Frank Ramblings

For several days now, I haven’t been able to get this song out of my head, no matter how hard I try. Does it do the same to you?

For the last couple of months I’ve been working on improving my Geek Cred by catching up on the many TV shows & films I missed out on when I was busy trying to pretend I had a life. When last we spoke, I was working my way through Joss Whedon’s Firefly. It continues to roll along smoothly:

• Terminator — DONE
• Terminator 2 — DONE
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles – DONE
• Firefly — DONE
• Serenity — DONE
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer — IN PROGRESS
• Angel
• Supernatural

I took a bit of a break after Firefly/Serenity and meant to start working on Supernatural, but as Dollhouse‘s premiere drew closer and Echo Alert was conceived, I decided it was essential that I complete my Whedon training before moving on to other shows. At the moment I’m finishing Buffy Season 5 Episode 15 “I Was Made To Love You.” This is really a great show and I can see why so many fans consider it a yardstick by which all other Joss media should be measured. I’ll talk more about when I’ve finished the series and have the proper perspective. I’m especially looking forward to the musical episode “Once More with Feeling”, the crossover episodes with Angel, and the Buffy Season 8 comics. But for now, the catchup continues.

Wow, I certainly wasn’t expecting this. DC Comics has put together a video trailer for their upcoming maxi-series “Superman: World of New Krypton.” At first I was extremely skeptical about this book, almost to the point of refusing to read it, but NY Comic Con turned that around for me. Now I can’t wait to pick it up when it starts coming out!

I can’t tell you how insanely busy I’ve been the last couple of weeks. It really bothers me that I haven’t been posting here very much, but I seriously haven’t had the chance. Between school and Echo Alert, my plate is full. I’ve been trying for the past month to find the time to record an FMF episode, but every single time I’ve tried to set aside the time, something gets in the way. It’s been kind of a mess. I’m going to try again this weekend and it had better work out this time because it’s been well over a month since the last episode.

Echo Alert has been off to a great start. Andrew and I never expected it to take off so well. We’ve been featured on iTunes’ TV & Film Podcast front page under the “New & Notable” section almost since the beginning, and we’ve ranked as high as #22 out of all TV & Film Audio Podcasts! It’s pretty insane. People are downloading our episodes by the thousands. I’m overwhelmed whenever I look at our stats page. So if you’re among our listeners, thank you so much for your continuing support. Knowing people out there are listening really motivates us to improve the show for you guys.

That’s about it, I guess. I’m going to try and post here more often, but midterms are next week so I can’t make any promises. I try to avoid general Life posts and keep the blog restricted to stories of specific interest to me, but since I know that several people actually do read this, I thought I should let you know what’s up. Thanks for bearing with me.

Just because I feel like it, current favorites:

• Song: “Lovers in Japan” by Coldplay
• YouTube Video: Chad After Dentist
• Podcast: Diggnation
• Web Comic: Cyanide & Happiness

Currently working on:

• Watching Buffy Season 2
• Reading Superman: Escape from Bizarro World

This past weekend was the most fun I’ve had since I went to Disney World last summer. New York Comic Con came to the Javits Center, and I was there the whole weekend. Early Friday afternoon, my friends Andrew, Tim, and I arrived at the convention center, checked in, and waited in line for the 1:00 opening. When the giant metal doors swung open, we and thousands of our fellow geeks poured through and scattered across the Con floor. The Con is comprised of two sections: the main floor and the panels. The main floor is home to hundreds of booths for various comic book publishers, retailers, authors, and artists, as well as related media like science fiction print novels, movies and TV shows. The panels are on a lower floor where there are a dozen or so rooms big enough to fit several hundred people. On the same floor is the IGN Theater, which is where most screenings and larger panels take place, seats about 3,000 guests.

Andrew, Tim, and I are especially big fans of DC Comics, so we focused most of our time on the DC panels. Our first order of business was a panel entitled “Superman: Building a Better Tomorrow.” The panelists included the editors, writers, and artists currently working on the various titles in the Superman family of comics. We were really excited because we had the chance to meet most of the panelists afterward. The next item on the agenda brought us back to the Con floor for an autograph signing by Geoff Johns, who writes Green Lantern, will be writing Superman Secret Origins this summer, and until January was writing Action Comics featuring Superman. He is my absolute favorite writer right now, so I had to take the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for the great work he does. I feel like he is one of the few writers who understands the character of Superman as well as Clark Kent. At that point our friend Vin joined us for the day. He’s not a major comics fan, but he wanted to come along and see what the con was like.

At that point we walked the Con floor for a while, doing some shopping and taking in the sights and sounds from the booths. We met the artists from explosm.net, who were offering free doodles to anyone who stopped by. We took advantage of that, of course. Next, we headed over to the autograph area where we met Peter Mayhew, better known to Star Wars fans as that lovable Wookiee, Chewbacca. It was really cool to meet him and I made sure to tell him how much I appreciated his work. I feel that he is underappreciated just because he didn’t speak in the films and wore a costume that obscured his face.

Next, we went off to the Podcast Arena to meet Sean Whelan and Jim Segulin, the hosts of Raging Bullets: A DC Comics Fan Podcast. This is one of my favorite podcasts and I just wanted to quickly talk to the guys and tell them to keep up the good work. They were very friendly and seemed very glad to talk to a fan. At that point, we headed back to the panel area for the DC Nation panel. We sat in on the end of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold panel, which was especially cool because Phil Morris was there. Morris is best known for playing the roles of Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld and the Martian Manhunter on Smallville. We tried to meet him, but he was in a hurry to get to another panel so we didn’t want to bother him. I did manage to snap a picture, though. Then began DC Nation. Many the major writers, artists, editors, and staff of DC Comics were present. They discussed everything happening in DC Comics, with a special focus on Batman R.I.P. and Final Crisis. There was also an audience Q&A session, which was especially entertaining. At the end of that panel, we were excited to meet DC executive VP and editor Dan DiDio and renowned artist George Pérez. That ended Day 1.

Wow. I have been — to put it in my friend Andrew’s words — ” a podcasting fiend” lately. Seriously. My name is Frank and I’m a castaholic. Listening to them, recording them, I just can’t get enough. It’s an exciting medium that I think has amazing potential.

For two and a half years now, I’ve run Frank’s Music Free-For-All. About three weeks ago, I teamed up with my friends Tim, Ky, and Faith to create the Obiter Dictum podcast, a TV fan commentary show. And most recently, the aforementioned Andrew and I have started Echo Alert, a podcast devoted to the upcoming Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku series Dollhouse.

Today, I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Entertainment Overload podcast and the Geekland podcast at the gracious invitation of my Twitter friend Willie. Entertainment Overload is a podcast reviewing TV, movies, video games and other entertainment. We had a great time talking about this week’s TV and movie highlights. Smallville, LOST, Scrubs, and Taken were among the many topics discussed. Check out the guys and listen.

Then, on Geekland, we talked comics. I really had a blast with this one, since comics have been a new passion for me. We covered Superman, Final Crisis, Spider-Man, Green Arrow/Black Canary, Trinity, and whole host of other titles and trade paperbacks that we all read in the past week. If you like comics, please listen to Geekland. I started listening a couple of weeks ago and I honestly think the guys have a great show here.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. There should be a new ODTV and FMF out this week, and a new Echo Alert after next weekend. February 6-8 I will be at New York Comic Con with my friends Andrew, Tim, and Vin. It should be a good time. During and after the convention, I’ll blog my reactions to the panels and other goings-on. We plan to attend the DC Comics panels as well as a few others, including the Dollhouse panel where show creator Joss Whedon and star Tahmoh Penikett will screen the first act of the show’s first episode. So that should give us plenty to discuss on Echo Alert. See you in the podcastverse!

So by now, you probably know that this March, Jay Leno will move to primetime, Conan O’Brien will take over The Tonight Show, and Jimmy Fallon will take over Late Night. But what you may not know is that in preparation for his return to TV, Jimmy Fallon has been keeping a video blog with 5 minute entries posted nightly at 12:35 AM ET, the time at which Late Night airs. The best way to follow the show is to subscribe via Hulu and have it added to your queue. I usually let each week’s episodes pile up and then watch them all over the weekend.

This week began with a bang as Jimmy practiced his interviewing skills on celebrity guests. Monday night, he welcomed Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht of the popular web show DiggNation to Late Night for a great chat about new technology and communications. Tuesday night, Jimmy hung out with the lovely Felicia Day of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and The Guild for a hilarious little chat about World of Warcraft and online gaming. Watch the clips below!

Alex & Kevin from DiggNation:

Felicia Day:

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn’t seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

So where do we go from here? Where will the second half of Season 8 lead us? Well, as someone who refuses to read anything even resembling a spoiler, I can’t say for sure. I find that I just don’t enjoy TV when I know what’s going to happen. Half the fun is the element of surprise. So what I will share with you next are my theories and wishes for the remainder of Season 8.

[WARNING: "LEGION" SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE YET, STOP NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE!]

At the end of “Legion,” it wasn’t clear whether or not Chloe’s healing ability was back. Personally, I think it could be. It’s possible that BrainIAC merely suppressed her ability rather than totally removing it. Now, since that lovable Interactive Construct has been removed, it’s entirely possible that Chloe will once again find herself able to heal. Another valid argument states that BrainIAC sucked the healing ability out of Chloe during their face-off in “Arctic.” I could really see this going either way, but for now, I’m going to say that her healing powers could very well have been restored.

Clark will battle Doomsday. I just hope it isn’t a battle to the death. Clark ahs died several times already, including once this season. I would prefer to see an epic battle in the streets of Metropolis, similar to the one in The Death of Superman. How amazing would it be to see Doomsday beat Clark to a bloody pulp and then endanger one of his loved ones (preferably Lois), pushing Clark over the edge and giving him a second wind? Clark could begin pounding on Doomsday, burying him deep underground in an effort to prevent such a distaster from ever happening again. This would set things up perfectly for the future as laid out by DC Comics.

Also, Clark should continue his steady path towards Supermandom. The next step I think he needs to take is to acquire a pair of glasses, something that should have been done in Season 3 when he found himself temporary blinded after using his heat vision on a pair of green Kryptonite earrings. That would have been the perfect excuse for Clark to don spectacles, but alas, it was not meant to be. Yet. Now could be a good time for him to pick up a pair of bifocals to remove any suspicion that he might be Metropolis’s “Red and Blue Blur.”

Lois has been falling for Clark pretty hard. I think the romance has been progressing a little too fast. Erica Durance isn’t supposed to appear in the next couple of episodes, so maybe things will cool off for a while. I am glad to see the most iconic romance in comic book history beginning to take shape. I just don’t want them to actually be together until after the series has ended, or at the very end of the series at the earliest.

Jimmy, while injured and receiving care in Star City, will clearly turn out fine. The question looming in my mind is how the Olsen-Sullivan marriage will pan out. How is it that the Legion had heard of “even Jimmy Olsen,” but had never heard of his wife Chloe? It seems a bit odd to me. That is a sign that the marriage may not last, whether it’s due to irreconcilable differences or a death. As much as I hate to admit it, there is also the slight possibility that Geoff Johns may have written the show into a plot hole, but let’s change the subject, shall we?

There has been some speculation that Davis Bloome is no more and Doomsday is here to stay. That seems silly. Why hire Sam Witwer and make him a season regular only to have him in a monster costume the entire second half of the season? Doesn’t make sense. I think it’s safe to say that we’ll be seeing more of Davis in human form. After “Bride” and “Legion,” he clearly knows what he’s become. From this point on, we’ll probably see him trying to deal with his other half. Will it be a situation where his good side tries to fight his bad side? If so, will the good side win for now? Or will they go a different route and show his good side succomb to the dark side, as with Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith? Perhaps Davis will be so distraught by some traumatic turn of events (like Chloe’s rejection) that he will embrace evil as a means of revenge? We shall see. There are many different directions they can take this character and I’m eager to see where things end up.

Well, my distinguished readers, this is all I have to say about Smallville‘s Eighth Season for the moment. I’m sure there are a great many things that I have neglected to mention, but that is where you can step in. Discuss whatever I failed to mention in the comments below and perhaps I’ll write a supplemental post. Let’s talk Smallville!