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The Blogs Portal

Most people these days have some sort of "blog" or website that tells the world what they are doing. This is no different for the crew/cast of Battlestar Galactica. The purpose of this portal is to place all official blogs that we can find so we can process and render in a centralized location. All these blogs are in some way connected to Battlestar Galactica. There are exceptions to the rule in which we post non-cast/crew member blogs if it's relevant to Battlestar itself, and this is only done by the Battlestar Wiki chiefs (administrators). If you find another blog that we should include on this page, please leave a note on the talk page.

Battlestar Wiki Blog [edit]

Software Update Pending: We will be upgrading the software, and some other ancillary items, that run the Battlestar Wiki. We expect the process to be done over the course of this week, since it depends on how much time I Joe B. has at his disposal. We don’t really anticipate any major downtime, but as these things go… [...] [?]
Updated Registration Process: For new users of the Wiki, we have upgraded our registration process in order to better protect the Wiki against automated spammers, since OCR and randomly generated image captchas are becoming easier for bots to decode and solve. As of now, our registration process features a question to determine whether or not you are a [...] [?]
Battlestar Wiki to Go Dark on January 18 to Protest SOPA and PIPA: This is an official announcement that we will be going dark on after midnight of January 18 2012 to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (which is now effectively dead) and it “lesser” twin the PROTECT-IP Act (which is still alive and kicking). As of now, the blackout will end afterÂ 12:01 AM Eastern time on [...] [?]
Galactica Geek Launches September 17th: If you’ve seen our previous blog post, you likely have a few questions as to what site we’re referring to, its objective, and other questions. The site in question is Galactica Geek, and its objective is nothing less than going above and beyond other fan sites. Structured as a news magazine, Galactica Geek will not [...] [?]
Looking for Writers to Contribute to BSG News Site: FrakMedia! Productions LLC is looking for a few people who want to write and contribute artwork, videos, and the like to a new Battlestar Galactica-centric science fiction news site. The general concept of the site is a focus on Battlestar Galactica in all its forms, including the Original Series and the prequels Caprica and Blood [...] [?]
Sit Rep: Update Progress: So far, we’ve successfully updated the MediaWiki software to the most recent version (1.16.4). We know of a few cosmetic changes that we need to do to the skins as a result of the update, but we will save those for later Monday as it is 1:30 AM EDT here, and those changes are minor [...] [?]
April Showers bring April Upgrades: So, we’re doing something that is a bit overdue, and that is technical upgrades to the Battlestar Wiki software. Please be advised that editing to any Wiki in the Battlestar Wiki network will be disabled beginning Sunday, April 17 at 10 PM EDT, so that we can ensure that we have the most current version [...] [?]
Press Release From EMP|SFM: Stars and Schedule Announced for Battlestar Galactica: The Exhibition World Premiere Weekend!: Stars and Schedule Announced for Battlestar Galactica: The Exhibition World Premiere Weekend: Oct. 22-24, 2010 at Seattleâs EMP|SFM New traveling exhibition opening weekend to feature BSG stars, three full-size spaceships, costumes and props from the original and re-imagined series plus VIP preview and panels. SEATTLE, WAâExperience Music Project|Science Fiction Museum (EMP|SFM) is proud to announce [...] [?]
Frakmedia PR Coordinator Runs Contest for FREE Axis & Allies Minis or War at Sea Booster: As PR Coordinator for Frakmedia LLC I get to do a lot of cool and fun things. One of these pertains to my personal gaming blog, the CWF Game Cast, where I discuss non-electronic gaming (RPGs, tabletop, historical, miniatures, collectible card/miniatures, etc) and New England/Massachusetts gaming in particular. Today is the first day of a [...] [?]
BSG Wiki Adopts P2 Theme = Improved Customer Service: I was reading Matt Mullenweg’s blog recently and saw a post that invigorated me. Matt blogged about the P2 theme for WordPress and how it changed Automattic (the makers of WordPress). At the BSG Wiki, and BSG Forum, we have a myriad of internal communication methods.Â But, like Automattic there has always been a disconnect.Â [...] [?]

Crew

Ronald D. Moore Blog [edit]

: Originally posted on the SciFi.com forum:

I don't want this day to happen.

I want it to be rescheduled, rethought, removed and recalled.

Tomorrow the story will be over, my tale having been told, and never again will there be the sweet anticipation of waiting for the next episode to be shown to fans and friends. The thought of it makes my heart ache even as swells with pride.

All I know is that today there is a show called Battlestar Galactica and tomorrow there was.

There will be joy in that too, I'm sure, touching the thread of memory and feeling it resonate all the way back to soundstages, locations, cutting rooms, writers' rooms, and sound bays where I lived for all these years and being comforted by the knowledge that a part of me will never truly leave those places. There will be reunions and retrospectives, special editions and extended cuts, interviews and seminars. Solace can be found.

We'd called the last season Senior Year and here, today, as I prepare to present the final episode to an audience of friends, colleagues, and family, I find myself feeling the same way I did on Graduation day at Chowchilla Union High, all those years ago. The mosaic of faces I'd grown accustomed to seeing day after day would regroup for one last event, one last celebration of our lives together and what we'd done, and then it would be gone but for the transcendent threads of memory waiting to resonant down through the years. I didn't want that day to happen either and fervently wished for it to be rescheduled, rethought, removed and recalled.

Somehow I get the feeling that today's wish will not be granted either. So this day, like that one, will wax and wane and all I can do is ride the wave and let it carry me where it will.

Thank you, all of you for coming here through the years. The shippers and the haters, and everyone in between; you've watched and you've posted and you've been a touchstone for my experience with the audience ever since that night back in 2003 when we first declared that the Cylons were created by Man and things were going to be different. It's been a genuine pleasure to surf your thoughts, rants, questions, snarks, complaints, praise, and humor as you watched our story play out and rest assured I will be here again tomorrow poring through the posts, laughing, cursing, sometimes just shrugging at what you take away from this crazy show.

It's been an honor to be your storyteller.

Ronald D. Moore
About to be former Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica [?]
The Technology that Betrays Me: Guys, the podcasting has not gone well this year.

As anyone who heard my last session can attest, Iâm having audio problems with my recording set-up. I donât know what the hell that whirring sound was, the only thing I can think of was that it might have picked up the fan on my laptop (??!!) somehow, someway. SciFi.com spotted the problem and did everything they could to minimize it, but ultimately the recording was nearly incomprehensible. In the spirit of wanting to get something out there, we decided to post it anyway.

Last week, I took extra care to check my levels on the mic, position the laptop far away and kept the DVD audio down to a low murmur. All sounded well on my level test, but after Iâd completed the podcast for âThe Hub,â I found, to my horror (and fury) that it still recorded the sound of the DVD too loud and my own voice -- my lips but inches from the mic -- was too buried to be audible.

So itâs been frakked.

Anyway, Iâm going into a recording studio tomorrow, along with some of the writers and editors, and going to record the remaining podcasts in a marathon session so theyâll be available once more after the cliffhanger airs.

Sorry, folks. [?]
Curse of the Podcast: Now weâre dealing with server issues at SciFi.com.

What can I tell you?

The good news is there will be a bunch of podcasts waiting for you when they resolve the tech problems, the bad news is, I have no idea when that will be.

Iâll do this weekâs and just keep chugging along and hope you guys can catch up eventually.

Thanks for being patient. [?]
Podcast Success!: They said it couldnât be done, but the podcasts for 403, 404, and 405 have been completed and are now safely in the hands of SciFi.com.

In other news, Iâve begun writing the finale. Itâs strange to think that this is the last Galactica script Iâll be writing, but at the moment thatâs overshadowed by the anxiety surrounding the start of any first draft. (Blank pages tend to give writers all sorts of maladies. As in, âIs that a head cold or a brain tumor...?â)

Weâre up in Berkeley for a few days, which has now become my preferred writing retreat. Iâve written three pages of the finale, and Iâm already thinking about rewriting them, so this must be a good start. [?]
Podcast still no go: Yep, Iâm still behind.

Canât find the recorder Iâve been using, and the old silver model crapped out on me last night. So.... I got one of the editors to loan me something called the Rode Podcaster, which is the size and shape of a, ahem, marital device which will presumably allow me to record the sessions on 403 and 404 this weekend as well as a wealth of other more stimulating possibilities.

Iâm trying. [?]
Yes, we have no Podcast: I know, I know.

I had all this time and I couldâve had the podcast for the first episodes waaaay before now so theyâd be there waiting when the fourth season premiered.

But I didnât.

Somehow, I thought Iâd squeeze in a recording session here in Vancouver while I was directing (and the above photo is a iphone shot from my directing chair looking at one of the video monitors just before I called action) but that proved to be a one of my more foolish notions. So the podcast for Ep 1 of the fourth season will have to wait until I get back to LA, which means yaâll wonât have it until later in the week.

Sorry.

But Iâll be more on time with the rest of them. I promise.

Unless Iâm not.

Iâll also try to pound out a few blogs about the directing experience and update you on all things Galactica and Caprica.

Unless I donât.

[?]
Leadership: At this moment, informal talks are underway between representatives of the AMPTP and the leadership of the WGA. A news blackout is in effect and there will be precious little, if any, word leaking out from the talks and weâre all going to have to get by with rumor, speculation and the precious bits of information that come from Nikki Finke.

This is a moment of trust.

Trust in the people we elected to represent our interests, to fight for our rights and to safeguard our interests for the future.

The Guild leadership and the members of the Negotiating Committee have put themselves out in front, taken the ill-informed knocks from the media, the calculated slander from the studios, and the cajoling, bickering, and Monday-morning quarterbacking of some elements within the membership itself and yet theyâve never wavered from their goals of trying to achieve the best deal for all of us and for the writers who will follow in our footsteps. The sheer number of arrows these people take on a daily basis on the internet alone rival the incoming fire at the Little Bighorn and itâs something of a miracle that not a single one of them has simply let loose in a tirade of vitriol and bile at their tormentors in some public forum. Iâve heard them accused of everything from seeking personal political gain to seeking to foment communist revolution over the course of the strike, but time and again they just keep coming back to the basic issues of fairness and justice in what theyâre seeking for all of us.

They deserve our trust. And they damned well have earned it.

We can all sit around and bitch about how âweâ wouldâve handled the negotiations or about how âweâ know what to do now, but the bottom line is that âweâ arenât in the hotseat and âweâ havenât spent the time and effort pouring over the endless details of the MBA for the last two years or immersed ourselves in the complexities of the emerging new media. The men and women on the negotiating committee and the board have put in the time, held themselves up to abuse and done the work that needed to be done.

Right now, we need to trust that they know what theyâre doing and that they have the best interests of the membership in mind as they approach the new round of talks. Does that mean we have to rubber-stamp anything they want? Of course not. Theyâll eventually be submitting something for us to vote up or vote down and weâll have ample opportunity to debate the proposal on its merits. But now we need to give them the leeway to maneuver if theyâre to be any real chance to get a good deal at the bargaining table.

The last thing we need is for writers to be bitching anonymously to the media (like Patrick Goldstein claimed in an incredibly slanted column this week) or, worse yet, for high-profile members (like a certain former president of the Guild) to be sending out public âlettersâ saying how the DGA deal is so great and putting public pressure on the negotiators to just take it already at the very moment they need to keep all their cards to themselves. Itâs both foolish and self-destructive and they should all know better.

The leadership of the WGA did not trick us into a strike or stir up passions that did not exist. That 90% strike authorization vote made it abundantly clear that the leadership accurately reflected the very real sentiments of the members and thereâs no call for any of us to suddenly start acting otherwise.

Hang tough. Trust your Guild leadership. And remember who the real opponent is out there. [?]
The Pencil Campaign Winners: So here they are, the winners of the Pencils2MediaMoguls campaign. Each of these fans bought boxes of pencils in the names of their favorite actors on Battlestar Galactica:

Aaron DouglasÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Gregory RosychukÂ Â Â Â Â

Jamie BamberÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Mary ClarkÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Kristen HalkolaÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Mary Timm Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Mary McDonnellÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Chris BisgardÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Michael TruccoÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Rene' BurlÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â

Tricia HelferÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Yair MaimonÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â

Chris, Reneâ and Yair will be getting personal calls from Mary, Michael and Tricia, while Mary C., Kristen and Mary T will be getting towels personalized (weâll just leave it at that) from Jamie and Gregory will actually be going to a Canucks game in Vancouver with Aaron.
Congratulations to all the winners and my great and heartfelt thanks to our cast for being so incredibly generous with their time and for their support during the strike. [?]
All Eyes on the DGA: It feels like weâre at a pivotal moment in the history of the WGA strike.

The Directorsâ Guild is in the midst of negotiations with the AMPTP and thereâs widespread speculation that a deal with be cut sooner rather than later. Once that happens, the strike will enter a new, and to my mind, crucial phase as the details of that pact are made public and the AMPTP then turns to the WGA and says, âOkay, this was good enough for the directors and itâs good enough for you too.â

Anything can happen at that moment.

At one end of the spectrum, lies the possibility that the DGA has a deal in place that so closely achieves the WGA position that the writers essentially declare victory and go home. Negotiations resume quickly, the remaining writer-specific provisions are dealt with promptly, a new contract is submitted to the membership for ratification and the strike ends.

At the other end of the spectrum lies the darker possibility that the DGA comes back with a deal that is so far removed from the WGA position that the writers summarily and angrily reject it. Resentment hardens and the writers settle in for an even longer struggle with the certain knowledge that the Screen Actorsâ Guild will support them come June and the industry really shuts down.

And somewhere in between those extremes lies the less clear-cut (and unfortunately more probable) outcome where the DGA deal is a murky grab-bag of agreements, some of which are close to what the WGA wants, but others are nowhere near writersâ goals. Then weâre in uncharted territory, the path forward fraught with danger. The single biggest danger in that eventuality, to me, is the risk that the writers then begin to tear themselves apart with vitriolic statements over the relative merits of the DGA compact as people begin to stake out positions of absolutism over whether taking the DGA deal is âselling outâ or refusing it is âmindless suicide.â

The rumblings of both positions are already out there on the periphery of the strike. You can hear them hovering around the edges of casual conversations whenever writers gather and in the hearsay and rumors that fly around the internet of secret cabals being formed or witch-hunts in the offing. None of this is surprising, of course. Itâs a strike, after all. Peopleâs lives are being affected, their homes at risk, their childrenâs futures uncertain -- the stakes are enormous. It would be unreasonable to think that with a membership in the thousands that there would not be crazies on both sides ready to ratchet up the rhetoric at the slightest provocation for no reason other than to raise the decibel level and get people charged up and angry. This is the kind of high-stakes, high-intensity situation that tends to bring out the best and the worst in any group and the WGA is no exception.

I, myself, initially felt the urge to condemn Jay Leno or Conan OâBrien for coming back on the air as undercutting the strike. But on reflection, I realized and acknowledged the very difficult position they found themselves in and even felt that if Jay really wants to take on the entire burden of putting âThe Tonight Showâ on the air himself that he was certainly having to carry a heavy load to do so. Also, his very public statements of support for his writers did count for me and I decided not to add my voice to those calling for his head. Do I think heâs crossing the line by writing his own monolog? Yes. Do I think he should be pilloried for it? No.

Likewise, I was somewhat shocked when Bill Maher, whose show I love and whose politics are somewhat close to my own on many subjects, made a statement on his premiere last week attacking the Guild leadership and making veiled references to witch hunts and being attacked for not supporting the strike strongly enough. As I thought about it, I realized that just as there are currents and eddies that I feel that pull and push at showrunners that are far from the public view, there must also be forces at work on someone like Maher that I can only imagine. The forces willing to demonize anyone, at any time for making some of the very difficult choices all of us have had to make during the strike are always lurking there in the background, ready to attack at a momentâs notice. And Iâm not just talking about pro-strike people attacking those perceived to be âweak sistersâ on the strike, thereâs also a contingent out there ready to attack the Guild leadership as out for themselves or after political office or caught up in some kind of power grab. Iâm talking about the people grumbling about going for âfinancial coreâ status or accusing the membership of being deluded sheep following their leaders over the cliff.

The fact is, this strike was authorized by a 90% vote in favor of going out. Ninety percent. Thatâs not even close. Everyone went into this with their eyes wide open and everyone knew this was going to be difficult and onerous, both financially and personally. We all walked out together and together is the only way we can walk back in.

My hope is that once the DGA deal is made public, that we engage in the inevitable debate that will follow with a civility and decorum that puts the lie to the idea that writers are their own worst enemies. We need to have a spirited debate over the terms weâre willing to accept, yes, but itâs important that we not let things descend into vicious attacks or set up armed camps. Honorable men and women can disagree on the true value of a percentage of internet advertising without it becoming a test of who is the âtoughestâ or who has âdrunk the kool-aid.â

When the deal is announced and the terms of the DGA settlement are there for one and all to see, I urge my fellow scribes to resist the urge to demonize those who disagree with you over its acceptability. Remember that weâre all writers and weâre all in this together and that thereâs really only one entity out there which has an actual interest in preventing us from securing a fair and reasonable contract, and thatâs the AMPTP. [?]
Look! Up in the Sky!: Dig this:

The fans over at Fans4Writers have come up with a really interesting and ballsy idea. Theyâre going to hire skywriters to fly over the Rose Parade and aerially type messages supporting the WGA.

Now thatâs creative.

The initial cash is being laid out by an anonymous fan, while the site is holding a silent auction of autographed Galactica scripts and other memorabilia to help with the costs -- so donât let this one brave soul carry the whole burden, go over and see if thereâs a script or two that catches your fancy.

I gotta say, Iâm really impressed with the fans. They come out and join us on the picket lines in the wee hours of the morning, bring doughnuts, buy pencils, now theyâre using the Rose Parade as an opportunity for Guild graffiti.

To all the fans, a great big thank you from me and the entire WGA for your efforts and your moral support, itâs greatly appreciated and believe me, it will be remembered long after this strike is over and done. [?]
Welcome Back, Dave: Just saw the news that Lettermanâs World Wide Pants company has signed a side deal with the WGA and will be returning to the air with the entire writing staff.

Good for them and good for the WGA in cutting the deal.

There are some bitchy comments out there in the blogosphere from âunnamedâ feature writers complaining that itâs somehow âunfairâ that Lettermanâs writers are going back to work and theyâre not. The Guild has already stated as a matter of policy that theyâre willing to negotiate deals with individual companies outside the umbrella (butterfly net?) of the AMPTP, so the fact that theyâve been able to pull off one such deal shouldnât be the occasion for whining about how âIâm not working and they are,â it should be a time to celebrate the fact that at least one company doesnât feel the Guildâs demands are ridiculous or particularly onerous. It should also be a time to congratulate the writers of the Late Show and wish them all well as they take back the airwaves and hopefully pepper the show with not-so-subtle digs at CBS, et al for keeping this strike going this long (they walked away from the table, you may recall -- twice, for those of you keeping score).

I know whatâs getting a season pass on my Tivo. [?]
I like Ike: âWe were engaged in the defense of a way of life, and the great danger was that in defending this way of life we would find ourselves resorting to methods that endangered this way of life.â

The president noted that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had told him, âwe should do what was necessary even if the result was to change the American way of life. We could lick the whole world... if we were willing to adopt the system of Adolph Hitler.â

-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, as quoted in the National Security Council declassified minutes of a meeting in Fall 1953, and as published in âLegacy of Ashes - The History of the CIAâ by Tim Weiner, page 75.

(Photo: Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles, 1956/ Wikipedia) [?]
Yes, there is a Santa Claus: Just an outstanding day.

(No to put a damper on things, and I do have to check on this, but I think weâve been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.)

(Photo: Joe Rimkus Jr./Miama Herald Staff) [?]
Pencil Day: Hereâs what I said:

Hello, Iâm Ronald D. Moore, Writer and Executive Producer of Battlestar Galactica, and member of the WGA since 1989 -- and Iâd like to welcome you to Pencil Day here at Johnny Carson park.

What you see behind me is the culmination of a grassroots effort on the part of thousands of television fans across the United States and in some cases, from overseas. A group of fans, led by Brenda Lawhorn, Chris Bridgesm, and Adam Levemore-Rich, but including many others, were looking for ways in which they could support the WGA during the strike. They put together a website: Fans4writers.com, where fans could come together and talk with each other as well as with the writers from their favorite shows, and these fans came up with what became the Pencils Campaign.

Some of you might remember the famous ânutsâ campaign on behalf of âJerichoâ where fans send packages of nuts to CBS to save the show from cancellation or the âTabascoâ campaign conducted to save âRoswell.â Well, these fans came up with the idea to send pencils to the moguls heading the major studios and networks represented at the bargaining table. Fans were able to buy boxes of pencils in the name of their favorite show for $1, which would then be delivered to each of the six major companies today.

The pencils will be delivered to:
â¨Leslie Moonves, President, CEO/CBS Corporation
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO General Electric (NBC/Universal)
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman, CEO News Corporation (Fox)
Jeffrey L. Bewkes, President, COO Time Warner Inc. (Warner Brothers)â¨Robert Iger, President, CEO Walt Disney Companyâ¨Sumner Redstone, Chairman Viacom

In less than three weeks, the fans bought over a half a million pencils, which you see here today.

Simply put, the message theyâre trying to send by this effort is that members of the audience itself â the market for our shows and films â both understand and sympathize with the position of the Guild and want a return to collective bargaining. Lest this be dismissed as a small group of fans, itâs worth remembering that recent national surveys have shown solid majority support for the writers in this labor dispute.

The WGA is still at the table, waiting for the studios to return to good faith negotiations. While we believe our proposals to be fair and reasonable, the Guild has always been willing to engage in legitimate bargaining on each point of the contract.

But we need a partner to negotiate with.

Issuing ultimatums, staging walk-outs and releasing factually-challenged press statements tinged with manufactured outrage does little to resolve this dispute. There is no reason why the studios cannot return to the bargaining table, sit down, and work out a fair and equitable settlement for everyone involved, and we hope that this symbolic action on the part of the fans will serve to remind the studios and networks that their audience is indeed watching and listening, and they know the difference between posturing and bargaining.
[?]
Trek Day at the Paramount Picket: Definitely one of the more surreal moments of the strike was marching with a sign outside the Melrose Gate, through which Iâd driven for the first decade of my career. The sidewalk was so crowded and jammed with writers, actors, fans, and press yesterday that the biggest problem faced by many of us was finding a place to stand when the light turned red and we were expected to politely get back on the curb and let traffic go through the gate. A Trek-themed blues band, fronted by longtime Trek actor Vaughn Armstrong provided music and there were fans scattered here and there in TOS (thatâs The Original Series for those non-Trekkers among you) uniforms.

But the thing that stuck with me the most was encountering random clutches of writers from my days in the 23rd and 24th centuries in this context. We were all older and grayer, to be sure, except for Ira Behr (above) who is bluer. But there was this common bond we all shared, this underlying sense of weâre all in the same club that I hadnât really expected, perhaps because I hadnât thought about it that much. I knew Iâd be seeing friends and colleagues from days gone by, but I didnât expect the sort of strong, immediate chord of recognition between us all and a sense that we were bound together by something that was both far in the past and yet still vital and alive there standing in the perpetual Hollywood sun. In between exchanging email addresses and catching up in small bursts of talk of family and friends, I found myself wishing that there were semi-regular gatherings -- reunions, really -- for those of us who worked on The Franchise.

We were family once, and itâs a shame that the kin never get together anymore. [?]
Towel for you?: No, I havenât turned this into a porn site.

Or at least, not yet. I hear itâs quite lucrative.

Instead of a phone call, Jamie has offered to sign and donate three worn (as in actually worn, not threadbare) towels to the Pencils campaign. The first two will go to the fans who buy the most pencils in Jamieâs name, while the third will be raffled off at random. The towels will be yours to do with as you wish (insert your joke here) but any and all cloning will be subject to the appropriate international treaty restrictions.

[?]
More Pencil Rewards: The potential rewards for fans buying into the Pencils2MediaMoguls campaign just got bigger:

Mary McDonnell, Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan, Jamie Bamber, and Michael Trucco have all agreed to make a personal phone call to fans who win the raffles in their names. The way this will work is simple: when you go to the Pencils site, the first box youâll see asks you the name of the show you wish to support. Type in âBattlestar Galacticaâ and then the name of one of these actors, and your name will then be automatically entered into a raffle, with the winner in each category receiving a personal phone call from that actor. You can certainly buy boxes of pencils for more than one actor, but each box can only be assigned one name.

Also, in the event that the winner of the Aaron Douglas raffle is not in Vancouver, or cannot travel there (on their own dime), Aaron has offered to make a personal phone call to that fan and send a piece of signed memorabilia.

This is a really great and generous offer from our cast members and it could be a once in a life-time chance to get to talk to them, so take advantage of the opportunity and help us drown the moguls in pencils! [?]
Pencils and Rewards: Okay, this is pretty cool.

How would you like to go to a hockey game with the Chief?

That's right, our own Aaron Douglas will take one fan to a Canucks hockey game, along with another buddy of his up in Vancouver.Â And how can you score this treat?Â Simple.Â By going to Pencils2MediaMoguls.com and buying as many boxes of pencils as you can.Â On the first page (which is a subset of United Hollywood) you'll see a place to identify which show you're supporting.Â Type in "BSG Aaron Douglas" and we'll enter your name into a raffle, with the lucky winner getting to attend the hockey game with Aaron.

In case you haven't heard, the Pencils Campaign is designed to send a huge amount of pencils to the major studios as a symbol of fan support for the strike.Â More information can be found on their website.

Look for other offers from other members of the Galactica cast in the near future -- no idea what the offers will be or how many there may be.Â I'll keep you informed.
[?]
The Trek Journals -- One in an Occasional Series: For no apparent reason, Iâve been thinking a lot about my early days at Star Trek, back when the Hart Building (above, photo by Ethan Calk) boasted an elevator paneled in faux walnut, and the ghost of Orson Welles was stalking secretaries on the third floor. Maybe itâs because the newest film in the franchise has begun shooting, or maybe itâs because Iâm just getting up there in years and starting to think back on ye olde glory days.

In any case, a blog certainly provides a handy forum for the occasional memory dump, and since there are still a fair number of people out there interested in all things Trek, I thought Iâd put down some of the experiences I had in the Hart Building now rather than saving them all for that fanciful day when I attempt to write the tell-all memoir that rips the lid from the pot of science fiction stew and lets the greasy fat boil to the surface like.... well, you get the idea.

The Hart Building was the only place where the writers of Next Gen were housed (or confined, depending on how you looked at it). No other production offices were located in the building, which loomed over the Paramount dining room and commissary, nor were any other members of the production especially eager to enter the premise since the comings and goings into our building were easily monitored from the windows and balcony of the vaguely Stalinistic structure of the facing Cooper Building directly across the way, and visiting the writers was something that was very much frowned upon from on high.

Cooper housed the central offices for the production, and was the place everyone eventually made pilgrimage to seek additional monies or approvals. There was something about climbing the steep staircase to the second floor of Cooper that seemed to suck the joy out of your day as you prepared to do battle of one form or another upon entering the soulless conference room or the corner office of the Executive Producer. Cooper was a battlefield, plain and simple and the people who lived and worked there day after day tended to have their version of the thousand meter stare peeking out from eyes eternally red-rimmed from too many late nights spent trying to get shooting wrapped before going into overtime.

In the Hart Building, we tended to view the denizens of Cooper as the People Most Likely To Get In The Way of the Story. Scripts were inevitably labeled as too expensive and too long, and production meetings were essentially exercises in finding creative ways of saying that any given set could not be built in the time and budget allowed and why couldnât the action be moved into the Ready Room? Not to mention, the dread process of giving script notes was also doled out in Cooper, and thus the entire structure soon became the focal point of our collective psychic loathing. Many were the days when the third season writing staff would look out the windows from the fourth floor corner office of the writing team of Hans Biemler and Richard Manning (later to become my own office) and gaze down on Cooper with bitter recriminations and sometimes outright hatred for what had been done to one of âourâ scripts âover there.â

At some point, Hans and Ricky discovered that it was possible to actually tell which page of a script was being discussed in Rick Bermanâs office with a pair of binoculars and this led to covert gatherings whenever we knew that Michael Piller had been summoned for a âRick Meeting.â We would crowd the window and trade the two pair of binocs usually at hand to get the perfect view of the script in question, which would invariably be on the coffee table in front of Rickâs chair, while Michaelâs sneaker shod feet would just be visible. Rickâs script notes were sometimes visible in his thick red pencil and we would follow along with our copies as he would point to a line of dialog and begin gesticulating with varying degrees of animation, depending on the severity of the note. This went on for some months, until Rick remodeled his office and added shutters to the windows, which brought an end to regular surveillance.

The Hart Building itself was one of the older structures on campus and it certainly showed its age in ways large and small. One of the more charming leftovers from the golden era of the studios was the fact that at least four of the offices had full-blown wet bars still in them. We often marveled at the idea that the three martini lunch was not only countenanced, but also brought back and continued in oneâs office. Unfortunately, the big offices with the bars werenât ours to stock, and we had to make due with single bottles of Chinaco tequila or Jack Daniels hidden away in drawers and were, in truth, more talked about than consumed. The elevator was its own horror; a tiny cubicle, barely able to accommodate four adults, paneled in something godawful, and featuring a slow, noisy, clanking as it chugged its way through the vertical plane and gave everyone a fit of claustrophobia whenever the de rigueur comment about being trapped there during an earthquake was made. (Years later, the elevator was replaced with a newer and presumably, safer model, but during construction it was learned that the entire fourth floor was a hasty add-on slapped atop the building some time in the distant past. As one of the workers observed, âDuring a real quake, the entire fourth floor would probably slide right the hell off.â)

In that first year, I occupied the smallest and least desirable office: fourth floor, hard by the stairs, a space quite literally the size of a walk-in closet, with a lovely view of a rooftop and back alley. One desk, one guest chair and a small bookcase cramped the space to the point where few ever came to visit for more than ten minutes. My computer was a dinosaur even by the standards of 1989, with amber letters glaring out from a black screen, and a double-bank of 5 1/2 inch floppy drives. Printing could be had down on the first floor but required walking said floppy down there and waiting on a printer to free up. Phones were thankfully push-button, but still in the generic Ma Bell set-up with a red hold button and five white lines, only two of which actually worked. While the typing pool was still technically in business at Paramount, its days were clearly numbered and few writers were actively using its services. Some writers on staff were still hand writing scripts on yellow legal pads and handing them off to secretaries (âassistantsâ then only just coming into vogue) but most of us were using Microsoft Word with a Scriptor Style sheet to write our episodes. The many intricacies of the Style sheet eluded me, but basically it was a way to format all the scripts in a uniform way and yet still required a Script Coordinator to sort through all the various bugs and errors that would crop up in every script.

Reams of paper floated about the building and clogged every office. Each script would go through multiple revisions, from story outline to final shooting draft and keeping the pages of your script current was a daily chore until you rated a share of some secretary/assistantâs time. Added to the sometimes hourly delivery of colored script pages were call sheets, shooting schedules, story memos, production memos, budget memos, and various other documents that may or may not have been delivered to the right office with cryptic titles like âActor Day Out of Days,â all of which meant that every writerâs office was covered in a perpetual blanket of paper.

I began the habit early on of collecting and saving every last scrap of Trek related paper that came into my possession, on the theory that I may not be around these offices for very long and I should hold onto everything I could get my hands on. Ten years later, this impulse would result in very large fire hazard in my garage and my casting about for some institution to take this material off my hands and thatâs how it came to be in the possession of the University of Southern Californiaâs Film and Television Library where it resides to this day. Iâve often thought of going down there and going through those old three-ring binders to refresh my memory of those early days, but, of course, I never have. Iâm not sure if itâs because itâs too much time and too much of a hassle or itâs because Iâm afraid of having to read my own early drafts.

Probably both. [?]
The True Fan: My brother Mike and my long-time friend Naren Shankar (of CSI fame) had the same comment on the above photo:

âIâm impressed. It takes a lot of guts, integrity and inner strength to go out there and wear a Miami Dolphins hat.â

To which I can only reply that itâs easy to support the team in the fat years, itâs the lean years that provide the true test of the fan.

Go âFins. 6-10 is still possible.

Yes it is. Believe.

Shut-up. [?]
The Razor Featurettes: Just so thereâs no confusion, Iâd like to make the distinctions clear between the two minute âfeaturettesâ (or whatever weâre calling them these days) from âRazorâ and last yearâs âResistanceâ webisodes that preceded the Season Three launch. Iâve given several interviews regarding the history of the webisodes and how the studio initially wanted to call them promotional material and not pay anyone, then finally relented on payment, only to refuse to provide credits in the end and forcing me to post them on my blog at SciFi.com.

The distinction between the two is that webisodes were new material created specifically for the internet, while the featurettes are really little more than deleted scenes from âRazor.â In the first instance, we were being asked to write and produce new material without compensation or credit, while in the second we simply repurposed existing material that would otherwise end up on the cutting room floor. Thatâs not to say that the featurettes werenât subject to a great deal of haggling and negotiation with the studio over issues of reuse and credits -- they were. But in the end, I agreed to go with the featurettes while still refusing to produce more webisodes because I felt that using existing scenes in this format was different than creating new stories. Hopefully, the new contract that gets hammered out between the studios and the writersâ guild will clear up all of this and provide enough clarity so that showrunners like myself wonât have to be in the position of making these calls on a case by case basis. [?]
Galactica wraps: Production wrapped on episode 413 late last night, and thereâs no certain date to resume shooting. No more scripts exist. My office staff has been laid off. My cast has been suspended, without pay.

I refuse to believe that we wonât finish, that we wonât be back to film our final stories, but I know and accept there is that possibility. The strike will be a seminal event for many of us in this business as itâs put literally everything we care about in the balance (if only for a short time so far) for something we all believe is important.

Writers talk a lot about the strike, about the reasons weâre out on the picket lines and our feelings and experiences in the business. Itâs been an interesting three weeks. Iâve connected with more scribes in the last few weeks than in many months before and I come away from it to date with a sense of optimism about the solidarity of the membership and admiration for my peers.

Galacticaâs coming back, I frakking promise you that. But I am ready to put the rest of the story on the table and take the risk that Iâll never be able to tell it, in support of this strike.

Like Adama says, you make your choices and then you live with them.

Still.

A helluva gamble. [?]
The Razor Podcast: Instead of the customary podcast commentary for next weekâs showing of âRazor,â there will be a recording I made of the original break session where the writers first pitched me the story. The podcast was recorded at my house with the entire writing staff, minus Mrs. Ron, who opted not to know anything about the story until it was completed. A separate commentary track will be available on the DVD version that Michael Taylor and I recorded in the studio. (Donât worry, I brought along the obligatory bottle of scotch.)

So far, the response to âRazorâ has been very positive from both the critics and from the few screenings that weâve had, so Iâm hopeful that itâll be well received by one and all.

Fans4Writers.com [?]

Bear McCreary Blog [edit]

Mark Verheiden Blog [edit]

The Fury Of The Evil Dead Texas Chainsaw...: Been catching up on my uber-gory movies recently -- pretty much spoiler free for those who care!

TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D: The original Chainsaw was one of those eye-opening horror movie events for yours truly. I can't remember where I put my cell phone last night, but I can still remember sitting in the nearly empty Village theater in Beaverton Oregon on the Friday the original Chainsaw opened back in 1970-something. It was quite an experience. During the famous scene where Leatherface plops a pretty young thing on a meat hook, an older woman in the almost nonexistent crowd stood up, shouted "I thought this was going to be a detective movie!" and stormed out. Me, I stuck it out to the bitter end, and to this day I can't think of another movie that's beat the original Chainsaw's trifecta of extreme mood, freaky characters and unsettling bravura horror scenes. Tobe Hooper, Kim Henkel and crew spun some seriously messed up movie magic with their crazy little movie...

I've also managed to catch most of the sequels/prequels/remakes. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, also directed by Hooper, was pretty widely dismissed when it first came out, but it's a minor masterpiece. Completely different from the first movie, pretty much a black comedy, but any movies that pits Dennis Hopper (!) against Leatherface in a chainsaw battle is a winner. After that, things get a bit soggier. There was a Chainsaw 3 with future Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen as a freaky family member. An off-shoot-ish remake featuring a pre-stardom Matthew McConaughy and Renee Zellweger. Then the two Platinum Dune efforts, which were closer to the tone of the original but were still beating the original formula -- kids arrive at spooky house, cross creepy family, mayhem ensues -- to death.

So I was pleasantly surprised that the latest Chainsaw effort tried something new. Essentially beginning twenty minutes after the end of the original 1972 movie, TC3D (which I saw flat on blu-ray) is about rejiggering the franchise in a different direction. Yes, a pretty girl brings her pals to a creepy house and mayhem ensues, but then there's a turn about halfway through the movie that I found fun. I will say that some of what follows asks the viewer and requires a couple characters to more or less forget that our friend Leatherface is a brutal mass murderer, but okay. Bottom line, Chainsaw movies certainly aren't for everyone, but if you are predisposed toward this sort of entertainment, then this is a pretty good one.

EVIL DEAD (2013): I can also remember where I was to see the first Evil Dead -- the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles, a packed midnight Festival show before the official release. I believe I was sitting behind Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo and I'm sure there were other like-minded celebs in house, because E.D. had amassed quite a rep among horror fans. Suffice to say the crowd went nuts. Who would have guessed that many years later I would adapt and expand the original Evil Dead movie in graphic novel form (from Dark Horse, buy it!) and actually get to work with creators Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell on multiple projects.

The new Evil Dead is essentially a remake, but glossier and WAAAAY bloodier. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Director Fede Alvarez clearly loves the original but isn't slavish to the story, offering some intriguing change ups. I caught this at the end of its theatrical run -- I was the only guy in the entire theater at my local multiplex -- so I can't offer any reports on audience feedback. Look, I will always prefer the Evil Dead world where Bruce Campbell's Ash is taking it on the chin, but as an adjunct, this one rocks right along. However, nothing in the new movie beats the excruciating moment in the original when a demon jams a pencil into a character's ankle. That STILL gets a wince...

THE FURY (1978): Recently issued on limited edition blu-ray, this Brian Palma movie is rarely mentioned when discussing Mr. D's filmic contributions. I remembered kind of liking it back in the day, but seeing it again elicited one of those "what wuz I thinkin'?" moments. John Cassavettes at his creepiest plays a CIA type guy who is collecting kids with telekinetic abilities. Kirk Douglas is another spy, and father of a gifted son (VERY creepy Andrew Stevens). For some reason, the Cassavettes character stages a bloody massacre involving multiple terrorists to separate Douglas from his son -- there must have been an easier way! -- but Kirk survives and spends the movie trying to track his wayward son down. Meanwhile, pretty Amy Irving is also a telekinetic who is roped into Cassavettes' organization and discovers she can make mean girls bleed when they piss her off.

The tone of this movie is bizarre. Douglas (who must have been pushing 60 and does multiple scenes shirtless) is trying to track down the guy who kidnapped his son and arranged a massacre. But he's downright jovial while doing it. He breaks into an apartment during a chase to lay low, ties up a bickering couple and makes friends with the dingy mother-in-law (!) in a scene of low comedy. Douglas spends what feels like hours coloring his hair white, putting a pillow under his shirt and otherwise altering his appearance -- only to be identified by the bad guys as soon as he walks out the apartment door. He then kidnaps a couple of off-duty cops at gun point, including a VERY young Dennis Franz, who is terrified that the ensuing car chase will put a dent in his brand new Caddy. This scene goes on for-evah and, hold on to your sides, the car doesn't make it.

The Fury is most famous for its bloody climax, where the uneasy combination of spy movie and science fiction thriller finally collide and heads (well, bodies) literally explode. Those scenes are kind of fun. But the fate of the Douglas character is one of the more anti-climatic moments in film history. I have a great affection for nutty 70's movies, but this one is just kind of not-great... [?]
Me And The Great American Pitch Fest: I've never done one of these events before, but I guess there's a first time for everything. Barring some unforeseen disaster, I'll be visiting the Great American Pitch-Fest in Burbank on June 1. I am part of the "free" side of the show, so anyone who wants to come by is welcome and it won't cost you a dime. I will be available to discuss my work on Hemlock Grove, Falling Skies, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes... you name it, and if I can remember the details, I'll try to offer what may pass for advice. [?]
Hemlock Grove Is ALIVE. It's ALIVE...: Okay, holy crap, how did I go over a month without a real post? Well, it's simple: it's been a little busy around Casa Verheiden, AKA "the bedroom office."

Hopefully by now folks know that Hemlock Grove, the show that occupied much of my 2012, has debuted via streaming on Netflix. 13 episodes, and every stinkin' one of them can be watched, devoured, analyzed, rewatched and rewatched again. (Are you picking up a theme?) The reaction has been fascinating. I learned long ago not to take criticism personally, so the drinking of the last week has been celebratory, not reactionary. (Well, most of it.) Still, I'm not sure I've ever been involved in a show that polarized opinion quite as much Hemlock.

That said, I am amazed and heartened by the reaction to the show on twitter, the audience reviews on Netflix and IMDB (by actual viewers!) and the fact that poor lil' Hemlock actually reached more viewers the first weekend than (the excellent!) Netflix series House Of Cards. We knew we were making something a bit off the wall and different, and it's fun to see that there are a lot of folks out there that get that.

It's also been fun to get feedback from people who has seen all 13 episodes, as opposed to the first three that were sent to reviewers. When we told folks that the show was a 13 hour movie, we kind of meant it. Fashioning a critique based on the first three episodes is a little like watching the first 15 minutes of a feature film and banging out a review based just on that. To be fair, not everyone falls in love (ahem) even after watching all thirteen. But that's okay. The show's not for everyone, and there are plenty of other viewing options available.

The twitter feed (#hemlockgrove) has been especially hypnotic. I'm no math whiz, but there must be hundreds of thousands of comments by now, and I'd say a good 85% seem positive. I first started with twitter on Falling Skies, and I have to admit, I've gone from a skeptic (140 characters? What can you say in that?) to an addict.

There has been no decision re: a Hemlock Grove season two at this writing, so we shall see. But for those who yet to have a taste our wares and haven't joined Netflix, you can get a free one month trial subscription and give it a shot. Meanwhile, I'll be back with more news soon... [?]
So What's New In Tennessee?: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/tenn-lawmaker-allegedly-drove-90-mph-while-masturbating?ref=fpb

My favorite part of this story? "Recalling dozens of complaints in recent years, Terry Christian, a Kingsport detective, told WJHL that Blakely's behavior has gone on "for so long an (sic) nobody's addressed it." I guess his insanity was Grandfathered in... [?]
Hemlock Grove: The Trailerpalooza!: A handy compilation of trailers put together by Aaron Douglas, who plays Sheriff Sworn on Hemlock and the legendary Chief on Battlestar Galactica...

Hemlock Grove, April 19, only on Netflix.
First Trailer -- HEMLOCK GROVE -- A Netflix Original Series [HD]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlZUsPcChgI

Hemlock Grove: UK Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwN1Sx7PNVU

Hemlock Grove: IGN Exclusive Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwTw03j5_Tc

Hemlock Grove Trailer - "Gypsy" - A Netflix Original Series (HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIL0u2RUR9M

Hemlock Grove Trailer - "Blood Angel" - A Netflix Original Series (HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW_QF7SIJ_s

Hemlock Grove Trailer - "Suspects" - A Netflix Original Series (HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HjbcEfqLws

Hemlock Grove Trailer - "Grisly" - Netflix (HD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WweCmgr7fyA

[?]
Tri-Corner Hats: So some really severe elderly folks at CPAC are outraged that Rob Portman has endorsed same sex rights after discovering his son is gay. That's to be expected. But when did cosplay become a thing among the conservative crowd?

http://deadstate.org/cpac-attendees-condemn-sen-rob-portmans-endorsement-of-marriage-equality-video/ [?]
On Vinyl...: A veteran record (as in vinyl records) collector finally gives up the ghost...

http://www.avclub.com/articles/has-the-vinyl-revival-gone-too-far,93610/

I dumped most of my vinyl collection -- at least 2 or 3 thousand discs -- five or six years ago. Lack of space X convenience of CDs + cost of storage room to house all that stuff = bye bye. I did keep most of my singles and a few of my fave platters, but otherwise my collection is hopefully entertaining the swingin' hipsters who found them in Amoeba L.A.'s used-vinyl area...

Where I would disagree with the writer is his comment about not finding much difference between an MP3 and a vinyl record. After too many concerts and lengthy drives with the car system cranked to 11, my hearing ain't what it used to be, but I can still tell the difference between a thin, tinny MP3 and, well, non-MP3 playbacks. What worries me (and worries audiophiles way more) is that an entire generation has grown up with the thin MP3 sound and have become culturally adjusted to that sound quality. The fat bass and richer horns and deeper vocals that come from a fully realized recording may actually be negatives for those folks...

BTW, I still buy a (very few) vinyl records, but less for the record than the graphics. One thing we have lost in our i-tunes/spotify/whatever else age are the amazing covers and liner notes that graced many seminal LPs. Strictly as art, there are some mighty impressive pieces out there. As music, I'm happy with the CD or lossless version... [?]
Me, Hemlock Grove, WonderCon: Just announced, there will be a Hemlock Grove panel at WonderCon this year, 6:30PM on Friday March 29. Here's the official blurb:

6:30pm - Netflix's "Hemlock Grove" - Room 300DE
From executive producer Eli Roth (Cabin Fever) and based on Brian McGreevy's novel of the same name, Netflix's Hemlock Grove is a riveting one-hour murder mystery series that revolves around the residents of a former Pennsylvania steel town. When 17-year-old Brooke Bluebell is brutally murdered, any of Hemlock's peculiar inhabitants-or killer creatures-could be suspects. Through the investigation, the town's seamier side is exposed, revealing nothing is what it seems. Beautiful, terrifying, and graphic, Hemlock Grove is unlike anything else in its genre. Appearing are executive producers Roth, McGreevy, and Lee Shipman and cast members Famke Janssen (X-Men), Dougray Scott (Mission Impossible II), Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd (Anna Karenina), Landon Liboiron (Terra Nova), Penelope Mitchell, Freya Tingley, Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica), and Kandyse McClure (Battlestar Galactica).

And other executive producer me. Come on down!
[?]
John Carter FROM MARS dammit: I picked up the Kindle version of the book "John Carter and the Gods Of Hollywood" because the reviews were effusive and I like your basic exploration of why bad things happen to good movies as much as the next guy. JC and the Gods is a scary thorough examination of the machine that produced and then attempted to promote the recent John Carter movie. The gist of the author's thesis is that the movie both fell through the cracks during a regime change at Disney and/or was intentionally or unintentionally sabotaged on the publicity side by folks who just didn't get it. Per the author, movies like The Avengers were drawing up enormous media oxygen while John Carter simply wasn't getting the same level of attention. According to the writer, it was basically the endless missteps in the promotional campaign for Carter that led to a less than stellar opening and big box-office trouble.

I should mention that I hadn't actually seen the movie itself before I started reading the book. After learning about all the missteps on the Disney side, I finally got around to a sit down with the movie itself. And guess what? It's just not very good. Obviously everyone involved tried to make a great, epic, sprawling fantasy out of a classic piece of Edgar Rice Burroughs adventure -- but in the end the magic just wasn't there. And sometimes that just happens.

On a much smaller scale, I've become gunshy these days when folks tell me that one of my TV scripts is bound to be "the best of the season," because it seems like those are inevitably the episodes where another shoe drops and they become the problem child. It's not that anyone sets out to do a lousy job -- and I really don't like the snarky piling-on that occurs when a John Carter comes along -- it's just that sometimes things just don't work out. It's not great for Disney stockholders or fans hoping for the further adventures of John Carter, but not a diabolical crime either... [?]
12 Years Old. Yes, 12 Years Old.: Want to see a 12 year old kid named Caspian Coberly play Red House on guitar in the style of Jimi Hendrix? The video is here...

http://www.caspiancoberly.com/

Want to see me trying to learn a chord? I didn't think so... [?]
Hemlock Grove Is Screaming to Stream!: Years in the writing, months in the producing, and now it's just weeks before Hemlock Grove debuts on Netflix. April 19, to be exact. Members of the cast and crew, including yours truly, will be discussing the evolution of the show at an upcoming fan event that will be announced "soon" -- but meanwhile, here's the poster:

What exactly is Hemlock Grove? Well, despite the poster image, is it not a 13 episode treatise on the hazards of hand-feeding your pet wolf. It IS, in fact, a suspenseful thriller about a small Pennsylvania town plagued by multiple murders, and the unlikely friendship that develops between two "opposite sides of the tracks" high school boys investigating the crime(s). More to come as we close in on the release date. April 19! All episodes at once! [?]
New! New new!!: AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES: THE 1960's, 1960-1964: From the fine folks at TwoMorrows press, this is the first in what I hope is a lengthy series of volumes exploring the wild and wooly history o' comics. Written by comics historian (and fellow Capa-Alpha * member) John Wells and generously illustrated with hundreds of full color images, this edition explores an especially cool moment in comics history. If not precisely the birth of the silver age (most folks say that started when the new Flash debuted in 1956), then it was certainly the birth of the Marvel age of comics, with the debut of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Hulk, the rebirth of Captain America, Thor, etc., etc., etc. But there were all sort of other comics available in those days, from a panoply of publishers long gone. ACG, Gold Key, Charlton, Dell, Harvey and more. John's written a conversational and comprehensive history here and TwoMorrows has given the book the deluxe treatment. Well worth checking out.

MESSAGES IN A BOTTLE - COMIC BOOK STORIES BY B. KRIGSTEIN: 240 full color pages of exquisite work by Mr. Krigstein, one of the finest artists to ever grace the world of comics. Delicate pen work and incredibly lay-outs abound in this comprehensive volume that includes his best EC stories. Anybody who believes today's comics are as good as it gets needs to give this a look. And look Ma -- not a superhero in the whole bunch.

MARVEL FIRST - WWII SUPERHEROES: 450 pages of full color Golden Age "origin stories", from superstars like the Human Torch, Sub-Mariner and Captain America to obscurities like "The Fin" and "Rockman", this is a raw injection of 40's comics madness. Up until the 80s, I think these type of stories are what most of the public had in mind when someone said "comic book." Crazy heroes, primitive but often exciting artwork, and stories that have fever-dream logic when they have any logic at all.

COLLECTED COMICS FONDLING/Dark Horse Presents 1986-2000: A print-to-order publication, I picked this up because it promised to index all 157 issues of Dark Horse's flagship title (+annuals). Which it does. But there are also reviews. And I didn't make it past page one, where there was this gem re: Dark Horse Presents #2: "Wow, does (Concrete creator Paul) Chadwick ever try hard to be cute. His Concrete story this issue is completely useless, inconsequential diversion... Maybe I'm missing the point." Well, yes, you are. Anyone who can't see the artistry and charm in my pal Paul's Concrete stories is a hopeless case, and yes, I am biased. Oh well.

* Capa-Alpha is a comics-related amateur press alliance that was formed in the early 60's and continues to this day. Members write and publish fanzines that are gathered each month by a Central Mailer, who distributes the collection to members. I've been publishing my own apa-zine for Capa-Alpha off and on since 1971... [?]
Fear! 2013!: I saw the band Fear in Portland Oregon in 1979. The best part of the experience was arriving way too early for the show and sitting next to lead singer Lee Ving at the bar before the performance. Meaning me and my buddy Stan actually "had a beer with Fear." I wish I had some miserable experience to report, but Lee was actually a nice guy and seemed to enjoy blabbing to two enthralled Oregon kids.

It was an amazing show. Fear in their prime = AMAZING.

Here's Lee Ving with Dave Groel of Nirvana doing Fear in 2013. He's still AMAZING.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK_nI_2QRGo [?]
Crashmobile: For some reason I've been obsessing recently over an old toy called "Crashmobile." I guess it's a sign of getting older or dementia or who knows what, but I remember buying several of these as a kid and having no end of fun smashing them into the wall and watching them explode. So now it's all about finding one (or two or three) of them again to relive what was probably a less exciting childhood adventure than memory allows.

They were called Crashmobiles because that's exactly what they did. There were several models in different sizes, but the design was more or less the same across the CM spectrum. You would squeeze the sides and roof of the car together over a springy-lever connected to the front bumper of the car. Roll the car forward, bonk the bumper, and KAPOW. The lever would be triggered and the thing would burst apart, usually while the child operator was making horrific screaming noises ("aghh, gahh, my legs are broken, I've been decapitated, aghhh, agghh!!!). Then you would carefully gather the parts, rebuild it and repeat. Until the car broke for real (something that usually happened really fast) and you had to steal 20 cents from your Dad's sock drawer (sorry Dad) and run to the supermarket for another.

But you have to admit. There's something genius about selling a toy that's MEANT to be broken.

What the image below doesn't really sell is just how tiny the Crashmobile Jr. really was. Like, three inches long and maybe an inch across. Also, this image is from later in the life of CM Jr., which was a mere 19 cents when first unveiling. And finally, someone must have stored this one in their dirt closet, because fresh Crashmobiles weren't usually this dusty.

Anyway, crashmobiles. What can I tell you. As a child I was easily amused...

[?]
Human Nature: I will fully admit to reading the occasionally human interest/gossip piece online. There sure are a lot of celebrities/politicians/etc. doing a lot of interesting/odd/scandalous stuff. But it's the reader comments that always bring me up short. Today, to pick a piece at random, there was a story about actress Maya Rudolph being pregnant with her fourth child. That was it... married actress is having another kid. Seems innocuous enough, until you get to the comments. For instance this (of course anonymous) gem, among the first few:

"Another worthless HuffPost piece. No one cares that Maya can't keep her legs crossed."

Can't keep her legs crossed? Are we now at a place where married sex that leads to pregnancy is considered "dirty?" If all women "kept their legs crossed" there would be no human race, though (silver lining!) there would also be no bizarre internet trolls posting pointlessly ugly comments about something that's actually kind of sweet. But the hits just keep on coming...

"What did Maya's left leg say to her right leg? Nothing! They've never met!"

"Is this one of those Hollywood freaks that supports abortion? I wonder if she believes her fetus is alive yet?"

"Ugly people have ugly kids... won't someone stop Maya Rudolph from reproducing? She looks like someone took a dump on her face"
Remember, all this for a nothing news blip about an (sorry, commenter #4!) attractive actress getting pregnant for the fourth time with her husband. No scandal, just someone havin' babies.

I draw few conclusions from this anecdotal exploration. Except that the human race can be a sad, sorry bunch sometimes...
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The Wood Bookshelf...: There seems to have been a Wally Wood renaissance recently... here are the latest arrivals creaking my overworked bookshelves...

THE EC STORIES OF WALLY WOOD/Artist's Edition: Okay, this is incredibly cool but truly obsessive. IDW is putting out a series of massive volumes offering full-scale black and white reproductions taken from the actual original art by various top notch comics artists. This edition, featuring the truly glorious work of Wallace Wood, is 144 pages, 25 x 19 x 1" and weighs in a 9 lbs! What you get are incredibly detailed images of the original art from several classic EC stories by WW, right down to the publisher's stamps, hand-written notes, coffee stains... you can even make out the brush strokes inside large areas of black. The detail is amazing and Wood definitely deserves the deluxe treatment. IDW's also done similar volumes for Dave Stevens' Rocketeer and most recently Gil Kane's early Spider-Man. The first edition is long gone and is going for $500-ish on Amazon, but search and you may find the second edition for slightly less. So no, these are not cheap, but so it goes...

WOODWORK: Okay, you're getting physical therapy after reading the Wood "Artist's Edition" but still want more? Check out "Woodwork", also from IDW, which is an American version of a museum catalog released in Spain in 2010. The text is in English and Spanish and there are hundreds of illustrations in B/W and color from the entire run of Wood's career. I am still working my way through this, and if the word definitive means anything, it means something like this. And it's quite a bargain (on Amazon, anyhow), 352 pages for $32.00.

CAME THE DAWN (The EC Comics Library): You've seen the faux original art and read up on Wood's bio, now how about some more stories? Fantagraphics has gobbled up the EC library and is releasing a series of hardcover collections of scattered works, including this one featuring tales illuminated by Mr. Wood. These EC stories have been reprinted many times, but there is always a new audience who didn't spring for earlier editions and deserve a chance to enjoy the goodness. Personally I prefer EC's war books to their horror and sci-fi titles, but they're all at least interesting. These collections are relatively inexpensive ($18.00 on Amazon) with excellent (black and white) reproduction, so buy it and tell all your friends that you've got Wood!

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Orson Welles On Peas: There are few things more fun than hearing Orson Welles' sonorous voice. Except, perhaps, hearing Orson Welles chew out some British advertising twits who keep asking for more/better/different takes for their frozen peas commercial...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhWM4_pIKVg&feature=player_embedded#! [?]
Hemlock Grove Is Coming Your Way! April 19, 2013!: The cat is out of the bag, the secret is out, the mystery is revealed -- at least some of it! My latest project "Hemlock Grove" was formally announced 1/9/13. The second original series for the fine folks at Netflix (the first being "House of Cards", which you should also watch!), Hemlock Grove will be revved up and ready on Netflix 4/19. That's right, all thirteen episodes at once. Binge watch, gorge, gobble, or slowly savor... it's up to you.

Just to tee it up, Hemlock Grove, based on the fine novel by Brian McGreevy, tells a mysterious tale of two families intersecting in a fading steel town. When a series of grisly murders begin, it lands on two very different sons from these families to uncover the killer. But there are many twists and turns and bizarre goings-on to deal with along the way...

Read the article below for more details. And get ready for something really different...

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/netflixs-hemlock-grove-no-shortage-410447 [?]
Video Games. That Must Be It! Video Games!: 20 little kids are gunned down by a disturbed guy with an assault rifle capable of shooting dozens of rounds without reloading, but the real problem is video games!

I could vent, but this fellow says it better and backs his views up with some quaint, obviously anti-American "facts."

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/dishonestly-and-ignorantly-switching.html [?]
Killdozer!: It says something about my movie-viewing priorities that I have a stack of Academy Award contending screeners collecting dust next to the DVD player, but I threw on Killdozer as soon as it arrived. A TV movie from the 70's in the "when machines come alive!" genre, I vaguely remember seeing this when it was on network television and kinda liking it. I still do...

First off, we're talking about a great 70's cast. Clint Walker, Neville Brand, Carl Betz, Robert Urich, James Wainwright... all stuck on a remote African island where their tiny crew is running heavy equipment, clearing an area for some sort of oil installation. Urich accidentally drives his D9 bulldozer into a meteor that glows, fries Urich with radiation and then takes control of the bulldozer. It's never really explained why the meteor-imbued bulldozer feels the need to kill all humans, or how charging around an uninhabited island knocking over logs furthers some sort of goal. But maybe I'd be angry too if, after careening through the universe, my essence got stuck in a piece of construction equipment.

The best part of the movie is the extremely laconic way these guys deal with their increasingly precarious situation. Urich is french-fried by radiation, lingering just long enough to tell Clint Walker that he saw a blue flash "enter" the bulldozer. Foreman Walker decides to keep that rather pertinent info to himself and tells the other guys to bury Urich and get back to work. Nobody really asks how somebody driving a bulldozer could get so irradiated his skin would bubble and turn black. Then another worker gets flattened by the runaway dozer after trying to hide in a pipe. They plant him next to the first guy and Walker still insists everybody should just suck it up and get back to work. Call me a softie, but if it were my crew, I'd give them the day off.

Only when Carl Betz (who must have spent his time between takes wondering how he went from being the lead on The Donna Reed Show and Judd For The Defense to playing an embittered scoop-shovel operator named "Sourball") admits he overheard Urich's dying declaration does Walker decide to level with the other two survivors. But he STILL insists they need to keep working because, uhh, they might get in trouble. Like two guys out of a six man crew dying 24 hours apart in industrial accidents won't raise an eyebrow or two...

Anyhow, Walker finally decides to let the job go when his pal "Chubb" gets blown up by a D9 sneak attack. Two things here. One, even though Killdozer has been taken over by an alien entity, it still makes a lot of noise when chugging around, so "sneak attack" may be the wrong word. And two, Neville Brand's Chubb was really a pretty nice guy considering he had to endure people calling him Chubb. If they called Killdozer Chubb, I'll bet it would have been twice as mad.

Anyhow, our last three survivors take time out of being chased by Killdozer to bury Chubb's remains with the others, only to be suckered by another bulldozer move (shoving an avalanche down on the gravesite). Now Clint's pissed and it's time for vengeance!

So there you go! Cool 70's TV movie sci-fi at its finest. And the made-to-order DVD looks great. I don't know if the picture's been remastered or someone just took very special care of the original, but the color is vivid and the image quality is great. Highly recommended! [?]
On The Subject Of Health: Veteran comics, film and TV writer Peter David suffered a stroke a few days ago and has started the long struggle back. You can follow his journey, chronicled by his exceptionally together wife, at his website:

http://www.peterdavid.net/

Peter's wife suggests buying some of his books (especially the online ones, which I suspect pay him a much larger royalty than his Marvel work) to help them get through this difficult time. Evidently the family has health insurance, but there are still co-pays and all the stuff that insurance refuses to cover. Anyhow, you should check out their blog and consider buying a book or two.

But Peter's predicament brought to mind the entire debate over health care and "Obamacare" and the rest. Having had my own share of health issues over the last couple years, I am grateful for the existence of the Writer's Guild and the (excellent) coverage I get through their offices. As a freelance writer turned producer, I've worked for dozens of companies over the years, but my insurance remains constant. It is one (of the few) things I have not had to worry about since I joined the Guild 23 years ago.

When I hear people lamenting the idea of a national health care system, suggesting such a system could somehow bankrupt and destroy the American economy, I get frustrated. Because the current mercurial, expensive and inefficient insurance system often traps people in jobs they hate simply because they need the insurance and can't risk switching because of pre-existing conditions or other issues. Imagine how the American economy might flourish if these conscientious people, determined to keep themselves and their families covered and not become a drain on the system, were freed from being beholden to a job for insurance? How many small businesses and entrepreneurial ventures might arise if people could follow their dreams as opposed to being chained to some dead-end job? Having coverage has certainly liberated me and made it possible to follow my so-called dream.

I spent almost six months in Canada last year, and socialized medicine doesn't appear to have turned that country into a post apocalyptic wasteland. Quite the opposite, actually. We need something similar here.

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Movies! I Saw Some Movies!: So 2012 turned out to be a pretty good year for movies. I'm still catching up on screeners and screenings, but any year that coughs up LOOPER (superior science fiction) and DJANGO UNCHAINED (crazy Western) gets a big thumbs up.

DJANGO likely needs no introduction, it's Quentin Tarantino's latest and this time he "does" spaghetti Westerns like he did World War 2 movies in INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. From the opening sequence, with a new but already classic Django theme warbling in the b.g., I was hooked. Yes, it's got some insane violence, including a wildly over the top gun-fight battle that makes the Wild Bunch look like an episode of Gunsmoke. But the bad guys are bad and Django is good and that's what Westerns are all about. DJANGO is funny, clever, extremely well acted and worth a trip to the theater.

LOOPER is a time travel thriller, a genre for which I have a rather obvious affinity. Conceptually, I was intrigued that LOOPER demanded audiences accept not one, but two rather major "gimmes" re: the future world depicted. One, that there's time travel (with the usual panoply of vague rules) and two, there's also been an outbreak of telekinesis among 10% of the population. Usually one of these is enough... but they pull it off in grand style here.

Yes, one could argue that the criminal organization using time travel could have been a tad more creative. In the film, they send people they don't like 30 years back in time to be executed by assassins and that's basically "it." But I don't care. A movie this creative and thought-provoking gets a big thumbs up from yours truly.

SPOILERS BELOW:

CHERNOBYL DIARIES is NOT one of the movies that made 2012 great, but I finally caught up with it because I'm fascinated with nuclear power/weapons/Chernobyl and "etc." First off, a disclaimer about the title -- there's no diary! The movie starts with some found footage-ish material but (thankfully) drops that conceit fairly quickly and becomes a straight horror movie. A gaggle of American tourists decide to take an "extreme tourism" trip to the empty town of Pripyat, emptied and left vacant after the nearby Chernobyl reactor exploded. But the tour van breaks down and our hapless tourists are stuck in Pripyat. Which, wouldn't you know, has been overrun with... well, that gets into spoilers. Avert your eyes if you want the mysteries of Chernobyl Diaries to remain exactly that...

Anyhow, the area is overrun by radioactive mutants, who, like all movie radioactive mutants, are not tragically afflicted folks consigned to hospital beds, but are in fact powerful, ruthless cannibalistic (I think) killers. Somewhat social, since mobs of them attack newcomers, but otherwise mean little buggers. Why the radiation hasn't reduced them to blind, stumbling wrecks like our "heroes" is left unexplained. Oh well. There is a fascinating movie to be made from the Chernobyl debacle, but until they make it this oddball horror offshoot is resolutely "okay." Like a lot of these movies, I get sucked in by the atmosphere and creepy-crawly scares, but when monsters start eating everyone I start checking out.

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Television In The News! 1-3-13!: We are truly living in the golden age of television!

So, are you one of those people who misses the risky "on the edge" vibe of live television? You won't after watching this:

http://laist.com/2013/01/02/video_local_tv_stations_disastrous.php

Twin Peaks may be coming back?!

http://www.uproxx.com/tv/2013/01/twin-peaks-returning/

More live television antics that morality groups single out when fundraising from people who would never see these moments unless they were pointed out to them. Hence somewhat defeating the purpose of sheltering their precious eyes from such depravity, but what do I know, anyway?!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/kathy-griffin-backlash-nye-cooper-video_n_2400000.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl4|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D252183

And here's some token vegetable news to fill out this huge news day!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/king-louis-xvi-blood-squash-beheading-dna_n_2399175.html

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Ramblings On Xmas Eve 2012...: I've been enjoying a few days of doing absolutely no writing. When I go through these (intentionally) fallow times, I always remember Harlan Ellison's conviction that real writers HAVE to write. I guess he's on to something, since I'm taking a break from sorting my music collection to bang out this blog entry... does that count?

It's probably just a mental thing, but I love the sense of peace that sinks in over the holidays. I took a drive down the Pacific Coast Highway last week, just doing some errands, and it was an absolutely perfect day. Sunny. Not much traffic. I stopped for a cup of coffee and the folks at the shop seemed smiley-er than usual. As I left, a lady wearing a Santa cap looked over at me and smiled. Dropped by a magazine stand, picked up the new issue of "Mojo" and thought to myself, well, isn't this grand? I can bitch and moan and whine up a storm when the gloomy feelings hit, so it seems only fair to acknowledge and appreciate the world when things are actually okay.

Of course, after my drive, I made the mistake of watching the NRA's unctuous spokesman pontificate on "Meet The Press." There went all those good feelings. This guy's idea of dealing with the ridiculous proliferation of guns and high capacity ammo magazines remains to a), put an armed officer in every school in America and b), create a national database of "the mentally ill" (whom he generously refers to as "lunatics" and "monsters") which will allow the always unidentified someone to do the always unspecified something which will theoretically end these shooting sprees. If this medieval list ever does come to pass, I look forward to the squeals when the clinical paranoids who think more guns are the solution to our nation's gun problem find themselves classified among the "lunatics."

Nothing more to do after that than to thread up director William Friedkin and writer Tracy Letts' "Killer Joe", a fine picture that I'm sure fits onto the NRA guy's third to-do list, which is to clean up all the violent movies and video games. I've said my piece on that particular subject in an earlier blog post, and anyway I rather doubt "Killer Joe" will send anyone out on a murder spree. Rated NC-17 for reasons I don't quite understand, "Killer" tells the sad story of a family of Texas cretins who hatch a plan to kill "Mom" for the insurance money. They make the mistake of recruiting "Killer Joe", a Texas cop who moonlights as a hit-man, played by Matthew McConaughey. Joe takes the family's sweet little daughter as down payment for the murder and things go downhill from there. If you get the feeling this entire clan would wind up on Mr. NRA's "Mentally Ill" list, you'd be right. But despite the description, "Killer" is an extremely black comedy that actually generates some genuine laughs from the grotesque situation(s). If you ever wondered what it would look like to be bashed in the face repeatedly with canned pumpkin, this movie is for you!

Now back to doing nothing... except enjoying the holidays!

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On Violence In The Media...: Another horrible mass shooting, another round of pundits raising the specter of "violent video games and movies" and suggesting curbs, restrictions and limitations. On games, of course, not on guns, because we've got to have our guns.

Not to be too simplistic about it, but unless you smash an X-Box over someone's head, video games will never kill anyone. An "accidental discharge" of Grand Theft Auto will never blow someone's head off. No one will ever be cut down by a Matrix blu-ray disc with a 100 round magazine. Does violent media contribute to the coarsening of society? Probably, but then so does cutting funding for public schools, eliminating mental health programs, making it difficult-to-impossible for people to maintain medical coverage and a host of other societal factors. The mother of the shooter in the Connecticut massacre was evidently stock-piling weapons out of fear of a coming financial/societal collapse. I doubt she got those ideas from watching The Transporter.

So can we please call this for what it is? That it's a lot easier for these pious hand-wringers to pick on "Hollywood" and/or video games than it is for them to buck the N.R.A.? [?]

Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz Blog [edit]

Newtekâs 3D thursday throwdown: If you’re a visual effects groupie (or just enjoy gawking at really cool, Emmy-Award winning eye candy for a couple hours) you’ll want to make your way to beautiful downtown North Hollywood on Thursday night at 6:30.Â That’s where Newtek (makers of Lightwave 3D, the ground breaking computer animation software that started the CGI revolution) [...] [?]
iphone + sound machine = blade runner: Pictured above, Deckard swipes his iPhone and orders some Chinese.Â Now youÂ can use your precious iDevice to immerse yourself in the world of Blade Runner with an app called Sleep Machine, a neat littleÂ program meant to help you sleep by generating ambient sounds like wind, rain, surf and crickets.Â Â Now that’s greatÂ if you want to pretend [...] [?]
third timeâs the charm: [WARNING: NO SPOILERS] Some people love to hate Michael Bay. Some people also love to hate movies that exist primarily to sell toys (kinda bizarreÂ how two, high profile examples of this “genre” were released at the same time this week), so it should come as no surprise that a number of early reviews for Â Transformers: [...] [?]
ok ok yes i know thereâs been less action around here than at an amish prom but i just had an idea for a photoshop contest that nearly made me blast egg nog out of my noseâ¦: I’m calling on my loyal readers who still keep the faith (both of you) to sharpen yourÂ stylusÂ and get cracking on this one: TRONALD MCDONALD I’m way too lazy toÂ do it myself, but i’d loveÂ to seeÂ this visualized!Â Â I’m keeping my fingers crossedÂ that someone reading this also thinks theÂ concept is too funny to pass up.Â And speaking of [...] [?]
Happy Birthday Battlestar Galactica!: Thirty Two years ago today, ABC rocked the house with the first-ever airing of Battlestar Galactica.Â Killer robots, thrusting spaceships and Lorne Green’s toupe would forever change my world.Â It also marked the official start of the 25 year countdown to Ron Moore’s epic re-imagining of the series, which breathed new life into the Galactica [...] [?]
itâs alive!: Hey everyone… 1,000 pardons for not posting anything sooner, but as many of you have summised I am indeed working on some new material I can’t really discuss yet.Â Of course, that’s no reason for not telling everyone sooner!Â The fact is, after a year of freelance, going back to a regular work schedule really [...] [?]
you know youâre *really* a nerd whenâ¦: This is what happens when you cross a nerd with too much time on his handsÂ with a warped sense of humor (pun intended).Â The ever-talentedÂ (and ever-warped)Â Daren Dochterman decided thatÂ myÂ urinalÂ puck and Nintendo remote from recent posts were begging to make the leap from pseudo Star TrekÂ wannabe to iron-clad canon.Â So, ladies and gentleman, we present to [...] [?]
you know youâre a nerd whenâ¦: … the USS Enterprise just keeps showing up no matter where you look.Â First it’s in a urinal, now it’s a fishing rod controller for the Nintendo Wii.Â What’s next?Â The Jefferies Tube in a salami?Â Â A Phaser in a beard trimmer?Â Is it us or is the whole world actually trying to look like [...] [?]
and the winner is (really this time)â¦: What a fascinating trip this hasÂ been!Â Who would have ever guessed I’d be able to milk two weeks worth of posts from a silly picture of a bad Halloween costume?Â Who else but sci-fi fans could turn a quick chuckle into a raging ethical debate?Â I want to thank everyone who not only took part [...] [?]
and the winner isâ¦: So theÂ polls areÂ closed and the results are… interesting.Â During the first few days of voting, the “Khhhaaaaannnn!!” image was well ahead with double the votes of everyone else.Â The race for second was very close indeed, and “Animated XL Kirk” was the front runner for last place.Â Then I opened the floor up to “Kobayashi [...] [?]

Cast

Patrick "Flick" Harrison (Bell) Blog [edit]

We Are Here â A Community Mapping Project- FINAL CELEBRATION: PLEASE JOIN SOMETHING COLLECTIVE (Maggie Winston, Laura Barron, Juliana Bedoya, Natalie Gan and Flick Harrison) ON SATURDAY, MAY 18TH, FROM 1-3 PM, AT THE SUNSET COMMUNITY CENTRE TO CELEBRATE Something Collective, the Artists-in-Residence team at SCC, has worked and played over the last few months engaging community members in a variety of arts activities that [...] [?]
Free Book Launch â World Film Locations: Vancouver | The Cinematheque: I wrote several articles for this book and compiled an amazing reel of scenes shot in Vancouver for the event tonight.Â Come down for a free discussion and screening! Join us as U.K.-based publisher Intellect Books launches the new book World Film Locations: Vancouver (Bristol, U.K.: Intellect, 2013) and we celebrate Vancouver films and filmmakers [...] [?]
A Moving @ International Dance Week, Vancity Cinema: The film I made with Rob Kitsos, A Moving, is showing at Vancity today at 2pm with some other dance shorts! I believe it's free... Dance on Film: Sunday April 28, 1-3pm 1-2pm: Kristina Lemieux moderates a discussion with Josh Martin, Kat Single-Dain and Brian Johnson on the creative process of dance filmmaking from the [...] [?]
UNTIMELY MISSIVES : Yactac Gallery: Check out this mail art show by Penelope Hetherington, a facebook-resisting artist whom I've known since her days in the Hot Toddy Girls avante-garde burlesque troupe, writing for Discorder and performing in the cabaret duo Psychotic Butler. She produced this latest show by mailing out a bunch of coupons from very old magazines and collecting [...] [?]
Intro to Adobe Premiere CS6 | vivomediaarts.com: Intro to Premiere | vivomediaarts.com Tuesday, April 16, 7-10 PM Adobe Premiere is fast, easy to use, and powerful. This class introduces the Adobe edit system to new editors. Learn how to ingest footage into the system, cut your video, add soundtrack, titles and effects, and output to various formats. Most importantly, you'll learn how [...] [?]
SANKASET â Public Engagement and the Arts | Kristina Lemieux: Watch my public chat with Tara Cheyenne-Friedenberg and Kristina Lemieux at Rhizome Cafe about public engagement in the arts.Â #artsandpublic SANKASET is a series of dialogues on arts organizations, audience engagement & citizenship.Â The series kicked off with a dialogue about the Canada Council for the Artsâ recent publication Public Engagement in the Arts, between [...] [?]
Flick teaches video journalism at VIVO: Learn on-camera reporting, off-camera interview skills, documentary shooting techniques, polished journalistic writing skills, and documentary editing. February 23, 2013 - 12:00pm - 5:00pm February 24, 2013 - 12:00pm - 5:00pm Video Journalism At VIVO Media Arts 1965 Main St @ 4th To sign up email us atÂ education@vivomediaarts.comÂ or call 604.872.8337/ext.1 Participants will develop a documentary concept [...] [?]
Flick teaches Intro to Adobe Premiere: Intro to Adobe Premiere CS6 Monday, February 11, 2013 - 7:00pm - 10:00pm VIVO Media Arts Centre, Vancouver I'm teaching this video editing workshop on Adobe Premiere, the video editing software that some people are calling the true Final Cut Pro 8.Â If you hate Final Cut X, or want to try a more pro-editor [...] [?]
Film Tax Credits are for Wusses: Originally published in Terminal City Weekly in Vancouver, in November of 2001. "Today, despite all the broadcast hardware, the studios with their cameras, the control rooms with their millions and millions of dollars of snazzy equipment, despite the satellites in the sky, the armies of TV and film crews stretched out from coast to coast, [...] [?]
Anonymoose at VIVO this Friday!: Catherine Falkner and I made an avant-garde propaganda film in Newfoundland with the Tordon Players during our residency at Black Bag Media Collective... The first public screening will be this Friday! Check it out: IN MEDIAS RES A short film festival featuring artists living and working in Mount Pleasant. Graciously supported by the Mount Pleasant [...] [?]

Tricia Helfer (Number Six) Blog [edit]

Tricia Helfer, Number 6 on Battlestar Galactica, Rescues Cats - Pet News and Views: Check out this ‘Pet News and Views’ article about Tricia’s passion for animals! www.petnewsandviews.com> **************** Tricia Helfer, Number 6 on Battlestar Galactica, Rescues Cats Tricia Helfer has always loved cats. When she is away from home, her husband, Jonathan Marshall, sends her updates and photos of each one of their cats. âHe knows how important they are to me,â [...] [?]
2nd Annual Fur Ball at the Skirball: Kitten Rescue of Los Angeles, a charity close to Tricia’s heart, is holding their second annual Fur Ball at the Skirball fundraiser hosted by Jenna Fischer of The Office. Tricia attended the enagural event last year and looks forward to the ‘09 celebration! Tricia Helfer at the first annual ‘Fur Ball at the Skirball’ in 2008. www.KittenRescue.org Tickets [...] [?]
Ask Katee & Tricia - Part Seven: Well, itâs our final episode of Ask Katee & Tricia Battlestar Galactica Edition. In this final episode the ladies talk about the seriesâ political and religious aspects and explain their thoughts on role models both on screen and off. YouTube Direktvideo link It has been a blast bringing you all these clips over the past couple of [...] [?]
AIDS Walk Los Angeles: Tricia recently took part in the 25th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles alongside fellow Battlestar Galactica alumni, Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Michael Nankin (director) and David Weddle (writer/producer). And congratulations to Katee Sackhoff for raising over $8,000 for the cause! Kudos to you, Katee! Photos taken by Jenny Christodal. [Click on images below to enlarge] Â Â Â Above: Tricia [...] [?]
Ask Katee & Tricia - Part Six: Can you believe weâre already up to Part Six?! We are getting close to the last of our clips, but not quite yet! In this weekâs episode the ladies discuss working with the various directors throughout the series and also some of the things they did to train and prepare for their stunts and fight scenes. As [...] [?]
Fur Ball at the Skirball!: Join Tricia at the 2nd annual ‘Fur Ball at the Skirball’ Saturday, December 5th at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. The event raises money for Kitten Rescue - an animal charity close to Tricia’s heart. Â [?]
Tricia Walks for a Cause: Tricia will take part in the 25th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles on October 18th. If you would like to sponsor Tricia, go to the AIDS Walk L.A page, click “Take Action”, then hit “Sponsor a Walker” and search for Tricia Helfer. [?]
Ask Katee & Tricia - Part Five: Itâs another episode of “Ask Katee & Tricia Battlestar Galactica Edition” featuring Katee Sackhoff. In this clip Katee and Tricia talk about BSG pranks, what their characters would never do or say and how much input Tricia had on the Number Six character. As always the ladies offer insight into the BSG series with much humor and [...] [?]
Shop Donation: We are pleased to announce that www.triciahelfer.com has made a donation from the T-Shop sales to Humane Society of Durham Region in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Thank you for your continued support! [?]
Ask Katee & Tricia - Part Four: This week we continue our exclusive “Ask Katee & Tricia: Battlestar Galactica Edition” featuring Katee Sackhoff. The ladies discuss some of their favorite episodes, the most unpleasant things they had to do during the series and what Michael Hogan, Donnelly Rhodes and Dean Stockwell are like in real life. Itâs another informative and hilarious Q & [...] [?]

Nicki Clyne (Cally Tyrol) Blog [edit]

back in... white?: nevermind. i just wanted to say hello, send my regards, and hopefully dodge the bitter epithets coming my way after such a long absence... makes the heart grow stronger though, right? RIGHT? i could make excuses (i've been away, working... [?]
horribly good: while i find it highly unlikely that i be the first to introduce you to the most awesomest thing to hit internetland since scrabulous, it is still my pleasure and my privilege to order you to watch Joss Whedon's "Dr.... [?]
my new favorite thing: as if Apple hasn't created enough cool commodities for me to fawn over, i've recently discovered their delightful and often insightful selection of podcasts. more specifically, Apple and indieWIRE was host to a series of filmmaker talks during the Tribeca... [?]
canadian content: bonjour mes amis! so i've been doing quite a few interviews lately (i'll do my best to keep you up to date on their whereabouts), but last week i ventured into a somewhat similar, but also very different, sort of... [?]
my water purifier: looks like a... well, you know. [?]
up until his dying day...: he was doing what he loved. Sydney Pollack will be missed... perhaps the reason he was able to achieve his vision so highly and so gracefully is that he believed this: "I mean, the truth of the matter is, I... [?]
blog talk radio flyer: hey! sorry i didn't post this sooner... still getting used to this space time continuum thing. *sigh* but i just finished an interview with shaun omac at blog talk radio! maybe they have archives? was great fun though, thanks for... [?]
so say we all...: *spoiler alert for anyone who hasn't seen the most up to date episodes. ps. what's wrong with you??* wow, where to begin. it's been an interesting journey. from the beginning of the series, to the growth and increasing depth of... [?]
i'm right here, gosh: FEAR NOT my friends... some have expressed concern regarding my whereabouts and/or lack of communications. well i have good news, for me at least. i have been extremely busy. working on our business, promoting, meeting interesting people. currently, i am... [?]
funny stuff: my friend sent me this, i thought you might find it humorous... click to enlarge. [?]

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