Reading: Insurrection by David Weber and Steve White
Music: Henry Rollins Band
TV/Movie: Barton Fink
Link o' the Day: Critical Mass

Uff.

The day is dragging, despite it being a bit busy. Usually busy days fly by, but today I'm working on a very complex color piece with a lot of original art and composition. My eyes are going buggy, so I need a bit of a break. Plus I've been getting interrupted every two minutes. Now I want to interrupt myself.

Last week I was asking if people listened to commentary tracks on their DVDs. There was no hidden reason or secret meaning to my query. More just curiousity. I've been finding that after watching a movie on DVD, I'm very likely to watch it again soon after for the commentary. Most often I'll save the commentary part for when I'm working and don't have to pay attention to the screen as much. What's interesting, I'm finding, is the different styles of commentary some directors use.

Kevin Smith gives good commentary, but rarely syncs discussion of a scene with the actual scene itself. He and whoever he has with him (usually Scott Mosier) go off on so many tangents that, despite how interesting or entertaining they are, I wish the commentary track could go on even after the movie has finished. One thing I will hand to him, now he puts multiple commentary tracks on his DVDs.

Sometimes I'll find the commentary track more interesting than the movie itself. The director's commentary on the ill-received Dungeons & Dragons movie (the first, live action one) is actually very entertaining. The commentary track for For Your Consideration is also a good one--featuring Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy. Catch and Release has a weird one as its track features the movie's director, and Kevin Smith, who plays a supporting role.

The Hellboy Special Edition has a special video commentary track where you see four of the principal actors in chairs in front of microphones commenting on the movie which we see in a small box in the lower left.

Fight Club has a couple of good tracks, one of which features the author of the novel the movie is based on. Bad Day at Black Rock has an interesting bit of commentary from a film historian.

And its not just movies. The TV series Futurama has great commentary tracks--most often featuring David X. Coen, Matt Groening, and John DiMaggio. The Simpons tracks are pretty good, if not qite as entertaining. Family Guy does a good job, almost always featuring Seth McFarlane. Surprisingly, though, one of my most favorite animated shows, The Venture Bros has terrible commentary tracks. Hard to hear, rambling talk about everything except the show. I hope they do a better job with when Season 3 is released on DVD.

Okay, I've rambled enough. It's back to work and back to being interrupted all day.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Today's link leads to Critical Mass, the homepage of author and book reviewer Don D'Ammassa. There are hundreds, thousands of reviews here, plus a host of other interesting bits of tid (that is to say...tidbits).

Cheers!

--John