It had seemed like forever since we’d last touched the Summaries. So much had changed in the View Askewniverse and the things were suffering. Our busy schedules and the craziness of the site itself had been keeping us from getting to look at them for an update ourselves. Luckily, Zeebadaboodee came to the rescue with an AMAZING summaries update that really does make this the true View Askew FAQ that it has always strived to be. This is THE place to go for all the info, folks, in fact, we bet there’s a95% chance your question is already answered over there SOMEWHERE.

We were still quite fond of the redesign we did on the summaries about a year ago, so we decided to just take all of the information that Zee had compiled and throw it into the current design. In the process, we’ve added (and deleted) categories, to make information easier to locate in a more logical spot. So, on first glance, the summaries may not look much different, but we promise you, there is just an amazing and VERY current variety of information here. And now that we’re caught up and have the new site design done, they should be quite simple to KEEP current, as well.

With the addition of our searchable archive database AND these summaries, News Askew has now become more than just a place for the latest news, it’s also become THE premier View Askew resource database on the net. If it’s not here, it’s not anywhere. We urge all of you to check out the new and improved summaries. We promise even those of you who don’t have questions will find something new and interesting over there. And for those of you that DO have a question: Read ‘em!!!!

It wouldn’t be a site revision without some changes reagrding the reason this site started, our Official View Askew Drinking Games! Not only do we have some spiffy new logos courtesy of Dave Blumenstein (check them all out together on our Drinking Games index page), but we’ve again revised the rules a bit to keep things interesting. The Dogma game, since it’s fairly young, gets the most major revisions. ‘Rats also sees a few more updates. We’re now feeling that the four games are about as good as they’re gonna get, so we’re going to stop taking suggestions for changes or new rules and etch them in stone. We’ve played them all and, believe us, there’s NO need for more drinking than what’s already there!

So, if you’ve never seen them, or been afraid to play, check them out. But as always, drink responsibly and NEVER drive after you play. Even if ya don’t drink, read the rules, we think you’ll get a chuckle out of some of them.

Thanks to the following folks for suggestions that made it into the final revisions: Brian, Matt Peck, Omar Drake, Phil, Annie Roewe, Rob Brown & Jen.

• We didn’t think this one was even worth a mention, but considering we’ve gotten 40 e-mails on it (and counting), we suppose we’d better run the story just to stop them from coming in! The StarWars.com website’s weekly poll, though it doesn’t mention Clerks, had a very Randal-esque question running at the moment:

Thanks to all of you who sent the poll in to us. The names are way too numerous to mention.

• The Jay & Silent Bob Trade Paperback with VARIANT COVER is shipping this week If your local comic shop doesn’t have it, you can order it using this Diamond Comics code. We assume the Stash may get some of these as well, so you may wanna check with them before anything else. (FEB001468 DFE JAY & SILENT BOB ALT CVR TP $16.95)
• The University of Wisconsin cites Mallrats as #5in their “Top 5 Movies For College Students” listing.
• Anyone who saw Ben Affleck meet “Mango” on Saturday Night Live when he hosted a couple months back may want to relive that skit by reading this online transcript. Those of you who didn’t see it may just be baffled. For some reason, though, strange as it is, it’s funny.
• The Jason Lee film “American Cuisine” is playing on the American Movie Classic channel this Sunday at 3:00 PM. We dunno how good it is, since we’ve never seen it, but it’s not on video, so this may be one of your only chances to catch it.
• Finally today, this month’s Empire Magazine (UK) has its share of mentions of Askew personalities yet again, though nothing too noteworthy, but does give the Chasing Dogma trade paperback a nice review:

Thanks for stopping in. We hope you’re enjoying the new site.

• Some big news today for regular visitors to the site, in fact, the answer to the mystery surrounding our big secret project that we’ve alluded to since before Christmas this past year. After six months of rework, a brand new News Askew design will premiere TOMORROW NIGHT. We think you’ll like what you see. So take one last look at the current design, take your screenshots, and get ready to say goodbye to the News Askew you’ve known for the past couple of years. Details below.

That big story, and just a few newsbites to take up today’s edition of News Askew. By the way, before we do ANYTHING tomorrow after work, we’re gonna go check out Gladiator. That flick’s gonna be good.

• Well, it’s been hinted at, whispered about in dark alleys, and speculated for months now. But today, we can finally reveal that yes, News Askew will be reborn with a complete redesign tomorrow night (if final testing and preparations go well for the remainder of today & tomorrow). This project represents the culmination of almost six months of work, most of which took place in our spare time between our regular jobs, regular lives, and the maintaining of the CURRENT News Askew. Those things coupled with the immense amount of rework on the new site are why things took so long (we’ll explain more after the site is live).

That being said, we’re very proud and excited about the new site. We feel that we’ve taken all the best elements of the page and made it even better. We’ll be offering a couple features that we’ve dreamed about adding for years now. Even better, the site design allows for faster modification, easier access, and interactive participation.

Of course, with new technology always comes the potential for problems, and, while we have tested things fairly thoroughly, we will give you a few words of caution. First of all, PLEASE upgrade to the latest verison of your browser software, whatever it may be. We recommend Internet Explorer only because it’s what we developed on and tested more completely with. The latest version of Netscape Navigator should also work just fine for you. Next, if you are running at a screen resolution of lower than 800×600 pixels (Set in your Display Properties under Control Panel for a lot of you Windows users), set it to AT LEAST that setting (though the site looks best at 1024×768). While you’re in there, set your color depth to at least High Color (16-bit) if available. If you do these things, you’ll be ready to experience the new site in its ideal form. The design was done with a PC in mind, so WebTV & Apple computer users, keep those fingers crossed.

Tomorrow night, we’re not sure when, News Askew will disappear for a bit as we transfer over the new design. We’ve never done such a massive update before, so we can’t be sure how long it will take. Please don’t be alarmed if you see a message letting you know we’re temporarily gone. We promise, we’ll be back soon. We’re very excited about finally unveiling what we’ve worked so hard on in the past months. Hopefully, it’ll all be worth it.

• More details on the “Scream 3” DVD and then we’ll be done with it (since Jay & Bob’s part is so damn small): It streets on July 4th and is supposed to have a commentary with Wes Craven among other things. Nuff said.
• The college campus magazine “The Link”, in a small article about “Being John Malkovich” hitting video stores, shows what it would be like if the title character was someone else. One of many was Being Alanis Morissette. The article says that the puppeteer “would be Madonna, who’s pissed that Kevin Smith chose Morisette to play God in Dogma rather than her.”
• Comics Continuum ran a small piece on the Clerks cartoon’s pilot episode yesterday.
• Those of you from the UK who are hoping to organize into a group for a trip into the states this October when Vulgarthon 2000 is being proposed to be held, you may wanna check out this SITE.
• What if Kevin Smith made a Batman flick?
• Finally today, since we’ve been kinda light on the reading material, ya may wanna surf over to the Borders website where Sharon McRill has done another great interview with Kevin.

• Dogma hits shelves nationwide on VHS and DVD today. Remember, the DVD is just the bare bones version, which you can buy for about $15 at most discount and web retail shops. A Special Edition DVD set is due this Fall. The VHS tape is available FOR RENT ONLY, if you want to purchase it, it’ll cost you over $100. Most tapes arrive at a “sellthrough” price a few months after they are released, but no such date has been announced for Dogma at this time. There are no plans to release a Special Edition on VHS.

So, what are you waiting for??? Get out there and rent Dogma! Let’s see how high that sucker can get on the video rental charts! And, as a reminder, now that you can have a copy at home, you can safely play our Dogma Drinking Game. Just be careful!

• ABC has YANKED the sticom “Talk To Me”, which they opted to schedule over the Clerks Cartoon this past Spring. Back in our February 21st update, we gave the show 4 WEEKS, so we were damn close. 🙂 Here’s the press release.
• We haven’t heard from these guys in a while, but the people behind that familiar looking film, “Employees,” we mentioned a while ago have posted a “Wazzup??” flash animation with the Clerks characters. We really thought that it was getting old, but we gotta admit, it’s still funny. That audio just seems to translate everywhere. At any rate, take a look HERE and enjoy!
• The Dogma DVD is selling well, and being plugged all over the place on the online sites. It’s currently clocking in as the Number 4 seller over at Amazon.Com. Looks like most folks don’t mind buying one now AND buying the Special Edition later. We’re glad to hear they’re selling.

• A scooper visited the Stash last week and took a ton of pics of what you’ll find inside. They’re a bit on the blurry side, but you’ll see some new angles on stuff in the display cases and on the walls that we don’t think we’ve printed here before. Those of you who’ve never been to the store should definitely dig ‘em. If you’ve got the means and have yet to check out the Stash, we urge ya to make the trip in. It’s really a neat store to just hang out and take in scenery, and big and comfortable enough to do just that. Be sure and stop in if you’re ever near Red Bank!

• The Chasing Amy e-mails the other day seemed to be just a misunderstanding. Actually, Reel.Com has sent out price reduction e-mails saying that 5 bucks has been knocked off the price. Very cool of them. So, it sounds as if the June release is definitely on, and more affordable at that. The disc is now available for $22.99 and up for a June 13 release. Thanks to the tons of you that e-mailed us about this.
• Those of you George Carlin fans longing for more after Dogma may want to catch him at one of his tour dates. The guy’s hilarious, and we can highly recommend checking out one of his shows.
• We usually don’t mention college screenings because they’re so numerous, but this one’s a rare one due to the fact that it’s in Australia, so we figured what the hell. The Macquarie University (which is in Sydney) Film Society is screening Dogma at 7pm on Friday 2nd June (with Pulp Fiction at 9pm), and on Sunday 4th of June it will be Clerks at 5pm and Chasing Amy at 7pm. It’ll cost members 3 bucks and non-members 5 bucks. You can find more info HERE
• In case ya missed Jay & Bob, “Scream 3” is slated for a July VHS & DVD release. The only details so far are that it’ll be a 16:9 transfer.
• Seems that some customers are losing their ABC affiliates due to problems with Time Warner and Disney. And just in time for the Clerks cartoon premiere, too. Uh-oh!
• Another Universe has a new story which goes into great detail on all the staff changes with DareDevil in the past. It mostly discusses David Mack’s run, but a few Kev mentions are there as well, naturally.