The Best of Twitter -- Pt. 1 ....Real

Twitter is an amazing social media tool. How else would the average person have the ability to have a "Conversation" with their favorite celebrity?

Granted the term conversation and celebrity have their limitations in the Twitterverse. But, hey any port in a storm! 

I've had short lived conversations with a few CEO's and even a comic book conversation with Michael Chiklis of the Shield and No Ordinary Family fame (@michaelchiklis). I've got a friend who's had a conversation with the likes of Alyssa Milano!! (@aylssa_milano)  Seriously how cool is that?

I'm still waiting with baited breath to snag a mention/re-tweet from the king himself Nathan Fillion (@NathanFillion)
Twitter is a great way to stay connected with friends and family, the famous and the fictional. So, over the next few days I will pass along a few of my favorite twitter accounts in four main categories: Celebrity, News, Fake and Fictional.

Today we will start with......

Celebrity:

Nathan Fillion -- @NathanFillion

The star of Firefly, Serenity, Slither and Castle is a constant twitter-er.  Whether it's pictures from the set. A shot of his action figure Christmas Tree. Or just the cool things that he gets to do with his celebrity. You can always expect a few laughs a day from Capt. Malcom Reynolds himself. A celebrity that embraces twitter is not new. One that is on constantly and answers fans questions and has been known to slip twitter related references into his TV show is rare. Every time you see him "Feed the Bird" or drop a "Bam Said the Lady" it's like your in the know for a cool inside joke. Which is exactly what he's done. It's subtle...but it's there! That's why Fillion is the man.

Michael Chiklis -- @MichaelChiklis

The star of: The Commish, The Shield, No Ordinary Family. Comic book creator, musician, Autism awareness spokesman. The guy does it all and still finds time for those of us in the twitter world. When his new comic book project "Pantheon" dropped in shops a few months back I made a comment on twitter to the effect that I was really looking forward to the new title and couldn't wait until the second issue hit stands. Within a few minutes I had a response from Michael telling me he was glad I liked the title and he'd keep us updated on when to expect the second issue. True to his word....got that update! So for that...he hits my list!

Eliza Dusku -- @elisadusku

The Star of: Buffy, Tru Calling and Dollhouse. Activist, funny girl, and lover of all things LA. Dusku is someone I started following when I was watching Dollhouse. While I have never had a direct conversation with her I know that she is open to lending a virtual helping hand when needed. She's done twitter based fundraising for Haiti and other worth while organizations. She's another who is willing to answer questions, interact with the fans and post the occasional silly photo.

Steve Martin -- @SteveMartinToGo

SNL Alumni, movie star, Stand up comedian, author, twitter genius. Follow him....follow him now! This is a guy who can make a joke last for days. Usually that's overkill. But, in the case of Steve Martin it's comic gold! His riff a few weeks back about getting a dubious award....from himself was great. As was his short twitter run as President of Egypt. For a good laugh make him a big part of your Twitter stream.

Craig Engler -- @syfy

Not a celebrity in the strictest sense of the word. But, if you are a follower of all things Science Fiction...or a regular watcher of the Syfy channel this is a great account to follow. Here you will get hands on news about upcoming shows and events, contests, and usually a large number of Q&A sessions throughout the week. If there was ever a question about how a show makes it to the air, stays on the air, how ratings work...this is your guy. you can also follow his personal feed @craigengler

Tomorrow we will take a look at a few of my favorite "fake" accounts. Oh, and dare I forget to mention...you can always check in on yours truly @jameshields

Firefly to fly again! (sort of)

Nathan Fillion seems to have caused quite a stir on the web with his comments this last week when he told Entertainment Weekly, in an interview,  that he would gladly dust off his gun and brown coat to play Captain Malcom "Mal" Reynolds again if asked.

To quote the interview, '"It was my favorite job ever. What wasn’t great about it? I got to wear a low-slung holster. I got to ride horses. I got to have a spaceship. I got to act mean and curmudgeonly. [Creator Joss Whedon] is really good at kicking characters in the nuts so the other characters would have laughs at my expense and that was great too."

So where did this all come from? Well, die hard Browncoats have been asking for this for a long time (myself included), but mostly it's because Firefly is coming back to cable.  The Science Channel will begin running the series starting March 6th. In addition to running in full...it will be run in its original order as was intended by creator and writer Joss Wheadon.

As a fan of the series I would love to see it return with new episodes. But, I'm not sure it would work for a couple of reasons.

First the majority of the cast is tied up with other TV projects:

Nathan Fillion -- Castle
Gina Torres -- Huge
Alan Tudyk -- free (legally speaking..not so sure)
Morena Baccarin -- V
Adam Baldwin -- Chuck
Jewel Staite -- Free (But shouldn't be!)
Sean Maher --  Free
Summe Glauu -- Cape (but may be free soon)
Ron Glass -- free

So...essentially you have Wash, Kaylee, Simon and Book free to come back for a new show without having to put off other shows.

The second problem is that of those four who currently have no other commitments...two of the characters died in the movie Serenity (Wash and Book). I guess you could always set the new series between the final episode of the previous show and the events of the movie. But, filler stories like that seem to always lack something since you know the ultimate ending of the characters arc. On the other hand you do have the vast majority of the characters that survived and it could be interesting to see where they go after the loses they suffered during Serenity.

As much as the fan boy in me would love to see Serenity fly again with the old crew on board I think it may be something that is best left the way it is. A great series tragically killed before its time. A show that had a solid cast and crew who produced top notch story telling, only to be grounded by a network that is notorious for having no patience with shows.

Even if FOX did admit they made a mistake and offer to bring the show back. Even if you could get the whole cast and crew back together. Even if the stars aligned and all this happened....there's no guarantee that we would all wouldn't have our hearts broken again! Plus, with the limitation set forth in the movie we wouldn't get to see a whole lot of growth from the characters.

Inara and Mal would still be lying about their feelings. Wash and Zoe would still be married (granted you could throw a twist into that in true Joss fashion), River would still be crazy, Kaylee and Simon would still be dancing around their feelings, Jayne --- would still be Jayne, and we would never get to find out what Shepard Book's story really was. Which would box you into how the characters could grow.

Sure you could give them many more years of crazy space adventures. Adventures that would be fun, funny, heart breaking and heart warming. But, in the end you would realize that there is only so far you can take the character growth without jumping past the events of the movie.

If there was an honest to God ground swell to raise cash to buy the rights to the show from FOX so Fillion and pals could make it themselves...I'd throw in a few buck. Or, better yet...plan a vacation around their shooting schedule to help lend a hand! 

Currently there is one main place that you can show your support for Fillion and the crew of serentity...on Facebook on Twitter there is no set account..but you will see the hash tags everywhere...even a few of the writers have said they would jump on board to help out!

Fingers crossed that we will soon see more futuristic Space Cowboy adventures of a ragtag bunch of strangers who turn out like any other TV family. They lived, loved, fought, lost, triumphed and cursed in Chinese all on one of the coolest spaceships to hit TV.

Movie Review -- Slither (2006)

Slither -- as if the world needed one more example of why Nathan Fillion is awesome...here it is!

As slap stick horror films go this one is in third place on my all time favorite list. No. 1 - Evil Dead, No. 2 - Shaun of the Dead, No. 3 - Slither.

Nathan Fillion stars as Bill Pardy, chief of police in a small town who soon has to deal with an alien invasion that is essentially turning the town folk into mindless zombies.

The fun starts when the sexually frustrated Grant Grant (played by Michael Rooker), after being shut down by his wife, goes for a walk with a townie who picked him up in the local bar. While stumbling home through the woods they come across a giant slimy egg/meteor. It would seem that from that point forward the least of his problems would be having two first names!

Grant Grant gets infected and becomes the fleshy epicenter of rest of the movie.

Like with most zombie comedies, of recent memory any way,  there's a romantic sub-plot. Seems that Chief Pardy has been carrying a torch for Grant Grant's wife Starla (played by Elizabeth Banks) for a long time. As the bugs slowly start to turn Grant and other town's folk into mindless zombies, or worse in some cases. Pardy teams up with his deputies, a local girl who was able to escape being turned and the foul mouthed town Mayor Jack McReady (Gregg Henry).

McReady's expletive laced out bursts paired with Pardy's spot on dead pan make for some comic gold. Thrown in a rant on no Mr. Pibb  in the middle of an alien take over. An attack by a zombie deer. And more disgusting slug like aliens than you can throw a hand grenade at and you have the makings of a classic.

Fillion has always been a favorite of mine. From his days on Two Guys, a Girl & a Pizza Place (a show so old that I forgot he was on it!) to Caleb the secondary big bad of season 7 of Buffy, the short lived Firefly and now as the title character on ABC's hit show Castle. Fillion brings a sense of humor and charm to each and every role that makes you care...no matter how silly the role.

If an alien/zombie/comedy/romance/action/horror film plays to your taste...you need to watch this film.

Currently I'm....

Listening to a lot of different albums on constant rotation! My six disc changer in my car looks like....
1) Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins -- Rabbit Fur Coat
2) The Watson Twins -- Fire Songs
3) Motley Crue -- Saints of Los Angeles
4) Black Star (Mos Def/Talib Kweli) -- Black Star
5) Flobots -- Fight With Tools
6) Mos Def -- The New Danger

Watching a lot of TV...
Top Five shows I am watching now are...
1) Burn Notice (welcome back!)
2) Top Gear (BBC car show that kicks ass)
3) Psych (just caught up with season two in time for season three)
4) Reaper (glad that I have all of season one recorded...love this show! Can't wait for the new season!)
5) Cash in the Attic (damn you BBC America!)

Reading...
Well, I am trying to find time to read. When I do find time I have started two books.
1) A Clockwork Orange -- Anthony Burgess
2) The Sin City Graphic Novels (not really a book...but it has nice pictures)

Oh...and I have fallen in love with a little website....

Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

The Brainchild of Joss "can do no wrong" Wheadon stars Neil Patrick Harris (NPH for those in the know) and Wheadon alum Nathan Fillion. Check it out...funny stuff!