transfer from Iowa State with sophomore eligibility) and sophomore Darrin Govens provided a much-needed leadership boost. Sure, 1-1 is not as good as 2-0, but seeing the strides the Hawks made, even in a loss, I’ll take it.

Though its recent success in college basketball might lead one to believe that Syracuse, N.Y. – where I watch the Saint Joseph’s Hawks begin their season with a twenty-point win over Fairleigh Dickinson Monday night – is a nice college town. And while the campus proper there is nice, and the support for the basketball team extends through the community, the town itself leaves a lot to be desired. There seem to be plenty of restaurants to go around (go to Cosmo’s pizza shop for breakfast and get a toasted honey bun), but the architecture outside of campus is bland and the weather, from what I understand, is rarely anything to write home about. Not to mention the fact that the Carrier Dome – for all intents and purposes one of basketball’s new Meccas after the Orangemen won the title – is a bland, aging, basketball-focused version of Veteran’s Stadium. Give me Philadelphia and the Palestra any day.

Note: I spent the last few days in Syracuse, N.Y., with only a little access to Internet. These are the posts that were meant to run on the days in the timestamps.

The more I think about it, the more I realize the likelihood that my recent absence from blogging is due in part to the negative feedback one can expect when writing for the Web. Of course, I speak not of the readers of Movie Hawk; with the exception of a few tiffs here and there, my nose is relatively clean, and my readers are overwhelmingly supportive. I think instead of the war between fanboy factions: Mac vs. Windows, Marvel vs. D.C., Studio 60 vs. …itself. Too often, especially on blogs, people go out of their way to write inappropriately negative propaganda against an opponent with little recourse. Yes, I understand that I’m not breaking new ground here, but I feel the need to point it out. If you don’t like blog posts about Apple products (certain Gizmodo readers), don’t read them. If Veronica Mars isn’t your cup of tea (some AICN folks), don’t waste your time trashing it in the talkback. Leave those spaces to those of us who want to use it to spread more information. Believe me, if you pull back for a second instead of throwing your negative hat into the ring, it’ll save us all a lot of money in future blood pressure medication.

Note: I spent the last few days in Syracuse, N.Y., with only a little access to Internet. These are the posts that were meant to run on the days in the timestamps.

Since the disappearance of Seinfeld from the network airwaves, fresh, funny, simply silly material has been in short supply (though a few shows have wisely stockpiled the precious jokes). That childish sense of humor has been largely taken over by movies; specifically, the semiannual offerings of Pixar and Dreamworks. Bee Movie, the latest offering by the latter, fully embraces the impish ethos. Not surprisingly, it comes from Seinfeld himself. And while it can’t soar to Pixar’s heights, Bee Movie hovers along rather nicely.

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As I continue to consider what new blogs to add to my blogroll, I bid a fond adieu to a few former favorites; namely, “It Moves Me!” Bill is a good friend of mine, and he’s a hell of a writer, but he hasn’t posted in more than a year. If Avington one day goes back to writing online, I’ll be one of the first to welcome him back with open arms.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blogroll, and while I consider what to remove, I offer up one new addition: Tack Sharp, the new blog from uber-photographer and Movie Hawk sibling Kelly Anne. As TS grows, it will no doubt be a useful photography resource, something that will be extremely useful as I try to become a better casual photographer. Not to mention a good place to see some neat photos.

Welcome to the first real weekend of NaBloPoMo, after my enthusiasm for the project has started to wane. Today’s post is a quickie: a video of what Fox’s 24 would be like in 1994. Courtesy College Humor.

Listen, I know you’re important. Clearly, the fact that you arrive at work after all the good spots are gone in your oversized SUV signifies that you’re far more important than the rest of us. But that doesn’t give you the right to park on the sidewalk four days in a row. Drive around until you find a spot. Don’t inconvenience everyone - pedestrians, other drivers in the lot - by blocking half of the sidewalk. And don’t leave a message for security to not ticket you because there’s no available parking. If you’re so important that you can’t look harder for a spot, you’re important enough to pay the ticket when you can’t find one.