Time Slider

My alarm is set to go off at 5:55 am. I’m usually awake before it ever goes off, anywhere between 10 minutes up to 25 depending on how much I have to go pee.

And let me add that I consider myself someone who can pick up clues and solve riddles. This seemed to fail me today. The story goes that I woke up, looked at the clock. I’m convinced it says 5:35 am. I roll over, and lay on my back, and for about a two minutes I wrestle with whether to stay in bed until 5:55 or get up and pee -my bladder is usually getting ready to burst. I get up, and go to the bathroom. I noticed then the bright sun shining through the living room windows. I sighed, realized it was going to be a hot day. I close the blinds to stop some of the rays from heating up the house so early. I go back to bed and lay there until 5:55 (or so I assumed). I showered, shaved and did the rest of the stuff I do before going to work. At about 6:20, I’m ready to leave.

Through the open kitchen windows I can hear the cars coming to the school I live across from. The students from Summer School are arriving. It was then I noticed ants crawling all over the kitchen counter. So before I left, I had to clean up that mess, which took about 10 minutes.

I then left the house, got in my car and headed out of the alley onto Evergreen and then to the corner of D Street and Evergreen. Traffic is heavy now because of High School kids coming into summer classes. I say to myself, this is why I like to leave early, to avoid this traffic.

Anyways, I get out of this mess and eventually head towards the freeway. All this time, mind you, I’m thinking something is odd, something is out of place. But for some reason, I’m not connecting the dots.

But all of that changes when I get on the East bound 210. The first thing that occurs to me is that the sun is not my eyes. Why is the sun not in my eyes? It’s always in my eyes when I got to work at this time. Why is the sun not in my eyes? I glance down at the clock in the car and realize its 7:35 and not (as it should be) 6:35. I overslept by an hour -or just missed my usual wake up time, considering I never really slept until 6:55.

How did I not realize that I was an hour behind? I had some clues. I mean, besides 47 clocks that decorate this house, the sun beaming into the living room and the kids going to school should have tipped me off that I was not in the right time zone.

How could I not notice that I was exactly one hour behind?

My co-worker Jenn said I probably only paid attention to the minutes and not the hour aspect of the clock, which is pretty true - I have my mornings pretty well timed out on the weekdays.Plus, I think, because it was an exact hour and not some random time, my brain never made the connection.

Work was fine, and instead of working 7-3, I worked 8-4. Still it was weird. Right, it was weird?

Oh, and it was a hot day. 106. Hot. And its suppose to be that way for the rest of the week.

Super. Took summer long enough to get to the LA area.

The Death and Life of Stieg Larsson

Author Stieg Larsson died in 2004 at the age of 50 from a heart attack. A year later, his first novel - up until then, he had written many short stories in the sci fi genre - was published in Sweden in 2005 as Män som hatar kvinnor ("Men who hate women"), published in English in 2008 as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo -coined by his British publishers. The novel went on to win the 2005 Glass Key award, given annually to crime novels by authors who are from Nordic countries; and its follow-up, Flickan som lekte med elden (The Girl Who Played with Fire), received the Best Swedish Crime Novel Award in 2006.

The third novel, Luftslottet som sprängdes (The Girl Who Kicked a Hornets Nest), was released in May here in the States, though like the previous two, were available overseas before then.

Larsson, a journalist by day, wrote all three novels as a way to relax at home. According to Wikipedia, “Larsson was initially a political activist for the Kommunistiska Arbetareförbundet (Communist Workers League), a photographer, and one of Sweden's leading science fiction fans. In politics he was the editor of the Swedish Trotskyist journal Fjärde internationalen. He also wrote regularly for the weekly Internationalen. As a science fiction fan, he was co-editor or editor of several fanzines, including Sfären, FIJAGH! and others; in 1978-1979 he was president of the largest Swedish science fiction fan club, Skandinavisk Förening för Science Fiction (SFSF). He worked as a graphic designer at the largest Swedish news agency, Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå (TT) between 1977 and 1999. Larsson's political convictions, as well as his journalistic experiences, led him to the founding of the Swedish Expo Foundation, similar to the British Searchlight Foundation, established to "counteract the growth of the extreme right and the white power-culture in schools and among young people." He also became the editor of the foundation's magazine, Expo. Larsson quickly became instrumental in documenting and exposing Swedish extreme right and racist organizations; he was an influential debater and lecturer on the subject, reportedly living for years under death threats from his political enemies.”

Since his death his popularity has grown outside his native country, even as his family and former long-time girlfriend battle for control of is ever growing massive estate. Like his novels, which gave an intricate look within Swedish government, its financial life and its dirty little secrets about brutality towards women, his passing has shown the reality of what happens when a will does not exist. Under Swedish law, all of Larsson's estate, including future royalties from book sales, will go to his father and brother. This has put his long-time partner Eva Gabrielsson on the outs with the family, as she claimed in a Vanity Fair article that Larsson had little contact with his father and brother and is now petitioning the right to control his work so it may be presented in the way he would have wanted.

Part of the reason they never married was due to Larsson’s activity in uncovering the unsavory aspects of Swedish life. His life had been threatened and according to Swedish law, when a couple enters into marriage, all their personal history, including home address, become public record. Essentially, marrying would have presented a security risk to both Larsson and Gabrielsson. So, it appeared they were granted some sort of masking of that information so he could continue to his journalistic duties.

Until some sort of agreement can be ironed out, what remains of Larsson’s work will remain in limbo. If, according to claims by Gabrielsson are confirmed, it seems Larsson left about three quarters of a fourth novel on a notebook computer, which is in her possession, along with potential synopses or manuscripts of the fifth and sixth books in the series. It is rumored that the computer could contain enough material for 10 novels. One assumes she wants the ability to find the right author to complete these stories, and earn the monies that come from them.

In the meantime, three Swedish language movies have been made of Larsson’s books, with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo released in limited release (the art house circuit) here in the United States back in March and is now out on DVD. The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked A Hornets Nest will be released later this year.

And because the movie has sub-titles, and average Americans refuse to watch films with sub-titles, Sony Pictures has scooped up the rights to the first three novels and will remake then in English, with the first one that will probably hit the cinemas in late 2011. Rumor suggests that Sony wants David Fincher to helm it. Interestingly Noomi Rapace, who played Lisbeth Salander is not interested in recreating the role for the America remakes. She told Buzzine magazine that she became Salander too much that she was “so influenced by Lisbeth when we were shooting the film. She kept me in some kind of cage when I was her. I was really angry. I sat in a corner drinking coffee and not talking to anyone. I was very asocial and isolated.”

I guess some people don’t want to relive that sort of darkness.

Weekend ramblings

Saturday started like most over since work ended with HFP Productions, with a jaunt over to my local Starbucks (I awoke at 5:30 with a headache. Since I was tired, I grab some aspirin instead of Excedrin, because of that's pills high dose of caffeine and went back to bed. I cat napped for about two hours, but the headache, while reduced, was still there). I had posted a week earlier that I was going to read The Girl Who Played With Fire, but I did not really start it until this Saturday. I'm now over 200 pages into it.

After that, I came home and puttered around the house. Ate lunch, read some more and eventually headed over to Disneyland with my friend Kes. Spent five hours there, having fun.

Yesterday, I again had a headache when I woke up, but this time I was able to get rid of it pretty fast. I spent the morning back at Starbucks, then came home and went to the store to pick up a few things for dinner. Then sat outside the rest of the day watching the people arrive for the fireworks, which take place on the school grounds/park area here in La Verne directly accross the street from me. They started packing Bonita High School parking lot at around four, and as a people watcher, its fun to see the wide variety of people who interact here.

My housemate got home at about 5:30, and he grilled up the hamburgers we had for dinner (I'm a great cook, though I cannot for the life of me cook on the grill). At nine the fireworks started.

It was a nice day, all said and done. The weather here has been perfect, and apparently today was the 18th day in row with below normal temps, and we're in our 7th month straight of below normal temps. So when the high of 82 yesterday and 81 today -when it could be near 100 - I'm not complaining. The heat, however, arrives towards the end of the week. Next weekend we're suppose to hit the mid 90's (though in Palm Springs and Las Vegas, the temps are where they normally are during this time of year). But it's a dry heat, they say.

Watch the skies

Fireworks from my front door

Above is the front of the house

Turn around 180 to the park across the street. In the distance, a rental truck

Zoom in a bit

Zoomed in even further. This is the best part of living here. No driving, no traffic to get caught in.

New Peter Parker, part 2

So, one day after I post another actor had been cast, today Sony turns around an announces some one else. The gits.

"After a comprehensive worldwide casting search, Andrew Garfield has been chosen to portray Peter Parker when Spider-Man swings back onto the screen in 3D on July 3, 2012. The new film will begin production in early December directed by Marc Webb from a screenplay by James Vanderbilt. Laura Ziskin and Avi Arad will produce the film from Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios."

For many Doctor Who fans, Garfield -born in Los Angeles, but raised in the UK - played Frank in the two-part episode Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks.

So, with a good script, and new up and coming lead actor they are still resorting to 3-D? Nice way to say, "We have no confidence our product is worth our time or your money."

New Peter Parker is chosen

It looks like 17 year-old Josh Hutcherson will be the new Spider-Man. According to various sources, including Blue Sky Disney, the actor, who appeared in "Bridge to Terabithia," "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" will now play the High School bound Peter Parker. Look for the official announcement any day now.

Andy Serkis will don the motion capture suit once again, as he'll play Caesar, the chimp who leads a simian insurrection against humanity in 20th Century Fox's "Rise of the Apes," their prequel to "Planet of the Apes."

Two casting rumors that first sprang up the other month have finally been confirmed: Tommy Lee Jones will play US Army Colonel Chester Phillips in "Captain America: The First Avenger" and Jon Tenney has been cast the father of Ryan Reynolds's Hal Jordan character in "Green Lantern".

Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Jude Law, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee, Helen McCrory, Frances de la Tour and Richard Griffiths have all joined the cast of Martin Scorsese's 3D adventure film "Hugo Cabret." The movie, based on Brian Selznick's novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret", is the story of an orphan boy living a secret life in the walls of a Paris train station. He is soon caught up in a magical, mysterious adventure that could put all of his secrets in jeopardy.

Fresh off securing Michael Fassbender as Magneto and getting Alice Eve to play Emma Frost, there's news of yet another casting role for "The X-Men" reboot. Caleb Landry Jones, probably best known from his work as Jimmy Adler on Friday Night Lights, will play the Irish mutant Banshee.

The Week that Was

Semi interesting week here. While work continues to be somewhat of a pain -and I've discovered that I want my GM these days to get mad at me, at least then I know he's alive with passion. I mean, what Borders management lacks (from the GM on up) is any passion for what they do. It's all about tracking sales in every mathematical aspect.

Anyways, after spending most of last weekend trying to call my family in Chicago due the the severe storms that moved through, I did the same again on Wednesday, which was also my mom's 75th birthday. It seems odd to me that she has reached this milestone, though I'm sure she does not feel that way.

Yesterday was the wrap party for Hidden Frontier Productions. As of now, with our fan produced Star Trek series finished (the two-hour movie is due later this year), and the fate of HFP's original production, Frontier Guard, not yet decided, I'm done working there. Anyway, the party was held at our friends house near LAX. Barb and her husband Oz have this great house with a pool and hot tub. While I did not partake in either of the two, I got to see some friends I've not seen in months, like writer Dan Crout and our Scotland pals (and creators of Star Trek: Intrepid fan series), Nick and Lucy Cook in for a visit. It was a blast to be with them.

One of our fans who has since become a good friend, Rick has been here since the prvious weekend. Rick lives in Maryland, and comes here often. Last Saturday we all got together in West Hollywood for a night of drinking and fun times. The above photo is Logan, our server at the bar. Super nice guy, handsome and not shy.

Anyways, today Rick and I ventured out to Griffith Obsevatory. It's funny in many ways. I've lived here for almost 5 years, and visit the Silverlake area of Los Angeles many times, but I've never been there. Does this happen often, where we wait for visitors before we see the local tourist attractions? And I've yet to see Mt Baldy, which is very close to where I live. And I do want to climb it, but really don't want to do it by myself.

It was nice, an I should go there more often. But like many things in this money tight times, it seem illogical to drive so many miles just to walk around a park.

So the last week of June is here. Half of 2010 is gone and it astounds me thst time is flying so fast. I want to slow it down, I want to live more.

At times, it seems, life can be unfair.

Books: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (2009)

According to Wikipedia, Sarah Waters’ fifth novel, The Little Stranger, started out as a book about the economic changes brought by socialism in postwar Britain. Somewhere along the way, though, it became a ghost story as well.

Set in 1947, the novel is narrated by Doctor Faraday, a middle aged country doctor who is called to Hundreds Hall, an 18th Century estate that has seen its glory days long since past -and, ironically, Faraday’s mother was once a maid in the house. There he becomes involved with the Ayres family, Caroline, her brother Roderick and their mother, along with maid Betty. Faraday, thinking he can help Roderick with his badly healed wounds from World War II, becomes wrapped up in a gothic drama he does not see coming.

This ghost story is stylish and intelligent, and Waters writing abilities prevents the tale from becoming a cliche. Waters also tells a tale about the shift away -more or less- from the class struggle that permeated the centuries before, essential aspects of a these gothic, macabre novels. Here we see the Ayres family trying to stave off the inevitable - the true aspect that during this time period, impressive estates like Hundreds Hall where broken up, either turned into museums or bulldozed into suburbia - but continue to “pride themselves on living like the Brontës out there," someone observes.

The Little Stranger is, in the end, an old fashion ghost story with social commentary thrown in with large doses. Sarah Waters has a deft hand at creating this world, these characters, and her compelling style will make you want to continue reading when you should have longed turned off the light or gone back to work.

Doctor Who: 31.13 The Big Bang

The Big Bang brings Doctor Who’s 5th season (or 31st) to a stunning conclusion, and thus closes out a somewhat uneven year.

When we last left our heroes, the Doctor was trapped in the Pandorica, Amy was dead, and River Song was about to be blown up with the TARDIS. Then, within mere minutes, the Doctor has escaped his imprisonment and we discover Amy is not that dead - and when things shift 1,894 years into the future, who was not surprised to see, when the Pandorica opened in 1996, it contained Amy instead of the Doctor, in what must be the longest pre-credits sequence since the series returned?

Anyways, as with part one, The Big Bang resembles the old RTD era, down to the deus ex machina Moffatt unleashes here, along with the paradoxes and a lot of techobabble. And once again, the Doctor needs to sacrifice himself to save the universe, and as he flies the Pandorica into the heart of the exploding TARDIS, insteading of dying, he finds himself back in his TARDIS and rewinding in time. As the Doctor unwinds through this last season, he sees events which relate to The Lodger. Next he visits the events of Flesh and Stone, revealing that his message to Amy seen in that episode was given by a future Doctor -and one of the first clues the fans got that somehow the Doctor was traveling back through his own time stream. Finally, he arrives in seven-year-old Amelia's house after she waited for him in The Eleventh Hour. It is here, where the episode gets a bit of let down. Much like in the Last of the Time Lords, it seems all it takes to save the Doctor is to speak his name or remember him. Again, this deus ex machina can be forgiven if only because the performances are brilliant. Matt Smith, once thought too young to play the Doctor, really shows why he was chosen to play this role. Yes, he’s young, but behind his eyes, hides an old soul.

Karen Gillan is perhaps her best in this story, as well is Arthur Darvill, who appears to become the first male companion in the TARDIS since Turlough left in TOS. And, I think, this is the first for Doctor Who, by having a married couple travel with the Doctor -even though Rory is a Nestene.

What's most unique about this episode was that the sinister rasping voice that said "Silence will fall" was never explained. Nor was the reason for the TARDIS exploding. For one thing - as some people have suggested - it was too late to introduce a villain, even a classic Who villain like Omega (that rumors earlier in the week thought it might be), so there was no space left in the episode, I guess, to explain any of those things.

So it means season 32 will start with an already established mystery, with a lot of time explain what or who is behind all of it.

Beneath a Spielberg Sky II

My home town once again is under the gun from severe weather tonight. Chicago gets hit with a lot of storms, but this has been the worst outbreak to hit the area in decades.

The E-Reader War has begun

Er...well it began yesterday really. But the groundwork was laid months ago when Apple announced its iPad. And 2 million iPads later, and on the week that the Kobo, an upstart e-reader backed by Borders, shipped to its customers, Barnes & Noble dropped the price of their $259 Nook e-reader to $199. Not to be outdone, Amazon, who was first with an e-reader device, dropped the price of their Kindle from $259 to $189, giving them the cheapest 3G device on the market. Of course, one would be remiss not to note that this is also the week that Apple releases its IOS4, which will bring the iBook format and the IBookstore to the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Also, B&N introduced a $149 Wi-Fi-only version of their Nook.

As noted, Borders got into the fray with Kobo, a $149 e-book reader, and will introduce the Libre e-book Reader Pro for $119 in July. These price ranges, according to consumer research company Boston Consulting, are what the mass audience would be willing to pay for an e-reader. As of now, blocking point for more sales of these devices was that most people thought the price was way out their range -that only well-off and tech savvy people could afford the product. Now with the price dropping to what they call the “sweet spot,” the devices now become accessible to everyday people.

Meanwhile, Borders announced today that people who buy the Kobo will get a $20 gift card and double points on their Reward Card that can be used for future purchases. Also, they announced the availability of an Apple app for the iPhone and iPad and customers who download it will get a free cup of coffee just by showing the app.

So, what we got here is a good old battle between retailers for the cheapest e-reader on the market. And who wins? Well, it looks like the customer, but will that be good in the long run, or is technology developing so fast that the e-reader is already doomed?

One man, Allen Weiner of Gartner, believes the because of the “new tablet technology, reading-only devices have been forced into a race to the bottom. We've only begun to see the price cuts."

E-reader manufacturers were banking on the easy reading ability of the E-Ink technology, which boasts a backlight-free display and reflects light like regular paper does, to make their devices must-have gadgets. But Weiner believes that the iPad will push the e-readers toward obsolescence.

But with tablets, the iPad imitators, eventually hitting the market (just as MP3 players did after the iPod), what will be the long-term fate of reading-only devices, or even the ones that have 3G or Wi-Fi access ability? How many people want multiple devices that can do the same thing?

Weiner also sees that this type of competition, the price of the Nook, Kindle, Kobo and other reading-only devices could to less than $100 by the end of 2010. He feels the “devices just didn't evolve quickly enough. It's possible that this E-Ink tech has had a very short life.”

It's summer, time to go to the beach

Outside

Aftermath

This is what 75 miles per hour winds do to electrical poles. Des Plaines, a suburb near O'Hare airport, was the most damaged area around Chicagoland when storms pushed through the area on Friday afternoon and late Friday evening.

Beneath A Spielberg Sky

On this past Friday, my home town was hit with a one-two punch of severe storms. These images are from the one that hit in late afternoon, with winds packing 75 miles per hour -which is hurricane strength. No one was hurt, including my family, but nearly 500,000 people lost power, which included my family. As of today some 60,000 people still remain without power, which also includes my Mom and Dad and my sister.

Happy Father's Day

While he’s been married to my Mom (this November) for 25 years, I’ve known him collectively for nearly 31 years. I was 17 when I first met him, when my mom, coming out of a nasty, bitter divorce from her second husband started dating him. All of us, my siblings and I, was sort of wary of him. My older sister, me and my younger sister had called my mom’s second husband “dad” because we so wanted one. Our real father was dead, cancer taking him in July 1968 at the age of 33.

But when my moms marriage fell apart in 1979, we all tried to rally around her, and hate the man who screwed her over. And over the years, I grew less resentful of the man who first replaced our father; we’ve seen him at certain family functions over the years. Still, its hard to fathom just what he did and still not remain bitter over it.

But this third man, this nice Italian with three kids of his own, seemed to take a shine to my mother, despite four rebellious kids of her own. Well, only my older brother was rebellious, and was the only one who refused to call my mom’s second husband “dad.” He perused her for nearly six years before she agreed to marry him.

But see, in those six years before, I kind grew to like the man, and my siblings and got along with his three kids, so by the time they did marry in 1985 I knew this one was for keeps. It didn’t hurt that I think he kind of worshiped the ground my mom walked on, even though I felt at times it was silly for him to do that. And, I always thought my mom married Guy because she was getting older, and did not want to spend the rest of her life alone. I know that sounds mean, bitter and stupid, but after all the issues with her second marriage, those thoughts stayed with me.

That was until he had a heart attack. While it was a mild one, he none the less went through bypass surgery. I remember, with the clarity of the day, my stepfather laying on the doctors table at the hospital, my mom hovering like the mother hen she can be, while the doctor explained the situation: a bypass would be mean he would recover completely while a shunt would only prolong things. She stood there, her hand in his, looking at her husband while tears streaming down her cheeks. It was then, that I knew she really, really loved him.

Over the last 25 years, I’ve grown to love this man as a husband to my mother and the father I lost 42 years ago this July. And this man, who does not share a single gene with me or my siblings, has tried (rather successfully) to love all of us nonetheless. And that is great.

So on Father’s Day, I can remind him that while we are genetically not connected, he is my dad. And I think, and I hope, that my real dad would approve. And I have 31 years of fond memories, three step-siblings who I care for (even the one has forsaken his family due to his religious beliefs) and hope that my mom and dad will be together for the rest of their lives.

All my love.

Idiots on a stick

As my co-worker pointed out, our customers are like kids. Insomuch as they don't listen to us.

Had a customer call this week looking for a certain title. It does not matter what it was, though I giver her props for knowing the title and the author (you don't know how many times we get neither, but we're expected to know what they are talking about). What I love about Atlas, our relatively new inventory system, I can show a title anywhere a Borders store carries it. And as it happened, out of 500 plus Borders stores, only 3 stores carried it.

I told this lady, very clearly because I know they don't hear the words I'm telling them, that it's barely carried on the brick and mortar level, and out of the three stores that do carry it, the only California Borders is somewhere in the heart of Los Angeles, like some 60 miles from my store.

Now, there are two Borders within 10 miles of my store, one in Mira Loma and the other in Montclair. Now, just after telling this lady that the book she wanted was essentially not readily available, she says "So, Montclair does not carry it?"

There are times when I just want to hang up, or say some snarky remark when I get this type of behavior from people. But it's a tough job market, so after I rolled my eyes, gathered a deep breath, I re-explained the situation.

No, Montclair does not carry it, only one Borders in California does, and that's 60 miles away. This still seemed to confuse her. But after a moment, where universes crashed together like mashed patotes and peas, she said that was too far to drive.

Yes, I agree. Idiot on a stick.

Anyways, the point is as always, pay attention to what we say. We might not have fancy cars, big homes, graduate papers and what not, but we know our job. We know what we're talking about, we know...things.

It's calls like that, people who probably yell at other people for not listening, that make me worry for our species. But hey, if I was an alien and had to talk to the people I have to talk to on a daily basis, I say it ain't worth landing. Just blow them up.

Former Doctor Who actor Christopher Ecceleston explains -sort of - why he left after one season

After five years, actor Christopher Eccleston revealed the reason he left the revived Doctor Who after only one season.

Well, somewhat.

In an interview with The Sun Newspaper, Eccleston said that he did not enjoy playing the Doctor. While he did not elaborate too much, some fault seems to lie on the doorstop of the BBC itself. It’s been suggested that the Beeb wanted David Tennant all along, but understood the that if the show was to come back -and sold into a much wider audience - it needed a well know, recognizable actor in the role -Eccleston was known in the UK for numerous television appearances, including The Second Coming miniseries, written by new Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies.

But Eccleston suggests that it was the culture of “Doctor Who” made the work not enjoyable.

“I was open-minded but I decided after my experience on the first series that I didn’t want to do any more," he told The Sun newspaper. "I didn’t enjoy the environment and the culture that we, the cast and crew, had to work in. I wasn’t comfortable. I thought 'If I stay in this job, I’m going to have to blind myself to certain things that I thought were wrong.’ And I think it’s more important to be your own man than be successful, so I left."

Still, the BBC did mishandle is departure. At first, it appeared that the star was doing this because he was afraid of typecasting. This eventually turned out to be red herring on the BBC’s part. The BBC was already aware -even before the first episode of the new series aired - that he was not returning, and it was suppose to be a secret. But as history has proven, all it took was one person to spoil it. And even though it was an honest mistake, the BBC was forced to apologize to Eccleston.

“They handled it very badly but they issued an apology and I dropped it,” Eccleston said. “But the most important thing is that I did [the show], not that I left."

Still, one wonders what the BBC was doing, and going to do, with its most successful franchise. Was the fact that Tennant signed so soon after Ecceleston proof that the BBC always wanted him? Was Davies “gaying” up the show? Was it true that he and Billie Piper did not get along?

Unless Ecceleston writes a tell-all book, we may never get a full, detailed explanation of what he means. Still, without his as the Doctor, I don’t think the show would be as popular as it is today. In give props to Tennant, who really made the revived series an international phenomena, but it was Christopher Ecceleston who lead the way.

And for that, Doctor Who fans should be grateful.

Just saying...

that 20 year-old Jeremy Roloff of TLC's Little Big World is kinda twinky like. Though the show paints him sort of directionless. It also appears he's NOT ready to join the real world, and live outside the bubble his parents and the show has created. I'm not saying his Christian upbringing has been bad, but I know some (including wives of family members) who don't know how the real world works due to the sheltered world they grew up in.

Jeremy needs to be ready. And his parents need to push him more. At the end of the day, yes its cool to hang out at the farm or the Diary Queen and have teenage Twilight fan girls swoon over you, but it's not a reason to live.

Blog Changes

So, I discovered that Blogger has added a new design gadget, which enables me to sort re-design the way this blog is laid out. I was never happy with the ones they always offered -they were uninspiring and rather dull, plain and prosaic. And since I'm not good with design in itself, I could never figure out how to create my own and upload it.

I like the black and white design. Which is not to say anything of my personality of any point of view. It's simplicity is what impressed me to use it, I guess.

I also added some more sites to my blog roll, while deleting dead sites. I'm also unsure why Blogger continues to get rid of certain blogs, like Donnie at (1) Famous Like Me and then (2) hip n edgy, while others stay up. His site was never, ever dirty. And his Mug Shot Monday was always a delight.

I'm also considering changing this site over to a book blog (or starting another one dedicated to just books, the book industry and what not). I'm trying to figure out a new title, something that talks about books that generally don't show up on NYT best seller list. There are so many titles that are good, that get missed by the mass audience because factory writers like James Patterson and Nora Roberts prevent them from getting any notice. I mean, publishers like writers who push books out on a yearly basis (Roberts and Patterson push out 5 to 6 books a year). While I love Stephen King, even I know that quality is being sacrificed for quantity.

So, we'll see what I do. In the meantime, I will continue to read as much as possible and try to hope that someone who stumbles onto this site will see a book I've read and reviewed and decided to give it try.

Books: I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells (2009)

It appears that when I Am Not A Serial Killer was released in hardcover, it was displayed in the Young Adult section of the bookstore. Now out in paperback, the novel is actually in the mystery section. Perhaps, though, it should be in the horror section.

The novel is a sort of hybrid of the Dexter books by Jeff Lindsay and the early works of Stephen King (in particular IT), with the added bonus of teen angst and you get this clever, gruesome, yet boldly written story about 15 year-old John Wayne Cleaver.

John has realized he is turning into a sociopath - his therapist knows he is - who spends his days and nights (while not at school) helping out in his family's mortuary. He is also obsessed with serial killers, which disturbs his mother. He has very little emotion or empathy, and frequently has to stop himself from losing control of his inner demon. He has his own set of personal rules that helps keep the monster that is in him at bay.

But when a serial killer begins stalking his home town, John decides he must find out who is doing it, and sets out to discover what exactly is the killer, all while trying not to let the evil that is in him get out.

I can see why this novel was removed from the YA section; while some teens maybe interested in serial killers, I’m guessing this won’t appeal to a mass audience of teens. His loneliness and alienation from his family and the folks around him could help teen readers relate to him, but the novel is also gory and gives great detail of what happens in a mortuary - you get a great discourse in the art of embalming. More than I really cared to know, to be honest.

Still, Dan Wells has created a dark, very satirical voice in the character of John. He speaks bluntly, even though some of its quite dark. He’s chilling and endearing, and you sometimes could not help but feel some sympathy for the boy. Yet, as I finished it, I wondered if I or anyone else should.

Books: How to Talk to a Widower by Jonathan Tropper (2007)

In Jonathan Tropper’s fourth novel How to Talk to a Widower, we meet Doug Parker. Doug is 29 and it’s been just over a year since his wife Hailey (who, by the way, was 11 years older than him) of two years was killed in a plane crash. He has spent that year drinking copious amounts of Jack Daniels, moping around the house in his grubby underwear, and generally pretending that he doesn’t exist. He is pathetic. He is painfully vulnerable. And he is undeniably annoying to the rest of the world who, although they “understand his need to grieve,” feel that it’s time for him to buck up and get his life back in order --- especially in time for his younger sister Debbie’s wedding. And then there’s his late wife’s troubled 16 year-old son to add to his misery.

The problem is that Doug is not ready to move on with his life, but that does not stop his wholly dysfunctional family from stepping in and putting him on the right road. There’s his pill-popping mom, who is odd as can be, his twin sister Claire, who has issues herself - she’s left her boring husband, is a pregnant, has attitude and is a huge potty mouth - and his father, who suffers from bouts of dementia after a stroke a few years earlier.

But its Claire who finally kickstarts Doug’s program for recovery and from where we see how things go from bad to worse, all with hilarious outcomes.

Tropper is brilliant at creating hugely flawed, yet loveable characters who circle around ideal backdrops to explore the human condition.

The book packs some emotional wallop, yet even as tears bubble into your eyes, he makes you laugh at the same time. As an example, early in the novel, Doug learns of his wife’s death and calls Claire. As any good sister does, she immediately gets in the car to see her brother.

She says, “You’re in shock. Okay, I’m in the car.”
Moments later, there was a loud , protracted crashing sound.
“Motherfucker!”
“What was that?”
“I just backed through the garage door.”
“Jesus. You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “The whole damn door came down. I’ll just drive over it.”
“Drive carefully.”
“Whatever. Listen -“ But she forgot that she was on her cordless and not her cell phone, and as soon as she turned out of her driveway she was out of range and the line went dead.

Before he calls Claire, you are weeping because the man has to comprehend the death of his wife, and mere moments later, you are laughing at image of a sister trying to get to her brother.

I love this guy. Sad now that I’ve read everything he’s produced now, but I’ll get over it. Not like I got 30 of 40 books sitting around I have not read.

Quote of the Day

"By the way, if you paid to see ALICE IN WONDERLAND, this is your fault. This probably wouldn't be happening if that film hadn't made over $1 billion."

Merrick over at Ain’t It Cool News on craptacular director Brett Ratner’s comments on how he and Relativity Media are making an edgy, updated (as in closer to the original source material) 3D version of the Brother’s Grimm tale, SNOW WHITE.

Books: Plan B by Jonathan Tropper (2000)

Plan B was Jonathan Tropper’s first novel, released in 2000 and is about 5 friends who graduated from New York University and went out into the world, fresh-faced and full of dreams for the future.

And then they turned 30.

I remember when I turned that age, it was 1992. I had been living in Northern California for almost 2 years, and things were going from good to rotten quickly. Part of the reason was my room mate had left the Bay Area to return to the Midwest to continue what he studied for in college, leaving me alone (well, sort of) in a seemly strange land. Then a return trip to Chicago reenforced the feelings of loneliness. A short time after I returned to California, my grandmother passed, followed a few weeks later of me turning 30. All this angsty stuff eventually led me back to Chicago. Oddly, it was the biggest mistake I could make. It would take me 13 years to get back here, but you all know that.

Anyways, back to Plan B. Ten years have passed since Ben, Lindsey, Chuck, Alison, and Jack left college, but turning thirty shows was never supposed to be like this: Ben's getting a divorce; Lindsey's unemployed; Alison and Chuck seem stuck in ruts of their own making; and Jack is getting more publicity for his cocaine addiction than his multimillion-dollar Hollywood successes.

Tropper delves into the heart of what thirty has represented for all of us, which is usually realizing we are past the age when our parents had us; that your older than the current popular actors, athletes and musicians. And what we hoped for at twenty sometimes does not happen by the time we reach that milestone.

With this debut, Tropper would explore the themes that have become his staple; that life never goes as planned, love is messy and that no matter what, you are growing older, and not, in fact, immortal.

In some ways, however, I’m glad I read some of his later works (starting with This Is Where I Leave You and The Book of Joe, which are stronger novels), as the book relies on too much sentimentality and sitcom one-lines, but it’s a cute comic riff on growing up and learning life, like friendship, will sometimes take its time course correcting your life. But I like this guy a lot, anyways, and will now take How to Talk to a Widower, his 2007 release (and last of his current canon that I’ve read).

At 146 minutes, Sex and the City 2 is...

"...an entirely inappropriate length for what is essentially a home video of gay men playing with giant Barbie dolls."

Lindy West

Books: The Kane Chronicles: Book 1: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

A few days before its release date, I was working at the bookstore when this guy asked me if The Red Pyramid, was going to different that Riordan’s previous five-book series Percy Jackson and The Olympians. I like being honest with my customers, as I’ve never been one to say James Patterson is a marvelous author and should be read by everyone. He’s a hack. Plain and simple.

No, I told him, I sensed with this new series, Riordan was not going to breakout of his well established formula that served Percy Jackson so well - a parent disappears, prompting introductions to ancient characters and travels to otherworldly places. There are to be battles with evil forces and a looming deadline by which the child must complete a mission, lest society descend into chaos. That’s gist of the this book and the gist of Percy Jackson. The question should have been whether it was going to be good as that other series (despite the last book being somewhat of a disappointment with its easy ending).

And to somewhat to my surprise, he’s succeeded with this new book. Instead of one, he’s got two protagonist in this new series, a brother and sister (who are bi-racial, which I found very interesting) who’ve been separated since the death of their mother, Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, while her brother Carter has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.

One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.

Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them--Set--has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe--a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

While I was distracted by the alternate points of view chapters between Sadie and Carter at first (while Riordan has an ear for dialogue, he needs work creating a three dimensional female hero that does not sound like a boy), the book began to flow a bit better as it progressed. Riordan still has a habit of reminding readers the plot of the book every 20 or so pages which gets annoying after a while, and has outside characters explaining things to the kids instead of them figuring it out for themselves (which was what happened a lot on the final Percy Jackson novel), but its still a highly entertaining book for kids and adults. It is by far no Harry Potter, but Rick Riordan has done his homework on myths and legends of Egypt, making it also fun and educational at the same time.

The shadow of Zac Efron forces Beastly out of its release date. Srsly.

Okay, so I’ve heard bizarre reasons for studios pulling films from already announced release dates, but even this one has to raise an eyebrow and a What?

On its Facebook page for the film adaptation of the young adult novel Beastly -in itself, a retelling of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast - CBS Films has pushed back the release date of said film from its original July 30th berth to an undisclosed date.

Why?

Because, apparently, the tween universe might have an early preview of the whole 2012 phenomenon. Okay, maybe not. Still, also opening that day is the Universal Film Charlie St. Cloud starring Zac Efron (who's 15 minutes of fame must be striking at 14). Now Beastly, starring a much hotter Alex Pettyfer, also stars Efron’s High School Musical co-star (and alleged girlfriend) Vanessa Hudgens. Theoretically, both films are geared towards the same demographic audience: tween girls (and probably their mothers). And, apparently, these same theoretical tweens, might face a huge “dilemma” when faced with which movie to see.

Thus came this statement from CBS: "We've been hearing from fans, so we know that having both Zac and Vanessa's movies opening on the same day could be a real dilemma for people, so we are moving Beastly."

Got to admit, it’s a pretty creative, and probably unintentionally hilarious, reason for pulling a film. Still, if Beastly is a bad film (which is the usual reason a film gets pulled), at least CBS got ahead of it and can try to save their investment by either retooling it, holding out for a better position later in the summer, or early fall or just wait until January or February 2011 when people will watch anything.

Too bad that could not work for Sex and the City 2.

Final thoughts on LOST

I’ve become convinced now that last night’s series finale of LOST will leave many people a wondering just what it all meant -especially the “sideways-verse.”

It was never real, and only a creation of a dying Jack.

For me, Jack created the sideways universe in the seconds it took him to die. With what ever mysterious powers he was given when Jacob gave Jack the keys to the Island, I think he used that to bring everyone who survived Oceanic 815 together so all of them could leave this mortal coil whole and not the flawed creatures they were when they crashed on the Island in 2004. But in creating this sideways universe, Jack forgot to take care of himself, which was why he could never quite put all of the coincidences together.

The clue to all of this lies with Christian Shepard. He states that “you made this place so you could find each other," independent of the time at which they died, and move on to "the next phase" together, as in that place time had no meaning -i.e. the sideways universe. So Jack died in 2007, passing on the exact spot he woke up on after the crash (and who could not shed a tear as Vincent came by to make sure he did not die alone?). But before he did, he made sure that everyone -no matter when and where they died (because thanks to Hurley, who was now protector of the Island, is told by Ben that he was a “great number one” while Hurley says Ben was a “great number two.” How long that was is never given, but based on Jacob’s tenure on the Island, it could be hundreds of years)- could be together.

To me, there are not plot holes involving the real and the sideways world. Simple fact is that everything that happened, well...happened. The only thing unreal, was the sideways universe. LOST may have baited and switched a little bit, but at the end of the day, the series was about the people, and not about the plot. All the unanswered questions about the Island, about what it is, what it was, really was unimportant, in a sense it was the classic Hitchcockian McGuffian.

But, as always, its what we leave behind that is the most important. Who we leave, how we lived our lives was more important than any of the Island’s secrets.

CBS "Hawaii Five-0" Fall 2010 Opening Credits

Five Years Later...

On Tuesday of this week, I past a milestone in this blog, five years. It was started mostly because I was bored. In January of 2005, I was let go from USG in Schiller Park, Illinois. By May 18, while getting unemployment and working a few hours at Borders to cover what that was covering, I started to write. It was mostly about nothing, really. My first couple of posts were about Star Trek, rants if you will, about the direction the old franchise was going in.

I also mentioned my worries about not finding a new job, as unemployment would run out in July. Eventually, of course, I would end up moving to California a few months later.

A lot of things have happened here in the past five years, with highlights being my association with Hidden Frontier and Frontier Guard. That would lead to what (hopefully) will lead to working on my friend JayTee and Carlos' first indie film.

What could endanger that, sadly now, is my job with Borders. I'm loosing more and more hours, and our new GM has proven not to be trustworthy (as if anyone of them could be really). Borders is a doomed company, and I need to leave before that company drags whats left of my soul with it.

Borders is erratic, conflicted and disorganized. Every decision is debated, every action is questioned. It lacks harmony, cohesion and greatness. It will be its undoing.

So, as I start year six, my goals are just to live, get a new job and find a partner. Simple goals, really. I just don't know how to do it.

Can anyone help?

The CW announces two new shows, confirms SMALLVILLE to end next May

Mini network The CW only has two new shows for the fall, and they’re giving them support by airing them after the networks two biggest hits.

Monday begins with returning 90210, followed by returning GOSSIP GIRLS.

Tuesday begins with the show that seems un-killable: ONE TREE HILL, followed by LIFE UNEXPECTED.

Wednesday starts with the networks biggest hit, AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL followed by the HELLCATS, produced by SMALLVILLE’s Tom Welling, and is a coming-of-age story about a young, pre-law student who’s world gets flipped upside down when she loses her scholarship, and realizes the only way she can stay in school is by reigniting her dormant teen gymnastic skills to win a place on her school’s legendary cheerleading team, The Hellcats.

Thursday brings back it’s other hit show, THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, which then leads into the second TV incarnation of the motion picture LE FEMME NIKITA, now just called NIKITA, about a deeply troubled girl who was rescued from death row by a secret U.S. agency known only as Division, who then fake her death and tell her she's been given a second chance to start a new life and serve her country. What they didn’t tell her was that she was being trained as a spy and assassin.

Friday starts with the 10th and final season of SMALLVILLE, followed by season six of SUPERNATURAL with its new direction after its five year arc completed this May.

Only two shows have been announced for midseason, and both are reality programs. Expect some more down the line.

Canceled shows include: MELROSE PLACE, THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE, FLY GIRLS and HIGH SOCIETY.

CBS unveils 5 new shows, cancels a bunch of others

After CBS announced the cancellations of a number of veteran shows, including GHOST WHISPERER, COLD CASE, NUMB3RS, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE, and GARY UNMARRIED along with a few 1st season shows as ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE, THREE RIVERS and MIAMI MEDICAL, the #1 broadcast network unveiled a mere five new shows for 2010-11.

Starting on Sunday, the new CBS schedule looks this way:

Returning shows on that night include 60 MINUTES, AMAZING RACE, UNDERCOVER BOSS and the relocated CSI: MIAMI

Monday brings back the sitcoms HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER, RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, and TWO & HALF MEN. MIKE & MOLLY (from creator Chuck Lorrie) balances out their hit Monday night comedy block. The remake of HAWAII FIVE-O finishes out the first week night.

Tuesday remains stable, with returning shows NCIS, NCIS: LOS ANGELES and THE GOOD WIFE.

Wednesday has the relocated SURVIVOR, followed by returning CRIMINAL MINDS, and Tom Selleck returns to TV with the legal drama THE DEFENDERS.

Thursday launches with the returning BIG BANG THEORY followed by the new sitcom inspired by the popular blog SH*T MY DAD SAYS starring veteran actor William Shatner. The original CSI returns next followed by the returning THE MENTALIST .

Friday was a strong night for CBS, as they continued over the course of the season to win one of the most difficult nights on TV next to Saturdays. Granted they are one of the five networks to offer original programing when the rest have reality or just one hour of scripted shows, still with the cancellation of GHOST WHISPERER some wondered what was up. So, just as last season, the network offers three hours of programming, starting with the returning MEDIUM, followed by the returning CSI: NEW YORK and the lone new drama, a family cop show called BLUE BLOODS.

The only midseason show announced is the CRIMINAL MINDS spin-off that has no title but it does have Oscar winner Forrest Whitaker as its star.

ABC announces 10 new shows, V held for midseason

ABC announces the arrival of 10 planned new shows for the 2010-11 TV season.

Sunday remains stable with returning shows AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS, EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and BROTHERS & SISTERS.

Monday also remains stable, with returning DANCING WITH THE STARS and CASTLE.

Tuesday starts the family superhero series NO ORDINARY FAMILY, followed by the DANCING WITH THE STARS results show. The new pseudo documentary crime drama DETROIT 1-8-7 rounds out the night

Wednesday begins with the returning THE MIDDLE, followed by the new sitcom about sisters called BETTER TOGETHER. The night continues with the returning MODERN FAMILY and COUGAR TOWN. The legal drama THE WHOLE TRUTH winds up the night.

Thursday begins with MY GENERATION, which centers on a group of former Austin-based high school students 10 years after graduation. GREY’S ANATOMY and PRIVATE PRACTICE both return with new seasons.

Friday starts with the new reality series SECRET MILLIONAIRE, followed by the Dana Delany, Jeri Ryan led medical drama BODY OF PROOF. 20/20 rounds out the night.

Midseason additions are the comedies MR. SUNSHINE, starring Matthew Perry, and HAPPY ENDINGS, starring Elisha Cuthbert. OFF THE MAP, is another medical drama from GREY’S ANATOMY creator Shonda Rhimes is also being held in reserve for midseason.

With a surprise pick-up, V will not return until midseason.

Canceled shows include: BETTER OFF TED, THE DEEP END, DEFYING GRAVITY, EASTWICK, FLASHFORWARD, THE FORGOTTEN, THE GOODE FAMILY, HANK, LOST, ROMANTICALLY CHALLENGED, SURVIVING SUBURBIA and UGLY BETTY

Daniel Radcliffe for The Trevor Project

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

A fan producer trailer for the LOST series finale

Books: Drood by Dan Simmons (2009)

After his 2007 long novel The Terror, where author Dan Simmons took on a fictionalized look at what might have happened to the Franklin's lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror between 1845 - 1848, now takes on a fictionalized account of the last five years of Charles Dickens' life told from the view point of Dickens' friend and fellow author Wilkie Collins. The title comes from Dickens' unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

This is a well-researched novel, much like The Terror, which mixes factual biography from the lives of Dickens, Collins, and other literary and historical figures of the Victorian era with a complex plot, complicated even further by an unreliable narrator. Wilkie Collins, perhaps the first writer to pen a book in the genre known today as mystery and suspense, and Charles Dickens are friends first, rivals later, when it comes to writing. And from there, Simmons draws us readers into a deft plot of horror, mystery, drug addiction, and the enigmas of the mind.

The characters come off the page as real now as they were (hopefully) a hundred and fifty years ago. The story begins with the real-life train accident that Dickens was involved with (which also included his secret mistress) in June of 1865, which seems to change his life forever. It continues with Wilkie Collins assumption that the accident caused Dickens to begin a deadly second life, with trips to the underbelly of London, and his obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, and the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies.

Dickens claims its all research for his next novel, but is this mere research leading to something more terrifying?

So with Drood, Simmons (like many authors have tried since Dickens’ death in 1870), explores the unsolved mysteries of the author's last years and also may provide (again, as many have done over the years) the key to Dickens' final, unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood.

It’s a chilling, staggering novel that shows us that there are still powerful writers in the world who can put out an impressive, totally original work of fiction that is also very entertaining.

NBC releases fall schedule

In an untraditional move, NBC has released its fall schedule on Sunday May 16 to the press before the official Upfronts begin on Monday, May 17.

After a disastrous 2009-10 TV season which saw the last place network placing all of its apples into one bag called Jay Leno, it returns for the 2010-11 season with a high amount of scripted programs.

Monday starts off with the returning CHUCK, followed by new shows THE EVENT, a conspiracy thriller that centers around a huge cover-up that even has the President (Blair Underwood) on a need-to-know basis. Meanwhile, as everyman Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) investigates the mysterious disappearance of his fiancee (Sarah Roemer), he stumbles across the truth behind the biggest cover-up in U.S. history. The night concludes with CHASE, a drama about a blonde Texas-based U.S. marshal Annie Frost (Kelli Giddish) and her team who track down fugitives.

Tuesday brings the two-hour edition of THE BIGGEST LOSER followed by the returning PARENTHOOD.

Wednesday starts with UNDERCOVERS, which comes from LOST creator J.J. Abrams and follows the adventures of a retired husband and wife spy team (Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who are suddenly thrust back into their former lives as CIA agents. LAW & ORDER: SVU returns for a new year, while the next series in the franchise, LAW & ORDER: LOS ANGELES begins.

Thursday starts with the returning COMMUNITY, 30 ROCK and THE OFFICE. They’ve added another comedy, OUTSOURCED, about an American transferred to India to supervise his Midwest novelty company’s new call center. The night finishes out with LOVE BITES, which is an hour-long romantic comedy anthology series, along the lines of the classic late 1960s series LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE, but will feature two single-gal recurring characters.

Friday begins with the returning WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?, followed by DATELINE NBC. The one scripted drama returns Jimmy Smits to TV as OUTLAW, which is about a justice who quits The Supreme Court to return to private law practice.

Waiting in the wings for midseason is the superhero drama THE CAPE, and the David E. Kelly lawyer drama HARRY’S LAW starring Oscar winner Kathy Bates. Sitcoms FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, PERFECT COUPLE and THE PAUL REISER SHOW are also waiting for midseason. Both returning shows PARKS & RECREATION and THE APPRENTICE will be back sometime in early 2011.

Canceled shows include: HEROES, KINGS, THE JAY LENO SHOW, LAW & ORDER, THE LISTENER, THE PHILANTHROPIST, SOUTHLAND (which moved to TNT), MERCY and TRAUMA

Tyler Lambert, son of Diff'rent Strokes actress Dana Plato, dies at 25

The dark legacy left by the late 1970s TV series Diff'rent Strokes struck again on May 6 when Tyler Lambert, the only son of Dana Plato, took his own life at the age of 25. Plato married Lambert's father Lanny Lambert in 1984 and gave birth to their son a year later. The couple divorced in 1990, and boys father was given custody of Tyler. The Tulsa, Okla., office of the Chief Medical Examiner confirmed that Lambert died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

Lambert was just 14 when his mother took her own life at age 34 with an overdose of prescription pills on May 8, 1999. Reports from his grandmother indicate that the young man never got over his mother's death.

The woes of the cast have played out over the years as a horrible example of what happens when child actors grow up and can't adapt with their new realities. When Diff'rent Strokes launched in 1978, it was a huge hit, but by 1984 Plato was being written out due to rumors of drugs and wild parties. She appeared nude in playboy in 1989, and starred in a string of B movies. Legal problems came to her in the 1991 when she was arrested for attempting to rob a video store at gunpoint, followed by an arrest for forging a prescription of Valium. She took her own life by overdosing on Vanadom and Vicodin.

Her two co-stars, Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman also faced legal and drug troubles as they grew. Bridges fought drug addiction, though now he is clean and sober with a new book out and tour on the dangers of drugs. Coleman has had well-publicized money problems along with scrapes with the law.

Doctor Who: 05.06: Vampires of Venice

Following from last weeks episode where Amy tried to seduce the Doctor, the Time Lord crashes Rory’s bachelor party and whisks him and Amy off in the TARDIS on a romantic “date” to get their relationship back on course. They arrive in 1580 Venice, but as is with the Doctor, all is not well in the 16th Century. According to some citizens, plague is running rampant, and the city has been placed under quarantine at the order of the city's patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri. Sensing things are wrong, the Doctor investigates Calvierri's palazzo and discovers vampires are running amok in the romantic city of Venice.

There is a lot to like about this episode, as Toby Whithouse’s (who also wrote season two’s School Reunion) script sparkles with great humor, the actors continue to make themselves appealing and the location work (Trogir, Croatia stands in for 16th Century Venice) is absolutely gorgeous.

But I did get a sense of deja vu with story. It resembles, in so many ways, School Reunion, down to the girl being taken to a higher authority to be helped, only to discover its an alien posing as a human. Its that device, the shapeshifting alien, we’ve see many times in Doctor Who, and I’ll venture an opinion that its becoming dull and overused (and beyond that episode, Whithouse used that same idea for an episode of Torchwood).

But beyond that, and a slight comparison to the Doctor/Amy/Rory triangle from season 1 and 2 (sad that neither Karen Gillian and Arthur Darvill have chemistry), I enjoyed the episode, especially the bit of dialogue between Rory and the Doctor in which Rory tells the Doctor that he's dangerous because people want to impress him so, and then the stand-off between the Doctor and Rosanna Calvierri -where she tells the Doctor that her race “saw the silence, and the end of all things...”

As the episode ends, as Rory, Amy and the Doctor get in the TARDIS, everything falls silent. The look on the Doctor’s face seems to indicate he remember’s her words, and he seems a bit unnerved by it.

Doctor Who: Season Five Rumors (SPOLIERS):

Rory, Amy's boyfriend, dies at the end of episode nine, Cold Blood. Amy, apparently, “forgets” Rory ever existed. .

Amy appears also not to remember him during Vincent and The Doctor, the Vincent Van Gogh story, which airs after Cold Blood.

Young Amelia Pond will reappear in the season finale, as she goes to visit the "Anomaly Exhibition" at the National Museum (another hint that there is some paradox going on). And rumor has it all sorts of baddies will turn up, including the Weeping Angels. Also in the finale: Chrissie Cotterill's character from the Van Gogh episode (speculation has it, the Pandoricum is a space where everything that's been swallowed by The Crack goes, and when it's opened, everything spills out).

Despite these paradoxes, Amy and Rory have to marry in the season finale, because time will go boom.

Friends

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?

Random