MY BETTER HALF...

This woman is cleverer, funnier and stronger than I am. So she can certainly kick YOUR ass...

LEAST ACTION HERO...

So many deadlines and dinosaur incursions, so little time...

JOURNEYMAN...

Lay back and think of the air-miles I'm earning...

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Archive for August 2008

The DVD sleeves for HLWW are now finally done and dusted, though there'll be another set of designs to do in the near future. The current batch are covering much of the 2007 Vancouver event and took a little longer to do than I'd anticIpated because of other commitments and a changed schedule of release. However I'm pleased with the unique branding & packaging and the five separate titles should be on sale soon via the official site.

I tried to stay awake to watch the Obama acceptance speech to the whole of the Denver stadium and TV audiences overnight (starting 3:00am-ish UK time), but decided that about 20 minutes in I was fading fast and would catch the rest today in the numerous repeats. On full viewing, I have to say he WAS impressive, hugely more charismatic than McCain and with the kind of reassuring tone and confidence that reminds me of the flag-waving on the day Tony Blair took office. Of course, a) he hasn't even been elected yet and b) we all know how Blair turned out... but this US election has got me quite energised - either way it's a genuine crossroads for the country and maybe the world. McCain has just announced the little-known Alaskan Sarah Palin as his surprise running mate, so that should keep things interesting. Only 67 days to go to find out which way it'll swing. It'll keep the partially 'impartial' news services going for a while, anyway.

Easyish day tomorrow with just general chores to get out of the way including items for Impact. Off to London on Sunday to do Rocknrolla press early on Monday but beyond that brief excitement it's the normal day-to-day routine of paying bills, chasing cheques and exercising my PhotoShop and writing skills.
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Perhaps a major lottery win will be forthcoming...

If you have any spare Vice, I'll definitely be your President...

Vote or Die!

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It's been one of those 'blah' weeks where little things kept going wrong - nothing earth shattering or cataclysmic, merely a minor series of chores and irritations that I could easily have done without. However any week you can walk away from is a good one. And hey, I won £5 on the lottery - that'll go in the travel fund jar. Go, me... well, eventually!

I've also just about finished the designs for the next series of HLWW DVDs which I'll put up on the site when they officially launch them next month and I'll also be adding Valentine Pelka's name to the list of guests at the LA event on the designs for adverts etc. (Val, who played Kronos in several key episodes of the show, is also from Leeds, so there'll be at least two Leodians in Los Angeles in April)

And... drum-roll... Jane Doe Horror is also finally up and running. JDH is a site created by my erstwhile mango-wielding, partner-in-crime Jill and her team of ninja reviewers, out to redress the male-dominated bias when it comes to covering the horror genre. (Or, to put it simply, they like good scary movies and are sick of people being surprised by that!). There's a whole range of reviews up, covering the good, the bad and the very ugly of horror and sci-fi and a message board has just been added as well. I've helped put together the look and branding of the site and though the remit is 'horror flicks reviewed by chicks' I will be offering the ocassional review as the token male (a postion I'm happy to assume). I'll be adding a review of 'The Source' as I think it could qualify, but though I stand-by the fact that 'Showgirls' is one of the greatest horror outings ever made, I'm still working on convincing the rest of the Does of the case for its inclusion.

The rest of this weekend will be final design tweakage, probably another late-night working and catching some of the Olympic footage. It's interested me more than I thought it would and the British teams have generally done us proud. Finally saw a repeat of the full 'opening' ceremony last night (only a day before it finishes - I get there in the end) and it was utterly spectacular. However I can't help thinking that with the next Olympics heading to London in 2012 (budget now 3x what was claimed and rising), the UK committee must have been looking at the mind-boggling scale and shininess of the Chinese effort and thinking "We've got to follow this? Shit..."
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I already predict a gold medal in the freestyle queueing and stiff upper lipness relay.




Yes, more washing and brushing up for the blog/website. Having done a fair amount of design work for other people's blogs and businesses over the last few weeks, I noticed that I'd just started to repeat a few stylistic bits I'd done here and I didn't want to plagurise myself so I've continued to tinker and tweak. I make no promises that this is the end of said tweaking as I want to get just the right balance between professional and personal over the different pages that will make up the package and the 'There Goes The Day' branding.

Congrats to all concerned with the press launch of the HLWW Sanctuary event for Los Angeles next April. In only thirty-six hours of going live, over half the 190 available registrations were snapped up and at time of typing, I'm thinking it's now nearer to two-thirds. To say that there were only three guest names formally attached (though there ARE more to come), that display of trust and support from the fans at a time when 2008 hasn't been a banner year for successful cons, is impressive indeed. Absolutely nothing to do with the swanky branding, of course. :)

The new Impact (#201) will hit the UK shelves this week, so follow the links at the top of the site to get more info - but for this issue I'm glad to have had the opportunity to talk with the Batman cast as well as The X-Filers. September is starting to shape up well with two key press conferences lined up and a possible chance to chat with one of comics' true movers and shakers. It'll mean more up-and-down the country for all the London stuff which I could do without, but until people learn to come to me... that's the way it is.

In the meantime, despite the designing I'm enjoying doingto sharpen the art skills, I must also make sure paid work is coming in as fast. Otherwise, I really am priceless.


I think I've seen all the major comic-book films of the year - are there more to come? But it's been (and currently still is) a great year for comic book adaptations in general. I was pleasantly surprised by Iron Man which has Robert Downey Jnr, Jon Favreau and designer Adi Granov to thank for it's impressive debut outing for Marvel Studios. This was quickly followed by The Incredible Hulk which might not have been quite 'in' but was certainly a credible effort and more evenly enjoyable than the off-kilter Ang Lee outing of 2003.

Mark Millar's Wanted was deliciously over-the-top and un-PC and, ultimately a great guilty pleasure (his Kick-Ass goes into production soon and is destined to have Fox News and The Daily Mail foaming at the mouth).

Then there's The Dark Knight which is genuinely one of the best movies I've seen in years. As mentioned previously, there's been a big hoo-hah in the UK about the rating and yes, I agree it's an obviously solid '15' and poor little twelve year olds may have their poor brains warped by the darkness that permeates every frame - but spare me the lip-quivering of the politicos and Daily Mail who blame the film-makers and the BBFC when their eight year old is traumatised by it. 12A may be an advisory certificate, but I have little sympathy with those who ignore such advice and take eight year olds in! Then again, I DO think the BBFC got it a bit wrong. But, hey, everyone's a critic, right?

Hellboy II: The Golden Army opens here shortly, but I got to see it last week. The story could have been tightened up a bit, but it's a joyfully bizarre romp and no-one can realistically dispute that the visual imagination of Guillermo del Toro remains as amazing as ever. I remember Ron Perlman from back in his Beauty & The Beast days and he remains firmly on my 'want to interview' list.

Oh and thanks to Gillian for highlighting the below video on her blog and pointing me in its original direction. It's one of many vignettes out there and kinda sums up this blog entry better than I ever could. Which is a hell of an exit line for those of you who had to sit through me...

A few weeks ago I doubt anyone could find South Ossetia on a map - in a few weeks they may not be able to anyway. Today you have most of the world leaders talking about the horrendous situation there. It's true... truly horrible photos and accounts of man's inhumanity to man, or more accurately explosions and gunfire and bombs inhumanity to man, but after several millenia I think we've more than proven our ability to be all too inhumanly human whenever the mood or land-grab arises. Pardon me, I'm channeling Methos.

Of course, despite the soundbites, it's not quite that simple. Though Russia has been completely and pretty deadly in it opportunistic strategies, the fact that Georgia was possibly having its own domestic genocide with South Ossetia before Russia jumped in, is over-looked a little because it ruins the whole David Vs Goliathski vibe that works so well. Georgia got bullyish because of Western promises, overplayed its hand with the locals, pissed off Russia who saw an opportunity to give a good kicking to the small but lippy kid next door while claiming they were actually helping the even 'littler' guy and further their own agenda... and everyone's drawn into a conflict which had been rumbling along quietly for years. Quite a result.

In other news: Watched the first two episodes of new series Spooks: Code 9. Loved Spooks... this notsomuch. It's supposed to be set about five years from now after a nuclear bomb wipes out all the known cast from the parent show and so the spy operations move north (to my hometown, typical!) and our cast are now quickly trained kids (in their twenties at best) who go partying, enforce draconian laws, defeat terrorists and say 'fuck' a lot so you know they're really hip. It's not Spooks 2012, it's 2012 Jump Street and would be more forgiveable if they hadn't hijacked the Spooks moniker to begin with. Like Torchwood, it has potential in there somewhere, but like Torchwood it can't decide on its audience.

One of the stars of Code 9 is Georgia Moffett, last seen as the Time Lord's genetic offspring 'Jenny' in Doctor Who. Moffett - no realtion to ace Who, Hugo-awarding winning scribe Stephen Moffat - is actually the real-life daughter of ex-Who Peter Davison and apparently (if you follow that type of news) she's now dating David Tennant who was her 'father' in the show and actually, technically the same character her dad played. Imagine the therapy bills on that one.

So, to round up. Georgia: a very complicated situation which only makes the brain hurt the more you try to make sense of the history involved. And also a country.

A few weeks ago some happy chappy was telling me we're only ever a week away from a revolution. It wasn't some Socialist Worker newspaper seller, either. It was in reaction to the oil crisis and the fact that if petrol-stations shut or were unable to provide fuel then it would take around four days for there to be a lack of basic food (water, milk, bread... chocolate!) getting to most outlets - a few days later people would likely be prepared to break the law to provide for themselves and families. A sobering thought.

So. Today the electricity went off. Apparently it was over a large scale area - the whole of this side of Leeds. (Last week it went off for about an hour due to a more localised problem). Today's lack-of-power lasted about two and a half hours and - touch wood - it's now back on without problems. But I was horrified to realise that without basic power, things changed instantly. The laptop - working without a battery - was offline. Never mind, I can work on typing an article instead of surfing. But no, NO laptop power at all. Maybe I could watch TV? Nope, NO power at all. Okay, at least I'll go and make myself some toast and take it easy. NO... what part of NO POWER AT ALL wasn't I understanding??? I couldn't even go around to the shops as they were having similar problems.

Forget a week. It took me ten minutes to get tetchy. Ye Gods, next time I might even have to settle down and actually read one of those paper-based book thingies the parentals are always telling me about.

*Yawn*. Long day.

Those more observant people may have noticed that the Blog has undergone something of a major wash and brush up (or, more accurately, is still undergoing it). This is a symptom of me needing some time away from the writing of the articles and the designing of all things Highlander WorldWide (having its own update this coming week), my parentals going mad with paint-brushes and because... well, I just felt like it. I've been tweaking the look for the last few weeks but when I found a template that allows not two, not three, but technically seven (count 'em) 'columns', I knew I'd found what I was looking for to mix and match the elements I wanted here. So much to say, now the space to say it. I know, I know. I'm easily pleased and need to get out more...

Naturally, the tweaking had its up and downs and when some material disappeared from the old site when I wasn't even on it, I knew I had to update this page quickly so the masses (yes, all of you!) weren't disappointed or confused. Or no more than usual. Consider it a work in progress (Kinda like me).

The black link bar under the header is a nice addition (soon to be better populated with Moz-links) and the blog area has more possibilities too. Hopefully all the old blogs entries are still there in the archives and are just hiding. I'll be separating some of the personal and professional stuff off, but this will be the hub-page, the place that all the important things revolve around. (Kinda like me).

Oh, and the picture at the top of this post? Absolutely nothing to do with anything. Just the most bizarre image I've ever found on Google and that's saying something. It's so wrong, it's just right. Kinda like...

A while ago I was joking to someone about my role behind the scenes in the HLWW organisation. In a moment of perhaps ego-tempered-with-humour, I said I was the 'Josh Lyman' of the group, the one most likely to crack a one-liner while putting some words together that sounded good for any of the key decisions made. (I just realised that would make Carmel Macpherson, Martin Sheen, which I hope she takes as a compliment!).

But it also got me thinking about how much I miss The West Wing and especially Bradley Whitford as the aforementioned Josh. I mean, seriously, there are plenty of funny tv shows out there, there are plenty that are reasonably clever and well written, but I can't think of any show since WW went off-air that anywhere in the ballpark of this superbly written outing (honourary mention to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, also by Sorkin for at least trying). There are just SO many scenes in The West Wing that are punch-the-sky fun that it's hugely depressing that there isn't currently a show that could compare...and whatever political persuasion you are, Barlett is the kind of leader most people would like to think they deserve - even with his imperfections and foibles.

I was trawling YouTube for some of my favourite memories and found loads of classics, from dealing with bigots to the assassination attempt, to CJ in full-flow to the debates, to Toby singing the MASH theme and the final scene of the entire run... however my favourite is and always will be, I think, a slightly lower-key moment, but one that is ALL about character and is probably one of the best pay-off romantic lines ever uttered on television.

Over to Josh, Donna, red lights and Sorkin at his best, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMe0ARDqS6k if it doesn't play here...)

There's a report in the paper today that the gap between Obama and McCain in the run-up to the US elections is narrowing and this may be down to the fact that Obama is...and you gotta love this... too THIN. Yes, apparently some political pundits are saying that because so many Americans are technically obese, they may be a bit miffed if asked to vote for someone who's in good shape.

Now, I'm all for critical analysis of Barack Obama, who I freely admit has ridden a wave of popularity largely based on his charisma and for 'not being George Bush' rather than because of any close scrutiny of his own ideas, but that being said...I guess it's August and silly season.

I mean...HEADLINE: Is Obama secretly a Muslim (after all members of his family were/are?)... well how does one secretly practise a religion if you're thinking of being the leader of the free world - do you sneak out to a mosque when no-one's looking, do you cross your fingers behind your back when you swear a religious oath? Do you secretly plot with the enemy to bring down the White House - because as we know, ALL muslims want that? HEADLINE: Is Obama's stance on compromise and negotiation a sign of weakness? (Of course it is, shouldn't he just bomb people who disagree with him in CASE they get violent! But really, as long as he doesn't bend over backwards simply to avoid causing the merest hint of even slight offense to anyone like most of the UK's government's ridiculous political correctness towards minorities currently does , then he's got no problem from me) HEADLINE: Does Obama's joke about not looking like other Presidents on dollar bills smack of racism? Well, given that race is the huge white/black/green elephant in the corner that no-one wants to admit is an issue when several million people still use the word 'n*gger' with no qualms... I think race is ALREADY an issue even thought it shouldn't be. (Seriously... in the 21st century we think pigments are related to character-issues?) And I think Obama's remark came as an answer to McCain's comparison of Obama to Britney Spears. Now, THAT's nasty.

I love America. I love Americans... but geez, I wish the US media and for that matter OUR OWN would learn not to speak in shorthand soundbites designed to reassure rather than debate. And I wish WE didn't let them. For heaven's sake...BE controversial, BE opinionated, but know WHY you think something (other than the Daily Mail or Fox News claimed it on a slow news day).

Whatever side you support I just wish the debate had some actual weight, rather than calorie counting!