Tuesday, August 31, 2004

 

US Army soldier attempts to provide information to al-qaeda

Please note dateline.

Thursday, August 26, 2004

 

Continuing not to panic

For those who haven't been following, some updates on the movie version of the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy...

Principal shooting is wrapped, leaving only second unit. All reports from the set have indicated that everyone is having a great time, putting a lot of effort and imagination into making a movie that honors DNA's memory. There are also said to be lots of references to previous incarnations, such as the TV version of Marvin appearing in a crowd scene.

The screenplay was written by Adams himself before his death in 2001, with additional material adapted by Karey Kirkpatrick, whose policy was to go straight to the source material whenever possible. While the movie is an adaptation of the first novel (inasmuch as any incarnation of Hitchhiker's is consistent with any other incarnation), there is a subplot, written by Adams, involving a cult leader named Humma Kavula, played by John Malkovich. I have no idea what function he serves or how he fits into the story--and I love it. Think about it--brand new material from Douglas Adams.

Not to mention that you've got Malkatraz, who never fails to impress.

The film is on course for a summer 2005 release. Check out the teaser trailer here.

In other HHG news, next month BBC Radio 4 will begin airing The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Tertiary Phase, the 25-years-in-the-making third radio series, featuring all the surviving original cast. From the teaser mp3 available from the BBC website, it sounds great, very much in keeping with the original.

Tertiary Phase is an adaptation of Life, The Universe, and Everything, to be followed by Quadrenary Phase (So Long and Thanks For All The Fish), and Quintessential Phase (Mostly Harmless).

The one disappointment for me is that they don't seem to have made any effort to adapt the beginning of Tertiary Phase to the end of Secondary Phase; LTUAE begins, as you recall, with Arthur and Ford living on prehistoric Earth, while Zaphod and Trillian are on the Heart of Gold, having left Zarniwoop stranded with the Old Man Who Rules The Universe. The Secondary Phase of the radio series, however, ended with Arthur and Lintilla stealing the Heart of Gold, stranding Ford and Zaphod with the Old Man after Arthur learned that Zaphod was partly responsible for the Earth's destruction. I had been hoping they would come up with some new material to bridge that gap, but apparently they're just hitting the old History Erase button.

Oh well, that's ultimately a small quibble. Just be there on September 21 for a zarking good time.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

 
Hello, and welcome to another installment of My Patented Guide To Minor Spelling And Grammar Errors That Make People Look More Ignorant Than They Are, or MPGTMSAGETMPLMITTA.

Today I'd like to talk about the word "trilogy." I hear the word misused often enough that I think we should stop and clarify. To wit: phrases like "The Indiana Jones Trilogy," which is not, in fact, a trilogy.

First, let's look at some things that ARE trilogies. Lord of the Rings is, perhaps, the best known example, followed by Star Wars (the "holy trilogy" to most geeks), and to a lesser extent, the Matrix and Back to the Future.

Why do those qualify? Because, more than just being sets of three, they are in fact ONE story told across THREE installments. 1) Hobbit acquires ring. 2) Hobbit travels with ring. 3) Hobbit disposes of ring. 1) Doc Brown and Marty have an adventure with the time machine. 2) Time machine creates complications for Doc Brown and Marty. 3) Doc Brown and Marty wrap up adventures and destroy time machine. And so on.

(And yes, I know BTTF 2 and 3 were written long after the first one, but they still fit together seamlessly, so quit being anal.)

The Indiana Jones movies, brilliant as they are (well, except for Last Crusade), are not a trilogy. Why? Because each one can be watched independently of the others with no diminishment of enjoyment. The second movie, in fact, takes place three years BEFORE the first. They are not ONE story, they are three separate stories featuring the same lead character.

The Scream series also fails to meet these criteria, for another reason: to be a trilogy, the second installment has to lead into the third. If the series had ended at Scream 2 (and many will argue that it should have), the story would not have felt unfinished.

I urge you to remember these rules before you go throwing the word trilogy around willy-nilly. And to commit grievous acts of violence against those who pronounce it "tri-ology." Ghod, I hate that.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

 
Forgot to mention the date and time for Rocky. It's Halloween night, sunday, October 31, at 8:00 PM. Sadly, not midnight, but hey, this gives those of you coming from Seattle time to get home.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

 
Amy Acker--Fred on Angel--will be voicing the Huntress in an upcoming episode of Justice League Unlimited.

Alexis Denisof has already voiced Kobra on Batman Beyond--do you suppose someone at WB Animation is a Whedon fan?

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

Monday, August 23, 2004

 
So last night was the first "Meet 'N' Greet" with the new Vancouver Rocky cast. They're a good bunch, but one thing was a bit disconcerting; Jessi, the director, has been doing it since 1986 and is, like hardcore. And our Brad has been doing it for ten years (though that means he STILL didn't get into it until after I retired). From everyone else, though, I was hearing a lot of "...and this is my first year doing Rocky."

Still, once we get the blocking down I think we're gonna do a good show. To include as many people as possible, a lot of parts are being doubled up. So Magenta changes right before the dinner scene, while the two Columbias are switching off scene to scene, meaning that one gets to do "Time Warp" while the other gets "Hot Patootie."

The switching off of parts means that I may or may not also be playing Dr. Scott; I magnanimously offered to give it up to include more people, fine, but the kid playing the Criminologist is now trying to take it, which would mean I'd take over as the Crim, which is kind of...hmm. But the director would rather go with the traditional "Eddie also plays Dr. Scott" paradigm. We'll see.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

Saturday, August 21, 2004

 
Hmm...links are getting fucked up when I post them. Don't click the links below.

try this one, entered manually, the last sad vestige of what few HTML skills I once scraped together.

(left bracket-slash-a-right bracket)

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

 

I love the internet


 
I love the Internet.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

 

And here's a random observation...

The next time you're talking to a male over the age of, say, sixty, be listening for some variation of the phrase, "so I told that son of a bitch..."

I can almost guarantee it'll be there.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

 

smee-HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

So the other night ABC had this special called The Best TV Shows That Never Were, one of those collections of clips from unsold pilots. In addition to clips of a black-clad Daredevil from The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk (amusingly enough, not even mentioning the Hulk or even that DD is a comic book character), the special was notable for a brief mention of the US version of Red Dwarf. Rather than try to repeat the inane, intelligence-insulting tone, I'll point you to this review, which has already made the point for me.

Speaking of not getting Red Dwarf, this is from the Science Fiction Book Club:


Smegheads.

Monday, August 16, 2004

 
Beginning the work to paint the living room today. First the sanding, then the TSP, then washing, then on to the actual painting. Will keep you posted, since I know you're all fascinated by the minutiae of painting my living room.



Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

Thursday, August 12, 2004

 

It's a holiday now?

So, the other night we're watching TV, and one of those "what's happening around town" segments gives the date for some event as "the day before september 11."

So, september 10, then? We started to wonder why they would phrase it like that, like it's christmas eve or something. Then, being The Guy Who Goes Too Far, and The Wife Of The Guy Who Goes Too Far, we started riffing. (stop reading now to avoid an aneurysm)

You see, in the first week of September, you put up models of the twin towers in your living room. Then, on "September 11 Eve," the kids leave milk and cookies out just before they go to bed. Then, during the night, if the kids have been good infidels of the Great Satan, Osama comes and destroys the towers, so when the kids get up in the morning, they can get at the presents Osama left inside.

Hey, I told you to stop reading.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

 

Let There Be Lips...Again!

I try to get out, and they pull me back in...

I got a call last night from the girl in charge of Vancouver's once-a-year Rocky Horror cast. I gave her my number after last year's somewhat depressing Halloween show (about which you've already read...right?) and, long-story-short, it looks like I'll be dusting off the old Eddie jacket.

What was that quote from Tom Wolfe? Something about how great it is to go home again?

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

 
On the subject of Joss Whedon, I gotta say, can you blame Nick "Xander" Brendon for developing a drinking problem? As far as I know, all the dude has done since Buffy ended was some gawdawful TV-movie where he played some chick's gay cousin. Oy.

I can just picture the poor schlub sitting at home, waiting for the call to guest-star on Angel, doing shots, muttering to himself...

"Firefly gets a movie? (drink) Fuckin' Firefly?!?! (drink) Thirteen episodes, they get a movie. (drink) I give Joss seven seasons, and fuckin' ANDREW gets to be a Watcher?"

Poor bastard. The animated Buffy needs to happen soon.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

 

Singer goes to Distinguished Competition

So, you may have heard that Warner Brothers drove a dumptruck full of money to Bryan Singer's house and hired him to direct the long, long, long-in-development Superman movie.

This is, of course, great news for Superman. Singer's X-Men movies worked for precisely the same reason that Richard Donner's original Superman did--it was set in a believable, almost mundane world, rather than an overly art-directed, umpteenth-homage-to-Blade Runner environment. With Singer at the helm, I'm confident that some fantastic work will be done on Superman before the inevitable meltdown.

Sorry if I seem a bit pessimistic, but since 1996, we've had rumors of Superman Lives, based on the "Death of Superman" storyline, written by Kevin Smith and directed by Burton, Batman Vs. Superman by William Peterson, a Superman written by JJ Abrams (Alias), directed by McG, then Brett Ratner, then McG again, before the inevitable meltdown. So at this point, I'll stick with Smallville for my Superman fix.

Meanwhile, Fox has decided to get pissy and fire Singer from the X-Men franchise, which can only be seen as bad news all around. (yes, I know that there are some vocal critics of Singer's X-Men movies, but most of those are of the "Wolverine should be short, and Rogue's not a teenager" school of Marvel zombiehood, so they can be safely ignored, and occasionally mocked)

There's been no mention from Fox of Singer's replacement, though rumors have been swirling. I've been holding off on mentioning any of this until we heard something, ANYTHING, from an official source. Well, today we've come close.

According to this story on Comingsoon.net, Joss Whedon, the fan-favorite choice to take over, "would LOVE to do the third film (hint hint, Fox)" if it was offered to him.

Whedon definitely has the chops for it: he did an uncredited rewrite on the first X-Men film (he contributed the famous "you're a dick" exchange), and is currently writing Astonishing X-Men for Marvel. Though I doubt Fox has had any serious thoughts about offering it to him yet; Whedon is currently directing Serenity, based on his canceled series Firefly, and since that one has no stars (well, apart from the black guy from Barney Miller), the success or failure of the flick hinges pretty much entirely on Whedon's name.

More to come.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

 
The revised list, continued:

2. Paint the bedroom. This will consist of the following:
2.1 Score a nice bargain on mistinted paint that's pretty much exactly the blue we wanted.
2.1.1 Buy rollers that promise "One Coat Coverage GUARANTEED!"
2.2 Wash walls with TSP while Wife and Wife's sister go get sandpaper.
2.3 Wife's Sister insists that walls must be sanded BEFORE TSPing.
2.3.1 Smack Wife's Sister.
2.4 Wait for walls to dry, then sand.
2.5 Wash walls with water, screw the TSP.
2.6 Begin painting.
2.6.1 Hmm, the paint looks awfully patchy.
2.7 Continue painting. As the previously painted areas dry, they look patchier and patchier.
2.8 Yeah, this looks like shite.
2.9 Realize the rollers were for the wrong kind of wall.
2.10 Briefly panic, then regroup and think of a new plan.
2.11 Make plans for second coat. Realize there's only a quarter can of the blue left.
2.12 Try mixing with light blue we got from Wife's Parents.
2.13 Add other colors to try to match blue, end up with weak purplish-gray.
2.14 Wife's Mother suggests Bagging.
2.15 Try bagging, using the purple we bought for the trim.
2.16 Become elated with the effect, begin bagging the whole room.

Which is where I am now. Did two walls yesterday, then stopped to let the room defume so we wouldn't have to sleep at Wife's Parents house again. I'm on a break as I write this, with about a third of the remaining two walls left to go.

*sigh* back to it, then.

Will post pics. If you ask nicely.
Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

Monday, August 09, 2004

 
So some revisions to the initerary:

1. Strip wallpaper from bedrooms and living room.

1.1 Discover peeling paint on bedroom wall after removing paper.
1.2 Begin stripping paint from previously papered walls.
1.3 Immediately stop stripping paint when drywall paper starts coming off.
1.4 Briefly contemplate calling landlady.
1.5 Consult some websites about our problem.
1.6 Decide not to call landlady until after I go to Home Depot.
1.7 Receive instructions from amazingly hoopy froods at The Depot.
1.7.1 Seriously, anyone reading this who works at Home Depot will receive
prolonged and highly skilled oral sex. Offer void in Utah.
1.8 Sand down edges of dampened area.
1.9 Patch damaged area with drywall mud.
1.10 Apply a coat of primer to the entire room.

2. Paint bedroom. Oh, that it were that simple...

Updates to come.
Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

Thursday, August 05, 2004

 
1. Strip wallpaper in bedrooms and living room.

2. Paint bedroom.

3. Arrange bedroom furniture (and get it all out of the living room).

4. Paint living room.

5. Buy a desk and set it up in the living room.

6. Move computer from dinner table to desk.

7. Move all the boxes from the "library" to the living room.

8. Paint library.

9. Paint bookshelves

10. Unpack all the CDs, records, DVDs, and the trillion or so books in the library.

I'm hoping to do all this as soon as possible so I can fire up the new barbecue grill while we still have some summer left. THEN I can get to work on postproduction for Working Stiff.

No peace for the wicked. But the righteous can get a piece whenever they want.

Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

 
No

DSL

until

thursday

so

I'm

on

dialup.

You

think

this

is

tedious?

Welcome

to

my

nightmare.

Updates to come.
Copyright 2004 Rich Bowen

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