03 May 2010
02 May 2010
Doctor Who: 05.05: Flesh and Stone (part 2 of 2)
As the two-parter concludes with Flesh and Stone, we are given the first detailed look at the fifth season’s arc. Since the start of the season, and every episode since, we’ve seen the mysterious cracks in time. What they represented was never explained, until this story. The Doctor realizes now that these cracks are causing time to be unwritten, which explains why Amy could not remember Daleks and the events of The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. The Doctor also mentions (as to what many fans asked when The Next Doctor aired) why the history records failed to record the Cyber-King rampaging over Victorian London.
The question is, how and who is doing this. We also get another mention of the Pandorica (which is part of the title of the penultimate episode of the season), but no clue as to what that means either -though a friend of mine suggests that River Song’s diary is the Pandorica (and did anyone else notice the giant Eye from The Eleventh Hour during the sequence where River and the Doctor are on the flight deck? There is a loud noise, and River turns away from the small view screen, which looks like its vertical hold has gone all crazy. The Eye pops up very quickly and then vanishes).
The episode builds on the tension from Time of Angels, though I found some of the Doctor explanations about the Angels a bit paper tigerish in the sense that he jumped to a lot of conclusions instead of actually figuring things out; especially when he says the Angels could not get Amy because she had her eyes close (and then River beams her out, which strikes me as a bit of deus ex machina, and makes me wonder why writer Steven Moffat had her separated from the others in the first place).
While River Song (and guest star Alex Kingston) gets a bit side lined in part two, we learn that she was in prison for a murder (did she come from the same place as Prisoner Number One from The Eleventh Hour?). While its never said whom she killed, Moffat seems to go out of the way to hint that it is the Doctor. And, there is a great part where the Doctor gets very angry at River, and she reacts as if she’s never seen him be that way. Besides, it was nice to see the Doctor show some anger.
The ending is also a bit odd. I’m unsure what it represents -Amy wanting a one night stand with the Doctor the night before her wedding. It seemed to come from nowhere, as she has showed no signs in the previous episodes that she fancied him. Then again, in conjunction with the cracks in time and the beam out River performed on Amy, could we be seeing an alternate version of Amy?
The question is, how and who is doing this. We also get another mention of the Pandorica (which is part of the title of the penultimate episode of the season), but no clue as to what that means either -though a friend of mine suggests that River Song’s diary is the Pandorica (and did anyone else notice the giant Eye from The Eleventh Hour during the sequence where River and the Doctor are on the flight deck? There is a loud noise, and River turns away from the small view screen, which looks like its vertical hold has gone all crazy. The Eye pops up very quickly and then vanishes).
The episode builds on the tension from Time of Angels, though I found some of the Doctor explanations about the Angels a bit paper tigerish in the sense that he jumped to a lot of conclusions instead of actually figuring things out; especially when he says the Angels could not get Amy because she had her eyes close (and then River beams her out, which strikes me as a bit of deus ex machina, and makes me wonder why writer Steven Moffat had her separated from the others in the first place).
While River Song (and guest star Alex Kingston) gets a bit side lined in part two, we learn that she was in prison for a murder (did she come from the same place as Prisoner Number One from The Eleventh Hour?). While its never said whom she killed, Moffat seems to go out of the way to hint that it is the Doctor. And, there is a great part where the Doctor gets very angry at River, and she reacts as if she’s never seen him be that way. Besides, it was nice to see the Doctor show some anger.
The ending is also a bit odd. I’m unsure what it represents -Amy wanting a one night stand with the Doctor the night before her wedding. It seemed to come from nowhere, as she has showed no signs in the previous episodes that she fancied him. Then again, in conjunction with the cracks in time and the beam out River performed on Amy, could we be seeing an alternate version of Amy?
01 May 2010
29 April 2010
21 April 2010
Hulu to start a subcription fee this May
According to a Los Angeles Times report, Hulu, the online video site second only to YouTube in monthly video streams in the U.S., will roll out a subscription service as soon as May 24.
The site will continue to allow users to watch the last five episodes of the series they carry for free. If viewers want to watch beyond that, though, they would have to pay $9.95 per month.
Owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and the Walt Disney Co., the site has earned more than $100 million in advertising revenue.
Apparently, that is not enough for these media giants, though. Also, it appears that they feel the recent bouts with collecting transmission fees from cable companies such as Time Warner and Cablevision are making it impossible to justify offering the same programming online for free.
Ultimately, the report says, even the few commercials aired on Hulu will increase to match those of network TV.
The site will continue to allow users to watch the last five episodes of the series they carry for free. If viewers want to watch beyond that, though, they would have to pay $9.95 per month.
Owned by News Corp., NBC Universal and the Walt Disney Co., the site has earned more than $100 million in advertising revenue.
Apparently, that is not enough for these media giants, though. Also, it appears that they feel the recent bouts with collecting transmission fees from cable companies such as Time Warner and Cablevision are making it impossible to justify offering the same programming online for free.
Ultimately, the report says, even the few commercials aired on Hulu will increase to match those of network TV.
17 April 2010
The Tea Party of the Misinformed
A recent NYT’s poll showed that the Tea Party people were predominantly white, predominantly male and over the age of 45 and who were more conservative than most people and who made substantially more money on average and were better educated.
I found this very interesting, if only because they have accused, in the past, that President Obama is just too smart for the Average Joe’s of these great United States of America. Yet if the poll numbers are true, then they not just a smart as Obama? So what’s the deal here?
There is also an interesting bit in the poll that seems to indicate to these people that Obama is helping black people over whites, which further proves these Tea Party people are a bit on the racist side, even though they try to deny it (and even though such as a group like these Tea Party people would historically be very anti-black). Take for example, a Washington Post article about the demonstrators who gathered at the Freedom Plaza in Washinton this past Thursday. One of the guys there, Jerry Johnson, 58, a lawyer from Berryville, Va. was asked why he was there by the Post. Johnson expressed opposition to Obama by saying "It's not just because he's black."
So, did you get that? It’s not JUST because he’s black.
These people, while probably well meaning in some regards, wrap themselves in the American flag, claiming they are patriots with roots that go back to the Founding Fathers (as flawed as they were, being slave owners and all). However, much like the Catholic Church I was brought up in, when you poke around their history, when you show their logic has no merits, when you shine the light of truth into the dark corners of their reality, they become nothing more than bullies trying to protect what they’re not really losing (such as this Forbes article on taxes).
I do think my Commander and Chief should be smarter than the average bear. But I fear the Republicans and the Tea Party people want to bait and switch the people of USA into electing a leader -whether it be Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney - who can easily manipulate the less educated into thinking that it does not take brains to run this country, just some good all know-how taken from a Martha Stewart magazine article or a pretend world of the 1950s where black people knew their place, where the homosexuals where deep in the closet, and where the reality never even came through your TeeVee.
I have seen the enemy, and they cannot spell, or think for themselves. It will be a sorry, sad world, if these brain trusts get the keys to the kingdom.
I found this very interesting, if only because they have accused, in the past, that President Obama is just too smart for the Average Joe’s of these great United States of America. Yet if the poll numbers are true, then they not just a smart as Obama? So what’s the deal here?
There is also an interesting bit in the poll that seems to indicate to these people that Obama is helping black people over whites, which further proves these Tea Party people are a bit on the racist side, even though they try to deny it (and even though such as a group like these Tea Party people would historically be very anti-black). Take for example, a Washington Post article about the demonstrators who gathered at the Freedom Plaza in Washinton this past Thursday. One of the guys there, Jerry Johnson, 58, a lawyer from Berryville, Va. was asked why he was there by the Post. Johnson expressed opposition to Obama by saying "It's not just because he's black."
So, did you get that? It’s not JUST because he’s black.
These people, while probably well meaning in some regards, wrap themselves in the American flag, claiming they are patriots with roots that go back to the Founding Fathers (as flawed as they were, being slave owners and all). However, much like the Catholic Church I was brought up in, when you poke around their history, when you show their logic has no merits, when you shine the light of truth into the dark corners of their reality, they become nothing more than bullies trying to protect what they’re not really losing (such as this Forbes article on taxes).
I do think my Commander and Chief should be smarter than the average bear. But I fear the Republicans and the Tea Party people want to bait and switch the people of USA into electing a leader -whether it be Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney - who can easily manipulate the less educated into thinking that it does not take brains to run this country, just some good all know-how taken from a Martha Stewart magazine article or a pretend world of the 1950s where black people knew their place, where the homosexuals where deep in the closet, and where the reality never even came through your TeeVee.
I have seen the enemy, and they cannot spell, or think for themselves. It will be a sorry, sad world, if these brain trusts get the keys to the kingdom.
Books: Candy Everybody Wants by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
After the success of his memoir I Am Not Myself These Days, author Josh Kilmer-Purcell takes a left-turn into fiction for his follow-up book, Candy Everybody Wants. The novel, I guess, is a sort of fantasy/alternate universe story about a fifteen-year old boy named Jayson, who is gay, out and proud in the early 1980's, growing up in the Midwest who wants the same fame and fortune that he see’s on TV.
While waiting for that fame, he spends his time writing, directing, editing and acting (along with his neighbors) in short films inspired by his love of such then hit TV shows as Dallas and Dynasty. While his mother is a free spirited, an artist and occasional lesbian, she sends her son off to New York to live with his father (whom he has never met) when one of his antics gets out of hand. It is here, that Jayson goes on some very odd adventures (well, the whole set up is pretty odd also).
As with most coming-of-age stories, the hero is pretty screwed up, but his family is even more dysfunctional than he is, which is very true here. Then you add on some bizarre plot turns and an pretty predictable, fairly unsatisfying ending and you get a novel that has merits - I could understand Jayson’s fascination with 1980s pop culture - with Kilmer-Purcell’s sharp wit and honesty, but never achieves anything beyond being a quick read that you’ll not remember after putting it down.
I’m not disappointed with it, just worried on how I can juxtaposition this novel between two great memoirs - I Am Not Myself These Days and the forthcoming Bucolic Plague. Kilmer-Purcell could be a great satirist, but his real-life is more fun than this one.
While waiting for that fame, he spends his time writing, directing, editing and acting (along with his neighbors) in short films inspired by his love of such then hit TV shows as Dallas and Dynasty. While his mother is a free spirited, an artist and occasional lesbian, she sends her son off to New York to live with his father (whom he has never met) when one of his antics gets out of hand. It is here, that Jayson goes on some very odd adventures (well, the whole set up is pretty odd also).
As with most coming-of-age stories, the hero is pretty screwed up, but his family is even more dysfunctional than he is, which is very true here. Then you add on some bizarre plot turns and an pretty predictable, fairly unsatisfying ending and you get a novel that has merits - I could understand Jayson’s fascination with 1980s pop culture - with Kilmer-Purcell’s sharp wit and honesty, but never achieves anything beyond being a quick read that you’ll not remember after putting it down.
I’m not disappointed with it, just worried on how I can juxtaposition this novel between two great memoirs - I Am Not Myself These Days and the forthcoming Bucolic Plague. Kilmer-Purcell could be a great satirist, but his real-life is more fun than this one.
11 April 2010
Doctor Who: 05.02: The Beast Below
The Doctor and Amy arrive aboard the Starship UK, a giant spacecraft that's become the post-apocalyptic vehicle for the entire British nation after the planet suffered a catastrophic solar flare. The Doctor immediately sense a police state, becoming suspicious of gargoyle-like "Smilers" that sit inside booths keeping an eye on the population, while Amy discovers a strange tentacle inside a cordoned off area and a peculiar "voting booth" where the horrific secret behind Starship UK is made known to its citizens every five years, before giving you a choice to "protest" - and risk the wrath of the Smilers or "forget" and have the burden of knowledge erased from your memory.
This is an odd-ball episode to be sure, reminding many times of the weakness of Russell T. Davies: grand ideas, with a little bit of moral posturing on the side all wrapped in some rather cheap production values due to the expense of previous episodes.
But, as like the season opener, the story is saved by Matt Smith’s continued growth into the role as the Doctor. Also, in what is perhaps the best part of the story, Amy (the increasingly interesting Karen Gillan) figuring out the solution long before the Doctor.
The Smilers come off more creepy than scary, and what was the purpose of Mandy, the little girl who accompanies Amy and the Doctor?
But at the end of the day, it’s Gillan’s Amy that shines through this rather dull episode, and if Moffat and the rest of the writers continue her growth, she could become the best companion the series ever produced.
This is an odd-ball episode to be sure, reminding many times of the weakness of Russell T. Davies: grand ideas, with a little bit of moral posturing on the side all wrapped in some rather cheap production values due to the expense of previous episodes.
But, as like the season opener, the story is saved by Matt Smith’s continued growth into the role as the Doctor. Also, in what is perhaps the best part of the story, Amy (the increasingly interesting Karen Gillan) figuring out the solution long before the Doctor.
The Smilers come off more creepy than scary, and what was the purpose of Mandy, the little girl who accompanies Amy and the Doctor?
But at the end of the day, it’s Gillan’s Amy that shines through this rather dull episode, and if Moffat and the rest of the writers continue her growth, she could become the best companion the series ever produced.
Books: I Am Not Myself These Days by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
Long before Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, and his other memoirs, became the “it” books to read and before James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces made the world realize that sometimes memoirs blurred the line between fact and fiction, I understood that some of the stuff that happened in these people lives were not possibly true. Especially Burroughs, as I remember getting about half-way through that book and saying to myself this stuff was too outrageous, that there was a lot fiction in those passages.
Now, thanks to Frey, memoirs come with a caveat, with the authors basically having to protect themselves with notes indicating “names of characters” and other “details” have been changed. That all the characters are “composites” of many people and that this is how the author remembers the way it was, which means some of it I made up to make the flow of the story follow a linear plot.
After reading Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s forthcoming June memoir The Bucolic Plague: From Drag Queen to Goat Farmer, about him and his partner Brent’s take over of a two-hundred year-old mansion in upper New York, I settled in to read his first memoir, I Am Not Myself These Days. This is the tale of his life before Brent, before becoming the Beekman Boys and a no-holds look at his days as an award-winning drag queen at night, and an award-winning advertising man by day. It is also a tale of his relationship with Jack, a high end hooker.
Like Burroughs, like Frey, Kilmer-Purcell’s life is one absurd escapade after another. His tales of being the 7-foot-tall drag queen named Aqua, always looking for the next fella to buy him a vodka, and sometimes waking up in places he doesn’t remember (or waking up on the train on a Sunday morning with a family obviously bound for Church, who stare at him with indiscreet fright and probably curiosity) are sometimes too outrageous to believe in (and I’ve never understood some peoples mind set that they don’t really feel alive unless they’re doing something that could bring them to the brink of death). Yet, we are sort of told from time to time, that this all did happen.
And through 3/4's of the book, you either laugh at the hokey adventures and lessons of Aqua, Josh and Jack, or cry with envy that you (the reader) could never dream of living a life of self-destruction -even though it came with money and a beautiful apartment.
It’s the last quarter or so of the book that becomes even more surreal. Love is messy, and at times, you never see the forest for the trees. While I know both Josh and Jack loved each other, the drugs that Jack took -especially his crack addiction - were bound to cause their eventual split-up. It is here, that Kilmer-Purcell’s life becomes interesting, insomuch as his denial that Jack’s drug use, his high end male escort life, was never going to interfere in their love for each other. It is here, that the fundamental truths of human emotions comes out, and with a lot of wit, sharp and unforgiving, I Am Not Myself These Days transcends the memoir genre to become more than exaggerated story of a drag queen and his hooker boyfriend.
Now, thanks to Frey, memoirs come with a caveat, with the authors basically having to protect themselves with notes indicating “names of characters” and other “details” have been changed. That all the characters are “composites” of many people and that this is how the author remembers the way it was, which means some of it I made up to make the flow of the story follow a linear plot.
After reading Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s forthcoming June memoir The Bucolic Plague: From Drag Queen to Goat Farmer, about him and his partner Brent’s take over of a two-hundred year-old mansion in upper New York, I settled in to read his first memoir, I Am Not Myself These Days. This is the tale of his life before Brent, before becoming the Beekman Boys and a no-holds look at his days as an award-winning drag queen at night, and an award-winning advertising man by day. It is also a tale of his relationship with Jack, a high end hooker.
Like Burroughs, like Frey, Kilmer-Purcell’s life is one absurd escapade after another. His tales of being the 7-foot-tall drag queen named Aqua, always looking for the next fella to buy him a vodka, and sometimes waking up in places he doesn’t remember (or waking up on the train on a Sunday morning with a family obviously bound for Church, who stare at him with indiscreet fright and probably curiosity) are sometimes too outrageous to believe in (and I’ve never understood some peoples mind set that they don’t really feel alive unless they’re doing something that could bring them to the brink of death). Yet, we are sort of told from time to time, that this all did happen.
And through 3/4's of the book, you either laugh at the hokey adventures and lessons of Aqua, Josh and Jack, or cry with envy that you (the reader) could never dream of living a life of self-destruction -even though it came with money and a beautiful apartment.
It’s the last quarter or so of the book that becomes even more surreal. Love is messy, and at times, you never see the forest for the trees. While I know both Josh and Jack loved each other, the drugs that Jack took -especially his crack addiction - were bound to cause their eventual split-up. It is here, that Kilmer-Purcell’s life becomes interesting, insomuch as his denial that Jack’s drug use, his high end male escort life, was never going to interfere in their love for each other. It is here, that the fundamental truths of human emotions comes out, and with a lot of wit, sharp and unforgiving, I Am Not Myself These Days transcends the memoir genre to become more than exaggerated story of a drag queen and his hooker boyfriend.
05 April 2010
04 April 2010
When writers sell their souls
So, it was announced this past week that Stephenie Meyer will release a novella this June called The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, a character introduced in the third novel in the vampire series, Eclipse. Told from the point of view of Bree, it chronicles the newborn vampire army's journey as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens.
This seems just pandering in many ways. While Meyer has chosen not to write another novel in her Twilight series for a while, someone threw a lot of money at her to write this what is probably forgettable tale of a minor character who appears in the upcoming third film due this June. This reminds me of Ann Rice, who got stuck writing one vampire novel after another. Every time she tried to write something else, her vampire reader fans turned their heads. So, she just started writing vampire tales based on other characters to make her fans happy. While that's not so bad, it does show that perhaps sometimes its best not to listen to them all of the time.
Meyer, who by the way, has never explained how much money she's giving to the Mormons to suppress gay rights in the US, seems to be heading in that direction. While her adult sci fi novel The Host did well, it never reached the level of her four book Twilight series.
What's next, a vampire tale about an unknown Cullen cousin?
This seems just pandering in many ways. While Meyer has chosen not to write another novel in her Twilight series for a while, someone threw a lot of money at her to write this what is probably forgettable tale of a minor character who appears in the upcoming third film due this June. This reminds me of Ann Rice, who got stuck writing one vampire novel after another. Every time she tried to write something else, her vampire reader fans turned their heads. So, she just started writing vampire tales based on other characters to make her fans happy. While that's not so bad, it does show that perhaps sometimes its best not to listen to them all of the time.
Meyer, who by the way, has never explained how much money she's giving to the Mormons to suppress gay rights in the US, seems to be heading in that direction. While her adult sci fi novel The Host did well, it never reached the level of her four book Twilight series.
What's next, a vampire tale about an unknown Cullen cousin?
Earthquake
So, while filming our Star Trek fan series on Sunday, we all felt the 7.2 earthquake that rattled Baja, California. It was not severe by the time the wave hit here. It felt like a soft ride on roller skates -this being a "rolling" quake. Anyways, it did not last long -maybe all of 10 seconds, but it was another reminder of where I chosen to live. Like 4.4 earthquake we had here two weeks ago that was just about 10 miles from here, I find them interesting. Sadly, it is also a reminder that if we were to have a strong, damaging quake, this house is not ready for it.
They say we should have water and food stuff, batteries, a radio and what not for several days after a quake. If the water got cut off, along with the gas and power, we would be pretty much screwed. So, in many ways, these two rumbles of the land are telling me to get prepared.
Fun thing is, I was in the foothills surrounding Pasadena when we felt the quake. My house mate -just 25 miles east of me, in a relatively low area of La Verne (well over a 1,000 feet above sea level), did not feel it.
Friends in Santa Monica did not feel it either.
And not wanting to sound like something is going to happen, but only 9 minutes after the Baja quake, a 4.1 quake rattled Santa Rosa -about and hour or so north of San Francisco.
Strange frequencies.
They say we should have water and food stuff, batteries, a radio and what not for several days after a quake. If the water got cut off, along with the gas and power, we would be pretty much screwed. So, in many ways, these two rumbles of the land are telling me to get prepared.
Fun thing is, I was in the foothills surrounding Pasadena when we felt the quake. My house mate -just 25 miles east of me, in a relatively low area of La Verne (well over a 1,000 feet above sea level), did not feel it.
Friends in Santa Monica did not feel it either.
And not wanting to sound like something is going to happen, but only 9 minutes after the Baja quake, a 4.1 quake rattled Santa Rosa -about and hour or so north of San Francisco.
Strange frequencies.
Books: The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly (2006)
Author John Connolly is know more for his crime fiction than fantasy novels, but with the 2006 release of The Book of Lost Things, he adds his name to the list of writers trying to cash in on the popularity of the genre for young adults. However, I don’t think this book is really a kids book, more a book about childhood.
Set in England during World War II, 12 year-old David is facing changes in his life: his mother has died of cancer, his father has remarried and has a new son with the stepmother, has moved into a new home and most of his friends - well besides his books - have left London due to the almost nightly bombings from the Nazi’s.
But the new house does have a sunken garden and a forest behind it, and it is here one day where David spies something moving around his room. But when his dad and him search the room, they discover a magpie has somehow gotten in. But David, who along with his late mother, adored fairy tales and the Greek legends of myths and monsters, knows something sinister is going on.
Later, while laying in bed, he swears he hears his mothers voice calling to him. Sneaking out, he stumbles into the sunken garden where her voice is coming from. While he explores the garden, he notices lights in the sky and realizes that a German bomber is falling straight towards the garden. With no where else to go, he climbs into a crack in the walls of the garden and into another land - a land that he becomes trapped in.
In this new world, David befriends the Woodsman who promises to take him to the King, who possess a great object called the Book of Lost Things (ala The Wizard of Oz). With this great book, the Woodsman thinks David can get back to his home. But the journey will prove dangerous and deadly as David is confronted with his fairy tale books come to life.
What is most evident in this novel is the retelling of traditional fairy tales. Anything from Snow White to Rumpelstiltskin is fair game for the author. However, none of the tales are the ones we all grew up on. Snow White is now overweight and mean-spirited and no longer charming; her dwarves are attempting to get rid of her (in perhaps the oddest part of the book, insomuch as it’s the most light hearted section of the it). Little Red Riding Hood is no longer an innocent girl visiting her grandmother, but a seductive temptress who gives birth to the first loup (wolf-human). And figures such as Rumpelstiltskin serve as the inspiration for the most despicable character - the Crooked Man.
Still, this novel is an engaging, often magical, and very thoughtful read.
Set in England during World War II, 12 year-old David is facing changes in his life: his mother has died of cancer, his father has remarried and has a new son with the stepmother, has moved into a new home and most of his friends - well besides his books - have left London due to the almost nightly bombings from the Nazi’s.
But the new house does have a sunken garden and a forest behind it, and it is here one day where David spies something moving around his room. But when his dad and him search the room, they discover a magpie has somehow gotten in. But David, who along with his late mother, adored fairy tales and the Greek legends of myths and monsters, knows something sinister is going on.
Later, while laying in bed, he swears he hears his mothers voice calling to him. Sneaking out, he stumbles into the sunken garden where her voice is coming from. While he explores the garden, he notices lights in the sky and realizes that a German bomber is falling straight towards the garden. With no where else to go, he climbs into a crack in the walls of the garden and into another land - a land that he becomes trapped in.
In this new world, David befriends the Woodsman who promises to take him to the King, who possess a great object called the Book of Lost Things (ala The Wizard of Oz). With this great book, the Woodsman thinks David can get back to his home. But the journey will prove dangerous and deadly as David is confronted with his fairy tale books come to life.
What is most evident in this novel is the retelling of traditional fairy tales. Anything from Snow White to Rumpelstiltskin is fair game for the author. However, none of the tales are the ones we all grew up on. Snow White is now overweight and mean-spirited and no longer charming; her dwarves are attempting to get rid of her (in perhaps the oddest part of the book, insomuch as it’s the most light hearted section of the it). Little Red Riding Hood is no longer an innocent girl visiting her grandmother, but a seductive temptress who gives birth to the first loup (wolf-human). And figures such as Rumpelstiltskin serve as the inspiration for the most despicable character - the Crooked Man.
Still, this novel is an engaging, often magical, and very thoughtful read.
03 April 2010
Doctor Who: 05:01: The Eleventh Hour
I want to say put your fears away, that Steven Moffat has successfully taken Doctor Who into a new era. That he has, in the season opener, put some doubts on how -and if he could- make the show work after the four year, successful run of both Christopher Eccelston and David Tennant as the Doctor. That he could replace Russell Davies as show-runner.
You could say that he has.
With The Eleventh Hour, the fifth season begins just after the events of the fourth season finale, The End of Time. The Doctor, having regenerated, is trying to save the TARDIS, which is plunging towards Earth, out of control and severely damaged by said regeneration of the Time Lord. The TARDIS crash lands in the back garden of seven year-old Amelia Pond in the small English village of Leadworth. Amelia takes him inside and helps him satisfy his strange food cravings before taking him upstairs to show him the crack in her bedroom wall. There the Doctor discovers a crack in time and space itself, and on the other side is a prison run by the Atraxi. The Atraxi deliver a warning to the two: “Prisoner Zero has escaped.”
Pondering the situation, the Doctor thinks this Prisoner Zero is somewhere in Amelia’s house, but before he can help further, the TARDIS Cloister Bells go off, and he warns that if the engines of his TARDIS are not stabilized, it will incinerate. He promises Amelia he will return in five minutes, and leaves. She packs and begins to wait for him. Unfortunately, 12 years pass and Amelia Pond -now known as Amy - is working as a kissogram when she encounters the Doctor again.
Realizing that Prisoner Zero has been hiding in Amy’s house, the Doctor also figures out that he has 20 minutes to save the Earth.
From the word go, Matt Smith’s take on Doctor is familiar -he has the same sort of energy of David Tennant’s version - yet he also makes him a bit more kooky, I guess. There is the mad energy of the second and even the fourth Doctor, but there is some sweet whimsy of the ninth Doctor as well.
Then there’s the near perfect introduction of grown-up Amy, played by Karen Gillan, as the Doctor’s newest companion. The actress brings depth and warmth to Amy, and she never shy’s away from the apparent "mad man with a box" that has come into her life. And while Rose was also pretty much fully realized companion in the first season, Amy’s is done much better here and one hopes they’ll make her even more fully rounded as Rose eventually became.
There are some weaknesses, though. Mostly with the visual effects. The Prisoner Zero in its true form is rather disappointing, and the story itself is rather pedantic. But, perhaps, that was not what this season opener was about. Moffat’s seems to have decided to concentrate of the characters of both the Doctor and Amy, and there he is more successful.
Finally, I must comment on the new opening and theme. It’s a rather jarring difference between the fourth and fifth season title sequence, with a more darker look to it. Gone is the bright oranges and reds of Eccelston’s and Tennant’s eras, replaced by angry clouds and lightening and a huge flow of yellow energy. The score returns back to the early days of the original series, bringing back the ghostly whistle of that era (and reminding me of where The X Files theme came from).
In the end, that is what makes Doctor Who unique: it’s ability to change as the years pass, to renew itself, to be different, yet the same. Its comforting that after 47 years, the show can still surprise you.
You could say that he has.
With The Eleventh Hour, the fifth season begins just after the events of the fourth season finale, The End of Time. The Doctor, having regenerated, is trying to save the TARDIS, which is plunging towards Earth, out of control and severely damaged by said regeneration of the Time Lord. The TARDIS crash lands in the back garden of seven year-old Amelia Pond in the small English village of Leadworth. Amelia takes him inside and helps him satisfy his strange food cravings before taking him upstairs to show him the crack in her bedroom wall. There the Doctor discovers a crack in time and space itself, and on the other side is a prison run by the Atraxi. The Atraxi deliver a warning to the two: “Prisoner Zero has escaped.”
Pondering the situation, the Doctor thinks this Prisoner Zero is somewhere in Amelia’s house, but before he can help further, the TARDIS Cloister Bells go off, and he warns that if the engines of his TARDIS are not stabilized, it will incinerate. He promises Amelia he will return in five minutes, and leaves. She packs and begins to wait for him. Unfortunately, 12 years pass and Amelia Pond -now known as Amy - is working as a kissogram when she encounters the Doctor again.
Realizing that Prisoner Zero has been hiding in Amy’s house, the Doctor also figures out that he has 20 minutes to save the Earth.
From the word go, Matt Smith’s take on Doctor is familiar -he has the same sort of energy of David Tennant’s version - yet he also makes him a bit more kooky, I guess. There is the mad energy of the second and even the fourth Doctor, but there is some sweet whimsy of the ninth Doctor as well.
Then there’s the near perfect introduction of grown-up Amy, played by Karen Gillan, as the Doctor’s newest companion. The actress brings depth and warmth to Amy, and she never shy’s away from the apparent "mad man with a box" that has come into her life. And while Rose was also pretty much fully realized companion in the first season, Amy’s is done much better here and one hopes they’ll make her even more fully rounded as Rose eventually became.
There are some weaknesses, though. Mostly with the visual effects. The Prisoner Zero in its true form is rather disappointing, and the story itself is rather pedantic. But, perhaps, that was not what this season opener was about. Moffat’s seems to have decided to concentrate of the characters of both the Doctor and Amy, and there he is more successful.
Finally, I must comment on the new opening and theme. It’s a rather jarring difference between the fourth and fifth season title sequence, with a more darker look to it. Gone is the bright oranges and reds of Eccelston’s and Tennant’s eras, replaced by angry clouds and lightening and a huge flow of yellow energy. The score returns back to the early days of the original series, bringing back the ghostly whistle of that era (and reminding me of where The X Files theme came from).
In the end, that is what makes Doctor Who unique: it’s ability to change as the years pass, to renew itself, to be different, yet the same. Its comforting that after 47 years, the show can still surprise you.
29 March 2010
Borders Book of Games
One persons view that we’re following the rules to the T is another person’s view of a hostile work environment.
The upper management with in Borders -at least in this region - are now beginning to eat their young, much like baby sharks. As the company continues to hemorrhage money, instead of cutting back in the boardroom and executive branch (where bonuses will be paid out for top executives who stay with the company for the rest of the year. Hey, where’s mine?) or even trying to figure out a way to make money for its few investors, it has begun what I called Operation Annoy the Staff Until They Leave By Enforcing Rules We’ve Never Really Enforced Before.
So, the situation is this: they’ve fired as many people as they can, so in what is their ultimate goal, getting rid of the full-timers, they’re enforcing rules -which I’m sure is in the Employee Handbook, but never really taken seriously - that will force those full-time and long-timed employees to finally leave so they can be replaced by -as I’m sure they’ll say - grateful long-out-of-work part-timers who will do and say anything the upper management feeds them, because, well at least they have a job.
Our employee lockers and our availability it the latest salvo. In all the years I’ve worked for them, the employee lockers were never a high priority when it came to decorations. It was a place to put pics of loved ones, jokes and what not. Now, sure, can some be over done? Of course. But to suddenly want to enforce it -especially when there are other things more important to keep Borders going - with subtle threats (“Well, if LP came in and saw this, I could get fired,” says the GM. “And you don’t want me to get fired?”) and no real explanation as to why its become such a high priority to clean them up and it just shows that the company no longer has any real control over anything. Again, as another analogy, they are starting to gnaw off the arm that they need to keep the company afloat.
My availability has been the same since I moved to this store almost 5 years ago. It’s been open, open, open. But because I worked on the now defunct IPT, my schedule was stable, Monday through Friday. I’m still do IPT work, which is all the sorting and the majority of the shelving, so keeping me on the same schedule was logical. It’s a proven fact that more shelving can get done when the store is closed. You could, I guess, shift that around and go back to what it used to be before the IPT was created, but you’ll never get caught up while the stores open. Never, ever. Because they tried to go back to it, and it failed. And they acknowledged that it failed.
Sorting does not have to be done during the days, but it is -again - more logical. I could come in late on shipment days and still do it, but if I have to work register or the floor, sorting gets behind. And with unboxed product sitting in the back that will contain inventory that people want to buy will not help your bottom line, either.
Anywho, the point is for the staff, they want another open availability form so if you complain about working crappy hours, or just not getting anything done, they can pull out that paper.
It’s just another very legal way of getting employees to quit. Hammer them with changes enough times, they’re bound to quit. And with this tough economy, who can really quit. You either do it, or bye-bye.
All their silly changes is what happens to company in this situation. It’s dying like an actor swallowing his last bunch of prescription drug. And like a junkie in need of a fix, it needs money. And like a true junkie, it takes that money from home, from the people who have been through thick and thin with you, through the bad times and the good. Borders is taking the very blood it needs to keep the wheels of this company going. Its taking staff and forcing them now to follow silly rules they never enforced when the company was doing better. It’s eating itself from within.
So, in the end, they’ve decided to ensure obedience by applying rules they’ve never really took the time to, well, apply. And if you can’t do it, well, then your gone. They can higher someone to replace you, but they’ll never find someone as good as you.
Plus since I do believe it is the goal of the company to get rid of all hourly full-timers, what might not be an easy way, but to shove these silly restrictions under their noses?
The upper management with in Borders -at least in this region - are now beginning to eat their young, much like baby sharks. As the company continues to hemorrhage money, instead of cutting back in the boardroom and executive branch (where bonuses will be paid out for top executives who stay with the company for the rest of the year. Hey, where’s mine?) or even trying to figure out a way to make money for its few investors, it has begun what I called Operation Annoy the Staff Until They Leave By Enforcing Rules We’ve Never Really Enforced Before.
So, the situation is this: they’ve fired as many people as they can, so in what is their ultimate goal, getting rid of the full-timers, they’re enforcing rules -which I’m sure is in the Employee Handbook, but never really taken seriously - that will force those full-time and long-timed employees to finally leave so they can be replaced by -as I’m sure they’ll say - grateful long-out-of-work part-timers who will do and say anything the upper management feeds them, because, well at least they have a job.
Our employee lockers and our availability it the latest salvo. In all the years I’ve worked for them, the employee lockers were never a high priority when it came to decorations. It was a place to put pics of loved ones, jokes and what not. Now, sure, can some be over done? Of course. But to suddenly want to enforce it -especially when there are other things more important to keep Borders going - with subtle threats (“Well, if LP came in and saw this, I could get fired,” says the GM. “And you don’t want me to get fired?”) and no real explanation as to why its become such a high priority to clean them up and it just shows that the company no longer has any real control over anything. Again, as another analogy, they are starting to gnaw off the arm that they need to keep the company afloat.
My availability has been the same since I moved to this store almost 5 years ago. It’s been open, open, open. But because I worked on the now defunct IPT, my schedule was stable, Monday through Friday. I’m still do IPT work, which is all the sorting and the majority of the shelving, so keeping me on the same schedule was logical. It’s a proven fact that more shelving can get done when the store is closed. You could, I guess, shift that around and go back to what it used to be before the IPT was created, but you’ll never get caught up while the stores open. Never, ever. Because they tried to go back to it, and it failed. And they acknowledged that it failed.
Sorting does not have to be done during the days, but it is -again - more logical. I could come in late on shipment days and still do it, but if I have to work register or the floor, sorting gets behind. And with unboxed product sitting in the back that will contain inventory that people want to buy will not help your bottom line, either.
Anywho, the point is for the staff, they want another open availability form so if you complain about working crappy hours, or just not getting anything done, they can pull out that paper.
It’s just another very legal way of getting employees to quit. Hammer them with changes enough times, they’re bound to quit. And with this tough economy, who can really quit. You either do it, or bye-bye.
All their silly changes is what happens to company in this situation. It’s dying like an actor swallowing his last bunch of prescription drug. And like a junkie in need of a fix, it needs money. And like a true junkie, it takes that money from home, from the people who have been through thick and thin with you, through the bad times and the good. Borders is taking the very blood it needs to keep the wheels of this company going. Its taking staff and forcing them now to follow silly rules they never enforced when the company was doing better. It’s eating itself from within.
So, in the end, they’ve decided to ensure obedience by applying rules they’ve never really took the time to, well, apply. And if you can’t do it, well, then your gone. They can higher someone to replace you, but they’ll never find someone as good as you.
Plus since I do believe it is the goal of the company to get rid of all hourly full-timers, what might not be an easy way, but to shove these silly restrictions under their noses?
24 March 2010
Books: The Bucolic Plague: From Drag Queen to Goat Farmer by Josh Kilmer-Purcell
In the 1990s Josh Kilmer-Purcell was a world-renowned drag queen by night and an award-winning advertising creative by day. His partner, Brent, is a doctor working on the Martha Stewart. On one of their weekend trips to the country (as in a few hours out of New York that is not call the Hamptons), they stumble upon an abandoned old mansion and a huge piece of land. And to their delight, the Beekman Mansion, as it is known, is up for sale. One hour later, they have been transformed from uptight urbanites into the 200-year-old mansion-owning Beekman Boys. While being weekend farmers gives them joy, and money as they start making and selling goat-milk soap, things get tense for them as the economy and zombie flies disrupt the harmony of two gay men who do the unthinkable: start over, have a herd of four-legged kids and really get their hands dirty.
There are few ARC’s (Advanced Reading Copy) we get at work that I really want to read. Most are romance or new authors. This book grabbed me from the start, mostly with Kilmer-Purcell’s wit and his honest and enlightening tales that take place in the midst of the most really outlandish scenarios. It will make you laugh until you want to buy something from their web site.
There are few ARC’s (Advanced Reading Copy) we get at work that I really want to read. Most are romance or new authors. This book grabbed me from the start, mostly with Kilmer-Purcell’s wit and his honest and enlightening tales that take place in the midst of the most really outlandish scenarios. It will make you laugh until you want to buy something from their web site.
22 March 2010
Final episode titles for Doctor Who: Season Five
The ones highlighted and italicized are the updated ones.
05.01 The Eleventh Hour - The Doctor meets new companion Amy. But what secret is she hiding in her home?
05.02 The Beast Below -Set on board a spaceship. Look out for a brand new nasty enemy. The Smilers!
05.03 Victory of the Daleks.- Set on board a spaceship. Look out for a brand new nasty enemy. The Smilers!
05.04 Time of the Angels (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.05 Flesh and Stone (Part 2 of 2)
The Weeping Angels return. Also The Doc's ''wife'' River Song.
05.06 The Vampires of Venice by Toby Whithouse - A fangtastic romp set in Italy involving some very old blood suckers.
05.07 Amy's Choice by Simon Nye - Two worlds collide. One's real. One's not. And why is Amy Pond getting bigger?
05.08 The Ground Beneath Their Feet (Part 1 of 2) by Chris Chidnall (Torchwood)
05.09 Cold Blood (Part 2 of 2)
This 2-part story brings back the classic Who villains the Silurians (first seen in the 1971 Third Doctor season and last seen in the 1984 Fifth Doctor serial Warriors of the Deep)
05.10 Vincent and The Doctor by Richard Curtis- An historical episode. The Time Lord meets the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh.
05.11 The Lodger by Gareth Roberts - The Doctor is trapped on Earth with no TARDIS -this is also based on a comic story featured in DW magazine.
05.12 The Pandorica Opens (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.13 The Big Bang
05.01 The Eleventh Hour - The Doctor meets new companion Amy. But what secret is she hiding in her home?
05.02 The Beast Below -Set on board a spaceship. Look out for a brand new nasty enemy. The Smilers!
05.03 Victory of the Daleks.- Set on board a spaceship. Look out for a brand new nasty enemy. The Smilers!
05.04 Time of the Angels (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.05 Flesh and Stone (Part 2 of 2)
The Weeping Angels return. Also The Doc's ''wife'' River Song.
05.06 The Vampires of Venice by Toby Whithouse - A fangtastic romp set in Italy involving some very old blood suckers.
05.07 Amy's Choice by Simon Nye - Two worlds collide. One's real. One's not. And why is Amy Pond getting bigger?
05.08 The Ground Beneath Their Feet (Part 1 of 2) by Chris Chidnall (Torchwood)
05.09 Cold Blood (Part 2 of 2)
This 2-part story brings back the classic Who villains the Silurians (first seen in the 1971 Third Doctor season and last seen in the 1984 Fifth Doctor serial Warriors of the Deep)
05.10 Vincent and The Doctor by Richard Curtis- An historical episode. The Time Lord meets the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh.
05.11 The Lodger by Gareth Roberts - The Doctor is trapped on Earth with no TARDIS -this is also based on a comic story featured in DW magazine.
05.12 The Pandorica Opens (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.13 The Big Bang
20 March 2010
Books: The Wishbones by Tom Perrotta (1997)
It occurred recently to me that author Jonathan Tropper -I've read 3 of his five books over the last 8 months - could be classified as "guy lit," the male version of "chick lit," which are novels about written by women for women -the collected works of Sophia Kinsella comes to mind. And then there's Nicholas Sparks, who is a male author writing novels that only women like. You know, those Lifetime network novels about strong women and men who do manly things, but all have the heart of Romeo.
Anyways, was reading the priase that appear in Tropper's books and Tom Perrotta (Little Children, Election) was suggested as another author guys might like. Thus, this was how I picked up Perrotta's debut 1997 novel The Wishbones.
After witnessing the onstage collapse of a 73-year-old singer (right in the middle of his deadpan rendition of Madonna's "Like a Virgin"), 31-year-old Dave Raymond - the lead guitarist in a New Jersey wedding band - starts to feel intimations of his own mortality, and he does the unthinkable. He pops the question to his long-suffering girlfriend, whom he's been dating on and off for 15 years.
The next day, of course, he regrets it.
Thus he spends the rest of the novel trying to figure out how to get out of it, all while helping plan the fall wedding. He also stumbles into an affair with a bridesmaid at a wedding, who turns out to be a poet. Adding to the problems include a band that is slowly self-destructing, with each of its members facing a life changing issues.
While its another in a line of coming-of-age novels, The Wishbones is more original and fresh, with its incisive humor and pop-music riffs. Hilariously funny, it also unpretentious work of pure entertainment.
Anyways, was reading the priase that appear in Tropper's books and Tom Perrotta (Little Children, Election) was suggested as another author guys might like. Thus, this was how I picked up Perrotta's debut 1997 novel The Wishbones.
After witnessing the onstage collapse of a 73-year-old singer (right in the middle of his deadpan rendition of Madonna's "Like a Virgin"), 31-year-old Dave Raymond - the lead guitarist in a New Jersey wedding band - starts to feel intimations of his own mortality, and he does the unthinkable. He pops the question to his long-suffering girlfriend, whom he's been dating on and off for 15 years.
The next day, of course, he regrets it.
Thus he spends the rest of the novel trying to figure out how to get out of it, all while helping plan the fall wedding. He also stumbles into an affair with a bridesmaid at a wedding, who turns out to be a poet. Adding to the problems include a band that is slowly self-destructing, with each of its members facing a life changing issues.
While its another in a line of coming-of-age novels, The Wishbones is more original and fresh, with its incisive humor and pop-music riffs. Hilariously funny, it also unpretentious work of pure entertainment.
19 March 2010
Spoilers for The Eleventh Hour -Doctor Who's fifth season opener
There's a bushel of spoilers, following on from last night's premiere. Let's see... The opening episode is described as "Independence Day on the village green." The new TARDIS console "looks like it has been constructed from items out of a junk shop, including an old typewriter, a telephone, pressure gauges and a Morse code machine." The first episode's villain is indeed a shape-shifting alien.
Steven Moffat says, "At the end of the last story, the Tardis was exploding, so it rebuilds itself around the new Doctor. And because the Doctor is completely mad, it builds itself around his madness." It has hexagonal and circular "roundlets" built into the concrete and bronze walls, and besides the aforementioned three levels, there's a door leading to other rooms. And the junk on the console includes a gramophone speaker, a petrol pump, dials and pistons. The word "steampunk" is used.
The TARDIS, crashing to Earth in the 1990s, nearly hits Big Ben. The little girl he meets after it crashes is named Amelia Pond, and she asks, "Who are you?", hoping that he's come to fix the crack in her wall. Replies the newly regenerated Doctor, "I'm the Doctor. Don't ask stupid questions and do everything I tell you." His main priority is eating as much food as possible. Then the Doctor vanishes and reappears 12 years later, when Amelia (now Amy) is a kiss-o-gram dressed as a policewoman. And it turns out the crack in the wall that young Amy was worried about was actually a doorway to a prison that held a villain, whose escape leads the Atraxi to declare they'll incinerate all human life. There are just 20 minutes left to save the world. At one point in the first episode, the Doctor actually says, "Who da man?"
For the rough cut of episode one, at least, the show still had the same title sequence, only with a different font and a new logo. Matt Smith says "Geronimo" again, early in the episode. And the story is the weakest part of the first episode, which mostly focuses on the main characters. But it's still a great beginning, with some funny one-liners.
The newly regenerated Doctor's first words to Amy are to demand some food item, that's all he can think about. One character asks Santa to send them something unusual. Amy Pond's handy with a cricket bat. The TARDIS swimming pool and library are mentioned. Some familiar faces, previously seen on the show, make cameos, plus Patrick Moore, who thinks Amy's grandma is a fox. People refer to the Doctor as "raggedy," "magic" and "a disappointment." The Doctor commandeers a laptop to save the world using Twitter (!) and comes across something inappropriate. A fire engine turns into an unconventional rescue vehicle. The Shadow Proclamation is mentioned. The Doctor "bares all" to Amy.
It sounds like Amy doesn't jump into the TARDIS the first time the Doctor asks her to join him — she needs a bit of convincing. (Even though the young Amy was all for it.)
18 March 2010
15 March 2010
When religion is allowed to think
Both of these are real, and not one of those sign generators sites.The top one is shocking and rather stupid. The bottom sort of counter points
the asshattery of the above.
13 March 2010
Corey Haim's death linked to prescription-drug ring
California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said that actor Corey Haim’s death is linked to "illegal and massive prescription-drug ring."
Brown's office is investigating "an unauthorized prescription under the former child star's name that was found during an ongoing investigation of fraudulent prescription-drug pads ordered from a vendor in San Diego."
This announcement comes before the LA coroner has ruled on what exactly killed the 38 year-old actor early in the morning hours of March 10.
"Corey Haim's death is yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of prescription-drug abuse," Brown said. "This problem is increasingly linked to criminal organizations, like the illegal and massive prescription-drug ring under investigation."
Brown told reporters that this ring uses stolen doctor’s identities to order prescription-drug pads to write counterfeit prescriptions. "The doctor whose name is printed on the form is usually unaware that his or her identity has been stolen for this purpose," Brown said. The AG’s announcement did not specify whether any of the prescription drugs found in Haim's apartment after his death were illegally obtained.
Only 11 days before his death, Haim had gotten a prescription filled for the two powerful drugs -most likely Oxycontin, though Brown only linked the drug to the investigation. His primary-care doctor did not know about the prescriptions and called the pharmacy two days later to find out what Haim had been given, a source told CNN.
Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Ed Winter did say, however, several prescription-drug bottles were taken from Haim's apartment, indicating they were for Vicodin, Valium and Soma, although no tests have concluded if that was what they were.
It’s been reported that early autopsy shows Haim's heart was enlarged and he had fluid in his lungs. The coroner's chief investigator said a drug overdose has not been ruled out as the cause of the actor's death, however. Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Ed Winter said. “You can have somebody with an enlarged heart and some other medical conditions, but you don't know if the actual cause of death is from illegal substances, medication or heart failure."
After nearly two-decades of substance abuse, it is possible his heart just gave out. And sadly, it appears his passing comes just as the actor was reviving her career. Now he’s just another reminder of how drug abuse will eventually catch up you.
Brown's office is investigating "an unauthorized prescription under the former child star's name that was found during an ongoing investigation of fraudulent prescription-drug pads ordered from a vendor in San Diego."
This announcement comes before the LA coroner has ruled on what exactly killed the 38 year-old actor early in the morning hours of March 10.
"Corey Haim's death is yet another tragedy linked to the growing problem of prescription-drug abuse," Brown said. "This problem is increasingly linked to criminal organizations, like the illegal and massive prescription-drug ring under investigation."
Brown told reporters that this ring uses stolen doctor’s identities to order prescription-drug pads to write counterfeit prescriptions. "The doctor whose name is printed on the form is usually unaware that his or her identity has been stolen for this purpose," Brown said. The AG’s announcement did not specify whether any of the prescription drugs found in Haim's apartment after his death were illegally obtained.
Only 11 days before his death, Haim had gotten a prescription filled for the two powerful drugs -most likely Oxycontin, though Brown only linked the drug to the investigation. His primary-care doctor did not know about the prescriptions and called the pharmacy two days later to find out what Haim had been given, a source told CNN.
Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Ed Winter did say, however, several prescription-drug bottles were taken from Haim's apartment, indicating they were for Vicodin, Valium and Soma, although no tests have concluded if that was what they were.
It’s been reported that early autopsy shows Haim's heart was enlarged and he had fluid in his lungs. The coroner's chief investigator said a drug overdose has not been ruled out as the cause of the actor's death, however. Los Angeles County Deputy Coroner Ed Winter said. “You can have somebody with an enlarged heart and some other medical conditions, but you don't know if the actual cause of death is from illegal substances, medication or heart failure."
After nearly two-decades of substance abuse, it is possible his heart just gave out. And sadly, it appears his passing comes just as the actor was reviving her career. Now he’s just another reminder of how drug abuse will eventually catch up you.
10 March 2010
Books: Everything Changes by Jonathan Tropper (2006)
After reading Tropper’s fifth novel, This Is Where I Leave You last year and his second tome, The Book of Joe in February, I picked up his third book, Everything Changes, and once again, enjoyed a hilarious often touching tale about love, loss, and the perils of a well-planned life.
To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side. A steady, well-paying job, a rent-free Manhattan apartment, and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancee: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier--and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind.
When Zack's freewheeling, Viagra-popping father resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends, Zack’s life begins to spin out of control. While Norm's overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, he finds something compelling in his father's maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are not what anyone would have wanted: fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his carefully structured life goes spinning out of control.
As with the other two books I’ve read by him, Everything Changes is filled with intelligence and razor sharp wit.
To all appearances, Zachary King is a man with luck on his side. A steady, well-paying job, a rent-free Manhattan apartment, and Hope, his stunning, blue-blooded fiancee: smart, sexy, and completely out of his league. But as the wedding day looms, Zack finds himself haunted by the memory of his best friend, Rael, killed in a car wreck two years earlier--and by his increasingly complicated feelings for Tamara, the beautiful widow Rael left behind.
When Zack's freewheeling, Viagra-popping father resurfaces after a twenty-year absence, looking to make amends, Zack’s life begins to spin out of control. While Norm's overbearing, often outrageous efforts to reestablish ties with his sons infuriate Zack, and yet, he finds something compelling in his father's maniacal determination to transform his own life. Inspired by Norm, Zack boldly attempts to make some changes of his own, and the results are not what anyone would have wanted: fists are flying, his love life is a shambles, and his carefully structured life goes spinning out of control.
As with the other two books I’ve read by him, Everything Changes is filled with intelligence and razor sharp wit.
Corey Haim dies at 38 -why am I not shocked?
Since news broke early this morning that 80's teen star Corey Haim had died at the age of 38 of what will probably be an accidental overdose of drugs, the news outlets have attached the film The Lost Boys as the film some of us would remember him by.
But for me, it was Lucas, the 1986 film written and directed by David Seltzer -his one and only film I can even care about. While the film is predictable -with its end of film football game, its nerdy kid that you know will be beat up again and again - its still a charming due mainly to Haim's performance, along with it supporting cast of Hollywood stars just starting out, like Charlie Sheen, and in their film debuts, Jeremy Piven, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Winona Ryder.
Film critic Roger Ebert even gave the film 4 stars, calling Lucas a film "about teenagers who are looking how to be good with each other, to care, and not simply to be filled with egotism, lust and selfishness, which is all most Hollywood movies think teenagers can experience".
While Haim went onto some moderate success with The Lost Boys, Silver Bullet and other dopey films such as Dream a Little Dream, License to Drive and Watchers (plus a slew of made-for-video craptaculars), along with a stint as a reality star with frequent co-star Corey Feldman on A&E, he appeared to reach his potential with that film.
From his late teens on, Haim went on to have a very public battle with alcohol and drugs, which ruined his good looks and destroyed his realtionship with Feldman (who also had the same battle, but able to get over his addictions) and Hollywood.
While his death is sad, and maybe another odd commentary on how Hollywood eats and spits out the young like Pez, I also still remain surprised Haim actually lived well into his 30's.
But for me, it was Lucas, the 1986 film written and directed by David Seltzer -his one and only film I can even care about. While the film is predictable -with its end of film football game, its nerdy kid that you know will be beat up again and again - its still a charming due mainly to Haim's performance, along with it supporting cast of Hollywood stars just starting out, like Charlie Sheen, and in their film debuts, Jeremy Piven, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Winona Ryder.
Film critic Roger Ebert even gave the film 4 stars, calling Lucas a film "about teenagers who are looking how to be good with each other, to care, and not simply to be filled with egotism, lust and selfishness, which is all most Hollywood movies think teenagers can experience".
While Haim went onto some moderate success with The Lost Boys, Silver Bullet and other dopey films such as Dream a Little Dream, License to Drive and Watchers (plus a slew of made-for-video craptaculars), along with a stint as a reality star with frequent co-star Corey Feldman on A&E, he appeared to reach his potential with that film.
From his late teens on, Haim went on to have a very public battle with alcohol and drugs, which ruined his good looks and destroyed his realtionship with Feldman (who also had the same battle, but able to get over his addictions) and Hollywood.
While his death is sad, and maybe another odd commentary on how Hollywood eats and spits out the young like Pez, I also still remain surprised Haim actually lived well into his 30's.
03 March 2010
Black Thursday at Borders II: Electric Screw You
Borders plans to eliminate more front-line workers on Thursday, March 4. The only thing is how many -rumors suggest its only another supervisor position -leaving a GM and two other supervisors. Others suggest all full-time staff members will be gone, though this is probably not logical. If only because most stores have no one to replace them with.
If the the layoff of another supervisor does happen, this means a GM will have to work a ton of extra hours. And think about this, if this is also true, it means that no one, even a GM can ever take any vacation time. And if one supervisor call out, a GM could put in a 14 plus hour day.
Where is the logic in this?
This is how Borders re-engages with its customers, by cutting staff?
If the the layoff of another supervisor does happen, this means a GM will have to work a ton of extra hours. And think about this, if this is also true, it means that no one, even a GM can ever take any vacation time. And if one supervisor call out, a GM could put in a 14 plus hour day.
Where is the logic in this?
This is how Borders re-engages with its customers, by cutting staff?
01 March 2010
Fifth season of Doctor Who spoilers
From darkhorizon.com
In a press release BBC America has announced that the new season of the British sci-fi series "Doctor Who", with Matt Smith taking over as the eleventh incarnation of The Doctor and Steven Moffat becoming the series show runner, will have its U.S. premiere on the cable broadcaster starting April 17th.
The date means episodes will air two weeks behind the UK broadcasts which look to be kicking off April 3rd (not yet confirmed though). That gap may shrink later in the season due to factors like the Eurovision Song Contest and the World Cup affecting the UK broadcast dates.
Many responses to the recent 3D trailer indicated concern over the series becoming too young-skewed and "Twilight"-esque with yet another romance between the new Doctor and companion. A huge amount of what appear to be leaked story details over on Gallifrey Base however would seem to indicate quite the opposite.
RUMORS AHEAD - SPOILERS AHEAD
In the first episode The Doctor's new companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) has a fiance, Rory Williams (played by "Little Dorritt" star Arthur Darvill), who will become a regular second companion in the second half of the season. It looks as if Rory comes onboard the TARDIS from the sixth episode, the Venice-set vampire story, and stays onboard for at least three further episodes. The Doctor apparently jumps out of a cake at Rory's stag night/bachelor party in one episode.
As previously reported Alex Kingston's Professor River Song character from the fourth season "Silence in the Library" two-parter will appear in the fourth and fifth episode of the new season - the two-parter involving the return of the Weeping Angels from "Blink". Moffat has said in interviews we'll see different and far more powerful kinds of Angels in these episodes as the ones from "Blink" were 'scavengers' and nowhere near the 'height of their power'.
Kingston will also return for the season's two-part finale which looks like it will be partly set in a museum of history and revolve around an object or creature called the 'Pandorica' which many across history have been pursuing including the Sontarans and possibly both the Daleks and the Cybermen. Roman soliders and Stonehenge are confirmed to be figuring into the story somehow.
The first embers of Song's future relationship with The Doctor will likely be laid out this season which should be an interesting mix on screen (Matt Smith is 27, Alex Kingston is 47). Richard Curtis' episode about Vincent Van Gogh (Tony Curran) will apparently have less scenes than an average episode as it's a talk-driven possible bottle episode (ala "Midnight," "Fear Her") albeit set mostly in 1880's Paris. Bill Nighy's guest spot as the Musee D’Orsay's curator Dr. Black will have the actor dressed in some "similar fashion choices" to The Doctor himself.
We may see an aerial dogfight between a spitfire plane and a Dalek saucer in the third episode entitled "Victory of the Daleks" which Mark Gatiss has penned. That WW2-set episode has a scientist using Ironclads (Daleks who don't seem to remember what they are) to help Winston Churchill (Ian McNeice) win the war against the Nazis.
The two-part Silurian episodes are said to have a female member of the prehistoric reptilian race romantically falling for The Doctor. That story, set in a future where global warming has had a major impact, has the creatures cannibalising bodies from graves. Events of the Third Doctor story "The Silurians" are apparently directly referenced, but it's explicitly stated that these are different kinds of creatures (which explains the visual discrepancy of no third eye).
Finally, due to the production shooting episodes out of order, filming is currently underway on the seventh episode of the series penned by Simon Nye ("Men Behaving Badly"). Gillan has been spotted on-set with a baby bump, though an insider tells The Sun it's for a dream sequence.
25 February 2010
Body of actor Andrew Koenig found in park
In what can be only described as a family's worst fears, the body of actor Andrew Koenig was discovered today in a Vancouver park. His father, Walter Koenig, who fans know as Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek TV series and motion pictures, confirmed in a press conference Thursday that... "My son took his own life."
A body was reportedly found in Stanley Park, where the Koenigs had reported on Walter's official Web site all week Andrew was last seen. The younger Koenig was suffering from clinical depression, according to the family, and was believed to have turned down a couple of jobs and either sold or gave away many of his possessions before traveling to Toronto, and later Vancouver, which he considered a second home.
May Andrew Koenig find peace in death that eluded him in life.
A body was reportedly found in Stanley Park, where the Koenigs had reported on Walter's official Web site all week Andrew was last seen. The younger Koenig was suffering from clinical depression, according to the family, and was believed to have turned down a couple of jobs and either sold or gave away many of his possessions before traveling to Toronto, and later Vancouver, which he considered a second home.
May Andrew Koenig find peace in death that eluded him in life.
24 February 2010
Andrew Koenig still missing, but police suspect the actor is still in Vancouver
An emotional, unshaven Walter Koenig told a packed press conference that his son Andrew had waged a lifelong battle with mental health issues amid concerns the 41-year-old had stopped taking anti-depression medication.
"We just want to know that you're okay," he said in a direct appeal to his son. "If that means changing your life and just staying here then okay, that's okay … you don't have to come back — just let us know that's your intention."
Vancouver police believes Koenig is still somewhere in the city and has chosen to go offline. According to family, there has been no activity on Koenig's mobile phone or bank card since February 16.
It seems clear now that the former actor was planning this, as he sold what he could of his personal stuff in Venice, California. What was not bought was left for anyone who wanted it. Also, he was going to Vancouver where the Winter Olympics are currently going on. With police overwhelmed with security issues, along with half the world up there, he could easily slip in and simply vanish.
So, was he planning to vanish in Vancouver, a place he was familiar with, having lived there for a time, or was he planning to end his life?
Theoretically, I suppose, if he was planning to kill himself, a body probably would've popped up by now. Still, with so many people around the city, who knows what might go unnoticed.
Koenig, who appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and played The Joker in 2003's Batman: Dead End, had most recently been working on comedy and editing movies with his friend, writer/producer Lance Miccio. Miccio told ABCNews.com that the actor "suffered with depression and "would get down easily."
"He liked to go to Vancouver because it's beautiful and quiet, it's his favorite place in nature," Miccio said. "One of the films we did together, Living the Blues, it's about a manic depressive musician who went to a spot in nature that he loved and took his own life. I'm not saying that's what happened with Andrew, but it has occurred to me."
According to Miccio, Koenig hated being known for his Growing Pains role and Star Trek connection.
"When I introduced him to people, he said, 'Never say my dad's Chekov and never say I played Boner,'" Miccio said. "He didn't want to be known as Boner his whole life. That's something that affected him."
Depression can make people do things such as this, but I still believe that people who do suffer from it still (partially) think rationally. Putting his family through this is not fair.
One hopes there will be a happy ending here.
Where are you Andrew Koenig?
22 February 2010
Actor Andrew Koenig -son of a Star Trek legend - vanishes with out a trace
Andrew Koenig, the son of Star Trek actor Walter Koenig, is missing. The last time Andrew Koenig was seen was on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Andrew Koenig never boarded his flight back to the US, and he hasn't heard from since then.
He was last seen at a bakery in the Stanley Park area of Vancouver.
Andrew is white, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 135 pounds and has shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes.
Andrew Koenig, 41, was working as the video producer on the show "Never Not Funny" as well as doing improv in Los Angeles. Best known as "Boner" from "Growing Pains", Andrew also had a role in "Deep Space Nine", and is a talented actor director, editor and photographer as well as a passionate activist. In 2008, he was arrested at the Rose Bowl while protesting China's part in the genocide in the country of Burma.
This is a serious matter that has Koenig's friends and family gravely concerned. If you have seen him, emailed him or had any contact after the 14th or spent time with him during his stay in Vancouver please call Detective Raymond Payette of the Vancouver PD at 604-717-2534.
Walter received a letter from his son Andrew, which caused his father to grow concerned about his whereabouts because of it's despondent tone. It was also discovered that Andrew sold or gave away a number of his possessions before flying to Canada; and he refused a job two weeks earlier, saying he "wasn't going to work anymore."
Andrew had recently finished shooting a trailer for a feature film that he wanted to direct, and was in Canada visiting friends: first in Toronto and then in Vancouver. Andrew was very comfortable in Vancouver, having lived there for several years after he fell in love with the area while filming an episode of "21 Jump Street". Friends have reported that Andrew told them he felt Vancouver "was his true home".
It is not believed that any specific incident prompted Andrew's disappearance. "I think it’s something that has been a part of his makeup for a long time. There’s no single trauma. There’s no episode. There’s nothing of that nature," says Walter, who added that drugs were not an issue. " "He's trying to get ahead in this business and he's been working at it a long time." "I only want to say he's a really good person, a great humanitarian," Walter said. "Everyone who knew him was very fond of him."
He was last seen at a bakery in the Stanley Park area of Vancouver.
Andrew is white, 5 feet 5 inches tall, 135 pounds and has shoulder length brown hair and brown eyes.
Andrew Koenig, 41, was working as the video producer on the show "Never Not Funny" as well as doing improv in Los Angeles. Best known as "Boner" from "Growing Pains", Andrew also had a role in "Deep Space Nine", and is a talented actor director, editor and photographer as well as a passionate activist. In 2008, he was arrested at the Rose Bowl while protesting China's part in the genocide in the country of Burma.
This is a serious matter that has Koenig's friends and family gravely concerned. If you have seen him, emailed him or had any contact after the 14th or spent time with him during his stay in Vancouver please call Detective Raymond Payette of the Vancouver PD at 604-717-2534.
Walter received a letter from his son Andrew, which caused his father to grow concerned about his whereabouts because of it's despondent tone. It was also discovered that Andrew sold or gave away a number of his possessions before flying to Canada; and he refused a job two weeks earlier, saying he "wasn't going to work anymore."
Andrew had recently finished shooting a trailer for a feature film that he wanted to direct, and was in Canada visiting friends: first in Toronto and then in Vancouver. Andrew was very comfortable in Vancouver, having lived there for several years after he fell in love with the area while filming an episode of "21 Jump Street". Friends have reported that Andrew told them he felt Vancouver "was his true home".
It is not believed that any specific incident prompted Andrew's disappearance. "I think it’s something that has been a part of his makeup for a long time. There’s no single trauma. There’s no episode. There’s nothing of that nature," says Walter, who added that drugs were not an issue. " "He's trying to get ahead in this business and he's been working at it a long time." "I only want to say he's a really good person, a great humanitarian," Walter said. "Everyone who knew him was very fond of him."
20 February 2010
Books: The Lost City of Z by David Grann (2009)
In “The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon,” David Grann tells the story of adventurer, Percy Fawcett, “the last of the great Victorian explorers who ventured into uncharted realms with little more than a machete, a compass and an almost divine sense of purpose.”
Fawcett is just one of many people, who since 1492, have risked life and money in search of legendary lost worlds. And before satellites mapped the planet, the only way to discover what was out there, was to go find it yourself.
But like many during the later half of the 19th and early 20th Century, the desire to explore the world was born out of boredom and not necessarily the fame and fortune that comes with it. Well, at times, but with Percy Fawcett, for him, he was merely hooked on the notion of treasure hunting in general.
Fawcett, a serial writer, kept copious notes of his travels which started in 1906 (a diary entry of Fawcett would provide Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with the idea of his novel The Lost World). With most of the world mapped, the only place that was left, was the mysterious Amazon.
In his travels, Fawcett hears stories, whispers of a long forgotten kingdom. Clues came from everywhere, it seemed, in the customs of Indians, their oral history and legendary tales. Called the City of Z -though it would morph into the classic tale of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold chased after by conquistadors since 1541.
Grann weaves two tales here, one of Fawcett’s search for the City of Z and another of his own obsession with finding out what happened to the adventurer. In between, we sort of get a screwball comedy of Grann -who concedes early in the book that he is not the typical guy to travel into the many dangerous areas of the Amazon, saying he’s “not an explorer or an adventurer. I don’t climb mountains or hunt. I don’t even like to camp. I stand less than 5 feet 9 inches tall and am nearly 40 years old, with a blossoming waistline and thinning black hair.”
A well written look into men’s obsessions and drives some people to risk their lives in search of such things as lost cities. And Fawcett, who with his son and his son’s best friend, vanished in 1925, Grann creates a gripping account of what might’ve happen to him. It does grow tedious at times, something you sort of expect from people who become obsessed with things, but all in all, a wonderful account of an Indiana Jones type of man who went over the hill and never came back.
Fawcett is just one of many people, who since 1492, have risked life and money in search of legendary lost worlds. And before satellites mapped the planet, the only way to discover what was out there, was to go find it yourself.
But like many during the later half of the 19th and early 20th Century, the desire to explore the world was born out of boredom and not necessarily the fame and fortune that comes with it. Well, at times, but with Percy Fawcett, for him, he was merely hooked on the notion of treasure hunting in general.
Fawcett, a serial writer, kept copious notes of his travels which started in 1906 (a diary entry of Fawcett would provide Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with the idea of his novel The Lost World). With most of the world mapped, the only place that was left, was the mysterious Amazon.
In his travels, Fawcett hears stories, whispers of a long forgotten kingdom. Clues came from everywhere, it seemed, in the customs of Indians, their oral history and legendary tales. Called the City of Z -though it would morph into the classic tale of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold chased after by conquistadors since 1541.
Grann weaves two tales here, one of Fawcett’s search for the City of Z and another of his own obsession with finding out what happened to the adventurer. In between, we sort of get a screwball comedy of Grann -who concedes early in the book that he is not the typical guy to travel into the many dangerous areas of the Amazon, saying he’s “not an explorer or an adventurer. I don’t climb mountains or hunt. I don’t even like to camp. I stand less than 5 feet 9 inches tall and am nearly 40 years old, with a blossoming waistline and thinning black hair.”
A well written look into men’s obsessions and drives some people to risk their lives in search of such things as lost cities. And Fawcett, who with his son and his son’s best friend, vanished in 1925, Grann creates a gripping account of what might’ve happen to him. It does grow tedious at times, something you sort of expect from people who become obsessed with things, but all in all, a wonderful account of an Indiana Jones type of man who went over the hill and never came back.
18 February 2010
Borders Rant
Every time a pallet does not get sorted, we lose money.
Every time a book cart goes un-shelved, we lose money.
Every time a section goes un-maintained, we lose money.
Every time we cut hours for staff, we lose money.
These are undeniable facts.
The problem is, AA does not realize this. On second thought, maybe they do. So the question is, do they care or are the executives, like Mike Edwards, just a bunch of smug S.O.B’s who continue to draw an indecent amount of pay while hours are cut on the front line - a variation on while Rome burns, Nero plays the fiddle?
Granted, these guys and gals can claim they went to college, graduated and should get this money. After all, they’ll assert strongly, they have earned this pay. And God knows, just because the company is going down in flames, does not mean they should abandon that principle cut the hours and pay of the “little people.” Besides, everyone should know, that in graduate school, the first rule is that workers will crumble in the face of adversity. Just keep hammering them on the head with more and more restructuring and they will eventually go away.
How many Borders employees on the front line have left the company, these guys, these gals, who are the bread and butter of the customer service AA says we should have. These passionate booksellers, managers, and inventory people have been replaced by people who barely understand who wrote Confederacy of Dunces, let alone suggest a title. Essentially, customers come to our stores because of the knowledgeable employees. But now they can barely find anyone on the floor, and most -a fair high amount based on the five Borders I’ve worked at - still don’t know how to use the computers. And even when they do, they still need someone to help them find the section -Borders has failed for years to create a store that can easily navigated by anyone.
Where is everyone, their eyes seem to plead. Well, you see, we need to pay Mike Edwards his nearly $ 500,000 a year pay -God knows what the other executives are making. So to do that, Borders has cut hours to the bare minimum, all while spouting the business cliche of doing more with less (I have 2.5 million light years of work to do, but given 34 hours a week to do it. Does not take a mathematician to figure out that a lot of work is going unfinished).
They’ve essentially now use mutated mathematics, linear logic and a tight sphincter to further justify the cutting of hours and staff - all while Mike Edwards gets extra compensation for being the interim CEO.
But the DM’s and RM’s don’t want to hear this when they rattle their Ghost chains at you for not meeting sales goals or RPL compliance (or, until recently, Make Titles). They want to hear that the staff is failing, that all the front-line workers are, essentially, at fault here. That had they not sold just one more item, be it a Make title, a rubber ball, or a large coffee, Borders would not be in the position it is now. But what about the poor leadership being shown by the DM’s and the RM’s? They come into the stores like Godzilla, create a giant mess and leave, all while giving nothing in thoughtful leadership or advice -beyond get it done or be fired (or as RM Mike Steel would say, just do what your told and don’t think).
Usually, there is tension between the front-line workers and management. The real schism is now between us and the executives at AA. As I’ve said before, the staff clearly understands that AA is playing a very different game than we are, one with a different set of rules. So its difficult for us to get behind these classic ideals of “we are all in this together,” to get us motivated, to get behind AA’s goals when we know how different the stakes are for meeting those said goals are for staff and AA.
The solution to these problems is rather simple:
Give us realistic hours to achieve realistic goals. How a BSS can reach an end-of-week RPL compliance on such horrible short hours is beyond me.
Give us realistic hours to get pallets sorted and shelved (with time dedicated to making sure sections do not fall out of alpha order, which they have).
Give us qualified GM’s who understand how a bookstore works. Have the DM’s stop hiring buddies, close friends and old co-workers who clearly don’t care and don’t want to know how a bookstore works (hello, Mira Loma).
Hire someone who understands pop culture. Jebus on a pogo stick, we cater to middle age business women for what reason? Take a page from TV and movies: teenagers spend money like its going out of style. Why we’re not creating eye-appealing sections (and the INK thing does not count, as it was a failure from the word go and no one at this time has any understanding of why its there and what it does. So, if I may paraphrase Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, we haven’t gone out of our way to call attention to INK, have we? I mean, like actually telling anybody).
Give us leadership. The essential success of any large company is based on its leadership. Borders have failed to give us anyone with clear understanding of how to run a bookstore. It is not like running any other retail outfit, no matter how much you guys at AA want to believe it is. It’s unique and needs to be treated like that, and not as Target or a Wal Mart.
At the end of the day, most front-line workers still want and love their jobs at Borders. But they don’t want to be treated like dirt, which is happening now. AA has hurt the brand, and we, the general staff, are paying the price for it. By not getting product out in a timely matter (and due mostly to the cut hours), by not maintaining section standards, by forcing unwanted Make Tiltes down the throats of people (cause it’s all about the margins. Where did that get NBC?) we are basically saying to all our customers this:
“Here’s the address and directions to Barnes and Noble down the street. While the staff here cares for your needs, your wants, our people in AA do not. Interim CEO Mike Edwards needs to pay for that nice house in AA, and drive that overpriced, gas guzzling SUV. So here, take this slip of paper, go to B&N. They might not understand what you fully want, but at least you’ll get what you want. Eventually. And maybe, if I’m lucky, a Barista at B&N will die and I can get their position.”
14 February 2010
It's the bubble time on the TeeVee
The Hollywood Reporter, obviously being sadistic to actors, released a list of current tee vee shows that are on the bubble -shows potentially to be axed this May.
Just like when Lost starred back in 2004, all three networks tried to find sci fi shows for 2005-06 season. All of them - ABC ‘s Invasion, NBC’s Surface and CBS’ Threshold - never made it out of their first seasons. ABC, with Lost now ending, gave us two sci fi theme shows for the 2009-10, FlashForward and V. While both shows started strong, ratings dropped fast. While both shows were always designed to have a protracted hiatus due to their serial format, FlashForward seems to in more trouble, as its lost its showrunners twice. Expectations are that V will survive for a second season, if only because its storyline can easily extended.
Despite Heroes huge ratings drop off since season one, the show has always done well overseas -which means its making money. And given any normal year, this expensive show would have been gone. But the whole Jay Leno fiasco has created problems for NBC -they just don’t have enough shows to fill the timeslots. While the chances are good for a fifth season pick-up, expectations are that NBC will order only 12 episodes with the intention of tying up all its plots.
While Medium has done well since CBS picked it up, the show still airs on Friday where scripted shows are just not making any money. But with the Ghost Whisperer still doing good numbers, expect another season for that show. However, Numbers will probably be dropped, if only because its episode number was cut and series star David Krumholtz has been cast in another pilot.
When the CW saw Smallville’s ratings decline, it pushed the show to the death slot on Friday. But it appears Superman is unstoppable. While the show has never regained its early ratings success, it bloomed enough on Friday to give the CW its best ratings ever on that night. Meanwhile, Supernatural continues to play strong as The Vampire Diaries lead-out. And despite its five-year arc wrapping up this May, expectations are that both Smallville and Supernatural will return for season 10 and season six, respectively.
Despite being in a ratings decline since being moved to the very competitive Thursday night (and some might even say, creatively), Fringe, along with Bones, has given the best numbers FOX has had on that night, so expect a renewal.
Finally, Chuck. NBC’s highly popular cult show has never been the huge hit it wanted, but the show stabilized in the ratings, bringing in consistent numbers. Some people in the industry were surprised when the show was picked-up for a third season. But it was only given 13 episodes to prove itself and then scheduled to air in late winter. But like Heroes in some way, its survival can be attributed to NBC having blank slots on their schedule due to the failure of The Jay Leno Show. NBC was forced to return the show early, plus order 6 additional episodes. The show has done well, especially critically, and expectations are the show will be back in the fall.
Shows that have no real chance of survival are Scrubs 2.0, Better Off Ted (which is a personal favorite and could be saved if ABC moves it to Wednesday), The Deep End and Melrose Place, while Mercy, Trauma, The Old Adventures of New Christine, Gary Unmarried, Accidentally on Purpose, Cold Case, Human Target, The Forgotten and even 24 remain too close to call.
Just like when Lost starred back in 2004, all three networks tried to find sci fi shows for 2005-06 season. All of them - ABC ‘s Invasion, NBC’s Surface and CBS’ Threshold - never made it out of their first seasons. ABC, with Lost now ending, gave us two sci fi theme shows for the 2009-10, FlashForward and V. While both shows started strong, ratings dropped fast. While both shows were always designed to have a protracted hiatus due to their serial format, FlashForward seems to in more trouble, as its lost its showrunners twice. Expectations are that V will survive for a second season, if only because its storyline can easily extended.
Despite Heroes huge ratings drop off since season one, the show has always done well overseas -which means its making money. And given any normal year, this expensive show would have been gone. But the whole Jay Leno fiasco has created problems for NBC -they just don’t have enough shows to fill the timeslots. While the chances are good for a fifth season pick-up, expectations are that NBC will order only 12 episodes with the intention of tying up all its plots.
While Medium has done well since CBS picked it up, the show still airs on Friday where scripted shows are just not making any money. But with the Ghost Whisperer still doing good numbers, expect another season for that show. However, Numbers will probably be dropped, if only because its episode number was cut and series star David Krumholtz has been cast in another pilot.
When the CW saw Smallville’s ratings decline, it pushed the show to the death slot on Friday. But it appears Superman is unstoppable. While the show has never regained its early ratings success, it bloomed enough on Friday to give the CW its best ratings ever on that night. Meanwhile, Supernatural continues to play strong as The Vampire Diaries lead-out. And despite its five-year arc wrapping up this May, expectations are that both Smallville and Supernatural will return for season 10 and season six, respectively.
Despite being in a ratings decline since being moved to the very competitive Thursday night (and some might even say, creatively), Fringe, along with Bones, has given the best numbers FOX has had on that night, so expect a renewal.
Finally, Chuck. NBC’s highly popular cult show has never been the huge hit it wanted, but the show stabilized in the ratings, bringing in consistent numbers. Some people in the industry were surprised when the show was picked-up for a third season. But it was only given 13 episodes to prove itself and then scheduled to air in late winter. But like Heroes in some way, its survival can be attributed to NBC having blank slots on their schedule due to the failure of The Jay Leno Show. NBC was forced to return the show early, plus order 6 additional episodes. The show has done well, especially critically, and expectations are the show will be back in the fall.
Shows that have no real chance of survival are Scrubs 2.0, Better Off Ted (which is a personal favorite and could be saved if ABC moves it to Wednesday), The Deep End and Melrose Place, while Mercy, Trauma, The Old Adventures of New Christine, Gary Unmarried, Accidentally on Purpose, Cold Case, Human Target, The Forgotten and even 24 remain too close to call.
13 February 2010
Quote of the Day
"I don't really care for [Lady Gaga]. I know everybody think she's really great, and fashion people are happy because she's one of the few girls who will wear a look off the runway. But having grown up with people like Debbie Harry and Alice Cooper and Kiss, I just don't really see anything very original about what she's doing. I don't like her style. I find it to be very violent. She looks like Dolly Parton after a murder." -- Fashion PR powerhouse Kelly Cutrone
Books: Bite Me: A Love Story by Christopher Moore (2010)
Fifteen years after Bloodsucking Fiends (1995) and three years after You Suck: A Love Story (2007), Christopher Moore returns to San Francisco to catch up on the antics of Jody, Tommy, Abby Normal and The Emperor in Bite Me: A Love Story (to be released on March 23, 2010). Set only months after the last book, Abby Normal (who narrates a good chunk of the novel), emergency back-up mistress of the greater Bay Area, along with her manga-haired love monkey, Foo Dog must confront a growing evil taking over the city by the bay.
The city is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet.
With Jody and Tommy “out of the office” (Abby and Foo had them bronzed in the previous novel) she and Foo, along with emo gay boy Jared, must begin to work out a plan to stop Chet, who is becoming more than a cat, as he seems to be able to think like a human. Well, an undead human. Along the way, Chet’s destructive ways (he ate a meter maid) brings back the Animals (Tommy’s crew at the Marina Safeway) and cops Rivera and Cavuto, along with the Emperor of San Francisco.
But it ain’t easy solving all of this, as crew also become’s the target of three vampires who’ve come to clean up the mess Elijah -who sired Jody - created in the first place.
Once again, this novel follows most of Moore’s now patented formula of relationships between men and women that usually gets screwed up (by the guy), snappy dialogue and a lot of self-referential comments. While the plot is not very complex, and I was annoyed that Moore kept Jody and Tommy apart for most of the book, the jokes come fast. Still, as with most of his books, the plot is not normally the reason to read his books (with the exception of Lamb). Got to give it to the author, as he knows away around the four letter words and many ways Abby can describe having sex with her boyfriend.
Fast moving, but not as funny as the previous two, Bite Me: A Love Story is like an old friend, nice to see every once in a while. Oh, and once again, Lily from A Dirty Job has a cameo.
The city is being stalked by a huge shaved vampyre cat named Chet.
With Jody and Tommy “out of the office” (Abby and Foo had them bronzed in the previous novel) she and Foo, along with emo gay boy Jared, must begin to work out a plan to stop Chet, who is becoming more than a cat, as he seems to be able to think like a human. Well, an undead human. Along the way, Chet’s destructive ways (he ate a meter maid) brings back the Animals (Tommy’s crew at the Marina Safeway) and cops Rivera and Cavuto, along with the Emperor of San Francisco.
But it ain’t easy solving all of this, as crew also become’s the target of three vampires who’ve come to clean up the mess Elijah -who sired Jody - created in the first place.
Once again, this novel follows most of Moore’s now patented formula of relationships between men and women that usually gets screwed up (by the guy), snappy dialogue and a lot of self-referential comments. While the plot is not very complex, and I was annoyed that Moore kept Jody and Tommy apart for most of the book, the jokes come fast. Still, as with most of his books, the plot is not normally the reason to read his books (with the exception of Lamb). Got to give it to the author, as he knows away around the four letter words and many ways Abby can describe having sex with her boyfriend.
Fast moving, but not as funny as the previous two, Bite Me: A Love Story is like an old friend, nice to see every once in a while. Oh, and once again, Lily from A Dirty Job has a cameo.
12 February 2010
****DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS********
DON'T READ IF YOU DON"T WANT TO KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently the new season of Doctor Who has spawned a large number of rumors, here are some. Of course, take them with a grain of salt, however, it will be interesting to see how much of this pans out.
We already know the first three episodes are called (05.01) The Eleventh Hour, (05.02) The Beast Below, and (05.03) Victory of the Daleks.(the Doctor battles his legendary bad guys during World War II)
Now comes the titles for the rest (from radiofreeskaro.com):
05.04 Time of the Angels (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.05 Flesh and Stone (Part 2 of 2)
These above episodes feature the return of the Weeping Angels featured in the third season episode Blink. Also, River Song, played by Alex Kingston makes a return to the series.
05.06 The Vampires of Venice by Toby Whithouse (creator of Being Human, and the second season episode School Reunion).
05.07 To be announced by Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly)
05.08 The Ground Beneath Their Feet (Part 1 of 2) by Chris Chidnall (Torchwood)
05.09 Cold Blood (Part 2 of 2)
This 2-part story brings back the classic Who villains the Silurians and the Sea Devils (last seen in the 1984 Fifth Doctor serial Warriors of the Deep)
05.10 Vincent and The Doctor by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Black Adder)
05.11 To be announced by Gareth Roberts (Who episodes Planet of the Dead, The Shakespeare Code, Unicorn and the Wasp, Doomsday, Army of Ghosts)
05.12 The Pandorica Opens (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.13 To be announced
Once again, Alex Kingston returns as River Song for the two-part season finale. This episode was also filmed at Stonehenge.
It’s also rumored that the arc of season five will be played out almost through every episode, with all of them ending on a cliffhanger. Another classic villain, rumored to be the Zygons, are stalking the Doctor.
In DWM #418 Production notes: Steven Moffat reels off a list of hints about the new series at the beginning of Production Notes: "the dread truth behind the fifth door", "the ruins of Razbahan", "the Doctor's mistake in the maze of the dead", "the secret of Aickman Road" and "the choice of the Dream Lord".
At least half of the season will have stories set in the past.
The season opener, The Eleventh Hour, begins in past, with new companion Amy seen as a child. The Doctor then goes into his TARDIS, and comes out years later when Amy is now grown up.
Speaking of the TARDIS, regarding the new iteration of the Doctor’s time machine, Moffat says in DWM #417: "I do think the Peter Cushing police box was absolutely beautiful and I wanted to get it into the show, so ... there is a plot reason for it, I wrote in why it happens."
Apparently the new season of Doctor Who has spawned a large number of rumors, here are some. Of course, take them with a grain of salt, however, it will be interesting to see how much of this pans out.
We already know the first three episodes are called (05.01) The Eleventh Hour, (05.02) The Beast Below, and (05.03) Victory of the Daleks.(the Doctor battles his legendary bad guys during World War II)
Now comes the titles for the rest (from radiofreeskaro.com):
05.04 Time of the Angels (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.05 Flesh and Stone (Part 2 of 2)
These above episodes feature the return of the Weeping Angels featured in the third season episode Blink. Also, River Song, played by Alex Kingston makes a return to the series.
05.06 The Vampires of Venice by Toby Whithouse (creator of Being Human, and the second season episode School Reunion).
05.07 To be announced by Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly)
05.08 The Ground Beneath Their Feet (Part 1 of 2) by Chris Chidnall (Torchwood)
05.09 Cold Blood (Part 2 of 2)
This 2-part story brings back the classic Who villains the Silurians and the Sea Devils (last seen in the 1984 Fifth Doctor serial Warriors of the Deep)
05.10 Vincent and The Doctor by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Black Adder)
05.11 To be announced by Gareth Roberts (Who episodes Planet of the Dead, The Shakespeare Code, Unicorn and the Wasp, Doomsday, Army of Ghosts)
05.12 The Pandorica Opens (Part 1 of 2) by Steven Moffat
05.13 To be announced
Once again, Alex Kingston returns as River Song for the two-part season finale. This episode was also filmed at Stonehenge.
It’s also rumored that the arc of season five will be played out almost through every episode, with all of them ending on a cliffhanger. Another classic villain, rumored to be the Zygons, are stalking the Doctor.
In DWM #418 Production notes: Steven Moffat reels off a list of hints about the new series at the beginning of Production Notes: "the dread truth behind the fifth door", "the ruins of Razbahan", "the Doctor's mistake in the maze of the dead", "the secret of Aickman Road" and "the choice of the Dream Lord".
At least half of the season will have stories set in the past.
The season opener, The Eleventh Hour, begins in past, with new companion Amy seen as a child. The Doctor then goes into his TARDIS, and comes out years later when Amy is now grown up.
Speaking of the TARDIS, regarding the new iteration of the Doctor’s time machine, Moffat says in DWM #417: "I do think the Peter Cushing police box was absolutely beautiful and I wanted to get it into the show, so ... there is a plot reason for it, I wrote in why it happens."
10 February 2010
Someone out to takeover B&N?
Despite financial issues at Borders Group, the number one book retailer, Barnes and Noble, has taken measures to prevent a potential hostile takeover of the company. It started in early 2009 when Ron Burkle, through his investment firm, Yucaipa Companies, began acquiring stock in the company. In January of 2009, they paid $67 million to acquire an 8.3% stake in B&N. Burkle, who’s other holdings is a 42% stake in Source Interlink, which distributes books, magazines and other media products to a wide variety of outlets, including bookstores and newstands believes B&N’s stock is “currently undervalued.” By November, they had upped its stake 16.8% and now have approximately 19% of the outstanding Barnes & Noble common stock which was bought in open market purchases.
In November, B&N -fearing a hostile takeover bid - adopted a shareholder rights plan that will make it extremely difficult for any outsider to get control of the retailer. Also known as a “poison pill,” the rights plan would kick in if “a person or group,” without board approval, acquires 20% or more of B&N's stock. The plan will also go into effect if a person or group already owning 20% or more of B&N stock acquires additional shares without board approval. A poison pill is defined in Wikipedia as when a bidder tries to “obtain control of a company, either by soliciting proxies to get elected to the board or by acquiring a controlling block of shares and using the associated votes to get elected to the board. Once in control of the board, the bidder can determine the target's management.”
Also, according to Wikipedia this “shareholder rights” they adopted will now gives B&N to issue “rights to existing shareholders to acquire a large number of new securities, usually common stock or preferred stock. The new rights typically allow holders (other than a bidder) to convert the right into a large number of common shares if anyone acquires more than a set amount of the target's stock (typically 15%). This dilutes the percentage of the target owned by the bidder, and makes it more expensive to acquire control of the target. This form of poison pill is sometimes called a shareholder rights plan because it provides shareholders (other than the bidder) with rights to buy more stock in the event of a control acquisition.”
Essentially, the goal of this shareholder rights plan is to force Burkle to negotiate with the target's board and not directly with the shareholders.
This has not set well Burkle, who in late January sent a letter to the Barnes & Noble board of directors. In his comments, Burkle was “surprised” at the poison pill initiative because he had spoken to Len Riggio, the chairman and CEO of B&N, prior to his company purchasing the stock and made sure “he understood our views and concerns as an investor.”
“The fact that the Riggio family,” Burkle wrote, “and other Company insiders own over 37% of the outstanding stock, and that over the past 3 years Len was allowed to increase his personal stake by approximately 10% of the outstanding stock (to over 30% of the outstanding shares), in my view shows that the Board and its Chairman endorse two sets of rules: one for the Riggio family, and one for the rest of the Company’s shareholders. I believe the poison pill allows Len and other Company insiders to exert effective control over the shareholder franchise, while at the same time Len has taken a great deal of money off the table by selling his textbook business to the Company, thereby reducing the Company’s liquidity and burdening the Company and its shareholders with significant debt to finance that purchase.”
Burkle believes these new rules has a “coercive effect on the Company’s other shareholders and gives the Riggio family a preclusive advantage in any proxy contest.”
Burkle pointed out in his letter that he was concerned about how the poison pill is applied to Riggo and his family. “Are shares held by Stephen Riggio or Leonard Riggio’s other family members considered ‘excluded shares’ under the poison pill? If that is not the case, then Stephen and Leonard Riggio could collectively own approximately 50% of the outstanding stock without triggering the poison pill. Yet, neither we nor any other shareholder can own more than 20% of the Company’s shares. Please explain the Board’s intended interpretation of the poison pill and any justification for allowing the Riggio family to acquire without triggering the pill up to 50% of the Company’s shares, but to cap all other shareholders at 20%.”
Without any changes or waiver’s, Burkle argues to the Board, that if the Riggio family is allowed to acquire more stock, it would “create a near insurmountable barrier to us (or any other non-Riggio shareholder) in waging a successful proxy contest.”
And things got a bit more interesting, when it was revealed today that Aletheia Research & Management now owns more than 10 million shares of the retailer, giving it a 17.5% stake in B&N. Aletheia acquired nearly 2 million shares of B&N in the January 21 to January 29 period, paying more than $41 million for the shares. In all, the firm has paid more than $210 million for its B&N stake.
Why Burkle feels the B&N stock is “undervalued” is not clear, as his real intention of acquiring so much of its shares. Is he attempting a hostile takeover, or is just trying to pump up the stock?
I guess to be continued would be the answer here.
In November, B&N -fearing a hostile takeover bid - adopted a shareholder rights plan that will make it extremely difficult for any outsider to get control of the retailer. Also known as a “poison pill,” the rights plan would kick in if “a person or group,” without board approval, acquires 20% or more of B&N's stock. The plan will also go into effect if a person or group already owning 20% or more of B&N stock acquires additional shares without board approval. A poison pill is defined in Wikipedia as when a bidder tries to “obtain control of a company, either by soliciting proxies to get elected to the board or by acquiring a controlling block of shares and using the associated votes to get elected to the board. Once in control of the board, the bidder can determine the target's management.”
Also, according to Wikipedia this “shareholder rights” they adopted will now gives B&N to issue “rights to existing shareholders to acquire a large number of new securities, usually common stock or preferred stock. The new rights typically allow holders (other than a bidder) to convert the right into a large number of common shares if anyone acquires more than a set amount of the target's stock (typically 15%). This dilutes the percentage of the target owned by the bidder, and makes it more expensive to acquire control of the target. This form of poison pill is sometimes called a shareholder rights plan because it provides shareholders (other than the bidder) with rights to buy more stock in the event of a control acquisition.”
Essentially, the goal of this shareholder rights plan is to force Burkle to negotiate with the target's board and not directly with the shareholders.
This has not set well Burkle, who in late January sent a letter to the Barnes & Noble board of directors. In his comments, Burkle was “surprised” at the poison pill initiative because he had spoken to Len Riggio, the chairman and CEO of B&N, prior to his company purchasing the stock and made sure “he understood our views and concerns as an investor.”
“The fact that the Riggio family,” Burkle wrote, “and other Company insiders own over 37% of the outstanding stock, and that over the past 3 years Len was allowed to increase his personal stake by approximately 10% of the outstanding stock (to over 30% of the outstanding shares), in my view shows that the Board and its Chairman endorse two sets of rules: one for the Riggio family, and one for the rest of the Company’s shareholders. I believe the poison pill allows Len and other Company insiders to exert effective control over the shareholder franchise, while at the same time Len has taken a great deal of money off the table by selling his textbook business to the Company, thereby reducing the Company’s liquidity and burdening the Company and its shareholders with significant debt to finance that purchase.”
Burkle believes these new rules has a “coercive effect on the Company’s other shareholders and gives the Riggio family a preclusive advantage in any proxy contest.”
Burkle pointed out in his letter that he was concerned about how the poison pill is applied to Riggo and his family. “Are shares held by Stephen Riggio or Leonard Riggio’s other family members considered ‘excluded shares’ under the poison pill? If that is not the case, then Stephen and Leonard Riggio could collectively own approximately 50% of the outstanding stock without triggering the poison pill. Yet, neither we nor any other shareholder can own more than 20% of the Company’s shares. Please explain the Board’s intended interpretation of the poison pill and any justification for allowing the Riggio family to acquire without triggering the pill up to 50% of the Company’s shares, but to cap all other shareholders at 20%.”
Without any changes or waiver’s, Burkle argues to the Board, that if the Riggio family is allowed to acquire more stock, it would “create a near insurmountable barrier to us (or any other non-Riggio shareholder) in waging a successful proxy contest.”
And things got a bit more interesting, when it was revealed today that Aletheia Research & Management now owns more than 10 million shares of the retailer, giving it a 17.5% stake in B&N. Aletheia acquired nearly 2 million shares of B&N in the January 21 to January 29 period, paying more than $41 million for the shares. In all, the firm has paid more than $210 million for its B&N stake.
Why Burkle feels the B&N stock is “undervalued” is not clear, as his real intention of acquiring so much of its shares. Is he attempting a hostile takeover, or is just trying to pump up the stock?
I guess to be continued would be the answer here.
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