Andy Wood

With the exception of checking my mail box on Saturday. I haven’t left my humble home to take in a movie this week. If would seem though that Cars pretty much slam dunked the weekend’s box office receipts.

I have no idea where the Pixar creative forces comes up with these ideas, but it would seem to be on a winning streak – from “Toy Story” to “Monsters, Inc.” to “Finding Nemo” to “The Incredibles” and now with “Cars,” it just seems that they are running laps around the rest by turning cars, trucks, tractors and farm harvesters into cute Disney characters whose fates you’ll care about.

This weekend’s other two major releases had average sales being reported. The Omen (another remake btw) took 4th place.

1. Cars, $62.8 million
2. The Break-Up, $20.5 million
3. X-Men: The Last Stand, $15.6 million
4. The Omen, $15.5 million
5. Over the Hedge, $10.3 million
6. The Da Vinci Code, $10.3 million
7. A Prairie Home Companion, $4.7 million
8. Mission: Impossible III, $3.0 million
9. RV, $2.0 million
10. Poseidon, $1.8 million

This issue needs to be read to witness how things go from bad to worse for Rick and his crew as they attempt to deal with the madness of the Governor of Woodbury.

There is always going to be those folks out there whom will take advantage when humanity if and when it takes the big plunge, which means that it will impact those decent folks while they are attempting to hang to the rim before someone goes for the second flush.

Robert Kirkman continues to push the envelope of these characters in their action and reactions to the decaying world around them. As this series gets closer to issue #30, I am curious just how much will be left of the original crew. The story and dialogue are as riveting as the gory action sequences that artist Charlie Adlard creates.

This issue is a must read as a whole for anyone enjoys zombie/horror novella.

City, MobilePro, couldn’t agree on how to offer network to users

A company that built a pilot Wi-Fi network in Sacramento, Calif., as a precursor to citywide coverage is pulling the plug on the project, the company said.

MobilePro Corp. last year won a contract to build and operate the municipal network for Sacramento. Now it appears that the city and the company weren’t able to agree on how the network should be offered to users. The change of plans demonstrates the struggles that companies and cities are having in figuring out how to build and pay for municipal wireless networks.

MobilePro proposed two models for the network. One would include a limited area and limited bandwidth service that would be free for users, plus a higher bandwidth service that customers would pay a monthly fee to access. The second proposal involved the city serving as an anchor tenant for the network, which would then supply services for free to low-income residents.

The city rejected both ideas, according to MobilePro, and instead asked the company to offer services for free and support the network with advertising revenue. Based on its experiences operating Wi-Fi networks in other cities, including Tempe, Ariz., MobilePro said the idea isn’t financially sustainable. MobilePro said it decided to withdraw from the project.

In March, MobilePro launched a free pilot of the network covering a Sacramento park. At the time, the company said the proposed network would ultimately cover 10 square miles of the city center and grow to cover other areas. Customers could access the network for free or for a fee based on the type of service they wanted.

A growing number of cities, including San Francisco, are working on building Wi-Fi networks that offer broadband services to residents. While some initially considered paying for the networks themselves, most have evolved toward plans that involve partnering with commercial companies. Among the most high-profile cases is the Philadelphia network in which broadband operators criticized any plans that would have involved city sponsorship, saying that the city would be using tax dollars to compete against commercial service providers. Philadelphia recently signed a contract for EarthLink Inc. to build and operate the network at no cost to the city.

The post that I did on this before stating that TAS (Trek Animated Series) is coming to dvd has been put in stone.

After a long, long wait, fans of the Star Trek animated series will be happy to learn that all 22 episodes of the 1973-74 production will eventually be released on DVD by Paramount Home Entertainment. (Although date and contents are still to be confirmed. Watch this space!)

This is great news, of course, to completionists and Star Trek fans in general. Many of us have our own fond memories or perceptions of this show, and it’s no wonder that the animated installment has been hotly contested for years as to its status within the Trek oeuvre. Are the people, places and things contained therein part of what we call “Star Trek”? It’s a big question, perhaps not answerable here, but it’s not without historical precedent: Just what is this “canon” that they speak of?

From the time that mankind could print religious texts, the question was asked: What is “canon,” or texts accepted as genuine when it comes to documenting official history? The bible, with one standard set by the King James Version, originally contained the books that were deemed non-canon, or “apocryphal” (“The Book of Judith,” anyone?). But this section, the “Apocrypha,” was placed in between the Old and New Testaments to set the books apart from what were considered divine texts. Although the Apocrypha was removed from the King James Bible, you can still find some editions that include it. But for the Bible in general, total agreement on all the books and all the translations simply does not exist.

In Star Trek, canon is also an issue. When the question of what is or isn’t canon first raised its head is unclear, but it is probably in connection with the content of the original novels as opposed to the TV shows, and later the movies. At the time, there was only one television show, and a series of various novelizations, original novels and comic books. The question was a natural one: What exactly is considered part of Star Trek lore, and what isn’t? (And if it isn’t, why not?) Perhaps the simple answer is that the books are numerous and detailed; to hold all those facts and stardates and who did what to whom when is just too much to ask any single fan to retain.

To make things easy, Gene Roddenberry stated that if it appears on screen it’s canon. But in time, even Gene’s theory would come under fire by his own standards. There were certain movies and shows that he felt didn’t meet Trek standards. Roddenberry certainly had his own issues with the animation of the Saturday morning spin-off show and didn’t consider it canon – even though the show avoided being the “Archies in Space” as he had feared.

For fans, the animated show (known simply by its on-screen name as Star Trek, but referred to now by names such as “The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek,” or even abbreviated as ST: TAS or TAA) hailed the beginning of a resurgence of Trek. Supporters argue that its legacy is manifest: It featured some of the top writers of the day in Larry Niven, David Gerrold, Samuel A. Peeples, D.C. Fontana, Stephen Kandel and even Walter Koenig; it featured new characters, places and aliens; it had recurring guest stars such as Roger C. Carmel and Mark Lenard and follow-up stories to the “Tribbles” and “Harry Mudd” sagas; it came with a bona fide Star Trek stamp of approval with Gene’s name attached, as well as D.C. Fontana’s; and, bottom line, it was a Saturday morning show that didn’t insult one’s intelligence. One reviewer at the time even suggested that the animated series was too good for Saturday mornings (“a Mercedes in a soapbox derby”) and should be moved to prime time! (Los Angeles Times, 1973)

Detractors have a different take on the series. They argue that the show’s animation was rudimentary at best, with repeated sets and one standard overhead shot of the Bridge used endlessly. Also, a main character was scrubbed (Chekov) for budget reasons and replaced by a couple of aliens that could be voiced by Majel Barrett and James Doohan, who did the lion’s share of the voices anyway. And, just as a matter of taste, some see the animated series as silly and inconsequential.

On the other hand, principal characters in the show were voiced, sans Koenig, by the original actors. Sure, you had new characters with wings and tails and three legs, and you had other imagery inconsistent with the style of the Original Series, but that was simply a part of the broader visual scope available through animation. In fact, one of the things that sold Gene on the concept of an animated series was the fact that budgets were not an issue. Also, the animated show introduced concepts that would be seized upon in future Star Trek incarnations such as the holodeck (“The Practical Joker”). And fans seem to hold as “factual” that Robert April (“The Counter-Clock Incident”) was the first captain of the Enterprise NCC-1701, preceding Christopher Pike. via Startrek.com

Those of you who have been waiting for a sequel to the comedy classic Animal House may get a chance to see the whole thing play out in real life.

Authorities recently raided the Alpha Delta fraternity house that inspired the1978 hit film. Located at Dartmouth College, police confiscated a computer, videotapes and two sledgehammers. Though no one is saying what this is all about (and if Alpha Delta is now on double secret probation), the police chief did note that it was not drug related.

Animal House scribe, Chris Miller, was a member of the same fraternity when he graduated from Dartmouth in 1964 and later used his experience to help create the wonderful characters we’ve grown to love over the years. via Cinematical