Archive for the ‘Watching’ Category

Available on iTunes, Amazon and other fine MP3 retailers. Video is also at iTunes.

I've got two Dollhouse DVD sets to give away, one for the winner voted on by you people, and one pulled at random from all the entries. Why would you hire a doll?

The winner by vote is Mike Mueller, for "Because I have a perfectly good see-saw that's just sitting there. It's just sad."

And the random choice winner is David Pickett! (His entry, for the curious, was  "So i could talk to myself without looking crazy.")

Congratulations gentlemen, and thanks to every who participated! And a big thank you to Scott Neumyer from Click Communications for letting me do this.

If you didn't get one here, fret not. The Dollhouse Season One DVD hits the streets next Tuesday. All 13 episodes (including the unaired "Epitaph One")  and the unaired pilot, "Echo," plus commentaries, deleted scenes and tons of features. See my mini-review here.  Preorder it at Amazon for the best price: at the moment, $29.99 for the regular one, $47.99 for Blu-Ray.

Terry Moore has signed a deal with "Watchmen" producer Lloyd Levin to make an "Echo" movie.

This doesn't mean there'll be one, of course. Movie deals are delicate, frail things that fall apart for all sorts of reasons. But I'm really hoping to see it (assuming it's done right) and I'm glad to see Moore,  getting the recognition (and the six-figure option amount).

Of course, I'd rather see a well-done "Strangers in Paradise" movie…

"Echo" tells the story of a photographer who is preoccupied with her personal problems until she gets doused by liquid metal from a military experiment gone awry. She discovers she can now harness the power of a nuclear bomb, and soon the military wants its walking weapon.

If you're not reading it, you really should be. Check out the first collection, "Moon Lake", at Amazon.

The BBC has released the first picture of Matt Smith as the new Doctor, and I'm getting weird "Crossfire" flashbacks.

The newly reincarnated Doctor's new look will consist of "tweed jacket, bow tie, rolled up trousers and black boots."

OK, fair enough I suppose. Still a bit odd, very British, and slightly apart from humanity. I get that, I do. But it's not essentially different from most Doctorwear, is it? Whatever form he's in, he tends to dress like a professor. Admittedly a very odd or eccentric one at times, but none of the Doctors would look out of place wandering around the halls of higher education in a fog of tenure.

I say the Doctor needs to reflect more of the UK. Where's the docks worker? The politician? The indie artist with the three dozen piercings and the facial tattoos? The drag queen? Where's the Time Lord soccer hooligan, who travels back through time to correct bad calls and gently guide close games and ultimately save humanity?

Let's see some diversity, BBC.

Tonight on BBC America is the third season of Torchwood in a special 5-night event. Every night this week, from 9-10:15 p.m. (note the extra time) will be a new episode of an amazing story, far more intense than Torchwood has ever been. Captain Jack, Gwen and Ianto will face perils from an alien race that they could probably handle if someone wasn't trying so hard to kill them.

Tonight at 8 is "Inside the Hub," a special documentary that can help newbies catch up before the new episode starts. The rest of the week, the previous night's episode will be shown at 8, before the new one. And every night there will be a 15-minute behind-the-scenes special afterward. If you're a Torchwood fan. you can't miss this.

You cna read more about it in my article here. You can also read/listen to my interviews with Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto) and producer Julie Gardner.

"Remains," the hauntingly beautiful song from the end of "Epitaph One," the unaired 13th episode of "Dollhouse," is now available for purchase at Amazon and Amazon.uk. It's not at iTunes yet but they usually release new stuff on Tuesdays, so here's hoping.

"Remains" was written and performed by "Dollhouse" writers Maurissa Tancharoen & Jed Whedon (who also wrote the script for this episode) and released on their "Nervous Circus" label. And it's gorgeous.

"Epitaph One," which was supposed to premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con next week, was leaked to the torrents last week along with the unaired pilot. You're on your own finding it, but if you do download it please buy it anyway when it comes out on the 28th. You'll also get commentary on two episodes, lots of deleted scenes, and several hefty features. Order it from Amazon for just $31.99!

burn down my home
my memories hardened in the brightest chrome
good times escape
while every mistake seems to be caught on tape…

And if you haven't yet voted for the winner of the Dollhouse Season One DVD set, please do! Ten entries were chosen for you to select from, and one random winner from all the entries will also be chosen. Vote!

A very familiar flying friend will make its appearance in cake form on the premiere of Ace of Cakes tonight at 10 p.m.

Read a description of the whole thing here, from the lucky Browncoat who received this amazing edible recreation, and check out the pics here.

Not really  a geek topic – although his impassioned "Go baby, go" during the Apollo launch still warms my geek heart.

But Walter Cronkite was a public figure unlike many others. He was what people wanted to be, for his generation. Honorable, intelligent, caring, trustworthy.

At one time, his audience was so large, and his image so credible, that a 1972 poll determined he was "the most trusted man in America" – surpassing even the president, vice president, members of Congress and all other journalists. In a time of turmoil and mistrust, after Vietnam and Watergate, the title was a rare feat – and the label stuck.

By the time I was watching the news regularly he was retiring, but he had already left his mark on me as to how news should be reported. Not hyped, not fancy or with its own theme music, and not with exaggerated even-handedness to produce "balanced" reporting or presenting events out of context to prove your already decided-upon point.

You just tell people what happened.

That's it. And that's what he did.

That's the way he was.

I missed this when it came out, but thetorchonline.com got Brian Fuller to spill some of the season three secrets last month. Pushing Daisies, which was canceled and closed with a somewhat hurried wrap-up of many (but not all) of the dangling plot threads, had plenty of places to go:

We knew when we were shooting it that it was our last episode essentially. After we got into post and it was like, “Okay. That’s our last episode and it ends on a cliffhanger.” Because, as scripted, the last moment of the show was they open the door, and Chuck says to Vivian and Lily, “I’m alive,” and then it cuts to black. That would set up our back nine arc, which we were going to bring back George Hamilton as Ned’s father, and we just had so many balls up in the air that I was looking forward to bringing down and writing, but we just never got the opportunity.

Lots of details there about Chuck going after her father, and Ned going after her, and Vivian and Lily's split, and Olive's new life, and… Let's say I hope this continues, whether in comics or movies, or whatever. I want the rest of the story. And this is a good start.

Update: three days after ordering and being charged three times, my duplicate "authorization" charges have finally been removed from my account.

So, here's what's going on.

First the countdown till the time we could order the Dollhouse SDCC Limited Edition DVD set ended, but the order form did not appear. Instead, the countdown started counting up.

Then the order form appeared, but it rejected more credit cards than it approved and kept giving errors or blank pages. Problem: refreshing the page, using your back button or pressing "submit" more than once apparently caused it to try your credit card again, resulting in multiple charges on the cards of many fans, me included. According to Fox these multiple charges are "authorization charges only" and will be refunded/canceled within one to two business days, depending on your bank.

And the promised confirmation e-mails were not coming out.

Then they brought down the page and redirected it to the main Fox store while they worked on the problem.

Things seem to be a bit more stable now. One of the credit card problems was fixed (if you typed in 2009 for your credit card expiration date, it only read the 20 part and not the 09 part, causing the validation to bounce) and orders are now going through. Give it a shot!

I just received my confirmation e-mail, about 8 hours after I received my confirmation number.

About the sneak peek of "Epitaph One" we were promised: In your confirmation e-mail you get a JAGTAG, which you must take a picture of with your cellphone and send it to a specified number. Also, you must be a customer of Verizon, AT&T or Alltel, none of which was mentioned by Fox beforehand. Also, your phone must be the right sort to handle the content, which mine apparently is not. From reports it was JagTag's problem, as their own site was giving up errors. A few hours later, I finally received the video to my phone (even though earlier I got a text message telling me my phone wasn't good enough), and there it was: 25 seconds of a confrontation involving a familiar face. And there's Felicia Day! Hi Felicia! By the next day the clip was posted at Dollverse.com for everyone to see.

I don't know what the deal ultimately was, but this promotion had serious problems on every level. Glad to see they seem to have it patched up now — and I don't know if they've ever tried anything like this before — but I'm glad to see the mood among fans is mostly tolerant, with some very understandable beefs.

All of this is to get the limited SDCC edition Dollhouse Season One, numbered, with different packaging (see above) and a note from creator Joss Whedon. Only 5,000 will be produced, and you'll have to pick it up at the con or have a friend pick it up at the Fox booth at the con (#4129) starting Wednesday at 6 pm.for you, and you'll need to provide your friend's e-mail address when you order.  One per customer.

$49.95 for the regular set, $69.95 for Blu-Ray. Or you could just order the regular edition from Amazon for just $31.99 (or $48.99 for Blu-Ray).

Or you could try to win one from me…