Being an internet refuge for Graeme McMillan
My last process post on Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Pax Americana went over pretty well, so let’s try that again, shall we?
For the cover to the first issue of Nameless, the new Image comic by Grant, Chris Burnham, and me, the concept was to reference the iconic scene of astronauts…
Just great stuff.
Based on Philip K. Dick’s Hugo Award-winning 1962 alternative history, The Man in the High Castle considers the question of what would have happened if the Allied Powers had lost World War II. Almost 20 years after that loss, the United States and much of the world has now been split between Japan and Germany, the major hegemonic states. But the tension between these two powers is mounting, and this stress is playing out in the western U.S. Through a collection of characters in various states of posing (spies, sellers of falsified goods, others with secret identities), The Man in the High Castle provides an intriguing tale about life and history as it relates to authentic and manufactured reality. The hour-long dramatic pilot stars Alexa Davalos (Mob City) as Juliana Crain, Luke Kleintank (Pretty Little Liars) as Joe Blake, Rupert Evans (The Village) as Frank Frink, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat Legacy) as Tagomi, Joel De La Fuente (Hemlock Grove) as Inspector Kido, Rufus Sewell (Eleventh Hour) as John Smith and DJ Qualls (Z Nation) as Ed McCarthy. The pilot was directed by David Semel (Madam Secretary, Heroes) and written by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), both serving as Executive Producers. Also executive producing are Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and David W. Zucker (The Good Wife), with co-executive producer Jordan Sheehan of Scott Free Productions (The Good Wife, The Andromeda Strain), and Executive Producers Stewart Mackinnon and Christian Baute of Headline Pictures (The Invisible Woman). In addition, Isa Dick Hackett will executive produce and Kalen Egan will co-executive produce on behalf of Electric Shepherd (The Adjustment Bureau). Christopher Tricarico (May in the Summer) is also Executive Producer.
And this will be available on my Internet next week, you say?
(It’s one of the next round of Amazon pilots, available Jan. 15.)
The difference between owning a pet and having a kid — well, one of the differences, I mean, of course; there’s also the fact that if you let kids out the back to pee then people look at you funny — is that, when your dog has dental surgery that lasts for hours and leaves him without the same number of teeth he started with, you can’t really let him know what’s going on. Kids, at least, you can say “Hey, take better care of your teeth, you don’t even want to know how much that cost” and they’ll have some idea what you’re talking about.
I kid, obviously, but the sheer amount of worrying Kate and I did yesterday for Gus as he was in surgery pretty much made yesterday a bust as far as work was concerned — we both did the bare minimum to get by, but our hearts weren’t in it. He’s fine, now (Well, as fine as you can be when you’re missing teeth and on crazy pain medication and antibiotics and you’re a dog), so today, we’ll just spend our time catching up on the important stuff and quasi-worrying about our little guy.
2015, you’re looking nuts already.
One of the current aesthetic trends that I think’s very exciting is a recognition that diversity is interesting for its own sake, especially in finding new things to do with longstanding franchises. Whether it be Missy, Ms. Marvel, or the “Idris Elba for James Bond” rumors, there’s not just been a…
If there’s one thing that contemporary television period dramas like to do, it’s poke at the outdated societal norms that now seem, if not quaint, then at least faintly comedic from a distance. Oh, look, he’s worried that coming out will destroy his social standing, the shows sneer from a quasi-enlightened standpoint. Or He’s come home from the war injured but now has to deal with people thinking he’s a coward, will he cope?
(British period dramas do this more than American ones, but I suspect part of that is simply that there are more British period dramas. Although things like Mad Men do tend to have elements of “Those wacky old guys, smoking and sexist!” in weirdly comfortable tones.)
It got me thinking – when there are period dramas made about nowadays, what are the issues of the day going to be that get revisited with a smug tone of superiority? Are the audiences of tomorrow going to shift uncomfortably in their seats as the HoloViewers of 2094 scoff at racism and cis-privilege?
In order to really take podcasting to the next level, the natural social habits of people needs to be included in how they are found, downloaded, listened to, and discussed afterwards. New approaches, new software, and a new frame of mind will be required to do it. What follows are a bunch of ideas on how each anti-social aspect of podcasting could be improved.
File under “Not Read Fully Yet, So Don’t Consider This An Endorsement, More A Reminder To Myself To Check It Out Later.”