Starfleet Officer Sighting

This guy was spotted by my coworker at the corner of 16th Street and Bryant in San Francisco- I ran over there during my lunch break to snap this photo. I admire this kind of dedication to the uniform! Keep up the good work, Lt. Commander Cash Advance!

More Good Stuff

Here's a pretty lengthy trailer for a film called "Deleted Magic" that shows several outtakes, including parts of the fabled cuts ANH Jabba and ESB's Wampa Room, as well as some on-set dialogue of the masked characters Chewie, Darth and Greedo. Nice.

Luke in a Floppy Hat

Star Wars: ANH cut scenes!

You might be the hottest bush pilot this side of Mos Eisly, but uh, those little Skyhoppers are dangerous! Keep it up, one day, Whammo! You're gonna end up a dark spot on the downside of a canyon wall.

-Biggs Darklighter

As Sure as My Name is Boris Karloff

As a follow up to Mike's Karloff post, I thought it would be prudent to let you all know that the Balboa Theater in San Francisco will be screening a 3-week, 26-film tribute to Boris Karloff starting June 2nd!

For more information and a complete list of the films that they're going to be screening, check out this post on the Classic Horror Film Board.

(And if you're wondering how you can help out, it seems that Boris's Daughter, Sara, is looking for a podium to use at the tribute.)

Karloff? Sidekick?

I recently got to see the original Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. They are of course, awesome, particularly Bride of Frankenstein which is quite an amazingly rich film with lots of pathos, humor, varied look of the locales... the list goes on. And the bride herself, with that final hiss! What the heck was that? I loved it. It was also great to see what made Karloff's Monster such an incredibly compelling and enduring image. The bizarre look of the monster is just the beginning to all the nuances Karloff puts into the role. Just amazing. Check out both and see!



Next I got to see another of Mr. Karloff's monster pictures, The Mummy, which was just fantastic. Karloff speaks with his great voice and creates another amazing, thrilling image with just his face. Check it out!



Yipes! I can't wait to experience more if this movie great's catalogue of work.

Ms Monster Presents: Hel on Ice

Ms. Monster presents: Hel on Ice, every 2nd and 4th Wednesday at 12:30am on San Francisco's Public Access, Channel 29.

Ms. Monster presents: Hel on Ice. Not just a show, but a way of life...er...death! Sit back and let your rigormortis set in, while Ms. Monster and her Monster Melons, Tit and Tat take you on a hilariously wild ride filled with B-movies, shorts, Cartoons, and, as always, puppets and gore! You'll bust out of your stitches, then hunger for your own entrails!

That sounds like my kind of show! I'll be sure to tune in next week*. In the meantime, I'll continue to watch this promo trailer:



Go here to buy the Hel on Ice DVD.

*According to Ms. Monster herself, HEL ON ICE episode "Taste the Wind" airs TONIGHT WED at 12:30AM on Ch 29 - cable SF!

Will Robinson in your Pocket

Apple has finally figured out how to make me poorer in painless $2 increments. Just added to the iTunes Store: Buffy, Firefly, and Lost in Space! (link will launch iTunes)

And of course, Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica and Ghost Hunter are already up there too.

DVD Releases for 5/9/06

A new feature! I'll be posting the weekly DVDs releases that are of interest to me. Enjoy.

In the 1970s, sci-fi television producer Irwin Allen (Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea) returned to cinema to produce what have become the quintessential disaster movies of that era. Three of these movies, The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and the Towering Inferno are being re-released as Special Edition DVDs this week (5/9/06).

Ghibli's Earthsea Trailer

Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli is officially working on an animated adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea novels. And here is the trailer, fresh off of Ghibli's official site. Website Ghibli World has translated the films production blog with this status:

Key animation: 1,201 cuts (97%)
Animation: 942 cuts (76%)
Background painting: 1,034 cuts (84%)

Good news! Lots of other interesting tidits and translations about the film on that site. July 2006 is the proposed release date-can't wait!

J.J. Abrams Confirmed For Star Trek XI

J.J. Abrams has been slated to produce and possibly direct the otherwise shrouded in mystery eleventh Star Trek film. The celebrated producer of TV's Lost and Alias and director of the forthcoming Mission Impossible 3 will also be using his respective writing and producing teams on the project, Paramount effectively cutting out the usual Trek suspects Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. Whether or not this is a good thing remains to be seen. And it is not yet clear whether the much lauded Starfleet Academy prequel to the original series is the idea they are going with. A release date of 2008 has been set. Check the official site for all the details- more news to come!

Han Shot First

Get your wallets ready because, for three-and-a-half months, you'll have the chance to buy the original unaltered Star Wars trillogy on DVD! That's right, for a limited time from September 12th through December 30, Lucasfilm will finally let the fans have what they've been asking for.

In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.

There is still some speculation among friends as to what "unaltered" refers to, but I'm hoping it's the print that I saw at a screening of the trillogy in 1994 prior to the release of the Definitive Edition Laserdisc collection.

This will prove to the younger fans that Han really did shoot first.

Link