Monday, October 1, 2007

BTG has moved

Hey - I'm HERE now. Too much freaking spam to keep up with Blogger, so I moved to WordPress. All the content all the way back to 2003 has been moved to the new site at www.bacontastesgood.net. Make sure to update your links...

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

TV Time - Weee!

24 5:00 to 6:00 (6x12)
Gredenko has U.S. Military drones and will use them to deliver the suitcase nukes once they arrive from Abu Fayed in Los Angeles. He's in the Mojave, so it will take a while, even in 24-land where time is somewhat more fluid than in the real world. Jack, working with Logan, goes to the Russian Consulate but the Russian Counsel doesn't tell Logan anything, even after the duplicitous ex-President threatens him. In the underground bunker, the bomb goes off, killing Assad and wounding the President, who is rushed to surgery, incapacitated, so the VP steps in to take charge. Lennox agrees to go along with the assassination plot (his other choice is a faked suicide) then promptly turns in the others as soon as the Secret Service show up. Jack goes back into the Consulate and tortures the Russian Counsel until he gives up the particulars on Gredenko, but before he can call CTU, the Consulate security forces catches him.

  • Ending in Inviso-text: The VP makes a statement to the American Public, blaming Assad for the bomb that injured Palmer and announcing new, sweeping measures to fight terrorism. Jack convinces one of his captors to call CTU with the information but the man is killed while calling Bill Buchanan.
Heroes -
Lots of stuff is happening on the Fastest Show on TV - it puts Lost to shame with how much they get accomplished in one episode. I was scribbling furiously and pissing off my wife, who just wanted to see what would happen next and didn't care that I needed to write everything down. By the way, the show goes on hiatus until April 23rd, so watch this one over and over.

HRG's got a blank mind, and tells his boss so, but before he had his own mind wiped by the Haitian, he told his wife everything. She gives him a note he wrote himself not to go after Claire as he sent her away for her own safety. Isaac killed Simone and tries to shoot Peter again, who flees. The Haitian and Claire are told to leave the country. The FBI, investigating Linderman, have recruited Nathan as their undercover agent and want him to meet Linderman and get incriminating evidence. Sylar has the list but Mohinder is onto him and poisons his tea, knocking him out. Mohinder (painfully) extracts Sylar's DNA to test it but then does the one thing you're not supposed to do - he lets the bad guy live just a little longer. Mohinder also makes some kind of breakthrough by studying Sylar's DNA. Claire wants to find Peter, the only person she trusts, but the Haitian says no, so Claire gives him the slip at airport security.

Peter tells Nathan about Simone and Nathan calls the cops, who show up at Isaac's place. Dead Simone is laying on his bed when the cops are talking to him and then Alive Simone walks in the door! The cops leave, but HRG walks in and Simone turns into the smoking hot new chick Candace, who can look and sound like anyone. HRG says that they'll clean up the mess and that Isaac needs to get back to painting. In Las Vegas, Hiro works with Nathan to get the sword, turning in the torn dinosaur painting. By the way, we saw two other paintings in Linderman's gallery - a photo of the floor nuke painting and a new one of Claire on the autopsy table. Hiro grabs the sword but security is called - Ando shows up, knocking out the museum curator! Niki/Jessica shows up and kills the FBI guys who are staked out in Linderman's hotel - just stupid. Didn't they see Oceans 12?

Isaac paints. Niki warns Nathan that the FBI guys are dead and that Linderman knows he's double-crossed him, giving Nathan her gun. Hiro gets the sword and grabs Ando and the both escape to the near future, where NY is in ruins. Interestingly, they show buildings under construction in the post-nuclear New York, which means the city is rebuilding and efforts are being made to recover from the blast. Also, Hiro has his powers back and can now TRANSPORT OTHER PEOPLE WITH HIM. Does this mean we'll see Charlie again? Nathan goes to meet Linderman - Malcolm McDowell doing his creepiest, who explains that he knows everything about Nathan's powers, as well as the other Heroes, including Nathan's daughter Claire. In two years, "though a series of events," Nathan will be the Vice President of the U.S. Obviously the bomb doesn't get him - I'm assuming that the junior congressman from NY-to-VP promotion must have something to do with his home town going kabloohey. May they give him the VP spot to make him feel better.
  • Ending in Inviso-text: Nathan wants to but decides not to kill Linderman. Peter comes to talk to Mohinder but finds Sylar has escaped. Sylar pins Peter to the wall and proceeds to begin extracting his brain as Mohinder, pinned to the ceiling by Sylar's telekenetic powers, watches helplessly. PREVIEW: Back on 4/23, the previews show a future with Nathan in the White House and Claire with long brown hair. And someone rescues Peter from Sylar. Come back soon, Heroes! We'll miss you!
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is on hiatus. NBC is showing new episodes of The Black Donnellys in its place. A full season of Studio 60 was ordered by NBC, but the Cincinnati Post is reporting that the show has been canceled. Alan Sorkin defends his show in another recent article about work behind the scenes on Studio 60.

Prison Break review is coming.

American Idol review is coming.

Lost review is coming.

Monday, February 26, 2007

TV Recaps

24 3:00 to 4:00 (6x10)
Gredenko is at a location with abandoned aircraft - it looks like the famous Boneyard in the Mojave desert where many airlines "mothball" their old planes and strip them for parts. He's annoyed with Fayed and can't wait to be rid of them. The President pressures a middle eastern countries' ambassador to get his Prime Minister to support Assad's upcoming call for peace. Jack tells CTU he's going to talk to Logan. Milo's having trouble working. Logan, under house arrest, offers to help track down another Russian who can help find Gredenko. The assassins tie up Tom Lennox and assemble a bomb disguised to look like a tape recorder, which the slimeball assistant chief of staff plants on the podium where Assad and the President are about to give their speech.

  • Ending in Inviso-text: Assad notices the bomb and dives for cover as it explodes, demolishing the briefing room. The President is down.
Heroes - Company Man (1x17)
This show gets better and better. Matt and Radioactive Man are trying to download HRG's home computer when the family comes home and it's Radioactive Man's idea to grill him in front of his family. RM starts grilling HRG about what he does, where he works, and what he's done to them, demanding to know how he can make them forget. Claire knows. Matt's not sure, but hears Claire think that the Haitian wiped all their memories. Matt asks the question HRG is thinking - why didn't the Haitian wipe Claire's mind? In a flashback to 15 years ago, HRG's first partner in his new job to find and contain the "Freaks?" None other than Claude Raines, Peter's new invisible friend. They have the baby Claire - they took her from a fire starter (who they think died) and HRG's boss and HIRO'S FATHER SULU are on the rooftop of the building in New York when Sulu tells HRG (who speaks flawless Japanese) to raise Claire as his own. Whew! Oh, and a young Hiro is in the background, playing his Gameboy. In the present, Claire and Matt get up to speed - she tells him she can heal and he tells her that Peter Patrelli told him to save the cheerleader. They both agree her father is up to something bad. RM wants some answers and is going to shoot the forgetful wife before Matt hears HRG in his head telling him to shoot Claire SO HE DOES. They take her upstairs, where she heals and spits out the bullet. Matt and HRG leave to check out Primatech and RM stays behind to keep the family hostage. In another flashback (14 years ago), HRG's boss (Eric Roberts) arranges for "a new kid we just found in Haiti" to come to HRG's house and make his wife forget she was snooping around his stuff and found a gun and sedation kit. In the present, RM figures out Claire's not dead when she tries to rescue them, then goes nuclear when HRG, Matt, the Hatian and Eric Roberts all show up. Everyone else flees but Claire runs in, saves her surrogate father, stabs RM with a sedative, then walks outside ALL SERIOUSLY CRISPY AND BURNED before healing as she walks across the lawn in front of everyone in her entire neighborhood.
  • Ending in Inviso-text: HRG and Eric Roberts discuss what to do with Claire as HRG turns her over to the Company. They have RM and Matt captured and sedated at Primatech. HRG drives Claire out to the desert, then the Haitian shoots him in the stomach and erases his memory so the Company can't find her. Claire and the Haitian go on the run. In the preview, we get a glimpse of Linderman, Hiro gets his sword, and oh, yeah, almost forgot. Simone's not dead.

Prison Break

Burrows, Scofield and Sara listen to the stolen tape (no, not the stolen DATA tapes, that's something different) and evidently it's good. We don't hear it so I can't speak to it. They decide to broker the information to one Cooper Green, an ex-associate of their late father. Mike meets with him and figures out he's a fake just before Sara brings the real Cooper Green to their hotel room. He listens to the tape - it can't be authenticated, but he suggests they use it to blackmail the Pres. The sneaky dude buys a big gun and finds a nice cozy spot to shoot the Pres.
  • Ending in Inviso-text:And the Agent from Invasion tracks the brothers to their hotel and races up the stairs to corner them.
American Idol
Don't care about any of these folks yet, so can't say who I'm pulling for other than to say that after last week's show, ALL the boys can go home except for Hurley from Lost and the Beat Box guy. The rest were horrible, especially compared to the girls.

Monday, February 19, 2007

TV Roundup - Yee Haw!

Heroes - Unexpected (1x16)
Best episode in a long time and a fitting title for a show that just keeps giving us answers, as opposed to Lost, which just keeps giving us more questions. Claire's mom continues to slide in and out of remembering things and ends up in the hospital, setting Claire off. Matt tells his wife about the diamonds and she tells him that some scientist named Mohinder has been calling. Sylar, pretending to be toaster-melter Zane, and Mohinder arrive in Montana to find a woman who can hear everything. And HRG convinces Isaac to help him track down Peter, catching him and Claude Raines on a rooftop (using infrared scanners) and tries to shoot them when Peter STOPS THE TASER BULLETS in midair and then FLIES AWAY. He's really getting a good handle on those powers. Sylar/Zane sneaks away and kills the sound lady, and when Mohinder finds her body the next morning, Sylar convinces him to flee. A new wireless lady (she can tap the internet with her mind) hooks up with nuclear dude and they convince Matt that they need to find HRG and get him to talk. Fast paced with lots of twists, this was the best Heroes episode in a while.

  • Ending in Inviso-text: Matt and Radioactive Man are waiting for Claire and HRG when they bring Mommy home from the hospital. And Peter confronts Isaac for turning him in. They fight, Peter goes INVISIBLE and uses his TELEKENETIC powers but Isaac grabs the gun and tries to shoot Peter. Instead, he shoots Simone, killing her. Like I said, great episode.
Battlestar Galactica - A Day in the Life (3x15)
Sunday night's Galactica was interesting, an introspective espisode about Adama remembering his ex-wife and father of his two sons on their anniversary. We spend most of the episode getting to know Adama in a completely different light and learn more about his wife - he left her and his two sons at some point and Lee has never really forgiven him. At the same time, the Chief and Cally are trapped in a leaking airlock and Lee and Adama have to throw together a desperate rescue plan which involves having a shuttle waiting outside IN SPACE while they blow the hatch doors off the airlock and the Chief and Cally float to the shuttle.
  • Ending in Inviso-text: Cally and the Chief are rescued, and Adama, realizing how much he misses his wife, finally and gently tries to put the moves on President Roslin.


Other Stuff I'm Watching Now:

Friday, February 16, 2007

TV Recaps for the Week

Sorry about the delay - lots on this week to get caught up on. Here's the recaps. Don't read these if you're spoiler-averse, but I've put the real spoilers in Inviso-text...

Prison Break
Not on this week.

24 - 1:00 to 2:00 (6x08) and 2:00 to 3:00 (6x09)
Two hours on tonight. Hour One: Morris, the only person in Los Angeles who can evidently build a bomb trigger, is whisked away by McCarthy and his hottie girlfriend to be delivered to Abu Fayed. Jack is in a chopper and hot on their heels but loses them - he doesn't seem too broken up over hearing his brother died in custody. The hottie kills McCarthy and takes Morris to Fayed, hoping to get the $7 million and keep it for herself. Like I always say, don't deliver a hostage to a terrorist organization who just set off a NUKE and expect them to keep their end of your monetary bargain. Needless to say, Fayed kills her and tortures Morris until he agrees to build the device. Meanwhile, President Palmer/Principal Wood (comment if you can name that reference) convinces Assad (who looks just like Baltar, I think) to make a public call for help in catching the terrorists. Jack finds Morris and A SUITCASE NUKE and is too busy disarming the weapon to catch Fayed, who escapes with the other nukes and "a fully armed and operational battle station"...uh, I mean nuclear trigger. Good one, Morris - couldn't fake that, could we?

Hour Two: Morris and Jack return to CTU, where Buchanan questions Bauer on what led up to his brother's death. Nathan Patrelli's wife who is named Marilyn on this show tells Jack that she'd been trying to leave Graem for a while but was too scared. Oh, and she followed him to a house once where she heard him talking to some Russians. Talk about a convenient lead! Since CTU is looking for Gredenko now, Jack offers to take Marilyn out (no, not like that) and see if she can remember the house. Ha Ha! Good one! She tells Zephram Cochrane, who immediately gets his goons to plan an ambush. Why doesn't he just go back to teaching pigs to herd sheep? Meanwhile, various folks are planning a coup in DC, sensing the President is weak. Jack and Marilyn arrive at the house and Jack and his team head inside and it blows up GOOD. Marilyn and Milo, the techie dude flee, chased by Jack's father's goons. Follow all that?
  • Ending in Inviso-text: Jack escapes. Didn't see that coming, did you? Oh, and we find out that Gredenko set up this whole thing and that the Muslims are the fallguys for his plan to strike with nukes in America. Guess he's still sore about the whole Cold War thing.

Heroes - Run (1x15)
Not the best episode ever, with most of the show given over to Claire's annoying Mom and the pointless pursuit of a pink bag. Nathan arrives in Texas, meets with Claire's Mom, who blackmails him for money and decides to only share a small portion with her daughter. Sylar kills a dude that can melt things and pretends to be him with Mohinder shows up to interview the dead guy. Claire's mom is having mental problems, probably from having her head melted one too many times from the Haitian. Matt, the mind-reading cop, gets a gig as a personal bodyguard to the weasley dude that let Niki out of jail last week. Funny look on his face when she (now she is a killer for hire) shows up to kill him at a botched diamond purchase. Ow, and Niki throws Matt out of the window of a ten-story building.
  • Ending in Inviso-text: Matt wakes up on the catwalk of a sign outside the building - talk about luck - then goes back inside and retrieves the diamonds. Ha ha, now he's rich and psychic! And Niki gets her next assignment: Nathan Patrelli.

Studio 60 - The Friday Night Slaughter (1x15)
I love this show, but too many things happen to recount. I counted seven active storylines going on this week, but I'll hit the highlights. It's mostly a flashback episode to 1999 showing how Matt and Harry met and started working together at Studio 60 - Matt spends most of the episode remembering how he was a low-on-the-totem-pole writer and she was the new "talent." I did enjoy Matt and Luke (yes, that's the same guy directing the Anita Pallenberg film in the present) bickering over who has "dibs" and each trying to out-write and out-pitch each other with competing sketch ideas for Harry. Matt feels sorry for a fellow writer, Tim Batale, who is fired for taking drugs. In the present, Matt's losing it and high and everyone can tell because he's babbling and not making sense and talking about the things he's remembering.
  • Good Catch of the Week: HA HA I'm a freaking genius! The guy Matt is imagining? Tim Batale? HIS NAME IS AN ANAGRAM OF MATT ALBIE! ANYONE ELSE GET THAT?
  • Ending in Inviso-text: Luke's sketch gets on the air and Matt's doesn't and he realizes he's been imagining this Tim Batale all along. And Matt's high and taking even more drugs now.

Lost - Flashes in My Mind (3x7)
Desmond saves Clair from drowning and Charlie and Hurley confront him about his newly-emerged precognition. He tells them that after he turned the key in the hatch, he blacked out and woke up in what appeared to be his old apartment in London with Penelope there. In what turns out to be a dream, he keeps getting reminders about things that happened on the island. He meets with Penny's father (Widmore) who is also the head of the Meade family on Ugly Betty, who tells him he's not good enough. He tries to change his life but an old lady from the Matrix explains to him that it is his fate to go to the Island and push the button and nothing he does can change that. Long story short, Desmond's reliving his past and it's a dream and he wakes up in the woods and now he gets occasional flashes of the future.
  • This week's hidden clues: 1-NAMASTE in the painting in Widmore's office - according to wikipedia, "Namaste" is sometimes used in the context of practicing Yoga as a greeting or goodbye, generally taken as an expression of good will. 2-Even though it was part of the flashback, we can assume that Desmond really DID see Charlie playing music on the street outside the Widmore building.
  • Ending in Inviso-text: Desmond has been running around saving folks because he's trying to save Charlie, who he's convinced will die. And he tells Charlie. Not the news Charlie was hoping for, I bet.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

1634: The Baltic War out on May 1st


I've been waiting for the next book in the 1632 series to come out for a long time. This alternate history series set in Europe during the 100-years war is one of the best examples of a fully-realized alternate version of history.

Here is Amazon's description: "The Baltic War which began in the novel 1633 is still raging, and the time-lost Americans of Grantville-the West Virginia town hurled back into the seventeenth century by a mysterious cosmic accident-are caught in the middle of it. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden and Emperor of the United States of Europe, prepares a counter-attack on the combined forces of France, Spain, England, and Denmark-former enemies which have allied in the League of Ostend to destroy the threat to their power that the Americans represent-which are besieging the German city of Luebeck.

Elsewhere in war-torn Europe, several American plans are approaching fruition. Admiral Simpson of Grantville frantically races against time to finish the USE Navy's ironclad ships-desperately needed to break the Ostender blockade of the Baltic ports. A commando unit sent by Mike Stearns to England prepares the rescue the Americans being held in the Tower of London. In Amsterdam, Rebecca Stearns continues three-way negotiations with the Prince of Orange and the Spanish Cardinal-Infante who has conquered most of the Netherlands. And, in Copenhagen, the captured young USE naval officer Eddie Cantrell tries to persuade the King of Denmark to break with the Ostender alliance, all while pursuing a romantic involvement with one of the Danish princesses.

About the Author
David Weber is author of the New York Times best-selling Honor Harrington series as well as In Fury Br\orn and other popular novels. With Steve White, he is the author of Insurrection, Crusade, In Death Ground, and the New York Times best seller The Shiva Option, all novels based on his Starfire SF strategy game.

Eric Flint's impressive first novel, Mother of Demons (Baen), was selected by SF Chronicle as one of the best novels of 1997. With David Drake he has written six popular novels in the Belisarius series, including the new novel The Dance of Time, and with David Weber collaborated on 1633, a novel in the Ring of Fire series, and on Crown of Slaves, a best of the year pick by Publishers Weekly. Flint received his masters degree in history from UCLA and was for many years a labor union activist. He lives in East Chicago, IL, with his wife and is working on more books in the best-selling Ring ofFire series."

Get those arms warmed up - it's 448 pages long. Not Robert Jordan long, but still hefty enough to hold open your door. Or if you're reading it in bed and you fall asleep and drop the book on your face, you might get a bruise.

Other Books I Like:

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Bionic Woman

We've known for a while that NBC was working on a Bionic Woman remake - and now the Daily Mail is reporting that they've signed British actress Michelle Ryan to the part.

"Former EastEnder Michelle Ryan is to star in a U.S. remake of Seventies TV show The Bionic Woman, it was announced today.

Ryan, who played Zoe Slater in the BBC soap, beat a host of Hollywood names to the role and was chosen after an exhaustive search. She will play Jamie Sommers, a tennis pro who suffers a near-fatal skydiving accident before her body is transformed with $50m-worth of bionic wizardry."

Producers say the pilot show for US network NBC will be a "re-imagination" of the original, a spin-off from cult hit The Six Million Dollar Man, which ran from 1976 to 1978 and starred Lindsay Wagner."

Variety is reporting that "After an exhaustive search, NBC has chosen British actress Michelle Ryan for the lead role of Jamie Sommers in its upcoming Bionic Woman pilot. The network reported considered better-known stars, but ultimately went with someone who'll be a newcomer to most American viewers. Ryan is known in the United Kingdom for having spent five years on the long-running BBC serial EastEnders."

Widgets from WidgetBox

I recently discovered a great website called WidgetBox that hosts 1,000s's of widgets that you can add to your blog. You can also take your own blog feed and turn it into a widget! While I'm spending all this time working on widgets, here's what I'm listening to:

Music I'm Digging:

Thursday, February 8, 2007

High five! Borat 2 is Coming

Hide your bears and don't plan inviting any strange guests to your fancy southern dinner parties - plans are in the works for Borat 2, a sequel to follow up the 2006 howler. No word yet on naked wrestling in hotel lobbies or if they are looking for another ice cream truck to drive across the country.

"Sacha Baron Cohen has signed up to do a sequel to his popular Borat movie based on the controversial Kazach journalist, according to Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp, whose film division last year released the first Borat film.

Mr Baron Cohen is currently working on a film to follow Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, but it will be based on another one of his characters, Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion show presenter. Universal Studios won the rights to the new film last year. However, once that is completed, Mr Baron Cohen will “come back and do Borat Two,” Mr Murdoch said during an interview at a conference in New York."

Just for fun: a video of Borat giving a press conference in front of the White House last year.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Monday TV Recaps

Monday nights has gotten rough for the old TV watcher as there are 5 things on I normally watch. Here's what I do:

  1. Watch Prison Break live in HD,
  2. Watch 24 live in low-def while I tape Heroes in HD,
  3. Watch recorded Heroes in HD while I tape Studio 60 in HD and CSI-Miami in low-def,
  4. Watch recorded Studio 60 in HD.
  5. Watch CSI-Miami sometime later.
Whew! Why do I watch all these shows? Because they're great? Here's the recaps. Don't read these if you're spoiler-averse, but I've put the real spoilers in Inviso-text...

Prison Break: "Prisoners on a Train" is what this should have been called as our main characters spend almost the entire episode on a train. The fugitives reunite with the tasty Sara Tancreti and she's less-than-excited that they are now running buddies with the Agent who tried to drown her four episodes ago. Needless to say, the first chance she gets she tries to kill him. After, she and Wentworth Miller almost get it on in the ladies bathroom before the cops try to stop the train with a roadblock. IT'S A TRAIN! For the future, in case you need to know, you can't stop a train with two Ford Tauruses. I fast forwarded through the other storylines as I could care less. Turns out the President didn't call the Agent to try and bring him in - his Asian boss was using a voice-modulator to fake her voice. Coolage! Ending in Inviso-text: I can't remember the ending. Pretty boring.

24 Season 6: Ha Ha This was a better episode than last week, where no much of nothing happened that I didn't even recap it. Jack and Zephram Cochrane escape they're execution with relative ease (more on that later) and Cochrane turns to his sons and slowly nods his head. "That'll do, Jack. That'll do." Okay, that didn't really happen, but I couldn't help myself. They catch Jack's brother Graem back at his house and torture him and he ADMITS TO KILLING DAVID PALMER or at least setting it all up. He tells Jack he had Tony and Michelle killed and tried to pin it all on Jack. Great look on Jack's face when he realizes his own family would stoop that low. Ending in Inviso-text: Shocker-turns out Jack's daddy is bad. He doesn't believe Graem will be able to resist CTU questioning and kills him. Yuck.

Heroes: Claire lies to her mom and brings Zack with her to meet her mom, who turns out to be a firestarter but isn't named Charlie and doesn't work for the company. She can light her cigarettes with her fingers, though - think of all the money she saves on matches! CLICK ON CLAIRE'S PICTURE TO SEE HER FICTIONAL MYSPACE PAGE. Doctor Who helps Peter try to learn how to control his powers and convinces him that no one in the world cares for him, including talking him into spying on his girlfriend who is hanging around the painter, hoping he can help her find Peter after he disappeared from his hotel room. Endings in Inviso-text: Doctor Who pushes Peter off a building, hoping to make him fly. Instead, he falls to his death but REGENERATES even though Claire is 2,000 miles away. Doctor Who tells him that his body can remember how to do all these special things, he just has to learn how to control it. And I saw this coming two weeks ago, but Claire's mom the firestarter calls Claire's dad to let him know that Clair tracked her down. It's Nathan Patrelli. I guess he has a thing for blonds. And that makes Peter Claire's uncle. Yuck. Oh, and did anyone else notice the licence plate on Hiro's father's (played by George Takei, Sulu on the original Star Trek) car? That's right - NCC-1701, the Starfleet number for the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. Nice one, guys!

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Trapped on the Roof part 2 as Jordan and Danny verbally spar. Matt and Harry continue to argue at the dinner and Jack and the mouse help the viola prodigy up off the floor and back to Studio 60 to sober up. Ending in Inviso-text: Jordan confesses to Danny her feelings for him and they kiss. Harry and Matt end things for good (supposedly) and Jack gets the Asian Businessman's backing to stall the Macua deal. If any of that doesn't make sense to you, just watch. It's the most densely-plotted show on TV and I'm skipping three other storylines.

If you want real episode recaps instead of my quickies, go where I go: Television without Pity. They are the best.

Monday, February 5, 2007

No More Wonder Woman for Whedon

Joss Whedon dropped out of the Wonder Woman movie today. Sounds like he got fed up with the "movie by committee" style that is so pervasive in Hollywood these days, accounting for more and more train wrecks showing up in our local theaters.

"You (hopefully) heard it here first: I'm no longer slated to make Wonder Woman. What? But how? My chest... so tight! Okay, stay calm and I'll explain as best I can. It's pretty complicated, so bear with me. I had a take on the film that, well, nobody liked. Hey, not that complicated.

Let me stress first that everybody at the studio and Silver Pictures were cool and professional. We just saw different movies, and at the price range this kind of movie hangs in, that's never gonna work. Non-sympatico. It happens all the time. I don't think any of us expected it to this time, but it did. Everybody knows how long I was taking, what a struggle that script was, and though I felt good about what I was coming up with, it was never gonna be a simple slam-dunk. I like to think it rolled around the rim a little bit, but others may have differing views.

The worst thing that can happen in this scenario is that the studio just keeps hammering out changes and the writer falls into a horrible limbo of development. These guys had the clarity and grace to skip that part. So I'm a free man."

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Rocket Racing League



Heard about the Rocket Racing League? It's an effort to bring NASCAR-style racing excitement to rocket-powered aircraft in organized races in three dimensions. They are still getting organized for their inaugural 2008 racing season, but they are doing some promotional events this year to get people excited. Here's what the site says: "The 21st century's newest and greatest sport - racing rocket- powered aircraft! The Rocket Racing League™ is an aerospace sports and entertainment organization that combines the competition of racing with the excitement of rocketry. The RRL was established by X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis and two-time Indianapolis 500 champion team partner Granger Whitelaw to advance the technology and increase public awareness of space travel. The NASCAR-style racing league features rocket-powered aircraft that will be flown by top pilots through a 'three-dimensional track way' at venues throughout the world. With millions of fans who enjoy racing and air shows, and an even wider audience enthralled with humanity's next step into space, rocket racing is destined to become the future of racing!"

Thursday, February 1, 2007

July 21, 2007 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows To Be Released

Just heard this morning that a final release date has been set for the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Amazon is taking preorders right now for a JULY 21, 2007 release date. Get your copy RIGHT NOW by clicking on the link or the book cover! I already ordered min. Now, I wonder if they'll ship it so I get it on that day or if they'll ship it that day...hmm, have to look into that one.

No word yet on any plot details, but rumors are swirling. Wikipedia includes a lot of good, basic information: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be the seventh book in the Harry Potter series of novels by J. K. Rowling. It will feature the final adventures of Harry Potter as he attempts to bring an end to his nemesis, Lord Voldemort. The title for the seventh book was announced on 21 December 2006[1] via the publisher and a special Christmas-themed "hangman" puzzle on J.K. Rowling's website. Here is a SUPER SECRET summary of what folks assume will be in the book. To read, highlight the Patent Pending INvisoText: Rowling has stated that the final volume relates so closely to the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, that "I feel almost as though they are two halves of the same novel."[2] She has also stated that she has no intention of writing any further stories about the Harry Potter characters, meaning that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be the last book in the Harry Potter series. However, she has said that an encyclopedia of the Wizarding world based on her copious notes may be published in the future, possibly for charity similar to her two other Harry Potter charity books. As of 2007, she has been working on the Harry Potter stories for over 17 years.And don't forget to buy your copy! It was officially announced today that the novel will be released in two hardback editions: one a children's version and one for adults.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Unbelievably crappy trailer for “Star Wars” and a tasty Holiday Project

Want a good laugh? Check out the original, unbelievably crappy trailer for “Star Wars” - without all the FX and the music, it really looks bad. Amazing how much John Williams added to it with his amazing score. And something else - this appears to be the actual sounds from the filming set and not the more polished dialogue that was looped in later. You can hear things falling over in the background!

And just to add to the wacky fun, I've included a link to one person's Christmas Vacation project: rebuilding Lord of the Rings' Helm's Deep entirely out of candy. "We used over 500 Gummy Bears as orcs and Uruk-Hai. The Elves, Dwarves and Men were represented by sour patch kids. Most of these were of course corpses..."

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

No, You Can't Go To Space

Nothing like having the U.S. Government swoop in and destroy your life-long dream of space flight. Nothing like spending your entire childhood looking out the window at the distant stars, dreaming of one day breaking free of Earth's gravity (well, not technically) and seeing space. This story from Space.com just illustrates the awkward infancy the commercial spaceflight industry finds itself in, where space buffs win suborbital prizes to become astronauts but can't afford to pay the taxes on the prize.

"Brian Emmett's childhood fantasy came true when he won a free trip to outer space. He was crushed when he had to cancel his reservation because of Uncle Sam..."