Like A Star Sneaking In Through The Cracks Of The Nighttime

It has been a very long time since I've updated or seen about the task of maintaining this blog, and now that I visit it this morning the cold, rabid bite of my last entry's timestamp reminds me of why I've been absent.

Three days after my last posting my dad died. Only now am I returning to this blog, but only with the following statements:

After having been made a Featured Blogger on Mania's website by its administrator, I've decided that this site won't be updated as often as it used to be, except in cases when it needs to serve as a failsafe site OR if I go outside the usual Mania boundaries.

Most of you already are aware that my profile and blog can be found at the following address: http://www.mania.com/StarlightGuard/blog.html

Since I'm attempting to do my part in resurrecting my fellow Maniacs' interest in the notion of blogging\reviewing\bitching I'll be focusing my attention there. Maelstrom will return one day (hopefully), Karas is thinking of pitching in her TV reviews, and maybe Bob can start sticking his You've Got Geek On You podcasts links back into the entries which have been overrun by spam as of late.

I will be checking in on this blog to test links and such just to make sure they're still active. As for my old myspace page, I'm just going to let it sit there collecting dust as it retains vital information and blogs from that era as well, but don't expect any updates there either.

Another night has fallen, another day is dawning.

And life goes on as best as it can...

Game Over -- Continue?

It's 2010.

In the fall of 1999 I started this game. Fall of last year I reached a major burnout point and shut the game off.

I went back to work in the factory where I spent a few summers and, two nights in, was injured. It's the first time I ever had to quit a job. That was December, and I'm still dealing with the after effects.

So after a lot of rest, some medication, and a general reassessment of how I handle my life I've decided to return to the game.

As usual, I don't expect to win, but as long as you keep playing you'll find you get better and, one day, you too can save the princess. Or the blue eyed boy. Whichever you prefer.

So this is the reason for my absence, and why my MySpace and this particular blog site needs a facelift, both visually and in output. I even had to slow down at Mania, but I stay in touch with my fellow Maniacs. My Facebook site stays active, though I won't let the general public in for that.

So promotions will begin again for "Summertime Blues," "Sweet Dreams: A Sandman's Story," and others as they are completed.

The pace here will be a slower one than in the past. But, in the meantime, here's a few things I've recently come across you could potentially enjoy:

Maburaho - The Magic Collection (anime)

Newcastle (indie flick)

You've Got Geek On You (podcast featuring friend and fellow Maniac Bob "The Movie Lord" Trate)

And, since they're a lot of fun, I'll supply links to my "Twilight" parody blog entries from Mania. I'll even include Maelstrom's, since he's hilarious as well.

A final note -- as Mania now features a profanity filter, whenever any entry is naughty by nature it will appear here, and a link to said entry will be provided at Mania. Said filter was instituted not to keep us from using bad words, it was designed to keep the porn spammers out.

The Maniacs have found creative ways around this by swearing in new and interesting ways.

--Starlight out.

New Moon Parody: Little Red Riding Bella Meets The Big Bad Wolf (links included for "Jacob Unleashed" and Maelstrom's "Midsummer Twilight Sex Scene")

Twilight Parody

Not Fade Away...

Well it seems I'm reaching a moment in life where I must step away from the computer for awhile, as I'm rejoining those who have "real jobs" in the next week or two.

If you followed me here from Mania, then you've already seen the heads up I left over there.

After another full year of promoting (again) I seem to have ran dry of contacts. I placed the calls, I sent out the letters\emails, and even sacrificed a sheep or two to the Screenwriting Gods.

They insisted, for my next sacrifice, I give them Jessica Simpson. Frankly, I think they're toying with me.

Oh yes, I must remember to thank Hanso for pointing me in the direction of the Script Shadow contest. He may not like "Twilight," but he's still a good man. The contest ends on November 9'th.

This morning I placed the logline, etc., for "Sweet Dreams" in the running. We'll see where that goes.

In the meantime, I continue to slowly work on the novel adaptation of "The Life and Times of Igor," which everyone already has heard about for the last four years or so. The link to the Mania blog entry above contains a first draft excerpt from Chapter 4 of this version.

And if anyone new believes I ripped off the idea, well just search about on here for Igor's history, and go digging into the Mania blogs from the last year or so to see the proof positive I was promoting mine long before the CGI movie came out a while back, which just proves it isn't what you know or what you can do, it's who you know and who you're sleeping with.

Not sure how often I'll be posting in the coming days\weeks, either here or at Mania, but don't sell me short as I will return. I've got blogs here, at Mania, my old Myspace account, and lots of comments in the "Twilight" and "Igor" articles over at Mania, not to mention practically everywhere else. Explore at your own pace...

Until the sun rises again kiddies...

Starlight

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again

If you clicked on this hoping to hear the "Angus Prune Tune," well I'm sorry but ISIRTA isn't here, although the obvious reference was made in the title.

Mania blogs are, currently, down. I assume Jarrod is doing something about this, when he's not suffering from insomnia that is.

Since the entries over at Mania are far more interesting (and currently harder to find) I thought I'd just add this link to expedite the search. There's rambling opinions (such as you'd find here) sketches that parody "Twilight," declarations of why J. J. Abrams is bad for "Star Trek," and other such madness.

In the meantime, promotions continue to go out to New York, Los Angeles, and Canada.

Also, the idea of exploring the notions of how Summit Entertainment is possibly selling out the soul of "The Twilight Saga" in exchange for "man candy" is bubbling in my brain. We'll see where that goes.

Maelstrom's Trek Review

We Maniacs have our views, and we're not afraid to share them.

But, lately, it seems when we express our views, they get buried under spammer bombardment which causes a technical error after mass deletion in which all recent blog entries get archived and disappear from the main list.

As of now, the great and powerful Jarrod is working on this. Hopefully Mania Tech isn't asleep at the keyboard.

Maelstrom finally witnessed what I've referred to as "Star Trek - Non Sequitur." I say that because it does not follow "Trek," reason, the mythology, sense, Roddenberry's vision, and so on.

Another name I applied to Abram's reboot nonsense was "Star Trek Serenity Wars," as it looks (and acts) too much like everything else to maintain the name "Star Trek." The lines have been blurred...and not in a good way.

But here's the link to follow. (Caution - Some Naughty Language Is In Use Here.)

Blame It On "Unskinny Bop"

Those that have followed me for any length of time via Mania, Myspace, etc., knows of the elasticity following my project "The Life and Times of Igor."

(If you haven't, just click the tab down and to the right to see past postings on the subject.)

The guys at Mania love it...they love it more than anything else I've ever come up with. They also know I'm always knocked over by some random development in Hollywood with somewhat similar projects that get pushed forward while I just shelf the project for X amount of time, yet something always stands me back up.

Well I'm looking North this time.

Besides, we're constantly being inundated with remakes, reboots, and re-envisionings which ultimately lead to our regurgitation.

The population wants something new and different, and we keep getting handed the same thing over and over again.

There are no mavericks in Hollywood. No one is capable (or willing) to rock the collective boats of Los Angeles. Even Steven Spielberg has fallen victim to the notion of remakes with "Harvey."

Plus the fact trends are more important than original thinking as well: reboots are a trend, vampires are the trend again. And then they collided with Robert Downey Jr. being thrust into the role of Lestat in yet another reboot, this time of "Interview With The Vampire."

I don't want (or intend) to cash in on trends. I give trends the finger. I also avoid following the crowd, which is why my "Igor" project has been shelved time after time, no matter how much the people have enjoyed it.

It really is annoying -- the one project everyone likes the most is the same one half a dozen agents here in America have nibbled at, yet passed over but then, a month later, someone whose "in the biz" gets his project pushed forward because he's in those "Underworld" movies.

It's never been what you know or what you can do, it's who you know.

Well I know what the agents have likely been "afraid" of: it's quirkiness; its British sense of humor mixed in with American slapstick sensibilities, and its originality.

I came THIS CLOSE to having the comic book version made...with one major flaw: I didn't have (or know) an illustrator. That was upsetting, but it was also a relief, as this is meant to be seen, not read. Igor and Frankenstein singing "Unskinny Bop" in prison is something that can't be captured with dialogue bubbles, it has to be SEEN and HEARD. Think Zaphod Beeblebrox and a hunchback pretending to be Bret Michaels and you've got a formula for inspired craziness.

And that formula fell flat on people who really didn't get it. They all wanted to read it, and once it even disappeared in the bowels of a New York agency for over a year (I had to call to get it back from them, even though I'd provided the standard SASE.)

But they didn't get it. But then Hollywood doesn't understand anything new, original, or inspired these days. It's become a machine, just wash, rinse, and repeat until the fabric has worn through.

But I still continue with promotions for "Sweet Dreams" and "Summertime Blues."

I think it's because I'm a masochist.

Warm up the accordion, Igor, I feel the need to sing.

The Sincerest Form Of Flattery (I Hope)

Imitation, it's said, is the sincerest form of flattery.

But, sometimes, it's just a copy cat that's interested in latching themselves to you (or emulating you) in some fashion.

Those aware of "Sweet Dreams: A Sandman's Story" by means of promotion or other means, would be aware of the Starlight Guard. In fact "StarlightGuard" is my handle at Mania, even though most have shortened it to just "Starlight."

I can handle that.

But now, it seems, I'm being imitated...

I'm not the first, as Hanso has had a few pick up on his persona by claiming to be the "son of hanso," and so on....

Well, now someone has turned their attention on me (again) and has formed their ID as DayLightMoon. They even have an image of the full moon lit up in their avatar.

Well, that's fine...I guess.

(This is where the fine print would be written.)

But I also just like to state that, you know, I don't know the person.

If they're copying me, or inspired by nomenclature, I've no idea.

Also, as it bears repeating, even though I am a "Twilight" fan, "Sweet Dreams" was written (and completed) in 2007, a good year before I actually knew of the novel. The fictional town "Twilight Place" is a sideways reference to the song "Twilight Time" by The Platters, as 50's doo wop and related musical styles are the prevalent themes and sources of inspiration for "Sweet Dreams."

Besides, I just like the word 'twilight' for some reason.

Also, incidentally, it's also at these particular times of day when the Sandmen (and the Starlight Guard) appear and disappear, depending on morning or evening hours.

The Movie Lord Calls It "Nerdvana"

If you're in San Diego this weekend...I ENVY YOU!

A few of the guys from Mania are at Comic Con, and have been for a few days now, and we loyal readers are hearing all the news via the 'net.

In fact they were posting pictures, and some were of the opinion I was with all the screaming girls camped out in line for "New Moon."

I wasn't.

I wish I was, though.

But, fortunately for saps like me, I can still tune in G4 today to hear whatever George Lucas is going to announce (probably an even more special Special Edition DVD of "Star Wars" which will be made obsolete by the even more special Blu-Ray release which will come six months later.)

So tune in G4 if you're capable. I may even see a few Maniacs on there.

(It's always good to see people you know, even if they're bigots as displayed in "Bruno." Oh yes, a special "hello" to Lloyd Robinson, of the Suite A Management agency: it's nice to put a face to the person who didn't return my letter.)

PS - If you're missing these witty or barely interesting topics, go visit my Mania blog instead. Maelstrom has returned, and we're now poking fun of "Twilight" in much more adult terms.

And Then There Was Silence...

Okay, so it's not actually silence that'll be appearing here in the coming days, but the comparison is fair.

I continue to promote both "Sweet Dreams: A Sandman's Story" and "Summertime Blues." (If you're new to this blog, just scroll down and click the appropriate tabs on the right hand side to learn more about those stories, etc.)

Maintaining four distinct means of communication (i.e. this blog, Myspace, Facebook, and all the rants at Mania) seems to be cutting into my creative spark. Temporarily, this well is being declared dry until the next rains come.

Hey, it happens. It's happened before, it'll happen again. Just accept the dry spells because, when they end, the mind is fresh and fertile again. "Sweet Dreams" was written after one of those dry spells.

So I'm taking it upon myself to try different things. I'm picking up the novels I swore I'd read, and finishing the ones I bought a few years back but had to put them down for one reason or another.

Thank heaven for bookmarks.

I'll continue being an active commentator at Mania, but we'll just have to see how active I am.

So here's a backlog of (hopefully) interesting rambling thoughts on movies, writing, and Hollywood in general. There's also my Mania profile and 150 or so blog entries there to be examined.

I feel I should leave you with an interesting (and a bit graphic, but necessarily so) entry a fellow commentator over at Mania posted. He's a good friend of mine, and manages to cut through to the heart of the matters with naughty language and savvy observations whereas I try to use the more diplomatic and philosophical aspects of debating (read: arguing) over the state of our entertainment options in this day and age.

Please note that, as Mania is still recovering in some fashions, embedded images and other forms of coding aren't fully functional still. Our profiles aren't back to normal, and certainly the number of our profile views are wildly inaccurate. (I was nearing 14,000, Maelstrom had crossed the 19,000 mark.)

And so on...

See you in the nearest Malco Theater, kiddies. And please, don't spill your watered down drinks in my lap again.

Hollywood 451

In the previous entry, I posed the question "has Hollywood officially lost its collective mind?"

This go around, I'm hoping I haven't gotten an answer to that question.

Frank Darabont, the man with the plan where Stephen King is concerned, is the latest in a long line of those trying to get Fahrenheit 451 made for a modern audience, and he's
facing a problem. Here's his quote as found on both Mania and Shock Til You Drop.

I actually had a studio head read that script and say: "Wow, that's the best and smartest script that I've read since running this studio but I can't possibly greenlight it." I asked why and he says "How am I going to get 13-year-olds to show up at the theater?" And I said "Well, lets make a good movie and I bet that will take care of itself." But that argument cut absolutely no ice. The movie was basically too smart for this person, too metaphorical, etc., etc. It's a bit of a battle you've got to fight.

Is this a common problem in Hollywood? I sure as hell hope not, even though I worry its more prevalent than it seems, especially when I consider all the popcorn movie fluff that really gets executives all hot and bothered.

Now I'm not stupid enough to believe that Hollywood should just drop all the fluff and focus on "art movies" or serious dramas. Hell the latest movie I bought on DVD was "Jimmy Neutron - Boy Genius." I wouldn't call that a hard hitting expose on the lives of children.

But I also don't want every executive thinking "how can I get 13 year olds in to see this movie?"

All those that are joining in the conversation at Mania, myself included, are laughing at the apparent idiocy of a guy more concerned with getting 13 year olds into a movie they'd have no appreciation of.

Is this really the golden rule of Hollywood? You can't go forward without the approval of a PG-13 MPAA rating?

Screw that.

And does every movie have to be friendly to as many people as possible to get little Johnny away from his Wii to have more CGI monsters and robots thrown at him just to get him to buy more toys?

Absolutely not.

We're heavily into the PG-13 generation: it's too naughty to be PG, it's not naughty enough to be R, and we can get as many heads to be numbed down as possible in theaters across the country.

I sure as hell can't imagine American Pie being watered down to a PG-13 rating. We're getting horror\thriller movies that have the look of R movies yet are safe enough to take little Billy too.

And the notion of it being "too smart" really pisses me off, as I've encountered quite a number of people that don't want to be talked down to, that need more of a competent story than the ones we're getting more and more of these days.

We are smarter than this. We are better than this. We're all for pure entertaining fluff, but you can only have fast food movies so often. There are feasts out there to be had as well, and we want to dine upon them just as much.

We also want to be engaged. We're not all suffering from ADD, and in fact we can fight off those symptoms quite easily when needed.

Let's face it - executives both underestimate and overestimate us at the same time. Abram's Trek reboot was highly successful while also having the shoddiest story ever to come out of a word processor. Transformers is all spectacle and is nothing more than an over priced commercial for a line of toys. Up remains the best example of storytelling I've seen this year so far.

I simply don't want to be presented with the notion of "too smart" when I make it out west. I also don't want to be defined by the limitations of not having 13 year olds in the theaters. What's the point of telling stories, any stories at all, if you can't make it as it should be and not have it defined by it's imagined limitations?

Has Hollywood (Officially) Lost Its Mind?

My friend Jarrod, the big shot news editor over at Mania, has posted an article saying a new Roy Rogers trilogy of films are in the pipeline.

And some of us are wondering why.

Hollywood is now no longer scraping the bottom of the barrel, they've broken through and started digging down into the barren earth below the barrel.

Come on guys, it's time for some fresh blood and ideas. And I don't simply mean me, I mean the whole way of going about storytelling and how you view past properties.

The Two Sides Of The Coin

I've come to realize I have two main patterns in my creative aspects. The first is to just have fun. The second is to do an interesting exploration of certain topics.

"Summertime Blues," "Passion of Chris," "Life and Times of Igor," plus a few others are all in the name of fun. "Chris" does bridge the gap between both aspects, as it also serves as an exploration between Hollywood and the adult film industry.

Then there's the exploration ideas, like "Unbitten," "Interesting Times," and "Sweet Dreams: A Sandman's Story."

Now don't assume that these aren't fun, they just come from a difference place. "Sweet Dreams" is a light fantasy, "Interesting Times" is massive in itself, and "Unbitten" is a light exploration of the vampire culture, rooted in some history.

Then there's something new I came up with today completely by accident.

Since music is an important muse in my life, I often have something playing through my speakers. Today it was the old B-Side to an Elton John CD single from the early 90's entitled "Suit of Wolves."

It's a beautiful sweeping song that I have on the expanded and remastered edition of "The One."

And sometime, in the dark recesses of my mind, a legend I'm aware of and a song I'm hearing connected unconsciously and brought about a dark story I'm not certain I'd write or not.

I don't often deal with the darkness...simply because I don't like it. "Unbitten" had certain amounts of darkness in it, and this new story would have more than "Unbitten" would.

And yet I know, should I tell the guys over at Mania about it, they'd probably say WRITE IT!

I'll sketch out the basic idea for it, and see where it goes. Then I'll likely put it to the guys at Mania, because they can't seem to get enough werewolf and vampire movies, even though this isn't the standard werewolf movie project I've dreamed up, just like "Unbitten" is less about neck biting monsters and more about the tragedy within.

The Great Trek Throwdown - Aftermath

Okay so the dust needs to settle at mania.

My friend Hobbs posted a blog entry over there with spoilers of the new "Trek," and it prompted me to do a follow up.

His comes first, mine comes second.

The new and improved Star Trek??

Starlight's "Star Trek" Compromise

What do you think? I say, in "Trek's" universe, we can always undo such damage.

Abram's story has a tiny bit of wiggle room, so the next one should exploit it.

But read my "Compromise" for further details on that.

The Great "Trek" Throwdown Continues...

In case you haven't been paying attention, there's a sort of "Star Trek" civil war going on at Mania, and I'm one of the few leading the charge in the war against J. J. Abrams.

Follow the links, judge for yourself, and take it all in.

Ten Reasons To Be Worried About "Star Trek"

"Star Trek" Mania Review

DVD Shopping Bag -- The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Jarrod's Revenge

Ah, the weekly box office report at Mania.

This week's version includes a gentle ribbing from good old Jarrod.

Of course it is in response to the one I sent him the previous weekend.

Follow the links Jarrod provided and enjoy my pithy comments and his sweet, sweet revenge.

Anonymous Readers (and) Too Much Connectivity?

You have to love anonymous viewers and readers.

Apparently, in the short time I've had this little blog, the profile has been viewed like 300 times. Just when you think "no one's paying attention," you click on the profile you wrote like weeks ago for the first time and see it's quite a healthy number for such a short time.

Maelstrom is used to this over at Mania. He's at...well, I think it's over 19,000 views and it took three years to reach that.

Hanso is over 14,000 I believe, and it may have taken two or three years.

And then I had like 10,000 in something like eight or nine months.

Frankly I have no idea why - I just log in, check my profile page, and was stunned at the number. I normally don't pay attention to such things, which is why I'm surprised when I do look.

Maelstrom pointed out that readers often don't like to provide their comments or views, that they're just happy to see what's going on and leave it at that. I know it bugged the hell out of NotAFan on Mania, which is why he stopped blogging.

In other Mania news, our dear news editor Jarrod seemed awfully glad I'd returned to the usual blogging style I have over there, and we're both hoping Maelstrom himself will return soon.

I also recently joined Facebook, which will also allow me to keep up with friends I haven't seen since high school, and now I even have Jarrod on there as well.

He's a nice guy, go say hi if you come across him.

Jarrod's also another lost soul on Twitter, which makes me wonder "do we have too much connectivity?" I already had three blogs to keep up with before I joined Facebook, now I have a fourth outlet, and there's always the potential to join Twitter.

I'm not really sure I want to, but if it becomes useful in my little networking scheme of global domination then I may sign up...but not now.

The promotions continue...slowly but surely.

We'll get to Hollywood eventually...but until then, Futurama's on to keep me busy.

Everything You Could Ever Hope For...Again!

Mania blogs are back, baby!

They are a bit off the wagon, and they tend to stumble about in the dark, but at least they're back.

Now, I must say the archiving of the blogs from the past year are terribly out of whack, as they all state the year as 2009, but it's just another glitch to be solved so if you're new to this madness, just remember this: we're nuts, so it makes sense to us.

Here's how to find the past one hundred blogs or so from the previous year:

Step 1. Follow the link off to the right that says "Starlight's Mania Profile."

Step 2. Click the tab that reads BLOG

Step 3. Scroll down and to the right until you see a box that reads BLOG ARCHIVE. There will be a listing of months and the corresponding number of entries per that month.

Step 4. Click whatever you want and have a ball reading it.

Now I will state upfront that there are excerpts from "Summertime Blues," "Life and Times of Igor," "Interesting Times," and so on posted there. I did it to gauge a reaction from the maniacs who would sometimes post comments, but now all the comments (save for the main profile page) are gone.

Another note of caution, sometimes we could get a little blue, so if that offends you, keep in mind you've been notified beforehand.

In these blogs you'll encounter a lot of dead html image links as well, as image embeds somehow got knocked out.

Also, there'll be random assemblages of thoughts concerning the notions of rebooting Superman, Star Trek, and my own thoughts on how to make a third X-Files movie and a Legend of Zelda movie, a plea to bring back Maniac Mansion, and so on.

Plus there's the "Mania Christmas" lyric I composed, in honor of the holidays.

Is that all, Master Starlight?

No, Igor, there's more!

Igor afraid of that.

But what there is left to be discovered has yet to be remembered, but go explore at your own leisure.

Igor do that, Master Starlight.

Good...and, Igor?

Yes, Master Starlight?

Leave that Vanessa Hudgens movie here.

Fine.

Well, now that THAT is out of the way, and given the fact I can revisit all my old blogs that feature Igor, I can get back to work hammering out what should become of this new mini-series.

Starlight's General Theory Of Cinematic Believability

What is reality?

If you'd posed that question to Descartes when he was alive (and you weren't) you might've gotten an answer that could be best summed up thusly: "damned if I know."

We're going to have a second "Transformers" movie debut in the not too distant future. I know this because Jarrod, our beloved news editor at Mania (All Hail Jarrod!) has told us so.

That and the trailer was running on Reelz Channel the other day.

(Quick Note - "The Big Tease" needs to stop pretending they're the Siskel and Ebert of trailers. You don't review trailers, you watch them. I don't need two people getting excited or bored over a movie trailer when I can do so all by myself.)

I still find "Transformers" laughable.

Here's this big ass intergalactic space machine that goes crashing through buildings only to transform into a car that has probably one tenth of the mass (at most) of the previous incarnation of this piece of technology.

But seeing these huge hulking machines walking about on planet Earth is quite laughable. I don't care how much money the first movie made, I'm not interested in how many toys are sold. I just don't buy it, at all.

Well some might say "it's besides the point. It's all in the name of fun."

And that's fine. I've no problem with fun.

The issues of believability bend when it's an animated film, though.

I'm quickly becoming a fan of anime, namely "Full Metal Alchemist" and such. I intend to find "Bubblegum Crisis" and a few others. I also own my own beloved copy of "Final Fantasy - Advent Children."

To be fair, these are in the name of fun as well, and yet I don't find myself bitching at how unrealistic it is when Cloud Strife and his friends do battle in Migdar with the great big beastie of the skies and, eventually, Sephiroth.

Why is this?

I think the answer lies between the sheets of animation and live action. Live action suggest you went outside and saw it, or that one could see it. Animation can present any world it wants: a Parisian rat can speak English, cook, and has a French guy for his own marionette. A car can talk and manipulate its world, yet it has no opposable thumbs to create the gas tanks or design electric circuitry used to power his world. A talking moose can foil Fearless Leader and a squirrel can take flight.

All those scenarios I accept, for some reason, yet giant machines doing battle on Earth in a real live setting is both silly and yawn inducing to me. For some reason, the more unreal it is in our real world, the more ridiculous appears yet, the more unreal it is in an unreal world, the more authentic it seems to be.

Here's another dilemma of believability: should a movie be released at a particular time of the year to make it more authentic?

I posed this question after the sudden departure last summer of "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" from movie theaters. Let's be honest, I don't feel XF2 was much of a "summer movie," and it got swallowed up during the freakishly large run of "The Dark Knight" and its other competition.

(Let's be fair: TDK's success was a fluke. Fluke's happen. Testosterone fueled fan boys feel TDK's box office bonanza proves this is just the best damn movie ever made, it should've won a Best Picture or Best Director award at the Academy Awards, and so on. It made the money, but it's certainly not worth of those nods.)

I was there on opening day, at the very first showing to see what Mulder and Scully were up to. I wasn't the only one there. I also wasn't disappointed with what was projected before me. I easily got lost in the story and found myself very glad I didn't buy popcorn or a drink when the third act rolled around.

But, it's the middle of the summer, and I'm in a darkened theater looking at frozen winter landscapes. There's an incongruity there, I feel, and outside of TDK's runaway profit margin, I have wondered out loud many times if XF2 would've played better during the winter, that way it might've connected to us more effectively if we'd just driven by big heaping piles of snow.

I don't know that, one way or another. I can't prove it or disprove it, but it is a question that so far will remain unanswered.

I won't complain about XF2, except on one account: the title. Chris Carter was happy with it (or so the story goes) but I'm sure, considering how talented Carter is, that he and his crew could've come up with a title much better than that. In fact, that weak title might've been the second strike against this movie.

As for my own works, (namely "Sweet Dreams,") I wish the old fashioned drive in theaters still existed. I can't speak for other states, but in my area they simply vanished. In fact, we still have the parking lot from one that used to exist, and possibly ten years ago the screen was still up at the far end of the lot, but it had been abandoned ages ago.

I'd like to recreate that era of movie going for the eventual first run of "Sweet Dreams," but that is most likely a pipedream.

But there are possibilities - I remember "Cars" was debuted at, of all things, NASCAR, with the use of multiple screens, projection units, and an elaborate audio system. I'm sure we could come up with something similar, and far superior. Just eliminate the hick mentality, find a nice wide open space on a gentle summer evening, and let the experience begin.

It's not as crazy as it seems - every summer, up in Fayetteville, public screenings are held of previously released films up in Gulley Park, I believe. It's always free, and the organizers always tell the population to bring their lawn chairs and anything else they can think of.

As for the General Theory, it's simply that. I'm sure there are more than several exceptions to it to disprove it, but in an interesting paradox, my General Theory believes in those paradoxes and actually goes forth with encouraging them.

See you at the cinema guys and gals, wherever it may be!

Mania Blog - "Anime: Enlighten Me Please"

As Mania is still having technical issues with all of our past blogs, and I only have one active link to one of the over one hundred lost entries, I thought I'd paste the link to the original entry here.

Some time ago, I asked for the help of several Maniacs to help me understand this phenomenon of Japanese animated culture. It's through this discussion I learned of a new favorite show of mine: "FullMetal Alchemist."

Jakester provided his naughty usual input, Maelstrom was incredibly resourceful (as usual), and MBeckham was a new, lone voice that also provided great insight as well.

So follow the link to lead you to one of our biggest discussions in recent memory.

A Disclaimer For The Uninitiated:

This is a discussion that can get naughty. In fact, it does get naughty, especially in our Comments section.

You have been warned.

PS - Ah yes, the formatting has somehow gotten screwed up in the old blog, so it's not as polished as I'd usually prefer. Nonetheless, it's still informative, and there's no point turning away from something informative.

The Great Trek Throwdown

Fights (albeit thoughtful fights) always seem to break out when the topic of J.J. Abrams' revisionist version of "Star Trek" comes to the Mania front page.

Just follow the links to mania, you'll see me, Hanso, Hobbs, and a few others getting into the act.

Part One

Part Two

--Update!--

The debate continues, although instead of being a phaser fight to the death, it marches on intelligently.

Check out the comment Hobbs' left on my mania profile page, and doubly click his avatar for the reply I posted on his profile page.