A masterpiece, no? I commissioned it from my Toronto pal, Tara Yelland, who sent me the following email the day after my birthday:
“I had no idea it was your birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday! You don’t look a day over 52. Hope it was a good one! As a gift, I will draw you a picture of anything you request.”
Anything? Well, I thought it would be obvious but, just in case, I was very specific:
“I’d like you to draw me a picture of a snowman marrying a bear in outer space. There should be a stunning space battle going on somewhere in the background.”
Well, this morning I finally received my birthday gift. And, I have to say, I’m pretty damn impressed. No half-ass sketch for me. Instead, check out the glorious colors, the fiery combat in the BG and, best of all, the added bonus cameo of yours truly (Spaceman Joe) presiding over the cosmic nuptials. The pic was accompanied by the following heartfelt message:
“Here, as requested, is a drawing of a bear marrying a snowman in space with a fantastical battle happening in the background. You’ll notice I bothered to include you in the scenario–officiating the wedding, of course. I figure this is ultimately how you’ll end up anyway. I would be happy to sell the original print to you for a reasonable price.”
How I’ll end up anyway? What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Above is a clip of some cast members (Brian, Jamil, and David) watching the finished version of my favorite Stargate: Universe episode, Time, for the first time. Love the reactions.
See, these are the moments I miss – the camaraderie, the excitement, the pride for a job well done. Hopefully, there’ll be plenty more of that in the not too distant future – but, for the near future, I’m considering a couple of alternate pursuits. There’s the Dark Matter comic book series that launches January 11, 2012 (Joe Mallozzi And Paul Mullie Release Dark Matter In January) but, before I head out and start pitching and taking meetings ahead of my next t.v. gig, I thought it might be nice to do something different like, say, write a novel. I know, I know. My last foray into prose fiction, the short story “Downfall” I wrote for the superhero-themed anthology, Masked (edited by Lou Anders) took me the better part of nine months to write. But I feel that with that experience under my belt, I could write a novel a lot quicker and with a lot less agonizing over the details. Ideally. But maybe not. Regardless, the more I think about it, the more I’m liking the idea of a challenge – specifically, the challenge of sitting down and dedicating 2-3 hours a day, starting November, to writing my first novel. That’s the plan anyway. Just outlining right now. The real work begins in 11 days!
Oh, and to those of you asking, I was not eulogizing Trevor in yesterday’s blog entry. I was just wishing him all the best as he has parted ways with the production ahead of the birth of his first child, Euphemia (see past blog entries for the Name Trevor’s Baby Contest details). Apparently, he received quite the send off. Alexander sent me a candid pic of Trevor’s last day…
The pic made me all nostalgic for earlier times when I too had an assistant to verbally berate, paper cut, and pummel with rolled up rewrites of rewrites of rewritten scripts.
Hey joe I’m looking forward to reading dark matter and the book when it comes out.
Euphemia. What a horrible, horrible name. Sorry Trevor, and I voted for it too. My bad. Sorry also to any Euphemia’s out there, didn’t mean to trash the name. I thought it was quite lovely but now I think he should go with Trouble or Spearmint.
Yay to the novel! Most excellent idea.
I ADORE this clip, Joe. Thank you so much for giving me a huge laugh before heading to bed.
Good luck to Trevor. We want pictures!
And speaking of pictures, before you wrote that Tara made you the spaceman, I really thought the bear was you and the snowman (snow woman) Akemi. But what do I know about art? Once again, I know very little.
A novel, huh? Fiction, autobiographical, Stargate related, or a combination of the three. You don’t strike me as the kind who can sit still for long.
Reiko (aka Sharon from SGU, Michelle from 24) was on Hawaii Five-O again on Monday. I almost didn’t recognize her. Short hair, darker color. Maybe she’ll become a semi-regular on there. Nice to see her working.
Writing a novel? So am I, and I’m obsessed. Are you, by chance, participating in the glorious NaNoWriMo?
Best.Clip.Ever.
Thanks so much for posting that, Joe.
*sniffles* I miss SGU!
Yes! Great news about the novel. Can’t wait to hear how it evolves.
And rain! It’s the simple things in life 🙂
Thanks for the clip…wasn’t that the one that David Blue did some work on?
Kriss 🙂
Are you officially going to be a participant of NaNoWriMo? If so, will you share your username with us?
Holy cow! That screening is terrific! really enjoyed.
I will add to what I’m sure will be the massive amount of thank you’s and compliments about that clip by saying: Thank you so much for that clip! It was awesome to see their amazement at how things actually turn out from when they act out and pretend a scene to the finished product.
One of the big reasons I was drawn to the franchise in the beginning was the VFX, and that just got better and better with every passing year. Needless to say, SGU was GORGEOUS! I know I’ve said that before, but it bears repeating in light of this clip.
That was fun to watch and really neat to see, I thoroughly enjoyed it, thanks again.
Love that SGU clip. I sure do miss it.
I love the name Euphemia! I voted for it and and if I ever get something like a pet chicken, I’m totally using it.
I miss SGU,Stargate franchise steel part of my hart,i hope some day bring back The Hole..
Earth isn’t faring so well in that pitched space battle, but the bride and groom look happy. Tara did a lovely job.
Trevor left too? What’s with those guys there that continued working with them isn’t so hot?
A novel? Wonderful! As [B]Carla[/B] mentioned -NaNoWriMo – my daughter participated in that last year and won free publishing. It was a novel she’d been kicking around for years and finally got seriously to work on for the event.
Are you joining write a novel in a month?
http://www.nanowrimo.org/
I’m writing a novel too!! Carla, this will be my second year in NaNoWriMo. Looking forward to it.
Loved the clip. That was really cool! I miss SGU too. 🙁
Have a great day!!!!
Oh, I love Tara’s picture! It’s just crying out to be a children’s picture book (maybe without the space battle…and with added dinosaurs…and a cat or two… :)).
Funny you should talk about writing a book, Mr. M; I was only thinking yesterday you could write a great foodie/travel book about Canada.
I’ve just read a travel book by an English journalist, who takes dirt cheap flights to lesser known parts of Europe, chats to a few locals, takes a look around and writes about it (‘How Low Can You Go?’ by Tom Chesshyre, if anyone’s interested) – nice work, eh? – and though it was fine light reading, there wasn’t much to it; very little about the history or culture etc of the places he visited.
Anyway, when I was reading this blog after finishing that book, I thought to myself, Mr. M’s just as entertaining a writer as Tom Chesshyre or any of the other travel writers I’ve been reading lately (I’m in a travel-y mood), he should totally write a book about Canadian food while he’s getting other projects up and running (not that I want you to work crazy-hard; work to live, not live to work and all that). You’ve got examples on your blog to show publishers how descriptive your food writing is – wouldn’t it be cool to get commissioned to do a food tour of Canada and write about it?!
Although I did wonder if it might make something that was a pleasure into something too much like work…
Anyway, excited to hear you’re writing a book…Will we get to read bits as it’s being written?
‘Dark Matter’ sounds intriguing, too. I’ve never been into comic books as an adult, they’re so expensive here, and not the kind of thing a library will get in, so I don’t really pay attention to that world; the only thing I’d be interested in would be the continuation of ‘Firefly’ – and ‘Dark Matter’ of course! But it would make a great TV series, full of human drama and cool space stuff, what more could anyone want?
(Apart from my fave actors in it! And fave crew, too. I worry about all the people involved in Stargate – I hope they all had jobs to go to.)
Thanks again for sharing, this blog – and Tara’s gorgeous-cute pic – really brightened my day.
And it’s so good to ‘hear’ Mr. M sounding so happy.
Best wishes to Akemi & the pups.
This has been a long post.
That clip: I had the exact same reaction to that scene.
I mean, obviously it was time travel, as the title if thd episode gave away, but damn was that scene effective!
Hey Joe,
Ever since I read Downfall I was hoping you’d write a book; I love your style.
Last weekend I asked my buddy at the comic book shop about Dark Matter, he hadn’t heard of it, so I explained what I knew of it from the blog and was relieved when he said that he liked Stargate. Don’t make me look bad in front of the guy who sells me comic books, ok?
Any chance of there being a sexy (male) albino in this novel of yours… 😉
All my best to Trevor and his expanding family! We better see baby pictures!
Have a good day, sir…and remember…sexy (male) albinos sell books! 😀
das
Yes, you should participate in NaNoWriMo this year, and then those of us who always say we’re going to try it but never do can look on your attempt as a challenge to do better…than you. 😉
I’ll take one rendition of the art on black velvet and can you have it screen printed on an insulated lunchbox?
Spaceman Joe should have counseled them better. That bear looks a little possessive.
I didn’t think Trevor was hurt. I thought you were seeding the google search results with a “reference” for when he sends out his resumes.
Tara is a pretty good artist!
Instead of assistant, I prefer the term “minion”.
A novel? Yes!
Great picture Tara!
I look forward to watching the clip. Can’t now because hubby is working on the phone next to me ;( .
A lot of crap in the news lately. Did you see the awful photos of the exotic animal deaths in Ohio? http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/10/19/exotic-animals-on-loose-in-ohio-after-park-owner-found-dead/ I hope they can change the laws to prevent this kind of thing in the future.
Joe,
That drawing is awesome.
Your post about Lawren was hilarious!
Maybe your home could become a sanctuary for wayward and out of work ex-Stargate employees? Just imagine the blog fodder….
Nick
A novel! Yes!
Thanks for the SGU vids. It was great to see Brian, Jamil and David again. : )
I thought you would appreciate this link. It looks like that $25 Billion contract awarded to Halifax is for more than just Navy ships.
http://starshipsstarthere.ca/pic/42
My hubby thinks you ought to use that photograph of Trevor on your employment recruitment poster.
I thought I read last night, didn’t so late posting but SUPERB PICTURE! Love it!
What’s that purple and red haze behind the Earth in the art? I’m not trying to poke plausibility holes in your bear marrying a snowlady scene, just curious is all.
nice clip Joe!
I absolutely LOVED that clip!
Loved Brian’s reaction, like it was all a huge surprise to him. 🙂
That’s right, Joe’s novel-writing aspirations are just in time for NanoWrimo. Joe, you gotta’ join NanoWrimo and post your user ID so the NanoWrimos amongst us can friend you and track your progress. Then, you can use the same account for Script Frenzy in April.
Tara drew that picture?? Toronto Tara? The Tara Yelland who usually draws with her eyes closed? The same Tara who can eat an entire blueberry pie between shoots? Tara who bullies beautiful and cute little helpless Racoons who probably just had babies in her apartment and had to leave them under her bed in the hole in the mattress Tara? That Tara? That picture is awesome. Did she just color between the lines or did she really make it all up? Seriously awesome picture. I’m so impressed. Joe you must buy the original. (Tara, no less than $1,500.00. Joe can afford it!)
LOVE the clip of the boys watching themselves in Time. Always wonder what the actors think of an episode.
Your novel sounds like a great idea. You write, we’ll read. And you know we are here to help if you get stuck anywhere in it.
Good luck to Trevor! Looks like he forgot to get Alex some ice cream again from the truck when it came by, like he did to you once. When will he ever learn! Let us know when he has little Eufemia (or however you spell that.) Joe, just because it got the most votes, doesn’t mean you had to pick it as the winner. It’s all your fault!
Hey Trevor! They have laws, you know. Print several copies of that picture and meet me at the courthouse! How much do you think Alex is worth? (You can send Eufemia to an Ivey League college now!)