Monday, April 30, 2007

The Hero of Metropolis, the man they call JAAAYYYYYNE!

Good News: Bruce Timm is doing more animated Superman.

Bad News: It's The Death of Superman.

Bad: Clancy Brown isn't doing Lex

Good: James "Spike" Marsters is!

Bad: Dana Delany isn't Lois

Still Bad: Um, Anne Heche is.

Really Bad: Tim Daly isn't Superman.

Great: Adam "The Man They Call Jayne" IS!

That's right, it's Jayne vs. Spike! Whooo! (And Drive is still cancled. Grrr. Arrgh.)

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The word is given: Warp speed

James Doohan's ashes will be boldly going today. I've heard a lot of people grumble that he wasn't a real astronaut or anything. But I'd also argue that he inspired about as many real ones as Alan Shepard, etc. And he helped save the world at Normandy. So Godspeed, Jimmy.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Drive

Well, not surprisingly, I started watching Drive. It's a hoot. And it's got Cap'n Malcolm "Tightpants" Reynolds his own self. So far, it's a lot of fun. I don't know as I need to watch three hours a week, but when it's down to it's regular schedule I'll be good. And there'll be bank robberies! (Assuming it doesn't get the patented Tim Minear three episode treatment.)

More Barry Music

I'm listening to the score of The Lion in Winter. A wodnerful film I saw ten years ago that I actually remember very little of. I remember Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn more as shapes and noises than anything from the film. They were very Herpburn-y and O'Toole-ish. I remember Anthony Hopkins and a nearly teenaged Timothy Dalton a little better. I actually remember Beckett a little better than this. (O'Toole plays the same king in both, right? I should rent that...)

I acquired the score thinking that it would be another big Barry-fest, him doing his best to not be the James Bond guy. His later Bond movies also became him doing his best to not be the James Bond guy - and that became the later Bond sound. I discovered 1) I actually already have snippets of this and 2) it's mostly big ominous latin choral pieces. It's not the long drawn-out Barry sound. It's still good, it's just not that.

I think I need to find more classic Barry. I just don't WANT to get Dances with Wolves. I MAY get the Professional (or the Mechanic, or The Grocer, or some such). I'm not even sure if it's on CD. Terrific score, terrible movie.

If the average quality of movies met the average quality of their scores it would be a much better world, movie-wise. How many great movies have had terrible scores? How many terrible movies have had great scores? I think the ratio is higher on the latter.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Abraham Lincoln - February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865

There was a clue on Jeapordy last Monday about events of the day, April 9th. It was Lee's surrender to Grant, the end of the American Civil War. That was Monday. It's Sunday. That's how long Abraham Lincoln lived after the end of the war.

Last night, 142 years ago, the President of the United States attended a play with his wife. 142 years ago today he died.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Friday the 13th

Did you all survive? I figure any Friday the 13th that doesn't have a new Jason movie (and I'm not talking Argonauts here) is a lucky day.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Roscoe Lee Browne - R.I.P.

Sad news.

Many of you will know him from The Cowboys. A lot of you know him from Soap. The kids all know him from Babe. Of course he said "Behold, the power of cheese."

But I knew him from this:

Monday, April 09, 2007

Gorey!

They (them!) are apparently making an movie based on a Edward Gorey book. Oh, them is the Henson Company. Wow. This could be cool.

Gorey is best known as the "Mystery" guy.



This poster used to hang in my room. It was a dark and broody time. "N" is still my favorite.

As if God created the devil and gave him... JAWS

Before the current trailer guy, there was this trailer guy.



I think he did Amityville Horror too. I've heard him in a bunch of places. He did narration, he did voice-overs. I always wondered what he looked like.

Now I know.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

With great effects comes great plot twists

Spidey 3.

So: Sandman, Goblin 2 (Hobgoblin? The Green Goblin lineage is complicated), AND Venom. Seems... Busy.

But the trailer looks intense. But why do we need so many villains? Although, in Raimi's defence, there were some fantastic Spidey issues (and believe me, Spidey has ISSUES) that had multiple bad guys. Well, we'll see in a month, won't we?

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Meet the Vulcans!

Hey! In 56 years we'll discover faster than light travel! We just have to get through a pesky nuclear war and a "post-atomic horror" to manage it.) And then the pointy-eared people will come down and say "Congratulations you smelly emotional losers! You're the latest of hundreds to solve the intergalactic equivilant of the rubic's cube!" Well, new school, that's the way it went down. OLD school, Zephram Cochrane was the equivilant of Chuck Yeager, Wiley Post, Newton, and Einstein (Hawking hadn't been invented yet - well, not so's anybody had noticed). Entire planets were named for him, he was such a big deal. Spock was even impressed. (Granted, he was impressed with Richard Daystrom, and he was a freaking LOON.) The Discoverer of the Space Warp. Oooooooh! And Zeph wasn't from Earth. He was "of Alpha Centauri". So TNG went and made him FROM Earth, and almost by default, that makes him not as big a deal as we thought before. Weird.

Happy First Contact day!