Category Archives: Movies

Short stuff…

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I’m very pleased to have wrapped up the Squarepuser / Artist of the Week project.  It was great to go through all of that stuff, especially the ’97 show from Shinjuku Liquid Lounge.  I’ve never seen that one posted, except for the torrent i got a year or two ago.  The torrent is long gone (off the Dime tracker, anyway) and I’ve never seen the show posted elsewhere.  The best part is that it came with no track listing.  That forced me to listen to these jams over and over again to get the song titles right.  Hopefully this whole exercise will tide me over until August.

The Fretbuzz.net project is coming along nicely.  FBDN himself has proven a capable and attentive webmaster and the resource is really stimulating our collective creative juices.  The best part is that the sight is active, even if not terribly well visited.  We’re not exactly counting hits, but a quick google search this morning revealed that if you just put in the ‘fretbuzz’ we come up tenth – first page, baby!  That’s pretty strong, considering the (most likely) scanty readership.  This means that our updating (sometimes a few times per day!) is paying off.

I recently found an Aimee Mann bootleg from the Bachelor No. 2 / Magnolia era.  It’s a superb recording and there is a sense of commitment and passion in her performance.  So, that will get posted this week, along with my comments on this troubling artist.

The work week ended with an aggrieved father who attempted to strangle his daughters killer during sentencing.  I was waiting for me cases to be called when, on this other case, the Judge consented to hearing from the victim’s family prior to sentencing.  Big mistake.  Now, that’s what I call Courtroom Drama.  Everything was put under control quickly by the highly skilled (and much appreciated) Camden Sheriffs.  Nice work, people.

The next work week begins with the deposition of an officer that killed a 15-year-old boy who allegedly threatened him with a clothes iron.  Cop shot that boy dead.  I’ve go the kid’s mom as a client in a wrongful death / Civil Rights / Excessive Force (yuh think?) case.  So, I’ve got a lot of work to do today to get ready for this clown.  He’ll be well prepared.

Sci-Fi stuff of note includes Ronald D. Moore’s Virtuality which was on Friday night.  I haven’t checked it out yet, but maybe tonight if the work goes well.  I’m excited about sci-fi that is strongly connected to this world and this planet.  It’s a nice break from faraway planets and alien races.  Another project that appears to work along similar lines is Moon, which is getting a UK release next month.  I’m not sure if we’ll be getting this one in the U.S.

And, speaking of movies, we went with my mom to see The Proposal yesterday afternoon.  Betty White was HUGE!

An Anniversary

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Finally – some ‘Game of Thrones’ news

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The good old SciFi Wire is reporting that the above-pictured Peter Dinklage has signed on to the HBO adaptation of George R. R. Martin‘s Game of Thrones.  This is great news for so many resons.  Lets list them, shall we?

  1. This means there actually is a project.  Up until now, there was talk, but little or nothing concrete.
  2. Dinklage is perfect to play Tyrion, a brilliant and complex character who is also a dwarf.  When I started reading this series, I was floored at how much there was to this character.  Although there are many aspects to the story which don’t concern Tyrion, the material that revolves around him and his supremely f-‘d up family is, in my opinion, the best part of the book.
  3. Director Thomas McCarthy is Dinklage’s running partner from the Station Agent.  HBO’s choice of McCarthy tells me a lot about how important Tyrion’s character will be to this adaptation and that is outstanding.

I’m not expecting anything to actually air anytime soon, but at least the thing is moving forward and there some good thinking about how to do this project.

Retreat video

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YouTube refused to host because of the music. Nice.

‘A’ quality writer talking B-Movies

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Yes, it’s the middle of Passover and we’re having 17 people for our Seder tomorrow night, and it’s Good Friday and I’m in the office and I’m supposed to be catching up on work, but I’ve got a new weakness that I wanted to share before I get into editing  my 18 page Federal Complaint that’s being sent to the adjuster today with a nasty demand letter.

John Scalzi is a professional writer.  Apparently he writes all kinds of stuff and gets paid for it.  in 1998 he started writing a public journal called a blog.  I hear these are very popular now.  At some point, he wrote a very intelligent and engaging sci-fi book called Old Man’s War.  It owes a lot to Robert Heinlein and Jon Halderman, but even without having read any of their works, I loved the Scalzi.  The thing about Old Man’s War was that he published it on his blog, basically giving it away to whoever wanted to read it.  A publisher caught wind of it and BANG – Scalzi got his first novel published and distributed.  Since that fortunate occurrance in 2005, he’s been cranking out great sci-fi and maintaining his blog.

While I’ve really enjoyed reading all the novels, I only just started to get into the blog.  How great is it to have a professional, high-quality writer cranking out tasty tidmits for you to enjoy every other day or so?  So you get the picture – Scalzi’s a cool dude.

A few days ago, he refrred readers of the blog to a paid gig he has with American Movie Classics (AMC).  Ever since Mad Men, AMC has been enjoying a nice little bit of success.  They’re even producing a ‘re-imagining‘ (when is that term going to go out of style?) of my all-time favorite TV show of all time ‘The Prisoner‘.  So Scalzi has hooked up with AMC to make occassional contributions to one of their columns, prticularly dealing with sci-fi.  Good choice!  He’s now helping them promote a new on-demand catalog of B-movies.  This means that you can simply head over to AMCtv.com and watch any number of low budget favorites from the days of yore.

This got me thinking about the handsome gent from the picture which accompanies this entry.  He’s the subject of The Creeping Flesh, a 70’s horror flick that caused me more than a few nightmares when I was 6.  I didn’t see it in the movies, but rather on glorious UFH – WKBS48 back in the late 70’s.  They had a series that originated in Boston called Creature Double Feature where folks like that Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee (both of whom star in The Creeping Flesh!) were beamed into my brain on a regular basis.  A little more sheepnis please!

Battlestar Digest – I Frakking Loved It!

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It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty damn good. One thing – it was strange watching it without ads because the narrative flow kind of depended on the breaks. Our copy didn’t have any ads, so the breaks lasted less than a moment. This was particularly weird during the intense battle sequences of the first half. That all being said – it was still pretty unbelievable: the opera house, the OTHER earth, Kara, the battle, the child – whew! Here’s what some others are saying.

Laura Miller at Salon.com gets it. She wanted a more groundbreaking ending that smashes the rules a bit more. She thinks they may have played it a bit safe. She may be right.

Ginia Bellafante at the New York Times had a similar, though less articulate reaction.

Robin Abrahams at Boston.com has some interesting observations. Lots of women review this show, no?

Mary McNmara at the LA Times loved loved loved it. Another woman!

Make your opinion heard. Does BSG deserve an Emmy nomination?

A nice recap of the hits from four seasons, courtesy the Vancouver Sun.

NJ.com has a Q&A with Ron Moore. Hopefully less crying than in the SciFi ‘Last Frakking Special”.

Screen Rant has issues, but also a lot of love.

Newsday goes over the top with an A++.

Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan has a comprehensive article with a long interview and her glowing review.

More interviews and explanations at Discover Magazine.

That will just about do it…

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Battlestar is wrapping up on Friday night, and it’s been fantastic for the past two episodes. Ron Moore, who used to be a writer for Star trek: DS9 is a master at keeping it going; making twists and turns that keep us coming back week after week. That skill has no application now. Now he has to bring about some kind of resolution. It’s a tall order, but if the the last few episodes are any indicator, this should be fine. Will we get an answer to every question and inquiry and mystery? Of course not. But we will get a big finish for a show that did a pretty good job of changing television.