PeterDavid.net

I only knew Andy Hallett, the wonderfully talented actor who brought the green skinned “Lorne” (“Lorne Green? Get it?”) to life on “Angel,” from casual encounters at Dragon*Con. But he was wonderfully sweet, charming, and fun to be with. If you never had the opportunity to meet him, then tragically you never will, since heart disease took him from us at the insanely young age of 33. He will be missed.

At some point today, stop and sing a chorus of “Lady Marmalade” in his memory.

PAD

So I’m reading all these reviews of “Monsters vs. Aliens” written by people who are not remotely the target audience.  In the interest of even-handedness, I present the following review written by my daughter, Caroline, aged six.  Spoilers abound, but I didn’t want to restrict her creativity.  This is, word for word, her description and opinions.  Believe it or not, they are 100% accurate. (more…)

So we did reasonably okay, although I doubt any of us cashed.  I shot a 207, a 229, and a 223.  For some reason my thumb kept swelling, so I’d be fine for a few frames and then the ball wouldn’t come off my hand properly.  On the other hand, I did better than I did last year.

Below is a picture of Kathleen, Ariel and I with Walter Ray Williams, who we bowled with in our last five frames and is considered the greatest living bowler in the world.

K

I will be in the audience at the 2:00pm ESPN broadcast today wearing my Spider-man Jersey.

…and heading out to the PBA Pro/Am Bowling Tournament late this afternoon at Babylon Lanes in Long Island. Ariel and, in her very first time in a Pro/Am, Kathleen, will be bowling alongside me on the 7 PM squad. Since it’s the fourth squad, there will probably be little to no oil on the lanes, so I’m not sure how well we’ll do, but here’s hoping. If you’re in the neighborhood, feel free to stop by.

PAD

The authorities in New Jersey who have arrested a fourteen-year-old girl on charges of child pornography. Why? Because she posted on line, supposedly for her boyfriend to see, naked pictures of herself.

Yes. Herself.

Supposedly if she’s convicted, she will be facing jail time and be forced to register as a sex offender under laws that were designed to protect people like her from…well…people like her.

Look, obviously this girl’s not the brightest bulb in the box, and were I her father I’d be mortified beyond belief. But wait…what? Child pornography? A sex offender? For putting up pictures of herself? Seriously?

PAD

Well, we certainly got some discussion going last week, so that was nice. I’ve started putting the date in the threader heading. Yes, I know it’s already up there on the tab to the left, but I figure it will eliminate potential confusion for the “Recent posts” list over on the right.

PAD

…along comes someone billing him or herself as “Lady Sybilla,” who has announced the publication of (we’ll extend benefit of the doubt) her own sequel to “Twilight” entitled “Russet Noon.”

It staggers the imagination that Lady Sybilla might actually be a worse writer than Stephenie Meyer.  The title, however –which evokes images of a sun-baked potato–would seem to suggest that is so, as does Sybilla’s tendency to respond to controversy by using mangled cliches ( ”bad publicity is better than no publicity;”  ”controversy is the mother of popularity.” ) Then again, if her endeavor, which purports to tell the saga from the point of view of  the character of Jacob, displays a fraction of the fantasy put forward by her doubtless-soon-to-be-sued publisher, it could be pretty formidable.  Her publisher, the aptly named AV Paranormal, declared:

“When fictional characters become such an intricate part of the popular psyche, as is the case with the Twilight Saga, legal boundaries become blurred, and copyright laws become increasingly difficult to define. This is especially the case when actual cities like Forks and Volterra are used as the novel’s settings. Such settings are not copyrightable, as they are considered public domain. Similarly, the Quileute Nation is also not copyrightable, and neither are vampire or werewolf legends. Copyright laws protect writers from unauthorized reproductions of their work, but such reproductions only include verbatim copying. Characters are only copyrightable if their creator draws them or hires an artist to draw them. Stephenie Meyer herself borrowed a great deal from previous works dealing with these mythologies.”

While this point of view might be applauded by the “everything should be free to everyone on the internet” crowd, the wrongheadedness of these sentiments is staggering.  Vampires, werewolves, and the names of towns and Indian nations are public domain.  Specific characters are protected by copyright.  There is no blurred boundary here, no difficulty in defining it.  This is theft, pure and simple.    It should not be countenanced, and I have to hope a cease and desist letter is already en route if it hasn’t been delivered already.

You can read more here.

PAD

I was asked on the BSG thread what I thought of the change on the Sci Fi channel to Sy Fy.

I tend to agree with what Isaac Asimov once told me: Sci Fi was a stupid term from the very beginning. When it was first coined, it was supposed to be a play on “Hi Fi.” But Hi Fi was short for High Fidelity. Sci Fi didn’t track because “fiction” isn’t pronounced with a long “i” sound.

So to my mind, Sy Fy makes as much sense as Sci Fi, which is to say, none. Garbage in, garbage out.

PAD

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Hugo award winner for Best Dramatic Presentation of 2009. (more…)

Feel free to respond with the pun of your choice

So last week we got exactly eight comments. If I’m gonna keep providing you guys this space, I’d like to see you taking more advantage.

A reminder: Out this week, X-Factor #41.

PAD

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ELLISON SUES STAR TREK

Harlan Ellison, multiple award-winning writer of the famed teleplay for the original Star Trek episode, City on the Edge of Forever, sued Paramount on March 13, 2009 for failing to account to, or pay, Mr. Ellison for the merchandising, publishing, or any other exploitations, of the famous teleplay, from inception to date.  The suit also names the Writers Guild of America and alleges the WGA failed to act on Ellison’s behalf after numerous requests. (more…)

For those who were disconcerted by the “Final issue” blurb on “Fallen Angel #33,” below is artwork from the upcoming relaunch.  Guest-starring Illyria, it will be (to the best of my knowledge) the first time a Joss Whedon character has appeared in a major adventure outside of the Whedonverse.  And yes, feel free to reproduce these images elsewhere for the dining and dancing pleasure of fellow fans.

Jon Stewart just kicked the living crap out of Cramer on “The Daily Show,” proving once and for all that when you make foolish comments such as that investors should dump all their shares of Stark Industries, you get what’s coming to you. Somewhere Tony Stark was watching and saying, “Good.”

PAD

Okay, I’ve seen it twice and had plenty of time to think about it. My first question is: Am I the only person who has a mental image of three hundred Doctor Manhattans, wielding shields with happy faces or perhaps the letter “W” carved on it, bellowing, “We…ARE…WATCHMEN!”

Second, I don’t know if it’s humanly possible to have “spoilers” in any discussion since it seems a safe bet that everyone reading this blog has read the book and everyone knows there’s no squid. This, frankly, didn’t bother me one iota since I never liked it in the first place , and it wasn’t particularly original (so much so that Moore felt obliged to include a shout out to the “The Outer Limits” episode, “Architects of Fear,” from which he lifted it.)

Basically, what we have is a fairly competent, sometimes eerily accurate, “Reader’s Digest” version of the book. Subtext is lost, themes are diluted, backstory and the small human dramas that provided a lot of the punch to the climactic annihilation are gone. But essentially the story is there and the characters are there, undiluted by the same kind of Hollywood thinking that used to put forward such brilliant edicts as, “Sorry, Thor can’t be a god” and “Let’s remove the horns from Daredevil to avoid Satanic imagery and put a blindfold on him ’cause he’s blind.”

In terms of the film itself: Director Snyder sets the tone early with a dementedly over the top assault and murder of the Comedian. The noise of every cracked bone blasts over the speakers; the trajectory of every drop of spilled blood is tracked by the camera. The violence in the graphic novel was decidedly small scale and real world; it’s insanely over the top here and doesn’t let up. It continues later when the street clothing-clad Nite Owl and Silk Specter are confronted by a gang of toughs, resulting in broken limbs, punctured jugular veins, and yet more bone crunching.

When he’s not having his leads break heads or engage in explicit sex (the latter I didn’t mind so much) Snyder coaxes excellent performances out of his cast. Most notable is Jackie Earl Haley who was an absolute revelation as Rorschach. He’s Batman if there was really a Batman, and it’s a damned shame that–if Alan Moore is to be believed–he will never see the film because I have to think even he would be impressed.

I think a lot of the fan analysis of the film is ultimately ridiculous. Discussing the relative dimensions of Doctor Manhattan’s nuclear junk? Really? Is that what we’ve been reduced to? (“In the original graphic novel it was drawn relatively small in order to symbolize Manhattan’s impotence in stopping the world from heading toward nuclear disaster.” Seriously?) Frankly, I just started using locker room protocol and kept my eyes fixed on Manhattan’s face during the full body shots.

What was of far more interest to me than dwelling on why the (as I recall) Jewish Jon Osterman was uncircumcised (so I’m told; I wasn’t staring that closely) were the reactions of my brother and his thirteen year old son who went with me. Neither of them had ever read the graphic novel.

They both loved the film. They both thought Rorschach was incredibly cool, were fascinated by Doctor Manhattan and the way he viewed the world, and stunned by the twists and turns of the plot. Basically, they were as blown away by it last Saturday as the rest of us were when we first experienced it twenty years ago. Perhaps that, in the final analysis, is the best measure of just how good an adaptation it is.

PAD

As before, use this space to discuss comics hitting the stores this week.

PAD

Twenty years (or so) ago, a woman named Jennifer Thompson fingered a man named Ronald Cotton as her rapist. He served eleven years until DNA testing determined that he was, in fact, innocent. Two years after his release, he met the woman whose testimony had jailed him, and told her in no uncertain terms that he forgave her.

I think that’s a hell of a thing. I don’t know if I would be capable of doing what he did. The two of them have written a book together called “Picking Cotton“. I intend to get a copy to support the apparently infinite capacity for forgiveness that some people have.

It also underscores my continued opposition to the death penalty. Who knows how many people have been unjustly executed, but I have to think that if that number is “one” or above, that is more than too many already.

PAD

Hi there.

Just a reminder that tonight most of the US goes back on that dreaded Daylight Saving Time. So set your clocks forward one hour.

Just what I need…one less hour of sleep. * grin *

Oh and my web log still exists. It migrated to http://kathodavid.malibulist.com/. I have had a couple of comments but I have also had people tell me that their bookmark doesn’t work any more.

Very likely by the time you read this, I’m going to be on the road to Rochester, NY.  Tomorrow morning at 6 AM, Ariel will be boarding the bus with her championship varsity bowling team and heading up to Rochester for the state tournament which will be Saturday morning.  I’ll be driving up right behind and will naturally be there, along with all the other parents, cheering her on.

I’ll also probably catch a showing of “Watchmen” up there Friday evening.

Watch this space for match results.

PAD

UPDATED 3/10:  Well, it didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped.  Ariel’s team finished in sixth place (out of ten teams).  Ariel struggled mightily, bowling below her average much of the day, her fingers cramping due to an injury sustained the previous night.  By the fifth game she was taking Advil and putting her hand on ice, and refused to be taken out for a substitute.  Her last game she gritted it out and shot a 223.  I’ve never been prouder of her.

Saturday Morning Watchmen

You have got to check this out. I honestly don’t know if Alan Moore would laugh or cry.