Month: April 2019

PJ McIlvaine: In The Zone

Now THIS is the zone where we’ve always wanted to be!

by PJ McIlvaine

Writing can be a long, rough, exasperating, never-ending, demanding, heartbreaking slog. Anyone who claims that they were an “overnight” success, ahem, I’d take that with a grain of Himalayan pink salt.

Writing is lonely. The only people speaking to you are the voices in your head. And if you don’t listen to them, man, do they get cross.

Writing is physically demanding. If you wait for inspiration to strike, you may end up as old as Methuselah. I have written through flu, sinus attacks, kidney stones, the kids throwing up in pots beside me, and other untold miseries and tragedies…you name it, I’ve done it, survived and even thrived. I’m not saying I’ve done it well or that it’s easy. That’s a story for another day. read article

What Ever Happened to Penelope Spheeris?

Anybody out there remember Penelope Spheeris? She was the intellectual director’s intellectual director. Cool, hip, tougher than tough.

A 70’s punk film movement pioneer, Ms. Spheeris (we wouldn’t dare pretend to be on a first name basis with a woman we feel great admiration for while also finding her – well, we find her terrifying, to be honest) directed the smash hit Wayne’s World in 1992, had her way with whatever properties she wanted after that, ands then vanished from Hollywood’s grace after the flop film Senseless in 1998.

Here’s how it went down: read article

Gerry Conway on the Live Action ‘Dumbo’ – “Burton’s Revenge”

Live Action Dumbo Can Only Be Tim Burton’s Revenge
by Gerry Conway

After a miserable time at the movies last night, I’ve come to the conclusion that Tim Burton’s grim and joyless “Dumbo” is an auteur triumph.

SPOILERS AHEAD. (Though for this movie, “spoiler” is descriptive as well as a warning label.)

I don’t recommend “Dumbo,” but I admire it. Burton has accomplished something almost startling with this film: he’s made a movie that is about as unsubtle a “f**k you” to both his corporate sponsors and the audience as one could get without actually superimposing “F*CK YOU!” on every frame. Contempt for Disney and for the audience that gobble up the company’s live action remakes of classic animated films oozes from every shot, every scene, and in particular, from the entire second half of the movie. If some films are a love letter, this is hate mail. Tim Burton clearly hates how Disney is exploiting the animated films he cherished as a child, and “Dumbo” is his bitter revenge. read article

How We Screwed Up Showbiz Culture – and How We Can Fix It

Remember when show business was a cottage industry run by fans dedicated to producing the best films, TV shows, plays, whatever, for the enjoyment of just about everybody in the world?

We don’t either. But we can dream, can’t we? Here’s something to get you started:

by Tennyson E. Stead

Before I delve into the chronic misdeeds of our industrial showbusiness community, forgive me a paragraph or two to establish my credentials as your professor in this matter. read article

Audio Drama: Big Finish Is A Big Deal

by Bob Tinsley

If you’re a Doctor Who fan and you don’t know about Big Finish Productions you are missing out on one of the best things ever. They started with well-loved TV shows and extended their lives with audio fiction.

Big Finish is a British company that has been turning out exceptional quality Doctor Who (and others, more later) audio stories for twenty years. What makes them different is that they use the original actors whenever they can. Their current stable of original doctors includes Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davison, and Colin Baker. Not only that, they have many of the original companions from the earlier Doctors as well as those above.

In addition they have other shows such as Dark Shadows, Unit, Jaco & Lightfoot (who appeared in The Talons of Weng Chiang, an episode of the Tom Baker/Louise Jameson run), The Prisoner, and Torchwood, among many others. read article