• Okay, we’re back — We somehow managed to survive yet another microbrewery festival, though we’re sure that one of these times we’re just going to drop over dead. Oh well. Anyway, it’s been a fairly quiet weekend, though Kev did make an excellent post that you’ll find below. Also, you may have noticed that you’re on the new server now, no matter what. We got tired of waiting for the sucker to change over, so we replaced our old page with a forward to the new site. In the next few days, www.newsaskew.com should start automatically taking you here to the new server, but you may get the forwarding page until then. Sorry for the inconvenience, the Internic guys just seem to enjoy taking their time!

The poll’s been updated, as we always do on Sundays, so feel free to get your vote in. We’re starting to unveil some of our new little surprises that we’ve promised, too — Today, we’re happy to report that finally got around to converting those Dogma clips to QuickTimes, though we’re still not aces at creating that stuff, so we had to keep the picture pretty small and the sound quality low just to make them of reasonable download size. Check out Dogma: Rumor Control for a much needed update and a little facelift, as well.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the ‘ol update.

• Looks like the U.S. ain’t the ONLY place that’s got some groups up in arms about Dogma (again, before SEEING the flick, as usual). This time, it’s BRAZIL of all places! The film is apparently slated for a November release in that country, so a campaign called “Vinde Nossa Senhora de Fátima, não tardeis!”, started by orthodox catholics, is trying to block the release. Thanks also to Dark Horizons for the report on this item today.
• Many of you have written in saying that Reel.Com is reporting that Dogma’s out on October the 29th. We checked into this, and, like us, they’re just speculating. Could Domga come out on that day? Sure. But has it been announced? Nope. By the way, keep in mind that Reel.Com’s an affiliate of ours, one of the few things we’re advertising there in our left sidebar (in addition to the new Canadian Amy site there…). Basically, if you’re gonna buy movies or ANYTHING from Reel, and you click that link to get there (rather than a bookmark on the other site), we’ll make some money for News Askew. Don’t worry, though, your costs will be NO higher. So, if you want some great deals on DVDs & tapes, click our Reel link, save yourself some cash, and support News Askew in the process! By the way, they’re selling the Matrix DVD for $12.50!!!
• Finally today, just a reminder…Clerks is playing tonight at 12:30am at AMC South Barrington 30 in Illinios.

We’re heading to a microbrewery festival this weekend, so you know what that means! More than likely, no updates again until late Sunday (if we’re up to it)…Unless something MAJOR happens. So, that being said, have a great weekend, and we’ll catch ya when we return.

• This was a pleasant surprise! The latest Madmemoiselle, of all places, has given Dogma : Rumor Control a plug! Actually, we think this is the first piece of National printed media to actually PLUG Dogma:RC, and as our OWN site (not listed as part of View Askew’s site, which often occurs) so we’re very happy. In the back of the issue, a page is devoted to Ben & Salma and their clothing and stuff. It’s got blurbs around it, and of them not only mentions our site for the latest Dogma info, but throws up a screenshot of the front page, as well!

We’ve got a scan of the page, so click the thumbnail to see it full size.

We’re not too excited about headng up to heading to the counter of the local newsstand to ask for copies of Madmemoiselle, really (actually, we tried, we just didn’t find any), so if you’ve got an extra and wanna ship it our way for the archives, we’ll gladly take it off your hands.

• We’ve found a place in Canada called The Digital Video Depot that will ship Chasing Amy DVD’s to the U.S. without a problem, and that’s got a GREAT deal going on preorders to boot! That’s right, $23.95!!! Sure, it’ll cost ya a few more bucks to get the sucker shipped off, but considering it’s an import, this is still a fantastic deal.

These guys contacted us and assured us that they’ll have plenty of copies to satisfy all our loyal News Askew readers, and were happy to offer this fantastic deal to us — Also, they’re supplying us with preview copies of the disc as soon as it’s available, so we should be able to get a review of the sucker up as early as possible. Finally, they’re going to keep us abreast of ANY info they hear regarding features of the disc. Here’s what they list so far:

• Interactive Menus
• Scene Selections
• Canadian Exclusive
• Deleted Scenes
• Askew Universe Legend – Screen Specific Commentary
• Outtakes
• Sponge Music Video-“Have You Seen Mary”
• Widescreen: YES 1.85:1
• 16×9 Enhanced: YES
• ENGLISH: 5.1 Dolby Digital
• FRENCH: TBA

From the looks of this, a few things ARE different: The Criterion Edition certainly didn’t have the Sponge music video, for one. Makes us wonder what else may be missing or changed from the disc. We have NO IDEA if the commentary’s the same one Kev and crew did for the Criterion disc, though it would HAVE to be since they haven’t recorded a new one. Kev’s intros to the clips as well as some of the commentary seem to be targets for deletion, possibly, since they sometimes reference the fact that it’s a “Criterion Laserdisc”, as we recall. Time will tell, we guess. We’d take a carbon copy of the Criterion on DVD anyday, though. And the fact that 16:9 enhancement is still promised makes us VERY VERY happy.

We’ve placed a link to these guys in the sidebar of the page, and encourage you to check out their site. You can get Amy, as well as the other sought-after Canadian releases of Good Will Hunting & Pulp Fiction there, too. In the meantime, surf HERE for a great deal on Amy!

• Howdy all…Surprisingly, we’re STILL not seeing www.newsaskew.com bouncing over to the new server here at our end, and we certainly thought we would by now. The way you can tell if YOU’RE there yet is if you see the bright yellow text above the news letting you know. If you see that message and could be so kind to drop us a line letting us know you’re there, we’d appreciate it. At least we’d know the process IS working.

Just to explain quickly: When a website changes servers, its numerical IP address changes behind it. The front end stays the same, which is why you’ll always type www.newsaskew.com to get to us, no matter what. BUT, it takes a while for all the DNS sites (that’s DOMAIN NAME SERVER) out there to catch wind that a site has changed addresses. So, while someone in say, Kentucky, might still be seeing us on the old server, folks in California may have already reached the new one. We’re going to give it 2 more days, then replace the old page with forwarders that take you to the new server, no matter what, because it’s getting tough for US to maintain the site in 2 places! Anyway, there’s your internet server education for the day.

In other news — We’ve got an outstanding lead on where you can catch your own copy of Chasing Amy on DVD in a couple months, some Dogma news (as well as a long awaited Dogma: RC update coming this Sunday, on the NEW SERVER only), the usual smattering of NewsBites, and lots more fun. Behind the scenes plans continue on enhancements and surprises to celebrate the move to the new server, so expect some neat announcements over the next couple of weeks, as we lead up to the big chat & raffle drawing on September the 1st!

And now, on with the show…

• Many news outlets, including Anotheruniverse, now say they have an OFFICIAL release date for Dogma in the UK! The date, ironically, is the day AFTER Christmas: December 26, 1999. Great news for all of you overseas! As for us here in the states, this definitely tells us that we’ll see the flick before THAT date anyway. We hope it still hits the predicted mid-October slot. At any rate, we’ll keep ya posted, of course.
• The Project Pocketwatch site posted a new pics recently, and is near completion! Be sure and drop by for a visit if it’s been a while – We’ve always been fans of this project, and loved the idea.
• Jason Lee appears (looking quite sinister, we might add) in Movieline Magazine this month. In it, they talk about Dogma, Mumford, and the upcoming Cameron Crowe film. We really dig this piece, too. Lee has some great stuff to say about working with Kev (that you’ll love to see), and there’s quite a few other tidbits as well (Click the pic for a closer look):

Jason Lee considers himself lucky to be sitting in front of me at Canter’s deli, crunching on a salad. Only yesterday, he and a fishing buddy were stuck for hours in the mountains outside of L.A. when their SUV went off the road. “It was definitely scary,” he tells me, “but I don’t think it would have gotten to the point where my friend and I had to eat each other.” Lee’s hiply sardonic, hang-loose style set him refreshingly apart from the glam troop of young actors emerging from hit TV shows. He does, in fact, come from somewhere else entirely — he’s a former professional skateboarder who got into acting on a whim. “I was curious about movies,” he says, “the way you might wonder what life in the army’s like.” Lee’s breakthrough performance two years ago as the caustic but charming comic book artist in Kevin Smith’s indie favorite Chasing Amy so impressed Lawrence Kasdan that the writer/director wrote the role of a computer-software genius specifically for him in the ensemble comedy Mumford. The actor’s current hirsute state — shaggy hair and mountain man’s free-flowing beard — is for his rock-star turn in Cameron Crowe’s upcoming film about an American band circa 1973. Meanwhile, Lee will be on-screen this fall as a demon named Azrael in Kevin Smith’s controversial religious satire Dogma, which stars Alanis Morissette as God, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as genital-free renegade angels and Chris Rock as a troublemaking disciple. “I don’t see it as controversial,” Lee says. “It’s a Kevin Smith movie, with his fast, witty dialogue. I’ll work with Kevin Smith for the rest of my life. That’s my position on it.” Acting, according to Lee, turns out to be a lot like professional skateboarding. “The more you do it, the more confidence you get. Then you’re controlling it, instead of it controlling you.” That goes for choosing projects as well. Lee says he’ll try anything, except for certain stuff he’soffered all the time. “My agent knows I’d rather not work than do any of the Gen-X-kids-on-the-edge movies. You know: teenybopper mayhem, two guys in a car full of diamonds, on the road, and they pick up a waitress or a stripper and blah, blah, blah. I’d rather work for established directors who are at least trying to say something.” –Joshua Mooney

• MTV’s Fanatic is looking for Chris Rock’s #1 fan! Maybe it’s YOU! All we ask is that you throw a question about News Askew in the mix somewhere if ya win. Heh heh. Here’s details…

A closing note today: I mentioned that updates were quick due to time limitations and all the other stuff that needs to be done on the site. This goes for e-mail, too. Every once in a while, I feel the need to let ya know — I do my best to respond to ALL the site’s mail in a timely manner, but often those responses need to be short just because there’s SO many of you to get back to. Please don’t take it as an insult, we truly appreciate ALL the mail we get, and still read every since piece of it. Thanks a lot! We’ll see ya next time…And hopefully get Dogma:RC up to date then as well!

• In the next day or two, you should notice…nothing. Well, except that we’re on a new server. As we’ve said, though, this move is designed to be transparent to viewers, so really, aside from a message telling you that you’re now on the new server, things should look and operate just as they always have. Hopefully things will be a bit speedier for ya, but we’re working on optimizations off and on, behind the scenes. What we WOULD like to hear is if you have any problems on the new server, such as slowness, pages NOT loading, links not working, graphics missing, and the like.

When ya move a website as large as this one, you’re bound to screw something up or forget something. We think it looks good, but COME ON! We can’t be perfect! So, if you find something wrong, let us know…Please!

Also, now that the move is complete, expect some nice surprises in the next few weeks. We’ve got some little enhancements here and there on the horizon and, hopefully, a couple major scoops as well. Just some stuff we’ve been saving for a big occasion like this.

Oh, and by the way, News Askew is now being hosted by Create-A-Web. Service has been great so far, so if you’re looking for a host for yourself, look into them. This is by no means a commercial for them, we’re still paying to house the site there, so if you DO get on board, tell ’em that we sent ya and they’ll throw a free month our way. Every little bit helps!

Domain names take time to get across the entire internet, so, over the weekend, we’ll update at both the old and the new server sites to give your local internet connections time to catch up with us at the new home. Effective Sunday, though, we’ll remove our pages from the old server and put a forwarding message that automatically carries you over. If you’re seeing that, send your provider a message and tell them to reboot their domain name servers! They’ll know what you mean.

That being said, enjoy the site & the new server. We’re happy to be here.

• Looks like Vincent’s done a real bang-up job with a screening yet again, as promised! His film’s just great, and you can really tell how much pride he has in it when he attends a showing of ABP. Anyway, here’s an on-site report from a fan who had an excellent time — And you’ll see what we mean…

We’ll have those scans soon, hopefully! Keep in mind that ABP screens again at this festival in a week (watch our countdowns) and hopefully streets on DVD this fall. We’ll keep ya posted, for sure.

• The IMDB reports on Dogma today, and the Catholic League’s latest booklet that we mentioned yesterday. The one mistake they make is that they say no distributors are willing to touch the flick, but, as we all know, a distributor HAS signed on, just has yet to announce themselves:

• Chris Rock lending a voice an animated feature? Should be a lot of fun. Variety reports…

• Hey Alanis fans: There’s a nifty little page concerning her famed You Can’t Do That On Television appearances with a small Dogma mention. Who could forget that wonderful green slime?
• More screenings coming your way, this time from overseas! You can catch a Clerks/Chasing Amy double feature showing this weekend at the Nova in Rundle street, Adelaide (South Australia) – Saturday 7th August at 3pm, and Sunday 8th August at 7pm. A rare chance for those of you down under to catch Kev’s stuff on the big screen!
• In the newest edition of Sequential Tart, an online comics site created by women, Frank Miller comments on Kevin’s run on Dardevil with the following:

Check out the site and read the full interview here.

See ya!

• It’s been tough finding time to work on things lately — We’ve been home hardly at all this week, so if the updates seem a bit rushed and impersonal, that’s why. We’re happy to report that there’s just a few very small bugs to work out of the poll script on the new server, and we’ll be flipping the switch. Perhaps even soon tonight, after OZ. We’ll let ya know when that happens with a message at the top of the page.

The raffle is continuing, and you’ve still got plenty of time to get your entries in! We’re announcing a lot more prizes tomorrow, giving you more chances than ever to win. For a buck, you can’t go wrong. Hell, we wish we could enter ourselves. But that wouldn’t be that fair, would it?

At any rate, some odds and ends to report on today, but nothing super noteworthy. We’ll be updating Dogma:RC, adding some new features, and generally working on speed improvements after we complete the move over to the new server. Lots of great stuff on the horizon. Stick around!