Little Toy Robot

Here are some humorous ads promoting books [via AdJab]. The tagline: “Read it Before Hollywood Does”. I’m not sure if they’re real, but they’re still funny.

On a related note, I am now reading Richard K. Morgan’s Woken Furies. I am enjoying it so far, and I noticed from the author’s bio that he seems to be making a decent living from optioning his books to movie studios. I wonder what percentage of options get filmed and released.

It must be a very small number, but also a difficult number to quantify. For example, Michael Chabon’s Mysteries of Pittsburgh, a 1988 novel, is just beginning to get the film treatment 18 years later. And 2000’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay could be next, though we’ll see how long that takes..

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Seriously, I nodded off a few times on my couch to this. Maybe I’ll give it another try - it’s on my TiVo, after all - but only after a serious jolt of caffeine.

I admit I wasn’t sure about Eko. In general, I am not friendly towards any of the people from the back of the plane. The show had a big enough cast as it is; I hated the way the whole flow of the plot was put on hold at the beginning of season 2 to introduce these new folks.

But that said, how cool was it when Eko stared down that black smoke? Because black smoke is scary! At least when it’s accompanied by violent sound effects and ominous music.

Now, how the fuck did that plane get from Nigeria to some remote South Pacific (?) island? This is a little more concrete than, say, Jack thinking he saw his father.

Another thought: What’s with Walt typing this?

Can’t talk long. They’re coming back soon.

Who takes the time to type that out if there’s really a problem? Just tell him what’s up, little guy!

Last year was the year I fell in love with television. I was always a casual television watcher. My brothers and I would always fight to stay up late and watch Letterman. In college I subsisted mainly on late-night Seinfeld reruns and Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and after college, of course, I went through the obligatory Buffy thing like all good geeks did. With a few exceptions (cartoons, Jon Stewart), I haven’t been much into television until 2005.

I am not, I hope you realize by now, a snob. I just didn’t watch much tv.

What brought me back? Lost. I caught it in reruns after the regular season ran, and then I rushed out to buy the first season on DVD to plug in some holes (the reruns skipped a few episodes over the summer) to be prepared for the beginning of the second season. I love the masterful manipulation of the show, the way the plot tramps on without mercy, the deep insight into the histories of the characters, and of course the obsessive fandom shared among friends, coworkers, and all those people out there on the Web.

And Lost opened the door, along with recommendations from friends, shows like Veronica Mars, which sort of carries the torch of Buffy on UPN, and Alias, which should be no surprise, because it shares the same creator as Lost. Also, while I still have no patience for sitcoms, I have discovered Scrubs, and think that there’s nothing funnier in the universe than a good episode of Scrubs.

Lost is back tonight after a hiatus. I can’t wait.

(The title of this post comes from a Robyn Hitchcock song, from his latest album, Spooked)

I always liked the Transformers more than Voltron, but like every good kid I watched the Voltron cartoon and played with the Voltron toys. Don’t quote me, but I think my Voltron action figures ended up at the bottom of a lake in Florida (result of the experiment: they didn’t float), which is a far more glamorous death than most of my toys, which usually ended up being eaten by one of my dogs.

Anyway, there will be a Voltron film, and I’m sure it will be crappy, but it’s got robots, so hey.

Is it me or does Davey Jones, ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman in the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean sequel, look like the bastard half-son of Cthulhu?

Well, lookee here!

It seems that Family Guy isn’t the only animated Fox series that will receive a direct-to-DVD movie. Our friend Ken Plume over at IGN spoke with Billy West (voice of Fry and others) and received confirmation that the movie will happen, and there’s a possibility of a follow-up.

The best thing that has happened on the new Family Guys is when Peter decides to console his friend Cleveland, whose wife is cheating on him, by singing the B-52s song “Rock Lobster.”

Full transcript on the Family Guy Wiki. Hey, there’s a Family Guy Wiki!

Oh hey. How about this? It’s funny.

What is the biggest misconception about Williams Street and the people who make our shows?

That it’s all drug-induced. Most of us are naturally crazy, thank you very much. And we aren’t responsible for every commercial on our air. Except maybe Bling it On. And we don’t hate anime, we love anime. We hate rabid anime fans. I know because I am an anime fan and I hate myself.

Ricky Gervais, star of The Office, will be on Letterman this Friday night pimping Flanimals.

The verdict on Seth Green’s latest project, Robot Chicken: Two robo-thumbs up! Robot Chicken is about ten minutes of non-stop pop culture satire told with toys in stop-motion animation with some computer effects (mouth and eyes). I think.

I don’t know if the quality of the show can be sustained over any period of time, but it has definitely earned its chance.

And if you happened to be watching, you may have seen Clunky Robot in his brand-new Sealab 2021 commercial!

This past weekend I saw Sideways, a buddy flick about two middle-aged friends who spend a week before one’s marriage chasing women and dreams and the perfect bottle of wine. It certainly didn’t sound good, but it got good reviews (and really, what else is playing now?). It was a little long and got a little boring, but so is life, and all in all my friends and I enjoyed it.

It stars Paul Giamatti, a personal favorite of mine, and not just because his father was the last good Commissioner of Major League Baseball. Giamatti, you will recall, was also in American Splendor, Cradle Will Rock, and … Private Parts?

I’ve added a recent photo of myself at the right.

Today is the official release date of the following DVDs:

• Space Ghost Coast to Coast - Volume Two
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force - Volume Three
• Home Movies - Season One

(I wonder [I say sarcastically] if the recent Adult Swim media blitz is somehow related to this?)

• The Office Special
• The Office - The Complete Collection (First And Second Series Plus Feature Length Special)

Buy them all, citizen consumer!

That’s right. [via largehearted boy]

I’m not going to accuse Chabon of selling out. The dude’s gotta make money, and the quality of the writing that he can bring to the table in a project like this is likely to be pretty high. The problem is that when you’re working on a large film project, individual contributions go through the ringer and what you usually end up with is just a plain ol’ big budget Hollywood movie. So it’s nothing I’m terribly excited about, not like the three Chabon book projects coming out in November.

Again, I am a sucker for an Adult Swim promo. Free Hockey Chicken!

And don’t forget to read his Bok-Bok-A-Blog (no RSS feed).