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This weekend was epic. I just wanted to do a quick post recapping all of the craziness that was Comic Con '09.

Comic Con Vid Cast will be posted later today, we will also be posting the full video of each panel later on in the week

[singlepic id=216 w=320 h=240 float=left]The night before we left for CC, I received a confirmation E-mail from the NBC rep that we were going to be able to interview Yvonne Strahovski (“Sarah Walker”), Josh Schwartz (Executive Producer) and Chris Fedak (Executive Producer) on Sunday before their panel. Rob, CB and I proudly entered the press room to pick up our press badges, etc on Saturday morning at approx 9am. As excited as we were, we decided to take a few minutes to figure out a game plan for the day's events. While we were there, we overheard one of the members of the CC Team  mentioning the fact that Daniel Dae Kim was now going to be making an appearance on Sunday to do a press conference. As quick as we could we contacted ABC to RSVP. Their contact was on location all day and would only be reachable via Email (Thank you blackberry!) Before we knew it, we were off to the first panel: Watchmen, Terminator: Salvation and Friday the 13th. **STAY TUNED: Full Videos of the panels will be available on the site later this week** Dave Gibbons was brilliant and very articulate. You can just see the brilliance in the man as he speaks, and McG (Terminator: Salvation Director) knows how to command a room. Derek Mears (The actor who is playing Jason in the up-coming Friday the 13th) looks as creepy with the mask off as he does with the mask on.

[singlepic id=219 w=320 h=240 float=right]After the amazingness of the Warner panels, we decided to check out the floor and do some man-on-the-street interviews. It was awesome to see how excited everyone was about CC. We had a few standard questioned we asked and then we dove right into the listener questions that we received on the forums, over E-mails and on twitter. The costumes were fun, there was a big buzz in the air. Saturday was completely sold out and people were EVERRRRRYWHERE (a la Cleveland Style).

After checking out the floor, it was back to the IGN theater for Pixar's first look at their next film Up. After seeing 5 clips of this charming movie, although I hate to admit it, I believe Pixar has done it again. With out going into to much detail, Up is the story of Carl Fredricksen, an elderly man who longs to escape to South America. As many of us have seen, he does this by moving his house using thousands of helium-filled balloons. He eventually finds out that he has a stowaway on board, a "scout" named Russell who is eager to get his "helping the elderly" badge. Along the visually stunning landscapes, we get to meet some more fun characters. After Up, we were shown the trailer for Surrogates, and dozens of male and female models who seemed as if they were only void empty shells, creepily came around to pass out business cards to each of us prompting us to visit a website, where we could get our own Surrogates.

After a long first day, we decided to get some R&R along with some food-ski.  We Celebrated the night away with some good friends and even did a little karaoke. Saturday night, I got an e-mail from ABC. 3 words: 11:30 room 1D05. We were in for the Daniel Dae Kim Press conference.

Sunday morning came all too fast, but we were pumped! The first thing on the agenda was going to be the round table Chuck interview. After some slight readjustment to the interview room, we were under way. Yvonne, Josh Schwartz and Chris were seated in the middle of the room (all of 2 feet in front of Rob, CB and I) where they fielded questions from the 10 or so people who were interviewing. Besides our own questions, we asked Colleen and Jay from ChuckCast if they had any they would like answered. I believe that between all of us there, we had most of them answered. Yvonne is even more beautiful in real life then she is on TV. She seems to sparkle ::sigh::

After that we ran off to what we thought was going to be the Daniel Dae Kim press conference. When we entered the room they asked us which ad medium we would be recording with, and when we said we would be filming, rather then us doing a round table discussion, they allowed us some one on one time with Daniel. We have the audio from the round table as well, which we might discuss on this weeks episode with special guest Sue. Daniel was extremely nice and even recorded an opening bumper for us!

[singlepic id=218 w=320 h=240 float=left]The whirlwind day continued on with the Dollhouse Panel at 1pm. One quick note here, people began to line up for Dollhouse at 9am. Those Joss fans are dedicated! Joss was amusing and whimsicle but he really didn't talk a lot about Dollhouse. The conversations ranged from that, to Buffy, peppered in a little Doctor Horrible and a bunch of Battlestar.

Fringe was the final panel of the day and of our visit to Comic Con. It was amazing to have the whole cast there[singlepic id=220 w=320 h=240 float=right] Originally, only a few of the actors were schedule to make appearances. You can really tell that they all get along well and really enjoy what they do. There were some great conversations including "games" that they have built into the series. Did you know that the observer is in every episode? Or that the pictures that appear at commercial breaks are actually a code? They also talked about the grossest thing they have had to deal with on set.

Overall, the whole weekend was amazing. Rob and I were up until approx 4am trying to edit and post out the video. I can't wait until everyone has a chance to see it. I hope that everyone has as much fun watching it as we had filming it.

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     Over all we met and connected with a lot of great people. Behind the scenes Rob and I both went through good times and bad, through it all the community on the forums and twitter were always there to back us up. I just wanted to say Thank you to all of the good people that have crossed our paths this past year. Everyone has really helped form our show into what it has become today.

     Looking ahead to 2009, we have a few ideas that are beginning to take form. Rob and I are going to continue inviting people to guest host. We have some great people lined up for '09 kicking off during episode 39 with Chris from Boston. Also making appearances in '09 will be Sue and Robin from Trivia War, as well as listener Rob.

     2009 can hold limitless possibilities, on the down side there is potential for a SAG strike, and analysts believe that the country will continue to be in recession for another year. On the up side, as of Jan 20th we will have a new leader who is inspiring hope in the country. I wanted to leave everyone with a paraphrased statement that John Norton from MetroBuzz made during Trivia War's 12 Days of Christmas "This year universally was a tough year, 2008 isn't going to be on anyone's list of best year's ever, forget about the tough year, we are hopefully heading in the right direction now, it's a new day think of '09 as a brand new day, forget the past and it's time to start something new."

The web has been buzzing recently with news that America's favorite web slinger is coming back to the big screen in May 2011. It seems as though the usual cast will be back on the set filming the fourth and fifth installments of the Spider-Man franchise fairly soon (with the possible exception being Kirsten Dunst who has not yet signed her contract). So while the fan boys excitedly type away about potential villains rumored to make appearances in the next installments (my vote: the Lizard), I have decided to write a different post. I will not write about how much I hated the last Spider-Man movie. This will not be a manifesto about the director's fumble in inserting a character for which he didn't care at the cost of a beloved villain, a role which was regarded as a mediocre side note.

I will not go that route, however, but instead come hither and give heed as I send out my warning:  unless the next Spider-Man films gets a Nolan-esque reboot, it is destined to go down the route of the earlier Batman franchise.

POW! Cue the Spidey-Nipples!

Before I begin, let's just have a super fast Batman history lesson. Batman was first a comic book character. The comic was very dark similar to the current Batman films. Next came along the Batman TV series, starring none other than the Mayor of Cohogue, Adam West. pan>The silly campy TV Batman came to be when it was decided that Batman was too dark for children and they decided to reinvent him. The Batman films started off strong--a dark brooding character envisioned by the genius of Tim Burton. Gotham City was under siege by a deranged clown, dark and gritty. It seemed as if they went back to their comic book roots. As the studios continued, the franchise roped in bigger-named actors to play Gotham's dark knight. The plot lines got sillier as they developed movies for younger and younger audiences. The bat mobile looked like something out of a cartoon. Batman had more gadgets then James Bond and more crappy one-liners to boot. It was a joke, that is, until Nolan took the idea and put a new spin on the franchise.

That said, I am not saying that Spider-Man has to be a dark and mysterious character. I just believe that we deserve a better movie with less camp and more substance. And I don't believe that Spider-Man should have a serious tone like his darker counterpart; he's always been the wise cracking super hero we always loved. I just feel that it can be done in a proper way. But, just as we don't expect or want Batman to suddenly do the bat-tousie, and a Peter Parker dance sequence in Spider-Man 3 was uncalled for and inappropriate. The wrong turn they took with Batman was that they were trying to make him something he wasn't.

Just as the Post-Burton series, they attempted to change the world in which the character lived. They took a complex character and dumbed him down so it would be more child and family friendly. To do the same with our neighborhood spider, would be to leave us with nothing more than a paltry pile of pixie sticks and play dough--sugary, substanceless play things. Removing complexities (even unanswered questions) underestimates our ability to sympatheize--empathize even--the plights of these protagonists, these tortured heroes. There is also no need for us to revisit the same plot ideas,themes, and character struggles for the fourth movie in a row.

Doesn't anyone else see it??  I feel like I am taking crazy pills!

The studios need to have staff that works on the movie because they love the content, that they're fan boys and girls. The studio is creating the two movies together because it is cheaper and more efficient to do so. The consequence being that the fans will lash out and, lo, the wrath of the fan scorned.  Yes, yes, it is a big budget summer block buster that will make them tons of money, but somewhere along the line if they do not revitalize the series is will be nothing more than a joke, a travesty.

Please, step away from the script. Don't rush into making a movie for the sake of it. We have all seen the standard that has been set by Nolan & Co.; you can create a brilliant film, about a comic book superhero that isn't generic and childish. Don't be afraid, take chances and always remember who the real audience is.

Wednesday, August 7th, at the Nikon Theater at Jones Beach, four friends meandered through the crowds, which were buzzing with the anticipation of seeing The Stone Temple Pilots. Rumors of the the disastrous PNC Bank Arts Center performance loomed over the Tri-State Area. Many of the members of the crowd were in attendance at the PNC show where Weiland made them wait for hours before coming out. When he did finally grace them with his presence on stage, he struggled to make it through his own songs. Earlier in the week, Scott had crashed into his band mates' drum set, at which point they needed to pick him up and place him back at his mic. At Nikon, no one knew which Scott Weiland they would be seeing.

Earlier that evening, those concert-going comrades discussed the "good ole' days" of seeing big name acts such as Bush, No Doubt and The Foo Fighters playing in smaller venues. They yearned for good music; awe-inspiring performances that were ticket-worthy and made you feel liberated, inebriated with bliss, existential, and, above all else, satisfied.

From the moment the band took the stage the crowd knew they lucked out and they were in for the Rock show they hoped for... That night was the first time in a long while that they were able to see the type of show where memories are born.

The set list included all of the classics--Interstate, Plush, Cracker Man, Creep and Sex Type thing just to name a few. Weiland's banter in between songs was, at last, coherent and witty. He was sober enough. They put on an amazing show, for which is all that anyone could ask. The good behavior could be credited to the fact that it was bass player Robert DeLeo's son, Duke's 3rd birthday. For whom the crowd more than willing sang.

One of the highlights of the show was when the band broke into their own version of Redemption Song by Bob Marley. It seemed fitting and intimate, like an apology to the masses.

By the end of the night, the crowd was pregnant with appreciation for the old school Stone Temple Pilots.  They were greatly missed.  The crowd lumbered out of the stadium high on life (some high on other substances) and stuffed with the musical nourishment they had missing.  Those four friends made their way back to the car with smiling, fuzzy with that satisfaction that they had been denied one concert past.   This was the stuff that dreams are made of; stuff that left them feeling hopeful of a music industry still loyal to the interests of real music lovers.  --Chris