The fifth installment of the Carnival of the Canucks is now happening over at Discount Blogger. A week from now, it's my turn. (fights down pangs of stage fright) I hope I can live up to weeks past.
Monday, Monday
So I saw Rick Mercer's new Monday Report, and was pleased with it. There were some good laughs, some nice celebrity appearances, and Rick's usual dry wit. There were also, I think, some first-night rough spots. The biggest problem I had with the show was that Rick would occasionally punch the humour when it least needed to be punched.
For instance, on a spot about the successful landing of the Mars rover, Rick noted that after its successful landing in an alien terrain, the first thing the rover did was to take a picture of itself.
"And that's how you know it was an American space probe!"
Great line; lots of laughs, but then Rick went and ruined it by explaining the joke. A similar thing happened with his story about Princess Anne and her refusal to put down her ferocious dog.
So ease up, Rick. You've got a pretty savvy bunch of viewers with you; let them come to you.
What's Next For New Line?
Now that the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy has made New Line a mint, what other fantasy realm will the studio feed to us starved minions next? Earthsea? Narnia?
Nope: Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and forgive me if I drool a little bit. They've picked a rich fictional universe, full of zeppelins and intelligent armoured polar bears, angels and ageless witches, one that could keep the folks at Weta Digital quite busy, if New Line chose to use them again.
So, watch the entertainment sections of your newspapers as the buzz over The Return of the King and The Prizoner of Azkaban dies down. News about this first movie will start to emerge and attract people's attention over the next couple of years...
...and then the bovine byproduct will really hit the fan. :-)
Oh Dear God
I've just found a blog that's written in Latin.
(Later)
Okay, maybe it's just a placeholder, but still, imagine my surprise...