More Good News

A favourite animated series of mine and ours, Kim Possible, is returning. I missed the original news bite (which dates back to November 2005) but, thankfully, managed to catch this one. Yet another show saved by the fans.

Thanks to ToonZone for the good news.

Later!

mike

FINALLY!

Indy news we can take to the bank.

Later!

mike

Eltingville Pilot

I've enjoyed the work of Evan Dorkin for some time now and I'd always heard about this pilot for an animated series that he'd done based on his Eltingville strips. I've searched around for a copy in the past but a chance perusing of the comments section of his blog led me to YouTube and the videos you see below.

It probably won't be for everyone (seeing as it's mostly geek humour - the episode is called "Bring Me the Head of Boba Fett" after all) but there are a select few of you out there that I know check the blog on a semi-regular basis who may get a kick out of it.

Mostly, I just want an easy access link to the darn thing.

Anyway, here they are in order:







Enjoy.

Later!

mike

HDTV Brings on Headaches

While sitting here at the reception desk at work and surfing the internet, I came across this article, the point of which being that TV stars are not happy with the clarity provided by HD and their fears surrounding the extreme close-up.

Actors are funny.

mike

Belated Christmas Wishes

I hope everybody had a really good Christmas, I know I was surprised by how good mine was. For most of the weeks and days leading up to the 24th and 25th I was in a bit of a funk. I'm not sure if it was even Christmas related but it was certainly there and it was affecting how I was looking at the whole seasonal ordeal. I think I may have mentioned in a previous post how things sort of changed at the last minute, though. It was pretty much an 11th hour recovery, too. All of a sudden, Christmas got kind of fun, I started looking forward to the whole family and friends thing, and I took a little bit of joy, I think, in knowing how my kids would go crazy for their Christmas presents. And really, when you have kids, bottom line is that it's really all about them, isn't it?

As for the days themselves, they were pretty decent. Christmas Eve was spent having dinner with my in-laws and watching my kids open bunches of presents, Christmas Day was spent first at my place watching kids open our presents and the Santa presents (and watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest) and then off to Grandma Jozic's for another supper and even more gifts. The kids got a PS2 so I set that up for them then we went home and watched the last 2 episodes of Freaks & Geeks. For the record, one of the best shows ever made for television. I was actually choked up to see the final credits roll.

Another nice aspect of Christmas this year was seeing my buddy Brad who came in from Edmonton to be with family (if you're reading this, Brad, I apologise for not calling Christmas Day and the kids loved the presents) as well as my friend carly, who I haven't seen in some time. Both showed up to say hi and drop off gifts for the kids so we got a little catch up visit in before they had to go their respective ways. Jen's friend Meg and my other buddy Chris who's been roughing it out in the boonies of British Columbia will be here for New Years so that'll be nice to see them as well.

At the end of it all I even found myself to be getting excited for Boxing Day. I don't normally go out on Boxing Day for two reasons: I'm either working or I'm broke. This year I was neither so I gleefully made my way out to Wal-Mart to check out their Boxing Day DVD clearout. I managed to snag a few goodies that will keep me happy for the next little while. They are as follows:

King Kong for $5
The Doors for $5
Breakfast at Tiffany's: Anniversary Edition for $10
Futurama Season 2 for $18
Ghost in the Shell for $10
The Batman Season 1 for $15
Magnum P.I. Season 1 & 2 combined for $30 and for my brother's birthday

I think that's the list. There may be a disc or two missing but I'm pretty sure that's the whole thing.

Oh, and we also watched Conversations with Other Women when we got home last night and it was a really impressive little movie. It's all done in split screen and features Aaron Eckhart and Helena Bonham Carter as two people who bump into each other at a wedding and begin a conversation. I don't want to say much more so as not to give any of the fun stuff away, but it's well worth your time to check it out.

So, all in all it was a pretty good holiday weekend. I had the three days off, the kids and family had fun, Jen and I had fun, my brother got a kick out of his early birthday present and much food was consumed.

I give the whole thing a 7.5 out of 10.

Now the countdown to New Years.

Later!

mike

Over the Hump

I'm just having an awesome day.

I came to work this afternoon and pretty much from the moment I settled in I had a burst of inspiration that took me through, like, 8+ pages of my Smitten story. I've been trying to get some work done on it for months but I couldn't see the forest for the trees for the longest time. However, something managed to shift for me in the last 24 hours or so because the one thing that was giving me the most problems (I refer to it as the second act hump) just unfolded before me like nothing - solving the one major problem and having the added benefit of creating new links and story ideas to boot. There's stuff that I had ideas for that weren't even embedded into the narrative yet but now have a place and work seamlessly. I just feel a great sense of relief. Like a weight has been lifted.

I'm really excited now that I may be finishing the first run through before the year is up. I'm even seriously considering trying to find a collaborator to do some preliminary artwork and maybe help flesh out some of the storytelling.

Christmas was looking pretty droll but this is good news.

More later!

mike

This is Where I Work

I've recently come into the possession of a mobile phone and since it comes equipped with a camera, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to do two things: test the functions of the phone and add that 'more personal touch' I touched on a few posts ago.

I grabbed a couple of snapshots of my workplace and work area and figured I'd post those. Nothing really impressive (borderline lame, actually) but it gets another post out and it's a peek for those who care what my daily grind looks like.

The first pick is my desk. This is where the magic happens. On this pale flat surface, the dreams of many a car owner have been fulfilled (I can't even type that with a straight face).



It's a nice quiet space and it's off in the corner where I can pretty much do my own thing. I've finished many a book sitting back there, I'll tell you. It's also nice to take customers back there. There are few interruptions and I think it's a bit quieter back there, too. Makes for better customer/salesman relations.

The second pic should pretty much speak for itself. Not only is this the desolation in which I toil daily, I also live in this crap.



After snapping the pic I couldn't help thinking to myself, if I saw this in a book I would be sure that no sane person would live in a climate like this - willingly, anyways. And the real bum rap is that we have to shovel those cars out if a customer wants to drive them because our owner is not a big believer in snow removal. They plow occasionally, but nothing too sophisticated.

Anyway, that's it for me today. I hope everyone's having a good holiday season so far!

Later!

mike

Everything Zen

Oh, man. I just ran across this while doing a search on Jon J Muth and now I want one.

Christmas is almost here, folks. Don't be shy.

Later!

mike

New Post

I couldn't think of a snappy title, so I went the overly didactic route.

Anyway, not much to report on this end. I had a root canal scheduled for tomorrow which I had to reschedule. It's not that I'm freaked out by it or anything, I just don't know whether or not to go through with the procedure to save the tooth when I have everybody and their dog telling me to have it extracted instead. I can see the logic to it, and the dentist gave me the option of doing either, but I'm at odds regarding the advantages of one over the other.

With the root canal, I get to keep the tooth. With the extraction, I don't. With the root canal, I'm paying a bit more. With the extraction, I'm paying less. I want to save the tooth, but everyone tells me that root canals are a long term headache.

Bleah.

So I rescheduled it. Looks like it'll be in the new year, now - January 10th, to be precise. I still have some fillings in a week so it's not like I've escaped the dreaded dental chair, but it'll be nice when I can finally stop worrying about my frickin' teeth.

And that's all I have to say about that.

mike

Where's Waldo

Or rather, where's Mike-O. Back in October I went to see Sloan at The Odeon Event Centre here in town with my bro, his date and Jen. It was a great show, I'm thrilled that I made it and I don't think I actually blogged about it at the time. After running across this photo taken at the show over on Yoko Casiono's website, however, I thought it might be fun to post it here seeing as how I believe the jackass in the red circle is likely me. I'm not sure who took the original photo - probably one of the Yokos - but that's Sloan onstage, rockin' out as they do. Looks like some of us were clapping along, too. Coulda been any song, really.



Anyway, I was thinking it might be a good idea to use more photos with me in them on the ol' blog (to capture that whole slice-of-life flavour), and I figured this was a decent start. A bit late, I'll grant you, but what are you gonna do.

Later!

mike

My New Favourite Show

The title says it all. I ignored this one when it originally aired but managed to catch it this week on DVD. Possibly the best and most accurate depiction of high school I have ever seen in my whole life.

The great opening credits...



A clip from the Pilot...



Clip from the second episode...



Man, I just love that Linda Cardellini. She's such a cutie. Also a little surprised to see James Franco on the show. Both of these guys I've known only from their films. Nice to see them slumming it early on in television.

Later!

mike

Teen Titans, Go! Here

Ran into this site while surfing around tonight. As a fan of the show and the comic, it gave me a few moments of reading pleasure.

Later!

mike

Thinking About Blankets

Yeah, so I just finished reading Craig Thompson's critically acclaimed graphic novel, Blankets. I had heard so many good things about it I thought I would give it a try when I saw it during one of my library trips early in the week. Also, I knew it was autobiographical, somewhat sentimental and dealt with Thompson's first love so I was pretty sure I was going to like it. There are a few things that, when combined, make a story that will capture my undivided attention and those are three good ones right there.

Anyway, after setting the book down I think I can say the story was just as good as I'd heard. It was more than I expected, really. I was happy with how Thompson managed to keep things very subdued and very real, yet maintain a lyrical quality to the storytelling. The imagery and his art style probably had a lot to do with that, but considering it is a graphic novel written and drawn by the same guy, it's all the same thing.

Often in autobiographies I find that characters who are meant to be drawn from real life tend to be a bit too functional. Rather than seeming like a real person drifting through the narrative, these people appear and serve their purpose to drive the plot forward. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but when you know that these people are supposed to be real, it can grow tiresome to see. In Blankets Thompson's cast of characters had a warmth and reality to them. I never really felt like they served in that overly functional capacity. They came into the story and drifted out of the story as they were required and their actions all had an impact on Craig's life in varying degrees. This is what life is really like. That Thompson can weave them all in and out like that without exposing his narrative intent is a tribute to his skill as a storyteller.

I also didn't feel like he went out of his way to romanticize his past like many others writers do. His recollections of events/feelings never seemed to cross any lines that challenged my suspension of disbelief. They came across as honest and genuine. I don't know how much of it is fiction and how much is totally real, but I believed the story and in what the characters were going through.

All in all, I think I'm going to go out and buy this one sometime. I definitely would like to have this one in my personal library to look at whenever I choose and I'm pretty sure that, like Brooklyn Dreams, Blankets will be a perennial favourite that I return to with some regularity.

mike

A Baby for Scully and This One's Not Mulder's

Pulled this off of SciFi Wire:

Former The X-Files star Gillian Anderson gave birth to a baby boy, Oscar Griffiths, on Nov. 1 in London, her second child and her first with boyfriend businessman Mark Griffiths, People magazine reported.

Congrats to Gillian, Mark and little Piper.

Later!

mike

The Great Pumpkins Return

Both the CD players in the home and in the vehicle have been playing a pretty steady stream of the Smashing Pumkins' seminal album, 'Siamese Dream'. I think it is pretty much my favourite album from the band, and likely one of my top 10 of, at the very least, the last 25 or 30 years. Something about the richness and texture of the music just grabs hold of me and doesn't let go. Maybe that's what 40 layers of guitar tracks in one song do to a receptive ear and mind, I don't know.

In fact, when I got my new demo this weekend, it didn't feel exactly right until my brother and I got in it and blasted some 'Siamese Dream' - a little "Mayonaise", a little "Rocket" and a little "Hummer" did the trick just fine.

Anyway, all this Pumpkins listening and christening got me to do an internet search (I think I was looking for a remastered version of 'Siamese Dream' or something) and I stumbled across this. I never would have imagined that the four original members would be getting back together anytime soon, but it looks like there is a new album forthcoming. They're working on it probably as I'm writing this post.

There's not much up on the webpage right now other than an e-mail newsletter sign up field, but you can get more info and blog entries by band guitarist, James Iha, at their myspace account.

Now I have to go and let my brother in on it.

Later!

mike

"This town needs an enema!"

A little while ago I managed to snag a copy of Batman Returns for less than $5. It was the new 2-Disc edition with the commentary and features and what-not so naturally I was excited. I'd been waiting many years for a commentary on this film or its predecessor, Batman, so I got it home, tore it out of its case and plugged her into the ol' DVD player post haste.

A couple of days ago I found the first Batman film for the same price and went through pretty much the same process. The only real complaint I have with either release is that Burton's commentary is kind of so-so and not terribly informative. He repeats a lot of things about three or four times over the course of the film and doesn't really talk about the movie in a very retrospective way. Lots of reminding the viewer/listener about the psychological profiles they made for the characters but not too much else.

I was hoping for something a little more interesting based on how decent his commentaries on Big Fish, Planet of the Apes and others were. I guess it's nice to have anything, but it would have been cool to hear something from Keaton (who was great in the documentaries) or Sam Hamm on the first one or Keaton and Daniel Waters on the second. Even some producer commentary would have shaken it up a bit.

Ah, well.

I'm going back to watch the Legend of the Dark Knight documentary.

Later!

mike

Bouncing Around

I can't seem to keep my interest in any one thing for very long these days. A week and a bit ago I was totally immersed in the David Simon book, Homicide, which was followed shortly afterwards by a desire to watch some original Trek. That preceded the urge to read some classic Batman strips and a Gerard Jones interview I heard a little bit ago planted a seed to hear some Shadow radio episodes or to possibly pick up some issues of The Shadow Strikes!. Anytime I try and actually focus on something there's always something else that sneaks up and undermines the one for the other.

It's not really a big deal or anything, but it is occasionally disorienting when I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself in the evenings before bed. What to watch, what to read, what to listen to...yeah, my problems are overwhelming.

On another note entirely, I watched a double feature of Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite with my brother last night and it was a pretty entertaining evening filled with a few belly laughs and guffawing. It should be no surprise that the two movies work pretty well together, although I will say that my preference will always lean more towards Nacho over Napoleon. I just find it more funny. It's fan-TAST-ic.

Nothing else is coming to me at the moment so I'll take my leave for now and go back to being the faux receptionist here at Saturn.

I'll leave you with this clip from a new show which other bloggers have been talking about but I cannot watch because it is not available in Canada yet...



Later!

mike

Back Online!

Well, back online for a while, anyway. I got my internet problems sorted out and I am once again jacked in to the information superhighway. That means some more non-work blogging which, in turn, means more frequent updates. It also means that a little project I was working on may still get off the ground since it was internet dependent.

I don't have a lot of time right now to post but I'll definitely be back later tonight or tomorrow for sure.

Later!

mike

'I'm a Blogger! I'm a Blogger!'

Having never been formally trained as a journalist/interviewer, yet spending almost a decade dabbling in such activities and occasionally identifying myself as an entertainment journalist, I found this article kind of interesting.

Now, I'm sure there is a line somewhere in the argument over when blogging becomes journalism, but I'd say it's a very grey one. We've all seen blogs that deliver better news than the established outlets but there are just as many, if not more, that are just rubbish. And it's also pretty clear that those that cover more serious news/issues face considerably more scrutiny than those that cover gossip, film, music or comics.

I know I'm not introducing anything new to anyone who visits and reads the blog here, I just thought it was an interesting piece to mull over and I'm curious to see where the courts rule on this topic.

Back to work, now.

mike

Halloween Clip-O-Rama The Final Chapter

Happy Halloween, folks. Hope you're having a good one.

This last clip is from William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist III: Legion. It's one of the scenes that left an impression on me when I first watched it. It's long, slow and uneventful - until the very end, anyway. It still freaks out people when I show it to them.



I was going to pick a clip from the first Exorcist film but couldn't find a good one kicking around online. Not that using one from the third is a step down in any way, I just would have picked something from the final 30 minutes of the first film if I had a choice.

And that, my kiddies, brings a close to the clip-o-rama. I should mention that I may be absent for a bit after this since I'm without internet access for a while, but I'll try and come on whenever I can and post a few words.

Later!

mike