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Ponderings For 2009-03-01

Submitted by GuyGG on Mon, 03/02/2009 - 2:59am
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  • Sometimes a news event can reveal interesting things. The crash of two satellites last month resulted in some interesting conversations I had with a number of different people. One thing is clear - the vast majority of people I talked to had no idea just how many satellites are floating around the Earth (roughly a thousand active satellites, with thousands of others that are inactive and/or destroyed), or the variety and nationality of said objects. For a good amount of information, check out the Wikipedia entry for satellites.
  • Speaking of orbiting things, here's a cool set of pictures of what's involved in launching a space shuttle.
  • And on the topic of outer space, here's another one of those astronomical phenomena that's tough to wrap your mind around.
  • Ah, the fun of Google's Street View.
  • Battlestar's series finale has officially been split into a two parter (well, a three parter, since it was already intended as a two parter with the first part the previous week). So far, I've been enjoying Battlestar's run to the finish, though last weekend's episode "Deadlock" (written by one of my favorite TV writers, Jane Espenson), was one of the weaker episodes of the show for some time. However, this weekend's episode, "Someone To Watch Over Me", was very good. Composer Bear McCreary has done what has to be one of the single most detailed write-ups any single episode of TV score has ever received in his three part analysis. Absolutely outstanding work by Bear - some of his best for the series. And the fact that he snuck Stu Philips' great "Exploration" intro theme from the classic Battlestar series gets him some bonus fanboy credit. It was another great Starbuck episode, and holds up nicely to the brilliant season 2 episode, Scar. Oh, and congrats to Bear on his recent engagement (to Raya Yarbrough - a vocalist who has often been featured on the Battlestar score).
  • Rats. Somebody already beat me to an attempt at a video I've wanted to try myself - doing a Battlestar opening title sequence using Bear McCreary's revised arrangement of Stu Philips' classic theme using footage and cast from the new series in the style of the original series. OK, that sounds more complicated than it actually is. The linked video is a bit too tongue-in-cheek, so perhaps I might make my own attempt at it some day, anyway.
  • For those of you who want to wear your Blu-Ray pride
  • When, oh when, will us Pushing Daisies fans ever get to see the final three episodes? Turns out the DVD's (and hopefully Blu-Ray) of season 2 can't be released until ABC either airs the episodes or their contracted window to do so runs out in September.
  • The Discovery Channel will be airing a new documentary special on the amazing US Airways crash on the Hudson. It debuts on Wednesday, the 4th.
  • The end of an era - Computer Shopper will no longer be available in print form.
  • Cowon is releasing a very light update to their D2 player called the D2+. I've been a happy user of the D2 for the last year and a half or so.
  • So Star Trek: The Experience has been saved.
  • Could any jury really punish this mother for her actions? I certainly think the dude got what was coming.
  • On the flip-side is this sad but charming news story.
  • And you thought your pet was quite the conversation piece.
  • No matter how much proof I see of the pending release of the first season of Parker Lewis on DVD, such as this cover art, I still find it hard to believe. Perhaps I'll finally believe it as I'm watching the set at the end of June.
  • The Simpsons has been renewed for two more seasons (#21 & #22). It'll be truly insane if it ends at that point, just 7 episodes shy of 500 episodes.

Ponderings For 2009-02-16

Submitted by GuyGG on Tue, 02/17/2009 - 2:59am
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  • I'd like to congratulate The Simpsons on making the switch to HD with yesterday's episode. I hate to admit it, but this is probably the first episode I've seen all the way through from the last half dozen years (since Weird Al's appearance, anyway). Well, that might not be true. A friend of mine is a Simpsons savant and can quote most episodes. I've probably seen some of the newer ones all the way through at his place, not realizing it was that new of an episode. At any rate, it was a fun enough episode, with some amusing references to their shift to HD. The big, cool change is, of course, the new opening titles. It's downright amazing that the show hasn't changed the title sequence since it debuted in 1989 (aside from the usual changing chalk board and couch gags). The new HD-revamped version is, in my opinion, perfectly done. It updates the title sequence without really "changing" it. It's still the same sequence, just tweaked and expanded, paying great respect to the original. Here's a link to the video of the sequence (don't forget to use the "watch in high quality" option). And here's a cool photo stitch job that lets you see the many new additions in one brief pan motion moment.
  • The new trailer for Transformers 2 is now online. Like the first one, I'm being suckered in by a trailer featuring basically just the big action scenes. If only the rest of the first movie wasn't between the action scenes, it would have worked. All I ask is that the characters in the second one not be as stupid and downright silly as in the first. The few tries for comedy they make, the better. It's amusing to see the debris strikes in the trailer. Guess Michael Bay is getting to take another shot at his asteroids impacting all around the world from Armageddon.
  • Details for the Trek TOS and Films Blu-Ray releases have emerged, and The Digital Bits has broken it down nicely.
  • On the Trek topic, I had to be amused by last week's fun episode of Leverage. It was directed by Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation), and featured Brent Spiner (Next Gen's Data) and Armin Shimerman (DS9's Quark). Quite the little Trek reunion. Toss in an aggressive performance from Lauren Holly and it's a fun bit of entertainment. Despite one particularly bad episode, I've been enjoying Leverage quite a lot. It's up in the top few best new shows of the season. Realism may not be the goal of the show, but it knows how to have fun with the caper genre, and has lots of great character/dialog writing.
  • The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan does a nice interview with writers Jane Espenson and Ryan Mottesheard about the Battlestar episode "No Exit" from this weekend.

Ponderings For 2009-02-14

Submitted by GuyGG on Sun, 02/15/2009 - 2:59am
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  • So, did those of you who actually care about Valentines Day have a good one today?
  • Looks like the Friday night Death Slot is going to claim two more genre victims. Dollhouse did worse than even the low expectations the slot had warranted. And looks like the move for The Sarah Connor Chronicles was a mistake as well. Thanks very much, Fox. Perhaps it sounded like a good idea, but if this doesn't prove that The X-Files was a fluke hit on Friday nights, I think the network will never learn. What's even more sad is that I didn't love the Dollhouse pilot episode. Granted, this is after much rumored behind-the-scenes difficulties between Whedon and the network (when are these shows going to learn to stay away from the Fox network?). It was a decent pilot, with some interesting ideas and a slick enough production, but this is not Whedon's best work. Still, it's just a pilot, and one can rarely dismiss a show on just the pilot. It's certainly worth hanging in there to see where it goes. Since it is Whedon (And Dushku, and Acker, and Penikett, etc), I'll be watching every episode, no matter what.
  • The Witches Of Eastwick pilot has signed on the great David Nutter to direct, basically guaranteeing that it gets picked up to series. Nutter is on a 14-for-14 streak of directing/developing series pilot episodes that get picked up by the networks to go to series. So, we'll see if Witches will make it a 15-for-15 track record. While not every one of them may have lasted all too long (Traveler, Dr. Vegas & Tarzan), they've all been very well done. I've certainly been loving his latest success, The Mentalist (my favorite new show of the season, followed by Fringe).
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been picked up for a second season. The show has been more enjoyable than I would have initially anticipated.
  • Dang it. Looks like Germany will get to see the final 3 episodes of Pushing Daisies long before the rest of us.
  • These boots were made for Walken? Indeed. Yikes.
  • And on the subject of Rifftrax, I've been enjoying some of the former MST3K gang's "trax" over the last week or two. Great stuff. And if you haven't been following Mike Nelson's month of eating nothing but bacon, you're missing some great coverage.
  • Lots of cool news for the TV on Blu-Ray front from a recent Rumor Mill post over at The Digital Bits. Coming to the format is Chuck: Season 2, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Season 2, Torchwood: Season 3 and Fringe: Season 1. Not only that, but there's cover art and news about all three of the Star Trek original series seasons HD remaster sets. But of course the coolest news in that post is that Disney is, indeed, working on a Blu-Ray release of Tron, in anticipation of the upcoming sequel. I imagine it's going to take a whole lotta work to get Tron up-to-snuff for a great quality high def master. The amount of laborious effort that went into the myriad elements and layers of the film resulted in some rough-around-the-edges end results.
  • After nearly a year of deafening silence, it looks like things are still moving forward with JPEG XR (formerly Microsoft's HD Photo format). I began a film/slide scanning project (which I will NEVER finish) about a year and a half ago, and committed to the format in it's VERY early infancy. Still to this day, one of the very few apps to support the format is Photoshop, via a plug-in (which is how I'm doing the work with the project). Good to hear that the finalization of the format is now done and that it is imminent for popular use. It'll be nice to have some real support for the format.
  • Conan did a funny rant against the NY Times about their boron mistake.
  • And Joaquin Phoenix made a dazed, half-hilarious, half-scary appearance on Letterman.
  • And you thought your fingernails were long? Ouch.
  • Beverly Eckert is somebody who did not have any manner of good fortune with airplane disasters. Definitely a sad set of circumstances.
  • If you've never checked out the ultra-cool, Tesla-coil-weilding music group ArcAttack, you should hunt around their site and all the videos of their performances up on YouTube. Awesome stuff.
  • I don't care if this is staged/planted or not (I vote not), this is hilarious. Here's a camcorder recording from the audience of the jumbotron. Great stuff.
  • Coolness - The Pong Museum. Happy 40th anniversary, Pong.
  • And on the topic of video games (and my previous post about Tron coming to Blu-Ray), and of no particular surprise, Disney is supposedly working on a new Tron video game to tie in with the upcoming sequel.
  • And I'll transition from Tron to other modern remakes of fun retro-franchises of my childhood. The first is the very cool trailer for GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra. Helmed by a perfectly chosen Stephen Sommers directing, and featuring Christopher Eccleston (The ninth Doctor), I have high hopes for the fun looking movie. If nothing else, it will surely result in a great new score from Alan Silvestri (who has worked with Sommers before on the second Mummy film and on Van Helsing). The second is Land Of The Lost. It is also helmed by a talented director, Brad Silberling, and the great cast includes none-other-than Pushing Daisies' own Anna Friel. The third almost defies belief, The A-Team. I'm a fan of the series, and had been interested in the number of rumored attempts to do a new film based on the show. The newest incarnation of that idea has Joe Carnahan directing (hopefully not as crappy a choice as my instincts would tell me), but most interesting is that Ridley Scott will be producing with his brother Tony exec producing.

Ponderings For 2009-02-12

Submitted by GuyGG on Fri, 02/13/2009 - 2:59am
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  • Good grief. I just noticed tonight that I had forgotten to put the finishing touches on my 2008 Retrospective page and post it to the site, so I have wrapped it up and posted it. It can be found here, as well as in the menu on the top of this site along with the rest of the movie pages.
  • Nothing more for today. Will get some more stuff posted over the weekend.

Ponderings For 2009-02-10

Submitted by GuyGG on Wed, 02/11/2009 - 2:59am
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  • Just got back from Phoenix tonight, so there's not going to be much of a post for this entry. But I couldn't help but jump for virtual joy in posting the news I've been waiting years to hear:
  • Parker Lewis Can't Lose is coming to DVD! WOO HOO! HUZZAH! At long last. And to make it even better news, the fine folks at Shout Factory are handling the release(s), which should mean they'll be most excellent. To celebrate, I'm going to toss on my favorite episode, season 2's finale Diner '75 (on VHS, recorded off USA's old-school "Up All Night" when they ran some marathons of them back in the mid-late 90's).
  • And while we're on the subject of TV show releases, there's also great news that season 1 of CSI will be headed to Blu-Ray. I look forward to the rest of the seasons getting a Blu-Ray release, but season 1 is particularly important. Just to get the widescreen version of that season will be great. That first season set is definitely inferior to the rest of the CSI seasons released to DVD.

Ponderings For 2009-02-04

Submitted by GuyGG on Fri, 02/06/2009 - 2:59am
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  • I post this entry from down in comfortable Phoenix, AZ (technically speaking, I'm in Laveen, which is just outside of Phoenix). It was roughly the same temp inside and out tonight. A bit wamer than the 17 degrees of Chicago, from whence I came.
  • Great to have Medium back with a new season this week. It's one of those shows where I don't realize how much I missed it until it's back. It's also a show I don't mention enough, because it really does deserve it. It's one of the most consistently great shows on the air. It's extremely rare for there to be a less-than-solid episode of the series, and it's always striving to be creative and try something risky and interesting. And it's one of those TV shows that really understands how to visually tell a story. The show's not just about visual style (which it certainly does have), but about using the visuals to help convey the plot and characters. Hopefully, the show will survive a good while longer.
  • Here's a fun new official promo from FOX for their upcoming Friday pairing of Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse, done Grindhouse style. It's a fun and cool promo (particularly for being an official promo from the network), and I really do hope these two shows can help each other survive in their crazy Friday "death slot" schedule. It all kicks off on 2/13, and I can't wait. The Whedon geek in me loves seeing Summer Glau and Eliza Dushku joining forces in different shows together.
  • Speaking of sci-fi on Friday nights, did y'all enjoy last Friday's Battlestar episode, "The Oath?" After two fantastic and gritty character episodes, this one launched things forward at a breakneck speed. Awesome episode. I cheered out loud when Starbuck, uh, made an appearance in the landing bay...
  • Speaking of Battlestar, Universal is doing an interesting move releasing the pilot for Caprica on DVD this April, LONG before it airs on Sci-Fi in 2010 along with the episodes that will follow it.
  • And just to prove that after praising the above shows so much there's the other side to the coin, here's another low for reality TV.
  • The Obama administration has made their first move that annoys me.
  • Doctor Who will be making the big jump to being fully produced for HD starting with the upcoming 2009 Specials.
  • And you thought you've stayed at some strange hotels...
  • Here's an amusing bit of subterfuge pulled off by Anna Torv and Mark Valley, stars of the series Fringe, having gotten married over the holidays without the press noticing.
  • Speaking of subterfuge, looks like you'll wanna pay close attention to those M&M's you are buying.
  • And if you wanna see something equally strange and cool, check out these hit songs reworked through Microsoft's rather interesting and impressive Songsmith platform. There's numerous other ones you can find on Youtube if you go looking, a number of which are quite interesting.

Ponderings For 2009-02-03

Submitted by GuyGG on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 2:59am
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  • I was behind a bit on How I Met Your Mother episodes, so I caught up on the last half dozen episodes, including the newest one from yesterday. Naturally, the show continues to introduce fun new concepts to everyday life, such as Neil Patrick Harris' character of Barney creating an official "Not A Fathers Day" holiday. This series is notorious for establishing games ("slap bet"), catch phrases ("have you met Ted?", "wait for it...")  and of course holidays. And if it's not brilliantly made Robin Sparkles music videos, it's some other great breaking of sitcom tradition. But for tonight's episode, they deserve a medal. How would a normal TV series handle one of its stars being pregnant? Well, they'd see it as two choices - shoot around it, or work in a pregnancy for the character. Not this show. Their answer to Alyson Hannigan's pregnancy? Make her a hot dog eating champion, knowingly and ridiculously passing off her pregnant belly as fat from all the hot dogs.
  • Great to hear that TNT has renewed Leverage for a second season. On a fun side note, somebody on the production team for Leverage must be a Doctor Who fan. In more than one episode now, characters have used the names of actors from Doctor Who, like Tom Baker and Sylvester McCoy. Very cool.
  • Speaking of Doctor Who, David Tennant's first video diary upon his final return to the role has been posted online. As always, it's some fun behind the scenes stuff.
  • Here's a note to the studios: stop calling DVD & Blu-Ray releases "2 Disc Special Editions" when the second disc is nothing but the retarded digital copy.
  • OK, only a brief post for today. I've been losing a battle with some video conversion stuff I've been messing with, which has eaten away all my time. Much more to come, hopefully tomorrow. I'm winging my way to Phoenix on Thursday, and I'm not sure if I'll get much posted before I leave, or while I'm down there.

Ponderings For 2009-01-28

Submitted by GuyGG on Thu, 01/29/2009 - 2:59am
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Ponderings For 2009-01-17

Submitted by GuyGG on Sun, 01/18/2009 - 2:59am
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  • Sorry for the full two weeks of down time without a post. I'm happy to say that the project that has been eating much of my time for a number of months now is finally 100% complete, and I have started handing out copies of it to folks as particularly late Christmas gifts. If you are somebody who knows me in, you know, the real world, and you haven't gotten one yet, just remind me and I'll hopefully have a copy on my to give you. I'm gonna try to keep at least a couple copies with me wherever I go for a little while. So, without further ado, I'll get back to these posts and try to get some of the many other projects I've left hanging back into gear. There will be plenty of stuff I'll be catching up on in these posts over the next few days.
  • RIP: Ricardo Montalban
  • RIP: Patrick McGoohan
  • So, did y'all love yesterday's Battlestar episode? It was the LONG awaited return of the series, and the first of the final 10 episodes of the series. I was amused that even with this first one, Sci-Fi is already giving them extra air time (3.5 minutes this time). I thought this was an utterly fantastic episode (one of the best of the series), and one of the darkest episodes of television ever aired. Listening to Ron Moore's podcast commentary for it, he reveals that the network was actually quite supportive of the episode. Frankly speaking, that's an amazing thing. If Sci-Fi really was completely behind this episode, they are truly comitted to this final run of the series, and letting them do whatever they think best for the story. This was a staggeringly grim episode of TV, which is the kind of thing a network would reflexively be against. So, thank you, Sci-Fi Channel. I must also single out composer Bear McCreary for praise, and not just for his subtle and great work in the episode. Over the past few years, Bear has been posting blog posts detailing his scoring of the episodes, and the posts have gotten more and more detailed over time. He'd already stated that he'd be doing some really detailed write-ups for these last 10 episodes, and he wasn't kidding. His post for this episode is incredibly detailed. In it we get some interesting details, such as the following: "Even though you’ll only catch a couple lines in the show, we actually recorded a complete performance of “All Along the Watchtower” for this episode, complete with all three verses, set in this trippy, ambient style.  Perhaps it’ll end up on a soundtrack album one day? :)" And then there are statements that just warm my heart, like: "The low strings perform a driving bassline in multiple octaves that almost sounds a bit rock and roll, inspired shamelessly by the energetic string phrases in my favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores." (I'm a huge Jerry Goldsmith fan)  Then there's his amusing closing tease: "PS: Somewhere in the score to this episode I’ve hidden a clue about the end of the series.  Good hunting.  :)"  I sure hope Bear gets all this stuff into a book once Battlestar has finished up. And yes, I actually read the entirety of all his posts. Not that I follow all the technical music stuff, but it's always a great read anyway.
  • Holy cow! Awesome casting news for the fantastic and hilarious series Chuck. First, Scott Bakula has been cast as Chuck's father. And if that isn't cool enough, none-other-than Chevy Chase is going to be doing a three episode arc.
  • Hmmm, a Jericho feature film is in the works? I'll believe it when I see it, but I hope they can pull it off.
  • For you fellow Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone fans, here's some sad news. As if having the shows cancelled wasn't bad enough, ABC has now decided to delay airing the last episodes of the shows until the SUMMER! With a delay like that, I'll be surprised if ABC even bothers airing them at all. Frankly, I'm hoping they see a DVD release by or before then. And as the article points out, the truly sad news is to see what the crap they've chosen in stead has gotten in comparative ratings. I weep for the human race when I look at TV ratings. What is WRONG with you average idiot TV viewers? Seriously, what the @#%* is wrong with you people?
  • Speaking of canceled series, Prison Break has bitten the big one. I'm way behind on the show, having only seen up to the first half dozen season 2 episodes. I'll catch up with them on Blu-Ray at some point.
  • The first four episodes of The Clone Wars animated series are headed to Blu-Ray (and DVD, of course). I must admit to liking the series much more than I thought I would, and look forward to checking out the BD release.
  • So the Watchmen legal fight is over. Good to hear.
  • The excellent Gina Trapani bids farewell to Lifehacker.com. I'll miss having her many great posts to the site, but will continue to read and enjoy the great site.
  • I suppose that'll do for now. I've got tons more stuff to post, so I'll try and pace myself. Look for my list of 2008 top movie picks in all the usual categories to be posted by next weekend. I've still got a few 2008 movies to catch before I finalize the lists and get them compiled and posted. I caught Slumdog Millionaire a second time tonight. Great film.

Ponderings For 2009-01-03

Submitted by GuyGG on Sun, 01/04/2009 - 2:59am
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