Nothing lifts ones spirits like a brand new episode of Doctor Who. Part of me wishes there were 25 episodes of Doctor Who every season with shorter breaks in-between. I must concede to agree with show-running mastermind Steven Moffat that having less of something great and building up anticipation due to waiting is not the worst thing in the world.

Conveniently enough, the latest episode can be viewed on the Space website. I haven't had actual teevee for years, and think that watching stuff in this website manner is really the best way to support the shows you love. Most of us never had Nielsen ratings boxes hooked up, so we were never supplying ratings points to the incredibly flawed teevee popularity ranking system anyhow. Where-as streaming a show and putting up with the mild inconvenience of a handful of commercials results in something teevee folks can measure and use to lure in advertisers, that in turn pay for budgets of those shows that you want there to be more of.

Click on over to the home of geeky Canadian teevee and watch The Bells of Saint John in all of it's Doctor riding a motor-bike and fighting the evils of the interwebs glory.

Watched Willow today, my belated birthday movie gathering. I know this is a controversial stance to some, and I'm not just saying this to anger swords & sorcery nerds, but I think Willow is totally a better movie than any of the Lord of the Rings franchise. It's more fun, I find the characters more engaging, there's more romance, better comedy and has a great score. If that weren't enough, the movie also has trolls, terrifying dog monsters, a giant two headed dragon, and a tiny lil' Kevin Pollack. I wish there had been more Willow movies. How come other 1980's movies like Revenge of the Nerds and Porky's and Police Academy all got multiple sequels, and yet only one Willow? Maybe now that Disney owns all the Lucasfilm library, they can bring back the Willow-vrse. Disney does enjoy telling stories starring princesses after all.

Four-Wheeled Furies, a documentary about Ottawa's own Rideau Valley Roller Girls that I co-directed makes its national television debut on CBC on Saturday March 30th at noon. You can join me, the rest of the crew, and a bunch of derby girls at the Mayfair for the event and watch the live telecast up on the big screen.

Doors open at 11:30am and it's free admission for members!

For those of you who can't make it out to the Mayfair, the show is on coast to coast on the CBC: noon EST, 1:30pm in Newfoundland, 1:00pm Atlantic, 10:00am Mountain and 9:00am in BC. Roller derby action makes for perfect Easter weekend programming for the whole family.

The new webcomic from my pal Kelly Tindall is only days away! Excite-tastic-errific! Strangebeard launches Tuesday April 2nd.

Ugh...I hate that I continue to have an excuse to not shut up about this topic. Seriously!? Dammit Hollywood poster designers...are you guys doing some kinda secret contest to see who can put out the worst poster of all time and whoever wins gets an awesome prize? Go type Drew Struzan into Google and then feel incredible shame about what you are doing and your place in the world. This is so terrible it almost makes me want to boycott the movie. They're lucky that my geek responsibilities out-way design sensibility furious anger.

Happy birthday Mr. Nimoy...tis an honour sharing a birthday day with you. I will have fond memories for the rest of my life of watching Star Trek reruns on Sunday mornings on the CBC at my Grandpa's house when I was a kid. You providing the voice of Galvatron in the Transformers animated movie was pretty awesome too.

One of my bestest friends was kind enough to not only buy me day-before-my-birthday cupcakes today, she also got me Willow on blu ray. It is one of my favourite movies of all time, I'm happy to add it to my collection, but the cover of the box leads me towards the constant complain about horrible photo-shop movie poster work.



Look at the modern photographic cut and paste poster vs the original 1980's theatrical version. I could rant endlessly about this...and have...and will likely continue to do so until they shape up. Someone got paid actual money to slap that blu ray box art together. In fact, they probably got paid a lot, and will continue to have a career slapping together more sub-par offerings for Hollywood. It comes down to a simple question though, which poster would you put up on a wall? I think statistics would hover around 100% in favour of the original.

I stand corrected in my recent statement that nothing much good is coming out from Marvel now-a-days besides for Hawkeye. They do have a number of comics well worth checking out, the problem is that their bad to good ratio is dozens upon dozens to one. To be fair, the same mathematical divide exists in movies and teevee and books as well.

Along with Hawkeye, I also enjoy and can recommend Superior Spider-man, Wolverine and the X-Men, Daredevil, and FF. As a passenger on a road-trip to and from Toronto this weekend I got to catch up on a bunch of comic book reading. The multitasking of sitting, travelling, and reading is an excellent bonus to the over-all fun of a whirlwind of a trip with friends. Amongst other comic book reading, I got caught up on the latest numbering re-boot incarnation of Captain America. This series finds writer Rick Remender (who did a great job with an amazingly original twist on The Punisher) taking a Jack Kirby influence with the character and throwing him into an alternate universe. As an added bonus the series features the artistry of Marvel Comics legend John Romita Jr.

Any main-stream super-hero comic that has a fourth issue that opens with big white lettering on a page of black, "ELEVEN YEARS LATER", makes a geek sit up and take notice.

When I was a very young lad, I think perhaps there was nothing more I wanted from Santa in the Christmas season of 1981 than the enormous Kraken sea-creature action-figure from Clash of the Titans. I did not get said Kraken. I'm sure that I got something else awesome though, Santa was always kind to me with toys the like of Kermit, Tauntaun's and Castle Grayskull.

The next best thing to the toy, is getting to see the Ray Harryhausen stop-motion monster cult classic up on the big screen. You can see Clash of the Titans on Sunday March 24th at 3:30pm, and Monday March 25th at 7:00pm. Free admission and popcorn to anyone who brings me Kraken that Santa never did.

As long as you are doing something cool, it's ok to be missing out on something cool. So, this Saturday while I'm off Toronto-ing for some roller derby, I will be missing out on an excellent triple bill at the Mayfair.

Although numerically they are chapters II, II and IV, the Star Trek films Wrath of Khan, Search for Spock and The Voyage Home have com to be known as the Star Trek motion Picture Trilogy. Unlike all the other self contained plots of the rest of the Star Trek film franchise, this trio of films serve as an over-all beginning, middle and ending of a grande tale. Many Trekkies see the Wrath of Ricardo Montalban's vengeful Khan as the pinnacle of movie Trek's, Search for Spock features death and rebirth (spoiler alert!) and a Klingon Christopher Lloyd, and The Voyage Home has time travel, comedy and whales. There are very few better trilogy sci-fi movie ways to spend an afternoon...maybe just one other way, and we aren't allowed to screen those lightsabre movies.

The Star Trek triple bill begins bright and early at 11:30am, doors open at 11:00am.

PS - The awesome Star Trek poster above is from an Alamo Drafthouse screening, as designed by wbyk.com. It's one of those limited edition dealy's though, so if you want one you'll likely have to scour the ebay.

Headed to Toronto tomorrow (or I think to be more specific the outskirts of central Toronto) to help out at the fourth annual Quad City Chaos roller derby tournament. Besides for the normal levels of awesome that happen at a weekend full of roller derby, this tournament is extra special and historical as it is the first ever WFTA sanctioned tournament in all of Canada (WFTA stands for the Women's Flat Track Derby Association). For more information, go and check out the Toronto Roller Derby website. I will be there adding up numbers in a hectic manner in scoreboard assistance, in between free-time of derby watching enjoyment.

I read the first issue of The Private Eye comic (available on a pay whatever you want business model at panelsyndicate.com) off of my tablet. It was just as great as I hoped that it would be. It was formatted for sideways tablet reading and not in a traditional comic book shape. That small adaptation made it seem like another step towards living in a future where we don't read anything off of paper or buy movies or music in a format that we then have to put on a shelf and clutter our homes with. Most importantly of course, these are all baby steps towards the final goal of a world filled with jet-packs, holodecks and maid robots.

Brian K Vaughan, one of my most favourite of writers, has a new comic book series out titled The Private Eye. Along for the ride, he has the very talented Marcos Martin, who has recently handled artist duties on some great Daredevil and Doctor Strange tales. That is excellent enough news for anyone who enjoys comic books or reading in general.

What makes this comic book release extra interesting is that it is happening solely as a digital download, and the price is up to you. Stuff like this might be seen as bad in terms for the future of comic book stores, seeing as the creators are not only cutting out the middle-man of a publisher, but also of a store. I think comic book shops will be fine in the long run. Even if 100% of the comic book publishers and indies go digital, there's still a lot of action figures and shirts and board games and old comics and countless collectibles that collector's will continue to spend their money on.

How moves like this could effect publisher's is a different matter though. I don't think that Batman or Spider-man are in any danger, but we might see more and more big name talent go the creator owned route vs working for the big guys. Much like musicians going straight to websites to sell their work, they don't need record executives and comic writers and artists may not need to split their profits with publishers. Robert Kirkman makes a lot more money and has a lot more control over The Walking Dead than if it would have been published at Marvel or DC.

Also of interest is that geek culture, whether it be fans of comics or music or movies, are continually proving that there is money to be made in this manner despite the ever looming far of piracy. Stealing stuff online is never going to go away, but it's promising to see that people have the mind-set that if they support what they like, more of it will be made. I'm noticing an ever increasing number of Kickstarter style produced movies successfully making it to the big screen, more bands relying on selling music directly to their fans without a major record label, and more comic book creators stepping away from a desire to work for Marvel or DC.

The first 32 page issue (or a possible 10 issue maxi-series) of The Private Eye is currently available for whatever price you deem fit at panelsyndicate.com

Got my latest TeeFury purchase in the mail today. I love TeeFury, they have amazing designs and money from sales goes straight to the artist (the top artist has made nearly $70,000!). I'm still a lil' confused as to how they skirt copyright laws, in the case of this shirt it's not just one intellectual property but a mash-up of characters owned by Nintendo and Nickelodeon. I'm pretty sure that both of those companies have pretty high quality lawyers on hand. I think it's covered under similar parody rules that allow for the existence of Mad Magazine. I won't bring too much attention to it though...I want them to keep making shirts for me to buy.

Finally got a hold of Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 4, and I spent Saturday night marathoning through the first 11 episodes. The season kicks off with an underwater three-parter that looks just beautiful on Blu Ray, and we also get a fun R2 / 3P0 episode.

Maybe the most impressive part of the entire series so far has been episodes 7 through 10 of this season, which focuses on a group of Clone Troopers under the leadership of a Jedi General who is seemingly inept and mad with power. The dark alien world that the characters are on showcases some of the most impressive visuals ever seen in Star Wars. These combined quartet of episodes show off not only some great war themed storytelling, but bring the Star Wars universe into a place not widely explored before with soldiers questioning command and a plot that delves into the horrors and casualties of war.

These are exciting times for Star Wars, and I am looking forward to catching up on seasons 4 and 5 of this animated series. Many seem to think that it's the best Star Wars produced since the hey-day of The Empire Strikes Back. I am not a detractor of the prequels as some Star Wars geeks are, but the more Clone Wars I watch, the more I think I am inclined to agree.

Tomorrow at the Mayfair we are screening Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein and Jason & the Argonauts.

I love Abbott & Costello and the Universal Monsters, yet have somehow never seen this movie. I continue to be confused as to why only Frankenstein is in the title and it ignores Dracula and the Wolfman. Jason & the Argonauts is not only a movie that Tom Hanks hails as being better than Citizen Kane, it also has one of the most amazing fx scenes of all time in the form of the Argonauts battling against a batch of undead skeleton warriors. It is a staggering piece of work.

It is possibly the greatest one two punch of a movie matinee offering in the history of independent repertory theatres. Sunday March 16 at the Mayfair - Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein screens at 1:00pm followed by Jason & the Argonauts at 3:00pm.

If this news about Army of Darkness 2 isn't real I am going to tear down the interwebs with my bare hands.

There's not a ton of great stuff coming out of Marvel Comics. They are the biggest comic book publisher on the planet, they are definitely not the best though. Smaller publishers like Image and Dark horse put out a much larger number of high quality books month in and month out. The one book that they have been publishing the past few months that stands out is Hawkeye.

The art is beautiful and the super-hero on his not saving the universe off-days storyline is a fresh twist. Best of all is that it's self contained, so you don't have to buy a dozen other cross-over Avengers books to know what the hell is going on. The latest issue, Hawkeye #8, is in the comic stores now.

There is another issue of Saga out. It has been on the comic store shelves for a couple of weeks actually, I am just running behind on most of my comic book readings. Anyhow, a new issue of Saga means I make a new blog post to tell you that if you are not reading Saga that you are missing the best comic book being published today.

Our new ongoing dinner and a movie cross-over promotion with our friends at ZaZaZa continues tonight, and will happen every Tuesday night at the Mayfair. Gourmet pizza AND a Mayfair movie...what more could you possibly ask for on an evening out?

This year we're hosting a mini-Marx Brothers March Break Film Fest at the Mayfair. That is quite a mouthful, it took me a couple of times to get it right when trying to do the Mayfair answering machine message last night.

In past years we've screened whatever the latest kids movies were that were available, ending up with such cinematic classics like Alvin & the Chipmunks and Smurfs. Screening mainstream kids stuff like that is a bit more profitable at times, though not exactly my favourite movies of all time...well, to be fair I didn't watch them. I am going to jump to the assumption that neither of those examples is going to knock Jaws or American Graffiti off of my favourites list.

There were no new Hollywood kids movies available, so we've decided to go with more of a classic family friendly offering for some of this years March Break scheduling. Plus, how could the opportunity of tongue twister pun of a title like Marx Brothers Marx Break (also listed as The Ides of Marx) be passed up?

We have four selections from the Marx movie library for your viewing enjoyment: Animal Crackers on March 11 & 12 at 1pm, Monkey Business on March 11 & 12 at 3pm, Horse Feathers on March 13 & 14 at 12:30pm, and Duck Soup on March 13 & 14 at 1:30pm

There are few things more enjoyable than seeing a classic B-movie filled with Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creatures up on the big screen. Even better, thanks to the new digital projector that we've recently gotten a hold of at the Mayfair, the image is at a crystal clear quality as if you were watching it on it's original release. Watching a film such as this one at the Mayfair is akin to time travel. There is no better giant crab monster motion picture in the history of cinema!

Mysterious Island screens today at 3:45pm, and tomorrow (Monday March 11th) at 7:00pm

Can we get rid of Daylight Savings Time stuff yet? Why in the futuristic surroundings of the year 2013 do we still have to worry about if it's dark for an extra hour in the morning or at night? All that the event does is slightly mess up sleep patterns and make a bunch of people run late because they forgot to re-set their alarm clock. I'm pretty sure that if we abolished setting our clocks forward or back once each time a year that it wouldn't result in apocalyptic disaster and turmoil. Street-lamps and flash-lights and light-bulbs are plentiful and easily attainable now-a-days, we can get rid of the dark with the flip or a switch.

Geoff Johns run as writer of various corners of the Green Lantern portion of the DC Universe will soon come to its end. Shortly before his upcoming departure, he helped introduce the latest human member of the Green Lantern Corps, Simon Baz. Comic book writers are often cursed with a damned if you do / damned if you don't conundrum when writing good stories and appealing to the fan-base. On occasion some might complain that there isn't enough cultural diversity in comic book super-heroics. Then when an Arab-American who is a good man on the wrong side of the law is introduced into the crime-fighting fold, some nerds react negatively.

I've thoroughly enjoyed Geoff Johns extensive writing contributions to the Green Lantern mythos, especially when drawn by Doug Mahnke. I also think that the character Simon Baz has a lot of potential as being an interesting every-man hero in the midst of gods and aliens and universe threatening dangers. I always think that people who lash out and complain and moan about such super-hero comic book plot twists should maybe just stop reading them all together. They would have so much more free time to complain about other things!

I love Star Wars and the Nerdist so much that I purchased an actual physical paper copy of a magazine! A magazine, for those of you not in the know, is like a blog or a website but the words and pictures are on glossy paper instead of some form of computer screen. This latest issue of Wired features Nerdist mastermind Chris Hardwick and a cover exclaiming that Star Wars is back. I'm always excited by the promise of more Star Wars, but it doesn't seem like it really went anywhere. The Clone Wars animated series is currently on teevee, and there seems to be a never-ending output of Star Wars related comics, book, and video games.

The crux of the article within is about the new hope brought on by the Disney / JJ era of Star Wars that is on our horizon, only a short two or so years from now. There's a bunch of fun pictures and nostalgic articles from various geeky writers and celebrities about their love of Star Wars. Of course some prequel bashing slips in there, including one entry that ends with the writer lamenting and asking if we remember when Star Wars was perfect? Star Wars was of course never perfect. My controversial view about Star Wars over-all is that the original trilogy isn't as amazing as people might think and the prequels aren't as terrible as some think they are. Many of the people who whine about Star Wars now-a-days seem to forget that they saw the original trilogy as children and the newer films as adults. That age gap causes a much skewed perspective on one's entertainment preferences. I used to love Tron...then I saw it as an adult and was very confused as to how I ever could've thought the video game themed movie was amazing.

I look very forward to another round of Star Wars movies, and will avoid the internet comments section because when they trash JJ's directing of them I know it will just piss me off. I prefer to watch and enjoy my Star Wars in a cheering and joyful manner like Chris does on the cover of Wired.

My favourite day of year is the first one in which I get to wear my Converse. Today was that day. I know that spring isn't officially here yet, but for me the first Converse day of the year is the sign that the seasons have turned.

More Bat Spoilers! Got caught up on a bunch of Bat-reading, including Batman #17. This issue featured the conclusion of the latest in the never-ending crossovers between the Bat-family of comics, Death of the Family. This story-arc, as spearheaded by flagship Bat title writer Scott Snyder and artist Greg Capullo, featured the grand return (or introduction of depending on the point of view) of Joker to the New 52 DCU. Snyder and Capullo are in the midst of an impressive run within the shared Batman universe, and this tale brought the whole Bat family (specifically Robin, Red Robin, Red Hood, Nightwing and Batgirl) to the verge of disaster. There were a couple of moments so on the verge of being terrifying in this issue that I thought they were going to bring Joker and the Batman mythos to a darker place than maybe ever visited before. Excellent climactic edge of your seat comic book story-telling throughout the whole issue. Most appreciated is the comic book trend that although an inter-title crossover, you can just read the Batman issues to get the whole story. Meaning that you can read the spin-off books to get further story-points if you'd like, but not necessary if you don't have the finances, interest or time to undertake a bunch of other comics if you don't want to.

I just wish that I had read this issue before reading the much more tragic Batman Inc #8. It was very bitter-sweet to read a story with Damien Wayne / Robin in which he came out slightly more successfully and more alive in the end. Sniff.

Whenever a form of technology goes through a change, or when anything changes for that manner, there are a sect of folks who are upset and make a lot of noise that the previous version was superior. Some people were upset when teevee entered homes alongside the radio, when compact discs knocked off records and tapes, when podcasts made tuning in to talk shows at specific time-slots seem obsolete, when films started using sound, when teevee became colourized, and I'm pretty sure every time a new model of car is released.

So, now that digital projectors have pretty much completely replaced film presentations, that are of course certain cinema fans who pine for the past and fear for the future. I understand the point of view that film is good and digital is bad, I have just come to not believe or agree with that train of thought. Film has been around for a hell of a long time. It is an impressive near miracle that it has hung in there for well over a century. Some other technological marvel like the car isn't the same as they were when first invented, yet film and film presentation (with a few switches here and there over the years) pretty much remained the same.

To be honest, most movie goers don't seem to care whether the movie that they are watching is being presented on film or digitally or on VHS. From what I've gathered, most patrons coming out to see a movie are more concerned about the over-all experience of getting out of the house to see a movie on the big screen in a nice location. Movie geeks (of which I am too of course) should not fear the future, they should embrace it's new possibilities. There were countless movies that we were never able to get at the Mayfair, simply because the film prints did not exist or were not readily available.

Now, thanks to our newly acquired digital projector, we are not only able to continue to screen new films like Skyfall and Argo...but we are also able to screen newly made available classics. Case in point, this-evening I will get to watch a vintage Ray Harryhausen stop-motion monster movie on the big screen for the first time ever! Presented in Dynamation (I'm not quite sure what that means), tonight I'll get hit with the awe and wonder of watching our hero battle a cyclops and giant two headed birds and sword wielding skeletons. The only thing better would be if it would be possible to watch the movie when it was first released and to be truly knocked over by how the hell this movie magic was made.

The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad screens in all it's digital glory tonight at 7:00pm at the Mayfair. The first of four Ray Harryhausen themed movies that we are presenting this month...none of which would be available to view if not for the movie magic of current digital marvel of technology.

I guess this post should be prefaced with a warning of Batman comic spoilers, but news travels so fast that I'm probably one of the last geeks to actually read this latest shared universe twisting issue.

Every once and a while a comic book can completely sideline me, depress me and leave me in somewhat of a state of shock. Batman Inc #8 did all those things to me, along with leaving me with sorrowful curious thoughts as to what may have been if this horrible sacrifice had not befallen this character that I've grown to love so much in the past few years. I do not hold a grudge towards Grant Morrison, my favourite writer on the planet, for instigating this this tragic plot device. He'll not be getting death threats from me, and DC Comics won't be receiving notice that from now on I will never ever buy a Bat comic for the rest of my days (some rather unstable and semi-insane comic book readers have a habit of doing such things when something they disagree with goes down in one of their favourite books). Bad things befalling characters are a necessary turn in pretty much every story ever told. If stories had no conflict or villains or death or woe, storytelling might be quite a bit more dull indeed.

It's really quite a complimentary statement that I've been left in such a state after reading a comic book. Moments after reading the comic book in question I headed out to help by score-keeping at my friends roller derby event. Without kidding or sarcasm in the least, I had a genuine underlying sadness hidden underneath the surface on an otherwise fun night. As I've stated before, specifically in regards to the untimely demise of Blue Beetle a few years back, the face the comic books have the story-telling power to make one sad or happy or scared or excited is truly proof that it is an amazing medium to tell a tale indeed.

A death in a super hero comic book doesn't necessarily mean that you stay dead forever. In fact, in the DC Universe death seems to be a part time endeavour for almost everyone. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Green Arrow and many other a hero have died only to reappear amongst the living sooner or later. I hope the same rings true for lil' Damien Wayne. Who will feed Bat-Cow?

For the second Saturday night in a row it's Rideau Valley Roller Girls Derby Night in Ottawa! Okay, well...it's actually in Rockland which is way off on the outskirts of the city. I promise you that it's worth the trek out past suburbia to attend the event. All the pertinent info can be found by linking over to the RVRG site or reading the poster right above this post.

Sure, there's probably some other sporting event you could watch on teevee tonight, but that sport is filled with greedy millionaires who don't care about you. Derby is awesome and different and has that tinge of punk rock cool, and it's a much more interesting thing to tell your friends that you did on the weekend. You stayed home and watched hockey on Saturday night? Boring! You went out to a roller derby bout on Saturday night? You are the envy of your friends, family and co-workers! Jealousy abound from everyone you tell. Will likely lead to fame fortune and ultimate happiness.

I'm not sure what my first introduction to Bill Murray was, maybe it was his appearances on SCTV, or it might have been watching Meatballs or Caddyshack or Stripes when I was technically much too young to be allowed to view any of those movies according to ratings boards. I know for sure that after seeing Ghostbusters in the theatre when I was a lil' kid, full blown hero worship love kicked in.

In the years to follow I loved Scrooged and What About Bob? and Groundhog Day. I loved the hint that his career might take a different turn when he started taking on roles like in Mad Dog & Glory and Ed Wood and Hamlet. Of course I've loved Bill's ongoing filmmography of work with Jim Jarmush and especially Wes Anderson. I even loved his turn as Bosley in Charlie's Angels.

I especially enjoy that he has a lovely air about him of just not giving a damn. There's a video from last year that circled the interwebs (and screened at the Mayfair's Fake Trailer Fest) where Bill shot a quick slo-mo walking scene with some fans in lieu of signing autographs. He spends his spare time in awesome horrible attire participating in celebrity golf tournaments (and he's good!). His appearances on Letterman are the favourite episodes amidst my favourite show. I don't think he even has an agent or a team handling his career the way most super-stars do. He works who he wants to work with, partakes in media as he wishes, and stays out of the hurricane of the Hollywood eye. I have a Ghostbusters tattoo on my arm, and I think it's just as much a tribute to him specifically as the overall film that I love so much.

So, all that gushing will make it not so shocking to hear that I am quite excited to see Bill's latest film and his portrayal of U.S. President Franklin D Roosevelt. The Mayfair screens Hyde Park on Hudson tonight at 7:00pm, on Saturday March 2nd at 6:00pm and Sunday the 3rd at 7:30pm.