clarkblog

BOW-CHICKA-WOW-WOW

Saw a porn shoot in the park during my lunch break. Sadly, it was just the boring intro part.

RECENT TAKES

Theater: FARRAGUT NORTH
Geffen Playhouse
Beau Willimon's script is strictly West Wing lite, but Chris Pine (Star Trek's new Captain Kirk) commands with a solid stage presence. Girls (and hey, some guys) go for Pine's early underwear scene but stick around for his manic exploration of a sordid and soulless political machinator.

Movie: MOON
Direced by Duncan Jones
Sturdy little sci-fi movie starring Sam Rockwell. No explosions or ray guns or bug-eyed aliens, just a quiet study of human isolation in the vein of 70s films like Silent Running. In an age of increasingly desperate special effects and hyperkinetic editing, Moon is like a little breath of fresh air in an airless void.

Book: COLUMBINE
by Dave Cullen
Do you remember Columbine? If you're like me, you think you do -- and you're deeply mistaken. Almost everything we were told about this school massacre was wrong. This is hands-down the most disturbing book I've read in years. It's a work of true crime that rises above the generally sordid genre to stand alongisde works of art as Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song.

Music: 25 O'CLOCK & PSONIC PSUNSPOT
The Dukes of Stratosphear
In the mid-1980s, members of Brit-pop band XTC found themselves between projects so they ducked into the studio and pretended to be the Dukes, a long-lost psychedelic-rock band from the 1960s. Aided by legendary producer John Leckie (Pink Floyd, Stone Roses), what began as a lark eventually produced some incredibly fun and authentic music. It's sometimes laden with irony and cynicism (this is XTC, after all) but underneath it all is a heartfelt enthusiasm for the trippier side of The Beatles, Beach Boys, Animals, and many other 60s musical legends. These two albums have been freshly remastered with extras such as demo tracks, extensive liner notes & video clips. I'll be blasting this catchy LSD-tinged goodness all summer long.

Movie: THE HURT LOCKER
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
A tense and well-crafted movie about a bomb squad in Iraq and the daily dangers they face, with stunning breakout performances from actors Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie. Despite its Baghdad setting, I wouldn't call this a war film. Mark Boal has written a taut thriller showing us the dangerous if admirable soul of a man who is psychologically addicted to the risks that could one day kill him. Director Bigelow proves (once again) her fierce action chops.

You can watch the opening 8-minute sequence here on Hulu.

FRANTIC ANTICS

Sometimes brash acts of idiocy inspire great works of art.

Zina Saunders

The Searcher

MOVIE POSTER PARADISE

I've spent hours browsing the fantastic vintage B-movie posters found at The Wrong Side of the Art.

Here's but a sampling of the high-rez goodness you'll find there:

VIRTUALITY: GO OR NO-GO?

I hate the holodeck*. Never been a huge fan of TV characters confessing directly to the camera. So why the hell do I love Virtuality, airing Friday at 8 pm on Fox?

Because it’s terrifically smart and engaging sci-fi, which is no surprise given the creative team behind the project. Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) developed this near-future space adventure with one of BSG’s best writers, Michael Taylor. It's a two-hour back-door pilot for a series that may or may not happen -- but once you see how imaginative and eerily it plays, you'll want to let the network know that you'd like to see more.

Simply stated: Moore, Taylor and their assembled team have knocked this one out of the park.

 

Virtuality is the story of the Phaeton, the first interstellar spaceship to leave our solar system. 100 years from now, we’re sending a mission to the Episilon Eridani system to look for a new Earth because the current one is becoming uninhabitable.

The 12-member crew of the Phaeton lives beneath an omnipresent camera system recording their every move. Their daily lives and conflicts. edited into slick segments by the ship's psychologist (James D'Arcy in a nicely manipulative role), are beamed back to the dying Earth as a reality show. Witty ads from a futuristic Fox explain the show’s ad revenue helps underwrite the mission's hefty price tag.

The holodeck stuff comes courtesy of an onboard virtual reality simulator where the crew can relax and retreat from the rigors of their mission. The captain, a stalwart but vulnerable Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, re-enacts Civil War battles. The ship's computer specialist becomes a crime-fighting pop singer in Japan. One childless woman, uncertain if space is the place to further the human race, creates a quietly touching fantasy where she’s pregnant and merely waiting her turn in a doctor's office.

The cast is strong, suitably multi-ethnic and I think they cover just about every sexual orientation. It makes sense they'd be skewed a bit young because it's a loooong journey. The story focuses on last-minute obstacles threatening the mission and a malevolent figure (Jimmi Simpson, easily the creepiest TV character this side of Lost's Michael Emerson) who appears unexpectedly in the virtuality modules.

Virtuality features the most realistic depiction of space travel I've seen in a TV show. The spindly spaceship (which -- thank you! -- rotates to provide gravity) gathers energy to depart our solar system by slingshotting around Neptune and throwing nuclear bombs out the back for propulsion. That's not some magic warp drive -- it's solid science, according to physicists like Michio Kaku, something we could in theory do right now.

The biggest threat to the ship comes not from unlikely cosmic disasters or strings of dense techno-babble, but from a cheap 20-cent fuse that malfunctions. In one terrifying scene, a crew member faces the harsh environment of deep vacuum ... and it ain't pretty.

Virtuality is ably directed by Peter Berg, who deftly handles the multi-format camerawork of this show within a show (and its several virtual worlds). The moody, sometimes unnerving score is by Wendy & Lisa (of Prince fame).

It's important to note that Virtuality, for all its virtues, is not a stand-alone movie. This two-hour pilot sets up many plot/character threads and resolves just a few of them. But the stage is nicely prepped for more adventures to come.

Despite that, Fox hasn't committed to a full series yet. Strong ratings tonight may help convince network brass to give Virtuality a shot. Then again, it's a bad time in cash-stricken TV land and the networks are running scared and blind. It would be a damned shame for Fox to walk away from one of the best pilots they ever produced.

* * * * * * * *

* The holodeck concept – be it on Star Trek or Harsh Realm or, briefly and most unfortunately, Babylon 5 -- always struck me as an easy escape route for lazy storytelling. “We’re bored -- hey, let’s go back to the 1930s and have an adventure!” Yawn.

On a surface level, I never bought the technology because it was never sold to me in a convincing fashion. Here's an example: how can you run a straight mile in a VR simulation when your meat-space is a room only fifty or a hundred feet long? How can you hold or throw or shoot or make love to something that doesn’t exist in real space? There’s got to be at least some lip service paid to deep neural stimulation of the senses -- think of that nice scene in The Matrix where Joe Pantoliano relishes each bite of a steak he knows does not exist.

Yes, that's the sort of damned picky geek I am. I can buy unlikely technologies like artificial gravity or transporters or even silly aliens with turtle shells for foreheads. But I need my VR to feel like it comes from Sears, damn it. I fully acknowledge that's my block, folks, and not necessarily yours.

Virtuality, to its credit, acknowledges some unsettling consequences of this technology. One of the characters is brutally assaulted in her simulation, while two others use the virtual space to conduct an extra-marital affair. In one touching sequence, the paraplegic engineer (played with brooding bravado by Richie Coster) has the use of his legs restored so he can climb mountains.

Later, another crewmember (the hard-edged Clea DuVall) races her bicycle through a surreal, brightly-lit landscape. We cut back to her private quarters to see that she’s donned the VR goggles and is pumping away at a stationery bike. Which is very cool, in my opinion. Virtuality doesn't spend time explaining all the particulars of this technology, but these nice moments promise a realistic exploration of its benefits and pitfalls. That is, if the show gets picked up.

A LITTLE CATCH UP

After a 1+ year absence from blogging, Josh Friedman returns to document his own personal ending of his recently cancelled Fox show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was sometimes uneven, but I enjoyed this show and its cast a helluva lot more than the recent movie Terminator Salvation.

Here's veteran TV writer/creator Vince Gilligan, with spoilers, on the finale of Breaking Bad, the best show currently on TV.

Clarkblog is four years old this month. Posts are less frequent these days not because I'm lacking for things to say but because I'm increasingly focused on projects whose payoffs promise to go beyond a daily visit counter. I'll keep you posted.

CONTAINS SCENES OF KICK-ASS ACTION

This is gymnast Damien Walters and he will rock your damned world. No wires, no CGI, just an athlete who's blending parkour with traditional gymnastics and a cocky "hell, yeah, I can do that" attitude. This guy needs a movie where it's just non-stop chase.

I had to shrink this video down to column-width. Please take four minutes and watch it in full-screen mode.

TEAM PLAYERS

Last Tuesday, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman revealed how they wrote the new Star Trek movie while creating Fox's TV show Fringe and penning the upcoming Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, among other things.

They work hard. It's that simple.

The duo spoke at the Writers Guild Foundation. John August has posted some good notes from the event.

DESIGNING ROOM 101

"In 1946 Observer editor David Astor lent George Orwell a remote Scottish farmhouse in which to write his new book, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It became one of the most significant novels of the 20th century. Here, Robert McCrum tells the compelling story of Orwell's torturous stay on the island where the author, close to death and beset by creative demons, was engaged in a feverish race to finish the book."

Fascinating, inspiring and heartbreaking stuff from the UK Guardian: "The Masterpiece That Killed George Orwell."

POINTERS

 

Lisa Klink points to the amazing Writers on the Verge program at NBC, which will soon be accepting applications.

Kira Snyder gives good tips on how writers should handle the ups and downs of staffing season.

And Kay Reindl looks at the magical machinery of Bad Robot. With Lost, Fringe and the new Star Trek film under his belt, J.J. Abrams' allegiance to genre speaks for itself.

YEAH YEAH YEAHS: "ZERO"

At the 2:40 mark, this aural aberration in the space-time continuum shoots the listener sideways to an alternate 1980s New Wave universe where a sassy Debbie Harry belts out a lost Iggy Pop song with backing from OMD and the Human League, all under the production of Brian Eno.

I want to go to there.

MAKE 'EM LAUGH

Got an original pilot script for a half-hour comedy?

Then enter it in a new contest sponsored by FOX and the New York Television Festival. They're giving away $25K and a development deal. No joke.

TALKING TREK

Over at The House Next Door, Jason Bellamy and Ed Howard have a interesting and spirited conversation about the first six Star Trek films.

I agree that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is the best Trek film. At least, it is until this weekend, maybe.

The comments extend the conversation nicely, but be warned they will probably soon contain spoilers for the J.J. Abrams-directed revamp opening this weekend.

FACEPALM

More classic pix from last month's Tea Party here.

Our forefathers would slap the holy living shit out of these idiots.

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

Some amazing book covers to browse at The Art of Penguin Science Fiction.

 

 

I WOULDA GUESSED CHENEY

LOW-TECH LIFESTYLE

Like most nerds, I crave the latest and highest tech. But do I really need it?

A new blog called Last Year's Model is a reminder to us all that, no, we don't. Most of us will be happier (and more green, with yet more green in our pockets) if we just make do with what we have. A quick inventory happily confirms that my existing gear is very reliable.

• Cell phone: original iPhone I bought used from a friend over a year ago.
• Computer: Mac G5 dual 2.0 MHz tower and Dell flatscreen monitor (both purchased in 2006).
• Laptop: iBook purchased in 2001 (it barely runs but it's there when I need portability).
• iPods: 60 GB iPod (gift from friends) and original Shuffle (3+ years old).
• DVR: TiVo box (2 years old).
• DVD: Philips region-free player (2 years).
• TV: 27-inch Toshiba tube from 1990-something that I bought used.
• Camera: Nikon CoolPix 5700 (from 2002).
• Recorder: Sony MiniDisc recorder/player I won in a contest almost a decade ago.

I use most of this gear every day and it rarely, if ever, lets me down. Over the last year, my tech-related purchases were either peripherals (Bluetooth headset) or blank media (USB flash drive, DVD-Rs, etc). Making this list gives me a sense of satisfaction to counter-balance my tech envy of friends with swank new HD flatscreens and netbooks.

If I'm patient, I'll probably get some good deals when my friends upgrade in a couple of years. Like The Police said: "When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around ..."

BACKSTAGE AT FOX

CHARMING MOTORWAYS

There are some books whose visions will live in my head forever. Among them are the post-apocalyptic urban ferocity of High Rise, the sex and metal eroticism of Crash and the surgically-precise insanity of The Atrocity Exhibition -- all written by J.G Ballard, whose most famous novel, Empire of the Sun, was also his most sedate. His visions even come with their own culturally-penetrating soundtracks courtesy of musicians who found inspiration in his clinical post-mortems of our cold and alienating world.

Over at Ballardian, lots of friends and admirers bid a fond farewell to Ballard, who died this month after a long bout with cancer. I found Michael Moorcock's touching remembrance to be the most revealing portrait of Ballard, who valued and cultivated his privacy.

Here's a great quote from Ballard himself:

I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.

I believe in the non-existence of the past, in the death of the future, and the infinite possibilities of the present.

THE CRAMPS: GARBAGE MAN

"Exhuming the bones of so-called trash culture and rearranging them to fit the punk times, the Cramps explicitly brought life to the late ’50s and ’60s era of exploitation, from B-horror to grindhouse sleaze, and set it to a rock ‘n’ roll beat with just drums and guitars." --  Denise Sullivan @ Crawdaddy

Here's a report from a wake held for Cramps frontman Lux Interior, who died in February. Still can't believe this guy is gone. One of the best performers I ever saw -- and I saw Elvis.