What To Do?
Jul 11I’m plotting my Con schedule, configuring my line-up like a particularly intricate game of Tetris, trying to ensure that I have adequetely budgeted for 1) panels and 2) exploring the vast con floor and of course 3) drinking.
My biggest issue so far is Sunday. I can leave whenever I want on Sunday, as we are driving. However, I will also most likely be CON-ED OUT by Sunday, and will be at that super-special point where I will totally go into drooly, eye-twitchy spasms if I have to sit still for one more Q&A or see one more glossy promotional poster for Heroes or hear one more nasal voice pontificating about Superman Returns.
So. I’m definitely staying for Gail Simone’s Q&A, which ends at 12:30. Then lunch and the long road home. Right?
Well, maybe not. Because then I saw this:
1:00-2:30 Rogue Pictures— Rogue Gallery will feature previews of upcoming Rogue Pictures movies, plus special appearances by filmmakers and actors from Balls of Fury (Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, of Reno 911!) and Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright and Nick Frost, of Shaun of the Dead), and more guests to be announced! Room 20
Hot Fuzz! Nick Frost! Edgar Wright! AND MORE GUESTS TO BE ANNOUNCED!
Can I do it? Can I last until 2:30? I know it doesn’t seem that much later than 12:30, but trust me, it is.
What would you do?! I’m looking in your direction, Chris Stewart. And also yours, John Charles and Katherine (by the way, you guys are totally on Rock Star right now! I paused the TiVo!).
Super Sidekick
Jul 11Smallville has found their Jimmy Olsen in the form of Aaron Ashmore (Troy Vandegraff to you Veronica Marsians). I used to have a tragic mental block and thought 1) Shawn Ashmore and Shane West were the same person (no, seriously, I thought that for YEARS) and 2) that Aaron Ashmore was either also the same person or the twin of the Shawn/Shane hybrid. I was right about at least one thing (Shawn and Aaron being twins).
Anyway. The Ashmores are the ones with the geekly credentials, and this strikes me as very good casting indeed. I also like the idea of pairing him with sweet Chloe, who really deserves a break after all these years of mooning over Clark. (By the way: is the debate still raging on about Chloe being the REAL Lois Lane? I thought maybe the show producers had squashed this theory at some point, but it remains one of my favorites, even though I like Erica Durance).
Chabonamania
Jul 11Rich Johnston linked yesterday to Michael Chabon’s rejected treatment for a Fantastic Four film, which reminded me there’s lots of awesome reading at his website for the comic nerds among us, including his rejected treatment for an X-Men film, and his love letter to Big Barda.
The latest comic based on Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The Escapists, hits shops tomorrow.
The Uncanny Ed Brubaker
Jul 11Newsarama has a good interview up with Ed Brubaker, who took over the writing reins on Uncanny X-Men as of last week’s issue. It’s good stuff–relatively self-contained, twelve issues, the potential for much space opera and X-angst–and I’m eager to see where it goes.
Now to decide if I will pick up Mike Casey’s run on X-Men, which debuts tomorrow, and seems a lot more strung up in the X-continuity…
Download SOUNDS, man
Jul 10Wired has an interesting piece up about the upswing in sales for musical instruments, even as the music industry suffers a slump they continue to blame on us evil downloading pirates, instead of the crippling absence of music that isn’t shitty. Apparently there’s some intriguing infringements on the almighty intellectual property of the music industry coming from, of all places, guitar manufacturers.
I’m always fascinated by the technology of making music, even if I rarely understand it. The section about guitar players seeking magical boxes that can make them sound like Brian May on “Bohemian Rhapsody” or Jimi Hendrix on “Purple Haze” is fascinating. I kinda see the point about how people maybe should learn how to play the sounds themselves, instead of relying on tech to make it easy. But JESUS, easy shit is COOL. And also easy.
