Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

March 29, 2011: Familiar faces and birthday dinner!

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Today was Alexander’s birthday.

The Birthday Boy

We celebrated in grand production style – with a morning director interview, some story spinning, casting discussions, and a rotisserie chicken lunch.  To top things off, we received a visit from a surprise guest…

Look who's in town. Why, it's former Stargate Visual Effects Supervisor Mark Savela!

Mark was in town on Echoes-related business.  “What is Echoes?”you’re asking.  Why, it’s the SF pilot he and a bunch of Stargate vets have been working on.  Read all about it here: http://www.redeyechicago.com/entertainment/tv/redeye-stargate-universe-vets-new-sci-fi-project-20110322,0,220274.story

Anyway, on his way to his Echoes-related business, he dropped by the production offices where we talked about projects, past, present and, hopefully, future.

And Mark wasn’t the only familiar face we saw today.  Anyone remember this guy?

Why, yes.  It IS Alex Levine, former Stargate script coordinator, now a writer on Flashpoint.  He joined us (Rob, Carl, Paul, myself, and, of course, birthday boy Alexaner) for a very good dinner at Bymark Restaurant where I enjoyed a great butter-braised lobster poutine, oxtail risotto, gnocchi with buffalo ricotta, short ribs, bourbon chocolate cake, and rum and raisin cookie dough ice cream.  Alas, I forgot my camera in Vancouver so I had to make do with subpar cell phone pics.  This weekend, I’m picking up a new camera – among other necessities – after which this blog will return to its regularly scheduled programming.

I finally discovered the secret to a restful night’s sleep: sleep on the pull-out couch with the dogs.

Alas, I forgot my power cord at work so I’m almost out of battery life.  Allow me to end today’s entry with an excerpt from the email I received from my house-sitter, Lawren, who had his car broken into on Saturday (not in my neighborhood, I’d like to add).   Apparently, the thief made off with some valuables and parking change but, surprisingly, left a few items untouched.  According to Lawren:

“He felt the stack of quarters wasn’t worth his time. Nor was my USB  stick, David Sedaris book or sunglasses. The sunglasses I admit are a unique
look and not everyone’s style but WHO doesn’t like David Sedaris?”

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31 responses

  1. Abbas Karimjee Avatar
    Abbas Karimjee

    Hi,
    I was wondering if you could please post a link to my blog’s interview with Julia Benson?

    The link is http://abbaskarimjee.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/interview-with-stargate-universes-julia-benson/.

    Thanks a lot for your consideration and support.

    Abbas

    Reply
  2. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    “Alas, I forgot my camera in Vancouver…”

    How the hell did you do that?! Don’t you keep it on a rope tied around your neck at all times?? What else did you “forget”?…put on your shoes, wear some clothes, no underwear? Come on Joe, your camera is an extension of your arm. How can you forget it? What, are you busy or something?

    Happy birthday Alexander the German!

    Reply
  3. DP Avatar
    DP

    Yeah, familiar faces, totally!

    Echoes looks awesome. I love, love, love post-Apocalyptic. Humans as innocent by-standers? That’s a new take. Hope they don’t stay too innocent. 😉

    Reply
  4. dasNdanger Avatar
    dasNdanger

    Ya know, I won’t be happy until I see Christopher Heyerdahl or Jamil walk through that door… 😉

    das

    Reply
  5. Kymm Avatar
    Kymm

    Happy Birthday Alexander!!

    Hope you had a great day!!

    Kymm

    Reply
  6. KevinInNS Avatar
    KevinInNS

    Intriguing way that Ginn and Perry were back into the fold in the latest episode.

    Curious about one brief scene though. Towards the end when Chloe/Ginn was choked for the last time, we see the shadow of her killer.

    Now, I realize you probably didn’t bring Robert Knepper back for such a brief scene, and instead used a stand in….but…to me the profile of the stand in looked “alot” like Varro.

    I dunno if this was done intentionally, or if i’m seeing something that doesn’t exist, or if maybe there’s a deeper plot here. Varro did indicate to Simeon he was helping Homeworld Command so that would rule it out, but still…does it?

    It could certainly change things..

    Reply
  7. Sg1efc Avatar
    Sg1efc

    Thanks a lot for the Echoes news. 🙂

    Echoes sounds like it could be pretty awesome. Hopefully it will be picked up by some network other than SyFy, as they will only cancel it anyway. Would be nice to get it on a network that agrees to a 3 season commitment in writing, however the odds of that happening are probably slim huh?

    Did you read that SyFy picked up reruns of Sarah Connor? Yay. LoL

    Reply
  8. jojo Avatar
    jojo

    You had some of my all time favorite meals today. Yummy! Since I have been sick with a stomach virus for the past three days and haven’t eaten anything besides chicken soup and water, I am especially envious of your meals today. I am glad you are eating well and wish I was too! Sounds like life is getting back to normal with you; you found a way to sleep with the kids so all is happy.

    Reply
  9. Lisa R Avatar
    Lisa R

    Looks like you had fun at the dinner.

    I do have one question. Who is David Sedaris? 🙂

    Hope you have a great day!!!!!

    Reply
  10. steph Avatar
    steph

    It is nice to see you are getting to have a little fun while in Toronto, too!
    Good luck to the Echoes crew, the project sounds great; Jen Spence was great on SGU and Joel Goldsmith’s music is always amazing.

    Reply
  11. SteveG1 Avatar
    SteveG1

    Here’s the ratings for SGU S2E14 Hope.

    http://stargate-sg1-solutions.com/blog/2011/03/stargate-universe-hope-ratings/

    SaveSGU

    Reply
  12. Gen Avatar
    Gen

    Lawren has my sympathies. I had a car stolen from me years ago, somewhere near Detroit. Went in for a nice dinner with friends, came out a couple hours later to find only a small pile of broken glass where my car had been.

    My car was discovered by the police in a back alley the next day at around 2 a.m.. The thieves had completely stripped the car, from tires down to the fuses in the dashboard. They even took the time to carefully remove each and every single light bulb (there’s a market for stolen trunk light bulbs?). The only thing they did leave behind? My Queensryche tape, which they had removed from the tape deck, examined, and then left for me on the seat. My musical taste was apparently not up to their standards. Sigh. Insult to injury.

    Reply
  13. Anais Avatar
    Anais

    Coucou=)
    vous allez bien? moi super!!!!

    Joyeux anniversaire à Alexander 🙂

    Lol je confirme, quand je n’arrive pas à dormir, je vais sur le canapé et ça marche tout de suite! Pourquoi vous ne prenez pas de médicaments pour dormir? ça marche!

    Vos collégues de travail ont l’air tous très sympas! ^

    Quand sont vos prochaines vacances? Moi dans 10 jours, je retourne une semaine chez mes parents et juste aprés je vois Micheal Shanks :p

    Aller kiss, a plus

    Reply
  14. dasNdanger Avatar
    dasNdanger

    Joe, please give this a read:

    http://joeisjapanese.com/manga/kogaquake/1/

    (Just click the [next] button to read the comic)

    das

    Reply
  15. Thornyrose Avatar
    Thornyrose

    A relief that you have managed to find one satisfactory meal. And I’m glad your discombobulation with the move(forgotten cameras, power cords, sleeping with the dogs…) doesn’t affect your productivity at work. I’m actually rather impressed you seem to be managing to maintain peek efficiency on the job front while your personal life still remains unsettled. here’s hoping that things continue to improve. At least until summer, when we can enjoy your rants about heat and humidity. Thanks for sharing and dont forget to recharge the ‘puter so we can enjoy our next installment.

    Reply
  16. drldeboer Avatar
    drldeboer

    I’m interested in the Echoes project thanks for the tip.
    And glad to see you getting some sanity.
    DD

    Reply
  17. Shiny Avatar
    Shiny

    Busy blog today, lots of great links. Echoes sounds interesting; with so many of my fave Syfy shows ending it’s good to know that there is still good stuff coming down the pipeline.

    Great interview with Julia Benson, my fave character on SGU.

    Reply
  18. dasNdanger Avatar
    dasNdanger

    This looks like fun!

    http://www.cbs.com/primetime/chaos/

    das

    Reply
  19. Merced Avatar
    Merced

    I know you’re not really involved in SGU anymore but I would like to hear your point of few on the ratings which have been even worse then before the cancellation.

    Just people not interested in a cancelled show? Are you sure those ratings won’t affect intentions to do or not do a movie or two?

    Reply
  20. Randomness Avatar
    Randomness

    So what do you think of Marks echoes stuff Joe? Obviously you can’t spoil it for him but do you think he has something there, like a potential hit show? Obviously with your experience in writing for Scifi shows you must have an opinion..

    Reply
  21. Tracy Avatar
    Tracy

    Hey Joseph,

    Just watched SGU: Hope. Thank you for giving us an episode with a happy ending and something positive for Eli (character needed a break). I know the end is near for the series, but it was good to have at least one episode that didn’t leave you feeling down and out.

    Reply
  22. Randomness Avatar
    Randomness

    @Merced

    Personally I think all people can say is, though everyone did a great job on the show, it just wasn’t popular on the network, and the ratings reflect that. Not a measure of quality of the show, more a measure of the tastes of people who have the trackable Nielson boxes

    Reply
  23. Randomness Avatar
    Randomness

    By the way way Joe, did you see this, currently airing in the timeslot Stargate Universe had on Tuesday

    Destination Truth (SYFY, 9pm)
    – 0.849 million viewers
    – 0.5/1 HH
    – 0.3/1 A18-49

    If I remember right Destination Truth was getting figures close too, or better than Season 1.5 of SGU before the move to Tuesday.

    It’d be ironic if this show got cancelled whilst airing on that day, it’d join SGU and Caprica. Meaning we could call that day the deathslot for shows that aren’t Eureka or W13 lol

    Reply
  24. Joan001 Avatar
    Joan001

    Note to MGM…

    Well there you go…. Another excellent, well-executed episode. I particularly liked the roaring lion at the end with the caption that read, “MGM Worldwide Television Distribution”.

    Come on, MGM — you can’t distribute a quality show that’s only half-baked!! Cook up a couple of years worth of more episodes to wrap it up properly…. and then, distribute it – you’ll get a lot more money coming in and you will have developed another Stargate series that will become a classic.

    Reply
  25. deeinsouthafrica Avatar
    deeinsouthafrica

    How come you’re not writing Echoes back home safe and warm in Vancouver?

    Ah-hah reading further, I see these guys are doing this for nothing and hoping someone will pick them up.

    So you went for job security. You have mouths to feed so I can’t blame you.

    Reply
  26. Tammy Dixon Avatar
    Tammy Dixon

    Everything looks better after a good night’s of sleep.

    I did my shift at the humane society today. They had the cutest little dog that had been thrown over their 6ft fence! I’m not sure who would do that to this but he sure is a sweet heart: http://twitpic.com/4eyr7j It was hard to get a good picture because he would wag his whole body and make all my pics blurry 😀 .

    A big Thank You, to all the posters out there that love/take care of their pets!

    Reply
  27. Airelle Avatar
    Airelle

    Hope Alexander had a happy birthday!
    Best of luck wishes for Mark and his new project, Sounds like something I would watch~
    Lawren, sorry for your bad luck, hope they catch the creeps.
    Joe hope you get the camera you have been wanting.
    Have a good day!

    Reply
  28. John Avatar
    John

    Hey Joe,

    Just a quick question, can you explain how Telford is still alive? It was my understanding that the Telford that got killed was from the current story line but apparently there was another one back on Earth, how is that possible?

    Reply
  29. DP Avatar
    DP

    @das – That comic was an interesting glimpse into one person’s mind and and their unpolished reactions. A little stream of consciousness, a little of the details you focus on when the big picture is hard to grasp.

    Whoa, too sentimental. Yeah, Chris Heyerdahl, why can’t it be CH’s birthday? Or were you talking more his smashing an Audi with a 200-lb. sword guest spot? Or his Frank Martin casting call? You know he’s too tall for a show w/ so many car interior scenes.

    Reply
  30. brucem91 Avatar
    brucem91

    Just wanted to let you know that “Hope” was by far my favourite episode of SG:U, and am looking forward to “Seizure”.

    Reply
  31. Randomness Avatar
    Randomness

    @John

    Timetravel is weird sometimes, basically somehow two sets of Destiny and two sets of Destiny crew existed in the same universe due to Elis mistake of dialing within a Sun, you know something funky must of happened.

    Because of this, Telford gating through when the wormhole was stable put him back on Earth, however if the Telford we all know wasnt killed by the other Rush, we’d have two Telfords, more LDP :3

    Reply

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