There’s a cool video on CNN.com showing footage of the missile which blew up that errant satellite, “explodes like Death Star”, the ticker says. And, y’know, it’s true: it does blow up similar to how the Death Star blew up. Well. I mean … without completely ruining our atmosphere like that fucker did to Endor.

David’s Right: Indy toys are cool! What’s not so cool is the almost total lack of support for The Temple of Doom. No Short Round? No Chinese gunman with flaming kabob through his heart? No Temple playset? Heck, I bet we don’t even get a Sacrifice Victim With Removable Heart Action.

Here’s a cute story. When Kevin Smith was recording the commentary track for the Clerks laserdisc release, he and his friends began dissing DVD. They were all very much movie afficianados, and big fans of their own laserdisc collections, and that format. At one point, Kevin Smith says “Fuck DVD!” A couple of years later, when Clerks was to be released on DVD, the commentary track from the laserdisc was used, without any editing. “Fuck DVD!” he proclaims, on the commentary track on the DVD.

I was a late convert to laserdisc, this was back in ’97, when a friend of a friend went out and bought himself a combination laserdisc/DVD player. I was able to buy his old laserdisc player off him fairly cheap, and as that crowd was spending the big bucks on expensive DVD players and the movies to go with them, I was able to collect a virtual library of film titles on the cheap, either from them, or the mall movie stores that were discounting their selection, knowing that the format was all but dead. I eventually got my first DVD player as a Christmas gift in 2000: a nice Panasonic which croaked this past summer.

Lasersdisc took a while to die, though: if memory serves, laserdiscs were still being produced until 2002 (I think Lucasfilm’s announcement that “Attack of the Clones” wouldn’t be released on LD was eventually what put the nail in the coffin). I think the last laserdisc I bought was the release of “Saving Private Ryan”, shortly after I’d moved to Towson (summer of ’99). I still have most of them: they might bring in a few bucks from collectors on eBay, at the moment, they don’t do me much good: my player has a slight malfunction and won’t open, so I can’t remove the laser-rotting disc that’s been stuck in there for six years: Disc 2, Side 1 of “Terminator 2.”

Right now, in the wake of the official killing of Toshiba’s HD-DVD format, I’d imagine there are a lot of people out there taking advantage of this dead format. Movies and players will be sharply discounted to get them off retailers’ shelves. Those who bought will be in one of two camps: selling their HD players and movies, or picking up a lot of cheap HD-format movies while hoping that a Blu-Ray/HD cross-compatible player is released somewhere in the future.

Meanwhile, I am quite some ways away from buying either a Blu-Ray player or a high definition television. But I am glad that the format war is over.

One last note, since we’re talking eBay here: I hate eBay sellers who post feedback after you, the customer, posts yours. It’s effin’ B.S.

But I didn’t. Watch Good Morning America, I mean. I chose “wisely”, which is to say, I chose sleep. But, thanks to the power of the Intyrwebz, all that meant was surfing over to IndianaJones.com for a much greater video quality of this same trailer, then waiting for it to show up on YouTube so I could embed it here.

Oh, right, trailer reaction: I am quite possibly as giddy as a schoolboy. And by “possibly” I mean “absolutely.”

Lately, all I seem to be writing about is movies. However, as Saturday night is the first night working with the new owners of the Indy, I’ll fill ya’ll in on my experiences with them that night (yeah, I know, you care, you really care).

Lingering casualties of the Writer’s Strike (now ended, thank goodness, GO WRITERS!) include J.J. Abrams’ reimagining of “Star Trek”, now delayed from a Christmas 2008 release almost a full six months: it’s now on the schedule for May 8th, 2009.

That’s okay, though. David Fincher has a new film out this December, and I tend to like his stuff (well, I loved The Game and Fight Club, didn’t care much for Se7en or The Panic Room, and though Zodiac was so-so).

STAR TREK inspirational posters here

With the polls closed, the State of Maryland has gone for Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary. According to Wolf Blitzer, this was a state Hillary Clinton was leading by a wide margin only a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile, if you listen to the campaign rhetoric, Clinton isn’t worried: Ohio and Texas are where she’s putting her faith. Frankly, that language reminds me of Giuliani and the importance he put in how he would do in Florida. We all remember how well that went for him.

Several years ago, Lucasfilm announced that there were in pre-production stages of two STAR WARS based television series. One, a live action series, is still in development: lost? Maybe, maybe not: last I heard, even back in ’04, they weren’t planning on anything before a 2009 premiere.

The other series, animated, would be set during The Clone Wars. You may remember the animated shorts on Cartoon Network a few years ago, also titled The Clone Wars (and on DVD, by the way). This is different (although by how much remains to be seen).

And seen it will be: the series will premier on August 15th and will air new on Cartoon Network with repeats on TNT. And the first three episodes will be released cinematically. That’s right: Star Wars is coming back to the Silver Screen.

HT: Rebelscum.

What’s your favorite awful movie?

Big Trouble in Little China. If not my favorite, it’s certainly on my top five “Really Awful Movie That I Can’t Help But Love.”

So I decided to dig into my closet and find a wall-shelf I bought from IKEA about six years ago. It’s one of those units that mounts directly onto the wall with no visible support. I didn’t even bother putting it back up after Tippy decided to jump onto it: it came down very early in the morning and I awoke with quite a start. However, being as where I thought of hanging the shelf (over the closet in my den) is not in Tippy’s jump range, I decided to give it a try, primarily so that I could move some of my grandfather’s train-landscape and free up some additional shelf space.

So I stopped by Home Depot and bought a pack of plastic anchors and screws, then came home and tore my apartment up looking for my level. I bought it about a year ago, from Target. It’s big. It’s cumbersome. It’s yellow. It’s also, surprise, nowhere to be found. I bought it because I lost my first level, a smaller red thing that was far easier to use. I considered — briefly — running back out and buying another level, but said to myself “Meh, fuck it.” So I eyeballed the shelf mount, made my drill marks with a pencil, drilled, mounted the metal unit, mounted the shelf around it, then moved the big wood building that was once part of my grandfather’s train layout off the bookcase it has dominated for the last several years, and placed it atop the IKEA wall shelf.

It’s actually pretty level. I used my level to figure this out. No, not the yellow level. See, when I moved the building, I found my first level hidden behind it.

Which just goes to show that I’m twice as appreciative that I didn’t go out today to buy a third level.

Now, if only I can find the big yellow level …

Nothing like some girl-on-girl wrestling — and the follow-up phrase from one of them, after looking at her knees, “I’m going to wake up tomorrow and wonder how long I spent blowing guys in Mt. Washington” — and some booze to cheer a fellow up, although, sadly, my bedmates tonight are my lovely pillows-with-legs otherwise known as “my cats”.

Meanwhile, this has also contributed to my cheering up:

Oh, and also? CNN says Barack Obama won Washington, Nebraska and Louisiana which is like cheerful x infinity!

I think I’m going to have yet another beer before tumbling into bed. Read a chapter of Deathstalker.

There aren’t many things that will cause me to pretend drunkeness and envelop Gary in a big hug while saying “I love you, maaaan.”

The last time I did this was at his Annual Christmas Party (which he had exactly the one time in 2003) after six hours of drinking liquor and alcohol, smoking marijuana (the second and last time I’ve ever done it, and in front of off-duty Baltimore County cops, to boot), and hugging every guy and gal at his house telling them all “I love you, maaaan” and being very thankful when I sobered that the women were not all offended at being called “maaaaan.”

Tonight, I’m home an hour and a half early. Gary showed up at eight with beers and somber news: having been trying to find a buyer for the Indy for a year, he’s almost finally succeeded (he won’t be satisfied until the paperwork is signed, though). He paid us all in cash for the current pay period, for what we had worked and what we were scheduled to work, then he told us to close up early, and told me not to come in Sunday: he’s only running carryout on what is probably going to be the last day of his ownership, not wanting to take any unneccessary risks.

So, I’m going to throw these clothes in the hamper, shower, and head out to a birthday party. Gary’s beer is in my car, waiting for my arrival in Baltimore before I indulge. I think I’ll have several. After all, I have tomorrow off, and what the future holds in store for the Indy — or my employment there — I just don’t know.

And I feel like Lyra, in “The Amber Spyglass”, when she enters the world of the dead and must leave her daemon Pantalaimon on the shores for her return. I feel like that poor bloke in “The Temple of Doom” who got his heart ripped out (y’know, before his “Shit, that guy ripped my heart off!” fear got replaced by “Shit, I’m being thrown into molten lava!” fear.) Tomorrow, I hope to feel “Shit, where’s a fucking aspirin and how much did I have to drink?”

Ah, Super Tuesday! I worked my schedule to take my once-every-three-week-day-off today so I could sit glued to CNN. Instead, I’ve been flipping through the networks, submitting resumes through Career Builder, playing the Operation Irving map on Battlefield Vietnam (it’s the map modeled after Apocalypse Now), doing laundry, and swapping out a Breakdown poster in my den for Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom (which goes very well with the Star Wars Trilogy poster).

I recently finished Alastair Reynold’s “Revelation Space”, a sci-fi novel about a pirate-ish crew trying to find the only man in the universe who can heal their captain, who, having been exposed to a plague, is being melded into his ship: a lighthugger. Meanwhile, the man in question, a slightly egomaniacle archaeologist named Dr. Silvestre, is trying to bring about the end of the universe (not that he knows that). Tomorrow, I’m digging back into Pullman’s “The Amber Spyglass”, which I’m alternating with a re-read of Simon Green’s “Deathstalker.” It’s a bit of a sci-fi overload on my reading list, but it’s just the way things worked out. Reynold’s stuff in particular reminds me a lot of “Sunshine”, a movie recently on DVD about Earth’s last hope to reignite the dying sun.

I pulled up a file I was working on over the summer, and have been mulling over in my head off and on. It’s a sci-fi story, sort of a cross between military fiction set in the 18th century British Empire and pulp sci-fi: the multicultural crew of a Union Frigate hunting pirates through an asteroid belt, exchanging broadsides, nukes, etcetra. There are a lot of plot elements that I’ve been trying to work out in my head, and there are a lot of times where I write down a plot point and then think “Ahh, this has already been done elsewhere!” Then I remember seeing The Musketeer and remarking on the scene where D’artagnan goes under the stagecoach, “Hah! They got that from Raiders!” But Raiders had inspiration on that truck scene, so I try to put that self-criticism out of my head. At the moment, I’ve still got a very rough outline, with some brief character sketches, and thoughts for other stories. We’ll see where this goes.

So, back to Super Tuesday. I haven’t really been paying attention. I think I’m just a little apprehensive that Clinton will win some overwhelming victory that will diminish Obama’s momentum, and I’d hate to see that. I’m hoping that I can vote Obama in ’08 (and as I am not a registered Democrat, I cannot vote in this state’s primary next week*.) If there’s anything to take solace in, it’s this: In the same way that George W. Bush’s low approval rating possibly rebounded against Ehrlich in the last election, hopefully O’Malley’s endorsement of Clinton will help Obama. I hope.

I’ve got the last disc of “THE WAR” here from Netflix. I’m going to slip that into the DVD player in a moment and enjoy the last episode of a wonderful documentary. First, though, I’m going to finish retooling my template cover letter (with thanks to Danielle & ACW for helping me with the original) for a job at my alma-mater that I think I’d be great at. Gotta have dinner, too.

*Neither am I a registered Republican, but I am a registered voter.