Caddickisms » QYDJ

TIDBABSH the second, part the first

Jeff — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:23:02 +0000

Last month’s podcast was such a great success that I decided to do another one.

When I say it was a great success, I mean that it was successfully uploaded and at least three people were able to download and listen to it. I make no statements about the actual quality of the content (though those 3 people who admit to hearing it seemed to enjoy it (which reminds me, your payments will be sent shortly)).

With such a wave of accomplishment and adoring fans to bolster me, how could I not do another? It just wouldn’t be fair to all of you to deprive you of that which you have come to hold so dear. Or possibly, that which you have tolerated heroically.

This time around I left my wife to deal with the kids while I waxed (and waned) philosophic with Australia’s favorite son: Lee Sargent.

Well, he’s from Australia, anyway.

Lee is slowly taking over the internet, appearing on podcasts all over the world while simultaneously co-hosting his own podcast at Lee and Dan’s Midnight Movie Club and keeping his take on the world of pop-culture front and center (of the far left, rear facing department of the underside of the internet – which is a more prominent position than it sounds) on his blog, Quit Your Day Job. Take some time to visit his sites. They’re better than this one.

So, Lee and I attacked this month’s topics with a vengeance. I had a lot of fun in this conversation. We got so involved in some of these topics that we actually ended up with enough material to cover two podcasts. And yet, this month’s podcast is shorter than last month’s! Well, that’s because you’re only going to get the first half of the discussion today. We’ll get to Part 2 later.

This month, strap yourself in for some rambling on the following topics (following a rambling introduction that covers a surprising amount of surprising information about Australia):

Doesn’t look like much, does it?

You’ll be amazed at some of the places those links take us.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my discussion with Lee, where we take on some more of popular culture, including our thoughts on a mess of upcoming movies and TV shows that have released trailers lately, some movie news and rumors, the portrayal of women (wonderful and otherwise) in superhero roles, gender neutrality in the X-Men, and more.

Go forth and listen!

Grand opening…

Jeff — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 12:00:17 +0000

… and then nothing but disappointment. That pretty much describes this podcast. Really there is some interesting stuff discussed somewhere in there, but to get to it, you have to listen to me talking. Sorry about that, but it is the way of things.

On the upside, you do get to hear my wife talking about this stuff as well, so you got that going for you. Which is nice.

Of course throughout the entire podcast I never introduce her properly, (and in fact, I don’t even use her name once) so let me get this out of the way: World, say hello to Pam. Pam, this is the world.

So what’s this thing about, you ask? Ah, you didn’t read my earlier post on this did you? Well, perhaps you can be excused for that… it’s been almost a month since I posted it after all. (“Soon” is a relative term, you know.) I got busy, sorry. I also got frustrated, hungry, and tired during that time, but none of that is relevant, really. The point is it took a while to get this up, and if I got your hopes up that there would be any quality involved here, sorry about that.

In fact, when I posted my “Coming Soon” post, a friend of mine wrote back: “And that’s when Caddickisms jumped the shark.” He may be right, but I got back at him. I did it anyway.

The specific topics in the podcast this time are varied. Here’s a list of the topics we covered, so you can go and do more research on your own:

Free Room/Garden/etc layout tool
Free Internet Parental Controls methods
EO DAS jet fighter defense systems for the F-35
Star Wars uber-fanboy story
Doctor Who: everything you need to know in one poster
George the Evil Black Suit (also known as Venom) forced to do good… for now
Spider-man’s new costume for movie reboot
Highlander reboot
Nathan Fillion will NOT bring back Firefly (but you can send me money anyway)
We talked about The Cape and The Event, too.
Bar Karma – community-developed TV
Tron: Uprising trailer
Some talk about Stargate: Universe
Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D gets 2012 release date
Sixth Sense vs. Unbreakable and random M. Night Shyamalan comments

You may notice that this podcast starts with some music. Anyone who can tell me the television show it originally comes from (i.e., for which it was written) will be entered into a drawing for a prize. You must leave a comment on the blog, and I’ll pick a name at random from all correct entries. The prize will be something completely mundane, but hey… free stuff, right?

[UPDATE: Ack! I just realized I broke my own contest rules by revealing the answer with the first correct guess and not waiting until we could have a drawing! Sorry to all of you who also knew the answer but haven't commented yet.

So to extend the contest a bit I'll ask this question: list at least two shows/films that we discussed in the podcast that are not listed in the bullet list above. Then I'll do a drawing from that list.]

So, with no further delay… check out the podcast!

Return to MidMo and other short subjects

Jeff — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:58:57 +0000

My second guest shot on the Midnight Movie Club was posted this week, reviewing the film “Return To Me” (with a stellar cast led by David Duchovny and Minnie Driver – in the movie, not the podcast). If the stats are accurate, many of you missed this film when it came out in 2000 (though the odds are apparently better if you were in an airplane around then). That’s a shame because it’s a great movie. You really should rent it. You won’t be disappointed. In any event, go listen to the podcast and hear Lee and I wax philosophical about such barely relevant topics as insurance forms for sex addicts, and how much acting ability is necessary to overcome being a complete whack job in real life.

In other news, I saw a couple of movies recently – one new, and one older.

Iron Man 2 was very good. It seemed almost on par with the first installment to me. Some things I liked better, some things I didn’t. Still a very fun ride, though.

Pixar’s Cars was a mixed bag for me. I liked it, but I’ve got to put it at the bottom of the Pixar pile. For a movie about race cars, it was kinda slow. I know I’m blowing against the prevailing winds since just about everybody I know puts Cars at or near the top of the Pixar list, but it didn’t grab me the same way the others did, and my kids were mostly bored.

In future movie news, the live-action feature release of Green Lantern – not scheduled to open until June 17, 2011 – has already been scheduled for a sequel with the same writing team. That team has also been scheduled to write a new movie about The Flash. It’s unclear whether the Green Lantern sequel or Flash film will be the next on the production line. I really hope this approval and trust is based on what they’ve already seen and not on wishful thinking. I really, really, really want to love the Green Lantern movie.

Looking back to the past, some guy has collected over 3000 classic lunch boxes. He says he has all but about 8 that were ever produced. That is some serious collecting. Here’s one of them:

Hey, kids! Just dropping by to kill you and your swell daggit!

That’s even cheesier than the show it’s based on!

In TV news, Tom Welling has said that next season will be the last for Smallville. I’ve heard that before, but this time I believe it. Chloe, the only original character left in the show, will only be a recurring character next season. Will Clark put on the suit his mom made for him by the end of the season? We’ll see.

After the excellent “Children of Earth” miniseries last year, Torchwood has finally been confirmed to return… but not until next year, and with only 10 episodes. This will also likely be its final season. Rather than centering in Wales, it will be a much more globe trotting season with higher stakes and a huge ending. Jack and Gwen are returning. I’m really looking forward to it.

Finally, this news is a few months old, but I think it’s one of the greatest Hollywood news stories lately: the guy who wrote the John Travolta stink-bomb “Battlefield Earth” has apologized. He also had this to say:

Actually, comparing it to a train wreck isn’t really fair to train wrecks, because people actually want to watch those. … Now, looking back at the movie with fresh eyes, I can’t help but be strangely proud of it. Because out of all the sucky movies, mine is the suckiest.

You just gotta appreciate the honesty.

G-Force ROCKS!

Jeff — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:50:51 +0000

NO! I am not talking about the insipid, rodent-filled name-stealer.

Why?! Why did they do it?!

Similar to Lee’s story in the blog entry that I’m blatantly ripping off, even to the point of taking his graphics, when I heard about a live action G-Force movie I could feel the 10-year old geek in me pushing and punching the 38-year old (at the time) actual geek that is me to race to the computer sooner than humanly possible to bring up the trailer. I also remember the internal scream of agony from that 10-year old geek when the trailer appeared and I realized that I wasn’t watching some dumb ad for a kids movie preceding the awesomeness of G-Force, I was watching some dumb ad for a kids movie that will now forever soil the name G-Force.

I’m only judging that movie by the trailer and its name. I haven’t seen it. I can’t bring myself to do it. I would feel like a traitor. Watching that movie would mean I accept its claim to the title “G-Force.” I can’t do that to the real G-Force:

G-Force: Mark, Tiny, Keyop, Princess, and Jason

G-Force is the team that saved the planet on a regular basis in Battle of the Planets – a 1979 American import of a 1972 Japanese animation (heavily edited), and then reworked and released as G-Force: Guardians of Space in 1986.

Check out the opening credits:

That Fiery Phoenix is too awesome for words.

So Battle of the Planets started in 1979, when Star Wars was completely changing the game in popular culture. Everybody was trying to cash in somehow. As a result, we got those receding title screens and the obviously edited-in 7Zark7 to appeal to the newly minted droid-lovers. (The music and voice-over should also cause flashbacks to the 70s Superfriends cartoon. Both the title composer (Hoyt Curtin) and narrator (William Woodson) did very recognizable work on both shows.)

G-Force was originally, as I said, a Japanese show called Gatchaman. When it was brought in for young American audiences, it was heavily edited down to remove the graphic violence, profanity, and transgenderism of the original. Apparently, though, the American version retained much of the storyline of the original, compensating for the large cuts by exposition and the inclusion of the 7Zark7 character to smooth things over and provide some comic relief.

I didn’t know any of that until I saw Lee’s blog and learned about Gatchaman. He found this very cool trailer for a new CGI movie of Gatchaman under production:

Apparently it’s unclear whether this will make it into theaters. It’s already missed a couple of release dates, and the studio is clearly having financial trouble. The creative team appears to have gone through some changes, as well, though it’s heartening to know that Paul Dini (of Batman: The Animated Series fame) wrote the original script treatments. Still, Wikipedia (arbiter of reality that it is) claims that the studio is now shooting for 2011 (and in 3-D, too).

I hope they pull it off. This looks very cool.

I may try to get my hands on the original Gatchaman as well. I just watched most of an episode on YouTube and really liked it.

Utter randomness

Jeff — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:11:42 +0000

Nothing mind blowing today. This is pretty much going to be a stream of conciousness post. We’ll see if it’s even vaguely interesting by the time it’s over.

Just found Grooveshark. Loving it. On their About Us page, this was a quote one of their employees used:

“If it weren’t for physics and law enforcement, I would be unstoppable.” — Bukowski

For now, that’s my favorite quote.

The reason I found Grooveshark? Lee, over at Quit Your Day Job, has been doing a series of posts called “music to draw robots by” and has been posting the music from Grooveshark. The latest was “Carry on My Wayward Son” by Kansas, which I love. I also like the drawing. (Head over to QYDJ for more).

Grooveshark also has a WordPress plugin, so I thought I’d try it out here with a little more Kansas goodness.

Grooveshark Plugin Widget

“Kansas,” as some of you may know, is not just the name of a rock group. It’s also the name of a state in the United States. I know it’s hard to believe, but apparently there is no copyright problem there.

I don’t live in Kansas, nor have I ever been there. I do live in Pennsylvania, where I just saw local cable coverage of the PA Farm Show’s “Tractor Square Dancing” last night. As odd as this sounds, I was impressed with the drivers’ ability to actually do some interesting “dances.” Yes, I did actually watch it for almost 5 minutes. I’m still not sure why. I think I was hoping for an accident or something. In the end, it reminded me of simpler times when entertainment wasn’t in-your-face action/drama, but simple, fun, and personal.

Then I changed channels.

And I caught Backdraft, one of my favorite movies. If there’s a better “cheek actor” than Kurt Russell out there, I’ve yet to find him. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, GO WATCH THE MOVIE! Seriously, it’s really good. It also has one of my favorite soundtracks of all time. Apparently a lot of other people like it too, because it shows up as the theme for unrelated trailers periodically as well as commercials. It’s also in a toy fire truck we got for my daughter one Christmas, made almost 2 decades after the movie.

um …

… uh

So I actually had more to say here, but I just got interrupted for about 4 hours, and completely lost my train of thought. I remember having a lot of ideas. Suffice it to say that there would have been something witty integrated about cows, to riff off the use of “utter” in the title. Okay “witty” may be overstating it. There was going to be something about TV and a few things that have happened recently, but hey… that’s what happens with stream of consciousness: you lose your thought and the stream becomes a trickle and dries up. So…. maybe it’ll come to me later. And then there will be another post.

Until then… as the song says, carry on.

Stargate Universe, week 3, Darkness

Jeff — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:14:23 +0000

There are some out there who would call this “weak 3″ of the show. This is definitely the slowest pacing of a Stargate series yet. The premiere was good, but mostly consisted of people freaking out (understandably) about the situation they were in. By the end of the premiere they at least had a plan to survive for a little while longer, with the help of the ship’s guidance and Rush’s ability to interpret what the ship is doing. Week 2 had them following up on the ship’s help by walking around a desert planet looking for better sand (to use in the air filter), while having some character moments. Now in week 3, we get to the exhaustion of the power reserves (the second huge survival issue introduced in the pilot), along with more character moments.

Let’s face it, at this point, almost any single episode of SG-1 or SGA had more action than these last three weeks combined.

This kind of slow pacing is a risk. A huge risk, I think. They can get away with it for maybe another week or two before the audience expecting the zat guns and space battles give up, but only because they’re into the franchise already and are hoping it starts to remind them of the SG-1 and SGA shows.

On the other hand, they’re setting up a starting point with a couple of basic premises:

They’re alone. The universe is a big place and they can’t just stop at the local Qwiki-Mart for some roadside assistance. This is alluded to in the the other SGs, but it’s more palpable here.
They’re in over their heads. Even the smartest guy in the room doesn’t get to miraculously intuit the solution to every problem. There is no Rodney/Sam super-smart quick-fix in the last 10 minutes.

I actually like that they’re setting the mood this way, and there really aren’t any shortcuts for this. They have to feel like they are really out of control and not a single one of them, even the brainiac, can do anything about it, and no one is going to swoop in to save them.

(FYI – minor spoilers ahead)

That said, they’re not doing quite enough character work in this “down time” – or maybe more accurately, they’re not doing it the way I’d like to see it. Take Young, for example. It was mildly interesting that he went back to his wife and they tried to touch on how his (and her) choices have ruined his marriage, but unless they’re really going to use that in the future, that time should have been spent on other characters or on more characters working the problem (and continuing to come up empty).

And that points out the biggest plot hole in this show thus far: the communication stones. Unlike some comments I’ve read, I really like that the communication stones give us some connection back to Earth and more dramatic potential. The problem is that during this moment of crisis, they’re using it for nothing more than reporting back and crying. Why are they not switching in some experts? Why not bring in a Sam, or a Rodney, or a team of smart people, and have them try to help? You could still have the crying parts where the regulars continue to go say goodbye to their friends on Earth while the useful people do some work on the ship. It’s just an extension of what Young says when he berates the engineers on the ship… they’ve just given up, leaving only Rush and Eli to “work the problem.”

After the pilot, I made some predictions. One of them came true this week (faster than I expected):

Somebody will use a Keno to spy on someone else in the shower or some other compromising location.

There you go. The most obvious childish situation. Glad we got it out of the way.

The other stupid thing? The group that wants to use Eli as a mole. Give me a break. Just get over yourselves and ask questions in the meetings.

Some people really have a problem with Rush. While he is annoying, I actually think he’s a really well written and acted character. He’s the guy who always knows the answer, and has prepared for this, but is STILL out of his depth. He’s scared and feels the responsibility to keep everyone safe, but knows he can’t – and he also can’t admit it, even to himself. Still, that leaves him as an annoying jerk, which can be grating to watch for an extended period. They’ll have to soften him up a bit over time.

The one who bothers me is Greer. Can’t stand that guy, or the way the actor is portraying him.

Now, my prediction for next week. And if nothing else was spoilerish enough for you, this gives away the ending to the Darkness episode, so be warned.

The ship is low on power, yes. It has skimmed a planet to slingshot it into the heart of the solar system, yes. Everyone thinks the ship has done that to give them some way to help themselves, and that the plan has failed because they ship screwed up the slingshot and it heading directly into the sun. So they’re all going to die… NO! The ship’s not that stupid. It’s deliberately heading directly for the sun because that’s how it recharges itself! The entire episode will consist of everyone freaking out and figuring out how to abandon ship, and in the end it’ll be impossible and they’ll be crying and screaming again – but then the ship will head right through the sun and be recharged, and everyone will be safe, thus proving that the puny humans know nothing. They are there as tools for the ship, not the other way around.

After they fix these first basic survival issues, they’ll begin to start encountering aliens with bodies (as opposed to the whirlwind alien they don’t realize they met last week). By the end of the season, the pace will have increased, and it will feel more important and dramatic because they’ve started at such a slow speed. I can’t say that Darkness stands out to me as a great episode, but I do think it contributes well to the series, which I still think will pay off in the end.

What are we going to do today, Brain?

Jeff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:21:03 +0000

The same thing we do every day, Pinky. Try to take over the world!

Yeah, okay, this blog is read by people in at least 17 different countries (though really 5 or 6 are the primaries). So I’ve at least been read internationally. But is that enough? Does that make me known? Does it give me the power I need?

I say no.

Pinky and The Brain

But now, in glorious monophonic sound, you can hear my voice, on demand, in your very own ears. Why would I provide such a service to you? It’s simple. I need more people stopping me on the street and saying “how can I serve you?” on my next trip to England or The Netherlands (yes, “first” also qualifies as “next”).

So I decided the best way to do that is to contribute to a podcast. No, I’m not hosting my own podcast. That would require effort. A far better method is to contribute to someone else’s podcast. And remember, it’s got to be internationally hosted so I seem to be a man-of-the-world.

Enter Quit Your Day Job. Hosted in Australia, it’s almost as far from me as physically possible. Pop-culture and sci-fi are the orders of the day (usually) over there, and Lee has started doing weekly podcasts now. He takes contributions. I saw my shot. I started slowly, writing in my contributions. Now he and his listeners are used to that so I’ve moved to the next stage of my plan: submitting audio contributions.

Once people start craving my voice on that podcast, my segments will get longer and longer until finally I take over the entire podcast. Then I will repeat that process with other podcasts until eventually I am the most well known person on the planet. Everyone will listen to me and do what I say and I will be the ruler of the world!!!

So let’s get the movement started. Head over to QYDJ and listen to his latest podcast on the Robocop films. You’ll hear the longest bashing of Robocop 3 on record, and the first ever comparison of the Robocop franchise to Wagnerian opera. But more importantly, you’ll hear me.

Viva la revolution!