Last weekend, SModcastle held its first official weekend of live shows, after July’s grand opening kickoff. Like clockwork, there’s a bunch of shows once again on the slate for this weekend, with programs both old and new. Remember, while these programs are all recorded, they won’t find their way online unless they sell the place out. Only 50 seats are up for grabs for each show. If you’re not in the area, your donated ticket purchase can get a fan in need a free seat, and also help contribute to sellouts (and allow you to contribute to getting shows online).

New programs include “Hollywood Babble On” where Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman will dish on showbiz news, and the breakout star of the castle last weekend, Malcolm Ingram with his newly named program “Blow Hard”, with co-host Kevin Smith. Their “gay clown” show was the most talked about of last weekend, and one we told ya not to miss! This Saturday, the castle also holds its first EA Sports NHL 2010 tourny. There’s also more editions of the always sold-out SModcast 3D (buy before they’re gone), new editions of Highlands 3D and “Jay & Silent Bob Get Old”.

Don’t forget, www.smodcast.com has eidtions of all these shows coming online for you fast, furious, and totally free. Surf over and check out the new front page and the amazing rate at which this podcast network has grown. Bravo to all involved, as the world’s first podcasting theater also becomes the world’s biggest and most popular podcast network!

Via @arranmcnicol “You’ll have said everything you want to say by the time it’s come out anyway” And hard at work on HIT SOMEBODY. Working against a ticking clock here, so I’m trying to manage the time. All this RedState chatter is just me getting my work done ahead of time, so I can go play hockey. Because as much as I love RedState (and it’s supplanted CLERKS II as my favorite), that HIT SOMEBODY script is what I like to think of as my thesis paper. It’s me putting everything I’ve learned to work & trying to make a film that sums up the last 20 years of my life – which far exceeded not only my expectations, but my wildest dreams as well. HIT SOMEBODY is graduation day for me, and in my head, I’m just starting the fall semester of my senior year, so to speak (or Grade 12 for you Canadians). RedState is just beginning for you but that adventure is winding down for me. You’re just now getting to see what we’ve spent three years putting together. So while some cats may wanna talk about it, I’m already onto the next conversation entirely. I’ve finally gotten my filmmaking to the pace I’ve always wanted to make ’em: finish one, start the next. The Clint Eastwood way. Y’know how much press Clint Eastwood does? Not much. Y’know why? He figured out what I’m only just know learning, nearly 20 years into my career: he’d rather make new movies than do press for movies he’s done making.

Clint Eastwood has the work ethic of a hockey player, man. I admire the shit out of that: he finishes one, starts the next. He doesn’t dine out on one flick for a year or two; he makes flicks with all the frequency with which a teen girl texts. Loves ’em & leaves ’em. I’m 40 yrs old; I’ve been a professional filmmaker for nearly two decades. And after years of being told to stop fetishizing my work – “Enough with the Jay & Bob bullshit already…” – I’ve taken their advice: I’m not dwelling on the flicks I make. Now that I’ve got 20 years of experience on the job under my belt, I’m giving my movies the Little Red Corvette treatment: love ’em & leave ’em fast. #TrojansSomeOfEmUsed

This is not a novel approach in the least. Spielberg doesn’t do shit tons of public speaking, let alone press. Robert Altman also swung from flick to flick like Tarzan, without doing much press, letting his massive cast take the lead. That’s all I’m doing here. And I’m not saying I’m as good as the aforementioned filmmakers; they are legends. But, again: I’ve got two decades experience under my belt, one more flick to make, and less years in front of me than there are behind me now. I’ve spent all that time making flicks the way I wanted to, not the way I was supposed to, and thus far, it’s served me well. I’ve gotta play my game – especially if this is my last season, so the speak. Please – enjoy the fuck out of RedState. I’ll be right there with you, all the way up to theatrical release. After that, my head’s in a different game altogether. 2011 is the start of a big year: my Cup run. RedState is the playoffs; HitSomebody, the finals. I wanna try to win it in 5.

So if Clint moves from film-to-film without doing much press, then what kinda arrogant sonovabitch must I be to do so much press? Clint makes movie after movie & he’s an Academy Award winner. If I’m gonna try to better myself at my profession, I might as well choose a beyond-reach role model, right? So I’m’a try to work like Clint Eastwood from now on: make better movies, and make ’em one right after the other. And do minimal takes. And not listen to anybody. Clint Eastwood said recently that even at his age, with all the awards/box office/epic win, people still try to caution him against doing this or that, or advise him. He said the way to do the job is to not listen to anybody else & just do what he feels. I wanna be more like Clint. Might even get a monkey…

More news on the big 2011 changes in the coming days and weeks. We’re planning to follow Kevin in this new direction, and with it, make what we do here a lot better to fit as well.

Of the other events, something called the “Smorgy” is coming to Vegas, along with the great Askewniverse Garage sale in Red Bank (about which Kevin says “we’re gonna sell the past to pay for the future”). Don’t worry, the Secret Stash will remain open, the garage sale has nothing to do with the closing of the store. Dates to these events still yet to be announced.

Stay tuned, it’s gonna get interesting.