John Phillip Law (1937-2008)

Film buffs worldwide and MSTies in particular are shedding a tear at the loss of actor John Phillip Law, who died today in Los Angeles.

Law was best known (to me, anyway) for two very memorable roles in MSTied movies, each from a different period in his prolific career. He was the evil Calgon (Kalgan) in the horrendous ‘Space Mutiny’ and the dashing ‘Diabolik’ in the last film ever featured on the show.

Saw it. Didn’t like it.

If nothing else, I thought, at least I’ll get to see a guy saw his own foot off. That was my attitude watching Saw for the first time last night (thanks to Rifftrax Presents). Turns out, the movie disappoints on the appendage-removal and just about everything else.

It’s not a completely incompetent movie, but it doesn’t make any sort of impact. The horror doesn’t really kick in until the final act of the movie, when Cary Elwes blows some kind of acting fuse and begins blubbering and squeaking like Dudley Dursley. At that point, you better believe I was watching through my fingers.

Still, if you can stomach grisly subject matter (like whiny British actors choking down their accents), I recommend this movie. But ONLY with the assistance of Mr. Murphy and Mr. Corbett.

Forgive me Father for I have… Pardon? Why no, I haven’t seen ‘Speed Racer’…

I’m going to conduct a little experiment. Hold on a second while I pop my head out the window of my second-story office…

Yup. As I anticipated, eight passing strangers immediately asked me if I’ve seen Speed Racer yet. No. No I have not.

In fact, let’s just assume I’m not going to see it, and if by some unlikely happenstance I should happen to see it, I’ll be sure and let everyone know. Thanks.

First look at the Chronicle book!

The first collection of my comic strip Chronicle has a title and a cover. “You Can’t Get There From Here” will be available sometime in the next few weeks. The book will feature 120 pages of strips, sketches, and other surprises. It will be available directly from Lulu.com for $15, or in an “artist’s edition” with a personalized sketch from yours truly for $20. Stay tuned for more details.

Fun With Shorts: The Trouble Maker

Fun With Shorts: The Fun of Being Thoughtful

Rifftrax Presents!

Looks like Rifftrax is expanding their operation a bit to include content “sanctioned by” but not featuring head riffer Mike Nelson, all under the banner Rifftrax Presents. The first titles are already available, and include an episode of the fan-created series Star Trek: the New Voyages (riffed by Bill and Kevin) and the horror crap-fest Dark Water with Jennifer Connelly (riffed by a new guy - the very funny and very British Matthew J. Elliott).  Very exciting to see the catalog and the avenues for content growing. I’ll be watching this new project with great interest.

Welcome

Welcome to the new online home of Josh Way, Fun With Shorts, and Chronicle. This site will serve many purposes: blog, hub, store, petting zoo…

I have imported over five years of blog archives from my old joshway.com site to get us started, but this poses a problem: hundreds of posts without comments. So please give the blog a spin and drop me some backsass. You’ll thank yourself for it.

love,
Josh

PS - To my homies and writers from the old site, if you’d like to be a contributor (make posts) to the new blog, please contact me and I’ll hook you up.

If you wrote something from the old site that was not carried over, let me know and I’ll see about correcting that.

A Gentlemen’s Duel

Fun With Shorts: Good Table Manners

Look out, bad movies!

The top story over at ICWXP.com pretty much says it all. I will have the pleasure of contributing jokes to Incognito Cinema Warriors XP, a movie-riffing internet show that’s like Mystery Science Theater 3000 plus heavy metal and zombies. (I know, right?!)

Oh, and this is just part one of “Awesome Josh News.” More to come…

The Chronicle Staff - Now in Technicolor!

This is the first time I’ve rendered the whole Chronicle gang in color. Shereen thought Chuck was blond. Maybe he is. Maybe I made a mistake. What say you?

I slapped this design on some tee shirts and mugs over at Cafe Press. Check them out, won’t you?

Bride of the Squeaky Wheel

From: Tom Hastings <xxxxxx@amctheaters.com>
To: “Joshua Way” <joshway@joshway.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Apr 2008
Subject: Re: AMC Theaters

Mr. Way,

I was sorry to read your email regarding your recent visit to the AMC Theater multiplex in West Nyack, NY. We manage our theaters according to very strict standards, so I can assure you that any issues you encountered were out of the ordinary. I would also add that you seem to harbor certain preexisting biases against our business and multiplex theaters in general.

The automatic ticket machines outside our theaters are there for the convenience of our patrons. They are not, as you suggest, “filth encrusted money vacuums.” Likewise, the ticket takers positioned at the entrances are a team of highly motivated, personable young people. They are by no means “a coven of brain dead reprobates who speak in guttural tongues and offend the visual and olfactory senses in equal measure.”

Fun With Flicks: Phantom From Space

Creatures and Folk…

[This post was written by Rachel McKinney for JoshWay.com]

I have been sculpting doll heads recently (doll bodies sold separately), and have been pretty pleased with the results. Unfortunately, the only camera I have is my camera phone, but you will get the general gist…