• As promised, our favorite photographer Albert Ortega delivers us some exclusive high resolution photos from the DVD signing event at Stash Westwood to celebrate the release of Clerks II, Now You Know, and Evening Harder. We’re happy to bring you some shots that you won’t see anywhere else on the web, exclusively from Ortega’s camera to your screen. There’s some great candid and group shots here, along with the usual close-up poses that only he can offer. As always, we thank him for the hookup, and hope you enjoy.

• Kevin informs us that Episode 5 of “Sucks Less with Kevin Smith” is now available in the usual places, the most popular being mtvU.com. There, you can see Episode 5 of the Kevin-hosted, UCLA student-filmed and edited program of fun and odd stuff college kids can do on their weekends. After this week, just one more episode before the semester (and first season) end! By Kevin’s wording, we’re assuming this course/program will return to us in the Spring, with a new crop of young filmmakers getting their feet wet. Fantastic news, as Sucks Less continues to being a fun few minutes to look forward to every week. It’ll certainly be missed over the holiday break.

This week’s episode takes us into the Sucks Less mail bag with Kevin, along with segments on a late night bike riding tradition in LA (and across the country) called the “Midnight Riders”, getting your first tattoo, and last, but certainly not least, how to train your kitty to use your toilet as a litterbox.

And hey, best of all, all 3 segments were journaled by chicks this week. Boo-yah. Enjoy it at the official Sucks Less website!

• Big news for HD-DVD fans — Davis DVD reports that the Clerks II HD-DVD edition, due January 16, 2007, will be a TWO DISC SET. This means that you won’t lose out on any of the special features in purchasing this over the regular definition edition. This isn’t official yet, and we’re unsure if EVERY extra is on there, but we’re assuming that will be the case, judging by the box art. See the box over in their cover art gallery.
• A couple of Clerks references show up in this article on the recent play of the Phoenix Suns basketball team.