Alas, no owl sightings today but I did spot a colorful-looking teamster hanging around the lunch tent. Sadly, however, there was no one around to offer up wildlife commentary. Still it would‘ve been hard to beat David Hewlett‘s reaction upon spotting the owl yesterday. “My invitation to Hogwarts!”he piped up. “It’s finally arrived!”
Today, main unit was in the FX Stage, shooting the Harmony tease. And while they were shooting, I was in the office reading Paul’s pass on Outcast (offering up a more vulnerable side of Sheppard), watching a day #1 mix of Quarantine (a lot of terrific little character moments), eating pizza (Yes! Pizza!) for lunch, and composing a response to one of the many email scammers I‘ve taken to baiting of late. This one went out to Mr. Collins Smith. He had contacted my alias, Margaret Quibble, with regard to a $500 000 payday only to end up a hapless volunteer in an F.B.I. sting to rescue Ms. Quibble’s kidnapped husband Melvin. Despite Mr. Smith’s amusingly emphatic insistence that he could only deal with Margaret Quibble directly on this sensitive matter (“i will not involve with the kidnappers!”), field agent Wexler would not be denied:
“Dear Mr. Smith,
It was only on my second reading of your email that I realized I wasn’t dealing with an idiot but a very shrewd individual masquerading as an idiot. Your decision to pepper your message with grammatical errors and awkward phrasing was truly brilliant and I applaud your attention to detail and obvious commitment to thoroughly immersing yourself in your undercover role.
Ms. Quibble was contacted by the kidnappers this morning. The exchange will take place tonight, at 8:30 p.m. sharp, in the old abandoned wicker chair factory. So as to ensure you are not mistakenly gunned down in any unforeseen exchange of gunfire, it is imperative you wear the following outfit to distinguish you from the kidnappers:
1. Jeans – red, as tight as possible.
2. Woman’s belt with pronounced steer head buckle
3. Red sweater vest (a.k.a. shvest) – hands and arms must remain bare.
4. Oversized gardening hat with huge honking sunflower on top.
5. Monocle.
When all parties have gathered, Ms. Quibble will begin by handing you your $500 processing fee. You will then subtly signal my men by tapping your right foot three times, bending down and touching your toes, and then jumping up and shouting “Chimichanga!”. Be precise in the execution of this maneuver but, again, be very subtle as we do not wish to arouse anyone’s suspicions. Then, hand the kidnappers the $500 000 in cash with your left hand, using your right hand to slap the top of your head three times and then rub your belly in a counter-clockwise motion twice. (Again, be subtle! These kidnappers are very dangerous men!) Once they have the $500 000, they will give you Melvin Quibble’s ear along with an I.O.U. for the rest of him and a coupon for 15% off your next visit to Starchy’s Dry Cleaning. Check the back to make sure the coupon is not expired, then thank everyone for coming and suggest you all do this again sometime. With the transaction concluded and for your own safety, we will require you to get down on your belly and quickly crawl to the nearest exit singing the lyrics to Welcome Back Kotter as loudly as possible. If you do not know the words to this old t.v. show, please familiarize yourself with them. Stand advised: IT MUST BE WELCOME BACK KOTTER! THE LYRICS TO CHICO AND THEM MAN ARE NOT AN ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVE! YOUR LIFE MAY DEPEND ON THIS!
Well, that’s it. Good luck and have fun with it. See you tonight!
Sincerely,
Agent Wexler
Federal Bureau of Investigation”
Today’s blog is dedicated to whoever is celebrating a birthday/got sick or injured/recovered from getting sick or injured, or is related to someone who made a request to have a blog dedicated to themselves or someone they know either today, yesterday, or tomorrow.
Today’s pics: More from the Harmony forest shoot (cue atmosphere, Genii, Eli takes a break).
Today’s video: Click on the date to see nature get a helping hand.
Hey, since I’m around, allow me to field some questions –
Morjana writes: “ I noticed in the background what appeared to be plywood laid down on the forest floor. 1. Was that plywood? 2. If so, was it there for the cameras to roll on, to facilitate the the smooth movement of the camera dolly wheels?”
Answer: The plywood was laid down for both the equipment and the crew because it had rained the day before and the ground was extremely muddy.
Alipeeps writes: “So, does Joe F take a guitar with him everywhere these days?!”
Answer: Pretty much. Yup.
Flying Fig writes: “Since you had Jerry from EXTRA! on the set as a Genii, does this mean that the infotainment show is going to feature a segment on SGA? If so, did he hint when?”
Answer: Yes, Extra’s feature on Stargate Atlantis will air a couple of days before the premiere. I’ll let you know when I have a date.
Yasmin writes: “How is Fondy’s store going? Are they handling the store by themselves right now or have hired help already?”
Answer: The shop has been fairly busy since it opened this past weekend. Fondy and Shawne are in the process of interviewing staff. Hopefully this will mean we can go away for a weekend or two come November-December.
Atlantisfannew1 a ecrit: “Attention!! révélation du projet secret!!”
Response: C’est magnifique! Merci!
Anonymous #1 writes: “1.Will Teyla get a love interest,well maybe not a love interest as such but maybe someone taking an interest. 2.Will there be lots of Teyla Whump in S4.”
Answer: Yes on both counts.
Will there be much McKay whump in this new series? Emotional and physical! This has probably been asked before…sorry. But don’t be deterred from answering!
Does this mean your big trip to the great outdoors is at an end?
It is amazing how many people are actually involved in creating a TV programme. What is the average amount of days taken to film one episode?
Is there a set formulae for writing an episode? i.e. so many ‘acts’, five minutes of action, 5 shots of Ronon looking menacing, 10 sarcastic remarks etc
It is now almost 3 in the wee small hours here in Scotland so I am off to bed.
Night Joe, Night Pugs, Night World…..
1) Can you give us a number of Teyla centeric episodes? (Not the titles mind you just a number of how many are Teyla centic?) 2) is there any more onset shots of Rachel? (me misses those a lot) 3) is the love interst for Teyls someone we’ve seen before or someone else entirely? 4) did you know there is a LiveJournal Community in honor of you?
Hi Joe,
More great pics and another very funny DH vid.
Just a quick question.
Will we ever get to see Sheppard use the stick fighting skills he’s acquired from Teyla, other then just sparring? Some sort of real life/life or death situation where he has to fight to survive?
Hi Joe:
Will there be lots of (any) Carter Whump in S4.”
Thanks.
Wow – I bow down to the psychic-ness of you, I’m a daily reader, once or twice poster on your blog and when you dedicated tonights to anyone who’s been injured, I just had surgery today!
*bows down to psychic-ness again*
I miss Cookie Monster!
Ok, who else thinks that Jerry the Genii looks like a gut leetle German SS? 😀 Couldn’t help myself. Great pics and news Joe! Thanks! Now for my question:
Can tell us which episode the Sheppard/Teyla hug featured in one of the promo vids is? Thank you!
“My invitation to Hogwarts!”he piped up. “It’s finally arrived!”
That is so freaking awesome. Say, since the subject was brought up, what Hogwarts houses would you say you and the cast would best fit into?
So excited about season four!
This is me and my husband on the way to Sage (awesome french restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale FL)
-“Oh I just can’t wait!”
-“for what?” (husband asks)
-“for the season premier of Atlantis!”(I reply)
-“And here I thought you meant, either your new job, starting school again, meeting your brother’s new baby or maybe our first anniversary dinner.
But is nice to know where you priorities are.”
lol
Can’t help it I love the show.
Looking forward to see Harmony!
Oh, I hope that moss is biodegradable!
That scam letter was freaking hilarious! Definitely one of your top 5. I had pictured the entire “subtle” negotiation sequence in my head and I would honestly pay to see it for realz.
Ok, question time:
1. How would you react if, walking around town one day, a fan rolled down his car window beside you and yelled “Atlantis Season 4 is going to rock!!” and then quickly drives away? I need to know since…uh…well, I just need to know.
2. Are we going to get some good “explore Atlantis” stuff in the second half of Season 4?
3. Will you be able to tell us the show’s ratings when they start airing on the 28th? If so, how soon afterwards?
Thank you Joe!
Can you dedicate this blog to me since my home was broken into this morning while i was at work. Thank you!
Deja Vu:
We are all waiting for season 4 to start with bated breath(yes that’s spelled correctly..I looked it up!
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bai1.htm).
We all want the ratings to be very high so there will be a season 5 so how do we help that along? I usually record shows on my dvr and watch them later. I read somewhere that if you are a Nielsen family, they might not count that toward the ratings.
If you are not a Nielsen family, does it matter if you watch the show while it is on?
Do the cable companies also monitor what we are watching and use it for ratings that TPTB actually care about?
I really, really want a season 5 so if you have a clue about this…please let us fans know.
Thanks,
Kimberly
You, sir, are the biggest subjunctive superlative that I have ever known.
Thank you, for another charming video clip.
Now we know where moss on trees comes from! (Not the moss fairies at night…)
Morjana
1.)Did you get a chance to catch Hewlett’s movie? Is it any good?
2.)How original is the season finale?
3.)Do you think the crew on Atlantis ever has a chance to catch up on the latest movies or tv shows? Maybe when they go back to earth for a bit that buy up all the tv on dvd they can grab.
4.)How much do you think the Atlantis crew gets paid?
hey Joe I really liked what you said about the dedication of the blog… it was funny!!
Questions: 1)Where is Amanda these days?Is she turning some shots at the studios? Because we did’nt hear from her for a while!!!:S
Will the extras and the caterers get a good whupping this season? How about the set designers? Will they suffer emotional turmoil, maybe a few artistically placed bruises? Will we ever see someone running with scissors and the tragic aftermath?
The fact that someone could right now possibly be flicking through their yellow pages looking for the local wicker chair factory and a monocle…well, it kind of makes sitting in an office that much more bearable.
Do you know how things are going with Brad and Robert’s idea for a 3rd Stargate series? Have you been approached to be involved?
Tanya said:
Where is Amanda these days?Is she turning some shots at the studios? Because we did’nt hear from her for a while!!!:S
She was in one of the pics Joe posted yesterday.
Amanda herself has said that she only shoots in Atlantis 4 days per episode at most. Considering that, according to Mr. Mallozzi, an episode takes about 7 days to film Amanda Tapping is only 50% of the time. That could be the explanation for not so many pics of Amanda in the last few days. Maybe she wasn’t scheduled to film much these days.
Aha! So the fog was artificial. ^_^
Hey, I formed my first coherent sentence in ASL today, and proudly told my teacher I thought I forgot to put my name on my homework. Surely this is momentous enough of an occasion to be blog-dedication worthy material? *And then she tries to stifle a snicker*
Nice pics, as always. 🙂 Man, Outcast is sounding better and better each time you bring it up— and hey, for Quarantine, who can say no to character moments?
Best wishes to the ladies in their staff-search— hope they can find someone (or ones) reliable.
Good to hear about Fondy’s store’s success. It’s hard being a store owner of any type. I have never owned/operated one, but seen my brother do it. Lot of hard work & sweat.
Were you one of her first customers? If you haven’t purchased something from there yet, I think you should show patronage. 😀
How is Lulu? As much as I am loving the pictures & videos, I’d like to know if she’s finally growing into her ears or what?
Have a good night Mr. M.
Check out the YouTube video of Paul McGillion at DragonCon, from his solo panel on the last day of Dragon*Con 2007. Paul does his impressions of Stargate Atlantis actors: Jason Momoa, Joe Flanigan, David Hewlett, Rachel Luttrell and Torri Higginson.
Watching The Tok’ra and suddenly wondered: “If the child of two Goa’uld hosts is a harcesis, would the child of two Tok’ra be the same or different?” So, perhaps it’s a bit obvious, but one can never be too certain…
Also (moving along), have you ever heard of/seen The Dresden Files? Um… I guess it’d be fantasy…
Hi Joe:
Looking at the pictures of all those people working so hard to make Atlantis happen, I thought I would create my own personal tribute to them:
Hinterland Who’s Who
The Stargate crew is found in open woods and dark studios throughout the Vancouver area. It can be distinguished by its heavy camera equipment and unusual vocal outbursts.
When food is made available, all activity ceases while the crew engorge themselves. Preferred treats are chocolate, ice cream and copious amounts of Tim Horton’s coffee.
As the light fades, the crew can be found stampeding to their vehicles, preparing to bed down for the night in cleverly built housing units, only to repeat their pack-like activities at first light on the following day.
For more information about the Stargate Crew, contact The Canadian Wildlife service in Ottawa.
Patricia
To the person asking about DVRs and their affect on ratings if you don’t have a Nielsen box in your home, the answer is yes, Nielsen is measuring DVR usage even if you don’t have a Nielsen box.
The DVRs include software that records whether you watch live or not, and that data is sent back and reported to Nielsen. A recent article said 20% of the audience is watching via DVR delayed playback; they are assumed to be skipping commercials, so they don’t “count” toward the ratings. So that’s why the Sci Fi exec Nora O’Brien asked everyone to “watch it live.”
1.Will Teyla get a love interest,well maybe not a love interest as such but maybe someone taking an interest.
Answer: Yes
Is this the love interest that Rachel referred to in her interview, saying that “we haven’t met him yet?”
By the way, I forgot to tell you that the owl you saw is a Barred Owl, occasionally called a hoot owl.
They are known to be active during the day, more so than any other owls. They have two really recognizable call. The other one is the one I always hear is the “who-cooks-for-you, who-cooks-for-you-all” one. In my old house, one of these guys would sit outside my window in a big oak tree and call to his buddies all FREAK’N NIGHT some times.
But, they’re pretty cool owls (but I love owls so I’m pretty baised). If you were there at night, I would phish (play the call over a tape cassette player or iPod with speakers) for it but during the day, you occasionally end up with unpleasant reactions such as really pissed off chattering squirrels.
I love the water bottle in the gun holster.
Can we get a video of Joe playing his guitar?
Joe,
Quick question: The JM book club thing — that’s still taking place at the end of the month, right?
Thanks!
Hi Mr. M,
Thanks for the pics and info, I cannot wait for season 4 to premiere!
Since Carter is now on Atlantis and we know Teal’c shows up twice, will we get any mention of what Mitchell and Daniel are up to this season?
Hey Joe, so there will be Sheppard whump and Teyla whump. What about Rodney, any real whump? Emotional and physical? Please?
Thanks!
^^ I’m still waiting for my invitation to Hogwarts. Stupid bird got lost so they had to send another. XD. Soooo anyway…will there be a lot of McKay whump? Yes i had that unbeatable urge to ask the same question as someone else but the answer for it is important my friend. lols.
Oh, Joe. I can always count on your blog exposing my personal web-surfing while at work. Thanks for the great belly laugh with that latest scammer e-mail.
It’s only taken me a week to recover from DragonCon. Was Jason horrified by us?
Are we going to get you to come down next year?
1)Will we see any angsty rage from Sheppard this year?
2)Would you say this season packs more of an emotional punch than the past three?
Hey Joe,
I have recently made my own news service website/blog, i am an up and coming writer/actor/journalist so take a look and i hope you are impressed with my expose`.
http://www.somenonstopnews.blogspot.com
you can post this on your blog so i can get some popularity in readers.
If you could describe “The Kindred” parts 1 + 2 in one word, how would you describe the episodes?
Hi Joe,
It’s been awhile. I was finally able to catch up on your blog entries. Two weeks ago today, a tornado came through our property and did major damage. We didn’t have any warning. I looked out our front window, saw the tornado in our front yard, and yelled to my family to run. Luckily we are all O.K. but we have alot of work ahead of us.
I just wanted to take a moment to stop in and share something with you. While my husband and I were standing together looking at all of the damage, I turned to him and said: “I guess this means that I won’t be able to read Joe’s blog for awhile.” It put a smile on my husband’s face. I didn’t think that was possible considering. I just wanted to say thank you.
Take care
Jill
If you like the George RR Martin books, you should give Steven Erikson a try. (Plus, he’s Canadian!) The first book is “Gardens of the Moon”.
Quoted Question: will we get any mention of what Mitchell and Daniel are up to this season?
Action Jackosn and Mitchell have asceneded never to be seen or heard from again?? Pretty please, Joe. (If you bring original seasons 1-5 Daniel to Atlantis fine just please leave seasons 7-8 “Daniel” and Action Jackson of seasons 9-10 in ascendedville.)
Did you take any photos of the harness test you mentioned yesterday? That sounded interesting.
What’s the most exotic vacation you’ve taken since you started working on Stargate?
NaniWahine again – I offered you some brownies a while ago and you said yes, but I’m still getting around to baking them… Maybe I should just give you the recipe and get it over with 😉 I got two questions today, and thank you ever so kindly for taking time out of your day to answer our sometimes-moronic fangirl/boy questions, such as:
1) I’ve heard a con report that Joe F. CANNOT sing. Is that true? (And yes, pretty please, post a vid of Joe singing!)
2) My household had to purchase TWO copies of the last instalment of Harry Potter, because we had to read it AT THE SAME TIME, so we could discuss it 🙂 Here is my question: Were you and others (how) on the set reading HP&DH? If yes, were you/they satisfied with the ending? Any chance of HP/SGA crossover..?
Hello Joe,
hypothetical question, if general Hammond was stil on the base in Avalon pt. 1 episode, would he let Vala in? The “Anti-season 10” mafia people at Gateworld hope not, but I hope yes. Who is right here?
And another question on “Morpheus” episode (Vala’s parts are my favourite of course). Anti-season 10 Gateworld’s mafia say that Vala stuff in this episode was useless. Please, comment on this, because they’re in fact completely offending everybody involved in this episode, including Claudia, who’s idea was Vala’s evaluation test, am I right? Their hatred towards season 10, especially it’s really great humour, is something I will never understand.
I really enjoy the candid shots you’ve been posting, but I miss the puppy pics. What have Lulu and siblings been up to lately?
Thank costume design for me. Leather. Genius. Thank you joe, for those pics. *rofl*
[Joe, Joe,
You’re not slow,
You bob with the flow,
Through a river of go…ats.]
<-?->…What.<-/?->
Don’t worry about there being a Season 5, M’lord. Your Tartan Army will personally take care of any…issues that may arise during any ‘secret’ meetings *evil, smug smirk*. No worries at all. Heh heh heh.
Check out Christopher Judge’s reaction to learning about “furries” at DragonCon on Monday, 9/3/07.
I cannot found my last comment here! Though…sorry for doing this again!
Hi Joe,
we are a group of girls from Germany. Your Video of Davids funny owl impersonation inspired us to discuss Hogwarts and Davids new role as Hedwig. Richy, one of us, created this collage –> http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r153/Amy_McKay_album/xHP01.jpg. Have fun… Amy_McKay
Nice greetings from Germany!
At a little amusing to look! 🙂
Salut joseph =)
Sa va? moi oui =) gr�ce � vous!
Merci pour cette video et ces jolies photos de tournage!
Un grand merci aussi pour avoir visit� notre forum!…Je suis contente qu’il vous plaise! =D
J ai failli avoir une grise cardiac apr�s avoir vu une video o� on vous voyez pandant un minute lol!! Ahhhhh vous avez trop la class jadore!!!
voici quelques questions:
1) Vous pratiquez quel sport?
2)Dans la saison 4, on ne vera pas de fran�ais?
3)Vous lisez quel livre en ce moment?
Bon ba bonne journ�e^^!! GROS GROS GROS GROS GROS BISOU!!!
JE vous adore �norm�ment! Merci!
a demain!!
*waves at Morjana* Long time no see!
Joe, I’m getting a lot of academic exposure to communication theory in my current studies. Your scammer correspondence provides great examples of “semantic noise” interfering with “meaning”. May I copy a couple for my professor?
FYI, a link to an illustration of the “total quality communication” model; you’ll see it’s pretty common-sensical.
http://www.baclass.panam.edu/comm2002/Textbook/illustrations/TQCModel.gif
Hi
Its not a question directly related to your blog… but i was wondering if you know how we could see Martin Gero’s new movie.. will it be released on DVD? I live in UK, so can’t make it to any US or canada screening :o( Maybe he could burn us a bootleg DVD and we could each take a turn watching it before posting it on to the next person? It could be an experiment to see how far around the world it could get? … or not
Thanks for blogging and the great pics and videos :o)
hi again
i have realy bad spelling (it is realy terrible!!!) but when i post on your blog, the spelling is always corrected. Do you check the spelling yourself, or does it get done automatically?
For example:-
banannna, becasue, hydrolic, aminal, dislexic ……. its magic!
If you could sum up/describe in one word each character this season, what would they be?
juste avant d’aller me coucher je voulais souhaiter un trés bonne anniversaire a Cliff Simon =D
aller bisou! a demain! bonne nuit!
<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
votre plus grande fan….=)
hmmm …… maybe not then… i’m sure it worked before :o)
I see Farscape fan is back insulting other people again and we never did get that apology from her about insulting every man and his dog because she wasn’t getting her daily allowance of Claudia in Stargate extras; especially as it wasn’t the deep, dark conspiracy she was bewailing but rather Claudia’s own ill health.
Sunshine, you say “I will never understand” why some fans don’t like S10 but the fact is you don’t want to understand, all you are interested in is Claudia and you couldn’t give a bugger about the series so you (and your many online personalities) don’t even want to consider how someone could possibly have a different opinion to yours.
I’m sick of you offending everyone else because they dare to not agree with you. Please take your daily medication and stop offending the rest of us fans (Hey! I get equal time right with unreasonable demands right??)
Anonymous The Third
again, with the right picture…
Hi Joe,
we are a group of girls from Germany.
Your Video of Davids funny owl impersonation inspired us to discuss Hogwarts and Davids new role as Hedwig.
Richy, one of us, created this collage –>
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p204/Richy74/Bilder/JoePotter.jpg
Have fun… the “Sabbertaschen”