(Mon, Feb 21, 2005)
Sometimes I need to overindulge my appetite for skiffy, and go hunting around on websites like thefutoncritic and scifiwire &c. I've learned the following:
§ Ben Browder ("Farscape") is joining the cast Stargate SG-1(!) for its ninth season. Claudia Black will also be on the show for a few episodes. Huh.
§ Also joining SG-1 (which seems to be revamping or whatever) is Lou Gossett Jr. and Beau Bridges. Meanwhile Mitch Pileggi ("The X-Files") will be joining Stargate Atlantis. I'm exhausted already.
§ Battlestar Galactica has been renewed for another season. It's SCI FI Channel's highest rated show, and possibly the only actually good SF television program presently in production.
§ Dead Like Me has been cancelled. Which makes me less than perfectly happy. MGM is apparently shopping it to SCI FI, TNT, and A&E though.
§ Andromeda has been cancelled. Which is like shooting the village idiot.
§ Jeremiah has been cancelled. Which comes as no surprise.
§ Star Trek: Enterprise has been cancelled. Which is like putting a wounded animal out of its misery.
§ J. Michael Straczynski ("Babylon 5", "Jeremiah"), lately campaigning for a newer, better Star Trek (his own version), has quit the campaign. His reasons twofold: Paramount has decided to rest the franchise for "a year or two", and he's got some new show for 2006.
That was informative, right?
§ Ben Browder ("Farscape") is joining the cast Stargate SG-1(!) for its ninth season. Claudia Black will also be on the show for a few episodes. Huh.
§ Also joining SG-1 (which seems to be revamping or whatever) is Lou Gossett Jr. and Beau Bridges. Meanwhile Mitch Pileggi ("The X-Files") will be joining Stargate Atlantis. I'm exhausted already.
§ Battlestar Galactica has been renewed for another season. It's SCI FI Channel's highest rated show, and possibly the only actually good SF television program presently in production.
§ Dead Like Me has been cancelled. Which makes me less than perfectly happy. MGM is apparently shopping it to SCI FI, TNT, and A&E though.
§ Andromeda has been cancelled. Which is like shooting the village idiot.
§ Jeremiah has been cancelled. Which comes as no surprise.
§ Star Trek: Enterprise has been cancelled. Which is like putting a wounded animal out of its misery.
§ J. Michael Straczynski ("Babylon 5", "Jeremiah"), lately campaigning for a newer, better Star Trek (his own version), has quit the campaign. His reasons twofold: Paramount has decided to rest the franchise for "a year or two", and he's got some new show for 2006.
That was informative, right?
(Sun, Feb 27, 2005)
Hey it's Oscar time of year, and never has that persistent institution seemed more irrelevant. Of the five Best Picture nominated films I've seen two: The Aviator and Sideways. I found The Aviator more interesting as a cursory early history of America's aerospace industry than as a biography of that crazy guy Howard Hughes. It compelled me to go off and learn a bit on my own, although -- as with so much in life -- I would have gotten more out of a History Channel program. Similarly, Sideways acted as a sluggish conduit of learning about wine and grapes -- which is of considerably less interest to me than aviation. It did have one funny line concerning Merlot however. An Oscar-worthy line? Mostly it was tedious, and left me wondering why anyone would choose to make a movie out of it. A movie requires numerous man-years of labor to produce. With all those resources they could have made an airplane instead.
Of the remaining Best Picture nominated films, one seems to be about amateur boxing (which might compel me to learn more about that sport but I doubt it); another about Ray Charles, who could sing really well but who cares; and the last about the guy who invented Peter Pan. That's right. All really compelling stuff. Really. Phzzzt.
Best Actor nominations include Don Cheadle (who used to be amusing as that Superbowl evangelist, or as that English guy in Ocean's Eleven) for yet another movie I never saw; Johnny Depp for the Peter Pan movie (he was good in something, but I forget what); Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes (whom I strongly dislike. Leonardo, not Howard); Clint Eastwood for the boxing movie; and Jamie Foxx for pretending to be Ray Charles. Phzzzt! I'll take Clint Eastwood because of all those cool Westerns, especially Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, which is my all-time second-favorite movie. I'd really like to nominate Eli Wallach instead. When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
Best Actress (and what's with the double standard) typically consists of roles in more movies I've never seen, but this time it's got Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which she was great (reminding me greatly of a person I once knew). The rest: Annette Bening, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Imelda Staunton, Hilary Swank -- who the hell are they?
But if you miss you had better miss very well. Whoever double-crosses me and leaves me alive, he understands nothing about Tuco.
And also of course Best Director, the person who actually does the work of making a movie. In this category the exalted Academy of Some Pretentious Sounding Shit has seen fit to offer up Martin Scorsese for The Aviator -- who deserved the award for numerous other films, but not so much this one; Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby -- who deserved the award for all those cool Westerns; and some other dudes for the Ray Charles thing, the wine thing, and some other thing called Vera Drake, whatever that is. So it has to be Martin Scorsese getting up on the stage tonight.
Get on that stool and put the rope around your neck. I have a different system, my friend; I don't shoot the rope, I shoot the legs from under the stool.
The problem with the Oscars is that the winners have to beat out only the other nominees of that year, and in a year as fine-film-poor as this one, that's not such a great triumph. Which makes this Academy Awards something like an archery contest in the Kingdom of the Blind (or the Special Olympics). But at least Chris Rock is the host.
Of the remaining Best Picture nominated films, one seems to be about amateur boxing (which might compel me to learn more about that sport but I doubt it); another about Ray Charles, who could sing really well but who cares; and the last about the guy who invented Peter Pan. That's right. All really compelling stuff. Really. Phzzzt.
Best Actor nominations include Don Cheadle (who used to be amusing as that Superbowl evangelist, or as that English guy in Ocean's Eleven) for yet another movie I never saw; Johnny Depp for the Peter Pan movie (he was good in something, but I forget what); Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes (whom I strongly dislike. Leonardo, not Howard); Clint Eastwood for the boxing movie; and Jamie Foxx for pretending to be Ray Charles. Phzzzt! I'll take Clint Eastwood because of all those cool Westerns, especially Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, which is my all-time second-favorite movie. I'd really like to nominate Eli Wallach instead. When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
Best Actress (and what's with the double standard) typically consists of roles in more movies I've never seen, but this time it's got Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which she was great (reminding me greatly of a person I once knew). The rest: Annette Bening, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Imelda Staunton, Hilary Swank -- who the hell are they?
But if you miss you had better miss very well. Whoever double-crosses me and leaves me alive, he understands nothing about Tuco.
And also of course Best Director, the person who actually does the work of making a movie. In this category the exalted Academy of Some Pretentious Sounding Shit has seen fit to offer up Martin Scorsese for The Aviator -- who deserved the award for numerous other films, but not so much this one; Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby -- who deserved the award for all those cool Westerns; and some other dudes for the Ray Charles thing, the wine thing, and some other thing called Vera Drake, whatever that is. So it has to be Martin Scorsese getting up on the stage tonight.
Get on that stool and put the rope around your neck. I have a different system, my friend; I don't shoot the rope, I shoot the legs from under the stool.
The problem with the Oscars is that the winners have to beat out only the other nominees of that year, and in a year as fine-film-poor as this one, that's not such a great triumph. Which makes this Academy Awards something like an archery contest in the Kingdom of the Blind (or the Special Olympics). But at least Chris Rock is the host.