Archive for November, 2015

Kickstarter for New MST3K episodes?

Tuesday, November 10th, 2015

Joel Hodgson just launched a kickstarter to produce new episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Let me get the obligatory meme out of the way:

But fans have been calling out for an MST3K reboot for years. Why only now?

Simple: Jim Mallon sold his share of the rights to Shout Factory:

Shout! Factory has acquired cult comedy series “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” Variety has learned.

The news of the acquisition comes the same day Joel Hodgson, the creator and writer of “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new season of the show.

With the new deal, negotiated by Shout’s David McIntosh, Shout! Factory now has the proprietary rights the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” from Best Brains, Inc., including all brand assets and global intellectual property. The media company is partnering with Hodgson and his company Alternaversal, LLC on future endeavors surrounding the “MST3K” brand, including plans for new content development, digital media initiatives, live events, merchandise licensing programs and content syndication to international territories.

The one caveat I have is evidently there will be a “new cast” for the show. I think the consensus is that the MST3K faithful would love to have Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff back in their old roles (and possibly J. Elvis Weinstein back as the original Tom Servo; given his attachment to RiffTracks, Kevin Murphy seems unlikely to reprise the Tom Servo voice role). But I’m certainly willing to give the new cast a chance.

So, yeah, I signed up.

Here’s the pitch video:

Lantern: For Your Archived Movie Magazine Needs

Monday, November 9th, 2015

Here’s Lantern, a very cool historical research tool that searches “1.3 million pages of digitized books and magazines from the histories of film, broadcasting, and recorded sound.”

How extensive is it? I did a search for Tod Browning and turned up a whopping 2346 pages that reference him.

If you’re doing any research on the early history of film, it’s a real treasure trove.

Island Lost Souls

Shoegazer Sunday: Moonlit Sailor’s “Fresh Snow”

Sunday, November 8th, 2015

Moonlit Sailor gets tagged as a post-rock, but they remind me strongly of Midsummer minus the vocals, and since Midsummer has always struck me as a Shoegaze band, here’s Moonlit Sailor’s “Fresh Snow.,”