Posts Tagged ‘Red Dwarf’
2 items.
A medicine cabinet. In the dining room. Why? Were the previous owners of my house insane?
When my wife and I took possession of the house we thought “Oh, they left that ugly mirror.” Well, as it turns out, the ugly mirror is a freaking medicine cabinet.
This weekend was very, very long. I am due to pick up my wife from the airport tonight. Hopefully she did not stray from the beaten path and become ambushed by backwoods pot farmers.
(Note to Kentuckians: I have been to your state several times. It is very nice. I am not trying to make fun of it. Please give my wife back.)
I filled the loneliness of the weekend with movies. As promised, I will quickly recount the list.
Picnic at Hanging Rock: Overall, I have enjoyed the Peter Weir films I have seen. Gallipoli is a favorite and one of the few things that can make me burst into tears. They all have one thing in common, however. They move very slooowwwly. Though it captured the essence of a 1900 Australian school for girls very well, the story lacked punch. Since it is based on a true story, all the things you want to occur to make it a nice little movie do not happen, because life doesn’t work like it does in the movies.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: I loved the book. I wish I could say the same for the movie. Watching this movie was like listening to Vogon poetry. I had to watch it in about four sittings, because this BBC produced mini-series was quite boring. The animations are good and script is obviously well written, as it draws directly from the text, but the rest is terrible. I can get past the Red Dwarf budget, but the camera shots are wholly uninteresting. The acting is forced and sometimes seems like the actors do not know their lines. I think I could have read the second book in the time it took to sleep through this one, and I know I would have been better off.
Heart of Darkness: This made for cable movie draws from the same source as Apocalypse Now. Set in Africa, ship Captain Marlow is hired to restore the link to a remote ivory trading post and find out what the deal is with the leader of the outpost, Mr. Kurtz. Tim Roth is great as Marlow and John Malkovich does well as Kurtz. The whole movie is somewhat spoiled by the fact that I’ve seen Apocalypse Now and therefore was not shocked or surprised by any of the plot points. It is worth watching though.
Roman Polanski’s Pirates: This is a well done film which has a spirit that mostly makes up for the lack of story. Walter Matthau is great as the pirate.
The Celebration (Festen) : What starts out as an odd look at a fairly un-likeable family gathering for a reunion degenerates into a deeper look at the family’s extraordinary dysfunctions. The movie is a bit boring at first but turns into a car accident from which you can not look away. Don’t watch this one with your family.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl: Very good. Fun, exciting. The special effects are very well done. It doesn’t have the “HEY WE ARE GOING TO DO SOME SPECIAL EFFECTS NOW, LOOK!” that some other films have. Johnny Depp is awesome. I wish I would have stayed in the theater after the credits, because there is an additional scene. This movie stands with Finding Nemo as the best movies I’ve seen this year.
That’s all for now. Video Warehouse is calling to my movie loving soul, so I’ll probably pick up more films soon.
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Well, it’s been three weeks, but I’m back. Didja miss me?
I have to say, I was a little worried that I may have lost touch with how to put the comic together after my long absence. After all, the last comic I drew was from April 8 – the Fever Pitch comic. But I’ve been drawing enough incentive sketches to accompany the guest artists we featured to stay loose and I think it all came together pretty well in the end.
Incidentally, the two other franchises Tom is confusing Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with in panel two is Doctor Who and Red Dwarf, respectively. But, of course, any self-respecting nerd already knows that.
As fate would have it, this is kind of what the next arc will be about. Nerd-knowledge, or lack thereof. I plan on dovetailing out of the theatrical release of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and launching headlong into the release of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. So buckle up, because the final chapter of George Lucas’s space opera doesn’t splash across screens until May 19.
In the meantime, if you would like a shadowy glimpse of who is on the other end of Jared’s phone conversation, Orneryboy
KIDNEMO – Comet 7
SAM LOGAN – Sam & Fuzzy
MITCH CLEM – Nothing Nice to Say and Coffee Achievers
JIM BURGESS – Able and Baker
JOSH MEINZER – Aikida
ZACH MILLER – Joe and Monkey
CHRIS CANTRELL – Please Rewind
JOERULES AND MADMUP – Digital Pimp Online and Madmup.com
CLAY YOUNT – Rob and Elliot
CARRINGTON VANSTON – Movie Punks and Eat My Words
Again, my heartfelt thanks to all of you.
Now, onto the site redesign!
I know at first glance it’s not drastically different. The think I realized when trying to come up with a new visual system for the site is, the one we had before really wasn’t that bad! So the changes you see to the “front” of the house are subtle tweaks. I think it cleans things up a little bit, spaces things out a little further and generally lets the site breathe a little more.
I’m aware that the blogs will now feel like they’re about three times as long since the news post area has been shrunk by about one third of the page width. But I’m talking myself into the idea that it’s easier to read a narrow column of text than a wide one.
Other parts of the site should be much more organized for you guys including the advertising area, the Walk of Fame and the store. I really tried to come up with something that would work across all sections of the site and separate out content in an easy to access way. I think the advertising area and the Walk of Fame benefit from this the most. In the old version, all of that information used to be on one page! Now it should be easier for you to hone in on the information you want.
Ultimately, the main drive for redesigning the site was to provide an opportunity for me to reorganize the back end. By that I mean, creating folders for all of the “departments” and building overall templates for the site. The previous version of the site had all of the web pages in one folder and all of the images in another. It made things VERY difficult to find! I’m hoping by separating content by category, I will be more inclined to make more updates to the site. Keeping things fresh and interesting for you guys and for myself! Less stressful moments when I try to find a page I want to edit!
Some parts of the site haven’t been hooked up yet. Most notably, the links and the bonus materials section. But since it wasn’t “mission critical,” it’s been put on hold for the moment. When they’ve been reintroduced in this design scheme, I’ll be sure to let you know.
And the easiest way for me to let you know when something has changed on the site is by signing up for our mailing list!
I’ve decided that I’ve gone far too long without a mailing list for the site and felt that adding one would provide an excellent opportunity to communicate with you guys about all sorts of site details that might get overlooked.
Shamefully, I committed myself to the idea during the story arc that introduced Charlie to everyone. Support was generally positive, but I received a few e-mails from people saying “I’m not really liking this story arc. I’ll come back to the site once it’s finished.”
That’s when I decided I needed a mailing list. So I could send a note out to everyone and say “The coast is clear! It’s okay to come back now!”
But the mailing list will be used for much more than scrambling to scoop up old readers after clumsy attempts to add new characters! I’ll also be using the feature to let you guys know about the convention appearances I will be making, cool conversations going on inside the THorum and when new merchandise goes up for sale on the site. Be the first to know!
As an added incentive for putting your e-mail on the mailing list, I am also working on a way to disseminate discounts to only mailing list subscribers! So it’s totally feasible in the future that I could send you all a message with a special code word you can enter when purchasing merchandise or advertising and get 10% off!
Anyway, that’s the long term goal.
Right now, the big thing I’m working on is getting the store back into ship shape condition. We have a couple of old shirts up for presale again. I’m working on setting up these designs for the baby dolls and hoodies, too. So hold tight!
You’ll also want to keep your eyes peeled for NEW designs on the site. Stuff that isn’t exactly related to Theater Hopper, but that I think there is an audience for none the less. If you sign up for the mailing list, I’ll be sure to let you know before I post any information about it in the news posts! See how that works.
There will be lots of little updates in the near future, so be sure to keep checking the site often.
If you have any thoughts about the redesign, feel free to send me an e-mail. I am entertaining all feedback!
Thanks again for your support! I’m really looking forward to the future of Theater Hopper as we head into the summer of 2005!
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