A Long Time to Go and Very Far Away

This really is quite sad... Ever since (the crashing disappointment of) ep.3, I've been hanging on to the promise of Star Wars TV series and so...

At least when TV is crap it's generally not something to self-harm over, yeah? Having said this, the most unalloyed pleasure I've taken in anything from a galaxy far, far away, in recent years was in the viewing of the Clone Wars cartoon series, especially series three which actually engaged with moving the story forward in a more serious manner than the others. The plotting was tight, the action - in an expressionistic manner - was as good as the real-thing, and the acting was better than ...you know... the Jar-Jar and Anikin show. I honestly believe much of this resulted from the lack of interference by Mr. Lucas who, it is now clear, just doesn't know what he's doing outside of the special effects department; but I'm dwelling tactlessly on matters which were decided long ago in the court of popular opinion so let's move on.
The animated series were helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky whose recent bio is full of potentially very exciting stuff (including a new Dark Crystal movie!!) and it is safe to say he has established a level of trust vis-a-vis quality-assurance of his work. The forthcoming clone-wars animated series has names attached to it that only inspire horrid, sweaty, fear. Either they have little track-record (and what there is suggests only technical expertise) or, as in the case of the writers, stuff from the very darkest pits of Disney's Sunday excressences.
The live action series destined for '09 has still only got George's face stuck like a big shiny ticker sticker on the plastic box: WARNING: Contents May Offend! Actually Rick McCallum is producing, and Lucas is only EP, but, still...
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Chewie! Blast 'em!

PS According to the Australian, blogging is going the way of the covered wagon. at peak popularity - last October - 100,000 blogs were created every day and not only has this levelled off, but more and more fall into disuse with each passing second. Of course we all know the intar-web is a lonely place, littered with websites and blogs that will never again be updated - something I find poignantly distressing every time I encounter it, for some reason - in addition to the ones which are full of scary spam and - I presume - viruses. What I hadn't thought of is that, if you've attached some personal identifier to said virtual fragment, the web will forever point back to your fallen, virtual aspirations whenever someone googles your good self. What does that say about you? For me it adds a kind of paranoid hysteria to the guilt I already experience when I think about how long it has been since I last updated my blog...that I'm pretty sure almost no-one reads anyway. From this I can only conclude that ... I am a nutter, thank- you, graciously, for your time.

PPS Has anyone noticed that the Federal Government can't seem to remember how to wear pants anymore, never mind run government? Well I always thought the latter, but John Howard had Janette to dress him...maybe she was only on loan from Satan? Look, this is all a long-winded way of saying that they're falling to bits and it is a huge anti-climax after so many years of eeeviiil. I just don't get where they went wrong - I mean its not as if they started doing things very differently: arrogant - check, conservative as all-get-out on any issue you care to mention - check, smooching US behind - check. I don't get it.

Yet I won't say that I'm not enjoying it.

Recently there was a delightful piece in the SMH fairly ripping into Santo Santoro: reminding us how morally uncompromising he'd been when attacking the ABC, oh the delicious irony and so forth; and today I happened to be listening to Radio National where let's face it, Joe Hockey would have a right to feel like he's facing enemy fire but when Julia Gillard marched upon him like an implacable army hell-bent on avenging those fallen to the wicked IR laws he must have felt like he was the first-up-against-the-wall in the throes of the revolution. Not that I believe mincing, dissembling, colourless Australian Labor will fulfill my epic Tolstoyan fantasies any time soon, but listen to the podcast, it warmed my blood.

Clouds on the Horizon

I have some spare time, I'm in an internet cafe, my email is virtually up to date. I hadn't checked on the progress of my favourite lost-in-development game, done that... why don't I blog it. I'd say more, but the Wikilink will tell u everything u need to know anyway: a new (canonical) game for the Fallout series based on Bethesda's Gamebryo engine (of Oblivion fame) - so, no more third-person isometric view then, I don't know if I'm as sad as some people about that - will be released on PC, XBOX360 & PS3, previews later this year. Hoorah! So long as Jack Thompson doesn't claim Bethesda is harvesting children's gall-bladders (mmm...that tangy bile flavour), we should have a game sometime in the next year or two.