SWTX PCA/ACA: A Review

Two weeks ago, my friend Kj and I, among many other popular culture enthusiasts, descended upon the Hyatt Regency in Albuquerque New Mexico for four days of academic investigations of film, television, literature, technology, music, and more. This was the annual conference of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association. Presenters included graduate, PhD students, professors, and authors as well as some undergraduates and independent scholars.

The conference conference more than lived up to the expectations we had coming into the event for a second time. It's hard to imagine a better way to spend a week than holing up in a hotel with one of your best friends, listening to 50 some papers, drinking lots of coffee and smoothies, attending screenings of some of the best episodes of your favorite television shows, and visiting three restaurants on rotation. In the few hours we had outside of the conference, we filled our time with mozzarella sticks, episodes of Angel and an afternoon double-feature at the local cineplex. So much joy. My heart ached when the week came to an end.

Here are the panels I attended-most of which coincided with my conference companion. Following the panel title is my choice for the standout paper of said panel.

Science Fiction & Fantasy 19: Battlestar Galactica and Narrative
Standout Paper: Your So-Called Dance: Combative Narrative in Battlestar Galactica
Paul Zinder, The American University of Rome

Myth & Fairy Tale 2
Standout Paper: Once Upon a Not so Unique Time: Reconciling Individualism and Literary Borrowing in Oscar Wilde's "The Nightingale and the Rose"
Ashley Benson, University of New Hampshire

Science Fiction & Fantasy 3: Whedon, Sexuality and Gender
Standout Paper: Anya's "Disturbing Sex Talk": Breaking the Pattern of Punished Female Sexuality in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Tamy Burnett, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

Science Fiction & Fantasy 5: Sex and Violence in Twilight
Standout Paper: "Why Are You Apologizing for Bleeding?": Confronting the Evangelical Embrace of Twilight
Kj Swanson, Mars Hill Graduate School

Religion 3: Conservative Christianity and Culture
Standout Paper: Sacred and Sexular: Ann Veal in Arrested Development
Brandon Barnes, Texas A&M University

Computer Culture 7: Game Studies 7
Standout Paper: Beyond the Button: The Nintendo Wiimote Interface and its Implications for Embodiment, Performance, and Play
David O' Grady, University of California, Los Angeles

Science Fiction & Fantasy 8: The Dangers of Twilight
Standout Paper: Un-Biting the Apple and Killing the Womb: Genesis, Gender and Gynocide in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga
Colleen Orihill, Cleveland State University

Science Fiction & Fantasy 9: Whedon and Genre
Standout Paper: Firefly: Between the Noir Frontier and the Final Frontier
E. Charlotte Stevens, York University and Ryerson University

American History & Culture: Rethinking Suburban Sense of Self: Identity and Memory in the Suburbs
Standout Paper: Everything’s Bigger in Texas: Mega-Religion in Lone Star Suburbia
Charity R. Carney, Stephen F. Austin State University

Computer Culture 11: Game Studies 11
Standout Paper: Hyper-Ludicity, Contra-Ludicity and the BFG
Steven Conway, University of Bedfordshire

Science Fiction & Fantasy 12: Whedon, Technology and Ethics
Standout Paper: There's an Echo in this Horrible Dollhouse, Doctor: Memory, Identity and Neurotechnology in Riley, River, Gunn, Echo, and, of course, Spike
J. Douglas Rabb and J. Michael Richardson, Lakehead University

Horror (Literary & Cinemantic): Affective and Imaginary Machines of Horror
Standout Paper: Manufacturing Images: Allegories of the Factory in Tomb Raider
Craig Bernardini, Hostos Community College

Science Fiction & Fantasy 14: Whedon's Re-Visioning
Standout Paper: "Look Where Free Will Has Gotten You": Brave New World and Angel's Body Jasmine
Mary Ellen Iatropoulos, State University of New York, New Paltz

Computer Culture 14: Ethnography, Writing, Second Life, and Film
Standout Paper: The Sex Life in your Second Life: An Ethnological Study of Women as Sexual Objects on Second Life
Alexis Waters, Northeastern Illinois University

Science Fiction & Fantasy: Whedon & the Body
On this panel, I had the privilege of presenting my paper: “I Like My Scars”: Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and the Narrative of Flesh
Standout Paper: Postmodern Anxiety: Androids and Cyborgs in the Whedonverse
Susan J. Wolfe and Lee Ann Roripaugh, University of South Dakota

Computer Culture 16: Theorizing Internet Forms
Standout Paper: “Wizards and Witchcraft in the Wired World”: Magical Thinking in Popular Culture
Nicholas Goodman, Northeastern State University

Dru Writes Too

DRUSILLA Are you lost?

BOY No. My mom's just supposed to pick me up is all.
DRUSILLA Do you want me to walk you home?
BOY No, thank you.
DRUSILLA My mummy used to sing me to sleep at night. Run and catch, run and catch, the lamb is caught in the blackberry patch...She had the sweetest voice. What will your mummy sing when they find your body?
BOY I'm not supposed to talk to people.

DRUSILLA Oh. Well, I'm not a person, see, so that's just...
ANGEL Run home.

Actress/director Juliet Landau, is co-writing Angel 24 and 25 with Brian Lynch two issues that will focus on her character, Drusilla from both Buffy and Angel fame. U.K. illustrator and Juliet's friend Sam Shearon created the above cover for issue 24, which I am quite fond of. Reminds me of some of Jo Chen's excellent artwork for Buffy Season 8. I love the way it suggests Dru's innocence on the left hand side, conveying her as someone beautiful to look at, but from a distance. On the right, her cage has been opened, and you see the inner demon. A simple image that is deliciously evocative. Via.

Speaking of Drusilla, who was given some of the most velvety, layered dialogue in the two series, I couldn't resist including these two sections of dialogue from the Season 2 episode of Buffy, "Lie to Me".

DRUSILLA You sing the sweetest little song. Won't you sing for me, hmm? Don't you love me anymore?...(to the bird) Come on. I'll pout...I'll give you a seed if you sing.
SPIKE The bird's dead, Dru. You left it in a cage, and you didn't feed it, and now it's all dead, just like the last one...Oh, I'm sorry baby. I'm a bad, rude man. I just don't like you goin' out, that's all. You are weak. Would you like a new bird? One that's not dead?

Tonight, the dolls come out to play.

Then

The Slayer

March 10, 1997

The Vampire

October 5, 1999

The Independent

September 20, 2002

The Doctor

July 15, 2008

Now

The Doll

February 13, 2009

9:00pm

"Is that it? Am I done?"

Before a pre-production meeting at Taproot the other day, I went to Dreamstrand comic book store in Greenwood and picked up a copy of Angel Spotlight: Doyle. The comic chronicles the few days before Doyle's initial encounter with Angel in "City Of." The writing is actually pretty good and next time I'm there I will likely get the one-shot of Illyria. It made me realize how much I miss Doyle and really how much of a tragedy it was to lose not only his character but the actor who portrayed Allen Francis Doyle, Glenn Quinn. I would have really liked to see where he-they-went.


On using his Irish accent in Angel, Quinn said, "It was like putting on an old pair of shoes. It's bringing my soul back to life." He, like myself, also collected Star Wars memorabilia.

I've been toying with the idea of doing some work on the character in the future.

CW Bites Again

Almost five years ago to the day-February 14th 2004-the WB television network decided to cancel Angel. David Fury, the head writer of the show has said that if Joss and the crew had not been so adamant with the Head of Entertainment about getting an early renewal for the show that the show would have definitely been picked up for a sixth season. He also stated "The WB has since recognized…I believe Garth Ancier at The WB said that it was a big mistake to cancel Angel."

Any way it happened, it makes the news that the CW has just picked up a pilot for a new series entitled, "Vampire Diaries" all the more bitter to taste. "Vampire Diaries" is based on L.J. Smith's four-book series of the same name originally published in 1993 which as the Variety article states, the CW made clear was before Stephanie Meyer's publication of her Twilight books. But with all the vampyric media these days, it is no surprise that HarperCollins ordered three more books with the first new novel-with the unnecessary multiple-part title: The Vampire Diaries: The Return: Nightfall-coming out on Tuesday.

"Vampire Diaries" revolves around a young woman whose torn between two vampire brothers. The The brothers - one good, one evil - are battling for her soul, and the souls of her pals, family and the small town where they live.

What makes the news even more difficult to bear is the fact that this show will be birthed by writers and producers from such quality work as "Gossip Girl," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Dawson's Creek" and "Privileged."

Someone should point out that some vampires just suck.

Super Sunday

This is what my Super Bowl Sunday looked like: (Times are approximate)

9:50 Wake-up. Text Keith, "brunch?" Keith: "Yes." Me: "Grocery store. 15 minutes."

10:45 Coffee. A big plate of biscuits & gravy, eggs.

11:00 Angel Season 1, Episode 1, "City Of"



12:00 Keith: "Want to go to the gym." Me: "No." Me: "Actually, yes."

12:30 Gym. Elliptical. Weights. Balancing thingy. More weights. Abs. Shower.

2:00 Keith: "Mecquet wants to watch the Super Bowl." Me: "Oh. Okay." Mecquet: "Well maybe we don't actually have to watch it." Me: "Well, we can have it on while we do other things like filling out my FAFSA and doing Taxes." Mecquet: "I win." Keith & Mecquet: "Let's get beer and chips." Me: "Okay."

2:15 Grocery store. Walk to Keith's.

3:00 Super Bowl

3:05 Open computer. Start taxes.

3:15 Ooh, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra teaser trailer. Looks like it could be mindless summer fun. Directed by Stephen Sommers-who did The Mummy flicks.



3:16 More taxes.

3:30 Me: "Mecquet, what's a 'turnover'?" Tom: "It's like a baked crisp, apple desser-" Mecquet: "It's just when the other team gets the ball." Me: "Oh. Okay. Cool."

3:55 Ooh, new Star Trek trailer. Definitely awesome with tons of new footage.



4:00 Finish taxes.

4:05 Eat chips.

4:10 Finish beer.

4:11 At this point, I'm feeling very American-all with the taxes, beer and Super Bowl.

4:12 Start FAFSA. Not too hard now that I'm no longer an undergraduate and my taxes are done.

4:30 Ooh, Land of the Lost trailer with Will Ferrell. Does not look very good. At all.



4:50 Finish FAFSA.

4:52 Open a new beer. Surf online and come across Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen Super Bowl teaser trailer-which at this point has not even aired during the Super Bowl. I have no idea how that happens. The internet is magic. Me: "Mecquet, I found the Transformers trailer online that you've been waiting all afternoon to see." Mecquet: "I hate you. Then this whole afternoon of watching the Super Bowl has been pointless. I'm waiting."

5:15 Mecquet: "Okay if the Transformers trailer hasn't come on during this commercial break we're watching it online."

5:17 Me: "No Transformers." Hook computer up to big TV. Watch Transformers trailer on the internet. Apparently the scenes in the trailer are just from the first 20 minutes of the movie. It should make for a thrilling theatrical experience.

5:45 Transformers 2 trailer finally airs on the television. High definition one is better than the YouTube version, obviously.



6:00 Randy calls. Randy: "Car got broken into. Nothing stolen just a smashed window. Do you want to drive to the movie?" Mecquet: "I'll drive."

6:05 Pick up Randy and Lacey.

6:20 Eat at Chipotle. Delicious. Since I stopped living in the University District, going to Chipotle is always such a treat. This week I was spoiled. I went twice.

7:10 Walk to The Varsity theatre on the Ave.

7:15 Sit down in the theatre. See Were the World Mine. Trailer here. Review to come.



9:05 Leave theatre. Drive home.

9:30 Eat Trader Joes Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich. Oh my gosh. So good.

10:00 Bedtime.

Angel: ATF FTW

This month's issue of Angel: After The Fall, which begins to close up the "season's" story arc blew me away. This is the kind of resonance that we've always wanted with Angel and it is the issue that makes everything in After The Fall worth reading. It is incredibly climactic and 'verse changing.

Angel: After The Fall #16, Cover by Alex Garner.

Thanks to the writer, Brian Lynch, for such an amazing experience. I am going to re-read the whole thing over again.

Final ATF: Vol 3 Cover

The cover for Angel: After The Fall Volume 3, collecting issues 9-12 of the series, has been released.


It's available for pre-order now and hits shelves on March 29th. If you still need to catch up on the events that have taken place since LA went to hell, you can get the first two volumes in hardcover here and here.

If you think Illyria didn't get her due screen time in the show, wait till you see the former goddess in action in its continuation.

"If you've reached this message, I'm probably in the 'verse."

Since I came back to Seattle from my holiday jaunt abroad, I jumped right into a new job, another Concierge position, though far more involved and rewarding. I get to excercise my creative talents designing and writing flyers for a variety of events and the atmosphere all around-aesthetically and otherwise is just fantastic. I feel tremendously valued and every day is interesting. A real good change to say the least. And the free food is definitely welcome!

In the other hours of the day, I have been almost entirely immersed in the Whedonverse-although, I would say I'm in that state a great deal of the time anyway. I am still working on a Firefly paper with friend, co-worker, colleague and co-author, Kj, for the Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association's 30th Annual Conference in late February. (Unlike SC3 for Slayage, this conference makes for a significantly longer acronym SWTX PCA/ACA). The paper focuses on Shepherd Book and his (in)ability to carry out the duties one would expect from one in a shepherding/pastoring position.

It has been a perfect project for us, I with my Christian upbringing, an academic conference on my resume, English degree with unofficial pop-culture emphasis and Kj with her enthusiasm about performing arts, film television and her pursuit of a Masters in Divinity at a local school. That and we get along-I can't imagine doing this kind of thing with an arbitrarily assigned classmate-though I'm sure that will come about either in grad school or my professional career.

We've been divying up responsibilities, watching episodes of Firefly over and over again-with commentary, without commentary, waxing theological over sliders, Guinness and Mountain Dew at Happy Hours and reading loads of essays, books and comics. We've both been experiencing the fun of homework. A few of the recent additions to the bookshelves from bookstore runs and Amazon orders, Finding Serenity edited by Jane Espenson, Firefly: The Official Companion Vol. 1 & 2, Serenity Official Visual Companion, and Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier edited by my advisory-peer-academics Rhonda Wilcox and Tanya Cochran. And if you fancy yourself a fan of Firefly, you need to check out the graphic novel, Those Left Behind. With a script written by Joss Whedon and Brett Matthews, it does a great job of bridging the television series and Serenity and it has been an invaluable asset in telling the overarching narrative as Kj and I conduct our character research.

Also keeping me fresh with the 'verse: multiple visits daily to Whedonesque. A highlight from this morning that's worth reading if you're an Angel devotee is by Jake from The Armchair Critic. There, he offers his take on the 25 Best and 5 Worst episodes Angel.

I still anxiously await every issue of Buffy Season 8 and Angel: After the Fall. This past week brought us the comic debut of Harmony Kendall in the Jane Espenson penned "Harmonic Divergence" where Harmony gets a reality show and in the process brings vampires to the forefront of public awareness. Tons of pop culture references and wit. Harmony must be a blast to write for.

She also makes a brief appearance in the recently released first of three issues of Angel: Smile Time, a comic book version of the Angel episode from Season 5. Also in the works is an adaptation of the very last episode of Angel, "Not Fade Away." Each adaptation features expanded dialogue and creative use of the "camera" that sometimes deviates from the original framing.

While I'm in the Whedonverse-dishing-mood, some upcoming dates:

Dollhouse premieres February 13, 2009 on FOX

Buffy Season 8 "Swell" #22 February 04, 2009 Satsu and Kennedy team-up in Japan.

Angel: After the Fall "Riot Control" #16 January 28, 2009

Angel: Blood and Trenches March 25, 2009 An ancient evil calls Angel to return to Europe during World War I.

Angel "Not Fade Away" April 2009

Illyria: Before the Aftermath Release Unknown

Angel: Aftermath Mid 2009

If you're aching for original and canonical Buffy material, you're not too late to get into the rich text and art of Buffy and Angel in comics!

Comic Books & Juice Part II

Part I of Comic Books & Juice revolved around an excursion to purchase the latest issues of Angel: After the Fall, Buffy Season 8 and an Odwalla juice.

Last night's events paralleled the geek-saturated nature of that former experience in the viewing of two movies of the science-fiction variety and "juice" by which I mean "juice + booze."

First up on the agenda was a screening of Cloverfield for an under-the-weather friend at his new apartment. It was the first time he had seen it. Mid-way through the attempt at characterization early on in the film (pre-devestation) and the 90210 meets Gossip Girl meets American Apparel models I went to the store to buy among other things, Prosecco and Orange Juice-the latter did double duty as extra Vitamin C for my sick friend and half of my mimosas throughout the evening.

As was the desire of our ill and gracious host, we followed Cloverfield by watching another disaster movie, this one entitled The Day After, no not that Day After. It was produced for television in 1983 with an array of actors in the early stages of their career including John Lithgow and Steve Guttenberg-whose character's name I appreciated: Stephen Klein. The Day After is a disturbing look at the possibility of a full on nuclear war with rather graphic depictions of doomsday.

If you're interested, The Doomsday Clock currently reads five minutes to midnight, last updated on the 17th of January 2007.

While "juice" was not strictly "juice" and the movies weren't based on comic books per se, the tag "Comic Books & Juice" just seemed appropriate for the occasion.

"Let's Go Into The Water"

This evening I had the pleasure of seeing the first night of previews for the new show at ACT-A Contemporary Theatre-in downtown Seattle. The show, crafted by American playwright Sarah Ruhl, is entitled Eurydice after the Orpheus and Eurydice myth described in the tenth book of Ovid's Metamorphoses here .

Every once in a long while I go to a theatrical production that changes the way I look at the face of the performing arts or one that heavily influences my perpetual musings on the human experience. Eurydice-bless her wonderful ensemble-cast-heart-did both of these things for me. Eurydice is that phenomenal. The show is both an adapatation and an extension of the tragic myth written from the point of view of Orpheus' wife-Eurydice. The creative license Ruhl takes with this timeless story are more than welcome, transforming the rather simple tale into a deeply moving and relevant piece of narrative art. Eurydice, who finds herself in the Underworld, must decide whether to continue her life among the living with her husband on Earth or to stay in Hades with her father-a character from Ruhl's imagination and one that propels the play in quite unexpected and powerful fashion.

ACT is the only theatre in Seattle which has a theatre-in-the-round type of stage and after seeing Eurydice in this way, I cannot imagine experiencing its wonders in any other space. Rounding the hallway and stepping into the expansive room, a diving board looms above a tiled floor in the center-evoking the bottom of a swimming pool. This was probably the first and only time an usher will ever tell me that my seat is on the other side of the diving board. Also of note were several taught strings running from the set to the rafters above. Actors would later literally pluck these strings as with a musical instrument with varied tonal effects adding a sensual and organic element to the production.

In fact the entire experience of the play was heightened by the theatre set-up itself and the spectacular staging. Though I find it nigh impossible to name precisely that which made this play such an utter success, I would say that I have never seen such intelligent and graceful use of space in theatre. Actors moved between the aisles, rose to different heights, descended from above the audience and around. The result of such fluid movement, such inspired blocking made for an extraordinarily interactive environment. The cast's exploitation of the depth of the space generated an extraordinarily visceral and tangible experience. The set became its own character. It breathed as the actors breathed.

The show borders on surrealism at times, theatre-of-the-absurd at others, aided by the haunting lighting cues and of course, the Chorus of Stones. At its core, however, this is still a Greek myth and a tragedy at that and the latter is something that one may try so desperately try to forget as loved ones live with and apart from one another. Those that are aware of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice are not spoiled but are treated with so much more meaningful content. In one act, this play speaks volumes about language, communication, mourning and temptation. It teaches by sight, sound and active humanity. There is not one moment of this play that is unnecessary, out-of-place or overdone. Though Eurydice runs for only 90 minutes, I could have sworn I was there for hours, even days and in truth, I would gladly have stayed them.

Throughout the play echoes of other works traversed fleetingly through my head. This myth is so rooted in our artistic culture. The legend flows through our collective unconsciousness-its existence entirely unhindered by the passing of time. Orpheus and Eurydice appear everywhere. And is there any way that such an essential tale would go unnoticed by Joss Whedon? Of course not. A couple years ago, Buffyologist Janet K. Halfyard-perhaps Britains most prominent Buffy scholar, if not the most genteel-was requested by the Birmingham Conservatory to perform research the relationship between Buffy and the Orpheus myth in conjunction with their staging of Monteverdi's opera, Orpheum. Halfyard immediately suspected there was substantial merit in such an inquiry and found countless ties between the Buffyverse and Orpheus and Eurydice. As Halfyard discusses in her paper, "Hero's Journey, Heroine's Return: Buffy, Eurydice and the Orpheus Myth" which she presented at Slayage Conference 3, descents, ascents, returns, loss and battered and reluctant heroes appear countless times in both Buffy and Angel. The Orpheus myth is displayed quite literally in several instances, in particular, Buffy's descent into "hell" as she confronts the Master in his subterranean lair-his "Baroque candlelit underworld."

Seen here, Buffy actually inhabits the pose of Orpheus in many paintings depicting the myth, Buffy's crossbow standing in for the lyre of Orpheus:


Halfyard explains that as this scene progresses Buffy simultaneously embodies Eurydice and Orpheus. The Orpheus myth is invoked quite literally in the season 4 episode of Angel, "Orpheus," which depicts a beautiful journey through Angel's own underworld.

In her talk, Halfyard explained that according to the nature of myth, there are no fixed forms. Buffy is not the only art to actively engage old myths, but it certainly does it well.

Thus, Eurydice and the myth that came long before it are gifts to those involved in the dramatic arts as creators or spectators.

After my heart broke during Eurydice, I may never see the bottom of a swimming pool the same way again.

Eurydice runs from now until October 5th.

Comic Books & Juice

Yesterday, I found myself saying to Kelli that I was going to step off property, "I'm going to take a ten and buy a comic book and an Odwalla juice." She later said that she found it quite charming. I feel like a kid in the best way possible.

The results of the short jaunt around downtown:

Buffy Season 8 #18

Angel: After The Fall #12

Odwalla Super Protein

Comic books & juice.

Dear David

Dear David,

I heart you.

Entertainment Weekly sat down with David Boreanaz who revealed some of his likes, dislikes, guilty pleasures and entertaining domestic habits. He seems like such a nice, jovial, good-natured family-man. As I watched Angel, I always loved it when he smiled. The characters on the show even voiced such a desire at several moments during the series. I also would not have minded of the wet-button-down-shirt-look but Mr. Boreanaz was usually costumed in black attire.

In the exchange, David also mentions that he thinks the most overrated television show is Heroes and explains "we were doin' that in '97 with Buffy." The interview can be found in its entirety here.

Which one of these could you go the longest without: iPod, cell phone, DVR, or hair gel?
DVR, because I don't have one.

Wait, what?
I hate TiVo, I hate DVRs. I do not get them. You tell me why I need a DVR.

Because you can tape two things at once.
If I miss something, I miss it. Why would I tape it to watch it on another day that there's [live] television? That makes no sense to me whatsoever. But I don't watch TV. I watch sports, the Food Network and the gardening channel. What, am I gonna DVR, a recipe? [Thinks about it] That would be nice. Watch Molto Mario make a nice lasagna, I'm all about that. I'm gettin' a DVR! Barefoot Contessa is hilarious, just the way they shoot it. And Everyday Italian is really good — the way she cuts garlic is fantastic. Nice and sharp....

And this is a perfect time to reveal number...oh, I don't know, I lost count...a few more guilty pleasures, The Food Network in general and one sweet little Italian cook in particular. I have had a huge crush on Giada-Giada De Laurentiis (because we're on a first name basis)-of the Food Network show, Everyday Italian, since the first day I watched the show. I used to come home from class in college, make a fontina grilled cheese sandwhich on walnut bread and watch her show at 1:30PM on Weekdays and at 1:00PM on Saturdays. She's perky, beautiful and I have her cookbook. I've systematically gone through about half of it, I think, and it's all superb. I hear there's a DVD of the show. If I had that, I may never leave my kitchen.

As David says in this article, Barefoot Contessa,is really really funny-in a probably-not-intended-to-be-funny-at-all sort of way. It takes place in and around Ina Garten's New England home where she hosts many a dinner party with her friends-namely middle aged gay men-with the utmost pretension.

"Let's flavor up this homemade whipped cream with Chambord because I have all the time in the world and then we can cut fresh herbs from my perfectly manicured gardens-from the south side of the house, not the north-and sprinkle them on this lamb I purchased from the local butcher whose name is Isaac and then we can sip these cocktails I made with the vodka I have been infusing with rosemary for the last six months while we watch old French movies on the veranda and giggle every once in awhile like old friends as we isolate the viewers from our oh-so-entertaining-lives."

When it comes to dinner, she might even give Martha a run for her money. As with Martha, it's hard to stop watching the inadvertent condescension and haughty attitudes. And adding "Barefoot" to the word "Contessa" doesn't make the show's title any less presumptuous.

At this point, it might go without saying that I am right there with Liz Lemon from 30 Rock when it comes to my television interests.

Jack: "You don't watch the news, Lemon?"
Liz: "Food Network doesn't have a news show."

Speaking of which, 30 Rock will have it's 3rd Season Premiere on my birthday, October 30th!

Dear James

Dear James Marsters,

I think you were phenomenal as Spike on Buffy and Angel and I hear you are also excellent on Torchwood as Captain John Hart.

That being said, please tell me that the studio paid you large piles of money to play this green-hued alien demon in the live-action Dragonball movie.

According to IMDb, you have said that your role of Piccolo is a complex, Shakespearean one: "Thousands of years ago he used to be a force of good, but he was imprisoned for 2000 years, making him very angry, and then he finds a way to escape...The cool thing is anybody who's seen Dragon Ball knows that Lord Piccolo transforms into THE Piccolo, and that is a whole other ball of wax; heroic wouldn't be the wrong term, but it's a long journey."

For some reason, I don't think the creators of Dragonball read Shakespeare all that much. Whedon, on the other hand...and who really has suffered or had more dramatic turns than Spike anyway?

Who knows, we still have over half a year to see whether this works out. I'm not holding my breath, though.

I think I'll stick to watching you save the world over and over again.

And they didn't actually make you green.


You should at least negotiate that for your contract next time. I mean, if you're going to play Piccolo you might as well go all the way, right? Add the antennae too.

I still love your cheekbones.

After The Fall(s)

I knew this would happen, when my experience watching Buffy and Angel for the first time would come to a bittersweet end. Fortunately, it only makes me want to go back and watch it all again.

Even though I came to Buffy late in the game, I was excited not only because I had finally become witness to one of our generations greatest television shows or because I had found a thrilling new venue for exploring my academic pursuits, but because I still had 143 more episodes left after “Welcome to the Hellmouth” over seven entire seasons to watch. “The Chosen Collection” was there next to my television or its individual folios were strewn about my desk by my computer just waiting to be watched and re-watched. When Buffy came to an end for me in early 2008, I was on a high and there was little time between the time I finished Buffy and when I began watching Angel.

Slayage Conference 3 came as I was nearing the end of Angel’s third season. Despite the numerous exclamations directed at me of “What?! You haven’t seen all of Angel?” and Nikki Stafford’s oft-voiced exuberance over the glorious manner in which Angel bowed out to television audiences at the end of its fifth and final season, I was still happy to hold on to the fact that I had not finished it, always looking forward to the fact that I knew I could still return to a world that was familiar and unfamiliar all at once-where anything could happen and it would still manage to surprise me, even four or five years after the show originally aired.

A few weeks ago, I finally finished Angel.

What next? I had already begun collecting the fantastic Season 8 of Buffy-how ‘bout that reveal at the end of Issue 16?-and however pleased I was at the way the television series of Angel ended, I knew I would inevitably check out Angel: After The Fall which is essentially Angel: Season Six. In fact, I figured I would be in need of an Angel-fix that I actually purchased the bound edition of After The Fall’s first story arc in a hardcover which collects the first five issues before I even finished the last few episodes so I would have it at my fingertips when the screen went dark. Does anyone else think that Angel looks a hell-of-a-lot like Nathan Fillion in this illustration? The association is interesting taking into account Nathan Fillion auditioned for the role of Angel on Buffy, but was told he was too old.

It happens with vacations, it happens with movies, it happens with television shows-sooner or later, these things come to an end and we are forced not to forget what we have experienced but reminisce fondly about them and reestablish them within a new context in our lives. Instead of watching a show faithfully week to week, we have marathons and in the case of Buffy, sing-a-longs, we have our friends watch these works of art, we write about them, we instruct by them. We use these cultural products in new ways and we re-experience them which can be just as enjoyable. I may have finished watching Buffy and Angel as an initial pass-through, but now I can experience them upon again in a different way.

Thankfully, Whedon and Co.—IDW Publishing, Dark Horse, the writers, illustrators and inkers of the comics-are a benevolent people who will allow me the pleasure of continuing my foray into the Buffyverse and I don’t quite have to go through a painful lamenting process since I finished the shows.

Yesterday's purchases at Zanadu, the comic book store downtown, are evidence that the world I cherish is still in motion. A well-spent $20 bill garnered me Angel: After The Fall, issues 7 through 11. And a sidenote: while I understand the monetary motivation to have variant covers with comic books, it is still immensely frustrating, but I think I picked the pretty ones.

On a shelf in my humble apartment, looked over by a mean statuette of Darth Vader, “The Chosen Collection” stands beside the collector's set of Angel and Firefly: The Complete Series in a kind of holy trio, a Joss Whedon shrine of sorts. Above that the first sixteen and counting issues Buffy Season 8 and the first eleven of Angel: After The Fall.

If my shelf or the sales numbers serve any amount of proof, I don’t think there will ever come a time when we live in a Buffyless world.

Buffy lives...again.

Thank Whedon (and yourselves) for that.

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

Joyce: Honey, a-are you sure you're a Vampire Slayer?...I-I mean, have you tried not being a Slayer?

-"Becoming, Part Two" 2.22

This afternoon I watched the trailer for Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer with Robert "Freddy Krueger" Englund and Trevor Matthews. It looks like a fun flick and it is sure to please, in particular, the generation of fans that grew up during the glory days of horror films.

The trailer can be found here at the film's official site or it can also be viewed over at the Apple movie trailer website.

The Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer synopsis:

After witnessing the brutal murder of his family, Jack Brooks (Trevor Matthews) is left with an unquenchable fury that he is constantly fighting to control. Now working as a local plumber and struggling in a relationship with his girlfriend Eve (Rachel Skarsten), Jack’s life has become a downward spiral. One night, Jack attempts to fix Professor Crowley’s (Robert Englund) old, rusted pipes, but unknowingly awakens an ancient evil. Lured by this demonic power, Professor Crowley discovers a monstrous black heart that quickly forces its way inside of him. Possessed by the heart now beating in his chest, the Professor starts a slow, gruesome transformation. It is at this moment that Jack realizes he can’t run from his past, and quickly discovers the true purpose of his inner rage.

Obviously there is more than a little "textual poaching" going on here. I'm sure that the nod to Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the title won't be the only one. I could see a similar Buffy poster with the titular character of Jack Brooks wielding the Slayer Scythe. Could that be a minor appropriation as well? The movie is probably not looking to reinvent the horror genre, by any means, but rather bring it back to the basics-no CGI as far as I can tell for example. The style of the movie is clearly invoking the low-budget, dark-humor and tone of many 80s horror flicks-to which I was introduced with a heavy hand by my last roommate several years ago-especially Sam Raimi's fantastically fun gorefests, Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), with Jack Brooks taking on the role of Slayer here as reluctantly as Bruce Campbell's "Ash" Williams assumes his role in fighting the forces of evil. Although, don't forget about one of my all time favorite camp-horror films, Dead Alive-as it is known in the U.S-directed by none other than a pre-Lord of the Rings Peter Jackson. It also appears that the content and tonality of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer runs along the lines of contemporary films such as Black Sheep, Slither (starring Nathan Fillion) and Evil Aliens-all of which are worth checking out for the dark-comedy/horror enthusiast.

Speaking of the Evil Dead series of films, did anyone who has been following the continuation of Angel's storyline in Angel: After the Fall notice that as Angel is performing a healing spell, he is blatantly reading from the Necronomicon-the powerful "Book of the Dead" prominently featured in the Evil Dead trilogy-in several panels of After the Fall Issue 4? Such a great reference!

It has been often rumored that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell would reunite for a sequel or possible remake of The Evil Dead and it looks like that the latter may still be in the works according to the page on IMDb.

I hope that Jack Brooks: The Monster Slayer gets a wide release and opens in Seattle, at least at one of the many fine Landmark Theatres we have here, soon.

I'm always up for a little slayage.

Some Kind of Holiday II

And while I'm at it, all with the posting of pictures of movie stars in their underwear, I might as well mention that Tuesday, August 5th 2008 was the 6th Annual National Underwear Day in the great U.S. of A. For my Canadian readers, I know, it is sad that such a glorious holiday only takes place in our country. Trust me, I wish we had had "BC Day" on Monday and "Boxing Day" too.


A nice tribute to the scantily clad talent that has heated up our silver screens provides a few celebratory moments-albeit now belated-for National Underwear Day is over at My New Plaid Pants.

While I can't say that I did anything particularly exciting on Tuesday to celebrate this momentous occasion, I did buy a pair of underwear in Vancouver, BC over the weekend, and I would say that I'm a fan of underwear in general during the rest of the year. Tuesday was also exciting in that however difficult it always is to return to normal life after vacation, I received a respectable raise at work, had an amazing summer-y dish prepared by a friend of mine-pasta, tuna, onion, basil, bell peppers and all-around deliciousness-and hung out with a good friend with whom I watched two episodes of Angel-"Lineage" and "Destiny" from Season 5.

So, all in all, I had a fantastic National Underwear Day! How about you? And by the way, speaking of stars in their underwear-Angel in the shower in "Life of the Party" Season 5, Episode 5 and Xander in the Season 2 episode of Buffy, "Go Fish." Yes, please.

Kings of NBC

The following article was just published on the Sci-Fi.com website under the title Bible, Heroes Inspire Kings. It really drives the point through that strong narratives can have tremendous lifespans and the Bible is chock-full of phenomenal, character driven stories that are epic, personal, inspiring and meaningful. So, while a mainstream appropriation of biblical text is somewhat eyebrow-raising, it is not at all surprising given the great depth the source text. I am often thinking about ways to inflect relevancy into "classic" or "older" texts, regardless of the original medium-and it really becomes a matter of translating them and putting them through a series of tests and filters so that the concentrated truths therein can be found-much like the process of titration in high-school chemistry. Over time and through these various creative processes, the full composition of the subject, what makes the original text valid, can be discovered and then reintegrated into a new framework.

Michael Green, the executive producer of NBC's upcoming drama Kings, told SCI FI Wire that his previous position as a staff writer for Heroes was a big inspiration for the contemporary drama, which is loosely based on the biblical story of King David.

"I wrote this while working on Heroes and was absolutely inspired by the work we were doing there: the larger-than-life storytelling," Green said during an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend. "I absolutely bounced ideas off the writers there and asked for their help and advice at various points. I probably could not have written this without them being there encouraging me and giving me good ideas when I didn't have them."

Kings is a modern retelling of the David story, set in a nondescript modern metropolis reminiscent of New York. David Shepherd (Christopher Egan) is a soldier who rescues the king's son from enemy territory and causes the path to peace to finally become clear. He returns home a hero and must deal with his sudden celebrity and position of power.

"There are a lot of similarities to Heroes," Green said. "I look at Kings as a high-end family drama, where the family just happens to be a royal family. There are similarities in that there will be ongoing storylines, but Kings lends itself a bit more to stand-alone stories in the Battlestar Galactica model. There are no barriers for entry for audiences."

Green added that he enjoyed contemporizing the familiar story. "Taking these elements and thinking, 'What is Goliath in this world?'" he said. "And taking these touchstone elements that people do know from the story and bringing them to life in a new way. We are taking inspirations from the original Bible story, so it's very much a story of one king rising while another one falls. It's a way for me to tell Godfather-like stories or these operatic stories."

But Green said the series is not literal in that he plays with the iconic story and that it veers into what he calls "soft sci-fi." "I'm not afraid of sci-fi, and I love it," he said. "We didn't want to do this as a space opera. We wanted it to be a familiar world, but at the same time we are inventing a world. We had a lot of fun inventing what this world is going to look like. We are taking New York and impressing our own aesthetic and own iconography. We got to have a lot of fun with that. I remember talking to David Eick about this when he was doing Battlestar, and he said they were always asking themselves the question 'What do doorknobs looks like?' We decided that we wanted to have things look like they could fit in our worlds, but you're not sure what city it is."

Green said that part of the SF element has to do with the idea of "magic, faith, happenstance, luck, God." "I look at it as the hand of faith guiding the heroes," he said. "I'm curious to see how people perceive that. The ongoing discussions when people see it are 'Is that magic? Did something just happen beyond physics? Is it something special or luck?' I won't answer that and will let people interpret that." Kings is set for a midseason start in early 2009. -Tara Bennett

How true this adaptation remains to the biblical story of King David is yet to be seen, and I would hope that much of the theological subtext of King David's personal journeys stays intact as the scope of the project it seems would necessitate that discourse. Although, based on Mr. Green's equivocal comments in the last paragraph of Sci-Fi's report, I have my doubts about the ability of a show to remain strong in its narrative while overtly skirting conviction. The creator must have an answer himself and if that belief is clear in the creator's own mind it is bound to come out in the series. The "world-view" of the auteur, if I may use that term, is essential to creating a coherent world within the show. I suspect it is easier to say "I won't answer that and will let people interpret that" before the show premieres than after even a few episodes. As the show progresses, I imagine these kinds of broad statements regarding the show's theological-or not-intentions will be more difficult to maintain.

A few evenings ago, I was talking to my friend KJ-with whom I always have engaging conversations about theology and popular culture-about how excited I am for her to get to some of the later seasons of Angel where the whole fate, prophecy and destiny dilemma is more compounded and direct in nature than the ways in which it is touched on in the first two or three seasons a la "To Shanshu in L.A." at the end of Angel's first season.

Kind of Empty

ANGEL
You. You're the—

HIGH PRIEST
High priest, guardian of the word, caretaker of her most blessed temple.

ANGEL
Well, blessed temple's kind of empty, padre.

"Peace Out" Angel 4.21

When I watched this episode of "Angel" today I could not help but think of the many references that were made to "God's House" in Arkadelphia, Arkansas during Slayage 3: Conference on the Whedonverses back in the beginning of June.

Ryan and I first discovered God's House as we were eating at one of Arkadelphia's finest dining establishments, Sonic. God's House is conveniently located across the street from Sonic, so if you are ever running late for a meeting with the Almighty, you can always grab a snack beforehand and bring it over to share. If you need to look it up on a map, it's on the corner of 10th & McNutt. God's House, as you can see in the above picture, is comprised of a dilapidated, boarded up structure. Regarding its appearance, Ryan-just as Angel does in this scene in "Peace Out"-made the eerie comment, "There doesn't seem to be anyone there." I replied, "That's quite a statement."

In a later conversations with some local Arkadelphites, I asked what purpose God's House might serve and no one could give us an answer. Was it a church? A Bible study center? A meeting place for a youth group? No one knew what went down there-so we automatically assumed that a building called God's House would be a perfect front for illicit activities in Arkadelphia, AR and the students of Henderson State University. It is in a dry county after all.