thebitterguy

Over on Mark Evanier's blog (which is such a great read, if only for his tales of the origin of Scrappy Doo) he reminds us that it's been 50 years since George Reeves died.

I remember that and I remember the great sense of shock my friends and I all felt. It wasn't the first time we'd heard a favorite TV person had died. Lou Costello had passed away three months earlier. But Mr. Costello's death was pretty normal and anyway, he wasn't Superman. The death of Superman cried out for twists and turns and a surprise ending...and while you played with all that, it was easy to forget how dreadfully sad it was. There was something about George Reeves on TV...some little twinkle and sense of humor that underscored his acting. When I've interviewed Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane to his Clark and Superman, I always ask her, "Was he has nice a man as it seems to us watching at home?" She always replies, "Even nicer." I think I'd rather remember than than the way it ended.

Reeves tenure as Superman predates... well, it predates me, significantly. I saw a few episodes of the show, but mostly I saw the Superman episode of I Love Lucy. Then there was the Afflect movie from a few years back.

Another in the ongoing series of joy that is Reel Toronto, it's Exit Wounds. The author seems to go kind of hard on it. I mean, it isn't the worst Steven Segal movie, much less the worst movie filmed in Toronto. But it's always good to get a peek behind the magic movie curtain.

Over on his website, Peter David ponders the news about a possible Buffy Remake.

I could very well be wrong–in fact, wouldn’t be surprised if I was–but I see this as a big negotiating ploy. I think that at some point the producers must have approached Whedon, he had terms they were reluctant to meet (money, creative control, whatever) and so they’ve gone public with the notion that they’re willing to proceed without him in order to gain negotiating leverage.

He also points out that Gene Roddenberry was strongly involved with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but encouraged people to skip The Wrath of Khan. Which is, at the very least, an interesting anecdote.

That's my problem, you see. I'm unfamiliar with the canon.

I don't know about the back history of this thing, whether this thing is Tolkien's Middle Earth, Fleming's James Bond, or Doyle's Holmes. So if I see a media iteration, I'll assume that's it. Even if I know there's gaping bloody holes in it, I'm fine as long as that's behind the scenes (or at least out of my eyesight).*

I'm usually not familiar with the genre (any genre), even if I love it. No, seriously, I'm a huge fan of Godzilla and other Kaiju, but the US Remake makes up an unacceptable percentage of my viewing history. Most of my knowledge comes from a magazine article that included an illustration of Big G done by John Severin (IIRC). I love the concept of giant monsters, and remember enough that I know that any Godzilla movie with a baby Godzilla is likely to suck. But I don't know the canon.

I'm married to a Trekkie, but my exposure was mostly through CKWS' Saturday afternoon broadcasts which, and I am serious, seemed to consist almost entirely of reruns of Devil in the Dark**. I read a scattering of the novels (which tended to be about the quality of... Well, Star Trek novels). My first consistent exposure to the franchise was TNG, which I still recognized as being off.

Dr. Who? Look, that just scares me. The Canon on that sucker consists of 40 years of TV, much of it only preserved by monastic scribes while society fell around them.

Marvel Comics of the '80s? Sure, I am familiar with that Canon. Champions? I'm familiar with that Canon, mostly by luck. D&D? Canonical by assimilation. Star Wars? Religiously, up until Zahn's atrocious trilogy, which was easy enough (he said sardonically, drinking a hot chocolate while his lightsaber opened with a snap hiss). But then I schismed.

But mostly? I'm not familiar with the Canon.

That's freeing. I can look at something and not go "But that isn't right". I can judge things on their own merits, as much as I'm able to. Experiencing without the depth of history is a valid experience, just as much as approaching it with a bibliographic knowledge of which side of the aluminum foil was used for the Cybermen costume in which specific episode.

So I don't mind that I am unfamiliar with the canon.

* I suspect this is the same reason people can enjoy the LXG film.

** To this day I cannot recall having seen City on the Edge of Forever in full. Or Amok Time. I'm pretty sure I saw the Gangster one. And the Nazi one. And the Jesus one. And the one with the rabbit and Kirk getting beat up by a drunken Irishman.

A) It sucks quite a bit that you cannot get either Hogfather or Colour of Magic from Amazon.ca OR Chapters. Sure, you can get it from Amazon.com, but they've started charging for duties EVEN THOUGH THEY SHIP FROM MISSISSAUGA.

B) Okay, yeah, we had fun at Trek. But the Fridge moment for that movie (which, admittedly, didn't hit me until Cynra & I were having Timmy's and donuts ten hours later) was a doozy.

We also took in a film from Hot Docs Ron Mann retrospective, which was about the Twist (the link is to an interview of Ron Mann by Peter Gzowski, which will mean nothing to 90% of you).

I really need to learn more about music history. Disco and R&B and, admittedly, Rock is all various types of enigmas for me.

So, Friday night Cynra & I took in Zombie Girl at the Hot Docs FF. The film documents a young film-maker's first efforts at making a feature length zombie film.

No, a seriously young filmmaker. She's 12.

The film is about Emily Hagins, a young filmmaker from Texas. Emily was a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings films, and a fan letter to Peter Jackson gets her in touch with internet nerdmaster Harry Knowles (masterfully played by Ethan Supplee... Wait, no, wrong movie). After one of Knowles' patented film marathons where she saw cult horror film Undead, she begins to make shorts, and eventually decides to create her own zombie film, Pathogen.

Independent film-making is a fascinating beast to watch. Doubly so when it's by someone who had to get taken to see her inspirations by her mom. Her mom Megan is one of the anchors of the film. While Megan is always supportive of her daughters The back and forth during filming is an interesting examination of the maturation process. Emily is the director, surely, but eventually mom has to put her foot down and say that filming is done for tonight.

Watching kids play at adult roles is always a strange thing. There's a lack of knowledge of both themselves and the world that makes you dread to see how things can go wrong. Pathogen gets derailed early in the film-making process, but Emily soldiers on, with the shooting time stretching into two years (after school and during vacations, with months long breaks where things just get disrupted).

The film is finally finished, and exhibited (with help from an independant filmmaker's grant that Emily shows no interest in, but which her mom is quite enthusiastic to get) at the Alamo Drafthouse. An amusing fact is that you never see a single frame of finished film from Pathogen. You do get to hear lots of people talking about how difficult it was to do the final production work, and how bad the sound was, so that may be for the best.

Trailer NSFW.

Rodriguez is eyeing a June start date in Austin for "Machete," a film that is financed and produced by Overnight Productions, with Danny Trejo starring as the title character.

I guess Ron Jeremy is finally getting his mainstream recognition.

Earlier today, Gian Ghomeshi, AKA The Persian Guy from Moxy Fruvous, hosted Billy-Bob Thornton AKA The Former Mr. Angelina Jolie on Q, his daily Arts & Culture radio show on the CBC. Billy Bob... Billy Bob had emotional issues.

Apparently he's disavowed any knowledge of having been an actor (Most folks call it being a pompous ass, I reckon) and took umbrage wiht being mentioned as such.

The blowup (as it were) has gone a bit viral, even finding its way to the HQ of class, TMZ.com.

Well, I hopped over to Q-TV to check it out (see the video above) and as I started recharging my iPhone, I noticed that the Q Podcast was downloading. Now, I don't know what the normal turnaround time is for the Q Podcast, but it appears this is strictly BBT's blowup.

So, yeah, the CBC appears to be keeping on top of this. Good for 'em, I figure.

I presume many of you have seen the fairly impressive short film that made W.E. orgasm in his underoos, but if you haven't here it is:



The Star did an article about the creators of the piece this past weekend, describing why they put it together and the effect it's had on their careers.

They're scouting locations in Pennsylvania for part II, and they're working on a WW II film as well.