Life happens.
Sometimes life gets in the way of your blog. See you in San Diego.
July 18, 2009
January 18, 2009
March 6, 2009
Mark your calender with a big yellow circle. March 6th is Watchmen Day. According to an article on the Number 1 Film Site Jan. 13th, and reported in the Hollywood Reporter three days later, an agreement has been reached between Warner Bros. and Fox.
The movie will be released with WB's vision with no editing or revisions. This is great news as it was beginning to look as if we might never see the film. I will be buying my tickets as soon as possible.
August 13, 2008
Big Bang Day
On June 21st, I blogged about Torchwood being a part of a program to celebrate the Cern Super Collider, well, the date has been set for September 10th.
The Torchwood drama will be part of an all day celebration broadcast by BBC Radio 4. The station will be broadcasting from inside the research facility in Geneva and will include interviews with scientists and enthusiasts as the facility tries to recreate the Big Bang aftermath.
The team hopes to receive insight into the origins and composition of the universe.
August 03, 2008
Here we go again!
On the plane home from Comic-Con, my daughter and I had a discussion about the possibility that we had been exposed to too many of our ilk and would not want to ever go again… riiiight.
I really shouldn’t make long-term plans because while visiting a gypsy camp last night, an old woman named Maleva read my palm and said she saw a pentagram, and by the way, I should stay away from a guy named Larry Talbot. Wait a second I have to stop watching videos at 4 A.M.
To make a long story short we have already made our hotel reservations for next July. Next year we will fine-tune our schedule so expertly, we will see twice as much and be twice as exhausted. And bring twice as many people with us to help load our haul!
July 30, 2008
Final Day!
By the time Sunday rolled around even the kids in the crowd were beginning to show wear and tear. A group of twenty-somethings were behind us on the escalator discussing their horror at the fact that they were too tired Saturday night to go out for drinks. I was lucky I had the strength to dial room service.
Our final choices for the convention were Smallville and Supernatural.
We saw an extended coming attraction for Smallville, then the some of the cast were introduced including Allison Mack, Justin Hartley who is a regular this year, and new villain Sam Witwer (late of Battlestar Galliticia). Sam's character will have an ability that other protagonists did not have – he can kill Superman, who will be further growing into the hero we know from the comics.
The Supernatural panel was just plain fun. Eric Kripke, Ben Edlund and Peter Johnson and stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were conducting a very boisterous discussion, when to cap everything off, the Ghost Facers arrived on the scene in-character and out of their minds. It was a fabulous ending to a supernatural event.
All that remained was to drag ourselves back to the hotel and UPS clothes home because we needed a suitcase to hold all the swag and the "collectables" we bought; my daughter’s favorite is a Jason Voorhees doll about twelve inches tall with a blood spattered machete, and a large canvas Supernatural bag. Mine are my Torchwood trading cards and Torchwood magazines that John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd signed. Of course I'm also partial to all the Dr. Who stuff and my Hell Boy doll.
Our final choices for the convention were Smallville and Supernatural.
We saw an extended coming attraction for Smallville, then the some of the cast were introduced including Allison Mack, Justin Hartley who is a regular this year, and new villain Sam Witwer (late of Battlestar Galliticia). Sam's character will have an ability that other protagonists did not have – he can kill Superman, who will be further growing into the hero we know from the comics.
The Supernatural panel was just plain fun. Eric Kripke, Ben Edlund and Peter Johnson and stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were conducting a very boisterous discussion, when to cap everything off, the Ghost Facers arrived on the scene in-character and out of their minds. It was a fabulous ending to a supernatural event.All that remained was to drag ourselves back to the hotel and UPS clothes home because we needed a suitcase to hold all the swag and the "collectables" we bought; my daughter’s favorite is a Jason Voorhees doll about twelve inches tall with a blood spattered machete, and a large canvas Supernatural bag. Mine are my Torchwood trading cards and Torchwood magazines that John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd signed. Of course I'm also partial to all the Dr. Who stuff and my Hell Boy doll.
July 28, 2008
Thursday - Torchwood Day
The first panel we saw today was Stan Lee and Grant Morrison. Can you believe it? An actual living legend in the flesh. There was some very amusing banter between the two - Morrison is reimagining some of Stan Lee's characters.
The next panel was Doctor Who. They don't empty the hall between panels, so by the time Doctor Who started, there were approximately 4,500 people screaming. The panel was composed of Julie Gardner and Steven Maffat. He is going to do a fantastic job on Doctor Who. Besides writing some of the scariest stuff ever, e.g. Blink, Maffat has a fantastic sense of humor. His anecdote about his interaction with Customs was hysterical. We also saw an extended coming attraction for the Christmas special.
Maffat left and John Barrowman leapt up on stage, onto a chair, and attempted to show us his bum. Closely followed by Gareth David-Lloyd and Naoko Mori. Don't worry about the show, folks. Julie Gardner is very enthusiastic about series three, saying it will be packed with action, put our friends in dangers they have never faced before, show us even more of Ianto, and amaze and surprise us us in general.
The question and answer period was great fun, with John misbehaving, Gareth keeping up quite nicely, and Naoko receiving a great response because of her character's death. But of course nothing is permanent in Torchwood. All of this was topped by John and Naoko singing a duet from Miss Saigon, in which they performed together years ago.
July 18, 2008
Concerns
Comic-Con is fast approaching; we are going on Wednesday morning so it's almost down to the wire. Besides being overwhelmed by the amount of choices to be made once we arrive, I am also wrestling with the fact that I hate to fly. My passion for road trips has more to do with staying on terra firma than exploring strange and unusual places.
I am handling my anxiety in the age-old way of mature adults: I'm refusing to discuss my concerns with anyone and thinking of what might help me relax onboard.
Clearly, the only solution is uplifting and life-affirming music so… a mix for my ipod:
1. Howie Day, Collide
2. Once soundtrack, Falling Slowly
3. Chris Issak, Only the Lonely
4. Snow Patrol, Chasing Cars
5. Marc Cohn, Walking in Memphis
6. Sia, Breath Me
7. Rufus Wainwright, Cowboy Song
8. Eric Clapton, Running on Faith (unplugged)
9. Gavin deGraw, More Than Anyone
10. Coldplay, Vida La Vida
11. Leonard Cohen with U2, Tower Of Song
12. Dropkick Murphys, Forever
13; Annie Lennox, Bridge Over Troubled Water
14. Jeff Buckley, Hallelujah
15. David Cook, Music of the Night
16. Gavin Rossdale; Mind Games
17. Rufus Wainwright; Everybody Knows.
Looking back on my list, I realize I don't have any uplifting and life affirming music on my I-Pod at all. Perhaps after listening to this lot a little shuddering from the engines will cheer me up.
July 17, 2008
Damn You Joss Whedon
What a crazy random happenstance. I never hated the hero or loved the villain so much.
Har, har, har. har, har. Har!
July 15, 2008
Doctor Horrible's Day
Act 1 of the Sing-a-long Blog is up on the site and it is typical Joss Whedon. I'll be watching again after dawn when I'm fully awake thanks to the demands of the household menagerie.
July 05, 2008
An Unholy Trio
Dante Hicks, Holden McNeil and the Apostle Rufus: What sick mind could conceive of them? Oh, sure, Kevin Smith… bingo!
A not-so Silent Bob, Kevin is a writer of books and comics and a writer/director of movies. His body of work includes Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma and, well, even Jersey Girl, which by the way had a very good performance by George Carlin as the father of Ben Affleck’s character,
Kevin is a Jersey Boy and very proud of it. His first film Clerks was filmed at the convenience store where he worked and was financed by the sale of his comic book collection. It is therefore totally fitting that he is one of the hottest tickets at Comic-Con 2008 this month.
The Comic-Con event is Entertainment Weekly's panel, "The Visionaries: Filmmakers" Friday, July 24th in Hall H. A word to the wise: The venues are not emptied out between events, so get there early to claim your seat.
Comic-Con rules!
July 02, 2008
Sing-along with NPH
Thankfully , Joss Whedon is at it again, check out Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, you can catch a trailer for it on YouTube or a million other sites by now.
Insanity reigns!
June 27, 2008
And Justice for All
With the help of a friend, I recently began collecting Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books. These are very nicely written, beautifully illustrated and follow the Buffyverse canon. But to me, these are not really comic books. Superman, Action, and Batman are the real comics.
When I was a kid, my Mom’s sister who lived in America long ahead of us, returned to Ireland to visit. She came bearing gifts for all -- clothes, perfume, jewelry. But smart woman that she was, she brought me a box of comics and chewing gum. And after returning home, every few months I would receive a box the size of the Manhattan phone book filled with comics and packs of gum. My friends were the most Americanized kids in Ireland; chewing gum at all of the inappropriate times and places. But the comics, which also included Archie and Betty and Veronica, I hoarded.
Eventually, I was stupid enough to write my Aunt and say I really wasn’t interested in comics anymore and the care packages stopped. However, when we moved to America, those I had were carefully packaged and brought with me despite my parents' complaints about the extra costs.
Now flash forward to me setting up house with my new husband and the boxes of comics again come to light. He, who had never been a nascent geek, looked at the boxes and said, “boy, these would make some kid really happy.” And me, blinded by love or brain-baked due to our lack of air conditioning in July, agreed. But, I kept a careful list of all the issues we gave away to reminisce one in a while.
Over time, my husband would read articles about the rising value of comics – especially the ones we’d given away. He would gulp, and cough, but I never said a word. About five years later, my husband bought himself a brand-new car. Soon after, coming home at night, I slid down our icy driveway in my own car, and smashed the entire driver’s side of his new car. He was apoplectic. But the next morning, I quietly put my carefully folded comic book list beside his coffee. Snap! Once again, Batman, Superman and the Justice League of America saved the day.
I suppose I'm coming full circle now as I look forward to Comic-Con next month – my geeky nirvana.
June 12, 2008
Not So Conventional
Oh the time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things; Of shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings – and conventions.
Most of my adult life I have been attending conventions and annual meetings for one reason or another. When my daughter was school aged, it was P.T.A and Girl Scouts which segued into business gatherings and for the last ten or twelve years, political conventions.
All of these gatherings required study and preparation to gain awareness of the issues involved. Truth be told, political conventions were probably the only events that provided any entertainment (intentional or not).
I now find myself actually eagerly awaiting a convention -- Comic-Con in San Diego. The name of the blog indicates my genre of choice, and of late I find myself enjoying all things Torchwood. Planning to attend, my daughter read that John Barrowman would be attending and had one of those eureka moments, what a great birthday gift for Mom!
As we live on the East Coast this is a costly venture, What if he doesn't show up, you ask? Have you looked at the guest list? Where else would you have consolation prizes of people such as Ray Bradbury, whose Fahrenheit 451 is one of my all time favorites? or Dean Koontz and his Odd series, or cartoonists Al Jaffe and Sergio Aragones? Or Jim Butcher of the Dresden Files?
It will be very nice if Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd are there, but if they don't show, my only problem will be deciding whom among the other fabulous guests to line up for first.