Tuesday, May 28, 2002

In Sink

Hmmm. The 'nSync guy wanting to go into space... Star Wars... space... the Star Wars program... Reagan... nuclear etc etc... hmmmm. It's all making some sort of terrible sense.

Monday, May 27, 2002

Is there an ongoing attempt to cover up a huge Hollywood scandal?

Contradictory stuff culled from various entertainment news websites:

Star Wars producer Rick McCallum's recent comments when asked in a radio interview, "Is it true that N*Sync shot some scenes for Episode II but they ended up on the cutting room floor?": "No, totally untrue. They’ve never actually done an album at Skywalker Ranch but they come and do, you know if they have a show they’re doing in London and have got some stuff they have to pre-record they’ll come up to Skywalker Ranch and actually do their music and they’ve always been great fans. And they came down on the set while we were shooting in ILM some miniatures and of course then everything goes out of control."

...and when asked about the same thing in a recent interview with Empire Online: "That was such a complicated, longwinded, unbelievable bunch of wank. I don't know where that came from. It is interesting. The only two people - and this is an absolutely true story - the only two people who have ever fact checked with everything that has ever been written about Star Wars is you guys and the National Enquirer. That's just amazing. I mean I don't get it but you guys are the only two people who have ever fact checked."

If that's true, then why did a Lucasfilm representative tell media outlets that they had in fact been filmed as extras in a scene, and that it was McCallum himself who had offered them the part?

Again?

And again?

(Note that the Lynn Hale credited with confirming the rumors in the E! Online articles is quoted on numerous articles from legitimate news sites and credited at StarWars.com itself as Lucasfilm's director of communications. Were these quotes by her completely fabricated? Could she have been lying? Deliberately misinformed by someone? Why on earth would anyone want people to think that this was happening if it really wasn't?)

Why did members of Nsync supposedly themselves seem to think they'd appeared as extras in scenes filmed for the movie?

So... is this some kind of huge hoax designed to make Star Wars fans mad? To embarrass the Nsync guys? Is there a concerted effort at Lucasfilm to backtrack over this whole sordid affair? Or is McCallum simply trying to cover up his involvement in this attempted crime against cinema? Who are we to believe? How the heck is "*N'Sync" spelled anyway? Will the truth ever be known? More importantly, does anyone really care? I sure don't. I do however think it's been funny following all this and watching everyone scramble to backtrack and vehemently deny everything about something so stupid. I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear about this.

(I still haven't seen Attack of the Clones yet, but it has been widely reported that NSync does not appear in the final movie.)

Thursday, May 23, 2002

Do I Like Star Wars? Yes, I Like Star Wars

I saw Attack of the Clones and I can't find anything wrong with it. I'm going to see it again soon.

Thanks for everyone who wished me a happy happy joy joy.

People tend to steal my ideas too, a la the Jason/Space Ghost experience. I have an audio commentary idea that I haven't done yet, but which I won't write here for Weird Al to steal.

I'm sorry everyone was sad over the robot being gone for a day. I didn't do it. I assume it was some maintenance thing.

I am now the proud owner of the Wet Hot American Summer DVD. Will gladly watch with anyone who needs to see one of funniest movies ever made.

Rusty.

Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Great minds think alike

"The way things are going, pretty soon the only shows on TV will be either Law & Order or Buffy spinoffs. Then they'll have no choice but to make Law and Order: Vampire Slayer Unit."
-- Jason Bell, 2/19/02 Blogger posting

"Format change: from now on, the first half hour will be about Buffy FIGURING OUT what the monster is, and the second half hour will be about Sam Waterston PROSECUTING the monster."
-- Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon, 5/22/02 Bronze posting

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Here it is

Never mind.
Where'd the robot go?

Its page can't be found. Poor lost robot. Of course, if you're reading this without being on the blog editing page, then I guess someone managed to find it, and everyone can stop looking.

Sunday, May 12, 2002

Curse you, Space Ghost producers!!!

First they used concepts suspiciously similar to The LunchBots in their Aqua Teen Hunger Force show. I wasn't too mad about that, as only two of the three giant talking food products on the show are morons, and the situations on the show are pretty different. But now I see they're not content with simply getting their ideas from my website. They've now taken to stealing my LunchBots ideas straight from my brain, what with them doing a Space Ghost episode with an audio commentary on the show and second and third audio commentaries on the first commentary. I've been planning to do that for the LunchBots movie, but have been keeping it a closely guarded secret known only to me so that it would remain a unique and original surprise. Bite me, Williams Street Productions. I'm on to your evil schemes! You haven't stolen all my ideas yet, and I will one-up you! You'll see! You'll all see! Mwaahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, May 10, 2002

congrats too!

You got the power Rusty Spell; let it show. Go Rusty Go. Go Rusty Go. Go Rusty Go.

Me, I usually don't drink soda, but I'm starting to like the weird lemon diet Coke. Even though I don't usually like diet drinks either. But for some reason the citrus-Cola-nutrasweet combo really pleases me.

I want to host a Kaiju battle!
I'm About to Go Graduate Now...

I don't have to say "I'm a college gigawatt anymore." (Not that I did as of five years ago, but that's beside the point of the joke.)

Yes, the robot lives. Sure, it might just be Jason & Rusty (and sometimes Y--I mean Steph) talking at each other, but I know non-writers read it. Someone referenced it the other day that I had no idea was reading it. So we're famous.

I'll have a "try all the caffeine-free drinks" spree one day. And then Spree itself. I think Coke might be the one I had as well. I'm just happy that they're making Vanilla Coke now. Used to, I had to rely on Sonic for that.

I liked Spider-Man too. I think I like it the more I think about it, and that I'll like it even better when I see it at home instead of with loud drunk people. Spider-Man was always my favorite too... he was always sort of a parody of Superman, and the movie did that as well. And it's those kinds of parodies that I like: where you barely know they're parodies at all. Parodies don't have to be all-out funny like The Tick or something.

Where is Spider-Man coming from? Oh where?
Dr. Rusty. Dr. Rusty Spell.


Thursday, May 09, 2002

The Robot Lives

Yay! I'm not the only one who still remembers that there's a robot here!

Diet Dr Pepper is the stuff that's supposed to taste like the original (and it pretty much does, except for some small trace of something unfamiliar--almost a hint of maybe a metallic taste, if you ask me). Plus, it's still got plenty of the good caffeine content of the original to keep you going. I've had caffeine-free Coke before, and didn't mind it much. Caffeine-Free Dr Pepper however is an entirely different creature. (And I suspect it may, in fact, be a creature of some kind. Possibly that "black oil" lifeform from the X-Files--drinking it does seem kind of like drinking motor oil, or at least what I imagine drinking motor oil must be like, seeing how I've never actually imbibed motor oil.) It doesn't even taste much like the original, leaves me feeling queasy after drinking it, and is in general an abomination against all that is good in this world.

I exaggerate though. It turns out if you mix small quantities of the caffeine-free stuff in with the real thing, it can be safely consumed, and this 2-liter my horribly misguided parents got for me won't have to go to waste after all.

I liked Spider-Man. Really, really good for a comic-book-to-movie adaptation. Very true to the spirit of the character and the story. I simultaneously get a kick out of and frustrated by a lot of the dumber criticisms of the movie I've read from people. (There's this really laughable one on the Aintitcool.com talkbacks that I can't stop thinking about--the poster says that the fact that Aunt May never gave Peter his pancakes (actually wheatcakes in the comics) or that May and Ben never gave Peter the microscope they did in the comics somehow ruined the impact of certain scenes, but then goes on to suggest that Mary Jane become the Black Cat in the sequel--which is a totally different character... Hopefully a joke post, but not too far removed from a lot of other rantings about the movie.) I think most of them just don't get the point--that Spidey's not supposed to become some badass who does everything right and knows what he's doing, gets the girl and becomes a huge winner. That it's about his struggle to grow into a responsible man, even if it's at his own expense and not the cool thing to do. He's "the Woody Allen of the superhero world" as Stan Lee has called him.

I don't have Quicktime reinstalled on this thing yet (Quicktime and my computer never got along much anyway), so I haven't seen the Kaiju Battel footage yet, but judging from the rest of the site... uh... yeah... heh. Godzilla & Power Rangers-style monsters in real-life wrestling matches, heh.

Yay for Dr. Rusty!

Monday, May 06, 2002

The Return of Rusty

I'm not sure if I drink soft drinks for caffeine or not. I don't think I do, but maybe I'm just an addict and am not admitting it. Maybe I'll attempt caffeine-free and see if I still want to drink it as much (isn't this the stuff that actually tastes about the same?).

Starwoids. I will just refuse to believe this.

Spider-Man was fine. It didn't blow me away, but it was better than most of those big hyped-up movies that I get so excited about and then hate.

I couldn't get the Kaiju stuff to open, but I'll try again later.

Rusty graduates Friday. Fun times.

Sunday, May 05, 2002

you guys have to see this

If you haven't seen it already. I don't know what to make of it, really.

http://www.kaiju.com/video.htm.

Saturday, May 04, 2002

Huh

The Free Comic Book Day website is working again (it couldn't be found when I posted last night) and their comic book store locator claims that there actually is a shop within a reasonable distance of me, contrary to the phone book and other sources I've tried. Maybe it's really, really new. Guess I'll have to go try and find it.

Friday, May 03, 2002

Superhero Weekend

Spider-Man opens today!

This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day. Go to your local comic book store and get a selection of some free comics from a bunch of different publishers. I would, but as much as you'd think there'd be a comic book store around here, there aren't any that I can find.

Thursday, May 02, 2002

Something I did not know.

Apparently Star Wars fans are known as "Starwoids." I've loved Star Wars for almost all my life (granted, I've never gotten into all the die-hard fandom around it or much of the "Expanded Universe" stuff, nor am I one of the type of folks who camped out in front of theaters for Episode I and went to see the movie wearing full Darth Maul makeup), but I've never heard this term before. Is this true, or is it something that was just made up for this documentary thing? Do people actually call themselves this? It has an even sillier/nerdier/more insulting sound to it than "Trekkie" if you ask me.