Monday, June 24, 2013

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Alison Krauss

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Bluegrass singer Alison Krauss of Union Station sang two songs in different Buffy episodes.

"It Doesn't Matter" appears in the opening episode of Season Two, "When She was Bad" as Buffy's mother drives her to school. Buffy is acting badly towards everyone, but maybe it's because the Master is haunting her dreams.




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"That Kind of Love" was included in the episode "Entropy" in Season 6. As the title implies, things "fall apart" once again for Xander and Anya, as well as Buffy and Spike when a hidden camera reveals Spike and Anya doing the hanky panky. But Willow and Tara get back together as this song plays.

Who would sell their soul for love?
Or waste one tear on compromise
Should be easy enough
To know a heartache in disguise
But the heart rules the mind
And the going gets rough
Pride takes the fall
When you find that kind of love

I can't help feeling like a fool
Since I lost that place inside
Where my heart knew its way
And my soul was ever wise
Once innocence was lost
There was not faith enough
Still my heart held on
When it found that kind of love

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Though beauty is rare enough
Still we trust
Somehow we'll find it there
With no guarantee
It seems to me
At least it should be fair

But if it's only tears and pain
Isn't it still worth the cost
Like some sweet saving grace
Or a river we must cross
If we don't understand
What this life is made of
We learn the truth
When we find that kind of love
Cause when innocence is lost
There is not faith enough
We learn the truth
When we find that kind of love



"That Kind of Love" appears on Radio Sunnydale UK and "It Doesn't Matter" appears on Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Album (1999 Television Series)



Thursday, June 20, 2013

Much Ado About Much Ado

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source: Regal Cinema Poster Contest on Facebook

Joss Whedon's version of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" opens to a wider audience tomorrow, although skipping many cities (such as my own hometown of Chattanooga). So you may have to drive a couple hundred miles to see it, but if it's popular with general audiences it will surely spread to more theaters.

Theater Listings for June

From ComingSoon.Net
Filmed in just 12 days entirely on location in exotic Santa Monica, Calif., Much Ado About Nothing features a stellar cast of beloved, or soon to be beloved, actors - some of them veterans of Shakespearean theater, some completely new to the form, but all dedicated to the idea that this story bears retelling, that this dialogue is as fresh and intoxicating as any being written, and that the joy of working on a passion project surrounded by dear friends, admired colleagues and an atmosphere of unabashed rapture far outweighs their hilariously miniature paychecks.

Shot in glorious black and white by Jay Hunter, the June 7 release stars Amy Acker and Alexis Denisof as Beatrice and Benedick, the world's least likely lovers headed for their inevitable tumble into love. The supporting cast includes Nathan Fillion as Dogberry, Clark Gregg as Leonato, Fran Kranz as Claudio and Reed Diamond as Don Pedro.

Joss Whedon will appear with Stephen Colbert tonight. I will post the video as soon as it appears.


Interview with Total Film Magazine:



Whedon has chosen the winners of the Regal Cinema Much Ado Poster Challenge
See all the amazing fan posters Here on Regal Cinemas Facebook

Robert Downey Jr. Signed for Avengers 2

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Robert Downey Jr. WILL Definitely appear in Avengers 2, which is good news since Director Joss Whedon recently said the movies couldn't be made with him.

Whedon Via Daily Beast
He is Iron Man. He is Iron Man in the way that Sean Connery was James Bond. I have no intention of making Avengers 2 without him, nor do I think I’ll be called upon to do that. I don’t think it’s in my interest, Marvel’s interest, or his interest, and I think everything will be fine. But I know that this is Hollywood and you roll with things. You have to be ready for the unexpected. But I loved working with Robert, and everybody knows he embodied that role in a way no one else can. The day he was cast, I went up to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige and said, “You brilliant son of a bitch.”

EW Inside Movies
Picture a big pile of money in that metal hand.

Robert Downey Jr. has reached a two-picture deal with Marvel Studios to appear in The Avengers 2 and The Avengers 3 — but notably

He reportedly earned more than $50 million for The Avengers, and although his multi-picture contract with the comic-book moviemakers was fulfilled by Iron Man 3, everyone involved was moving forward as if a deal for more films was inevitable.

“I’d go start another one tomorrow, but it’s not tomorrow,” Downey told EW when Iron Man 3 was debuting. “And there are a lot of other considerations. But I also don’t like the idea of leaving people hanging or leaving people in the lurch.”


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Band Candy


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The episode "Band Candy," season 3, episode 6, has some hilarious moments as Buffy's Mother Joyce and Mr. Giles eat some magical chocolate candy and revert back to their teenage years, creating a Freaky Friday role-reversal situation for Buffy. Giles channels his inner-Spike as he seeks to impress the bad-boy crazed Joyce, and they make out (and more) while listening to old records. Soon they are joined by Principal Snyder, turned back into a teenage Geek by the candy, and he also wants to woo Joyce by doing some rockin' Tae Kwan Do maneuvers. It's all quite a bit of fun until they realize there are several small babies stolen from the local hospital by the Mayor and the Mr. Trick gang of vampires.

All the role reversals are great fun, and Buffy has to be the adult voice of reason for once.

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Cream "Tales of Brave Ulysses"

One sad note - Giles listens to this song again in Season 5 "Forever" when Joyce dies.



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Four Star Mary (Dingoes Ate My Baby) ~ Violent



The Kingsmen "Louie, Louie"




Christophe Beck (Soundtrack) "Sugar High"


Saturday, June 15, 2013

What If The Avengers Had Been Made in 1978?

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Ah, What if? Luckily someone clever had this idea and made the "1978 Movie of the Week Trailer" complete with a jazzy soundtrack and Paul Lynde as Loki, LOL.


How Joss Whedon Juggles His Time

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From How To Be Prolific - an Interview with Joss Whedon by Ari Karpel of Fast Company
. . . surprisingly, Whedon advises getting the fun stuff done first. “Some people will disagree, but for me if I’ve written a meaty, delightful, wonderful bunch of scenes and now I have to do the hard, connective, dog’s body work of writing, when I finish the dog’s body work, I’ll have a screenplay that I already love. I used to write chronologically when I started, from beginning to end. Eventually I went, That’s absurd; my heart is in this one scene, therefore I must follow it. Obviously, if you know you have a bunch of stuff to do, I have to lay out this, all this dull stuff, and I feel very uncreative but the clock is ticking. Then you do that and you choose to do that. But I always believe in just have as much fun as you can so that when you’re in the part that you hate there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, that you’re close to finished.”

I cut in, asking if he’s read David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done. “I did not get that done,” Whedon says, with a straight face. “I told him, actually, because he did a little talk at someone’s house and I did tell him, ‘You should write a second book called Finishing This Book.' But it has been enormously helpful, even in the baby steps version that I embrace. I still use the phrases.” Such as? “ ‘Next actions’ is one of the most important things that you can say in any endeavor."

. . . *SNIP*

“I read The Killer Angels. It’s a very detailed, extraordinarily compelling account of the Battle of Gettysburg from the point of view of various people in it and it’s historical. It’s historically completely accurate, and the moment I put it down I created Firefly, because I was like, ‘I need to tell this story. I need to feel this immediacy. I so connect with that era, the Western and how tactile everything is and how every decision is life or death, and how hard it is and how just rich it is, and how all the characters are just so fascinating.’ But so I should be on the Millennium Falcon. Now, if I only watched sci-fi I would have just had the Millennium Falcon part, which has already been done, but finding that historical texture, it literally, I put the book down and started writing Firefly. And that was my vacation from Buffy, which was two weeks. I got two weeks every year, and in that vacation I read, in 14 days, 10 books. My wife and I saw like nine plays, and that’s all we did. We just filled the tanks.

. . . *SNIP*

EVERYONE NEEDS SOME TOUGH LOVE.
"This comes from Kai, my wife, who produced the film. She [quotes from] Rio Grande: ‘Get it done, Johnny Reb.’ It’s like, don’t make excuses. There aren’t any anymore. If you’re talking about it, you should be doing it ...

~~~ Much More at Link ~~~

Joss Whedon Names His Five Favorite Films

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Joss Whedon has given Rotten Tomatoes a list of films that echo and mirror his work.

He includes one of my favorites from childhood "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye, and if you think about Spike and Xander and all the Buffy Puns, not to mention the physical comedy during vampire battles, that makes perfect sense. It's one of those films that stands the test of time as well, because it pokes fun at "serious" films like "Ivanhoe" or any epic about Knights and Ladies and Castles.

Another favorite I share with Whedeon is "Once Upon a Time in the West," a spaghetti western epic starring Henry Fonda as an ultra-evil villain (think Voldemort with a cowboy hat) and Charles Bronson as a cool anti-hero seeking revenge (think Severus Snape). I can see the influence of this movie not only in the western sets of Firefly, but in the sociopathic vampires who barely recall their victims as they destroy one life after another. Chilling!

To me, the thing all these films have in common is that they are character-driven, whether set in the past, present or the future.

You can read his thoughts on each film: Here on Rotten Tomatoes

1. The Matrix



2. Once Upon a Time in the West



3. The Bad and the Beautiful



4. Magnolia



5. The Court Jester




Saturday, June 8, 2013

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Nickel on "School Hard"

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Nickel plays two songs at the Bronze in the Season Two episode "School Hard," which introduces Spike and Drusilla as new villains who come to town to get rid of Buffy, and meet up again with their old pal Angel.

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The title refers to the fact that Spike attacks Sunnydale High on parent-teacher night after a long week for Buffy in which the Principal gives her a hard time. Ironically, the way Buffy saves lives during the ordeal impresses her mother more than any school work could have.




"1000 Nights"



"Stupid Thing"


Buzzfeed Ranks the Vampires of Buffy

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Hmm, Louis Peitzman of Buzzfeed has ranked 22 of the Buffy vampires. Here is his list:


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1. Spike
2. Angel
3. Vampire Willow from "The Wish"
4. Drusilla
5. Darla
6. Harmony
7. The Master
8. Dracula
9. Sunday from "The Freshman"
10. Holden Webster from "Conversations with Dead People"
11. Vampire Xander from "The Wish"
12. Mr. Trick, from "Faith, Hope and Trick"
13. Anne Pratt, Spike's Mother from "Lies My Parents Told Me"
14. Zachary Kralik from "Helpless"
15. Dalton from "What's My Line"
16. Jesse McNally from "Welcome to the Hellmouth"
17. Turok-Han from "Never Leave Me"
18. Justin from "All the Way"
19. Luke the Preacher from "Welcome to the Hellmouth"
20. Andrew Borba from "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date"
21. Lyle and Tector Gorch from "Bad Eggs"
22. The Anointed One from "Never Kill a Boy on the First Date"


Some of these choices and their ranks have me scratching my head - Drusilla AFTER Vampire Willow? The Anointed One in Last Place after the Gorches? And I think a few vampires have been left out - where is Buffy's old friend "Ford?" So here is my edited and rearranged top 22.

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1. Spike
2. Drusilla
3. Angel
4. Dracula
5. Harmony
6. Vampire Willow
7. The Master
8. Darla
9. Mr. Trick
10. The Anointed One
11. Luke the Preacher
12. Billy Fordham from "Lie to Me" (Vampire Wannabe)
13. Anne Pratt
14. Dalton from "What's My Line"
15. Vampire Xander
16. Eddie from "The Freshman"
17. Sunday
18. Zachary Kralik
19. Jesse McNally
20. Shempy Vamp in "Bargaining" (told demons about the Buffybot)
21. Holden Webster
22. Gorch Clan



Whedon Talks Avengers in The Daily Beast

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Joss Whedon on Shakespeare, Female Superheroes and Feminism (and lots of other stuff) via Daily Beast

Excerpt:
Where does your fondness for heroines come from?

I was raised by a hardcore feminist. I was also much smaller than my brothers and bullied a lot, so I identify with the feeling of helplessness.

Why do you think there’s a lack of female superheroes in film?

Toymakers will tell you they won’t sell enough, and movie people will point to the two terrible superheroine movies that were made and say, You see? It can’t be done. It’s stupid, and I’m hoping The Hunger Games will lead to a paradigm shift. It’s frustrating to me that I don’t see anybody developing one of these movies. It actually pisses me off. My daughter watched The Avengers and was like, “My favorite characters were the Black Widow and Maria Hill,” and I thought, Yeah, of course they were. I read a beautiful thing Junot Diaz wrote: “If you want to make a human being into a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.”

. . . The Avengers 2 is on the horizon, and Robert Downey Jr. is technically not signed yet. How crucial is he to the franchise? His Tony Stark is almost Shakespearean.

He is Iron Man. He is Iron Man in the way that Sean Connery was James Bond. I have no intention of making Avengers 2 without him, nor do I think I’ll be called upon to do that. I don’t think it’s in my interest, Marvel’s interest, or his interest, and I think everything will be fine. But I know that this is Hollywood and you roll with things. You have to be ready for the unexpected. But I loved working with Robert, and everybody knows he embodied that role in a way no one else can. The day he was cast, I went up to [Marvel Studios president] Kevin Feige and said, “You brilliant son of a bitch.”

How did you get to direct The Avengers?

I’d known Kevin for a while and was brought on just to read the script and advise the way I have with plenty of people. Eventually, I thought there was a story that I’d like to tell, and Kevin and I were on the same page about that. I took a big financial hit doing that movie. They know it’s your [big] break. Plus, you don’t do it for the money—even if there is the money—because people will know. They’ll smell it. But I fell in love with the story and they liked my version of it.

Joss Whedon ~ Frank Langella's Dracula was "Hot"

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Fantastic Whedon interview with Time Magazine




Best take-away? Whedon says that for him, the "hottest" vampire of all was Frank Langella. That shouldn't surprise anyone who recalls the "Dracula" episode of Buffy with the suave Langella look-alike.





Sunday, June 2, 2013

Guardian UK Geek-Out Over Joss Whedon

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Great fannish article about Joss Whedon From Guardian UK

Excerpt ~ on Buffy and Feminism:

Whedon... (created) his own universe: supernatural and sci-fi worlds populated by fast-talking, wise-cracking folk whose language has infiltrated our speech (if you find your vocab becoming rather suffix-y – if you've ever used words like "backstabby" or "kissage" – thank Whedon).

. . . What you can't miss about his oeuvre is its empowering depiction of women. Buffy, with her kickass reflexes and witty rejoinders, never needed rescuing by a guy – hell, she once stuck a sword through her boyfriend's chest. Was it hard, I wonder, to introduce a feminist icon into fantasy, a genre more associated with teenage boys with limited social skills? "It's like horror or, back when it was somewhat new, rap," Whedon replies. "It's a fringe art which means you will find the most egregious misogyny in there – but also the most subversive feminism."

Whedon has said before that if anyone wonders why he writes female characters the way he does, they need only meet his mother. Writing a female hero was a conscious decision "but if it doesn't come from the subconscious it'll just be a polemic, it'll reek," he says. "There's nothing worse than someone who thinks they're supposed to add a feminist or racial agenda that they're not invested in." Whedon himself was inspired by James Cameron – "He gave us [Alien's] Ripley and [The Terminator's] Sarah Connor when we desperately needed them, and he wasn't doing it with any stated agenda."

He admits, however, that the status quo may not have improved dramatically. He's keen not to lay a thick judgment on the Twilight franchise, but he admits the films "feel like a reaction against Buffy: 'OK, we liked the part where it was sexy, and there were love triangles, and monsters… We found her a bit grating.'

"Kristen Stewart is kind of captivating," he continues, "she can just stare at stuff and it works because I still want to watch it. But it does seem a bit passive. 'I don't know which beautiful boy to choose between!' is not exactly the struggle that every girl is going through."

Slayer Soundtrack Sunday ~ Angie Hart and Splendid

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Australian singer Angie Hart was quite a favorite on the Buffy series. One song was written specifically for the show, and her group Splendid, made up of Hart and her then-husband Jesse Tobias, played two songs at the Bronze.
The unreleased song "Tomorrow We'll Wake" is in the episode "Forever" and plays during a scene with Xander and Anya.

"I Only Have Eyes for You" is episode 19 of Season Two. The plot is about a ghost of someone who killed their girlfriend and committed suicide.

"Charge" and "You & Me" are played at the Bronze by Splendid, with vocals by Hart.





"Once More With Feeling" in Season 6, episode 7, is of course the musical epicenter of the entire series, and a tour de force by Whedon - it should have won an Emmy, alas. What's amazing is that it combines elements of Broadway musicals, old TV themes, dance numbers, and all by actors who weren't known for their singing ability. It's really my favorite episode, and Whedon has mentioned it as his also, which isn't surprising given his later success with "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog."

From The Buffy Trivia Guide
Joss Whedon, the show’s creator, wrote the music and lyrics for Once More, With Feeling himself with help from Buffy composer Christophe Beck and Splendid’s Jesse Tobias. It took him three months to write the episode - over the summer when he was supposed to be taking a break. The episode was is the only one of season six which Joss wrote or directed.
Buffy composer Christophe Beck spoke to the Bronze posting board about Joss Whedon’s talent: “[He] came up with lyrics, melodies, the underlying chords/harmony, as well as general stylistic direction for each of 16 musical numbers. The songs started out as four-track recordings Joss made himself. I co-arranged and co-produced the songs with Jesse Tobias of the band Splendid.”
Once More with Feeling took four months in total to write, film, and produce.

Angie Hart sang back-up for actress Amber Benson as Tara in "I'm Under Your Spell."



The collaboration continued in Episode Seven of Season Seven (magical numbers) with the song "Blue" in "Conversations with Dead People," a joint writing venture of Hart and series director Joss Whedon. It's probably my favorite song of the whole series, and just captures Buffy alone again at nightfall - just fantastic lyrics. It's found on both US and UK versions of Radio Sunnydale:







All-In-One Vampire Identification Chart

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From "True Blood" to Ann Rice, from Buffy to Sesame Street, here's one graphic for all your vampire needs.
Via UrlyBits.com Pinterest

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