Archive for 'Movies & TV' Category
On the Drift
15 August 2006
Ok, it’s been a while since I’ve geeked out about Firefly/Serenity stuff, but between hanging out with Naomi, Lisa, The Cap’n, and some other Browncoats, and being alerted to the freely available Done the Impossible fan documentary, I’ve been on a kick again lately.
So, I’ve made a supremely geeky purchase: On the Drift, music “inspired” by Firefly and Serenity, performed by the Bedlam Bards. The Bards are “Renfolk” musicians–or in Captain Dummy talk, the sort of guys you might hear at a Renaissance Festival–but are also pretty fervent Browncoats, and have compiled a CD of tracks that are either instrumental elaborations on the Firefly soundtrack, or folk songs about the characters and the Big Damn Show/Movie itself. They were among the fans interviewed in the documentary, and I was interested enough to seek out their music. I came for “Hero of Canton (The Man They Call Jayne)”, stayed for a really beautiful instrumental, “Saffron’s Wedding Dance”, and was sold by “Leaf on the Wind”, a tribute to the late Hoban Washburn.
It’s all a bit rough around the edges, but hey–it’s folk music. Real folk music, in the sense that they’re singing about larger-than-life legends not unlike the original folk, the chanties and Celtic melodies sung hundreds of years ago. In that way, I think these guys really tap into the spirit of the ‘Verse itself: worlds of our past trapped in a future setting.
Oh, and if you’re riding the fence, the Bards will donate a portion of their profit from every CD to Joss Whedon’s favorite charity, Equality Now. So go check them out!
Critics with ‘Staches
20 July 2006So who read about Joel Siegel going all Terets-style during a screening of Clerks 2? Apparently, 40 minutes or so into the film, as the titular clerks are spectating a “donkey show” (apparently some lewd act referenced in Bachelor Party), Joel couldn’t take it any more. He leapt from his seat and made a mad dash for the door, but not before yelling: “Time to go! This is the first movie I’ve walked out of in 30 f***ing years!”
Now granted, despite being otherwise quite enthusiastic about the film, I’ve been more than discouraged by the notion of an act of beastiality–even an off-camera one. And to boot, despite running a fairly well to-do movie review website, I’m not a professional film critic, thus free to act like any other idiot moviegoer. Yet, even if I despised Kevin Smith, and if I abhorred Clerks 2 and insisted on walking out of it (I’m not opposed to walking out), I would have more decency than to interrupt the witty ass-banter playing out on screen.
Amelie Site
19 July 2006In efforts to separate business from pleasure, I’m taking my Amelie shrine off the SP server and hosting it here at Thom’s House. This is the new address:
I was thinking about expanding it a bit… I dunno. Maybe I’ll just clean it up, make it friendlier to visitors with high screen resolutions. Still pretty fond of it, though.