Mailbagsukidoji:

Your letters. My smartass replies.The Steady Leak
may not be so steady these days, but your letters have been, so I must
share them and answer them so that the wheels keep turning on this
crazy little bitch. Feel free to ask whatever about whomever or
whatever, and I’ll do my best to answer it. Letters in here might be
positive, negative, or indifferent and I’ll try to maintain a balance.
Please keep sending them in (SEND A LETTER), as it’s you who fuels this column.

I’m
doing a decent job of doing one or possibly two of these letters
columns a week, but I think it might be a little better if you guys
just ask random stuff instead of things just relating to the column or
the recent letters installments.

Provided
it makes sense and applies to entertainment in some fashion, send me
whatever questions you’d like! Also, since the Leak is less frequent
than I’d like, I’ll toss a few value added things in here from now on.

With that said, here we go….

Today’s Photo From Life:


Get the whole CHUD crew for cheap!

Come around here often?

The Fact This Exists Is Hilarious.


Wouldn’t want Atheism to sneak up on you, would ya?

Kraken Heads.

Mitch to the left!Ben writes:

Congrats on Left Turn being published. Between this and Meg you must be one of
the busiest/happiest/stressed out people you know. I was curious about your new
think tank team, Kraken Heads. What do you guys do when you meet? Do you rent
out an office somewhere? Meet at your place? Email a lot? All of the above?


Nick’s Reply: In addition to Meg there’s another producing project I’ve got cooking. A horror one with a very good script by a talented new writer, produced with one of the Meg crew. I can’t wait to see that one go public (fingers crossed). Additionally, I’ve got Chaos Blooms coming (self published unless I find a sugar daddy), the CHUD book, and a few other little tidbits. Kraken Heads will be busy as heck if I get my way. As for the team, it’ll grow as the projects ease closer to reality. Right now it’s myself and Lewis Cox, though I expect to add to that once Meg moves a little further along. My ultimate goal is to have a crew of around five people, all working together on projects and making them much better than the work of one or two. As for the office, I’ll be building an office either at my new home when I move or will rent one, but that’s a good ways away. Right now I need projects and I need to find out who I trust and who has the ability to help build a little empire. Once I leave CHUD.com, it will fall under the Kraken Heads ownership and grow in leaps and bounds without my daily or semi-daily presence. If all goes well, you’ll see more stuff to emerge from this little outift. If for some reason you’re a really gifted artist or writer, I might be interested in seeing if you’re up for putting a project into our little machine.


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My Least Favorite Chewer?

Mitch to the right.Rocksca writes:

When is the Memphis screening of Doom and am I getting a passes to the Memphis
screening of Doom.

Nick’s Reply: This is the second time I’ve gotten an email like this from you. First of all, there’s a neat little key on your computer with a question mark on it. Learn to use it. Secondly, without even a hello or a thank you you don’t deserve shit of a response. Thirdly, I send the passes out to the people who win the screening contests now. So, if I thought your entry warranted a pass and you met the criteria, I sent one. Sadly, I’d already mailed yours when I got this or I’d have given it to someone a little more deserving.

(SEND A LETTER)

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Fandom.

Mitch to the left!Stephen writes:

Isn’t doing a Big Lebowski festival no different than all the other extreme
fandoms? I’ve seen pictures from it with people dressed up like the
characters. Granted, these fans aren’t really pushing for a sequel but it never
was the kind of film that could spawn a series of films (but that would be cool,
wait stop calm down…). I go to Dragon Con every year and have a great time.
I don’t dress up myself or lock myself into a single programming track. At the
same time I don’t really have a problem with those who do. It’s all fantasy
really. How many times do I see guys at ball games with painted face screaming
like they own stock in the team they support. Even more strange to me is the
support given to college teams by fans who never even attended the school. This
is all the same to me. People go to the market in jerseys from a given team and
it’s no big deal. How is this different? They are just wearing a costume. If
you aren’t on the team and you wear that jersey you are part of what Devin calls
the "street team" promoting and supporting the team of which you have no
affiliation. I just don’t see what the big deal is. At least the brown coats
haven’t turned to violence, but the same can’t be said for sports fans. It’s
funny how sports fandom is so universally OK when any other fandom is weird.
Now I will say that if you start thinking you are a "real" member of the brown
coats and you are getting ready for the revolution to begin, then I worry. But
if you just love and want to support the franchise and you want to dress up at
cons I say go ahead. We often are forced to live pretty shitty lives during the
week and if doing this on the weekends makes them happy then go for it. Me, I’m
not a costume guy, and I don’t narrow my view to one particular aspect of
fandom, but if you aren’t hurting me then have fun with it and if your costume
is cool I might snap a picture.

Nick’s Reply: I think the freakiness of the fandom is a mirror image of the material and its creators. The Big Lebowski is a love note to Raymond Chandler and his ilk as well as Busby Berkeley by arguably one of the most eccentric and talented filmmaking teams alive today (The Ladykillers notwithstanding). The film is a good bit more than the stuff typically given conventions. A lot more substantial. As for your comparisons, they’re not all that off the mark. I never understood the whole obsession with tailgating and painting your face or whatever. I do understand wearing a hat or shirt of a team or flick or show you like. That makes sense. Heck, I hope there’s a handful of you out there with CHUD or RON shirts. Where I draw the line is when people lose their perspective when their blind love taints logic. It’s why I get pissed at listening to sports talk radio where people cannot get past their fanaticism. You can’t have a discussion with a person with their mind already made up. The same goes for hardcore fans of specific films or franchises.

(SEND A LETTER)

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Religion.

Mitch to the right.Ryan writes:

Hey Nick, more fuel for the
fire:

Just wanted to clear something up…

While me saying that I believe (at
least) part of creationism is true may ‘insult’ evolutionary theory and some
science, someone else saying that the Bible is in essence false and stupid
insults my life, my reason for being, and my soul. Especially when the best
"Rob" can come up with is the ol’ "the Old Testament and the New Testament
contradict each other!" and a couple out of context quotes. There is some wacky
stuff in the Bible but it’s all in its particular context and if you do some
digging there is a reason for it all. When someone comes at me with "’An eye
for an eye’ contradicts ‘turn the other cheek’, therefore I can never believe in
God" it makes me pretty sad. Not only because of the volumes written analyzing
the meaning of Jesus’ completion of Jewish Old Testament law, but because of the
ease in which people pick something out of context and use it to throw
everything out. I can’t speak for everybody, but most Christians don’t pick and
choose. We wrestle with the Bible every day and if we’re smart, we try to be
still and listen every day too.

Anyways, I bet by now you’re kinda
sorry you brought all this up right? Well I believe you’re handling it well.
Keep up the good work.

Oh and you can’t get enough praise
for those Mary Worth strips… keeps this long day at work going.

Peace

Nick’s Reply: I’m not sorry I brought it up. It generated mail and discussion. That’s the bottom line. Sometimes people are too lazy to write a note. Subjects like that make it easy. As for the Mary Worth strips, thanks. I love doing them and I like the responses to them.

(SEND A LETTER)

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Galactica Misfire.

Mitch to the left!Keith writes:

Hey, man.

I am SOOO with you on all your comments. I’m a pretty tough audience
myself (wouldja like to ask me why Episode III was as stinky a
pile of shit as Episodes I & II? Go ahead, I dare you.), and I agree with
every single comment you made about Galactica.
I’m not a fan of the old series and also have grown to hate the Sci-Fi
Channel (which used to keep me up until 3 or 4am back in the early ’90s when
they were rerunning classic shows [unusual classics like "The Magician" or "The
Prisoner" — not the same six fucking Star Trek episodes that I didn’t
care about when I was 6 and they were being shown on WPIX at 7pm and don’t care
about now] and doing some cool documentary stuff). This show really is
astounding.

And, yeah, the whole "they have a plan" truly makes no sense. So many
thing occur that the Cylons couldn’t possibly have planned, or even considered,
and it bugs me. And let’s not get me started on the season 2 (NO spoilers)
episode w/Lucy Lawless (if you’ve not seen it, good luck not pulling your hair
out in the last 2 minutes).

Anyway, dude, nice critique. Oh, and one more thing: wanna knbow how to
enjoy Babylon 5? Do what I did: I watched a few episodes in the first season,
told the buddy who made me watch them that he’s gay, b/c the show was gay, and
that he should bend over for the captain b/c he’s gay too (um, I didn’t actually
say any of that — I’ve just been watching too much South Park
lately…but, you get the gist: the show bit). I didn’t check it out again
until the middle of season 3, where I accidentally turned it on having no clue
what it was, but I was enthralled. It took me about 6 episodes to figure out
all that was going on, but it was absolutely worth my time. And do NOT watch
any of the follow-up movies or short-lived spin-off series. Just don’t. It’s
all much better that way. Trust me.

Sorry to go on so long. I’m so…lonely. I love you. Will you be my
friend?

Okay, now I’m just scaring me. (althoguh I am making
myself laugh) Later, dude.

Nick’s Reply: This was actually intended for Devin, as I have never seen frame one of this show and I have no plans to start any time soon. It’s just too much of a committment and the actors and characters are of no import to me, so I’m just going to stay in the dark about this one even though I know two great guys who work on the show. Go Kevin! Go Ryan!

(SEND A LETTER)

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Small Time Kreuk.

Mitch to the right.Rachel writes:

You’re not very bright yourself. You shouldn’t confuse
the actor with the character he/she plays. I mean, come on! It’s called
acting!!! How hard is that to understand?!

You misspelled her name too. It’s KRISTIN Kreuk.



Nick’s Reply: This was also intended for Devin. Funny, he got the hard part of her name spelled right. There has to be some kind of appreciation for that! I do love how Devin called Don Adams’ death TIMELY in his piece, though.

(SEND A LETTER)

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Chewers of the Round Table.

Mitch to the left!Dion writes:


Hi Nick i’d just like to say how great your site is and much I want to kiss your ass(if there is any more space left!).

Anyway enough of my weird adoration, I would like to ask will we see anymore Roundtable reviews before the year is out? And will they be back for next year?

Yours Avidly, european fan.

Nick’s Reply: I’m sure there’ll be a round table review or two over the coming months, but it’ll have to be for a film that’s highly anticipated or a major release. We probably should have done it for Serenity. That said, I probably won’t be around for it so if you see a void of them in the coming months, pop Dave an email about it.

(SEND A LETTER)

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Serenity vs. The Transporter 2?

Mitch to the right.Heath writes:

Good article on Serenity. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie as I’ve never watched an episode of the series (or Buffy or Angel). I thought it was an entertaining and surprisingly funny movie.

Like you said 25 million or so domestically isn’t astounding but it’s okay for this type of movie (it’ll do insane numbers on DVD, insane).

25 million is, though, an insane amount of money for a TV show. Those are good enough numbers for Whedon to rejuvinate the series if he wanted too. It kinda makes me wonder if that’s what he wanted all along (while just kinda hoping in the back of his mind that it would do Star Wars numbers).

He wrapped up a lot of stuff in the movie but mainly it was just the whole River Tam plotline. I think he still has lots of stories left that he wants to tell in this world. Either way, I enjoyed the movie and at least it was better than Transporter 2 🙂

Nick’s Reply: 25 million is not an insane amount for a TV show. Especially when the film cost more than that. The Dukes of Hazzard made almost 90 million bucks. Starsky & Hutch made 163 million. Even the lame as shit Kidman Bewitched made over 90.

Oh, and The Transporter 2 (my review) is a blast.

(SEND A LETTER)

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Serenity Redux.

Mitch to the left!Free writes:

I liked the movie but was put off by the brown coats (do they wear brown shirts under those coats? 🙂 )

You are right. It did seem like a cult following.

And after only 10 episodes? Hum. What were the fans projecting
onto the show.

I’m sure you noticed that the lead was a carbon copy of the Star Wars
character Hans Solo. Of course there was the Alliance and in
Serenity you even had "Dark" Vader, who kills without conscience for the "rulers" he doesn’t even know.

The Anti Authorotairan stance of the main characters also appeals to people who like to think of themselves as "outside" the mainstream, even as they drive cars, go to movies, watch TV and raise families like everyone else.

This show also had a strong bunch of characters who tell the truth in
very direct language. Very appealing in a world filled with
untruths. Also very tight community, which is hard to find
anywhere on earth, let alone in space.

Has there been any discussion about the content of the movie? Any
good places to see that?

Nick’s Reply: Hi Free! I think Djimon Hounsou is expecting you. Hans Solo, he’s the lonely German, right? As for discussion on Serenity? Yeah, I think you might find some on our message boards HERE and HERE.

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Best Buy?

Mitch to the right.Jared writes:

The Best Buy that just opened up near me has ORCA!
It has a pretty good selection as far as my wants and needs go, which is
usually new releases.

Oh and my friend suckered me into that Rewardzone thingy! OMG you have to
buy the card first then spend like $150 to qualify for any coupons…

My rant is on Target! One week it has everything you could ever want, then
the next week "poof" its gone! Havent yet picke dup Oldboy though sorry man.
Although I do want to check out Dead and Breakfast Inn.

Keep up the great work while you leak… er on the leak?

Nick’s Reply: I don’t mind the Rewards program because I’m a guy who likes to buy DVDs and gadgets and shit. It adds up. What bothers me is that those companies don’t realize that by sucking all the Mom & Pop stores up in their War of the Worlds flesh nets, they’re not making up for it with inventory that allows those shoppers to segue into their stores. The result: bitterness and online ordering.

By the way, I’m amazed at just how few people realize that the AMAZON.com link on the right side of this site really helps us out if you buy stuff.

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SPAM OF THE DAY!

Mitch to the left!

Тaможенное зaконодательство Укpаины writes:

HOBОЕ B ТAМOЖEННОМ ЗАKOНОДАТЕЛЬСТВЕ УKPAИНЫ

Cеминaр • 29 oктябpя • 2005 г.
г. Kиeв • бульв. Шевчeнкo 4 • oтeль "Сaнкт-Петербург"

Бизнeс-Цeнтр «Hациoнальный»
Тeл.: (044) 2З3-46б9, 2З7-9O05 • Факc: (044) 280-1O44

O CЕМИHАРЕ

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Mr. Grunt and Point’s Reply: Perseus! It’s been too long, my boy!

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