Metropolis Found

The German magazine Zeit Online has released an article confirming that a museum in Buenos Aires has uncovered a complete and uncut version of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.

What does this mean for cinema? For Science Fiction? For Germans?

For cinema, this means a win for film preservation. Cinema historians are haunted by the absence of any standardized archiving process in the early days. Many of the larger studios attempt to preserve as much as they can, an effort that may or may not have been spurred by the boom of repertorie theaters in the 70’s. But before that, there was little value in saving a movie after it’s run in theaters; there was also no second-market “home video” category.

The lack of a complete version of Metropolis is a text-book example. The versions up-to-now have been composites of international cuts of the film, “butchered” from the original full-length master. Using the original score as a timeline, historians have filled in missing spots in the film with placecards to try and describe crucial plot points.

But now that this full-length version has been uncovered and authenticated, cinephiles everywhere rejoice that hope is not lost for even the oldest films. And just maybe coverage of this story will highlight and drive up interest in ongoing film preservation efforts.

For Science Fiction, Metropolis is the genesis of science fiction films. This is the holy grail. For this first time in a century, a new generation can watch the full and original template for an entire genre. The recut versions have long been considered to rewrite the story of the movie. The history of science fiction will literally be rewritten, and relived.

For Germans, Fritz Lang was the premiere film-maker of German Cinema. His works define German art and intellectualism in the final years before the rise of Hitler. The complete version will be the pride and treasure of German nationalism and a reminder of the contribution of their heritage.

Not a Dick Move: Soccer

Dick Move: Soccer

Male chauvanism is hidden, yet prevails…

I know, I know. I have been a bad blog host. I feel like I have hosed my large audience, and I am sorry. Anyways….

Today, as reported on Yahoo.com,  the United States Army promoted Lt. Gen. Ann E. Dunwoody to the rank of 4 star general. The first woman ever promoted to this senior position. The headline for it is “breaking the glass ceiling.” I think that the Army is full of shit and there has been no “breaking” of anything. Here is why. Look at her last name. What is the first thing that stands out to you. That’s it. I see the lightbulb going off. There it is, bright as day. WOOD. She has “wood” in her last name. Yet another way for men to push their dominance over women. I can just see the dialogue now:

Pres. Bush: Aw shit Dick. Laura has been ridin’ my ass like the cowgirl she is, cuz she is from Texas, about promotin’ a woman to 4 star status. Mumblin’ on about how she feels that me callin’ her my little 4 star general isnt enough. She wants a woman to really be one. Well what the hell am I ’spose to do?

Vice Pres. Cheney: (sitting like Mr. Burns) Well Georgy Porgey, I put together a list of the only two women eligible for promotion. One has a last name of Gainey, the other is Dunwoody.

Pres. Bush: Well shit Dick. That’s a joke in itself.

Vice Pres. Cheney: I agree sir, and please don’t shit a dick. That would mean you pack fudge, unless it is one of those Texas euphemisms.

Pres. Bush: What the fuck is a you-fo-mossimo? Is it a Target brand. I really like Target. They don’t let those stupid Good Will Santas ring their bells in front of their stores during Christmas. Those guys scare me.

Vice Pres. Cheney: Me too sir.

Pres. Bush: Give that cowgirl a promotion just cuz she has “wood in her name”. And go get me a ding-dong too.

Review: In Plain Sight (USA, Sundays @ 10pm)

IN PLAIN SIGHT stars Mary McCormack (”Murder One”, “The West Wing”) as a US Marshall working for Witness Protection in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She’s the broken modern woman: she uses men for sex, she bosses men around at work, and she refuses to accept perfume or high-heels as gifts from men. And she also doesn’t want to celebrate her birthday. She also has an over-bearing mother and a trouble-making little sister.

The domestic subplots are bulky and worse yet, unimpressive in the pilot. Reviewers who have been given the next few episodes however, seem to think things even themselves out. But after the pilot, DefiniTV hopes that the side characters, especially her co-workers, are given something to do on their own. It would become tedious to watch them continue to just get yelled at by McCormack’s character.

The format of the show is basic and fits in nicely to USA’s brand of Monk and Psych, the investigative procedural with a character-driven twist. And McCormack does a good job showing her character’s vulnerability. She bears responsibility to protect these people under her charge; people, who for whatever reason, have risked their lives to testify against the guilty.

If you missed it last night, watch it on USA Network right now, or on Hulu.

The Television Season To Come: Summer ‘08

Summer has historically been filled with reality shows because they are cheaper to produce, and do not need any of the actors who are taking their summer vacations along with the rest of America. So it is difficult for a reviewer who doesn’t watch reality shows to find something to talk about over the summer.

It’s only been in the last two decades that premium cable, and most recently basic cable, has taken their narrow-audience approach to capture the summer market share with original programming. Some familiar shows are returning, while others have been put on hiatus due to the Writers’ Strike [but DefiniTV promises to stop talking about that soon].

RETURNING Monday, June 16th:

Weeds, Season 4

Mary-Louise Parker, you hot, hot woman. The weed-dealing suburban mom has used the cover of a common California wildfire to burn down her house and move her family closer to the border. Look for special guess star Albert Brooks to ease the transition in the first four episodes, and wait to see the fallout as Celia is left holding the bag for the previous weed-growing business.

AND DON’T MISS: Secret Diary of a Call Girl

Billie Piper, you hot, hot woman. This show originally aired in Britain last fall, and now America gets it’s chance to enjoy the televisualization of the 2006 bestselling book. A must-see for any Doctor Who fan’s who are also waiting for Billie Piper’s reappearance on that show.

This pairing of two shmoking-hot babes is also a much better campaign than last years, which combined Mary-Louise Parker with …

David Duchovny.

The Television Season That Wasn’t: ‘07-’08

The networks and trade papers are calling a mulligan on this past television season. While most people blame the 100 Days Writers’ Strike for crippling programming, many of the networks started the season already bracing for sub-par performances.

NBC: What Happened To Heroes?

Heroes had already planned to break their season into two-half’s, with an arc scheduled to complete by December. What they hadn’t planned for was to lose all of their buzz and support less than a month in. The worst part was creator Tim Kring immediately breaking to the whims of most vocal fans, the over-reactive internet commentators. He apologized for elements of the story he should have stuck to, and rushed to conclude story lines in a way he thought would appease people’s complaints. It’s coming back, since NBC can’t cancel it’s Monday-night anchor after only 1 hiccup. And it actually as the Writers’ Strike to thank for a chance to regroup and start shooting the new season early.

On the plus side, CHUCK turned out to be enough of a Monday night hit to give NBC a glimpse of building their strongest Monday night in recent memory, with or without Deal or No Deal.

What didn’t turn out well? Bionic Woman. They didn’t build her bigger and better. The show was doomed from the pilot.

CBS: Viva Laughlin DOA

Les Moonves promised advertisers and the critics that CBS was going to take chances. The Tiffany Network wasn’t going to accept the common conception that it wins overall demographics by programming only broad and bland shows. And part of that strategy included a British import, produced and headlined by feature personality Hugh Jackman, called VIVA LAUGHLIN, a musical-casino-procedural. So that didn’t work. It was canceled after one episode.

JERICHO was suppose to benefit from the Writers’ Strike, being given a February field generally empty of any other original scripted programming. However, ratings failed to increase, and the fans who fought so hard to renew the show coudn’t muster the same support when the show actually aired.

ABC: Box up those freshman shows

See if you recognize any of these shows: Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice. They all aired as planned in the Fall, receiving adequate ratings and some critical attention. But after the strike, ABC was so worried about returning them to the schedule without better ratings that they held them for a relaunch this fall. ABC wants to reintroduce the shows like new, tweaking them and trying to bring in bigger ratings from the start. So if you do catch an episode of Pushing Daises, and feel like you’ve missed a few episodes, you have. You missed a season’s worth.

LOST had already made a deal for a shortened season. So imagine their chagrin when the writers’ strike threatened to cut it in half again. It doesn’t seem to matter, since ratings continue to slide. While the recent season finale won the night, it was the lowest rated Lost season finale so-far. The mysteries continue and apparently fewer people are willing to ask for the answers. At least that’s what they tell Nielsen. Wait and see what the water cooler sounds like in 2 years when the show wraps it up.

FOX: They don’t program before American Idol.

Fox really doesn’t care about the Fall. The one-two punch of American Idol and 24 has been upsetting the rest of television for almost half a decade. The only thing the writers’ strike did was take the legs out from under 24. But that show was already in trouble, having to scrap their original plan for Season 7 after executive were unhappy. The happy news is 24 is using a year off to flesh out their ideas, and work out their unused plots in a tele-movie to tide over fans in the fall.

Overall, the Writers’ Strike is secretly being a called a miracle in disguise for a season most networks weren’t fully confident in. To keep the networks honest, they can’t get away with hiding their shame the first time around. Because they’re not going to get a second do-over.

Vineeth John

Yesterday, high school friend of DefiniTV and myself committed suicide. Announcing something like this on a blog that nobody read obviously has other reasons that to “let people know.”

Vineeth, DTV, and I were very close in high school. We had multiple classes together our senior year and pretty much did everything together. I told them about my sexcapades, and they told me about their handcapades. During English he would constantly give our teacher a hard time. He would use his sarcastic, cynical humor to pick apart arguments. His intelligence knew no bounds. I will not speak for DTV, but he was superiorly more intelligent that I could ever strive to be.

A regular occurrence for our trio was to go to IHOP extremely late at night and just have fun. One time we had a waitress named Priscilla who expressed her love for Vin Diesel. She then said that Vineeth looked like Vin and proceed to rub Vineeth’s head very sensuously while moaning. This was by far the funniest thing that happened that year due only to the face Vineeth made. It was a face of sheer terror.

On a more shameful note, on my part. When Vineeth and I were in 9th grade, we took a P.E. class together. There was kid who was a bad influence on me, and I was too eager to impress him, and whilst playing floor hockey, I checked Vineeth hard enough to knock him to the floor and his glasses off his face. After doing that, I got pats on the back from those guys. That is one of my greatest single regrets in my life, and something that I still to this day feel guilty about. That next year when Vineeth and I became friends I apologized to him for what I did, and he accepted. I regret what I did, but I would not change it if I had the chance. Vineeth taught me valuable lessons by extending his forgiveness to me. He taught me that everybody is equal. Not only did he forgive me, but he accepted me as a friend. He also showed me that being your own person, free thinking, and non-conformity are some of the most important things in life.

Vineeth John was one of the best people I knew. He had internal demons like we all do, but it seems that they won that battle. I will miss him very much and regret that we did not stay as close after high school as were in high school. My condolences go out to his family and friends, and I hope that he is happier in Heaven.

Review: This Blog

Spoiler alert: this blog sucks. Or at least it has been sucking it up for the past two weeks.

For a blog that claims to review things so you can read them, the reviews have trickled in and all but stopped. And the reviews already posted on here are slim at best.

At worst? The contributors. They have all in their individual domains fallen asleep at the wheel and are responsible for a larger spill of crap and silence than the Exxon Valdez and FEMA relief efforts put together.

Youreadireview: The title contributor of this blog will get first vetting. His musical reviews have only recently come up to snuff. What could once be blamed on a bad musical link is now being blamed on a horrible taste in music. Hang on little tomato? How about hang on shit-fest.

DefiniTV: A golden M&M? The only thing this goose has managed to lay is him/herself, whacking themselves academic over movements in the television industry that most internet viewers could care less about. If it’s already available in YouTube clips, why complain about it here?

The Green Monster: Newsflash - The NBA Playoffs are on. But you wouldn’t know that from the lack of posts from the self-proclaimed resident sports reporter. Even Courage could pick up a story faster than this contributor can pick up his/her genitalia off of a picture of Tiger Woods.

So far this blog has posted music reviews, television studies, sports journalism critiques, space oddities, and an informative bit about carpet repair, applicable only to those who have carpet (shaved/wood floors need not read). Where are the video game reviews? Where is the MLS coverage that is flooding the internet elsewhere? Where is the back and forth over whether or not this is the best season of Two and a Half Men ever?

Not here. Not on this blog. The only thing to see here is the fading imprint of three bloggers rimming each other.

Pink Martini - Hey Eugene!

So last year Pink Martini came out with another album, and they once again bring their collective knowledge of music together and sync in a perfect way. This album compliments their last one, whilst exploring new sounds for the band. I recommend this album all together.