Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

Thanks to Greg over at SciFiDaily, I saw this link to the new Fantastic Four trailer (it’s tiny, but if you’re used to staring at cell phone screens…no problem). “That’s gross.” hehe

For those people out there that have looking into screenwriting, you’ve probably heard about the Writer’s Guild…both of them. The Guild is divided West and East, and if you’ve seen those classic comedy routines where they draw a line down the middle of the room, you’ll get an idea what kind of tension there might be. Mark Evanier posted an insightful rundown of the conflict between these two guilds in his blog.

Sitting behind a small zoo of origami animals, Jacob reached for the rusted pale sitting beside him on the sidewalk. Coins clinked together as the boy tilted his bucket back to look over the day’s profits. That should get me through the next couple days. He pocketed the coins and began to gather up the paper giraffes, elephants, lions, and other animals from his street display into the pale when shouts erupted from the eatery behind him. I bet it’s that drunkard Maurie picking a fight again. This oughta be– As he turned to secure his front row seat at the restaurant’s large bay window… he panicked.

Jacob dived to the ground under the window just as it exploded from the impact of a large oak table. His muscles froze as glass shards rained down on him, and screams flooded out of the now open window. He curled up on the ground, covered his ears and watched the table sail into the middle of the street. The table’s leg shattered as it hit the road, and the rest of the table skipped up into the air and continued its path across the street where it plowed through the wall of the building. Jacob struggled to breathe, and he could feel the pounding of his heart as if it were a battering ram trying to smash through his ribs.

As people peeked out of their doors and windows to find out what happened, Jacob crept his way up to a crouching position and glanced over the edge of the windowsill. Shadows danced inside as the magic that powered the lighting flickered on and off. As the lights flashed on for a moment, Jacob spotted a hand sticking out from a nearby pile of debris. He looked around and saw the other people outside retreating back into their buildings. Jacob cobbled together what little courage remained in his small frame and spied the room cautiously before stepping in through the window. Fear soon took over and pushed his muscles as fast as they could go to get the debris clear. As he removed the final pieces of wood, he reached down to help the person up, and the lights came on to reveal something his young mind wasn’t prepared for.

An arm… freshly pulled from its socket and then horribly mangled. Bone jutted out of the skin in a dozen different areas, the elbow appeared to be bent sideways, and blood pooled along the floor underneath the arm. Sweat formed across Jacob’s brow, and the skin of his face felt cold as if all the blood rushed away from his head and gathered in his stomach where the muscles tightened up. The boy dropped to his knees and grabbed his stomach, and just as his gut started to convulse, creaking floorboards caught his attention. He looked up to see a figure in the shadows dart into the kitchen… almost like it was spooked.

From the street, a voice charged through the shattered window, over the debris, and into Jacob’s ears. "Stay right where you are and put your hands on the floor."

Palladium announced that it’s publishing a new version of Rifts.

What’s really scary is that this year is the 15th anniversary of Rifts… and I played this game when it first came out. Fifteen years ago… almost seems like yesterday, I was throwing down with Juicers, tangoing with Glitter Boys, and wandering the world tracking down ley line nexus points. I remember leading a fun campaign once where I made everyone play characters converted over from Heroes Unlimited. It was fun watching them try to maintain their heroic dispositions in the screwed-up Rifts world of tomorrow.

And since we’re talking ’bout Rifts, Gamespot recently posted a preview of Rifts Promise of Power for the N-Gage.

Finally read a bit more on the Tarantino/Friday the 13th rumblings (via my sub to the Hollywood Reporter), and noticed a few interesting tidbits tossed into the mix.

New Line tried to make a sequel to “Freddy vs. Jason” involving the “Evil Dead” character Ash, but a deal with “Dead” rights holder Sam Raimi couldn’t be reached.

For my earlier thoughts on this topic, check out my post in the old Dark Ramblings blog. And it had so much potential.

Another tidbit from this that I totally missed earlier (probably because the news hit the week after I was sick and was trying to catch up with everything at work)…

The WMA-repped filmmaker recently signed on to direct the season finale of CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Since that’s one of the few shows my wife and I watch regularly, I won’t have to go out of my way to see what Tarantino does with it.

Real quick here… looks like Venture Management has optioned two comic book properties to shop around Hollywood, Sean McKeever’s The Waiting Place, and Phil Hester & Andy Kuhn’s Firebreather. Haven’t read The Waiting Place yet, but Firebreather was a fun book.

This morning, while I was hanging out in traffic listening to a book on CD, I started thinking about something my wife mentioned to me a while back. She made a comment one time when we were stuck behind a slow moving automobile. “Just our luck. An old man driving. An old man with a hat!” Apparently, the hat had some significance. Not sure what. But it made me start thinking of a list of things I’ve noticed about slower drivers.

1. Old man with a hat. Yep, my wife’s observation takes the top of the list because I’ve seen it plenty of times. Doesn’t even matter what kind of hat. Baseball cap, cowboy hat, fedora, derby, or even a sombrero. If they’re old and got a cover, take flight as soon as possible.
2. Multiple yellow ribbon disorder. I’m all about supporting the troops… used to be one (I’m also a disabled vet with an arthritic knee). So, I don’t really mind those yellow ribbons on the vehicles to support the troops… unless they have more than one. Don’t know why those multiple stickers slow vehicles down, but I’ve been stuck behind a number of vehicles with lots of those ribbons. Maybe the ribbons are just so densely packed with well-wishing for the troops that they develop an intense gravitational force that slows the vehicle down. Or something.
3. Jesus fish and a church. Yeah, there are lots of people that sport their religious preferences right there on the backs of their cars, and one of the most predominant devices is the lovely Jesus fish. Most of the times, these people cruise right along like everyone else, but I noticed every once in a while, they’d slow to a snail’s pace. Never really understood why until I noticed that it mostly happened whenever they passed a church. Is it sinful to disobey the laws of man in the presence of the House of God? Or maybe they just get a little paranoid. “Oh no, I’m passing a church. I better slow down before God catches me speeding and decides to cast me down into the blazing inferno.”
4. The Ford-Chevy feud. I drive a Ford. Not because I’m some big Ford fanatic, but because it was the SUV with the highest safety rating that we could afford when we bought it (our priority since we have kids). And it’s pretty safe as my friend Marty has seen firsthand. Anyways, I don’t really care about all that Ford-Chevy rivalry (and I’d seen plenty of it back in my hick town days), but I have noticed that a lot of times when I get behind a Chevy truck… they slow down. Sure, they’ll speed back up when I try to pass them, but while I’m behind them, they have that tendency to drive under the speed limit. Not sure what the reasoning behind this is. “Yeah, you’ve just proved that your truck can move much slower than mine. Congrats! That’s gonna definitely win over all of your ‘my truck’s better than yours’ arguments.” I wonder if I’d run into this as much if I bought a Toyota?

There’s not really much scientific evidence to support any of these thoughts… just my own personal observations. Still, it’s neat when you can see odd little patterns in everyday life.

Step right up folks and be amazed! For beyond this portal, you will witness an act of such daring… such bravery that many will whisper rumors that it borders on insanity. But this is no mere trick or fanciful illusion… it’s real!

So, gather up your courage and step forth to be enthralled by the comic book industry veteran who would dare to review sequentials by mail (not email)… for free!

And for those artists out there that don’t know Beau Smith and might be a bit hesitant… he’s a a good guy, and he’s a straight shooter when it comes to telling it like it is.

Well, couldn’t really link to the Variety story, but the Sci Fi Wire has a little snippet on Paramount picking up the film rights to the Invincible comic. Congrats to Robert Kirkman! He and artist Ryan Ottley have been working hard on this book lately (and having a lot of fun with it). If you haven’t read it yet, give the Invincible trade (vol. 1 of 4 trades I believe) a quick peek sometime.

The SciFi Wire points out that the Babylon 5 movie fell apart. You can see JMS’s full post on the subject in this JMSNews post. I’m particularly fond of this little tidbit:

“This was not the first time someone’s taken a run at a B5 feature film,
and it will not be the last. Eventually it will happen, because such
things are simply inevitable. If they can do a Brady Bunch movie, you
can be sure that sooner or later, somebody’s going to do a B5 movie.”

It was the dawn of the third age of mankind – ten years after the Television-Theater War.

This is the story of the last of the Brady Bunch clan. The year is 2258. The name of the place is Brady Bunch 5.