Halo no more

So according to an official statement by Peter Jackson, and Microsoft's Wingnut Films (correction Wingnut Interactive), Halo is officially on hold. Pre-production has been halted and while everyone still hopes it'll happen one day, they aren't in a position where they can go forward with it at this time. This is sad news, if you've been keeping up with recent developments, you'll know that a few weeks ago Fox and Universal (who we're co-financing the picture) pulled out financially. And although it looked like PJ and director Neill Blomkamp might be able to pull it off and find some other backers that has unfortunately not materialized.

I hope this does come together maybe in a year or so, but you never really know. Hollywood is very fickle. Although I think we can definitely say this: as long as Microsoft is making such ridiculous amounts of money off this property, I'm sure they will try to get a film made. So I think there's still reason to hope.

Read more about this over at Dark Horizons.

Jumping the Tubeshark

Over the weekend YouTube pulled off most of it's clips from Comedy Central for copyright infringement violation. This includes clips from Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and South Park. Read about it here. Why? you may ask after so long of turning a blind eye did Comedy Central decide that now was the time to start caring? Why, it's Google of course. Pretty obvious actually. Now that Google is pulling the YouTube strings they've started "legitimizing" their relationships with the entertainment industry. Both CBS, and now NBC have recently inked deals with YouTube to distribute material over the netwaves. While maybe people like Jon Stewart see their material on YouTube as free promotion or no different than getting it off the tv, I'm sure there is at least one executive out there who has plans (probably involving heavy advertising) to package this material and serve it up officially.

Is it just me, or does this feel like the beginning of the end? Internet tv, especially clips and snippets of shows have been rolling around online for a few years now. Up to the point of over the past 8 months to a year, where we've been having full episodes of tv shows turn up on Internet, sometimes official sometimes not. Of course the caveat to watching these tv clips on internet is that the more popular it's become and the better quality we're getting, be it official or not, the more likely it was that someone was going to catch on and start royally screwing us for it. I have a feeling that Google buying YouTube, especially at such a high price tag, has just woken everyone up to the fact that there's a whole new secondary market here that has yet to be capitalized on and monetized effectively. Despite the fact that no one really knows how or what this digital market is evolving into; metaphorically speaking Google has just bent us over, and given the call that we're ready and willing, and now we're about to take it from the corporate media, hard.

I was browsing Pop Candy this morning and ran across a lot of this info. For example check out this interesting article from USA Today on the state of TV on the internet, as well as their list of all the major network shows that are currently available officially online. Yes, it may seem great for the moment, but how long is this going to last? Is this possibly an early death thrall for YouTube? Will it become all corporate crap and commercials posing as viral videos? And in what new and unscrupulous ways will corporate media try to screw us this time?

Maybe I'm just jaded, I will say this: for every new DRM there's eventually always a hack...

I don't think Media can ever win against us, but why does it always have to be such a battle.

Halloween comes together

So I'm feeling better about Halloween now. I went out on Sunday and picked up a costume, for only $30 as opposed to $50. Unfortunately it's no ninja suit, but it's definitely passable. I'm going to be a cowboy for Halloween. I was thinking at first about being a sheriff but I couldn't find a cowboy hat I liked so knowing that I need more than a shirt and six shooter I've decided to wrap a bandanna around my face like I'm an old west robber. The costumes not great, but it's not as bad as it could have been, and $30 is a livable price.

Also my plan as it stands now is to go out to The Castro for the street party, and I'm sure cowboys will be popular there; in a Brokeback kind of way. I'm glad I'm planning on going this year. I've lived here for almost 3 years now and haven't ever been to it. But it really is a fairly renowned party, and I feel like it's an experience I should have. Also there's the concern that it might not be around forever, as every year it's gotten more and more rowdy, with scattered violence and actually a few 'bashings' last year. There's word that the cops might be shutting the party down, and clearing the streets by midnight. Seeing as it's a Tuesday night though, and I will have to work the next morning I'm not overly concerned if it's a bit of an early evening. I think it should be a good time regardless.

I carved a pumpkin, and set up a few decorations around the house on Sunday also. So yeah, maybe this isn't turning into the biggest Halloween ever, but I think it's come together alright for what it is in the end.

Halloween lameness

Halloween is kind of depressing me. I can't figure out what to be, and it's getting so late. I'm almost tempted to call the whole thing off. But that's just a bad idea; because really I love Halloween. I love the candy, I love the kitch, I love the costumes, and the pumpkins. Not so crazy about the scariness, but I really love the commericalized Halloween.

I would suggest that the heyday of Halloween was back in the 80s and early 90s. That was before parents got worried about letting their kids out after dark. Before political correctness hit the scene, before the scare of kids breaking in and looting your house. But we we're sophisticated enough to know the value of a good commercial tie-in. Corporate America sold us the holiday start to finish and as a kid we literally ate it up. It was always an amazing night that I really looked forward to and have very fond memories of.

When I moved back to the western world from Africa the year before last, and then again last year I was really into reading, and posting on the message boards, of a great site called X-Entertainment. And from that site I got back into Halloween in a big way. The main man over there Matt has a great was of writing his blog, and articles to jog your memory of yesteryear, and remind you not just of what happened back in the day, but remember how it really felt to be a kid at this time of year. Matt and X-E really helped me reclaim the spirit of Halloween, and for that I am ever grateful. While I still read the site, especially at this time of year, I'm not as dedicated to it as I used to be. Things have changed a fair bit for me this past year, I've moved in with my girlfriend, started exercising a lot, started eating better, and gotten a lot busier with things like podcasting and blogging. So while there's definitely a real place in my heart for Halloween I'm not sure I can, or want to really live it up the way I did these past two years.

I was just over at the costume store, and I was thinking about getting a ninja costume. That's cool right; but it would've come out to probably be around $50. That's really just not worth it. Especially since I haven't seemed to be able to bring it together for a party or anything. I don't have any big plans. Sure I'd like to wear a costume to work (I work somewhere that a lot of people wear costumes) but when else can I wear it? I live in an apartment so no kids will be knocking on the door. I suppose I could go out to The Castro for the big crazy street party, something I would like to do one of these years, but I don't think my friends are particularly interested in that; and I'm not going to something like that alone. So maybe it's just not worth it. I passed on the ninja costume and came home empty handed. Somewhat depressed about this whole thing. I bought all these decorations last year for Halloween but I haven't even put them up yet. And I don't think anyone will get to see them, except me and Erica, and then I'll have to take them down in like three days. sigh...

Ok, I'm sorry. I'm going to go carve the pumpkin I bought this morning, then force myself to put up my Halloween decorations, and finally have a look through my closet for some inspiration. I don't own much costumey type of stuff, but man, it shouldn't be that hard should it? I can do this. And I know that as soon as I do, I'll be happy with myself that I did. Ok, better head. Later.

Blue side wins

Forgive me, because I'm not an American, but apparently I had it wrong all this time. California is actually a Blue state despite the fact that we have the Govenator in power. State color is determined based on how the state votes in the Federal election; not State. My friend Tara pointed that out to me this morning, and I finally had time to look it up on the Wikipedia.

Anyhow, the only reason that matters is because my Blogger profile had, until a few minutes ago, the line "I'm thankful to live in a blue city, even if it is a red state." oops... oh well. fixed now. Although, and I am kind of annoyed at Blogger for this, they've ruined my page's feng shui because apparently in Blogger Beta which I recently switched over to you cannot have html tags encoded in your profile anymore. This means that I have to live with an unjustified personal blurb. This is disruptive to the site's overall look and really just doesn't seem clean. So to appease my enraged chi, I will most likely write a letter off to Blogger and complain. Hopefully it's just an oversight in the Beta that will be fixed soon.

Mysterio in Spidey 3?

So I saw this as yet unconfirmed rumor on one of my favorite sites, Superhero Hype! but they sourced it from some blog that I've never heard of called Film Ick. Seeing the number of rumors that emerge regarding things like this I normally wouldn't even mention it here, but this one is the kind of rumor that I could really see being true. Mostly because it's pretty innocuous.

So as you can read on Film Ick here, they are reporting that in the upcoming Spider-Man 3 there will be a plotline involving a Hollywood film being made about Spider-Man, this was done in the Ultimate Spider-Man universe comics, maybe two years ago. Anyhow, as we all know there is usually an exception made for a cameo by Stan 'The Man' Lee in most of the Marvel films, well apparently along with producer extrordinare Avi Arad, he will be cameoing in the film as the producer and director of the Spider-Man film within the film respectively... I hope that makes sense.

More importantly though Film Ick claims that a "very dependable source" is telling them that the uber awesome actor Bruce Campbell will be playing a bit part of Hollywood stuntman Quinten Beck. In the comic world of Spider-Man, Beck becomes the nefarious villain known as Mysterio, after emulating the powers of Spider-Man for the silver screen. If this is actually true, who knows if Campbell will actually suit up as ol' fishbowl head; but even if he's just there as a background player, layering in mythology for later films, as they did with Doctor Conners (aka The Lizard) , I will be very happy.

Campbell is a great actor, and I for one think he'd be a great fit for the character.
For now let's keep this firmly in the rumor category.
Hopefully though it'll prove to be true.

dissapointed by tv... again.

I'm slightly annoyed at this past season of Fall tv. Aside from a few standouts like Heroes it's been a growing disappointment week after week. It feels like the shows I was really championing just a few weeks ago, have all started to sour slightly, and that's really disheartening.

I called Studio 60 the best show of the new season, and where has it left me? Each episode seems to be weaker than the last, mainly in my opinion because its a show about a cutting edge late night sketch comedy show that has really really lame sketches. Sure the behind the scenes stuff is ok; but its not that great. I'm sad to say that this show hasn't lived up to the hype I gave it.

Devon called it on our podcast last week and I'm calling it now; Jericho has lost a lot of it's appeal. Great in concept, weak in execution. The people just aren't acting believably enough. I've read enough post-apocalyptic sci-fi to know, that this story just doesn't feel right. Check out The Hammer of God for a much more probable reaction to this level of disaster. And Skeet Ulrich is making me crazy, he has this constant dour yet 'trying to be' sexy look that's really starting to get on my nerves.

Both Six Degrees, and The Nine have failed to grab me, as they expect you to invest too heavily in people that you don't even know. I find it hard to care about the characters and their weighty emotional problems when I can't even remember their names.

Smith which was a show I initially dissed, looked to be getting much better before it was killed so unceremoniously. And 30 Rock, will probably be killed before it gets a chance to disappoint me. I only have seen a single episode so far but I thought it was ok; although I'm in the very small minority on that. Amazing Race, and Survivor are both ok, but really they're just junk tv that I watch to pass the time, and both will probably disgust me eventually when the games get far enough along for the backstabbing to begin in earnest.

What am I actually liking? Well, Friday Night Lights seems to be doing well, although the ratings are another story. But it's one of, along with the still excellent Heroes, the only shows I do actually still hold out hope for. I'm also liking Grey's Anatomy which I've just jumped on board now, but that's only really good in the context of knowing it's a slightly cheesy, very girly, soap opera dramedy.

I'm almost done watching (4 more eps!) the dvds to Lost season 2, and I'll be caught up on that soon enough. I am a bit concerned that I will be aggravated to no end by the slowness of the story in broadcast form, but at least I know it will be entertaining viewing.

Day Break, and Traveler both from ABC are the only upcoming mid-season shows that I'm looking forward to. And yea I hope they'll be good, but so far most of my viewing hopes have been dashed. I guess I just feel kinda gypped by television this season. I mean it's one of the first times in years I've actually had the time and inclination to invest myself in shows and so many of them have turned out kinda crappy.

I think I need an application to easily get my dvds onto my ipod. Then I will have something better to watch. Unfortunately due to copy protection, this kind of thing isn't as easy to do as it should be...

I don't think there's any good solution to the crappyiness of television. Probably I should just stop watching. Or at least stop watching all the garbage that disappoints. I just always hold out hope that it'll get better, that's probably a dumb idea though.

I guess there's no real point to this post, I just wanted to vent my frustrations.

Damn you television. Damn you to hell...

Free Hugs

I really like this video, even though I started out watching it totally cynically, I couldn't help but be moved by it in the end. It's honestly an inspiring vid. Good work. Check it out.



Hugs all.

Trailer Watch

There's a couple awesome new trailers over at Apple.com that I think you guys might want to check out.

There's a new trailer out for Eragon that is completely awesome. It's the one listed as Trailer 1, and it's finally got me thinking that maybe, just maybe Eragon can be something pretty good. Watching the other advertisement, and I don't mean this disrespectfully, but the one with Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich being so fantasy film cliched, it just reminds me a bit too much of like Ladyhawke meets Dungeons & Dragons. This new trailer though has no dialogue, just that great swelling score, and lots of badass dragon shots. Check it out.

I only mention the trailer to Pan's Labyrinth in case you've been living under an cyber rock and don't know the dark beauty of this absolutely amazing looking film yet. If you are in the dark so to speak, stop it, go watch this trailer now. Personally this (along with The Fountain) is my most anticipated film of the Xmas season. I don't even know how to describe how much in love with this trailer I am though. It's just that cool.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is one of those out of nowhere films that is so morbidly fascinating you can't help but gape at it. The trailer is creepy, and disturbing, and kind of sickly beautiful, It has that same disturbed feel as From Hell, which I loved at least the look of, and the main actor, Ben Whishaw, although I can't place if I've ever actually seen him before is so familiar and creepy/interesting looking that I definitely think I will have to see this film. The trailer says it all.

Also worth checking is the trailer for Bobby. It's intriguing not only in that it is a film directed by Emelio Estavez but that it attracted such an amazing ensemble cast. The subject matter is fascinating, and I suspect the film will be quite good, assuming it isn't overshadowed by the cast. It features Harry Belafonte, Nick Canon, Laurence Fishbourne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Josh Jackson, Ashton Kutchner, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, William H Macy, Demi Moore, Freddy Rodriguez, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, Elijah Wood, of course Estavez himself, and a host of others. Pretty impressive.

The last trailer that I wanted to recommend to you is for Harsh Times, it stars Christian Bale as a meth head psycho Iraq war vet returned to his home (somewhere like East LA). He is about to be recruited into Homeland Security, which is scary enough, but he is loosing it the whole time. Total taxi driver style. This is another in a line of quasi-indie Christian Bale films that probably won't do super well at the box office, but fuck does it look intense. Just go check it out.

That's all for today's trailer watch. Lates.

still paying my dues

Yesterday I applied for a new job at a new company. It wasn't really a job I wanted, but it was a job I would've taken as at least it was in the city, so no more commute, and it possibly could lead to something more. Or at least that's what I told myself. And really, even though I've already 'paid my dues' at the company I'm at, if I can't move up here I will unfortunately have to move on and probably 'pay my dues' all over again. Man what if all I ever do, is get stuck 'paying my dues'??? That would really suck. I'll tell you though, I've made peace with the job I have. It may be a Joe job, but it's a pretty good Joe job, and I've got good benefits. Also, it's great company (which no I'm not going to name here), but I do wish/hope I could stay here. But since I can't handle living my life working this job forever, staying here may just not be possible.

So like I said, I applied to another job yesterday, and although it wasn't perfect I wasn't expecting the response I got. Within a few hours of sending my resume off to (I believe it was) the agency/headhunter firm managing the hiring, I got an email back saying: "Thanks for your application. Considering the other applicants, this is not the best fit. I wish you the best of success and satisfaction. " In a way I can see that it's actually quite courteous of the recruiter to send me that note so quickly and not leave me waiting forever as I end up most of the time after sending out my resume. This time however I just couldn't help feeling kinda crappy about the whole situation. I know that maybe it wasn't the right job for me, and I've no doubt the recruiter was right that there were probably far more appropriate candidates but it's just so frustrating being so eminently unmarketable, that people can reject me with this kind of immediacy.

I'm a smart enough guy, have decent social and writing skills. Perhaps a general lack of focus but I'm eager to work and learn. I'm basically a pretty decent all around kind of guy, and know that I would be a good person to employ in a number of situations. However the sort of general or I'm sure as some perceive it random skill set and experience I've acquired over the years does not lend itself to a particularly cohesive resume. In a city like San Francisco, that is a bit of a problem. On a whole, people here are more driven, focused, and highly skilled than anywhere I've ever been. You really have to be considering how expensive it is to live here. Particularly if you plan to stay, and raise a family, buy a house, etc. So the fact that I spent almost two years in Africa teaching while it makes for great conversation and is a nice point of interest on my resume, does not, and cannot compare to someone who spent those two years aggressively working in the competitive American market. Hence my unfortunate situation as a rounded, talented, and unmarketable individual.

Paying my dues, again and again. When I'm 35 I sure hope I can look back at this time and actually understand where I came from. I don't want to, nor would I want others, to trivialize it. Far too often I hear people, usually my successful peers/near elders who tell me that it'll all work out. I know that people are concerned, and for the most part just don't want me to get down on myself about this stuff, but regardless of if I find a way to break free of this due paying cycle or not, this time is important, and very very frustrating. I don't want to forget, how truly suckie feeling being stuck in a rut is. For some reason I think that's important too. Hopefully I'll get that opportunity.

Ok, I'd better get back to 'paying my dues'. It's not so bad being trapped down a hole, it just seems to take a really long time to dig myself out.

I endorse Threadless

Over at Threadless.com, which if you don't know is the coolest online t-shirt store, they've got a sale going on until Wednesday that you should really check out. T-shirts normally priced at $20 a piece are now all, or almost all, priced at $10. These are super cool shirts, that are really great quality, and I can't recommend the store enough.

I've only ever gotten one shirt from them before and I love it. It's called Dark Side of the Garden, and I swear it's only just now after months and months of heavy rotation slipping from my top spot as #1 favorite tee.

The cool thing about Threadless is that it works like a co-op, ok not exactly, but close. Actually its an ongoing design contest. Basically, any artist can submit t-shirt designs to Threadless, of all the weekly submissions 4 to 6 of the best are picked and then printed by the company. All of these winning designers are compensated with a $2000 prize. Obviously Threadless makes out the best, but its still a great forum for designers and artists to get their work out there. Its got a pretty active community and a really fun atmosphere. I think the best part about it though is that because there are so many different artists contributing designs to the site the range of shirt designs is extremely varied. If you could categorize it at all you might use the words original, and interesting.

The shirts I ordered today are Damn Scientists, I Like Trees Too, Strangers With Candy, and Pandamonium, $10 each plus 7 bucks shipping that comes out to $47 total. Really a great deal on 4 super awesome shirts. Go check out what they've got that you might like.

Cinescape, and me, on Terminator 4

Have you guys ever looked at Cinescape online?

Its a pretty decent site especially since the magazine is now defunct. I used to subscribe to the physical mag and before there was insane internet coverage of all things genre I felt that it was honestly the best place for film and tv news. Along with Fangoria, and Premiere, it is really where I satiated my obsession for all things cinematic and genre. Of course by 1996 or so the juiciest information was starting to hit the web first, and magazine like Cinescape couldn't hope to keep up to date. What they excelled at right up until the end though was the features. They had real old school reporters, not bloggers who would eventually become decent reporters. And these guys always had a class to them that I at least appreciated. The magazine Cinescape stopped publishing sometime earlier this year, and the rest of my subscription was transferred gratis over to SciFi magazine. Which is alright, considering its a glorified commercial for the tv station. The other thing that was great about Cinescape that to this day is in my opinion only matched by Greg's Previews on Yahoo is their section called Development Heck. For some reason no one else has been able to really keep up on all the online chatter about the far out upcoming films as well as Cinescape, and I applaud them for it.

Care of a story on Cinescape this morning, I heard that it's finally come down officially that the govenator himself Arnold Schwarzenegger will absolutely not be involved in Terminator 4. To that I say thank god. I actually liked T3. Ok, well I liked the ending, and I liked Nick Stahl who played John Connor. I think this is a good time to re-invigorate the franchise. I'm actually really more excited to see a Terminator 4 film than I was to see T3. The new one, especially sans Arnold can go into some really cool hard sci-fi directions that I'd be very interested to see. We can see how Cyberdine really leads the world into the Skynet ruled post-apocalyptic future. And we're sure to get some good birth-of-the-resistance, style commando action. Cool futuristic technology, man vs machines. Really this is the film everyone wanted to see when the first one came out.

My vote is to make it a new trilogy, the first film is the birth of the resistance, where John Connor finds his place in the new world, and ends with a first real win for the movement which solidifies Johns place as a true leader, we end with his wedding to Kate. The second film finds a growing band of ragtag fighters starting to make some headway against the machines, John has become harder, and tougher; a leader who gets things done even if people don't always like him. His battle scars have earned him respect. But he's had to become almost machine like in order to fight and win. His relationship with the pregnant Kate is strained almost to the point of breaking. The Skynet supercomputer is pumping out robots by the millions. Terminators have started to infiltrate the resistance, posing as humans, no one knows who to trust anymore. Making a daring play to disable the machines power from its heart John and a commando squad make a daring infiltration into the midst of the enemy. Surmounting obstacles and defeating adversity at every turn the commando team race the clock to make it to the Skynet supercomputer and destroy it before their ultimate weapon has can be unleashed. Just in time they manage to destroy the Syknet 'brain' dealing a almost fatal blow to the machines. But not before they realize their technological totalitarian machinations and invent their most secret and devastating weapon yet, time travel. The third film begins and all bets are off, as we learned in T2, the future is not set in stone and anything can happen. The machines have developed a limited form of time travel and are using it to decimate the human resistance. Now its up to John and a young buck lieutenant Kyle Reese to destroy the machines once and for all. But how can they fight against time travelling killing machines? The conflict rages to a head as Kyle and John do everything in their power to stop the devastation of this bleak future. As we end with the humans overcoming the insurmountable odds one lone terminator remains and he kills John's beloved wife leading him to recruit Reese for one final mission. Go back in time and save his mother, try to stop the war from ever beginning in the first place, and there we end. Reese going back to the past and John holding the corpse of his wife, in the rubble of a newly won free world. He's won everything he's ever been bred for, the war is over, but he doesn't care about any of it. Tragedy and hope. Everything the films have been about culminating in one final image.

It'll be a great way to end the series. Anyhow, that's just my idea. What do you guys think?

Here's the Terminator WIKI.

Optimus and Starscream toys, and more

On the Transformers side of things from the new movie two of the toy prototypes have surfaced on the web today. These are of Optimus and Starscream BEFORE they get their earth vehicles mode. So they look much more alien than they will for most of the film. If that makes sense. Personally I always loved the alien shaped Transformers. In that first episode of the old G1 cartoon series where Bumblebee is like this sweet spaceship looking thing. Anyhow, check the pics below and the links to the two sites where I got this info.

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These are just too cool. Optimus, and Starscream rock hard. So sweet.

I found these images through AICN, but they credit it from ACtoys.net

Back in this post I linked to some pics of Megatron from the new movie. Well apparently those images are NOT in fact what Megs will actually look like in the film. Those leaked pictures were early designs that have since been changed. Or at least that's what producer Don Murphy is saying.

You know the 20th anniversary TF the movie dvd? Well if you go over to the Amazon.com web page for the disc (pre-order for a mere $15.39, release Nov 7th) you can watch one of the new bonus features from the dvd. It's a short little featurette on the Death of Optimus Prime, and I challenge you to go and watch it, and not want to immediately watch the movie again. Man what a great scene, in such an awesome film.

According to this post on TheTF.net forums looks like Cartoon Network is going to be making a new Transformers cartoon show to coincide with the movie next year. This is hardly surprising, but I'm really happy to hear that its being made by and for Cartoon Network rather than Fox or some other more kids oriented station. I've been a pretty avid Transformers fan in all of their incarnations, from Beast Wars (the best), and Beast Machines, to Robots in Disguise, to some of TF: Armada (although the comics are way better), and I'm Tivoing TF: Cybertron everyday now, just waiting for enough episodes for a good marathon. I'd like to see a more adult take on the characters, or at least more realistic, which if based off the movie I'm sure will happen. I'll definitely keep my ears and eyes open for any more news on this front. Should be a sweet show, no matter what.

To keep up with all your most current TF news regarding the new movie, I'd really recommend you keep your eyes on the TFW2005.com boards. They are always the absolute best. Talk with you heaps of slag later...

Lost aggravates and Heroes satisfies

This weekend was really nice. Very relaxing. E and I just chilled at home mostly. Really a nice change from being so busy all the time with friends. We didn't really get up to too much except watching about two-thirds of Lost season 2 on dvd. We made our way through a lot of episodes and I have to say I'm enjoying it; conditionally though. Basically its great, in most ways great. I love the dynamic between the characters, but man I'd forgotten how slow the show is. It does answer questions, but only after stringing you along for soooo long, that really by the time they answer them I've already moved onto something else and don't really care. Like seriously it's not until halfway through season two that we find out what the airplane full of the virgin mary drug staues was all about. And seriously, I just don't care anymore. The immediate story is better, but since I know they're not going to resolve anything until next season at least it makes me kinda crazy. Lost needs to pick up it's pace. I'll be happy when I get caught up and can watch it week to week. Maybe that'll be better; although I think it might just make me crazier.... we'll see.

On another show though, Heroes they are doing things really right if you ask me. I think maybe I read this in an interview or an article online or something, but the point really struck home with me. In Heroes they ask a lot of confusing and interesting questions (like Lost) however Heroes actually answers those questions in a reasonable manner, and then raises new ones. Much more satisfying. Man tonight's Heroes is going to be sick. I'm really stoked about it.

A blog note

This morning I wrote a blog post, and then I decided to split it up. Really those huge long blog posts are a bit unwieldy. Especially when they cover multiple 'types' of topics. In going along with my idea to reform the blog and make it easier to read, particularly for casual visitors I'm going to try to stay on topic within each post. So what that means is I might end up with a number of smaller posts rather than one big post. As it stands I seem to have no problem rambling on about things, and I wouldn't be surprised if this actually works better for everyone. Of course you'll have to scroll down a bit to make sure you haven't missed anything. Or really a better idea for you, why not just subscribe to the blog feed? Trust me, it's not hard. If like me you use Firefox, the capacity is built into the browser. But you can always use a blog reader. I like Sage, as it integrates into Firefox as a simple sidebar when you want it. Very nice. Anyhow, let me know if you like this kind of blogging style better.

exploding glass

Quick story. Last night I came home and made homemade lasagna for dinner, but I had a big scare. I had a glass lid to the frypan that I accidentally left covering a stove element that was still on. I realized that the stove was on when I was cleaning up and turned it off. Then I moved the lid aside so that it could cool off before washing everything up. I actually left the lid until last as I was cleaning around the kitchen but I guess I didn't wait long enough, cause when I picked up the lid and put it in the sink to wash as soon as the cold water touched it BAM, it exploded in my hand. I was pretty freaked, but the glass actually stayed totally in the sink and I didn't get hurt at all. Of course I had to spend the next 15 minutes fishing glass shards out of the garbage disposal, not a very fun thing to do, but ultimately I got everything cleaned. And yes the lasagna was great.

My TV Addiction

I've been watching a lot of tv lately, and I've decided that I need to wheedle down my schedule a bit, to just a few select shows. I went pretty overboard this Fall with the new stuff, but that said, there really was a lot of new stuff to watch. I'm really loving Heroes the most. That's easily the best new show of the season. They're really building to something bigger, and that journey is pretty cool. I like the fact that they've already got three seasons mapped out too. Very cool stuff. If you're into the show, you also need to be reading the 6 page (or so) online comic books that are coming out in conjunction with each episode. I just really hope it doesn't turn into a Mutant X, and no matter how much I love it, that is still a possibility. My other favorite new shows are Jericho which despite what some people, like my friend Devon, think is still going strong. Also I'm watching Friday Night Lights, which is shaping up very well, Studio 60, which better pick up the pace if it wants to stay on the air, The Nine, and Six Degrees, which are both still on my potential drop list. I 'm also keeping up on is Survivor, The Amazing Race, oh and Grey's Anatomy, which while I admit is very girly and has some soap opera elements, is also written solidly, and has characters that I can't help but like.

Is that a lot? it sure seems like it. I really watch stuff mostly while I'm commuting though. Thank god for the video iPod. But man, that seems like too much... and with Daybreak, and Traveler starting sometime soon, I'm not sure I'm going to have time for anything else. I know that sometimes I look at people like Angie and I just shake my head that they spend so much time with tv, but wow, I just described 9 hours of tv a week as 'wheedled down'... I might just have a problem.

When I get home Erica and I watch tv sometimes, but I don't feel like it's too overboard. Recently we've been working our way through Lost season 2 and I have to say I am really loving it. Such a good show, with such a good cast. Maybe I need to watch more movies... Cause this tv thing seems to have me all tied up. Kinda scary.

That's all for this post.

Dance your cares away...from Halo

The Fraggles are coming. hooray! Recently I picked up Fraggle Rock season 1 on dvd, and have been really loving it. The Fraggles we're always my favorite muppets for some reason. Anyways, as I mentioned in an earlier post there have been some rumblings about a Fraggle Rock film in the works. Well, it looks like things are actually progressing well on the Fraggle movie. They've got a writer on it now, and you'll never guess who it is.... Ahamet Zappa. Yup, according to AICN, Frank Zappa's son is writing/developing the film for the Henson company. He's only written one other film which has yet to get made but has a great title, The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless. While I have no clue about Ahmet's writing ability, I do know that the Fraggles are pretty tripped out as a concept, and if the Zappa family is anything its weird, so the combo could be a good match. I'm sure the Henson family knows what they're doing giving it to him too, hopefully this thing comes together, I know I for one would love it if there was a Fraggle resurgence.

In more troubling film news today Variety is reporting that Fox and Universal, who we're set to co-finance the film, has pulled out of the Halo film over financial disputes. While the studios are claiming that they've pulled their support because the budget looks to potentially be ballooning from $135 mil to upwards of $200 mil, the word on the street is that the move has more to do with Microsoft's $5 mil upfront payday, and their 10% cut of the gross. Basically this sucks. I really want this film to get made. Hell, I think everyone wants this film to get made. And with Peter Jackson producing I honestly think it will make bank. So why are the film studios being such idiots?! They need to get over themselves. Even if Halo did as well as King Kong it would still be worthwhile, especially when you factor in the tie in video game MS is developing. Granted I'm not sure why you need that big a budget, but as I don't know all of the particulars of the story having not played the games, I would leave it up to Jackson and co to make that call. Apparently Weta, Jackson, and director Blomkamp are all still involved, and hopefully we'll get some word on another studio stepping up to the plate soon. It would be really sad to see this project die.

In somewhat more immediate film news, the animated Hellboy movie Sword of Storms is going to be airing on Cartoon Network, on their Toonami programming block, on October 28th, so don't forget to set your Tivos; should be great.

gotta fly, later all.

Change of pace

Well things looks a little different around here don't they?

Actually a lot of the visible change is just cosmetic, but I'm glad to have this done now. If you are a blogger you might find it significant to note that if you are using Google's Blogger software like me you are going to have to (eventually) switch your blog over to their new suped-up Blogger Beta system, instead of the clunky old regular Blogger. I'll say that again just so you know. You are going to be forced to upgrade to the new Blogger Beta. Not that really its a bad thing, but I was a little surprised that they're not advertising that yet. As expected it wrecked havoc on my blog during the initial changeover but after a few hours of tweaking and whatnot I think that Adventures in a Strange Land is looking better than ever.

I can already tell that this upgrade is much more robust, on the outside it really doesn't look too different but the dashboard (Blogger control panel) behind this blog looks to have much more functionality, and the ability to grow much easier. The biggest change you might notice is the tags that I put onto all the old posts. these seem kinda cool, so now if I talk about the Transformers movie, which I've done a fair bit, you can just click that tag and get a list of all the posts where I talked about that. Obviously the site is blue now. The design is the same, I mean the template is, and for now it should stay like that. I'm also now able to change all the fonts quite easily so I got rid of that stodgy old Ariel and put in the much cozier Times New Roman. I tried Georgia, as that's my favorite 'standard' font, but unfortunately it just looked a bit too crowded. The sidebar is also slightly different now. I added the Wiki and IMDB widgets that I got off the Google Gadgets page. I wanted to add the countdown timer for like maybe new films or something, but am not totally sure it would work right, or I'd remember to update it etc. Those are really just for fun anyhow.

After having done this I'm a bit worried knowing that I just created the new On Hold... website, and I'm basically going to have to go right back in and redo it. Fortunately it's a much simpler site that something like this snazzy blog here. Anyhow, I'm sure I'll manage it.

There were a few options on things that I noticed that I didn't try putting into the blog. Like upgraded Google Adsense integration, and that now you can syndicate blog comments. I kind of think that the comment thing is only useful on blogs that get tons of traffic, and while one day I may be there, for the moment I'm definitely not. I'm pretty happy generally speaking with the upgrade. The new control panel is a bit tricky at first, but you can still get right into the coding and hard code everything you really need, so you know you wont get too lost.

Good tweaks all around. ooooh, like a nice new spellchecker that I just noticed. Anyways, that's all for now, let me know if something doesn't work right, or if you do/don't like the redesign. Podcasting tonight even though I have like nothing to talk about. Oh well something will come to me. Talk to you all later. Peace.

ps - oh yeah, the one thing I forgot, is that now you HAVE to use a Gmail account in conjunction with Blogger... hmmm... something aobut that doesn't sit totally right with me. But then again I should probably be thankful that the site is still free. Just an FYI.

I <3 TV On The Radio

I know I mentioned these guys a couple of posts ago, but I'm still just so super impressed with this band called TV On The Radio. Their sound is just so unique, I'm really digging it. Not quite The Postal Service, and not quite straight alt-rock. They're working the same kind of vibe you get when listening to The Flaming Lips. Check out this sweet live vid of them performing their song Dreams with Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy. Great song, super cool video, I can't believe so few people are in the audience, and is it just me or is Trent Reznor more and more David Bowie-esque in more recent years... Great stuff however you look at it. Check out TV On the Radio on MySpace to hear some more of their songs, I'd really recommend Staring at the Sun, and Wolf Like Me. Just fantastic songs.

UPDATE - after some debate with Devon and a search around on Wikipedia, it seems that I had it wrong before. So Peter Murphy is the guy who I thought sounds like David Bowie, the guy with his back to the camera for most of the video is Trent Reznor, and the black singer is Tunde Adebimpe, the main main from TVOTR. Sorry for that confusion.

Whiteout: the movie

Ok, now I know almost no one reading this will know the source material, but if you're a comic fan you might have heard of one of the industry's most exciting rising stars Greg Rucka. He is probably best known for the super cool, realistic spy series Queen & Country, and is currently writing the DC hit series 52. Prior to a lot of this fame though he put out a really solid graphic novel called Whiteout. It's the story of a US Marshall, Carrie Stetko who has moved to Antarctica to escape her past only to find herself faced with the task of tracking down a serial killer. Its a smart, intriguing thriller that I'd highly recommend. In fact I just lent it to my friend Jan to read last week, and he seemed to really like it. So I'm sure he'll be happy to hear the news that I saw this morning. Variety is reporting that Dark Castle Productions, has raised $240 Million in investment capitol to make 15 more films over the course of the next 6 years including an adaptation of Whiteout. Dark Castle is known for it's low budget kinda crappy yet extremely successful horror films The Grudge 1 & 2, Gothika, House of Wax, and the awesomely bad Ghost Ship (which I love). Dark Castle is the "indie" horror imprint of Warner and is headed up by Joel Silver (of Matrix fame). Apparently Whiteout is the first film on their list to make with their newfound wealth, and I couldn't be happier. This is part of their new plan to expand the production label to encompass not just horror flicks, but action and comedy. Seems like a good plan, and I think Whiteout will translate extremely well onto the screen.

I often try to extol the virtue of comics to people who don't read them. Mostly the uneducated think that it's all just superheroes and spandex, when really it hasn't been just that in a long, long time. Since the mid 90s though when the indie books became mainstream (as it does eventually in a lot of art), we started getting really serious adult books that pretty much surprise everyone who is willing to honestly give them a chance. Greg Rucka is one of those writers that I always push into non comic book people's hands, because he writes so true, and smart. This is action, don't get me wrong, but Rucka writes anything easily as good if not better than your average thriller or action film because it has solid character development and well thought out stories behind it. If you're interested you can buy the Whiteout graphic novel on Amazon.com for a mere $10.16, there's also a sequel called Whiteout: Melt which I have yet to read. I'd better go now. Later.

where am I?

You may be saying to yourself, hey where the heck has Geoff been the past 3 or 4 days? Probably not, but maybe. I know I haven't blogged at all in a little while, but I'll tell you I've been quite busy online. If you'll go check out the fantastic newly redesigned On Hold... podcast website, you'll see what I mean.




I'm pretty happy with it so far. I'm now using a blogger template and FTPing the site from here, which makes things much much easier for me. I know there's still work to be done, but considering how much was involved in this changeover and how long I've been putting it off, I'm stoked that its for the most part done now. Please check it out and then go listen to my podcast ;)

Lates.

IGN's Top 25 Animated Series

So I was flipping past Adult Swim tonight and I saw one of their oh so entertaining interstitials, this one was a really cool list that they said was recently found on IGN. So After looking it up online, I present to you IGN's list of the Top 25 Primetime Animated Series of All Time. It's a really funny article and I'd recommend you go read it. First though check out the list and tell me if you agree or not. Counting down...

25 - The Jetsons
24 - Aqua Teen Hunger Force
23 - Spawn: The Animated Series
22 - Invader Zim
21 - Sealab 2021
20 - Jonny Quest
19 - Venture Bros.
18 - Powerpuff Girls
17 - Justice League
16 - Aeon Flux
15 - Spongebob Squarepants
14 - King of the Hill
13 - Space Ghost Coast to Coast
12 - The Maxx
11 - Samurai Jack
10 - Home Movies
9 - The Critic
8 - Ren and Stimpy
7 - Star Wars: Clone Wars
6 - Family Guy
5 - Beavis and Butt Head
4 - Futurama
3 - The Flinstones
2 - South Park
1 - The Simpsons

I've got to say I think honestly this is a pretty great list. I find really little to fault here. Some of my favorites here are Aqua Teen, Home Movies, Clone Wars, and my personal favorite Samurai Jack. I get this list, and think it's really very strong overall. I mean you can't dispute the importance of things like The Simpsons, or South Park. And man... the Maxx, that's such a great cartoon too... really these are all great choices. I've got, 11 of these shows on dvd in my home right now. I think the Maxx is the only one that hasn't been put out onto dvd yet. Anyhow, Great list all around.

A few of my other favorites that I'm sad they missed are Transformers (which maybe should actually be on their list), Batman: The Animated Series (as should this), G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, He-Man, Garfield and Friends, Invasion America, Transformers: Beast Wars, Vision of Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop, Astro Boy.... and the list just keeps on going....

I've got to give serious props to Adult Swim. They are consistently the best current producer of animated series overall. The one I'm currently loving most is Metapocalypse, oh and Squidbillies, but they are really blazin in here like gangbusters non-stop garnering 4 of these listed top 25 series all to themselves.

Can you guys think of any significant toons that IGN missed?

Camping and Gen Y

So hey, I had a very great weekend. We spent Friday night down at our friends Jan and Cecile's house in San Jose, which was cool. Just drinking and eating good food with good people. Then on Saturday morning we all, like 6 of us, went camping out to Castle Rock state park down by Saratoga/Big Basin. This was really the first true hike in camping we've all done and I think it worked out beautifully. We didn't go too far, only 3 miles hike in, but I was satisfied that we definitely could do more if we wanted to. Erica got to try out her new backpack which worked like a charm, and other than us personally needing a smaller camping stove I think we actually have all the equipment we need ourselves. It was also a nice surprise to find a great local campground that doesn't ever get full. I think we will definitely go back there sometime. Once we'd hiked in we set up camp and then went out on a 8 mile loop hike leaving the bags behind. It was really nice and a particularly varied walk with good sections of rocks, meadow, and forest. Tres tranquile...

That night we drank a bit too much and ended up passing out rather early, but that's really ok, cause there was a fire ban and we didn't have our lantern with us, so sitting around for too long in the dark probably wouldn't have been super fun. And after a fairly stiff restless night we made our way back to civilization quite refreshed. I do kind of think you need a day or two to get used to those thermarests. When we car camp we bring our big inflatable air mattress.; we're spoiled I know... but I'm sure that the thermarests are good for you really. And I know that I definitely didn't want to carry any more weight so the thermarests were a good idea.

The camping was pretty fun all around, but on Sunday night when we got back I had the distinct privlege of being the guest on my current favorite podcast The Gen Y Retrocast with Michael and Gavin. If you readers are interested in podcasts, I'd really recommend you check these guys out. They're very funny, and like to shoot the shit about all the fun stuff from their youth. Pretty much they're just like me. So I know I can't be sure, but I think the show went fairly well, We had a few good topics: Sierra Adventure Games, and the Little Mermaid. Although unfortunately we had a recording snafu and lost the recording on the Little Mermaid. I still think it sounded pretty good regardless. I've never been a guest on any podcast before so I hope it sounded decent. Maybe if it worked out ok, they'll ask me back sometime. I'm sure second time around would be even better, because a lot of the stuff we talked about before going on air was really funny and interesting too. Ah I dont know, you guys'll just have to listen and decide for yourselves when the new show goes up on or after Wednesday of this week. I'm very interested to hear myself.

Not much else to say for now. Later kiddies.

Like a horse and carriage

I'm going to proceed with this blog post delicately, cause I know that both Erica, and friends of ours read this site sometimes. But yesterday Erica and I got into a serious and somewhat upsetting discussion about marriage and kids. Don't worry it was only somewhat upsetting, mostly because of a misunderstanding. And you other folks, no I'm not getting married and having kids literally today. But I would really like to soon. I have wanted to blog about this but haven't until now, not because I was worried that Erica might read it, but more that I didn't want to give anything away. Some level of surprise is expected with this sort of thing. The truth of the matter is though that I'm totally crazy about Erica, and of course I want to be with her. Maybe it's partly being two years younger than her, and maybe its partly just having the kind of personality where I'm fairly immature (in ways); but somehow unfortunately Erica really truly had the impression that I didn't and wouldn't be ready to make that kind of serious commitment anytime in the near future. Whereas the truth is that I've been thinking, extremely seriously (i know qualifying seriously is pretty hard) about getting married for the past two months or so. When I say seriously, I mean to the level where I've mentioned it and bounced it off a few of you, I've thought about timeframes, and about how I might want to do it. That's pretty serious if you ask me.

I'm talking about marriage here, although Erica really wants to talk kids, but I'll get to that in a second. Once you get to the point in a relationship where marriage is a real thought, I'd say that at least for me there are two qualifications that I think you should meet before you go for it. Firstly: will your partner say yes? this seems obvious to me, do you know your partner well enough to know what they want from your relationship? I mean, I firmly believe that you need to talk about getting married beforehand. It's not a thing to do lightly. Whether you take any religious angle into it or not its still an affirmation of a permanent commitment. I don't think you should really be asking someone to marry you if you aren't honestly sure if they will almost definitely say yes. Secondly, and this is key: do you think getting married will change your relationship? This is one that I think a lot of people get wrong for one reason or another. There's this totally crazy impression that I think a lot of people who are in (often bad) relationships have that goes that getting married will make everything better. Ever heard someone say "It'll be better when we're married", He'll clean up after himself, stop going to strip clubs, stop drinking, start exercise... etcetera, etcetera. It seems obvious to me, but there are a lot of people out there that think marriage is a cure all for any and every relationship woe. That is not true. I know I've never been married, but COME ON. I means seriously, that is just stupid. Marriage won't change who you are! So the question: will marriage change you or your relationship (in any significant way)? I think the answer should definitely be no.

What I found somewhat upsetting about my conversation with Erica yesterday was that for the past two months or so, since I've been seriously thinking about this whole thing, is that I've finally gotten to the point where I confidently have been able to answer both of those questions for myself, and think that I might actually be ready. Of course I never mentioned this to Erica, I mean, like if I was about to propose to E tomorrow I would like to keep some surprise to it. So then Erica suggesting that I am not ready, and that she is concerned cause she doesn't think I will be ready for a long time to come bothered me because it leads me to think that Erica doesn't think I meet that first criteria. Like she thinks that I wouldn't say yes (not that i think she is or would ever propose, despite her forthright feminism...), because I am not ready. Well if she doesn't think I am ready that makes me think that maybe she isn't as clear on my feelings as I'd hoped :(

What bugged me more was that once she saw that I was upset she started thinking I was upset because I thought she was pressuring me before I was ready, when in fact I was bothered because while I'm not literally not ready to propose tomorrow, it felt effectively like she was suggesting that I'm not ready for it when I had the ring in my pocket. Is it my fault? Maybe. I mean I didn't talk to her about how I was thinking lately, and I know I said talking was key, and really I usually talk a lot if not too much, but jeez I mean its supposed to be like a surprise isn't it??? especially at the still thinking about it stage. even if that thinking is serious.

Is that too traditional? Probably, well now she knows, she knows that I'm thinking about it, and god, what if I decided I want more time, am I on like some crazy serious timeline now? I mean I don't foresee anything, but aren't these thoughts that are supposed to remain private? Maybe I'm just crazy, cause this is really all good, right? Yeah, definitely.

The thing about kids, no I don't think Erica has gone baby crazy. I know women do sometimes and all, but really Erica is far too sensible for that. She just has a timeline, a very organized timeline. Erica is driven, and serious, she's not type-A although I'm a bit worried I'm giving that impression; she's honestly super fun too, but she has like soooo much more direction in her life than me. It's actually one of the things that works well with us, we compliment each other through our differences. Erica has an idea about kids, she also has an idea about marriage, both of those things however are mutually exclusive. They aren't on the same track, they are just two totally separate things, but both still significant. Erica isn't a super traditionalist, or overly religious, she calls herself a Heathen (jokingly). Considering our personalities it may be weird here, but I might actually honestly be more traditional than she is. Because for me these things, marriage, and kids are in fact on the same track. I don't necessarily know that i think marriage absolutely has to come before kids , but to me the two are pretty amazingly closely linked. The distance in terms of making the decision to get married, versus the decision to have kids once your married is a pittance. And if you're ready to make the commitment that is required to have kids, in my mind, you've already surpassed the commitment level where you could be married. Does that make sense? Marriage is a big move, as are kids, but I wouldn't want to make that kind of commitment that I think you should feel to have kids unless I'm already at that point where I've committed to someone for life. Argh, my words are starting to go in circles. Ok, enough of that, you probably get it by now.

So am I really ready? I don't know, probably yes, maybe I just need to have it roll around in my head for a bit. Erica has really never pressured me on time, but I know I've pressured myself a small bit. Is that bad? meh, I don't think so. I don't really think that even once I make this decision to get married I'd really be ready. I mean, is anyone really ready? ok, that was a lame rhetorical question, but you get my point. It's a big deal and ready is a relative term.

I'm out now. E, if you read this I guess you know it all. I tried to explain this all last night anyhow, just maybe easier, and/or maybe more complicated to hear me ramble about it in blog form. So that's about all for now.

Please let me know what you guys think in the comments.

Oh also, honestly, do you guys think you need to get a blessing from your partner's parents before asking someone to get married? Is that a bit too old fashioned? hmmm...

God, I'm kind of rediculous. Ok, well at least no one can fault me for not thinking about this. I have written proof now. later.

More good news

Woot again!

So you all know how yesterday I won $150? Well apparently they got the number wrong. Actually I've won $250!!! Its almost to the point where I feel guilty. I mean really I only raised $750 for the charity, and now I'm getting $250 back. But you know... money is money, and I have some great ideas already on some things to get with it.

This morning on the train I watched the third episode of Jericho. If you guys haven't checked it out I'd really recommend it. Very moving stuff. It's a new show all about the town of Jericho, Kansas living in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Really strong writing, and good characters. It definitely gets my recommendation. In a really smart move by CBS you can watch the first 3 episodes in their entirety over at CBS.com. Good job CBS, I'm so glad the networks have gotten onto this digital distribution thing. Makes it so much easier to keep up with everything.

I've got the premiere episode of The Nine sitting on my ipod. It premiered last night and I'm excited to see what the heck al the fuss is about. If you missed it you can watch it, along with a bunch of other shows over at ABC.com. I'll let you know what I think once I've checked it. Till then, lates.

WOOT!!1!

Hooray for me! guess what?

I just won $150!!!

That's awesome! If you read this post you'll recall that I recently ran the SF Race For The Cure, and did pretty decently. Finishing the 5km in 65th spot overall with a time of 22:25. Well it wasn't that, but the fact that I managed to be the top male money raiser for my company. So they (my company) decided to award prizes to the top male, and female money raisers, as well as the fastest running male and female. I raised a total of $750 personally. This is sweet, sweet news. In fact I might say it was hawsome... but then again no, that's like totally last month. This is like radsome. That's radical and awesome together... ok maybe that needs some work.

Anyhow, I also helped win a Happy Hour for my department because we had the most participants! That's great news too. I love beer. And I love money. So really everything should be cool.

Hooray for me!

tv rambles

No much going on today. In fact its really slow here. There doesn't even seem to be any good film/celeb news. No exciting new podcasts out yet this week. just slow. sloooooww. Yup. Not much to say today.

I watched the second episode of Heroes this morning on the way into work. It was really really good. I think Hiro is totally the best character so far. And I liked how at the beginning it picked up right where everyone's cliffhangers had left them at the end of week one. The ending was a great surprise, and totally lays out the show for the next three or four episodes beautifully. I may still really like Studio 60, but after three episodes of that and two of Heroes I'm starting to waiver on which one I think is better. Also, unless ratings pick up soon, who knows if Studio 60 will be around much longer. Thankfully according to the oh-so-scientific DeathWatch '06, the perceptions for S60 are at least getting better. If you missed either of last nights episodes of of the excellent Heroes, or the decent Studio 60, you can watch them at NBC.com. Hopefully that trend will continue. Oh, also you can check out the full pilot for tonight's brand new show that's getting really good reviews Friday Night Lights. I haven't watched it yet, but even though I don't really like football I think it looks like a pretty decent show.

As you all know I'm pretty into comics books, one of the neat extras that NBC is doing for Heroes is every week producing an accompanying mini comic book. I think the first episode one was around 6 pages or so, but it was interesting and told a small little side of the story that I was wondering about. You can check out issue one and two HERE. Oh but make sure you watch the episode first, cause it will spoil it if you don't know what happens.

While I do love deepdiscountdvd I wish they would've told me, sorry strike that, I wish I would've noticed that of all those dvds I ordered last week one of them was on backorder. Now I have to wait until 10/10 (estimated date) for Ducktales to be shipped... sigh, so slow. Maybe I should've ordered Animaniacs instead...

Diesel Man and me

Diesel Man comes on the train after me
there are still seats
but Diesel Man likes to stand
in the middle of the aisle

Diesel Man is pretty
his jeans are dark
his hair is carefully casual
his shirt is slim, fashionable
Diesel Man wears his watch on the inside, to show his individuality

Diesel Man is strong
he stands in His Aisle
he holds the bars on both sides
Diesel Man likes to be looked at
he is strong, and tan
his black store-worn leather shoes are crossed on the ground
Diesel Man is confident enough for this too

Charming,
Charismatic,
and Sensitive
Diesel Man likes steak
beer
avacado
wine
Diesel Man can cook 3 different meals
but he would rather go out.
Diesel Man has money
but he expects you to also.
Diesel Man has women
but he still wants your number.
Diesel Man has friends
and they are all uniformly original,
calculated, and exacting.
They shop at Diesel too.

Diesel Man owns His Aisle on the train
he doesn't move when you go by
You can walk under the arm
You are small

I hate the Diesel Man.
I think that everyone must.
but I know that's just mean...

Viva makes me smile

Can I just tell you guys something that really makes me smile? When you start listening to one of your favorite podcasts and they out of the blue bring you up :) I mean I'm not looking for validation generally speaking but I'm like a kid when it comes to podcasting. I may have my simple little ideas and dreams of an information based digital revolution from the masses. But I still know that I'm really just putting on a silly little bloggy podcast. So when people like Lisa and Greg over at Viva Podcast start talking about Devon and me I tend to listen. I mean, I know I've talked to them before, and I know they even went so far as to link to us on their site, but somehow I didn't really expect them to be listening... They're just on this like whole other level. Maybe that's silly to say.

And it's funny cause I think that they think they're old and out of touch or something just cause they like Erasure....

Check out this uber cool video for Kasabian's song Empire



And also, really everyone's listened to Morrissey at some point

breakfast with music

I woke up early this morning and actually had a real breakfast. It was truly thrilling. Usually I just do coffee on my way out the door. Then I spend the entire commute all half asleep. On last Friday though Erica had just finally gotten back from Tokyo, so she was all jet lagged and screwed up timewise. She forced me to get up with her at like 5am, and the experience of actually not being rushed in the morning was so nice I decided to try it again today. Worked ok overall. I think I'll try it for a week or so and see what I think. Eating breakfast is totally good, cause cereal is yummy. The whole getting up before 6am seems a bit overboard though.

I bought some songs off iTunes last night. Some general top 40 crap, cause I was just in the mood for it, and its often top 40 for a reason. No matter how overplayed Gnarls Barkely is right now, you can't fault them for being well produced and catchy. I also picked up a couple tracks off the excellent new Kasabian album Empire. I'd urge you to go have a listen to the entire album for free HERE. I also picked up that great new single from JET "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" , man those guys are great. Found a few new bands through the 'people who bought this also like this' feature. That's a nice thing, it's really how I often find my new music these days. So I picked up some interesting bands that are new to me: Secret Machines, Hinder, Spoon, People in Planes, and maybe the most interesting sounding group TV On the Radio. They have a sound like something... I just can't quite put my finger on that I really really like. Good stuff all around. The weird one that I got was The Killers new one. They're doing this whole Bruce Springsteen-esque thing, including litterally covering "When You Were Young". I wasn't too sure about it from reviews I'd read online, and once I saw them on the SNL premiere this weekend I was pretty much sure I hated the new sound. But then for some reason I decided to buy the track. I kind of hate myself for saying this, because they are so plastic fake, and they've sold their soul to Microsoft, but the song is totally growing on me... very depressing.

The results for the Bridge to Bridge run are finally officially posted, and I guess I read the time wrong on the board as I passed the finish, cause I actually finished the 7km in 37:53, that's a paced 8:49 mile. not too great, but not like really bad I guess. I mean, I wasn't pushing myself, and I still managed to hurt my knee a fair bit. Oh well... Next run I'll work a bit more, assuming I can do it safely.

I got an email from a friend about her podcast being in trouble. It's not my news to tell so I won't say who, but I really hope she gets it all back working ok. She's a really nice girl, and I'd like to see her cast continue and succeed in one form or another. Then again, I'm starting to get to the point where I've seen a few podcasts fall by the wayside. Devon and I have been at On Hold... for 8 months now, and that's almost middle age in podcasting terms. And not to worry, we're not planning on going anywhere. Our cast isn't perfect or anything, but its a constantly evolving process, and having some sort of quasi-creative outlet is nice... oh wait, I guess I blog too :D Whatever, having both are great. Now if only I could get a better job, I'd be set.

I'm gonna head off now folks, have a great Monday.

running, dvds, and more pics

So Erica, Cecile, Olivia and I just ran the Bridge to Bridge 7km run along the Embarcadaro. Although I screwed up my knee somewhat I managed to finish in 33:14 (or so - official time not in yet). I didn't push myself too hard cause I was worried that I'd not realize how to pace for a 7km, vs a 5km and then get all tired out at the end, so I just stuck with Olivia for most of it. Unfortunately even that wasn't enough to spare my poor knee from feeling the ravages of a slight misstep. I've been icing it though, and other than probably having to take it easy this week, maybe do the elliptical as opposed to running I think it'll all work out fine.

Yesterday I was very excited to see that I'd received my first installment of the William Shatner dvd Club! Because it was the first month I got two discs too. Too bad they didn't come in the actual cases, just slipcases, but maybe that'll be ok, if I just keep the neat Shatner packaging. The films I got are pretty cool, even if I did see one of them recently and wasn't super keen on it. At least I see the 'kind' of films I should expect to be getting. First I received the French film Immortal, which was a bit too... foreign? for me. I don't know how to explain it at the moment. Although I think I talked about it on my podcast back in episode 23 (near the end). The other film I got; the bonus disc as it were, is something called Falcon Down. I've never heard of this but after looking at the trailer just now I can say that I am definitely looking forward to some cheesy action. God I mean Bill Shatner AND Judd Nelson?! can't go wrong.

Speaking of dvds, I'm pretty excited because I just ordered a few more cartoons from www.deepdiscountdvd.com. Honestly, I only plug two stores on internet on a regular basis, and this is one of 'em. they may not have absolutely everything, and once in a while Overstock has a better price, but as far as I can tell these guys consistently have the best overall priced dvds online. So I ordered a few things that I've really been wanting for a while now: Home Movies, perhaps the greatest cartoon ever made, season 3 and season 4, along with C.O.P.S. season 1, not the bad boys, but the 'fighting crime in a future time' ones, Ducktales volume 1, and the classic Ninja Turtles volume 4, and volume 5. I know how geeky that all is, but man I do love me some cartoons :)

Not much else going on this weekend. Our friend Daniel treated the group to some fun and excitement out in the East Bay on Friday (tov = sarcasm). Actually I'm just kidding, it was alright. Only really, Walnut Creek isn't that exciting a place. We did go to a good pool hall, and attempted to go out dancing. It didn't work as well as we'd hoped but meh, it was still nice to go out there, especially considering Daniel makes such an effort to come into the city to hang out on the weekends.

Oh and check it. I finally uploaded some more photos to my Flickr page here. Of course if only I'd done it yesterday I would've been able to upload twice as many, they have a monthly limit for the free accounts. I'm sure as heck not about to start paying for their services. They seem good, but I'm just not that into it at this point. So I posted some pics from Lovefest, and about half of the pics from Nebraska. Although none of the 'old timey' ones I mentioned in my Nebraska post. Here's two pic of Daniel and me from the Lovefest. They're just with his camera phone, but still pretty cool eh?