Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

Usually when the blogs are this sparse it means one of 3 things:

1. I’m touring across the country with the band.
2. I’ve got a lot of things on the go.
3. Nothing interesting is happening.

In this case it’s #2. Definitely NOT #3 because there is a very interesting human female (NOT a robot) that I am spending time with and I am pretty stoked about that. Is it okay to say ’stoked?’ Do the kids still say that or is it outmoded? If outmoded, replace with ‘aroused.’

But I won’t give too much away, always leave with a cliffhanger….

Alternately, always leave with a hilarious photograph:

So if you’re in the United States of America I can tell you that the season 4 episode of Stargate Atlantis with yours truly in it airs Friday February 15 on the SciFi Network. If anyone down there happens to get some clips on their computer of my scenes I’d be grateful to see them.

I don’t know when it will air in Canada but I’m keeping my eyes out.

http://www.scifi.com/schedulebot/index.php3?date=15-FEB-2008&feed_req=

Some time in mid February I’d like to begin moving my stuff in earnest, over a two week period. If anyone wants to help I’ll be your best friend. Very few steps! And if anyone has a truck that can move a couch and a shelves and a desk, that would be great. Otherwise I’ll just hire movers. I wonder if they charge by the day or the hour?

Here’s the new place:

View Larger Map

If you’re like me you’ll turn off the sound.

There’s this great part in The Savages where the old man picks the movie to be played at the nursing home and it’s The Jazz Singer so of course there’s this awkward moment where the black patients and especially staff are murmuring through this. I don’t know how realistic it is for them to get that far into the movie without knowing that there’s going to be Al Jolson in blackface, but anyway it brought up the old discussion of can appreciate an art form despite the wrong but accepted context of it’s time. This is something that comes up when discussing the work of H.P. Lovecraft and also, as anyone who sat through Whoopie Goldberg’s address on one of the DVD sets, Loonie Tunes. It’s a prickly pear, but I don’t avoid listening to Al Jolson because of that aspect of his act. I generally keep my art and politics separate and hope it doesn’t get me in trouble.

My wererat drawing is in print now, for those of you keeping track, on the back cover of Outnumbered #5. The colour didn’t turn out terribly faithful to the original but when does it ever? It was a bit of an experiment and it’s super cool to see the thing on the book. Maybe you can pick it up at RX Comics? I’ll find out from Kevin.

The teaser for the new Star Trek film showed before Cloverfield and although it looks nice, it tells you about as much as this:

I can’t embed it here, but if you go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzY-LI2N9SI&NR=1 you can watch me wandering around Vienna as a double-crossing Russian nuclear scientist for History Channel’s “Beyond Top Secret – Iran.”

Starting at 02:18 into the video.

It’s presented by Shaky Camera Cinema, so if you get motion sickness, you may not enjoy the movie.

At the movie we were looking at the poster for I Am Legend and I was talking about some of the topics in film that always interest me: 1) post-apocalyptic/last man on Earth and 2) time travel/paradoxes/manipulation. I even watched Clockstoppers (directed by Commander Riker), though I haven’t seen the newish The Time Machine with Guy Pearce. So if you’re asking about my opinion on movies in these sub-genres you should know I’m biased.

This is why I need to see The Quiet Earth again.

Good luck.