- Kevin will be making an appearance on Tech TV’s “The Screensavers” this Wednesday night. He’s scheduled to discuss technology in films, as well as View Askew’s presence on the web. Hey, what a PERFECT opportunity to tell the world about the new look of News Askew, ‘eh? We shall see! The show airs Wednesday night at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 12 a.m. and 8 a.m. All times eastern. We’ll have a wrapup of the appearance for you right here as well.
View Askew NewsBites™
- Salon.com talked to George Carlin recently, and the piece, “Dirty Old Man”, is a result of that chat. Here’s a snippet:
Bart is a guy who could have been easily played as the lovable old codger. You’ve kept some nice rough edges on him.
First of all, when Kevin told me he wrote this in my voice, I knew that this fellow inhabited me somewhere. I would have loved to have been a trained actor from, say, mid-adolescence — learn the craft, learn the traditions, work in stock, work all the classics, work with well-trained actors and really develop. Lacking that, I find that I have, in my observational life — because I am smart, and I do retain well — a lot of colors in my paint box. I know something about Eastern, blue-collar men who hang around, more or less neighborhood guys. I mean, I know from them just absorbing them. From the initial stuff about looking at the character, I write a little back story so that I know he has a history of things that has made him the way he is now.
Short one today, folks! Seems strange, doesn’t it? Gives us more time to squash some minor redesign bugs, which is a good thing. See ya again soon!
Commentary…
- Howdy, folks…Haven’t done one of these in a while, so we figured we’d just check in before the new work week begins, with an update and a few words about what’s going on lately. I’m back from a busy weekend at the Liz Phair concert in Philly (who has to be one of the few performers I’ve seen who can get a ton of applause just for stretching), and extra theatre time seeing Jersey Girl again this weekend, THEN Hellboy (an entertaining flick, though nothing overly groundbreaking). Now, it’s time to catch up on the latest happenings in the Asknewniverse and see how our new design’s holding up.
The weekend seemed to be much better concerning speeds here at the site. There’s a few speedup fixes going in tonight, and we’re hoping that they can help make things smoother for the upcoming week. It’s interesting how when folks are at work and supposed to be WORKING that site traffic goes way up, isn’t it? Very interesting indeed. Anyway, hopefully you’re reading this update and didn’t have to wait a half an hour to get it to show up. We’re continuing to monitor the site, and won’t stop tweaking things until we’re happy with the site’s ability to handle heavy traffic.
We’ve already been entered into the internet’s RSS databases, and our new RSS feed is getting a ton of use. We’ve been made aware of an excellent method to make use of News Askew’s RSS, as well. If you use My Yahoo as a homepage (or you frequently visit it), this new feature will enable you to add the “newsaskew” channel to your My Yahoo page, anywhere you want. It works amazingly well, and is simple to set up. Thanks to Jeff for the great find!
In television news, with the season wrapping up, network TV’s going to get very busy again, but a lot of the best stuff is on cable right now. The Sopranos is off to a good start for HBO, and if you’re NOT watching the new series, “Deadwood”, clear your schedule at 10 PM tonight. The show, loosely based on true events in this town, is nothing short of specutacular. Alias and 24 continue to be two of the best network shows out there — You’re missing out if you’re skipping those. Angel sadly doesn’t seem to be getting any salvation after the cancellation was announced, despite one of the biggest rescue campaigns ever undertaken, and the excellent new “Wonderfalls” has also been dumped by FOX after just 4 episodes. What a shame.
Reality TV’s kind of drying up these days. Is anyone else now bored by this all-star Survivor? Just seems like the show’s jumped the shark with that move. The Apprentice is fun from time to time, but also generally a dry hour for a lot of its running time. Audiences seem to continue to eat up reality TV though, which is a shame as it’s eating into programming time for original network shows to air. However, Big Brother will be back in a few months, along with The Amazing Race, two guilty pleasures that are a blast to take in every summer.
And then, theatrically, there’s Kill Bill 2 in a couple of weeks, which these two webmasters absolutely can’t wait for. If the rumblings we’re hearing are true, this one may even surpass the already amazing KB 1. Looking forward to it.
Alright, now that we’re caught up on general stuff, let’s get on with this today, shall we?
Weekend Jersey Girl Reviews!
- The late bloomers are still trickling in with some more Jersey Girl reviews. If you haven’t seen the film yet, or want to see it again, you’ve still got time. It’s not very often that there’s a View Askew flick on the big screen, so take advantage. Go see JG again this week or during the long holiday weekend that’s coming up!
THE BATTALION – “On the big screen: ‘Jersey Girl’”
“…While “Jersey Girl” may leave some of Smith’s core audience feeling left out, it is a great step forward for Smith’s career. While the story features an abundance of warmth and heart, don’t expect too much of a downgrading of Smith’s dialogue. While there is a notable lack of the f-Bomb, his finely-tuned dialogue features a frankness that may cause many parents to feel uncomfortable with their children watching. “Jersey Girl” is a great indicator of Smith’s potential and an excellent begnning to the next stage of his career.”
PROF J – Jersey Girl Review (A)
“…Kevin Smith is a writer I’ve enjoyed for many years. I enjoy him as a person (as much as I’ve seen in his television appearances and the Evening with Kevin Smith DVD) and I enjoy his writing. When I graduated with my Master’s degree, my graduation present to myself was an autographed copy of Mallrats. I got to see a sneak preview of Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back and can’t remember when I’ve laughed so hard. But this is, arguably, the most stirring and emotional film he’s made yet, or at least tied with Chasing Amy. It’s a radical departure from his other offerings, and I think it shows both great courage to go against the filmic grain as well as great integrity to say ‘I want to do something different, I want to try something new, I want to grow and expand my horizons.’ That’s not an easy thing to do at any point in your life, but especially in one as public and confessional as Smith’s has been. Bravo, Mr. Smith. Bravo.”
CRAZEWIRE – “Kevin Smith Finds His Beautiful Reward in ‘Jersey Girl’”
“…Kevin Smith did not make this film because he wanted to make a blockbuster. He did not cast Ben Affleck because he thought he would bring in box office bank. He made “Jersey Girl” from his inner soul because he needed to. This is what artists do. “Jersey Girl” is a love letter to his daughter, Harley, and what a love letter it is. I love each and every inch of this film. To those people who criticize it for being riddled with cliché’s, I feel sorry for them. They obviously cannot see the unique vision Smith has and maybe they are uncomfortable when someone wears their feelings on their sleeve, because it’s a risk they would never take, put their love out there for people to see. I doubt I’ll ever be able to write a love letter as personal as this one to my child or to one of my friend’s children. But that’s OK because when they’re old enough, I have something better than a love letter. I’ll sit down with them and show them “Jersey Girl”.
411 MANIA – Review (9/10)
“…Indeed, Smith’s greatest gift as a writer and a filmmaker is his ability to capture the essential truth in any situation. His earliest works did this, honestly portraying the lives of the 20-something men in the awkward man-child phase. The years most college-age men go through where they struggle to achieve manhood while avoiding turning into a grown-up. “Clerks” was practically a documentary of this phenomena as well as a message film. “Clerks” was ultimately a man stuck in a rut because it was more comfortable to lie in the gutter and than to try reach for the stars.
And if “Clerks” taught us about the need to try for something better in our lives, then “Mallrats” was about how to fight for what we have. “Chasing Amy”, in contrast, shows the dangers of questioning the good that comes your way and looking gift horses in the mouth. “Dogma” teaches the importance of general faith and how . Even “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” had a message of sorts, though the message was more about why Jay is not a role-model
What then is the message of Jersey Girl? To quote Robert Burns, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Jersey Girl’s message is that in spite of things not going the way we want them to, sometimes things turn out better than we plan.”
Maryland Q&A Photos & Small Details
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- Kevin spent over 5 hours taking tons of questions in Maryland on Friday, and yet again wowed all who were in attendance. The elusive Jason Mewes himself brought the crowd to their feet when he made a brief appearance at the show. Walt Flanagan and Bryan Johnson also made a late arrival, so it was a star-studdent event for View Askew fans who were lucky enough to be in attendance.
If you were at the show and wanna talk about your night, feel free to toss it into the TalkBacks!
View Askew NewsBites™
- Small story, TONS of scoopers on this one. We’re not sure which sect would rule the world should the majority take over: The religious right giving their $$ to The Passion, or the wrestling fans in this country. Anyway, around 30 or 40 folks wrote us in the span of hours to tell us that this website reporting that a WWE hottie is a fan of Jason Mewes:
Each week The Finisher asks a handful of WWE personalities to finish a statement. This week’s was “My celebrity crush is…” Former WWE Women’s Champion Molly Holly answered, “… Jason Mewes, who plays Jay from “Jay & Silent Bob.” He’s just the right combination of crude, obnoxious, sweet and funny.”
If the rumors we’re heard about Jay lately are true, we bet his people will be calling her people very, very soon.
- Another article discussing Kevin’s recent Q&A appearance at Berkeley is available HERE from the Daily Californian Online.
- A new Jason Mewes fansite, the Jason Mewes Zone, has opened for business.
- The I-Skew test is now out in print in the latest Wizard, issue #150. You can also view a recreation over at the News Askew Forums.
- Liv Tyler is scheduled to be interviewed on a show tomorrow called Great Day SA, on channel KENS 5 in San Antonio, Texas, at 9 AM central. She’ll be promoting Jersey Girl, of course.
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- And finally today, Jersey Girl: Coming to a theater near you, in KOREA, soon!
Kevin In Maryland: TONIGHT!
- Don’t forget to catch Kevin at the UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND for a Q&A tonight — Word has it the big guy’s headed into town a little early to catch Jersey Girl at a theater close to the Q&A locale — So if you’re in that nearby area, you may wanna buy yourself a ticket to the show. Our apologies for the late reminder on this, with the site upgrades, it’s been a busy day. Hopefully a lot of you will make it to the show, and set up your plans a long while back.
Site Updates, Speed, Etc…
- We’d first like to say thanks for all the wonderful praise on the new site. It’s great to see that from you after all the time we put into the new design. Now, that being said, let us say this: Yes, we KNOW the site is really, really slow now, because of these updates. So slow, in fact, we can’t even get in to post our own news. If the site disappears at times, with a “we’ll be back” message, that’s just because we HAVE to take it down in order to work on it. With all the users hitting the forums and talkbacks at once, our little server just can’t seem to handle the abuse.
The problem is either being caused by the forums, the talkbacks, or just general heavy traffic. We’re looking into the issue and hope to install some code cleanup this weekend to eliminate some of this. We’re also looking into adding some memory or completely upgrading to a faster server system for News Askew, if possible. So, rest assured, the site IS slow now, but we will NOT let it stay this way. Please bear with us through the bumps as we get things adjusted. We tested all we could on our own, but the true test doesn’t happen until you open the floodgates. In this case, we got buried. But we’re working on it.
Thanks again for your support, and we’ll be in touch with more soon.
Jersey Girl Breaks 10 Mil, Expands…
- We’re happy to announce that Jersey Girl word of mouth seems to be doing well, as the film crossed the 10 million mark in box office
this week, AND it’s just been announced that the film will EXPAND to a total of 1,821 screens this weekend (up 301 from last weekend). We know a lot of
you wanna see Hellboy…Hell, so do we…But before (or after) ya do, go see JERSEY GIRL again! And keep telling folks what a good flick it is. It’s
definitely a better movie to bring a chick to than Hellboy, fellas. Or hey, you didn’t hear this from us…But maybe you wanna buy a Jersey Girl ticket
then just go sneak into Hellboy anyway? We won’t tell. And we’re sure the big shaved horn dude doesn’t need your $10 as much as we do.
Thanks again to everyone who went and saw the film, and for those of you that continue to recommend it. You’re all a part of that 10 million!
Berkeley Q&A Reports!
- Kevin did his thang at Berkeley last night, and yet again the raves have been loud and true. What we’re saying, folks, is that you MUST catch Kevin at a Q&A, anytime you’ve got a chance. You just gotta go. What was Berkeley like? Here’s a few reports from our loyal News Askew readership:
Mario Reports…
Well, as promised here are some highlights from the Q&A session last night. The show went on for a little over five hours, and Kevin looked exhausted by the end of the night: (feel free to use as you like)
– Affleck may need dead hooker clean up again now that the whole Bennifer thing is over.
– Kevin went in detail on his take for improving the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by including a Sam and Frodo “Suck off” session at the end of Return of the King. He also detailed his thoughts for making Passion of the Christ more interesting to him. Let’s just say that the third act was completely re-written to include a JC rescue by a pair of unexplained ninjas who deliver JC from the cross and allow him to live a normal life, in which he decides to become an accountant. Either that or have Christ rise again as a zombie.
– Kevin has been immersing himself in “chop-socky” films to prep for Hornet. He went into a few things he liked, and how he detests the dialogue in those films. He dropped a couple hints, confirming the rumor that Jet Li is being saught for Kato, but surprisingly went off on loving, excuse me, fucking loving Zhang Ziyi. Someone in the crowd yelled “Zhang Ziyi as Kato” and Kevin got a big grin and “zipped” his lip…hmmm, interesting, no?
– Apparantly Mewes is sober, and horny as all hell. He accomplished the “Chamberlainian” feat of bedding twenty seven women in thirty days.
– Someone questioned the Clerks Stage Production that was shut down by ViewAskew, to which Kevin responded that bottom line was the people putting it on were using the material without asking, which is theft. Someone yelled out “what did you lose from (the show being put on)?” and he said nothing, but it’s still theft. The person asked him what was on his iPod and Kevin responded with “everything I bought from the Apple Store.”
– Kevin spoke about a children’s book he hopes to write soon based on a “thing” that his dog use to do a lot.
– After Daredevil: Target and finishing up Spider-man/Black Cat Kevin will take a break from comics until he catches up on all of his scripts.
– Kevin learned a lot last night. Here are a few things:
1) Berkeley students don’t wear red because of their rivalry with Stanford. To this Kevin told them to “Grow Up.”
2) Nor Cal folks hold a grudge against LA because “they steal our water.” Kevin was fascinated by this and vowed to return all unused water bottles after the show. Someone pointed out that this was a huge part of Chinatown, and Kevin said “it’s all coming together.”
3) There was a 15 year old Catholic School Girl who was there for her birthday. She told Kevin she was Jewish and this blew his mind. It turns out that 10% of her school is Jewish because of the poor schooling and high crime rate in Oakland. They both swapped stories and Kevin came to the conclusion that she was his exact opposite, making her his nemisis. Then she told him her last name is Smith and he said “you’re freaking me out here!” It was pretty funny.
All in all it was a great show and I encourage anyone who gets a chance to go check the guy out when he speaks.
ASKEWVIEW Reports…
Ok, ladies and gentleman, Kevin divulged some information last night that may take the edge off of all those sleepless nights…yes…Ben did get the ring back. There, now isn’t that so much better, can we all sleep again? Personally I wasn’t losing any sleep over it but Kevin was kind enough to open with that and satisfy the drooling masses early on. It was clearly an attempt to avoid any Bennifer probing (yes I said probing what’s the big deal, get your mind out of the fucking gutter).
Kevin was in top form last night and had everyone laughing within the first five minutes. Someone of course had to ask about The Passion of The Christ controversy and parallel it to Dogma. Kevin responded with some background on his Catholic upbringing and how he was raised to care more about the message Jesus brought and the things he said as opposed to the beating and crucifying, etc., etc., that is found in Mel’s gory and redundant flick which spends virtually no time on the message and a whole lot of time on the beating the shit out of and nailing to the cross. Kevin also said that he didn’t make Dogma to offend but rather that it was his way of being irreverent about being reverent. When asked if he himself had and or would go see it Kevin’s response was that he had no intention, in fact he didn’t want to see it but had to some time soon because he was asked to review it. He said he would have gladly gone to see it had they spun the “third act,” and say ninjas swooped down and rescued Jesus who went on to become..an accountant.
It was an educational night for all, Kevin learned a bit about the cradle of free speech, and the rivalry of northern vs southern California ( after all they do steal our fucking water). He also learned about the athletics rivalry between Stanford and Berkeley to which he replied, “grow up”. A fan came up on stage and in a red shirt and the Berkeley kids practically booed him off (man keep wearing red, FUCK the bears, damn the man, fight the power, go fuckin’ Stanford!)
Many people asked for autographs and Kevin left it up to the masses to decide who got and who didn’t and the masses are evil and mean and pretty much only let girls get autographs (we cry better I guess).
Everyone was in for a treat, none so much as Kevin himself when his very own nemesis made an appearance. JoAnn, a 15 yr old girl from Oakland, CA who goes to catholic school and is Jewish had Kevin fascinated and suddenly Kevin’s Q & A turned into JoAnn’s third degree (with Kev asking the questions). Apparently with not a lot of options for school in Oakland and few private schools this poor girl had to go to catholic school and Kevin was all interested in how they tried to save her soul and convert her and what not.
Here are some interesting tidbits; for all those playstation fans out there Kevin says the only game worth playing is Ape Escape, and he doesn’t steal his music for his ipod off the net but pays apple 99 cents a pop for songs and those fools in Bakersfield were wrong to steal Kev’s Clerks concept for a play without going through the appropriate channels. Kevin says his wife doesn’t like it when he divulges ultra-personal information about their sex life and hopes she doesn’t read his playboy interview where he tells all about their dirty talk and how he fantasizes about her with another man (Kev, what about your wife and another chick? You and my fiancee can both watch us..I’ll bring the popcorn..is that atkins approved?).
Thanks to AskewView for the photos!