We made plans to go out for Peking Duck and, as usual, extended the invitation to Ashleigh who, as usual, blew us off, trotting out the old “But I’m a vegetarian” excuse. I pointed out that, in point of fact, she wouldn’t be eating any duck meat, only the crispy duck skin. “Look at it this way,”I told her. “Imagine there’s a duck that gets burned in a fire. A crack medical team removes its useless, roasted skin and replaces it with skin grafts, saving its life. Then, rather than go to waste, the skin is served in a pancake with a spring onion and a dab of hoisin sauce.” (All completely true by the way, except for the part about the crack medical team, the skin grafts, and the whole saving its life thing). Incredibly, even after that, she found the prospect of eating the duck skin off-putting. As a result, we were only three for dinner last night: Carl, Lawren, and myself.
I gave Carl directions to the restaurant and told him it was located right beside the Memphis Blues Barbecue House. His eyes lit up. “Barbecue?”. Flash forward several hours and we were at the Memphis Blues Barbecue House.
The place was packed, but we were more than happy to wait.
Actually, no. No we weren’t. What made the wait particularly frustrating was the fact that all the tables that eventually started freeing up were two-seaters, while the bigger tables and booths remained occupied – by couples! Honestly, would it have killed them to make their invisible dining companions stand for the duration of this particular meal?
Eventually, we were seated. We had beer and the always excellent Memphis Feast comprised of smoked sausage, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, riblets, smoked chicken, coleslaw, beans, and cornbread. I also ordered the night’s dinner special – lamb shoulder with collard greens.
No leftovers on this night. We finished up and headed out – unlike those two lingerers at the next booth who sat their and nursed their beers, oblivious to the crowd of waiting patrons at the front of the restaurant continued to swell. What a couple of jerks.
Dinner on this night was compliments of Lawren who treated us to a wonderful meal and thereby ensured himself gainful employment through the rest of SGU’s second season of production.
In today’s Olympic update – the IOC tries to force Australian athletes to take down their beloved kangaroo flag: http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2010/s2810920.htm. For real. These are the same idiots who have had various sporting venues in town renamed because venues must be “clean”, devoid of any corporate advertising (because, of course, the Olympics is not about cash-grabs and opportunism), ensuring that the city’s taxi drivers have an even harder time getting people around the city.
In preparation for the upcoming Stargate: Universe season 1.0 dvd release, I’ll be holding a trivia contest for anyone interested in either winning a region 1 dvd or other cool prize. Early Monday, I’ll be posting 20 questions on those first ten episodes. First posters to answer all 20 questions correctly will win the grand prizes.
Mailbag:
06untouchable writes: “In other words… Are you – or anyone else in the Stargate family – a Hockey fan, Joe?”
Answer: Yep. Pretty much everyone in the writers’ room. Except for me and Carl.
Jojo writes: “There were many activities around town, most free!, that we got out and really enjoyed the events. You might be surprised and actually enjoy it. Even better, you might get some tickets and go to an event.”
Answer: I’ll be entertaining a friend from Tokyo for ten days during the Olympics so, yes, it might make sense to attend one of the free (hopefully food related) events or get tickets to winter Olympic events like ice sculpting and freestyle tubing.
PJR writes: “And, as a supplement to that, going i the other direction – looking backwards – what were the first concepts, mental images, feelings and ideas that would lead to SGU?”
Answer: This one is more of a question for Brad and Robert who created the show.
PJR also writes: “can the Ancients’ tech extend beyond creating wormholes to using natural black holes? Step into the other side(s)?”
Answer: Given all we know about the Ancients and their technology to this point, the answer would be no.
Christelle writes: “Sport’s Medias, here in france, say that there is not enough snow in Vancouver. Is it truth ?”
Answer: Actually, there is NO snow in the city and very little on the mountains. I hear they’ll be supplementing real snow with a mixture of coconut flakes, shaved ice, and mayonnaise.
Paula writes: “As for the traffic? It’s usually not as bad as feared.”
Answer: It will be as bad as feared given that they’ve closed off city access to all most cars.
Airelle writes: “How is your mom getting along at rehab? Ready to make it home if not yet? Felix votes for sooner and Baby. How are the pups feeling with out Brie?”
Answer: Mom is doing fine. She’s doing some walking but it will be a while before she heads home. Brie is still in town. She leaves for good this Sunday.
ZoSoAir writes: “Any idea if you will hold another contest entry any time soon?”
Answer: Funny you should ask. See above.
JenniferG writes: “Hi Joe, So how is ReFuel doing?”
Answer: It’s been doing very well since the change.
Shirt ‘n ‘Tie writes: “I notice that you have read both Freakanomics and SuperFreakanomics….any particular reason?”
Answer: They were recommended by my writing partner.
Kabra writes: “Did I miss the Patrick Gilmore Q&A???”
Answer: Nope.
Shiloh writes: “What’s your take on the Super Bowl?”
Answer: Saints all the way! In fact, everyone I know is rooting for the Saints – except for Peyton Manning-loving Carl.
Quade1 writes: “And we don’t wear the Vanoc accreditation badges to show them off, we wear them because you HAVE to wear them virtually everywhere you go.”
Answer: Really? They make you wear them a full week before the start of the actual Olympics when you’re walking around town or having dinner?
Overmind One writes: “The comment I made is based only on factual information. The ratings HAVE declined to almost half (season 1.0)…”
Answer: Actually, the ratings were steady, maintaining most of its audience from the season premiere, until the final episode. Was it a blip? Can’t say. The numbers for the back half will tell the story. More telling, on the other hand, would be the erosion in Atlantis’s ratings over its third and fourth season. By your own logic, this would suggest fans were tired of the old formula and wanted something new.
Overmind One also writes: “the DVD sales are flat…”
Answer: Actually, DVD sales in general have taken a major hit across the board (which may explain the delay in moving ahead on the movies). It’s not a phenomenon exclusive to SGU.
Overmind One also writes: “…and the reviews of the DVD (both BluRay and Regular) are negative. This indicates that a majority of people who have watched the show do not like the new direction. Most of those messages are very well written, but intelligent, educated people.”
Answer: Fan reviews have been mixed (as, quite frankly, they’ve always been when it came to the Stargate franchise). All the same, negative comments generally tend to outweigh positive comments. That’s not to say some criticism of the show isn’t valid, only that it’s kind of silly to point and say: “Hey, all these people agree with me, therefore I must be right!”
Overmind One also writes: “Mr Mallozi simply reacted in the same way to me as he did to Maureen…with hissy retorts.”
Answer: I’ve never reacted to you prior to your appearance here on this blog. In fact, I’d never even heard of you prior to your posts here. As for Maureen – again, feel free to point out where I reacted to anything she said with “hissy retorts”.
Overmind One also writes: “I have a right to be snarky when the show which I have paid money to a cable company to watch turns from an science fiction/action/adventure show into a drama/soap opera/reality show.”
Answer: The show didn’t change. SGU is simply a different show. You seem to be implying that you tuned into Universe expecting Atlantis and were disappointed. That’s unfortunate but hardly our fault.
Overmind One also writes: “Many are surprised it has gotten a season two, but I know how things go with contracts.”
Answer: Clearly you don’t. Certainly not in this case. If we’d had a two season guarantee from the outset (like SG-1 had when it premiered on Showtime), we would have announced it from the get-go or, at the very least, not had to impatiently await word from the network on a pick-up.
Overmind One also writes: “The style is derivative…too much BSG. Stargate HAD its own style, you sacrificed it to be more like BSG and Lost and Firefly…but BSG came out the most.”
Answer: The shooting style is far from exclusive to BSG, but I can understand how viewers who fixate solely on SF programming would draw that conclusion. You should check out The Shield. Great show.
Overmind One also writes: “But when people turn your show off, it affects your future as the producer of Stargate and its ancillary products and movies. Your reputation is at stake, and I know that is VERY important to you.”
Answer: Of course it is however, after 16+ seasons of television and two movies, I think our reputation is fairly solid. I certainly would be delighted with another fifteen years or so on the air but when the franchise finally runs its course (or, more likely, I end up running my course), rather than bemoan the end, I’ll instead look back on all we’ve accomplished – on all three shows – with great pride and the satisfaction of knowing that while we were respectful to fans and receptive to their opinions and critiques, we nevertheless remained true to our creative vision.
Leave a Reply