LONELYPOND PRESENTS

No, I didn’t stop watching TV; I just stopped reviewing it unless it was new + fun (see Warehouse 13 comments in previous posts).

Wizards of Waverly Place deserves their Emmy + the movie rocked.

Have been off iCarly because it’s been too mean + shouty, but watched iHate Techfoots + iCook tonight and enjoyed them. So it’s time to jump back on the iCarly train.

Also saw a True Jackson I hadn’t seen yet — Lulu’s on loan to accounting + True’s science teacher is temping for her…entertaining. True Jackson is always solid ensemble comedy.

Caught Nick’s new show, The Troop, tonight + had a sudden Power Rangers craving (and I don’t even like any of the Power Rangers); The Troop seems to be taking the boring middle mediocre ground between funny and frightening so no sparking of interest.

Jonas is improving — Macy is getting more stuff to do and the Stella - Joe combo is really working.

Warehouse 13 marathon + season finale Tuesday, September 22nd. Big Bang Theory season premiere tomorrow — the boys are back from the North Pole and everyone’s very excited.

Eureka’s been all right — great to see Taggart back, if only briefly. Jaime Paglia’s apparently the only person who can write a good Jo but aside from that season finale tepid.

Watched Adventureland (movie not TV show)…didn’t really enjoy watching people sit around and smoke and not say or do much. Not the movie or the soundtrack I expected. Disappointing + couldn’t really tell if anyone could act.

New shows…haven’t caught Glee and probably won’t. Community looks like fun. The NCIS spinoff looks cool — yes, a little bit of a pun; I’ve always liked LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell. Thinking about putting Boston Legal and Psych on the Netflix queue.

I’ve added another show to the list of ones I watch with the little brother #2 — It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The pre title bits are hard, crazy, brilliant comic gems.

Looking forward to Fame and waiting for some of the summer movies we missed to come to the $2 theatre.

Some fun sites + serious thoughts I’ve run across in my internet ramblings recently.

Benjamin Franklin’s 13 Virtues in a wordle. I like to limit my political controversy + ranting exposure to election periods, but it looks like we’re in for a full four years. So perhaps it’s time to pay attention to some of what the Founding Fathers have left us. I suggest a strong dose of tranquility for everyone. And throw in some tolerance, darn it, even though it’s not listed.

Jimmy Carter is a courageous man and a former president setting a great example for everyone. His suggestion that racism may be part of the irrational healthcare debate is a point to consider. I am very tired of people thinking politics and government is a place to pick sides and behave like ill mannered sports fans.

Fun stuff, as promised: Warehouse 13 — watch, darn it. Here’s a spoiler free review of the last two episodes from the folks at io9. SyFy’s having an all day marathon next Tuesday, September 22nd, starting w/ the pilot at 9 a.m. At least watch Duped at 5 p.m. Incredible directing, solid writing, excellent performances, real suspense and just a touch of disco fun. Claudia is becoming one of my favorite TV characters ever so I’m really hoping she isn’t the quisling. Warehouse 13 has already been picked up for a second season + it would be GREAT if they don’t fall into the Eureka trap and have a complete tonal change for the second go round. I can take some more suspense, but PLEASE leave in the quirk and the fun. And if Claudia actually is developing a minor Myka crush, bonus points.

Here’s a fun commuter trains of thought graphic my friend Denise linked to on Facebook.

And a lovely piece of music for a slightly overcast day that bestows mellow happiness and memories of Fred Astaire.

And because, it’s fun + wacky…introducing a potential new celebrity: The Spork, who may or not get his/her/its own shirt this weekend.

Oh, and I have a bunch of FT links in my head + scattered across my desk that need to be cleared out, but for right now, props to Sarah Hemming for an excellent review of Judgement Day and an interesting interview with Rupert Goold.

Hope to catch up some more on the weekend (+ watch Adventureland, which is sitting in its red NetFlix envelope on top of the TV). The Informant looks funny — Matt Damon earned a spot on my favorite funny movie cameo list with Eurotrip , but I’m saving up for SPX next weekend.

I was writing behind the scene posts, linking to fun FT articles, getting rejected by the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, writing a kick ass Merchant of Venice blurb (yes, I, Michelle Denise Norton, have decided to take on yet another infamous Shakespearean speech. Stayed tuned for round by round updates), buying a shirt, listening to Radio FlashCatFlash, Radio blinkkittylove, searching the web, remembering the 80’s, Twittering, and doing and thinking about a galaxy of other things. Here’s the highlights:

Merchant of Venice blurb for the season brochure (then I stop thinking about it for several months):

Merchant of Venice follows Portia, another of Shakespeare’s inimitable heroines, as she makes her way through an obstacle course of money and marriage. One of Shakespeare’s most misunderstood comedies? Or the cruelest? See for yourself.

An excerpt from my Blink Kitty Love Animator’s Journal:

So many people cite Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, the team at Disney as early animation influences; not me. With Blink Kitty Love, you put Rocky and Bullwinkle, Scooby Doo and Josie and the Pussycats in a blender, press mince and here we are, having a blast + burning a hole in our Wacom tablet.

Read the rest at the Blink Kitty Love blog.

El Tigre won 4 Daytime Emmys…congratulations + to celebrate, here’s a fan made mashup trailer of High School Musical 3 + El Tigre.

FT’s Vanessa Friedman on the fashion industry making itself accessible to the film industry.

Peter Aspden on The Beatles, their digitally remastered back catalogue + a lack of originality in contemporary musical endeavors.

The Herge (creator of Tintin) museum. Read up now; Steven Spielberg + Peter Jackson Tintin movie coming to a theatre near you Christmas 2011.

And I think that’s enough for tonight *yawn*..wait, you must watch Warehouse 13. It’s smart, funny, well acted, sharply written, surprising and suspenseful…yes, many science fiction stories have the same seeds, but W-13 lets them grow in interesting + intricate ways. Last week’s Alice in Wonderland take was amazing — you can probably catch it next Tuesday at 7.

And yes, it would be nice if Claudia turned out to be gay…

And on that note, a shout out to the Outer Alliance (@nicolaz is a member + my source for this) and the GLBT Bookshelf (@yuricon the source for this one); people are banding together to get lgbt speculative fiction + writing out there. Click through if you’re interested in finding out how/why.

Good night; sleep well.

Ok, I’m taking on faith you have those movie stubs to something original — Bandslam, (500) Days of Summer…I’ll let you off the hook if it’s Julie and Julia or District 9, but G.I. Joe, well G.I. Joe is part of the problem — Hollywood’s ADDICTION to remakes.

Tonight I was having a fairly long + involved Twitter conversation w/ @IDOL_HANDS about remakes starting with the news that Todd McFarlane (Mr. I created Spawn and own the world’s most expensive baseball) is planning a remake of The Wizard of Oz with some Ripley/Alien DNA mixed in. And then for a couple of days, the universe has been buzzing (mostly anti — there’s a Twitition against it) about Robert Zemeckis + Disney’s plan to remake The Yellow Submarine. TYS is not my favorite Beatles movie but it is so one of a kind you have to respect it…my favorite Beatles movie is Hard Day’s Night (must buy), one of the best, cleanest + simplest band movies (I’ve mentioned this before).

I think my friends @TheWebFiles sum it up best: “Telegraph of London says “Twitter killing Hollywood movies?” http://bit.ly/5uF1L Solution? Stop making crappy movies.”

I promised FT links…well, Peter Aspden had a column about Twitter but unlike Vanessa Friedman who paid enough attention to know it didn’t suit her, Aspden tweeted 3 times, follows 3 people + thinks that’s education enough to toss off a column about it…oh, and FT editor folks, if someone’s talking about Twitter in an article (this is happening more frequently + I first noticed it w/ The Pet Shop Boys profile), could you include a link to their @ tag. Thank you. @ me at @lonelypond

And another few links — in a non rant fashion — the aforementioned Ms. Friedman on Mad Men and their trousers.

And the aforementioned Mr. Aspden on Brigitte Bardot (he is considerably more informed + interested about Ms. Bardot than Twitter)…this bit made me perk up: ““Bardot is as important an export as Renault automobiles,” observed Simone de Beauvoir in her perceptive 1959 essay “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome”, a welcome reminder of a time when intellectuals were genuinely fascinated by popular culture.”

Simon Schama’s review of Nicholson Baker’s The Anthologist, which indulges/experiments in verse. I will have to get the library to track me down a copy of the book.

And Harry Eyres finally gets Man on Wire.

Have been transferring CDs to iTunes with plans to make a travel playlist for adventure so I must be getting to doing that. Disappointed to not find the Buffy CD where I expected but the pile included Red, Hot and Blue, Aly and AJ’s Into The Rush, all Depeche Mode The Singles Cds, Pet Shop Boys Very, Carmen McRae, Adam Ant’s Antics in The Forbidden Zone + E.C. Scott’s Come Get Your Love. Mix songs from that with what’s already in my library + it should be interesting. I’ll hit you with a mixtape when I’m done.

Good night!

Note: Warehouse 13 fun; good Eureka so far; no, don’t take the Wizards of Waverly place characters’ powers away in the movie (Gayle claims it’s a tease — Dad will keep his + they’ll continue as wizards in training); enjoying The Middleman DVDs + looking forward to a new season of The Big Bang Theory. Now, read a book and go see Bandslam, darn it.

I did mention rant ; )

Liking

Two articles in the local papers about Taming of the Shrew and Theatre Under the Trees. The Dispatch’s does a great job of giving you a sense of what the Theatre Under The Trees experience is like and the Record’s article is a fairly lively overview of the play.

Newest internet finds:

Have been having fun with Shirt.Woot — a new t-shirt for $10 posted each night at 12:01 a.m. They have a Derby every week with new designs — this week’s theme was Tatoo (finalists); it’s a fun and relaxing way to get a look at (and vote for) some cool art. @apelad tipped me to it and his was the Monday shirt.

The Cabonauts starting following me — new web series — and I got to thinking that I might want to find out more about what’s out there. And then The Web Files starting following me, I caught their trailer, I’m a sucker for a good hat and a trenchcoat, I followed back, watched their first interview with Tay Zonday, liked the questions and thought this is a good way to get to know what’s out there…They’re up to 3 episodes so far — Safety Geeks SVI looks like a fun and funny show.

A flash of enthusiasm/inspiration visited and I decided it might be fun to put host Kristyn Burtt in a Blink Kitty Love episode and we exchanged a few e-mails. They are hoping to cover animation at some point, they’re just not sure how. I don’t think Blink Kitty Love is ready for the big time yet, but I am mulling over how to increase your favorite crazy crushing band’s fan base (as well as redesign their website) and it was nice to be taken seriously. So best of luck to The Web Files…I’m looking forward to picking up some tips from your future episodes. And maybe Ms. Burtt and Tammy can go out in their hats + trenchcoats for cupcakes and coffee (yes, in the next episode, Tammy puts on the hat + trenchcoat disguise to find out more about Ty’s girlfriend –TY HAS A GIRLFRIEND??????? Don’t worry, you’ll find out more about it after #tamingshakespeare’s over. Until then, check out your favorite episodes –and drop some redesign comments PLEASE — on the Blink Kitty Love site. Tomorrow (Friday), we do a special Guess or Sneak the 80’s Sax Solos.

And I really enjoyed the Apollo 11 rebroadcast. Thanks and props to John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for the experience. And NASA for joining in on Twitter.

And the Fourth Plinth is still happening. I pop in a couple of times a day — random bits of weirdness and/or mopping. Right now, very energetic guy with a guitar who just turned in his doctoral thesis.

Miss The Big Bang Theory, haven’t really had a chance to watch Eureka — although S.A.R.A.H. is tweeting about TIRDS?, still looking forward to the Wizards movie but can’t catch the first half of the vampire saga as we have SHOWS (very exciting; see articles above), haven’t see the newest Harry Potter yet, annoyed that (500) Days of Summer isn’t in town, a little excited about G.I. Joe, and tired. Don’t forget to pick up your Middleman DVDs next week and take care! I’ll miss you, but SHOWS! Taming of The Shrew rocks a park maybe not near you, but you’ll hear the laughter.

Have a great afternoon — and wish me nice weather.

My new favorite thing about the internet: Kingdom of Loathing.

Fun photos I’ve been posting on Twitter.

Great column on poetry by Harry Eyres.

Sarah Hemming (we can add a thing to 10 Things I Hate About Sarah Hemming) reviews Arcadia.

New iCarly/new True Jackson…fun. Max is always fun; Gayle apparently loves when True tells Dad stories; and I want Max’s car. Now, what was the iCarly episode about — oh, DIngo Studios — great fun to see Sam whapping people with a sweat sock; Gibby always fun, little bit too taking a dig at a Disney/Fox mutant hybrid, but a fair to midrange episode.

Eureka — watched second half of Season 3 first two episodes. First one, airing on July 10th and dealing with Carter’s replacement as sheriff, was rocking with whimsical Eureka goodness. Second one totally tanked, although if you like Jo in a sexy red dress you won’t care that every science fiction show in this and every alternate universe has done that storyline (and many have done it better). So need a tie breaking episode.

And so good night. That should tide you over for awhile. I have an agenda full of sleep, showering and Shakespeare. I like it.