The Journal of Claire

I guess the big thing coming out tomorrow for most folks around my age is The State: The Complete Series. I'm wary of seeing the show again, which is more than likely far better in my hazy middle school memories than it ever could be in reality, but I had a lot of love for The State when it was first on. Heck, I was one of the eight people who watched The State's 43rd Annual All-Star Halloween Special when it originally aired. I will probably check this out eventually.

With any luck, this will pave the way for Viva Variety!: The Complete Series

Elliot and I are reading Batman: The Story of the Dark Knight. We took it out of the library and I'd really recommend it. The book is not just a cheap tie-in to a cartoon or movie, but features some really fun design work from Ralph Cosentino.

So I've noticed I'm getting hits on the weekends for the strips at Web Comics Nation. I'm very curious to know if these are folks checking out the strip for the first time, maybe browsing the archives. I mean, I do have it listed that I post weekdays...
Anyone ever know what happened to Small Press creator Chris Terry? He wrote a horror book called Creature of the Night and at one time was a member of the United Fanzine Organization...
Catering deliveries tomorrow. Well, specifically to one location, just two different times...
We had quite the hail/rain/windstorm a few hours ago. It was so bad I thought for sure the car would've been damaged, but no, we got lucky...
I am tired. Yet I slept well. I think it was too much just doing stuff around the house...

This past school year, I showed my classes selected bits and pieces of the 1998 NBC TV miniseries The Odyssey.


As a tool for illustrating difficult sections of the epic poem, the movie has its' strong points (the Calypso scenes are pretty good, and also was hilariously clear that most of my male students want to bone Vanessa Williams) and it's unbelievably weak points (wooden acting all around, awkward CGI that hasn't aged well) but I remember enjoying the spectacle of the thing when it first aired.

It got me thinking... what happened to the high concept TV miniseries? When I was growing up, there were plenty of 'em... both new and in reruns. These days, not so much.

I remember loving it when our cable provider finally hooked us up with the SciFi Channel and I was able to watch the Nazis-as-aliens run amok series V on four consecutive nights. Ditto The Day After, a blearily depressing take on nuclear holocaust in America. There were other series that ran on a similar theme- I've heard mixed things about Amerika, a "What if the Russians won the Cold War" series whose concept really sparked my imagination.

For a number of years in my teens, ABC was committed to making quality high concept mini-series, usually opting to adapt Stephen King novels for the small screen with mixed results. When those King minis were good, the were stupendous. I'm an unerring fan of their adaptation of King's gigantic good-vs.-evil opus The Stand. Even if it was less satisfying for those who loved the novel, ABC's version if IT has fans even today- my students referenced Pennywise as one of the scariest modern day monsters during an earlier lesson on the monsters of Greek myth.


For a TV movie that was made almost twenty years ago, and when you consider the budgetary restraints a production like that was under... for jaded teenagers who have "seen it all" when it comes to horror movies to even remember Pennywise is a big thing.

It must be said however, that for every good King mini-series, there was something like The Langoliers, a strange melange of time travel and bad CGI monsters that looked a lot like Pac-Man. Also, the mystifyingly boring remake of The Shining was pretty self-indulgent and languid. Still, more of the King minis were good than bad, and that's something.

NBC too was in the game, albeit with taking a "classier" route with adaptations of classic literature with the best special effects of the time. NBC's version of Gulliver's Travels with Ted Danson was decently accurate, if I remember correctly. At the very least, they addressed more of the various destinations that Lemuiel Gulliver encountered than most adaptations usually do. I also enjoyed their version of Merlin (starring Sam Neill) so much that I bought a DVD of it in college... although, admittedly, I found it in one of those giant bargain bins full of DVDs at my college's local Wal-Mart.

I suppose the day of the network television miniseries has seen its end, at least in a way that even attempts to cater to my interests as a viewer. ABC and NBC have had "world in peril" meteor mini-series on this summer, but they weren't appointment television, by any means. The major networks have seemingly ceded the genre to cable and pay television, and I've enjoyed a bunch of those (HBO's John Adams absolutely floored Ellen and I last summer) they don't have the same feel as some of the series I listed above. It's a pity in that when network TV got it right with a TV miniseries, they became a phenomenon.
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The internet was invented by military bigwigs so that we could share pictures and videos of cats.

Is anyone else having Little Big Planet not loading problems?

1. What is your favorite vegetable?
2. What is your favorite salad dressing, sauce, gravy, or condiment?
3. What is your favorite culture's food (American, Chinese, Creole, Indian, Italian, Mexican, Soul Food, Southern U.S., etc.)?
4. What is your favorite beverage?
5. What is your favorite food?

1. I like broccoli a lot. Green beans when they're in season, but we eat more broccoli.

2. Caesar dressing is usually what I use on salads. I don't eat a lot of gravy outside of Thanksgiving.

3. I like Mexican food best these days, or more specifically, Tex-Mex.

4. Water. Boring, but that's pretty much all I drink. Occasionally I treat myself to a gallon of Newman's Own Lemon-Aided Ice Tea, but those are fewer and further between these days.

5. Ellen makes a chicken pot pie that I love, but if pressed, her pork chops are my favorites.

Yesterday's strip is the comic in question.

This is Uncle Chris' Bargain Week here at the comic! Today's tip: If you live near one (sorry East Coasters) head over to Half Price Books' website and sign up for their e-mail list. They're having a big sale next week and they'll send you awesome coupons for it. 50% off one item next Sunday! I find awesome stuff at HPB all the time. Last week I got the first Starman Omnibus for $16 bucks and today I bought Lucy Knisley's Radiator Days for $6!