Did you know?

• An Octopus can blend in with its environment. Someone clued me in to this video today. I'm not sure if it's real or not, but further research explained how special skin cells known as Chormatophores allow them to rapidly change pigment and reflect what's around them. Soon, nanotech suits will allow soldiers to blend in, and more.

• Superman was initially bald.

• Bumblebee is going to look very cool in the live action Transformers movie. I can't wait to see that construct moving and interacting with actors. I dreamed of this in elementary school, and technology is finally able to make my dream a reality.

• I finally saw Dazed and Confused last night, and while I recognized stars who went on to become more well-known such as Adam Goldberg, Nicky Katt, Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich, and Joey Lauren Adams, it wasn't until the final credits, during one of those sequences where clips from the film accompany each ensemble member's name, that I realized Ben Affleck was in there as well. These days, when I see Ben Affleck in a movie, I think “there's Ben Affleck”. I don't actually mind him, and my main criticisms of his work include being wildly miscast as Daredevil and that ridiculous scene in Armageddon where he (successfully--!) romances Liv Tyler with an animal cracker and a bad Australian accent. I was rooting for the asteroid after that. In Dazed and Confused however, he so thoroughly immersed himself in the role of O'Bannion, a jerk Senior who terrorizes Freshman with a paddle, that I loathed the character without recognizing the actor.

• Dazed and Confused also included an actor by the name of Rory Cochrane, and while it wouldn't be tragic to miss that movie or his portrayal of a disoriented stoner, I do recommend catching his performance in Empire Records. I had caught part of the movie on television years ago and enjoyed the ensemble, and finally saw a special remix DVD edition last night as well. For me, the ‘80s have always had more of an identity for me than the ‘90s, and one of the characters in Dazed and Confused muses that the ‘70s weren't as good as the ‘60s and looks forward to ‘80s, theorizing that only the even decades are cool. Empire Records, in the look of the kids and the music they play and discuss, really captured the ‘90s for me in a way that was only surpassed by Singles. The cast includes Anthony LaPaglia, Liv Tyler, Ethan Embry, and a young Renée Zellweger. I recognized the name Robin Tunney in the opening credits as well, but it wasn't until after the movie that I realized which character she played. If you know her best as Veronica, the lawyer on Prison Break, you won't recognize her as an angsty youth with a shaved head. It's a shame the ‘00s are more than half over, and don't seem to have the distinguishing traits that the decades I grew up in included. I wonder if teenagers today feel differently though, and do have movies, music, and other bits of pop culture they identify solely with this decade.

• I've saved the best for last. A few days ago I caught a bootleg cut of the new Spider-man 3 trailer. Of course now it's available in much better quality on the Apple site. If you want to avoid SERIOUS spoilers, you should avoid the rest of this paragraph until May 2007, which now can't arrive soon enough for me. You have been warned. The trailer shows the symbiote attaching itself to Spidey, and the CGI is tight. We see him in the black costume struggling with the changes to his personality. We see him romance Gwen Stacy in her trademark black headband, and we see how Sandman looks both as Thomas Haden Church and as a menacing giant of sand. The effects look truly amazing. If you watch the trailer carefully you'll even catch the new Green Goblin. I like that they didn't just repeat the costume from the first movie, even though in the comics Harry Osborn did don his father's costume. Instead of a helmet the new outfit seems to include just a facemask, which makes sense given how personal this conflict will be. At one point in the trailer the Goblin attacks Spider-man out of costume. Most exciting though is a single, creepy frame of Topher Grace looking up and droning, “Parker...”. Several months ago, when the cast was announced, I speculated that Church would portray Eddie Brock, given his resemblance to the comic rendering of the character. Topher looked so much like Tobey Maguire that I cautiously wondered if he would play Ben Reilly, Spider-man's clone. Then Kirsten Dunst leaked who the actors were playing. Topher is ominous and virtually unrecognizable in that one clip, and it should be enough to allay the concerns of any naysayers. As much as this “teaser” trailer gives away, we aren't shown how he's going to look as Venom. I'm expecting no less than a three-hour epic given the amount of material and new characters the film has to cover, and I'm confident this will be another success from Sam Raimi.

Is it next May yet? Aunt May?