Plenty of Nothing

John Candy Explains 3D

John Candy shows Elwy Yost how to make a 3D horror film for $5000 in this 1982 interview from the TVO archive. He then plays Eugene DeWitt, a filmmaker so deep in his craft that he no longer puts film in his camera.

Frank Sidebottom's Proper Telly Show

In colour in repeats.

Yotsuba and Pitagora Suichi

Yotsuba&! volume 6, page 99. Sample Pitagora Suichi.

Moyashimon, the Drama

Moyashimon, the microbial manga, is now a live action TV show. Okay, the microbes are animated.

Kouji love to brew.

Pullo and Vorenus

Fans of the HBO series Rome could be forgiven if they thought that the two central characters Pullo and Vorenus were entirely made up. For a couple of nobodies they certainly get into the midst of every political development of the first century BC, like the protagonists of a Walter Scott novel. But there were two centurions of the 11th Legion named Pullo and Vorenus, who appear in Book 5, chapter 44 of Caesar's Gallic Wars, where they are the same inseparable rivals seen on TV:

In the legion were two very brave centurions named Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus, both of them nearly qualified for the first grade. They were always disputing which was the better soldier, and every year the competition for promotion set them quarrelling. When the fighting at the entrenchment was at its height, Pullo cried, "Why hesitate, Vorenus? What better opportunity do you want to prove your courage? To-day shall decide between us." With these words he advanced outside the fortification, and rushed into the thickest place he could see in the enemy's line. This brought Vorenus too over the rampart, hastening after his rival for fear of what everyone would think if he lagged behind. Pullo stopped a short way from the Gauls, hurled his spear, and transfixed one of them who was running forward from the ranks. The man fainted from the wound, and his comrades covered him with their shields, at the same time showering missiles upon Pullo and preventing him from advancing farther. His shield was pierced by a javelin, which stuck in his sword-belt; and as the blow knocked his scabbard out of place, he could not get his hand quickly to his sword when he tried to draw it, and was surrounded by the enemy while unable to defend himself. His rival Vorenus ran up to rescue him in his distress, and all the Gauls immediately left Pullo, who they thought had been mortally wounded by the javelin, and turned upon Vorenus. Vorenus drew his sword, and fighting hand to hand killed one of his assailants and drove the rest back a little; but pressing on too eagerly he stumbled down a steep slope and fell. It was now his turn to be surrounded, but Pullo came to his aid; both of them escaped unhurt, and after killing a number of the enemy returned to camp covered with glory. Thus Fortune played with them in their struggle for pre-eminence: bitter rivals though they were, each helped and saved the other, so that it could not be decided which was the more deserving of the prize of valour. (Penguin translation by S.A. Handford.)

University of the Air

If this TV series had existed in the Fifties it might have had a jazz-inspired musical theme. But the sound of modernity in the Sixties and Seventies was Moog-synthesized. Surprisingly, University of the Air was a program aired on CTV, the private-sector network. The idea of free access to university education seems more CBC in retrospect, though the closest the CBC get to educational broadcasting these days is Jeopardy. D

A Message From Your King

Ask A Copywriter has a collection of the public service messages posted around New York last fall as part of the build-up to the series Kings, in which New York plays Gilboa in an updated version of the Old Testament Book of Kings.  Ian McShane plays the King.  I imagine there must be signage like this in Jordan and Kuwait.  Douglas

"You Are Surrounded By Armed Bastards!"

Have you seen ABC's remake of the British cop drama Life on Mars?  It's got Harvey Keitel.  Thursdays at 10:00.