Pull the strings! Pull the strings!

And for a year, I have.

I had no frikkin idea what nearly a solid year of blogging would be like.

Dear God. I am wiped out!

Some days made me absolutely fucking insane. Even without Simvastatin rotting my mind!

And now I have reached the end.

Two bits of advice before I go.

The first for dealing with the financial chaos of 2009:

The second for every writer and would-be writer out there:

And that’s all there is.

Thanks to everyone who stalked this blog, irregularly popped in, and also linked to it.

My online presence will now flatline. I’ll likely — maybe — pop up on Twitter for reaction to MacWorld Expo and CES introductions.

But a new blog? I have no plans for one.

I need rest!

Roll credits:

The team are scamming a corrupt judge in a one-horse town. Just as the scam is about to conclude inside a bank, the team find themselves confronted with a bank holdup!

How can they get the hell out of that?

Hardigan and Parker are outside in an unmarked crapvan.

And now I must spoil two lines of dialogue — in order to convince you to watch!

Hardigan: You know, I had to retask two satellites to get a lousy Internet connection. It took more than an hour to torrent the last episode of Doctor Who.

Parker: Hey! Illegal downloading’s wrong.

OK, because this is the next to last post of this dying blog, I must skip the bulk of the episode in photos. Suffice to say it was just great. Eliot also had a great line of dialogue, but that would be too much of a spoiler. You must go watch it on TNT to see what you missed!

Stop the presses!

After uploading the original version of this post, I found a Comment from Amy Berg, who wrote the episode:

Before you abandon the blog and start stabbing things… can I put in a request for screencaps for last night’s Leverage episode? I know my guest actors for the episode would appreciate it. Thanks!

Yeesh. Another hour of work and twenty-four more screensnaps have been added, where I tried to capture every frikkin face in the episode. No guarantees that I got everyone, but away we go!

That was for Amy.

Now onto the tech pr0n:

And now an extra-strength dose of my Patented Parker Pr0n:

Amy Berg crafted a nifty little script. Gina Bellman reveals this was the first episode filmed. I wondered about that, given the exchange between Sophie and Parker vis a vis acting.

And Amy even had them drive off into the sunset!

Well done, everyone!

This is my final Leverage post because this blog drops dead tonight, December 31, 2008.

I hope someone else will pick up these kind of posts. And don’t leave out the Parker pr0n!

Catch up on the best new TV series of 2008 by watching full episodes online at TNT!

Previously here:

I Get A Request To Provide … Leverage!
TNT’s Leverage: The Team
Leverage: The Miracle Job
Leverage: The Two Horse Job
Leverage For TNT Has Wrapped!
New Promos For TNT’s Leverage!
Leverage: TNT December 2008
TV Networks Are Using A Leaking Service?
Leverage: The (Leaked) TNT Pilot
Leverage: Coming Soon To TNT
The Lever That Is The Internet

“Into Temptation” is a not-necessarily safe-for-work (or anywhere else) forum about evolving social-sexual networks and how they have changed and are changing lives. It will also loosely chronicle the research, writing and publication, I hope in 2010, of a book by the same name.

Jeff was ahead of the curve with medical tourism (see below links).

I wonder if he’s read Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis?

That might be news for him!

Previously here:

Jeff Schult: New Medical Tourism Site
Spitzer: The Last Drop
Meet Jeff Schult (And His Teeth!)

I’m sure that all of you who write have experienced it.

Things seem to be going well. The words are coming out smoothly. You’re in the flow. And then…

You hit that place, that certain point, where you can’t seem to go any further. The words and ideas have suddenly stopped. It’s like beating the bottom of that damn ketchup bottle, and nothing, but nothing, will come out!

Oh yeah.

But it’s still a fine madness …

… even when it makes us feel like that!

This is a collection of some from the past few days:

Follow Arjun Basu on Twitter.

It takes hours to finish a book, even for the fastest readers. This wasn’t a problem when books had less competition, but with the three massive timesinks of cable TV, videogames, and the internet, people look at that massive time investment, and they get apprehensive. Sure, they know that books can be just as enjoyable as movies or games, if not more. They may even feel guilty about not reading. But what if this book is no good? What if I end up hating it? What if I can’t understand it? Imagine all the time wasted! And so they stop before they even start.

A long, detailed, and excellent article.

Strangely, public libraries aren’t mentioned at all.

The basic story is this. Earth is testing a new Star Cruiser, the SK Woltemade, that has a powerful weapon.

The Krokons are still intent on gaining inroads against Earth.

Buks de la Rey is assigned to personally deliver orders to the Captain of the Woltemade because Professor Zed thinks communications lines are being spied upon. We are introduced to a robot named Pikkie who insists he should accompany De la rey as Lieutenant Buys has come down with Mars Flu. De la Rey tells Pikkie to stay on Earth.

The Krokon Prince goes to that fixer of all things, the slimy Gorman. In exchange for some concessions (as usual!), Gorman agrees to plant a saboteur on the Woltemade, to cause it to plunge towards a nearby star. When the crew have been overcome by the heat, the Krokons can move in and tow the ship away to disassemble it for its secrets.

Pikkie stows away on De la Rey’s ship against orders. Also on board was the saboteur! In a neat little twist later on, the stowaway Pikkie kills the stowaway Saboteur.

Pikkie also winds up doing a spacewalk to save the life of Buks de la Rey.

Now onto over one hundred screensnaps!

I’m not documenting every little bit this time. I’m providing interesting highlights and criticisms. Even so, including the credits at the end, there are over a hundred screensnaps!

Note: The video was smaller this time than last, so these screensnaps are really enlarged and hence have a blur not in the original-size crisp video.

Futuristic Cape Town. An error: no clouds in the sky. This makes the backdrop lack the illusion of depth.

The camera is more level in this episode, but centering here is off.

Look at the contrast in faces. I retract what I said about Professor Zed last time. He is actually the superior sculpture. Buks, with his no-neck look, resembles a dwarf too much.

Professor Zed reminds me of what I recall from the biography of Gerry Anderson. Puppeteer John Blundall disagreed with the new realistic direction the marionettes were taking with Thunderbirds. So he purposefully designed Parker to have the caricatured look of a puppet. Perhaps the same spirit was at work with Professor Zed!

No neck and narrow shoulders was something that plagued the Terrahawks puppets too!

The new lethal weapon on the SK Woltemade.

The direction of this episode was not entirely inept, but very close to it. I have to wonder if this was done by a college kid just out of film school. See above shot? We go to this:

… which is fine. Then this:

… which is also fine. Then this:

Which is strange. And then to this:

WTF? The director never clearly establishes the shot and sticks with it!

Notice that even when it cuts back to a close-up, the shot is different (see above)!

The slimy Gorman’s lair.

The Krokon Prince is there to make a deal.

Again, look at the divergence in shots.

I don’t know that kids would have noticed any of this (looking back at what I watched as a kid, I’m shocked at how much bad stuff got by!), but it’s irritating to an adult with a good eye.

Buks gets his orders.

Another pair of divergent shots:

Buks looks badly dwarfish here. And the shot is too flat.

You can see the photographer is working on the over-the-shoulder depth of field.

Lieutenant Buys’ head is correct proportion. I wonder what happened with Buk’s head?

A nice angled shot. We are introduced to the robot …

Pikkie!

Contrast Buks above with …

… Ninestein from Terrahawks. Big head, thin shoulders, no necks.

Poor miniature depth of field. Establishing shot for hangar.

This is ambitious. Rear-screen projection for an illusion of large hangar.

With a 180-degree cut!

To establish a new Rover is ready for the Impala. Tying up the destruction of the original Rover from the first episode. A nice touch.

Inside the Krokon ship cockpit. They moved away from the realistic lighting of the first episode.

Very strange off-center angle shot.

I’m not sure how they did this screen.

A shot of some instrumentation to highlight design and detail.

Buks’ Impala rises. Error: Floor is too clean!

Nicely-angled egress, worthy of the late Derek Meddings!

As you’ll see, they were puppet purists. No human actor hands used!

Vertical lift-off. They tried, but it’s only barely passing.

Pikkie reveals he stowed away!

Interesting angles.

Then unfortunately a rather flat shot!

The over the shoulder blur problem again.

A very strange angle!

I like the interesting shapes of the cockpit and its design. Some real work went into all of that.

Puppet hand again! Notice the finger is extended to actually push down on a button!

The SK Woltemade — a very impressive miniature with fine detailing deserving of the original Battlestar Galactica model.

Very impressive. A great shot!

Puppet hand: in grip position to pull out a control!

The Impala lands smoothly on an extended deck of the SK Woltemade. Nice realistic space lighting and smooth miniature motion.

Puppet hand again!

SK Woltemade cockpit with bright lighting.

Interesting angle.

The saboteur! Poor direction implies he came off the Impala. There are no connecting shots to ever establish him on it or emerging from it! Great use of rear-projection again.

Instrumentation panel.

The saboteur looks for a specific panel. And the director gets adventurous here.

Hand-held camera with wide-angle lens used!

It’s not entirely successful. I don’t know why. Did the director not supply enough footage or was the editor rushed or just bad?

Handheld camera!

Still handheld! Almost an Alan Pattillo touch, but not done correctly.

We get a rare shot of legs as the saboteur departs!

Some detail near the wall edge would have helped.

Puppet hand with extended finger to push button!

Detail of instrumentation panels.

They tried to be ambitious here but it failed. There’s no establishing what part of the ship this is. Obviously, these are dolls. The set seems dead because there’s no movement, or even blinking lights. Bad camera level too.

Pikkie wants to take over control of the ship being pulled towards the star.

Puppet hand used to insert cable into a port in Pikkie!

Very nice shot.

The crew succumbing was poorly done.

One of the dolls. Even so, look at the detail on the chair!

The Krokon ship has a magnetic(!) tow on the SK Woltemade.

The Krokon ship towing the SK Woltemade. Well done.

Really excellent work here!

Buks does a last-ditch spacewalk to try to remove the magnetic tow. Excellent work but a continuity error. It was already established earlier that everything is colored yellow by proximity to the star.

Excellent detail and design on this spacesuit helmet.

Buks is thrown into outer space!

Pikkie spacewalks to rescue him!

A rather flat ending to the episode, though. But nice extreme close-up.

One thing Space Patrol, Star Fleet, and now Interster highlight is just how much Barry Gray‘s music added to the drama, humor, and excitement of the Supermarionation productions (as well as the live action UFO and Space:1999 year one)! All three of these other puppet series tend to tack on music without seeing it as another “actor.” The Interster opening and closing themes are great, but the internal music seems just pasted on. It doesn’t add to the pacing and isn’t memorable.

Having seen two episodes now, I’m very impressed by the craftsmanship of the robotic puppets, the sets, and some of the photography. But I really think the writers and directors are very inexperienced. Stories aren’t effectively blocked out and directing tends to be all over the place and sometimes nearly incoherent. There’s also the very strange travel napping in the first episode while in this one, no mention is made of how long the Impala’s trip will take nor if Buks will need to nap.

I doubt many kids would have noticed any of this. However, when I was a kid watching Space Patrol, I did see it as inferior to Gerry Anderson‘s series (and, being a kid, I thought it was a Gerry Anderson series!).

And now the credits:

This blog ends today. This is my last Interster post. Go to the new Interster blog to download this episode and for future information.

I hope some of the people involved in this production will contact the person behind the Interster blog and perhaps provide some rare behind-the-scenes photos and memories from that time. This series deserves to be better known. And I’d still buy it if it was offered on the iTunes Store!

Previously here:

Interster Episode One: Proxima Clash
Interster TV Series Now On DVD?
Interster: Rare Puppet Series Pics And Videos!
OMFG!!! INTERSTER!!!
Interster Still M.I.A.

At the old blog:

Calling Out To The World Wide Web: Send Me Interster!

There are less than twenty-four hours left to this blog!

“But,” people ask, “What will you do after this?”

My fingers will still be busy:

With a series of children’s books!

The Happy Stabby Family!

There’s Junior Stabby:

Papa Stabby:

And Uncle Fun Stabby:

Oh, I just know you’re all waiting for this! I can tell.

I can feel your reaction through my screen:

All of this is my kindly way of saying:

Avanti!

Then Wayne MacPhail tweeted this photo he took inside a bookstore:

It gave me a feeling of absolute horror — and I knew the time had come to actually do this post.

There I was several months ago in a bookstore. One of the few still remaining in Manhattan that offers overstock at incredibly-reduced prices.

And I found a book I would have liked to have.

But I couldn’t bring myself to buy it.

I kept having flashbacks to all the times I’ve had to get boxes, put the books in boxes, carry the damned boxes, move the damn boxes, unpack the damn boxes, and again arrange the damn hundreds and hundreds of pounds of printed paper books.

That book would have been another pound to lug around. Another frikkin object hanging like an albatross around my neck, limiting my mobility, weighing me down, reminding me that it will remain when I’m gone.

Let me say again: I really wanted the book.

But I physically could not buy it.

I’ve developed a bizarre allergy to printed books — of the kind that are bought and owned and have to be moved around and that are always looked at and that are also a reminder of one’s mortality.

Library books I don’t have that problem with.

I can temporarily lug them home, even have a pile, read them, and then poof! back to the library they go.

But I want to own books.

I feel a guilt at not giving writers their rightful payment for reading.

Plus, with things being the way they are — and have been — I can no longer count on any public library having a copy of anything on its shelves. I once had to go to the Northern part of Manhattan just to read a short story by Barry N. Malzberg because only the City University had a back issue of the pulp magazine it was printed in!

This is another reason why I am an eBook militant.

I’ve never been a paper fetishist. My first collection of books were mass-market paperbacks. I never liked the size and weight of trade paperbacks and hardcovers. But I eventually amassed a collection of those too. I couldn’t help it: Publishing had changed and there was no longer a guarantee of anything in hardcover or trade paper moving down to cheap paperback!

But the book as an object I came to see for what it is: A cage for the words within it.

It’s the words — it’s always been the words — that interested me. Never the packagaing, never the jail the words were locked-up in.

I can’t be the only one out there who feels a sense of material liberation with eBooks.

Recently, a writer I’ve written about in this blog left a Comment offering to ship me a whole big bunch of books I’d blogged about. I never published that Comment because I couldn’t explain why I couldn’t accept more printed books. Even free ones. Even free ones from a writer whose work I admire!

So, this post has been something I’ve needed to do, in reply to that writer.

And to also explain why I have come to absolutely hate printed books.

Yes: But they’re better weapons as eBooks!

I got a bit of a shock with YahooMail moments ago. Not one of their usual useless banner ads. This one was aimed right at me:

Composite image. Click = big.

Of course I had to click on that M218!

Click = big

I knew as of last night that this was being sold in China. I never thought it’d be sold here in America.

And yet here it is listed on ECTACO’s American store!

This is the paragraph to note, the built-in WiFi and its unique feature:

Click = big

The text of that:

With built in high-speed Wi-Fi, Chinese eBook reader M218B can easily connect to wireless network. Then you can immediately search and download numerous eBook, Pdf files and music. Another exciting feature of Chinese eBook reader M218B is that it supports end-to-end transmission. You can copy and exchange files, music, picture with another user, who can be your friend or just another “eBook-pal”.

Emphasis added by me.

I can hear the nascent heart attacks of the dying dinosaurs of print out there!

Alas, the beauty photo of the M218 highlights the calculator-like nature of its screen, and not its ability to be mistaken for eInk under direct lighting:

But I have to wonder: Will ECTACO be releasing an English-language jetBook version of this?

Would WiFi then justify its $299 price tag? Well, not just WiFi — but its upcoming ePub and MobiPocket capability too!

An ePub/MobiPocket WiFi eBook reader would suddenly help shake things up.

Both Amazon and Sony would have a formidable new competitor, I think.

Previously here:

ECTACO jetBook And ePub
Eejit Geeks. Things Should Just Work!
Micro Fondle 2: ECTACO jetBook eBook Reader
ECTACO jetBook Ups ePub Stakes
ECTACO jetBook At Blowout Price!
More About That ECTACO jetBook eBook Reader
Micro Fondle: ECTACO jetBook eBook Reader