Adventures in Font Matching: Firefly and Serenity!

Is it sad that I find this kind of sexy? Ah well. *thumbs nose at Chungy for thinking me a geek for knowing the name of the font used on the Dresden Files covers and parts of Battlestar Galactica*

Agency FB Bold Extended, by the way.

And it cracks me up that Fox used 1979–the font I will forever associate with Animorphs, but is probably more recognizable today as the Spider-Man movie font–to advertise Firefly. Check out the original Fox ads here and here. I’m amazed it’s taken this long for them to surface!

For those that don’t care about fonts, um… here’s Oedipus Rex in 8 Minutes, Performed By Vegetables. And the font they use for the title is the same as the one used for the Sci-Fi short “The Ore,” and looks like an ancestor font of Lumos, the font used for chapter headings and such in the Harry Potter books, and the sub-font looks a lot like the one used on the Star Wars website circa The Phantom Menace. Shutting up now.

ARRRGH. I’ve been getting excited about Sci-Fi’s Eureka, which looks really quirky and fun. The pilot airs this Tuesday at 9/8C, then as I understand it, the rest of the show will resume in the fall. OF COURSE, it airs at 9/8C. Because TV schedulers didn’t already hate me enough, it’s going to be opposite both House and Veronica Mars.

And though it clearly won’t be on at the same time, The Dresden Files is probably going to be aired on Tuesdays or Fridays, come January. Tuesday nights are going to be ridiculous. Fortunately, NBC’s Heroes will air on Mondays at 9/8C, leading in to Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

I’m really going to have to prioritize my shows. Lost is out, as I can’t make myself care about it. After all, I have already predicted what will happen in Season 3, so there’s no point in watching! :D But then I’ve replaced it with Battlestar Galactica, so that doesn’t help much. Bah.

In other news, why was I not informed that John Hodgman has a podcast? Your combined failure is a dire one.

Quick fandom post:

Reviews for Gneil’s upcoming Fragile Things. Btw, you can hear him read “The Day the Saucers Came” and “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” in this post of my LJ.

Fanmade Kreacher Video — totally awesome!

Princess Leia Slave Bikini Belly Dance! Linked from Tanja.

The Good Omens seems to be back on?

Stephen Colbert on Conan — SO GEEKTASTIC.

Nigerian Email Scam + H.P. Lovecraft = WIN.

Headbutt jokes:
Solve your problems the Zidane way
The Zidane Game
Animation Fest!

I’ve finished all that’s been assigned to me and waiting for my next job, so I figured I’d get some blogging in for the first time in a week. Monday was my first day working as an unpaid intern at ReelFX, a 3D animation (+etc) firm in Dallas, and while I’m having a blast, I’m also learning what it means to be a full-time employee and only having the hours of 6-11pm at my disposal. I guess that’s what it was like in school when I was doing theatre, but there’s something about it being summer… I don’t know, I’m being stupid. It’s different because I wasn’t working out every day at 6:30 in the morning before going to school. Bwah. :D

[Edit, as of 5:30pm: I was in this “waiting for work” state most of the day. In my 7 1/2 hours spent here, I’ve done maybe 4 or 5 hours of real work. I can’t fathom the modelling department really having nothing for me to do. It’s mind boggling. I would get them coffee if they asked.]

So far, I’ve been modeling props for an animated children’s show called Boz, which is kind of like Barney but with a religious message. I saw one of the episodes, and it’s really cute. Maybe if I end up babysitting my parents’ friends’ kids some time next semester, I’ll bring the DVD. Then I can occasionally interrupt their lessons on the importance of sharing and thanking God for colors and shapes with statements like “I modeled that flower bulb!”

Anyway, I’ve observed that one of the advantages to this job is that it’s quite conducive to listening to audio books and podcasts. In the past week or so, I’ve devoured the four Artemis Fowl books (which I loved), Sarah Vowell’s Assassination Vacation (thanks for the rec, Renata!), David Sedaris’ Me Talk Pretty Some Day, and the first two Lemony Snicket books. Next, The Daily Show’s America: The Audio Book, then I’m going for the archives of the Firefly podcast “The Signal” (I haven’t listened to any of their second season) and Jimmy’s “Comic News Insider.”

If you guys have any audio books, I’d love to trade! (Sharing makes God happy, Boz teaches us.) Or if you can recommend any podcasts, that would be appreciated. I’m going to need an infusion soon. Maybe on Saturday I’ll stop by Half-Price Books and see if they have anything worth listening to in their audio book section.

The one downside of the job is that the guy in the workstation next to me has a life-size cardboard cutout of Aragorn against the wall next to his desk, angled just so it is constantly visible out of the corner of my eye, giving my subconscious the impression that someone standing over my neighbor’s shoulder is staring at me. It’s kind of creepy, as I conveniently forget it’s Aragorn five minutes after I turn and glance at it. I’m amused.

Since I last blogged, I’ve seen the new Pirates of the Caribbean (which was crazy fun–boo to the haters!) and the season finale of Doctor Who (I need a hug, even though I knew the casting spoiler and guessed what was going to happen beforehand), and I’m starting to work my way through the “Season 2.5” episodes of Battlestar Galactica. All kinds of goodness! Mom has gotten hooked on House, which is all kinds of awesome, and Alicey and Chungy have caved to my constant badgering and are trying The Dresden Files on for size. Woohoo! *headbutts the universe, Zidane-style*

And that’s all I have to say about that.

YESSSSS! We just got word that James Marsters is doing the audio book for the fourth novel of The Dresden Files, Summer Knight. If you haven’t yet experienced the awesomeness that is this series (which is what, all but four of you?), what’s stopping you?

Find the other audio books at Buzzy Multimedia.

Squeaky wheel: 1
The Universe: 0

I’m going in to work Monday morning! *grooves* Note that this is three weeks after they offered me the internship. They just kept saying that they didn’t have a workstation available yet for me yet. So woohoo, I have a job!

Handy! I just won a free pre-ordered DVD of The Ore! Shinyness.

Anyway, I got distracted by Battlestar Galactica, and I haven’t checked my flist since Thursday. Therefore, there’s quite a lot of stuff I want to pass on to you guys!

This just in: Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a ROCK STAR.

Also a rockstar is BRAD NEELY of “Wizard People, Dear Reader!” His fantastic Ode to George Washington will be stuck in my head for weeks. Just in time for July 4th!

Check out this summary for an earlier, longer script for Serenity, now with happy ending! I wonder how much fanfiction will be written in this universe. I look forward to the whole thing inevitably being posted online.

And there’s a fair-sized character named Dresden! I know there’s 99.99999999% likelihood that there’s no connection whatsoever, but in the darkest, fannishest corners of my mind, I like to think Joss is nodding back to Jim Butcher for working the partial names of nearly all the Buffy characters into his books.

And speaking more of Joss, the latest totally unfounded internet rumor is that he’s currently in talks with 23-year-old Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra to play Wonder Woman. This would be hilarious, as she has a large role in the newly-released (in India) Krrish, the big singing and dancing Bollywood superhero movie! But it obviously can’t be confirmed, because Jimmy hasn’t posted hot pictures of the actress in his Journal yet. :D

One degree of separation from Joss is this Interview with Tim Minear on Drive. It was amusing to see him making reference to Zoic’s opening sequence, which Loni Peristere described to me when we chatted at Industry Giants. And I like that he’s *encouraging* fans to download episodes of The Inside, due to nonexistent DVD prospects.

Check out this hilarious collection of Things That Will Happen In HP Book 7, then linked from Makani: Snape sings “Be Prepared”!

Linked from Tanja: The US Versus John Lennon

Stephen Colbert Presents World of ColbertCraft! More details here.

I’ve watched three discs of Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica, and while I absolutely love it, the cameraman seriously needs to lay off the juice. I love the handheld feel, which is reminiscent of Firefly, but it’s taken way too far. Firefly found a happy medium, but with BSG, I feel like we’re getting a half-dozen of those “emphasis zooms” in every scene. Emphasis zooms are like a delicate spice; they are not to be abused or overused! Rather than bringing me in deeper, every emphasis zoom on BSG rips me out of the action. If I were watching these episodes on a larger screen, I’d probably begin to feel slightly seasick.

Hopefully, now that I have expressed this opinion, all remaining episodes of BSG will retroactively correct this minor annoyance.

I have no idea which characters are most popular in fandom, so it will be interesting to see how popular or unpopular my opinions are, but I have to say my favourite character at the moment is Gaius. I don’t like him at all, but I love watching him. He’s such an opportunistic little slimeball! His “morality” struggles are far more interesting to me than the live-or-die military decisions Donnie Darko’s mom and the big brass are confronting.

No matter what Starbuck or Adama Jr or Daddy Adama or Madam President decide or do, we the audience are going to empathize and love them regardless. It’s just the nature of the show, as I understand it so far. But Gaius is different. It’s like he wants to do the right thing, but then he’s so easily convinced to do what Number Six tells him to do, because bad things happen to him when he doesn’t.

His utter cowardice represents something you rarely get on TV. Time after time, he’s given a choice between what is easy and what is right, and HE PICKS EASY. He picks easy, and he’s not immediately killed off or transformed into a cackling supervillain. It’s refreshing.

Also Starbuck is treading the lines of Suehood and Adama Jr is duller than a box of used crayons. :D

Quote of the Day: “Necromancy doesn’t kill people. People kill people.” –Tepick, on McAnally’s

A Bunch of Links:

Spider-Man 3 Teaser Online!

Kevin Smith to release Audio Commentary for Clerks II in conjunction with the film’s release in theatres, downloadable for free from iTunes.

An awesome bit of Flash: Animator vs. Animation

Words from Joss, in the wake of the screenings. It sounds like he finished a draft of the Wonder Woman script!

2 missing episodes from Doctor Who to be animated! More artistic and technical info here.

A Future For Futurama! Comedy Central has picked up the rights to air at least 13 additional, soon-to-be-produced episodes, which will air in 2008.