Archive for the ‘Geeking’ Category

BenBella's SmartPop series is working on a book of essays about Joss Whedon's Dollhouse, and they want your help. Also, your brainjuice, preferably in essay form.

We love Dollhouse. And we know from Buffy and Firefly that Joss Whedon fans are across-the-board smart, insightful, and involved.

So we’ve teamed up with Jane Espenson, Dollhouse writer and Mutant Enemy veteran, to put out an essay anthology on Dollhouse composed entirely of fan-written essays. Everyone, novice to seasoned writer, is eligible to enter; the only requirement is that you are fan of Dollhouse!

Write a great essay on Dollhouse, send it to us, and your essay could be published in a Smart Pop book edited by Jane.

They'll be using 18 fan-written essays, but one grand prize winner will get $1000!  Three first prize winners will get $250 and the remaining fourteen will get $100.  Not bad for doing what you[re already doing for free at Whedonesque.

Deadline is February 1, 2010. Check the SmartPop site for details and rules.

Even before I write this, I know what the response will be: "Dump iTunes, it's bloated and evil. Instead use [INSERT DIFFERENT SOFTWARE NAME]! It's better in a zillion different ways plus it makes kittens smile."

Which is probably true, and I probably should switch. Except I kinda like iTunes. It's easy to use, doesn't require any tweaking to get it to do what I want, and it's free. I killed the resident programs to reduce the resource hoggishness and usually it works very well for me.

Except when it doesn't, and then my world comes crashing down. Like a few weeks ago, when I updated to a new version, started it up, and clicked right on past the message that said something like "Library not found, rebuild from scratch and guesswork? Y/N" to watch it painstakingly count all my songs all over again. Honestly I didn't pay attention; I was heading off to bed and I'm used to seeing some sort of nonsense every time I update the thing as it re-evaluates my stuff in light of whatever new doodad the update added.

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Today's your last chance to win some amazing Can't Stop the Serenity auctions and benefit Equality Now. Up for grabs: a Serenity mini-poster signed by Joss Whedon, a Dr. Horrible poster print signed by Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day, a copy of The Guild DVD signed by the cast, assorted fan packs of merchandise, more autographs, and even an amazing one-hour tour behind the scenes of the Dollhouse set with costume designer Shawna Trpcic. Check out the whole list here. It's down to the final hours so you'd best get over there.

Money raised from the auctions will be included in the CSTS 2009 Global Donation Total, which currently stands at US $128,000. Your bids will help CSTS to reach this year’s goal of US $150,000 raised for charity!

Also included: the set of chopsticks used (almost) in the movie that I won from serenitymovie.com back in the day.

It started last year when my Save Hiatus buddy Adam Levermore mentioned to me that he'd always wanted to see a shuttle launch, and I told him I was 2 hours away from them and could watch launches from my front yard.

Then this summer he mentioned he had a plane voucher and didn't know what to use it for since he had no cash for anything once he went somewhere. I reminded him of the shuttle launches — which will be ending soon as the program winds down — and said I had a couch. And the plan was made… only I didn't have a couch, so we figured we'd improvise.

Then it got better; NASA announced on their Twitterfeed that they were going to hold a tweetup and the 1st hundred people to register could attend. Adam and I both got in; his two friends who were going to accompany him didn't, and elected to stay behind rather than split the party which, as we all know, always results in death and creepy music.

The deal with the tweetup was that we'd get a day of talks and touring, and watch the launch the next day (weather and pesky fuel lines permitting) from the press area, the closest you can get if you're not rescue crew or actually sitting in the shuttle. We were psyched. This was going to be great, we'd get to see a lot of cool stuff, we could put up with the no-doubt boring talks, we'd get to see the launch, it's be great.

As it turned out, we were wrong. It was much better than that.

I posted a gallery of the trip and the launch here, with commentary.

Remember Neil Cameron's "A-Z of Awesomeness" project, where every day he would draw a representative picture of a letter of the alphabet based on his readers' increasingly bizarre suggestions? He sold out of his limited edition prints of the final result, and mine arrived. Buyers could request a sketch for the top. I asked for "What, No Naked Neil Nattering Naughty Nonsense?" Sadly, I didn't get a naked Neil Gaiman to match the print's naked Joss Whedon (and everywhere, fanficcers just spasmed over their keyboards) but I did get a cool sketch of Neil Gaiman and a wonderful print to utterly befuddle anyone walking down my hall.

Although come to think of it, Neil could just be wearing the black jacket. That would be fitting, in a really odd way.

See all the artwork at his A-Z blog.

So Ben Jones of Absolute Radio in the UK was going to interview Jon Bon Jovi about the upcoming Bon Jovi album "The Circle," and he asked fans to submit questions. And Teresa did, first a list of 8 or so and then a few more individual ones.

The interview is being broadcast tomorrow, but you can download the interview now as a podcast from iTunes. And when they got to the fan question part at 20:55, she was the first one up:

This is from Teresa Bridges, who I think must have sent about 5,000 questions, she would much rather be standing here than me, but this is the question: "Help us out, for all of us who are battling our obsession with you: give us a fault or two of yours."

Didn't get a conclusive answer from him to that question (although she did finally learn a new personal fact about Jon that she probably could have done without, and which she realized has been used as the promo for the show for the last few days) but as it turned out, out of the four fan questions Jones asked, two of them were actually from Teres because he mistakenly asked another of hers and attributed it instead to a fan from Edinburgh. Now she's conflicted about how excited to be, and feeling a bit bad for the fan who's real question didn't get used.

(Well, not too conflicted. She's still psyched. Hell, she's been bouncing off the walls for days ever since she got the e-mail response that her question was chosen and "Jon says hi.")

Personally, I think that if two of her questions were chosen out of the hundreds or thousands Jones received, she should get a crack at interviewing Jon herself. Well? Entertainment Weekly? Rolling Stone? Hello?

Note: the podcast may not be the entire interview, we don't know yet. There were a few places where it was edited, and it's supposed to run in four parts from Monday to Thursday, so it's entirely possible there are more questions than just the four. Still seriously cool, though.

It might not come as a terrible shock to discover that I'm a big Kevin Smith fan. Seen all his movies, from Clerks to Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Read all the comics. Read the books. Even read the scriptbooks of the movies. Bought his three live DVDs. Seen him in person several times, met him at MegaCon, watched him answer questions for 6 hours at a screenwriting seminar. Followed his blog and his Twitter feed.

And he'll talk about anything. No topic is too personal, every aspect of his life gets put out there for everyone to see.

So by now you'd think I'd have a pretty good handle on what he was like in person, right?

I came in late to the SModcast, the weekly podcast Smith records with his longtime friend and producer Scott Mosier, mostly because I never listened to podcasts of any kind until fairly recently and besides, I'd heard all his stories, right? But I got a better car stereo, and an iPod Touch, and I started working out and needed something to distract me from the unpleasant chore of making my body move around, and so when I did look for podcasts his was the first I grabbed. And I learned two valuable lessons.

First, the polished storyteller Kevin I saw on stage telling oft-told tales of Hollywood with the confident ease of long practice did not prepare me for the giggling Kev spinning wild and almost unspeakably deviant fantasies which he then hilariously acts out, with Mosier and other familiar View Askew faces like Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson and Malcolm Ingram. His remarkably tolerant wife Jen and daughter Harley even make appearances. Smith is more than a little like his character Randall in the way he pushes and pushes at a situation, making it worse and worse until you finally give in, whereupon he makes it worse.

Second, it's a really bad idea to be holding a lot of weight over your head at the Y when Kevin starts doing Harry Potter's voice, explaining to a panicky Ron that screaming "Forgeticus!" after fumbling with a half-awake Harry under the covers in the Hogwarts dorms really doesn't work. (Mosier: It's called "being on the down low, Ron") Nor will the average elderly Y-goer understand why you're trying desperately not to lose it as "Harry" tells Hermione to try gulping some gillyweed before oral sex to hold her breath longer.

This is Kevin Smith at his most raw, when he's coming up with ideas right there in the company of the people who make him laugh. And his new book, "Shootin' the Sh*t With Kevin Smith: The Best of SModcast," on sale tomorrow, is a transcript of some of the best segments. You do lose some of the impact without the sound effects, the fake voices and the background music, but it's still funny and utterly wrong as hell.

Did Helen Keller have a sex life? Did Smith recently have sex with his wife's leg? How long would Smith and Mosier last on the Lost island before they started looking good to each other? Would Scott Mosier perform a sexual act on a dying fan, at the fan's request? What if the Make-A-Wish Foundation forced him to do it? What's up with the Godzilla Jesus movie, or Stalin's monkey soldier army, or bukkake eggs, or why Kevin was willing to let Alanis Morrisette get mugged.

In his previous book, New York Times bestseller "My Boring Ass Life," Smith gave us a peek into his life. This time he lets us into his brain.You might want to wear waders, but don't miss the trip.

Get it from Amazon, or order a signed one from Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, or take a shot at winning a free copy in my "Which Kevin Smith Character Would You Nail?" contest.

NSFW excerpt after the jump:

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More to the point, win one of THREE copies of "Shootin' the Sh*t With Kevin Smith."

If you know and like movie maker Kevin Smith, you already know you want this collection of transcripts of the best of SModcast, the weekly podcast Smith does with his longtime friend and conspirator Scott Mosier. If you've seen Smith at any of his personal appearances or seen any of his live DVDs you know he's loaded with great and bewildering stories. This… is different.

First, these are not the well-weathered and practiced stories he tells so well. This is Smith getting ripped and talking off the top of his head with his friends, giggling and pushing each other to extremes, most of them inevitably involving deviant sex. And he goes straight to the NSFW well right off the bat, talking candidly about his masturbatory habits, the Godzilla Jesus movie, whether Annie Sullivan ever had sex while Helen Keller was in the room ("It's not like they were, 'We gotta keep it quiet'"), whether the Make-A-Wish Foundation covers forced celebrity hand jobs, and the sickest question Kevin's ever been asked. Smith and Co., left to their own devices, are more twisted than anything he's ever put on film (so far). And I've got three to give away.

How to enter: Just post in the comments below the answer to this question:

Which Kevin Smith character would you nail, and why?

Rules: Any character is fair game, from his movies to his cartoons to his comics to, hell, his Roadside Attractions bits if you want*. Please keep the entries less than 50 words. US and Canada entries only, unless you're willing to cover postage. Must be over 18 to win. One entry per person, please. Make sure you leave a valid e-mail address so I can contact you (your info will not be used for any other purpose). And you've got till midnight EST next Friday, Sept. 25. Three winners will be chosen at random. Go!

UPDATED: Contest is over, three names have been chosen, e-mail sent out. I;'ll post the names once I get confirmation back. Thanks everyone who entering!

"Shootin' the Sh*t With Kevin Smith" hits the stores Tuesday, Sept. 22, and you can preorder it now. Or you can order a signed one from Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. And be sure to check out the SModcasts for a taste of what you'll be getting.

* My own response? I'd bang God, in Her guise as Alanis Morissette. She's a total hottie, and Alan Rickman would have to stand next to the bed and make all her noises for Her. Doesn't get any better, sir.

Video: Season 3 – Episode 1: Expansion Time

The wait is over!

Well, actually for the members of the online megahit show The Guild the wait has just begun, as a huge new development in their lives arrives: the new expansion to their game.

"'The Spires of Dragonore!' New continent, new powers. Most importantly: new character hairstyles!"

But will it distract them from their problems? Last season Bladezz deleted Tinkerballa's character after she manipulated him, Codex got dumped by the hunky stuntman she liked and went to find Zaboo, who had apparently gotten over his crush on her with the help of the mouth of the stuntman's hottie roommate Riley, and Vork is… still Vork. Slaying goblins is starting to look a lot easier than all this real-life crap.

Episode one of the new season is now at MSN Video for your viewing pleasure (XBox Live gold members got it a week ago).  You can see it for free along with behind the scenes stuff, the Comic Con panel, the music video, and the previous episodes. But you really should order the Season One and Season Two DVDs for more stuff, commentaries, and because this sort of thing needs to be supported.

Neil Cameron's amazing A-Z of Awesomeness — 26 illustrations he created in 26 days, based on suggestions from people from his blog, Twitter feed and Facebook group — is being released as a limited edition poster print. Only 250 available! (Well, 249, I bought one)

The posters are 286mm x 439mm, on glossy full-colour poster paper.

To make them a bit more special I'm signing each one and I've put a space at the top for a sketch of a character of your choice – from the A-Z or indeed anywhere else. Just tell me who you'd like in your sketch, and any message you'd like included, in the PayPal 'instructions to seller' field. (Note: please request a single character only!) If you leave this field blank I'll sketch something random of my own choosing…

You can see them all here, and they're hilarious. Captain Britain and Cerebus, Indiana Jones and a drunken Iron Man, Q and Q (reading "Q"), even a naked Joss Whedon. If nothing else get this just to hear the reactions from your guests when they walk by it…

£7.50 (GBP), with £2.50 shipping (works out to $16.80 US).