Fall TV

Hello everyone! I've been absent for a while, STILL haven't finished that final day of Slayage report (here's why: I've been moving house and accidentally packed away my notes in the last week of July, thus halting my blogging on it! But I promise to finish this time, unlike last time) and I've been to FanExpo and I have SO MUCH to tell you about the move and the new house and my new glorious office that I love so so so much (this is my total Nikki cave) and I will get to all of that next week when the kids go back to school, but for NOW, here is what I plan to watch this fall on TV, and I'm relying on you guys to let me know if I'm missing anything. But if you suggest another show, you have to make a strong case for why I need to watch it. I already have far too much written here! This is based entirely on me liking the premise or the star of the show, and nothing to do with advance reviews, which so far I haven't seen. So some of this might change.

Red means new, and black means I've been watching already. (I have all of this on a calendar... oh, come on, who among you does NOT?) ;)

September 
11: Go On

16: Boardwalk Empire

17: Revolution

25: The Mindy Project
Vegas

26: Animal Practice
Modern Family

27: Big Bang Theory

28: FRINGE (!!)

30, aka The Big Night: Once Upon a Time
Dexter
Revenge
666 Park Avenue
Homeland

October
10: Arrow
Nashville

11: Beauty & the Beast

14: The Walking Dead

19: Community

Husk: Lumbering to a Bookstore Near You

For several months this past year, I was working with author Corey Redekop on his upcoming novel. I was his editor for his debut novel, Shelf Monkey, a book about a cult of bookstore workers who are sick and tired of shilling Oprah picks and copies of Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey (OK, in the book he names others, but the books they hate are in that genre) so once a month they meet secretly and present a book to the others, offering an argument for why the book should be burned. If no one can present a reasonable counter-argument defending the book, it's thrown into a bonfire.

Yep, it's a book about burning books, and why sometimes... it's kinda cool. There's a lot more to it than that, and the plot builds to a wonderful conclusion (check it out!).

I waited patiently for his next book to come along, and when it did, I wasn't disappointed. Moments of heartbreak are just pages away from laugh-out-loud hilarity in this story of a guy who wakes up after a fatal experience... on the autopsy table. Oh, and he's a zombie now. A zombie novel told from the point of view of the walking corpse, this book comes at the genre in a new (and often hilarious) way, and despite the many times I've read it, I love it every time. Sheldon decides he's going to try to pass as alive, (he's pushed his intestines back in — the morticians had removed them — so he should be good for now) and hey, he's an actor, so... he can just try out for those creepy-guy parts, right? If only that pesky heart of his could stay put. Despite being undead, Sheldon can't bear the thought of losing his heart. Poignant, funny, and all-out disgusting at times, this book is a must for fans of the walking dead.

After writing the Great Canadian Book-Burning Novel, Corey has set out to write the Great Canadian Zombie Novel. The book is due out very soon (official pub date is October but it'll be in stores earlier), and I urge you all to check it out. And in the meantime, here's a synopsis of the book as told by a kid. Please pass this around!

Homeland, Season 2

What a beautiful trailer. It doesn't say much about the new season, but one thing's for sure: hilarity and big laughs will ensue!!

Is That a TARDIS?

I wanted to share a conversation I had recently at my daughter's soccer game. I've been going to these games for about three years now, and it's just a small house league put on by one of the parents at the school (he's a British guy who was a footballer back home, I believe), and all the other parents bring their little ones who are all in the same class, and they play. Or, in the case of most of the girls, stare at the clouds, pick some grass, and stand in the middle of the field twirling their hair and talking about the latest One Direction song while the ball whizzes past them on the field. One thing I've never done while standing on the sidelines is talk about TV. I know, I know, it sounds strange, but none of the parents seemed to swing that way, if you know what I mean. I tried it out a few times, and always got that blank look, followed by, "I watch The Daily Show, do you watch that?" And that's about it.

So I was talking to one of the dads last week about our new home (we moved last week... I'll post soon on that). I started talking about what I loved most about it, and then all of a sudden he said, "Is that a TARDIS?" I stopped, and thought about it, and said, "It's funny you should ask, because the first time we walked into the house during an open house I said to my husband, 'Oh my god, it's bigger on the inside. It's a freakin' TARDIS!!' and maybe that's why..."

"No," he said, smiling. "I feel kind of weird doing this, but..." he pointed to my chest area "is that a TARDIS on your t-shirt?" I looked down. Oh. Right. I was wearing my Doctor Whoville shirt:

(Also, I thought about the conversation in retrospect, and thought it was hilarious that I mistook, "Is your house a TARDIS?" as a normal train of conversation, rather than immediately being surprised that he used a geek reference. I'd momentarily forgotten I wasn't with my people.)

I love this shirt, but I'd completely forgotten I was wearing it. "Sorry," he added. "I felt weird pointing at your boobs so I was trying to ask the question without doing so." So I said yes, it was a TARDIS and that these were all the Doctors imagined drawn by Dr. Seuss. "Oh my god, you're a Doctor Who fan?!" he said. I explained I loved Doctor Who, but can't exactly call myself a true Whovian because I haven't watched the Classic episodes, but I love the new version. Then another dad jumped in and said, "Wow, have there really been that many Doctors?? Who knew?" Another one looked over and said he watched the new series, too, and loved it. "That guy? That one from the movies? Uh... what's his name, he was in the indie movies? He was my favourite."

"Christopher Eccleston?" I said.

"I think that's his name. When they brought in that second guy, you know, the one with the hair, I didn't like him. But there's a new guy, apparently, who is quite good."

"Oh my god," says Dad #1, pointing at the shirt again, "Sorry, I just keep pointing, but K-9 is on there, you guys remember K-9?? This shirt is awesome. Is it on purpose that you're making us all stare at your chest."

"It's a bit of a hazard," I admitted.

Finally one of the moms turns around, "I remember watching it when I was a kid. I liked the guy with the hat? He wore a hat."

"Tom Baker?" I said.

"I don't know his name. But he wore a hat."

"Did he wear a scarf?"

"YES! The scarf! He wore a scarf, too. That's the one."

"Yep, that's Tom Baker."

Dad #2: "Didn't the show go off the air or something? I don't remember it in the 90s much. Just the 80s. I watched Baker, too."

And from there we talked about more Doctor Who, Arrested Development, Ren & Stimpy, The Wire, Breaking Bad.... How is it that this was the last soccer game before I move, and NOW I discover this little alcove of dads in the corner who watches cool TV??

At the very end, Dad #1 threw his arm around my shoulders, and said, "You know, despite the boobs, you are totally one of the guys." I took that as a compliment, and decided not to start in on how girls can be geeks, too. I just decided to enjoy the moment.

Note to self: Wear Doctor Who shirt to the FIRST soccer game of the year from now on...

Cancer Gets LOST

Happy 8/15 everyone! (Lost fans will know what I mean.) Today is not only a date that every Lost fan loves to mention, but the beginning of a fantastic auction that is full of amazing items for lots of different fandoms, and will raise money to fight cancer. Started by the incomparable Jo Garfein, this particular charity (the National Brain Tumor Society) was chosen to remember a good friend of hers who just lost a long battle with cancer. A perfect reason to head on over and place some bids on various fan merchandise. How about:

• the original concept drawing for the Blast Door Map? 
• a Once Upon a Time script signed by the cast? 
• the complete Lost series on blu-ray signed by several members of the cast and crew? 
• the S1 DVDs for Community signed by Danny Pudi?
• various copies of the Lost Encyclopedia signed by several members of the cast and crew? 
• a True Blood poster signed by almost the entire S1/S2 cast?
• a Person of Interest poster signed by the entire cast? 
• various Lost cards and action figures signed by the actor who portrayed the depicted character? 

And much, much more. There are almost 250 items up for bid, so go on over and check it out. 

And for the Whedon fans out there who weren't really into Lost, you should head on over there, too. Why? Because JOSS SAYS SO. 

Joss's "do ten hundred push-ups" face.
(photo by Joey Saade, pictured)

Musical Sublimity

A few weeks ago someone asked me who my favourite band was. It had been so long since I'd been asked that, I was stumped. I used to say U2. Then Radiohead. Now I can't honestly say it's either. So I had to think: if I had one hour to live and could listen to just one album, what would it be? 

Sigur Ros's bracket album. And if I had two hours, I'd throw in Jonsi's solo album with it. OK, I guess the answer is Sigur Ros. 

Tonight I'm off to see them live (EEEEEEE!!!!) and if you haven't checked out their new album, Valtari, please do. It's... sublime. I told my husband he had to listen to the third track on the album, in the car, when the kids weren't in it, at a high volume (pretty much my instructions for listening to any Sigur Ros track, but especially this one, and the last track on the bracket album). So he did, and when he got home he said, "Oh, and the third track on the Sigur Ros album? Impossibly beautiful." 

Pretty much the best explanation I've heard of it. So listen to it now. Alone, at high volume, preferably with headphones.