June 21-26, 1999

PalmColors has cool colored replacement cases for Palm Pilots and PalmIIIs. I think I need the clear blue replacement case for my Palm III.

Excellent! Gaydar for the Palm Pilot.

I just started (finally) getting Turner Classic Movies as part of my cable package. Love it. And the website is really cool. I love that you can easily download a whole month's schedule, for instance. There are a lot of features to love, actually.

Given the number of times I've dropped my cellphone, it's amazing it still works. This new phone from Ericsson is called "The Rock" 'cuz it's extremely durable. Neither water, nor sand, nor sun . . . [thanks Felix]

So a friend just asked me if I'd heard Weird Al Yankovick's new song about Star Wars. I said "no," and on a lark typed in weirdal.com, sure enough, Al's got an official website.

Apparently the video for the song had it's world premiere on the web. Available in Quicktime, RealPlayer, and Media Player formats. Contains spoilers for the movie, natch.

Website has lyrics, behind the scenes stuff, etc.

Reel.com is having a Warehouse sale. Now through June 30th. I mention it 'cuz I've ordered movies with good results from them in the past and I love a good deal (and good movies, natch).

Have I mentioned (or is it obvious?) that I'm a pushover for cute pop culture keychains? I already have (thanks to a friend) a Get Smart lunchbox keychain. Plus I couldn't resist the Star Trek keychains with real sound effects (the communicator one is the best). Then there are the cute board game keychains . . . magic 8 ball keychains . . . colorform keychains. So far I've resisted, but . . .

And now Felix Strates sends me info about talking TV keychains. The TV set with a pic of Get Smart that plays the Get Smart theme song is a must have. Well, to me it is. Sad, but true. :-) I like the looks of The Twilight Zone one, too (and you never know when that theme song will come in handy).

New Deep Space Nine game to be released this fall.

Excellent interview with director Alan Taylor. He directed the film Palookaville, recently directed an episode of The Sopranos, and directed 7 episodes of Homicide (throughout the run of the series-- from a fine first season episode up 'til the series finale).

Variety reports that NBC and Tom Fontana are talking about doing a Homicide: Life on the Street TV movie. And, in case you hadn't heard, it's been confirmed that John Munch (Richard Belzer) will be joining Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit next year:

Take heart, "Homicide" fans: Baltimore’s crack homicide squad may yet be back to crack new cases for an NBC telefilm. Tom Fontana, exec producer of the just-canceled but much-loved police drama, is in talks with the Peacock about a possible "Homicide: Life on the Street" TV movie. But Fontana cautions that he’s not entirely sold on the idea.

"I wouldn’t want it to be like ‘The Brady Bunch’ reunion or anything like that. But we’re talking," he said. In the meantime, "Homicide" will have a living legacy next season on NBC’s "Law & Order," as thesp Richard Belzer transplants his "Homicide" character, the cynical Det. John Munch, to new stomping grounds in Gotham. In fact, "Law & Order" boss Dick Wolf recently called Fontana to ask about purchasing Belzer’s wardrobe from "Homicide." Fontana responded, "What, you mean his one black suit?"

Also note that Richard Belzer is on The Daily Show (10pm CST Thursday, Comedy Central) and Late Night w/ Conan O'Brien (NBC Friday-- airtime will likely be delayed due to the basketball game).

Rubber Bandit is a spiff gun for shooting rubber bands. All in good fun, of course. [via haddock]

The June CRYPTO=GRAM from Bruce Schneier and the fine folks at Counterpane is now on the web. Usual good commentary and links re security and crypto issues. Sign up for the mailing list if you haven't already, you know you want to . . . (subtle, aren't I?).

Entertainment Weekly's "It List" features the requisite batch of cool actors, plus a cool show (The Sopranos), a cool writer (Neal Stephenson!), and some musicians, natch.

Domain names I once owned (well, back when it didn't cost anything to register a domain name): imho.net, imho.org, and imho.com. Sigh. I didn't have enough money to hang onto any of the domains when the NIC started charging for 'em.

I also registered rotfl.com for a friend on a lark way back when, but he didn't bother hanging onto it.

I finally added a couple of albums to my music page last month, forgot to actually upload the page (d'oh) and mention it, though. I've neglected it for too long, I keep thinking I'm gonna wait and create a whole new set of pages, but you know how that can go.

You've Got Maul [via haddock].

Interesting piece re Working Stiffs, as in the actors who play dying and/or dead people on The X-Files, NYPD Blue, ER, and Homicide.

Greg Knauss @ teevee.org, on remote controls:

And finally, with the inevitability of Yoda bubble bath and Darth Maul lingerie, of course there's a light saber TV remote. The only thing more obvious is an authorized Fat Elvis Colt 45 clicker, but I think that would just frustrate people since it wouldn't actually destroy the TV.

If I had an ounce of self-respect, I would do everything I could to deny that I actually own -- much less actually use -- a light saber clicker, but it's just way too much fun. It makes the familiar buzzing, whooshing noises when you change the channel, so you can pretend that you're saving the galaxy from evil when you flip away from Veronica's Closet. Which isn't too far from the truth.

Jason Snell @ teevee.org on Pirates of Silicon Valley. I pretty much agree, though I enjoyed watching it. A bit surreal to see this particular tale brought to life in a TV movie. Like when I first started seeing URLs and email addresses in TV commercials.

Is it possible to survive in a Windows environment without Clipmate? Okay, I know it is, I've gone without from time to time. But if you do a lot of cutting/copying and pasting, Clipmate is a must. Figured it about time I mentioned it.

Speaking of useful Windows applications, I'm quite fond of Get Right, a download manager/tool of sorts. But I'm always happy to hear recommendations for other apps that make downloading easier.

Excellent bleat today at http://www.lileks.com/.

Jon Carroll: The Willfulnes of Cats. Very fine.

Good interview with Aaron Sorkin, creator/writer/producer of SportsNight and writer of A Few Good Men, Malice, and The American President.

Aaron Sorkin on a meeting with a possible director for the pilot of SportsNight (this says a lot about why I love the show):

The first director that I met with is a very well known, very successful, highly awarded director who deserves to be all those things by the way. We had a meeting in which the network let it be known that it was terribly important to the network that this director direct the pilot. And he had said to me 'Look this writing is terribly, terribly interesting, but it needs to be more like a sitcom, there needs to be differences between these two guys, one of them's got to be the jock, one of them has to be the more sensitive one,' and he was talking to me about that, and I said 'I'm sure you're right and I'm sure that I'm idiot for not following your advice, but we're not going to do any of that. This isn't a show about the fat guy and the thin guy, the neat guy and the sloppy guy, the gay guy and the straight guy, it's not. But we're going to see differences in these people but they're not going to be characteristics as much as genuine things. There are no Ted Baxter's on this show; everyone is going to be capable of being both smart and dumb and mean and nice.'

A new profiler for Profiler? And does anyone care? (I still can't believe the show was picked up for yet another season) [via tvbarn].

Village Voice profile of Richard Belzer by Jason Vest [via hlotslinks]:

Blend the personification of "just because you ain't paranoid don't mean they ain't out to get you" with the sensibilities of a latter-day chautauquan gone cynical and you have Belzer in a nutshell. He rues the stratified oligarchy that he sees being constructed on the somniferous ruins of democracy. Like the Homicide character Detective John Munch, he believes that if people have an opportunity to take advantage of others, they will. Given this view of human nature, the word "conspiracy" has no stigma for Belzer; as he points out, its Latin root simply means "to breathe together," and, to him, conspiracies are as natural as breathing. If a conspiracy led by a drunk, out-of-work actor could kill a president over 100 years ago, he asks, is it so ridiculous to believe more sophisticated people in power can't execute any number of nefarious plots? Is it so absurd to entertain notions that involve ulterior motives and hidden agendas?

An interesting defense of The Phantom Menace (worth reading the whole thing, IMHO) [thanks to Ken Osborn for the link]:

The real reason some people loathe the "Star Wars" films so, quite simply, is that the entire philosophical outlook of the series is inimical to them. The old theme of good vs. evil is perpetually recycled by Hollywood hacks, but when a director like Lucas gets hold of it, revitalizes it and makes it resonate, it becomes a challenge to the audience.

Let's face it: We are not a society that rises swiftly to meet the attack of evil. We're more inclined to rationalize our misdeeds than face up to why they might be wrong. Just ask the guy in the Oval Office -- he knows that number by heart.

If Darth Maul were a real person, it's not difficult to see people defending him as not evil, only "differently socialized." Without a doubt, he would be a celebrity, and probably a politician.

I ordered a couple of scripts from The Script Shop a few months back. Finally got around to looking at the script for the Homicide episode "Black and Blue," to my surprise, there was a whole series of scenes (following one storyline) that never aired (and yeah, this was supposedly a final draft of the script). As a girl who loves to type, I typed it in. Posted the missing scenes to alt.tv.homicide. One thing led to another and now I'm maintaining a website for scripts and transcripts for the show. (You can check out the missing scenes there if you'd like).

And I put together another new webpage (it had to be done).

The Why We Hate Tom Fontana page was inspired by Tom Fontana, executive producer of Homicide: Life on the Street. Last week he told The New York Times Magazine:

I have yet to figure out Internet people. There is actually a "Why We Hate Tom Fontana" Web site, because I make choices for characters that people thought weren't the way to go. But they're my characters.

Wrong again, Tom. But I'm more than happy to make his delusion a reality.

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