Once again I am thwarted in my attempt to post a Ghost Whisperer entry by the fact that I am going to be leaving for a few days. Thursday morning, Singingypsygrrl and I are geting on a plane and heading to Vegas for the weekend. We'll be back on Sunday, but it will be sort of late. I'll try to hop on during the weekend if I can find Internet access out there, but otherwise I'll be back late Sunday or when I wake up on Monday. I apologize for any lateness in editing submissions, but I promise I'll work on them as soon as humanly possible. As for the trip itself, I am going out to meet some friends from various places in the US to watch Joss Whedon's new movie Serenity. It promises to be a great flick with a group of great people in a great town. I can't wait. :) Try to take good care of the place while I'm gone. And if any of you find yourselves in Sin City, we'll be staying at the Stratosphere. So look anywhere else because we won't be there. ;) Have a great weekend everyone! Hurdy gur, -Marc

I had a blog all set to go about the new show Ghost Whisperer, but then Sunday happened and I realized that I had to write about that instead. I'll get to Ms. Love Hewitt, her spectre sub-vocalizations, and her amazing... attributes ere long. But for now I need to tell you about how I met Neil Gaiman. Neil, for those who don't know, is the writer/creator of the "Sandman" series for the Vertigo division of DC Comics. Issue #19 of that series won the World Fantasy Award for best short story. This was the first time a comic book ever (ever) won a literary award. Neil also has written several amazing novels, short stories which you can lose yourself in, a few movie scripts (one of which is about to be produced called Mirrormask), works tirelessly for causes such as the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, and has probably cured cancer in his spare time, but he hasn't bothered telling anyone about it yet. Neil Gaiman is the rock star of literature. I found out some time ago that he would be signing copies of his newest book, Anansi Boys, at a nearby Border's. The event was yesterday (Sunday, 9/25) and began with a reading from the book and a Q&A session which was utterly charming. The first thing he read from the book was the dedication. I usually don't care much about dedications, but I always read them. His dedication to this book, it turns out, was the one I was waiting for... [quote="Neil"]YOU KNOW HOW IT IS. YOU PICK UP A BOOK, flip to the dedication, and find that, once again, the author has dedicated a book to someone else, and not to you. Not this time. Because we haven't yet met/have only a glancing aquaintance/are just crazy about each other/haven't seen each other in much too long/are in some way related/will never meet, but will, I trust, despite that, always think fondly of each other.... This one's for you. With you know what, and you probably know why.

Neil proceeded to tell us all that he was thinking specifically about us as he wrote the book, so if anyone challenges us when we claim that it was dedicated to us, we can tell them that Neil told us it was. The signing itself was too short, but I amazed myself by not stumbling over my words or making a complete idiot of myself. I made a reference to a Tori song, he caught it (Neil and Tori Amos are good friends) and he even threw it back. Brief banter ensued and then he was done signing my books so I moved out of the way for the next person. Usually when I meet celebrities I feel that I am trying to force myself to say something cool and interesting (which inevitably winds up being, "I'm a big fan!") but Neil has a way of making one feel that anything one says is cool and/or interesting. I was totally at ease, and felt like he was someone I'd just run into at a party and who I'd love to spend some time talking to if only we both weren't so busy with other things. Polite, charming, and funny are probably the words I'd choose to describe the encounter. Overall, I was even further wowed by Neil than I had been before. If you have not read any Neil Gaiman work, do so. You will love yourself for picking it up. If you're a comics fan, try Sandman. If you prefer fantasy, pick up Neverwhere (but I recommend seeing the BBC series on DVD first because it came first, and the novel will spoil you for it because the novel is better). If you're a comedy fan, read Good Omens (co-authored with Terry Pratchett). But really, any of his work is excellent. Whether you have read his work or not, the new book is out and looks to be amazing. And how can you pass up that dedication? :) Finally, on an unrelated note, I picked up the novelization of Serenity while I was at the bookstore. Now I'll have to force myself not to read it (or the behind the scenes magazine I picked up a few days ago) before the movie opens on Friday. Wish me luck. ;)

Caught three series premieres last night and one season premiere. Surface (formerly "Fathom") was the night's winner. Really great story, well acted, tense, spooky at times, funny at others, totally had me on the edge of my seat. The effects could have been better in some parts, but I am not uber-picky about that. Aside from that, it was like watching a movie. The feel of the piece reminded me a great deal of The Abyss at times, and I mean that in a good way. Really very few negatives to report about this one. The other two pilots were sitcoms starring alumni of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Kitchen Confidential with Nicholas Brendon and How I Met Your Mother with Alyson Hannigan. Kitchen... was not bad, but it doesn't seem to have really gelled yet. It had the same sort of wacky deadpan feel as The Office, but not yet the same polish. That said, there was a very touching moment at the end of the pilot which really took me by surprise. Could turn into something really good, but I am not certain it will get the chance. Also, the subject matter seems somewhat limiting, but I could be wrong about that. Nick was totally underused in this episode, and I worry that he may get lost in such a large ensemble. Someone tell the execs that this man needs his own show! How I Met... was a lot of fun in a sappy, chick-flick sort of way. For me, it struck just the right note between wacky and sappy, and kept me laughing and smiling throughout. By its nature, the premise is a little limited, but it should be fun to see where they go with the story. Aly was awesome in this, balancing somewhere between "Willow" and her character from American Pie. A real delight. Season opener of Medium was up to the show's usual standards. Solid storytelling, believable characters, and a great cast. All this and a psychic, what's not to like? In short: Surface - Could be the next big thing, if the viewers can find it on the jam-packed Monday schedule. Kitchen Confidential - Fun, but might be too 'Indy' for the mainstream audience and too lowbrow for the Indy crowd. How I Met Your Mother - Terribly sweet, but manages to be quite funny at the same time. Could be a winner. Medium - Never blows my socks off, but always entertains. A terrific, solid show.

To continue with the Sci-Fi theme, I caught the pilot of Threshold last night. They ran the first two episodes as a two-hour pilot on Friday night, and it was simply awesome. Lots of fun, interesting characters (or, at least potentially once the actors get a better handle on them) and a very cool situation. The show is doomed. I say that in part just because I liked it, which never seems to bode well for any program. However, there is also the double whammy of Friday nights and an obviously big budget. Friday is never a big night for any genre shows (by that, I mean Sci-Fi, fantasy, horror, etc) primarily because most of the target audience of teens to thirties are out that night and not home watching TV. I'm sure that lots of recorders were running, but they aren't counted for Nielsen ratings. Having a big budget (for flashy effects, known actors, big sets, and lots of extras) means that the network needs the show to pull in big ratings in order to justify the money they're spending on it. Being on Friday nights pretty well guarantees that they won't get the numbers that will keep the programming directors happy. Needless to say, I hope that I will be proved wrong, but I'm already saving up for the DVD set so that I can see the episodes that they won't air. More about the show itself, I think that the villainous aliens are interestingly realized. We haven't seen their faces yet, but their machines are cool and so is the effect they have on the world around them. I am very interested to find out whether the li'l green men are truly evil or just unaware of what they are doing to us. We are certainly being led in one direction, but I can see room to move to other conclusions. In short, I'll be watching this series for as long as it's on (unless they screw up somewhere down the line) because I want to see what these people do next and how the aliens will respond. However, I do not hold out high hopes that the series will survive for long. Which is a shame. I got no replies last time, so let me know what you thought if you have a minute. Otherwise I just feel like I'm talking to myself, and that's one of the first signs of insanity. Which depresses me because I thought I was further along than that. ;) Hurdy gur, -Marc

It was pointed out to me that I forgot to mention another new show that premiered recently, so this is a shorter version of my last post just to correct this oversight. Caught the premiere of Reunion on Thursday, and I was really impressed. The characters, while fairly stereotypical, were nicely realized by the cast. They didn't seem outrageously old to be playing High School Seniors, and in the one current day scene, the person featured didn't look like someone in old age makeup. The story is complex enough that it could provide some interesting bumps along the 20 year ride, but they'll have to work really hard to avoid descending into pure melodrama. The one year per episode concept intrigues me more than any other aspect of the series. It's daring, and could seriously backfire, but if done well it could be brilliant. The device, of course, reminds me of 24, where every season is a single day. Meanwhile, the slow dribbling out of puzzle pieces reminds me strongly of Lost. However, don't expect the series to be either of these. I foresee this series owing far more to dramas like Melrose Place than to the more action-oriented shows that the gimmicks came from. In summation, I am not yet hooked but I'm willing to keep walking the path they are leading me down. However, they'll have to work really hard at the year-per-episode gimmick if they want me to follow through to the 20-year end.

I have to say that this season has really started to restore my faith in TV. For years now I've been watching the steady encroachment of "reality" schlock as it eats away at the schedules of all the networks, but I think we're finally seeing a return of good drama. Personally, I think that Lost and Firefly are primarily responsible for this upswing (though the big excitement over Battlestar Galactica deserves a big nod as well). Basically, Lost proved that drama TV could get big ratings and Firefly proved that a well-made genre show could garner an audience even when totally mishandled by the network that gave it birth. This is really the Season of Sci-Fi. I am usually interested in perhaps three shows in a new season, and have to look to DVDs of old series to get my genre fix for the rest of the week. This year, no worries. The only problem is that I have no idea which shows will be good, bad, or indifferent. So this blog will sort of be my attempt to put the fantastical shows into perspective by giving my views on the new stuff as they come on. I'll certainly veer away from Sci-Fi, but be aware that most of what I like has at least an element of the fantastic. Now, to start we have Prison Break, which premiered a couple weeks ago. The first episode of this series was amazing. It really captivated me, and I was blown away by the main character's intelligence, planning, and forethought. However, it all sort of fell apart after that. We've been watching him play catch-up ever since and for whatever reason that is just not holding my attention as well as the pilot did. I'll probably watch a few more episodes, but I don't hold out high hopes for this series. Then, last night, we saw the premiere of Bones. I was anxiously awaiting this if for no other reason than the return of Angel's David Boreanaz to the small screen. So far, the series itself is fairly pedestrian. There is the romanticized crime procedural, the wacky friends, the antagonistically flirtatious opposites-attract couple, and of course the gore (though most of it is a bit more dry than the stuff we see every week on shows like CSI). Ordinarily, this would be a take it or leave it situation for me. However, the chemistry between Boreanaz and lead actress Emily Deschanel is just cool enough that it might keep me interested. The second item on the agenda last night was the new WB horror-drama Supernatural. This story of two twentysomething, monster-hunting brothers is a concept that was old when the kids had a great dane along for the ride. However, I have to say that the show is sort of winning me over. The dialog is funny and clever, the effects are excellent, and the characters are interesting enough to warrant a second look. Most of all, however, the pilot actually managed to creep me out a bit. Being a big horror fan from way back, there are very few movies that actually scare me any more. High marks to Supernatural for pulling it off (if only to a lesser degree). So, my tally so far is: Prison Break - We'll see Bones - Looking forward to the next ep, but so far, not dying to see it. When I can't stand to wait a week then it will have arrived. and Supernatural - I am probably along for the ride with this one, as long as they can deliver in upcoming episodes (and as long as the plot continues to thicken). That's all for now, but there will be more opinion to follow (and maybe a wrap-up at the end of the season or as the individual shows get cancelled, whichever comes first). Hope I didn't bore you too much. :D Hurdy gur, -Marc

My recent lack of presence here on the boards and such is largely due to three things. 1) Very busy at work just lately 2) New TV shows starting 3) New toys The first of the new toys came Labor Day weekend. A friend of mine is moving and decided that he'd rather move a lightweight, skinny plasma TV than his big ol' clunky HDTV. As a result, I bought it from him at a ridiculously low price that I could still only barely afford. I then figured out that I could just barely afford to upgrade my cable service to get HD programming, and then discovered that due to some promotions and switching some things around I could also rent a DVR unit from the cable company. I. Am. In. Heaven. First of all, I can pause live TV. This alone would be worth all the trouble I've gone through. I seem to have a curse of some sort which stipulates that every phone call I receive at home comes at a crucial moment in whatever TV show or movie I am watching that night. No movies or shows, no calls. Without fail. Now I can just pause the show and start watching again when the call is over. Nice beyond words. Of course the whole recording without tapes thing is great too. Particularly since I was about to have to buy a new VCR to replace one which suddenly decided that it doesn't like to record anything on a timer any more. And this is just in time for the new shows. Beyond all that, however, the picture and sound quality are simply awesome. I found myself sitting at a restaurant a couple days ago, looking at the TV above the bar, and I just can't imagine how I was ever happy with that kind of picture. Does this mean I'm becoming an AV snob? ;) Anyway, speaking of those busy days at work I have to run. For all those who inquired, S'Gypsy is doing very well and is enjoying the new toys as much as I am. She also says thank you to everyone who wished her well. I'll try to hop back on today or tomorrow and post something of a little more weight. Til then, I hope everyone is doing well. Take care of yourselves! Hurdy gur, -Marc

And, as much as it pains me to retire that banner, my moment of werewolfery is over. I've still got the guide (though no banner on it yet, Snide hint, hint) so check it out from the link on my sidebar. If I ever hear of an official DVD release I'll be the one shouting it from the rooftops. If anyone happens to mourn the passing of the old banner, or didn't get to see it, it's here for posterity. :D Today was a change of pace, as S'Gypsy had to go in for surgery so we spent all day in the hospital. It was a relatively minor surgery (as being cut open goes) to correct some female troubles and it seemed to go pretty well. However, just being in the hospital that long is incredibly taxing. My theory is that we are all creatures of both matter and energy. When we are sick or wounded (and surgery is just a wound as far as the body can tell) much of the energy part of the equation is used to speed healing. When folks who are at full energy walk in, our energy spreads out among those who need it. It's like water finding its level. That would explain why we feel drained and tired after visiting a sick friend and they feel energized. Anyway, S'Gypsy is now resting more or less comfortably (it was outpatient, so she's here at home) and I'm trying my best to take good care of her. For those who noticed, that's why I really wasn't around today. For those who didn't notice... why are you reading my blog again? Oh yeah, because I'm on the front page again! Very odd, but I'm not complaining. My 15 minutes will be a full hour and a half if this keeps up. Also, as much as I loved being a Crazy Neighbor, I am just loving being a Land Shark. That was one of my favorite SNL bits back in the day and I'm just tickled. Does this mean I get to knock on random doors and say, "Candy-gram"? G'night all. Hurdy gur, -Marc

As I mentioned a few days ago, I recently became editor of the show Werewolf. I decided it would be a good idea to write up a blog entry about it because so few people recall this series. Werewolf was aired in the fall of 1987 as a part of the inaugural lineup for the new Fox Network. Other than a two-hour pilot, it was a 30 minute weekly series following the adventures of young Eric Cord. Eric was a 20-something who had everything going for him. He had recently fallen in love with his childhood playmate Kelly Nichols, and they were trying to find a way to tell her father. Mr. Nichols had taken Eric in a few years earlier when both his parents were killed in a car accident. Kelly's brother, Ted, was Eric's best friend and roommate. In short, Eric was putting the tragedy of his parents' death behind him, and moving into an almost idyllic Southern California life. Then Eric arrives home one night to find Ted sitting alone in the dark, loading a revolver with silver bullets. Ted tells Eric that he's been keeping a dark secret. Ted is a werewolf. He had been attacked on the docks the summer before and since then had been struggling with the beast inside him. But the beast was slowly winning, and Ted no longer believes that he can control himself. So he needs Eric to help him. He needs Eric to use the revolver. Eric refuses, but when Ted transforms into a massive beast he has no choice but to fire. Eric kills Ted, but suffers a bite wound to the shoulder. Now Eric is cursed to transform into a beast with no warning but the appearance of the pentagram on his palm. Going on the information that Ted gave him, he realizes that he must seek out and kill the werewolf who infected Ted, because only by severing the bloodline can the curse be broken. He skips bail and leaves town to search for Skorzeny, the progenitor of the bloodline. Now he is wanted for Ted's murder, and must not only seek Skorzeny but also elude the bounty hunter, Rogan, who has been sent after him. And Rogan knows what Eric is... The series had the same feel as The Incredible Hulk, The Fugitive, and a number of other shows with the hunter/hunted theme. The effects were done by Greg Cannom (one of the better makeup effects people in the business) and the werewolf suit was designed by Rick Baker (a god in the makeup effects world, who did the effects for An American Werewolf In London). The 30 minute format enabled the series to keep tension high, and despite having almost no budget the production values were overall excellent. Overall the show holds up well, 18 years after its first episode aired. However, it is obvious that the art of creating television shows has changed somewhat since this time. The acting in current shows is a bit more nuanced and subtle, so Werewolf can at times seem to be a bit over the top in that regard. Aging aside, if you can ever find a copy of this show (it has yet to be officially released on DVD) it is well worth a viewing. And if you feel like stopping by http://www.tvshowsondvd.com, signing up, and then voting for the show... heck, who am I to stop you. ;) Don't take any silver bullets. Hurdy gur, -Marc

I know I promised a Werewolf Appreciation Blog, but that will have to wait (I don't have my banner ready for one thing). Today, I just have to talk about Wednesday. We started out a bit later than we'd planned. See, if you get to a Tori show early (sometimes) she comes out and does a "Meet-&-Greet" with the fans, and we wanted to get there at about 2 just in case she did. Instead we left around 2:15 or so and got there at around 3:30. We got only slightly lost on the Baltimore streets, and pulled into a parking lot which was supposedly closed, but turned out to have one space available. We parked, and began to look around to orient ourselves and figure out where the concert was. Then S'Gypsy looked out the windshield, pointed directly ahead of us, and said, "There." We had parked maybe 15 feet from Tori's tour bus, and maybe 50 or 60 feet from the gate into the pavilion. We found a way to get through the fence and up to the main gate where we saw a crowd of people gathered. We started wondering when Tori might come out and then realized that the redhead at the front of the crowd was not another fan. She had come out just as we walked up. I didn't get too close (only about 8 feet) but S'Gypsy got right up front, got an autograph, and had our friend snap a pic with Tori just as they closed the gates. She was the last person to get any time with Tori. The show was astounding. Both opening bands were great (keep an eye out for "The Like" whose album is coming out 9/13, a 3 girl band with a sound much like "The Sundays") and the venue was unbelievable. The Cavalier Pavilion at Pier 6 in Baltimore's Inner Harbor is right on the water with an incredibly open feel to it. Seeing the benches along the street, I kept thinking how cool it would be to live there and catch free shows whenever you wanted. We took smoke breaks (yes, Ciggies and I are on speaking terms again) out on the bay (just a few steps from our seats) and just had a wonderful time. The show was a whole lot lower energy than her shows usually are. Enough so that we wondered if she was sick or something. However, what was lacking in intensity was more than made up for by sheer brilliance and Tori's usual charm. It was like sitting in her living room hearing her play for just you and a few friends, rather than a stadium full of devoted fans. All-in-all, a day of happy accidents and great vibes. Every day should be like that. Hurdy gur, -Marc