Every version of the “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy ” — radio show, book, TV show, computer game, comic book — was different, and all of them had input or direct creative control by Douglas Adams. So it is that the movie version of that most wholly remarkable book again strays from the well-trodden space lanes into wild and woolly backwaters and some of the strangest Hitchhikers’ adventures yet.
For the uninitiated, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” tells the story of what happens after the Earth is destroyed to make way for an interstellar bypass (because you’ve got to build bypasses), including discovering what the whole point of the Earth was to begin with. It helps that one of Arthur Dent’s good friends was an alien researcher for the interstellar travel book and general encyclopedia, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and not from Guilford after all. They’re picked up by the president of the galaxy, who is tooling around the galaxy in a stolen spaceship and, incidentally, has picked up a girl that Arthur really liked, but totally failed to pick up at a party back in England.
For those familiar with the other iterations of the story, the familiar beats are (mostly) here: The Vogon Constructor Fleet darkening the skies above the Earth, Vogon poetry, the Babel fish, Marvin the Paranoid Android, the short unhappy life of a sperm whale, Deep Thought, the fjord-designing Slartibartfast and a Guide full of dubious wisdom.
What’s really interesting for long-term fans (and what are arguably the most successful parts of the film) are all the new bits: See! The Vogon homeworld, Vogsphere! Meet! The candidate Zaphod Beeblebrox beat out for the presidency! Marvel! At the gun designed by Deep Thought! Get Slapped! By a hilarious security system-cum-behavioral management system!
Although the film isn’t perfect — it would probably be hard to please everyone with this film, frankly — the script is strong, the effects top notch (although it’s a little frustrating that filmmakers avoided most of the technical challenges presented by Zaphod’s alien physiology), the actors acquit themselves well (Sam Rockwell as Zaphod is so good, you want to strangle him with your bare hands) and overall, it’s a great deal of fun, if not the home run that long-time fans hoped it might be. (But then, it’s also not the disaster it could have been, which was a strong, strong possibility.)
Recommended for fans of Monty Python, Terry Gilliam and, of course, Hitchhiker fans of all shapes and sizes. The film version of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” strikes out for new directions in the best tradition of the story, and is a great tribute to the spirit and sensibility of the late, great Douglas Adams. (And look for more than one appearance of his portrait in the film, a very classy move by filmmakers.)
(Originally spotted over on Rob Worley’s site. And you thought my URL was obscure.)
If, somewhere along the way in your journalism career, you get a chance to interview Keith Giffen, do it. There’s no better quote machine in the comics industry, and I throw Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman, Jim Steranko and anyone else you can think of into the ring to slug it out with him.
Comixfan: While we’re on the subject, after Drax and Defenders, what else do you have planned at Marvel?
Giffen: A series with a classic name, that I am not at liberty to discuss right now. Simply because, Marvel and DC now like to announce, and the minute they announce, I’ll talk about it. Like Drax, I’ve been done with Drax for four months. Well, Andy keeps calling me and going ‘Can you fix this?’, but the actual bulk work has been done for a while, but then they announce it in Philadelphia, and I can talk about it. It’s business. The guy who created Viagra wasn’t going around going ‘We can give you an erection!’ before Pfizer announced it. Which is kind of interesting, because everyone knows Pfizer makes Viagra, but what’s the name of the guy who created it?
Comixfan: I have no idea… [laughs]
Giffen: Ah ha, so its not just comics doing that. At least comics will say ‘created by Keith Giffen and Roger Slifer’ on Lobo. Work for hire lives…
Interviewing Giffen is sort of like riding a bucking bronco — you grip that phone and your keyboard and hold on, because you’re going at light speed all over the map, and if you can’t keep up, well, you should look into Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, bud.
And you know I’m telling the truth, because I didn’t write this interview and, frankly, I don’t think that I’d ever heard of Comixfan before today. But Giffen interviews are goodness, although it looks like they cut most of the profanity and the slams of the comic industry as a whole. Or maybe it’ll be in Part Two.
While I’m on the subject of iTunes, this week is one of those not-common-enough weeks where at least one of the free downloads is definitely worth grabbing. That isn’t to say they never have good stuff — I really enjoy American Hi-Fi’s “The Geeks Get the Girls” and, of course, Paris Texas’ “Bombs Away” — but more often than not, it’s too poppy or cheesy hip-hop. (And no, this isn’t the Top 100 list yet — you’re being punished because NO ONE has voted for my “Monstrous Regiment” review yet, so you’ll have to wait until Friday.)
 This week, though, one of the two tracks is the White Stripes on “Fresh Air.” While Terry Gross makes me giggle sometimes — every time she says the name of the show, I picture her doing jazz hands — she does a great interview. (Incidentally, this was the first time I heard that Jack and Meg White aren’t brother and sister at all, but are a divorced married couple. Apparently, I’m only a mere four years behind the times on this news.)
 The band’s new album, “Get Behind Me Satan,” is simply smoking, and the debut single, “Blue Orchid,” is already one of my favorite rock and roll songs of all time, combining Meg’s serious cymbal abuse, a driving guitar riff and Jack’s signature indecipherable-yet-compelling lyrics. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to drive way too fast down the highway and howl at the moon. (It’s suggested you do these two things at seperate times.)
Gross interviews the duo about the making of the new album, touches on the origins of their music and talks about Jack producing Loretta Lynn’s most recent album. All in all, well worth the listen. And along the way, there’s a lot of the band’s music, along with a song of Lynn’s.
So, anyway, make sure to download that edition of “Fresh Air” and remember to do jazz hands whenever Gross says the show’s name. It really adds a lot to the experience.
The new version of iTunes was released today, and for the first time, it bundles in support for podcasting. Podcasting is one of those technologies that doesn’t seem like a big deal until it’s actually in your life, sort of like TiVo and other digital video recorders. It operates off the same principle — time-shift the content you want to hear until when you can hear it — but works with audio feeds.
iTunes’ list includes a lot of stuff I was already aware of (I’m a huge fan of the news and especially the entertainment content from coolest-station-ever KCRW, for instance), but hopefully this will open up a lot more people’s ears to podcasting and, in turn, the popularity (and Apple’s mainstreaming) of podcasting will help get the music licensors to the table to come up with some way the KCRWs of the world can podcast amazing shows like Morning Becomes Eclectic, Metropolis and Chocolate City, which for now are too expensive to bother with, due to royalties issues.
Even if you don’t have an iPod, which is one of life’s greatest pleasures, do download the new version of iTunes and check out what all the fuss is rightly about. So far the interface is a little clumsy, but Apple has a genius for design, if nothing else, and these corners will get sanded off ASAP, I expect. (Why no back/forward buttons on the podcast section of the store? How the heck do you get downloaded podcasts from your computer onto your iPod — it doesn’t work the same way as moving songs over.)
If you do, I promise to come back here on Friday with the Top 100 songs played on my iPod in the first six months of owning it. It’s a pretty cool list, if I do say so myself, and I do.
A little behind the curve, but Wired now has an article up about iTunes making new stars — at least by podcasting standards — with this move.
From the A.Word.A.Day mailing list:
caliginous (kuh-LIJ-uh-nuhs) adjective
Dark, gloomy, obscure, misty.
[From Latin caliginosus (misty, dark).]
Wow, that makes me want to write a gothic novel.
“From the narrow window in her room, all Emily could see, or almost see, was a single caliginous view across the moors.”
Saving this word here to remind me to use it some time. It’s like getting kissed by Siouxsie Sue.
Caliginous. Yowza.
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