I've been on the other side of this. I was not assaulted by my husband of 7 years, but a police officer across a park from us saw something he thought was an assault. (He kind of flailed while I was nearby. Incidentally, I'm young, white, and pretty, so I'm "rescue" material. Or "shocking sex scandal" material. Those…

Tasha, you are literally the only person whose reviews of speculative fiction movies I pay attention to. That includes not only critics, but my friends. Sometimes I think you're the only person in the world who understands both SF and films.

Garden State was a soundtrack in search of a movie.

Matt Damon seems like maybe an ok guy.

Sad thing is, I'd watch the heck out of that.

Nice of this Nielsen guy to speak on behalf of all comedians and Akira to talk about what everybody on the board would like to read. As a comedian who reads this board, I wasn't very sure what I believed, but fortunately we have spokespeople I never elected. They probably conducted some polls I missed getting in my…

A lot of the arguments against paying performers are similar to the arguments that say motherhood is fulfilling and something women are born to do, as an excuse for not treating it as real (and extremely hard) work that could be viewed as an uncompensated wealth transfer from the mother (in terms of time, foregone…

To be honest, it's a lot easier to train up a tech guy than to train up a performer. If they don't have it, they don't have it.

No dice. I work both as a performer and in tech theater. I have a lot of training as an actor and spend a lot of time rehearsing and promoting the show. I don't get paid, and the odds I'll get rich and famous from it are about the same as the odds my experience behind a light board means somebody's going to let me…

This totally fails to address the point that you always pay the tech guy and the web guy and the bartender. But performers are supposed to do it for fun; their work doesn't count, even though it's what brings people through the door and keeps the whole thing running.

Aymanut, if it's a commercial, YOU shut up. You seem incredibly worried about defending a product you're not going to buy. Because you're not. You're defending your right to not have to worry you may make women terribly uncomfortable.

I actually did recognize it from the first couple of chords. Possibly because I have heard and played it a million times, and partly because I think it was based on the original Anita Carter version and not the Johnny Cash version, which is what most people have heard.

I actually did recognize it from the first couple of chords. Possibly because I have heard and played it a million times, and partly because I think it was based on the original Anita Carter version and not the Johnny Cash version, which is what most people have heard.

@avclub-114c7b793d3e612078339cce82dd13a9:disqus Ah, yes, the theater, peerless source for uncompromising realism. For instance, when someone says "ay yip ay yo ay yay," they're really saying "you're doing fine, Oklahoma." And when near death from tuberculosis, I should be able to sing a stunning aria. Golly, if I…

@avclub-114c7b793d3e612078339cce82dd13a9:disqus Ah, yes, the theater, peerless source for uncompromising realism. For instance, when someone says "ay yip ay yo ay yay," they're really saying "you're doing fine, Oklahoma." And when near death from tuberculosis, I should be able to sing a stunning aria. Golly, if I…

Pretty sure Richard Lester's Three Musketeers and Four Musketeers were shot back to back in 1973. (Or more accurately, shot at the same time with the actors not realizing he intended to spit it into two films.) Although I guess technically that's not an example of *sequels* being shot back to back.

It's charming that you think most directors are allowed to choose the script of their first film, rather than a group of anxious money guys who aren't sure they trust the director with that kind of budget. Tarsem was handed a serial-killer-thriller script and did what he could to weird it.

Loved this article, Todd. Favorite thing I've ever read by you. I might be persuaded to buy a memoir someday. And thanks for the game recs.

The Ender's Shadow books are pandering hackwork that barely rises to the level of teen fanfiction. "Bean's just like Ender, except he's even SMALLER and even SMARTER and even MORE ABUSED and then he does EXACTLY THE SAME STUFF but without any of the moral conflicts!" Card's admitted he wrote them solely as a cash-in…

The best cinema number crunching I read on a regular basis is from Dennis Toth at R&R consulting. 
http://www.creditspectrum.c…