Glenn Hauman: View From Above

New Zealand’s source for entertainment news, gossip & music, movie & book reviews on Stuff.co.nz: It’s a maze Jim, but not as we know it:

15 July 2006
LONDON: A British fan of the cult TV show Star Trek has boldly gone where no man has gone before and created a giant maize maze dedicated to the programme.

Trekkie Tom Pearcy used satellite technology to help him cut the maze in the corn field at his farm near York, northern England, to celebrate 40 years since the show’s first episode.

The maze, whose design includes images of character Mr Spock and the USS Enterprise spaceship, used 1.5 million maize plants and claims to be the biggest of its kind in the world.

ahistoricality: Behavioral Economics and Politics.

And while we’re on modifying behavior, everybody’s linking to this one.

Rock Ridge, Rock Ridge…

Rockridge Institute – Bush Is Not Incompetent.

MSNBC%u2019s Star Carves Anti-Fox Niche – New York Times: Note the Stewie Griffin doll and the Family Guy calendar. Really, how anti-Fox can Olbermann be?

Five kinds of facts:

1. Stuff you know, that actually is true

Investors are historians not futurists. We’re overloaded. Even with the best data available, like our fund profiles, you’re dealing with 10,000 funds, each with 100 bits of data that’s actually old news, usually at least 3-6 months old. So you oscillate between a false sense of being well-informed, and insecurity about the truth.

2. Stuff you think you know, but is wrong

Economists, securities analysts and cable’s talking heads know our brains prefer positive upbeat news. Eternal optimists, they speak the good news. You know you don’t know the future, so you turn to the media and press for hints, thinking maybe if you just listen to CNBC long enough, or read one more newspaper, or research one more fund, you’ll figure out tomorrow. The blind are leading the blind. Your mind is rationalizing a bad idea.

3. Stuff you know you don’t know, but obsess about

Every day the media talks endlessly with hundreds of market gurus, economists, CEOs. You get all the contradictions, oxymorons, dilemmas, paradoxes, a daily torrent of conflicting data about tomorrow’s unknowns and unpredictables. So you obsess anxiously, trying to figure out what you can never really know until after the fact.

4. Stuff you know to be true, but deny

Our minds are masters at denying the truth, even when it’s staring us in the face. In hindsight any damn fool could have predicted the dot-com collapse. But greed drove us and we denied P/E ratios mattered. You’re fortunate if 25% of what you know is true. But the fact is, even when you feel you’re right, you might still be dead wrong, unable to let go of even a bad idea.

5. All the stuff you don’t know that you don’t know

Stuff you don’t see until after the fact, when it’s too late! Unknowns that unpredictably crash markets: Natural disasters, deficit collapses, homeland terrorist attacks, nuclear war.

(Via The Big Picture: What Do You Know?)

In response to the old question, “What do I put in my Portfolio?”: Read it, since there’s a decent chance I’ll be looking at your portfolio someday.

Real quick, more stuff as we have it, but here’s the press release:

GRIMJACK GOES 3D WITH REELART STUDIOS

ReelArt Studios has licensed with The Nightsky GrimJack Rights and Production Vehicle LLC to create resin statues and busts featuring the characters from the Grimjack comic book series and other intellectual property holdings of the company.

The first product will be a 1/8th scale statue featuring John Gaunt, a.k.a. GrimJack, the brooding sword for hire in the city of Cynosure based on the artwork of Timothy Truman. The statue is scheduled to be sculpted by the talented Jason “Spyda” Adams and is planned for an early 2007 release date.

GrimJack is the creation of John Ostrander and Timothy Truman and was originally published in 1983 by First Comics, Inc. as a back-up story in Mike Grell’s long running hit series STARSLAYER. A true overnight sensation, First Comics promptly moved GrimJack into its own stand-alone monthly title. GrimJack was published in more than 80 original comic book issues, an original graphic novel, and three spin-off series. More recently, the series made its return in KILLER INSTINCT, a new graphic novel distributed by IDW Publishing, who is also reprinting the complete First Comics run of GrimJack. A new GrimJack graphic novel by Ostrander and Truman is presently in the works and will begin serialization later this fall, with trade paperback distribution set for spring of 2007.

GrimJack’s creators are long-standing stars of the comic book field. An internationally-produced playwright (Stuart Gordon’s “Bloody Bess”), Mr. Ostrander’s comic book writing credits include “Batman,” “Star Wars,” “X-Men,” and “Superman.” Mr. Truman’s comic book art credits include “The Justice League of America,” “Scout,” “The Lone Ranger, “Star Wars,” and currently “Conan” with Dark Horse Comics. Mr. Truman, an accomplished musician, is also known worldwide for his ongoing artistic work with Grateful Dead Productions.

ReelArt Studios President Michael Hudson said, “Working with Timothy, John and all the guys at Team GrimJack is a dream come true. Grimjack is a truly great comic book character as are the other properties owned by the company. Our plans are to create some really cool, outstanding collectibles with the various characters represented. This is long overdue.”

“Personally speaking, I’ve wanted a high-quality GrimJack statue for more than two decades,” Nightsky GrimJack project director Mike Gold noted. “Our patience has been rewarded beyond my deepest fanboy dreams. The fact that ReelArt’s statue will be coming out just around the time of our next new graphic novel is wonderful serendipity. Timothy, John and all the folks at Team GrimJack can hardly wait!” Gold concluded.

ReelArt Studios is a producer of collectible statues and busts of movie, pulp and comic book characters. placing special emphasis on creator owned properties. The company has licensed a number of pop culture properties to be turned into collectibles. ReelArt has partnered with such companies as King Features, C3 Entertainment, The Frazetta Art Gallery, Continuity Studios and Brown and Bigelow to produce products based on a wide variety of properties. ReelArt Studios is headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL. For more information, visit http://www.reelartstudios.com

Nightsky GrimJack Rights and Production Vehicle LLC is a Chicago-based company with editorial offices in Connecticut. For more information, please visit http://www.grimjack.com

Hey, what was that about a new GrimJack graphic novel…? We are…? John? Tim? Mike? How come nobody tells me these things? Oh boy, back to work…

Lieberman campaign files forms to run as petitioning candidate – Newsday.com

Lieberman also filed papers with the secretary of the state’s office Monday to create a new party called Connecticut for Lieberman.

That, in three words, is why Joe’s having problems. If he really wanted to prove that the race isn’t all about him and his ego, it would be “Lieberman for Connecticut”. He serves them, not they serve him.

To paraphrase the first politician I’m endorsing this election cycle, Kinky Friedman, “Ask not if you’re proud of Connecticut, ask if you have made Connecticut proud of you.”

Whoops, never mind. They’re here.

Mr. Serling, the last word?

“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts… attitudes… prejudices. To be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill, and suspicion can destroy, and the thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for the children, and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to The Twilight Zone.”

But then Mary Ann posted GeekPhilosophy.com: Kevin Spacey does Christopher Walken doing Han Solo, the old SNL skit from a few years back.

See you and raise, babe:

Heck with it. If you haven’t seen it by now, you just ain’t trying.

Reviews: My general feeling walking out of the theater was this. Solid reviews from Mary Ann, Peter, and Bob. The best one liners comments are by Ken Levine:

Maybe the world didn’t miss Superman for the five years he was gone because we have Jack Bauer.

Brandon Routh makes Dean Cain look edgy.

George Reeves is the Sean Connery of Supermen.

Director Bryan Singer said there was an in-depth discussion during pre-production on the size of the hero’s “package”. My question to Mr. Singer: On this movie or all your movies? And the pilot of HOUSE?

The most exciting five minutes of the night was the SPIDERMAN 3 trailer.

Which, come to think of it, was what Mike Gold said.

Now for the problems.

Kate Bosworth and Parker Posey should have switched roles. Bosworth just didn’t have the moxie to pull off Lois Lane, let alone the age to have a 5 year old and a career as far along as she did. Posey could have done that role and everybody would have bought it. Of course, putting in the pretty young thing as Lex’s arm candy would have obviously shown that it’s really Miss Teschmacher. Or her kid sister. But Peter David would have been happy.

Supes was gone for five years, without explanation? Uh-uh. Nope. Sorry. Remember that speech to E.G. Marshall at the end of SUPERMAN II? “Good afternoon, Mr. President. Sorry I’ve been away so long. I won’t let you down again.” And then he leaves for half a decade. And during that time, what’s happened in America and the world? Or Lois, and everybody else he ever cared about? Plus the possible kid? Put in something to explain it. Marv Wolfman’s novelization has him being blown off course, so he was only expecting a five day trip or so, which would be fine– but you need something acting on him to take him out of the picture. Heck, you can even give Lois a cute line about even a super man not asking for directions, hiding her bitterness. Two lines, tops.

Beyond that, a good film, with almost every conceivable hat tip to the Donner films. This is really an Elliot Maggin version of Superman– it ain’t the physical hurdles, it’s the ethical and emotional ones that are going to cause him trouble. And yes, that reminds me that I have to do a longer post about that, but I’ll save it for another time.

…but Superman Returns will do nicely, thank you.

I’ll refrain from comments for you few people who are reading this website instead of going to see the movie. To them I say: I’m sorry that your boss is keeping you late instead of enjoying the long weekend, but hey, at least you get Internet access– although clearly not unfettered net access, because if you were you’d be visiting porn sites instead of reading this stuff.

(Great, now everybody looking for Superman porn is going to see this entry pop up. Wonder if my hits will go up noticeably.)

Tom Brevoort blogs:

Hey, look! Somebody said something in a reply thread that rubbed me the wrong way a little bit! So now I get to reply right here in public–an absolute godsend when you’re trying to fill up a blog.

No kidding. What do you think I’m doing here?

Okay, here’s the post in question, in response to the Continuity thread:

>… But I gave you MONEY!
My approach to continuity is simple: if I’ve paid good money for an issue, I don’t want to be told 10 years later that the events I read in the comic I *paid* for should be ignored.

That would be a big waste of my money, would it not?

Posted by Adrian J. Watts on 2006-06-22 01:29:15>

Adrian, I think you have the wrong idea as to what you’re buying from us.

The transaction is pretty simple: you put down your $2.99, and in return we try to entertain you for 22 pages. But that’s really all you’re entitled to. There’s absolutely no guarantee of permanence, any more than there is when you watch a television show (“Bobby Ewing’s still alive in the shower?”) or go to a movie (“You mean Superman III and Superman IV don’t count now?”)

You’re not buying permanence. You’re not buying a guarantee that nothing will ever change. And you’re buying the physical object–which WON’T ever change.

It’s entirely your personal choice whether you feel the reading experience is a waste of your money. That’s the choice that every read has to grapple with every day–and why we work so hard to make sure that it is. Same as with every other entertainment possibility available to you (“You mean TOMB RAIDER III isn’t cutting edge anymore?”) And if you read the comic and liked the comic, then you got what was promised you. And even if you read the comic and didn’t like the comic, if you got the experience of reading the comic, you got what was promised to you–it just means that you’re much less likely to buy another one thereafter.

I’ve been disagreeing with Tom for longer than anybody else working in comics today.

When you are using continuity as a selling point and then disregard it, it’s fraud. It’s not that Adrian gave you money, it’s that you offered it for sale as “the latest installment in the story”. And then you’re going back and saying, “Nope.”

I’ve blogged on this in the past, if you want, go back there. Here’s the money quote:

If the stuff is good enough to take a fan’s money, it should be good enough to count as legitimate. When you sell products that say “the continuing adventures of X”, “a prologue to Y”, or “what happened between Episodes 9 and 10”, I don’t think it’s that unreasonable that they actually BE those things. As it is, this is a marketing strategy that takes your most loyal fan base and uses them like a drug dealer uses his clients– and then cuts the smack with baking soda or rat poison, figuring they’ll never notice the difference and if they do, it’s not like they can go somewhere else, is it?

Not only is this rude, not only is this deceptive, it’s horrible marketing. Ticking off your most loyal fan base, the evangelists who keep your brand alive when others were willing to write it off as a failure and turn it into a billion-dollar powerhouse, shows a contempt and stupidity that I can’t even fathom. Most brand managers KILL for that kind of user loyalty.

And it’s not like it can’t be done. All the Matrix tie-in stuff is kept in continuity, from video games to comic books. J.K. Rowling controls the Harry Potter brand….

But it requires devotion to the brand, not one section of it. And when done properly, it enhances the brand, and all the licensees involved.

Let me use a metaphor here.

Let’s say that Major League Baseball decides to start up an additional premium digital channel with ESPN for showing Major League Baseball games. At the end of the season, it’s announced that none of the games that aired on ESPN-MLB count for league standings– and furthermore, because those games don’t count, the Yankees are now league champions instead of the Blue Jays.

Is it okay to do so because customers were willing to spend money on it, but only 2% of the viewing populace of a whole? Or should baseball fans be upset because these games were sanctioned by MLB, but now aren’t because we didn’t like the way they were going and New York is a bigger market than Toronto?

No. And in fact, MLB this year started doing the exact opposite: they took the All-Star Game, a game outside league standings– outside continuity, if you will– and said that the league that won the game would get home field advantage in the World Series. Result? Ratings for the All-Star Game went up 30%. People cared again, because it had been brought into the larger fold.

The difference is that they cared about the brand as a whole, rather than one particular part of the family. And as we all know, when you favor one family member over another too much, a lot of bad blood builds up.

Amazingly, I think Tom and I reach the same conclusion: if you toss continuity out the window willy nilly, you make it much less likely that they’re going to stick around for more. Continuity is a quality issue.

Many people watching House for the first time don’t realize that’s not really Hugh Laurie’s normal speaking voice on the show, and it’s quite surprising when they hear him in other circumstances. Take this one, for example…