Ya know, I didn't care either.... and then had to listen to it while eating lunch yesterday. Crappy rhymes? Check. Bad 80's guitar solos? Check. Derivative tripe? Check, check.
It was almost like watching the South Park episode - Cartman was right, they will buy anything marketed at them. I hate to say it, but I think the market's too big, it allows mediocre music to be successful. (Insert RIAA joke here)
5. It's a western. My wife and her best friend, both of which were HUGE Buffy fans, had no interest at all. "It's a western. Who cares." My personal belief is that, yes, those other factors contributed, but the fact that it was such a genre-bending show was the biggest. Western fans wouldn't watch because it was sci-fi, and sci-fi fans wouldn't watch because it was a western. (I wouldn't have watched, except that it was Joss)
All that being said, why the hell are they putting out a trailer now? The movie's not due out for another 5 months or so.
If there is a way, let me know. I don't think so. Fortunately, no one ever reads this deep, and the one other guy who did loved the comment, so I'll take that as a net gain.
NWN module: doesn't look to be it. This lets you level your character up and the like, it doesn't seem to help make Epic modules, though I could have missed something in the mod.
That's funny - I love it, I was using mine last week. All the rest of mine are CD-based, so for a one-off thing or something quick, I do come back to it.
After all this time, there are only two major flaws: (besides the fact it can only hold 64 meg total - it won't recognize cards larger than 32mb)
the spring for the battery (lemme get this straight... there's one moving part, and it's for the flipping battery?) would unclip, and you'd have to disassemble the entire thing to get to it, and
The aforementioned battery door.
Considering all that it's been through, the times it's been dropped (or dropped and then accidentally drop-kicked on its way down), it's a frickin' champ.
I seem to remember that one of the big things was going to be the Portal system, wherein servers could be linked together, each with their own set of "rules", including gravity. So you could be chasing someone across servers, across different "worlds". Is this still the plan, or is it just another Third Person Shooter?
Considering how "well" they've done lately, maybe they will come up with some non-craptacular shows. I still think their best years were several ago, when they had Farscape, Invisible Man, etc. Snide commentary follows.
An untitled project executive-produced by Academy Award-winning actor/producer Michael Douglas, based on the work of the late author Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House). Storylines and themes from Jackson's catalog of supernatural short stories will be woven into her real life experiences transitioning from urban mom to small-town matriarch.
[oh boy - Medium 2 - call it a large?]
Heroes Anonymous, a live-action series based the comic book created by Scott Gimpel and Bill Morrison which follows a group of 20-something aspiring superheroes who form a support group to help them discover their own identity while carving out their secret identity. The series will be executive-produced by Lawrence Bender (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction), Kevin Brown (Legend of Earthsea, Roswell) and Karl Schaefer (The Dead Zone). Gimpel and Morrison will write the pilot.
[at least someone involved with the comic will be involved... but I can't help but think that it sounds like Mutant X]
Those Who Walk in Darkness, a drama based on John Ridley's (Three Kings, Third Watch) best-selling novel of the same name about an expert team of S.W.A.T. police whose primary mission is to hunt down and capture people who genetically possess super powers. John Ridley will write and executive-produce in association with NBC Universal Television Studio.
[I _really_ hope it's better than this: http://www.lightyear.com/Darkness/ . "From the man who brought you Undercover Brother". Well, in that case...]
Urban Arcana, an action series inspired by the Hasbro/Worlds of Wonder role-playing game which follows an undercover detective who must protect the human population from the influx of chameleon-like, mythological creatures from a parallel world. Aron Coleite (Crossing Jordan) will write, with Gary A. Randall and Rockne O'Bannon (The Triangle, Farscape) executive-producing in association with Fox Television Studios.
[Who knows. The only plus is that O'Bannon is alongside it, and his track record so far is pretty decent, IMHO]
Tomorrow's Child, a series centered around a young girl who was horribly burned in an accident and saved by a special skin of extraterrestrial origin, which gives her powers beyond human comprehension. She travels the country pursued by the government while looking for the origin of her powers and seeking out others like her. Produced by NBC Universal Television Studio and Gary Foster's Horseshoe Bay Productions (Daredevil, Elektra).
[Wow - have they come up with no original ideas lately? This sounds like a mix of about a dozen bad sci-fi shows. If you're going to do something like this, at least do "Heatvision and Jack". Starring Ron Silver as Ron Silver, Jack Black as The Smartest Man During Daylight, and Owen Wilson as his roommate-melded-into-a-motorcycle (yes, this was a real pilot. Yes, this was frickin' hysterical)]
Time Tunnel, an updated interpretation of the classic 1960s television series created by Irwin Allen. The new series centers on a female scientist and a government agent who find themselves trapped in time when an experimental time travel project is sabotaged. Produced with Fox Television Studios and Kevin Burns and Jon Jashni of Synthesis Entertainment. Allen's wife, Shelia Allen, will produce. Written by John Turman (The Hulk).
[Who knows, really, with this one. I seem to remember there being a pilot for Time Tunnel Two Thousand]
3:52, from distinguished television writer/producer John Tinker (Judging Amy, The Practice), takes place in the wake of the sudden disappearance of 2 billion people from the face of the Earth. The series, named for the time of the vanishing, will be told from the point of view of a small Maryland town.
[How about you give us 4400 series 3 instead. USA is already doing series 2, so you guys go be useful
Still playing SR after 15 years, personally. Don't know as I'd call it a "modern day" game, but hey, why not. SR4 supposedly due out at Gencon, and also supposedly will be a flagship title for Xbox2. Not holding my breath for either, but here's hoping it works out for the best.
My wife noticed something when I read her the bit about NASCAR - the reason he probably was penalized as harshly as he was, was because he essentially said that winning 5 races at Talladega was no big deal. Her thought was that NASCAR was more than a little pissed that he essentially said that winning 5 races was not that tough, which lessens NASCAR.
I find this part quite insightful: the other way could be he's trying to revive Dr. who so it will open up sci fi again A-men. I have no idea how popular it is, but my suspicion is that they got a very good, non-genre actor to fill the part, to get people excited about it, and then (as someone posted in the prior thread about The Doctor) regenerate him to someone else, both showing off the ability, as well getting higher ratings.
Doctor Who fanboy comments follow: All that being said, I'm really curious how they're going to deal with regeneration #12 (especially since 12 merges with 4 to help regenerate into 5). Then again, it took us 10 years to go from 8 to 9, so maybe I shouldn't worry so much.
That was the best comedy I'd seen in a while. Absolutely crappy action flick, but if you watch it as a comedy (much like watching "The Musketeer" as being a really-low-tech remake of Star Wars - I'm serious - Tim Roth just needs asthma to be Vader, he already has the weird head piece, they do the speeder chase from RotJ but with horses, even the music is a rehash) then you won't be nearly as disappointed. Although, since you've seen it already, that would probably be just throwing good money after bad.
So, go see The Musketeer instead, realizing that (a) that's not Chris O'Donnell/Ron Perlman/etc, but a low-budget version, (b)Tim Roth obviously knows it's bad and is determined to camp for the camera, and (c) whenever they split up, they need one person in each group with a real french accent.
That is one of the funniest movies I've seen in years, even including B&R.
vast majority of Americans, who are too busy watching reality shows
Um, hello? Pot, kettle here. You guys keep shipping crappy reality TV ideas over here. Big Brother comes to mind immediately (sorry, don't follow the genre), though I heard something about a show where they're masterbating farm animals. So I don't think you have much room to talk.
You're kidding. The market has been tiny since, well, Space War/Pong/Space Invaders. The arcade games had a couple big pulls for the Operators - (1) they last forever. You can still see 20 year old games in play. Solid state, baby. (2) They draw as much, if not more, money than the pinball machine. Video games ate the pinball game. Fortunately, adults like Pinball games - you're not fighting a computer, you're fighting yourself. And there's nostalgia factor. Go to superauctions.com, they auction off old pins pretty regularly.
But... go to a local arcade. You're lucky if theyhave ONE pin, much less more. There are some places that have several. And I'm willing to bet one's a South Park, maybe a Monopoly, and possibly a Star Wars Episode One.
And as for Europe - the strong dollar killed that market, for years. Maybe it's back these days, I hope so.
Anyhow, pins are finicky. I love going to a pinball festival (yay DFW! www.texaspinball.com), but there's always a couple machines that either don't work or are being worked on by the owner. I wished they survived better, but they don't.
Speaking of which, time to go wax (yes, wax) my 1981 Bally Vector. "I am your PAC - Play Analysis Computer for your Vector Gameplan".
Dublin - how well does Uwin work? I use cygwin, and so color me interested. I mostly build small shell scripts. Thanks.
Re:At last, Iain M Banks gets a bit of recognition
on
2005 Hugo Nominations
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Pass. I (and a friend) have read both Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas. I'd rather consider phlebitis. The story drags. The characters are unsympathetic, etc, etc. I could go on, but I'd rather recommend some better books and authors. Oh, and we both read them twice - we couldn't believe, considering the parent post, that the book was that bad. Maybe we missed something. We didn't. Overrrated.
China Mieville - An excellent job of world building. Great wordsmith. Very screwed-up stuff, but quite fulfilling. Manages to mix gothic, fantasy, sci-fi, and some amazingly contradictory things into a fascinating whole.
John c. Wright- Just finished this. A bit imposing book, what with the 20 new race-types he adds (group-minds, super-advanced AIs, etc), but the core of the story is about a man who deliberately removed his memory, and what he's willing to do to get it back.
Jack McDevitt - aliens. Pretty much all his books are about contacts with aliens, be it with the artifacts they leave behind, or actually running into a race. Great stuff, though I thought the aliens in Omega to be too close to human. He's best when letting the characters (and readers) wonder about What's Out There.
Alistair Reynolds Charles Stross James Alan Gardner
Anyhow, there's a few. Check my old posts, there's some more recommendations authors in old threads.
Agreed. It's the original reason I got broadband. There's a ton of sci-fi-type stuff, from The Shadow (since,um, he's invisible, and that's sci-fi-ish) to X Minus One (which included stories written by Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, and others). Either usenet or fan sites will have a bunch of episodes.
And if you are a Doctor Who nerd, there's a company called "Big Finish Productions" (google for "Big Finish", they're the first link) that does new radio plays, using the original cast (Doctors 5-9, I believe, as well as sidekicks) and original stories written by the original writers. Very well done stuff, if you're a Doctor Who fan. What other radio shows do I like that are Sci-Fi? The Adventures of Ruby, Star Wars, HHGTTG, and many, many, many more, Earth Search...
and google brought up this one: http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com/sf_radio/S Fradio.html
The true irony is that the actors are the ones responsible - reality TV was a small Niche, but due to the looming (SAG?) strike a few years ago, TV producers started working on a lot more reality tv, since everyone expected the strike to last for a while. It didn't occur at all, IIRC, but the groundwork had already been done.
Supposedly both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter are being pushed, one by Joss and one by the studio. Personally, I think Charisma can pull it off better, if only because she has the height. I don't picture Wonder Woman as 5-foot-and-change.
Couple that with the fact that most people will initially dismiss it as a "cartoon," and you've got a recipe for failure.
Yeah, and I don't see why - Disney's made an entire empire on "cartoons". Yes, Mononoke is an adult film. But why not go after the Disney crowd on some of these? Lots of kids movies are smart enough that the adults enjoy it, buy it, etc. Why not go after it?
so its quite a bit rough with the cgi, credits and theme not even being done.
Dunno about that... they've already said they're keeping the "classic" theme music, the end credits looked just fine, the CGI is classic "bad-as-in-BBC" bad. And it tells a complete story - it's not like it cuts off at 45 minutes. (Maybe there's extra scenes, after dealing with the conspiracy nut?)
Overall, A-. The comic bits are a bit too frequent, but it felt like The Doctor.
Slashdot Mirror
Ya know, I didn't care either.... and then had to listen to it while eating lunch yesterday. Crappy rhymes? Check. Bad 80's guitar solos? Check. Derivative tripe? Check, check.
It was almost like watching the South Park episode - Cartman was right, they will buy anything marketed at them. I hate to say it, but I think the market's too big, it allows mediocre music to be successful. (Insert RIAA joke here)
I think you meant to say "pirates and ninjas". Then it would be deliberately funny.
5. It's a western. My wife and her best friend, both of which were HUGE Buffy fans, had no interest at all. "It's a western. Who cares." My personal belief is that, yes, those other factors contributed, but the fact that it was such a genre-bending show was the biggest. Western fans wouldn't watch because it was sci-fi, and sci-fi fans wouldn't watch because it was a western. (I wouldn't have watched, except that it was Joss)
All that being said, why the hell are they putting out a trailer now? The movie's not due out for another 5 months or so.
If there is a way, let me know. I don't think so. Fortunately, no one ever reads this deep, and the one other guy who did loved the comment, so I'll take that as a net gain.
NWN module: doesn't look to be it. This lets you level your character up and the like, it doesn't seem to help make Epic modules, though I could have missed something in the mod.
After all this time, there are only two major flaws: (besides the fact it can only hold 64 meg total - it won't recognize cards larger than 32mb)
- the spring for the battery (lemme get this straight... there's one moving part, and it's for the flipping battery?) would unclip, and you'd have to disassemble the entire thing to get to it, and
- The aforementioned battery door.
Considering all that it's been through, the times it's been dropped (or dropped and then accidentally drop-kicked on its way down), it's a frickin' champ.Allow me to add another Mencken quote:
The American public knows what it wants, and deserves to get it. Good and hard.
I seem to remember that one of the big things was going to be the Portal system, wherein servers could be linked together, each with their own set of "rules", including gravity. So you could be chasing someone across servers, across different "worlds". Is this still the plan, or is it just another Third Person Shooter?
Still playing SR after 15 years, personally. Don't know as I'd call it a "modern day" game, but hey, why not. SR4 supposedly due out at Gencon, and also supposedly will be a flagship title for Xbox2. Not holding my breath for either, but here's hoping it works out for the best.
Here's another one:
7200 west freeway 76116
My wife noticed something when I read her the bit about NASCAR - the reason he probably was penalized as harshly as he was, was because he essentially said that winning 5 races at Talladega was no big deal. Her thought was that NASCAR was more than a little pissed that he essentially said that winning 5 races was not that tough, which lessens NASCAR.
Just a thought.
My bet is - it'll be faster. Not a bad prediction - each version of X has become progressively faster on the same hardware.
I find this part quite insightful:
the other way could be he's trying to revive Dr. who so it will open up sci fi again
A-men. I have no idea how popular it is, but my suspicion is that they got a very good, non-genre actor to fill the part, to get people excited about it, and then (as someone posted in the prior thread about The Doctor) regenerate him to someone else, both showing off the ability, as well getting higher ratings.
Doctor Who fanboy comments follow:
All that being said, I'm really curious how they're going to deal with regeneration #12 (especially since 12 merges with 4 to help regenerate into 5). Then again, it took us 10 years to go from 8 to 9, so maybe I shouldn't worry so much.
That was the best comedy I'd seen in a while. Absolutely crappy action flick, but if you watch it as a comedy (much like watching "The Musketeer" as being a really-low-tech remake of Star Wars - I'm serious - Tim Roth just needs asthma to be Vader, he already has the weird head piece, they do the speeder chase from RotJ but with horses, even the music is a rehash) then you won't be nearly as disappointed. Although, since you've seen it already, that would probably be just throwing good money after bad.
So, go see The Musketeer instead, realizing that (a) that's not Chris O'Donnell/Ron Perlman/etc, but a low-budget version,
(b)Tim Roth obviously knows it's bad and is determined to camp for the camera, and
(c) whenever they split up, they need one person in each group with a real french accent.
That is one of the funniest movies I've seen in years, even including B&R.
vast majority of Americans, who are too busy watching reality shows
Um, hello? Pot, kettle here. You guys keep shipping crappy reality TV ideas over here. Big Brother comes to mind immediately (sorry, don't follow the genre), though I heard something about a show where they're masterbating farm animals. So I don't think you have much room to talk.
You're kidding. The market has been tiny since, well, Space War/Pong/Space Invaders. The arcade games had a couple big pulls for the Operators - (1) they last forever. You can still see 20 year old games in play. Solid state, baby. (2) They draw as much, if not more, money than the pinball machine. Video games ate the pinball game. Fortunately, adults like Pinball games - you're not fighting a computer, you're fighting yourself. And there's nostalgia factor. Go to superauctions.com, they auction off old pins pretty regularly.
But... go to a local arcade. You're lucky if theyhave ONE pin, much less more. There are some places that have several. And I'm willing to bet one's a South Park, maybe a Monopoly, and possibly a Star Wars Episode One.
And as for Europe - the strong dollar killed that market, for years. Maybe it's back these days, I hope so.
Anyhow, pins are finicky. I love going to a pinball festival (yay DFW! www.texaspinball.com), but there's always a couple machines that either don't work or are being worked on by the owner. I wished they survived better, but they don't.
Speaking of which, time to go wax (yes, wax) my 1981 Bally Vector. "I am your PAC - Play Analysis Computer for your Vector Gameplan".
Dublin - how well does Uwin work? I use cygwin, and so color me interested. I mostly build small shell scripts. Thanks.
Pass. I (and a friend) have read both Use of Weapons and Consider Phlebas. I'd rather consider phlebitis. The story drags. The characters are unsympathetic, etc, etc. I could go on, but I'd rather recommend some better books and authors. Oh, and we both read them twice - we couldn't believe, considering the parent post, that the book was that bad. Maybe we missed something. We didn't. Overrrated.
China Mieville - An excellent job of world building. Great wordsmith. Very screwed-up stuff, but quite fulfilling. Manages to mix gothic, fantasy, sci-fi, and some amazingly contradictory things into a fascinating whole.
John c. Wright- Just finished this. A bit imposing book, what with the 20 new race-types he adds (group-minds, super-advanced AIs, etc), but the core of the story is about a man who deliberately removed his memory, and what he's willing to do to get it back.
Jack McDevitt - aliens. Pretty much all his books are about contacts with aliens, be it with the artifacts they leave behind, or actually running into a race. Great stuff, though I thought the aliens in Omega to be too close to human. He's best when letting the characters (and readers) wonder about What's Out There.
Alistair Reynolds
Charles Stross
James Alan Gardner
Anyhow, there's a few.
Check my old posts, there's some more recommendations authors in old threads.
Agreed. It's the original reason I got broadband. There's a ton of sci-fi-type stuff, from The Shadow (since,um, he's invisible, and that's sci-fi-ish) to X Minus One (which included stories written by Heinlein, Bradbury, Asimov, and others). Either usenet or fan sites will have a bunch of episodes.
S Fradio .html
And if you are a Doctor Who nerd, there's a company called "Big Finish Productions" (google for "Big Finish", they're the first link) that does new radio plays, using the original cast (Doctors 5-9, I believe, as well as sidekicks) and original stories written by the original writers. Very well done stuff, if you're a Doctor Who fan. What other radio shows do I like that are Sci-Fi? The Adventures of Ruby, Star Wars, HHGTTG, and many, many, many more, Earth Search...
and google brought up this one:
http://www.greatnorthernaudio.com/sf_radio/
The true irony is that the actors are the ones responsible - reality TV was a small Niche, but due to the looming (SAG?) strike a few years ago, TV producers started working on a lot more reality tv, since everyone expected the strike to last for a while. It didn't occur at all, IIRC, but the groundwork had already been done.
Supposedly both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter are being pushed, one by Joss and one by the studio. Personally, I think Charisma can pull it off better, if only because she has the height. I don't picture Wonder Woman as 5-foot-and-change.
(Kenny..............)
Jeremy Irons. Dungeons & Dragons. I rest my case.
Dick Van Dyke. Using Lightwave. My brain hurts...
Couple that with the fact that most people will initially dismiss it as a "cartoon," and you've got a recipe for failure.
Yeah, and I don't see why - Disney's made an entire empire on "cartoons". Yes, Mononoke is an adult film. But why not go after the Disney crowd on some of these? Lots of kids movies are smart enough that the adults enjoy it, buy it, etc. Why not go after it?
so its quite a bit rough with the cgi, credits and theme not even being done.
Dunno about that... they've already said they're keeping the "classic" theme music, the end credits looked just fine, the CGI is classic "bad-as-in-BBC" bad. And it tells a complete story - it's not like it cuts off at 45 minutes. (Maybe there's extra scenes, after dealing with the conspiracy nut?)
Overall, A-. The comic bits are a bit too frequent, but it felt like The Doctor.