Biography: Santa Claus

A&E ran a Biography episode focusing on Santa Claus, which was utterly charming except for the "Santa to the Stars" gentleman they interviewed. I'm sure he's a perfectly nice guy and a great Santa, but I react to people who identify a bit too strongly with the Santa persona in the same way that many people react to clowns: they creep me out. It's interesting to note that they went through an hour of Santa Claus lore without mentioning Jesus in any prominent manner. They did, however, interview a religious expert or two about the significance of the actual Saint Nicholas.

Big-screen Nemo

Last night I watched Finding Nemo with my extended family on my wife's side. Though my father-in-law doesn't really watch TV, he does have a digital LCD projector, which he uses to give presentations to his scuba diving classes. (Let's just say dad-in-law was unimpressed with the accuracy of the movie, though we did manage to convince him that there is such a thing as a "flapjack octopus," which is what "Pearl" appears to be in the film.) Within about ten minutes he'd hooked up a home theater system, with a DVD player and his existing living room stereo. And suddenly, my cravings for a big screen TV were sated. Before I ever spend more than $1000 on a big screen TV, I'm definitely going to look into a projector system -- plasma TVs and rear projection TVs seem to cost a lot more and don't have nearly the versatility, or even the size capability of a projector.

I'm at least a couple of years away from a serious video expenditure like that, but it's definitely something to think about.

Hulk smash buttons!

I picked up The Hulk for Nintendo Gamecube on the cheap the other night, and I've played a few levels -- enough to know that I really like what they've done with the game mechanics, at least on the levels where you get to play the Hulk. Unlike most smash-and-trash games where you either run out of enemies or are forced on to the next level, Hulk allows you to hang around and enjoy whacking the crap out of your opponents and the surrounding environment. It'll keep throwing enemies at you until you decide to move on to the next area, although after a while you may have difficulty keeping your Hulk alive.

What I'm not so keen on, however, are the levels in which you play Bruce Banner. Who the heck thought anyone would want to play puny Banner, dodging soldiers and spotlights, especially after kicking ass for a few levels as his gamma-green giant alter-ego? I don't normally review video games because I don't need to pick apart every diversion in my life, but this one leaves me scratching my head. I gotta find some codes or something that'll let me skip these levels.

Battlestar Galactica

No, I don't think "masterpiece" is too strong a word for the new Battlestar Galactica; the Sci-Fi Channel really got this one right, and the ratings have rewarded them. (Highest ratings for an original cable mini-series this year? I don't doubt it.)

I could go on about everything that made these four hours some of the best science fiction I've ever seen (with the exception of some of the cheesier interactions between Starbuck and Apollo, although even they had some really good acting moments), but what I'm really interested in is what happens from here. A sequel will be made, surely, but will we get an ongoing series? A second mini-series that wraps up the current plot lines? I'm just dying to know.

Finally - Bio Zombie

Posted both Bio Zombie and Jeff's latest Filmboy installment. I have got to find a way to let Jeff post stuff on his own without requiring that he learn a bunch of html. (A smart and talented guy, Jeff, just not technically inclined.) It takes me a week to ten days to get around to his stuff -- not because it's unimportant, but because that's just how much backlog I have on things. And I do like to unwind sometimes.

Things I Should Have Predicted Dept.

After staying up 'til 3 a.m. finishing up BMQ, I discover today that Express Mail service to Stuart, FL (a town about four hours away where our printer is located) is actually only 2-day guaranteed. There's a chance that the pages will make it to the printer tomorrow, in which case the magazine will be printed on schedule. If it takes the full two days, however, that means another two-week delay and I probably won't get to start shipping them out until the last couple days of December. The folks at the post office tell me that things actually move faster during the holidays because of all the extra hired help, so I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that I'll be able to send out copies before Christmas.

In the meantime, Bio Zombie still isn't finished, but I have duties at the day job to which I must attend before I can squander my time as I'd like.

OK, here's the deal.

I've been neglecting this blog quite a bit lately as I finish up other Stomp Tokyo-related tasks. It occurs to me that this might be a good place to put notes to myself, record the progress of various projects, and maybe give folks a peek into the "behind-the-scenes" workings of the site and its various tentacles. You know, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

So, in addition to being a video blog, this will also be a record of the life and times of the little company called Stomp Tokyo. Such as it is.

Right now I'm frantically trying to finish up the layout on the third issue of B-Movies Quarterly so I can mail it out tomorrow for the December 11th printing deadline. (It was supposed to be done two weeks ago, but things got away from me.) And while that's going on, we're also finishing up a review of Bio-Zombie and beginning our review of Django Strikes Back for the newest B-Masters' roundtable review. For which, by the way, I'm supposed to be constructing the super-soaker.

With any luck, though, Bio Zombie should go up late tonight or tomorrow morning, and BMQ will go out the door with tomorrow's post.