Archive for the ‘TV’ Category

MST3K’s 14th Season Fundraiser Going Slow

Monday, November 20th, 2023

You may have noticed that Joel Hodgson and MST3K gang are having a new kickstarter for the next season (for values of “kickstarter” that include “not on the Kickstarter platform”). There are five days left and they are only 38% of the way to the first goal of $4.8 million, which will be six features and six shorts.

The last two Kickstarters they had blew past their goals.

This one? Not so much. Despite announcing that Plan 9 from Outer Space will be among the riffed films.

Donor fatigue? The Biden Recession? Not doing enough promotion? Not enough boost from a non-Kickstarter platform? Disgruntlement over how long it took people to get their promised rewards from the last campaign?

I think it may be some combination of all the above.

Maybe the usual Turkey Day festivities will kick it into higher gear. But if they don’t, this may be the first MST3K fundraising effort to fail.

Halloween Horrors: Strange Sky Sounds

Monday, October 30th, 2023

All around the world, people hear strange things from the sky. Here’s a roundup of the various “sky trumpets,” booming noises, hums and other things people have no explanation for.

Halloween Horror: Kaiju No. 8 Trailer

Friday, October 13th, 2023

Not sure if this quite qualifies as a Halloween Horror, but it includes monsters, and it struck my fancy.

Basically, it’s an anime series focused on a guy who’s crappy job is to clean up after kaiju attacks.

It’s basically Damage Inc. meets Godzilla. Plus the teaser trailer is giving off a tiny bit of a FLCL vibe.

I don’t subscribe to Crunchy Roll (or any streaming service), but I’d seriously consider buying the DVD set when it eventually comes out.

Shoegazer Sunday: Slowdive’s “Slomo” (Domo Slomo)

Sunday, October 24th, 2021

I think I posted a live version of this song, but not this album version. And as a bonus, this version features footage from the Domo Kun stop motion animated show, of meme fame.

Norm Macdonald, RIP

Tuesday, September 14th, 2021

The great comedian Norm Macdonald has died:

Norm Macdonald, who has died at 61, was a comedic genius whose irreverence and inimitable delivery made millions of people laugh harder than almost anyone else could make them do—whether he was taking shots at mainstream figures (O. J. Simpson, the Clintons), constructing elaborate setups for impossibly simple punchlines (depressed moths, massacres in Vietnam), or saving dull affairs by subverting expectations (celebrity roasts and awards events, big and small). A private man who kept his nine-year battle with cancer out of the public eye, Macdonald occasionally showed flashes of a deep seriousness, expressing frustration with an increasingly intolerant popular culture and offering genuine insights in interviews and in an uproarious pseudo-memoir. But in the final analysis, he was a pure aesthete of jokes and one of the funniest people around.

Born and raised in Canada, Macdonald began his comedy career in the late 1980s. He was a frequent guest of late-night shows throughout the 1990s, with his appearances on Conan O’Brien in particular being the stuff of legend. His apogee of fame probably came between 1994 and 1998, when he hosted Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update” segment—typically a stepping stone to a late-night show of one’s own—only to be fired by NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer for joking too much about O. J. Simpson, Ohlmeyer’s personal friend. Immediately afterward, Macdonald went on David Letterman, who asked how he had reacted to getting canned. “I said, ‘Oh, that’s not good,’” said Macdonald. “And I said, ‘Why is that, now? And [Ohlmeyer] goes, ‘Well, you’re not funny.’ And I said, ‘Holy Lord, that’s even worse news!’”

When I go looking for random YouTube comedy videos, Macdonald and Bill Burr are the two comedians watch most often.

There’s no shortage of great Macdonald clips out there:

His standup routine on the last episode of Letterman:

The “I’m not sure if you’re a history buff…” intro gets me every time.

His sendoff to Conan O’Brien:

Bob Dole offers a classy tribute:

And Norm would have loved this tribute:

Library Addition: Charnel House Edition of Harlan Ellison’s The Glass Teat & The Other Glass Teat

Thursday, July 29th, 2021

When this book originally came out at $600, I went “I want that…but not at that price point.” Now Charnel House has used the last 100 sheet sets of the original printing to come out with this 10th Anniversary Edition at a price I could afford:

Ellison, Harlan. The Glass Teat & The Other Glass Teat. Charnel House, 2011. First hardback edition, #182 of 250 signed, numbered copies, a Fine copy in decorated boards, sans dust jacket, as issue, with a CD of Harlan reading “Welcome to the Gulag,” the introduction written for this edition laid in. All Ellison’s TV essays and reviews written for The Los Angeles Free Press. Not having a copy of the original binding, I can’t tell you how this 10th Anniversary edition binding differs from the original. Bought from the publisher at a discount.

I will have a single copy of this available in the next Lame Excuse Books catalog (currently in progress).

Library Addition: Signed First of Red Skelton’s The Great Lazarus

Monday, June 28th, 2021

I blame Michael Swanwick for this one, who noted “articles about him claimed that he wrote a story a day and never published any.” So when I saw a signed copy of this pop up in the list of items for sale from that big collection on eBay mentioned in previous posts, I picked it up.

Skelton, Red. The Great Lazarus. Skelton Publications, 1986. First edition hardback (stated), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Skelton. Swanwick says it may qualify as magic realism. Bought off eBay for $24.50.

If you’re under a certain age, Red Skelton’s name probably means nothing to you. Even more so than Jerry Lewis, his style of comedy went so far out of fashion in the 1970s that he’s little remembered now, despite having a variety show that lasted 20 years on prime time television. Skelton was once so important that he was considered a mime equal to Marcel Marceau (with which he did a series of shows) and talk show host Mike Douglas (another name largely lost in time) once had an entire week of shows where Skelton was the only guest. These days, all the things he excelled in (broad comedy, clowning and mime) are deeply out of fashion.

Sick transit gloria mundi

MST3K Kickstarter Update: Fully Funded, New Joel Episodes, Dueling Hosts, More!

Friday, May 7th, 2021

For those who still haven’t backed the new Mystery Science Theater 3000, they just roared past their $5.5 million goal to make 12 episodes and they still have (as of this writing) 13 hours left to go.

I previously covered The Gizmoplex, but here are few of the more interesting tidbits about Season 13 that have been revealed since the campaign launch:

  • Grand Poobah Joel Hodgson will reprise his role as test subject Joel Robinson for two episodes.
  • In addition to Jonah Ray returning as test subject Jonah Heston (and Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt returning as the Mads), Emily Marsh (who appeared on the most recent MST3K live tour) will be appearing as test subject Emily Crenshaw. Evidently there will be separate Jonah and Emily (and Joel) episodes.
  • They’re going to do at least one 3D movie.
  • Two of the films to be riffed will be Robot Wars and Demon Squad. Since the latter came out in 2019, that has to rank as the shortest release-to-MST3K gap ever.
  • If you haven’t backed the Kickstarter yet, now would be a good time…

    Joel Hodgson Launches Another MST3K Kickstarter

    Thursday, April 8th, 2021

    MST3K creator Joel Hodgson has launched another MST3K Kickstarter to help fund the show that was dropped by Netflix after two seasons. Their minimum goal is $2 million for three more episodes (which I think they’re going to breeze past today), with stretch goals out to $5.5 million for 12 episodes (plus 12 short films).

    Plus something called “The Gizmoplex,” which he describes as “an online theater for live screenings & special events!”

    1. Live Premieres & Events: Each month for our first year, The Gizmoplex will host at least* one live event, where you can join me, our cast and writers, and some special surprise guests. Each live event will be like a night at the theater, and will have a lot of fun surprises. Our live events could include new sketches, trailers (done “MST3K style”), live Q&A panel discussions, interviews, contests… even the return of the MST3K “viewer mail” segment.

    2. The MST3K Watch Club: To make it easier to watch MST3K with your friends, The Gizmoplex will also be the official home of the MST3K Watch Club! Each month, you’ll get on-demand access to a new selection of episodes, and the ability to host your own live screenings for up to 10 people! Anyone with a Gizmoplex Pass can join for free, and if you want to invite someone who doesn’t, they can get a “Day Pass” for just $0.99!

    And, if we reach our stretch goals, the Gizmoplex Pass will get even more valuable!

    3. Gizmoplex Apps: If we raise $3.3 million, we’ll be able to develop apps that bring The Gizmoplex to mobile devices and TVs! Right now, the plan is to include apps for six of the most popular platforms: iOS, Android, AppleTV, AndroidTV, FireTV and Roku. Like Crow says: we’re gonna conquer cyberspace, man!

    Also: “I really want The Gizmoplex to feel like something new: less like another Netflix with nothing but MST, and more like a charming, off the radar, suburban cineplex that plays movies for 99 cents, long after their first run.”

    Though not stated, the ad campaign suggests they’re keeping the Season 11 and 12 cast, and Jonah Ray appears in the Kickstarter video.

    There’s also some interesting discussion of the economics behind the show and Kickstarter:

    1. Without a network supporting us, we need to fund everything ourselves. During our first Kickstarter, we estimated that, once production was up and running, we’d be able to produce new episodes for about $250K each. In the end, though, the budget for each new episode ended up being closer to $350K. For the last two seasons, we were able to cover the difference through our deal with Netflix… but this time, we’re on our own. We’ve got a lot of ways we can keep the budget lower, but, you know… it’s still going to cost something. And when you think about it, $350K for 90 minutes of television is still one of the best deals in show business.

    2. We still can’t spend everything we raise on Kickstarter to make the show.

    Campaign Fees: Between Kickstarter and the credit card processor, we pay about 8% of your pledge in fees. There’s also a fee for CrowdOx, the platform we’ll use to manage all of your surveys and rewards after the campaign ends.

    Making Rewards: We reserve about 20% of your pledge in order to design, produce, print, sort and pack all of your rewards. And that’s not even including shipping, which we’re not collecting until after our Kickstarter campaign ends!

    Dedicated Support: During our first Kickstarter, we underestimated the amount of work involved in providing customer support and creating detailed backer updates, so we had to depend on volunteers to do a lot of it. This time, we want to make sure we’re prepared, so we budgeted about 4% of each pledge for that.

    Building & Running The Gizmoplex: We really want The Gizmoplex to be great, but getting it started will take some work – and keeping it running also means we’ll have some monthly fees to cover. We also need some budget to support all of the special live events we’re planning to host. So, we’re using about 3% of your pledge for that.

    When you put it all together, we have to spend about 35% of what we raise just to cover Kickstarter expenses, and to keep all the promises we’re making to you.

    He thinks that if they do 12 episodes, per episode cost will be down to just under $300K.

    You may remember that MST3K already had the biggest Kickstarter in history up to that time. It’s since been surpassed by several smart watches and board games, among other things.

    Despite the caveat that “this might not be a good time for some people to offer financial support to a robot puppet show dedicated to cheesy movies,” I expect them to blow the doors off the totals of their last Kickstarter.

    Naturally I’ve already pledged.

    Update: Just ticked over the first goal of $2 million.

    Library Additions: Half Price Books Etc. Finds

    Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021

    All of these are Half Price Books finds (mostly in Houston) unless otherwise noted, including a fair amount of signed work and non-fiction.

  • Adams, Douglas. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Simon & Schuster, 1987. First edition hardback (simultaneous with the UK Heinemann edition), a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $9.99.
  • Barksdale, Dante, with Grace Kearney. Growing Up Barksdale: A True Baltimore Story. No publisher listed, printed 2020. Trade paperback POD reprint, a Fine copy. Autobiography by a former Baltimore gang member who’s family’s story provided some of the grist for David Simon’s The Wire. A Christmas gift from Dwight.
  • (Ellison, Harlan) Ellen Weil and Gary K. Wolfe. Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever. Ohio State University Press, 2002. First edition trade paperback original, a Fine- copy with bottom outer edges slightly bumped. Bought for $12.49.
  • Gaiman, Neil. The View from the Cheap Seats. William Morrow, 2016. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket, signed by Gaiman. Collection of non-fiction (essays, interview, etc.).
  • King, Stephen. Lisey’s Story. Scribner, 2006. First edition hardback, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought at Goodwill for $3.99. I generally don’t pick up King’s new trade editions because I know they will show up used cheap. And I generally can’t afford the signed limited editions unless they’re coming out from a publisher I’m already a regular customer of and can pick them up at a (usually slight) discount pre-publication. But $3.99 for a perfect copy falls into “good enough” territory.
  • McCarthy, Cormac. All the Pretty Horses. Knopf, 1992. First edition hardback, an Ex-Library copy with all the usual flaws, otherwise Very Good. A true first of his first Pulitzer winner and first book of the Border trilogy. Bought for $6.99.
  • Stephenson, Neal. Seveneves. HarperCollins, 2015. First edition hardback, special signed edition with gold “Signed First Edition” sticker on the cover and “THIS SIGNED EDITION OF/seveneves/by/Neal Stephenson/[signature]/HAS BEEN SPECIALLY BOUND/BY THE PUBLISHER” signature page bound in before the half-title page, a Fine copy in a Fine dust jacket. Bought for $9.99.
  • Sterling, Bruce. Schismatrix Plus. Ace, 1996. First edition trade paperback original, Near Fine- with slight spine crease, slight sun fading to spine, and edgewear, signed by Sterling. Contains the novel plus the Shaper/Mechanist stories from Crystal Express. I never bothered to pick this up when it came out because I already had first editions of both, but picking up variant titles is classic late-phase book collecting behavior. Bought for $7.49.
  • (Tolkien, J. R. R.) Day, David. An Encyclopedia of Tolkien: The History and Mythology That inspired Tolkien’s World. Canterbury Classics, 2019. First edition hardback, a Fine copy bound in embossed leather, sans dust jacket, as issued. Tolkien reference work by an author who has done a lot of other Tolkien reference works. A very attractive book, with gilded edges and full-color illustrated endpapers, from a publisher that mostly seems to do leatherbound prestige reprints. Bought for $12.49.