Last year our cuddly but crazy Keeshond LD (short for Elle Dee Deux) did Halloween as the Teen Titan, Robin, as you can see HERE. And yes, that was a Titans Robin costume, not a Batman version. This year LD decided to let her true Sith Lord shine as Darth LD. Whatever she's dressed up as, she is the cutest thing living.

Labels: Darth LD

This is a test. I've been putting together the video of my trip to Australia, editing the film in iMovie (it comes with the Mac), adding in sound, playing with stuff, etc. I thought I'd share one clip with you. A number of us went to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney and happened to come across the Tasmanian Devil at feeding time. Tasmanian Devils usually run around crazy but in no way make sounds like Tas on the Bugs Bunny show. We were all pretty bummed about that and since a few of the guys who came were cartoon voice folk, they made those sounds for it. It's not gross. Speaking of bunnies, that is a dead rabbit he's being fed. I checked; this cottontail one never dressed up as women or sang songs, so it's okay. Actually, it sorta looks like LD at feeding time. I notice the clip is shown twice, but I have no idea why since it's only embedded once. Just click on the top clip. The bottom one send you off to somewhere in cyberspace.

Labels: Taranga Zoo, Tasmanian Devil

I had watched the final episode of Damages in Australia but caught the ending again here at home. What a wonderful first season. Paced like a novel it was incredibly tight and kept surprising you right to the very last moment. I have no idea if they wrote all the scripts up front before they filmed them or if they did an exhausting beat chart for the entire first season, but because the series was told in reverse time, starting many weeks back and moving to the present, while also showing events that were happening in current time, Damages constantly included scenes from "future episodes" setting you up to think they were going one way until the final reveal when they once again pulled the rug out from under you. This meant that unlike most TV series they had to know exactly what they were doing from the beginning. But beyond brilliant structure and a great story, Damages was wonderfully written and directed and impeccably acted. The characters, all of them, are wonderfully flawed, but in realistic ways. The so called heroes and villains all lived in the gray zone which made them fascinating to watch. Next year when Emmy time comes along I know exactly where one of my votes is going. The season was flawless, intelligent, demanded your attention and never failed to honor the promises it made along the way. They surprised us but never sucker punched us. Damages is TV at its best.

Labels: Damages

It was a long flight but I'm home again, in time to go to a wonderful Halloween Party even if I was half asleep at the time. Spent most of yesterday sleeping. Got up at about 3:00AM this morning then went back to sleep again until almost noon where I have to get prepared for another Halloween event later on. As much as I loved being in Australia, I love being home more.

I did something with this Blog that I've never done before. I deleted an entire subject which was the Nighty Nightwing category. Not because a few of you didn't care for the issue since it ended so abruptly - and thanks to the astute reader who noticed I had said in my blog that ending was not my original idea but because of other situations it was something that had to be done - but because I've been getting endless letters from someone who just kept sending 3-5 word letters saying "Great job, wonderful blog" or something like that. At first I thought it was someone who was just enthusiastic, but when you clicked on his name it took you to advertisements for various products. Also, his return email was always different. I don't know what that was about but even if he liked the book as much as he said nobody would actually keep writing like that. I tried at first just to delete some of the emails, but they kept coming. Hopefully by deleting the topic they'll go away. I don't censor criticism, even misplaced, but in this case I took off all those I believe fake praise emails.

Labels: Home and stuff

I've received a number of emails asking if my home is anywhere near the fires that are currently raging through California. Thankfully it isn't. But I have been keeping close to the situation, through my phone calls to Noel and emails to others as well as the internet (Thank God for that!) as well as the newespapers here in Australia which are reporting the tragedy. I'm told this is the largest evacuation of people since the Civil War, and that alone is staggering. The number of homes lost is a terrible tragedy to the thousands of people who are now displaced. Despite the reports, only a very small percentage of these are "millionaire celebrities." Most of the people, especially in hard hit Ramona, are barely middle class if that. My thoughts are with them.

The fires do give us pause to consider what we should do to prepare for these events. If a fire such as these comes at you, you can't stop it, but do you know where your irreplacable photos, papers, and other necessities are? If all my comics were to go away, the few I actually care about could be replaced, but what about our family photos? What about the few things that actually are important to us. When I get home it's something to think about. It's times like this when you realize that everything you've spent a lifetime accumulating can be gone in an instant.

I still don't know about some of my friends. I have a few who live in Arrowhead who had to evacuate their home two years ago when fires swept through that area. Their homes was spared but I have no idea if they were lucky again. I know many folk in the San Diego area and from what I can tell a few have lost their homes, but I don't know abou the others. I can only keep my fingers crossed. At this moment in time I hear about 1,800 homes have been lost and tens of thousands of others could be in danger. Let us all hope this tragedy ends soon.

Labels: The Fires

I am very pleased to announce that my non-fiction book Homeland, The Illustrated History of the State of Israel, has just received the Gold Award from the independent publishers Moonbeam Children's Book Awards in the Young Adult-Non-Fiction category. There were 862 other books in the categories so it is no small feat. If you are interested in getting the book, please click on the link to the right of this page.

Labels: Homeland Award

I mentioned yesterday that I've been seeing movies and catching up on TV while visiting beautiful sunny Brisbane. First movie I caught was Death At A Funeral directed by Frank Oz (hence the title of this blog). Oz is of course an accomplished director and puppeteer, the man who gave voice to many Muppets, but especially to Miss Piggy. I've liked a lot of Oz's films, especially Little Shop of Horrors, but I've also had problems with others. Funeral seems to fit right in the middle. If you readall the reviews you'd think it was a fast moving British style farce. And it is, if you take out fast moving as a descriptive. It is slow and often not funny, and sometimes way too predictable. I love farce's and this was fine but IMHO not nearly the movie others are saying it is. Worth seeing perhaps. Great, no.

I did see Michael Clayton which I liked a lot but oddly think is being done just as well, if not better, on the TV show Damages, which has pretty much the same ideas. That's not to put down Michael Clayton at all because it's a wonderfully acted and tightly written thriller, but so is Damages, which my win out in the writing category by just a bit as it has time to develop rather than have to end in two hours. Damages feels like it's a novel that was
worked out in advance. Clayton feels like it's a great old thriller, the kind we hardly see any more. Clooney is great but so are all the other actors. See this one.

On the other hand you can easily miss Resident Evil. I liken this movie to the 4th chapter of a 6-part comic. It makes no sense without the preceding chapters and it ends on a cliff-hanger so it is completely unfulfilling. Also, Milla Jovovich who plays the lead character Alice, though looking wow is only a marginally better actress than my puppy, LD. Her voice is flat, though fortunately she is not. Still, you can deal with her as she says maybe a dozen or two words in the entire movie but you can't forgive the completely senseless story that is filled with self importance. Further, the ads for it show theincredible Las Vegas CG designs. Unfortunately very little action happens there. It all takes place in the desert.

On TV, Heroes is getting more interesting. I like the new characters but do want to warn the folks behind it. Keep some ordinary people in the series. One of the things that was most interesting in season one was
how regular folk dealt with the Heroes, whether they knew who they were or not. When everyone suddenly has powers you can lose the humanity that makes the show so good.

I'm liking Journeyman. It's little more than Quantum Leap sideways, but I like the personal aspects to the show. It might not make it as you don't have to watch it every week, but so far so good. The same goes with Chuck which is not must see TV but amiable and fun.

Smallville has been better this year than last where I thought it began to really show its age. The introduction to Kara works. I like the character. Bionic Woman is slowly winning me over. But not because of the lead actress but because of the other bionic woman is being presented not as a standard villain but one with great conflict. I still think they should kill Jamie and let Sarah take over (once they get the 'evil' program out of her head and redeem her). Katie rules! Pushing Daisies has been wonderful. I'm still not sure if they can charm me for 22 episodes a year, but so far I love it. My Name Is Earl and 30 Rock are both great. Scrubs returns in two days and I can't wait for that.

I'm sure there's other shows I could talk about but it's late and I have one more posting to make here which, since I'll be posting it in a few minutes you'll probably read it before you read this

When I was last in Brisbane I mentioned how American the city is. If you were walking through the city and you didn't notice which side of the street the cars were driving on, you wouldn't realize you were thousands of miles away from home. You see the same stores. The people are all dressed the same. There are Starbucks on every corner. There's a sense of familiarity that is comforting... and disturbing. I really miss the individual nature of cities around the world. More and more as I travel I see the same everything I can see down the block from me at home. When I go to eat, even in different US cities, I always try to find local places. I enjoy finding something I can't find at home. But the world's gotten smaller. Yesterday during dinner I noticed to Aussie women across the aisle from where I was sitting, one wearing a UCLA sweat shirt and the other a NYU sweat. And, as say, they were Aussies.

On the other hand the city itself, lying next to a beautiful bay, is gorgeous. I can dine by the water, stare at the Story Bridge and let my mind wander. Brisbane may be very American in many ways, but it's still beautiful.

Haven't toured as much this trip as I did last time since I took every tour I could then. This trip is meeting with folk, having dinner with new friends, joining in on a game's night, and seeing movies and catching up on TV. Movies come out pretty much when they do in the States, but not always. I saw Michael Clayton which opened simultaneously (it was pretty good) but then other movies haven't opened yet. TV is also a mixed bag. There was a time when TV shows camedown under a year or so after they aired in the States. But with Bit Torrent and otherdownloadable alternatives, the channels here are showing American shows as quickly as they air in the States. heroes is delayed by two weeks, but through the miracle of theinternet I haven't missed anything important.

Australia is very attractive. It's the size of the US but has a fraction of the population. Of course everyone speaks English, but sometimes to my ears the accent is pretty thick and I have to ask twice what they said. Prices are surprisingly high. Food costs more than in the States, but at the same point tips are not expected so it might actually come out to be the same. The service industry people here are paid better than at home but when you see the initial price you forget that what you see is what you pay. Clothing however is much more expensive. So are sodas. A typical can of coke can be over 2 dollars AU which these days is about $1.75 US. And I'm talking inthe super-market. In the 7-11s they can be upward of $4.00. Movie tickets are about the same and yes, the theaters have the same overwhelming number of commercials as well as trailers. Speaking of trailers, is anyone else as sick as I am of seeing the trailer to "Across The Universe?" If they were going to show it as often as they do, couldn't they have made a second trailer? It's turned me off from seeing the actual movie, assuming they filmed more than the trailer.

Anyway, that's it for today. More to come and when I get home and have time, I'll upload some pictures and maybe, if I can figure out how, even some movie footage I took while in Sydney.

Labels: Brisbane

I'm in Brisbane, Australia. I've been here before and it's a small but growing city, the fastest growing in Australia, actually. From what I understand 50,000 people move here every year. The weather is part of the reason; usually somewhere in the 70s-80s if I converted my metrics right. Brisbane is along the coast, but then most of the cities in Australia are as well, its middle being pretty much empty. When you consider Australia is geographically as large as the U.S. but only has 25 million or so people, it can help explain why there's been no need to move into the interior.

I mentioned previously that I visited the wild animal building in Sydney. Yes, a number of us went to the big zoo on the outskirtsd of town, and it was wonderful, but right in the middle of Sydney, in Darling Harbor, smack dab in an upscale U-shaped movie/restuarant area, are two buildings that don't look all that large. But like some sort of tardis, are enormous once you get inside.

A number of us went first to the aquarium building. We assumed based on what appeared to be its size, it would contain oh, maybe two or three tanks. Oh, no. It's a full-sized aquarium complete with every Australian species, from the smallest Nemo-styled clown fish (this is Sydney, where Nemo went, if you remember) to giant sharks. The building grows downward, spilling into multiple areas where amazing giant tanks fill vast rooms. You can walk through various tunnels where Sharks, Mantas, Stingrays and other giant sea life swim all around you, to the sides, on top of you and in one area beneath. This is one of the most incredible aquariums I've ever been to, and, as I say, it's smack dab in the middle of a shopping area.

Directly next to the aquarium is the wild animal building. Once again this building is at least five times larger than it appears. I don't know if it's because we got there about 5PM - it's open to 10 - but for the second half of our visit the six of us got an incredible personalized tour, taking us past all manner of snakes, insects, dingos, kangaroos, koalas, Tazmanian devils and more. You can go up to the roof and under a specially lit conopy you see wallabees hopping here and there. You can walk into the butterfly room where thousands of them flutter about beautifully.

Both buildings are models for how zoos and aquariums can come to the people and not take up a lot of horizontal space, but still leave tons of room for the animals themselves. They are masterpieces of design. Both Aquarium and Wild Animal buildings opened only last year so they are probably tests for how future such zoos can be built. If you get to Sydney, go to Darling Harbor and definitely visit both the Aquarium and the zoo. They are truly amazing and both are well worth the time.

Supanova, the Australian convention I attended in Sydney, is over and I can truly say a good time was had by all. I didn't have internet access down there in order to blog - although I guess I could have done it over my phone - but at the end of each day I was truly exhausted. A whole slew of us toured the city, went to the zoo, the Aquarium, the Wild Animal building (I'll explain that later but man, it was so cool). I'll be in Australia for a few more weeks and I'll try to tell you all about the convention and the city. But until then all I'll do is show you one of the photos taken... this is of me with new best friends Nicholas Brendon, Xander from Buffy, Nicki Clyne, crewman specialist Calley from Battlestar Galactica, and Clayton Watson, "The Kid" from The Matrix Revolutions. Wow!

Labels: Supanova 1

Months ago I was at a pilot party at a friend's house and saw the pilot for the Caveman series. Even though we have a five minute rule, we were all too stunned to stop the show from pouring its total awfulness on us. There was nothing to recommend it. Then I heard the showrunner had been changed and the pilot scrapped and a new one filmed. There were even cast and location changes. I decided to brave the new version and I'm happy to report it's 100% better than the original. Now it's only awful instead of being totally awful. Danger Will Robinson! Danger! This show is the sole reason we either evolve or die.

An addendum: if you decide to give Caveman a miss, do the same with Carpoolers. It's a comedy without laughs. Not horrible like Caveman, but it fits firmly in the "Why bother?" category.

Week Two of Chuck was fun but didn't it feel just like week one? It could have been the second half of the pilot. I really hope they have more interesting stories. Charm alone isn't enough, at least not on NBC. Maybe USA. I'll still watch it, but it needs to evolve. Week Two of Journeyman did move forward. This is Quantum Leap with a small difference, but if the stories are good I won't care. I like the relationship with his wife and the two brothers look more like brothers than real brothers do. Sometimes if I'm half paying attention I mistake one for the other.

Week Two of Big Bang Theory had lots of laughs, but I'm not sure if it has legs. Ultimately it's about making fun of geeks. How funny is it one of them checks for a prowler with his lightsaber? How funny is it that none of them can dress better than a 1950s sitcom character? How funny that they argue comics, Star Trek and Star Wars but are also brilliant scientists? Chuck Lorre always supplies funny gags and this episode was filled with them, but I think this show really needs to grow and make the characters and situations more than cliches. On the other hand I love his Two And A Half Men. As silly as it is, you can believe the characters and the show is constantly funny.

I'm looking forward to the new episode of Life, which really should be on USA. I liked the pilot a lot. I also liked the first Dirty Sexy Money for its blatant wonkiness.

Tonight is the first episode of Pushing Daisies. I really like this one and though I'm not sure if they can keep finding new stories, for the moment I don't care. It's incredible to look at, fun and quirky and tonight's show has one of the tightest plotted stories I've seen on TV in a long time. Even if it ultimately doesn't succeed - you'll either love or hate it and I hope you'll love it - the pilot is something to treasure.

Labels: TV Fall Season continued

For those in the Sydney, Australia area, I will be there the weekend of Oct. 13-14 for the big SUPANOVA convention. I'll be signing books as well as giving my writing seminar which I've been doing at San Diego for the past few years. Please come by. For the rest of you, it's only a 13 plus hour trip. What's keeping you?

Labels: Supanova, Sydney