Click the links to preorder discounted items from Amazon. Proceeds help support this site!
DVDs
Battlestar Galactica - Season 4.0
The Tudors - Season 2
Doctor Who: War Machines
Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday
Mannix: The Second Season
John Peel's Dandelion Records
CDs
Art of Field Recording, Vol. 2 by Various Artists
Other recent New Releases
Monday, January 05, 2009
New DVDs, CDs Jan. 6, 2009: Battlestar Galactica season 4, vintage Doctor Who, John Peel and more
Pop links: Buck Rogers by Frazetta, NYT on Elder and Von Eeden's Jack Johnson
Golden Age Comic Book Stories presents some Buck Rogers comic book covers by the great Frank Frazetta.
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Missed this over the holiday break: A New York Times piece about the late Mad magazine cartoonist Will Elder.
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Also from The New York Times, a review of Trevor Von Eeden's new graphic novel about boxer Jack Johnson.
Who's the new Doctor Who?
I'm a bit late with this one due to being on vacation, but, here's some news from the BBC:
The BBC today announced that Matt Smith has been cast in the role of the Doctor in the iconic BBC series Doctor Who.
Smith will be the 11th Time Lord and will take over from David Tennant who leaves the show at the end of 2009. He will be seen in the forthcoming fifth series that will be broadcast in 2010.
The identity of the new Doctor was revealed on a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential that was broadcast on BBC One today (3 January) at 5.35pm (17.35 GMT).
Matt Smith said of his new role: "I'm just so excited about the journey that is in front of me. It's a wonderful privilege and challenge that I hope I will thrive on.
"I feel proud and honoured to have been given this opportunity to join a team of people that has worked so tirelessly to make the show so thrilling.
"David Tennant has made the role his own, brilliantly, with grace, talent and persistent dedication. I hope to learn from the standards set by him.
"The challenge for me is to do justice to the show's illustrious past, my predecessors, and most importantly, to those who watch it. I really cannot wait."
Matt Smith, 26, grew up with his family including one sister in Northampton. He was head boy at Northampton School For Boys where he excelled at sports, music and drama.
Initially, Matt wanted to be a professional footballer and played for Northampton Town Under-11 & 12s, Nottingham Forest Under 12, 13 & 14s and Leicester City Under 15 & 16s before a back injury forced him out of the game.
Following his injury, and with the encouragement of one of his teachers, Jerry Hardingham, Matt decided to join the National Youth Theatre.
It was during this time that Matt first gained attention at the Royal Court Theatre when he was cast in the play Fresh Kills, directed by Wilson Milam, whilst still at the University Of East Anglia where he was studying Drama and Creative Writing.
Already a stalwart of the National Youth Theatre, his performance at the Court led to a variety of theatrical experiences at the National Theatre: in the award-winning History Boys (directed by Nick Hytner), On The Shore Of The Wide World (directed by Sarah Frankcom) and also in the acclaimed trio of plays Burn / Citizenship / Chatroom (directed by Anna Mackmin).
These roles led to Matt's first outings on the small screen, alongside Billie Piper in Phillip Pullman's period detective stories, The Ruby In The Smoke and The Shadow In The North (both BBC One), where he played Jim, right-hand man to Billie's detective heroine Sally Lockhart.
These pieces were followed by the lead role of Danny in the BBC Two series Party Animals, the brilliantly observed drama set in the world of young politicians.
Matt has recently completed work on Moses Jones for BBC Two, directed by Michael Offer, in which he plays the lead role of Dan Twentyman, alongside Shaun Parkes in the title role.
Action figures: Cute, cuddly Doctor Who figures on the way
Character Options has released info on a batch of cartoony Doctor Who "Time Squad" figures due out later this year.
Here's a look at a few:
More Doctor Who action figures at Amazon.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Picture sleeve parade: 45 rpm Christmas records
The Chipmunks
Burl Ives
Louis Armstrong
Jim Reeves
The Beatles
Kenny and Corky
Brenda Lee
Beatles Christmas fan club record covers
I wrote about these never conventionally released recordings in the PCS Best Christmas Album roundup. Here's a look at the covers. 
1963
1964
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
New comics Dec. 24, 2008: Billy Batson #3, American Flagg
Here's what looks good/interesting to me. Click the title links to order discounted books from Amazon. Proceeds help support this site.
BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM #3 I love this title. It's created with heart, humor and truckloads of visual imagination. If you miss comics that are fun, you need to check it out.
AMERICAN FLAGG DEFINITIVE COLL TP VOL 01 I'm not a big Howie Chaykin fan, but I know lots of people loved this series and are happy to see it available in collected form.
Spirit movie review roundup
Reuters:
Scenes begin seemingly at random and end abruptly. Actors plays characters at full bore. Dialogue has the crude energy of '30s Hollywood melodramas but rarely any wit or engaging subtext. All emotions are forced, and relationships get explored half-heartedly.
Gabriel Macht is sturdy but dull as the restless Spirit. Samuel L. Jackson chews the graphic scenery as Octopus, while Scarlett Johansson seems to get lost in that same scenery as his weirdly docile sidekick Silken Floss. Eva Mendes plays jewel thief Sand Saref as one-note temptress, while Paz Vega as a French assassin and Jaime King as an underwater nymph go for the same effect. How many vamps can a movie contain?
...One thing about "The Spirit" is that it's never dull. Then again, the same can be said of Chinese water torture.
Orlando Sentinel:
Unadulterated Miller is like comic-book David Mamet, ripping the competition for fanboy fealty. "You'll believe a man can't fly" and somebody's as "dead as 'Star Trek.'"
Shot on that "Sin City"/"300" computer-generated set, it's not a place for an expansive story or subtle acting. But everybody looks gorgeous in this dark, funny cartoon of an action movie.
Which is to say, this is colorful. This is wild and kind of funny. This is adventurous, even. But don't try this again.
Minnespolis Star Tribune:
I suppose "The Spirit" could be worse, though it stretches the imagination to say just how. It's not easy to make a thriller that's both incredibly convoluted and intensely boring, laboriously narrated yet befuddled, but Miller — creator and co-director of "Sin City" — triumphs on all these counts.
Paste Magazine:
If we lived in a reality where the dead could rise from the grave to enact vengeance against sins unforgivable, golden-age comic scribe Will Eisner would have good reason to revisit Frank Miller.
...The noir sensibility that Eisner invented is mutilated into graphic novel pornography, producing a film that will rest in peace as a cult failure that's as laughable in its misexecution as it's tragic in its failed potential.
McClatchy Newspapers:
"The Spirit" is not a typical movie, and thank goodness. It would have been an insult to Eisner to have created a standard big-budget action film. Under Miller's guidance the result is a loyal and loving tribute.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Action figures: Doctor Who Age of Steel Cybermen and Fires of Pompei Set
Here are pics of two new Doctor Who action figure sets:
The Age of Steel Cybermen set, which includes:
1x Cyberman from "The Tenth Planet" (1966)
1x Cyberman from "Tomb of the Cybermen" (1967)
1x Cyberman from "The Invasion" (1968)
1x Cyber Leader from "The Next Doctor" (2008)
Each figure comes with a piece to assemble the Cyber Controller from "Tomb of the Cybermen" (1967).
The Fires of Pompeii Gift set, which includes a 5" Roman Soldier and an 8" Pyroville Soldier from the second episode of Season 4. 
See more Doctor Who action figures at Amazon.
Pop links: Mah Na Mah Na!, Dollhouse clip, Herb Alpert Christmas, EC Comics naughtiness
PCL LinkDump traces muppet performances of that infernally catchy tune, "Mah Na Mah Na." You can download the original Piero Umiliani version of the tune from Amazon.
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Entertainment Weekly has a clip from Joss Whedon's upcoming series "Dollhouse." More "Dollhouse" at our sister site.
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See Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass play "My Favorite Things" and "The Christmas Song" on the Ed Sullivan Show, 1969.
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Portzebie points out some subliminal naughtiness artist Joe Orlando slipped past his publisher in a 1952 issue of EC Comics' Tales from the Crypt.
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