/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published belatedly (but not belligerently) by Phillip Thorne. ** Volume 4, Issue 7: Tuesday, 15 October 2002 ** Previous issue: Wednesday, 4 September 2002 ** Next issue: Whenever its contents self-assemble. ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** "James Isaac Neutron! Haven't we warned you about tampering with ** the unstable nature of a chaotic system?" ** --Judy Neutron to her son, after accidentally inducing a new ice age; ** "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ OBS & COGS: This issue, Later, Gum-clogged sneaks, TCN edits, Handy guidelines. ERRATA: "Baby Looney Toons", "Digimon" s4, Quorn, OR/Halfway, RPG illos... GAME REVIEW: "Kingdom Hearts". PLOT SYNOPSIS: "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" s4-s6. UPCOMING FILM: Imax, autumn sequels, and "Spirited Away". plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. http://nsx.underbase.org/ - back issues http://nsx.underbase.org/index_plus.htm - synopses, reviews, analyses, etc. mailto://nsx-discuss-l@underbase.org - post on this issue (if subscribed) http://www.underbase.org/ - additional databases /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** ** In this issue ** In upcoming issues ** Gum-clogged sneakers are bad ** Cartoon Network: land of bad edits ** Phil's Handy Guidelines to Low-Priority Stuff (Part 1) ** ************************************************************************ */ <[I]> In This Issue For a while in college, I worked as Chief Concept Artist for a small computer game company; as a writer and programmer, the dynamics of gameplay intrigued me, but I somehow escaped the deathmatching fate that's destroyed so many of my friends' thumbs. Nonetheless, Squaresoft's new "Kingdom Hearts" is weird enough to attract my attention. The autumn sequels are slowly blooming in theaters -- "James Bond", "Star Trek", "Harry Potter", "Lord of the Rings". There's also Studio Ghibli's latest feature animé (as adapted by Disney), "Spirited Away" -- if you're lucky enough to live near a major metro area. Sure, it would've been more useful to know a month ago, but Delays Happen when a writer gets stuck in a temp job so horribly soporific that late nights are a no-no, lest his face inadvertently assist in data entry. (Faces have terrible keyboarding skills.) The fourth episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer's" seventh season airs this week, and for viewers who forget there was even a *sixth* season, I've provided a detailed synopsis. Again, I'm three weeks late in my warning. Sorry. <[II]> In Upcoming Issues I've got book reviews of the many dimensions of Rudy Rucker's _Spaceland_, the many universes of R.A.Metzger's _Picoverse_, and the many clones of David Brin's _Kiln People_, plus the conclusion to William Morrow's satirical "Godhead Trilogy", _The Eternal Footman_ -- no, really I do, stop laughing. They just didn't fit in this issue -- blame Buffy's bulk. Diane Duane's sixth "Young Wizards" novel is out, I attended the book signing at Chester County Book Company, and I've got a review of that, too -- once the draft meets her approval. It's revealing to note that my methodical research-and-writing style means I've spent four hours reviewing a one-hour event. <[III]> Gum-Clogged Sneakers Are Bad Japanese homes have a simple means to prevent the tracking-in of dirt by their residents: they insist that street shoes be removed at the entrance. (If this rule is not obeyed, the house grows eyes and teeth and eats the offender.) Alas, American homes have proven difficult to train in this concept. So, what technique do *you*, my readers, employ to extract gum, gravel, and wet grass from the traction-crannies of your sneakers? <[IV]> Cartoon Network: Land of Bad Edits Something is amiss in TCN's editing department. For the past month at least, a particular subset of ad spots (the first in each break) have been truncated, terminating after one to five seconds. To my knowledge, TCN runs only national ads, not local; so is the problem at the network, or somewhere downstream? (Local TV stations edit local ads into the breaks in their national programming, sometimes causing timing disasters.) A second problem with TCN is its clock. To pad half-hour slots, the network must frequently insert non-ad interstitial material (such as their aging collection of three Toonami music videos). The need for padding varies, since animé unsuitable-content-snips result in episodes of wildly varying length. Sometimes somebody goofs, and the next slot starts early. A few weeks ago, the Friday evening episode of "He-Man" began a full *seven minutes* ahead of schedule, at 17:53. I can be precise because a radio-synched-to-the-atomic- timebase clocks sits atop my VCR. A third problem is its definition of "suitable for adults". Saturday late night contains TCN's year-old Adult Swim Action block: six half-hour animé. "Cowboy Bebop" and "InuYasha" qualify (rated at TV-14), but the remainder of the lineup has been recycled from its afternoon Toonami block -- "Outlaw Star", "Tenchi Muyo", various "Gundams" -- complete with the edits to achieve Y7 ratings. According to knowledgable-sounding posters to news:rec.arts.animation, the company that makes the edits, Williams Street, charges to restore the cuts. None of this explains Adult Swim's "Pilot Candidate" (aka "Candidate for Goddess"), a tepid SF- mecha melodrama with less violence than FoxKid's Saturday-morning "NASCAR Racers". <[V]> Phil's Handy Guidelines to Low-Priority Stuff (Part 1) (1) Do not attempt to operate nail clippers or dental floss after applying moisturizing hand lotion. (2) Do not flail wildly in frustration when standing amidst precariously-piled books or hanging pull-cords tipped with heavy bobs. (3) Do not shave your elbow's cubital fossa before donating blood; in attempting to avoid later adhesive-hair-pain, the razor burns you incur will disqualify you from donating. /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** ** "Baby Looney Toons" ** "Digimon" s4 ** Quorn ** Halfway, Oregon and Half.com ** T'pol and T'Mir in "Carbon Creek" ** ************************************************************************ */ "Baby Looney Toons" features the classic drab-toned Looney Toons characters, not the brightly-colored Tiny Toons. In the one promotional image I had seen before writing the article, I perceived more colors than were actually extant. "Digimon" s4 airs only on Mondays in UPN's 16:00 slot (and is repeated sun-11:00); the other other four weekdays show s3. Issue 4.6 "Obs & Cogs": In response to the article on mycoprotein Quorn and other "Q-" foods, one internationally-travelled reader notes that a German product called "Quark" is like very rich yogurt. (While Kibo is forever ready with the /bon mots/, he should perhaps not be entirely trusted in culinary recommendations; he has a fanatical aversion to cheese, for instance.) The reader also notes in response to "may they do better than Halfway, Oregon", that a deal featuring $75,000 cash and 22 PCs for the school system, isn't bad for a small, economically-challenged town. [ http://town.half.com/ ] Issue 4.6 "Book Reviews": I called the illustrations of _Contacting Aliens_ "RPG quality" because they're black-and-white line art, like most art in the "sourcebooks" for pen-and-paper role-playing games. To be fair, they're at the high end of that artform: many RPG illos look suspiciously like high-speed scribbles, unsurprising when you consider the minimal rate paid to freelance artists for them. In the past five years, many publishers have begun producing full-color hardback sourcebooks: you see some new full-color artwork (plus photos when the game's a media tie-in, like "Trek" or "Star Wars"), but mostly the ink's dedicated to irrelevant page decorations. In my "Tech Overview" of ST:ENT-201:"Shockwave, Part II", posted to news:rec.arts.startrek.tech on thu-19-sep, I interpreted the next- ep-promo to indicate another time-travel story. In fact, the female Vulcan visiting 1950s Earth in "Carbon Creek" is not T'pol herself, merely her "wow, that's a strong family resemblance" grandmother T'Mir. The same thing happened in ST:VGR:"11:59", with Janeway's ancestress Shannon O'Donnell. Gee, weird genetics -- and you thought reincarnation only happened with Nietzscheans ("Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda"). It's probably all that four-gigayear-old evolution-directing geno-programming left over from the Progenitors (ST:TNG:"The Chase"). /* *************************************************************************** ** COMPUTER GAME REVIEW ** "Kingdom Hearts" ** By Squaresoft and Walt Disney ** ************************************************************************ */ Without extensive practice in Believing Six Implausible Premises Before Breakfast (earned by reading crossover fanfic), I'd be suffering mental whiplash from this next concept... Squaresoft (Japanese maker of the "Final Fantasy" series of animé- like computer games) and the Walt Disney Company (American maker of not-at-all-animé-like movies) have joined to produce a PlayStation2 action-RPG title called "Kingdom Hearts". To see FF-style human characters questing alongside fuzzy Disney comic characters is... conducive to cognitive dissonance. The premise: an Evil Force called The Heartless is busy conquering multiple worlds (ie Disney movies), and your character (Sora, vocals by Haley Joel Osment) must stop its legions. With sidekicks Daffy Duck and Goofy you traverse the worlds, running into a dozen FF notables and a hundred copyrighted Disney icons (from "Aladdin", "Alice in Wonderland", "Beauty and the Beast", "Hercules", "The Little Mermaid", "Mulan", "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Sleeping Beauty", "Snow White", and "Winnie the Pooh"). Reviewers indicate the game isn't perfect. That you essentially reprise the plots of the Disney features, means there's little mystery. Two interludes that must be endured seem pointless and half-finished: a space battle with customizable ships, and a strange hybrid brick-building game aboard a sailing ship. The automatic third-person-viewpoint camera aims at Sora or the "boss" enemy on each level, but often loses sight of the action, because (a) the scenes are choked with enemies, (b) the enemies are opaque, and (c) the "boss" characters are so huge that everything else falls off the view's edge. The TV ad ("you'll never know who you'll run into next") doesn't induce in me a desire to buy the game -- but then, I've never bought *any* computer game, and the last "platform" I used was a friend's Nintendo in 1988. There was a two-seat arcade version of "Virtual On" in 1998, but my opponent/friend kept shooting me ("stop that!") before I could gain control of my giant robot. The last game I really enjoyed was a "Star Trek 25th Anniversary" pinball machine in 1992. ("What are ye waitin' for? Activate the transportah!") [ http://www.squaresoft.com/ ] [ http://www.sqareusa.com/ ] [ http://ps2.ign.com/articles/371/371125p1.html ] [ http://gamespot.com/gamespot/stories/reviews/0,10867,2879719,00.html ] /* *************************************************************************** ** UPCOMING FILMS ** ** IMAX: "Apollo 13", "Star Wars Episode II", "The Lion King", and more ** Ghibli/Disney: "Spirited Away" ** Theatrical releases ** Home video releases ** ************************************************************************ */ <[I]> Disney's "Treasure Planet", plus reworked versions of "Apollo 13", "Star Wars Episode II", "The Lion King" and "Santa vs. The Snowman" are coming to IMAX theaters in North America. SW2:AotC will appear 1-nov on 20-30 science museum screens and 50 commercial, to promote the film's 12-nov home video release. "Santa" is a 1997 half-hour CGI comedy special from the group that would later do "Jimmy Neutron". (--digitalmediafx.com and imax.com) <[II]> Disney will be releasing the home video of its surprise hit animated feature "Lilo & Stitch" on 3-dec. The film opened only on 21-jun, and usually the wait is longer; but reportedly production of the copious DVD bonus material (including new animated interstitials) concurrent with the film permitted the schedule to be compressed. [ http://www.animationproducts.com/news2002/September2002/lilo-stitch-dvd.html ] <[III]> The 2001 Studio Ghibli film "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" ("The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro") will soon see a limited NorthAm release by Buena Vista (Disney), under the abbreviated title "Spirited Away". It's the story of Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl who must rescue herself and her parents after they wander into the spirit world. 128 minutes, animated, English dub. Director Hayao Miyazaki reportedly conceived the film when he realized he hadn't produced one with a realistic 10-year old heroine, or for that audience. The title can be viewed as the pun "Sento Chihiro no Kamikakushi", "The Spiriting Away of Bathhouse Chihiro", because Chihiro is forced to scrub ghosts in a Japanese- style bath [1]. Disney has previously released the Ghibli films "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" on home video, and "Princess Mononoke" in theaters. "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds", "Laputa: Castle in the Sky", and "Porco Rosso: the Crimson Pig" are still (to my knowledge) available only as fansubs. In the US/PA/Philadelphia area, the film is playing at the PA/Bensalem/AMC Neshaminy 24, the PA/Philadelphia/Ritz East, and the NJ/Hamilton/AMC Hamilton 24. [ http://www.anime-tourist.com/article.php?sid=122 ] [ http://www.fandango.com/movie_page.asp?mv=45639&txtCityZip=Philadelphia%2CPA -- Philadelphia analog theaters ] [1] The notion of communal bathing seems a bit odd to many Americans, but it has advantages of energy economy. Every ancient Roman city had its monumental public bath. Japan's tradition derives from the prevalence of volcanic springs, and has evolved into /rotenburo/ (outdoor hot springs resorts), /sento/ (bath houses), and /furo/ (the bathtub itself and ritual surrounding it). As a major cultural element, the baths appear in many animé, often to comedic effect. <[IV]> COMING TO THEATERS: 20-sep: "Apollo 13" in IMAX 20-sep: "Spirited Away" opens in Boston, Chicagon, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, and Washington D.C. 27-sep: "Spirited Away" opens in additional theaters in the above cities. 27-sep: "The Tuxedo" (Jackie Chan) 04-oct: "Spirited Away" opens in Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Montreal, Phoenix, San Diego, and Vancouver. 04-oct: "Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie" (CGI) 11-oct: "Pokémon 4Ever" 01-nov: "Star Wars Episode II" in IMAX 01-nov: "The Core" (serious SF) 15-nov: "Harry Potter (2) and the Chamber of Secrets" 22-nov: "Die Another Day" (James Bond #20 or #22 -- see NSX 1.07, nov-1999) 27-nov: "Solaris" (based on the Stanislaw Lem SF novel) 27-nov: "Treasure Planet" (Disney animated feature) 13-dec: "Star Trek (10): Nemesis" 18-dec: "The Lord of the Rings (2): The Two Towers" 20-dec: "The Wild Thornberrys" (Nickelodeon animated) <[V]> COMING TO HOME VIDEO: 17-sep: "Monsters, Inc." 08-oct: "Beauty and the Beast" (revised edition) 05-nov: "Powerpuff Girls: the Movie" 12-nov: "Star Wars Episode II" 03-dec: "Lilo & Stitch" /* *************************************************************************** ** PLOT SYNOPSIS: TELEVISION ** ** "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": Seasons Four through Six ** Season Seven starts tue-24-sep-20:00 on UPN ** ************************************************************************ */ Season 4, 1999-2000, WB 1. In the fourth season, Buffy and Willow go to college: UCal- Sunnydale. Still smarting from the departure of first love ANGEL THE VAMPIRE, Buffy falls for another student, and is brokenhearted when he casually dismisses a one-night stand. She eventually grows close to her psychology T.A., RILEY FINN; although both sides of the relationship are hampered by secrets. Riley is actually a trained agent of THE INITIATIVE, a secret U.S. military project located beneath the college, directed by MAGGIE WALSH, Buffy's psych professor. 2. The Initiative is collecting and experimenting upon the local demons. They capture SPIKE THE VAMPIRE and implant a neurochip that delivers devastating headaches should he attack a human. Their crowning achievement is the creation of ADAM, a human-demon-cyborg supersoldier. Adam escapes, explores his existence, and embarks on the usual career path: today Sunnydale, tomorrow the world. At the season's climax the Scooby Gang defeats him, but only by channelling the eldritch powers of the FIRST SLAYER into Buffy. 3. Plus... XANDER HARRIS moves into his parents' cellar, and gets a job as a construction worker. ANYA the former VENGEANCE DEMON develops a crush on him. Willow is disappointed by the college's "magic's a bad stereotype" Wicca group, then meets TARA, another dabbler. Tara catalyzes a massive growth in Willow's powers. The two eventually become lovers, after the stinging betrayal and departure of Willow's first love, OZ THE WEREWOLF GUITARIST. Season 5, 2000-2001, WB 4. Millenia ago, a mad god was exiled to Earth, imprisoned and sleeping in a human body; at the same time, a KEY of living energy was created that would permit her escape from this dimension. Today, the shackles on GLORIFICUS are fading, and she's periodically asserting herself. Discovered by Glory's minions, the monks charged with safekeeping of the Key cast it away, giving it human form and placing it in the care of the person best able to protect it -- the Slayer. 5. (All the characters consider the sudden presence of Buffy's 15- year-old sister DAWN perfectly normal; a similar retro-memory enchantment was cast by Buffy's classmate JONATHAN in s4.) 6. Eventually, Glory and her fawning acolytes deduce the new identity of the Key, capture Dawn, and use her blood to open a gate -- a gate that begins to intermix Earth and the mad hell-plane beyond. Buffy sacrifices herself to close the gate and save sister and Earth. Giles ensures permanent victory by killing Glory's human host, BEN the FRIENDLY NURSE. 7. Plus... RUPERT GILES, Buffy's British WATCHER and father-figure, buys the high-profit MAGIC BOX magic store downtown, and hires Anya as a clerk. Xander and Anya get an apartment. Unable to eat humans, Spike can still fight demons, and tries to join the team. He develops a crush on Buffy, and hires Buffy's classmate WARREN to build him a robot surrogate. Willow's magic skills continue to grow, but they're still ineffectual against a god. Buffy and Riley's relationship is strained, and he eventually leaves to join a demon-hunting Special Ops squad. Buffy's mom JOYCE SUMMERS dies of brain cancer. Giles leaves to store to Anya and returns to England. Season 6, 2001-2002, UPN 8. In the wake of Buffy's death and Giles' departure, Willow and Tara move into Buffy's house to watch Dawn. The surviving Scooby Gang (plus Spike, Dawn, and Buffybot) attempt to keep Sunnydale demon-free and human-safe, but it's too much. The arrival of a gang of strap-faced biker-demons interrupts a dangerous magical ceremony to resurrect Buffy (in the belief her soul's gone to a hell- dimension); she digs out of her own grave, traumatized and unwitnessed. 9. Buffy takes weeks to recover, and can't admit to her friends that they rescued her not from Hell, but from Heaven. She confides in Spike, and discovers his neurochip doesn't stop him from hurting *her*. Did she come back *wrong*? Eventually, and against her better judgement, she falls into a secret sordid affair with the vampire, and is thus filled with guilty self-loathing. 10. Learning of Buffy's resurrection, Giles returns briefly from England. He temporarily restores her finances (after she fails to obtain any sort of bank loan), and roundly upbraids Willow for using such dangerous and consequence-laden magic. Too late for Buffy to return to college, she reluctantly takes a job at the local DOUBLEMEAT PALACE fast-food place. 11. Tara grows upset at Willow's excessive magic use, and Willow secretly wipes her memory. When this violation is revealed, she tries to wipe the entire gang (and heal Buffy's hurt at the same time), but inadvertently erases their identities. Giles and Anya think they're married. Spike ("Randy", reads the label in his stolen coat) is upset to think he's Giles' son, and after aiding Buffy against some demons, develops an Angel-complex. Fuzzy bunnies fill the Magic Box. Identities are later restored, but Tara leaves Willow. 12. Hurt, Willow restores to human form AMY, a classmate who had (to escape angry townspeople, three years earlier) turned herself permanently into a rat. The two witches go out for some wicked fun (using the crowd at the local club, THE BRONZE, as playthings). Amy then introduces Willow to RACK, a local underworld power-selling shaman. 13. Meanwhile, Dawn becomes a kleptomaniac. Feeling chronically neglected, she confides to her new school counselor -- who happens to be one of Anya's vengeance-demon buddies, HALFREK. Thereafter, at Buffy's birthday party, the guests find themselves strangely unable to leave -- even when attacked by a demon hiding in the wall. 14. Pursuing a pregnant demon, Riley returns briefly; but now he's married. 15. Many of the Gang's insecurities emerge in song when Xander foolishly summons a demonic lord of the dance, who turns the entire town into a series of musical numbers. 16. Anya pressures Xander into setting a wedding date. Tricked by one of Anya's victims and his own insecurities, he abandons her at the altar. Betrayed, Anya secretly re-enlists. The rules require a third party to request vengeance, but she can't trick any of their mutual friends into condemning him. 17. One day while playing cards, three of Buffy's nerdish classmates (WARREN the robot-builder, ANDREW the demon-summoner, and JONATHAN the magic-user) casually decide to form an EVIL TRIO and take over the town. Their list of projects includes Jet Packs, Invisibility Ray, Mind Control, and Girls Girls Girls. Leader Warren is perpetually distracted by the juvenile squabbling of the other two, and their obsession with SF and comics. When Buffy finally encounters their shenanigans, she has trouble taking them seriously. 18. The Trio create a CEREBRAL DAMPENER with which to bend girls to their wishes, and Warren selects his former girlfriend (unknown to the other two) as their first victim. She recovers, runs, and is inadvertently killed -- which shakes Andrew and, even more so, Jonathan. Warren insists they can recover from this, and frame Buffy for the death. They temporarily succeed. 19. Eventually, Warren and Andrew grow tired of Jonathan, and make plans to abandon him as a patsy. They obtain the ORBS OF NEZZLA'KHAN, artifacts of strength and invulnerability, and plan a series of bank heists. Buffy & Co. have deciphered their plans, and she confronts them while knocking over (literally) an armored truck. Jonathan surreptitiously directs her to the Orbs, which she destroys. Warren escapes via jet-pack, but Andrew crashes into a ceiling. The two losers are carted off to Sunnydale jail, Andrew sniffling like a jilted girlfriend: "He never really loved... hanging out with us." 20. Repeatedly stymied, Warren angrily takes the low-tech route, and shoots Buffy in her own backyard. Xander rushes off with her to the hospital, unaware of the second drama -- a ricochet killed Tara, upstairs with Willow. Mad with grief, Willow storms off to the Magic Box and powers-up on the contents of the Dark Magic library. Meanwhile, Warren saunters into a demon bar to recruit a new and better gang, boasting of his accomplishment. The demons laugh, and tell him (a) Buffy survived, (b) Slayers heal quickly, and (c) Willow is after him. He goes to Rack to buy some magical protection. 21. Spike has gone missing, but Dawn gets stashed in his crypt-home with house-sitter CLEM THE FLOPPY-EARED DEMON. Dark Willow heals Buffy at the hospital, then leads her and Xander in search of Warren. She finds a robot decoy on a departing bus, and the original in the woods. An axe in the back doesn't stop her, or a fireball, or a freeze-field, or an evil Boxy Snitch Bomb. She catches up, tortures, and finally -- just as Buffy, Xander and Anya arrive -- flays and immolates him. 22. Willow flies off for her next two victims; Anya and Buffy rush to extract them first. While Willow amuses herself with the local police, the others escape in a squad car. Willow tries to run them down with a semi truck, but her meter runs low. In town, she drains Rack dry, just as Dawn and Clem arrive from a different direction. Dawn and her latent powers are saved only by Buffy's timely arrival. Willow teleports the three of them to the Magic Box, where she attacks the duo -- who are protected by a Sumerian anti-magic chant. Giles arrives (yet again), restraining her temporarily. Xander, Dawn and the duo run; Giles and Buffy talk; Willow tricks Anya into releasing her. She dispatches a homing fireball, which Buffy chases. The store gets trashed in the ensuing duel; Giles loses, his powers push Willow over the top, and she decides to put the world out of its misery. 23. In the cemetery, Buffy arrives in time to warn the foursome to scatter, but the fireball causes a sinkhole into which she and Dawn tumble. Xander bumps his head and, despite Jonathan's earlier vocal commitment to penitence, the duo skedaddle for Mexico. Willow excavates a satanic temple (one of the many evil casualties of the great Sunnydale quake of 1933), designed to destroy the world. She proceeds with ignition, but Xander interposes himself in her energy beam. His words of friendship and love finally cause her to collapse in remorse... 24. ...that, and the antidote Giles had slipped her. Empowered by a British coven (he explains to Anya), he'd played to lose, infecting Willow a counteragent to her rage, allowing Xander to reach her core of decency. Anya admits Xander isn't totally bad. Buffy and Dawn had been sidelined in the hole with some dirt-demons, now defunct; tearfully, the sisters reach an understanding and new beginning. 25. Meanwhile, the absent Spike has been enduring a series of trials-by-combat, seeking to purge his infatuation and regain his manly vampirehood. Instead, in a stroke of irony, he's granted his soul instead. /* ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The original content (layout, text) of this newsletter is copyright 2002 Phillip Thorne. Reproduction in whole or in part is permitted only as per applicable copyright law, if all copyright notices remain intact, and if citation trails (URLs or otherwise) are provided. That said, if you think colleagues would find an issue useful, please reproduce it -- but also suggest they subscribe. Those creative works (books, films, TV, websites, software, toys, etc.) referred-to (reviewed, synopsized, quoted, condensed, analyzed, etc.) herein are the property of their respective owners, are referred-to according to copyright law as interpreted in the U.S., and are cited whenever possible. No (endorsement, infringement, insult) is (expressed, implied, intended), except where specifically stated. In this issue, certain data (possibly not separately acknowledged) have been obtained, aggregated and synthesized from: The Cartoon Network cartoonnetwork.com Digital Media FX digitalmediafx.com Google search engine google.com Gamespot gamespot.com Internet Game Network ign.com The Internet Movie Database imdb.com Upcoming Movies upcomingmovies.com Usenet News news:rec.arts.animation news:rec.arts.sf.tv news:rec.arts.startrek.tech If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special topical coverage, or maybe I've sent you a teaser issue. To subscribe and unsubscribe, use the addresses below: Publisher: nsx@underbase.org (human) Newsletter: nsx-l@underbase.org (automated system) nsx-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) Discussion list: nsx-discuss-l@underbase.org nsx-discuss-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-discuss-l (to post) nsx-discuss-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 4, Issue 7: Tuesday, 15 October 2002 ** Copyright 1999-2002 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */