I am sorry to report that Joan Alexander, voice actress who played Lois Lane on the long-running Superman radio program, has passed. She was 94.
Alexander also played Lois Lane in the Fleischer cartoons of the early 1940's.
I think if you go back and listen to the radio program or watch the cartoons, you'll find Alexander was part of the image making of Lois Lane as tough-as-nails, hard-working city-gal. Its a different take from the great Noel Neill, lovely Phyllis Coates or unstoppable Margot Kidder, with a bit more of East Coast flair to it.
At any rate, she'll be missed.
Here from the Washington Post.
'tip o' the hat to the Superman Homepage.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Sherlock Holmes movie en route
I'm not a Sherlock Holmes aficionado. Nor am I a member of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Society, etc... But like many people, I read my fair share of Holmes at one point in my life.
I'm not really sure Holmes translates very well to a late 20th or early 21st Century aesthetic when it comes to movie making. And as much as I like him in movies from Iron Man to Chaplin, I'm not sure Robert Downey Jr. would immediately pop into mind as my first choice for Holmes. Or Jude Law as Watson (that one just baffles me). Both are fine actors, certainly. But it also sort of screams "this ain't your father's Sherlock Holmes! This is EXTREME Holmes, kids!". Not surehow I feel about that.
I'm also noting that like many trailers these days, this trailer indicates absolutely nothing about story. There was a theory when I was in film school that the usefulness of story had come to an end. I'd sort of scoffed at the idea at the time, but... apparently you at least don't need a story to sell people on showing up for a movie.
On the plus side, it also means somebody is going to cash in by putting out nicely bound editions of the actual Holmes work. And while I will most certainly go see this movie (note: it features explosions), I will also probably be looking for a nice edition or two of a Holmes collection.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Friday Linkage and Heads-Up
I really don't have a whole lot to discuss. Sorry, kids.
The long Memorial Day Weekend is coming up, so I hope you've got a BBQ or two planned. And, of course, will observe the day with the utmost respect, attending your local parade, etc... All you leaguers are good citizens, so I'm sure you'll hit three or four local events.
Not sure what we're up to, but I am certain we'll make the most of our precious weekend hours.
Next week will probably be very, very quiet here at The League. I (wait for it) am running a conference. There's a tale there, and one day when I'm not still recovering, i shall share that tale. For it is a cautionary tale, and the many lawyers in the League's readership would be doing some serious forehead slapping as described what happened. But we'll put that aside for right now.
But NEXT week, I'll be playing host/ MC/ and event coordinator to 125 of the rowdiest, craziest librarians you're likely to see in this life or any other. (I got them free padfolios and flash drives! Suck on that, SXSW!)
Anyhow, my assumption and game plan is that from Tuesday at 7:00 AM until Thursday evening when I flop into bed, I will be a bit pre-occupied for the blogging. Perhaps you'd like to follow our Tweets? No, really. We're maybe going to Twitter this mutha'.
Links
So...
Here's a link to a preview at Newsarama for JackBart's Poe comic.
Here's the trailer for JimD's movie.
As you can tell, its a lot like Weird Al's "UHF" in spirit.
Here's a link to an especially magical site called "Awkward Family Photos". I welcome you to view the images and put that one away in the 'ol memory bank for the day when you have family photos to take of your own.
Hat tip to Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool, which, if you haven't bookmarked it, then you probably should.
For some reason I received a catalog in the mail this evening from design Toscano. I have something of an inkling of how I might wind up on such a mailorder list, but I'm not really sure. I highly recommend browsing their website and purchasing all that you can afford.
There's even a very special lawn ornament that I might need to get for Jason.
Only $90 before S&H!
And for some reason, I'm now receiving Architectural Digest in the mail. I have no idea why.
Also, I'm already sick of the new Green Day song. But I've also been sick of Green Day since 1996, so...
The long Memorial Day Weekend is coming up, so I hope you've got a BBQ or two planned. And, of course, will observe the day with the utmost respect, attending your local parade, etc... All you leaguers are good citizens, so I'm sure you'll hit three or four local events.
Not sure what we're up to, but I am certain we'll make the most of our precious weekend hours.
Next week will probably be very, very quiet here at The League. I (wait for it) am running a conference. There's a tale there, and one day when I'm not still recovering, i shall share that tale. For it is a cautionary tale, and the many lawyers in the League's readership would be doing some serious forehead slapping as described what happened. But we'll put that aside for right now.
But NEXT week, I'll be playing host/ MC/ and event coordinator to 125 of the rowdiest, craziest librarians you're likely to see in this life or any other. (I got them free padfolios and flash drives! Suck on that, SXSW!)
Anyhow, my assumption and game plan is that from Tuesday at 7:00 AM until Thursday evening when I flop into bed, I will be a bit pre-occupied for the blogging. Perhaps you'd like to follow our Tweets? No, really. We're maybe going to Twitter this mutha'.
Links
So...
Here's a link to a preview at Newsarama for JackBart's Poe comic.
Here's the trailer for JimD's movie.
As you can tell, its a lot like Weird Al's "UHF" in spirit.
Here's a link to an especially magical site called "Awkward Family Photos". I welcome you to view the images and put that one away in the 'ol memory bank for the day when you have family photos to take of your own.
Hat tip to Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool, which, if you haven't bookmarked it, then you probably should.
For some reason I received a catalog in the mail this evening from design Toscano. I have something of an inkling of how I might wind up on such a mailorder list, but I'm not really sure. I highly recommend browsing their website and purchasing all that you can afford.
There's even a very special lawn ornament that I might need to get for Jason.
Only $90 before S&H!
And for some reason, I'm now receiving Architectural Digest in the mail. I have no idea why.
Also, I'm already sick of the new Green Day song. But I've also been sick of Green Day since 1996, so...
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Chuck E. Cheese in the News
Somehow I received two Chuck E. Cheese related news items in 24 hours.
From Randy:
Man slugs Chuck E. Cheese. This scenario seems entirely too likely, from what I recall.
From Jason:
And Chuck E. gets a little too close for comfort. That'll ruin your trip to see the Rock-a-Fire Explosion...
From Randy:
Man slugs Chuck E. Cheese. This scenario seems entirely too likely, from what I recall.
From Jason:
And Chuck E. gets a little too close for comfort. That'll ruin your trip to see the Rock-a-Fire Explosion...
JackBart makes a Comic
I don't see much of JackBart these days. He's a friend of Jason's, who I got along with pretty darn well, thanks in no small part due to a mutual love of horror and genre media.
Jack actually writes the stuff, though, as part of his career. He's sold a couple of screenplays, but I don't believe they've been produced as of yet (Jason will correct me if I'm wrong). However, he's recently sold one of his concepts to Boom! Studios, a comic company which I believe is based out of LA, and has recently employed League-favorite comic writer Mark Waid as its Editor-in-Chief.
JackBart wrote a comic about: Edgar Allen Poe. Coming in July! (so preo-order a copy of issue 1. Don't worry, Jason. I'll make sure I grab you a copy.)
Cover A
Cover B
I'm not just excited that the Poe comic is coming, I'm excited that its coming from Boom!, who I think is doing things right.
In many ways, while I may champion the characters and stories of various companies, I sort of think that they have semi-broken business models that rely on the Direct Market entirely too much, which has led to a generation of kids having no interest in comics, not just from content, but a lack of availability.
Boom licensed several kid-friendly items, from Pixar's "Cars" and "Incredibles" to "The Muppets". And I seriously love the Muppets comic so far (Nathan and Michael might want to pick that one up for the family).
The rumor is that they're looking to move out of just working in the direct market and back into other kinds of retail (bookstores, maybe at box stores, etc...). In my opinion, that doesn't hurt the Direct Market (ie: Austin Books), but strengthens it as it builds a network of comic readers to feed into the Direct Market.
Poe may not be part of that effort, but I couldn't be happier for JackBart. And while he told me online that he hasn't met Mark Waid yet, I may send my tattered copy of "Kingdom Come" with him to ComicCon this year so Waid can sign it. And maybe my FF hardcover. And "The Life Story of The Flash". Well... I guess I'll have mercy.
Just one book.
JackBart has agreed to let me do an interview in a while, about when the book comes out. In the meantime, check these things out:
Diamond talks about Poe
The Boom! Studios Blog
Jack actually writes the stuff, though, as part of his career. He's sold a couple of screenplays, but I don't believe they've been produced as of yet (Jason will correct me if I'm wrong). However, he's recently sold one of his concepts to Boom! Studios, a comic company which I believe is based out of LA, and has recently employed League-favorite comic writer Mark Waid as its Editor-in-Chief.
JackBart wrote a comic about: Edgar Allen Poe. Coming in July! (so preo-order a copy of issue 1. Don't worry, Jason. I'll make sure I grab you a copy.)
Cover A
Cover B
I'm not just excited that the Poe comic is coming, I'm excited that its coming from Boom!, who I think is doing things right.
In many ways, while I may champion the characters and stories of various companies, I sort of think that they have semi-broken business models that rely on the Direct Market entirely too much, which has led to a generation of kids having no interest in comics, not just from content, but a lack of availability.
Boom licensed several kid-friendly items, from Pixar's "Cars" and "Incredibles" to "The Muppets". And I seriously love the Muppets comic so far (Nathan and Michael might want to pick that one up for the family).
The rumor is that they're looking to move out of just working in the direct market and back into other kinds of retail (bookstores, maybe at box stores, etc...). In my opinion, that doesn't hurt the Direct Market (ie: Austin Books), but strengthens it as it builds a network of comic readers to feed into the Direct Market.
Poe may not be part of that effort, but I couldn't be happier for JackBart. And while he told me online that he hasn't met Mark Waid yet, I may send my tattered copy of "Kingdom Come" with him to ComicCon this year so Waid can sign it. And maybe my FF hardcover. And "The Life Story of The Flash". Well... I guess I'll have mercy.
Just one book.
JackBart has agreed to let me do an interview in a while, about when the book comes out. In the meantime, check these things out:
Diamond talks about Poe
The Boom! Studios Blog
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
JimD Makes a Movie
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, JimD asked me to take a look at a screenplay he'd written. I was interested to read it as I'd enjoyed Jim's work that I'd previously got my mitts on, but then he let me know... he'd been working on the film for a while with his pal, Alistair (an occasional Leaguer). And, unlike most of the stuff I was used to from folks I remembered talking big from film school, they were actually going to get their movie made.
Sure, I gave JimD a few notes, but the script was sort of past that point. You could tell a lot of what was going to happen next would depend on directorial and actor's choices because the thing was ready to go. I liked the script, liked the ideas in it.
JimD and Alistair went ahead and produced the darn thing a while back, and I couldn't be happier for them or more impressed with the results. Sure, it would have been better if it had starred a certain chubby, yet good looking comic book fan, but I don't think you can argue with the results.
The movie is called "Pleadings" - it's about lawyers -, and I welcome you to check out the IMDB site. (They might want to add a plot synopsis. Just sayin'. I'm a little reluctant to say too much about the plot as I wasn't sure what I shouldn't say.)
It looks like the movie is ready for DVD distribution. No, I have no idea how the hell that works, so don't ask.
This here would be the DVD cover. Click on it to read the plot synopsis.
The movie turned out very well, thanks for asking. I think you Leaguers will enjoy it. Performances from their troupe are strong, the directing and cinematography creative and more than occasionally showing bits of brilliance. So there you go.
So I'll keep you guys posted as to when YOU can obtain a copy of the DVD for your very own.
Sure, I gave JimD a few notes, but the script was sort of past that point. You could tell a lot of what was going to happen next would depend on directorial and actor's choices because the thing was ready to go. I liked the script, liked the ideas in it.
JimD and Alistair went ahead and produced the darn thing a while back, and I couldn't be happier for them or more impressed with the results. Sure, it would have been better if it had starred a certain chubby, yet good looking comic book fan, but I don't think you can argue with the results.
The movie is called "Pleadings" - it's about lawyers -, and I welcome you to check out the IMDB site. (They might want to add a plot synopsis. Just sayin'. I'm a little reluctant to say too much about the plot as I wasn't sure what I shouldn't say.)
It looks like the movie is ready for DVD distribution. No, I have no idea how the hell that works, so don't ask.
This here would be the DVD cover. Click on it to read the plot synopsis.
The movie turned out very well, thanks for asking. I think you Leaguers will enjoy it. Performances from their troupe are strong, the directing and cinematography creative and more than occasionally showing bits of brilliance. So there you go.
So I'll keep you guys posted as to when YOU can obtain a copy of the DVD for your very own.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Snake n' Bacon
Over the past year or so, I've become a fan of Michael Kupperman's comic "Tales Designed to Thrizzle".
It's a little difficult to explain the comic and do it justice, but I enjoy features such as "Twain & Einstein" and "Snake n' Bacon".
You sort of have to imagine if Tom Tomorrow drew more than four things, and/ or could handily imitate different styles and sort of mix media.
He's also quite good at finding new angles on old ads one would find in comics and magazines.
sorry, Mom.
Anyway, they've adapted Snake'n'Bacon, one of Kupperman's strips, to a show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
I highly recommend. (It's, like, 15 minutes)
It's a little difficult to explain the comic and do it justice, but I enjoy features such as "Twain & Einstein" and "Snake n' Bacon".
You sort of have to imagine if Tom Tomorrow drew more than four things, and/ or could handily imitate different styles and sort of mix media.
He's also quite good at finding new angles on old ads one would find in comics and magazines.
sorry, Mom.
Anyway, they've adapted Snake'n'Bacon, one of Kupperman's strips, to a show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
I highly recommend. (It's, like, 15 minutes)
Superman/ Batman: Public Enemies
A few years back, DC launched a new series: Superman/ Batman.
It was in the spirit of the old comic series, World's Finest, which had been the series launched in the 1940's which put Superman and Batman in the same comic (it had originally been conceived as "World's Fair Comics", to coincide with the 1939 World's Fair in New York).
Comics are awesome. Oh, yes they are.
After 20 years of Dark Knight Returns inspired animosity, the powers that be at DC finally decided that just because Superman and Batman didn't always agree on methods, etc... they were more interesting as a mismatched pair of cops than they were as Batman being a jerk and Superman just standing there letting Batman rattle on (I mean, seriously... at what point would Superman not just start avoiding the guy?).
So was launched Superman/ Batman, with words and story by Jeph Loeb (the writer of Teen Wolf! and Commando!) and art by Ed McGuinness. McGuinness had come to notoriety through his work on Mr. Majestic, one of several Superman-like titles that popped up in the 90's explosion, and which was eventually folded into the DCU multi-verse (along with the entire Wildstorm Univere). He went on to pencil Superman circa 2001, and I actually have one of his original art pages from the "Our Worlds at War" storyline.
Super Pals
The first storyline was entitled Public Enemies, and drew to a close the long-running storyline set up in the Superman comics when Lex Luthor nabbed the 2000 election, becoming President of the United States. So what happens when he puts out a warrant for the arrest of Superman? And a bounty for his capture? Awesomeness. That's what happens.
Anyhow, I don't want to reveal too much, as DCU Animated is now bringing the story to DVD as an animated movie. The art style is probably as close as they could get to translating McGuinness's unique style to an animated form. They'll probably also have to drop a few elements of the comic tied to continuity, but I'm optimistic that this will be a really fun ride.
The comic was a big, ridiculous action flick sort of thing. Looks like the movie will be more of the same.
Check out a semi-legal trailer here.
It was in the spirit of the old comic series, World's Finest, which had been the series launched in the 1940's which put Superman and Batman in the same comic (it had originally been conceived as "World's Fair Comics", to coincide with the 1939 World's Fair in New York).
Comics are awesome. Oh, yes they are.
After 20 years of Dark Knight Returns inspired animosity, the powers that be at DC finally decided that just because Superman and Batman didn't always agree on methods, etc... they were more interesting as a mismatched pair of cops than they were as Batman being a jerk and Superman just standing there letting Batman rattle on (I mean, seriously... at what point would Superman not just start avoiding the guy?).
So was launched Superman/ Batman, with words and story by Jeph Loeb (the writer of Teen Wolf! and Commando!) and art by Ed McGuinness. McGuinness had come to notoriety through his work on Mr. Majestic, one of several Superman-like titles that popped up in the 90's explosion, and which was eventually folded into the DCU multi-verse (along with the entire Wildstorm Univere). He went on to pencil Superman circa 2001, and I actually have one of his original art pages from the "Our Worlds at War" storyline.
Super Pals
The first storyline was entitled Public Enemies, and drew to a close the long-running storyline set up in the Superman comics when Lex Luthor nabbed the 2000 election, becoming President of the United States. So what happens when he puts out a warrant for the arrest of Superman? And a bounty for his capture? Awesomeness. That's what happens.
Anyhow, I don't want to reveal too much, as DCU Animated is now bringing the story to DVD as an animated movie. The art style is probably as close as they could get to translating McGuinness's unique style to an animated form. They'll probably also have to drop a few elements of the comic tied to continuity, but I'm optimistic that this will be a really fun ride.
The comic was a big, ridiculous action flick sort of thing. Looks like the movie will be more of the same.
Check out a semi-legal trailer here.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Lazy Weekend
Hey Leaguers,
It was a nice weekend, all in all.
Bolt
Friday night Jamie and I stayed in and watched Disney's "Bolt" on OnDemand. Quick recap: Bolt is a dog that's a TV star of a sci-fi show about a sort of superdog protecting his person, a 12-years-oldish girl, Penny, from an evil scientist and his minions. He is sort of lost from the studio and has to learn that he's not a superdog (he doesn't know he's a celebrity, so that whole part of the fish out of water bit is conspicuously absent).
The movie has some issues, not the least of which is that the opening sequence in which Bolt is acting as a superdog is the best animated, coolest part of the film. The rest of the movie is fairly pat, which is fine. Its family entertainment and the "incredible journey" part of the story will be new to your young 'uns. And, somehow, I found the whole movie kind of sad in a way I don't think was intended.
I do think it picked up substantially in the second half and the ending is sort of classic Disney feel-good. Disney's 3D animation wing has greatly improved, but they haven't quite mastered the form in the manner of Pixar, finding ways to humanize and animate more stylized characters.
Kids and adults will enjoy Rhino, the hamster who joins the journey. perhaps for different reasons, but I sort of loved Rhino. Who gave the best motivational speech I've seen in a movie in a while.
I should also note that for Superman fans, the comparisons between Bolt's sci-fi TV show character and Krypto, Superman's canine Kryptonian pal is inevitable. And, yeah, I would love to see Krypto receive the big screen treatment. So there's a little envy there, but it didn't last too long, given the nature of the story.
You should check it out, especially you Leaguers with kids.
Also, Jenny Lewis is on the soundtrack. Go figure.
Role-Models
As very little opened this week and it was raining, we wound up then watching "Role-Models" on OnDemand. It was pretty much exactly what I expected.
My Office
I also spent time goofing in my office and re-arranging junk. Ie: playing with my toys.
Korean BBQ
We wound up having dinner with Mangum, who recommended we try Korean BBQ, which I'd never tried before. I have to say that my first experience was, once I got oriented, very good.
I don't know if Matt and Jamie were terribly excited that I selected squid as one of our options, but I liked it. Of course, I know nothing about Korean food, so... just because I liked it doesn't mean a whole lot. But the prices were okay, and it was nice to try something new.
Sunday
Letty and Juan are due fairly soon. We've not heard the name of the child yet, but Juan pitched Lando Calrissian Garcia, and that seemed to be a popular favorite.
We had a few folks over to wish Letty and Juan well with their final days as couple before they become 2 plus 1. We over purchased on meat, but that's what usually happens when I hit Central Market infrequently. Everything seems like a good idea.
Anyhow, it was nice to dust off the grill and have some folks over. I think Matt is right, that we haven't done this since football season. Hopefully we can roll right into football season with the cookout season.
It was a beautiful day, somehow, and we did manage to get outside a bit. Probably the last of that before things heat up and we're all running for air conditioning until October.
Hope ya'll had a good weekend.
It was a nice weekend, all in all.
Bolt
Friday night Jamie and I stayed in and watched Disney's "Bolt" on OnDemand. Quick recap: Bolt is a dog that's a TV star of a sci-fi show about a sort of superdog protecting his person, a 12-years-oldish girl, Penny, from an evil scientist and his minions. He is sort of lost from the studio and has to learn that he's not a superdog (he doesn't know he's a celebrity, so that whole part of the fish out of water bit is conspicuously absent).
The movie has some issues, not the least of which is that the opening sequence in which Bolt is acting as a superdog is the best animated, coolest part of the film. The rest of the movie is fairly pat, which is fine. Its family entertainment and the "incredible journey" part of the story will be new to your young 'uns. And, somehow, I found the whole movie kind of sad in a way I don't think was intended.
I do think it picked up substantially in the second half and the ending is sort of classic Disney feel-good. Disney's 3D animation wing has greatly improved, but they haven't quite mastered the form in the manner of Pixar, finding ways to humanize and animate more stylized characters.
Kids and adults will enjoy Rhino, the hamster who joins the journey. perhaps for different reasons, but I sort of loved Rhino. Who gave the best motivational speech I've seen in a movie in a while.
I should also note that for Superman fans, the comparisons between Bolt's sci-fi TV show character and Krypto, Superman's canine Kryptonian pal is inevitable. And, yeah, I would love to see Krypto receive the big screen treatment. So there's a little envy there, but it didn't last too long, given the nature of the story.
You should check it out, especially you Leaguers with kids.
Also, Jenny Lewis is on the soundtrack. Go figure.
Role-Models
As very little opened this week and it was raining, we wound up then watching "Role-Models" on OnDemand. It was pretty much exactly what I expected.
My Office
I also spent time goofing in my office and re-arranging junk. Ie: playing with my toys.
Korean BBQ
We wound up having dinner with Mangum, who recommended we try Korean BBQ, which I'd never tried before. I have to say that my first experience was, once I got oriented, very good.
I don't know if Matt and Jamie were terribly excited that I selected squid as one of our options, but I liked it. Of course, I know nothing about Korean food, so... just because I liked it doesn't mean a whole lot. But the prices were okay, and it was nice to try something new.
Sunday
Letty and Juan are due fairly soon. We've not heard the name of the child yet, but Juan pitched Lando Calrissian Garcia, and that seemed to be a popular favorite.
We had a few folks over to wish Letty and Juan well with their final days as couple before they become 2 plus 1. We over purchased on meat, but that's what usually happens when I hit Central Market infrequently. Everything seems like a good idea.
Anyhow, it was nice to dust off the grill and have some folks over. I think Matt is right, that we haven't done this since football season. Hopefully we can roll right into football season with the cookout season.
It was a beautiful day, somehow, and we did manage to get outside a bit. Probably the last of that before things heat up and we're all running for air conditioning until October.
Hope ya'll had a good weekend.
I apologize now for talking about "Smallville"
Smallville is a bad, bad show.
On any other network, "Smallville" would have been canceled long ago. It ranks in the lowest rungs of TV watcherdom*, but because it shows on The CW (the bastard love child of failed networks "The WB" and "The Paramount Network"), and has more viewers than "Everybody Hates Chris", its the darling of the CW network.
When I am at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter will be watching my life with me on some super-high-def Pearly Gates TV, and he's going to hit pause and ask me "why? Why did you spend so many hours wasting your life watching this show?"
And I won't know. I won't feel good about it. I don't feel good about it now. I barely admit that I watch the show. And, truthfully, I did stop watching it for a year or more. But then I saw an article on how they were bringing in Smallville's version of the Justice League, and I tuned in, and, well...
The truth is, I don't think I'm just making it up that the first three or four seasons of Smallville were frequently dippy as they tried to mix "Dawson's Creek" style teen-romance with superheroics. But it was a completely different and better show than what we're seeing now.
For those of you who don't know... Smallville was supposed to tell the stories of a teen-aged Clark Kent (the pilot was his first day at high school) coming to terms with his powers and his identity as something other than human. The show cast John "The Dukes of Hazzard" Schneider as Jonathan Kent, and Annette "Superman III" O'Toole as Martha Kent, the two playing his wise and loving parents, guiding him toward his role as Superman.
Anyway, the show was pretty straightforward. Teen-aged kid fights crime, lies to a 20-something Lex Luthor about having an alien origin, and has romantic trouble with the worst character on TV, ever (Lana Lang as portrayed -poorly - by Kristin Kreuk).
For a while there, the show featured name actors, from Rutger Hauer to Christopher Reeve. Terence Stamp was the voice of Jor-El, and a concerted effort seemed to be made to tie the show to the Reeve-starring movie continuity.
The series completed its 8th season this last week. Gone are the days when the show had a budget that could support keeping high dollar actors like John Glover, John Schneider and Annette O'Toole around for every episode. These days, those actors are all gone, the supporting cast of 20-somethings, just happy to be working, mostly appears in half the episodes, and the FX budget appears to be roughly 1/3rd of what it was in the earliest episodes. We're lucky if we see Clark run at superspeed anymore.
More than that, however, is that the scope and scale of the show seems to have diminished, and what writing does occur has been, for several seasons (and through a complete changing of the guard this year in creative leadership) pretty much a trainwreck.
And yet... I keep watching.
In many ways, I really do not understand how supposedly professional writers could be so very, very bad. Just simple, dumb choices have led to an ever escalating parade of dopeyness.
To list or innumerate the failings of the show is probably an exercise in frustration and/ or self-loathing for myself as a viewer. However, as a Superman fan, its fascinating to watch unfold as the show seems unable or unwilling to just go ahead and try to build toward the point at which Clark Kent makes the decision to put on his tights and save the world. It's become less about the young Kal-El's path to iconic status as The Man o Steel and more about the most extended case of "get to the point" in televised history. I say this as someone who watches "Lost".
There were improvements this season. I do not exaggerate when I say that Smallville fell into a weird pattern in seasons 6 and 7 where it wrapped its main plot of the episode and utilized the last 10 minutes of every broadcast to have Clark berated by his "love interest", effectively celebrating something that slid from wicked co-dependency to an emotionally abusive relationship. I wouldn't make too much note of that other than that, based on the Neutrogena and make-up ads, Smallville is geared towards teen-aged girls. Which... is squarely not in the usual superhero demographic. But given how the show insisted that Clark and Lana's deeply dysfunctional relationship was held up as "true love"... it just got creepy by the time Kreuk left the show.
What sort of bizarre superhero show spends 1/4 of its broadcast time each week dedicated to the superhero apologizing and being told he is a bad person? And what kind of weirdo fantasy was that for the audience of teen-aged girls? What do I not know and what am I missing here?
Add in what occurred with a different supporting character this season, and we've moved into coded messages about the nobility of aiding and abetting a known murderer, with a heavy dose of Stockholm Syndrome, sexual predation as romance, infidelity and physical abuse.
Hoooray, Smallville writers!
And still, I watch. Mostly at this point for the same reasons one would watch Melrose Place back in the day. By driving all character decisions from a plot standpoint rather than bothering to try to have anyone behave rationally or explain their actions in anything that makes sense (and doesn't require heaping guilt upon our Superman), everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, on the show seems as dumb as a bunch of cattle. But unlike Melrose place, eventually the writers seem to sober up at the end of the season, realize they've written their supposedly heroic characters like a herd of morons without a minder, and try to backpeddle out of the other 20-odd episodes of mistakes with a lot of speechifying and self-serving rationalization.
But I cannot look away.
There's a fundamental difference, I think, between how writers typically handle superheroic comics and how Joe or Jane TV writer handles a TV show, or even where those writers are coming from. My guess is that the writers of Smallville are work-for-hire writers with little in the way of a comics background. If their reference point for superheroics are within the loop of madness that Smallville has become, then the reference points just aren't going to be there for the writers to know that, hey... Superman isn't going to be much of a Superman if every cross word from a pal is going to send him into a tizzy of inaction or ineffectiveness.
Superman didn't become Superman because he was unwilling to take action or let grouchy "friends" dictate his actions.
At any rate, I now have a few months to consider whether I'll watch the show next year, but even in that, I know I'm caught in a loop. Smallville always starts out with the best of intentions for a season, and the first two or three episodes don't usually hint much at the madness which is to come. Its when they start setting up the plot for the next 20 episodes that things get out of control.
Lost is really onto something with this whole shortened season with an end point business.
*Week May 4-10, 2009, Smallville was the CW's #2 show, pulling in 3,392,000 viewers. "Dancing with the Stars" pulled in over 20 million. The real news is that, for some reason, America's Funniest Home Videos pulled in almost 7 million viewers. That's a lot of people watching other people get hit in the nards, Leaguers.
On any other network, "Smallville" would have been canceled long ago. It ranks in the lowest rungs of TV watcherdom*, but because it shows on The CW (the bastard love child of failed networks "The WB" and "The Paramount Network"), and has more viewers than "Everybody Hates Chris", its the darling of the CW network.
When I am at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter will be watching my life with me on some super-high-def Pearly Gates TV, and he's going to hit pause and ask me "why? Why did you spend so many hours wasting your life watching this show?"
And I won't know. I won't feel good about it. I don't feel good about it now. I barely admit that I watch the show. And, truthfully, I did stop watching it for a year or more. But then I saw an article on how they were bringing in Smallville's version of the Justice League, and I tuned in, and, well...
The truth is, I don't think I'm just making it up that the first three or four seasons of Smallville were frequently dippy as they tried to mix "Dawson's Creek" style teen-romance with superheroics. But it was a completely different and better show than what we're seeing now.
For those of you who don't know... Smallville was supposed to tell the stories of a teen-aged Clark Kent (the pilot was his first day at high school) coming to terms with his powers and his identity as something other than human. The show cast John "The Dukes of Hazzard" Schneider as Jonathan Kent, and Annette "Superman III" O'Toole as Martha Kent, the two playing his wise and loving parents, guiding him toward his role as Superman.
Anyway, the show was pretty straightforward. Teen-aged kid fights crime, lies to a 20-something Lex Luthor about having an alien origin, and has romantic trouble with the worst character on TV, ever (Lana Lang as portrayed -poorly - by Kristin Kreuk).
For a while there, the show featured name actors, from Rutger Hauer to Christopher Reeve. Terence Stamp was the voice of Jor-El, and a concerted effort seemed to be made to tie the show to the Reeve-starring movie continuity.
The series completed its 8th season this last week. Gone are the days when the show had a budget that could support keeping high dollar actors like John Glover, John Schneider and Annette O'Toole around for every episode. These days, those actors are all gone, the supporting cast of 20-somethings, just happy to be working, mostly appears in half the episodes, and the FX budget appears to be roughly 1/3rd of what it was in the earliest episodes. We're lucky if we see Clark run at superspeed anymore.
More than that, however, is that the scope and scale of the show seems to have diminished, and what writing does occur has been, for several seasons (and through a complete changing of the guard this year in creative leadership) pretty much a trainwreck.
And yet... I keep watching.
In many ways, I really do not understand how supposedly professional writers could be so very, very bad. Just simple, dumb choices have led to an ever escalating parade of dopeyness.
To list or innumerate the failings of the show is probably an exercise in frustration and/ or self-loathing for myself as a viewer. However, as a Superman fan, its fascinating to watch unfold as the show seems unable or unwilling to just go ahead and try to build toward the point at which Clark Kent makes the decision to put on his tights and save the world. It's become less about the young Kal-El's path to iconic status as The Man o Steel and more about the most extended case of "get to the point" in televised history. I say this as someone who watches "Lost".
There were improvements this season. I do not exaggerate when I say that Smallville fell into a weird pattern in seasons 6 and 7 where it wrapped its main plot of the episode and utilized the last 10 minutes of every broadcast to have Clark berated by his "love interest", effectively celebrating something that slid from wicked co-dependency to an emotionally abusive relationship. I wouldn't make too much note of that other than that, based on the Neutrogena and make-up ads, Smallville is geared towards teen-aged girls. Which... is squarely not in the usual superhero demographic. But given how the show insisted that Clark and Lana's deeply dysfunctional relationship was held up as "true love"... it just got creepy by the time Kreuk left the show.
What sort of bizarre superhero show spends 1/4 of its broadcast time each week dedicated to the superhero apologizing and being told he is a bad person? And what kind of weirdo fantasy was that for the audience of teen-aged girls? What do I not know and what am I missing here?
Add in what occurred with a different supporting character this season, and we've moved into coded messages about the nobility of aiding and abetting a known murderer, with a heavy dose of Stockholm Syndrome, sexual predation as romance, infidelity and physical abuse.
Hoooray, Smallville writers!
And still, I watch. Mostly at this point for the same reasons one would watch Melrose Place back in the day. By driving all character decisions from a plot standpoint rather than bothering to try to have anyone behave rationally or explain their actions in anything that makes sense (and doesn't require heaping guilt upon our Superman), everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, on the show seems as dumb as a bunch of cattle. But unlike Melrose place, eventually the writers seem to sober up at the end of the season, realize they've written their supposedly heroic characters like a herd of morons without a minder, and try to backpeddle out of the other 20-odd episodes of mistakes with a lot of speechifying and self-serving rationalization.
But I cannot look away.
There's a fundamental difference, I think, between how writers typically handle superheroic comics and how Joe or Jane TV writer handles a TV show, or even where those writers are coming from. My guess is that the writers of Smallville are work-for-hire writers with little in the way of a comics background. If their reference point for superheroics are within the loop of madness that Smallville has become, then the reference points just aren't going to be there for the writers to know that, hey... Superman isn't going to be much of a Superman if every cross word from a pal is going to send him into a tizzy of inaction or ineffectiveness.
Superman didn't become Superman because he was unwilling to take action or let grouchy "friends" dictate his actions.
At any rate, I now have a few months to consider whether I'll watch the show next year, but even in that, I know I'm caught in a loop. Smallville always starts out with the best of intentions for a season, and the first two or three episodes don't usually hint much at the madness which is to come. Its when they start setting up the plot for the next 20 episodes that things get out of control.
Lost is really onto something with this whole shortened season with an end point business.
*Week May 4-10, 2009, Smallville was the CW's #2 show, pulling in 3,392,000 viewers. "Dancing with the Stars" pulled in over 20 million. The real news is that, for some reason, America's Funniest Home Videos pulled in almost 7 million viewers. That's a lot of people watching other people get hit in the nards, Leaguers.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
In this one I talk about "Lost" and "Ghost Hunters". So there.
Leaguers, I hope your week has found you well.
Apparently there's a good deal going on in the sports world right now. Basketball playoffs, Brett Favre causing trouble, baseball steroid scandals, and probably something with Dancing with the Stars. But I'm blissfully unaware.
I did watch every episode of "Lost" this season.
Spoilers below
I'm still enjoying the show. My complaint today is the same complaint I had with the show when it started. Somehow the writers have a very hard time getting the pieces of their show to flow organically from a character standpoint, and so, a bit like on a soap opera, characters tend to simply move about the playing board to create new and different conflicts instead of making rational decisions. Someone explain to me why Kate wanted to save people on the island? Aside from that it made a vehicle for the trio to return to the island? I know the show needs to be heavy on plot just to wrap up, but sometimes I wind up feeling that its all plot and they kind of fake the character bits unless it comes to Locke and Linus.
Also: I am deeply concerned that the season spent so much time on Time Travel issues this season, and not once did a single character point out that they couldn't actually be successful in resetting the clock, or none of them would be there to try, which would mean that, hey... this isn't going to work. Too often, time travel is a narrative dead end.
And no Juliet next season? Do not approve.
End spoilers.
I also think I'm... sigh... giving up on Ghost Hunters.
After five years or so of watching these guys scare themselves in other people's homes, businesses, and now THEIR OWN BUSINESS (they inspected the inn Jay and Grant's wives are now, apparently running), I think I'm going to have to say its been fun, but I'm checking out.
The show seems to increasingly ignore their own investigative techniques and use stuff like "I think I saw..." and questionable audio blips as evidence. I'd think that with as many hours as they've logged and as many of these investigations as they've undertaken, there'd be something of a payoff, but they seem to be moving in the opposite direction. And why they think a single night in any location is sufficient to gather enough evidence suggests some vestigal past from a lower budget operation, that I assume they no longer are.
I don't personally buy into the paranormal, but it doesn't mean I didn't want to see something amazing and inexplicable on TV. But at this point... well, alert me when and if it actually occurs.
I guess I'll just return to watching Mythbusters blow up cars and whatnot.
Apparently there's a good deal going on in the sports world right now. Basketball playoffs, Brett Favre causing trouble, baseball steroid scandals, and probably something with Dancing with the Stars. But I'm blissfully unaware.
I did watch every episode of "Lost" this season.
Spoilers below
I'm still enjoying the show. My complaint today is the same complaint I had with the show when it started. Somehow the writers have a very hard time getting the pieces of their show to flow organically from a character standpoint, and so, a bit like on a soap opera, characters tend to simply move about the playing board to create new and different conflicts instead of making rational decisions. Someone explain to me why Kate wanted to save people on the island? Aside from that it made a vehicle for the trio to return to the island? I know the show needs to be heavy on plot just to wrap up, but sometimes I wind up feeling that its all plot and they kind of fake the character bits unless it comes to Locke and Linus.
Also: I am deeply concerned that the season spent so much time on Time Travel issues this season, and not once did a single character point out that they couldn't actually be successful in resetting the clock, or none of them would be there to try, which would mean that, hey... this isn't going to work. Too often, time travel is a narrative dead end.
And no Juliet next season? Do not approve.
End spoilers.
I also think I'm... sigh... giving up on Ghost Hunters.
After five years or so of watching these guys scare themselves in other people's homes, businesses, and now THEIR OWN BUSINESS (they inspected the inn Jay and Grant's wives are now, apparently running), I think I'm going to have to say its been fun, but I'm checking out.
The show seems to increasingly ignore their own investigative techniques and use stuff like "I think I saw..." and questionable audio blips as evidence. I'd think that with as many hours as they've logged and as many of these investigations as they've undertaken, there'd be something of a payoff, but they seem to be moving in the opposite direction. And why they think a single night in any location is sufficient to gather enough evidence suggests some vestigal past from a lower budget operation, that I assume they no longer are.
I don't personally buy into the paranormal, but it doesn't mean I didn't want to see something amazing and inexplicable on TV. But at this point... well, alert me when and if it actually occurs.
I guess I'll just return to watching Mythbusters blow up cars and whatnot.
Troubles Taste Tests Trek
Jamie tastes the all-new Trek breakfast cereal. Here.
And, yes. The communicator, tricorder and phaser are all mine. I waited 25 years to have a communicator, tricorder and phaser, so shut up.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
High School Musical
Here's an interesting bit.
Apparently, Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls and solo fame, teamed with her old high school drama teacher to put on a musical based on a Neutral Milk Hotel album, which was inspired by the story of Anne Frank. Or something.
Here.
Reading about it and watching a few minutes online did, indeed, make me miss the brief period of footlights and greasepaint from my own youth. I would have loved to have been involved in anything this interesting for a production in high school, and while we didn't stick to kiddie-stuff, I was often disappointed we weren't tackling material I might have had more interest in actually performing.
It is true that I, myself, tried my hand at acting in high school. Nothing as elaborate as bringing in a popular indie rock star, but we did several shows a year. We had auditions and rehearsals before school ever started, and usually ran two shows before the winter break, tucked a musical in there, had a spring show and maybe another. Its hard to recall exactly how it all went down, but we ran a lot of plays.
Admittedly, I wasn't much of an actor. I had a hard enough time getting "off book" (I plead made-up learning disability), and was never comfortable with the pantomime that has to occur in stage acting so that every facial movie, every line delivered, etc... reaches the person in the last row. And inhabiting other people's skins wasn't something, I suppose, I was terribly good at.
Also, my assumption is that my line delivery was akin to the sing-songy line delivery which marks most high school and community theater.
I still recall the look of horror on the basketball coach's face when I informed him I was (a) quitting the basketball team, and (b) that I recognized I needed an activity to keep me off the drugs, so I was going to try out for a play.
Amazingly, I landed an understudy role in a 40-minute version of "Midsummer Night's Dream", which actually had The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons in it as "Flute" and Broadway actor Charlie Pollock as "Bottom". And, come to think of it, Jeff Miller of Christian rock band Caedmon's Call.
Huh. never thought of it that way before.
Anyway, it was for a UIL competition, and we had an honest-to-god scandal and were booted out of state competition for a minor rule infraction. All very dramatic.
Its probably important to note that I was not quite of the proportions then that I am now, so people were not looking for me to play "Thug #2" or "Man-Child #7", as I have no doubt I'd be cast now (and did, in fact, get cast a a man-child in a friend's scene in college). We did "Rimers of Eldritch", "Rumors", "The Crucible", "You Can't Take it With You", "All My Sons", "Watch on the Rhine", and, I am sure, one or two others.
We had a few musicals. I sort of preferred backstage work. (A) It was less likely I'd screw up while standing in front of however many people came to the play. (B) Building sets, hanging lights, messing with all that stuff, was a lot more fun than running over the same lines, over and over. There's a lot less in the way of access to power tools when all you're doing is acting.
I don't know how or why, but I wound up in the "fly booth" when we did "Bye, Bye Birdie". This meant I did only two or three things during the duration of the play, but I couldn't leave the actual booth as I couldn't turn on the lights needed to make it from point A to Point B. So for about three hours I had to just sit in this box, and on cue, move signs up and down on a few cranks.
Its a job that is supposed to go unnoticed, but a few pals came to the show, and when I dropped the first sign onto the set, I heard a chorus of "Steeeeaaaaannns" erupt from the audience, just as they'd done when I was shooting free throws on the basketball team. It was sort of gratifying.
What I'd say to our younger readers: I've only seen small bits of the Disney hit, "High School Musical", but... the movie doesn't really reflect much of what happened during any of our plays. There was less dancing, singing about our love, and a lot more snarkiness and sitting around backstage chatting and missing our cues. I don't if the fiction of Disney's musical is particularly helpful, and I'm sure its led to all kinds of confusion for eager-faced kids ready to sing and dance, and finding out that its mostly standing around and occasionally getting yelled at by a tired drama teacher who doesn't want to wrangle any more kids.
I also worked backstage at a bizarre cash grab by the Performing Arts teachers at our school. Someone cooked up the idea to do a revue. Which meant a large cast, lots of set changes, and getting practically any kid who auditioned into the show. And then $8 a head for their parents and friends. And with a cast, band, crew, etc... of around 100 students doing 4 shows, we went SRO all four shows and did okay. Apparently it helped fund our next show or two.
We had a complete set change between every number or two, which was interesting. We had to recruit a bunch of freshman who'd never worked a play before, but we got our act together, and our little unit never missed a beat. I'm still proud of those kids.
Oddly, I blame this play for my recurring nightmare. Its not dissimilar to the standard "I'm back in school, and I need to take a test" dream that, reportedly, you never shake. About 3 or 4 times a year, I still wake up in a cold sweat having dreamed that I showed up to work backstage at a play, but I was supposed to be in a musical, singing and dancing. I have neither skill, so I feel frustrated that someone put me in the position of being in the play in the first place, and I am not clear on how it got to be opening night and I never knew I was in the show.
Backstage, its very much like the "Bit O' Broadway" musical revue. But on stage, I have no idea what's happening. Its something else entirely.
To my credit, I refuse to give up in this dream, declare that the show must go on, and always sort of wander out on stage, waving my arms around and sort of shuffling to the music. I will be happy to demonstrate sometime.
Not wanting to draw attention to my lack of rehearsal, I always kind of hang around the back of the chorus, just try my best to lip synch to the rest of the kids, and get off stage as quickly as possible. Sometimes I have to improvise a solo, but most times, not.
What's weirdest is that some mental sub-routine always actually has songs going to some made up dream musical that some part of my brain is writing. There are sets and costumes and the whole nine-yards that my conscious brain is incapable of putting together. I'd really love to know what this musical is, sometime. Which reminds of the library in the Sandman comics, of the books that people had dreamed but which had never existed.
Anyhow, it always has a sad lack of Amanda Palmer.
Apparently, Amanda Palmer of Dresden Dolls and solo fame, teamed with her old high school drama teacher to put on a musical based on a Neutral Milk Hotel album, which was inspired by the story of Anne Frank. Or something.
Here.
Reading about it and watching a few minutes online did, indeed, make me miss the brief period of footlights and greasepaint from my own youth. I would have loved to have been involved in anything this interesting for a production in high school, and while we didn't stick to kiddie-stuff, I was often disappointed we weren't tackling material I might have had more interest in actually performing.
It is true that I, myself, tried my hand at acting in high school. Nothing as elaborate as bringing in a popular indie rock star, but we did several shows a year. We had auditions and rehearsals before school ever started, and usually ran two shows before the winter break, tucked a musical in there, had a spring show and maybe another. Its hard to recall exactly how it all went down, but we ran a lot of plays.
Admittedly, I wasn't much of an actor. I had a hard enough time getting "off book" (I plead made-up learning disability), and was never comfortable with the pantomime that has to occur in stage acting so that every facial movie, every line delivered, etc... reaches the person in the last row. And inhabiting other people's skins wasn't something, I suppose, I was terribly good at.
Also, my assumption is that my line delivery was akin to the sing-songy line delivery which marks most high school and community theater.
I still recall the look of horror on the basketball coach's face when I informed him I was (a) quitting the basketball team, and (b) that I recognized I needed an activity to keep me off the drugs, so I was going to try out for a play.
Amazingly, I landed an understudy role in a 40-minute version of "Midsummer Night's Dream", which actually had The Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons in it as "Flute" and Broadway actor Charlie Pollock as "Bottom". And, come to think of it, Jeff Miller of Christian rock band Caedmon's Call.
Huh. never thought of it that way before.
Anyway, it was for a UIL competition, and we had an honest-to-god scandal and were booted out of state competition for a minor rule infraction. All very dramatic.
Its probably important to note that I was not quite of the proportions then that I am now, so people were not looking for me to play "Thug #2" or "Man-Child #7", as I have no doubt I'd be cast now (and did, in fact, get cast a a man-child in a friend's scene in college). We did "Rimers of Eldritch", "Rumors", "The Crucible", "You Can't Take it With You", "All My Sons", "Watch on the Rhine", and, I am sure, one or two others.
We had a few musicals. I sort of preferred backstage work. (A) It was less likely I'd screw up while standing in front of however many people came to the play. (B) Building sets, hanging lights, messing with all that stuff, was a lot more fun than running over the same lines, over and over. There's a lot less in the way of access to power tools when all you're doing is acting.
I don't know how or why, but I wound up in the "fly booth" when we did "Bye, Bye Birdie". This meant I did only two or three things during the duration of the play, but I couldn't leave the actual booth as I couldn't turn on the lights needed to make it from point A to Point B. So for about three hours I had to just sit in this box, and on cue, move signs up and down on a few cranks.
Its a job that is supposed to go unnoticed, but a few pals came to the show, and when I dropped the first sign onto the set, I heard a chorus of "Steeeeaaaaannns" erupt from the audience, just as they'd done when I was shooting free throws on the basketball team. It was sort of gratifying.
What I'd say to our younger readers: I've only seen small bits of the Disney hit, "High School Musical", but... the movie doesn't really reflect much of what happened during any of our plays. There was less dancing, singing about our love, and a lot more snarkiness and sitting around backstage chatting and missing our cues. I don't if the fiction of Disney's musical is particularly helpful, and I'm sure its led to all kinds of confusion for eager-faced kids ready to sing and dance, and finding out that its mostly standing around and occasionally getting yelled at by a tired drama teacher who doesn't want to wrangle any more kids.
I also worked backstage at a bizarre cash grab by the Performing Arts teachers at our school. Someone cooked up the idea to do a revue. Which meant a large cast, lots of set changes, and getting practically any kid who auditioned into the show. And then $8 a head for their parents and friends. And with a cast, band, crew, etc... of around 100 students doing 4 shows, we went SRO all four shows and did okay. Apparently it helped fund our next show or two.
We had a complete set change between every number or two, which was interesting. We had to recruit a bunch of freshman who'd never worked a play before, but we got our act together, and our little unit never missed a beat. I'm still proud of those kids.
Oddly, I blame this play for my recurring nightmare. Its not dissimilar to the standard "I'm back in school, and I need to take a test" dream that, reportedly, you never shake. About 3 or 4 times a year, I still wake up in a cold sweat having dreamed that I showed up to work backstage at a play, but I was supposed to be in a musical, singing and dancing. I have neither skill, so I feel frustrated that someone put me in the position of being in the play in the first place, and I am not clear on how it got to be opening night and I never knew I was in the show.
Backstage, its very much like the "Bit O' Broadway" musical revue. But on stage, I have no idea what's happening. Its something else entirely.
To my credit, I refuse to give up in this dream, declare that the show must go on, and always sort of wander out on stage, waving my arms around and sort of shuffling to the music. I will be happy to demonstrate sometime.
Not wanting to draw attention to my lack of rehearsal, I always kind of hang around the back of the chorus, just try my best to lip synch to the rest of the kids, and get off stage as quickly as possible. Sometimes I have to improvise a solo, but most times, not.
What's weirdest is that some mental sub-routine always actually has songs going to some made up dream musical that some part of my brain is writing. There are sets and costumes and the whole nine-yards that my conscious brain is incapable of putting together. I'd really love to know what this musical is, sometime. Which reminds of the library in the Sandman comics, of the books that people had dreamed but which had never existed.
Anyhow, it always has a sad lack of Amanda Palmer.
Giant Octopus vs. Mega Shark (or something like that)
...all I know is that I am going to watch this movie.
God bless you, little Debbie Gibson.
God bless you, little Debbie Gibson.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
I have absolutely nothing of interest to say
Which, I suppose, is nothing new. This is a blog with a readership of about 12.
You're on your own for the next 24 hours or more.
I'm going to read a book or something.
You're on your own for the next 24 hours or more.
I'm going to read a book or something.
Monday, May 11, 2009
hat and san francisco
Howdy, Leaguers!
Retiring Pontificatin' Hat Mark I
Leaguers who've made it out to League HQ or run into me at Barton Springs or ACL fest will be familiar with my Pontificatin' Hat.
I look faaaantastic here. Also, in my hand? That is "Pontificating Fuel", kids. Ask your mom where you can get some!
As you can see, the Pontificatin' Hat Mark I didn't ever fit exactly right. With summer here and ACL Fest tickets secured, I decided it was time to step it up a bit. Get a bit more in space around my noggin' and a bit more acreage out of the brim.
The Pontificatin' Hat was dubbed as it somehow tended to make appearances at the end of parties when we'd find ourselves on the back porch, chatting. One does not wear a "thinking cap" for such occasions, Leaguers. I recommend securing a Pontificatin' Hat of your own.
I'd expect Pontificatin' Hat Mark II, a Guatemalan Palm Cattleman's style hat, to start making appearances as early as this weekend. Heck, I just wore it outside at 9:30 at night to water the trees.
For fashion and lifestyle reasons, I resisted a cowboy hat for many a year. But after living in Phoenix and dealing with the relentless sunshine there, and deciding I kind of missed cowboy hats instead of grass-weave bermuda hats that were common in golf-mad Arizona, upon my return to Texas I felt it necessary to obtain and employ the traditional hatwear of my home state.
I'm certainly hanging onto the Mark I. I have a lot of affection for that sweaty, beat up hat.
San Francisco CA
It looks like Jamie and I are actually taking a vacation of sorts this summer. This is not something we normally do. We have a lot of logistical issues to resolve every time we leave town for more than 48 hours as Jamie needs dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. That requires her to find a clinic where she can go that takes our insurance, etc...
Traveling is also tiring for Jamie, so add in a dialysis day, which usually means a lot of resting, and we need to plan in pretty good detail what we're up to.
Luckily for us, The Dug and K. live in the Bay Area, and so we were already thinking that heading out that way was a good idea. Throw in that they became engaged a week or so ago (something I'm still excited about) and its a good time to fly out there for a visit.
No idea what I'll do, and what Jamie will want to do and see, but we've got a pair of Bay Area regulars to show us around, and that ain't bad.
In truth, my knowledge of San Francisco, etc... comes mostly from movies, TV and Mythbusters. But I'm not too worried about running out of activities. I had lunch with David G. today, and he had a very specific place he recommended for breakfast that I have to remember.
Anyhow, if I disappear for a few days in July, now you'll know why.
I should probably look up Bankston while I'm out there.
Also, I'm going to do this...
Retiring Pontificatin' Hat Mark I
Leaguers who've made it out to League HQ or run into me at Barton Springs or ACL fest will be familiar with my Pontificatin' Hat.
I look faaaantastic here. Also, in my hand? That is "Pontificating Fuel", kids. Ask your mom where you can get some!
As you can see, the Pontificatin' Hat Mark I didn't ever fit exactly right. With summer here and ACL Fest tickets secured, I decided it was time to step it up a bit. Get a bit more in space around my noggin' and a bit more acreage out of the brim.
The Pontificatin' Hat was dubbed as it somehow tended to make appearances at the end of parties when we'd find ourselves on the back porch, chatting. One does not wear a "thinking cap" for such occasions, Leaguers. I recommend securing a Pontificatin' Hat of your own.
I'd expect Pontificatin' Hat Mark II, a Guatemalan Palm Cattleman's style hat, to start making appearances as early as this weekend. Heck, I just wore it outside at 9:30 at night to water the trees.
For fashion and lifestyle reasons, I resisted a cowboy hat for many a year. But after living in Phoenix and dealing with the relentless sunshine there, and deciding I kind of missed cowboy hats instead of grass-weave bermuda hats that were common in golf-mad Arizona, upon my return to Texas I felt it necessary to obtain and employ the traditional hatwear of my home state.
I'm certainly hanging onto the Mark I. I have a lot of affection for that sweaty, beat up hat.
San Francisco CA
It looks like Jamie and I are actually taking a vacation of sorts this summer. This is not something we normally do. We have a lot of logistical issues to resolve every time we leave town for more than 48 hours as Jamie needs dialysis Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. That requires her to find a clinic where she can go that takes our insurance, etc...
Traveling is also tiring for Jamie, so add in a dialysis day, which usually means a lot of resting, and we need to plan in pretty good detail what we're up to.
Luckily for us, The Dug and K. live in the Bay Area, and so we were already thinking that heading out that way was a good idea. Throw in that they became engaged a week or so ago (something I'm still excited about) and its a good time to fly out there for a visit.
No idea what I'll do, and what Jamie will want to do and see, but we've got a pair of Bay Area regulars to show us around, and that ain't bad.
In truth, my knowledge of San Francisco, etc... comes mostly from movies, TV and Mythbusters. But I'm not too worried about running out of activities. I had lunch with David G. today, and he had a very specific place he recommended for breakfast that I have to remember.
Anyhow, if I disappear for a few days in July, now you'll know why.
I should probably look up Bankston while I'm out there.
Also, I'm going to do this...
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The League sees the All-New Star Trek
Vroooom! Vrooom! Vroooooooooom!
Spoilers Ahoy. Be forewarned.
So, okay. I really liked the new Trek.
There's a lot of plot and story issues with the movie, I'm not going to fib. Characters' motivations don't make sense (especially our villain, the catalyst for the plot), and its sort of derivative. And, if what they did is what I think they did, it would give longtime Trek fans a long, long moment of pause.
But...
If you're like me and felt the past ten years or so of Trek has taken a turn for the not-so-great, and you never quite got over the original series, then this is a welcome change.
Prior to the new movie, I watched "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", the Alan Dean Foster penned, post "2001: A Space Odyssey", post "Star Wars" relaunch of the Star Trek franchise. And the differences between the two movies really couldn't be more pronounced in structure, pacing, philosophy, etc... The new movie is much, much more in the vein of the high-octane action movies of the past few years that had left the Trek franchise limping pretty far behind.
The movie does do a great job of introducing the characters and distilling down a lot of character bits developed over the decades into one cohesive narrative. There may be new actors in the Starfleet uniforms, but the writers were pretty intent on making sure that the characters that they'd loved for so many years are still intact, even if its coming from a slightly different angle. This most likely won't throw off too many viewers, what with the relaunch of other popular franchises of late, from Batman to James Bond (and us comic fans are very, very used to the whole "Earth 1, Earth 2" concept. As Trek fans should be, from "Mirror, Mirror".)
My all-new imaginary friends
The story moves at Warp 10, so its possible to miss the plotholes and/ or not care too much about them. And... this should give you an idea regarding how pleased I was with the movie, it really doesn't matter a whole lot whether the plot adds up or not. The movie isn't here to spin a crazy new plot for the Star Trek franchise, its here to get a new generation of viewers hooked on the antics of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Uhura, Sulu and the rest.
One of the things I'd loved about Star Trek: The Motion Picture was the scale of the thing. From the interior of the Enterprise (something rarely explored, and - oddly- not emphasized much in any other incarnation), to the vastness of space and the possibilities for craft size, etc...
While the FX of ST:TMP still hold up, the new film takes advantage of the power of CG in a way that the past fifteen years of Trek have struggled. Its a really great looking movie, even if the battle scenes do become a bit unnecessarily chaotic at times (but less so than the average Michael bay travesty).
The interior of the Enterprise, etc... actually makes some sort of sense and the designers must have considered what actual engine rooms on battleships, etc... look like, rather than just imagining a living room with glowy things. And the bridge is representative enough of the classic bridge, with what seems like a reasonable update in technology, etc...
I was genuinely pleased with the performances of everyone, even when a few scenes may have gone a little slapsticky for the Trek franchise. But it also generated humor in a film that wasn't going to count on laughs just from a fawning fanbase laughing at some insider joke.
It's a fast-paced popcorn flick that does its job admirably. And, after having paid the same amount to see "Wolverine" last week, I can verify that you could do a lot, lot worse.
Whether or not they dug themselves into all kinds of complications for a sequel remains to be seen. They certain had enough issues with the plot, how they handled... ahem... different versions of characters, etc... could be incredibly problematic. But I don't want to assume the worst until we get another installment.
For more, I recommend reading Jason's spoiler-rific review. Also, my rundown of my moderate Trek fandom.
Trek and Me
Ed. note: This isn't my Trek review. I'll get to that later.
When I was a very small kid, I recall watching Trek re-runs a little bit. There was a cartoon I caught once or twice, but I was mostly into Star Wars, so the pacing and lack of space ninjas and whatnot was just not that exciting to me. They spent an awful lot of time talking on Star Trek, and too little time shooting at stuff or employing Ewoks an cannon fodder.
In 2nd or 3rd grade, someone showed me Star Trek: The Motion Picture on VHS, and I mostly remember being painfully, painfully bored. Until the end, which I found trippy and awesome. Somehow back then I knew exactly what Voyager was (I'll thank The Admiral), and so it sorta made sense where they were coming from. I appreciated the scope of the movie, but as an ADD-riddled kid, it was just so sloooooow.
Summer after 3rd grade, we stayed at my grandparents in Missouri, and though I had not seen Star Trek II, we rented Star Trek III one night (they owned a VCR. We did not.), and watched the movie, which I recall really liking. We also watched that Nostradamus documentary that everyone watched back then, and I liked that less because it predicted nuclear armageddon in my lifetime. Sure, some of it freaked me out, but I liked the Klingons and sort of pseudo-sciency stuff around Genesis.
In 4th grade we moved to Austin, and I had a lot of downtime around 5:00pm for some reason. 5:00 was also when KBVO showed Star Trek reruns. So each afternoon I'd decamp to the TV and try to watch Trek. The episodes that really stick out are The Cage, Arena, the salt monster episode, The Trouble with Tribbles, The Enemy Within, and many, many others. Mirror, Mirror, of course...
My make-believe buddies in 4th grade
There was also one where McCoy was driving around Spock's body by remote control for some reason, and I thought that was the craziest thing, ever.
I got into the characters at that point, sort of lionizing Mr. Spock in particular. So I sort of bought into the Trek thing pretty hard. Not like Reed, Jason's new pal... but I was into Trek. In fact, I remember trying to talk to friends at school about Trek, and it seemed (and this is a painful stereotype, but its true), the kids in my nerd/honors classes were always much more inclined to be into Trek than the rest of my classmates. It was a sort of given that the boys should have some working knowledge of Trek. The girls... not so much.
In part, thanks to Trek, I learned that just because I was enthusiastic about something, not everybody was going to love it. For God's sake, I wore Spock ears to school for my Halloween outfit in 5th grade (I would go on to dress as Kirk for a high school drama party my senior year).
the League, circa 1986, wishes you to live long and prosper. Special tip 'o the hat to Jamie for finding and scanning this classic for her own post. And to Jason, for taking this picture a few decades back.
But I also understood pretty early on that love for Trek took many forms. I might like Trek the way I liked basketball and football, but not the way I loved X-Men or Batman at the time. But I saw that there were folks who really, really loved Trek.
We would attend comic conventions at the Holiday Inn down by the river (its that round tower, sort of by Picky's Pantry Chevron, Austinites. You know it.), and those would be held in conjunction with Trek cons. And those guys were intense. I think Jason saw more of it than I did (I was digging through back-issue bins, he was looking around knowing he could read anything I spent my money on), but I do recall seeing the guys in Star Fleet outfits and thinking that was just kooky. Let alone, where did one secure one of those get-ups?
Upon its release, we went to see Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the one in the 1980's with the whales) at the Arbor IV, back when that meant something. The Arbor had THX sound, and something resembling stadium-style seating. At the time, if you wanted to get the full cinematic experience, and didn't want yoru shoes to stick to the floor of Showplace 6, you talked Dad into taking you to The Arbor IV. And I want to say this, because nobody ever believes me but...
The audience STOOD for chunks of the movie. STOOD. That was how excited these folks were about their Shatner and Spock. There was applause, and shouting, and just a damn lot of love for what they were seeing on screen. When the harpoon bounced off the Klingon ship? Oh. My. God. Pandemonium.
Afterward, we dissected the movie with my dad at Taco Bell. That's how much I remember being jazzed about that experience. That was all, of course, before Star Trek V: The League Demands a Refund (which featured a fan dance from Nichelle Nichols about 20 years too late).
I've only been to one other movie where people freaked out like that, and it was seeing Pulp Fiction at the Hogg on UT's campus fall of 1994, prior to widespread theatrical release. People also stood up there. But I really understood how important Trek was to people at that moment, and it was pretty huge for me, too.
I wound up keeping gerbils for a while. I think I was more interested in the habitrail than the actual animals, but I did wind up naming one of them Leonard Nimoy (the other was named Richard Nixon. I don't know exactly why.).
Like a lot of other young guys watching Trek, I had a TV crush on Lt. Cmdr. Uhura. You can have your Nurse Chapel or your Ensign Rand. But I was all about a savvy communications officer in go-go boots. Because I think if I ran a star ship between 4th grade and college, that's how I'd have run it, too.
I don't want to overstate this, but I did grow up seeing Uhura on the bridge of the Enterprise, understood she was an officer, and that was sort of a social battle won for somebody, somewhere. I would be in college before I actually stopped to think about how odd that must have been in the 1960's to have a black woman on a prime time show appearing as a capable military officer. Sure, she wasn't part of Kirk's inner circle, but she was featured as much as any bridge members back in the day. And she would go on to be as important as anyone in the feature films (in certain trek media, she's an Admiral).
a sweet-ass ride
No sooner did kids our age have their hands on a camcorder than we were doing our own Trek spoofs. I still recall a video of Jason and Reed as the crew of the Starship Win-a-Prize. Reed's Captain Kirk was a little trigger happy, if I recall, and Jason's science officer kept being approached by our border collie, Misty. He worked her in. Exterior shots were Lego. The bridge AND outerspace looked curiosly like our living room.
I initially rejected The Next Generation as looking like somebody's living room zipping through space (I still hate the set design). Plus, it took a few episodes to have someone who looked like a high school principal running the ship. Eventually I settled down, got over the lack of Vulcans (I never, ever understood why they didn't have a Vulcan or three), and got on board with the show. But that first season was rough.
I followed the original series through "The Undiscovered Country" and into "Generations". But once Next Generation wound down and took over the movies, I just wasn't super-interested anymore. I'd only dipped in and out of Deep Space 9, occasionally watched Voyager, and never took to Enterprise. Bully for you folks who did, but I don't know really my Tuvok from my Archer.
As much as I loved Star Wars (until, circa, 2002, when I gave up), Star Trek's tendency to lean toward science fiction rather than fantasy appealed to a completely different side of me. It wasn't as flashy as droids and lightsabers, but it all seemed so possible. And even if it weren't peering into the future, it seemed to suggest ideas as problems for engineers to solve and diplomatic and naval strategy to ponder rather than just accepting that "it's The Force, go with it."
I don't agree with all of Roddenberry's vision of the future. The notion of an enlightened world, free from human avarice seems so far off, that's the hardest part of his fantasy to swallow, but I see why he wanted to present that vision. Without believing in that goal enough to put it forth as an option, how can you work towards it?
And he didn't always achieve his own vision. Trek, after all, was still basically (as I like to say) three dudes flying around space in their space corvette, getting into scrapes while the swinger of the group picked up chicks and his wacky pals sniped at each other. Roddenberry's vision of the future still featured three white dudes and a lot of helpless women in need of Kirk's tender ministrations.
But it did throw open the door for what came later in other series that had internalized those notions a bit better.
I think it's now closed, but the Hilton casino in Vegas had a whole wing devoted to this show that only made it on TV for three seasons. The Star Trek Experience was an amazing fan-boy's dream. The restaurant was built to look like the set of the bar from Deep Space 9, there were real props from the shows everywhere, including models of the ships. Klingons wandered about and folks in Starfleet uniforms. There was a ride with a narrative associated with it that started after they somehow faked beaming you aboard the Bridge of the Enterprise. Which... I still don't really know how they did it. I'm sure they heard "whoa!" a hundred times a day.
I was always a little sad Jason never saw it.
Anyhow, Trek has been with me for a long, long time. I am actually quite thrilled that Paramount is taking steps to make sure it might be with me for quite a lot longer, and with some version of the characters who I loved first and best. I don't see it as dishonoring Gene Roddenberry. I look at it as caretaking the vision of teh future Roddenberry first shared more than 40 years ago.
If Kirk's communicator could plant the idea of a cell phone in an enterprising engineer's head, then what else can we hope to see materialize? How long before they're beaming us up?
I have to admit, I was at Target last week and saw they were selling Star Trek toys. After wanting one for 20 years, I am now the proud owner of a Starfleet Communicator. If I can locate the Tri-Corder, my mission is complete.
When I was a very small kid, I recall watching Trek re-runs a little bit. There was a cartoon I caught once or twice, but I was mostly into Star Wars, so the pacing and lack of space ninjas and whatnot was just not that exciting to me. They spent an awful lot of time talking on Star Trek, and too little time shooting at stuff or employing Ewoks an cannon fodder.
In 2nd or 3rd grade, someone showed me Star Trek: The Motion Picture on VHS, and I mostly remember being painfully, painfully bored. Until the end, which I found trippy and awesome. Somehow back then I knew exactly what Voyager was (I'll thank The Admiral), and so it sorta made sense where they were coming from. I appreciated the scope of the movie, but as an ADD-riddled kid, it was just so sloooooow.
Summer after 3rd grade, we stayed at my grandparents in Missouri, and though I had not seen Star Trek II, we rented Star Trek III one night (they owned a VCR. We did not.), and watched the movie, which I recall really liking. We also watched that Nostradamus documentary that everyone watched back then, and I liked that less because it predicted nuclear armageddon in my lifetime. Sure, some of it freaked me out, but I liked the Klingons and sort of pseudo-sciency stuff around Genesis.
In 4th grade we moved to Austin, and I had a lot of downtime around 5:00pm for some reason. 5:00 was also when KBVO showed Star Trek reruns. So each afternoon I'd decamp to the TV and try to watch Trek. The episodes that really stick out are The Cage, Arena, the salt monster episode, The Trouble with Tribbles, The Enemy Within, and many, many others. Mirror, Mirror, of course...
My make-believe buddies in 4th grade
There was also one where McCoy was driving around Spock's body by remote control for some reason, and I thought that was the craziest thing, ever.
I got into the characters at that point, sort of lionizing Mr. Spock in particular. So I sort of bought into the Trek thing pretty hard. Not like Reed, Jason's new pal... but I was into Trek. In fact, I remember trying to talk to friends at school about Trek, and it seemed (and this is a painful stereotype, but its true), the kids in my nerd/honors classes were always much more inclined to be into Trek than the rest of my classmates. It was a sort of given that the boys should have some working knowledge of Trek. The girls... not so much.
In part, thanks to Trek, I learned that just because I was enthusiastic about something, not everybody was going to love it. For God's sake, I wore Spock ears to school for my Halloween outfit in 5th grade (I would go on to dress as Kirk for a high school drama party my senior year).
the League, circa 1986, wishes you to live long and prosper. Special tip 'o the hat to Jamie for finding and scanning this classic for her own post. And to Jason, for taking this picture a few decades back.
But I also understood pretty early on that love for Trek took many forms. I might like Trek the way I liked basketball and football, but not the way I loved X-Men or Batman at the time. But I saw that there were folks who really, really loved Trek.
We would attend comic conventions at the Holiday Inn down by the river (its that round tower, sort of by Picky's Pantry Chevron, Austinites. You know it.), and those would be held in conjunction with Trek cons. And those guys were intense. I think Jason saw more of it than I did (I was digging through back-issue bins, he was looking around knowing he could read anything I spent my money on), but I do recall seeing the guys in Star Fleet outfits and thinking that was just kooky. Let alone, where did one secure one of those get-ups?
Upon its release, we went to see Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the one in the 1980's with the whales) at the Arbor IV, back when that meant something. The Arbor had THX sound, and something resembling stadium-style seating. At the time, if you wanted to get the full cinematic experience, and didn't want yoru shoes to stick to the floor of Showplace 6, you talked Dad into taking you to The Arbor IV. And I want to say this, because nobody ever believes me but...
The audience STOOD for chunks of the movie. STOOD. That was how excited these folks were about their Shatner and Spock. There was applause, and shouting, and just a damn lot of love for what they were seeing on screen. When the harpoon bounced off the Klingon ship? Oh. My. God. Pandemonium.
Afterward, we dissected the movie with my dad at Taco Bell. That's how much I remember being jazzed about that experience. That was all, of course, before Star Trek V: The League Demands a Refund (which featured a fan dance from Nichelle Nichols about 20 years too late).
I've only been to one other movie where people freaked out like that, and it was seeing Pulp Fiction at the Hogg on UT's campus fall of 1994, prior to widespread theatrical release. People also stood up there. But I really understood how important Trek was to people at that moment, and it was pretty huge for me, too.
I wound up keeping gerbils for a while. I think I was more interested in the habitrail than the actual animals, but I did wind up naming one of them Leonard Nimoy (the other was named Richard Nixon. I don't know exactly why.).
Like a lot of other young guys watching Trek, I had a TV crush on Lt. Cmdr. Uhura. You can have your Nurse Chapel or your Ensign Rand. But I was all about a savvy communications officer in go-go boots. Because I think if I ran a star ship between 4th grade and college, that's how I'd have run it, too.
I don't want to overstate this, but I did grow up seeing Uhura on the bridge of the Enterprise, understood she was an officer, and that was sort of a social battle won for somebody, somewhere. I would be in college before I actually stopped to think about how odd that must have been in the 1960's to have a black woman on a prime time show appearing as a capable military officer. Sure, she wasn't part of Kirk's inner circle, but she was featured as much as any bridge members back in the day. And she would go on to be as important as anyone in the feature films (in certain trek media, she's an Admiral).
a sweet-ass ride
No sooner did kids our age have their hands on a camcorder than we were doing our own Trek spoofs. I still recall a video of Jason and Reed as the crew of the Starship Win-a-Prize. Reed's Captain Kirk was a little trigger happy, if I recall, and Jason's science officer kept being approached by our border collie, Misty. He worked her in. Exterior shots were Lego. The bridge AND outerspace looked curiosly like our living room.
I initially rejected The Next Generation as looking like somebody's living room zipping through space (I still hate the set design). Plus, it took a few episodes to have someone who looked like a high school principal running the ship. Eventually I settled down, got over the lack of Vulcans (I never, ever understood why they didn't have a Vulcan or three), and got on board with the show. But that first season was rough.
I followed the original series through "The Undiscovered Country" and into "Generations". But once Next Generation wound down and took over the movies, I just wasn't super-interested anymore. I'd only dipped in and out of Deep Space 9, occasionally watched Voyager, and never took to Enterprise. Bully for you folks who did, but I don't know really my Tuvok from my Archer.
As much as I loved Star Wars (until, circa, 2002, when I gave up), Star Trek's tendency to lean toward science fiction rather than fantasy appealed to a completely different side of me. It wasn't as flashy as droids and lightsabers, but it all seemed so possible. And even if it weren't peering into the future, it seemed to suggest ideas as problems for engineers to solve and diplomatic and naval strategy to ponder rather than just accepting that "it's The Force, go with it."
I don't agree with all of Roddenberry's vision of the future. The notion of an enlightened world, free from human avarice seems so far off, that's the hardest part of his fantasy to swallow, but I see why he wanted to present that vision. Without believing in that goal enough to put it forth as an option, how can you work towards it?
And he didn't always achieve his own vision. Trek, after all, was still basically (as I like to say) three dudes flying around space in their space corvette, getting into scrapes while the swinger of the group picked up chicks and his wacky pals sniped at each other. Roddenberry's vision of the future still featured three white dudes and a lot of helpless women in need of Kirk's tender ministrations.
But it did throw open the door for what came later in other series that had internalized those notions a bit better.
I think it's now closed, but the Hilton casino in Vegas had a whole wing devoted to this show that only made it on TV for three seasons. The Star Trek Experience was an amazing fan-boy's dream. The restaurant was built to look like the set of the bar from Deep Space 9, there were real props from the shows everywhere, including models of the ships. Klingons wandered about and folks in Starfleet uniforms. There was a ride with a narrative associated with it that started after they somehow faked beaming you aboard the Bridge of the Enterprise. Which... I still don't really know how they did it. I'm sure they heard "whoa!" a hundred times a day.
I was always a little sad Jason never saw it.
Anyhow, Trek has been with me for a long, long time. I am actually quite thrilled that Paramount is taking steps to make sure it might be with me for quite a lot longer, and with some version of the characters who I loved first and best. I don't see it as dishonoring Gene Roddenberry. I look at it as caretaking the vision of teh future Roddenberry first shared more than 40 years ago.
If Kirk's communicator could plant the idea of a cell phone in an enterprising engineer's head, then what else can we hope to see materialize? How long before they're beaming us up?
I have to admit, I was at Target last week and saw they were selling Star Trek toys. After wanting one for 20 years, I am now the proud owner of a Starfleet Communicator. If I can locate the Tri-Corder, my mission is complete.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there in Leaguer-Land.
I'll be spending Mother's Day this year with Judy, Jamie's mom, and will raise a glass to my own mom when they come to visit in a few weeks.
I've known my own mom for quite a few years, and in that time, I've had opportunity to observe her at work.
it is impossible for me to imagine the KareBear sitting this still unless she were asleep
As lucky as I am to have the KareBear for a mother, its difficult to underestimate how many other kids my mom has taken care of over the years. A constant of the Steans household was to see all our pals running around the house, being fed, spending the night, and having a second home at our house. I was probably in high school before I figured out not all moms did this (Peabo's mom, however, probably saw a doubling in the food bill in the years I grew up in Austin as I wasn't shy about wandering into their kitchen).
And as my mom has taught however many decades worth of kids, it wasn't uncommon for us to have some kid who was having a rough time of it hanging around the house in one shape or another. From the girls whose family lost their house in a tornado to me wandering downstairs in college and seeing a pool full of kids I didn't know were going to be there that day, the lady's heart knows no limits to size nor does it know boundaries. She genuinely loved those kids, and when I'd wander the hallways of her school when I'd come to visit, those kids who hadn't been in her room for a few years were still trying to talk to her in the hallway.
All that, and there was never any question whether she had time to be a den mother for my cub scout troop, was hauling me and my pals to basketball practice, hosting parties for my drama gang, whatever... She was always there.
I don't want to paint too much of a Beaver Cleaver picture. Like any family, we had our differences. But I can honestly say that those differences were always something easy for me to deal with, especially as I grew older and knew that those differences stemmed out of approach, not out of any lack of love.
As nuts as I was about Jamie, I don't know if it was because of how nuts I was about Jamie or because she liked Jamie all on her own, but Karebear has been nothing but supportive of Jamie and me in a million different ways. And I know she's very pleased to finally have a daughter instead of just two, big, smelly boys.
probably what the KareBear envisioned for herself when she had a family
What she wound up with
Since I graduated, she's retired, but that doesn't mean she isn't volunteering at her former school, teaching English to new residents, and helping out with my grandfather and the kids of family friends.
This spring Karebear is fulfilling a lifelong goal of journeying to Kenya on a mission trip with a church group. While its traveling far from home, and into an unknown situation, part of me thinks its pretty typical of my mom. She's going to go above and beyond to help people she doesn't or who she barely knows.
So, I salute thee, Karebear. Happy Mother's Day. Hope that bouquet showed up.
I'll be spending Mother's Day this year with Judy, Jamie's mom, and will raise a glass to my own mom when they come to visit in a few weeks.
I've known my own mom for quite a few years, and in that time, I've had opportunity to observe her at work.
it is impossible for me to imagine the KareBear sitting this still unless she were asleep
As lucky as I am to have the KareBear for a mother, its difficult to underestimate how many other kids my mom has taken care of over the years. A constant of the Steans household was to see all our pals running around the house, being fed, spending the night, and having a second home at our house. I was probably in high school before I figured out not all moms did this (Peabo's mom, however, probably saw a doubling in the food bill in the years I grew up in Austin as I wasn't shy about wandering into their kitchen).
And as my mom has taught however many decades worth of kids, it wasn't uncommon for us to have some kid who was having a rough time of it hanging around the house in one shape or another. From the girls whose family lost their house in a tornado to me wandering downstairs in college and seeing a pool full of kids I didn't know were going to be there that day, the lady's heart knows no limits to size nor does it know boundaries. She genuinely loved those kids, and when I'd wander the hallways of her school when I'd come to visit, those kids who hadn't been in her room for a few years were still trying to talk to her in the hallway.
All that, and there was never any question whether she had time to be a den mother for my cub scout troop, was hauling me and my pals to basketball practice, hosting parties for my drama gang, whatever... She was always there.
I don't want to paint too much of a Beaver Cleaver picture. Like any family, we had our differences. But I can honestly say that those differences were always something easy for me to deal with, especially as I grew older and knew that those differences stemmed out of approach, not out of any lack of love.
As nuts as I was about Jamie, I don't know if it was because of how nuts I was about Jamie or because she liked Jamie all on her own, but Karebear has been nothing but supportive of Jamie and me in a million different ways. And I know she's very pleased to finally have a daughter instead of just two, big, smelly boys.
probably what the KareBear envisioned for herself when she had a family
What she wound up with
Since I graduated, she's retired, but that doesn't mean she isn't volunteering at her former school, teaching English to new residents, and helping out with my grandfather and the kids of family friends.
This spring Karebear is fulfilling a lifelong goal of journeying to Kenya on a mission trip with a church group. While its traveling far from home, and into an unknown situation, part of me thinks its pretty typical of my mom. She's going to go above and beyond to help people she doesn't or who she barely knows.
So, I salute thee, Karebear. Happy Mother's Day. Hope that bouquet showed up.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
FYI: Comic Fodder No More
As an FYI, I am no longer contributing at Comic Fodder.
That's no political statement, I've just not had time to write about comics lately AND actually read them. Each CF post took around 3-4 hours, and finding that time in a week had become increasingly difficult, as well as feeling jazzed enough about some minor point of comic-minutia to get revved up to write on it in the manner needed.
In the end, I was writing more about comics than reading them. And that, Leaguers, is just wrong. I want to enjoy my comics, not look at them as a "to do" list.
So... part of why I returned to Comic Fodder was to side-bar my in-depth comic discussions which usually received no feedback, whatsoever, here at League of Melbotis. I would alert you guys... that's probably coming back in some shape or form. I probably won't be avoiding the topic, and without CF as a platform...
I'd like to thank Tpull (Travis Pullen) and Mac Slocum of the Fodder Network for being a great Publisher and Editor. And, of course, CF contributor Simon for having such great insight.
That is all.
That's no political statement, I've just not had time to write about comics lately AND actually read them. Each CF post took around 3-4 hours, and finding that time in a week had become increasingly difficult, as well as feeling jazzed enough about some minor point of comic-minutia to get revved up to write on it in the manner needed.
In the end, I was writing more about comics than reading them. And that, Leaguers, is just wrong. I want to enjoy my comics, not look at them as a "to do" list.
So... part of why I returned to Comic Fodder was to side-bar my in-depth comic discussions which usually received no feedback, whatsoever, here at League of Melbotis. I would alert you guys... that's probably coming back in some shape or form. I probably won't be avoiding the topic, and without CF as a platform...
I'd like to thank Tpull (Travis Pullen) and Mac Slocum of the Fodder Network for being a great Publisher and Editor. And, of course, CF contributor Simon for having such great insight.
That is all.
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