Rowling Considered Killing Ron

A fascinating revelation from the maker of the Potterverse.

"Boston Legal"

So go figure.

The always brilliant Jason Jacobs claims the dear-departed Boston Legal is perhaps the best TV show ever.

Barbara Villez, whose work on law and television I also admire greatly [go to p. 138] loves it to.

And yet, though my knowledge of the show is admittedly limited, I find BL pretty much unwatchable.

Perry's Crazy Speech

Rachel Maddow's story on it tonight:

PerryNormal Activity

Rachel compared the moment to Howard Dean's fatal scream in 2006.

"We got the issue o-u-t . . . ."

New Slayage (9.1, No. 33) up.

Read it here.

The title of this blog entry entirely stolen from Rhonda Wilcox.

"Luck"

Futon Critic has news about David Milch's Luck.

Tip of the Hat to Ensley Guffey.

Dalek Pumpkin

Tip of the hat to Andrew Sullivan.

Roger Ebert on Pauline Kael

You can read it here. Caricature of Kael by David Levine.

Tip of the hat to Nelson Maddaloni.

Addy as Supergirl (Halloween, 2011)

"High Anxiety": How to Discuss Psychoanalysis in Front of Children

"Zombies worth over $5 billion to economy"

MSN has the breakdown.

Artist of the Week, 10/31/11: M. C. Escher

M. C. Escher, Belvedere

The problem with "America in Prime Time"

The problem with "America in Prime Time."

S. J. Clarkson

Just noticed that the director of tonight's Dexter ("The Angel of Death") was S. J. Clarkson, who was the go-to helmer for Season Two of Life on Mars (UK). She directed the series finale.

Checking IMDB I see that she has not only done two previous Dexters, but House, Heroes, Ugly Betty.

Perry, Pixilated

Tell me Rick is not drunk. Good grief.

Derrida Talks "Seinfeld"

Watch this clip from the documentary Derrida on YouTube.

Starts at 6:06 mark.

"Žižek!"

Atra Taylor's documentary on the Slovenian critic Žižek. Available in its entirety on YouTube.

"British man calls police after confusing the Moon for a UFO"

You can't make this stuff up.

Artist of the Week, 10/30/11: M. C. Escher

M. C. Escher, Ascending and Descending

"Trollhunter"

Well . . . This was a lot of fun. A little bit Blair Witch, a little bit Cloverfield, a lot of Norway.

"Why Read 'Moby-Dick'?"

A selection from Philbrick's book in Vanity Fair.

Nick Georgiou's "Paper Elegies"

In the tradition of Arcimboldo.

Jim Kouf

Co-creator of Grimm (with David Greenwalt, former Whedon right-hand-man), Jim Kouf worked on Angel.

He wrote "The Thin Dead Line," "The Shroud of Rahmon," "Five by Five" for Angel and also authored one of my all-time favorite B-movies: The Hidden.

"Fringe" Responds to World Series Preemption

Artist of the Week, 10/29/11: Edward Hopper Week

Hopper, New York Movie

Colonel Tigh on "Supernatural"

It was nice to see BSG's Michael Hogan on "Slash Fiction" tonight, even if he did get eaten by a Leviathan.

Actors vs. IMDB

So actors don't want IMDB to reveal their real ages.

Joss Whedon Course?

Strong likelihood that this is going to happen.

"Joss"--My Self-Designed Cover

Tauris has expressed interest in Elaine Damasco's poster for the Flagler College Slayage Conference for the book, so I have made use of it in a working cover.

Heard on the "Colbert Report"

Talking about Pittsburgh Steeler Troy Polamalu's fine for calling his wife during a game to report on his possible concussion, Colbert noted:

Apparently he was so woozy on the sidelines that Ben Roethlisberger tried to have sex with him.

Artist of the Week, 10/28/11: Edward Hopper Week

Hopper, House by the Railroad

Robotic January

Now this is just cruel.

Legends, Icons

Great men becomes legends, legends become icons.

Just heard this on ESPN. Is this the hierarchy? Is an icon higher up than a legend? Discuss.

Artist of the Week, 10/27/11: Edward Hopper Week

Hopper, A Road in Maine

"John Barrowman doubts Capt. Jack will ever return to Doctor Who"

Story on Blastr.

"Fragile"

A small indicator of the powerful, though often minute, impact of the movies on the psyche: a Fed Ex package just arrived for my wife. When I saw the word "FRAGILE" on the side of the box, I sub-vocalized it as "fra-geel-ay."

Why? Because that's how "The Old Man" (Darren McGavin) in Bob Clark's A Christmas Story (1983) pronounces it that way when he get his infamous leg lamp in the mail.

"Best Improvised Movie Scenes"

The Daily Beast has its choices.

Nuking the Fridge: Spielberg Talks "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull"

He's proud of inspiring a phrase to replace "jumping the shark."

Artist of the Week, 10/26/11: Edward Hopper Week

Hopper, Hotel Room

Pat Buchanan: American Jews Made “ Collective Decision“ To Abort Themselves Out Of Existence

Pat Buchanan: American Jews Made “ Collective Decision“ To Abort Themselves Out Of Existence

The Great Harry Potter Withdrawal

Following the Disney model.

Artist of the Week, 10/25/11: Edward Hopper Week

Hopper, Nighthawks

Another New Whedon Project?

What the . . .?

Tip of the hat to Tori Warenik.

Artist of the Week, 10/24/11: Edward Hopper Week

Hopper, Rooms for Tourists

Artist of the Week, 10/23/11: Edward Hopper Week

Hopper, The Lighthouse at Two Lights

My New "Telegenic" is Up

You can read it here.

Artist of the Week, 10/22/11: Rene Magritte Week

Magritte, Time Transfixed

Sexism Alive and Well

From Scott Brown.

From a NJ State Senate candidate.

And from earlier the despicable Berlasconi on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Good grief.

Whatever Became of the "Joss" Book?

Go here to see my unofficial, self-designed cover.

I have been asked this question often, and now I have an answer.

After languishing in the publisher's hands for way, way too long, the book, with a new closing chapter on The Avengers (to be written after its May premiere), will be out by the end of 2012 from I. B. Tauris.

Composite Photo from Screenrant

This project, which began as Wonder Boy: the Creative Achievement of Joss Whedon back when Whedon was supposed to write and direct Wonder Woman, will now track Whedon's arc from Roseanne to Buffy to Avengers. A new title will reflect that significant difference.

Be patient. I hope you will find it worth waiting for.

Andrew Sullivan's Warning

Important to consider as the next election approaches.

Heard on "Big Bang Theory"

It's like they say, a cat can have kittens in the oven but that don't make 'em biscuits.
--Sheldon's Mom

"Slate" Needs a Proofreader

Does Slate bother to review its stories before it posts them?

surprsie? one less high profile women?

Artist of the Week, 10/21/11: Rene Magritte Week

Magritte, The Treachery of Images

Marco Rubio

I am shocked, shocked, that Marco Rubio has not been telling the truth about how his parents came to America. (They did not flee Castro's tyranny but arrived peacefully in Florida long before the Communist Revolution--when Castro was still in Mexico.)

"Watch every Doctor Who regeneration ever in 10 minutes"

Watch it here.

"Avengers" Trailer Parody

You can watch it on Blastr.

Artist of the Week, 10/20/11: Rene Magritte Week

Magritte, The Lovers

Completely Unfair

This is why I don't read The New Republic much. The following is their completely wrong "Most Overrated Thinkers" take on Rachel Maddow. I have no earthly idea what the sentence in bold means. It is completely untrue.

RACHEL MADDOW
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow gets a lot of credit for her quirky intellect. A fawning New York magazine profile began with a lengthy vignette about her on-air musings on Dadaism, as well as her impressive resumé—she’s a Rhodes scholar and an Oxford Ph.D., in case you didn’t know. But Maddow is a textbook example of the intellectual limitations of a perfectly settled perspective. She knows the answers even before she has the questions. The truth about everything is completely obvious to her. She seems utterly incapable of doubt or complication. Her show is a great tribute to Fox, because it copies the Fox style exactly.

To add insult to ignorance, they put Fareed Zakaria on the list as well.

"Joss Whedon Plots His Return to the Web"

Entertainment Weekly recently published the story.

Artist of the Week, 10/19/11: Rene Magritte Week

Magritte, Personal Values

The Newt as an Ideas Man

The New Republic (The New Republic!) nails it:

Gingrich has one of the loosest, least rigorous, most pretentious minds in politics. He loves ideas, he’s just no good at them; and the idea of ideas is not enough to make a man a serious intellectual. The bloopers in his works of history—fiction and nonfiction, and nonfiction that turns out to be fiction—are legendary.

An Astonishing Self-Portrait

This photo of a black macaque monkey is actually a self-portrait. See Andrew Sullivan's post.

Best Addy Photo Ever

Artist of the Week, 10/18/11: Rene Magritte Week

Magritte, Not to Be Reproduced

"Conan's" Titles

I have been intrigued by the new Conan show's episode titles for some time and was delighted to find a Tumblr that is cataloging them.

Zachary Quinto Comes Out

Last week it was Sean Maher (Firefly's Dr. Simon Tam). Now it's Zachary Quinto (Heroes' Sylar and the new Star Trek's Mr. Spock) who has come out.

Artist of the Week, 10/17/11: Rene Magritte Week

Magritte, The Menaced Assassin

"Remedial Chaos Theory"

We expect to find alternate timelines as narrative devices on series like Lost and Fringe.

But on a sitcom? Community (of course) has now given us one with "Remedial Chaos Theory." Inspired. In one of them Jeff loses an arm, Britta falls in love with the pizza boy, and Pierce is shot and bleeds to death.

Here's hoping that, in yet another alternate time-line, Community is a ratings success.

Artist of the Week, 10/16/11: Rene Magritte Week

Magritte, The Human Condition

Go as Gus

Trick or treat as the late Gus Fring from Breaking Bad.

The NY Times has a downloadable post-explosion Fring Face.



Hat tip to Ensley Guffey.

Artist of the Week, 10/15/11: James Ensor Week

James Ensor, The Entry of Christ Into Brussels

Artist of the Week, 10/14/11: James Ensor Week

James Ensor, Ensor with Masks

"9 Doctor Who villains so horrifying you'll hide behind the sofa"

Blastr picks them.

999 (ctd)

So Cain's plan may be taken from Sim City?

999

This (from The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell) was an eye opener.

Herman Cain's 999 plan will end social security and medicare.

Oh, and BTW, his frequently-cited Chilean influence is a reference to a plan formulated by the despotic government of General Pinochet.

Romney and the Teas

Conservatives and Tea Partiers were supposed to put an end to people like Romney. They had convinced themselves that the era of the Bush 41-style Republican was over and done with, and that the GOP would now and forever be controlled by the purebred conservatives, the ideological offspring of Reagan and Goldwater, the true believers who would finally cut Washington down to size and starve the statist beast until you could see its ribcage. If Romney becomes the GOP nominee, it will prove that the Tea Party project was an abject failure, and that the momentum of 2010 was only temporary.
--D. R. Tucker on the Frum Forum

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

"Ringer": A Full Season

Ringer gets a year.

Artist of the Week, 10/13/11: James Ensor Week

James Ensor, Skeleton Painter

"Thrones" for Dummies

Andrew Sullivan Talks "Who"

Colbert, Chris Christie, and Schrödinger’s Cat

I have written about Schrödinger’s cat and television in a Telegenic. Now I can add The Colbert Report to my collection.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Chris Christie 2012
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

'Avengers': A Deep Dive into the Awesome New Trailer

Entertainment Weekly offers its shot-by-shot take on the new Avengers trailer.

Artist of the Week, 10/12/11: James Ensor Week

James Ensor, Two Skeletons Fighting Over a Herring

First "Avengers" Trailer

My friend Ensley Guffey is worried Whedon may be going too much into Bay territory.

I am betting Whedon's astonishing ability to create three dimensional characters and handle action with great precision will preclude any Bayish eruptions.

Heard on "How I Met Your Mother"

Marshall's new boss, environmental lawyer Garrison Cootes (Martin Short) explains that he plans to survive the end of the world by hiding in a Colorado mineshaft with assault rifles and all of Friday Night Lights.

Artist of the Week, 10/11/11: James Ensor Week

James Ensor, The Intrigue

"Face-Off"

It's hard to believe that Gus is now gone. But even in death his tie is straight, though his face is off.

Walt won. OMG. What will the next and final season bring for one of the greatest series in the history of television? Donna Bowman's insightful recap here. Melissa Maerz's here (EW).

Artist of the Week, 10/10/11: James Ensor Week

James Ensor, Skeletons Trying to Warm Themselves