851

(45 replies, posted in Episodes)

You're lucky. The one time I was quoted on the show, in the Blair Witch commentary, Dorkman couldn't remember who wrote what he was quoting smile

Just make sure to keep the old feed alive for quite some time, with its final episode entitled "new podcast feed address" or some such.

Changing the feed name will break every subscription link, so that should be done with care. Switching a podcast to a new feed always causes some confusion.

854

(45 replies, posted in Episodes)

The old Down in Front RSS feed still works, and that's what you'll get if you click on the RSS icon at the top of the page. The new episode showed up for me just now.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/213 … -star-wolf

OK, this... well, it's the first real test. We had the Veronica Mars movie, and naturally funded Trey's Pink Five, but this is different. Why? Because... well, it's continuing. It's not a one shot, or an attempt to get studio backing. It's an independent production that expects fans to fund everything.

And I don't see it working.

The cost is one factor. Raising a half million dollars for each new episode is a bit much to expect. Star Trek New Voyages/Phase 2, the fan film group Gerrold has worked with, is years behind their episode production, and they only have to raise money to fund CGI for footage shot years ago. There's also the fact that, yes, this is not an investment. You pay your $50, get one download of the episode and a sticker, and that's it. All profit goes elsewhere. People are going to donate once, then wait for the much cheaper DVD release.

Speaking of cost, I am amused at their comment that you don't need to spend $1.5 million, that they can do it for $650,000 (of which, apparently, only $150,000 is on pre-production and one time pilot costs). Back in the day, JMS said an episode of Babylon 5 cost only $850,000 at a time when the newest Trek episode cost $1.6 million. Compared to the Babylon 5 number, this show doesn't sound all that cheap, given the advances in tech.

Thoughts?

I quite liked one of the comments:

I love how he gives the standard, “Well if I ran a studio, we would trust that talent to do whatever they want,” as if that has never happened before with DISASTROUS results (United Artists, Orion, Sony under Peter Guber).

Obviously, we need a middle ground, between money people and art people in charge. Yes, Pixar did well for awhile as a somewhat independent artistic commune, but they focused on one movie a year, or less. Now that they're in charge of Disney...

857

(57 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Sam F wrote:

On the other hand, this facility could become a completely inescapable, really really expensive galactic prison. I can see it now...

"Mars is a Harsh Mistress"

858

(57 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Lamer wrote:

'Inflatable section' sounds very reassuring.

I assume they're referring to a TransHab, similar to what will be attached to the space station in a year or two. It's actually a good design. However, looking at their timeline, unless they've already designed and begun building their lander the whole thing is silly. That takes time to test and debug, and it's not like they can buy one off the shelf. A 2016 launch date for the firs mission is just unrealistic.

I'm reminded of the old Artemis Project, which had the same kind of setup for a moon venture. The base would have been a hotel, with other commercial activities to pay for the thing.

859

(469 replies, posted in Episodes)

fcw wrote:
Invid wrote:
switch wrote:

did you guys have to take down the itunes podcast feed?  I can't access it anymore... sad

Part of the deal is Teague has to add a new intro with the new name to all the existing episodes. This may have something to do with it.

Blimey. Does he have to loop every mention of 'Down in Front' or 'DiF' to something else as well?

The first post in this thread has Teague saying

They have, however, permitted us to keep references to the trademark in the aforementioned 235 archived episodes, with the addition of a new intro identifying them with the new name.

So, basically a new intro and disclaimer at the start, then the original episode. Probably a new outro, too, with the new web site address if Teague gets ambitious (record once, then paste in 235 times)

860

(469 replies, posted in Episodes)

switch wrote:

did you guys have to take down the itunes podcast feed?  I can't access it anymore... sad

Part of the deal is Teague has to add a new intro with the new name to all the existing episodes. This may have something to do with it.

861

(48 replies, posted in Episodes)

Alex wrote:

Sort of. Most composers I know have a "vault" of some sort. It's where we file away our (hopefully) awesome ideas that have yet to find a home. I have half a TB drive full of Logic and Pro Tools sessions plus a few plastic bins overflowing with random bits of manuscript paper. Literally 10 simultaneous albums have been being written for 3 years. Most of that music will never see the light of day. It's kind of absurd how few of my ideas I actually end up using.

That said, it's kind of nice to dig around in there if you aren't coming up with any score ideas for an awkwardly long time. "Uh, hmm, let's see...I used to know how to write music..."

Growing up, we had the original soundtrack album for the Broadway production of The Music Man. It had a great story by the creator, either on the liner or the back, about why he did it. See, he had this large trunk of songs he had written, but never used. The entire project was started as a way to finally use them, a framework into which he could just plug his existing songs.

By the time the last preview ended, the last of these songs was removed from the show and a final new song was put in to replace it. The Music Man was a hit, but all his songs were back in the trunk. He ends by saying he was thinking about doing a Music Man 2 as a way to finally empty the trunk smile

862

(31 replies, posted in Off Topic)

We must not forget, naturally, that he wrote the script for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

"This is my happening and it freaks me out!"

863

(49 replies, posted in Episodes)

I'm saying training teens for the Hunger Games would make a great way to train the next generation of revolutionaries, to the point where a more fleshed out story might in fact have said it was illegal for anyone to train for them.

864

(31 replies, posted in Off Topic)

My favorite memory, back from the PBS Sneak Previews days, was his review of Halloween 3. Siskel hated it, and Ebert taunted him with the song.
"Come on, you mean you didn't like the jingle? [singing] 'Five more days till Halloween...'"

I was so very disappointed on seeing that his written review trashed the film smile

865

(49 replies, posted in Episodes)

Combat training for your youth, even the basic stuff, would just seem like a good idea. Also a stealth project for future rebellion. Districts 1 and 2 leading the eventual overthrow of the system would be a great turn of events smile

866

(49 replies, posted in Episodes)

A question I came away from the movie with was, what's more moral, training kids to have a fighting chance in the games, or letting random weak ones get picked in the lottery? Districts 1 and 2 had the right idea.

867

(21 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Wasn't that an old Mac program for editing a file's resource file? I seem to recall going in and changing icons in the 90's...

868

(49 replies, posted in Episodes)

The history we're told says 13 districts rebelled. 12 send tributes. I assume nobody in District 13 survived the war?

869

(3 replies, posted in Off Topic)

It started a week ago.

On Monday, March 25th, 2013, the web comic xkcd posted a simple picture of two people on a beach, with the title of Time. The alternate caption said, "wait for it."

http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130328030841/xkcd-time/images/thumb/7/76/5614c47bc2f28b730a360f796cc2993ba04e1f09db0aa3f325e476338777a9c4.png/330px-5614c47bc2f28b730a360f796cc2993ba04e1f09db0aa3f325e476338777a9c4.png

People did.

Every half hour, the picture updated, forming an animated story. In the forum, people speculated on what was happening, where it would go.

It is still going on. This one individual comic now has its own wiki, a new religion has formed in the forum, already with its own splinter sect, and nobody has any idea how long this could go.

Come join the fun. You can see an animation of all the previous images, with each new one automatically added, HERE

870

(84 replies, posted in Episodes)

I sense conspiracy.

871

(22 replies, posted in Episodes)

Well, he DID accidentally start a world war, so I can see someone justifying it smile

872

(22 replies, posted in Episodes)

Things devolved into random conversation threads near the end, which is fine smile Regarding legal action about Calvin and Hobbes related things, the creator Bill Watterson has a legitimate gripe about such things that unfortunately ruins it for the rest of you. You know those car window decals of Calvin peeing? Unauthorized. Not only haven't they been able to get rid of the damned things, but everyone thinks they ARE authorized, and it's the only thing with the character they're seeing. For someone like Watterson who refused to do any licensing for his characters, as he thought the strips should stand by themselves, it makes him want to come down harder on any attempt to use them.

I have the game. It's OK, but to be honest I've never tried to win: I stop as soon as I'm at the final sector. What I DO find amusing are its fans in various forums. Whenever anyone has ANY comments on things they don't like, or features they'd like to see, the response is: "It's a Rogue-like game! What do you expect!" As if genres are absolute smile

(I had never heard of Rogue until FTL, but assume it's an early example of the style)

874

(64 replies, posted in Episodes)

Trey wrote:

True, 2001 doesn't give the viewer much info to go on.  To really understand it, you pretty much had to read the book (or nowadays, the Wikipedia article at least).   But the ideas were always there, even though Kubrick chose not to explain most of them on screen.

That could be considered a major flaw, reminding me of the illuminating directors commentary for an anime series, Paranoid Agent, where they stated they removed any line of dialog that could possibly tell the viewer what was going on smile

China Girl is from the original Wizard of Oz book, or at least her people are. Dorothy has to go through their land to get to the witch of the north after the Wizard vanishes.

Given how much stuff is in the books, it's amazing how all stories like this can draw from is the movie. There's an old Mickey Mouse Club clip of the original Mouseketeers doing a skit about the second book, Marvelous Land of Oz, as Disney had just bought the rights. When they eventually did Return to Oz, they mashed the 2nd and 3rd books together, as they naturally COULDN'T do an OZ story without Dorothy!

I only recently discovered it, but everyone should check out the web comic Namesake. Much of it is set in a future OZ that IS the OZ from the books, one that has seen many Dorothy's come...