Joss Whedon

• 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.

I know postings have been slow for the last week or two, but it's for good reason. I've been severely bogged down with a project I need to finish before Christmas. Starting Thursday postings will resume as normal. However, I had to post about this immediately. When I got home today, a box from Amazon was waiting for me. It was my DVD copy of the wonderfully wonderful Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! Hurray! If you haven't seen Dr. Horrible (which debuted online months ago), you really must. However, the reason I'm posting this right now is to praise the greatest special feature to ever be produced for a DVD. They did a musical commentary track, which is hilarious. Never mind the fact that there's an actual commentary as well. I'm not usually one for musicals, but it appears that any musical Joss Whedon is involved with will be awesome (including the Once More With Feeling episode of Buffy, of course). As if the Dr. Horrible musical itself wasn't great enough, this musical commentary is the icing on the cake. And I love the fact that any music genre is fair game. They also did a great job getting everyone back to participate in the musical commentary. I sure hope the DVD sells countless copies to prove that something great can be produced like this without studio backing. For those who don't know, it was infamously made during the writers strike, with many of Joss' usual colaborators chipping in to see if they could make it for a minimum budget and still become a success in the "alternate media" world (re: the internet and DVD). Hopefully it'll start getting some airings on Comedy Central or something. I've gone through all the extras already (including some nice behind-the-scenes featurettes), and have Commentary! The Musical playing again as I type this. Anyway, back to my project...

• OK, so my posts have been slow lately. Hey, I at least got a review posted for Quantum Of Solace. What more do you want? How about me admitting defeat when it comes to the reviews? Well, then you're in luck. Rather than attempt actual reviews for all the ones that are long overdue, I've begun adding a simple single paragraph review ("reviewlettes?") for ones that are still lacking full reviews. Their brief reviews are contained with their entry on my 2008 Films list. And yes, I know The Dark Knight is missing a brief review. That's because I do actually plan to finally get my full review of that one published.
• Speaking of Quantum Of Solace, it entered the James Bond franchise record books this weekend.
• The new trailer for Star Trek has gone live.
• It's sad to see that Pushing Daisies is on death watch. I suppose there are plenty of puns that can be used with the title of the show. I'm a HUGE fan of the show, and will be sad to see it go. I can't say I'm surprised, though. First, it's a wonderfully odd show, which instantly makes it hard to market (as any TV network will tell you, "same is good"). Add to that the fact that it's made by the folks who brought us Wonderfalls, one of the greatest shows of all time, which was short-lived with a 13 episode run on Fox. But like all insanely brilliant shows that don't live long, one can adopt the viewpoint of "hey, a short run of a fantastic show is still something to enjoy and be proud of." I have my fingers crossed that Daisies can survive. But if not, it was great to get whatever we could from such a great series. If it dies, I just ask that the second (also short) season gets released on Blu-Ray.
• And on the topic of series cancellation, NBC has killed My Own Worst Enemy. While following episodes weren't as great as the awesome pilot episode, I did like the series. Not the greatest one on the air or anything, but a fun show. And it made a great companion in the time slot to follow Chuck (which IS one of the best shows on the air).
• A new trailer for Joss Whedon's upcoming Dollhouse has hit the web
• Could it be? Knight Rider is being retooled yet again? But hey, it sounds like they are correcting many of the problems I had with it once it went to series. I liked the TV movie from earlier this year, but it totally went off the rails when they brought it to series, when it became completely ridiculous and lost focus of what the show should be. Sounds like NBC has figured out their mistakes. I now look forward to seeing what the later half of the season will be like.
• And in the good news department regarding cancellations of series, The CW has scrapped plans for their uber-retarded sounding Graysons series.
• RIP: Michael Crichton
• RIP: Phoenix
• "Insane" barely begins to describe this dog. Wow.
• Here's a hilarious breakdown of the events in Cloverfield using Google Maps.
• Like many other Academy Awards disqualifications from the past, Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard's score to The Dark Knight has been ridiculously disqualified from awards consideration.
• Google has release the new version 7 of their 3D modeling program SketchUp.
• Here's a pretty good collection of photos from the LA Times of the recent California fires.
• And here's a cool photo set of New York in the 1930's
• Coolness. USA Network's series In Plain Sight (of which I'm a fan) has cast the fantastic Joshua Malina in a recurring role.
• Ever wonder what happens to the planes when smaller budget airlines go out of business?
• They may not wear eye patches and have peg legs, but pirates are hardly a thing of the past.
• The kick-butt new USB 3.0 standard has finally been stamped with approval. It'll be very cool to see the new devices in the hopefully near future.
• Incidentally, I'm now on AT&T's brand new 18mb U-Verse data tier. So far, it's working great.
• Here's a great experiment with Google Suggest
• Oh nooooo....

• So, did you have a fun Halloween? This might be the nicest weather Halloween I can remember. The number of trick & treaters to visit my house tripled this year, with a total of 9 (yes, there were only 3 last year).
• Coming as a surprise to almost nobody, Circuit City has announced the closure of 155 of their locations, which is just short of 25% of their total locations. Most of the ones in my area are remaining open. One thing is for sure, the company is clearly not doing well pulling out of the tailspin they've been in for a while. This new move is surely just to pull themselves out of their current crisis of being warned of their stock being de-listed because it's been below the requisite $1 level for more than a month. My sympathies go out to the many Circuit City employees who are getting caught in this crossfire, particularly the ones who have suffered through the previous layoff spree the company did a little while back.
• Another recent bit of news that isn't too surprising is the announcement by David Tennant that he is leaving his Doctor Who role after 2009's set of TV specials. While my initial reaction is to be sad to see him leave (he's my favorite actor in the role for the entire 10 actor, 45 year history of the show), I'll be interested to see who the next actor will be. The rumors have started flying like crazy, of course, but given the reliability of the UK tabloid press on stuff like this, surely nobody has yet to accurately guess anything.
• The newly-transmitting Hubble has sent back this pretty cool shot. You know, when you stop and think about the 400 million light year distance involved in this, it kinda blows your mind (or at least it should).
• This is equally funny and disturbing. One thing's for sure, I know what will be in your nightmares tonight.
• Check out this collection of photos from Paris during the 1900 Paris Exposition.
• Congrats to The Pirate Bay for crossing yet another crazy milestone, 20 million unique clients.
• So Fox has canceled King Of The Hill. Heh, to be honest I didn't realize it was still in production.
• Oh, and The Ex List is another new series for the season to buy the farm. I hadn't even gotten around to watching any of them yet (though I did intend to give the show a shot, and do have the episodes saved to check out).
• On the subject of new series for this season, Joss Whedon's upcoming mid-season replacement series, Dollhouse, has picked up one of my single favorite TV writers/producers, Jane Espenson. This should come as no huge shock, as Jane has worked on all of Joss' previous shows.
• And speaking of TV, looks like AT&T is adding a new slate of HD channels to the U-Verse line-up. Nothing much that I care about, though.
• The Terrance Howard situation with Iron Man 2 continues to get interesting. I also wanna know how he ended up the highest paid cast member of the first (if that's indeed true).
• You know, for all the complaints that Microsoft gets for their monopolizing, they don't hold a candel to Apple's continuous propriatorization. It's one of the reasons I will have nothing to do with their technology (probably the primary reason).
• Speaking of the all-powerful Apple, how in the WORLD is it that The Beatles have yet to end up on the annoyingly impiracle iTunes yet?
• With the campaign process in the final stretch this weekend, it was fun to see the SNL skit from yesterday featuring McCain himself, and of course the great Tina Fey as Palin again.
• Speaking of political situations, looks like one of the places you don't wanna be right now is Congo (or anywhere surrounding it for that matter).
• Here's an interesting Google Maps mash-up, providing local movie listings.

• Today was one of those days where nothing could go quite right for me. Not that it was filled with major problems, just lots of bad bits of timing and other stupidities. So, I'll try and end the day by digging through some fun stuff and sharing it with y'all...
• NASA has mapped out the final flights of the space shuttles through 2010. Only 10 more launches, then the remaining 3 shuttles of the fleet will be retired. It'll be the end of an era.
• Good ol' Darth Mojo has done an excellent, detailed write-up of the Battlestar Galactica wrap-party (well, part one of his write-up, with more parts to follow soon)
  
• So, will The Dark Knight meet the $130 million opening weekend expectations? As the article says, WB is predicting $100 to make it easier for expectations to be met. It's amazing for some of these films to be able to low ball conservative numbers at $100 million. My prediction will be somewhere around $140 million. I'm absolutely going to be seeing The Dark Knight in IMAX form (with some scenes featuring native IMAX filming with full IMAX screen aspect), but I'm not crazy enough to try the IMAX screenings on opening weekend. If the fan anticipation of this movie wasn't high enough, the critic response so far has been through the roof.
• In a neato marketing move, Warner Bros is promoting The Dark Knight with an actual bat signal.
• A nice list of Firefox 3 features most folks don't know about. Multi-select is my favorite
• Here's a stunning shot of Dubai covered in fog, taken from the very high Burj Dubai Tower
• An amusing photo lampooning the questionable recent missile test photos from Iran
• DrivePricing.com is a nifty mash-up of Google maps with gas pricing and such
• Or if you'd prefer something a little more cheerful than gas pricing in your Google Maps mash-up, try HealthMap.org.
• So, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 has truly hit the end of life cycle
• This is just too good - Buzz Aldrin decks a very annoying conspiracy theorist
• Google is making a nice change to GMail's contact system, introducting a new version of the contact manager that doesn't automatically add everyone you send an e-mail to into your contacts. It'll have a new "suggested contacts."
• Mary Parent, who was the studio exec at Universal who green lit Joss Whedon's long-shot Serenity, has given the green light to a script by Joss & writer Drew Goddard called The Cabin In The Woods now that she's over at MGM. This is quite cool. Goddard has become quite the collaborator with both Joss Whedon (formerly working on Buffy & Angel) as well as JJ Abrams (working on Alias & Lost, and the feature film Cloverfield).

• Nice short post today to make up for the lack of them recently...
• For those that missed news of the big event, Bill Gates officially stepped down at Microsoft on Friday, ending a major era of computing. One little tidbit: I'm roughly as old as Microsoft (born in 1975).
• The official site for Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog has launched, along with a trailer. This is the production Joss Whedon did during the writer's strike. Should be loads of fun.
• The fourth Jason Bourne movie is now a go.
• This'll teach you kids to not capriciously jump around in mud puddles.
• Tweak Firefox 3 to display fancier colors
• I've seen WALL-E twice now, and loved it just as much the second time round. Go out and see it, folks. And while you're at it, look for the usual hidden bits in the movie.
• Here's an interesting little piece of history from the Apollo program. Not to mention the Cold War.
• Sony has been taking quite the loss on the PS3. Doesn't come as a huge shock, given that most game consoles cost their companies quite a bit up front. Now, if only Sony hadn't screwed up the line by dropping the Emotion Engine from recent models.
• Interesting. Robert Rodriguez is remaking Red Sonja with girlfriend Rose McGowan. I hope they at least reference Ennio Morricone's score - easily the best part of the original film.
• IsoHunt has gone SSL. That's a move that I think all the torrent sites should be doing (The Pirate Bay also recently did the same).
• One of the many strange places one might find a server room, due to the expense of moving them: a women's bathroom
• For those who think there just aren't enough monuments in this world
• An interesting and exhaustive set of Q&A facts about LEGO
• An amusing mistake in a Dell support online chat session
• Putting those undergarments to good use
• The Oasis Of The Seas: for those who want to take a cruise, but have zero idea that they're on a ship.
• Is Sears really too incompetant to take your money? Wouldn't surprise me.
• For you fellow Chicagoans, here are some fun stats about heat waves in the area over the decades. Sure does make the global warming nutters seem a little bit wrong.
• Speaking of Chicago, the Tribune has posted a collection of pretty nifty Chicago photos.
• Composer Bear McCreary has been doing detailed breakdowns of his scores for Battlestar Galactica over the past couple years, episode by episode. They may be a bit steeped in musician technical jargon, but they are still great reads. He even does plenty of responses to fans in the comment sections. Check out his particularly detailed and interesting write-up on Revelations, the recent mid-season finale (which had some amazing scoring work).
• This wouldn't be quite as pathetic if she actually did look hot.
• This will teach you better than to actually believe your own brain
• Is it really a surprise how much people hate dealing with communications companies?
• Some more amusingly poor Enlglish sign translations
• Speaking of amusing English translations, here's an interesting article on the dominance of English as a language, and how the control of the language may not be in the hands of those who actually know how to speak it. Suddenly, the world of Firefly may not seem like too much of a stretch.
• A write-up that the rest of us Windows users would likely agree with
• What it's like to go gun shopping in Mogadishu
• A book on Steven Seagal that I might actually have to check out.
• Here's a fascinating hobby: documenting secret satellites
• Shiptool is an interesting utility site for hunting down cheapest shipping rates
• Here's a great, detailed history of video game consoles of the 70's. I have very fond memories of some of them (and own a handful of them that are still functional)
• The fascinating great grandfather of modern computers
• Speaking of which, check out this amazing work in 1934 that has some eerie early hints at what would eventually become the internet.
• The next generation of tornado tracking equipment
• You think you've made some mistakes in job interviews and on applications...
• They were seriously going to let this talentless hack do the next Bond title song?

• RIP: Tristram Cary (One of the earliest composers for Doctor Who, among other things)
• FINALLY! Michael Giacchino's "Roar!" suite from the Cloverfield end titles is getting a release. iTunes has the exclusive on it, which sucks, but at least it's getting released.
• Speaking of Giacchino, the complete score for Speed Racer was oddly posted as a flash component on a Road Runner Broadband promo site for Speed Racer earlier this week. It was only there for a day before it was replaced by just a few clips. This complete one clocked in at just under 2 hours. Users ripped it from the site while it was there, and you can find MP3 encodes of it around the web if you go looking. Anyway, I've listened through it a few times now. I think the album will probably make for a better listening experience. Even in the exhaustive 2 hour form, it's a great score. Giacchino plays around with the Speed Racer theme tune in numerous, fantastic ways. But the real treat is the performance of the theme itself, which I'm assuming is an end title cue. It's stupendous. I've listened to it dozens of times, particularly driving around in the car. Easily the best performance of that theme tune, ever.
• Meant to mention this a little while ago when it was first posted. Google's official blog had a nice, random tribute to the absolutely fantastic Tom Lehrer.
• Whedon & Minear in 2008! I'd vote for that...
• Ever wonder just how crazy Gary Busey's drug abusive years were?
• Short posting for today. Busy messing around with other fun stuff.

• Another gap in posting due to me bogged down in other projects/problems...
• RIP: Charlton Heston
• Hurray! Firefly is coming to Blu-Ray! I'd assume they'll make this a release to push for the holiday buying season.
• Speaking of Joss, there's been some cool casting news for his new Dollhouse series. None-other-than Helo himself, Tahmoh Penikett as well as the excellent Olivia Williams (if you want to see a fantastic, completely overlooked movie, check out Below, which features Williams). Neato.
• Here's some very impressive tornado footage from last year
• Rotten Tomatoes has posted a report of seeing the first 30 minutes of Wall-E (lucky weasels), as well as some Q&A with director Andrew Stanton.
• Here's a petition actually worth signing
• What's in a name?
• Check out this nifty hotel room finder
• That's it for now. Hopefully more posts and reviews coming shortly.

• Woo hoo! "Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog" will actually exist. For those not in the know, this is a made-for-the-internet series of 3 ten minute musicals made by Joss Whedon, starring none-other-than Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day. Can't wait.
• Now this is WAY too cool. Check out FlickrVision (be sure to check out the even-cooler 3D version that's linked on the page)
• Holy cow. ABC is actually giving Rob Thomas another shot at his Cupid series.
• The cool Google Sky has hit the web
• X-Files 2 has wrapped
• Cute. 10 of main cast from Battlestar Galactica are hosting Dave's top 10 list on March 19th.
• A marriage made in Heaven: Blue Man Group on Blu-Ray.
• Speaking of Blu-Ray, could it be that Fox has FINALLY gotten a release done right? And of all surprising titles to do so with, it's gonna be Patton.
• Here's a cool remix of gun shots from Call Of Duty 4
• So, not only will David Yates stay on as director of Harry Potter 7, but it will be split into two films.
• Finally, the RIAA are gonna be in court, with the tables turned on them. Hurray!
• A "droopy pants" law - how do we get it passed in my state (Illinois)?
• More evidence that we, as a species, are done.
• RIP: F-117 Stealth

• The performance of this week's episode of Jericho was unofficially considered to be the most important one in considering the future of the show. Amazingly, the ratings actually went up this week. Hopefully, CBS won't immediately write off the show, as they did once before. To be honest, if they didn't pick it up again, I don't think it would be hard to blame them, as the show has sadly been doing rather poorly in the ratings. Let's hope this week will turn the tide. 
• Woo hoo! Marti Noxon has been added to the list of guests at the Paley Center's upcoming Buffy event. She joins the already impressive cast list attending. It's about time they got some writers/producers in the mix other than Joss.
• Wow. These are some fantastic photos of lightning strikes.
• Never mind the lightning. How about having a couple water spouts chasing you at sea?
• Here's some very cool statistics, presented with engaging style. Any of you fellow stat nerds will love it.
• There's gold in them there land
• A zamboni picture that looks worse than it really is
• Proof that Garfield can be even funnier without Garfield.
• Looks like those of you up in the Northwest area around Washington state are in for quite a ride in the not-too-distant future.