Rather than trying to do any kind of structured TV reviews, I’m just gonna do the occasional post of random TV review thoughts for whatever points in time, regarding whatever random shows (in random order)…

Star Wars - The Clone Wars (Through 1.02): I thought the theatrically distributed debut film for this series of animated episodes was passably entertaining. It was certainly not without its flaws, but I liked it well enough. Then again, I’m not the average fanboy who loathes the prequel trilogy. In fact, I quite like Episode 3. So shoot me. I mildly liked the previous set of Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars animated shorts, but haven’t really watched them since they first ran. However, I must admit that I really liked the first Cartoon Network episode of this series, and the second one wasn’t half bad, either. If there’s one complaint I need to make, it’s that I hate the battle droids. They were bad in the prequel films, but they weren’t in it all that much, frankly. With the amount of time they are getting in these Clone Wars episodes, I think they are a bigger blemish on the franchise than Jar-Jar Binks was. Still, Yoda was great in the first episode, and the clone troopers work quite well. The animation seemed more impressive in these TV episodes than the theatrical debut film, as crazy as that sounds. Overall, I’ll continue watching if they can keep up the production quality.

Knight Rider (Through 1.02): I rather liked the backdoor pilot film that NBC made, and had hopes of liking the TV series that was green lit after the pilot film did well. I’m a fan of the original series, and thought the pilot film did a pretty good job staying true to the original while still finding a new approach. Then along came writer/producer Gary Scott Thompson to overhaul the production when it got picked up for series. I can only assume he’s to blame, because in this new series form, this show sucks. The moderate amount of intelligence from that pilot film has been completely lobotomized. This might as well be WWE Wrestling for all it’s worth. If it weren’t for the holdover cast from the pilot film, this would be complete garbage. The first episode was abysmal. The second was an improvement, but not particularly good either. I’ll give it one or two more episodes to improve, just for my loyalty to the original, but I’m not expecting a wild turnaround.

Fringe (Through 1.04): Looks like JJ Abrams and his gang have the breakaway best new show of the year on their hands. This is definitely my favorite new show so far this season. I’m totally loving it. From the fantastic cast to the creepy stories and plot arcs to the great production quality, I’m very thankful to have a successful X-Files styled show back on the air. There’s also the fantastic gimmick of their “floating in mid air” title cards for location names, reminding me of stuff like David Fincher’s opening titles for Panic Room. It’s surely a gimmick, but it works wonderfully. The network must like what they’re getting, too, since they just picked it up for the full season.

Do Not Disturb (Through 1.02): Since I just talked about a great new show that just got a full pickup, I’ll follow it with this lame sitcom that just got a quick cancellation. I was hoping it would be good, since it starred Jerry O’Connell, but it just wasn’t meant to be. After his great Carpoolers comedy series from last year didn’t succeed, it’s only fitting that a truly lame sitcom would fail even worse. Never mind the fact that the original pilot episode (which I saw a leaked copy of over the summer) was as bad or worse than what actually aired. This was a bad sitcom, plain and simple. In fact, it looks like this will be the first year I can remember there not being a new multi-camera sitcom that I like, unless there’s another new one I haven’t seen yet. I imagine this will be the last I write about this show.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Through 2.04): This surprisingly good TV series entry to the venerable Terminator franchise continues to be impressive. From the typically excellent production quality to the great cast, it fights against the odds and just plain works. After the wonderful final act of last seasons’ final episode, I was hopeful for a good continuation. Though the John Connor character has been a little bit weak and annoying during the first couple of episodes this second season, the show has otherwise been very good. Brian Austin Green continues his nice performance and has been added to the main cast. This second season has done another bit of odd and interesting casting with the addition of rocker Shirley Manson to the main cast, in an intriguing role. While this show continues to stray into the Battlestar Galactica world of machines rising against their creators and questioning their possible humanity, it remains a uniquely Terminator take on the idea. I look forward to further episodes. And speaking of Battlestar connections, composer Bear McCreary continually hits his episodic scores out of the park on this series. Perhaps not quite to the amazing level of quality that Battlestar has gotten from him over the years, but he’s doing some darned impressive thematic and texture scoring for Terminator.

Anyway, more to come soon. Or later. Or whenever.

• OK, three more reviews added today, 2 newer and one older. I hope to keep them coming for a while.
• Bear McCreary continues his impressive posts to his official blog. This time, he’s doing an interview with genius composer Bruce Broughton, relating it to his short experience scoring a brief cartoon sequence in a recent Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles episode.
• Now here’s one insanely impressive cruise ship. Yikes.
• Here’s an interesting bit of history involving the vast tunnels that Hitler and Albert Speer were working on when WWII broke out. It’d be an interesting piece of history to visit.
• Speaking of interesting (and disturbing) pieces of history, here’s one on the ol’ Russian gulags, “then and now.”
• I’m sure I’ve mentioned them before on this site, but if you’ve never checked out writer/producer Chuck Lorre’s web site, where he archives all his “vanity cards” from over his many years producing TV, you’re missing a lot of fun. Having just watched today’s episode of The Big Bang Theory (a very funny show), his vanity card for this one was amusing. It stated that “Tonight’s vanity card is about censorship. It was censored. As always, you know where to look.” Yes, us fans know where to look (his web site, of course), which revealed his amusingly censored card for the week (surely just a joke in being censored). If you’ve never dug through the cards on his site, you can sit there for hours reading them all. Some of them are insanely hilarious. And he semi-recently passed up the 200 mark on his insane collection of them.
• Here’s another excellent collection of HDR photos
• Of course, the big news of today was the $700 billion Wall Street bailout being shot down. I rarely talk politics on this site, but I was in favor of shooting it down. I’m with Ron Paul on this one. And for those who want to deny the length of history to this issue, and simply blame the Bush administration for all of it because that’s the popular thing to do, there’s articles like this.

• OK, the Ponderings postings are gonna have to be split up for the rest of the week. After the long down time, things have built up to the point where I don’t wanna overwhelm you with too much at once. So, let’s see if I can sufficiently whelm you. And I’m hoping to catch up on a number of movie reviews throughout the rest of the week.
• RIP: Isaac Hayes & Bernie Mac
• Check out this fantastic Willy Wonka recut trailer perfectly titled “Wonka” - it’s so awesome, I wish I had thought to do it first.
• Happy 100th birthday to animated film
• I can’t wait to see James Cameron’s new, technology-pushing, state-of-the-art, 3D extravaganza Avatar. Here’s an interesting article on it.
• Speaking of 3D, The Polar Express is coming to Blu-Ray in 3D! Now I’d like to see Monster House and Beowulf get 3D releases on BD.
• Holy cow! 9/11 really was a conspiracy…
• Now this is one very impressive obituary
• The crazy Burj Dubai skyscraper is nearly finished. This thing is insane. Check out these photos.
• Here’s some very cool lightning photos from the massive lightning storm that rolled through here in the Chicago area a couple weeks ago.
• Speaking of lightning, you’ve gotta check out this awesome slo-mo footage of a lightning strike
• Still speaking of lightning, here’s one crazy video of a CLOSE strike (warning: strong language)
• And if you think that lightning strike was close, how bout being on a bus as it’s hit by a tornado (or grazed pretty darn close, at the very least)
• Google Insights is a pretty cool new service
• Now here’s some awesome chess set design
• Too cool - Yoda The Cat
• Warp Drive: yet another Star Trek technology that scientists are determined to actually make possible
• In the market for a new car?
• Here’s a vantage point that I bet you’ve never seen a shuttle launch from before
• Slightly older news that somehow got past me, which I had to learn about in print form in Doctor Who Magazine. Anwyay, something I’ve been wanting since Doctor Who returned to the airwaves is to have Nicholas Courtney return as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. I’m finally getting my wish. Well, almost - he’s appearing on spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures. Frankly, that’s almost a better show for him to appear on, as he has a direct history with actress Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane.
• Speaking of Doctor Who, congratulations are due for the brilliant Steven Moffat for winning his third consecutive Hugo Award for Doctor Who. This time for the episode titled Blink, which is possbily my all-time favorite episode of the series (new or old). I’ve watched it dozens and dozens of times.
• Composer Bear McCreary hasn’t done as much posting to his blog over the summer, what with Battlestar between episode runs and him being busy on multiple other shows. However, he just popped in with this amusing bit of trivia that was brought to his attention. As always, the stuff he posts is fascinating in its detail. Not only does he point out and provide clips of the two versions of the sequence, but he even provides the clip with the rejected original cue. This is what us film score nut-jobs geek out on (and BSG fans). Yeah, I’m a dork. A dork who’s anxiously awaiting the new CD release of Bear’s score for Eureka, which I’ve ordered, and will be winging its way to my door very soon.

• 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: George Carlin - may you be stuck on the roof for a great long while
• I’m going to go off on a topic at the moment which is a bit unusual for me - alternative music. I heard a song the other day that immediately piqued my interest. I only heard the first part and did a little research to find out what the song was. Turns out is was a song called New Born by some music group I’d never heard of named Muse (that’s no surprise, as I don’t follow much popular music). Still, I was floored by the simplicity and beauty of what I heard. After tracking down the song, I was immediately impressed again. That is, until it kept playing. I then heard the song butchered, as it disintegrated into something I just wanted to end. It’s sad to heard such a brilliant piece of melody and harmony so completely slaughtered. I also thought it vaguely familiar when I first heard it, and after a bit more research figured out that it had been remixed by Paul Oakenfold for the Swordfish soundtrack, which I was quite familiar with. I like the beginning of the original version best, but overall would definitely prefer Oakenfold’s non-butchered version. Perhaps there could be a cover version with a new arrangement that I could actually enjoy for more than the first minute. Cause that first minute is gorgeous. Reminds me quite a bit of the best qualities of Coldplay, a group who did one great song (”Clocks“) then did a myriad inferior variations on the same thing (one of those CD’s I got suckered into by one song and then was unimpressed by the rest). Anyway, that’s some of my rare non-film score music discussion for the blog. Take it for whatever uneducated value it’s worth.
• “Real Snail Mail” - quite possibly the coolest useless project ever.
• Here’s a well-deserved write-up of composers Michael Giacchino and Bear McCreary, who are correctly singled out as the most impressive composers working in TV today.
• Burma, I mean the Union of Myanmar, just ain’t likely to be a place anyone’s gonna wanna visit any time soon. On top of all their brutally insane internal strife, nature sure ain’t cutting them any slack. Now the rats have been called in.
• Speaking of rats, there sure are a lot of them jumping ship over at Yahoo these days.
• A new Starship Troopers 3 trailer has surfaced. I’m not expecting a whole lot from this one, so I hope to be pleasantly surprised, like I was with the second one. It is amusing that they will finally stop the whining fanboys always complaining about the lack of the marauder suits.
• “Baby tossing.” Who could make this stuff up, anyway? Lunatics.
• On the topic of odd, how about having it rain cement?
• Who says there’s no such thing as bad advertising?

• RIP: Stan Winston. This one comes as a huge loss to the movie industry. Winston was a modern legend when it came to creature effects and animation, and later in all realms of visual effects. From his days with Jim Cameron working on Terminators and Aliens, to breakthrough work with Steven Spielberg creating dinos for Jurassic Park. While his top-notch studio will carry on, Winston’s constant brilliance in both pushing the art form to retaining classic techniques will be greatly missed by film fans like myself.
• Not to mention - RIP: Tim Russert.
• Here’s a nice remembrance of the LaserDisc format (of which I was a huge supporter and fan for the decade of its popularity).
• Hurray! Bear McCreary’s scoring work for both Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and Eureka will be getting their own soundtrack albums.
• So, Bones has gone filming in the UK for the upcoming season.
• The first trailer for the new Death Race remake has surfaced. While my expectations are exactly high, I must admit that it’s a cool trailer, and the simple act of casting Joan Allen in that role is enough to pre-sell my ticket.
• Good grief. Check out this traffic flow (to say the least).
• Here’s a nice collection of aerial photography (of sorts).
• Amelia - the movie that may finally get my to break my Richard Gere boycott. The rest of that cast is too great to pass up, and the topic is hard for me to resist.
• Google will be helping out in detecting if your ISP is messing with your connection
• And yes, I know, I’ll be taking some heat for liking The Happening and not particularly liking The Incredible Hulk. And if you hadn’t gather from my review of the film, I’d recommend any of you who are able to go out and see The Fall.
• And oh yeah, don’t forget that tomorrow is the possible record setting download day for the release of Firefox 3.

• Only an hour and a half or so until the launch of Endeavour for NASA’s STS-123 mission. I’ve got the launch preparations playing back on the live NASA TV streaming feed. Speaking of which, check out one of the items that Endeavour is carrying to the ISS, “Dextre.”
• You must check out this momentous, riveting, breaking news story
• Coolness. The WB to return in online form? Sure, it’s hardly a relaunch of a network, but still fun for us nostalgic few.
• Happy slightly-belated 30th birthday to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy - probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing houses of Ursa Minor.
• The final poster for Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull has been revealed. A nice entry into Drew Struzan’s portfolio.
• Check out this awesome video of a flying car (of sorts)
• The Waldo Ultimatum. Too funny.
• Here’s somebody who REALLY knows how to have fun with an Etch-A-Sketch
• Check out these very nice Chicago photos (many of which are beautiful HDR shots)
• A complete Futurama timeline
• Oh, to be in LA on April 13th.
• This month marks the 10 year anniversary of the MP3 player. Bet you can’t name the manufacturer of the first one.
• The sixth and final season of The Dead Zone gets a DVD announcement
• Anyone who can utter the phrase, “Our current plan is not to integrate the time zone package with SP3, but instead release a new updated update to windows update,” deserves some odd praise.
• This makes the out-of-control parties seen in raucous teen comedy films seem like a trip to the petting zoo. Er, strike that. Make that a trip to some other innocuous, pre-adolescent destination.
• Wheelchair Dude?

• Check out a rundown of some of the biggest new years eve fireworks spectaculars from a couple weeks ago. I’ve always been a fan of Sydney’s fireworks display each year (a copy of it has floated on the net for the last half dozen years or so which I’ve hunted down and watched year after year), and this year’s was OK. Not their best, but still cool. However, London’s was phenomenal. That’s the most impressive, insane fireworks display I’ve ever seen. And that YouTube video doesn’t do it justice. Not by a long shot. I hunted down an HD copy of the BBC-HD broadcast, which is FAR more impressive. However, somebody needed to gag that raving idiot they gave a mic to that nearly ruins the broadcast of the event. I may mess with the audio track on the HD copy and see if I can drop the center channel to take him off it. Seriously, it should be illegal to give an open mic to any of these moronic announcers during fireworks displays.
• Looks like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has launched with style. I haven’t watched the aired version yet, but I’d seen the rough cut pilot way back when. I’m anxious to check out the final cut, if for no other reason than to check out Bear McCreary’s music score.
• The Japanese are insane: a 33 megapixel “Super Hi-Vision” standard in the works? I may believe they could pull it off eventually, but to be broadcasting by 2015? No way. I’ll believe that when I see it.
• The sequel for Superman Returns has been pushed from 2009 to 2010 due to the strike. Given the other confusions of late as to who will be involved (as opposed to differences in the JLA film).
• Britney just isn’t missing a step on the road to being the lead notorious celeb
• CNet posts an article revealing more stupidity and non-it-getting from the uber-evil RIAA

• While I may not be a fan of bands like Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails, they are my current heroes in the music realm. Their recent snubbing of the recording conglomerates was absolutely fantastic. This article also touches upon some wonderful statements by Yahoo’s music chief to the “big 4.” Folks like Yahoo and Amazon have begun paving the way for the future of the music industry. Said industry has been dragged through the mud time and time again in recent years, most deservedly so, and it’s moves like this from very high profile performers like Radiohead & NIN that could be the spark to ignite the real fire. Here’s hoping that the music industry is set ablaze by the resulting inferno. Doubtlessly a disco inferno. As a film score fan, I’d be more than happy to see some of the specialty labels like Varese Sarabande, Intrada, Film Score Monthly, La-La Land, Prometheus and others continue their move towards limited release efforts. Intrada in particular has gone full guns on that approach, and the results to date have been more than pleasing. Personally, I still prefer to have a physical CD as opposed to a download, if for no other reason than the fine packaging design the score labels put forth, and for the quality improvements. Still, regardless of how things adapt, odds are extraordinarily slim that the end result of the music industry getting bottomed out could possibly result in things getting any more annoying or worse than their current utter mismanagement of the situation. My two cents.
• Speaking of score label La-La Land, here’s a first listen preview of their upcoming Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 CD. It’s due out 2 weeks from today, on the 23rd. I’m an impatient little imp waiting for this one. Composer Bear McCreary continues to out-due himself for this series.
• Speaking of Galactica, Sci-Fi has begun posting the mini-episodes that lead up to November’s Razor tele-movie event online (one new one each Friday). These aren’t just scenes from Razor, but extra little snippets they shot to lead into that narrative.
• Now here’s an NCM Fathom event that I’ll actually drag myself out to see - Star Trek: The Original Series’ restored episode The Menagerie.
• Shots of the packaging for Shout Factory’s sure-to-be-great new release of My So-Called Life on DVD. As somebody who went through the Another Universe special lunchbox edition debacle back in the day (yes, I actually got one), I’m looking forward to a company that can actually do a great job with the deserving series.
• Speaking of under appreciated shows getting DVD releases, it looks like A&E is going to start releasing the overlooked cable series adaptation of Weird Science on DVD. Neato.
• Fox has released the first trailer for the interesting looking new film Jumper. It’s directed by the very talented Doug Liman, so I have high hopes. If nothing else, it’ll hopefully provide for another great music score from composer John Powell (though I’m not sure if he’s been attached to the project yet - but given his work on both Bourne and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, I’d kinda assume he’ll get the gig).
• I haven’t yet watched the few episodes since the pilot for Gossip Girl (but will by this weekend). However, the series has earned the distinction of being the first of the new season to pick up a full season order.
• A 75-year-old woman has done what a great many of Comcast’s subscribers have dreamed of.
• Check out the video of the truly nifty door
• So, not only is McG rumored to be directing Terminator 4, but Vin Diesel is the rumored star. Hmmm. I guess he’d work pretty good in the role.
• SNL has been on a roll lately. Here’s an amusing skit about K-Fed as the #1 parent.
• For those of you lucky enough to have gotten in on Google’s stock when it was still a decent deal, you’re surely happy that it made its first crossing of the $600 a share barrier.