that is bold talk for a one-eyed fat man

[davemerrill]

Had a pleasant weekend with nice sunny warm weather! It's not going to last, but we did enjoy it while we could. Went out to Woodstock on Sunday for the nostalgia sale held in the fairgrounds auditorium. Hours were 10-3, which basically means we got to see the last 45 minutes of the show while everybody was packing up because lord knows you don't want to be stuck in that giant Woodstock Ontario traffic jam when the nostalgia show lets out! Seriously, 3pm? You can't stick around until 4? I know the beer store closes at 5 and you don't want to face the possibility of not having a full 2-4 in the house during that long 20 hours before the beer store opens up again on Monday, but people from the Big City are here and they have money to spend on your junk, so don't be in such a rush! 3pm is a joke. Get with it guys. We did manage to find some neat stuff, actually we got better comics at the Woodstock Nostalgia Show than we did at the comic book thing last weekend. An issue of THIRTEEN, an Oral Roberts evangelical comic, some Tippy Teens & Go-Gos, some prime Al Hartley Jeezus comics, and at the antique store outside of town with the disturbing Victorian-era electric medical device, some metal Coke signage and a paperback edition of the seminal 1895 Moody Bible Institute work LITTLE DOT.

Saturday we did some shopping and went looking for episodes of GARTH MERENGHI'S DARKPLACE and/or interesting Blu-Ray DVDs to rent, finding neither. GARTH MERENGHI'S DARKPLACE is a 6-episode British comedy series that's purportedly a lost 1980s horror/supernatural TV show written, directed by, and starring Garth Merenghi, author, visionary, dream-weaver. And actor. It's one of those live-action things that gets shown on Adult Swim to irritate pedants, and it's really freakin' funny. Mike Horne showed us an episode in Boston and it kinda stuck with us; its deliberate 1980s syndicated-TV badness is pitch-perfect, and Garth Merenghi himself is disturbingly similar in appearance and attitude to several people I've dealt with in the fan world.

Speaking of TV shows, this Sunday the new show from the guys who brought you BAND OF BROTHERS premieres on HBO - it's called THE PACIFIC and it promises to make "YOU DIE NEXT, JOE!!" the fun catchphrase among children and adults alike. I enjoyed the heck out of BAND OF BROTHERS and am definitely on board for this one.

Speaking of manly men man type entertainment, my subject line is Robert "Lucky Ned Pepper" Duvall's famous line from TRUE GRIT, which is currently in production from the Coen brothers. Not a remake of the classic John Wayne film, this new version will be a more faithful adaptation of the original novel, which means it will be even truer and even grittier than ever before. I'm a big fan of both the movie and the book and of the Mad Magazine parody "True Fat" and will totally be there to see Rooster Cogburn take the reins in his teeth one more time.

We watched the Oscars so I didn't get my Zero Fighter strip of the week finished until today. I always enjoy the Oscars, it's like a family reunion of the people you see on TV and in the movies all the time. I liked the dual hosts, I liked the opening song, I thought the John Hughes tribute was swell, and it clocked in at three and a half hours and some change, long but not terribly long. I was cooking spaghetti through most of the first hour anyway. I didn't see any of the best picture nominees so I didn't have any particular favorites, though I do feel not nominating PONYO is a criminal error. I guess they figure, Miyazaki isn't going to show up, so why bother? SECRET OF KELLS is coming out in theaters this week and we might just catch that one. I do feel like we missed out on a lot of good pictures for whatever reason this year. Eh, we'll rent 'em.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

"Then fill your hand, you son of a bitch!"

I remember my dad once trying to explain what a huge deal it was to hear John Wayne use a cussword. One of those things I guess we just can't quite appreciate nowadays.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

Your dad must have missed Wayne's drunken commencement speech in which he coined the phrase "ree-god-damn-diculous".

[(Anonymous)]

One of the things that made that film so great was the attention to dialogue detail that both the book and the film used. They made the valiant attempt to have the characters talk a bit more realistically than you got in westerns of the '60s/'70s. I imagine that played a part in the Coen brother deciding to take on the project.

RWG (and it'll be nice to see someone a bit more talented than Glen Campbell in the role)

[ferricide.livejournal.com]

yeah, i dunno who it's a constant, but it seems that wherever people are asked to set up tables and sell things, they just can't wait to get the FUCK OUT OF THERE. last time i went to a farmers market and was trying to buy stuff an hour before it closed, people looked at me like i was crazy! don't you want to sell shit? it's not that big of an imposition, dicky.

garth merenghi is awesome. i have the UK DVD. did they put it out here? it was stupid cheap for the UK one a few years back, as i think they probably overprinted it, expecting more of a nerd following than i think it got. it's worth picking up.

[davemerrill.livejournal.com]

I think the early closing times have something to do with the dealers all being retirees who are awake at 5am anyway, by 10am they are moving as fast as they ever will, and when 3pm rolls around they want to load up the old truck and get on home to watch sporting events on TV. Being retirees, they still remember when Ontario had serious blue laws about nothing being open on Sunday and everything closing early on Saturday, that's still subconciously guiding their decisions. Also, old Beach Boys LPs are worth $20.

If Garth Merenghi ever came out here on the DVD, I am not aware of it. We had to resort to ILLEGAL DOWNLOADING to watch it. It is a scandal to the jaybirds.

[tochiro998.livejournal.com]

Oh, then, you're missing the obvious, about the closing down.

Can't miss the Early Bird at the buffet place. amirite?

And Woodstock...I still recall my parent's reaction to stopping there on the way to Jamestown NY. The locals all acted like 'Invasion of the pod people' and they were outsiders, unknown. My folks asked a cop about how to get back to the highway, and was directed the utterly wrong direction! As if on purpose! Or...to the HIVE... luckily they escaped.

Lots of cars towing U-haul trailers, and trucks leaving town about the time they hit the highway however...

[wednesday]

There was definitely no Darkplace R1. It's a crying fucking shame; those commentaries deserve more ears.

[mpceccato.livejournal.com]

I love Garth Merenghi's "Darkplace". The fact that it airs on [adult swim] doesn't bother me in the slightest. It's Cartoon Network that needs to be airing cartoons. And, according to Nielsen, [as] is a separate network. No mention of animation in that name whatsoever.

My favorite part of the show, though, is the opening credits. They got the 80s british drama opening down perfect. I could have sworn it was actually made during that time.

[jasonrmerrill.livejournal.com]

If you liked Darkplace, you have to track down "Man to Man with Dean Learner". A chat show hosted by his producer/boss at the hospital. Merenghi is the guest on the first episode.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_to_Man_with_Dean_Learner

[wednesday]

Both Man to Man and Darkplace are going for like five or six quid a pop on Amazon UK and HMV as individual sets. (The two are also sold bundled together for way, way more, but nothing is gained by buying like that.)

I'm balking at getting Man to Man, since there's no point in getting single disc shipments, but the second I started thinking "oooh, could get Time Trumpet and The Peter Serafinowicz Show too," it didn't look so economical.