July 4, 2024 - aka The Twilight Zone

I did spend several days of a long 4th of July  weekend watching a marathon of original Twilight Zone episodes. It seemed the most honest and appropriate way to mark what is likely the end of the run for the US of A. Since the former president/coup leader/traitor has been deemed immune from criminal prosecution we now abandon Independence and Freedom to return to being merely subjects of a King. So yeah, Twilight Zone. 

It was a very powerful series of stand-alone episodes which have had a global appeal. Often very political, rejecting authoritarianism in every aspect of society and the Kurrent Konservative Karenism would be protesting every episode if the show were being made today.

The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street - where neighbors violently turn on each other for minor or meaningless occurrences - but it turns out they are all being manipulated by alien observers, who sow confusion to show how easily they can turn to enemies, part of their strategy of world domination.

The closing narration of that episode captures the current American dilemma ... 

"The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices ... to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill ... and suspicion can destroy ... and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all of its own—for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is ... that these things cannot be confined to ... The Twilight Zone!"

Komatsu and Oyama Remembered

Komatsu in 'Chibideka Mongatrai'

Obviously, I have not written here in some time.

I decided to say nothing here, as I was doubtful my endless rants of the obvious failings of the previous  president were of any use. Thankfully, I learned by the 2020 elections end, that our democracy was preserved by about 8 million voters. Thin margin perhaps but enough to alter the grim path we were on Yet, I also learned that where I live I am politically outnumbered about 4 to 1 - about the same amount I have experienced in the years and years I have lived here ... and yet i remain.

Call me Odd Man Out. And no, I have never been comfortable with this particular reality. So I write what I can seldom say.

And after perusing other options of the online world, those many thousands and thousands of platforms and apps  world gurgles and burbles its way through to self-expression - this humble and loveable blog is the best place to share. Here, I am the only one, I can speak freely.

I can ponder through words the thoughts wandering about my old mind (I'm 60 - time left is ticking past loudly.

I continue to marvel at the presence and uses the world has made of the internet - fascinated by the swipe-left-or-right narrative so many engage in, the willingness to answer any question posed by some Facebook data miner, speeding through miniaturized experience. People of all ages and sexes make money online opening boxes and packages to reveal what's inside, or how to apply make-up, or repair a car or a washing machine, or being creative with music and art, or even just jerking off live on camera for tip money. In my day, one had to go to a big city and find a peep show to do that.

Anyway.

I was eating lunch (eel sushi and thai yellow curry chicken) in a small Asian restaurant and I put my phone away since it had little battery power left. I realized I did not even have a book in my car I could have brought in with me - it made me feel ashamed. 

I work with folks in their 20s and 30s and have noticed whenever there is a pause in work or just conversation, 8 seconds will go past and their heads will bend down to their phones, fingering away swiping up and down and left and right. 

So now I have two books in my car. 

I'm no Luddite.

I was pondering movies I could watch online (how I spend most of my time online) and something reminded me of the first foreign language film I saw. I was 7 or maybe 8, and on Saturday mornings I eagerly waited for the CBS Children's Film Festival program to air. I was quite delighted to be able to type CBS Children's Film Festival into the magic google machine - and there it was listed, along with all the films they showed during their very long run. 

It was a Japanese film made in 1958 called "Skinny and Fatty", or originally "Chibideka Monogatari". It's a very simple story of two young boys in elementary school who become friends. Once I recalled seeing it - images and scenes filled my head. The story follows them through their school days and lives at home. They become friends, the smaller sized boy, Komatsu, lives in a very small one-room house and the heavier boy, Oyama. lives in a large two-story home. Komatsu's mother works in a quarry all day, his father works out of town, seldom home. Oyama's mom stays at home, dad is home every night. The boys get bullied, but don't give in. Komatsu always tells his new friend to never give up, to try to achieve, to have confidence.

All I could find of the 45 minute movie was a horribly washed-out print on YouTube, and watched it anyway. I remembered how much that movie impacted me - it wasn't about adults or the goofy kids in America I saw on TV. Their lives are ordinary and still, powerful. It was one of several young experiences that made me want to write, to tell stories, to make movies and plays. There is almost a manga-quality to the movie, it's steeped in late 50s Japanese culture, and likely helped lay a foundation for an appreciation of their styles of storytelling. 

And that's what I decided to write about today. 

Camera Obscura: Infinite Vampire Twilight ShlockFest Extravaganza and Emporium

Worldwide vampire obsessiveness weekend is upon us - suitable fare for a Black Friday Shopping Weekend During The Economic Collapse.

The finale of the Twilight series movie "Breaking Dawn Part 2" has emerged as such an enormous cornucopia of Weird that I had to make a special post about it. (Truth be told, I did a search of my blog for use of the word vampire and it came in at more than 30 posts, which means vampires have easily been 10% of this blog's entire output, which include these two of my own personal faves, A) Hot Vampy Sex Talk from the first movie and B) the Sarah Palin-Twilight Convergence)

Understand too, I am a deep-dyed fan of Bad Movies and Cinema Shlock and have forced many a friend to endure Something Awful. Big Budget Awful really stinks up the place, though. I recently watched the movie "John Carter" and it is merely Done Badly, whereas say, "Anonymous" was Stunningly Awful and made me Pity The Actors, and answered the question "What happens when the folks who made the alien-invasion 'Independence Day' investigate the world of William Shakespeare?"

But vampires? Hell, even I have written and produced my own vampire play, but it's sheer genius compared to the bizarre path the bloodsucking genre has taken in movies and TV. Example - this year we've had Abe Lincoln hunting vamps, while on Hulu the Korean TV series "Vampire Prosecutor" is gaining fame and I'm still searching for a copy of the short film "Davy Crockett Battles Kung Fu Vampires".

The hilarity of reviews are MUST reading, no matter what you might think of the movies/books/adoration/obsession. Some samples:

The Confused Notes Of A Twilight Newbie Forced to Watch Breaking Dawn Part 2:

"Is his face always like that? It's like he washed it with a powdered doughnut.

"Eww, now I get imprinting. He made that vampire baby the love of his werewolf life. Or something. It's kinda gross — definitely weird. And even more disturbing that those teenage girls found it so funny.

"T-Laut nicknames Renesmee "Nessie." K-Stew angrily shouts, "You nicknamed my daughter after the Loch Ness Monster." Is the Loch Ness Monster real in this world or was K-Stew making a joke? If the latter, why would Nessie be a laughable idea, while talking wolves are serious business?

"Vampires seem to not be affected by the weather, so why do they wear jackets and turtlenecks?"

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 is Completely Insane and Actually Worth Watching. Seriously

The Final Twilight Movie Is Like A Porn Film With Action Figures:

"It turns out that many vampires have X-men-esque superpowers on top of their default vampire superpowers. We already knew Alice could see the future, and some of the Volturi could read minds and create mental anguish, but now we find out that there are airbender vampires and electricity-shooting vampires and omega mutant vampires who can go all Dark Phoenix on your ass.

"The point is, there is a fight scene. A long, improbable, laugh-out-loud at the abysmal special effects fight scene, in which we discover that you can kill a vampire exactly the same way you kill an action figure. Just pop off its head! Boink! It comes off with no blood! Just a kind of SNAP just like plastic. Even if you never go to the theater to see this movie, I urge you to rent it at some point just to fast-forward to the fight scene so that you can see the weirdest thing ever."

Occupy: Sparkle

"It began when I read the first two books on my honeymoon in December 2008. My new wife and I listened to Twilight and New Moon on a road trip. We saw the first movie when we returned home, and a few months later we were divorced. I'm not saying Twilight killed my marriage, per se. I am saying there is a strong correlation between consuming Twilight content and no longer being happily married."

 Even The Actors In Twilight Hate Twilight

I have to say that I'll likely see this "finale" one day, but try as this current generation might, all this Vampire MashUp has been around for a long time. Even the old Hammer Horror folks stirred it all up in the early 1970s with the movie "Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires" which marks the arrival of the trope All Vampires Know Karate Because Dracula Did. (See the trailer for the movie here which has some NSFW images)

Indie film director superstar Jim Jarmusch is at work on his take on vampires in a movie set for next year, "Only Lovers Left Alive", starring Tilda Swinton, so even though vamps are being squicked out of all decency the darned things JUST NEVER DIE.

That's quite charming.

Otis Redding's "Tennessee Waltz" plus Al Green and Superpup

From the most impressive album, "The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul" comes a most memorable soul version of the country music tune "Tennessee Waltz", featuring Otis and backed by the legendary Booker T. and the MGs.

Reinventions in pop culture are often merely lost in time, even though they stand as unique creations all on their own. Another stunning example, is Al Green's super-soul version of the country ballad "For the Good Times", a Kris Kristofferson tune, which Al brings to vivid life in this Soul Train appearance.

Reinventions do not always succeed, yet the sheer brazen oddity of such creations stand out - for example, the immensely popular 1950s TV series version of the "Adventures of Superman" inspired some folks to create a TV show about ... um ... well, Superman had a dog named Krytpo in the comics, but these TV producers decided to make a show called "The Adventures of Superpup". A pilot episode was filmed, which you can watch on YouTube and it is uniquely bad and yet certainly memorable.

Superpup is secretly the mild-mannered reporter Bark Kent, working for the gruff editor Terry Bite and he's got a girlfriend named Pamela Poodle. And for some reason Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen is now Superpup's pal, but he's been transformed into a hand puppet mouse. Just check it out.

Just goes to show ya, reinventions and remakes have always been with us, some are wonderful and some too strange to be anything other than historical oddities.

What Happens Without Refs at Footbal Games?

Like many American football fans, the apparent debacle of unskilled referees visible of late is a perplexing and yes, even hilariously entertaining. But there's a dark side too -- I've been there on the field when the referees at a football game weren't really the referees, and witnessed the chaotic results.

This was back in about 1972 or so, at a high school football game between Monterey and Byrdstown, played at Byrdstown, TN. It was a time that when one said football field, the emphasis was often on the word 'field'. I had traveled with my father and the Monterey team to the game, and some confusion was evident on arrival.

With perhaps a half hour or less before kick-off, the coaches realized the sanctioned referees for the event were absent. Lacking today's immediate mobile phones connections, they decided to simply wait. Time ticked past and still no refs. More field side conferencing occurred. Concerned parents and boosters began to form up close to hand to observe and advise as needed.

I have no idea who came up with the suggestion - but it turned out to be a potent one. Sports-minded parents from each side would be selected to serve as refs. I have a hazy recollection of my dad assisting to create an orderly selection process. The coaches and attendant school staffers all agreed and the game was on.

It wasn't long before oddities began to occur, though the crowd seemed to accept it with good humor and warmth. But let's face it, in even the best of competitive games, the intensity of passions during a game (or pre-game or tailgate party or post-game rally or off-season depression) for many a sports fan are simply un-governable.

By the middle of the second quarter, derision and danger began to flow onto the field like a ominous spring thaw runoff. The players began to push the limits as the anger grew, the crowd all began to stand and glare at the event as if it were some shadowy stranger walking onto the lawn in a dim twilight. Somehow, my dad and I were both on the sidelines, a lot of folks were on the sidelines, on both sides.

There was a stumbling play and a massive pileup of players - and the yelling started. There was this nearly imperceptible shift as other players and even more folks in the stands seemed to all be moving forward yet my dad had begun a sort of sideways crab walk away from the crowd.

One player took off his helmet and swung it hard at another player. I recall thinking that this perhaps was not the time to be removing protective gear. And then everything gave way and the thaw became a flood of people running onto the field. My dad's crab walk transformed into his own end zone run as he grabbed onto my shoulder. We hit the gravel parking lot as the howls and shrill whistles reached a crescendo.

If memory serves, both teams had to register the game as a loss, there was some stern talk about 'knowing better' to continue with an unsupervised game, and never again did a game take place absent referees.

Yet, then, as now, the attendance at the following games seemed to rise notably. I sure wouldn't play a game that way. But I might be tempted to actually watch an NFL game this weekend.

Camera Obscura: RIP Jonathan Frid, aka Barnabas Collins

I was sad to read of the passing of actor Jonathan Frid, best known to TV audiences as Barnabas Collins, the vampire soap opera so popular for many years and now about to launch again as a movie, with Johnny Depp playing Frid's character.

That menacing wolf's-head cane (get yours today!) he carried and his near-alien voice and looks made him one of the coolest characters on TV in the 1960s and 1970s. He was a commanding performer onscreen and on the stage too. A friend of mine had the great opportunity to work on a Shakespearean show with Frid some years back, an envious task.

Growing up, just about everyone I knew fled schools in the afternoon to race home and catch the newest daily episodes of the vamp tales, and like many, I had a sort of crush on one of the actresses, Lara Parker, who played Angelique. I discovered a few years ago she was a native of Knoxville and grew up in Memphis before tackling television. Her website today boasts a warm regard for the late Jonathan Frid:

"He was a warm-hearted and compassionate man with a lovely sense of humor, and he was a staggeringly charismatic actor, who is personally responsible for the lasting success of the Dark Shadows TV show in so many ways,

His introduction on the soap opera saved it from cancellation and initiated five years of wonderful stories, of which his character of the reluctant vampire was most often the centerpiece. It was his choice to make the vampire terrifying but also tortured by guilt, and in doing this he became the heartthrob of thousands of housewives across the country watching him over their ironing. They longed to be bitten!

My personal association with Jonathan was life changing. I had been in New York just over a week when I auditioned for the part of Angelique on camera with Jonathan, doing the scene in which I tearfully entreated him to love me and not my mistress Josette Of course my head was spinning but he leaned in before the red light went on and said, “You know, she’s a witch.” Without that bit of information, I might never have put the evil spin on the moment that snagged me the role. How fortunate for me that he was there! He also whispered in my ear, “I hope you get it,” which sent my confidence soaring."

She goes on to write how frail Frid had been as they filmed their cameo scenes for the new film, and mourns that he will now miss the relaunch of the mythic show.

While the series, in retrospect, are but brief jaunts into the supernatural made on minuscule budgets, I always thought the duo of Parker and Frid were terrific onscreen. Doomed villains trapped by their fates, they brought the characters into vivid life - and afterlife.

The original show was a mass of terrors - werewolves, witches, warlocks, ghosts, time-traveling, vampires, telepaths, mausoleums, gothic homes and endless shadows almost always underscored with a most haunting theme music (with plenty of theremin music). It was a true television original and the template producer Dan Curtis made still thrives on shows like True Blood today. New books, fan conventions and radio podcasts continue to tell the tales of Dark Shadows.

Thanks for all the fine afternoons of vampire madness, Jonathan. Hope that this time, they let you rest in peace.

Truth: Fictional and Factual

There are several powerful lessons to be learned from the recent retraction of a story reported on the radio program This American Life about working conditions for thousands of electronics workers in China (mentioned here and here).

TAL's report (their most-downloaded story) was based largely on the one-man-show presented theatrically by Mike Daisey, a well-known theatrical writer-actor-producer. Once other reporters began digging into the claims from TAL's story, they found Daisey had "fabricated" information, which so angered and disturbed Ira Glass of TAL that he issued a full retraction of the story, telling listeners he felt he had been lied to, that the report should have never aired.

Daisey admits to creating a "truthful" stage production, Glass says the standards of journalism demand more than "truthiness", that journalism demands a different standard, and he's right about that. However, in challenging Daisey, Glass said he felt Daisey's shows should bear a disclaimer or warning that the show may not be 100% fact.

Ira Glass: I know but I feel like I have the normal worldview. The normal worldview is somebody stands on stage and says ‘this happened to me,’ I think it happened to them, unless it’s clearly labeled as ‘here’s a work of fiction.’

Full transcript is here.

I must challenge that perspective - if a reporter decides a one-man theatrical show demands attention for it's powerful claims and evocations, then it seems clear to me the reporter has the obligation to report on the show as just that, a "show". For thousands of years, writers and performers have forcefully confronted many real-life issues in the guise of fiction, and most all of us know that watching a "show" and reporting are two different forms of communication.

"This American Life", certainly a news show, is made using very dramatic styles and breaks and revelations. That's one of the program's strengths, compelling stories. Daisey's works had previously been hailed as masterfully blurring the lines between fact and fiction - and perhaps that is the real issue which, however clumsily, Ira Glass and "This American Life" is trying to highlight.

It's one thing for Glass to admit he was "fooled" by Daisey's story - but to demand Daisey re-package his show to suit journalistic standards is mistaken. And Daisey was wrong to let journalists report on his show as factual. And certainly, further reports on conditions in these Chinese factories have shown some brutal conditions.

And yet ...

How often do major news outlets - especially television - rely on metaphorical, if not utterly faked, emotions to drive a story? Hours are filled with "opinion" and not "fact", because the passion of opinion will always attract an audience.

If Daisey's work must be clearly "labeled", then so should so-called "news" programs be properly labeled as well -- "This hour of program features opinions about facts, and therefore is not 100% factual."

That won't happen - criticizing writers for creating passionate fictions is too easy. Criticizing journalists/panelists/experts/producers for creating passionate fictions is big business, from "reality" programs to "news" programs. And they see themselves as "too big to fail" or "too big to be criticized".

Much cable news - and especially radio programming like Rush Limbaugh - are dramatic creations, carefully designed to elicit an emotional response, all falling under the sway of attracting an audience.

And it is precisely those creators and writers and performers of "news" who should label their creations for audiences.

Camera Obscura: Go See "Drive"; Stephen King Talks on TCM

More than two weeks since I wrote a movie post?

Let me fix that right now:

It's nearly impossible to find a unique movie at your local multi-plex, which depends on a constant stream of bland predictability, NameBrand stars, special effects and various combinations of such aspects. But I found one last week which slides around all those elements and stands as one of the best mainstream releases this year (though I am sure many who see it will just leave it feeling uncomfortable for reasons un-expressable).

The movie is "Drive", from Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn, and it defies movie conventions while also following them, a rare and brilliant play on the crime thriller (and it's getting top-notch reviews nationwide). Ryan Gosling plays an LA stuntman who also is a getaway driver for hire - a skilled wheelman who barely speaks out loud, yet that enormous restraint creates an enormous tension which, makes the movie a most intense experience. The movie is based on the novel by James Sallis.

His Man With No Name character accidentally engages a very pretty neighbor (played by the beautiful Carey Mulligan) and her young son, and this trio eases into a nearly happy ride, though we know it cannot travel far. Her husband arrives, newly released from jail, but thugs from his criminal past immediately threaten the family and as with many an iconic movie hero from the past, the Driver decides to take action to protect them - it's his only way to express his devotion and concern, an expression soaked in violence.


There is a moment late in the movie when the Driver decides to reveal his desire and he kisses her, a moment of immense tenderness and it is immediately followed by a graphic attack on a villain aiming to hurt her. In his mind, both are expressions of how much he cares for her, and is both touching and terrifying.

The movie has a terrific opening scene, as this movie steers into a sort of homage to movies from the 1980s, complete with a throbbing electronic score. Refn has a solid grasp of American movies, though he never lets go of his European roots. And his visual style here is, as with his other films, is gorgeous and powerful, no wonder he gets comparisons to legendary visual filmmakers like Tarkovsky, Kubrick, Hitchcock and Greenaway. His work on "Drive" earned the Best Director award at the Cannes festival this Spring.

The casting is first rate too - Gosling hides his roaring emotions just at the edges, Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" plays his mentor and friend, a hitch-legged loser who can almost see success, Albert Brooks gets a turn as a vicious mob boss and does it flawlessly, and as I mentioned there's Carey Mulligan. By chance I've seen three of her earlier films this year, and she is a real star in the making. Her big moment will likely be in "The Great Gatsby' as Daisy, out next year - but DO NOT miss her work in "An Education" or "Never Let Me Go".

There's also a wonderful bit where the Driver dons a mask of a "leading man" he has stolen from a movie set - but the mask doesn't really fit and it stands as an excellent metaphor for the film itself.


Refn has been tapped as the director for a "Logan's Run" remake, but his earlier works are must-see movies. I watched his 2009 movie "Valhalla Rising" last week too, and was again mesmerized by his work. The movie is set amid a grim and muddy landscape of Vikings who have begun to see the emerging Christianity movement as a promise of a better life. The main character here too has no name, but is simply called One-Eye (and is played by the very talented Mads Mikkelsen, best known to Americans as Le Chiffre in "Casino Royale"). He plays a slave used for fighting and gambling, is beyond brutal and his captors claim he is from Hell itself. What place does he have in a journey to the Holy Land? The movie is hypnotic and surreal and carefully created.

Refn again depends on setting, camera work, and acting to build a powerful metaphysical story in a brutal world. His other films, "Bronson" and "The Pusher" likewise challenge audiences with stunning storytelling.

Best advice: see "Drive" on the big screen, it's a great experience. (Note: Check out my friend Lee Gardner's interview with Refn here.)

---

October approaches and so does an army of scary movies, so Turner Classic Movies turns to America's Master of Fear, Stephen King, for a one-on-one interview with King about the movies he loves and those based on his works.

"In A Night at the Movies: The Horrors of Stephen King, which premieres on TCM Monday, Oct. 3, at 8 p.m. (ET), Stephen King discusses how he discovered terror at the movie theater. He takes viewers on a journey through many aspects of the horror genre, including vampires, zombies, demons and ghosts. He also examines the fundamental reasons behind moviegoers' incessant craving for being frightened. Along the way, he discusses the movies that have had a real impact on his writing, including Freaks (1932), Cat People (1942), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Changeling (1980).

Good job, TCM!

Teen Werewolf Gangs As News?

A TV station scrapes the bottom with this "report" on "teenage werewolves".



It's generating some hilarious online chatter:

"You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm kind of hoping the jocks get their shit together and start kicking everyone's ass again.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:41 PM on May 25

Actually, maybe the jocks are waiting for the mummy clique to rear its ugly head before unleashing the wedgie maelstrom.
posted by Pastabagel at 1:42 PM on May 25


I long ago concluded that anybody born after 1981 is insane. This is just further evidence. Now get off my lawn.
posted by jonmc at 4:56 PM on May 25

Paradise "Lost" No More

After more than 121 hours of viewing time, I'm about to finally watch the end of the TV series "Lost", which wraps up Sunday night. To be honest, I'm kind of exhausted - it's been a multi-year effort and while I have deeply enjoyed this program, it's also a relief to finally reach an end point which should (hopefully) wrap up the whole thing.

As much as I enjoy many of the guilty pleasures television offers, I don't think I've ever watched more than a few programs from start to finish. "Twin Peaks", "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and perhaps one or two very short-lived sit-coms. My tastes are absolutely eclectic and personal. I think the only other shows I have seen all episodes for are the original run of "Twilight Zone", and that's only due to syndication and marathons on the Sci-Fi Network (whoops, Sy-Fy, since they have changed their name) and "Futurama" (which returns with a brand new season next month on Comedy Central!!)

So yeah, I lean towards the odd and the science-fiction/fantasy shows. ("Lost" is one of television's few shows to earn awards from such science fiction groups like the Hugos and the Saturn awards, as well as Emmys, and the Actors, Writers and Directors and Producer Guilds and many others.)

And "Lost" does have something in common with the previously mentioned "Twin Peaks" and "Buffy" -- the shows don't make much sense unless you start with the first episode and watch until the final episode. Some will surely tune into the ending not knowing all that has gone before, and don't expect me to explain it or justify my faithful viewership.

Bottom line: Sunday night will mean several hours of watching ABC, as the show ends with a 2 and a half hour finale. And I'll probably watch some of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show afterwards as he talks live with the cast for the show. And no, I offer no sweeping predictions for "what it all means" or "will all the questions and mysteries" be resolved. I've learned to just enjoy the work from the show's creators, and am fairly confident that they will wrap it up quite nicely, thank you very much.

Also - for me, this has been excellent television myth-making and few shows do that right. And as I said, I'm sort of glad to have the end at hand, so I can spend my Tuesday evenings without worrying about catching an episode. And I send my thanks to the cast and creators for their work, it's been very enjoyable and a hell of a ride.

Via Creative Screenwriting, one article by Peter Clines notes:

" 'Lost' was a game changer. It was the series that saved scripted television by showing there was still a market -- a big market -- for well-written, episodic shows that didn't aim for the lowest common denominator. LOST made its viewers think about its characters, their interconnectedness, and the many strange things they discovered. It did this by a masterful use of two storytelling elements: the mystery and the twist."


Articles and stories are offered below via IMDB:

• The Men Who Made "Lost" Last from NYTimes.com
• George Lucas Sends a Letter to "Lost" from The Live Feed
• 50 Questions "Lost" Really Does Need To Answer from io9.com
• Advice for the Writers of the "Lost" Finale from NYMag.com
• Storyboard: Unraveling the "Lost" Island's Paradox from Wired.com
• Lost Without "Lost" from HuffingtonPost.com
  

Will I have more later on "Lost'? That's a mystery I have no answer for ... yet.

"Lost" Starts to End

I have watched the show "Lost" on ABC since it began, though I did drop about half of season two, when they corrected course and decided to aim towards wrapping up the story and not tacking on useless side plots. A five-season run for a TV show as unusually story-centered, meant to actually conclude, is a good experiment I hope is repeated. Three and five season (or just one story per season, as "24" has done) shows should be a staple in network TV and not an exception.

(And yes, I know there are enough side-plots in "Lost" to coat the wide side of a rhino. There's still a main story here of plain old sci-fi time travel and mythmaking, so shut up.)

Here's an image of one character, John Locke, who is now really dead but some other very old and nameless thing now is mimicking him and wants off the island they are all trapped on.


Poor John Locke, the real one, is still alive in another (apparently) parallel time line but is back to being in a wheelchair and looking very unhappy. Yes, there are two of everyone ... or most everyone. I think.

While there will surely be much talk of this last season, folks not yet acquainted might like to start watching old episodes. Here's a few thoughts as to why:

-- The show started in the waning days 2004, end of the first term of president George Bush. Terrifying images of a plane crash begin the show and chaos follows on the beach, one person even is sucked into a still-roaring jet engine which then explodes. Violent stuff - especially for a country still reeling from the sheer shock of four plane crashes in September 2001. The characters don't get along, often fighting about what the next step should be or shouldn't be. They've struck a strong cultural tone on the aftermath and recovery from disaster.

-- Beyond the tone, though, have been fascinating character stories, with an ingenious blending of time used as a narrative device. Ingenious because time travel is at the heart of the mysterious forces on this island. There have been some of TV's best acting and writing here, and it's been pretty smart and complex too. We should have more smart TV shows.

-- And it is fun too, despite all the seriousness. It's almost pulp fiction - jungle intrigue, romance, weird science experiments, psychopaths, ghosts, crime, nuclear bombs, even pirates, enough to fill three or four TV shows.

If you have read this far you're either a fan, or just curious about the show. So allow me to geek out with my current list of questions which might perhaps shape the final outcome of the show:

Can you "sideways flash" through time?

Why does the 'time-door' open into Tunisia?

If, as the current season opens with a shot of the island now underwater, why was there also a genetically engineered shark from the nefarious Dharma Initiative, created on the island now under... wha???

I want more time traveling pirates, because that's just good entertainment.

The Simpsons - Television That Embiggens Us All

A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man

Where do you beginulate praise for such a cromulent moment in American television history?

I had barely begun my career as an entertainment writer when a new TV network called FOX hit the television airwaves of America. Today, I still have a collection of posters the fledgling network sent out to promo their line-up of programs in 1987, featuring such shows as "Married With Children", "21 Jump Street" and "The Tracey Ullman Show". Airing only a few night a week to begin, the network added and trashed shows faster than most viewers could follow.

One element of Ullman's underrated show were these little animated segments of an oddball family created by cartoonist Matt Groening. In 1989, "The Simpsons" got their own half-hour show and the show marks it's 20th anniversary tonight -- a special show, "The Simspson's 20th Anniversary Special In 3D on Ice" airs tonight, and you can take a sneak peek at what's ahead in this special right here and learn how the show has saved at least one life.

20 years of broadcast history, 20 years of success that began with a family that looks yellow and whose only son, Bart, told the world to "Eat my shorts".

Think about it - without Bart Simpson, we would not have Glenn Beck, as the ever-growing Fox Network soon begat FOX News. In truth, Beck surely seems a twisted creation from the weird world of Springfield as he writes his bizarre theories on a blackboard, just as young Bart found fame by writing on a blackboard in the opening sequences of every episode.

I'm a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me, no matter how dumb my suggestions are. -- Homer Simpson

In the early days of the show, Conservative politicians and religious leaders degraded the show, howled of the abysmal influence of the rude Bart, the drunken Homer and the very idea that America could even be satirized. It was not only a battle such figures lost, it was a war they lost. Just last month, the Pope hailed "The Simpsons" for promoting religion in an article titled "Aristotle's Virtues and Homer's Doughnuts".

That title alone is something to celebrate, commingling Aristotle, the Catholic church and Homer Simpson's love for doughnuts.

"Without Homer Simpson and the other yellow-skinned characters "many today wouldn't know how to laugh .....

"Religion, from the snore-evoking sermons of the Rev. Lovejoy to Homer's face-to-face talks with God, appears so frequently on the show that it could be possible to come up with a "Simpsonian theology," it said.

"Homer's religious confusion and ignorance are "a mirror of the indifference and the need that modern man feels toward faith," the paper said.

"It commented on several religion-themed episodes, including one in which Homer calls for divine intervention by crying: "I'm not normally a religious man, but if you're up there, save me, Superman!"

"Homer finds in God his last refuge, even though he sometimes gets His name sensationally wrong," L'Osservatore said. "But these are just minor mistakes, after all, the two know each other well."

Astonishing, really, that authority figures might see such a view ... but since authority figures cannot beat them, then ...

The Simpson family too has changed the way America talks --

"According to Mark Liberman, of the University of Pennsylvania Linguistic Data Consortium: “ The Simpsons has apparently taken over from Shakespeare and the Bible as our culture’s greatest source of idioms, catchphrases and sundry other textual allusions.”

How many among us, on those occasions when we have made a mistake, of judgment or communication or thinking, how many of us have learned to say the word "D'oh!" as Homer might, in order to earn some indulgence, some forgiveness.

Serious Simpson's fanatics debate which season is the best, which the worst, if the show has far-outlived it's genius, but, as Homer himself has said, there is really one thing we should all remember:

"You can't depend on me all your life. You have to learn that there's a little Homer Simpson in all of us."

SEE ALSO:
Bart's Blackboard
Make Your Own Blackboard
A Simpson's Dictionary
A Simpson's Database

Camera Obscura: 'The Runaways'; Bad Girl Movies: Blondie's Christmas Carol

I woke up today planning to write about a movie now on DVD which is likely my favorite for the year ... only to have all train of thought hijacked effortlessly by the likes of Joan Jett and Cheri Currie. So I am chucking the original plan here today and going in a whole new direction thanks to the just released trailer for the movie "The Runaways", a bio-pic about the all-girl band from the 1970s headed by Jett and Curie which lands in theaters in March 2010.

First, the trailer:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

With the legions of Twilight fans tracking every move of the series star Kirsten Stewart, who plays Joan Jett in the Runaways movie, it's deeply pleasing to know that a new generation is about to get hip to the band whose name, music and images made teenage boys like myself get a bit crazy back in the mid-1970s. (holy moley is that really Dakota Fanning as Curie in that clip?? I thought she was like 12 or something ...)



Jett was 17, Curie was 16 when the band hit the record stores with their first album. Whenever a new Runaways album hit the stacks, all us boys would stare silently at the images wondering why the heck no girls in our school looked so cool or dared rock so hard. Sure, some girls had some of those clothes and mullet-like haircuts but there was nothing around our school to match those mythic girls who rocked the nation. They looked dangerous, like they could not get a good fake ID, but could buy liquor, had cartons of smokes, drove motorcycles, said curse words to any parent or adult, could break out windows with their music, might break out windows with their hands if they wanted, might slug you in the face just for standing near them.

Dangerous girls.

Jett produced this new movie, a project she has been shepherding for many years, going so far as to block a documentary, "Edgeplay", about the band from using any Runaways music and refusing to appear in the movie, though most of the rest of the band are there telling pretty terrible tales of how used and abused those young girls were. They were more often placed in dangerous worlds than they were dangerous themselves. Jett also spent some time with actress Stewart earlier this year, sharing some stories and such, and Stewart is doing her own singing in the movie (but I'm pretty sure that is not Fanning singing "Cherry Bomb" in the trailer ...)

Speaking of Cherry Bomb, here's the real band rocking that song, with Cherie on lead vocals and which Jett wrote:


There was another movie about the band, called "We're All Crazy Now" (or "Du-beat-e-o") which is a mangled slab of footage Jett was contractually forced to work on and deserves the utter absence of attention it has earned.

A fictional movie I have mentioned before is a decent riff on the band, starring Diane Lane and Laura Dern, called "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains" which is pretty good really and worth checking out. Lane plays a Jett-like rocker who takes no crap, plots a meteoric rise to success and learns about the mean old music business and the dangers of fame. The trailer for the movie is here.

Cherie Currie did some acting stints in the 1990s on shows like Matlock and Murder She Wrote (!!!) but she took the romantic lead in a very underrated and odd low budget science fiction film from 1983 called "Wavelength", opposite Robert Carradine. The movie centers on the young couple who discover the secret government lab where aliens from another world are stored and help break them out. Tangerine Dream did the music for the movie, and you can check out some scenes from it right here.

If you need a few biographic details of Joan Jett's career, then you, dear reader, need to go back to the basics of rock and roll education. It's like this - the 51-year-old is an icon in music and pop culture and even has her own Barbie doll. 'Nuff said.

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Speaking of bad girl movies, Turner Classic Movies will show a seldom-seen blaxplitation chick flick at 2 am tonite called "Darktown Strutters", a movie that nearly defies description -- but the TCM site tries:

"... a cult film still looking for its audience. Combining elements of black action, soul and funk music, musical numbers, science fiction, slapstick comedy, and surprisingly blunt race-relations satire, this one-of-a-kind cinematic phantasmagoria offers a case study in how a screenwriter’s personality can fuse unexpectedly with that of the director. When prominent abortion clinic owner Cinderella (Frances Nealy) goes missing along with a string of other black community leaders, her singing daughter Syreena (Trina Parks) and her fellow female biker gang members tangle with the bumbling, racist police and equally inept Ku Klux Klan members before uncovering a nefarious plot by barbeque ribs magnate Commander Cross (Norman Bartold) to undermine the entire political organization of the black community."
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One more bad girl today, just in time for Christmas --- though she is really 65 years of age and is prepping a new album for 2010 - that's Debbie Harry, singer for Blondie. They have a new version of "We Three Kings" which makes me smile:

Camera Obscura: Best Food Shows On TV

I've been watching hours and hours of the Food Network, which has to be something only an American would do. We have such abundance and crave more than the old-fashioned 'some-dude-in-an-apron-makes-some-casserole' segments which used to air on local noon news programs. So there are a few shows on the network which both entertain and inform.

Alton Brown gets all into the chemistry and physics and history of food on his show, so watching "Good Eats" from time to time makes me feel like I am being educated more than entertained. It's the network's 3rd highest rated show and it's the only food program other than Julia Child's to receive a Peabody Award. And Good Eats is also marking it's 10th anniversary on the air. Go behind the scenes here. (Bonus: Alton was a music video cameraman in the early days, serving as director of photography on R.E.M.'s video for "The One I Love"!!!!)

"Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" features a squirrely looking guy named Guy. Guy Fieri, in fact, who was a sort of American-Idol-like winner, except the contest he won was the Next Food Network Star show. But what I like best about this show is that it features honest-to-pete local restaurants, usually family-owned and a place locals hold in high regard. Our nation is overgrown with chains of identical restaurants, which I find to be god-awful places to feed. And then there are the food troughs, aka buffet-style places, which make me run away in fear.



Here in Hamblen County, likely the one notable non-chain outfit is "Hillbilly Cabin", which is sort of okay in a way. It has pretty tame fare, though when Harrison Ford comes to town to visit his soon-to-be-in-laws, he always goes there for a meal.

There used to be a lot more individually owned and creative eateries than we have today, and I'd like to see more of them. And too often, Guy's show focuses on some 4 pound stack of goop getting served up and I don't eat 4 pounds of anything much at one time. Okay, maybe I could eat a pound or too of unagi sushi. Or a pizza, I could eat a whole pizza, as long as it is not 4 feet in circumference with 10 pounds of ingredients.

Cooking contest shows are getting common, on several networks, but none of them offer the simple challenge provided by "Chopped". The set-up is very simple and the contestants are either good chefs or they are "chopped" away pretty fast. The set-up: four chefs must make an appetizer featuring a few ingredients which they do not see until the clock starts, and then they have maybe 20 minutes to make and serve the dish - one contestant is then out. Then they go onto an entree section, same deal, making a dish using secret key ingredients, one contestant is dropped and finally a dessert course is required.

A well-stocked pantry is there, sure, but chefs must make use of whatever secret ingredients the show offers -- and these can be some insanely challenging ingredients: one appetizer challenge was to use bittersweet chocolate, mussels and figs; kiwi, wonton wrappers and gummi bears ... you get the idea.

It's sort of like the game I play here at the house - what can I make to eat out of these left-over barbecue beans, a can of condensed milk and some old black olives .... it ain't pretty. But then I am no chef. Here's a sample of the Chopped show:



Another food show I have seen recently is one on the Travel Channel called Man vs Food -- no I am not linking to it 'cause it is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Some dude travels about looking for a restaurant which serves gigantic sized portions of food and dude tries to devour it in record time. Why would someone purposely try and harm themselves with food (and not in a food fight, just through gluttony??) It's weird and unpleasant and kinda sad to watch someone be so debased for a 12 pound double-deep-fried cheeseburger. Would this show even be on anywhere except America?

If you run the phrase "food blogs" through the old Google Machine, you get around 349 million returns. That's more blogs than people in the U.S.

Google says in 2009, the fastest rising search in the food and drink category is for "acai berry". What is Acai Berry?? An Amazonian berry which is food for many in South America and popular in the U.S. because Oprah talked about it.

How To Improve Television - Drop Glenn Beck

MediaMatters reports today that the jabbering madness of Glenn Beck is losing major advertisers.

"Three companies who run ads during Glenn Beck -- NexisLexis-owned Lawyers.com, Proctor & Gamble and Progressive Insurance -- today distanced themselves from Beck. LexisNexis has pulled its advertising from Beck and says it has no plans to advertise on the program in the future. Both Proctor & Gamble and Progressive Insurance called the Beck advertising placements an error that they would correct.

The decision by the three companies comes as over 45,000 ColorofChange.org members call on advertisers to pull their ads from Glenn Beck after the controversial news host called President Obama a "racist" who "has a deep-seated hatred for white people" on "Fox & Friends" last week.

"Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention," said John Michaels, Senior Communications Manager at LexisNexis in an email to ColorOfChange.org. "We have suspended further advertising during Mr. Beck's program."

Yes, Glenn, in America, we all have the right to free speech - however, each of us will still be held accountable for what we choose to say. Your account is way overdue, so even though I'm sure you'll drama-queen this loss as proof of the downfall of America, instead it is proof that most of us do not want to hear anything you say and that free speech does not mean free from responsibility for what is said.

(HT to KnoxViews)

5 Reasons To Watch The New G4 Underground Series

The G4 cable network jumps into the TV news magazine biz on Sunday night with a new series called Underground. I've always enjoyed the network and I'd like to give you some reasons to check out this new show.

First reason to watch: If you read this blog and I amuse, entertain, inform or enrage you, then you must tune in because I'm personally connected to the show. One of the producers is a longtime friend and a most talented producer of great TV. Here's her IMDB listing. She's also a fellow alum from Carson-Newman, once worked as a DJ in Morristown radio, is a sharp-eyed pop culture whiz and is a fine mom and wife too.

Second reason to watch: Two words - Morgan Webb.

Third reason to watch: The stories you'll see here won't be found anywhere else. Take the premiere, which tackles the world on online pornography and porn amateurs, plus a segment on real-life, honest-to-pete people who dress up in costume to be super-heroes. Future reports include exposes on ninja schools and the world of urban spelunking. (NOTE: If you are searching for info on "caseynjennifer", please see the comments on this post.)

Fourth reason to watch: It's better than other news magazine time shows - there's no eyebrow-heavy Andy Rooney and sometimes, the stuff they cover is kinda illegal. More info on those items here.

Fifth reason to watch: If you watch and talk about what you see, your friends and co-workers will know you are on the cutting edge of cool. Don't be left out, people, I'm trying to help you here. Check out this teaser below:

Camera Obscura: Doomed Movie Marathon; Pie Fights on Film; New Romero Zombie Movie

There are fans and then there are fanatics - fans seek and watch and talk about movies, fanatics force life to accommodate their movie addictions. In recent years, the rise of the DVD has made it easier to become a fanatic, true, but you can always tell the difference between a fan and a fanatic.

A true fanatic is Richard of Doomed Moviethon. For the past few years, he's been keeping careful catalogs of the horror and cult movies he views, and he also gives you the lowdown on what happens when you create a stack of movies with a theme and watch them for endless hours. Past efforts already featured on the website include horror movies from the year 1976, 13 of them in 42 hours, or the Argento project, where he watched 13 of Argento's movies in 34 hours.

I get queasy just thinking about it. One must carefully prepare for such mind-bending journeys. Selecting the films for a marathon viewing session is tough enough, but then you must likewise create a store of food and drink, prepare your furniture arrangements, clear your schedule of interruptions, and get your mind right to commit to a few days to nothing but watching movies.

He also keeps a blog of individual movies he views, and his selections are always fascinating and sometimes quite obscure. There are decades and decades of films from Grade Z to Grade A and only the strongest dare create a marathon of Grade Z movies because after a few hours, your brain starts playing tricks on you. That happens even if the movies are Grade A, it's a time thing.

I confess I am a marathon viewer too, have been since VHS first made it possible. It isn't too hard to find friends willing to watch 3 in a row, but only the most hearty souls will sign on for 10 or 15 movies in one gulp. I've never had much problem to commit to 20 hours of horror/cult movies, but there have also been some light marathons, like all the Pink Panther movies in one setting, and others I know have downed multiple seasons of The Sopranos or The Wire with much ease.

Make no mistake - this isn't escapism, it's work, people, brain-twisting and muscle-breaking work. Only the strong can survive.

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Watching some of the political wrangling on the floor of Congress or out and about with the campaign trails this year, I've often wished and prayed a good pie fight would break out. Pie fights work best when they occur among folks dressed in fine clothes. A clown pie fight, for example, just is not funny. Cinematical offers a selection of great pie fits on film here, wisely including one from The Three Stooges. These guys are the indisputable kings of pie fights - the sound effects, the textures of the pie fillings, the crusts, and the well-heeled societies which quickly devolve into a pastry rage - these are their hallmarks. Here's one fine example:



The Cinematical link above also features a fine scene in the comedy "The Great Race", which becomes a technicolor blur of pie fillings which literally coat the walls of the kitchen. Tony Curtis, as the film's hero, seems to escape pie dangers ... for a while. And Natalie Wood just looks fantastic when covered in pies and whipped cream. (shut up, i know what that sounds like, so just shut up)

I've wanted to make a short film for a long time now which would incorporate the style of a John Woo Hong Kong shoot-em-up with a pie fight. There's this image in my head of someone leaping sideways in slo-mo hurling pies from each hand as the room around them is pock-marked by pie debris. Yes, I have strange ideas stuck in my head.

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MOVIE NEWS

A new Moby Dick movie -- without a crazed Cap'n Ahab?? The Russian director of "Wanted" and "Nigh Watch/Day Watch", Timur Bekmambetov, is eyeing a version of the Melville novel that would be more "Orca on steroids" with lotsa CGI carnage and Ahab the hero who saves the seas from the beast.

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Romero is back behind the camera for a new zombie movie, which does not have a title yet. No matter. Details here at the Port Dover, Ontario website and here at AICN.

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With awards and praise piling up for the AMC channel for their series "Mad Men", the cable channel is developing several new mini-series, like the remake of the 60s sci-fi show "The Prisoner" and announced plans this week for an adaptation of the award-winning sci-fi novel "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson. That's a very good book about the first human colony on Mars, with heaps of political drama driving the tale.

Live Web TV From Downtown Knoxville

A most ambitious internet project officially started today at Cherries Internet Cafe with live web TV shows from their open-to-the-public internet cafe.

Check out the live broadcasts and explore their site here.

Happy Birthday!

The Knox News Sentinel has some more background here, and expect even more to be announced in coming days and weeks as this cutting edge tech takes off from Market Square. When you stop in, be sure and say hello to Reenie and to Jess. Unless they are working and then, hey, they're working and don't be a chucklehead and bother them.

"The 2,000-square-foot cafe features computers at every booth, along with charging capabilities for laptops, cell phones and iPods.

Beginning next month, there will be boxed lunches from The Lunch Box and The Daisy Pot Tea Bar will feature more than 40 different loose leaf teas.

"I want it to be an experience with as many things that are unique and different," Gee said.

Visitors also will be able to tune in to Web broadcasts produced in a floor-to-ceiling, 500-square-foot glass studio."

ABC Seeks East TN Family for Extreme Makeover

The makers of ABC's Extreme Home Makeover: Home Edition are now seeking East Tennesseans for their next season, and you need to act now if you have a nomination for them to consider - the deadline is July 7th, so time is limited for you to move on this one. If you are like me, I'm sure you can think of a family who would not only qualify but benefit greatly from the team at Extreme Home Makeover, and you might change some family's lives for the better!

I received a press release from them today and here it is:

ABC’s EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION SEARCHING FOR HEROIC FAMILIES

HOLLYWOOD, CA – June 30, 2008

Do you know a hometown hero whose house is in need of an Extreme Makeover? If so, the producers of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition want to hear from you. Ty Pennington and his crew have been all across the map and now they want to drive that famous bus to your neighborhood. The producers are looking for families in East Tennessee for their new season.

“We’ve set our sights on finding American heroes for our sixth season,” says Casting Director Quintin Strack. “We’re looking for the people in your community that are giving something back despite the challenges they may be facing at home.”

What does it take to be picked for an Extreme Makeover? The producers look at three key elements in every family’s story; the house, the need, and the family’s involvement in their community.

Strack says, “we are in search of real heroes…people that have amazing strength and who have put their own needs aside to help someone else.” In addition, to heroics, the producers consider the condition of the family’s home. “This is a very important element. We can’t ask hundreds of volunteers to demolish a perfectly good home or even a house with just a few minor problems. These houses must to be in dire need of help.”

To be eligible, a family must own their own single family home and be able to show producers how a makeover will make a huge difference in their lives.

Interested families should e-mail a short description of their family story to: ExtremeEastTennessee@gmail.com

Nominations must include the names and ages of each member of the household along with a description of the major challenges within the home. Also be sure to explain how this family is heroic, or a positive role model in their community. If possible, include a recent photo of the family. Don’t forget to include a contact phone number.

Nominations must be received by July 7, 2008. Don’t Delay!

Each episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is self-contained and features a race against time on a project that would ordinarily take at least four months to achieve, involving a team of designers, contractors and several hundred workers who have just seven days to totally rebuild an entire house – every single room, plus the exterior and landscaping.

The lives of the lucky families are forever changed when they learn that they have been selected to have their home walls moved, their floors replaced and even their façades radically changed. The result should be a decorator’s delight… if it can be done in time.

Each episode begins with team leader Ty Pennington’s now-famous “Good morning!” wake-up call, when he, along with the other designers, surprises the unsuspecting family with news that their home has been chosen to receive a makeover. Then viewers witness not only the unbelievable transformation of the house, but during the final and emotional reveal, they see how the home makeover has impacted the lives of the deserving families.

The design team includes team leader Ty Pennington, with designers Paul DiMeo, Paige Hemmis, Michael Moloney, Ed Sanders, Tracy Hutson, Tanya McQueen, Eduardo Xol and John Littlefield. New designers for this season will be Rib Hillis and Didi Ayer.

***About ABC-TV’s Extreme Home Makeover Edition*** “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” which has won back-to-back Emmy Awards as Best Reality Program (non-competitive), is in its 5th season on ABC. The program is produced by Endemol USA, a division of Endemol Holding. Anthony Dominici is the executive producer; and David Goldberg is the president of Endemol USA.

Camera Obscura: Best Movie Blog of All Time

Gird your grids, kids.

Today's edition of movie news and reviews is a Super Giant Exxxtreeeeeme Summer Edition Madhouse Marathon, making this post quite possibly the best movie blog of all time and space, as the Twins of Hype and Hoopla ascend the Heavens on fantastical wings of Godlike ....ahem,sorry. Oh sure, the country is tanking on addictions to oil and power and we're in hock way past our great-great-great-grandchildren's eyeballs to China, and we're like that sleazy slightly drunken uncle who's always around to remind The Family they have lost their grip on relevance and authority.

But it's summer! So ...

After months of rumors the first preview trailer arrives for (what will be) the biggest online hit of the summer: "Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog". The premise - a musical sci-fi comedy web-series about the always thwarted would-be arch-evil nemesis Dr. Horrible. Made late last fall during the writers strike by writer/director Joss Whedon ("Buffy The Vampire Slayer") and here we go:


Nathan Fillion ("Firefly") plays the always victorious Captain Hammer and other cast members include Adam Baldwin and Felicia Day. Go ahead and bookmark the Official Site for Dr. Horrible now - it starts soon!
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Quentin Tarantino, the late Sydney Pollack, and Bill Murray are just some of the special guests for the new Turner Classic Movies channel series "Under The Influence", hosted by Elvis Mitchell and debuting in July. Mitchell asks guests to explain the movie experiences that changed their lives.

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Futurama's new DVD movie "Beast With A Billion Backs" came out Tuesday and is sitting right there by my television at this very moment, about to be viewed. This time, our intrepid and idiotic heroes encounter hideous anime tentacle porn.

"Arrested Development" star David Cross voices the nasty beast, and Stephen Hawking returns too, to shoot lasers out of his eyes, and even Robot Satan is back! 'Nuff said!!

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I have decided I am living in one of those rare times when Really Good Things populate the pop culture of America. Sure, the country is tanking on addictions to oil and power and were in hock way past our great-great-great-grandchildren's eyeballs to China, and we're like that sleazy slightly drunken uncle who's always around to remind The Family they have lost their grip on relevance and authority.

But, still - Really Good Things. We've reached this pinnacle moment in cinema where we - the unruly audiences of Cult Films and Revisionist Genres - have successfully taken over the mainstream movie world. Comic book heroes from Batman to Silver Surfer to the X-Men rule the box office; fantasy books by Tolkien and C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling have achieved unprecedented success, Christopher Lee alone now holds the Mantle of Evil which reaches from his cape as Dracula and his scars as Frankenstein and the withered remains of The Mummy to Lord Saruman to Fu Manchu and even Willy Wonka's dad (we won't mention Count Dooko, because George Lucas should just be ashamed).

It's truly a Golden Age when technology and time have collided to bring us gifted creators of cinema magic - Guillermo Del Toro, Peter Jackson, John Lasseter and his entire Pixar team - to name just a few.

For the first time since the nefarious sirens of the 1960s and 1970s appeared and brought fierce, proud, highly capable and unstoppable beauty to the Women of Cinema, we can watch the likes of female action heroes today such as Angelina Jolie, Rosario Dawson and Asia Argento. I'd watch those ladies read the phone book if someone filmed it. Hell, I'd go see live shows of it.

I watched Asia this week in "Boarding Gate", a French-made noir which turns from tragic Paris love story to brutal Hong Kong street thriller. Sure, the movie, being French, moves far too slow at first, but ramps it up quite well by the time she takes that gun into her hands.

Jolie gets busy again this weekend in "Wanted" as a professional killer in an action film based on a comic book. You don't like her or her politics or her kids? Who cares?? I love to watch her on screen.

All I'm sayin' ... Really Good Things ... now if we could just fix television and kill the Un-Reality stuff.

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Oh, noooo, this post ain't over yet!

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I finally saw one of the very Best Horror Films of 2007 this week - the made-in-Georgia horror/sc-fi film "The Signal" and was most impressed with it. It debuted at the Rome, GA International Film Festival and has been gathering an impressive collection of reviews.

The story is set in the fictional city of Terminus (Atlanta) and focuses on a young adulterous couple. They wake, she has to go home to her husband, and reality unravels into an apocalyptic nightmare. A signal of unknown origin takes over all television, radio, phone, etc and it makes people go just crazy enough to justify murder, endlessly. However the movie takes a unique view of these events through the lives of the husband, his wife and her lover - making a three-part story which is by turns terrifying, hilarious and terrifying again. Three writer-directors from Atlanta, David Bruckner, David Bush, and Jacob Gentry, take each chapter and each does a masterful job with their tale.

I was partial to the middle section, which turned the terror into high comedy as a survivors try and gather for a party in suburbia. There's buckets of gore aplenty in the movie, and actor Scott Poythress as Clark nearly steals the film as the landlord who winds up in the middle of the battle between the three main characters. He even dons his own tinfoil hat by the third section of the movie to preserve his brain from the evil signals and keeps the hero on his journey.


Slide this one somewhere between 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and Cloverfield, and add in a loving homage to movies like Texas Chainsaw and Hills Have Eyes. It's a brutal trip, shot in just 13 days by some very talented performers and creators.

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Even the most mindless summer of movie fun can have it's serious cinema too. So on a final note today, take a look at the very literate and compelling Jasminembla's Weekly. Her recent post on the folktales about The Man in the Moon is greatly researched and fascinating. She also did a recent take on vampires and zombies.

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Since "The Signal" put me into apocalyptic thoughts, I discovered this entry online about Hacking The Entire Planet to bring about doomsday scenarios. It's a time-honored genre event. And once again, technology has provided us with ways today to smash it all apart. Hey, if we can create global climate change by accident, why not alter the world by design? Or, as mentioned above, what about the Moon?

One of my favorite world-destroying events was in the animated TV show, "The Tick". In one episode Chairface Chippendale devises a dastardly plot to literally carve his name onto the surface of the Moon. Thank goodness for The Tick, who stops his plan -- although only after the gigantic letters of C-H-A have already been cut into the lunar surface. For the rest of the series, whenever the Moon was in a shot, you could still see CHA on the Moon.

Interviewer: Well, can you... blow up the world?
Tick: Egad. I hope not. That's where I keep all my stuff.

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EXTRA: The 34th Annual Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror's Saturn Awards were handed out this week. Big winners were "Enchanted" and "Lost". The list included:

Best science fiction film, "Cloverfield"
Best horror film, "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Best action/adventure/thriller film: "300"

The full list is here.