the assistant gives you a wink and you turn bright red

A few things this morning while I sip my coffee:

I can't really disclose any details, but I have two awesome gigs that are entirely agreed to in principle, and are just waiting for the lawyers to do their lawyer-fu on the contracts. For one of them, I had to watch a bunch of movies. It was really weird to sit on the couch and watch movies, and tell myfamily that I was working. It was even harder to convince myself. No, really. Anyway, I can encourage you all to watch Syriana, and V for Vendetta. The film version of V cuts a lot of stuff from the graphic novel, and what I always thought was the fundamental message of the novel is substantially changed, but it's still a good movie. It's certainly not the worst adaptation of Alan Moore's work, an award which will forever be hung around the neck of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Speaking of things called V, remember that mini-series from the 80s? Has anyone watched that recently? I'm interested to know if it holds up. I mean, the regular series sucked balls, but I recall being totally into the mini-series.

I'm nearly done with Good Omens, and looking forward to starting The Android's Dream, in my not-enough free time.

Speaking of my not-enough free time, Guitar Hero 2, Destroy All Humans 2, and GTA: Vice City Stories are all sitting here, mocking my not-enough free time. Awesome.

I got out my 4th edition of GURPS recently, and now the kids are bugging me to do a space / horror campaign for them. (I have the out of print Horror sourcebook, which is just damn fun to read, even if you're not planning on actually playing it.) Before last week, I hadn't picked up GURPS in any meaningful way since I was in high school, and reading through the newest edition was a nostalgia-filled trip back to some happy times. I'm sure I'll incur the wrath of a few geeks with this next statement, but: if I had to pick between d20 and GURPS, I'd take GURPS. It's simpler and easier to learn, with much less complicated combat and character-building rules.I'm done with Lost. It's all about the MacGuffin now, and I've already done Twin Peaks once, thankyouverymuch. I'll probably watch the rest of this season when it comes out on DVD, and if I'm home with nothing else to do, I'll probably tune in, but it's no longer appointment television for me. Luckily, Heroes has taken its place.

I already posted this to Netscape, but it's so damn cool, I thought I'd mention this here, too: Google Earth has these new overlays that let you look at historical maps and see what old cartographers thought the Earth looked like way back in the old days, including an 1814 Lewis and Clark map spanning the Pacific Ocean to the Mississippi. Totally. Awesome.

I've been spammed ten times since I started writing this. Dear spammers: please fuck off. (Make that eleven. Please fuck off and die in a fire.)

The poker tournaments were pretty fun last night. I got super bad beat out of the main tourney (I jammed with AK, goaded Q4o into calling . . . and then lost to a flopped four when my flush draw didn't get there) but I finished second in the second place tourney, and even made a good run at first, despite starting heads up play at a 3-1 chip disadvantage. The happy funtimes are recapped at Card Squad.

Finally, a lot of people have asked about the podcast, like if and when there will be another one. The podcasts started out as a fun thing to do, but quickly became way too time consuming and creatively taxing to produce. I'd really like to do it again, and even produce it regularly, but right now, it's just not worth the investment. If I can get some sort of sponsorship thing or figure out some other way to make the time and energy involved help support my family (and my college-bound kid) then I can justify it, and produce a new one every week.

Okay, now I'm off to do one of those cool work things that I can't really talk about. More later . . .

Comments

[Shed]

work pc finally let me set up a typekey account -
have been reading your site for ages Wil, but never got chance to comment before -and top of the pile :)-
1. Love the TNG reviews - keep em coming
2. V is being remade!! - V the second generation, starring some of the old cast - saw a bit about it in a tv guide - it's going to be set 20 years after the series ended. the original creator / writer (kevin johnson ?) is making it.
3. will try to get on the poker game - are you still doing a europe friendly time ??

[KLoebrich]

V the mini-series DID rock. V the series DID stink. But when I was on my study abroad term in France in 1989, Antenne-2 (ch 2) actually ran it DUBBED. It wasn't half bad that way. Especially when you're fluent & can laugh at the grammatical errors in translation. The new version kinda makes me nervous, but so did the new Galactica which now rocks my world on a weekly basis, so...fingers crossed.

[Kate]

Good luck with the uber-secret work stuff, Wil!

Out of curiosity, does anyone out there know the difference between a MacGuffin and a red herring? Is a MacGuffin a type of red herring? The explanation of the relationship between the two isn't well explained over on wikipedia soI'm curious (and feeling not a little nerdy.)

[Kai]

Wil, will you be appearing in more episodes of InDigital? I really don't remember you mentioning it on the blog, either when you must have filmed it or when Rev3 relaunched, but I thought you were great in it. I hope that's one of your projects.

Also, how did you like Good Omens?

[jslicer]

V and V: The Final Battle was the bomb, yo.

I think it's message ESPECIALLY holds up to the political clime these days (pre-2K6 election, hopefully).

[Wick]

Kate,

A red herring is a fake out, something that makes you think a plot is going to go one direction, when in fact it's going the direct opposite way. It is in short a trick. A MacGuffin is a plot element that seems important, but in fact is totally irrelevant to the plot. The best example I can give is this: the contents of the briefcase in Pulp Fiction.

Wil, V the mini, rocked? I dunno bout that, but it was fun in a cheese factor 10 sorta way. The mini and following series have run up here (Canada) on Space recently, so I had a chance to check it out again. The series? Whoa. That was just bad. We're talkin' Gil Gerrard Buck Rogers bad.

Rock the gig man.

[Kai]

Kate - in the film 'The Maltese Falcon', the maltese falcon was a MacGuffin. In the film 'Clue', communism was just a red herring.

[Thomas]

Wil, Kick Ass Mystic Ninjas, a show by the same group that puts on Slice of SciFi just did a whole show reveiwing V and seeing how it stood up over time, worth the listen for sure.

http://www.kickassmysticninjas.com/2006/11/02/kamn-show-20-v/

[Fish]

Yeah, on my blog I did a BSG vs Lost post. Lost is just kinda sitting there, where BSG is actually doing something. I'll keep Tivoing Lost, but the most recent episode has been sitting on the Tivo unwatched. I'll get around to it, just not right now. Heroes isn't really taking it's place so much, but I do set aside time to watch that, so maybe it's filling in for a bit.

[Fortyseven]

The original V miniseries is still quite badass in the extreme.

'V: The Final Battle' was good too, at least up until it takes a sort of strange mystical twist at the end with the little blonde girl. But hey, you can't beat throwing Michael Ironside into the mix and letting him and Marc Singer snipe at each other most of the flick. ;)

There's a script for a third miniseries that J. Michael Straczynski penned, but it got rejected for some reason (budget?). It was REALLY good, if I recall. A portion of it was released online. The visuals in the opening, alone, I'd pay to see.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the actual sequel/remake shenanigans going on nowadays. A remake would be a tragedy -- recasting Singer and all them? Wasted cycles...

[Ignatz]

tease!

ignatz

[Autumn Armstrong-Berg]

Will, check out Transhuman Space. It's a fantastic Sci Fi setting, and you can do some great horror stuff with it. It's one of those settings, like Ptolus , that is made for people with not a whole lot of time to come up with their own settings.

[Autumn Armstrong-Berg]

Kate,
A MacGuffin is a term for a plot device that makes the story go. It doesn't matter what it is, or even if it's plausible. It starts the story, and gives motivation, but really isn't integral to the plot itself. It's often used to describe implausible weird things in sci fi stories... like "why are they back in time?" "Doesn't matter, here's their story once they are in fact, back in time.".

[Jugglernaut]

Totally with you on the down-with-Lost, up-with-Heroes bit! Lost actually became predictable, which just isn't supposed to happen. But Heroes is still pretty fresh.

You = Da Man! Keep 'em coming.

[MrJuggles]

Heroes, yes, wow. I so want Lost to be great but I've worried it would be there for the weird and twists and turns rather than the story. I'm afraid I can't get past where Alias went and this would just go the same contrived way.
Heroes, just pretty damn cool.

[DJ-Panic]

I agree with Fortyseven, it's GREAT up until the mysticalness of the blonde girl at the end. Other than that it's still a great sci-fi story.

And Kai wins for the "Clue" reference :)

[Claudia]

ITA, V and Final Battle were both excellent right up until the little girl thing at the end. I watched them on DVD, this is a fresh judgement.

Heroes rocks. Hiro rocks. Lost has hit its end-of-life early. BSG and Doctor Who and Torchwood rock.

"I got a rock."

[CHV]

Wil:

I'm actually among the rare few who didn't think "LXG" was as awful as so many people seem to think. I mean, come on, it's a helluva lot better than "Glitter"!

Good luck with the new gigs!

[Rhettro]

Kate,

Puffins is a peanut butter flavored breakfast cereal and has the following ingredients: Corn Meal, Dehydrated Cane Juice, Natural Peanut Butter (Ground Peanuts, Salt), Oat Flour, Rice Flour, Sea Salt, Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols), Baking Soda.

http://www.barbarasbakery.com/products/cerealproddisplay.asp?product=62&category=20

Whether it will be featured on Lost, I don't know.

[starshine_diva]

YEY!
Reasons to watch movies!
Kinda when my teachers assigned me to watch TV.

And I agree! Heroes is orgasmic! It's my new ALIAS. Can't do anything else while it's playing, it's just too good!!

Have fun, and I hope to see your stuff soon!

Oh, and just FYI, mini-discs + Audacity usually make for an easy time, although Pro Tools is best!!

[AngieZ]

Hey, there is a hilarious animated gif of Riker, Picard and Data car-dancing in the comments at Nathan Fillion's MySpace, You have to check it out: http://www.myspace.com/nathanfillion
comment Nov 14 2006 5:40P

[Wolf of Spoo]

Never watched V, but for some reason it's always linked in my brain with the extremely short-lived VR5, starring a pre-Buffy Anthony Head. Anyone else watch that?

[lyndyb]

I wasn't watching "V", I was watching "The Last Days of Pompeii". However, someone did approach me at school and told me that I had the kind of face that looked as if you could peel it off and find a lizard underneath. Then they told me "not to take it the wrong way". Tell me, what is the right way to take that?

[Kate]

Thank you for answering my question (and yes, extra points to Kai for the "Clue" line, which was totally in my head at the time.)

[Eydie]

"V" and "V The Final Battle" were very '80s--check out those slashes of blush on the women--though sans fashion and cheesy effects, you better believe it stands up today. The anti-science attitude of the aliens (arresting "evil" scientists prevented humans from learning the lizard-people's true nature) and the self-policing citizenry(in which one boy turned his grandparents in to the military police for subsersive activities) sound awfully familiar in Bush-era America.

BTW I adore Heroes. Hiro-the-Hero is the perfect character--an everyman dork who will end up being the most admirable human being on the planet.