- Ah, the good ‘ol days. Back when we created News Askew, the one and only way to get direct interaction and communication from Kevin was at the View Askew WWWBoard. Users would posts hundreds, even thousands of messages a day (and still do). Kevin attempted to read them all and, sometimes, would even respond. It was always a great honor to see a post from the man in your thread. Often, responses to questions were quite lengthy, which explained why responses were such a rare selective treat.
Over the years, times have changed – Kevin took to blogging a lot of these thoughts for the world to see. He also continued to use the WWWBoard to talk to the fans, but typically on a more rapid-fire basis. It seemed that the new trend was “say less, more often”. And fans loved it. Still, there was never any promise that a post or question would get attention from Kevin. The number one question in our mailboxes was always “How can I talk to Kevin”?
Enter TWITTER. This new insta-blog service limits each post to a mere 140 characters, causing those with busy lives to take to it in droves, due to its simplicity. Kevin himself has been seen on the service almost daily over the past few months, with a record number of followers — More than practically every other Twitter account out there.
While some folks typically make Twitter a one-way street to communicate outward, Kevin has taken this a step further, and gone on several Q&A response rampages via the account, basically taking tweets that had been sent in his direction and responding for the world to see. As far as we know, Kevin’s the first guy to take it to this level. Now, this Monday, Kevin will blaze a trail that no tweeter has dared blaze before.
This Monday, September 7th, Labor Day in the US, for 24 straight hours, Kevin will take any and all questions via Twitter and answer them in a Q&A marathon. If you’ve been waiting for years to have a direct chat with the man, this is your best chance ever.
The story is making its rounds on the web – Major news outlet Reuters broke the story last night (along with a nice link back to a classic story here at News Askew, thanks very much). So, keep in mind that there’s likely to be a lot of people firing tweets Kevin’s way. We imagine he’ll get to as many as he can, though the better the tweet, the more likely a response. Check out this snippet:
“Filmmaker Kevin Smith has some faithful fans, the kind of movie buffs who at least in the online world would love to have an all-night chat with Silent Bob, Smiths movie screen alter ego, ironically named because Smith is anything but silent. In fact, Smith is loquacious enough to fulfill hiskevin-smith1 fans desire for nonstop conversation, by planning for a 24-hour Twitter marathon of questions-and-answers on Monday.”
/Film also notes what a big deal this is gonna be.
Get those questions ready — Who knows, maybe we’ll even prep a couple ourselves. We don’t want to say we missed out on this historical event. Neither should you. See you in tweet-land this Monday.
Archive for September 4th, 2010
View Askew Newsbites
- MTV Movies, in a converation with Adam Brody, suggests that the title of “A Couple of Dicks” may indeed be changed.
- Consequence of Sound has a nice piece about the awesomeness of the “Clerks” motion picture soundtrack, a disc whose tunes and dialogue still plays fantastic today on the iPod, by the way. Though, when it came out, who the heck knew what an iPod or even an MP3 was, right? We really dig this story, probably the best we’ve seen written about the soundtrack, and rightfully so, we might add. Here’s a sample:
The Clerks OST was definitive in that it literally sums up everything about 90s young adult derision and its impact on society, complementing attitude with amplitude and allowing room for both witty quotations and suitable background audio. There are obvious moments where a song makes the scene, such as the quintessential opening credits featuring Clerks by New Jersey alt rock outfit Love Among Freaks. The band was local to Smith and he approached them to do music for his film; the movie unwittingly became a vehicle for Love Among Freaks as they also performed the soundtrack inclusion Berserker and reappeared on the soundtrack to Chasing Amy, but unfortunately the group only released one full studio album before dissipating into nostalgic bliss.
Other pivotal moments that are boosted by their musical companions include: the introduction of Jay & Silent Bob receiving the Girls Against Boys treatment with Kill The Sex Player a stoner rock tune (how appropriate) with plenty of fuzz and bass along for the ride; Jay attempting a white boy break dance routine to the sound of Stabbing Westwards Violent Mood Swings [Thread Mix]; the Randal and Dante discussion of contractors killed on an exploding Death Star (one of two primary Star Wars conversations) is enhanced by Bash & Pops Making Me Sick; the entrance of Randal Graves is accented by Alice In Chains bluesy Got Me Wrong before he exits at the end credits to Soul Asylums Cant Even Tell.
- Just to clarify, here are the official UK and US release dates for Kevin’s two upcoming books: “Shooting the Shit” hits US shelves on September 22nd, and UK shelves on October 2nd. The new Special Edition of best-seller “My Boring-Ass Life” arrives in the US on September 29th, and in the UK, on October 2nd, same day as the new book. As always, signed copies from Mr. Smith will be shipping from The Stash immediately, so get your orders in there, or come buy your books in person at upcoming events, inluding the live Jersey SModcast. On a releated note, check out Paste Magazine for a short blub on “Shootin'” as well.
- Mewes continues to conduct press for his own Q&A events happening lately in and around Canada. This article from Ground Control. In this new interview, he talks about the status of “K-11”, producing, directing, acting outside the Askewniverse, and moer. But here’s the most amusing quote, when he discusses his own Q&A strategy:
“It’ll be fun; it’s sort of like Kevin’s ‘Night With’ that he’s doing and they filmed one of for HBO, but Kevin can go for five or six hours or longer because he’s been doing them for years. I’m building up to that [laughing]; I can go for about three hours and while his stories are about fifteen or twenty minutes long, mine are about three to six minutes but I’ll pull my balls out and he won’t.
Has Mewes thrown down the gauntlet? Catch him live…if you dare. For more Jay press, check out a similar blurb at Pulse Niagara.
- One of our fave movie news sites out there, Cinematical, runs a piece titled “Filmmakers Who Love to Talk About Movies”, featuring, well…Just that. There’s video evidence to back up their claims, as well. The entire article is highly recommended, where they call Kevin “The Storyteller”:
The Storyteller – Kevin Smith
You may not like the films of Kevin Smith, but after watching this clip you can’t tell me that this guy doesn’t know how to tell an entertaining story. Listening to Smith talk about movies is like having a conversation with one of your friends, and there are very few people who can connect with their audience like that. Granted, his critiques aren’t always the most ‘highbrow’, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t accurate — and more importantly, pretty damn funny.
Surf over and watch the video, where Kev talks Superman Returns and Star Trek during an “Evening With”.