My cyber-friend Darren Madigan's brother Paul just got served notice that he has seven days to find a new home for his dog Chewie, or he has to go to the pound. If you or anyone you know in Central Florida wants a lovable 40 to 50 pound dog, please e-mail him at docnebula01@juno.com, or pass the word along. Dunno what Paul's options are as far as moving, but given that he loves his dog, if you have any suggestions as far as places he could move to, you could pass those along, as well.

Update: Latest word is they've located a suitable shelter to take him to in Orlando, about 60 miles from where they live. Again, please let Darren know if you can help, or pass the word along. Hopefully, it'll reach someone who can help.

Over at Journalista!, Dirk Deppey is wondering why, given the original manga's existance, TokyoPop is releasing a Cine-manga version of Astro Boy?
Given a perfect world, that would be a very good question. Unfortunately, in this world of no response to political and corporatelies and thievery, but show a breast at the Super Bowl and watch out! it comes down to:

• It's in color vs. black and white. Even the manga business understands color good, black and white bad in the comics market,
  
• The tail is wagging the dog. Fans of the TV show want something as close to that as possible, and some people ironically question's the original as a result, and
  
• It avoids the awkward explaining of Tezuka-sensei's less than politically correct depictions in some instances in the original manga.
  

Of course, as the late Don Thompson pointed out, what purpose does a comic adaptation of a movie or TV show serve in this VCR (and DVD) market? The "source" is available on demand. A good point Mark Evanier made in his book Wertham Was Right! was that while Top Cat was the top selling comic at one point, you couldn't sell anything near that amount today if it were delivered by nude Price is Right models. The reason: where in the past a TV show was on once a week, watch it or miss it; today thanks to Cable and Satellite even Top Cat is shown much more frequently.

About the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake Super Bowl halftime show controversy (just added this line to increase my hits. Wish I could say I had free pictures to get even more hits)
Some points I'm surprised no one made about the Super Half Time Show Brouhaha (I'd link it, but picking one would be like picking a grain of sand on the beach)...
1) I'm probably the only one to admit it, but I didn't see the original broadcast, didn't even TiVo it for the commercials, like last year. When they covered it on The Daily Show on Monday, back when it was a "mistake", it didn't look like one to me.
2) Does anyone else wonder if this is Justin's reply to Britney's kiss w/Madonna and her quickie Vegas wedding?
3) Isn't Empty-vee and See BS owned by the same company?
4) Hopefully Bill Maher will decree a new rule on his show that unless you were personally offended, or a parent, quitcherbitchin'. We don't need any more champions for those who cannot speak for themselves, like the children, or the country. Let's have the parents do their jobs, and take steps when they don't besides stepping into the position. And it isn't a sign that the country, or televsion, is going down the tubes that this happened. It was 2 people that figured "wouldn't it be real funny if..." and there was no sign that anyone else knew it was going to happen.

There were only 5 or 6 comics coming out this week, and with the exception of Supreme Power, wasn't worth the trip to go pick up.
Went on another run to follow up on The Digital Bits mentioning Ed Wood being available at some Blockbuster Videos or Costco. Also checked a couple of more local venues, came up blank. Followed up on an earlier search on eBay and found someone that put up a few copies at a Buy it Now price of $40. Was on it like a hooker on a Corvette-tm. Priority shipping and insurance was $4. The guy said that he shipped the day after auction ended, but hasn't claimed the PayPal payment yet. Will keep you posted.
Update: Just saw on PayPal transaction status went from "unclaimed" to completed. E-mailed him to find out when it was coming. Just got a reply mailed out today. Hopefully get it Saturday, likely to be Monday.
BTW, if you're interested in videos not officially released, you might go here and look around.

From Elayne Rigg's Blog:


create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Went out on my lunch hour and got American Splendor and Lost in Translation. On the latter, made sure I got the widescreen version, almost picked up the full screen by mistake. I did that once with Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, so I ended up buying that movie 3 times (fortunately, I sold the extra copies on half.com, a good site that looks like it's being merged into eBay)
I had heard that Ed Wood was cancelled and recalled, but The Digital Bits held out the hope that some stores would still sell them if you got lucky. The closest I came was a Borders that had 2 copies, both reserved for someone else. A call to another Borders came up empty. Hopefully, they'll release it soon, or I'll wait a few months until the fuss dies down and pick it up cheaper, like I did The History of Beavis and Butthead that was recalled last year. Got it for $40 on eBay.
Interesting thing about the case Lost in Translation came in, it looks like a regular case, except for 2 tabs on the sides that you have to flip to open.

Nat Gertler reports on his TV Blog that ABC isn't bringing back Karen Cisco as promised. Damn shame, it was about the only series I watched. I never saw the movie that also referenced the original Elmore Leonard novel Out of Sight, but the series was good. The characters weren't cookie cutter or standard, they seemed to have a life of their own before their story unfolded, and seemed to continue after their exit. Of course Carla Gugino as Karen was good (been a fan of her's, believe it or not, since Son In Law with Pauly Shore), as well as Robert Forster as her dad (bringing the same level of cool from another Leonard translation Rum Punch/Jackie Brown).

Thanks to your response to my earlier post checking to see if anyone's reading what I'm putting up here. Sorry I didn't make it clearer, but although the trial period was ending, it wasn't my intention to quit (unless I got zero response to my posting). I did sign up for the monthly service before the sale period ended, which was good, because I got tired Saturday night and barely made it through Once Upon A Time in Mexico DVD I got from Netflix (not getting anything for the plug. Although they have an Associates program, I don't care for being told what I can and cannot do on my site, regardless of whether I would do it. That said, good service, turnaround time for discs could be quicker). Woke up just after 11pm and remembered the sale to sign up here was ending that day. Got online and registered in time. The reason I went with Blogharbor instead of Blogspot like most bloggers is because while they offer free blogging, they also offer a deluxe version with more services for $5 a month. However, it's been suspended for some time, you can't click on the link for more info, and no indication when it will return. Things like that I take as a bad sign, hopefully I'm wrong. Better still, hopefully nothing will happen to Blogharbor. Maybe I should keep an eye out on F'd Company's site, or hopefully one of you will let me know if you hear anything. The former was how i found out theglobe.com was going belly up, and was able to get stuff from my old website off in time (forgot the cardinal rule of backup copies, kids)
The good thing is now that I'm signed up I can post here as often as I like, not just limited to 5 posts a day. I've used "Dis and Dat" posts to keep to the limit a couple of times. I might continue using it for posts where I don't have much to say, or post individually, I don't know yet.
I even heard from a new blogger Mike Norton, who sounds like he's going to cover some similar ground.

Neilalien points out this thread over at Newsarama, they're discussing the "cease and desist" order Super Hero Happy Hour received from Marvel and DC over use of their trademark on "superhero". I remember seeing that notice in the late '70's that it is a trademark co-owned by DC and Marvel and wondering what that meant given that I thought it was a generic term. Some points made in the link are that there are several terms that one uses that are actually trademarked, and that if those owners of the trademarks do not enforce said ownership, they are in danger of losing that ownership. And of course there are the people that want to copyright words and claim ownership and royalties for usage, that miss the point.

I've been playing Star Trek: Shattered Universe for the X-Box. It's about Captain Sulu and the Excelsior accidentally ending up in the Mirror Universe (evil version from the classic series episode Mirror, Mirror) and trying to get back home. It's basically flying out a fighter and shooting stuff. Unfortunately, I'm at that part of the game I end up at, being stuck and trying to figure out how to advance. Even more frustrating, I'm not sure how to advance. It's the level where you're having to go through Klingon space to mine minerals for the Excelsior, and you have to shoot Klingon ships at certain points. Then after you reach all the points to mine, more Klingon ships come out, and then after that, 2 Orion starships and fighters come out and you have to get rid of them. I figured out if you destroy one of the Orion starships, the other one warps out, leaving the fighters to mop up. But they destroy the Excelsior before I can. I went to Cheat Planet to see if there were any cheat codes or tips, the tips they had weren't helpful. And the game's website doesn't have any information, just the usual PR BS. And it isn't popular enough to warrant a tip book. So when I get to this point, I take a break for a couple of days and try it again. Either I'll get through this bottleneck, or finally give up in frustration.