Tuesday, September 05, 2006
SciFi.com has started posting a series of ten Battlestar Galactica webisodes briding the gap between the end of last season and the premiere of this one. The first one is pretty cool, and feels very much like part of the series. However, if you haven't seen the end of the second season yet (I know at least one friend has not), I'd recommend staying away until you're all caught up. Otherwise, there will obviously be spoilers.
I’m trying to post my thoughts on Steve Irwin to the Animal Planet forum, but unsurprisingly, it’s very busy, so the page won’t load. So I’m going to post it here, instead.
When I was a kid, I loved shows about animals. Whether it was reruns of Disney’s True Life Adventures on The Wonderful World of Disney, or the original Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, hosted by Marlin Perkins (probably also reruns), I watched them with my family. But somehow, at some point, I drifted away.
Then, one day, I came back. Part of it may be living with Penelope, but a large part of it came from watching Steve Irwin’s shows on Animal Planet. Though it was parodied and mocked by the hip and cynical, I found Irwin’s passion and enthusiasm very infectious. I couldn’t help getting as excited as he was about whatever he happened to be talking about. His wife Terri’s presence helped a lot. Her calm, down-to-earth sensibility provided the perfect contrast to his over-the-top performance, grounding it in reality. I really felt like she would call him on anything that was fake or too much. So as over the top as he could seem, I really felt like he was genuine.
(The show about them running their zoo--Croc Hunter Diaries?—also provided another, more down-to-earth perspective on Irwin, showing how he interacted with his staff and animals on a daily basis. It proved that while he was larger than life when hosting his shows, the heart behind it all was true.)
And I’m not going to ignore the blip on his career when he brought his baby into the crocodile enclosure at his zoo. But while it may not have been a smart thing to do, ultimately, no harm was done. And there are too many people who deserve to be pilloried for ongoing errors they make that cost people’s lives every day.
Even the Crocodile Hunter movie won me over, because it could so easily have been screwed up. I had expected Steve and Terri to be recruited by the CIA or something stupid like that. Fortunately, Irwin was smarter than that, and delivered a movie that was just a big-screen episode of his TV shows, only with an entirely separate story going on in the background that he and Terri were completely oblivious to. The plot, about spies trying to recover a stolen satellite swallowed by a crocodile, isn’t going to win any Oscars, but if there was an Academy Award for charm and charisma…
And now he’s gone.
But he brought wildlife education and conservation back into the public eye, and arguably made Animal Planet much more successful, also helping that cause. As a people, we can’t even seem to get worked up over the wrongs we do to each other. Animals don’t even have a voice that most people are wiling to understand. Thank goodness there are people like Steve and Terri Irwin who are willing to speak for them.
When I was a kid, I loved shows about animals. Whether it was reruns of Disney’s True Life Adventures on The Wonderful World of Disney, or the original Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, hosted by Marlin Perkins (probably also reruns), I watched them with my family. But somehow, at some point, I drifted away.
Then, one day, I came back. Part of it may be living with Penelope, but a large part of it came from watching Steve Irwin’s shows on Animal Planet. Though it was parodied and mocked by the hip and cynical, I found Irwin’s passion and enthusiasm very infectious. I couldn’t help getting as excited as he was about whatever he happened to be talking about. His wife Terri’s presence helped a lot. Her calm, down-to-earth sensibility provided the perfect contrast to his over-the-top performance, grounding it in reality. I really felt like she would call him on anything that was fake or too much. So as over the top as he could seem, I really felt like he was genuine.
(The show about them running their zoo--Croc Hunter Diaries?—also provided another, more down-to-earth perspective on Irwin, showing how he interacted with his staff and animals on a daily basis. It proved that while he was larger than life when hosting his shows, the heart behind it all was true.)
And I’m not going to ignore the blip on his career when he brought his baby into the crocodile enclosure at his zoo. But while it may not have been a smart thing to do, ultimately, no harm was done. And there are too many people who deserve to be pilloried for ongoing errors they make that cost people’s lives every day.
Even the Crocodile Hunter movie won me over, because it could so easily have been screwed up. I had expected Steve and Terri to be recruited by the CIA or something stupid like that. Fortunately, Irwin was smarter than that, and delivered a movie that was just a big-screen episode of his TV shows, only with an entirely separate story going on in the background that he and Terri were completely oblivious to. The plot, about spies trying to recover a stolen satellite swallowed by a crocodile, isn’t going to win any Oscars, but if there was an Academy Award for charm and charisma…
And now he’s gone.
But he brought wildlife education and conservation back into the public eye, and arguably made Animal Planet much more successful, also helping that cause. As a people, we can’t even seem to get worked up over the wrongs we do to each other. Animals don’t even have a voice that most people are wiling to understand. Thank goodness there are people like Steve and Terri Irwin who are willing to speak for them.
Comic Book Resources - Comic Book News, Reviews and Commentary - Updated Daily!: "A couple weeks ago, I was a guest speaker at a librarian's conference, as part of a panel (with the librarian who put it together and a distributor specializing in library sales) on 'graphic novels in libraries.' Curious experience. Even as I mounted the podium for my 15 minute chat, I really had no idea what I was supposed (or going) to say.
Not that I'm a complete novice at these things. I've done enough convention panels, and Bill Willingham, James Hudnall and I occasionally go around to local libraries to talk with (mainly) kids about creating comics. Still, public speaking's not my favorite thing, and this was a very different crowd. But they do represent forces comics creators and publishers should start taking into account."
For the record, the librarian who put it together? That would be me.
And I hear that this column is being forwarded around at the offices of DC Comics. So I'm an anonymous mover and shaker.
Not that I'm a complete novice at these things. I've done enough convention panels, and Bill Willingham, James Hudnall and I occasionally go around to local libraries to talk with (mainly) kids about creating comics. Still, public speaking's not my favorite thing, and this was a very different crowd. But they do represent forces comics creators and publishers should start taking into account."
For the record, the librarian who put it together? That would be me.
And I hear that this column is being forwarded around at the offices of DC Comics. So I'm an anonymous mover and shaker.
Monday, September 04, 2006
TORONTO 06: GEOFF JOHNS TALKS ALL STAR BATGIRL - NEWSARAMA: "Rumored for a little while now, it was finally officially annouced Sunday in Toronto: Geoff Johns and JG Jones will team next year to start off All Star Batgirl, starring Barbara Gordon. "
Love Batgirl, love JG Jones' art, hate hate HATE Geoff Johns' writing these days. So conflicted.
On the other hand, if it's an All-Star book, he can't just revive other writers' stories (and he says as much in the interview). Plus, the last time he wrote a comic about a teenage girl superhero, it was Stars and Stripe, and that's the book that made me a fan of his, before he just decided to just rip off stuff from the 80s... So maybe... Just maybe. That's all I'm saying.
Love Batgirl, love JG Jones' art, hate hate HATE Geoff Johns' writing these days. So conflicted.
On the other hand, if it's an All-Star book, he can't just revive other writers' stories (and he says as much in the interview). Plus, the last time he wrote a comic about a teenage girl superhero, it was Stars and Stripe, and that's the book that made me a fan of his, before he just decided to just rip off stuff from the 80s... So maybe... Just maybe. That's all I'm saying.
"Crocodile Hunter" Irwin dies - Yahoo! News: "SYDNEY (Reuters) - Steve Irwin, the quirky Australian
naturalist who won worldwide acclaim as TV's khaki-clad
'Crocodile Hunter,' was killed by a stingray barb through the
heart while filming a new documentary on Monday."
naturalist who won worldwide acclaim as TV's khaki-clad
'Crocodile Hunter,' was killed by a stingray barb through the
heart while filming a new documentary on Monday."
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