Interesting links for January 19th through January 22nd:

• We’re Havin’ a Heath Wave: Entertainment – An interview/article with Heath Ledger from Vanity Fair from 8 years ago.
• Jumper: The Prequel Comic – I was already quite psyched for Jumper (Hayden Christensen and Sam the Man Jackson), and now they’ve brought out this comic prequel. Seems pretty cool.
• Exclusive stills and update on adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Chrysalis – First look at the movie Chrysalis. I don’t know any of the actors and judging the movie stills, I wouldn’t hope too much for this movie. Plot sounds nice and sci-fi-y though.
• Security in a Chair » Yanko Design – Now this is a smart design. When I’m at a restaurant or cafe, I hate having to put my coat over the chair and my bag just on the ground. This is the way it should be.
• Flickr Photo Download: Corporate Connection v.2, 2003 – Cool visualization of how certain companies/brands are tied together.

Episode 22: “You’re too good to be true” 

Heath Ledger was found dead in a New York apartment tonight. A part of me still can’t believe it and is hoping that it isn’t true. He was a great actor and will be sorely missed.

I first saw Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You where he performed the following unforgettable scene:

Episode 21: “I used to live in a windmill.” 

This evening I went to the recording of Russell Brand & Friends, a “live” show which will be shown on Friday on Channel 4. It was great fun, but because we had to stand during the whole thing, my feet and legs hurt like hell. I’m too tired to blog properly about it now, but here’s at least a clip from a previous performance of Russell Brand where he talks about computers:  

Episode 20: “Kiwi!” 

Even the toughest heart should shed a little tear with this video:

Episode 19: “Nerdy Chip McCallahan suddenly stops eating. Melinda the Mental Marvel is sitting down next to him!”

I don’t remember which year it was exactly when my brother, my sister and I got an Atari Lynx for Christmas (it must have been ’92 or ’93, something like that). Then a couple of years later (in ’94 or so) I got for my birthday the game Chip’s Challenge. By then then the cartridges were (if you could find them) cheap as anything. The game was perfect; it even started with the line:

Nerdy Chip McCallahan suddenly stops eating. Melinda the Mental Marvel is sitting down next to him!

Cool! Melinda the Mental Marvel! That’s me! I was only a bit disappointed when I found out you could only play as Chip (a stupid boy) and not as Melinda. The plot of the game was simple: you’re Chip and to gain membership of the exclusive Bit Buster Club, you’ve got to navigate through difficult puzzles. In total, there are 148 levels, but I have to admit, I think I didn’t even reach the 50.

I’ve just discovered a great Atari Lynx emulator for on the Mac, so I’ve been playing this game again to my heart’s content. I still have the Atari Lynx at my parent’s place, but it is slowly dying. I’ll have to open it up some time and see if I can figure out what’s up with it. I am so glad we never gave or threw it away. I also found out that one of the cartridges I got is quite rare (Lemmings :D). I am so going to hang on to this.

So here’s a clip of one of levels of Chip’s Challenge

After reading this post from the Empire Blog about TV show opening voiceovers, I got inspired to create my own Top 30 list. It surprised me how difficult it was to find a couple of these (a great source was Blackcatter’s World of Theme Song Lyrics). I have a feeling I’m forgetting very obvious intros, but anyhow here’s the list:

30. Seven Days

Ever wish you could live your last week over again? Well, my name’s Frank B. Parker and I get to all the time. I work for a secret government project experimenting in time travel. When things really get messed up, I’m the guinea pig they send back to fix everything. Catch is, I can only go back seven days. [Video]

29. Sliders

What if you can find brand new worlds, right here on Earth, where anything is possible: same planet, different dimensions? I found the gateway! [Video]

28. Day Break

My name is detective Brett Hopper and this is the day that changes everything. I will be framed for murder. My girlfriend Rita will be in danger. I know all this because I’m living the same day.. over and over again.

27. Earth: Final Conflict

They have come to Earth with the promise of peace. An alien race called the Taelons. But there are those who resist these alien companions. For the Taelon’s true mission, the secrets they hide, will forever alter our world. The fate of humanity now lies on those who dare challenge the future of Earth. [Video]

26. Dark Skies

My name is John Loengard. I’m recording this because we may not live through the night. They’re here, they’re hostile, and powerful people don’t want you to know. History as we know it is a lie. [Video]

25. Andromeda

The Universe is a dangerous place. But in our future, my crew and I fight to make it safe. I am Dylan Hunt, Captain of the Andromeda Ascendant, and these….. are our adventures [Video]

24. Law and Order

In the criminal justice system the people are represented by two separate, yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders. These are their stories. [Video]

23. Alien Nation

That was the scene in California’s Mojave Desert five years ago – our historic first view of the Newcomers’ ship. Theirs was a slave ship, carrying a quarter million beings bred to adapt and labour in any environment. But they’d washed ashore on Earth, with no way to get back to where they came from. And in the last five years, the Newcomers have become the latest addition to the population of Los Angeles

22. Viper

The day after tomorrow. A time when criminals rule the city. The only weapon that can stop them…needs a driver. The most wanted man on wheels is about to change sides. Now against a corrupt system, a lo fight for justice. Viper is taking back the streets. [Video]

21. Team Knight Rider

Ten years ago, all it took was one man and one car to get the job done. Now, the Foundation for Law and Government has assembled five highly skilled operatives, and paired them with the most advanced state-of-the-art vehicles, to take on a new breed of outlaw. They are Team Knight Rider. [Video]

20. Freedom

War broke out in the Middle East. Domestic terrorism got out of control. The president tirelessly toured the country, urging patience and calm. Then Air Force One went down and the president is presumed dead. Marshall law was declared and the United States of America was turned overnight into a police state. Curfews were enforced, identity papers were required for all. Penalties for unlawful behavior were harsh and certain. And it worked too for a time. The riots stopped. Everyone had food, water and power. Stability and peace returned to the country, but it was peace not Freedom. And that was a price some of us would not pay. [Video]

19. Threshold

My name is Molly Caffrey, and I work for the Federal Government. I deal in worst case scenarios, the unthinkable. On September 16th, 2005, the unthinkable happened. An extraterrestrial object appeared off the bow of a naval freighter. The entire crew was exposed to a high frequency signal. Some died instantly. Others began to change. They are now stronger, more resilient. They dream of alien landscapes. And they are driven by the impulse to infect others. Several of the crewmen are now loose in the United States. They will strike anytime, anyplace, anyone. Their goal: to turn us into them. But I have a plan to stop them. That plan is called “Threshold”. [Video]

18. Poltergeist: The Legacy

Since the beginning of time, Mankind has existed between the World of Light and the World of Darkness. This journal chronicles the work of our secret society, known as The Legacy, created to protect the innocent from those creatures that inhabit the Shadows and the Night. [Video]

17. Birds of Prey

Alfred Pennyworth: Legend tells of a caped crusader, Batman, guardian of New Gotham, and his one, true love, Catwoman, the queen of the criminal underworld. Their passion left behind something extraordinary: a daughter, Huntress. Half meta-human, she has taken up her father’s mantle and fights to protect the innocent and helpless. Joining her in this struggle, Oracle, once Batman’s protégé, Batgirl, she was caught in the crossfire of the war between Batman and Joker. Now she fights crime a different way, a master of the cyber-realms and trainer to heroes. Together, they have taken in Dinah, a meta-human herself, with powers that she is only beginning to explore. These three are the protectors of New Gotham: the Birds of Prey. My name is Alfred Pennyworth and this is their story. [Video]

16. Early Edition

What if you knew beyond a doubt what was going to happen tomorrow? Sure, I know it’s crazy… but what if you did? Whether you’d be rich, or poor; a hero, or a loser; lucky in love, unlucky in life. What would you do? What if, by some magic, you found the power to really change things? People, events, maybe even your life? Would you even know where to start? Maybe you can’t know. Until it happens. [Video]

15. Buck Rogers In the 25th Century

The year is 1987 and NASA launches the last of America’s deep space probes. In a freak mishap, Ranger 3 and its pilot, Captain William “Buck” Rogers are blown out of their trajectory – into an orbit which freezes his life-support systems and returns Buck Rogers to Earth five hundred years later. [Video]

14. Babylon 5 (Season 4)

Lennier: It was the year of fire…
Zack Allan: … the year of destruction…
G’Kar: … the year we took back what was ours.
Lyta Alexander: It was the year of rebirth…
Vir Cotto: … the year of great sadness…
Marcus Cole: … the year of pain…
Delenn: … and a year of joy.
Londo Mollari: It was a new age.
Stephen Franklin: It was the end of history.
Susan Ivanova: It was the year everything changed.
Michael Garibaldi: The year is 2261.
John Sheridan: The place, Babylon 5. [Video]

13. Knightrider

Knight Rider, a shadowy flight into the dangerous world of a man who does not exist. Michael Knight, a young loner on a crusade to champion the cause of the innocent, the helpless, the powerless, in a world of criminals who operate above the law. [Video]

12. Hercules

This is the story of a time long ago, A time of myth and legend, when the Earth was still young. The ancient gods were petty and cruel, and they plagued mankind with suffering and beseiged them with terrors. For centuries the people had nowhere to turn, no one to look to for help. Until he arrived. He was a man like no other. Born of a beautiful mortal woman, but fathered by Zeus, king of the gods. Hercules possessed a strength the world had never seen, a strength surpassed only by the power of his heart….No matter what obstacle, as long as there were people crying for help, there was one man who would never rest. [Video]

11. Xena

In the time of ancient gods, warlords, and kings a land in toil cried out for a hero. She was Xena – a mighty princess . . . forged in the heat of battle. The power, the passion, the danger. Her courage will change the world. [Video]

10. Highlander

He is immortal, born in the Highlands of Scotland, 400 years ago. He is not alone. There are others like him. Some good, some evil. For centuries, he has battled the forces of darkness, with holy ground his only refuge. He cannot die, unless you take his head and his power. In the end, there can be only one. He is Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander. [Video]

9. The Pretender

On screen: There are Pretenders among us. I was taken from my family. A child genius. Thirty-six hours and he’s already demonstrating more talent than any of our others. Exploited by the Centre. How many people died because of what I thought up? Since I broke out… Escaped …I’ve spent every moment searching for my past. He’s a Pretender, a genius who can become anyone that he wants to be. The Centre wants him alive. Preferably. He defends the weak and abused. Life’s a gift. Are you a doctor? I am today. [Video]

8. Quantum Leap

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished …. He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. [Video]

7. SeaQuest DSV

The twenty first century mankind has colonized the last unexploded region on Earth, the ocean. As Captain of the Seaquest and its crew, we are its guardians. For beneath the surface lies the future. [Video]

6. The New Outer Limits

There is nothing wrong with your television. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now controlling the transmission. We control the horizontal and the vertical. We can deluge you with a thousand channels or expand one single image to crystal clarity and beyond. We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive. For the next hour we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to the outer limits. [Video]

5. Charlie’s Angels

Once upon a time there were three little girls who went to the police academy. And they were each assigned very hazardous duties. But I took them away from all that. And now they work for me. My name is Charlie. [Video]

4. The A-Team

Ten years ago a crack commando unit was send to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit, these men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem – If no one else can help – and if you can find them – maybe you can hire the A-Team. [Video]

3. Farscape

John Crichton: My name is John Crichton… an astronaut. Three years ago I got shot through a wormhole. I’m in a distant part of the universe aboard this living ship of escaped prisoners, my friends. I’ve made enemies. Powerful. Dangerous. Now all I want is to find a way home, to warn Earth. Look upward, and share… the wonders I have seen. [Video]

2. Star Trek: The Next Generation

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. [Video]

1. Babylon 5 (Season 3)

Susan Ivanova: The Babylon Project was our last, best hope for peace. It failed. But in the year of the Shadow War, it became something greater: our last, best hope…for victory. The year is 2260. The place, Babylon 5. [Video]

I did a post on the Speechless campaign a couple of days ago, but that’s not even the most interesting of the campaigns supporting the writers strike. In my eyes the most interesting is the Why We Write blog, featuring essays from prominent (and not so prominent) writers. The idea is simple: why do writers write?

Since it’s launch on December 22nd, the blog has been quite a success and has featured essays from writers from TV shows like Lost, Scrubs, Buffy and movies like Letters From Iwo Jima and Groundhog Day. Because of it’s success they’ve also started posting essays by non-writers and struggling writers. It all gives a great insight into why writers do what they do and how they started doing it.

Even if you don’t go through all of them, there are a couple you can’t skip. Trust me, it’s worth reading.

Bill Lawrence (Scrubs): “The reason I told that badly constructed, melodramatic, fake story is to tell you this real one: I write because it is the only way to get paid for being full of shit.”

Damon Lindelof (Lost): a story about a ninety-year old woman named Rose who dies.

Mark Gaberman (Jeopardy): I completely forgot that the people who come up with game show questions are of course also writers.

Hart Hanson (Bones): “My number one job? Blimp driver! C’mon! Drifting over big cool events waving down at throngs of the earth-bound? Flying at about the same speed as a wobbly drunk crossing the street? How sweet would that be?”

Jane Espenson (Buffy): “I would fall asleep making up stories for those shows in my head. But I was a brutal audience. I couldn’t enjoy the made-up stories if I couldn’t make myself believe them. And I couldn’t believe them if the voices weren’t right.”

Given it’s success, I’m hoping this will continue on after the strike ends. There are great stories between them and who else to write those stories but the writers themselves?

Episode 18: “Would he run or walk?”

Funny candid camera prank setting up the world record holder for racewalking. When he’s “in life-threatening danger” would he walk or run?

I love the “It looked like some news I saw on TV, so I thought I was in real danger”. What kind of news would he have seen involving attacking samurais? And then the “We explained Mr. Perez that there’s no samurai in modern Japan!” Hilarious.

Interesting links for January 17th:

• Writers Strike May Revive GALACTICA Prequel?? — Ain’t It Cool News – This may be the first good effect of the strike; I always loved the idea of Caprica, a sci-fi family saga set two generations before BSG.
• AirMail: Manila envelope laptop sleeve for MacBook Air – Lol, it’s been only a couple of days since the MBAir was announced and there’s already a Envelope sleeve available. I have to admit if I had a MBA, I would have gotten this sleeve.
• Kako Ueda.com, artist – Beautiful reliefs and images, some of them are completely cut out of paper.

Episode 17: “We can bring peace and unite cultures”

The video I want to show you guys has been popping up all over the place today and just as quickly it’s being taken down. It’s sort of a promotional piece from the Church of Scientology featuring Tom Cruise and was shown in American morning shows yesterday morning. This afternoon I saw the whole thing on YouTube and all of the parts have been taken down. However, I’ve found two alternative sources where you can find it: here and here (there’s also a transcript if those videos also get taken down).

It creeps me out a bit. I’m all for accepting and tolerating other religions, but I’m not sure what to make of this. Some of the things he’s saying just doesn’t make any sense. For instance:

Being a Scientologist, when you drive past an accident, it’s not like anyone else. As you drive past, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one that can really help.

Ehm, as if normal non-Scientologists can’t help? Or wouldn’t help? And then this bit: “We are the authorities in getting people off drugs. We are the authorities on the mind.” No, you’re not! You’re a bunch of people that for some reason don’t believe in psychiatry and psychology, thinking that your way is the only way.

So what do you all think?