• By now, you’ve probably heard of the net community “Myspace”, which simply allows users to create their own personal webspace, free of charge — Sort of a directory listing of yourself, with areas for a bio, photos, favorite stuff, and the like. A popular feature is the ability to have a network of friends. You can add anyone else from the site as your “friend”, thus linking you together and then creating a never-ending chain of people who have friends in common. A neat experiment, and, due to the free nature of their basic service, quite popular.

Recently, we learned of some View Askew personas that carry accounts at this popular service. Malcolm Ingram, director of the new “Small Town, Gay Bar” and several other View Askew Productions, invites you to check out his space. We hear Brian Lynch may also have an account, though we can’t seem to locate it at this time.

Most recently, inspired by Brian and Malcolm, Kevin himself has joined the community. Visit his page, just getting underway, HERE.

Oh, and if you’re really into adding us all, you can find Brad’s account, which has been there a while but sort of forgotten, HERE. See you in Myspace!

• We’d like to welcome Kevin Smith back to the world of blogging, as he’s gone back and filled in his “My Boring-Ass Life” blog in with some exciting entries from dates past. Several new entires have been filled in, ranging from late-February to most of early March. We imagine now that Clerks 2 is wrapped, edited, and in the final stages of release prep, you’ll see more from Kevin as some time will have freed up and, of course, the publicity machine will kick into high gear. Newly added dates include February 27th, 28th, March 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. Here’s some highlights from the entries:

As always, reading a snippet can’t do these justice, so be sure and click yourself on over to “My Boring-Ass Life” to read every delicious word!

• We’ve always heard this is going to be a feature available on the eventual Clerks II DVD, but it seems now that the “Back to the Well” documentary has its own feature page on the IMDB. Could there be bigger things in store for this one? We’ll keep you posted.
• In Sunday’s edition of the Boston Globe, director Jason Reitman, son of Ivan, cites “Clerks” as his inspiration to start making films. He is the director of the forthcoming “Smoke Signals”. Here’s the text:

And it all comes full circle, with Kevin now a continued inspiration to new filmmakers, as others were to him when he began. Very cool indeed.

• More of the “Southland Tales” mystery is about to unfold, as Graphitti Designs and View Askew are presenting BOOK TWO in the comic prequel that leads up to the film. Previews has the pre-order info on this issue:

SOUTHLAND TALES BOOK 2: FINGERPRINTS GN
by Richard Kelly & Brett Weldele

Graphitti Designs and View Askew in conjunction with Darko Entertainment are proud to present the second monthly book in the three-issue series. Southland Tales Book II: Fingerprints sets the tone and portrays the days events prior to where the movie picks up. Each full-color book immerses readers into a complex and entertaining storyline that one would expect coming from the mind of Richard Kelly. Brett’s painted art captures the attitude and complexity of Richard’s story in a brilliant fashion.

SC, 7×10, 96pgs, FC……….$12.95

• And finally today, those fun folks from our own News Askew Forums are showing their love for the boards by holding up their banner at View Askew landmarks — This time, Stash Westwood gets the “NAF The World” treatment.

• The N will premiere Kevin and Jay’s return to the world of Degrassi: The Next Generation on April 7th at 8:00 PM, airing the entire “Lexicon Of Love” episode as one hour (it was previously split into 2 half-hours for Canadian broadcast). In advance of the new episodes, the network has scheduled a bevy of Degrassi events:

• Countdown To Degrassi on its website (www.the-n.com), a 21-day countdown beginning March 17, featuring previously unseen footage
• The Degrassi Weekend Marathon, March 31- April 1 from 6p-6a
• and…The Degrassi Video Year Book – a four-day retrospective of the senior class (Sunday, April 2, 8p-1a).

Finally, in case you have slacked off on your Degrassi viewing , on April 6, from 8p-3a, The N will re-air the first 10 episodes of the first half season five (which take you right up to “Lexicon”. Degrassi airs regularly Friday nights at 8p and 10p. Thanks to Dynamic Forces.

You can check out the official Press Release on all this good stuff over at Yahoo.

• It started as an IMDB rumor, but Kevin has now confirmed the plan for Jeff Anderson’s directorial debut, “Now You Know”, to hit DVD this summer. The Weinstein Co. will release the flick along with the excellent Vulgarthon 2005 Q&A, right around the release of Clerks 2 (a great cross-promotion opportunity). Those of you who’ve yet to attend a ‘Thon have likely missed this gem, which we highly recommend you track down when available. It should play great on home video, and provides laughs a’plenty for guys and gals alike. Here’s that IMDB post:

With the release of this flick to DVD, the only one with View Askew ties to still not see a release is “Big Helium Dog”, which, coincidentally, will screen again at Vulgarthon this Spring. Director Brian Lynch has expressed interest in filming new scenes and re-editing the film into something different for a DVD release, which is quite possible, given the sketch comedy structure. We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this one.

• Kevin appeared on the hugely popular LA radio station KROQ this morning to promote his Wizard World in Los Angeles. We’ve got the audio for ya right HERE thanks to the ever-vigilant Will Wilkins (don’t forget to listen to his regular podcast, Radio Askew!). Of particular interest, Kevin mentioned that his panel will take place on Saturday from 3:30 to 5:30, and he WILL sign Sunday — HOWEVER, you MUST get your ticket from the Saturday panel to get into the Sunday signing (call it a 2-for-1 deal). The con’s got a HUGE list of special guests, as always, and kicks off TOMORROW (the 17th). Kick off your St. Patrick’s day with a 3 day ticket and spend the weekend to see Kevin live, and then up close and personal on Sunday.

• Let’s kick off today’s ‘bites with a nice scoop coming to us from Aint It Cool, where the View Askew production “Small Town, Gay Bar” is reviewed based on its recent screening at the SXSW festival:

The film will screen at its first Vulgarthon in Red Bank, NJ this May.

• Another one of Kevin’s Doogal radio promo tour clips has surfaced — O-Rock 105.9 in Orlando, Florida has their clip up in MP3 format. It’s a nice little interview by some informed fans asking some nice questions, past and present. Worth a listen!
• A last minute scheduling change put the UK airing of the Clerks cartoon back to a very late 12:45 AM last night. We’re expecing future episodes to air in that same slot. Check your listings carefully.
• An astute site pointed out that the new band on this summer’s version of reality TV show “Rock Star” has taken the name Supernova – Which also happens to be the same band that does the tune “Chewbacca” on the Clerks soundtrack. Lawsuit?
• Television Without Pity, a website where they recap popular TV shows in funny capsule reviews, fires off a funny Jay & Bob reference in one of their recent American Idol critiques.

“Tony”

• Check out the antics of 1st Assistant Director Tony Steinberg in this new selection of footage from the Mooby’s set of Clerks 2. The camera loves Tony, and Tony loves the camera, as he goes about his day to day duties performing his important role of keeping the action in order for Mr. Smith. This is the latest in our continuing series of “Train Wreck” shorts, brilliantly filmed and edited by our own Zak Knutson and Joey Figueroa. Watch the latest and all that came before, EXCLUSIVELY at Clerks2.com!

• On the fence about buying Day Two Vulgarthon tix? Well how about this…A program change! Seems that a super top secret film WILL be shown on Day ONE, but on day two, a DIFFERENT top secret flick will screen on the second day, and it’ll be one that one see theaters for months! Feel free to make your predictions! Tickets are still available for Red Bank, Day Two, featuring great films, guests, and of course, that super secret film that will be DIFFERENT than the film we see on Day One. Get your tickets now for the historic Vulgarthon’s return to Red Bank! It’s gonna sell out. Trust us.

• Our resident editing genius, Mattt Potter (the dude who puts together those brilliant compliations that play round-the-clock in The Stash), has put together an excellent new bit of business to catch newcomers up to the world of Clerks. Perfect timing, and something to pass on to everyone you know, especially if they haven’t seen the original Clerks for some reason. This should catch everyone up on the world of Dante and Randal, as well as some of the Askewniverse at large (movie tie-ins, the websites, comics, and the like)…as well as refresh your memories before you step into the theater to view Clerks 2 (August 18, all over the place). Here’s what IGN has to say:

“A Brief History Of Clerks”

If Kevin Smith didn’t exist, then geeks the world over would have to create him – probably involving some hetero Weird Science-esque alchemy involving copies of Star Wars, a few dozen comic books, New Jersey tap water, a roll of film, and a box of Choc-o-diles.

Considering the technology was lost after creating Kelly LeBrock in the mid-80’s, it’s a good thing that Kevin Smith does exist – much like Santa Claus and that urban legend about Wendy’s chili.

Since his breakthrough debut with a little black & white indie named Clerks, Smith has continued to expand his interconnected View Askewniverse into a lucrative merchandising empire via flicks like Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, and on TV with the killed-too-soon Clerks animated series. Oh, and he also did Jersey Girl – a small, heartfelt film that’s actually quite good if you give it a chance… It’s got George Carlin, for cripes sake.

The long-awaited sequel to Smith’s debut flick, Clerks II, arrives in theaters August 18th (check out the video blogs at www.clerks2.com, and Kevin and the fine folks at View Askew decided to send over an exclusive Clerks II primer.

Basically, it’s a brief overview of the Clerks universe, meant to get both newbies and fans alike up to snuff before the sequel hits screens this August.

Also, don’t forget about our next bit of A/V sweetness – the one where Kevin decided to participate in an video Q&A session with all-comers. This is the first in a series, so by all means continue to send in your questions by clicking here.

(Before we hit the video, a special thanks to View Askew’s Mattt Potter…)

You can download this beauty in both Quicktime and Windows Media formats (small and large sizes). The IGN site has the hookup! The actual article page also collects a bunch of previous IGN stories on Kevin and the Askewniverse, so be sure and scroll down to see more good stuff that you might have missed in the past. And give this video a watch — We’re betting you’ll learn a new thing or two about View Askew history.