First of, it’s really cold outside. I mean, Jesus fucking Christ cold!
With the exception of the Super Mario Movie, I ended up staying at home pretty much the entire weekend with MK. Robin passed along some tapes and we watched one that featured a couple of failed TV pilots.
The first was Lookwell, a show from the early nineties starring Adam West as a former star of a TV crime drama who still thinks he’s a detective and goes around trying to solve crimes. He also teaches an acting workshops, so he has a whole gang of wanna be actors at his disposal. The show was created by Conan O’Brien and Robert Smigel and was pretty decent. It was funny, but you could tell it was sorta “toned down” feeling which given the time and that it was a pilot, is not too surprising.
The second show was Poochinski. This time it’s about a real detective, an older guy who likes to eat and fart, but has been around the block and knows more than a thing or two, or so says the sergeant to Poochiniski’s new partner, a much younger and strictly by the books kind of person who’s pretty miffed about the partnership. Then one night during a stakeout, a mugger escapes the young detective’s grasps and ends up running Poochinski over. At the moment of death, Poochinski’s spirit goes into a stray bulldog that he befriended in the beginning of the show and eventually they both partner up again, with Poochinski not only getting the chance to get the man who killed him, but showing his ward the ways of love. The highlight of the show has to be the horrible dog puppet that isn’t too far removed from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog in terms of facial articulation.
And the best part of watching both episodes was seeing old early 90′s commercials. Man, they sure did pimp the hell out of Silm Fast back then. Plus there was an old Mark & Brian promo. Sadly, no Eerie, Indiana or Hot Country Nights spots were to be seen.
We also caught some cable access including Sci Fi Ninja Theater. It’s about as cable access as cable access shows go; some large dude dressed as a ninja presenting random metal videos, clips from horror movies, and clips from anime. One minute there was selected scenes from a really creepy Japanese movie about a guy who has a mermaid who melts as the film progresses (she’s in a bathtub and as time goes by, her guts end up spilling out on the sides) and then the next minute are some scenes from an ultra sugary anime about cute little fairies and devils (who swear of course). And as one would expect, there’s tons of interviews with C list celebs from fantasy/horror/anime cons. There’s nothing like watching some vampire chick parading around in an outfit made entirely of tin foil and paperclips and hearing her say her site’s web address seventeen times, with each time being inaudible due to the loud bickering of otakus in the background. Am I dissing the show? Of course not. I’ll be watching again next week, if only in hopes of seeing more footage from Japanese Power Ranger shows, or more of that mermaid movie. Christ it was creepy as fuck…
This past weekend I also finally started going through all my massive collection of magazines which I’ve been accumulating (and carting around) for years. Like all true “collectors”, I will obsessively hold onto to things, with bizarre justifications like “I’ll need that one issue of Entertainment Weekly with the small Harry Potter, Buffy, or Iron Chef article someday!” to the point where I become disgusted with myself and have to then throw it all away. And that’s where I am right now.
I started with EW by going through each issue, scanning for anything clip-able. I don’t have every issue, but I used to get special ones, and without even really looking inside, store them away, assuming it might become relevant or useful later on, like the It List they do once a year. After going through the It Lists for 2001, 2002, and 2003, the only truly interesting thing was a quote from Lemony Snicket himself, Daniel Handler (“Get a job where you have access to a photocopier and a color printer”) which is particularly meaningful for any cartoonist, and especially for me right now since I want to get back into that (well, I always say that), but this time I actually have handy access to both.
Also, under cool game for 2001 was Majestic, which was that game “that played you!” At the time, the notion of playing a game where you uncover some shadow government’s plot via emails, IM’s, and faxes was certainly sounded cool, but didn’t close to revolutionizing gaming like all the traditional (i.e. “non gaming”) publications predicted, who were all practically jizzing all over the damn thing.
And one last game related item: What’s Elijah Woods’ favorite game? The Monkey Island series. Good choice.
Next up is my pile of old EGMs.
BTW, want to know what one of my current favorite gaming mags is? Believe it or not, its Tips & Tricks. There’s a few reasons why, and it’s not because of the copious amounts of strategies and walk-throughs, though if I have a particular game that’s covered, it’s super helpful (and they can even be helpful in determining if I want to get a game or not). There’s simply a nice assortment of regular articles that are dedicated to particular subjects. You’d think it would be a total non-brainer to have a regular section that covers whatever’s hot that month or questions related to online gaming for example, but most gaming publications simply stick to the letters, news, rumors, previews, main article, reviews, cheats, potpourri format way too strictly. I especially dig the what’s going over in Japan section, which is less about import gaming but more on wacky candy and controllers, but perhaps the best is the collector’s corner. This month’s issue has a great article covering the public auction that took place in New York not too long ago that was part of the liquidation of Acclaim’s remaining assets. Man, I’m so pissed that I missed it; I probably wouldn’t have purchased anything, but it still would have been nice to tour the now abandoned offices, just to gawk at the mountains of shitty games in each corner of every room.
Plus I really dig the ultra low-fi look and feel of the mag. The layout and everything just screams 1996. Hell, I’d send them an email telling them how great the magazine is, but (unless I’m really missing something) get this, there’s no email address listed! And there’s no web presence at all either. Course, I guess I could just send in an actual letter, but I’m too lazy for that. Also, I still think it’s sorta funny how Larry Flint publishes it. I wonder if it’s the only publication of his that has no pics of women peeing on each other.
One final thing related to magazines: so I received my last (well, the) last issue of GMR not too long ago. But I had one more issue left on the subscription, so what other magazine did Ziff Davis choose to replace it with? The last issue of Xbox Nation of course!
