davidvanwert.com

The ever-gracious T. Sean Shannon has given permission to post Bear City clips of episodes that have been aired on SNL (or “Saturday Night Live” for the non-acronymic crowd)! So I’ve added one in which I’m featured to my Bear City page. You’ll need Quicktime 7 (check your version number– 6 won’t work) or Windows Media Player to view the clip. But come one, you must have one of those. If you have both, hit the Quicktime clip. The new codec for version 7 results in a smaller file size and a superior image. But the Windows Media version is perfectly serviceable if you don’t have QuickTime 7. Honestly, until QT7 came out with the new codec, WMV was the better option, byte for byte.

So take a look!

I just got home from seeing “Serenity” at the Arclight Cineramadome in Hollywood. Loved it!
It was post-midnight showing (so technically it was the 30th, opening day) and the theater, which seats 800, was sold out. My good friend Viv got us tickets online. She never saw the show “Firefly” (from which the film sprang) during its too brief run on television, but I loaned her my complete set on dvd and she became instantly hooked.
In translating his series to film, writer/director Joss Whedon creates a compelling stand-alone movie. For fans of the series, it’s a perfect continuation (darker perhaps but true to the source), and for folks who’ve never seen the series, Whedon does a remarkable job of condensing the backstory to its essentials and revealing it through plot and character conflict. Establishing the dynamics and histories of existing relationships is a challenge for any scriptwriter. But doing so without it being pointless re-hash for five million people who watched your series every week– damned impressive.

Here are some articles about “Serenity”:
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
San Francisco Chronicle
London Telegraph

I finally got around to posting a page about Jeff’s film which shot oh so very long ago. I’ve included the trailer since I am seen in it…

This landmark show will soon be available on DVD!
For decades, it was believed no filmed record of this brilliant satirical sketch revue existed until an old reel was discovered. Filmed live in London in 1964, see Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller when they were young and spritely. These are the guys about whom the Monty Python gang said: Without them, there would be no us.