“Feliz Navidad”

• The hard working brilliance of Zak and Joey comes through again, this time with another original clip posted to celebrate Christmas at the Clerks 2 website. This time, we’re treated to a collage of behind-the-scenes footage of the cast and crew at the Mooby set, all to the tune of that famous Jose Felicino tune. Once again, proof positive that View Askew sets are among the most fun to work on in the biz! Thanks again to the guys for continuing to bring us new and original footage in this epic set of Clerks 2 videos. If these guys keep it up until release time, there’s going to be quite the amazing catalog of clips to look back on. They’ve already hit an astounding week 14 of regular vids, and show no signs of slowing down. With JB getting up there in years, will Zak and Joey become the new hardest working men in show biz? Check back soon for more original entries for “Train Wreck”!

• Thanks once again to the skillful eye of photographer Albert Ortega, we’re proud to present on this pre-Christmas day a batch of photos from Thursday’s Stash Westwood event. Fans lined up to have the latest merchandise signed and personalized for them (or the lucky gift recipients). Kevin and Jay were both on hand for the event. Take a peek at some of the shots from the day above, including Kevin showcasing the latest goodies available at the Stash. You can see one of those cool purple Mooby’s shirts with a bow on it in the background. Once you see Clerks 2, you’re gonna need one, so you may as well nab one now before they’re gone! Thanks to all who attended for making the Stash West Holiday signing party a major success.

• We’d like to take this moment to wish you and yours the happiest of holidays. It’s been another exciting year here at View Askew, and we’ll of course have a full wrapup of that year in just a week’s time for our New Years’ update. To all of our readers (yep, that’s you!), thanks again for all your continued support. Have a wonderful Christmas, or whatever other holiday you may choose to observe at this time. And if you’re hitting the egg nog pretty hard, as always, stay safe, and be careful out there. Updates here will continue between Christmas and January 1st, though this is typically a fairly quiet time of the year, so chances are we’ll use this time to put the finishing touches on a couple of larger reports that have been in the works. There’s lots more to come, and we hope to see so you back again for more real soon.

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As our first Christmas treat of the year, we’re happy to present this year’s View Askew Christmas Card, from VA and Graphitti Designs, featuring a new shot of Clerks 2 on the cover (as well as a promo blurb for the film on the back. Click the image above to see what’s inside the card. Merry Christmas from all of us at View Askew!

• They’re not online yet, but the Red Bank Secret Stash is selling purple Mooby’s employee shirts for $50 each. We imagine West Coast has them as well. Get them while you can! If they become available through the online store, we’ll let you know.
• The latest Radio Askew, number 17, is now online, and feature’s a blow-by-blow account from Will, aka Brad’s LA taxi and lodging, on the Clerks 2 screening experience. Our report and review of the film’s being polished up over the holidays, but if you want to hear a personal account, this is a good way to start. Available now at radioaskew.com!
• Chasing Amy shows up in Question #3 in this gay movie quiz.

• A fan, Andrew, was inspired by the coolnew Leonardo Reapers hat that we’ve got available. He’s specced out what he thought matching hockey jerseys might look like. Might we sell such an item someday? Ya never know!
• On last Friday’s “Tonight” show, there was a segment called “Holiday Items to Avoid”. One of the first items were the “My Name is Earl dinner plates.” It was a set of dirty hub-caps, and on the other side was Jason Lee’s face. Fun stuff.

• AOL Entertainment site TLZ.com runs a very nice piece on the big Holiday siging held at Stash Westwood earlier this week, including two new videos, one with the fans, and one with Kevin himself. Visit their site to check out the vids. Here’s the text to go along with ‘em:

• We always love when the web sites get press! This New York Times web piece interviews Kevin briefly about his vast presence on the web, including the very site you’re reading right now. They call it…

• The UK’s Channel 4 has started running “My Name Is Earl” promos, stating that the show will soon air overseas on Friday nights. No start date has yet been announced.

• The perfect stocking stuffer for the View Askew fan in your life – PEEL AND STICK BUDDY CHRISTS! These peel and stick Buddy Christ decals are high quality stick-ons that are fully removeable, weatherproof and reusable. Originally designed as high-quality auto decals, the Buddy can be put on any flat surface and can be removed at any time, yet they cling as tightly as a regular sticker does. Each sheet contains 1 large 8” inch Buddy Christ, 1 4” inch Buddy Christ and 2 3” inch Buddy Christs. Buy em cheap HERE!

“The Good, The Bad And The Man”

• I actually got to see Zak editing this one on Friday afternoon, with his snazzy little Final Cut Pro setup in the west coast offices. Now, you can enjoy it in its final form. Yes, I was mere DAYS away from being in the presence of the greatness that is Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, who stopped by the offices for a special look at Clerks 2. Now, you can see what I saw last week, as the duo weigh in on their thoughts on the movie, cleverly editing around all the spoilers. Ah, if only we coulda been there!

Thanks again to Zak and Joey for their continued hard work on this amazingly massive project. Zak tells me that he has an amazing amount of hours of tape not even LOOKED at yet, and that the series at the Clerks 2 website will be continuing for quite some time. The process is being documented from start to finish. The guys were present to document Friday’s screening and Q&A, though we imagine it’ll be quite some time until you see that footage. We’re looking forward to the next two, and of course stoked for the eventual DVD documentary these guys will be working on as well.

• We missed another Askew vet who received a Golden Globe nom last week: Alanis! She’s nominated for Best Original Song: “WUNDERKIND” from THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. Funny story from the IMDB to go with that one, too:

Alanis Morissette was terrified when she started receiving dozens of phone calls congratulating her on her Golden Globe nomination on Tuesday, because she thought a loved one had been injured. Morissette was stunned to discover she had been nominated for Best Original Song – Motion Picture for her track “Wunderkind” from the soundtrack of The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe. The rocker will compete with Mel Brooks, Dolly Parton and Sir Elton John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin for the coveted gong at the January ceremony. Morissette admits when she first started receiving phone calls early Tuesday morning, she thought “something must be wrong, somebody must be hurt.” But she adds, “I’m really excited. This song really touches me deeply, and so I’m excited that some light is being shown on it. I wrote the song on Friday and recorded it on Saturday and pretty Much handed it in the next day.”

Go Alanis!

• More Earl kudos! The Writers Guild nominations are out, and the show’s been getting even more notice from this group. Here’s what Earl’s creators are in the running for in this batch:

• And finally today, let’s hope this “The Price Is Right” contestant won BIG MONEY on the show with a shirt like that! You go, Elizabeth! We’ll be back again real soon. Thanks for stopping by!

• We know that you’re all eagerly awaiting the inevitable first internet-only trailer for Clerks 2, which we’re betting will come sooner than later. Until then, though, here’s some other films of interest on the web today for your viewing pleasure.

First up, you may have missed this in the Saturday post, but buried in with those 2 brilliant new Clerks2.com vids was the official trailer for “Catch and Release”, Kevin Smith’s first starring role (in a flick other than his own, anyway). Kevin steals the show in the trailer (take a look at that face following Garner’s dinnertime revelation), which you can check out courtesy The Movie Box in both Quicktime and Windows Media formats. The film will be released nationwide theatrically on April 28, 2006.

Want more? Ok, you got it. Here’s a “Bottoms Up” trailer. That’s the flick starring Paris Hilton and our beloved Jason Mewes. It’s a direct link and only in QuickTime format (sorry, non QT’ers).

And finally today, from the fan video front: This one’s a REAL slow loader, though put together pretty well. It’s a fan trailer using the new Superman trailer audio, but incorporating a bunch of Silent Bob clips to create “Silent Bob Returns”. Inline QuickTime for this one as well, it looks like.

• Happy Holidays, folks. Our apologies for the delay with updates over the past couple of days. The upcoming news should get us up to speed with all the goings-on. In addition to it being that busy holiday shopping, Christmas card sending, Christmas tree watering type of stuff, one of us was just in the presence of the coolness that IS the new View Askew flick: Clerks 2! Yep, Brad was out west on Friday to see the glory, making the cross-country trek for just that purpose. The film proves an excellent companion piece to the original, but also stands alone as its own, different film, enjoyable by folks who haven’t ever seen anything from the Askewniverse. A noble feat. A full, spoiler-free review is on the way in the near future (tough to write those things without giving away any details, which we’re contractually obligated to do). Wish you all could have been there, seriously.

That being said, let’s get on to some stuff we CAN give you the full details on: Today’s edition of News Askew.