So on the heels of my last post, I just want to say how strangely awesome it is that i cannot watch Dr. Horrible's first episode. I've tried so many times tonight, honest. I just keep trying over and over. Then I realized from the io9 posts that a) it was temporarily broken due to demand and b) that I could buy some sort of season pass on itunes (see comments).
I got desperate, which you can go ahead and consider fan-crazy but fuck you (did you see the musical episode of Buffy, Once More With Feeling?), so I went to itunes. First off, tried to investigate the season pass option and when I clicked on that, nothing came up. It was there to click, but there was no option to buy once you got there. I looked up Joss Whedon on google and got to his Whedonesque site, which I'd heard of but not often had occasion to visit. I believe it's his official site though, and this was the message when I got there:
Grrr argh... Whedonesque has met its nemesis.
Due to a traffic spike caused by today's release of Dr Horrible, our host has shut down our database. We are working hard to move our site elsewhere. In the meantime, the forum at Whedonesque.org is still up and running:
Visit whedonesque.org.
The Whedonesque forum gave no insight. I went back to itunes and chose to buy the first episode for $2 (supposedly the "season pass" is $4 but I don't know what that means in terms of how long the season pass lasts). And I was told that my purchase would have to be tried again. I tried to watch the itunes sample song (also shown on the io9 link), but even that stops after 30 seconds. As far as I know, the best place you can (legally) watch even just the clip is the io9 website, which doesn't have nearly the quality of the itunes version.
What I'm trying to say is that demand for this particular endeavor broke the fucking internet. Whedon, you wanted to explore new ways of delivering entertainment and it worked. It worked too well. I'm frustrated that I can't watch Right Now Immediately, but I can't actually be mad. This is fucking exciting. What I assume was quite a monetary risk is clearly paying off. I mean good god, fucking itunes is even broken. So a big fat congrats. to Joss Whedon, and alternative media.
If anyone else is jonesing really hard (which I totally have been), I'd like to try to distract you with something else that is awesome. It has nothing to do with Whedon, science fiction, comics, etc. but it's Michael Cera (aka George Michael from Arrested Development), the intro credits are crazy hilarious on their own, and the later episodes were just incredibly fucking funny (although you may have to watch the first episodes to build up to "getting it").
Read more!
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
New and Old TV, and also some other stuff
I am catching up on my io9 reading this evening and have some things to say about TV.
First off, I was pissed that The 4400 was canceled. It was good, I was invested, and now I have no answers to the greater questions. So I guess it's cool that they're putting books out now, but why did they have to start with something early on in the series? Does this mean it will become a serial that never dies? Will I get my answers, and after how many books (if at all)? Grrr...
Secondly, ZOMG Dr. Horrible's first episode is out today!!! I imagine everyone is going fucking crazy for it, because I cannot get through to the website and have been unable to watch yet. This may get it's own post after I've watched it, but do read the i09 link for the Joss Whedon quote. I'm really excited that he's trying something new in part to see what other ways Hollywood can do business. Last year's writer's strike really proved how limited artists/ writers/ etc. are in how they can reach us consumers of pop culture. Others have certainly done this, but perhaps not on this scale, at least when unaffiliated with a major studio.
Weirdly, I was just talking about the movie Battlefield Earth over the weekend. It is supposed to be that level of God-awful that makes it unintentionally hilarious, as the clip amply demonstrates. I'd like to watch under the influence with friends sometime this year.
Yay! More people joining together to circumvent established bureaucracies for better products, this product a freaking ROCKETSHIP. Seriously, government regulation seems to exist just to bolster established corporate power, and we need more endeavors like this, public efforts attempting to prove that there are better ways to do what needs to be done. I know many people would say that it's not necessary to go to space but I'm a sci-fi lover who's always dug the space program, and every time I hear the argument "that money could be so much better spent elsewhere" I think of corporate wealthfare and wonder why said critics don't focus on that. Plus I hear from my science geek housemate that in terms of physics, the cutting edge breakthroughs happen in one of two places: NASA or weapons research. Which would you prefer we pour money into? And in which place do you think the breakthroughs that could lead to significant medical/ environmental/ scientific advancement will be public vs private? (I honestly don't know here and can't find anything on google, but my understanding has been that our government funds private weapons companies for this shit rather than our own agencies, so the private companies get the patents for their own profit rather than the greater good - hooray for runaway, state-funded "capitalism" and "let the market decide" my ass!)
Yeah, dudes, The Middleman is totally fun and good. I haven't managed to catch each episode, but the ones I've seen have been everything the post says - funny as hell, and a great mix of camp and realistically flawed (albeit quirky) characters. In last night's episode (minor spoiler) there were trout zombies. Not fish zombies, human zombies who wanted trout. I so wish I could find a clip of a physically restrained zombie groaning "troooouuuut," but I cannot so you will have to make do with this PSA instead:
I can't believe how much I'm enjoying that show, and I have to say that ABC Family is an interesting network. I always thought of it as this family-oriented station that was willing to show relatively dirty Whose Line is it Anyway reruns, but bizarrely followed them up with the 700 Club. A few years ago, though, they put out a bunch of pretty good female-centered TV movies that I was shocked to enjoy. Yes, they were fluffy entertainment (wait, I love fluffy entertainment, why am I apologizing?), but the Christian Network moralizing I expected didn't really happen. The one I remember best was See Jane Date, starring Charisma Carpenter from Buffy fame, and I remember loving how all the women drank and the she was sometimes hungover without it being turned into a Big Problem. Plus, this was Charisma Carpenter post childbirth. I really appreciated seeing a former super-skinny actress with just a little heft, and how refreshing it was that weight-loss or guilt or body issues in general did not seem to factor into the plot. It was mindless entertainment, but the characters were surprisingly realistic and the movie avoided playing into standard female tropes in a lot of important ways.
Cross-posted. Read more!
First off, I was pissed that The 4400 was canceled. It was good, I was invested, and now I have no answers to the greater questions. So I guess it's cool that they're putting books out now, but why did they have to start with something early on in the series? Does this mean it will become a serial that never dies? Will I get my answers, and after how many books (if at all)? Grrr...
Secondly, ZOMG Dr. Horrible's first episode is out today!!! I imagine everyone is going fucking crazy for it, because I cannot get through to the website and have been unable to watch yet. This may get it's own post after I've watched it, but do read the i09 link for the Joss Whedon quote. I'm really excited that he's trying something new in part to see what other ways Hollywood can do business. Last year's writer's strike really proved how limited artists/ writers/ etc. are in how they can reach us consumers of pop culture. Others have certainly done this, but perhaps not on this scale, at least when unaffiliated with a major studio.
Weirdly, I was just talking about the movie Battlefield Earth over the weekend. It is supposed to be that level of God-awful that makes it unintentionally hilarious, as the clip amply demonstrates. I'd like to watch under the influence with friends sometime this year.
Yay! More people joining together to circumvent established bureaucracies for better products, this product a freaking ROCKETSHIP. Seriously, government regulation seems to exist just to bolster established corporate power, and we need more endeavors like this, public efforts attempting to prove that there are better ways to do what needs to be done. I know many people would say that it's not necessary to go to space but I'm a sci-fi lover who's always dug the space program, and every time I hear the argument "that money could be so much better spent elsewhere" I think of corporate wealthfare and wonder why said critics don't focus on that. Plus I hear from my science geek housemate that in terms of physics, the cutting edge breakthroughs happen in one of two places: NASA or weapons research. Which would you prefer we pour money into? And in which place do you think the breakthroughs that could lead to significant medical/ environmental/ scientific advancement will be public vs private? (I honestly don't know here and can't find anything on google, but my understanding has been that our government funds private weapons companies for this shit rather than our own agencies, so the private companies get the patents for their own profit rather than the greater good - hooray for runaway, state-funded "capitalism" and "let the market decide" my ass!)
Yeah, dudes, The Middleman is totally fun and good. I haven't managed to catch each episode, but the ones I've seen have been everything the post says - funny as hell, and a great mix of camp and realistically flawed (albeit quirky) characters. In last night's episode (minor spoiler) there were trout zombies. Not fish zombies, human zombies who wanted trout. I so wish I could find a clip of a physically restrained zombie groaning "troooouuuut," but I cannot so you will have to make do with this PSA instead:
I can't believe how much I'm enjoying that show, and I have to say that ABC Family is an interesting network. I always thought of it as this family-oriented station that was willing to show relatively dirty Whose Line is it Anyway reruns, but bizarrely followed them up with the 700 Club. A few years ago, though, they put out a bunch of pretty good female-centered TV movies that I was shocked to enjoy. Yes, they were fluffy entertainment (wait, I love fluffy entertainment, why am I apologizing?), but the Christian Network moralizing I expected didn't really happen. The one I remember best was See Jane Date, starring Charisma Carpenter from Buffy fame, and I remember loving how all the women drank and the she was sometimes hungover without it being turned into a Big Problem. Plus, this was Charisma Carpenter post childbirth. I really appreciated seeing a former super-skinny actress with just a little heft, and how refreshing it was that weight-loss or guilt or body issues in general did not seem to factor into the plot. It was mindless entertainment, but the characters were surprisingly realistic and the movie avoided playing into standard female tropes in a lot of important ways.
Cross-posted. Read more!
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Canada is Awesome
This kicks ass. I wonder what the repercussions will be from the current administration, though.
Read more!
Monday, July 7, 2008
When blogcrushes crush
Two of my favorite blogs are Jezebel and Shakesville. Along with i09, these are the blogs I check for new posts frequently throughout the day while I should technically be working. So for some reason it was double crushy to watch Megan at Jezebel cover one of Jeff Fecke's posts from Shakesville. The two blogs have feminism in common, but Jezebel is much more pop culture oriented than Shakesville. They share a certain sensibility though, and the Jezebel comments urging Megan to ask Jeff for a date were just killing me with teh awesome. Plus, a lot of those comments were very much in the vain of, "feminist men are hot, let's go out with them," whereas I know from Jeff's past writing he gets accused by men of being a feminist only "for the pussy." He always responds in the best way, stating that he's a feminist because women deserve equal respect, not because of his personal gains, also managing to admit that he's had to struggle occasionally to recognize his own privilege, but he keeps trying because it's right, dammit. I think you just have to read his beautiful takedown referenced above to see what he's about.
Augh, both of them pissed me off occasionally during the primary season, but now that it's over I've rediscovered my love for them and this shit is just fun to watch. It feels like when you introduce two separate friends for the first time and watch unexpected sparks begin to fly. Part of you feels excited for them, part of you feels proud for introducing them (obviously not applicable), but a lot of you is happy to have witnessed what may just be history in the making. Not that I think these two will date in real life (they live in different states and all), but Jezebel could learn a lot from Shakesville, and I've been noticing Shakesville writers referencing Jezebel posts the last couple months. I feel a wholly unwarranted sense of personal connection here. Internet world is so weird like that. Read more!
Augh, both of them pissed me off occasionally during the primary season, but now that it's over I've rediscovered my love for them and this shit is just fun to watch. It feels like when you introduce two separate friends for the first time and watch unexpected sparks begin to fly. Part of you feels excited for them, part of you feels proud for introducing them (obviously not applicable), but a lot of you is happy to have witnessed what may just be history in the making. Not that I think these two will date in real life (they live in different states and all), but Jezebel could learn a lot from Shakesville, and I've been noticing Shakesville writers referencing Jezebel posts the last couple months. I feel a wholly unwarranted sense of personal connection here. Internet world is so weird like that. Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
