TIMING + OTHER CHANGES

Well, I would like to comment articulately on how smallVille’s current season is developing but since they moved it to FRIDAY nights I keep remembering on Thursday it exists and then forgetting on Friday and doing things like watching WizTober instead. So I missed the Wonder Twins. Darn.

New favorite t-shirt (because I know you like to keep track of these things.)

Speaking of all things Wizard…Wizards of Waverly Place still knocking out the solid comedy. Harper moving in should be an interesting turn.

Now, the Sonny With A Chance will Chad and Sonny divulge their feelings on a talk show episode tipped the way too many flashbacks alarm.

Exactly the opposite on the funny meter was the latest Jonas (but I think I mentioned that before) which I have just discovered has been picked up for a second season. They’re getting a new show runner but I hope they don’t ditch that much — Gayle really likes the one camera style and I think they’ve really grown into the humor as the season progressed.

Speaking of growing into humor, have been on a Big Bang Theory kick, watching Seasons 1 + 2 on DVD. And this past week’s once again ratcheted up the funny. When Sheldon’s radio interview was being helped along by helium, Gayle and I were both laughing so hard it was impossible to hear anything that was being said. I do miss Leslie Winkle as a fountain of dread mischief…sure Kripke’s funny, but how about a Winkle and Cooper revenge tag team to take him down.

Still haven’t watched Shanghai Surprise. Need to change up my Netflix queue and drop the TV shows and concentrate on movies.

Oh, should probably drop in a Nick update. Nick Cannon very entertaining as The Chairman, liked iCarly’s iHave My Principals episode — always good to see Tim Russ. True Jackson seems to be focusing on the teens, which is ok, but I do like the craziness Max and Amanda bring with them.

Comics are grim, especially with Black Lanterns all over the DC Universe but Groo is back (To the fray!) and so is Giffen (Ambush Bug and Doom Patrol) so there is some light.

I think that catches up w/ the reviews. Still missing Warehouse 13.

TALKING ABOUT

Well, if you’re looking for interesting things I’ve read in the FT, so am I. I have a week + 1 in a pile and I haven’t had a chance to get through them.

What I have been reading…comic books (see previous entry) and Fried Green Tomatoes at The Whistlestop Cafe. I had forgotten all the details and characters and eras Fannie Flagg worked into her marvel of a town and humanity tour. If you haven’t read it yet, do!

And on the comic note: DC’s Wednesday Comics finishes off with a flair. Hawkman + (surprisingly Supergirl) get my votes for best use of format. More in depth review later. Start the next one off with Hawkman/Supergirl team up, give Aquaman his own page, the Legion of course, The Question, and hmmmm, I’ll have to think about the rest.

In the can I pick ‘em or what category: Movie You May Have Missed have done me a huge favor and reminded me what the title is of the time travel movie I had forgotten the title of soon after I read its excellent review (at the time, I was reading the Wall Street Journal). I kept trying to make it Pi, a totally different movie, but no, it’s Primer. Here’s their review.

And continuing, The Web Files is still turning out excellent, entertaining and informative episodes. Picked up some pointers from their interview (and am trying out Tube Mogul for Blink Kitty Love) with Tim Street of French Maid TV, yes, French Maid TV and am looking forward to the launch of first episode of the bringing back the 80’s w/ a sci fi flair, The Cabonauts (The Web Files #15).

TV reviews: still missing Warehouse 13, the upcoming 3 part Wizards of Waverly place, Chronicles of Moises looks like fun, not that thrilled with iCarly, True Jackson solid, buy the Jonas DVD because “Cold Shoulder” has the funniest music video bit ever in honor of Scandanavia. Speaking of The Jonas Brothers, have you seen “Bounce?” So this is what rock stars really do to stave off boredom.

Anything else…hmmm, there’s a new Blink Kitty Love in the universe, it’s Monday so Big Bang Theory Night (yes, Penny + Leonard dating does work + it is funny; not so sure about Sheldon + Raj working together).

And on a social conscience note, remember to vote. It matters. And here’s hoping that the Yes votes on Proposition #71 in Washington and the No votes on Question 1 in Maine prevail. You can make a difference. I did not participate in the latest March on Washington, but one of my Twitter peeps sent out an “Every right for every resident” quote and I think that sums it up well.

And I just remembered — spent the weekend w/ Madonna – or at least Madonna references. Rolling Stone has been mysteriously arriving for the past month and this is the first week I enjoyed reading it. Nice Madonna interview. And then she popped up in the 80’s in NYC photo gallery accompanying an interview w/ Village Voice photo columnist Amy Arbus. So now, I’ve convinced Gayle that we need to watch Shanghai Surprise — did you know George Harrison did the music.

TV OASIS

No, I didn’t stop watching TV; I just stopped reviewing it unless it was new + fun (see Warehouse 13 comments in previous posts).

Wizards of Waverly Place deserves their Emmy + the movie rocked.

Have been off iCarly because it’s been too mean + shouty, but watched iHate Techfoots + iCook tonight and enjoyed them. So it’s time to jump back on the iCarly train.

Also saw a True Jackson I hadn’t seen yet — Lulu’s on loan to accounting + True’s science teacher is temping for her…entertaining. True Jackson is always solid ensemble comedy.

Caught Nick’s new show, The Troop, tonight + had a sudden Power Rangers craving (and I don’t even like any of the Power Rangers); The Troop seems to be taking the boring middle mediocre ground between funny and frightening so no sparking of interest.

Jonas is improving — Macy is getting more stuff to do and the Stella – Joe combo is really working.

Warehouse 13 marathon + season finale Tuesday, September 22nd. Big Bang Theory season premiere tomorrow — the boys are back from the North Pole and everyone’s very excited.

Eureka’s been all right — great to see Taggart back, if only briefly. Jaime Paglia’s apparently the only person who can write a good Jo but aside from that season finale tepid.

Watched Adventureland (movie not TV show)…didn’t really enjoy watching people sit around and smoke and not say or do much. Not the movie or the soundtrack I expected. Disappointing + couldn’t really tell if anyone could act.

New shows…haven’t caught Glee and probably won’t. Community looks like fun. The NCIS spinoff looks cool — yes, a little bit of a pun; I’ve always liked LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell. Thinking about putting Boston Legal and Psych on the Netflix queue.

I’ve added another show to the list of ones I watch with the little brother (#2) — It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The pre title bits are hard, crazy, brilliant comic gems.

Looking forward to Fame and waiting for some of the summer movies we missed to come to the $2 theatre.

WIZARDS RULE

Wizards of Waverly Place movie was excellent — they have the best ensemble in tween television. David DeLuise + Maria Canals-Barrera are the best + funniest adults I’ve seen on a tweens show (used to be Robert Carradine + Hallie Todd of Lizzie McGuire) and their writers give them solid stories. David Henrie, Selena Gomez and Jake T. Austin all excel at both comedy and the more serious moments.

The Wizards movie had adventure, comedy, heart, growth, suspense and 11.4 million viewers. See it if you haven’t; it’s a fun ride.

WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO

Wooting actually…Shirt.Wooting + designing for the latest design derby #107 Bags. Check out + vote (please) for my design here.

Saw G.I. Joe on Friday in Theatre 1…loud. But worth it for Marlon Wayans + Rachel Nichols. Their acting and the Ripcord/Scarlet chemistry rode away with the movie. Channing Tatum has lost my Captain America vote; I say we put Mr. Wayans in an action movie and have some fun. Too big, too loud, too noisy with leads who couldn’t carry the emotions required by the backstory. Some nice transitions and shots (glass roof), but also a lot of Star Wars, Sky Captain and The Mummy touches. Looking forward to maybe catching (500) Days of Summer tomorrow and next weekend: BANDSLAM!

Wizards of Waverly Place Vampire vs. Wizards event has wrapped. It gained momentum as it went along. Still very impressed with what the Russo Clan is doing; Jennifer Stone’s Harper is getting better/funnier every week and Bridgit Mendler is a good addition as vampire Juliet. Actual appearance of a zombie prom was fun. It was also good to have Dean closure for Alex, but I’ll be glad when Wizards gets back to regular episodes (and the movie).

QUICK REVIEWS TO TIDE YOU OVER

Liking Warehouse 13 — epsecially now that they’ve added Claudia. Good group dynamic. REALLY HATE the commercials “SyFy” tends to run, but Warehouse 13 seems to be going well on the track to quirky awesomeness. Nice to see Jane Espenson back in the we can have some fun while doing sci fi game.

Eureka is scoring mostly positives (and hardly any Zane — yippee!). And wonder of wonders, a Taggart sighting in tonight’s advertising. Looking forward to his return.

Testing True was a solid effort on Nick’s part — Nick’s redesigning their logo. At least it’s still orange.

Definitely looking forward to the Wizards movie, although kind of neutral on the vampire storyline so far.

Oh, and below is my impulse purchase of the day, which I am now going to go off and read.

NOT ABOUT THE GUY

Princess Protection Program has taken over Twitter tonight and the reviews seem mostly positive. Yes, we watched it; yes, Flash bopped around with a happy, girly tail and yes, it was one of the better Disney movies that have rolled out recently. Demi Lovato’s misplaced princess turn moved me more than I expected and Selena Gomez always manages excellent work. A bit too many “how to be a princess” references for me, but I bet my nine year old niece was taking notes while wearing her Camp Rock shirt.

Someday, and yes, this is a dream, I would like to see Disney or Nick run a fun, non issue movie where the girl gets the girl. And yes, writing a script and sending it somewhere would be a good first step. But until then, it’s nice to see a more independent breed of heroine becoming popular; I am starting to get annoyed by Jonas just using Macy’s proclaimed athletic prowess as an excuse to give her props and not actually anything that makes her more of a person and less of a caricature. So positive review for the Princess Protection Program (if you watch it tomorrow + count princess mentions, you can unlock new episodes of Wizards and Sonny).

And the Wizards movie is also looking good — it will be nice to see David DeLuise and Maria Canals-Barrera have some time to work; along with everyone else in the Wizards cast, they do excellent comedy. Wizards really seems to have stepped up its game since letting Harper in on the magic secret — we watched the silent film homage episode today — very nice.

Saw some preview scenes of The Princess and The Frog…still not sure if I’m looking forward to it.

ROYALTY WAVES AS IT TWEETS + CRUISES BY

Not only is the Royal Shakespeare Company on Twitter, but they are running a tweet a love poem into “As You Like It” Contest(deadline 6/22/09). And the RSC search started with a Peter Aspden Culture column about tweeting, culture and the relevancy of the classics.

Good lunch with the FT with E-bay Billionaire and current philanthropist/movie mogul Jeff Skoll.

Vanessa Friedman, always informed and provoking of thought, this past weekend discusses Isabel Toledo.

Good Peter Aspden review of The World and Its Double: The Life and Work Of Otto Preminger.

And on a #tamingshakespeare note, have been working on Taming Of The Shrew both in rehearsals and out (currently trying to decide on image or word focus for t-shirt –actually, better to say, I am negotiating that point with Gayle. I have been informed that although it is not wide, the boardwalk problem has been solved) and I am enthralled by how much Taming is about clothes. Lines keep popping into my head: “I confess the cape” has always been one of my favorites. More recently, I have been mulling Petruchio’s succinct description of what his bride is getting into: “To me she’s married, not unto my clothes.” And then there is the lovely scene with the tailor where Shakespeare lets a character rant, and this one is right up there with the lovers’ ranting from Midsummer*. Out tailor is about 1/3 the size of our Petruchio so the contrast should be interesting:

“O monstrous arrogance! Thou liest, thou thread,
thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail!
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou!
Braved in mine own house with a skein of thread?
Away, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant;
Or I shall so be-mete thee with thy yard
As thou shalt think on prating whilst thou livest!
I tell thee, I, that thou hast marr’d her gown.”

I think if I were inclined to check myself back into an academic’s garb, I might be inclined to write a thesis on the clothes of Kate Hall. Could be scintillating.

And on a quick Disney note, the Wizards with Hannah On Deck event looks like a blast. I don’t think we have a show that night (7/17) — Flash is not liking the rehearsal schedule, seems to still be growing and now we have What I Like About You time after rehearsal. The N has, of course, incurred our wrath with DeGrassi again — bumping What I Like on the weekends….and yes, I still miss Radio Free Roscoe being on a time I’m actually awake.

That’s a wrap, I believe. Looking forward to seeing The Proposal on Friday, then Metamorphoses on Saturday (friend in the cast, plus, yes, fan of Ovid — are you really surprised?), Sunday, back to Shakespeare –we do Act IV and V until they sparkle which means I could not be home ’til Monday — Shrew has SO many characters on stage at most times. I had blanked out the horrible traffic jams.

*Hermia’s rant:
“Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail’d with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.”

Followed later by Lysander’s dismissal:
“Get you gone, you dwarf;
You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.”

Oh, just read the whole scene here (thank you, MIT)

STAN THE ROBOT WORDLE

Stan Lee’s coming to the Pittsburgh ComicCon (I told you it was a a happening town.)

Robot TV from my robot mime friends at metroccolis.

There’s a cool word crunching turn ‘em into graphics program out there called Wordle (thanks to @alantlwilson for the head’s up.) Here’s a look at the blog and Taming of The Shrew. I also ran Kate’s speech through and as you can see, the dominant word is thy, which supports the advice to other people about their behavior theory. I’m going to run one of Petruchio’s speeches through next; I figure the real crux of their relationship is when they go off at the end of III ii, after the marriage. Here’s my Wordle gallery with all the acts and the two speeches broken down and the yes, names dominate because it’s a script, but Kate dominates as well and only Petruchio calls her that. So I think the key is in the Kates.

Anything else…hmm, you’ve been missing TV reviews. Flash’s new favorite show is “What I Like About You.” Wizards of Waverly Place is still rocking on the ensemble comedy front. So much fun, so fast, such great chemistry. I want the clothes that Horace Mantis High School requires you to wear on JONAS…the show is scoring massive points for style, Chelsea Staub, and the JoBros giving 1000% percent. I’m enjoying it — and occasionally having the Pizza Girl song drift through my head. Happy to hear Miley signed for a fourth Hannah season…kind of weirded out by the sudden Mitchell Musso as a singer push. Haven’t been watching iCarly much, but still enjoying classic episodes and Jenette McCurdy’s guest appearance on True Jackson.

And an exciting thing happened today; Gayle brought home the Eureka 2nd half of Season 3 preview today (thanks Mel); check back here for the preview review. And good night.

Here’s a sample Wordle:

BIG BANG BOOM

Catch up on TV reviews:

Big Bang Theory continues funny — although I am disappointed that Leslie dumped Howard…guess they’ve decided the boys just shouldn’t date for any length of time.

SciFi ran a Eureka marathon and we caught the Best in Faux episode…still fun, but still not as chock full of quirky goodness as the first season. New episodes coming in July and there’s a Eureka comic out there…

Sonny With A Chance also continues funny…always enjoy a good ensemble comedy with physical flair.

Wizards Of Waverly Place (the brain switching episode) made me cry with laughter — great funny, physical stuff from Selena Gomez….movie should be fun.

The Earth Day episodes on Nick were interesting. I thought the iCarly one was very funny and took an interesting tack by pointing out how difficult it can be to judge what’s actually going to help. True Jackson didn’t really pound the green message but was a fairly good mix of silliness and laughter. Greg Proops always turns in an excellent comic performance.

Hatching Pete was not a big hit…Jason Dolley went up a few notches on my can handle a romantic lead chart, but the directing did the story no service…for a movie with so much action, the camera moved too much…I think you can have a choice, move the actors or move the camera, but unless you’re really good, do not attempt both.

Finished watching the Wonder Woman DVD…visually very very nice, but I thought the voice talent and script weak…Hades reminded me way too much of the villainess from The Little Mermaid and I was very glad I had rented and not purchased.

Caught the first half of the new teen Iron Man show On Demand. Didn’t enjoy it…not fond of that style of animation.

Star Trek getting the big culture buzz (FT bio of J J Abrams, big Entertainment Weekly article this week) but I still have my doubts about Chris Pine as Kirk. He seems to lack physical and command presence; Kirk isn’t a smolderer. Pine was cast in The Princess Diaries 2 to be less commanding than Anne Hathaway and I think Gary Marshall’s instinct have been proven to be spot on more often than not. What comforts me is that I saw a meet the characters promo on Nick and McCoy seems to have retained his wry sense of humor and Abrams has done an INCREDIBLY good job casting actors (yes, even Zachary Quinto — did you not see him go gay and bitchier and funnier than Tori in So Notorious) who can do comedy — banter and flirting of all kinds is essential to the Star Trek universe in any reboot.

I think that’s enough for now — lunch is calling…well, it would be if I knew what it was…

GO GET FREE COMIC BOOKS ON SATURDAY (5/2); it’ll be fun.