Month: November 2005

1) After Kath and Ariel caught the midnight opening night showing of “Harry Potter And the Rapidly Aging Cast,” I went (with Ariel again) to see it this evening. Definitely the best of the lot, as the kids truly come into their own as actors with this film. Certainly the most sophisticated and compelling plot (wisely not split into two as was originally considered) with many wonderful sequences allowing the increasingly sophisticated cast to bring many shadings to their performances. At Kath’s suggestion, we watched “Sorceror’s Stone” before Ariel and I went this evening, and it’s amazing to see how this franchise has grown from a rote condensation of the books to works of art in their own right.

There were some curious omissions (would it have killed them to take a minute of screen time to explain what happened with Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands?) but most of the cuts were correctly made and serve the course of the film story. Miranda Richardson was gloriously daffy as reporter Rita Skeeter, who I’m convinced is J.K. Rowling’s payback for reporters who have their stories written in their heads, regardless of what their subjects have to say. And Brendan Gleeson was so great as Mad Eye Moody that I wanted to see a whole film just about him. Plus Ralph Fiennes as a creepily chilling Voldemort and tons of great special effects makes this a must see. I should mention, though, that it’s a lousy jumping on point if you’ve never seen any of the films or read the books, because–like the second and third LoTR films–it just assumes you know everyone and everything involved.

2) We’re taking Caroline to her very first ice show tomorrow: “Disney on Ice,” featuring the Incredibles. We picked up one of the program books in advance and Caroline has been flipping through it for the past several days. We figure this way she’ll have a frame of visual reference (although “Incredibles” is already one of her favorite CGI films.)

3) Ariel is trying out for the high school bowling team. Tryouts go four days, so they can get a feel for the kids’ consistency. After all, a lousy player could have three great games and a great player can have three lousy games. This way the coach sees 12 games over four days. So far she’s doing very well, showing poise and confidence in her delivery and averaging a consistent 155-165. She’s not stringing together a lot of strikes but her spare shooting is remarkably consistent, and that’s really what it’s all about. Monday and Tuesday are the final two days, so fingers crossed.

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So it’s definite, I’ll be doing a “Battlestar Galactica” novel (I say it’s definite because I got the contract in the mail.)

I figure I must be on the right beam because two of the story elements I wanted to explore were nixed by the BG folks on the basis that it’s stuff they’re planning to explore in season 3.

On the downside, “Night Stalker” has been canceled. Now, honestly, I’m not THAT choked up since I’d seen an episode or two and wasn’t all that impressed. However, the annoying aspect is that Mira Furlan was talking up her guest appearance slated for December 8th…except the series is being pulled with this week’s episode. Talk about “Lost.”

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The Lot Auctions server has crashed due to high volume. We’re working on the problem and will be extending the comic book auction 24 hours from when we get the server live again.

Well, score one for my agent, who told me two weeks ago that Warners had pulled the “Aquaman” movie option from the folks who’d been developing it because they were planning to do a “Smallville” spin-off featuring the sea king. Kinda sucks to be the actor who is now going to be recast. Perhaps he can form a support group with Stuart Townsend who was tossed after a week of shooting LOTR for Viggo.

Speculation is abounding as to the title since reportedly it’s not going to be called “Aquaman.” I’m thinking “Miami” isn’t happening. They could go with a watery term like “Depths” or “Waves” or “Tides.” If they want to go for symbolic, they could go with “The Trident” and have an image of a trident be the running visual motif and potential link to his past. Or they could just call it “Arthur,” although that evokes the Dudley Moore film.

Any other thoughts? Serious notions, not the inevitable “Fish Tales” jokes.

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Back from United Fan Con up in Springfield, MA. Overall a perfectly nicely run Trek Con. The one problem was that, while the dealers were in the large dealers room and the guests were all signing in the main foyer, I was set up at a table in a small “comic book” room off to the side. But many Trek fans don’t read my comics, or even know I write comics; they just read my Trek fiction. So they’d be wandering around with their copies of “Imazadi,” give a perfunctory glance at the comics room, and keep going. I raised a mild fuss and by Sunday had been moved out into the main foyer, where fans kept coming up to me and saying, “Where have YOU been all weekend?”

At the Friday meet-and-greet, actor Matthew (Neville Longbottom) Lewis spend a splendid amount of time talking with Ariel, who had come to the convention with the specific hope of meeting him. He couldn’t have been nicer to her, so if anyone is looking to invite him to a convention, do so by all means. Then invite me. And Ariel.

Saturday night was the banquet and the cabaret, in which all guests were required to participate. Richard Hatch didn’t know that, and had nothing prepared. So he joined me in a dual reading of my parody Doctor Seuss poem, “Green Eggs and Crack.” The audience loved him. Mira Furlan, also of a poetic bent, did some lovely readings of poems by Shel Silverstein. The most entertaining, however, to my mind, was Sylvester McCoy. He marched up with a full sized guitar case, opened it and produced a tiny violin case no more than a foot long…opened THAT and withdrew a pair of spoons. He then, with musical accompaniment, proceeded to play the spoons with dazzling skill, bouncing them not only off his own leg, but tables, chairs, people’s heads and–most memorably–Mira Furlan’s posterior when Mira leaned forward and half rose from her chair to whisper something to me.

So next weekend we actually have a breather, and then after that, it’s off to mid-Ohiocon. Our house sitter is getting a workout this month.

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Marty Kasman passed away today. He was my daughters’ maternal grandfather, and he was one of the sweetest guys in the world. He passed away quietly of natural causes. He is survived by his wife, Claire, his daughter, Myra (mother of Shana, Gwen and Ariel), his sons Robert and Alex, and numerous grandchildren.

Although I don’t think it appropriate to publicly post Myra’s e-mail, she does read this website regularly, so anyone who wishes to post condolences may do so here.

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Book’s not out yet, but I thought I would pass on to you folks this review brought to my attention by Chris Ryall at IDW:

http://chadwickhsaxelid.typepad.com/chadwick_h_saxelids_cluel/2005/11/fallen_angel_1.html

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