Lou Sytsma

Off to the Toronto SF Expo for the next 3 days.
The Expo features guests from the worlds of SF, Horror, Comics, and Anime. Some headliners include Leonard Nimoy, Bruce Campbell, Mary McDonnell, and Linda Hamilton.

Going in with a press pass so hope to get close to Leonard Nimoy - a lifelong hero of mine. One interview that has been arranged for sure is with Robert Duncan McNeill aka Tom Paris of Star Trek:Voyager. Recently McNeill has moved from acting to directing and is one of the core Chuck directors.

Hope to get some detailed answers from him on directing duties as well as his reactions to the recent announcement of Brendan Routh aka SuperMan being cast for a multi-episode appearance in Season 3. Very appropriate that Chuck, now with SuperPowers is to be mentored by the ManOfSteel himself.

Not being an interviewer by trade I am somewhat nervous. I have prepared an interview outline and hope to be able ask all my questions but must be prepared to modify it on the fly depending on time restrictions.

2 months late summer has finally arrived. Finally temps in the 80s and a dialling back of the continual daily rain.

Finished Robert J. Sawyer's latest book - Wake. It is the first in a planned trilogy about the internet gaining sentience. It is done in Helen Keller meets Neuromancer style. The protoganist is a plucky 15 year old who is blind. Through an implant in her eye, Caitlin is able to see. Not only normal vision but that of cyberspace too. RJS continues to seamlessly weave the awe inspiring with the everyday in an entertaining and joyful mix. There are scenes of real emotion too. The remaining books are titled Watch and Wonder hence the WWW trilogy.

Not usually a fan of home grown ie Canadian scripted TV but have come across a pleasant surprise called Being Erica. It is about a disenchanted 32 year old woman who could be labelled the biggest disappointment of her high school class. Erica is filled with regrets due to a string of life decisions where she feels she made the wrong choice. A 'counsellor' shows up and through a murky device allows Erica to travel back to those moments and have a second chance to correct them. The show is deftly written and quite mature in its subject matter at times. The 13 episode first season will be out on DVD soon and is well worth a visit.

Here is a clip with the theme song:


Here is a preview clip:

Weird Al strikes again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrGmD2wk8m4

Luficer Rising - and is coming to the next season of SuperNatural.

SuperNatural Season 4 rocked all the way to the season finale and the stage is now set for the Apocalypse in Season 5. Can't wait to see how it plays out. The series has followed a true story progression for the last two seasons. Sam and Dean have grown and changed permanently. A welcome relief for a TV series in a medium where resets and pullbacks are the norm.

One episode of special delight was the one entitled - The Monster At The End of this Book in which the brothers find a series of books which is an exact recounting of their adventures. Turns out the writer, Chuck, is a prophet chosen to chronicle the Winchester brother's lifes. The episode is a real hoot as it riffs on fans, forums, and fanfic. Including a reference to slash fiction much to Dean's disgust.'Dude, they do know we are brothers, right?' Hilarious.

There is a talk of a Season 6 even though the series was originally envisioned as a 5 year arc. Cannot say I am thrilled with that news as the brothers are heading down paths that leave no room for future engagements in my mind. The writers of this show have shown themselves to be very clever so an open mind will be kept until they get to that point. For now, Season 5 is going to be killer.

Shades of Drew Struzan:

Follow the link.


Dexter deals with domestication.

Wow! Just wow!

( Cut to Season 4 Spoilers )

Heady stuff indeed. Kudos to the showrunners for taking a new storyline and pushing all aspects of the show to new heights. This is bold, powerful storytelling.

One has to wonder what lies in store for Sam!

Follow Through

It is intriguing to watch 2 very different shows, both established, set themselves up to move to a new level, and achieve widely different results.

SuperNatural S4 has brought Armageddon to the table. This escalation is a logical extension of the show's mythology. The expansion of the world from the Winchester family's personal viewpoint to a global one is a bold move. Based on the first half dozen episodes this move has been brilliantly executed.

Burn Notice S3 took a risky step too and removed Michael Weston's safety net. The blanket protection by the higher ups who have shielded him from the intelligence community and the authorities at home is gone. Michael is on his own and vulnerable. An exciting setup for the season, no? Well, one would think so but so far the show has really not stepped up to the plate and delivered on the potential of this new premise.

For the first 3 episodes Michael was being 'hounded' by a local cop. Problem was she only showed up at the beginning and end of each episode. Rarely did she walk into the middle of mission and raise new dramatic situations for Michael to deal with. By the third episode, Michael helped solve a case for her which then had her step back and stop bird dogging him. Oh-kay. That played like out like a wet fart.

The next episode had Michael captured by a Russian mercenary looking for revenge but the trained merecenaries came off no better than any of the previous thugs Michael has bested.

Back to SuperNatural - the world expansion that now includes appearances by the other 'team.'  In the first three seasons all the unnatural appearance where from the bad side;  demons, vampires, ghosts, tricksters, and shapeshifters. Now the other side has decided to enter the frey in a more visible way.   ArchAngels are deftly interwoven into the Winchester's personal dilemmas. Dean has been retrieved from hell by an angel for a higher purpose while Sam wrestles with not using his psychic abilities because they are fueled by the demon blood fed to him as a baby. Here we see the dynamics of the Armageddon theme pushing the characters to new areas.

Quite a contrast with Burn Notice, which is really treading the same water it has the previous seasons.

In Burn Notice's favour the stories themselves are as tightly written and scripted as before with the requisite amount of humour. And who could help but laugh out loud at Michael's mother, played to perfection by Sharon Gless, being the one to 'torture' the information out of the bad guy when Fie and Sam failed?

It comes down to follow through. SuperNatural is moving to new heights and/or depths out of the gate while Burn Notice seems to be sticking to previously explored ground.

Heads up Stephen King fans! The King of Horror will be doing a road trip later this year to promote his latest book - Under The Dome. This one is another in a series of massive tomes from Mr. King coming in at a whopping 1,120 pages!

Dates and locations for signing tour update:

NYC - on stage, no book signing, 250 pre-signed books
D.C./Baltimore - book signing, no on stage event
Atlanta - book signing, no on stage event
Sarasota - on stage, no book signing, 250 pre-signed books
Minneapolis - on stage, no book signing, 250 pre-signed books
Toronto - on stage, no book signing, 250 pre-signed books
Portsmouth, NH - on stage, no book signing, 250 pre-signed books
Manchester Center, VT - on stage, no book signing, 250 pre-signed books

Details as to how each stop will be handled are still forthcoming.


Book summary is as follows:

"On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mills, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out."

There are over 100 characters in the book! That is staggering!! The 'cast' includes Dale Barbara, a Gulf veteran and now a cook, the town's newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital and three children. They're up against an evil politician, Big Jim Rennie – who's desperate to hold onto power and will stop at nothing, even murder – and his son, who in classic King style, "is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry". Meanwhile, time under the Dome is running out.

The book is said to cover the same territory in The Stand but in a more allegorical way.

As a life long King fan I will definitely do my utmost to make the Toronto date. I saw him when he made his first Canadian appearance in June of 2007 to accept an award and it was a highlight night. For one so famous, Mr. King has not lost touch with the common folk and he is hilarious. As he said that night about being so famous, 'I never started out as a writer wanting to end up being a Paris Hilton.'

This could be King's last epic work, though you never know, the man has an exceptional work ethic and consistently pumps out new content. I for one, certainly hope there is more after this but then when it comes to King, I am greedy!

Harry Potter has come to an end.

And a pretty emotional and potent one it was too.

Rowling delivered an end game worthy of the franchise. The book breaks down into three acts of which the first was very good, the third was excellent, and the middle was sluggish and over long. All during the middle section feelings I was reading filler or padding kept coming to mind. The tent section, for lack of a better term could have been compressed by half I wager without losing any story points. It seems like the book needed to be of a similar length to complement the other books in the series.

Despite that minor quibble, Rowling's writing skills to weave an engrossing tale were in full display. The final act of the book is very powerful and elicits powerful emotional reactions. I admit to getting misty eyed during one sequence. The final confrontation is well played and very cinematic.

No doubt about it. Rowling delivered big time with this book.

Attended a local SF con - Polaris 23. Formerly known as Toronto Trek this was my first time attending this one. The focus is more on the media side of things with Michael Hogan of Colonel Tigh/BSG fame as the headliner. The con provides autograph/photo op opportunities with genre stars of film and TV. Here is a link to all the guests.

Not being an autograph hound I bypassed these sessions and concentrated on the writers present. Attended several readings and an interesting panel on the business side of writing related to negotiating rights for alternate forms of publishing ie media tie ins, ebooks etc. This was hosted by local writer Doug Smith and was very interesting.

Attended some panels in relation to Chuck - this was a lot of fun and most-Awesome, a Quantum Leap panel - also a lot of fun, and a in depth presentation of the upcoming Shane Acker/Tim Burton animated flick - 9. The animation was done by a local Toronto animation studio - Starz Animation. They walked us through the process of movie making and explained how the storyboards are brought to life by these talented artists. Very interesting. This seems like it will be a great flick based on a short film created by Shane Acker.

Here is the original short the upcoming movie is based on:



The short has no dialogue unlike the movie which will. And a pretty high powered voice cast at that - Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau and Jennifer Connelly.

Here is the trailer for the upcoming movie version:



Looks very unique and fresh. Can't wait till this September.

Well into summer now and one can count the number of dry and plus 70F days here in Ontario on one hand.  Last summer was a soaker.  Climate change seems to be a major bust for folks in our area.

It is one of those things that slipped through my fingers as I never got around to reading the last Harry Potter book.  The impending release of the next movie gave me the nudge to do so.  Weird how that happens.  The movies have left me nonplussed but I have certainly enjoyed JK Rowlings wonderful turn at out churning out a charming series.  It can be easily deduced while reading this book that it is the last in the series as major story points, revelations, and conflicts are coming fast and furious right from the get go.  The pacing is pretty relentless right from the first page.


Quiet week on the TV front - no episodes of Burn Notice and True Blood aired this week. 

Continue to steam roll through SuperNatural as a result.  The first season ended on a cliffhanger so it was great to be able to jump into the next season without any down time.  Much like a story builds after the introductory chapters, a TV show with a clear course charted ahead often gains momentum in the second season.  The actors are more comfortable with their characters, the writers can tailor the scripts to take better advantage of the actors, and so on throughout the creative process.  The meat of the story can be addressed now and new stakes are raised that increase viewer interest. 

The first few episodes of Season 2 are real humdingers as family sacrifices are made between a father and his children.  There is victory but at a terrible cost with continuing repercussions including themes of guilt.  Seeds for the future are laid and the dynamics between the Winchester brothers continue to grow, evolve, and become more complex.  As with Season 1, the eighth episode lays out new issues that further complicate matters.  The show has a great sense of humour too with older brother Dean getting the majority of hilarious one liners.

Another nice touch is the expansion of the world to include other `Hunters` who are out about in the world doing the same work as the Winchester brothers ie hunting down and killing vengeful spirits, demons and other unworldy denizens.  Through it all are portents that things have changed.  A storm is brewing.  A coming war is on the way.  Very heady stuff.

Well it took a second run through but I am now hooked on SuperNatural.  Having heard many great things about the series - especially the third and fourth seasons I decided to give the series another shot.   I was starting to waver with S1, again, because the episodes were becoming predictabily repetitive ie Sam & Dean Winchester discover weird goings on, they travel there bickering along the way, find monster/spirit/demon etc, and kill said entity.  There was backstory ie their mother and Sam's girlfriend were killed under the same set of supernatural circumstances. Those circumstances are what have consumed Sam and his father.  Papa Winchester has left the boy's a journal.  The journal is a wikipedia/log of strange goings on and reference materials.

All of this was referenced only tangentially in each episode until episode 8 when Dean and Sam return home because similar events are occurring again that happened with their mother's death.  Boom!  This call back brings all the ethereal emotional subtext to the forefront and now I became emotionally engaged in the plight of the Winchester family.  Whether by design or not, this is the moment when the conceit of the show became more than the monster hunt of the week.

Breezed through Season 1 and am so glad I did not have to suffer through the season ending cliffhanger as I could jump into S2 right away.  The Winchester family has a Horn of Plenty in regards to emotional currents running through each other and their relationships with one another.  A storm is brewing and the Winchesters are caught in its path.

Half a year gone and the country is a year older. All things told this is still a very, very, awesome place to live. Nothing is perfect but I can't think of a country that gets closer to it than this one.

On the Climate Change front a couple of summers ago it seemed we were heading towards record high tropical summers. The last two years have been on a bust on that front. Last summer was one of the wettest I can remember. This one has not been as wet but not that far behind either. Right now the forecast calls for showers consecutively for the rest of the week. That trend started on Monday and has come to be true every day so far.

The even more frustrating aspect is the continuing lower temperatures. Beyond a handful of days in the 80s and beyond; the majority of days the temp struggles to break 70F. Too bad some form of weather bartering with other drier and warmer climates can not be employed!.

Finished Robert McCammon's 17th century Matthew Corbett sleuthing novel Speaks the Nightbird. McCammon is a delight to read. Descriptive prose marks his style with colourful characters. I prefer the second book more - The Queen of Bedlam due to the setting differences and the maturing Corbett character. Plus TQOB offers teasing glimpses of the uber story that awaits Corbett. The next book in the series is the tantalizingly titled - Mr. Slaughter.

Burn Notice continues to truck along. It looks like the hounding cop storyline has been closed off for now. Frankly I was underwhelmed how it played out. The possibilities of the cop stumbling in the midst of a job by Michael never materialized and is a squandering of a great storyline to my mind.  Is that the case or is it one of my expectations exceeding the show's goals?

True Blood continues to delight.  Two storylines converged and the net result was the surprised, and maybe temporary, release of Lafayette.  I truly believed he was either going to be killed or turned.  Jessica; the newly turned vampire created by Bill, has made enough of an impression that I can remember her name now; continues to grow and her storyline is becoming a new favourite.

Looks like Bill and Sookie are on their way to Dallas to help solve the mystery of some missing vampires there.  Since everything is bigger in Texas this storyline could turn out to be a lot of fun too.

Ed Mcmahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.

All passed away within days of one another. Farrah and Michael on the same day.

The commonly held belief of bad things happening in threes gets a major boost. This trio of passings also lends weight to another creedo, 'Truth is stranger than fiction.' If someone were to write a story with similar occurrences it would most likely be ridiculed as unrealistic or too convenient.

As for the three celebrities that passed, each is marked with varying degrees of sadness. Ed McMahon and Farrah Fawcett evoke pretty straight forward thoughts as they were successful and yet trapped by their fame too. They reached a certain station in life from which they could not move beyond.

Micheal Jackson brings out many conflicting thoughts. Selfishly, I ponder his demise more than the others for the simple fact that we were born in the same year. It is with no sense of higher moral superiority, or snobbier take your pick, that I do not envy him his life. Blessed and cursed by a talent that shaped his life from a very young age, his life seem preordained as to the outcome. Did he ever have free will in controlling his life? I don't think so. His output in the music industry is forever tarnished by disturbing events in his personal life.

In one of the news panels I watched, an interviewee summed Michael Jackson's life up quite aptly. Paraphrasing, it went something like this - "Michael Jackson had a unique life. As a child he seemed liked an adult. As an adult, he seemed like a child.'

That strikes me as extremely sad.

It is really thrilling when you see a show hitting on all cylinders. Only into the second episode of this season and all - that includes Bill & Sookie - the story threads are entertaining and interesting to watch. Already the potential collision of those seemingly disparate plot lines can be turned over in one's mind resulting in a delicious anticipation of things to come.

The life and death scenario of Lafayette has my main focus and his outcome, while not unexpected, saddens me. No doubt once turned he will make a formidable foe. The surprising shift of focus from Bill and Sookie from their relationship onto the recently turned teenage vampire that Bill was forced to create was a most welcome one. Sookie's well intentioned but misguided attempt to connect with the teenage girl vampire - sorry, bad with names and she has not imprinted herself enough on me yet to remember it - and let her go back to her family led to a very intense sequence.

Even Sookie's brother, Jason, has an interesting arc in the making as he becomes further indoctrinated into an anti-vampire religious cult.

The show reeks of the Cajun atmosphere of Louisiana and has one of the best mood setting opening credits of any show.

Almost done the first Matthew Corbett novel by Robert McCammon. McCammon is an excellent descriptive writer and spins a fine yarn. So far, I give the nod to the second book - The Queen of Bedlam - as Matthew is more mature and the story is more intriguing. Also TQOB contains tantalizing glimpses of the uber story that awaits Matthew Corbett.

Both on the calendar and in the weather. After a spring of below norm temps and persistent rainfall the skies have opened. The sun has ventured forth and instead of struggling to break 60F we jump 20 degrees or more. The long range forecast promises near 90F weather and sunny skies for the rest of the week.

Huzzah!

Sadly work on the pool is halted to allow the ground to dry out from all the rain. Hopefully tomorrow will see a recommencement of work.


Burn Notice continues to hum along but I have to admit I was expecting more of the unprotected Michael storyline. So far the law being on his back segments are restricted to the teaser and tag sections of the show. Still hoping for the collision of the law in the midst of the latest mission.

ChuckMeMondays continue this week at 9pm tonight as we group watch Chuck Vs The Wookie. While doing so we group twitter and voice chat about it over Skype it. Its a communal get together intended to keep Chuck in the spotlight as we await the start of the third season.

Details can be found here on how to join in.

You will need:
1) A Twitter account
2) Acess to the Chuck Season 1 episodes
3) Optional - Skype software, a headset and mic, and a Skype account to voice chat with fellow Chuckaholics.

So please join in on the fun!

Looks like True Blood is gaining steam as the second season premiere hit the same numbers as the Sopranos finale ~ 3.7 million viewers.

I am really digging everything about the show except for the relationship between Vampire Bill and telepath Sookie. Big Yawns when the two of them are together.

The other characters are a blast and am especially intrigued by what Michelle Forbe's character is up to. Really hope Lafayette is going to survive his basement imprisonment.

Back home the backyard pool is on its way to being assembled. Weather permitting hope to have it by the weekend or sometime next week. No big rush though as the weather continues to be very cool with those days over 20C being very infrequent.

$60 Antenna - free HD - Stanley Cup game 7 in glorious HD on CBC.

Win all the way around.

Should have done this a lot sooner. Bye, bye cable bill!