Serenity Now

Serenity trailer. Buffy and Angel repeats are on all the time ... it's the Firefly DVDs I keep popping in though. (Did you know Giles is on Monarch of the Glen now? The Ripper project may not be dead, he says.) So, yeah, I'm looking forward to the movie. Looks like Summer gets to channel Michelle Yeoh for a bar fight. Good stuff.

Am itching to check out the HHGTTG movie this weekend but we're doing the Rebuild Providence thing tomorrow, followed by Mission of Burma, which means I'll be sleeping 'til noon on Sunday and scrambling to get the usual errands done before crashing early to be to work for 6 o'freaking clock Monday morning.

Getting a KSR Fix

The Next Novel Can't Come Soon Enough
I'll read anything by Kim Stanley Robinson, even a drier than toast admonishment of UC Davis's building plans in his local paper's Op-Ed section.

William Shatner

A1phie over at YOY found this hilarious bit about the shatner. I feel like there ought to be a clever way to tie a lyric from the Wedding Present's "Shatner" into this post but it's just not coming together.

Who Fashion

Tennant wants to sport a kilt. It was good enough for Jamie ...

Next for Eccleston?

According to Dark Horizons, he may be up for Silas (the albino assassin) in "The DaVinci Code." I dunno ... I wouldn't consider that a plum part. Is Creepy Villain that much better a career path?

We Know Who the 10th Doctor Will Be

David Tennant will replace Eccleston after this season. Billie will stay on as Rose. I was thrilled when I learned Eccleston had the job; not knowing a thing yet about Tennant, except that he looks like a cross between Sylvester McCoy and MacAuley Culkin, I am a bit underwhelmed. I suppose I ought to be glad he is, like Eccleston, out of Davies's stable (Tennant is Casanova in the BBC3 series) and grew up a fan of the series. I'll have to see if I can pull an ep or two of Casanova down and see how he handles himself. Part of me wishes they could get Tom Baker out Monarch of the Glen and convince him to have another go.

Deadwood

The characters matched up against their historical inspirations.

Ask Me Tricky Questions

This is an Old Fogey Crypto-Muso Alert ... Mission of Burma are going to be at the Living Room in Providence on Saturday, 4/30. Not interested? Then you'll have to stay just as far from me as me from you.

Wild Animal Crossing

Driving into work this morning two animals darted in front of my car. The second was a wild turkey, of which I see a ton, so that wasn't too exciting, but the first a moment earlier was something I don't think I'd ever seen before. It was like a big ferret. Long, low to the ground, with a long sort of bushy tail, but definitely not a fox. It was dark brown or maybe even black and it moved quick. I've been driving myself crazy trying to think what animal is like a big wild ferret ... mongoose? polecat? People are trying to tell me it might've been an otter, but I've seen otter and this was no otter. Mink maybe? According to Encarta: "Although white-tailed deer are considered Rhode Island’s only large wild animal, moose and black bear occasionally cross the Connecticut and Massachusetts border in the state. Among the smaller animals native to the state are the raccoon, gray squirrel, woodchuck, and muskrat. Skunks, opossums, mink, coyotes, and red foxes are also numerous, as are salamanders, turtles, and snakes." I'm thinking mink.

The Unquiet Dead

Third episode of the new Who is also quite good, I'm happy to report. It may not sound like praise (it is though) but I swear these shows are like Intro to Philosophy class sophmore year with Dr. Bergen (sp?) and a bit of Mr. Abelon thrown in. The writers throw around some ethical dilemmas and let the characters take different tacks at 'em. In the end, the show's not fantastically deep or anything but you can tell the writers and actors take joy in being just a bit smarter and more mischievous than the audience expected; it's infectious fun. And I know some TCers would appreciate the punning, some of which is clever, some truly groanworthy: during a seance the Doctor tells an uncooperative Charles Dickens to stop antagonizing Gwyneth as she tries to contact the cadaver inhabiting aliens, "I prefer a happy medium."

M.E.S. In Long Scarf, Floppy Hat?

The Fall's Mark E. Smith drops an allusion in this Scotsman.com interview to his name being on the short list (years ago) to play the Doctor. "Well, could you see me fighting t'Daleks?" Let's ask Brix.

IVF to the G

Test Tube Gorilla Baby

The End of the World

Second ep of the new Who's got a premise no doubt inspired by the end of the universe party from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: lots of big shot aliens gathering to watch the Earth be consumed by the sun. Nice touch: the purported last human (a 'bitchy trampoline' as Rose calls her) brings an artifact to the party, a jukebox she misidentifies as an iPod. They fire it up and play Soft Cell's "Tainted Love". One of the alien partygoers has a murderous agenda has unleashed some murderous spider-robots and the Doctor's got Rose in a pickle.

The Tardis it turns out has a telepathic translating function which conveniently explains how the Doctor and Rose can communicate wherever they go. Another nice touch: the Doctor is a bit cold-blooded. "Everything has it's time and everything dies," is what he tells Rose as he stands by and lets the last human explode. We also learn that Gallifrey was destroyed in a war and the Doctor is the last of the Time Lords ... a decided break in the continuity quite obviously ripe with time travel paradoxes. Not sure that was a good idea but we'll see how much impact it has going forward.

The next ep will be set in 1860 and apparently involves Charles Dickens and some sort of zombie-ghoulie. Looks more than a little like "Talons of Weng-Chiang." I'm digging the scene.

Back from Spring Training

The missus and I got back from sunny Florida this afternoon. We had a great trip. Saw the Sox play at Brighthouse Field [virtual tour/ Tif and I in the stands]against the Phillies while visiting with family in the Tampa area. My Aunt Linda showed us a painting she's working on for me that I am very psyched and geeked up to receive in the mail shortly. I'll be posting a picture once it comes. Think chimps.

From Tampa, we moved down the Gulf Coast to Sarasota and took in a Cinci v. Minnesota game. We also went to the beach at Siesta Keys while there. Very nice.

From there, we went a little farther south to Fort Meyers and saw the Sox again. Directly from that game we drove across Florida (flat and boring, like northern Ohio and Indiana) to Stuart (just north of West Palm Beach). We were there for a friend's wedding but I got to take in another game at Tradition Field -- Mets vs. Dodgers. I'm pretty sunburnt.

The games were all a blast and I'll be putting some photos up on Flickr after we unpack the camera and memory cards. While we were down there, I caught a matinee of Sin City. It was OK but didn't exactly blow me away. The groom showed us NASA's World Wind program -- easily the coolest satellite imagery tool I've seen so far.

Come back to find that not only do I have a hammerlock on the bragging rights bracket challenge at ESPN ... I stand to pull in some scratch if UNC wins tonight in this pool where my name is misspelled. Go 'Heels!