I'd probably be famous now if I wasn't such a good waitress.
Jane Siberry
20th August 2008

Ponderings For 2008-08-20

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16th April 2008

Ponderings For 2008-04-16

  • As you might have noticed, I’ve been posting more movie reviews. I’m still going to be playing catch-up on those for a little while. With the last batch, I started something different. I’m alternating between the newest ones and the oldest 2008 reviews I still have pending. So, today I posted reviews for Smart People and The Ruins, the two most recent movies I’ve seen, as well as The Spiderwick Chronicles and Be Kind Rewind, which were the oldest of the 2008 films I’ve seen that were pending reviews. I’ll continue alternative like this until that gap is closed. There are still 14 reviews left in that gap for me to get posted. As always, you can see my current log of movie going, and the list of 2008 films is typically up to date, or close to. (both of those are always available in the Movies menu up top)
  • I’ve been loving the new seasons of Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who so far. Both have had two episodes so far (if you’re up to speed with the UK debut of Doctor Who, that is). It’s so great to have them both back on the air. I look forward to the upcoming episodes of the show.
  • Speaking of great shows, I need to put in a plug for Eli Stone. It’s a delightfully off-beat series, from Greg Berlanti (the man behind shows like Everwood and Jack & Bobby). It has a flat-out wonderful cast. Jonny Lee Miller is great in the lead as Eli Stone. I’ve always considered him to be an underrated actor, and he gets to do both great comedic and dramatic acting in this role. The fantastic Victor Garber is, as expected, great. Natasha Henstridge pulls off a tricky “straight man” role very well (though like everyone else, she gets to cut loose in the musical moments of the show). The biggest highlight for me, though, is Julie Gonzalo. She’s pitch perfect in the series, and I was thrilled to see her get this role after taking a liking to her in the final season of Veronica Mars (she was a new supporting character in that third and last season of Veronica Mars, one of the greatest shows in TV history). Her performance in the role is truly perfect, and she plays off of Miller brilliantly. This show is second only to Pushing Daisies as best new show of the year (followed by Reaper, Carpoolers and Chuck).
  • While we’re on the subject of new shows of the season, I’ve got to begrudgingly admit that I’ve been liking Moonlight quite a bit. Despite all the things stacked against it, like seeming to be a rip-off of Angel (and other shows of the genre that have come before it) and all the behind-the-scenes shake-ups that the show went though during the lead up to and first handful of episodes, I have to admit that I’ve really been liking it a lot. In particular, the cast is excellent (primarily when you consider that almost all of them were replaced before it went to series). Alex O’Loughlin is quite good in the lead. Sophia Myles (who us Doctor Who fans will be familiar with) is fantastic as the co-star. And hey, we get another of the Veronica Mars cast in this series, the great Jason Dohring in a smaller supporting role (incidentally, Moonlight is exec produced by Joel Silver, as was Veronica Mars).
  • So it’s official, the new X-Files film is to be titled The X-Files: I Want To Believe. It’s a nice title for us fans of the show, and I happily approve. This is still #2 on my list of most anticipated movies of the year. Can’t wait for July 25.
  • Check out this hilarious video: An Engineer’s Guide To Cats (the “corporal cuddling” bit alone is worth it)
  • This is so cool: an Apple IIGS converted into a laptop (yes, I’m a nerd)
  • Speaking of nerds, here’s a particularly dedicated one
  • Google Earth 4.3 has been released, with some nice new features.
  • An amusing new Numb3rs commercial
  • Some lunatic has done a scale model of Scrooge McDuck’s money bin
  • Ever wonder what salt & pepper really look like?
  • Now here’s a cool pool shot
  • How bout a man who survived a 1,500 foot drop into Mount St. Helens? I’m not sure if he’s lucky or unlucky.
  • Welcome back, Demonoid
  • And here’s some entertainment for you feminists out there: the 1943 Guide To Hiring Women
  • He’s dead, Jim

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18th February 2008

Ponderings For 2008-02-18

  • It looks like tomorrow, Tuesday, February 19, 2008, will be the official TOD for the HD-DVD format, as Toshiba has scheduled a press conference to be held at 5:00 PM Tokyo time. It’s assumed this will be to declare the death of the format.
  • On the subject of the death of HD-DVD, looks like a second season set of the original Star Trek series HD remasters have hit a major snag. We’re not going to be seeing that release for a while, from the sound of it. Ah well, I’ve been going rather slowly through the first season set, so I’ll continue to pace myself.
  • Hurray! Tremors: The Series is heading for DVD on July 22nd! (tentative)
  • I’ve mentioned it here before a handful of times, and Dubai continues their insanity (here’s a mirror copy, as the original page is getting hammered pretty hard). Frankly, if you take a step back and think about it, all of this is brilliant. It’s some of the only aggressive, intelligent, long-term thinking going on in the world right now. The folks in Dubai clearly know where the oil industry is headed. And while their piece of that pie is at its height, they are transforming themselves into the single most impressive tourist spot on the face of the Earth. Few governments and/or companies are anywhere this forward thinking or self-aware. The stats on Dubai are purely mind-blowing. Seriously, read throught that whole page. This is the first city that TRULY looks like it is from a 1950’s sci-fi landscape. This *IS* “the future.”
  • Meanwhile, here’s an article I very much agree with as to the dumbing down of folks domestically here in “The States.” Now admittedly, I was somebody who intentionally coasted by through high school with little effort, and dropped out of college (admittedly, it was primarily due to boredome). I think the modern education system is broken beyond repair. But I’m a naturally curious person (in many areas - there are numerous areas I will never care about in the slightest, like sports, fashion or the like). They touch on it in the article, and I completely believe it to be one of the primary reasons, which is the attention span of the modern American citizen. It’s truly alarming. I was recently watching The Truman Show (an awesome movie), and it honestly scared me to realize just how likely the scenario of that plot now seems (particularly in light of looking at the immensity of the stuff they are building in Dubai, referenced in the above post). It was far fetched 10 years ago when it first came out. As usual, writer Andrew Niccol was ahead of his time. The rise in “reality TV” (one of the greatest misnomers, or so I would like to think) is an obvious result of this epidemic. I loathe reality TV. It’s depressing that what Max Headroom (the series, not the specific character) had to say more than 20 years ago is now true today. The majority of broadcast/cable/satellite TV is now Network 23 (or Network 66, for that matter).
  • Christopher Lloyd is to briefly repirse his role of Doc Brown
  • Knight Rider did very impressively in the ratings. I haven’t watched it yet, but probably will tomorrow.
  • Speaking of doing well, Jumper did decently opening in #1 with around $27 million for the weekend ($33 million if you count Thursday as well). I like the movie well enough. Not awesome, but pretty good.

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22nd January 2008

Ponderings For 2008-01-22

  • OK, the big news of the Oscar nominations for today got a bit eclipsed by the surprising death of Heath Ledger. Sad to hear of that, of course. It’ll be a bit weird watching The Dark Knight. Anyway, as far as the Oscars go, I was pretty happy with the results. Frankly, I think I’m happier with this list than I have been in years. I’m finally gonna have the motivation to getting out and seeing Atonement and There Will Be Blood (both of which I have wanted to see but haven’t gotten around to). I’m absolutely giddy that Juno got 4 of the major nomination categories. And honestly, it’s the 4 categories that it most deserves to have gotten - Original Screenplay (Diablo Cody), Director (Jason Reitman), Actress (Ellen Page) and most awesome of all, Best Picture. In fact, 2 of the Best Picture nominees are in my personal top 5 list from my recently finished 2007 Film Retrospective list (Juno & Michael Clayton). I definitely liked No Country For Old Men, but think it could have been a bit better (then again, perhaps I’d have a different opinion on a second viewing). The film score category, which has sucked beyond the telling of it the last couple years, has 2 great nominees in the list: Michael Giacchino’s Ratatouille and Marco Beltrami’s fantastic 3:10 To Yuma (which amusingly I actually have playing, by coincidence, as I type this). This is the first nomination for both of them. And as two of the greatest composers currently in the game, they both deserve it. I’d be thrilled for either of them to win. I haven’t yet heard the score to Atonement, but Dario Marianelli is a talented composer, so I imagine it’s good. I haven’t heard The Kite Runner’s score yet either, but I’d have doubts about it since I was anything but impressed with Alberto Iglesias’ 2006 Oscar nominated score to The Constant Gardner. And James Newton Howard did a good job with his score to Michael Clayton (not sure that it stands out quite to the level of Oscar nomination, but it’s certainly better than nearly all the nominees in the last couple years). Speaking of Michael Clayton, it’s great to see it pick up a number of nominations, including the biggest set of acting nominations for the year, deservedly so. I had it in a number of the categories in my list as well. And it’s fantastic to see Philip Seymour Hoffman get the supporting actor nomination for Charlie Wilson’s War (he was beyond fantastic in that film). Oh, and nice to see Tommy Lee Jones get some long-overdue attention for his excellent performance in In The Valley Of Elah. Anyway, I’ll get a spreadsheet of my predictions/choices posted in the near future, as usual.
  • BTW, speaking of Juno, I hadn’t been paying close attention to the box office performance of the film. I’m happy that it’s doing phenomenal. It looks like it’s amazingly going to cross the $100 million line. It’s officially Fox Searchlight’s biggest money-maker to date, by a comfortable margin, which is only going to continue to increase. The staying power of the film is impressive, and great to see.
  • The teaser for JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek film has gone live on the official site. I belive Abrams may be able to pull it off. It’ll be worth it just for Michael Giacchino’s score.
  • A picture is indeed worth 1000 words. Most of them amusing words.
  • Cool. The real camera behind Cloverfield.
  • Oh, and speaking of Cloverfield, I’ll want one of these. I’m not much of an action figure type person, but this one would be very cool. I’m sure I’ll want one even more when they post some pics. The price will keep me from picking one up, though…
  • Some neato job ads from the 30’s & 40’s.
  • In memory of Heath Ledger, I think I’ll pop on A Knight’s Tale (my favorite film of his) while I do some work on other stuff…

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19th December 2007

Ponderings For 2007-12-19

  • OK, time to do another HD disc rant. This time the target is HD-DVD. More specifically, it’s the HD-DVD/DVD combo format. I got my third defective combo format disc yesterday (Mr. Bean’s Holiday), following up my other recent one (Bourne Ultimatum) and the first one (Hot Fuzz). So far, they’ve all been Universal titles, and have been fixed by getting an exchange for another copy (which I’ll be doing for Mr. Bean tomorrow). Not only are these combo discs typically more expensive (most often by about $5) than the normal non-combo release, but these things are clearly an unreliable format technique. At this point, I’m extremely hesitant to buy any combo format releases.
  • Amazingly, StarTrek.com is in trouble, getting caught in cut-backs.
  • A new trailer for WALL-E has hit the net. My inner (and outer) PIXAR nerd is all aflutter. I can’t wait.
  • So, The 4400 is officially canceled after 4 season. I’m just slightly behind in watching the show (a couple episodes away from finishing the first season).
  • Beowulf (which I just saw again today in IMAX 3D) has been slotted for HD-DVD release on February 26. I’d love to see them attempt a 3D presentation on the disc (the first high-def 3D content?).
  • Speaking of HD-DVD, Universal recently announced the upcoming release of Fletch. Hmmm, as much as I love the movie, I have to wonder just how big a difference a high def transfer will make for that one. Frankly, I think Fletch Lives might benefit a bit more from it (and it’s one of the all-time under appreciated sequels).
  • Here’s a well coordinated attempt to throw a log
  • Wesley Snipes proves why the backlash has everything to do with him, NOT his race.
  • And, it’s old news by this point that’s been reported on every entertainment and non-entertainment news source alike - Peter Jackson and New Line are teaming up after all for not just The Hobbit, but also a sequel to The Hobbit.

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4th December 2007

Ponderings For 2007-12-04

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18th November 2007

Ponderings For 2007-11-18

  • Oooooh, finally a definitive soundtrack release for Blade Runner. Boy, all the stops are being pulled out for us Blade Runner fanatics. This 25th anniversary is becoming THE time to be a Blade Runner obsessed fan like myself. After years and years of us fans wanting high quality releases of the film, soundtrack and other extras, we are finally getting it all, and more.
  • 100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers. AWESOME video. Too cool.
  • Then there are these wicked fun videos of the random ramblings of spam messages put to animation. Spamland 1, 2 & 3.
  • And if that’s not fun enough, how about watching the Eiffel Tower (the one in Vegas, anyway) get hit by lightning?
  • Another cool casting move by JJ Abrams for the new Trek film - Jennifer Morrison.
  • Dinner In The Sky. You gotta be kidding me.
  • For anyone doubting just how stupid the major studios are, or how bad sequels can be, look no further - Crank 2! I can’t image it possibly being worse than the first (which I continue to seriously consider naming as my all-time least favorite movie), but I’m sure they’ll find a way to do so.
  • The idea of Tim Burton doing a 3D version of Alice In Wonderland is a bit of a scary proposition.
  • One last tidbit. For any of you wondering how insane fans of Joss Whedon are, here’s a forum thread discussing the upcoming planned writers strike day that will reassemble the Mutant Enemy writing team (Mutant Enemy was the production company of Joss’ 3 shows of Buffy, Angel & Firefly). Guess they are planning on having the strike last a while.

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3rd November 2007

Ponderings For 2007-11-03

  • I spent a couple evenings this week digging through all the commentaries and extras on the new DVD set of My So-Called Life. Such a nice set. They did an admirable job getting interview material from nearly all the cast and primary crew. Some nicely off-the-cuff, reminiscent stuff. It’s truly scary to watch the pilot episode of the series and keep in mind that Claire Danes was only 13 years old when it was shot. It took a while for the show to get picked up, so by the time it was in episodic production, Danes was nearly the 15 years she was portraying. How strange is it to have a child actor on TV playing ABOVE their age? And Danes is just amazing in the show. Truly. Another thing I feel the need to point out is just how amazing the pilot of the show was shot (the rest of the show is no slouch either). It’s one of the most gorgeously filmed pilots I’ve seen. I’ve watched it quite a few times over the years and it never fails to amaze in how beautiful it is. I also never tire of the great main title sequence.
  • Oooooh. Joss Whedon & Tim Minear join forces again. And with Eliza Dushku, no less. Woo hoo! I just can’t believe it’ll be with Fox.
  • Michael Giacchino is to use the Trek theme in scoring the new JJ Abrams film. Great news. And I’m sure his arrangement will be fantastic. He did such a marvelous job with the theme in Mission Impossible III.
  • The X-Files 2 has picked out a release date, and it’s sooner than I would have expected. I’m totally looking forward to being able to see it.
  • Warehouse 13, huh? Hey, if Jane Espenson is involved, I’m already a loyal viewer.
  • 10 reasons to hate cellphone carriers - no kidding. This article is SO right.
  • I’m anxiously awaiting the release of a version of AnyDVD HD that can get around BD+, as SlySoft has recently claimed to have cracked. I tell ya, as a customer trying to play back legally bought movies on Blu-Ray, they sure do go out of their way to make it so I can’t.
  • Speaking of which, looks like Warner might be considering going single HD format like Paramount recently did. The format war continues to get bloodier and bloodier. Christmas sales sure will make things interesting, particularly given HD-DVD’s recent moves of utter desperation (uh, $99 players?).
  • NBC ain’t pulling any punches badmouthing Apple’s online media business. Can’t say I blame them.
  • Looks like my decision to use Microsoft’s HD Photo format for my new family photo scanning project wasn’t poorly founded. The format has been chosen to be the successor to the ubiquitous JPG format. HD Photo is a very nice format, and I’m anxious to see it get better adoption.
  • The man who wants to control the internet. An interesting read (well, for us techies, anyway)

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13th October 2007

Ponderings For 2007-10-13

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9th October 2007

Ponderings For 2007-10-09

  • 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.

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