Something to read, something to listen to, something to watch.
Apr 18After a full nine parts, Kevin Smith has wrapped up his epic account of the trials and tribulations of Jason Mewes. While all’s well that ends well, Mewes dodged a bullet. The last installment includes a lot of pictures of a very healthy, sober Mewes, but Kevin has posted a video clip Mewes made him, nine months into going clean and it shows a repentant, toothless Mewes laying it all out for his pal.
For a year now I’ve been listening to a podcast, Claybourne. In short, New Zealand public radio produced a 96 part radio series about an American company man sent to check out a facility in remote NZ – it’s a bit of a drama, a bit of a Lovecraftian tale of nameless horror – there’s even a frickin’ self-aware AI in it, and while I know it all sounds wierd, it’s good stuff. The Podcast Network has posted 85 of the parts, so nows a good time to jump in.
And Working Title Films has posted their fourth Hot Fuzz on-set video blog, starring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg.
The first 27 minutes of A Scanner Darkly rocks…
Apr 18I spent the weekend attending a bi-mon-sci-fi-con sort of dealy, NorWesCon. I have friends who write sci-fi, and NorWesCon is where they give out the Philip K Dick award, so there are a lot of writers in attendance, lots of book dealers, lots of publisher parties to scam into, cool people to hang out with and have conversations that don’t involve Star Trek, that sort of thing. Overall, a fun way to spend a few days.
The highlight this year (besides watching two elderly nerds nearly come to blows over a political debate) was that Warner provided the first 27 minutes of A Scanner Darkly. I have two points to make:
Firstly, I’m very disappointed in the nerds in attendance. The segment was to run at the end of an hour and a half of movie trailers. These are trailers that are online. They’ve seen them before. And yet they booed the guy running the show when he announced they were short on time and would skip the X3 trailer. And when he announced to stick around for A Scanner Darkly, about half didn’t. They just weren’t interested. Some nerds they were.
Secondly, the first 27 minutes was just awesome. Having made a point of reading the book before the movie hit theaters, I can tell you it’s pretty damn close to the book. The only real alteration is that it’s not set in the 70s, it’s “7 years from now”. Every other change I noticed were omissions – little things that aren’t needed in the movie (and for all I know may appear later in the film.)
Starbuck Getting Portmaned?
Apr 17Aw. Looks like Starbuck won’t be keeping her girly extensions, which I kind of liked. I am quite tickled by Ms. Sackhoff’s frank nature in this interview. Sounds like she is a bit Starbuckish in real life.
WikiWikiWhack: Kara Thrace, Katee Sackhoff
House of Spies
Apr 17OK, so the Alias preview that aired last night on ABC was pretty damn cool. There’s Will! Lena Olin! Hey, Vaughn…what the hell are they saying about Vaughn? Did they just confirm that he is actually alive? Not that this would shock anyone. But are they telling us that Actual Vaughn is coming back and not Dream Sequence Vaughn?
Also interesting is this EW article, in which J.J. and Co. discuss a few of Alias‘ missteps, and how, in the words of Abrams, “The show was always trying to find the balance between what it was and what the powers that be wanted it to be.”
I agree with a lot of what’s said in this article — much of the stuff designed to mainstream Alias up felt like obvious, dumbass network tinkering. Personally, I love seasons 1 and 2 and feel those are the years that most perfectly convey the themes of dysfunctional familial relations in an amped-up spy world. Seasons 3 and 4 have interesting patches, but I have a tougher time recalling them — certainly, I enjoy any and all eppys with Lena Olin. In any case, I’m fairly certain Alias has a slam-bang ending in store for us. And sap that I am, I really hope Actual Vaughn will be there.
WikiWikiWhack: J.J. Abrams, Alias
Stormy Fashion
Apr 17Hey, check out Storm’s wedding dress. Not bad, though I like the original sketch better than the final version — the bodice on the final looks like it’s made out of tiny animal bones and the skirt is a little too “swimsuit cover-up” for my tastes. But whatever. At least they didn’t put her in some fluffy, veily, meringue-y crap, which would have been most un-Storm like.
I think I must be missing something re: the comics/soap opera connection, though. From the article:
“Executive producer of Guiding Light, Ellen Wheeler, was also happy to see the crossover between soaps and comics. ‘Our soap world and the comics world are a great fit…'”
Um…what? They are? Is there some sort of corporate partnership I don’t know about? Probably.
I think they should have had Santino design it. You know he would have totally put Storm in some crazy jumpsuit with a bunch of “deconstructed” fringe and paillettes all over the place. And it would have been awesome.
WikiWikiWhack: Storm
