Year: 2002

There are some major omissions in my movie-viewing history, and one of them is “Apocalypse Now.” Never saw it in its first release, never got around to renting the video. I mean, c’mon, who’s ever really in the mood to rent a 2 3/4 hour war movie? But the Redux version showed up on Saturday night on Showtime and so Kathleen and I plunked down to watch it.

Sure didn’t feel like 3 and a half hours. Only problem was, I was constantly distracted by considerations that original viewers didn’t have to deal with. There’s the “My God, he’s so young” upon seeing Martin Sheen, who looked a lot like Charlie Sheen back then but sounded the way he does now. Not to mention the incredibly youthful Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, etc. Then there’s the, “Oh, I remember this parody” phenomenon. “Hot Shots” sent up Sheen’s voice over and cruise down the river, “Xena” riffed on Sheen’s mud-covered face coming up out of the water, and there’s the immortal “Buffy” episode with Principal Snyder in the Brando role and Xander as Sheen. After Brando said the line about Sheen being an errand boy, I kept waiting for Sheen to grimace and say, “I’m getting a cramp.”

Great movie, but boy, do you bring a lot of baggage to it if you’ve never seen it before.

PAD

In Which We meet Doctor Pooh and his Companion and they take the TARDIS for adventuring.

Continue Reading “The TARDIS at Pooh Corner – Introduction and Chapter 1” →

Just finished the script for Supergirl #74. Didn’t have an easy time of it. See, we have a major new storyline that starts with #75, and it had been my intention to wrap up the current storyline in #75 and segue into the next one in the selfsame issue…kind of like what I did in #50. But I was told that the best way to launch the new storyline in #75 was to make it as clean a break as possible, and so I had to compress the story I’d planned for 73-75 into two issues, 73-74. I had a ton of elements to deal with, and it took me most of a week to wrestle the script to the ground.

That’s an inherent difficulty with the way I tell lengthy stories. Usually when the resolution arrives, no matter how meticulously and over however many months I set it up, the methodical nature of my plotting prompts people to say that so much happened in the concluding chapters that they think the story is rushed. Well, boy, I’ll be interested to see what they think of #74, considering how many story elements I pack in and resolve over the course of 22 pages.

Still, the decks are now cleared for #75, which will launch a major new, and highly demanded, storyline. Leonard Kirk’s last issue is #74, and hopefully he’ll be going out with a bang. And we do indeed have the new artist lined up starting with #75, but I can’t make that announcement yet. Soon, ideally. Hope to see you all there.

PAD

First off, thanks to all of you who’ve had such nice things to say about the site.

Second, re: BID archives: we’ve found the vast majority of BIDs from 3/01/91 (CBG #902) in electronic format. Before we start digging for the earlier 26 columns, I figured I might as well ask here to see if anybody already took the time to place any of them into some sort of electronic format– if you did, please let me know via e-mail. (Yes, that includes if you got them out of the trade paperback, as we’re still looking for those files too.)

Third, thanks to the work of one such archiver, Allyn Gibson, we’ll soon be reprinting the lo-o-o-ong out of print The TARDIS at Pooh Corner here, probably in the next day or three. Watch the skies.

Attended the first readthrough of the first play I’ve gotten involved with in a while (in my occasional hobby of actor in the Long Island theater community.) I’ll be appearing in a play called “Checking Out” at the Broadhollw Center Stage at Malloy College in Nassau County the last two weeks of June. The play revolves around an elderly Jewish man who calmly decides that he’s done with his life and informs his grown children that he’s planning to take a bottle of sleeping pills. They show up en masse to talk him out of it. I was asked to play the part of his eldest son Ted, the middle-aged utterly neurotic Jewish psychiatrist. Because of course, when you’re in Long Island and you need an utterly neurotic middle-aged Jew, you think of me. Who wouldn’t?

It’s a challenge because it’s the most dramatic role I’ve ever undertaken, and at one point I have a monologue that goes on for an entire page in which my character completely melts down, much to the horror of his younger brother. And the guy who plays my father–an established LI actor with the unlikely name of Harvard Mann–is absolutely terrific. I’m also excited to be working with the director, Jack Howell, who directed me as Sancho in “Man of La Mancha.”

Oh, on another topic–in response to popular demand, I will be doing a BID column detailing which scenes I added into the novelization of “Spider-Man” that were purely my invention, as opposed to scenes that were in the script but cut. Also, for those who want to read the script, the Previews Exclusive edition of “Behind the Mask of Spider-Man: The Secrets of the Movie” has the entire shooting script printed in the back. And no, I don’t get a percentage; this is a self-interest-free plug.

PAD

Well, Tara is toast. We followers of “Buffy” pretty much saw it coming the instant that Amber Benson was added to the opening credits. Obviously a stunt to lure the unwary into a false sense of security.

On a personal level, I’m rather upset because I’ve met Amber a couple times and she’s a really sweet girl whose character deserved better than to die a pointless death from a stray gunshot by one of the Lone Wáņkërš. Still, let us consider the track record of interpersonal relationships in Sunnydale. Buffy & Angel: He dumped her. Buffy & Parker: He dumped her. Buffy & Riley: He dumped her. Buffy & Joyce: Joyce died. Buffy & Giles: Giles left. Buffy & Spike: She dumped him *and* he tried to rape her. Giles & Jenny Calendar: She was killed. Giles & Olivia: Left town after realizing Giles was telling the truth about all that black magic stuff. Xander & the Sexy Teacher: She tried to eat him. Xander & Inca Mummy Girl: She tried to suck the life out of him. Xander & Cordy: She dumped him. Xander & Faith: She humped and dumped him inside of ten minutes and later tried to kill him. Xander & Anya: He dumped her. Willow & the Demon in the Computer: He tried to kill her, as demons are wont to do. Willow & Oz: He dumped her and returned only to be dumped himself. Spike & Dru: She dumped him for a fungus demon, came back to him, and dumped him again. Spike & Harmony: Alternated between dumping each other and trying to stake each other. Amy & Larry: The classic Sunnydale romance–Before it could go anywhere, Amy got turned into a rat, Larry acknowledged he was gay, and then got killed by a serpent demon.

So you can say what you want about poor Tara’s fate, but you sure can’t say it’s inconsistent with what’s gone before. Dating someone on the Hellmouth is a lot like being an old friend of Jessica Fletcher’s: You’re going to die, or someone’s going to try and kill you, or you’ll be suspected of killing someone.

PAD

Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” in one of his headline reports stated, “And the Israelis and Palestinians move ever closer in the peace process, which is expected to be concluded NEVER.” He said it a year and a half ago, back when Clinton was making his last ditch effort to bring Sharon and Arafat together. Back when Israel puts its best offer *ever* on the table, and Arafat instead simply walked out and supported terrorist attacks.

It is a sign of the world’s unfair expectations that Israel is expected to express regrets (and does so) over the unfortunate deaths of women and children caught in the crossfire, but no one seriously expects Palestinians to express regrets over guerilla assaults that kill Israeli women and children as a matter of design. The Palestinians continue to be painted as victims. It is incomprehensible. Meantime the major Arab countries don’t understand why Israel doesn’t take their generous offer of rolling back to the pre-Six Day War boundaries in exchange for which the Arab nations will finally recognize Israel. My. What a generous concession. The governments will acknowledge that which has been in existence for nearly three quarters of a century. And once they do so, then what? Continue to indoctrinate their citizens from an early age into Anti-Jew philosophies? Three out of four Arabs still refuse to believe that Arabs had anything to do with 9/11. You’d think they, of anyone, would know that “Denial” is not just a river in Egypt.

Israel’s neighbors want to kill them. How does one negotiate with people who want to kill you?

PAD